photo taken at the screeening: with producers alvi siongco & atty. howie calleja / direk joel lamangan
DIRECTOR JOEL LAMANGAN is a victim of martial law that saw him being imprisoned for his political views.
He is now a victim again, this time of red tagging, for his frank opinion about the blatant distortion of our country’s history.
He is truly very brave for now coming up with a movie that shows the truth about the last four days of the Marcoses in Malacanang, “Oras de Peligro”. This will open in theaters on March 1.
The first film project of Atty. Howard Calleja and Alvi Siongco’s Bagong Siklab Productions, it is written by Eric Ramos and Boni Ilagan.
The movie’s blurb says: "Huwag Pagtakpan ang Katotohanan. Igalang ang Kasaysayan."
Isn’t Direk Joel afraid that there are now also death threats on him because of this movie?
“Maraming mga banta, pero hindi ako natatakot at hindi ako dapat matakot,” he says.
“Kasi kung matatakot ako, sino pa ang gagawa ng ganitong pelikulang pantapat sa kanila? Ang pagsasabi ba ng totoo ay dapat na ikatakot?
"Dapat tayong magpasalamat na may producers gaya ng Bagong Siklab Productions na willing mag-finance ng mga pelikulang nagsasabi ng totoo.”
He says the apologists of martial law want to change history and make it appear that its authors actually did the country a lot of good.
“Ang gusto nilang gawin, pagtakpan ang katotohanan, baguhin ang kasaysayan at sila ang palabasing kawawa.
"Ang mga Pilipino talaga ang nagpatalsik kay Marcos noon sa Malacanang. Yun ang totoo at dapat, igalang natin ang kasaysayan.”
Before the election, their trolls conducted a campaign in social media, like Tiktok, that spread whitewashing and historical disinformation, a lot of Gen Z young people believed in them.
“Maaaring nabulag na nila ang mga kabataang Pilipino pero dapat, tayong mga Pilipinong nakaranas ng kung ano ang totoo, tayo’y magbantay at hindi pumayag na baguhin nila ang katotohanan at ang history,” says Direk Joel.
“Aba’y kawawang-kawawa naman ang bayan natin dahil anim na taon pa silang nandiyan para baguhin kung ano ang tunay na naganap sa bansa natin.”
“Oras de Peligro” is very important for him. “Inaatake na ko sa puso while doing this and my doctor told me to stop.
"But I felt I have to finish this, kailangang magawa ko ito. I only went to the hospital for my bypass after I’ve completed the movie.
"The doctor said na kung nagtagal-tagal pa, natuluyan na siguro ako. But I’m glad sa natapos kong pelikula and I’m very proud of our movie,” he says after the movie’s special screening.
He is teary eyed and really tried hard to suppress his tears in front of the audience who all applauded heartily after watching the movie.
The MTRCB gave “Oras de Peligro” a rating of R-13 without cuts. It relies heavily on film footage culled from various news sources chronicling what happened in our country from February 22 to 25, 1986.
The distortionists of history cannot deny what the film shows as the news videos just tell it like it is.
Historical events are intertwined with the more personal drama of a family who is grieving from the tragic death of a family member who was summarily killed by corrupt Metrocom cops.
More about the movie itself in a future column.