ANG BABAE SA SEPTIC TANK

The film follows the struggles of independent film makers to produce an Oscar-worthy movie. Mila, the lead role in their film, played by Eugene Domingo, is a dirt-poor mother living in the slums of Payatas. She is in need of cash to ease her children's suffering. Due to extreme poverty, Mila, in a desperate act to earn money, prostitutes her boy to a foreign homosexual pedophile.

The title of the film refers primarily to the final scene of the film where Eugene Domingo, portraying as a mother from the slums who, with her go-with-the-flow attitude, reluctantly agrees to let the camera roll after accidentally falling into a septic tank. By definition, a septic tank is a foul and putrid collection container of human waste. In the movie, the septic tank represents the present-day situation of the country that has become a filthy quagmire due to poverty. Falling into that septic tank is Eugene Domingo, who embodies not just every woman in the country but also every mother striving to keep her children from the stench that is poverty.

The film repeatedly showed scenes of slum areas in Metro Manila with excruciating poverty situation. It defines the real score of poverty-related issues in the country that affects the daily life of every human who live in the slums. According to the National Statistical Coordination Board or NSCB, the poverty incidence in the country among families, there was only a slight reduction during there-year period, from 21.1% in 2006 to 20.9 in 2009.7 The film also exposed the long-time environmental problem in the Metro – the Payatas Dumpsite that for years has become the major source of living for local folks collecting scraps that can be sold to junkshops like plastics, metals, among others. The Payatas Dumpsite represents the unbearable conditions that poverty-stricken families have to live with.

Due to poverty, Mila cannot bear to set her children living in unbearable conditions what she did is to sell her male child to sexually satisfy a homosexual pedophile. Mila’s desperation shows how too much poverty can drive people to criminal lengths.

The film Babae sa Septic Tank presents a clear picture of societal issues like poverty, and child prostitution. These issues demonstrate the real score of illnesses of the society especially in Metro and Mega Manila.

Following Eugene Domingo’s character, Mila, the film showed the lengths a dirt-poor mother will take to survive. Mila’s desperate act of prostituting her boy to a homosexual pedophile was brought about by poverty.

The dominant themes present in the film are Pedophilia/Child Prostitution and Sexual Tourism. It was clearly manifested through Mila’s act of selling her child just to earn money.

This societal problem is starting to grow in numbers. Recent reports states that some poor mothers resort to selling their own children to foreign pedophiles to earn money. And this is what was exactly portrayed in the film. The mother, even if it was against her will, sold her child to a pedophile to earn a living. This kind of wrongdoing by a mother is punishable under the law but the government authorities had failed to prevent these things from happening. This is an impediment to moral values of a Catholic-country like the Philippines.

In recent statement, US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. said that 40 percent of male tourists from US come to the Philippines for sex. Later, the ambassador apologized for his statement. But nevertheless, his numbers do matter. Many foreigners not just from the US, according to reports, come to the country for sexual pleasure. Again, this is an impediment to moral values of Filipinos but even so, the problem still proliferates.

The societal issues that can be extracted from the film are: (1) Poverty. (2) Child Prostitution and; (3) Sexual tourism. According to a rough estimate of US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas Jr., 40% of foreign men that would come to the Philippines come for sexual tourism.