By PABLO A. TARIMAN
FILMMAKER Gil Portes tackles a subject that is not likely to enjoy mainstream following.
He had offered the script to mainstream producers but as the cliché goes, they wouldn’t touch the subject with a ten-foot pole.
But true to himself, he firmly believed the story must be told whatever it took to finish it. He found a more encouraging nod in Cine Malaya.
His latest film, “Liars,” shown in the Directors’ Showcase of the ongoing Cine Malaya Independent Film Festival, explores the complicated labyrinth of pursuing truth regardless of who gets hurt. It pitches in honesty as a virtue not to be easily disregarded even if it involves national pride.
The Portes film takes off from the controversial, if, humiliating fate of the young baseball players who — twenty two years ago — competed abroad and won but only to be stripped of the title because of cheating. Some members of the team were not from the same school and locality.
In one game plan hatched by sports official played by Cris Villanueva and executed by school coach played by Arnold Reyes, the scheme called for hiring older and better athletes from another province and making it appear that they came from the same school and place. They even had to use the name of the regular members of the team and actually reared by honest-to-goodness guardians from the same school before the competition.
“Liars” acquires a national significance with sidelights on the impeachment hearing of President Estrada whose truthfulness was being tested by that crucial envelop — the non-opening of which — triggered People Power II. It took note of contrasting reactions of the dancing senator (Sen Tessie Aquino Oreta) and the crying senator (Loren Legarda).Years after that impeachment hearing, the envelop was found out to be containing nothing that would pin Estrada.
Nevertheless, the Portes film took note of the transition from the Estrada to the Arroyo administration which years later would be synonymous with lying
The film puts journalists on the spot with Alessandra de Rossi playing the role of the low key journalist, Eloisa, who uncovered the sinister scheme. Enjoying lead roles are the young baseball players Dante and Ato played by John Michael Bunapos and Jan Harley Hicana. Like it or not, they are the actual profiles of young aspiring but poorly supported athletes in this country.
Perhaps hampered by small budget, the film did not manage a believable crowd scene that would have added excitement to real baseball fans.
But the riveting performances of the cast gave the film a believable stamp from beginning to end. Richard Quan as the abusive father was a standout and so were Villanueva and Reyes as the scheming duo. De Rossi opted for a subtle but powerful acting that gave the audience a hint that telling the truth didn’t exactly set her free. Her expose elicited an apology from the culprits but the young athletes had to go through a trauma of starting a new life all over again. They were stripped of the promised scholarship; some figured in traumatic scenarios trying to eke out a living.
The young baseball players played by Bunapos and Hicana are good acting finds. They weren’t the epitome of spontaneity but their rawness and natural expressiveness added more authenticity to the characters.
While the film showed that it pays to be honest, it also showed that honesty cost the future of the young protagonists.
Towards the end of the film, the journalist is reunited with the grown-up players one of whom became a priest and the other one — played well by Ping Medina – turned to part-time coaching and teaching. Their lives after her expose cleared the air but her honesty came with a price.
Honesty is not subject that will instantly catch interest especially if it involves national pride. To be sure, the real life story of the Zamboanga baseball players was a black eye on Philippine sports.
But director Portes found a way to tell their story his own way and succeeded in imparting a timeless message:
There is a passing reference to the Kevin Costner starrer, “Field of Dreams” and which was later coined as “Field of Schemes” in the newspaper expose in the film.
It was enough to send a message to aspiring athletes that the inspiration to play comes with a commitment to avoid cheating.
As Thomas Carlyle pointed out: “Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.”