On the Film Adaptation of

Pagkawala* by Patrick Alonzo**

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*Awarded 1st Prize in the Maikling Kwento Category of the 58th Don Carlos Palanca Memorial
Awards for Literature.

**Patrick Alonzo served as an Associate Professor at the School of Humanities in the Ateneo de
Manila University where we graduated Magna Cum Laude under the AB Panitikan (Filipino)
program. During his undergraduate years, he was a fellow in numerous national writing
workshops and was awarded Best Thesis for the anthology of short stories where ‘Pagkawala’
first appeared.
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1) “The Truth Sells Better Than Fiction: An Open Letter to the Palanca Awards” first appeared in
print in the July 26, 2009 issue of The Manila Times but was later taken down in their website
due to undisclosed reasons. I thank Dr. Jardin de los Reyes for personally providing me a scanned
copy of the said issue.
2) UP Diksyonaryong Filipino defines “Pagkawala” either as “disappearance” or “the act of breaking
free”.
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3) Gian Montero first encountered Alonzo’s anthology of short stories “Pagkawala at iba pang Mito
ng Pag-ibig” (2008) when a close friend gave him a copy for his 26th birthday.
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4) For a more comprehensive analysis of Liminality in the narratives of Desaparecidos, see Lydia
Catapangan’s “Haunting of the Unmourned” (1999).
5) See also “Probing on the Spectrality of the Disappeared” (2002).
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6) On March 14, 2010, Alonzo and five other community development workers were reportedly
abducted by elements of 56th Infantry Battalion in Sariaya, Quezon.
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7) The main character of the story, who refers to himself only as P, narrates in “delicate prose” how
the townspeople of an unnamed barrio shared damay or empathetic grief after a peasant’s
daughter was found dead in a nearby river.
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8) De los Reyes argues that this true-to-life story would be Alonzo’s basis for “Bago Magpatangay
sa Agos ng Paglimot” which was in his thesis but was excluded by the editor of the book.
9) Here lament and affective labor in highly-militarized communities become communal necessities
that bound the bayan in having a unified understanding of their situation. Cristina Cruz-Luna
would articulate more on this in her essay “Ghost Towns: Semiotic Analysis of Grief in Violent
Communities” (2011).
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10) Alonzo confirmed in his book launching that the unnamed barrio in “Pagkawala” is inspired by a
far-flung community in Quezon.
11) Policarpio claims that her team did an extensive research and chose Brgy. Palmera in Nasugbu,
Batangas because it is the closest to “Alonzo’s descriptions, visually and thematically”.
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12) De los Reyes argues then that Alonzo may have changed the names of the individuals he met but
his “fictional” short story remained identical to the narrative report he submitted for a class that
required him to have a Basic Masses Integration for 2 weeks in an unspecified town in Quezon.
13) Here De los Reyes speculates that the writer’s trip was also personally motivated. Alonzo’s
colleagues confirmed that he did mention to them a certain “Dr. Derrick” but they never had the
chance to meet him in person.
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14) The original Filipino used “magpakahunghang” (lit. be foolish) in a rather sarcastic manner to
emphasize how “baog” (lit. sterile, but can also be roughly translated to futile) all of De los Reyes’
proposed investigations were. Two weeks later, Santos would publish a response article titled
“Katha’t Totohanan” where she downright dismissed any future inquiries that “seek to discredit”
the fictionality and “literariness” of the said short story.
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15) The Leper is a recurring character in Alonzo’s body of work. Its presence within his two
anthologies suggests that a large chunk of his literary works exist in the same textual universe.
Montero credits his co-writer Cynthia Ong as the proponent of using The Leper as a narrative
device to intertwine the multiple plotlines of the film.
16) In the popular version of the myth, she lures mercenaries and other men in uniform as her way
of exacting revenge on those who she believes have murdered her children.
17) In other versions, her name is only made known to those who whole-heartedly believe in her
existence. To claim otherwise is always subjected to fallibility.
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18) Citing this part of the story, De los Reyes argues that Alonzo did not shy away from exploiting the
factual ambiguity and verifiability of his claims to “tell an intriguing and engaging piece of
creative non-fiction”.
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19) Principal Photography began in September 2009, with an alleged budget of PHP 250, 000 and
only “3/4 of the script” done.
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20) The first version of the official statement included a paragraph that directly addressed their son’s
alleged homosexuality and ties with the Maoist Rebels. It was later taken down and was re-
uploaded with an additional stanza emphasizing that their long-time political rival, referring to
the Reosora clan, “would go through desperate measures just to tarnish [their] reputation”.
21) The ethical concerns on adapting an ongoing case first emerged when Director Gian Montero
suggested that they incorporate the abduction of Alonzo as a parallel plotline in the film. The
executive producers were hesitant at first but Montero insisted that it would “give [his] film a
better shot at the festivals”.
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22) The first draft of the script was supposed to include a 10-minute sequence depicting the life of the
fictional Dr. Derrick Alvarez and his life with his middle-class family in Manila before he decided
to be a ‘Doctor to the Barrios’. This was later cut out of the film due to pacing issues.
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23) To appease Ong, Montero decided to shoot two versions for the film’s supposed ending. This
allegedly pushed back the production to two more weeks which reportedly costed them an
additional PHP 40,000.
24) To watch the trailer for the yet to be released film adaptation go to:
https://youtu.be/JKVgUzHzUjk
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25) According to Montero, the group of armed men did not present to them any search warrants when
members of the film crew insisted for one. They also did not answer any query aside from
repeatedly mentioning that they were only following orders from a certain “Boss”.
26) Defense Secretary Lino Agapita denied the aforementioned accusations in a press conference
saying: “These novice filmmakers are just trying to gain sympathy from the public. They’re never
going to finish [their film] because there was never a script to begin with.”
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27) In a live televised interview, Montero claimed that members of their production crew, in an
attempt to construct a ‘complicated landscape’ for a scene in the film, discovered a 20-foot-deep
pit near a cliff where they found corpses of men, women, and children.
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28) See “Bulong, Balon, Balani” (Montero, 2009).

29) In a statement made during the Advanced Disaster Risk Reduction Seminar in June 2010, Sec.
Agapita said that the use of air strikes by the military is part of the combat operations launched
against NPA terrorists in Southern Tagalog. He assured the public that once the enemy’s defenses
weaken, they will immediately cease the operations.
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30) See index for artist’s illustration of the alleged ‘death pit’.
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31) Montero initially denied the allegations that he did not sincerely care for the resurfacing of Alonzo,
and that he was only trying to exploit “somebody else’s misery for [his] own self-gratification’. But
in his sworn statement during the May 2011 hearing, he confessed that “there may be some truths
in those statements” but “[they] should not be used against his credibility as a witness”.