Bayang Magiliw: A social satire on reproductive health

MANILA, Philippines - As timely as today’s headlines, Bayang Magiliw is a new comedy that finds humor in the most contentious political issue of our time.

Bayang Magiliw is a social satire about a fictional town in Quezon province called Magiliw where reproductive health is a crime. The mayor of Magiliw is the handsome and charismatic Filemon “Fil” Almazan (Wendell Ramos), who has outlawed all methods of contraception and family planning. The result: Magiliw is the country’s most densely populated municipality outside Metro Manila.

Ironically, or perhaps fittingly, Mayor Almazan is an inveterate womanizer who has secretly fathered about a dozen illegitimate children around the town. Three of whom, all girls, he has legally adopted without his barren wife (Sue Prado) knowing they are his own flesh and blood.

Two incidents propel a chain of events that will rock Mayor Almazan’s rule. The first concerns a baby boy — the mayor’s latest illegitimate spawn — who is given away by its confused mother (Princess Manzon) and ends up in the hands of an affluent elderly couple (Lloyd Samartino and Jackie Lou Blanco).

The couple’s daughter, Catherine (G Tongi), a Manila-based corporate lawyer whose biological clock is ticking, decides to adopt the baby. However, the mayor soon finds out that he is the father and moves to claim it for himself — without admitting his indiscretion. However, the headstrong Catherine refuses to give up the boy.

The other incident concerns Dr. Emil Magsino (Arnold Reyes), an idealistic obstetrician and gynecologist who is sent to jail by the mayor for prescribing contraceptives to Magiliw’s womenfolk. Catherine takes him on as a pro bono client, and together they stand up against the mayor’s hyprocritical rule.

Bayang Magiliw is the latest work of veteran independent filmmaker Gil M. Portes, whose last film — the 2011 black comedy Two Funerals — won five major Cinemalaya awards, including Best Director.

Written by Enrique Ramos, who also wrote Two Funerals, Bayang Magiliw stars Wendell, G, Arnold, Jackie, Lloyd, Raquel Villavicencio, Althea Vega, Sue, Princess, Rob Sy, Benjie Felipe, Tony Mabesa, Dax Alejandro, Jess Evardone, AJ Dee and Ellen Adarna.