Rylan Earl B.

De Vera
BSA - 1st year
"Ang Huling El Bimbo"

On May 7, 2020, ABS-CBN presented and streamed the "Ang Huling El Bimbo: The Hit Musical
(AHEB)" online on YouTube and Facebook for free. In 2 days, the video garnered approximately 7
million views and stirred social media conversations among people on the internet. The play, Ang Huling
El Bimbo, is a story of struggles, friendship, and life-changing decisions. It stimulates the ups and downs
in the reality of life. With the 1990s background, the musical tells a story with songs of Eraserheads in an
attempt to take its viewers into a journey of nostalgia and adventure.
I first watched this movie when it was officially streamed, then this subject, HUMS11, helped me to
reminisce about the laughter and sadness of the characters. The musical was written and directed by two
Filipino men: actor-playwright Dingdong Novenario, and director and choreographer Dexter Martinez
Santos. The show’s main focus is on the lives of three male friends: Emman, Anthony, and Hector. Joy,
on the other hand, became a lesson in the three characters' journey. It is an experience that has an
undesired outcome yet marks a wound in their heart. Emman, Anthony, and Hector fail to properly deal
with the situation when their friend is raped one night on a joyride to Antipolo. They panic and are
confused on what to do. Will they take her to the hospital? To the police? In the end, Hector ends up
deciding for the group, without any consideration for what Joy wants: that they forget about it and that
Joy is strong and can overcome it. He became oppressive and saved his own intentions to conceal the
incident.
In summary, the message of this part of the narrative, to me, is quite clear: silence is also oppressive. It
exposes how ill-equipped people are when faced with an emergency situation of sexual assault. It criticizes
silence and compliance in violence. Silence is oppressive because it privileges order over someone’s
trauma. Being actively shut out from her friend’s lives makes Joy experience a traumatic level of violence.
In my perspective, the show deserves some credit for featuring the reality of how sexual violence and
silencing operate. But is it really a mirror of reality? How us, an individual, can collectively stop sexual
assault and silence in violence?
Also, sexual violence is a very sensitive topic and portraying survivors in art is not an easy task. Therefore,
in order to convincingly claim that Joy’s character is indeed representative of kababaihan and that the
musical actually serves as a mirror of reality, extensive research should have been done. We must
understand that Joy’s character experiences multiple and intersecting layers of oppression - as a woman in
a patriarchal society, as a survivor of sexual abuse, as a woman who suffers from systemic poverty, as a
Filipina from the country in Global south, and as a victim of tokhang. Still, kudos to the musical play that
tries to wake up the society from its slumber in violence against women. I think it is the right path to
freedom and acceptance.