College of Arts and Sciences

First Semester, SY 2021-2022

PS03 - Public Administration

Reflection Paper

Name: Benette Emmanuel D. Estrada 2AB - PLSC

Passed to: Prof. Kristopher Navales 22/09/2021

Reaction paper on the movie: “Respeto” & “Reel Time: Ang kuwento ng mga Martial Law victim at
desaparecidos”

With all honesty I would like to express how dumbstruck I was when it got into me that it took me four years before I got to watch a
movie and video documentary with such powerful messages conveyed. Indeed, it touched me to the very core, the injustice, malpractice,
inequality that was portrayed. “If it was not based on reality, then what is?” I thought.

I personally believe that anyone does not need to be in any place the same as Hendrix, to just understand the dilemma his life is all about.
Anyone with an open-mind can relate to the injustice, inequality of those at the worst of society and how it is still present in todays’ time. The
fact that there is still a story to tell, then, there is still a problem. It is just a matter of how much privilege a person has to have in order to
realize that there is much worse than they already knew, that it is not far from the possibility that any kid, raised well or not, would run drugs in
order to save make-up for his own life.
Granted, we all have our own level of privileges. And the fact that anyone has the time and energy to look up into someone else’s life
and can tell that “someone” is privileged, just proves that he/she is also sitting on a certain level of privilege himself/herself to start with.
Therefore, I personally believe that it is just a matter of how we see positivity, and how we interpret it to what reality wants us to see. This
manner is what I always choose to always want to do, when I get to the point of wanting to have empathy towards those people at the baseline of
society.

Surely, if enough people will be properly informed, not in the way of historical revisioning, but with that of the truth. Surely, if enough
people can see through the lenses of those at the worst of society, they can understand. Surely, if enough people will believe, and nullify what
was taught wrong. Surely, there would be enough changes, enough opportunity for every citizen, enough care toward one another, and we will all
be living in a society that we have been longing to have for.

In conclusion, both videos have taught me more about the thing that I knew personally that I am pretty much aware of: That the world is
cruel and it always has been. We may all be seeking for absolute justice, equality, balance of power and so on. But is it really worth it, to ask for
something that could only happen in a perfect world. And in many ways it can be said that we are not living in one, and never will we.

I personally believe that the least we could do in such a society is to redefine positivity, and relearn that not everyone has the same luxury
like the ones we have. Granted we do not need a perfect government, but rather a truthful one. This is so because, it is their moral responsibility
to make not their lives better, but the people of their service, from whom their positions, and every power of their administration emanated from.