Last night I watched ABS-CBS’s “PAROL” in last night’s presentation of MMK. I liked the setting so much, and to this I refer to the house as one of the main characters in the film. Sad but it is true that many ancestral houses have to give way to the whims and wishes of the descendants to whom supposedly care to keep the house intact, protected and secured are bequeathed. Attachment are ordinarily cut because of the material lure of the city and the pecuniary reason that comes with just maintaining it. Better sell is the usual reason.
I remember the house of Katipunero Mariano Trias which had to be demolished to give way to a commercial building. I was there at the time when his other descendants were trying to stop the selling of the house — by the adopted person of the man, they said. I was researching for materials for my brother’s book “Ilang Talata nang Paghihimagsik..” that was due for publication then. I even wrote the National Historical Institute if something can be done to stop the action. They did inspect the house I was told, but it was too late…
Anyway, what to me was glaring in the TV show was the lack of research in the presentation of a blind man by Enchong Dee, particularly in the last scene when he had to finally leave the house with a young girl. The natural instinct of a blind man when he is guided is for him to rest one of his hands on the shoulder of the person he is with. I noticed that when I was going out of the room once with Blind Architect Jaime Silva, and in all blind persons who are on the road when they are not guided by their white cane. Notice that when there are more than two persons with a seeing person guiding them, they even line up like a “shoo shoo train.” A blind individual does not walk like a zombie like how Enchong did it. Seeing persons like us instinctively do that when there are brown outs and when it is totally dark. Besides, the time span of Enchong Dee in the TV show is until adulthood. I wonder why he was never shown at all — not even once — the use of a white cane. I can’t believe that he should be always groping the way Dee acted it out.
Another thing that bothers me is the negative idea it presented when Enchong said that he wanted to study. The mother dissuaded him and explained that she didn’t want him to because she wanted to protect him from harm. Sus naman!! Well, since it is based on a true story, I just pity that man whoever Enchong represented. But the metaphor that he would be the light that would guide his siblings was good.
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