Can Decent Men Compromise?

Saturday Stories

June 10, 2017

 

The Americans don't trust him because his brother is the leader of the insurgents, but the people of the town respect and obey him so they need him.

The rebels don't trust him either, but they want him to spy for them so they need him too.

There are just some situations which would have been funny if they weren't so tragic.

Rafael (Joel Torre) is the village captain of the small town of San Isidro, as were his father and grandfather before him. That was his only dream: to live a simple and quiet yet meaningful life.

One day, he saw his entire life change right before his eyes.

Spain had just lost her war againts the United States and surrendered the nations she had invaded including the Philippines. American soldiers descended on their bucolic town and made it their own.

Rafael presented himself as a friend of the invading forces in order to protect his own people. In one of his secret meetings with the rebels in their secret camp in the mountains, he told them everything he knew.

He told them they can't give them rice because the villagers cannot even harvest enough for their own since all the young men had gone. Even the Americans want rice.

"What if we let them pay and I'll give the money to you?" he proposed.

"What good is money here?" his brother Simon (Ronnie Lazaro) countered.

"Then what if you just take them from the warehouse?" he suggested.

"So the Americans can ambush us?" said Simon indignantly. "You're starting to work for them!"

"Then give me a gun and I'll join you in the fight!" he shouted.

"Rafael, we need you inside with the Americans," said Albay (Pen Medina), the representative of the revolutionary government, trying to ease the tension between the brothers. "But," he warned, " we also need you to be friend of the revolution."

"Our orders are clear," declared Albay when Rafael was gone. "We will show no mercy to those who collaborate with the enemy!"

"But he's my brother," said Simon.

"That's why," he said quietly, "we don't expect you to do it..."

Photo courtesy of RavePad.com