Bocado, Jose Maria

Reaction Paper: “TRAPIK ( a trilogy of plays)”

Written and directed by: Emman Mante

Human Trafficking, as a crime against humanity and being a prominent and significant social issue in the
Philippines, people tend to think or to question what really is Human trafficking and how do you know
that one is controlled. Human trafficking or the exploitation of one’s moral and humanity can be
considered as a crime, in modern times, human trafficking can take form in various circumstances, from
sexual exploitation, to forced labor among humans which is clearly deprivation to the human’s will. This
social issue is often controlled by organized crime syndicates which is likely to be intimidating enough
for a person to become meek and neglects speaking out. Although to today, The Philippines now raised
a penal law against human trafficking which includes, sex tourism, sex slavery and child prostitution

In hopes of outreaching this social issue/problem, the Provincial Woman’s Comission, together with the
Children’s Legal Bureau INC. and the USAID organized and sponsored a play directed by Emman Mante
which was to give emphasis to the said issue and managing to evangelize the youths about how and
what human trafficking really is, and how people cope with the said problem. This play could also be a
form of social awareness and giving people knowledge to what is really going on.

Basically, The play was inspired by true cases of Human trafficking in the Philippines, the play was
composed of three stories from different cases and different views/ perspective on human trafficking.

The first story touches on the topic, Child Prostitution. The main protagonist in this story was a young
delinquent girl and a victim of prostitution named Juvy, and with her was a social worker in charge with
the rights of women and and was an LGBT worker which helped Juvy solve her problems wherein she
was running from. The Interviewer treated Juvy hospitably at the institution, He gave her drinks, food
and even a dress inorder for Juvy to speak of what she has been keeping in secret. Later, after much
persuation, Juvy opened up to the interviewer saying that she was made to “bugaw” by her close friend
named Rowel Pepito, there the interviewer discovered what happened to her before and what malice
she had experienced. This story was very emotional because of how vogue the actors/ actresses were in
this this play. The actress who played as the social worker did great on portraying the role of a social
agent and how he managed to help the girl with all of his capabilities never minding and setting aside his
own personal problems.

The second story was about forced labor and views the experiences of a particular girl which was
exploited in the country of Japan. The protagonist was a woman named Sarah, she longed for a better
life and to provide her family’s need through becoming an OFW in Japan, so she goes to japan in search
of work only to be led astray and get recruited as a sex worker/ like a GRO in a club in Japan. She
manages to escape. She was continuously running for about 2 days straight, she gathered information
and learned the address of this guy named “Andrew” which then later on we come to know is the
brother of the owner of the club and was the one collecting/ keeping all the girl’s passports. Sarah
thought if she infiltrates the room of Andrew and snatch away her passport she will then have an
opportunity to go back home or atleast report to the embassy . She then went and knocked on the room
of Andrew, she begged for him to let her stay and hide just for a day, Andrew, which was a kind and
helpful guy (very different from what she had imagined ) let her stay and sleep in his room.they then
exchanged informations about themselves which they both relate to, the ambiance began to get
romantic as they decided to sleep. Later, early in the morning, Sarah managed to get the passport but
as soon as she was about to get out of the room, Andrew was there and she got caught, Sarah then
began spouting hateful words and threatened to report Andrew and his brother to the embassy and
began shouting/ screaming. Shocked and didn’t know what to do, Andrew strangled Sarah knocking her
down to the bed making her unconscious. Andrew was very anxious on what he has done, he thought he
killed Sarah. He had never killed a person before and was just asked by his brother to collect the
passports as also a way of living, moments later Sarah woke up and rattlely went off heading outside the
room, Andrew immediately stopped her and asked to go with him because his brother is going there,
andthat he will join her report to the embassy, She hesitated, telling him that he is just like his brother
and that the cops are already on their way there, she had already reported the club. Sarah, fiercely told
Andrew that she isn’t going with him for some reason. Andrew went out on his own leaving Sarah in the
room, moments later andrew’s brother came and took Sarah again. The end. For me, this story was very
nerve wrecking, the actors did well and somewhat they have a chemistry due to the story’s aura of
slightly being romantic. The story did also great on portraying the experiences of survivor of this topic
about Forced Labor, which was pretty decent in my opinion.

The third story was about mail order brides. The last story focuses on a woman named Eva who was a
very cheerful gal and had this outgoing personality, her accent might actually refer to as a southern
Cebuano accent which was to give emphasis on her being a countryside woman. The story begins with
her opening a big boxed gift which we learned was from her online lover from Los Angeles given the
name “Mr. Jones”, the gift contained a wedding dress. She was very happy and lively as she was
imagining herself getting married abroad, which was her lifelong dream. More so, she wanders around
with wedding gown imagining herself walking down the aisle with an American National. Then, suddenly
began talking to herself, she has this some kind of a persona which negates and somewhat acted out as
her conscience, telling her not to be fooled “again”. Eva continuously switches personas like having a
conversation to herself, somewhat like having a split personality, long story short, her battle with herself
revealed much darker informations about her past like her being a prostitute in the past and having
multiple pregnancies which were aborted, later she realized that this “split personality” is just made up
and that she pay no mind to this “perosona” if she wanted to because she has an authority and decided
to call Mr. Jones on skype, and learned that what Mr. jones was really after is only her body and that
made her sad and threw her laptop. End of story. This story might actually be my most favorite among
the three, the acting was fantastic, the story line was phenomenal and how this story actually not only
touch the social issues pertaining mail order brides but also psychological disorder of split personality.
The protagonist having a split personality might indicate her struggle in life, she was like creating a
conscience to guide her and keeping her away from harm, and doing the same things all over again. The
way the actress handled the acting was very good in a way that she was the only actor in this story and
having two personalities is pretty hard. All in all, the play was a great way to make the people, socially
aware of this issue, the Human Trafficking.