Bata, Bata… Pa’no Ka Ginawa (also known Lea's Story) is a 1998 Filipino film based on Lualhati Bautista's novel of the same title. Vilma Santos took the role of the character Lea together with Albert Martinez, Raymond Bagatsing and child stars, Carlo Aquino and Serena Dalrymple. The transformation of the story from novel to film was under the direction of Chito S. Roño. The novel is about the role of a woman, like its author, with Filipino
society wherein the males were, in the past, assuming more dominant
roles in society.
I.
Main Characters
a. Lea Bustamante/ Gascon
A working mother, who has two children
and brought up them with her own effort. She is a woman of courage in facing her
problem, and strongly believes that for every problem there is always a
solution. Lea
represents the society’s view of women, how it is to be a mother, and how a
mother executes this role through modern-day concepts of parenthood.
b.
Ding Bustamante
The live-in partner of Lea and
the father of Maya. He is a person who was still very close to his mother
despite his age to the point of dependency. Though he may not have
performed his duties well as a replacement father for Ogie, he acted well for
his role as a father of Maya.
c. Raffy Gascon
The first husband of Lea and the
father of Ogie. He is a type of person who is quiet and does not express
his feelings that much. After he left his family for his job, he came
back to see Ogie, which begins the conflict of the story.
d.
Ogie Bustamante
The only son of Lea and Raffy and the eldest child of Lea.
He was at a young age when his father left him. He asked so many
questions to his mother on why she and his father did not live together with
them. Being a teenager, he became conscious, experiments and discovers
what life really is.
e.
Maya Gascon
The daughter of Lea and Ding; the
youngest child of Lea. A fresh graduate from kindergarten school and
possesses intelligence and beauty. She is a smart and outspoken six-year
old child and acts as more matured from the other girls at her age.
II. Summary
The movie revolves around the life story of Lea
Bustamante a mother of two kids, a young boy and a young girl with different
fathers. Lea, works in an NGO (non-government organization), which deals with
human rights violation committed against women. Her eldest is Ogie, a boy on
his peak of puberty and her youngest child is Maya, a smart and equally
outspoken six-year old girl. Lea was married to Ogie’s father, Raffy but he had
to leave them for his job. Lea together with his son Ogie, did not join Raffy
for Lea has a job in Manila which she did not want to leave. Now, Lea lives
with Maya’s father together with Ogie. Ding, a mama’s boy who is constantly at
the side and call of his mother. This infuriates Lea because it reminds her
that Ding is not married to her and they are not his priority. However, Lea is
sure she can handle herself and her children without anyone’s help.
Things start to get worse when Raffy arrives
in Manila. But this time, Raffy came back with a new wife. Raffy, meets with
Lea for him to see his son, Ogie. As days went on, Ogie regularly sees his
father and sometimes spends some time in his house together with his new wife
who is pregnant with there first child. Raffy, realizes that he has a lot of
shortcomings as a father to Ogie. Lea sees how father and son thirst for the
bond they should have started forming a long time ago. She also sees how much
Maya misses her brother so much whenever he spends his time with his father. Matters
get worse when Raffy tells Lea that he will take Ogie with him to the United
States after his wife gives birth. Lea doesn’t know what to do. With a fearful
heart and a great respect for her son, Lea leaves the decision to Ogie. Before
he even makes a decision, he and Maya suffer an accident. Lea mother gets
blamed, her job gets blamed.
As Lea works in a survival center for women
in crisis and is continually exposed to the adverse effects of how society can
become a victim of its own ideology, she considers herself liberated from these
labels. She has her own sense of motherhood, womanhood and of what is true and
good and beautiful. But now, she is being accused by both fathers of not being
a good mother, and of being a woman of twisted priorities. In this susceptible
state, Lea finds comfort in the company of Johnny, a colleague and a friend
from the center. As if her life wasn’t complicated enough, she receives yet
another bomb. Ding breaks up with her after a long absence; apparently after
getting married to a girl he got pregnant. Ding wants to take Maya too. With a
broken spirit, a confused heart and great reverence for Maya as with Ogie, Lea
lets her children decide about their life. In these moments of vulnerability,
Lea confronts her worth and the needs of her soul which the men in her life
never really fulfilled, her being a woman and a mother. In an unexpected time
and place, she saw Raffy beside her who finally understood the value of
fighting for people's rights that she is fighting for. She knows that it will be the
last time she will ever see her former husband for the latter will be going to
the US. At the end they decided to spend the day together.
At the last part of the movie, it was graduation day. Lea was
the guest speaker of that affair. Lea didn't prepare any speech but delivered a
very inspiring one. Her speech was about how people mature so fast and how life
works. In her last lines she told the graduates that graduation is not the end
but is just the start of new things to come.
