In the Service of the Filipino Worldwide: The Filipino Migrant Worker in the Transnational Cinematic Space Cherish Aileen A. Brillon Far Eastern University Edgardo A. Brillon Jr. University of the Philippines

Mass media in the globalized economy  Media industries have become big businesses  Supremacy of space over time is made possible through diversification of transnational companies.

Why political economy?  The power and influence mass media wields in the social, political and economic level.  the intersection between theory and practice, where institutional policies are linked with research.

Philippine mass media  Commercial and privately owned  Duopoly

In the service of the Filipino: ABS- CBN as a media conglomerate  Various ABS-CBN holdings:

In the service of the Filipino: ABS- CBN as a media conglomerate Company slogan: In the Service of the Filipino Worldwide

United States UAE Saudi Arabia United Kingdom Malaysia Australia Canada Singapore Japan Qatar

Main Points:  Star Cinema’s migrant films serve two purposes: Filipino migrant worker as another potential market: through its representations of their stories in the transnational spaces Filipino labor as product: the political and economic policies of the Philippine government in exporting human labor

What are Filipino ‘migrant’ films?  Filipino migrant workers as central characters  Experiences in a foreign country  Explicit titles of places which serves as a promotional/tourism material for both the transnational space and the film

Filipino migrant films

UAE Australia Italy

Representation of Filipino migrant workers As: Hardworking Able to adapt to the ways of a foreign culture Dependable Loving and sacrificing Modern day heroes

Representation of Filipino migrant workers Balikbayan box as:  Signifier of upward mobility  Downplayed the hardships in terms of abuse, violence, and discrimination one has to endure in order to procure these signs of material affluence

Representation of Filipino migrant workers  governs transnational relationships between the Western producer and the Filipino consumer  “commercialization of private feelings”

Representation of Filipino migrant workers Concept of two masters  the foreign master: economic transaction  the family: kinship and social transaction

Representation of Filipino migrant workers Deterritorialization  Is there a “weakening” attachment of the Filipinos to their homeland?

Representations of transnational spaces  Major character: transnational spaces Tourist gaze - is the peculiar combination of the means of collective travel, the desire to travel and the techniques of photographic reproduction (Urry, 2002). The lives of these Filipinos are framed and are negotiated on these transnational spaces

Representations of transnational spaces  Filipino workers’ migration is straightforward Urban to Urban or Rural to Rural

Representations of transnational spaces Open spaces are representative of:  Freedom  Isolation  Loneliness

Representations of transnational spaces  Romanticism The characters always find love in the most beautiful places or what is popularly known as tourists landmarks.

Representations of transnational spaces  The concept of other places being more prosperous and safe compared to the Philippines

Representations of transnational spaces  Reterritorialized spaces for the Filipinos Hang-out place after work in Milan Picnic at the beach in Dubai

Filipino migrant workers’ labor as product Government’s labor policy Former President Macapagal-Arroyo’s Mid-Term Philippine Development Plan states: Overseas employment remains to be a legitimate option for the country’s work force….Better employment opportunities and modes of engagement in overseas labor markets shall be actively explored and developed, consistent with regional and international commitments and agreements (Tyner 2004, p.51 as cited in Brillo, 2008, p. 47)

 Narrative of the Filipino migrant worker as savior  Their stories are set against foreign places, framed as romantic, beautiful, exotic, but out of reach for majority of Filipinos.  These places are ideologically projected as free from crime, safe, secured, and financially prosperous and rewarding than living in the Philippines. How?

But…  Glossed over the holistic picture of what being a Filipino migrant worker entails in a capitalist society.  The labor policy as a way out of poverty and a chance towards financial and social mobility.

Filipino migrant worker as potential target market  ABS-CBN has a stake in the success and continued propagation of these films  ABS-CBN sends a message that they exist to tell their stories  Then incorporates transnational places as an additional attraction to their other target market: local viewers.

Mass media as a business enterprise  Through diversification ABS-CBN has reduced geographical spaces and made it easier for them to create a potential market for their services

Conclusion  Exposed the workings of media with a primarily business orientation and a government with its own labor agenda  Implications of media’s ‘supposed’ adversarial role with the government

In the Service of the Filipino Worldwide: The Filipino Migrant Worker in the Transnational Cinematic Space Cherish Aileen A. Brillon Far Eastern University Edgardo A. Brillon Jr. University of the Philippines