“We came here without any expectation of winning, so we hadn’t even prepared a speech.”

MANILA — One year after attempted censorship, the documentary film Alipato at Muog emerged triumphant at the 73rd Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) Awards, bagging both Best Picture and Best Director.

Alipato at Muog documents the relentless, decades-long search of the Burgos family for Jonas Burgos, a peasant organizer who was abducted in broad daylight on April 28, 2007, inside Ever Gotesco Mall in Quezon City. Jonas has never been found since.

Read: Timeline | The Search for Jonas Burgos

The documentary film was previously given an “X-rating” by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) on August 22 last year. MTRCB claimed that the film “tends to undermine the faith and confidence of the people in their government and/or duly-constituted authorities.”

Read: Filmmaker appeals government ban on documentary on the disappearance of activist-brother

Film director JL Burgos, brother of Jonas, filed an appeal on the government ban, seeking to rescind the X-rating. The MTRCB granted the appeal after a second review on September 5, 2024.

“They branded the documentary too graphic, too subversive, too left, among other things,” Alipato at Muog team said in a Facebook post. “Exactly a year later, FAMAS chose our documentary as their Best Picture. We embrace this recognition. Thank you FAMAS for standing with all of us.”

In a statement, Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) said that the reversal is a rebuke to state censorship and a reminder that truth-telling endures. 

“Alipato at Muog is memory and resistance: it insists that enforced disappearances, impunity, and state violence are not footnotes but urgent, unfinished stories,” CAP said. “We congratulate JL Burgos and the team for lighting the way, so we can keep telling and retelling until justice is found.”

Edith Burgos, mother of Jonas, said that they have nothing but the truth in the documentary film. “This is far beyond our expectations. Alipato at Muog was not made by us alone—it was created by all of us, especially those who have stood with and supported us,” said Edith Burgos in an interview with Bulatlat.

Alipato at Muog is the only documentary in the selection of 73rd FAMAS Awards. A documentary film is rarely awarded Best Picture. It is only the second Best Picture awarded to a documentary after Aswang, a documentary about the extrajudicial killings during the administration of Rodrigo Duterte.

JL Burgos, the film’s director and brother of Jonas, expressed his gratitude to the production team, Cinemalaya, FAMAS, the Film Development Council of the Philippines, and to all individuals and groups that made the documentary possible. “We came here without any expectation of winning, so we hadn’t even prepared a speech.”

Desaparecidos, a support group for the families and friends of disappeared activists, said in a statement that the film is a platform for the voices of the victims and their loved ones.

“Thank you for helping bring to more people our tireless search for the desaparecidos and for long-denied justice,” said Desaparecidos in Filipino. “Our journey continues—for Jonas and for all the disappeared. The struggle lives on!”

Enforced disappearance is a continuing practice in the Philippines. From the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., up to the administration of his son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., there are more than 1,900 victims documented by Desaparecidos.

“The use of enforced disappearance as a tool of repression, silencing dissent, and instilling fear have not stopped, even after the dismantling of martial law,” Edith Burgos said. “We shall continue to search for justice, spurred not by revenge, but love for others. That they may not endure the same suffering we are undergoing. If we do not speak out, there will be more victims, and those in power will stay in power.” (DAA)