FOOD DELIVERY: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea is a documentary film about Filipino fishermen and naval soldiers at the frontlines of the fight for national sovereignty, told through their struggle to get food to and from the distant isles in the highly contested West Philippine Sea (WPS).
Baby Ruth Villarama, an award-winning documentary filmmaker known for her acclaimed 2016 film on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), Sunday Beauty Queen, now turns her attention to overlooked stories at the local shores of a global issue.
“Ultimately, we have to communicate that these little islets that we have are ours, and they’re actually very crucial in terms of our security, our maritime territory, and also our economic power,” she told BusinessWorld in a video call.
China claims sovereignty over the entirety of the South China Sea, a vital waterway for over $3 trillion in annual ship-borne commerce, despite much of it also being claimed by various Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines which calls the area under its jurisdiction the West Philippine Sea.
This has led to Filipino fishermen working near Scarborough Shoal and other islets being monitored and sometimes harassed by Chinese ships, as Philippine naval forces are also stationed there to keep watch.
For Food Delivery, produced by Voyage Studios, the goal is to offer a deeper perspective of this hot topic largely seen on the news, Ms. Villarama said.
“It never came into my radar to do such a story because I feel like we’re nautical miles away from what’s happening,” she added. “When news came pouring in on my feed about WPS, sentiments on pro-China policy, and people being a bit confused about it all, I thought that there’s something that we can do. I just didn’t know what.”
She explained that her producer, Chuck Gutierrez, pushed her to look for an angle. Because their film pitch was for the CinePanalo Film Festival, which is backed by the Puregold supermarket chain, this sparked an idea.
“I thought the story can revolve around food, because we’re all connected by it, and it’s the fisherfolk who feed us who are the most affected by the situation. When I did further research, I learned that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is also having a hard time delivering food to the soldiers stationed in these shoals,” she said.
After getting their pitch approved by Puregold CinePanalo, Ms. Villarama and her crew then filmed with fisherfolk from October to December and with the AFP stationed near the WPS in January.
A LEARNING EXPERIENCEOne of their sources was Arnel Satam, the Subic-based fisherman with a small motorized wooden boat who was chased away from his usual fishing waters by the Chinese Coast Guard back in 2023.
He showed them the beauty and freedom of his work out at sea, the act of catching fish called simbada in their community, and the brotherhood of fisherfolk — all of which Ms. Villarama described as “a beautiful dance.”
“We capture the process of fishing, and how fish is sent to hotels in Manila, Pangasinan, Laguna, Cavite, all over,” she told BusinessWorld. “We have about 5,000 fisherfolk based in Subic, and we only get to know their story if there’s a mishap or incident at the WPS,” she said.
“To witness their life, their choices, and the things that make them happy is the most priceless experience,” she added.
From Subic Bay they have to travel over 270 kilometers of ocean to get to the fishing grounds around Scarborough Shoal, which takes approximately 14 hours.
“They would be out there for two months just catching fish, until a service boat comes to get their catch for the day and bring it back to the fish port of Subic to deliver,” said Ms. Villarama. “We went with them until Scarborough and then opted to go back on the service boat while they went on farther out to continue fishing.”
The documentary crew spent a total of 30 days with the fisherfolk, staggered over various small trips ranging from five days to two weeks.
Throughout filming, the presence of China could be felt — a drone was monitoring the fishing boats, and a Chinese Coast Guard ship was following from afar.
“It’s like a dot in the day. In the dark, it’s like a star,” Ms. Villarama said of the Chinese ship. “There’s no fear, but it’s annoying because there’s somebody uninvited in your backyard that’s not supposed to be there.”
WAR OF NARRATIVESTo get the side of the story following the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), the Food Delivery team pitched the film as their way to “contribute to the narrative of the WPS.”
“When we received the news that we were part of the official lineup of the [CinePanalo] festival, that’s when we confirmed that we can help them with the war they’re trying to win, which is the war of narratives,” Ms. Villarama said.
Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea will premiere on March 14 at Gateway Mall in Quezon City, but its festival run until March 25 will not be the end of its journey. There are plans to have the documentary screened at schools and universities.
Ms. Villarama likened the goal to the campaign of her previous film, Sunday Beauty Queen, which got a lot of media coverage and gained independent champions, from politicians to OFW communities to non-government organizations.
“It’s very important that we bring the film to students because I heard that in China, as early as six years old, they are taught the nine-dash line. For us, we have to teach the conviction to respect the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone,” she explained, describing the claims of both countries over the area.
In arbitration proceedings against China before a United Nations-backed tribunal in 2016, the Philippines was able to validate its claim over the West Philippine Sea. Its main basis was the 1734 Pedro Murillo Velarde map showing the Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Islands as part of the Philippines.
Ms. Villarama told BusinessWorld that, despite that triumph, China’s bullying tactics are difficult to fight against. While Food Delivery can be described as “Nat Geo with a Pinoy heart,” its ambition stretches beyond being informative.
“We have two PCG ships, two AFP naval ships, and 200 Chinese ships hovering around our territorial waters. So how do we deal with that? The big question is, how do you handle a bully?” she said.
“I don’t want to be messianic about it, because we’re only doing a small part. Collectively, we have to rise together. With our film’s focus on food, I hope we can at least inspire fellow Filipinos, as well as other countries.” — Brontë H. Lacsamana
