Moryon photo by Joseph Israel Laban“Moryon” is a documentary on some individual stories of those who practice the Lenten tradition in Marinduque known as “Moriones”. It was produced and directed by Joseph Israel Laban of Boac, Marinduque and was shown in Front Row, GMA-7’s Saturday night television program. Front Row’s approach is to treat subjects as case studies allowing these subjects to act and speak freely about their thoughts or grievances with little or no intervention, to the extent that the usual narrative leads are nowhere.
The sounds and images captured on film do the work of conveying the central point of the story to the very end. In "Moryon", there were shots of lead characters walking, or engaged in daily routines in places where environmental degradation brought about by a mine-spill accident more than 15 years ago that made their lives more miserable, still lie undisturbed.
It was only here where at the end of the docu sequence that included an interview with a mine spill victim, when a commentary was shown on screen. This was to the effect that fifteen years have come and gone, yet no serious rehabilitation efforts have been undertaken by the mining company on the affected areas.
It does seem that after 15 years only “Moryon” did its work of reminding the nation in general, and the Marinduquenos in particular, of some things they might have already forgotten, and I am grateful...
