De Leon’s Batch 81 is a fascist masterpiece; with parallels on the fascism of the Marcos Administration and today’s administration. The movie, released in 1982, is unsurprisingly still relevant today, although more people are aware of the dangers fraternities bring.
Fraternities do hazing, and hazing is basically fascism. It’s all so unnecessary. But why do they do it? And most importantly, why do pledges still consent to hazing? Why do they consent to suffering? There’s so many questions in my mind. However, it became clearer to me when I started thinking about the nightmare that is Duterte – his administration, his supporters, everything related to him.
One can make a sickening comparison between the neophytes from Batch 81 and Duterte’s blind supporters. The frat leader can be compared to Duterte – someone often referred to as “Tatay Digong” for some reason. Moving on, if you have two eyes and a functioning brain, you would know how his administration is basically hitting us with paddles every single day and making us do unimaginable things, just like the pledges in the movie. It is very evident in what’s happening right now. Every day, many Filipinos are just taking it, convincing themselves that someday maybe it will all pay off. Again, just like how the pledges would remind themselves of the message of the fraternity and remember that someday, they will become part of the brotherhood, and that their suffering has meaning. Currently, we are in the middle of a global pandemic. Many of our fellow countrymen are dying. But what is the administration doing? They have placed the big responsibility onto others’ shoulders. Who’s carrying them now? Our local government units, private sectors, and individuals have been carrying the whole country for quite some time now. The best thing that I can think of that emerged from this crisis is that more people are starting to see the truth. More people are beginning to stand up and speak. In the movie, two of the pledges no longer wanted to become part of the fraternity because they’ve decided that they’ve had enough. Similarly, more people are speaking up now against the current administration. However, some Filipinos – who are blind supporters – would throw labels and even attempt to “educate” enlightened Filipinos with false information. As much as it irritates me that there’s so many of them out there, I somehow understand why they have such strong loyalty. In the movie, when one of the pledges contemplate about quitting, his friends would tell him something along the lines of “Why quit now? You’ve already invested so much”. I firmly believe that this is also how Duterte’s blind supporters reason with themselves. This is the message that keeps them on. I mean, look, we’re already about 4 years in. And honestly, we’re in really deep shit. DDS supporters must be thinking to themselves, “Welp! We’re already more than halfway there, might as well.” The neophytes also had this kind of mentality. In the end, although they did eventually become brothers, they were no longer themselves. Why? That 6-month long hazing stripped them of their humanity. It took a huge part of them. It’s just like this current administration stripping us of our rights every day. People are left dying, people are hungry, people are being silenced. This is us every day, but not them. They’ve secured their places up there, while the rest of us suffer.
Michaela Oconer 