Fabricante, Cherish Ivy P.
August 29, 2019
2206192 Educ 115
“Teacher lang” – this is how others describe and degrade our professional educators, just
like in Gil Portes’ movie Mga Munting Tinig. This 2002 Philippine drama film focuses on
Melinda Santiago (Alessandra de Rosi), an optimistic fresh graduate substitute teacher deployed
to Magawi, a remote barrio where NPAs also reside. Together with her are the head teacher, Mrs.
Pantalan and two co-teachers, Ms. Fe Daluz and Mrs. Solita Samaniego. As she embarked her
journey as a teacher, Melinda was subjected to the harsh reality of the social situation of teachers
and students, particularly in the remote areas. Despite these obstacles she faces, she keeps
smiling and every day she has a hopeful personality inspiring her students and colleagues. It was
shown throughout the film how idealistic teacher Melinda faces the difficulties and how she
embodied all the finest characteristics that a successful teacher needs to have.
What’s amusing about this movie is how it showed issues that are socially relevant. One
example is Mrs. Pantalan's selling of ice candy, which shows that a teacher's income is still not
sufficient for them to support their family. This scene gave me a nostalgic feeling as I
remembered my second grade teacher selling us "stick-o" and gummy bears during our recess
period and one of us students is going to be roaming around the room, selling and collecting
money. I thought this would be the only experience I’ll ever try related to the teachers’ low-
income, but it’s no longer about money in my last year of high school. During this time, selling
of sahod of teachers is still happening where they can borrow money from the loan sharks as
well. I remember clearly when we ran for our lives in the afternoon on the first day of September
as we experienced a shooting incident inside our school killing four teachers who the suspect
thought didn't pay their loans. This event caused trauma to all of us and served as an eye-opener
to me that some teachers are compelled to sell their salaries to money lenders just to sustain their
daily expenses. In addition, the film also showed how small salary pushes a teacher to seek a
higher paid job overseas which is another cause for the brain drain of our country.
Other issues showed were the lack of school facilities and quality teachers, unsupportive
parents, corruption, abuse of power, palakasan system where teachers are obsequious to their
principal or administrator in hope of getting a favor, and the pretense the administrator show
during evaluation. Even after 17 years, these issues still exist in the Philippine education system.
Recently, I talked to my mama who is a school dentist at our provincial high school. She was
ranting about their school principal who said to her that they will only restock the medicines
needed for the clinic on the day of the evaluation for Brigada Eskuwela. The school clinic has a
minimum of 30 patients every day and the only thing they can offer for their headaches and pain
is an ointment. For me, taking care of the health of the students is as much more important than
the school facilities. In the end, my mother cannot argue and wait for the medicines, so she had
to buy by herself.
Lastly, the issue that made a great a great impression to me was the demeaning notion of
“teacher lang”. Other people’s think that if you are feeble-minded, being a teacher is the best
option for you. Others also say that there is no future in teaching. But I believe, being a teacher
requires a great knowledge and experience. As Marjorie Joy Romero-Sigua stated in her paper,
teachers “had to equip there-selves with knowledge, skills and the right attitude to be effective”.
Teachers guide their students academically and spiritually. It requires a great effort and faith to
your students which can be seen in Melinda. The great thing about this film is however many the
hindrances Melinda faces, whatever the struggles mentioned above, there are a lot more good
qualities she possessed to overcome these which will be shown in the next paragraph.
In the film, we can say that Melinda really loves teaching that even though her mother
doesn’t want her to pursue teaching, she still pursued teaching. She believes that teaching is what
her calling and purpose in life. Even if Malawig Elementary School is located in a remote area,
Melinda sees this as an opportunity to grow and to teach her students. Furthermore, she touched
her students’ life and inspires them to dream. She’s willing to communicate and reach out to her
students’ parents to let her students believe in their selves and follow their dreams, to give them
opportunities in life. Her dedication as a teacher also showed in the last part of the movie when
she returned to the Philippines after 1 year to pursue teaching. It’s also amazing how she
managed to inspire her coworkers, specially their administrator, Mrs. Pantalan (based on her
character development throughout the movie) and still have a good relationship with them even
with their differences as professional teachers. I believe Melinda represents the ideal teacher
which possesses both the professional and personal qualities a good teacher must have. She’s
honest, sincere, resourceful, promotes creativity to her students, persistent, teach students other
topics than her subjects and even willing to spend for her students. Also, even during the hard
times, she was still able to guide her students.
There’s also an outstanding character I see as remarkable as Melinda, Sir Arcadio
Tibayan, the former teacher of Melinda. Even with a short period of appearance, he played an
important role in building Melinda. His love for his job inspired his student to follow his
footsteps and made him serve for 40 years (and hopefully more if he doesn’t need to retire). And
even though Sir Tibayan never mentioned how proud he is of Melinda, I can see in his eyes the
satisfaction on what his student achieved. Of course, if I’m also him, inspiring my student to
have the same profession I love so much and she’s dedicated to it, I think that will be the best
reward I can receive as a teacher.
