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Review Paper: “Pagpag”, Meal of the Day

Food is a basic need of every man, but sometimes it becomes a luxury for people that
are classified as being at the lower echelon of the society. People that are homeless, living in
the outskirts of a highly urbanized cities, or unemployed experience the difficulty in acquiring
this basic need. “Pagpag” is a documentary directed by Giselle Santos, that discusses about the
poverty that is being masked by the elegant, sky-rocketing infrastructures of Manila.

She created the film for the viewers to witness the poverty the people of Tondo is
experiencing. As she talked about the film in Rappler, she stated that other documentaries
about pagpag had foreigners as narrators, so she intended to let the families to narrate the film.
So instead of hiring a narrator, she let the people tell their own stories, like an interview, and by
doing this, she wants the viewers to witness first-hand the experience of different families that
are consuming pagpag, but she also wanted the viewers to see their lifestyle and why they eat
pagpag. By letting the people narrate their own story, the viewers could feel the genuine
emotions that the characters portray on the everyday struggles they are facing, and the honesty
of their words because there are no scripts that will guide them to tell their own story. By doing
so, she captured the sympathy of the viewers, and the viewers would feel the intense urgency of
helping the families, because they would look at this as an immediate crisis that the society
must act upon because the people in the slums experience the worst lifestyle one could ever
imagine. As shown in the film, families live inside an arrangement of iron sheets as their roof,
and pieces of plywood as their shield to the harsh stench of human filth being dumped in to their
backyard. People in Tondo, Manila, endure the reek of trash, and use these scraps as their
lifeline to support the people’s daily needs. Even in this hell of a waste land, they find hope in
filling their hungry stomachs.

Manila is the capital city of the Philippines. The city hosts official and important
government establishments, such as the Malacañang, and most government agencies. Apart
from the fact that it houses most of the government institutions, it also is the center of trade, with
the largest seaport in the country, and the variety of industries that are thriving in the city.
Different business industries, textile industries, chemical companies, food processing factories,
et cetera, made Manila their headquarters (WorldAtlas, n.d.). But despite of these towering walls
of economical “success”, these sky-rocketing infrastructures is just a mask of the poverty Manila
is facing, specifically the great slums of the capital city. Tondo, Manila is the location of one of
the popular mountains in the Philippines, Smokey Mountain. Smokey Mountain is the by-product
of decades of trash in Manila (Cepeda and Cariga, 2016), and is the symbol of Philippine

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poverty and suffering that is being ignored by the society, along with the immeasurable diseases
and deaths, and the countless of crime that is happening in Tondo.

People in Tondo, Manila, specifically families that are living in the dumping site,
scavenge plastics and metal pieces, or anything that is recyclable, for their livelihood. They
collect these materials and sell them to junk shops to earn money, but these are not the only
valuable resource that can be discovered on this pile of human waste. Food. Food can also be
found in that hell hole, and is even considered as a treasure since food is a luxury to them.
“Pagpag” or dusted off or recycled, as translated to English, usually referred to food, are the
primary source of nutrition, if there is some in it, in the slums. People gather in the dumping site
to pick up the leftovers, usually the fried chicken, from different fast-food chains. They collect
huge amounts and cook pagpag and serve it to their tables. Some families use this as their
business to earn money, and sell it to other families occupying the slums. Families tend to buy
pagpag because it is the only viand they can afford. With a few pesos to spend, a bag of
pagpag can feed an entire family with some leftovers to share it to their neighbors (Cabrera,
2008). For them to stomach this kind of food they need to wash the leftovers and boil it because
for them boiling it will kill the bacteria that has been crawling in the food. Health advisers tell
these people that they might get salmonella and other illness by eating these type of food
(Rodriguez, 2014). Despite the warnings from the authorities, the family cannot do anything
because “it is either pagpag or nothing at all” (Rodriguez, 2014). According to Edlyn Abache, a
worker in Enfance Foundation, a non-government organization, the people in Tondo are given a
choice by the National Housing Authority, either to move in to a new relocation site in Bulacan
or a one-time payout, but the family who opt to choose the latter must move out of the slums in
Tondo, making them homeless (Rodriguez, 2014). Other families choose the former, but they
sell their units in the new relocation site and comeback again to the slums. Abache stated that if
government are providing relocation sites they should be near to livelihoods then the families
who opt to move out will stay. Aside from this, the government should create more sustainable
jobs for these people because how can they escape from moving back to their old lives, when
there are no opportunities that are welcoming them. The documentary is not all about the
recycled or dusted off food the people of the slums are eating, it is also about the lives of the
people, experiencing the everyday struggles of a man everyone is trying to escape from. The
poverty is the true face behind the enormous mask of success of the capital city of the
Philippines. With this type of situation, the Philippines is facing, the government should provide
a better livelihood for these people because how can a country prosper, when it cannot provide
a better life for its constituents?

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 The film Pagpag was very elaborate because of its chronological story line in which the
film started off with the families living in the dump site collecting recyclable materials and their
food, pagpag, and where the leftover food came from and then it also showed how different
families prepared the pagpag. This made the viewers understand more the story Giselle was
trying to convey. It made the viewers understand the process because of the films organization.
She also let the people narrate their own story which is very effective in capturing the sympathy
of the viewers because the characters were not using script, and genuine response is
showcased by the character when they are being filmed during the interview. This gives the film
a sense of integrity because Giselle was not dictating the actions of the characters, but this
gives a minor problem in the adjustments or control of the lighting and the actions of the
characters. But overall, the film was effective in inducing sympathy to the families, and it was
also effective in the dissemination of information about the country’s dilemma.

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Reference List:

Cepada, C., & Cariga, C. (n.d.). Smokey Mountain, Tondo: Poverty porn and slum tourism.
Retrieved November 07, 2017, from http://thelasallian.com/2016/03/31/smokey-
mountain-tondo-poverty-porn-and-slum-tourism/

Chepkemoi, J. (2017, July 12). What Is the Capital City of The Philippines? Retrieved November
07, 2017, from http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-the-capital-city-of-the-
philippines.html

Murdoch, E. B. (2008, April 30). Filipino poor scavenge for recycled food to survive. Retrieved
November 07, 2017, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-food-
scavengers/filipino-poor-scavenge-for-recycled-food-to-survive-
idUSSP32323420080430

Rodriguez, F. (2014, March 16). Meal of the day: 'Pagpag'. Retrieved November 07, 2017, from
https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/hunger/53080-leftover-meal-hunger

Rodriguez, F. (2014, December 4). Smelly, sticky, wet: Making it work in the dumps of Tondo.
Retrieved November 07, 2017, from https://www.rappler.com/move-
ph/issues/hunger/76991-aroma-tondo-families-poverty