Monday, May 15, 2006
Cebu City Council wants to block movie
By Linette C. Ramos
CEBU CITY -- Two weeks after Unicef officials lauded the Cebu City Government for its programs for children, the City Council asked the agency to refrain from showing a film they believe is damaging to the City.
The council passed a resolution requesting Unicef not to show "Bunso", a video documentary that tells the story of some Cebuano children in conflict with the law and the lack of a separate jail facility for them.
Ironically, the City's jail facility for minors is among the projects of the City Government that the Unicef commended and wants endorsed as a model project for other provinces and countries.
Shot in early 2001 yet, the film is no longer reflective of the situation of the minor offenders here, since Operation Second Chance has long been put up, the councilors said.
The film continues to be shown in seminars to this day.
The council added that if Unicef insists on using the film for public viewing, they should edit the film to indicate when it was shot and to include all the programs the Cebu City Task Force on Street Children (CCTFSC) and the City Government have implemented, including the jail facility for minors.
"The film is really damaging to the City and to the task force because we already spent millions of pesos to improve the state of our children. A lot has changed already since they made that film, that is why we should send a strong statement to Unicef that they should stop showing it unless they make the necessary revisions," Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera said.
"Bunso" won for Ditsi Carolino the Best Director Award at the OneWorld 2005 documentary film festival held in Prague, Czech Republic in May last year.
It features Tony, 13, Diosel, 11, and Bunso, 11, who were detained at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC), where they shared cells with adult criminals convicted of rape, murder and drug dealing.
Update
Supported by the Consuelo Foundation and United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), "Bunso" is being used by child rights advocates to generate support for the passage of the Juvenile Justice Bill.
The council passed the resolution during their session last Wednesday, where they also commended the CCTFSC "for making the City proud, for helping thousands of children and for earning the praise of Unicef and CIDA."
During their visit here last April 27, officials of Unicef and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) lauded the City Government and the CCTFSC for their projects for children.
Councilor Edgardo Labella also said Unicef and its partner Consuelo Foundation should revise the documentary since its content is unfair to the City.
Our side
"The reporting is not balanced and is not truly reflective of the situation in Cebu. They should refrain from showing only one side of the story, especially since Cebu City is a trendsetter, a forerunner when it comes to children's programs," he said during the session.
This is not the first time a city official was upset by the documentary.
Last year, CCTFSC co-chairperson Margot Osmeña, the mayor's wife, also expressed her disappointment with the producers of the film.
The children spoke Cebuano in the 70-minute documentary "Bunso the Youngest."
"It was quoted that there is no government agency taking responsibility of minor offenders, and that is not true. Operation Second Chance was not operational yet but something was being done. My reaction was very strong because all these years, we have been doing something to help these children," she said in an earlier interview.
The documentary was filmed in 2001, when Operation Second Chance, a jail facility in the city for minors, was nearing completion.
(May 15, 2006 issue)
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