ABAKADA, Ina

Abakada, Ina (FILM)

Abakada, Ina is a Filipino film fixated on how women strive hard to be the best for their children. The story is mainly about an illiterate woman named Estella who tries to cope with her mother-in-law, who’s doing her responsibility as a mother in Estella’s stead. Her husband Daniel, works far away from home and he is the breadwinner for the family. Matilda, Estella’s mother-in-law and Daniel’s mother, took care and taught the children every possible thing a human being could and should learn most especially education. She puts a lot of effort raising the children to grow as an literate citizens unlike Estella. That leaves Estella no choice and sells “kakanin” in the market instead.

I felt pity for Estella for her illiteracy. I mean, is it a fault if you’re unschooled? Just because there are really certain things that are not reachable at that time. I felt pity for Estella, for having a miserable life during the time when they transferred to Manila. Manila is a busy place, no time for learning and you should really immediately start working to live. They were culture shocked and their life was at stake. Her 2 older daughters were on the top of the class when they were in their province but when they were in the city, an unfamiliar and new place for them, they were nobodies. Estella also met a hostess. I really thought she would invite Estella on her job and would show her wicked intentions but she was actually a nice person. She even helped Estella to send her youngest daughter to kindergarten. There was one time when it rained hard and her youngest daughter just came home from school, she was shivering and soaking wet. She had a fever and Estella panicked. She looked for the medicine Matilda told her to bring. Being illiterate, she didn’t know which was the right medicine to give because there were two medicines, the one that she was allergic of and the one which she used to take when she’s sick. So she just eenie meenied the medicine and let her daughter drink it. Unfortunately, she’d given the wrong medicine and sent her daughter to the hospital. Daniel came wrathful and blamed Estella for being gullible and illiterate.

When Estella and Daniel realized that they were not suitable to live in an urban place, they went home to Matilda. Not to mention that Estella and Daniel were always fighting. There came a point when both of them separated. In the end, Lorna re conciliated with Matilda and she came back to her daughters but I was not sure if she and Daniel were still together. What I was certain about is that, their life started to work out and they were gradually picking up the broken pieces and building a new life together.


I can actually relate on how one of her daughters behave. Like, the grandparent’s favorite. My sister is actually like that, and she has also this tantrums and has an attitude.I was just wondering if what happened to Estella’s daughter, the Lola’s favorite? Will she learn to respect her Mom and treat Estella as her real Mom or she’ll ignore her Mom more for coming back to school as an elementary student? And will Estella graduate? Will she get a degree after sometime?I think that sooner or later when all of them will graduate, they’ll go back to the city and leave the province. Everyone wants a better life, isn’t it?