Busong (Palawan Fate)
Short Synopsis:
Punay was born with wounds in her feet so she cannot step on the earth. Her brother, Angkadang, carries her with a hammock, as he searches the changing landscape of Palawan hoping to find a healer. Different people help him carry his sister along the way- a woman looking for her husband, a fisherman who lost his boat and a young man who is searching for himself- and each one meets his/herfate (Busong).
Long Synopsis:
Busong is the indigenous Palawanon concept of Fate or instant Karma. What you do to nature, you do to yourself. Nature does you harm when you harm it. Nature does you good when you respect it.
Punay was born with wounds in her feet. Her brother, Angkadang, carries her with a hammock. Different people help him carry his sister as he travels and searches the changing landscape of Palawan in hoping to find a healer who can heal Punay of her wounds- a woman who lost husband; a fisherman looking for his boat; and a young man who finds himself.
The film is divided into three landscapes in Palawan, an island on the southwestern area of the Philippines: Forest, Sea and Mountain. In the forest they meet Ninita who helps Angkadang carry Punay. Ninita relates her story of how she searched for her husband Tony in the forest through the sound of his chainsaw. Ninita’s husband is an illegal logger who cut the sacred Amugis tree, which falls on him. Ninita brings his body to the healer Claring who succeeds in bringing him back to life for a while but he eventually dies in Ninita’s arms. Ninita’s husband has met his Busong. Angkadang asks Ninita to bring them to Claring.
They see the islet of Minan Claring but it is high tide, and they cannot swim the sea because the salt water will hurt Punay’s wounds. They meet the fisherman Lulong who has lost his boat…and his son is missing too! He helps Angkadang and Punay and tells them his story, how his boat was confiscated when he fished in a private area. He and his son, Toti, were left in the middle of a sandbar. It is good that Lulong knows the secret name of the stonefish so he and his son are protected from the poisonous fish as they cross the sandbar. The foreign owner of the fishing area that once belonged to the Palawan people, who humiliates him and takes his boat, steps on a stonefish, meeting his Busong.
When Angkarang and Punay reach the islet of Minan Claring, she says that she cannot heal Punay and suggests that they climb the highest mountain of Palawan, the Mantalingahan range where the great healers live. On their way there they meet a young modern man, Aris, who was a shaman’s apprentice. He was told he could not become a shaman. But as Punay sees a mountain bleeding from a nickel mine, Aris heals her wounds and transforms them into butterflies.