The Batas ng Alipin scene of Eula Valdez as Amor Powers in the original ‘Pangako Sa ‘Yo’ (PSY) series (2000), is considered one of the most iconic scenes, ever seen in Philippine television.
The original PSY is, afterall, dubbed as the first-ever teleserye, and along that honor, came so many other firsts and milestones, not only for the primetime soap opera, but for the actors playing the lead roles. Now 15 years, after the epic hearbreaking scene placed its indelible mark in the history of Philippine TV, it gets a reenactment, this time its Jodi Sta. Maria playing Amor.
There are some changes, though, between Jodi’s and Eula’s versions. Eula’s breakdown was in a Payatas dumpsite where the rest of her family was believed to be buried alive, while Jodi’s is in the mines. Eula also swore for the Buenavistas to taste the ‘batas ng alipin’ or the slave’s wrath, while Jodi’s Amor powers, on the other hand, has swore to give her oppressors the ‘wrath of the oppressed’, or ‘Batas ng Api’.
Here’s the breakdown scene:
All roads laid out in the previous episodes are no doubt leading to this historic moment. In the Wednesday episode (#PSYAngPananagutan), Claudia and Eduardo finally get married, but we learn that Eduardo still struggles to forget Amor. Right before the marriage, Eduardo rushes back to Amor’s home, only to no avail and find out that Amor together with her family, has moved out and decided to settle near the mines.
Amor, who finds herself pregnant, vows to her family to rise someday, and in the middle of the episode, she delivers her child, who, she later named ‘Maria Amor’. The realization she needs to work for her to provide her family’s needs, most especially, her child’s, makes her pursue a work overseas. In the final moments, we see her leave for Hongkong, to work ands seek for greener pastures.
Cut to last night’s episode, and we see, the married Claudia and Amor, with the still toddler, Angelo. From here, we begin witnessing the authoritative character of Madam Claudia Buenavista, and I must say, Angelica Panganiban has been doing good pulling off the iconic role. Meanwhile, in Punta Verde, the destruction of the mountains, around the mines, has been getting worse, and workers have been feeling a potential disaster that might result from Buena Mines (now called Buena Sierra) negligence and illegal mining activities.
Amor promises to send money so her family could move to a safer place, but when a moderate earthquake hits the settlement the next day, she is too late. Amor learns that all the members of her family, are burried alive under the earth, when a massive landslide is caused by the 5.7-magnitude earthquake. The Buenavistas and Salamedas are now receiving the blame, and we see Claudia and Doña Benita, now freaking out about what damage the said disaster could do to their business and family. Later on, we see Claudia trying to shift the blame to her father, announcing his local’s carelessness and illegal actvities in the area.
In Hong Kong, Amor is prohibited by her employer to come home, unless her contract is over. That particular moment is heartbreaking, not just for Amor, but for us, the audience, as we witness her rendered helpless in longing and unbearable pain brought by the tragedy. But that pain is nothing against what we see when she finally comes home and witnesses the ruins of the landslide that took her family. And right there, above the gravels and sand, she swears to get her revenge, in furious tone of vengeance and disgust.
There is no doubt that this is the series strongest episode, yet. As far as piercing emotions are concerned, #PSYAngBatasNgApi is definitely an early record high for the two-week old series. Jodi Sta. Maria, singularly shines in that iconic moment, when she slowly delivers her line, uttering them in the most heart-rupturing way possible. We may have to wait for a longer time, though, before that high is reached again, and I’m not saying I’m sure we’ll get to see a more intense moment, more monumental, than that, but we could hope.
The final scene of the episode shows the first half of the romantic pair that everybody is expected to fall in love with–Yna, portrayed by Kathryn Bernardo. Earlier in the episode, we learned that Ronnie Lazaro’s character, Isko, found Amor’s child, and took her home. His wife, Belen (Amy Austria), named the child Yna, having seen the other half of the necklace the child is wearing.
The preview scenes for Friday’s episode warrant fatal dosage of irresistable kilig, as we finally get to see Yna and Angelo meet for the first time. #PSYAngBatasNgApi was sent to twitter’s local and worldwide charts, and a record of 1.2Million tweets, was generated. Expect this figure, get crushed, on Friday.
