How Cinemalaya’s 2 Valid IDs Exposes the Human Cost of Bureaucratic Red Tape

In Ma-an Asuncion-Dagñalan’s latest film, Pokwang returns to Cinemalaya in a moving call for a more humane system.

In the Philippines, there’s a long list of valid IDs that you can get: the national ID, Philippine passport, driver’s license, unified multipurpose ID, PRC ID, postal ID, voter’s ID, senior citizen ID, PWD ID. Then you have your secondary identification documents: NBI clearance, PhilHealth card, TIN ID, Pag-IBIG card, company ID, school ID, barangay certification. When you turn 18, you’re encouraged to get at least one. But which one? Some require other valid IDs so you can get another one; some require numerous secondary documents.

Yet, you can’t escape the bureaucracy. To exist in a society and avail yourself of needed services, you must have some sort of acceptable form of identification. But what if you don’t have these documents? What if you don’t have the money for the fees? What if you don’t have time to go through the lengthy and sometimes complicated process?

All these questions will come to light in this year’s edition of Cinemalaya, with director Ma-an Asuncion-Dagñalan’s 2 Valid IDs. Starring Pokwang, Joey Marquez, and Zaijan Jaranilla, the film follows Sylvia (Pokwang), a poor farmer who desperately needs to claim money at a remittance center for her hospitalized husband’s medical treatment. However, she needs to present two valid IDs, and she has none.

At the Cinemalaya 22 press conference, the film’s trailer, which debuted last month, was met with laughter. Laughter, not because it’s comedic, but rather because it’s a real situation that happens in the Philippines. The film’s writer, Abet Pagdagdagan Raz, set the story with a social backdrop of a “rotting healthcare system and bureaucracy.”

When his mother was hospitalized, Raz says that as he was taking care of her, his eyes drifted to other patients in the hospital. Inside the hospital’s cramped hallways, patients lined the corridors, lying down as they awaited or underwent treatment. The scene prompted him to set his pen to writing, to shed light on the “unfair” healthcare system.

However, the full idea came when memes became popular online. He saw one that joked, “In the Philippines, to get a valid ID, you need two valid IDs.” This is the moment when the whole concept clicked in Raz’s head. After completing the script, he presented it to Asuncion-Dagñalan, who was immediately on board with the story.

The film’s lead, Pokwang, aka Mamang (her nickname), or Marietta Subong (as she credits herself in the film), also immediately said yes to the project. It has been 10 years since her last Cinemalaya film, Mercury is Mine (2016); she had been itching to do another one. “Nung nalaman ko na Cinemalaya, sabi ko, ‘Go!’ Nung nabasa ko yung script, sabi ko ‘Ah, bakit ganito!’” she says, groaning in a comedic manner.

Off-screen, she is equally as vivacious as her comedic characters, such as Etang Sukimura from Aalog-Alog (2006) and Badette in Becky and Badette (2023). But she has proven that she has the acting chops in dramatic roles, too: Remedios “Medy” Santos in A Mother’s Story (2011), Alma in The Healing (2012), and Sonya in Oda sa Wala (2018). “Kilala na talaga ako ng mga tao sa comedy talaga, pero yung mga ganitong roles na medyo out-of-the-box, gustong-gusto ko yung ganito,” she says.

“Thankfully, we were so blessed na tinanggap ni Mamang,” Asuncion-Dagñalan says. “Ako dapat yung mag-thank you. Ako lagi akong looking forward na gumawa ng ganitong pelikula na kumbaga eh, makatotohanan,” interjects Pokwang.

Even before the film’s release, it is already generating multiple discussions online, even prompting PHLPost to clarify that no valid ID is required to apply for a postal ID. “Ang importante dito, may mga namulat na mga mata,” Pokwang says. “Sana mapanood ng mga lawmakers, ng gobyerno, para magkaroon ng aksyon. It’s something so trivial but affects the whole nation, especially yung mga nasa laylayan,” Raz adds.

For Asuncion-Dagñalan, change could begin with education. “I just hope that those people from far-flung places, hopefully someone will educate them on how important valid IDs are,” she says, noting how rural communities lack access to acquire and be informed about such documents. “It’s already a given how fragmented our system is. So, I do hope that all information should be centralized.”

With screenings being sold out days ahead of the premiere, the conversation is bound to go even further. And hopefully, when it does, there will come a time when we no longer need two valid IDs, but just one.