Marili Fernandez-Ilagan

The long-standing conflict between the military forces and the rebel group Abu Sayaff has severely ravaged the poor town of Patikul in Sulu. Residents have become so accustomed to the armed clashes, that reports of kidnappings and recruitment of young Tausugs to join the rebel groups already became normal news to them. However, Amman, a 33 year old coffee farmer in Sitio Kan-Ague, continues to believe that there is still hope for their town. Amman believes that educating his children would change their present situation.

The film portrays the true stories of Filipinos, who, due to poverty in their country, are forced to go abroad to look for work, hoping they would find a better life.

High school student Jen Guilarman lives in misery with her abusive mother and her mom's lesbian lover. Looking for some escape, she aims to join an all-girl gang which first requires her to undergo a sexual rite. Jen only has one man in mind, and that is her teacher Ariel Basco who has always been sympathetic with her. Suddenly, Jen cries rape and gets her teacher arrested. But behind her tragic fate is a dark truth.

A former student activist returns to the Philippines to find the daughter she was forced to leave behind.

Ross Rivera is a writer whose cynicism has converted him into a government apologist, is suddenly forced to reassess his role as journalist when he finds himself right in the middle of unearthing a conspiracy linking Muntazir Ghazi, a local warlord, with election fraud and the sporadic killing of journalists in various parts of the country. While Ross wrestles with the his conscience and attempts to convince Greta Manarang, television newscaster and grieving girlfriend of a recently murdered journalist, of his newfound integrity in Manila, Azad and Claire, local journalists who are keep into the tracks of Ghazi, are hunted down by Ghazi's henchmen. Their stories eventually intertwine, revealing a more frustrated than concerned outlook of the state of free speech in a country that supposedly fosters democracy.