Chaotic Waters and Well-Tempered Specters: The Philippines as Source of Overseas Labor

Abstract

The precolonial territory that became the Philippines was a participant in maritime Asian politics and warfare that made the Southeast Asian region appear unstable and undefined to newly arrived Western observers. In truth, regional network-building amid labor shortages was a constant concern of the various peoples, with their interdependent arrangements occasionally readjusted because of piratical raids conducted by more capable or determined centers in order to increase their working populations. The Western occupation forces (themselves also subject to limitations in their number) sought to stabilize the communities they subjugated in order to more effectively bankroll their colonial projects, an arrangement that persisted into the Philippine postcolonial administrations’ attempts at national industrialization. The near- total economic shutdown that resulted from national and global objections to the excesses of the authoritarian regime of Ferdinand E. Marcos led to labor export as a stop-gap policy. The success of this specific measure turned it into the equivalent of a singularly permanent national industry, with the overseas presence of Filipino workers showing up in foreign popular culture products. This article will look at film samples in various periods, from the (often anonymous) appearances of Filipinos in Hollywood movies, through their inscription in the cinemas of neighboring Asian countries, to their occasional representation in contemporary Western films, with a focus on two European releases from 2022, Triangle of Sadness and Nocebo. It will inspect correspondences between the so-far persistent labor-export policy and the population’s precolonial disposition to thrive in the face of the vicissitudes wrought by unpredictable shifts in geopolitical circumstances.

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Keywords

allegorical function, indentured servitude, island cinema, Overseas Filipino Workers, piracy, transnational imaginary