"The Jessica Alfaro Story"

Categories: Art Cinematography Film Witness

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The Jessica Alfaro Story is a crime, drama, and thriller Filipino film directed by Francis "Jun" Posadas, a story by Tony Calvento and was produced on June 8, 1995 by the Viva Films. It portrays the life and involvement of Jessica Alfaro to the controversial case, the Vizconde Massacre.

After 4 years the incident happened, she became a key witness who testified the death of the Vizconde family first-hand, and on the same year, the movie got released. The movie started with Alfaro's publicized confession and it backtracked to how she ended up being a witness of a vehement killing.

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Alice Dixson as Jessica Alfaro
Rustom Padilla (BB Gandanghari) as Mark
Gary Estrada as Lester
Angelu De Leon as Lorraine
Tyrone Victa as Suspect
Ramon Christopher as Suspect
Liza Lorena as Mother of Jessica Alfaro
Robert Arevalo as Father of Jessica Alfaro

In the movie, Jessica Alfaro portrayed by Alice Dixson who has a family of seven living in Tondo. Due to her father's tolerant parenting, and her mother being a nagger, Jessica became a partygoer and that also led to her using marijuana.

One evening, Alfaro's parents argued when her mother found out that her father was cheating. Alfaro's addiction to drugs worsened when she learned that their mother left them.

The lead character had a relationship with one of the members of "Gilid Boys", Mark. They are the famous group of boys in Tondo. Mark got her pregnant and she gave birth to a girl. As years passed, the girl grew up and Jessica decided to visit Mark's dormitory.

Then, she found out that Mark was cheating on her resulting in their separation. After their break up, she got into a relationship with Lester, Mark's best friend. However, their relationship aggravated her drug addiction and she became a drug dealer for Mr. Ong and her close friends.

At a party, she was introduced to the suspects by Lester then to the victim, Lorraine Ilagan. On the night of the murder, Jessica met up with the gang and was persuaded to go to Lorraine's house to talk. Lorraine told Jessica to come back after 20 minutes because she had visitors. After 20 minutes of waiting, Jessica, Lester and his friends entered the subdivision and into the back of the Vizconde family's house.

From that day on, Alfaro read updates in the newspaper about the said murder and felt guilty for not voicing out the information she knows about the case. She even started having hallucinations where she sees her daughter in the same situation of the victim. These visions gave Alfaro remorse for the family and led her to help the police in suppressing drug distribution. She, then, testified for the Ilagan Massacre to support the insufficient evidence against the suspects.

The execution of the film is mediocre considering the timeframe release of the movie was only three months since Alfaro made a public statement for the investigation of the Vizconde massacre case. The lines used were a bit "cheesy", cliche, and irrelevant. And it gave the audience a different take. In some scenes, the theme of the movie becomes irrelevant due to overexposed love scenes whereas, the demise of the victims in the film was not clearly proven.

The primary goal of the movie is to teach the audience, especially the youth regarding the consequences of using illegal drugs. It can lead people in exploiting violence, inhumane and immoral things that will lead drug users to bewail. The scene of Alfaro having delirious imagination serves as an example of side effects of the drug chemicals lives in your brain.

In some way, the actors were able to delineate the roles given to them. Although, the message the film wanted to convey to the audience was not properly delivered. According to the recent interview of Philippine Entertainment Portal (PEP) with Ms. Alice Dixson, there is a small possibility to make a new film showing Hubert Webb's side of the story.

If ever the said movie took place, Dixson said "I hope wala silang problema sa akin... I mean, sa akin was trabaho lang po 'yon. 'Yon ang pahayag ni Jessica at sinunod lang namin yung kanyang kwento at saka life story.