The encouragement of Ligaya's mother for her to go to Manila manifested the views of most Filipinos that working in the city will help their families escape poverty. In reality, Manila itself was full of slums where people living in these areas were prone to diseases, fights, and even crimes because of their poor living conditions. Opportunists like Mrs. Cruz use the narrative of the "Manila Dream" for their own interests, worsening urban migration and, at the same time, the crimes in the area.

Resorting to sex work

When Julio found himself hopeless, with nowhere to go and a rumbling stomach, meeting Bobby, a call boy, provided a new option and an opportunity to earn money. He was introduced to the reality that male prostitution exists due to these call boys' desire to earn a significant amount of money without being exposed to manual labor that only pays very little. It was clear that Julio did not like the idea of resorting to sex work, however, he endured his discomfort just to earn money, even for that night.

Although Julio did not last long as a call boy, the film has shown that several men, including Bobby, have been working as male prostitutes to have a relatively comfortable life compared to laborers like Julio. Even Ligaya tolerated the job that was forced on her to survive the wrath of her captor and send money back to her family in the province. Lastly, Perla, after the death of his brother and father, also resorted to sex work to survive and earn money. Overall, sex work was one of the last resorts of people to survive the harsh environment of Manila and make a living.

In fact, in the 1970s, when the dictator was actively trying to turn the Philippines into a tourist hotspot, he successfully marketed the country's beautiful women to foreigners. Since then, sex tourism has boomed in the country (Tan, De Leon, Stoltzfus, and O'donnell).

Resorting to crime for daily subsistence

As seen in several parts of the film, people were willing to commit crimes and corrupt acts to meet their needs. Several characters in the film showed their greed by doing illegal acts just to earn money. The film also showed instances of theft and robbery all over Manila, which reflected the reality where theft and robbery were the most predominant offenses in the Philippines from 1970-1971 (Fifth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and treatment of Offenders 2).

As Julio stayed in Manila to find his love, Ligaya, he worked in different job occupations to sustain himself, eat, and look for a roof above his head. There, he finds a job at a construction company as a labor worker where he experienced extreme events. His first experience was fainting due to stress and hunger. He was saved by his workmates who gave him lunch food. They offered him a smoke which was followed by Julio confessing that he hasn’t smoked for quite a while already because he lacks money. These conditions show the current situation of Julio in urban Manila.

Collusion between the ruling and working classes denotes the agreement between the employer and employee that is beyond the legal framework, regardless of being consensual or coerced. This involves the income of the employee which is the focus of the abuse in this context. Julio’s workmates informed him of the “Taywan” scheme where the contractor only gives the employees 90% of their total earnings through a loan because there is no money to pay them holding the laborers on their necks. The lacking 10% is already in the pockets of the contractors. They have no choice but to participate in this scheme since they are in a situation of isang kahig, isang tuka. During the Marcos Dictatorship, there were numerous demonstrations headed by labor groups, with the assistance of Kilusang Mayo Uno. They forwarded the interests and rights of Filipino workers and focused on the issue of foreign exploitation and the plight of national sovereignty (Lambert).

The Taywan money scheme is just one of the inhumane experiences of the laborers resulting from the abuse of power that was normalized by the Marcos administration. Outside the realm of labor unions, Filipinos were fighting against each other for the improvement of their life conditions by scamming those that are below them and abusing their power, these practices are very much present in the status quo. This is an antithesis of the first experience of Julio with his workmates where they helped and consoled each other.

Human rights violations are the solid remembrance that the Marcos administration left as a mark in the history of the Philippines. 3,200 killings, 35,000 tortures, and 70,000 unjustified detainees are the numbers that are tied to the legacy of Martial Law (Amnesty International), but more than that, these reported statistics are people who are victims of state-sponsored human rights violations. The movie mimicked a couple of human rights violations. Still, the most obvious commentary is the sudden death of Ligaya Paraiso which was publicized through a local newspaper that reached her lover, Julio. Her death was brushed off and did not have any justifiable reason.

The journey of Julio in Manila was motivated by the thought of finding Ligaya after he has lost contact with her. Ligaya was hired by an old lady from Manila who promised her an education and a good-paying job, it took more than 30 minutes in the movie to reveal the backstory of Ligaya through the memories of Julio. The analysis before this section explores the disgusting and brutal experience of Ligaya at the hands of Mrs. Cruz, who exploited her innocence and genuine pursuit of a better life. The sudden death of Ligaya perfectly captures the system of the deaths of the victims of martial law: unforeseen, unjustifiable, and brushed off, just like how the victims are treated as mere casualties as if they have no value before they are reported as statistics.

Alongside the abuse of power in the workplace through the Taywan money scheme, a huge part of Julio’s journey in Manila was spent overcoming inhumane working conditions and maltreatment from the higher-ups. One might question why workers put up with this setup, and the answer is quite obvious; poor people do not have the luxury of options. More than being unlucky in the birth lottery, they are also victims of systemic oppression and exploitation. Maltreatment and inhumane workplace conditions include verbal abuse from the higher-ups, powerplay, and, most importantly, unsafe working conditions that put the lives of the workers at risk.

IBON Foundation reports that unemployment worsened, and prices soared, all while poverty persisted under Marcos's dictatorship. This provides a necessary context of why people still fill in these dangerous job occupations, they do not have a choice at all. Filipinos who worked in the labor industry were at the frontline of experiencing the crony capitalism and corruption brought about by the Marcos administration. Scratch the importance of the safety of the workers, we need to build build build. Marcos favored foreign companies so much that he would sign numerous presidential decrees that benefit them and disadvantaged the Filipino workers. In 1974, he signed a labor code that promotes overseas contract work, mostly in labor that attracts transnational industries (Dalupang). This legislation singlehandedly proves the economic problems the country was experiencing during this time and Marcos’s solution was to export Filipino workers abroad.

This situation is exacerbated by the lack of proactive measures of the Marcos administration to solve the worsening economic situation instead they, together with his wife, focused on the state-sponsored infrastructure that publicized their corrupt works and commodity of the Filipino people. The same tragedy surrounding one of the state-sponsored infrastructure buildings of the Marcos adminiatration that was mimicked in the movie was the incident during one of the construction days of the Manila Film Center. Benny, one of the laborer friends of Julio gets killed after accidently falling down an unfinished floor of the building, the same incident that burried alive around 169 workers of the Manila Film Center (Afinidad-Bernardo). Just like in the movie, the assigned personnel to ensure the safety of the workers brushed off the event like nothing happened.