Jonalyn (Rissey Reyes-Robinson) works as a virtual assistant. She's lying low for now, because in her previous job her boss (Leo Martinez) sexually harassed her. All she wants is to move on, but an offer from a hotshot lawyer (Eula Valdez) gives her a chance to air her story.
Paglilitis feels like the kind of film that one would figure out from the onset - at first glance it seems like Jonalyn will spend the rest of the film fighting a legal battle against her former boss and gain some justice from the whole thing. But thanks to twist in the middle of the film, the "trial" of Paglilitis ends up being one that's waged in different spaces - in the amorphous mass of opinions that is the internet, and in one's own mind. Soon we see that many of the people that advocated for Jonalyn do so out of self interest, or at least an ulterior motive: her mother initially objected to filing a case, but does so now in order to provide for her other daughter's education, while the lawyer who initially takes on Jonalyn's case does so in order to increase her visibility for political ends later on. Ultimately, the film's central theme seems to be that the most important person who can truly speak for you and your pain is yourself.
It's also pretty revealing that most of the people who use Jonalyn for their own ends are women themselves. One of the people who Jonalyn comes up against as the film moves towards its second half is her boss' wife (Jackie Lou Blanco), often depicted in prayer while wholly aware of her husband's behavior. Aside from the silence of victims, abuse is also perpetrated by the silence of the people who enable abusers.
Rissey Reyes-Robinson, who comes mainly from a theater background with a handful of film and TV credits, takes on her first lead role and she makes the most of it here. She adroitly embodies Jonalyn's journey from hesitant victim to determined, impassioned advocate. The adaptation of Paglilitis also trims some scenes from the original Palanca script, especially a part near the end, while still staying true to the original's intent.
Unfortunately, Paglilitis suffers from a slew of technical problems. The film's unpolish would make it right at home as a film in the earlier years of Cinemalaya, with sound problems (a certain spoken line, for example, remains undubbed), an edit that feels flat, and a general look to the film that makes it feel like a TV movie. There's definitely merit to it, but the end product is still pretty rough.
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