The poverty of the rural population of the Philippines provides the background for Small Voices (Mga Munting Tinig), which was voted best picture in the Philippines for 2003. Directed by Gil M. Portes, the story centers on Melinda Santiago (played by Alessandra de Rossi), a recent teacher’s college graduate who decides not to join her mother in the United States but instead to begin her teaching career in Malawig, a small rural village (the filming is in Rizal Province) where the main source of income is derived from harvesting coconuts. She replaces Pilar (played by Lailani Navarro), who is leaving for Singapore to make a lot of money as a domestic in order to support her single mother Chayong (played by Gina Alajar). Melinda is accommodated in Pilar’s room of Chayong’s house. The school is run strictly by a principal, Mrs. Patalan (played by Dexter Doria), who sells “ice candies” (frozen water mixed with sugar) to the students to make extra money in order to help her daughter graduate from college in Manila. Because there is no rural bank, a Sikh moneychanger provides cash for their paychecks, charging them ten percent of their earnings. The students are depicted as eager to learn, though many parents prefer them to help at harvest time in the fields, believing that education will not bring them out of poverty and that girls should instead focus on getting married. To one mother, “Only the rich can afford to dream,” to which Melinda responds “Every child has the right to dream.” Because rich people chased a family off their inherited plot of land, the father in the poverty-stricken village has joined the New People’s Army. As the story develops, NPA combatants are from time to time killed and dumped into the nearby stream. The school has insufficient supplies, including textbooks, and one classroom has burned down but has not been rebuilt for lack of funds. One day a letter arrives, announcing the annual singing competition among elementary schools in the school district. Realizing that there is a cash prize that would help the school to obtain badly needed supplies, Melinda decides to coach students to enter the competition, though she does not tell them about the prize. Instead, she views preparation for the competition as a way to develop the habit of dreaming for something better; as the tagline indicates, “She gave them a reason to sing.” Her principal believes that the effort is futile, and many parents oppose having their children held an hour after school a few times weekly for rehearsals, as they are needed in the fields. Another obstacle is that there is no money for costumes. Melinda and the students, nevertheless, persist. Selling ice candies to various people in the village raises extra money, and the costumes are made by purchasing hats and textiles in the nearest town and then decorating the hats with pieces of felt and fashioning the textiles into costumes. The sweet sounds of the children’s voices eventually soften the hardhearted principal into supporting the venture. One evening, Popoy (played by Bryan Homecillo), one of the youngest singers, accompanies his father in the mountains with the NPA, but he and his father are both found dead in the stream the next morning. His older brother Obet (played by Pierro Rodriguez) is now needed at home more than ever. Without two of the key singers, Melinda is so discouraged that she wants to withdraw the school from the competition, but Chayong persuades her to proceed anyway. Chayong has a reason to be sad as well, as Pilar writes that she was sexually abused in Singapore and is saving money to return home. Clearly, the plot leaves no alternative but for Malawig Elementary to win the competition, singing a song entitled “Small Voices.” With Pilar returning home soon, Melinda decides to go to the United States, but titles at the end indicate that she stayed for only a year and then returned to teach in the Philippines. MH