“Pagpag” is a word that can refer to a multitude of things. As a superstition, it refers to eating a meal before going home when one visits the dead.
However, it could also mean someone’s sole meal of the day. In this particular context, pagpag refers to leftovers recooked and eaten as a meal. An illuminating documentary sheds light on the bigger picture of the culture of pagpag.
Pagpag is the term used to refer to the process of eating someone else’s leftovers that have been thrown in the garbage. Sadly, there are many people who earn a living by working in a “pagpagan,” selling the leftovers, and even subsist on eating them.
“Meal of the Day” is the title of the documentary and during the process of filming it, the filmmaker wrote a blog as a way to record her thoughts and feature behind-the-scenes aspects of the film. She narrates the hurdles her documentary had to overcome while at the same time getting the real story from the people who are part of the pagpag culture.
There is no denying that a lot of Filipinos live below the poverty line. Rising prices and the increase of taxes, as well as unemployment and lack of education, pushes many of the disenfranchised into hunger.
Pagpag is an answer to the reality of starvation that many poor people go through.
Nanay Aida is a grandmother who clings to her livelihood of selling cooked leftover rubbish because it gets her family through each day. Some workers at the pagpagan were scared to be interviewed because they might lose their jobs. Some of them were ashamed.
They know that it’s dangerous to eat and consume food that has already been thrown into the trash but what else could they do? They refuse to starve to death or be choosy when nothing better might come their way.
Watch the heartbreaking video below for a closer look at thus sad reality.
Source : Meal of the Day
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