MANILA, Philippines - One of the most unexpected developments on the local entertainment scene in the past decade has been the ?death? of the action film.

For decades on end since the 1960s, action movies and their resident tough-guy superstars lorded it over local show biz, chalking up the biggest grosses and earning stellar fees in the millions of pesos per film.

Fernando Poe Jr., Joseph Estrada, Ramon Revilla and Lito Lapid were launched to superstardom by their action starrers?and their popularity boosted their political fortunes all the way to the top, as well.

That?s why it appeared to be inconceivable that the high-flying action-adventure, action-drama and action-comedy film formats would come crashing down one day. And yet, that terrible denouement has in fact already transpired.

Have you noticed? Few, if any, big action movies were produced last year, outside of the year-end Metro Manila Film Festival. A decade ago, at least one new action blockbuster was screened every month, often to great financial success.

Decade-long slump

What happened? Well, the entire local film industry went into a decade-long slump, and action movies were among its casualties.

They lost money due to lack of patronage (local action fans transferred their allegiance to Hollywood slam-bang flicks), excessively high production costs, and some spoiled action stars? inordinately unrealistic and power-tripping demands.

So, most of our erstwhile action stars have gone without projects for years. Some of them have found alternative employment on TV sitcoms or drama series, and the wind has visibly been knocked out of their sails.

More encouragingly, however, the action format has found its way to television, where a number of action-adventure-fantasy series are currently on view. This is a welcome development, since prime time TV has for too long been dominated by a boring assembly line of melodramas, robbing the audience of variety in viewing options.

The situation is less boring now, since GMA?s ?Joaquin Bordado? and ABS-CBN?s ?Palos? have hit the small screen. ?Bordado? top-bills action ?prince? Robin Padilla, while ?Palos? co-stars Cesar Montano and newcomer Jake Cuenca.

Room for improvement

The new action series have a lot of room for improvement, but a least they provide the variety that viewers need, and energize the TV screen with their dynamic images and plot situations.

And they provide the essential service of keeping the local action tradition alive, so that it isn?t completely overwhelmed by the wave after wave of big-budget Hollywood action flicks that have been making a killing at the Philippine box office.

We need to keep this tradition alive, because it has played a major part in local entertainment and has had such a seminal influence on Filipinos? lives and aspirations. Yes, many of their plots were formulaic and escapist, but they provided an outlet for people?s societal disaffection, as well as a rallying point for redress.

True, many local action superstars played fantasy heroes who could single-handedly vanquish scores of nasty villains, but they did offer a measure of inspiration during the past decade?s depressingly uninspiring times. That may not be a lot, but it?s still worth celebrating and perpetuating?even if only on TV.