From Lualhati Bautista (lualhati_dekada70@yahoo.com)

Thank you for publishing excerpts from my article, ?Sigwa vis-à-vis Desaparesidos.? I understand the limitation of space that made Inquirer do away with a big portion of it; still, I wish the more important points were included, like the part that referred to ?Sigwa? and ?Desaparesidos? as having the same concept: Young rebel-mother...in the dark days of martial law, entrusting her child to another, and this other mother losing her own child and claiming her friend?s daughter as her own. The omissions simplified the issue into a case of ?mother looking for her daughter? theme and...denied Lamangan the opportunity to react to the article in an intelligent manner. [Instead, he] challenged me to run after films like ?Andrea, Paano Ba Ang Maging Ina? (1990 ? seven years before ?Desaparesidos?) and ?Not Without My Daughter? (1991).

Should I file a formal complaint with Cinemalaya? My answer is no. As Director Laurice Guillen said, plagiarism is such a strong accusation as you have to prove that your work has been copied word for word ? exactly why I never used the word ?plagiarism? in my article. I am thinking of sending my friends in Cinemalaya a copy of my book each, not as an investigating panel, but for their reading pleasure.