A Filipino friend of mine told me that his father used to work as a manager of a bank back in the Philippines wherein the Lopez family deposited their assets.When Eugenio "Geny" Lopez, Jr was still alive, he would provide money worth millions of pesos to Sergio "Serge" Osmeña III as a political campaign contribution for his Senatorial campaign. Hence,the movie "Eskapo" figures on how a long-term friendship between these them was developed.Christopher De Leon and Richard Gomez stars are Geny Lopez and Serge Osmeña respectively in this political thriller entitled "Eskapo" (English Translation:Escape).It tells a story on how these two political prisoners figured an escape plan when both were among the people imprisoned during the presidency of the late Ferdinand Marcos during the Martial Law Years back in the 1970's.Dina Bonnevie co- stars.When President Marcos declared Martial Law after an ambush on the Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile falsely transpired, thousands of Filipinos were jailed.Among them were Geny Lopez and Serge Osmeña.Both Lopez and Osmeña belong of a prominent family on who never supported the Marcos dictatorship.After Geny and Serge through the help of their families tried all legal means of their release that included a hunger strike,they finally decided to plan a prison escape.With the help of Geny's relatives like his wife Chita, his sons Gabby and Raffy together with Jake Almeda-Lopez,they managed a successful prison break from the Fort Bonifacio maximum security prison.Director Chito Roño did a wonderful job in it.We get to see an good story from beginning to end.The performances of De Leon and Gomez were worth mentioning as they had great chemistry and the difference of their personalities was highlighted in the film.The optimistic Osmeña was played well by Gomez despite his tendency to overact and to purposely steal as well as dominate scenes over his co-stars.De Leon did a masterful job of reciprocating him by not doing the same to play effectively as the reluctant Geny and not to counter Gomez's overacting to form a chemistry between them as well as an interesting friendship between two different people.The escape scenes was also filled with great tension and suspense to keep it interesting despite the audience knowing that the real-life people involved are alive when the movie was released and have successfully escape.Added to that,it definitely provides the viewer about the ill-effects of Martial Law,the abuses of the Marcoses and that of the Marcos dictatorship particularly how justice is being served and how Filipinos - rich and poor -are suffering from it.This makes Eskapo a good Filipino political thriller after all these years because of these reasons stated.

ESKAPO - the daring exploits of media mogul's scion Geny Lopez, Jr and political scion Serge Osmeña III during the Martial Law Years (September 17/21 1972 until it was lifted in January 17, 1981). Alas, even with the estimable writer Pete Lacaba penning the screenplay (with co-writer Roy Iglesias), the film's potential is trapped by its origins: ABS CBN's Star Cinema (owned and run by the Lopezes) produced the film. Hence, despite ESKAPO's depiction of the horrors of Martial Law, the opportunity for pathos and empathy is squandered, especially when the dialogue belabors the obvious and the characterizations are really one-note, despite their being based on real-life personalities. However, Chito Roño, as he is wont to do, fills everything with tension, the pace never lags, and the famous 1977 escape scene is particularly nail-biting and gripping. Richard Gómez (as Osmeña) and Christopher de Leon (as Lopez) give empathic and brisk portrayals, despite being limited by a boxed-in script as it were, while Dina Bonnevie (as Chita Lopez), Mark Anthony Fernandez (young Gabby Lopez) and Eric Fructuoso (Raffy Lopez) shine in supporting roles. Armando Goyena is perfect as Don Eugenio Lopez, billionaire emperor of a powerful conglomerate suddenly oppressed by the Marcos dictatorship. In key roles, Ricky Davao, Bert Vivar and Miguel Faustmann enhance their limited screen time. As tract, ESKAPO works on some levels, but the history lesson would seem one-sided. As entertainment, ESKAPO definitely works, just skim over the lulls and dead spots and be gripped by the climactic titular scene.

From an aktibista's perspective, there's much to be enamored with in Eskapo (1995), a political thriller chronicling Sergio Osmena III and Eugenio "Geny" Lopez Jr.'s daring escape from the Fort Bonifacio detention center in 1977. The good news? It casts a critical light on dictator Ferdinand Marcos' martial law years. Its main message: no one, not even fellow rich businessmen and politicans, were spared from the bastard's ruthlessness. For this alone, the film is worth watching.The bad news is the story's framing: Osmena (Richard Gomez), Lopez (Christopher de Leon) and the Opposition (of rich businessmen and political rivals) are the heroes, Marcos and his goons are the villains and the rest of us were apparently watching on the sidelines, occasionally marching. The thousands of workers, peasants and ordinary activists who were detained or killed under Marcos don't figure much into Osmena and Lopez's story, except for a lone NPA soldier whose holding cell is next to theirs.Director Chito S. Rono's handling of the subject matter couldn't have been any more conventional if it were a Costa-Gavras film. Cast as the Rebel and the Reluctant with a lady on the side (Dina Bonnevie, the perpetually fly auntie), the duo's dialogue goes like this: Serge: "Let's get out of here." Geny: "I'm afraid." Geny's wife, Chita, during conjugal visits: "I'm afraid too, but Serge is right." Geny: "OK, let's go."Eskapo evokes a nationalism that heroizes the (ruling-class) Opposition's role in the movement against Marcos. It ends with a Miami Vice-style freezeframe and an epilogue that says nothing of the continuation of corruption and repression in the government from Cory Aquino onward, even though it was made in 1995. Not surprising considering that the film was funded and released by ABS-CBN, now run by Geny Lopez III. Still, as far as political thrillers go - especially in Philippines, where no films overtly criticizing Marcos were made during his rule - Eskapo is well crafted, albeit more thriller than political.