Joseph Abello and the small stories that hold a nation together

(Seven Filipino filmmakers, each receiving a record ₱5 million grant from Puregold CinePanalo 2026, recently sat down with the radar Entertainment team for an exclusive interview.)

With “Wantawsan,” filmmaker Joseph Abello crafts a quiet yet urgent story about a father, a son, and the everyday corruption that seeps into the spaces between them… a film that asks how we survive, and stay good, when the world around us doesn’t.

When Joseph Abello speaks about “Wantawsan,” he sounds less like a director promoting a film and more like a man reflecting on the world he wakes up to every day. 

“It’s about a dad who’s doing his best to give his son a good birthday, despite a limited budget,” he explains. “It talks about corruption. It talks about the issues we’re facing in the Philippines. But it’s not forced… it just shows.”

Abello’s film, one of the finalists at Puregold CinePanalo 2026, may be set in a single day, but its concerns stretch far beyond. Through one father’s simple desire to make his child happy, “Wantawsan” becomes a reflection of a larger system, one where good people must navigate moral compromises just to get by. It’s a story about honesty, exhaustion, and the stubborn belief that decency still matters.

This is Abello’s second time joining CinePanalo, and his voice carries both gratitude and conviction. “Just being part of the top fifteen is already a blessing,” he says. “The grant is big. But more than that, it gives you a chance to showcase yourself as an artist. That’s something to be grateful for.” The sense of humility is matched by his sharp awareness of what stories like his can do, and why they matter now more than ever.

“I hope it’s an eye-opener,” he says quietly. “That people become more discerning about who they vote for and who they support. That it won’t be easy for us to be swayed by fake news.” His tone isn’t angry; it’s weary but hopeful, like someone still choosing to believe that cinema can reach where speeches and slogans cannot.

In “Wantawsan,”” Abello turns a small family moment into a mirror—one that reflects the moral fatigue of an entire country, but also its quiet endurance. It’s a reminder that sometimes the most powerful political stories begin in the simplest acts of love: a father trying to make his son happy, even when the world seems determined to make that impossible.

READ: