Two Filipinas, both victims of sexual abuse in varying degrees, yearn and search for the truth behind the statement of a renowned anthropologist: that merely a few generations ago, the Bontok Igorot lived in what seemed to be an unthinkable utopia — a rapeless society.

The search centers on the municipality of Bontoc, the locus of Bontok culture. Through judiciary archives, local government records, and the oral narratives of Bontok elders, the mission does find its holy grail, albeit almost dead: suffocating under the inevitable weight of alien culture and mass media. If at all, the rape-less society still exists, but only within small, close-knit Bontok communes. Still exists, but trapped in the rapidly-fading past: the last evidence proving its very existence is the collective memory of Bontok elders who do not even know each other, all saying “Idi, awan! Tatta, addan …” (“In our days, there was none! But today, there is rape…”)

In a country where the universality of women’s oppression is widely condoned, how did a rapeless society ever become possible?