Jodi Sta. Maria is used to carrying a story. In her latest project, however, the actress does something deliberately different: she stays in the background.
Sta. Maria narrates “Hindi Suntok Sa Buwan Ang Kapayapaan,” an ABS-CBN News documentary that follows three Bangsamoro women as they build civilian lives after years connected to armed struggle. The women had ties to the Bangsamoro Islamic Women Auxiliary Brigade (BIWAB) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) before the 2014 peace agreement between the government and the MILF.
The documentary is less about a celebrity entering unfamiliar territory than about whose experiences are allowed to occupy the center of the frame.
For Sta. Maria, the project marks her first time narrating a documentary.
“I feel honored to be able to do this. I was reading the material at ang dami ko rin natutunan,” she said.
What interested her most was not simply the conflict the women had lived through, but the uncertainty that followed it.
“Na-excite ako about what’s happening next for these women. Peace is something na matagal nilang inasam…they were praying, yearning, and wishing for more. Hindi lang ‘yong mga kababaihan but the whole community is in transition,” Sta. Maria said.
That distinction is central to the documentary.
Peace agreements are often reported through negotiations, political milestones and armed groups. Hindi Suntok Sa Buwan Ang Kapayapaan shifts the focus to the quieter consequences: what happens to people whose identities, routines and communities were shaped by conflict once they are expected to move forward.
The project also creates an unexpected link to Sta. Maria’s earlier career.
In 2001, she appeared in Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s “Bagong Buwan,” which examined armed conflict in Mindanao and its impact on civilians. Twenty-five years later, Sta. Maria returns to a related subject, no longer playing a fictional character but accompanying real women through their accounts.
ABS-CBN News head Francis Toral said the production was looking for a narrator who could support the material without overpowering it.
“We were looking for a particular voice that could carry the weight of powerful stories about women searching for purpose in the aftermath of conflict. Jodi’s narration brings life and empathy to these stories that are not often seen and heard,” Toral said.
The documentary was written by ABS-CBN News senior producer Dianne RJ Obdin and Palanca award-winning journalist Jeff Canoy. It is available through the ABS-CBN News YouTube channel, ANC and iWant.