Bata Bata Paano Ka Ginawa? (Digitally Restored)

A fiercely independent and unflinchingly candid woman connected with a women’s crisis and survival center has to raise her two kids with different fathers. Her first husband has left her when their career options failed to converge. She is now stuck in an extramarital arrangement with another man who cannot bring himself to respect and commit to their quite unorthodox relationship.

For any woman to have two children from two different men is an ordeal, but women’s rights advocate Lea (Vilma Santos) is not just any woman: she possesses a liberal outlook and an unparalleled affection that enables her to properly raise her kids Ojie (Carlo Aquino) and Maya (Serena Dalrymple). Although her children’s fathers find madness in her methods, they pretty much let Lea have her way of doing things as far as their children are concerned. But Lea, Ojie, and Maya find themselves at crossroads when the fathers propose taking their respective kids with them. Although it pains Lea to be parted from her children–and she knows that the law can speak on her behalf–she is aware that her kids need their fathers, so she makes an unorthodox decision: makes her kids decide on whom to go.

Director: Chito S. Roño
Writer: Lualhati Bautista (screenplay)
Stars: Vilma Santos, Ariel Rivera, Albert Martinez, Raymond Bagatsing, Carlo Aquino, Serena Dalrymple, Cherry Pie Picache, Angel Aquino, Rosemarie Gil, Dexter Doria, Cita Astals, Andrea Del Rosario, Lucy Quinto, Menggie Cobarrubias, Carmen Serafin, Josie Tagle, Ronalisa Cheng, Jeralyn Narciso