Killing season

This was the headline of the Philippine Star, one of the country's biggest daily newspapers, last Thursday. This year is an election year for us—local and national, though not including the president—and the first probable political assassination has just occurred. It won't be the last. Robberies have been on the rise too—"fundraising" for election campaigns. Very few of the killers or robbers will be caught, and even fewer will actually be punished. Welcome to Philippine politics.

Packaging

Back in January, I showed you Coca-Cola's fake headline news in the newspaper The Philippine Star. Last Friday, another company came out with a different kind of advertising gimmick. The newspaper was delivered to our house in an Acer envelope with a die-cut window for the masthead and headline. It constantly amazes me how much creativity—and money—companies spend just to try to make us buy their products.



On a side note, Acer's new local brand ambassador is Derek Ramsay, a half-Brit half-Filipino actor and model. Just between you and me, I think he's the hottest of all the hot local celebrities. This photo does not do him enough justice, or maybe I'm just not used to seeing him in a suit.

Another first

The Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC) is an international Christian radio network that broadcasts programs in 130 languages. Founded in 1945 by Americans John Broger and Robert Bowman, it set up its largest Asian base in the Philippines and it went on air in the country in 1948. The offices, homes and dormitories of the missionaries of FEBC Philippines are in Valenzuela, one of Metro Manila's northern-most cities, bordering on the province of Bulacan where their transmitters are located. (This is just a back-up transmitter.)




I have to say that blogging about Metro Manila has given me so many new experiences this past year, not the least of which was getting invited by FEBC (702 DZAS in Manila) as a guest in one of their radio programs last week. Meet Lem and Lj, the hosts of the Monday to Friday "Pinoy Espesyal" (Filipino Special) program. Lem and Lj are so natural that the interview felt just like having a discussion with friends. I think I still sounded nervous though, because that booth is cold and I couldn't stop shivering!




When they were winding up the show, I was able to take a photo of CJ, their radio technician, in his booth. It's a good thing I keep my camera's shutter sound off—I didn't notice the 'on air' light until I downloaded the photos.




I'd like to thank Lj for this singular experience, and I hope I didn't do too badly. It was great meeting so many nice people in FEBC and it was wonderful walking around their large and green compound. It didn't feel like it's in the middle of busy and crowded Valenzuela City and I'll post photos of it soon.

Kapamilya

ABS-CBN is one of the largest radio and television broadcast and entertainment networks in the Philippines. It owns The Filipino Channel, an international broadcasting service whose two million subscribers are mostly overseas Filipino workers and their families. Its head office is located in Quezon City and the ELJ Center, one of the buildings in its huge compound, houses the executive offices and a few cafés on the ground floor. It also has a very good restaurant on the 14th floor named 9501 and I took this picture from the roof deck just off the restaurant. And if you're wondering about my title, "Kapamilya" is the network's slogan and it means "a member of the family."

Headline news

Yesterday, Coca-Cola took out a special 6-page ad in one of our national dailies. Printed in full color on thick, bright white paper stock and laid out to look like the newspaper's main page—it even had the paper's masthead! It was folded as if it truly was the headline page since it was on top of the real newspaper. And it was the second day in a row that Coke had a similar special ad. They did the same on December 31 though that only had 4 pages. It's crazy. Do newspapers in your country lend their mastheads for ads like this? At the very least, I hope Coke's headline comes true.

A butterfly's sister

Meet Pia Guballa, an 18-year-old freshman Psychology major who has a passion for photography. When she was seven years old, her brother Migi, who was only four at the time, died of a congenital heart disease called Tetralogy of Fallot. As a way of providing her an outlet for her grief, her mother Cathy gave her a journal to write or draw anything every time she remembered her little brother. So she did. And this year, Cathy and Pia re-wrote one of those stories and turned it into a children's book illustrated by Frances Alcaraz. It is the story of Migi's hospitalization and death from the point of view and experiences of Pia as a little girl, and is the first of a series of special topics for children planned by Anvil Publishing. It's about time.

Alive and well

February 18, 2009 marks a very important event in the history of Philippine performing arts. On that day, the winners of the first Philstage Awards for the Performing Arts were announced. Named Gawad Buhay! (awkward, literal translation: Alive! Award), it is the first award which is strictly for the ephemeral performing arts. For now, only theater—plays and musicals—and ballet are included, and Philstage itself has less than a dozen member companies. But hopefully, more groups will join and experts in the other performing arts can be found willing to serve as jurors so that Philstage's Gawad Buhay! can truly fulfill its objective: "to further professionalize the performing arts industry in the Philippines by engaging our audiences—critics, artists and the viewing public—in a creative dialogue." I am honored to have been there that night, and happier still that I was able to take a photo of the winners (even though they were posing for the official photographer and not me).


For those who want to know who the awardees are, read my husband Exie's article,"The start of something big." He writes an occasional column for The Philippine Star, one of the top three national newspapers in the Philippines, and that article appeared in its February 23 edition. And so did my photos. Ain't it cool? :)

The blue and the green

In less than half an hour, the hottest collegiate basketball rivalry in Metro Manila—maybe even the Philippines—will begin. Ateneo de Manila's Blue Eagles and De La Salle's Green Archers are vying for the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men's basketball championship. And almost everyone has gone crazy. The Philippine Star, a national daily, has it on the front page, along with a small feature about which team U.S. Ambassador Kristie Kenney cheers for. The Philippine Daily Inquirer, another national daily, featured the rivalry in their free tabloid Libre. Trinoma mall, which is nowhere near the stadium, has just gone blue and green and so has McDonalds' advertising. In past years, Krispy Kreme created special blue and green doughnuts and even Pepsi came out with blue and green soda pop. All over Metro Manila, those who weren't able to buy tickets are gathering around TVs—in their homes, in cafés and bars, even in gyms set up with projection screens. Alumni of both schools who are based in other cities in the Philippines are now having reunions of a sort, just to watch the game together and cheer on their school team. Die-hard alumni basketball fans living in other countries are not neglected either. The Filipino Channel is offering the game in a live broadcast, internet video stream. It's crazy, I tell you. Oh, and the blue "FIGHT" poster—that's mine. Go Blue Eagles!!!

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UPDATE 6:55 PM
Ateneo won 69–61! Go Ateneo! One big fight! Next game's on Thursday.

Tower and moon

The broadcast tower of TV station ABS-CBN in the heart of Quezon City. Taken late in the afternoon of April. The moon was out early and you can see it as a tiny, pale spot on the right.

I can see you!

Of course the Philippines has its own version—what country doesn't?

The Pinoy Big Brother house as seen from the 13th floor roof deck of ABS-CBN, its local producer. The narrow yellow house is its facade and what Filipinos worldwide identify as the house. In fact, though, the "house" is a sprawling sound stage right behind it.

Head of the family

Eugenio "Gabby" L. Lopez III is the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ABS-CBN, one of the largest media companies in the Philippines. ABS-CBN is into television (both free and cable), movies, music and print publishing. It's tag line is "Kapamilya," Tagalog for "part of the family." Taken during the Ateneo–ABS-CBN Fellowship Night on April 17, 2008.

Pinoy Penman and SMB Light

Jose "Butch" Dalisay Jr. is a Filipino writer, teacher, Mac addict, gadget geek and collector of fountain pens. He was short-listed for the 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize for "Soledad's Sister." San Mig Light is currently the beer of choice in Manila because it's as good as it's big brother, San Miguel Beer pale pilsen, but with fewer calories—perfect for the young ones who are weight and shape conscious, and for older ones who need to watch calories for health's sake. This was taken during a writers' night at Mag:net Cafè Katipunan—art gallery, cafè and bar, which holds exhibits, indie film showings, poetry readings, improv theater, book launchings, and jazz and rock gigs. (PHOTO BY DOGBERRY)

SEE IT SUNDAY: ALCOHOL