Last week, my mom was snatched of her wallet inside a wholesale supermarket. A day’s worth of sales in our grocery was in it, including all her credit cards. I feel terrible about it. She would often ask me to accompany her, but since my academic and extra-curricular commitments often disallow me to, I am not able to. Perhaps if I was with her that day, this thing wouldn’t have happened. I feel guilty for always being busy and tired from school stuff.

Speaking of school stuff and disbelief in people, last week I went to Barangay Talon Tres in Las Piñas, with Ryan O., to conduct a data gathering survey as a requirement for Communication Research 101 class. It’s actually odd that I was sent to Las Piñas. Weeks before, we were asked to write down our addresses so that they could assign us to locations that were near our homes. For a Quezon City boy, Las Piñas isn’t actually near, is it?!

Anyway, I rushed off to Las Piñas the afternoon of Saturday (straight from Alagwa’s second shoot). We got to Talon Tres and boy, the street we got in had its fair share of unfriendly people. Hello, it’s not as if I’m collecting signatures for Sigaw ng Bayan’s fraudulent People’s Initiative! I hate Gloria Arroyo as much as all of you! There was no need to be rude in refusing to be surveyed. It didn’t help that it kept raining that afternoon.

Ryan and I weren’t able to finish our surveying before night fell on Saturday so we decided to go allt he way back the next day, this time on another neighborhood within the same baranggay which seemed and proved to be a little friendlier. The acceptance rate was still a low one-per-three households asked. We finished gathering ten respondents each a little after lunch time.

There were no classes last Monday due to the anniversary of Ninoy Aquino’s assassination. I was planning on spending the day at home, resting and doing home work after a tiring shoot during the weekend. Instead, I was sent to Sta. Maria to bring some goods to our grocery store. I tried to get it done quickly so I could go home at once, but I got stuck in traffic for an hour from Bocaue exit to the Sta. Maria border.

On Tuesday, I went to Ely’s TV production class to be his talent for their live music video production. Sawang-sawa na siguro sila sa pagmumukha ko. I also saw Kubrador with some UP MCO orgmates after our weekly general assembly that afternoon.

Wednesday was pretty uneventful. We watched Masahista for scriptwriting class in the morning. I stayed in school for a while after class to do a few things and then I went home. I rarely get to go home before the sun is gone, so this is notable.

On Thursday, we held our college assembly for the semester. It’s a little disheartening that there is an apparent disinterest in these kind of affairs among fellow students. I’m not sure if it’s simply the lack of interest in attending a ‘boring’ assembly or the lack of interest in college matters as a whole. I really don’t know.

I went home after Hong Kong Cinema class but went back to UP after dinner to help out in Marella’s scene study. Most of the scenes were shot inside a hired jeepney continuously traversing Katipunan Avenue. That was fun. My blooper was hilarious. The group was shooting until past 10 in the evening.

This entry makes my week appear so simple and unstressful. I wish it were like that in reality. Oh well, bring it on, stress!

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales has always been an ass with his comments. From the “she’s just a woman” remark against Susan Roces to his communist fingerpointing. Now he made a passing comment where he said that the University of the Philippines breeds destabilizers and naked runners. I don’t want to validate this by reacting in length. His tirades are probably true in some length, and I’m proud of that. I just want to remind everyone that our debt of gratitude as UP students does not lie with fucked up policy makers like him in the administration. It lies with the Filipino people and the nation. And if destabilizing is what he calls being critical, vocal and active in pursuit of social reforms and justice, then destabilizers we are.

Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity is going to hold an impromptu Oblation Run this morning at Palma Hall. Plus, the truth caravan of the opposition with the boxes containing the evidence to be used had the impeachment against President Arroyo pushed through, will be at Quezon Hall this afternoon.

As introduction to alternative scriptwriting, our scripwriting professor asked us to watch a few films, one of which was Kubrador, which I watched last Tuesday at a commercial theater. True enough, Kubrador, as opposed to movies with traditional three-act storylines, did not have an apparent and cohesive plot. It simply was a narration of the daily life of Amy (played by Gina Pareño), as a jueteng bet collector. The film was narrated as if everything is ordinary in the everyday life of the film’s characters.

Despite being untraditional in its storytelling, I really like and appreciate the movie. It reveals a lot about the situation of Amy and it provides a glimpse into how hard life is for a lot of people in the Philippines.

Back in my first semester as a freshman, I made a short position paper about jueteng. According to a special report in a national daily back in 2000, a total of 64 million pesos is gambled in jueteng every day. That’s as much as 23 billion pesos a year, twice the government’s annual health budget. But in reality, in the case someone wins a bet, he only gets 6 to 15 percent of the total jueteng revenue. A fourth or more goes to the jueteng payola, which includes the police and government officials. Much of the rest goes to the jueteng operators / jueteng lords. And the spoils are left for the kabos and kubradors. And that’s the irony. Despite the huge revenues this game reaps nationwide, those who toil to bet and collect these bet, remain impoverished. And they will remain betting on jueteng as long as they don’t see a brighter future and better alternatives to escape such situations.

The film, directed by Jeffrey Jeturian, won the International Critic’s Award at the Moscow International Film Festival 2006 and the Osian Cinefan Festival of Asian Cinema 2006, where it also won as Best Film and the Best Actress (Gina Parreño) awards .

I spent almost the entire day last Saturday at Prech and Pie’s short film shoot at Joma’s place in Cubao.

The shoot started right after lunch time and wrapped up by almost 5 AM the next day. The non-insomniac and sleepyhead that I am, I wasn’t able to make myself stay up the entire duration, even though our directors asked us not to sleep during their shoot. Yes, I’m sorry Prech, I dozed off for a few minutes that night. The shoot was hours behind schedule, which is normal, I suppose. I’ve never experienced a shoot that went perfectly on time.

The entire film is shot on 16mm film. So this was a pretty disciplined shoot with lots of rehearsals. It’s a film abount dancer sisters. I’ve listened to part of the score and I liked it. I’m looking forward to how this will come out.

To pass time, and to the annoyance of some crew members and the directors, Sasha, Kid, Patti and I conversed by singing everything we had to say. It got pretty hilarious. That night, I also kept making myself root beer float with Sarsi and vanilla ice cream, sometimes ice cream and coffee, in hopes of giving myself sugar rush. That was really good. But it didn’t give me the rush to stay up all night and morning.

Most of us in the Philippines have probably heard of the Guimaras oil spill from the news. For a small island whose people’s livelihood relies much on the sea, this catastrophe is really devastating. And it will get worse. Much of the 2 MILLION liters of oil still lie within the sunken ship.

I was searching and bloghopping for news and other information on how to help, and I came across Project Sunshine Sunrise. The website appears to have been set up by the provincial government of Guimaras to disseminate information regarding the disaster and how people can help. Unfortunately (for a student like me), much of the help they need apparently consist of financial donations and logistical help.

So, what to do? Talk about it and blog about it. The more people know, the less it will be sidelined. I also read somewhere that a hair salon chain would be donating hair to the clean-up effort. Yes, I’ve heard of this before, human hair being effective material for oil slick absorption. Well, I think it’s time for me to get a haircut. This, aside from boycotting Petron to give them a lesson for murdering the livelihood of our Guimaras folk.

Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr. Today we are celebrating the anniversary of his assassination. I hadn’t been born when he was gunned down at the Manila International Airport, nor had I been born on or before the peaceful revolution three years after. I’m afraid whatever material or stories I have and will continue to absorb now will have already been heavily romanticized.

Though some say he was part of a political dynasty from the ruling landlord class, advocating just a moderate revolution through peaceful means to overthrow a dictator, what he espoused was a revolution nonetheless–in a time of injustice and repression. Let us remember that, too.

In pursuit of new enthusiasm for film, one member of another film organization decided to build another organization, with goals both for training and for interest in the medium. Originally called “Sprocket Shop”, with adviser Prof. Ellen Paglinauan, it was established on August 24, 1990, with 25 founding members, all undergrads from BA Film and Audiovisual Communication. The name was then changed a few semesters later, under the name UP Cinema Arts Society (UP CAST).

Based in the College of Mass Communication, UP CAST is composed of students who share a common enthusiasm for film and seeks to promote training in the field of film and video production. The organization aims to establish technical and financial resources for student filmmakers, helps encourage the development of a critical film audience, while fostering camaraderie among students who are dedicated to promote the growing consciousness of a truly Philippine Cinema.