philippines

POP GOES THE WORLD By Jenny Ortuoste for Manila Standard-Today, 22 July 2010, Thursday

The Coconut of Insecurity

A pretty, talented, world-acclaimed, and wrinkle-free 18-year-old girl gets Botox injections.  A public official whines that his office is “too bare”, “kulang sa yabang”, and that he wants to move to more impressive digs. Do these two disparate cases have anything in common, and how do they reflect current social norms and values?

The first case refers to singer/actress Charice Pempengco, who shot to international fame after a homemade video of her singing went viral on the Internet. Her most recent success is having been cast in the next season of the hit American TV show “Glee”. To prepare, she underwent Botox and Thermage cosmetic procedures at the hands of celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Vicki Belo.

The second case refers to Vice-President Jejomar Binay’s latest pronouncements on the shabbiness of the office assigned him and that he’s considering the fancy Coconut Palace for his office and “official residence”, though the Constitution does not provide for the latter. Recall that one of “V-Nay’s” first acts after the elections was to oppose, in public, President Noynoy Aquino’s ban of wang-wang (siren) use by motorists – something V-Nay had been fond of to scoot quickly through traffic. Now, instead of doing some real work, he is spending his vice-presidential time and effort complaining that his office at the Philippine National Bank building in Pasay City is not large and imposing enough.

About Charice, entertainment columnist Butch Francisco wrote recently, “According to Dr. Vicki Belo, she had to fix the teenage singing sensation’s rather prominent jaw lines that became even more pronounced because she chews gum that gets all the muscles in the area all worked up. In a week or two, expect to see a lovelier Charice when her Belo procedures take effect.” Clearly this was a cosmetic procedure. However, contrary to this, other news reports claimed that the “singer’s representative” said the Botox procedure was “not for cosmetic purposes” but to ease “some jaw pain she’s been experiencing.” Ano ba talaga, kuya? This seems like PR damage control.

A backlash of dismay and disgust hit. New York Magazine’s website (NYMag.com) says Charice’s opting for Botox is contrary to Glee’s message of acceptance and body confidence, and talent and character over appearance. Showbiz blogger Perez Hilton calls it “sick”. Feminist writer and professor Bea Lapa says “This is the height of irresponsibility… Charice should not be getting Botox or Thermage at her age.”

This is not to say anything against cosmetic surgery or procedures, which in many cases are necessary and beneficial. Also, looking at the issue from another angle, why should we be concerned with what these individuals have chosen to do? Dr. Belo has the right to try to persuade celebrities of the necessity of these procedures for their success, and, if she can, have these celebrities endorse her services. Charice has every right to go for any procedure she wants. Why then is the mass media discussing something that, in effect, is none of our business?

For one, it’s a cultural thing. As a people, we perceive ourselves as one big family, as manifested in the way we use kinship terms to address strangers (ate, manong, kuya, and so on); the accomplishments of its members are celebrated by all. Under this mindset, the triumphs of achievers like Charice and boxer Manny Pacquiao are extended to represent the entire Filipino nation, even as they themselves offer their efforts “sa mga kababayan.”

In a large part, this is from where the discussion about Charice stems – the Filipino family expressing concerns for her health, the impression that the procedure is unnecessary, the indignation that Dr. Belo may be using Charice for publicity purposes. In sikolihiyang Pilipino, this is pakialam, the concern of the collective for the well-being of the kapwa.

Further, Charice’s Botoxification is an indicator of the kind of culture we now possess – a culture that sets racist, colonial-minded, and often unattainable standards of beauty for women – unattainable, that is, unless one has money to spend on the expensive whitening, smoothening, and slimming technologies touted by Belo and the other cosmetic surgery clinics that have sprouted all over the country.

Are these same standards applied to men? No. Do these standards place a higher priority on intelligence and good moral character? No. What does that tell you? That the standards our society has constructed on what gives a woman her worth and value are shallow, distorted, and counter-productive.

In V-Nay’s case, his attitude and behavior are of general interest because he is an elected public official whose role is of national scope. His attitude is under scrutiny because it affords signals and clues on how he will perform his functions and act towards others in his public capacity. So far, all he’s done is complain about petty matters.

But this insistence on grandiose trappings and privileges is not confined to V-Nay; it is representative of the mindset held by a huge number of politicians, in particular the traditional and dynastic kind. Decades of power, wealth, and privilege have instilled in these people a sense of entitlement, the arrogance conveyed by an attitude of “I don’t need to follow the rules because I’m above the rest of you.”

Wikipedia defines insecurity as “A feeling of general unease or nervousness that may be triggered by perceiving oneself to be unloved, inadequate or worthless…(it) may cause shyness, paranoia, and social withdrawal, or alternatively it may encourage compensatory behaviors such as arrogance, aggression, or bullying.” It is linked to puberty and may account for “stereotypical adolescent behavior”.

These two cases – Charice and V-Nay – may seem unrelated. The frightening realization is that they are two halves of the same coconut. They reveal that we are an insecure people, compensating for the national traumas of colonial oppression, economic instability, and political uncertainty.  Insecurity can be overcome, but it takes time, patience, and the acceptance that there is a problem that requires a solution.

It’s about time we grow up. ***

taste more:

Our celebration of Philippine Independence Day (June 12) this year is made more special with the recent proclamation of the president- and vice-president-elect. With hope, the whole nation looks forward to better times.

The Philippine flag.

MABUHAY ANG PILIPINAS!

LUPANG HINIRANG (UP Concert Chorus, Lucio San Pedro arrangement)

Bayang magiliw, Perlas ng Silanganan / Alab ng puso, sa dibdib mo’y buhay
Lupang hinirang, duyan ka ng magiting / Sa manlulupig, di ka pasisiil
Sa dagat at bundok, sa simoy at sa langit mong bughaw;
May dilag ang tula, at awit sa paglayang minamahal.
Ang kislap ng watawat mo’y tagumpay na nagniningning,
Ang bituin at araw niya kailan pa ma’y di magdidilim.
Lupa ng araw, ng luwalhati’t pagsinta / Buhay ay langit sa piling mo;
Aming ligaya na pag may mang-aapi / Ang mamatay ng dahil sa iyo.

English translation: “Lupang Hinirang (Chosen Land)”

Beloved country, Pearl of the Orient,
The burning [fervour] of the heart / In thy chest beats ever alive.

Chosen Land, thou art the cradle of the brave.
To the conquerors, thou shall never surrender.

In the seas and mountains, in the air and in the azure sky,
There is splendour in the poem /And [in the] song for freedom beloved.

The sparkle of thy flag is victory that shines.
Its stars and sun forever shall never dim.

Land of the sun, of glory and our love / Life is heaven in thy embrace;
It is our joy, when there are oppressors / To die because of thee.

BAYAN KO (Freddie Aguilar)

Ang bayan kong Pilipinas /Lupain ng ginto’t bulaklak
Pag-ibig ang sa kanyang palad / Nag-alay ng ganda’t dilag
At sa kanyang yumi at ganda / Dayuhan ay nahalina
Bayan ko, binihag ka / Nasadlak sa dusa.
Ibon man may layang lumipad / Kulungin mo at umiiyak
Bayan pa kayang sakdal dilag / Ang ‘di magnasang makaalpas
Pilipinas kong minumutya / Pugad ng luha at dalita
Aking adhika makita kang sakdal laya / Ibon man may layang lumipad
Kulungin mo at umiiyak / Bayan pa kayang sakdal dilag
Ang ‘di magnasang makaalpas / Pilipinas kong minumutya
Pugad ng luha at dalita / Aking adhika makita kang sakdal laya

English translation: “Bayan Ko (My Country)”

My country the Philippines / Land of gold and flowers
With love in her hands / She offers beauty and virtue.
And of her modesty and beauty / The foreigner was enamoured
O, my country, you were enslaved / Mired in hardship.

Even birds that are free to fly / Cage them and they cry
Much more a beautiful country / Shall long to be escape.
Philippines my beloved/ Cradle of my tears and poverty
My aspiration is /To see you truly free.

taste more:

POP GOES THE WORLD By Jenny Ortuoste for Manila Standard-Today, 10 June 2010, Thursday

We Are Family

If the Philippines had a theme song, it would be Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family”.

Taking yesterday’s proclamation of senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III as president –elect and of Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay as vice-president-elect at the Batasan Pambansa from a semiotic viewpoint, the theme of ‘family’ emerged as one of the dominant signs.

Present were children and babies held by nannies or parents, because it is part of Filipino traditional culture that significant celebrations be held with family.

Also in the hall were members from the several dozen ruling dynasties of the country. Some were incoming, others outgoing, elected or appointed public officials. Their faces and genders and credentials may change, but the names stay the same, election year after election year. We might as well be a monarchy with a hierarchy of nobility and aristocracy.

The Aquino family members received much on-camera exposure during the television coverage of the event. Noynoy’s sisters Ballsy, Viel, Pinky, and Kris were seated in a row, clad in black, showbiz celebrity Kris in a glamorous off-shoulder number, her older sisters dressed more conservatively. Apart from showing the difference in their personalities and fashion taste, the clothes were a sign of two things: that the customary one-year mourning period for their mother, the late president Corazon Aquino, is not over; and of just who their mother was, and her place in history.

President-elect Aquino, Enrile, and Nograles are joined by Aquino’s sisters and brothers-in-law. (Photo by Voltaire Domingo/NPPA).

By extension, their dark garb was also a reminder of the other family member they lost – their father, former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., whose assassination may be said to have set this wave of events in motion, bringing an entire country to this point, where his only son holds the highest office in the land, borne to power on the crest of public sentiment for his parents.

This image references Kris’s hosting of game show “Deal Or No Deal”, which ended 2009.

Seated near the Aquino sisters was Shalani Soledad, Noynoy’s significant other, speaking to singer Ogie Alcasid. The showbiz family of Kris Aquino was well-represented too. It is from their ranks that the incoming president considers recruiting heads of government agencies – Boy Abunda for Tourism, Dingdong Dantes for the National Youth Commission, and Grace Poe for the MTRCB are some of the names he mentioned. Of course he makes these choices based on their qualifications, because it can’t be out of gratitude, can it, for their help in his campaign?

Shalani Soledad being interviewed by a radio news reporter. (Photo by Voltaire Domingo/NPPA)

In behalf of yet another prominent family, Senate President pro tempore Jinggoy Estrada read a message from his father Joseph. The senator extended his father’s “humble” acceptance of his defeat to Noynoy in the elections, and wished him well. From there the speech degenerated into a rant, citing the “failures” of Comelec and Smartmatic, stating again, as if we didn’t know, that the elder Estrada once served as president, and warning the Filipino people to guard against the corruption in government which he was unable to stem during his own administration.

There too at the Batasan were the Binays of Makati City. With son Junjun taking over from his father as Makati mayor, and daughter Abby the new congresswoman of the second district, they carry on decades of Binay administration in one of the country’s richest cities. The same goes for the Belmontes of Quezon City – father Sonny moves up from mayor to Congress while his daughter Joy steps in as vice-mayor to Herbert Bautista, who for years has held that same position.

We could go on and on.

But what about the families of the millions of people who gave the reins of government to these people via their votes? Who thinks of them?

As a citizen of this republic and the head of a family of my own, I lay this solemn charge upon the incoming set of political leaders – remember the families.

Think of the overseas contract workers who endure separation for years from their loved ones to toil in foreign lands to ensure the survival of their children in a country that cannot provide jobs and better life opportunities for them and their parents, while the government brags of a high GNP pumped by the billions of dollars they remit, ignoring the social cost and its consequences.

Seek to improve the lot of the widowed and children of those murdered in the Ampatuan massacre; those who die fighting on both sides of the insurgents’ war; those who live in hovels mired in abject poverty in sight of your grand mansions; those who cannot continue their education because of financial constraints.

Rescue those who are victims of abuse by the military and private armies and by those who because of the inflated condition of their pockets and egos assert their power over those who have little or none, since they thrive unpunished in a culture of impunity.

Filipino culture values family above all, even above God and country. The way we address each other reflects this – kuya or manong security guard, ate or manang food vendor, nanay, tatay this or the other. And how often have we heard someone say, “Gagawin ko ang lahat para sa pamilya”? A Filipino will do, endure, and sacrifice all, for the sake of family.

To our new leaders, do not forget you are Filipinos, imbued with this land’s culture and norms. Accept that you are members of a larger family – the nation. Perform your mandated tasks, bearing in mind that you have our trust, because we have nowhere else to put it.

Remember the Filipino families – not only your own.   ***

“My Brother’s Keeper” by Ronnie T. Tres Reyes. Top Five finalist, 2008 Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office “Isang Pitik sa Charity” photo contest. Reyes describes his photo: “Taken one chilly night outside a McDonald’s along Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City. For over a year, this five year old boy has been taking care of his baby brother every night on the steps of the restaurant. Sometimes he lies on the concrete and allows himself to be the baby’s bed and source of warmth.”

taste more:

Once upon a time, in a big city on one of the big islands of a tropical archipelago close to the equatorial belt where the best coffee in the world grows, there lived a pair of feet.

They were happy feet.

The happy feet loved to walk. Oh, how they could walk! The right happy foot and the left happy foot would take turns being in front, one after the other, walking around the city, getting from one place to another, doing what they were made to do.

But the happy feet were attached to the ankles of a lazy writer who stayed indoors for weeks on end, her bottom growing roots into her armchair as she typed boring articles and surfed the Intarwebz for hours and hours.

The happy feet didn’t get to go out much. That made them sad.

One day the lazy writer’s doctor-classmate-from-school said: You must exercise. I recommend walking. Everyday.

But how, the lazy writer asked.

Baby steps, he said. Take baby steps.

One day, the lazy writer put on a pair of wooden sandals. They were also called “Happy Feet“. The lazy writer’s happy feet loved them because they were light, which meant they could move faster.

They were cool, so the happy feet would not feel hot even on a blazing summer day.

They were open, and the happy feet loved that best of all! Because that meant the happy feet’s toes could wiggle and jiggle and wriggle like toes love to do.

The lazy writer took a cab to work because she was late for a meeting, as she usually was. On her way back home, she remembered her doctor-classmate-from-school’s advice. Baby steps, she told herself. I will walk home.

The happy feet were so excited!

The right happy foot and the left happy foot took turns taking baby steps, one in front of the other, walking towards home, as their toes wiggled and jiggled and wriggled with joy.

They walked dusty gray pavements, but they didn’t mind; there were many things to see along the way.

The happy feet met a plant that grew close to the ground. Its stalk and leaves were very green and they reached out to passing feet. Clip-clop, clip-clop, went the happy feet in the wooden sandals past the plant-in-the-pavement.

Along the way there was a sign for the lazy writer’s favorite energy drink on the facade of a sari-sari store in an old house. Beside the store was an old church. It had red-painted walls. Clip-clop, clip-clop went the happy feet past the store-in-a-house.

When the happy feet first set out, the sun was hidden behind gray clouds. After a while, the sun came out. It shone on the lazy writer’s head. A tall tree’s leaves glowed bright green against the sun, making the lazy writer squint and blink. Clip-clop, went the happy feet past the tree-in-sunlight.

They passed the site of an old racetrack. Once there were loud fans cheering race horses on. Now there were no more fans, no more horses, and no more track. Big noisy construction machines had leveled the place into the ground. Clip-clop, went the happy feet past the once-a-racetrack.

The happy feet met another plant. It was growing in a large metal can that once held infant formula, but now had holes punched with nails all over its bottom while inside it was soil from the old racetrack. The plant was healthy. Its leaves were pretty. Clip-clop, went the happy feet past the plant-in-a-can.

They rounded a corner and saw a big concrete horse’s head. It once sat on the gate in front of the old racetrack. Folks had taken the head down, cleaned it, and put it on a pedestal covered with tiles. This was so that people would always remember the old racetrack. The happy feet knew they were near home. Clip-clop, they went, taking baby steps a little bit faster, past the horse’s-head-marker.

Before them was a long stretch of road. Green tricycles lined up under big old mango trees wrapped in a rainbow, waiting to take passengers where they wanted to go. The drivers asked the lazy writer if she wanted to take a ride. No, thank you, she said. I’ll keep on walking. Clip-clop, went the happy feet past the tricycles-in-rainbow.

At last they came to their street. Close to the corner were two fighting-cock farms. Inside the red gate and the blue gate were many scratch pens of wood, like triangles set into the ground. There were also tall fly pens of wood and plastic mesh. There were many fighting cocks, crowing tik-ti-laok. The happy feet knew they were very near home. Clip-clop they went past the cockpits-in-city.

At last the happy feet were home! The lazy writer was happy too. She had taken baby steps to exercise and it wasn’t bad. It felt very good. And she saw a lot of interesting things along the way. She decided to take a walk more often. The happy feet were glad they got to do what they were made to do. And the toes wiggled and jiggled and wriggled for joy.

~ The End ~

taste more:

Welcome to a new interactive reading experience. This column comes with its own background music! Click ‘play’ to begin.

POP GOES THE WORLD  By Jenny Ortuoste for Manila Standard-Today,  13 May 2010, Thursday

election theme song

“I saw the sign, and it opened up my eyes, I saw the sign…” ‘The Sign’, Ace of Base (1994)

The recent elections showed with startling clarity how Filipinos choose their leaders. In the United States, which has a two-party system, people side with one or the other based on the principles each embodies. The Republican Party is seen as traditional, conservative, religious; the Democratic Party, liberal, progressive, secular. Their action plans and policies are in line with these characteristics.

In the Philippines, political parties are merely groups of politicos with the same agendas, not necessarily platforms, loosely cohering because of mutual need and perceived or contrived advantage. That is why jumping ship is done as expediency dictates. Since parties do not stand for a particular set of principles, neither then are voters used to electing leaders based on these criteria, but rather on personalities.

Our elections are, like American Idol, a popularity contest.

Logically, we should select leaders based on what they stand for, what they’ll fight against. Are they pro or anti the Reproductive Health Bill? Divorce? Secularization of the state? How shall they resolve corruption in government? The entrenchment of familial political dynasties? Obtaining justice for the victims of the Ampatuan massacre?

According to one of my professors at the University of the Philippines, an expert on political communication, it’s the masa (masses) vote that is crucial, via their sheer numbers. “There’s no such thing as a ‘middle-class’ vote,” she said. It is the masses that campaign managers woo with their eye-candy ads, celeb endorsements, and earworm jingles. Given that, did we vote based on how candidates will deal with issues?

Our elections were, like cars on weekdays, color-coded.

“I saw the sign…Life is demanding, without understanding…”

In semiotics, signs and symbols are codes that, when interpreted, may connote or convey a certain meaning in a particular context and culture. The French semiotician Roland Barthes further postulated various levels of meaning. For example, on a primary level, a label with a picture of a bottle of wine means ‘wine’. On a secondary level, ‘wine’ may connote ideas such as ‘health’, ‘luxury’, ‘fine dining’.

A young Roland Barthes. In his later years, he probably would have analyzed the signs in this photo – what do the robe and mustache signify?  Why was the shelf of books used as the backdrop?

During these past elections, more so than at any other time except during the 1986 snap elections, we have seen how the candidates were defined by their media machines and tagged with sometimes essentially meaningless ‘motherhood statement’ taglines to effect maximum audience recall.

These ideas as portrayed in ads were then further abstracted by voters into concepts until the realities of the candidates’ personalities dissolved. These were replaced by symbols stemming from people’s understanding of the how the candidates were portrayed in their own ads, and what roles these candidates may play in government and in their individual lives.

“I saw the sign…No one’s gonna drag you up to get into the light where you belong…”

In 1986, Corazon Aquino symbolized reform, change, and the overthrow of the dark and oppressive Marcos regime. Though her qualifications were assailed – “Just a housewife” – in the end it was the virtues that people perceived she stood for – “heroism, courage, martyrdom for Inang Bayan” – that carried her to victory in the polls and impelled the People Power movement.

In similar fashion, Noynoy Aquino as a person was reduced to a concept: “The only son of hero parents who will continue their struggle”. We don’t know that he will actually do this, but for many of us this is what he represents. Manny Villar was “The man once poor who will lift us out of poverty and give us houses while swimming through seas of garbage.”

Noynoy Aquino and his mother, the late president Corazon Aquino.

These ideas were further abstracted to symbols and colors. As mnemonics for easy recall, it was a good idea. But the tactic further distanced the person from the sign that connoted him. Aquino was yellow and the “L” sign; Villar, the orange check; Gilbert Teodoro, green. People asked each other, “Who are you voting for? Yellow or orange?” The idea of voting for the principles and platforms of people was mislaid along the way. Tossed, perhaps, into those seas of garbage.

Manny Villar, orange shirt, ‘check’ gesture, tagline…check.

Artifacts also became signs. One strongly identified with the Aquino-Roxas camp was the Collezione Philippine map shirt. I wore such a dress weeks ago – black with a yellow map – but not for political reasons. I simply thought it comfortable. A friend said, “So you’re for Noynoy!” I may or may not have been. But it struck me that my friend assumed whom I was backing in the polls by extracting meaning from the sign he took my dress to be.

Aquino wearing Collezione shirt with yellow Philippine map embroidered logo, fingers flashing ‘L’ (Laban – fight). If the shirt were longer and reached to his knees, you’d have my dress.

With the election results in, one Aquino supporter exclaimed, “Our country is now yellow!” A clueless listener might think this means our land is awash in urine. (True, if you consider those pink MMDA roadside urinals.) But to those aware of the context of the remark, it merely indicates that our new president belongs to the political team symbolized by that color.

Pink MMDA urinal. It has nothing to do really with the column. I just thought you might want to see what one looks like.

In this particular social exercise, signs and symbols played a highly significant part in fixing in voters’ minds characteristics ascribed to the candidates, whether or not these characteristics were actually possessed by that individual. Full spin is deployed in ad campaigns, that’s granted – they say what they want you to know. Yet there were deep levels of abstraction here that further obscured reality.

In the future, seek to discern the symbology and peel off the conceptual layers, from apparent to hidden, until you get to the true meaning at the core. Then you will know if you voted for a color, or for leaders with platforms and principles.

“It opened up my mind, I saw the sign!”   ***

(Photos from all over the Net, collected over time. My apologies for not being able to give individual photo credits.)

taste more:

Statement of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication Media Watch on the Hundredth Day of the Maguindanao Massacre (2 March 2010)

AGAINST FORGETFULNESS

A hundred days have passed since the massacre of 57 men and women, 32 of them journalists and media workers, in Maguindanao. While the principal suspect has been indicted, his petition for bail has been the subject of near-hearings and postponements, in a portent of things to come that’s not encouraging for the demand for justice for the victims.

The demand for justice is in danger of foundering on the shoals of the technicalities that– together with police collusion at the local levels in the killing of journalists, overworked prosecutors who fear for their safety, and the involvement of local officials and warlords— constitute the weaknesses of the Philippine justice system. There is also the information, relayed by one of the private lawyers helping prosecute the case, of witnesses being bought if not threatened, and of relatives being offered amounts that few mortals in the Philippine community setting can refuse in exchange for withdrawing their complaints.

Add public indifference and resignation, and the mass media’s own short attention span and susceptibility to the lure of reporting those events that help boost ratings and circulations to these problems and issues, and we have the potential for the massacre’s not only going unredressed, but what’s probably even worse, forgotten.

Forgetfulness is among the worst vices of a people whom the media have failed to provide information crucial to their lives. And yet, forgetfulness is the sure guarantee for the repetition of such atrocities as the Ampatuan massacre, the human rights violations–such as the Morong 43 atrocity that victimized, among others, former CMC Student Council Chair Jacqueline Gonzales–that continue to haunt this country, and the constant peril of authoritarian rule.

The schools and the media are among the institutions crucial to the fostering of the imperative of keeping in the public mind the need for justice in the Ampatuan massacre and for the making of a culture of remembrance. As we enter the fourth month since that atrocity, the UP College of Mass Communication renews its pledge never to forget and to continue to remind the public as well as its constituencies—its students, faculty and staff—that at this point in Philippine history, only the pro-active engagement of a militant people and a truly free and responsible press can prevent the many crimes that haunt this country from going unpunished and repeated.

Dean Roland Tolentino

FORMER CMC DEANS: Dean Luis Teodoro, Dean Nicanor Tiongson, Dean Georgina Encanto

FACULTY: Prof. Rachel Khan, Ms. Lucia Tangi, Prof. Marichu Lambino, Prof. Rosa Maria Feliciano, Prof. Lisa Carmelita Justiniani, Prof. Jane Vinculado, Prof. Melba Estonilo, Ms. Roxanne Cipriano, Prof. Alfonso Deza, Dr. Lourdes Portus, Dr. Jose Lacson Jr., Prof. Eduardo Lejano Jr., Prof. Roehl Jamon, Prof. Patrick Campos, Prof. Yason Banal, Prof. Danilo Arao, Prof. Elizabeth Enriquez, Prof. Libay Cantor, Prof. Lourdes Simbulan

LECTURERS: Ms. Daphne Canlas-Tolentino, Ms. Irma Mutuc, Ms. Almond Pilar Aguilar, Mr. Jose Reuben Alagaran, Ms. Malou De Guzman, Mr. Jose Gutierrez III

STAFF: Gina Villegas, Berinice Zamora, Arnel Aga, Raquelita Bacarra, Clarissa Concepcion, Marianita Cinco, Placida Sodoy, Irene Balucos, Luis Olid Jr., Virginia Rigo, Norma Dampil, Fortunata Mendiola, Romeo Perdigon, Ruben Serrano, Jonathan Beldia, Florencio Palma, Guillermo Lectura, Reynaldo Villaruz, Armando Hirao, Luzviminda Ileto, Janette Pamaylaon

taste more:

This cherub in the park invited me to sit down beside him and watch the day go by.

taste more:

Just off Plaza Calderon in Sta. Ana, Manila, is a little street lined with shops that sell many different things.

We took a walk there one day to see what we would find.

There were pirated DVDs at three for a hundred pesos (US$2).

Clothes, perhaps from China, Vietnam, or Thailand, most of them only available in small sizes.

A rainbow of handbags.

Plastic beads attract with color…

…as do children’s toys.

Ripe golden mangoes, summer’s sweetest fruit.

Vegetables beckon with color.

Eggs come in many sizes and prices.

Name these fruits in ten seconds – go!

Cookies and bread in a bakery window.

The pig bread has raisin eyes. No pigs were harmed in the making of this bread.

Rice cakes of different kinds.

Hot roasted peanuts – garlic, spicy, and “skinless” – are scooped into a small glass a little bigger than a shot glass, then poured into a little brown paper bag.

Parrots for sale at a pet shop.

Tricycles lined up to take shoppers home.

Apart from things, we also found life – teeming, noisy, vibrant, full of itself, basking in the summer sun.

Photos taken with a Nokia XpressMusic cellphone camera.

taste more:

On the Coastal road to Naic, Cavite, last Saturday, I saw these funky passenger transport vehicles in Imus, Cavite. They were smaller than a bus but larger than a jeepney, and as flamboyantly decorated with folk art. Let us call them “beeps”.

Beeps have the characteristic artwork common to jeeps – the “title” on the signage above the windshield; the names of the owner and his family painted all over the vehicle; and colorful motifs.

The design on the back of this beep reminds me of Hawaiian quilt appliques.

This artwork shows Mickey Mouse as a cruise director – implying, perhaps, that this beep is your own cruise ship to your destination.

The backs of beeps, like taxicabs, often bear the names of the owner’s wife and children and some motif that has special meaning for them. The splashguard at the bottom will often have either the name of a patron saint or some quotation.

This beep’s rear splashguard bears a quote about love. Filipinos are, in general, a romantic folk. Why the matching prawns? No idea. I saw several beeps with the prawns.

The airbrushed art on this beep is eye-catching. Note the color-coordinated passersby. Photography is a serendipitous activity.

Motifs from popular culture are often used. This is an anime-decorated beep. The side panel shows characters from “Kingdom Hearts”.

The bishop’s miter and crook are also common motifs for Cavite beep artwork. The back art of this one – a  guardian angel watching over two children crossing a log footbridge – is beautifully and painstakingly rendered.

Since beeps have more surface area than jeeps, there is more scope for folk artists to let their creativity run free in creating large designs. This kind of art work, executed on a moving canvas, reaches a wider audience than if it were just hung on the wall.

taste more: