May 13th - 16th - We had a four-day Lakbay Sining at Barangay Hukay, Calatagan, Batangas. Barangay Hukay is one of the barangays who might be demolished and converted into a resort.
May 13, Day 1
We went to Taft Avenue at about 5 in the morning. The bus took off at about 7 am. We only had one stop over so we arrived at Barangay Hukay at lunch time. After a few announcements, we ate lunch. They served galunggong, itlog na maalat and talong. We ate in a line of banana leaves! I actually went for round 2. After lunch, we were assigned to our house assignments. For four days, we will stay with the families from Barangay Hukay. Since Karyn brought a tent, Joanna and I stayed with her. Before we settle, Sinagbayan oriented us again regarding the schedule and itinerary of the Lakbay Sining. We were also introduced to our new members from other communities. They asked us to make a cheer for our team. Ours goes like this, Pating - ting - ting - ting - ting - PATING! I hope you get the tune. It sounds cool, really. Our team name is Pating. We then settled and built our tents. We built our tents over a short period of time, because we’re awesome like that! :) So, we had little time to take a nap before we start the session again. We also had to fight for our team flag color. We originally picked blue for our team and since every team liked the color, they attacked our team and I got sprained. Ate Mangga even said that I look like I might pass out any time because my lips where already white. Intense, right? Anyway, we got orange. Before eating, we designed our flag. After eating, we had a small program where every group must have at least one representative to perform. At around 9 pm, the program has finished and I was finally able to take a bath! We played cards before lights out! Fun but exhausting 1st day!
May 14, Day 2
Today, we were waken up at around 6 am and we have done some morning exercise. After we have finished exercising, we ate our breakfast. Our activity for that day is to interview at least three locals of the barangay. We interviewed three fishermen from Brgy. Hukay. We noticed that at first, they seemed to be a bit reserved with their feelings but when we became conversational, they seemed to ease off already. We’ve known that the land would like to be converted to a resort by the mother of Henry Sy. After the interview, we made our creative performance about it. We decided to make a skit since our leader is from Theater. After lunch, we had met with our facilitator. I’m on the shadow play. Sounds cool, right? We stayed at Kuya Danny’s house since we need a dark place for the shadows and lights to work. We were to make a shadow play about the interview we had just conducted. We decided to make it through the perspective of two fishes instead of two people. So, we cut out fishes and stuffs under the sea. While we are making the script, we decided to make it a bit funny so we decided to make a cameo roles for the teams. Of course, the shark would be the best. It’s funny, I swear. While we were cutting cardboard, it started to rain hard. The beautifully built tent was being ruined. And so because of the rain, the events for the evening were cancelled. Also, our creative performance. Sadly, our tents were also hit. But we managed to save our things. We actually don’t have much space inside the house, so we just decided to sleep in the tent, since we’re not that affected.
May 15, Day 3
Thankfully, we still had some good sleep the other night despite the fact that we’re sleeping on a “water bed”. Before breakfast, we performed our creative output. The whole day, we finished our puppets for the play. We finished at about 3 pm so we didn’t had much time to practice. We only practice twice and it was so messed up. The heat inside, the lack of space, the lack of hands - so many factors. My heart was beating so hard before the performance. I kind of forgot that we were also to perform because of the other awesome performances by other groups. When it is our turn to perform, at first I was scared but when I heard the audience laugh and the mood was set, I just let it all go. Luckily, we had our secret ingredient, Emman made it all possible.
May 16, Day 4
Last day of our Lakbay Sining. Today is our fun day. We just had water games today. And Pating lost in all of them. Haha, poor us. When you’re there, you will seriously pity us. We cannot honestly compete with them. They had the strength and the body. We were only 5 college students there and all of our group is from the community. How could we honestly fight them all? Our teammates looks like they hadn’t eaten all day. But anyhow, we enjoyed. It’s all that matters, isn’t it? After all, we weren’t there to just enjoy. We were there because we were integrating in the community.
May 11th - We had our orientation for camping today!
Ate Gold just discussed the do’s and don’t’s of our Lakbay Sining on May 13th-May 16th at Barangay Hukay, Calatagan, Batangas! And, we we’re introduced to our group for the Lakbay Sining! I’m on the Shadow Play group. Sounds exciting, isn’t it? But sadly, we we’re only 5 in the group. We have our freshie leader! Haha. Each group was assigned to bring a pail and cartons.
Our Lakbay Sining is actually for community integration. The beach is just a plus factor.
May 9th - We had another visitor today. Ka Orly talked about the situation at the Southern Tagalog especially the farmers. He talked about the problems farmers are facing - land grabbing.
He talked about the rampant Land Use Conversion (LUC) in the Southern Tagalog. Lands undergo LUCs to commercial centers and “ecotourism” project lands. Some landlords also convert the land use to avoid the agrarian reform. This, he said, is only one of the examples why Aquino was never pro-farmers.
He also talked about how Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reform (CARPER) is worse than CARP. It’s not in favor with the farmers. It favors the landlords. Another problem that farmers face is land grabbing, where big companies takes over small lands.
Also, Ka Orly Marcellana is the husband of the late Eden Marcellana, who was also a victim of human right violation under Palparan’s administration. Despite the struggle that he was on, he looked positive to me. He was laughing and all that.
I laughed when he said, “Dati, ikaw ang naghahabol sa akin (Palparan), ngayon ako naman ang maghahanap sa’yo. Dati, ang tapang tapang mo. Ano ka ngayon?”
May 8th - Today Allen is our facilitator. It was fun actually.
We were regrouped into 5 different groups. Also, we had three visitors from the community. Our first activity was about culture. We were asked to exhibit a creative performance showing the definition of culture. Our group performed the game Shagidi Shagidi Sha Po Po. Believe me or not, I did not know the game before our presentation. Many of us actually haven’t played the game too. For those of you who doesn’t know the game, I’ll save you the wasting time Googling. Shagidi Sha Po Po is a game where you have to copy the movements of the person on your right while singing Shagidi Shagidi Sha Po Po. We chose to play the game because culture is passed from one generation to another and like in the game, if someone hasn’t picked up the moves from the previous generation right something would change. Ma’am Roselle gave us the highest points! Yes!
Our next activity was to make a tableau representing the situation of the Philippines in certain periods under colonization. Our group was assigned to the American colonization. We were tasked to do three. Our first tableau was supposed to be a class picture of Filipinos and two American soldiers on one side. Our second tableau was supposed to be like an American teacher holding documents with Filipinos looking confused in front of him. Our last tableau was supposed to be a play where an American is choking a Spanish friar in front of the Filipino Audience.
We weren’t able to perform our Tableau because we were already hungry and there wasn’t enough time for a break.
May 7th - Today we’re back in our classroom and planned our PSAs that I wish could help Barangay San Roque in our own little way.
We are divided in 3 groups in Tudla. Our group, unfortunately, has 3 members present only. So it was kind of difficult to polish our PSAs. We have to do a PSA and a poster regarding economic rights.
We thought we could make our PSA like the Extreme Makeover where we a family would have their home makeover but instead of having a better home, they’re home become worse instead. Our poster was inspired by the DOT’s More Fun in The Philippines project. Ours would go, Housing Project - Needs More Fund in the Philippines.
But when we presented our ideas, Sam said that we should make sure that our PSA is feasible with the available stuff. Shane also said that we could drop the poster theme and just stick with the theme in our PSA so that it would be uniform.
Oh well, that means one thing, we need to change our PSAs. :)
May 4th - This is our second day on our community integration at Barangay San Roque. It rained, so Kuya Jello of Anak Bayan just discussed the situation of urban poor in Metro Manila.
We went straight ahead to the Anak Bayan HQ at Barangay San Roque. There, Kuya Jello talked about the urban poor situation in Metro Manila. He also talked about their situation regarding the past and the upcoming demolitions in their area. What stick to my mind is when he said the way the demolitions were being done. They try to make it happen like an accident. The area near TriNoma, he said they used a burning cat to burn the area. How could the cat burn itself?
There was another Anak Bayan member who talked because Kuya Jello became parched. He talked about the situation of the families who were relocated at Rizal. He said he went there himself. What was alarming was the degree of poverty in the area. He said the prostitution was so active that you can get one with a price of a coffee. How much is a coffee today? Is life so hard that you would be a commodity yourself for a price of a coffee? And this is not your Starbucks coffee, Noynoy.
May 3, 2012 - Today, we had our very first community integration at Barangay San Roque. Its on Agham Road and near Philippine Science High School.
I signed up for the Tudla group and we went to San Roque. I think the Sinagbayan group went to Libis. We rode the jeep going to SM North. We couldn’t fit in in just one jeep so we rode two instead. When we got off the jeep, we still walked a few meters to reach the area. A guy named Richard welcomed us and showed our way inside the Barangay. I honestly can’t remember our way. It was like we were on the maze. After a few minutes, we reached the area. There, Nanay oriented us of their situation. They were victims of demolition and another demolition will still be held in a few days.
After the orientation, we were divided into two groups. Kuya Richard showed us the place.The community was actually big. On one side, you can actually get to EDSA and the other side’s on TriNoma. We passed some lots with demolished houses. Kuya Richard told us that those were the ones who accepted the money and went to Rizal. He also said that there are still who keeps on coming back because there’s no good livelihood there. He even cited an example on how hard the life’s on Rizal is. He said that once you leave your food unattended even just for a few seconds, it will be gone. So they keep coming back. I also saw how absurd how the road widening project was. What are they gonna build? A jogging and bike line on EDSA? Come on!
After our tour, we went back to Nanay. It’s awesome how even though they’re struggling, they still offered us drinks. On our way home, it hit me big time! Those numbers of starving Filipinos are not just numbers, they’re for real.
May 2, 2012 - Today, we shared our insights and experiences on the May 1 mobilization.
It’s amazing that there are some of my classmates who were not first-timers on joining a rally. I mean, I noticed that there are some of my classmates who are very much aware of our country’s situation. It just didn’t hit me that they are one of those who are actually doing something about it. They are aware of our situation and they just don’t let it stuck in their heads. Instead, they do something about it. I think, that what UP students should do. After learning something and knowing that we can do something about it, we should actually do something about it. That’s what they do and I salute them. *hands down* to them!
It’s actually funny that when someone said something about people who are criticizing people who rallies, because I WAS one of them. Whenever I hear about them on the news, I would say that why don’t just they work and gave their family food instead of rallying and starve. But then somebody said that “even though they double our salaries for that day, it still wouldn’t matter because it still wouldn’t suffice,” I got their point.
So cliche as it may seem, I’m leaving you with this, before criticizing someone, try to step in to their shoes first.
I got accepted on Lingg and Tour. Now, I’m thinking where to shift. This time of the year last year, I was scared that I’d got stuck at Geol. Now, I’m scared that I might pick the wrong program. Oh well, I think I’ll go for Lingg. After all, Tour was just a fallback in the 1st place.
May 1 - Joining a rally was certainly a first to me. I didn’t even tell my parents that I was going to one because I know they’ll never permit me to. Against the burning sun we walked, jogged and ran from University of Sto. Tomas to Plaza Miranda to call President Aquino’s attention. Another first is that I saw what is really happening behind the lenses in real time. It’s quite impossible to see it all but what I saw was enough for me to realize certain things.
I’m not really a fan of the sun, especially the scorching sun and yesterday I was under it without any protection except the top hat that I was wearing which has a hole in it. So, I was literally covered with sweat and you can’t even paint my face but when I heard the fervor in the chants, I can’t seem to take part with them. I chanted along my classmates and the working group for at that time, I’ve realized that the sweat that my body had released was not even half of every working class’s sweat released in a day’s work. And yet, they receive not even half of what they needed to survive.
Some of us would say that we’ve just wasted our time last May 1. They would say that the working class should have just worked and earned a double pay instead of demonstrating. What would demonstrating do? It can’t even feed your family. On the back of my head, I was thinking at least they had done something that could maybe change their lives. At least, they are trying to break the chains that they are into. At least they tried. You, what had you done?
Later that evening, I texted my parents and said that I was one of the 30,000 who had marched to Plaza Miranda. My father called me and said to me that it’ll be my first and last. I said certainly my first. I ended the call and said but not my last.
April 30th - The day we prepared for May 1’s march. Max Santiago of Tudla Productions talked about their PSAs and his blog, PixelOffensive. He also stars in some of Tudla’s PSA.
Our day didn’t really start good because Ma’am Roselle shared some news regarding her grandmothers death. So, she needs to go back to the province to attend to her grandmother’s wake and we will not be able to see her for a week.
Kuya Max showed us some very funny infographics criticizing almost everything under the sun. We saw some posts about Aquino’s administration and the bourgeoisie
After discussing, we made props for the May 1 rally. Our group decided to make placards. Our group has no Fine Arts major or somebody creative at all. :( So, we really tried our best to make props.
Inspired by Kuya Max’s presentation, I made my placard like a meme. It looks like this:
pananaghoy:
Nessun Dorma
Tired of chasing Ken, Paul meets him one last time before leaving on a journey to Europe in search for a better place to dream and love. “Nessun Dorma” is a Filipino entry to the Asia-Europe Foundation Short Film Contest.
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“Nessun Dorma” is a Filipino entry to the Short Film Contest organized by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), in partnership with the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia and National Library Board Singapore. Creators are invited to express in 3 minute films their views about Asia and Europe’s relations and interactions through cultures, the arts, environment, education or individual relationships.
5 winners selected by the Jury and special online public voting will compete for the awards: a 2-day filmmaking international workshop at New York University Tisch School of the Arts Asia in Singapore, and SGD5,000.
Vote for it here by liking it, adding a G +1 to it and tweeting it.
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Please visit http://asef.org/index.php/short-film-gallery. Share it!
(via pinoytumblr)
April 27th - We were visited by Kuya Ed, car maker under a well-known Japanese Car Company to discuss the situation of the Urban Poor in Metro Manila.
It’s quite disturbing to know the real situation behind the urban poor. Especially if you know that the government could actually do things that could help the people. The government could actually do more than what they’re doing if they just think for the people’s welfare, not of their on.
And now, what is Noynoy doing? His PPP might just bring another burden to the Filipinos. Not only the urban poor is affected by the poverty in our country. The middle class and the petty bourgeoisie are too.
It seemed so natural to find poor people in Metro Manila, but this should not be the case. We should not be okay to naturally find them.
April 26th - This day’s discussion was pretty emotional, especially that one of the speakers is directly affected by oppression of human rights.
Organizations that help regarding human rights are Karapatan Partylist, Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace (EMJP), Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA), Desaparecidos and Hustisya.
Of all the human rights violations that they’ve shown to us, what really hit me was with the cases regarding Jovito Palparan. How hard could he be? He was so tough, when he was seated. Now what, where are you? Not so hard now, aren’t you?
A famous case of violation of human rights is of Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan. I shed a tear, when Karen’s father said that it’s now ok if they find Karen dead, at least they now that she’s not suffering any form of pain anymore.
Another case is Ipe’s mom. Its saddening because you are actually face-to-face to a relative of a victim. It seemed so difficult.
Our discussion that day made me realize that oppression really do exist.