Thoughts of a first-time media absentee voter

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

Last day of absentee voting (Shot by Edgar Soberano, ABS-CBN News)

I stared at the list I jotted down on a sheet of grade-school-ruled pad, asking myself if I was ready to take the plunge.

I had a nagging feeling–second thoughts even–to be sure. I was casting my vote for the first time, and this list of candidates for senator and party-list was my assurance that my first time was being done right.

The list was a digital one at first–a rough draft sitting on my laptop. When I learned in February that media workers like me could vote earlier, I hurriedly listed names that had the best chance of getting my vote.

I only went back to the list the day before, April 28. The three-day period of local absentee voting (LAV) for soldiers, police officers, civil servants and the media had already begun.

This mini-Election Day felt like a final exam. I went through a review, scanning the profiles of the 34 senatorial bets on the Halalan 2013 web sites of ABS-CBN News and of the University of the Philippines.

I watched the final leg of the Harapan TV debates. I shuffled my digital list as the candidates faced the nation. I thought I wouldn’t complete my Magic 12. But after Harapan, I was already weighing who to retain or replace in an already-full lineup.

(Shot by Chito Concepcion)

I had already covered a national election in 2010. Assigned out of town, I, like most of my colleagues could not vote. Thankfully, my registration remained active when the Comelec approved a petition to include members of media in the absentee vote.

This time, I had to grab the chance. Voting was one right—and duty—I did not miss out on, even as a student voting for the school council or for national candidates in mock university polls.

That epic ABS-CBN News music video (Because journalists also dream of singing stardom)

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

“Slow news day?” was the query of the pleasantly surprised.

For how in the middle of a plane crash, fleeting low pressure areas, and robberies caught on CCTV did journalists manage to make a potentially viral music video?

Well, it is as easy as facing the camera atop the PC. Or employing an iPad app that can record and edit in shots to a song.

It took a few days last week of shadowing and persuading a cast to join. Yes, a mini-shoot. Post-work and TV shows, of course.

Jenny (Reyes) cut up the song parts to sing, Chiara (Zambrano) “booked” whoever was willing to sing, and Jeff (Canoy) shot with his iPad.

Jeff was the consummate director who was sold-out to his opus.

He even poked all the way to Eastern Samar where Atom Araullo and our team were wondering if we still had any post-earthquake stories left to report.

“You’re missing out on the best video of all time!” Jeff messaged us. Atom and I got on Skype and Jeff showed us the video so far. And he wanted Atom to perform one part via web cam.

#CJonTrial: Last full show at the Senate

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

The excitement over Day 44 of the trial deciding the fate of Chief Justice Renato Corona, as expected, spilled way past the Senate grounds.

Outside the gate, the long line of prospective watchers was up for a final effort. As before, only 40 green passes to the Session Hall would be given out.

And no ticket more, this last full show already full. Not even for actor Pen Medina, who showed up with a “Convict Corona” shirt. He took it off to comply with regulations, yet still missed the cut.

Farther off at the Senate security checkpoint beside the Manila Film Center, three news vans were parked near a barricade and a throng of anti-riot police.

This spot was the closest any groups wanting to amass in protest or support could get to the Senate.

Close to noon, nearly 50 members of a health workers’ group arrived with “Guilty!” signs. They brought out effigies of Corona, his benefactor Gloria Arroyo, and of President Aquino.

They wanted a Corona conviction, but hoped the alternative was not a Supreme Court controlled by the President. They left after 30 minutes.

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

A group of the same number, this time from Akbayan, a party allied with Aquino, later came with yellow placards that all repeated “Convict” and “Guilty”.

Unlike before, only one side came out that day. Many of those praying for an acquittal for Corona remained at the Supreme Court to watch the Senate verdict via an LCD projector.

The Akbayan assembly stayed on to monitor the votes cast by the 23 senator-judges through a radio piped into their mobile speakers.

ABS-CBN’s cameras were trained on both spots for live reactions to the moment of decision.

At ABS’s Senate OB van control, it was business as usual, yet spiced with the excitement of a final sprint.

The crews manning the facilities that broadcast the trial sessions and live reports for Channel 2, ANC, and DZMM had been at it since January. And except for infrequent session lulls, their work routines for four months have been 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., all to and from the Senate.

The core behind ‘Breakthrough’

(Shot by c/o Jeruel Pingol & Jace Carag)

Presenting the BREAKTHROUGH Camp Core Staff.

They’re from varying places–Cavite, Mandaluyong, Pasay, Caloocan, Rizal. The youngest hasn’t had a debut yet and the oldest are way past youth camp attendance.

But God brought them together for a purpose–to see Him work mightily in youths brought together to know Him and each other more.

It wasn’t easy. For a number of us, it was our first time attending a large-scale camp and we were already thrust into staff roles.

The discussions during the year-long planning sometimes brimmed with heat. Things sometimes didn’t go as planned. In the three days at camp, we had to improvise or fast-track events with a jumbled schedule.

Yet we had fun. We prayed together. We laughed at teases and unintended blunders. We appreciated the home-cooked lunches and the pa-libre of take-out food during meets.

And we are thankful for the guidance of those who had gone through what we were only now going through.

More so, our belief and purpose was one. This is our generation, our camp (the first for our church after 10 years), but the God who moved in camps of years past is still full of surprises.

And He delivered.

All for God, and all to God. I thank Him for letting me be part of this league of extraordinary men and women.

And as much as we hope the Breakthrough campers found new lifelong friends in the camp, I know we ourselves have found a barkada of brothers and sisters.

May this be only the beginning of greater things in store for the JFCM youth!

————-

Top row (L-R): Ezekiel Brizuela, Anjo Bagaoisan, Jeruel Pingol, Alvin Funa, Lee Hansiel Lim, Nico Bagaoisan, Paul Gacusan
Bottom row (L-R): Pia Soliman, Abigail Valenzuela, Mitch , Arlien Sion, Ronabelle “Lee” Usman, Anna Pingol-Bartolome, Anne Rose Bobis, Meg Gallo, Estef Vergara, Paula Pacleb, Lucky Azul, Jovy Llaneta

TV Patrol 25: Revisiting Ondoy

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

(courtesy TV Patrol / ABS-CBN News)

Cameraman Bernie Mallari and his ENG van teammates will not forget the day stormy circumstances thrust upon them the defining image of a typhoon.

They were told to go to the La Mesa Dam that September 26, 2009. The dam was on the verge of spilling over after an overnight of rains brought by Typhoon Ondoy.

But with Commonwealth Avenue already flooded, the team never got there. Instead, they passed by Marikina and Rizal, where they chanced upon a throng converged at the San Mateo Bridge.

A mass of flotsam was approaching the bridge in a wave. When they saw that the mass also carried people, the team lugged Bernie’s camera out in the rain to capture the attempt of those “surfers” to reach safety.

(Courtesy TV Patrol / ABS-CBN News)

The result is an iconic grab of history. But it did not turn out well for that family caught in the flood.

Last March 28, Bernie arrived at the Marikina Riverbanks with his reporter Sol Aragones to cover the unveiling of TV Patrol’s second commemorative marker as part of the newscast’s 25th anniversary.

The ceremony was awash with memories of the flood—one of the few times the big story struck even those who tell it.

Sol and Bernie preview their shoot at the first TV Patrol marker unveiling in Pampanga. Click pic to watch her story that day. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

Sol and Bernie were not yet teammates in 2009. But Sol was among the many reporters sent to Marikina, where the destruction only became clearer as the waters cleared.

“Ang unang larawan ko pong nakita yung mga sapatos at tsinelas—(pang) bata man o matanda—ay nakalubog sa putik, parang alaala na talagang nagmadali silang tumakbo para mailigtas yung kanilang buhay,” Sol recalled.

TV Patrol’s big day

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

High up a mountain in Nabuclod, Floridablanca, Pampanga on the night of March 4, six Aeta men mixed cement to fill the foundation where a slab of hardened lahar would stand.

The wind chilled, and the only light came from a blue-head lamp started up by the ABS-CBN technical crew that was also setting up on this upland eco-tourism park.

The 5-foot tall slab lay beside a shallow pit. Embossed on it: “TV Patrol 25,” followed by rows of commemorative text.

“Good thing it took us till night to bring this up here,” said Mae Purificacion, one of two women from ABS-CBN News’ business group who were supervising the work.

“Otherwise, other people here would be taking shots of it way too early.”

The tech crew had already mobbed the slab with photo-ops after it was brought out from a crew cab. But no posting on Facebook yet, they were warned.

They only hoped the cement would harden by morning.

Such was the subtle flurry of activity in the hours counting down to the celebration of TV Patrol’s 25th birthday.

Andrei Felix & Venus Raj (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

The tech team prepped for Umagang Kay Ganda, where hosts Andrei Felix and Venus Raj would ride the park’s zip line and cable car live.

In Manila that night, the people at post-production outfit Acid House ran overtime rendering the new opening billboard (OBB) and segment intros for the special March 5 telecast.

Acee Vitangcol, an ABS-CBN digital strategist put the finishing touches on the timeline of TV Patrol’s Facebook page. It would go public at midnight with photos of the show’s past sets, logos, and reporting moments.

The network was pulling out all the stops for this milestone. After all, TV Patrol was one of the driving forces that propelled ABS-CBN back to ratings leadership in 1988.

On its silver anniversary, the groundbreaking newscast was giving back to the public.

Sleepless, contact-less in Quiapo

 

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

“I just experienced how they gathered news back in the 1990s,” said reporter Jeff Canoy when he arrived at our technical setup in Plaza Miranda.

Jeff and his crew had followed the venerated image of the Black Nazarene when it left the Quirino Grandstand on the morning of January 9, the anniversary of its translacion or transfer to the Quiapo Church four centuries ago.

The procession was not due to arrive until around midnight, but the team pushed on to Quiapo earlier for Jeff’s top story on TV Patrol.

Jeff already went live that noon. But all day, Jeff parted with his routines: tweeting online, phoning reports, and texting regular updates to his desk editor.

All because a terror threat prompted authorities to jam cellular signals from Quirino to Quiapo.

The threat announcement was made by no less than President Aquino came the day before.

It surprised reporters who earlier heard police chief Nicanor Bartolome say after he met the President that there were no serious security threats on the celebration.

It turned out this year’s translacion still had something new despite being covered and shown on TV for so long.

With cellphones rendered useless, our ENG vans along the procession route became the only spots with a semblance of communication to Quezon City.

Our savior: the citizen’s band radio console retrofitted on each van.

Why we wave each New Year

Way back, I didn’t get why they had to show those live shots of greet-toting, hand-waving news personnel on the Christmas and New Year telecasts.

I thought the cameos too self-indulgent, especially when the waving became rowdy.

But when duty forces one away from home at a time most people bond with their loved ones, how could one resist the chance to be one with the celebration despite the distance?

I only got to appreciate that window on my first New Year Salubong assignment. And in the most incongruous of places.

Amid the expected influx of firecracker-caused injuries at a government hospital, count on the staff and temps to still join in the merriment even for a few minutes.

For a first time to celebrate the new year without family, I made it a point to join the virtual feeler to loved ones watching.

And so for three years…

Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, 2010.

Again, Jose Reyes, 2011

Resorts World Manila, 2012

…it’s been “kawayan na”, with no sign of tradition ending.

The call home to turn on the TV and watch out has been a way of letting family or friends know the working person was thinking of them.

Kind of how the web cam has greatly reconnected Filipinos here and overseas. Only in this case, national television–still the big league this side of the world–heightens the experience, to wit.

It’s characteristic of a very Pinoy quirk that I forget when I think of times like these.

Once a camera pans, the immediate reaction is a smile and a wave. When it comes with a mic, the first word out is a greeting to practically everyone.

And it happens even if the scene is no party.

That’s why we’ve always had to deal with bystanders and onlookers “barging” into our live shots for 5-10 seconds of mini-fame at locations struck by crimes and deaths.

But once or twice at the end of the year, we allow the extra people and the waving, and we add ourselves in.

It’s not just us, after all, who want a shot at letting loved ones see that we’re thinking of them and that we’re doing fine.

Happy 2012, PinoyJourn readers!

—

P.S.: Still not through with 2011 though. Stay tuned for the top points of this blog and this writer’s year.

Christmas duty in CDO

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, MISAMIS ORIENTAL–Hours before midnight of December 25, some guests at a high-end local hotel dropped by the bar to mark the holiday.

For most, the night out was a long-awaited respite from the circumstances that faced them that week in this typhoon-hit city.

A combo of two was there singing a repertoire of Standard tunes, mostly English and the occasional Latin.

On the keyboard was a lanky man wearing a luau polo. A virtual all-in-one band, he alternated piano and trumpet leads to the customized beats from his synthesizer.

Dodong, the pianist, alternated and harmonized tunes with his partner Rose, who was in a party dress.

The guests were impressed and called for encores. One of them approached the duo and said he wanted to sing.

Dodong said yes. “But first, I need a volunteer to play these.” And he pointed to the unused bongo drums nearby.

The clock struck 12 as the guest belted out another song.

(Shot by Rodrigo Tapales)

Fireworks could be seen from the window overlooking the city. Various areas of CDO answered each other in colorful outbursts of light.

The guests watched, some wondering if the calendar had already turned, and some marveling that one of the cities ravaged by the Philippines’ deadliest typhoon in over 10 years found cause to celebrate.

Seated near the piano was a middle-aged woman browsing a laptop while taking sips at a cocktail and glances at the performers.

“My wife,” Dodong said later as he introduced her. “She’s my manager too.”

As they packed up the microphones and turned off the amps, Rose, the singer said, “We’ll be returning to our flooded houses.”

One of the affected CDO villages. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

Dodong resided at a higher area of CDO. But the house his children lived in was not spared from the high waters of typhoon Sendong (a.k.a. Washi).

“All my instruments there were ruined–two guitars, my keyboard, my amplifiers. Even my studio,” he said.

“I think God is reminding us with tragedies like this to remember and return to Him.”

Second-guesses at the Gloria transfer

After a month of stakeouts, the much-awaited move finally had a date: December 9.

It meant the news media could relax a little and even reassign momentarily some of the OB vans or people that have long-guarded the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City.

One station appropriated its St. Luke’s van for the “Occupy Mendiola” protests that diverted attention to the Palace doorstep days before the scheduled transfer. The van returned to find its spot intact and still reserved.

Reporters from the so-called “St. Luke’s press corps” could soon say goodbye to their joked-about Christmas party, and also to the air-conditioned waiting area complete with hot water and the occasional gratis snack courtesy of the hospital.

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

But while everyone finally knew the day, no one knew the hour former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would be brought to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City, where she was ordered by court to spend her hospital arrest.

And despite the frequent ambush interviews at the media area–all carried live on ANC–no spokesperson would drop a clue.

“Probably between 12 midnight and 11:59 in the evening,” said Atty. Ferdinand Topacio, lawyer to Arroyo’s husband Mike, and now infamous for humorously answering media queries and jesting with reporters.