Ganito ang Sawdi Layf - Nike

In 2001, I was one of over a hundred students who enrolled at the Second Philippine International School (SPIS) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

A number, like me, had transferred from other Philippine schools in the area. Many, however, had moved from the Philippines with their parents. We also had over 20 new teachers and staff from the homeland.

Thus the fastest-growing Philippine school in Riyadh at the time grew a little bigger.

And tucked inside the first 2001 issue of SPIS Insights, the school’s then two-year-old publication, was a short yet ingenious Filipino article on an OFW’s new life in the Kingdom.

The author, a pseudonym (that is, not me).

It matched the homesickness of those missing the Philippines with the quickest available connection they had to home–ABS-CBN’s The Filipino Channel or TFC.

Even if you haven’t landed on the Arab desert, the sampling of TV shows (many defunct, others still airing) in this piece will evoke memories of the early 2000s.

(POSTSCRIPT, Oct. 5: After posting this, I thought of sending a link to a former SPIS teacher, Sir Nick Peñaverde. Turns out the tidbit I heard was true all along. He did write the following piece. And reading it again seemed like a gift on National Teacher’s Week. Here’s a tribute to all my elem and high school teachers–all OFWs too.)

(Published on Page 10, Filipino section of SPIS Insights, Volume III, Issue No. 1, August 2001)

(From the book “Pinoy Television: The Story of ABS-CBN)

 
Mahigit apat na buwan na rin ang nakalipas sa PAHINA ng aking Saudi life. Animo’y MISSION X ang bawat karanasan na nilalaro sa MBA ng buhay.

Noong una’y OKA TOKAT ang nararamdaman, ngunit dahil kapwa Pilipino PIPOL ang KABALIKAT palagi, KEEP ON DANCING ang feelings kahit sobrang init ang bawat sandali.

Ala SINGKO Y MEDYA ang gising kung magluluto ka pa at ASAP ka naman para ‘di mahuli sa SINESKWELA.

SARAP TV kapag may selebrasyon at bertdeyan, dahil libre ang MAGANDANG TANGHALIan BAYAN.

Sakay ng THE BUZZ sa tuwing mag ma-market day, S.I.M. card ng Aljawwal ang kailangan upang celpon mo’y maging okey.

Iba’t ibang bagay dito sa Camel Land aking lubos na nauunawaan. Huwag gagawa ng maling GIMIK upang ‘di ma-ISYU 101, sumunod sa alituntunin at batas upang ‘di ma-KRIS & TELL ang buhay.

O SPIS sa Sawdi, salamat, maraming salamat. PANGAKO SA’YO mga turo mo at aral ay aking pahahalagahan. Sa PUSO KO IINGATAN KA tulad ni SHARON na iniidolo ng masa.

Ang galing mo’y dapat lang i-TALK TV at ibalita sa TV PATROL, at awitin ng lahat ang tagumpay mo sa SING dat SONG.

Kung KAYA NI MISTER, KAYA NI MISIS ang mga homesick na nagdaan, asahan mong ako’y ‘di magbabago, BODY en the GUARD mong tunay.

Mananatili ang suporta ko sa iyo, tulad ng nag-aalab na FLAMES. Saan man, kailanman, MARTIN LATE AT NITE o MAGANDANG GABI BAYAN man, TFC THIS WEEK, this month, this year- ikaw lang, MAALAALA MO KAYA ang laman ng puso’t isipan.

RECUERDO DE AMOR ang ngalan mo, at maituturing na THE GLOBAL FILIPINO ang iyong mga produkto.

Ito ang aking Sawdi life, ang aking karanasan, bumalikman sa Pinas ‘di ito malilimutan, ngayon, bukas… hanggang SA DULO NG WALANG HANGGAN.

Sino ako ang tanong mo?? ASSIGNMENT mo na ‘yan!

Pinoy TV mash-up for OFWs, 2001 edition

Remember your UPCAT?

 

SPIS Insights, Aug-Nov 2004 issue

Except for some hazy mental snapshots, I have little to recall of the time I took the University of the Philippines College Admission Test or UPCAT.

The Nokia 6600 was only beginning the wave of cellphone picture-taking. I guess we were also rather excited to bother taking shots.

The test questions evade my memory too.

My classmates and I took the exam in October–way past the national testing month of August.

Fortunately, they brought the UPCAT to the Middle East. The hundreds of senior students studying in the region’s 34 Philippine schools no longer needed to cut classes to fly home.

Our testing centers were the Philippine embassy and consulates. The testing fee–100 US Dollars.

What I only remember now is what’s captured in this feature we did in our school paper a month after our UPCAT.

Our features editor Bea Borja collected the quips. No surprise she later passed and finished her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics at the university.

UPCAT 2004

Thoughts and quotes from the test room

(Published on Page 10, Feature section of SPIS Insights, the Official Student Publication of the Second Philippine International School in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Volume V, Issue No. 2, August-November 2004)

BEFORE the test…

“Andiyan na si Ma’am Francial.”
“O ano? Puntahan na natin?”
“Sakay tayo sa bus para kunyari hinatid tayo!”
“Wag masyadong magulo!”
“Guys, let’s pray na.”
“Hala…Kinabahan ako!”
“Ano na nga ba ang formula ng surface area ng cube?”
“Eh, ung forumla ng surface area ng cube?”
“Nagdala ka pa ng libro? Ay, baon mo pala. Huh?”
“Ay! Pinto pala ‘to! Kanina pa ako nagtataka kung paano sila nakakapasok.”
“Malamig ba sa loob? Bakit sila naka-jacket?”
“Mag-CR na ang dapat mag-CR.”
“Uy, camera, camera! Dali pose na!”
“Makikita tayo sa TFC! Chance na natin ‘to para ma-discover!”
“Ang gulo niyo, Fourth Year. Hindi ako natutuwa, hindi ako natutuwa.”
“Teka! Sino pa ang wala?”
“Sina Sarah, Dean at Ronnie po.”
“Asan si Sarah?”
“Nagbo-blower pa yata ng kanyang hair.”
“Naku si Ronnie! Hinarang na yata sa entrance!”
“Ganun?”
“Paano kaya kung sumigaw ako dito ng ‘Bomba!’?”
“Ang tagal naman! Lalo akong kinakabahan, eh.”
“Nakita niyo na yung kamukha ni Ma’am Aficial?”
“Alin diyan?”
“Yun. Yung kauupo lang.”
“O pila na, pila na. Boys first, alphabetical.”
*THIS IS the moment! (Ala-Erik)*
“Eto na! Good luck, good luck…”
“God speed people!”

DURING…

*tinginan…smila*
*scratch…*
“Hmmp! Ang hirap!”
“Sir, pahingi pa po ng scratch paper…”
“Excuse me po…”
“Hmm… Ugh!”
*kamot sa ulo*

AFTER…

“O kumusta?”
“Ano, kita-kits na lang sa PLM!”
“Ang hirap nung Science!”
“Oo nga! Limot ko na yung mga moles-moles na yan, eh!”
“Ang haba pa nung Reading Comprehension!”
“Natapos mo?”
“Hindi nga, eh.”
“Nag-iwan ka ng blanks?”
“Oo. Bakit, ikaw?”
“Hindi. Di naman daw right-minus-wrong talaga, eh.”
“Psst, sino nga pala yung katabi mo kanina?”
“Hey, pray tayo uli!”
“Thank you po sa lahat, Lord…”
“O, sinong susundo sa ‘yo?”
“Si Daddy.”
“Pakner, pwedeng makisabay?”
“Ang haba pala talaga nun!”
“Hirap pa!”
“Ang tagal naman ng sundo ko!”
“Hmmp! Gutom na ako!”

*Compiled by the 18 Seniors who took the UP College Admission Test at the Philippine Embassy last Oct. 24

No matter when one took the UPCAT, all results still come out on January or February the following year. Another memorable moment for a UP student.

To the prospective Iskos and Iskas whose student numbers will begin with “13″, all the best!

Dolphy and ACJ: End of two eras

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

Rodolfo “Dolphy” Quizon and Angelo Castro, Jr. (Courtesy: ABS-CBN)

From Makati Med to Heritage Park, they did not end. The ordinary and the famed both came to pay their respects to this great. And when time or distance prevented, Filipinos tipped their hats to Dolphy all the way to cyberspace.

The King of Comedy’s final days saw a nostalgia trip in pop culture as his past performances made a comeback on TV.

With that, the tributes on Twitter and Facebook recalled Dolphy’s unforgettable characters and their impact on generations of viewers.

Similar sentiments echoed as our reporters took the pulse of those who showed up at the hospital and the memorial park.

It was no different back in April when another TV luminary, anchorman Angelo Castro, Jr. passed away.

The physical line was shorter, the media noise less, but the collective recollection streamed nonetheless—especially online.

Viewers old enough to remember revisited the days when newscasts in English were still the norm for late-night.

Salamat, Tito Dolphy at ABS-CBN’s Dolphy Theater (Videos upon clicking – Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

In Dolphy’s wake, Filipinos resurrected John Puruntong and Pacifica Falayfay.

The deaths of famous people conjure up not just personal memories of them, but also the zeitgeist (the spirit of the times) during their heyday in the public eye.

And now in this age of the digital village, we have realized all the more a shared loss of one less character who embodied our hopes and experiences.

With the loss of figures like Dolphy and Angelo Castro, we are also nudged to look back to their times and reflect how things have differed since.

Chasing Fallen Stars: How television news covers the death of celebrities

(NOTE: I wrote this with two Journalism classmates as our final case study in Journalism Ethics [ J 192] class under Prof. Yvonne T. Chua in March 2009.

Celebrity news, largely a mix of glamour, PR, and scandal, is rarely looked at as an area for responsible reporting. But it is a staple in Philippine media relegated to the end segment of newscasts or the E-section of papers.

But what happens when showbiz lands the top story? We looked at how TV news covered the deaths of celebrities, the coverage of which is as sensitive as covering deaths in the general public.

Two happened twice before this final paper was assigned, which we compared to a highly-remembered one which occurred a decade ago from today’s writing.

DISCLOSURE: I am now an employee of ABS-CBN News. Roehl, one of my co-writers, works for GMA News.)

———————————

CHASING FALLEN STARS

How television news covers the death of celebrities

By Andrew Jonathan Bagaoisan, Roehl Niño Bautista and Annamaebelle Bernal

(First of two parts)

Grab from Yan’s memorial service aired live on ABS-CBN.

It was a non-stop six-hour affair made for television. At the funeral mass for matinee idol Rico Yan, singer-performer Gary Valenciano moved people to tears rendering “Warrior is a child,” the actor’s favorite song.

Priest Tito Caluag, in his homily, told mourners how Yan dreamed of becoming president. “Rico wanted to be a leader but never mentioned leadership because he only wanted to serve,” said Caluag.

For the climax of a week-long drama captured by television, the service was just the beginning.

From the thousands who held vigil at the wake, thousands of others went outside their homes and waited at the roadside where the convoy en-route to the young actor’s final resting place was about to pass, just to see the car that carried the famous lad’s mortal shell. People cried for the loss of an idol, a friend, a family member, and these with all other drama were shown on national television.

News personalities of ABS-CBN, Yan’s home network, stationed at key areas of the convoy to report live every stage of the procession on ground while the station’s “Sky Patrol” helicopter followed the whole procession from La Salle Green Hills to Manila Memorial Park on camera. It definitely wasn’t ordinary for a burial coverage to last that long.

But Yan’s death in March 2002 was not the only newsworthy event as television news made it to be with its “unprecedented” and “overwhelming” coverage, as a newspaper put it.

Attention to Yan’s demise pushed to the side stories like the Baseco Compound fire which displaced around 3,000 families, a dry-dock accident in Dubai that left eight Filipinos dead and eight more missing, and the deaths of National Artists for Music Levi Celerio and Lucio San Pedro, and Britain’s Queen Mother.

Celebrities make the news. Deaths also make the news. Put those two together and the media is put in a tight spot when it comes to ethics. If covering famous personalities is already problematic, covering celebrities who died is even trickier, when the newsworthy elements of the two combine but their at-times incompatible values clash.

In a country where showbiz news is a daily television staple presented under the guise of journalism, the nuances of covering celebrity deaths are largely unexplored in depth or remiss in guidelines.

PinoyJourn’s 2011: The top posts

A year of upheaval.

2011 saw calamities challenge our notions both of safety and of the status quo.

This year, the stirrings of change disturbed the common and the powerful. One issue, one event after the other made us rethink or question our policies and our perspectives.

We saw personalities resurface to accountability. Beloved figures passed on. We remembered the past, saw it repeat itself, and wondered what has changed. In the wake of it all, we got some answers yet we face more questions.

This behind-the-scenes blog tried to find untold stories beyond the did-this-did-that sidelines of news coverage. Still, the media back-stories found themselves inserted in understated mentions. And even the unique circumstances warranted their own stories.

2011 began with a fleeting succession of big stories that for lack of downtime a number of them did not get written about here.

Among them: the mysterious EDSA bus blast, the construction mishap that killed 10, and the flooding in Albay and in Jolo that sent me for the first time there.

Even as the year ended, the season did not give pause for the routine holiday watch.

2011 also expanded the audience of PinoyJournalist as it affiliated with sites like ABS-CBNnews.com and ABS-CBN’s intranet newsletter E-Frequency. One result– the first post that breached the thousand-hits mark.

I haven’t followed through on last year’s resolution for more features outside of current events or more book reviews. Chalk it up to limited writing time and audience considerations.

2012 will sure bring more stories, and I hope, more ways to tell them.

For now, here’s the rundown of 2011′s headlines as seen through the eyes of this blog:

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.

Remembrance: A year back at the massacre site

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

AMPATUAN, MAGUINDANAO–The morning heat stung on the faces of the throng trekking the leveled dirt road across this remote hill.

Many came by the truckloads from other towns and were likely dropped off at the dirt road’s entrance, a left turn from the national highway. There police officers filtered the vehicles that came in.

For every truck that passed through, dozens scrambled to hitchhike and save the long, hot, and arduous walk hundreds of others made.

The sight was unlikely in this area before. Few dared come here by themselves, a thing explained by the heavy security presence.

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

Yet we still asked as our van rolled up and down and further inward, why would many, especially locals, brave the weather and the hanging danger?

The sheer number of people and the prominence of the event somehow assured us that nothing grave would catch us.

As the shed built over the site drew near, we saw a few thatched huts scattered along rather-tended greenery. Whether anyone lived in them, we weren’t sure.

If there were, could they have witnessed the gruesome end of 58 people diverted here exactly a year before? And if they had, were they silenced forcefully, or worse, permanently?

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

We came here a year ago, when the nation’s memory centered for one day on a southern sitio named Masalay and on the worst political crime of recent history done here.

This year, journalists, locals, and families of the slain again converged on this area to remember. The place has undergone a makeover, and the country has seen game-changing events of its own.

Yet like the circumstances of the first year, those commemorating two years since the Ampatuan massacre have only seen the slow pace of justice.

9/11: A mosaic of memories

"Obviously a very disturbing shot..." The first images from CNN.

Sitting through a morning class. Coming home from school. Extended on night duty. Roused from bed.

Filipinos recall how they found out across different time zones ten years ago that the iconic World Trade Center Towers in New York were attacked.

It’s a connection they share with the United States and the rest of the global village that paused this week to remember.

“The sun was on full-dial. I was indolently shuffling through my notes… when I heard a panic-stricken voice yelling from across the hall–’A plane just hit the World Trade Center’.”

Jeff Canoy‘s American History class that morning was interrupted by the cry. His professor soon got a call and turned on a television set. The channel trained live on the burning Tower 1.

In a college writeup he resurrected online, Jeff remembered the confusion, questions, tears, and hysteria that gripped him and his classmates as they grappled with the reality and gravity of what they had hoped was only a film.

They were ordered to keep calm and remain seated in their class as word came that a plane had hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., just near their place in Maryland.

Jeff, now with ABS-CBN, reported on September 10 how Filipino activists observed the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

(Screengrab from TV Patrol. Click to watch.)

“…Right after September 11, the general cry heard across the world was that ‘we will never forget’,” Jeff wrote the next day.

“Ten years later, it seems like we haven’t.”

PinoyJourn’s 2010: The top posts

Simply put, 2010 was the year this blog boomed.

The were simply sidebars to the year’s big stories, as seen from the front lines, and told online. With great help from the still-growing social media, they’ve reached a larger audience.

It was the year PinoyJourn gained its identity as a back-story blog. And what stories to tell, especially from the provinces.

Revisit this blog’s most-visited 2010 posts and relive a bunch of firsts–both for this writer and for this country.

It’s been an interesting ride for media, too. The way we gather and deliver news continues to change, and more so has the content matured. We said good-bye to a number of industry hallmarks. We’ve also seen how trivial or frenzied the field can be.

The most-read post stands out. Incidentally my first for 2010, its hits remind me of the many more readers this blog can reach. Also, of the other stories–beyond news coverage–I can strive to tell.

It gets better this 2011.

Growing up with CNN

Unlike most Pinoy kids my age, my first memories of television were state-run foreign TV, reruns, and CNN.

I spent my childhood in 1990s Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a few years before The Filipino Channel invaded the desert with programming from the homeland.

My brother and I would wait till 1 p.m. on class-less days for the government’s English-channel 2 to sign on.

Aired first were kiddie fare like Looney Toons, Bionic Six, and Sesame Street. Some mostly-British comedy, reality game, and gag shows followed into the night.

Then my father got a satellite dish.