Who wants to start a local film club?

Earlier today, I picked up this book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die from Book Sale Gaisano in Legaspi and reminded me just how many great films I haven't seen yet, which in turn reminded me of another thing in my bucket list: organize a local film club which will hold weekly private film showing among friends. If you are also interested in starting a local film club, please contact me. We can arrange meetings at the municipal hall or maybe Mr Nace, the Bicol University administrator, might even allow us the use of the Monreal Ruins for the film meetings. We can start trimming down our list of must-see films using the book as a checklist. What do you say?

Medical mission for surgical operations

May medical mission para sa ilang surgical operations sa darating na Hunyo: hernia (luslos), gallstones (bato sa apdo), goiter, bukol sa matris, cyst . Pumunta agad kay Dr Carino sa Gubat District Hospital para magpalista. Sponsored by UP Ugnayan ng Pahinungod Medical Team, Ugay (Gubatnons of Australia), Rotary Australia World Services Community, GNHS Batch 1992.

The Charles Dickens Bicentennial

Come February 7, the world will be celebrating Charles Dickens's 200th birthday, and as you can see at Dickens2012 many activities have been lined up for the commemoration of this bicentenary. Over at Jessica Zafra's blog, she is attempting a collective effort at translating the novel Great Expectations (here's the free Gutenberg text of the novel) into Filipino.

Embarrassing to admit, but I have never read any Dickens myself. I figure this year would be a good year to remedy this, so I am starting with Great Expectations. I am also going to write the high school English teachers to ask if I could interest them to organize with the municipality a Charles Dickens film festival for their students.

Let the Bullets Fly

Let the Bullets Fly is a brilliant film. Ostensibly, the story is akin to what we would imagine the lives of Mao Zedong and his comrades were like back when they were rebel bandits dedicating their lives to redistributing wealth for the poor and freeing one town after another, but, take a closer look at the brilliant ending, and it could be a criticism of the Chinese people who do not rise up against the present-day Chinese government, with the town square in the film standing in for Tiananmen Square. The film is directed and starred in by Jiang Wen. Chow Yun Fat also stars in the film.

I strongly recommend this film. Where else can you see a film about corruption and political tyranny become a highest-grossing film?

Surfing in Gubat

The adventures of our local surfers, which remind me of one thing still in my bucket list: learn surfing.

Training for barangay health workers

Our selected barangay health workers ( with our municipal health officer Dr. Lelis) after their five-day health training held at the Municipal Conference Hall (MCH) last December 2011.

Call for Admission and Scholarship applications for Diploma in Multimedia Journalism

Quezon City, 2 December 2011. ACFJ now accepts applications for admission and scholarship for the Diploma in Multimedia Journalism. The deadline is Wednesday, 15 February 2012 for the 2012 offering which begins in May.

The Diploma in Multimedia Journalism (DMJ) is a one-year program seeking to provide Asian working journalists with a broad perspective and the practical skills to undertake cross-platform multimedia journalistic projects.

Admission is limited to 15 students. Scholarship grants are available to Asian journalists on a competitive basis.

The program comprises seven courses, including a capstone project, as follows:

Fundamentals of Multimedia Journalism: provides an overview of the theories and practices of multimedia journalism.

Newsgathering for Multimedia: seeks to develop and sharpen the students’ abilities to gather and report news for the multimedia format.

Mobile Journalism: Mobile Journalism trains students to employ a variety of tools and technologies to report news in a fully multimedia manner.

Convergence Theory: discusses changing journalistic practices including new techniques for visual framing and composition, audio production, and efficient content delivery.

Multi Platform Practice: seeks to further develop the students’ core skills in multimedia reporting such as blogging, social networking, digital audio and podcasting, as well as shooting and editing of digital photos and videos.

Interactive Media Literacy: allows students to learn and reflect on theories and practices in media literacy on an interactive platform.

Multimedia Journalism Project: is the capstone course that allows students to produce a major multimedia story under the guidance of an adviser.

The Diploma in Multimedia Journalism, a distance learning program via the Internet, has been specially designed to allow working journalists to study and work at the same time. The courses are conducted either entirely online or using a fusion of online and on-campus methods, i.e. hybrid courses

Application forms for admission and scholarships are available for download at http://acfj.ateneo.edu (under Resources) or upon request. Send email to: newsroom@admu.edu.ph

Finalists of the Dr. Juan Escandor Search for Best Human Rights Teaching in the Municipality of Gubat

Congratulations to the following finalists of the Dr. Juan Escandor Search for Best Human Rights Teaching in the Municipality of Gubat:

Ms. Peachie Aricheta - Bagacay Elementary School
Mr. Marlon Panuga - Gubat North Central School
Ms. Evelyn Farenas - Carriedo Elementary School
Mr. Joseph Escober - Patag Elementary School
Ms. Marlyn Gerona - Aguinaldo Elementary School
Ms. Amelia Deyto - Gubat North Central School

They submitted the best lesson plans integrating human rights concepts. Yesterday, they all had a demo teaching executing their lesson plans at Gubat South Central School.


The judges yesterday were Mr Florencio Bermundo, Prof. Mila Ragos, and Fr. Gerry del Prado. We will announce soon the the top three winners. The awarding will be on Dec 15, at the opening of the Christ the King Christmas celebration.

Gift-giving by the parish

The Parish of St Anthony de Padua will be giving gifts this Christmas to indigent families. If you want to help, you can send secondhand clothes, toys, food to the parish. For inquiries, you can call Ms Lulu at 311-1677 or Maam Del at 0933-3697406.

Job opening: Community Empowerment Program Coordinator

The Office for Community Development of Arellano University is in need of a Program Coordinator for its community Empowerment Program. Interested applicants may contact and submit application letter and resume to Ms. Andreline D. Ansula, OIC Director, of Office for Community Development, Rm. 2 Elementary Building, Arellano University, Legarda Campus or call Tel no. 7347371 loc. 238 c/o Lerma Lazarte or Lyndy Berdin or email to aucomdev02@yahoo.com.

job Description: Community Empowerment Program
1. Shall coordinate with partner communities regarding planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of AU activities in their area in coordination with different institutes.
2. Shall formulate systems to ensure Arellano's collaborated efforts are directly benefiting partner communities
3. Shall develop/write concept papers/project proposals to CEP.
4. Shall prepare modules and conduct community-based workshop and trainings in coordination with ComDev Coordinators of concerned institutes.
5. Shall facilitate/assist partner communities in the process of developing community projects.
6. Shall undertake collaboration and coordination work with partner community and develop/forge AU partnership with existing and target partner communities.
•Liaise with community representative and explore/plan projects with them.
•Assist in organizing and implementing activities of the communities.
•Coordinate Arellano efforts in communities.
1. Shall facilitate/coordinate training and ComDev activities with partner communities.
• Conduct field visits and integrate with the community
2. Shall submit documentation of activities and progress/accomplishment reports tot eh Director/supervisor.
3. Shall support and coordinate with other staff members for other projects of the office.
4. Shall perform other duties assigned by the office Supervisor and/or Director.

Get-together of Gubatnons in Manila

SARUNG BANGGI: An Acoustic Night! :)

When: Saturday, December 10, 2011
Time: 6PM - 1:30AM
Where: My Bro's Mustache, Sct. Tuazon cor. Sct. Madrinan, Timog, QC (Near Shell Station)

Ticket: PhP 150. For inquiries and reservation, please call/text: 09175574205/09228625919.

Proceeds of the concert will be used for environmental management workshop of Burugkos, Inc in coastal barangays in Gubat, Sorsogon; capacity building seminars, Career Orientation Program for high school students, Rizal Day Clean-up 2012 and other projects.

Division Math Competitions

I was at the Gubat North Central School (GNCS) to address the province's best math pupils for the Division Mathematics Competitions. In my address to the teachers and pupils, I remmebered three of my great Math teachers who can serve as exemplars to the teachers: 1) Ms Caridad Erestain, my grade three teacher, for her dedication, 2) Ms Carolina Escueta, my grade 5 and 6 math teacher, for her emphasis on rote learning, and 3) Ms. Monina Fajardo, my second year math teacher, for her emphasis on kindling the students' intellectual curiosity in solving math problems in everyday life.

Job opening: Program and field officers

Starting January next year until 2013, the Municipality of Gubat and the Philippine Center for Civic Education and Democracy (PCCED) are partnering for a special project entitled Promoting Democratic Values in the Barangays of Gubat, Sorsogon. The project, which will include all 42 barangays of the municipality, is intended to 1) improve community conflict resolution mechanisms in the barangays (Barangay Rule of Law Seminar)and 2) promote community participation for the diagnosis of problems and strategies faced by the barangays (Participatory Budgeting).

To undertake this project, the PCCED is hiring a program offocer and two field officers. To apply, please see the official job opening announcement.

They that have power to hurt, and will do none

To celebrate November's being the National Reading Month ( and because the Kabataan party-list is exhorting everyone to pose with his favorite book to revitalize reading as a social activity), I am posing below with one of my favorite books: Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom.

The book had a huge impact on me, perhaps because I read it when I was fairly young (fourth year high school). I think the books you read when you were young have a tendency of becoming the most influential on you. Long Walk to Freedom was the book that first gave me a glimpse of public life, how politics could consume the life of one man, and how involvement in politics could transform the lives of other people for the better.

Fifteen years after reading this book, what I remember now were the scenes of daily humiliation Mandela was subjected to: being stripped naked, being taunted by ignorant prison authorities who were his social inferiors, the humiliatingly meager food rations. And Mandela hated them all. I remember reading there was one remarkably painful time when he promised to himself that one prison guard would be "as poor as a church mouse after I'm through with him."

And yet when Mandela became president, when he now had the opportunity to exact vengeance on that guard, he did not. As I grew older and as I have come to observe the behavior of other people, I realize that a modicum of power and authority can greatly change a man's behavior and personality. There are also other people who have all the appearance of virtue simply because they were never in a position of power to be otherwise. In college, I came across a beautiful phrase from Shakespeare's Sonnet 94: They that have power to hurt, and will do none. Yes, Nelson Mandela was one of those rare men.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It taught me the virtue of patience and waiting, and the necessity of magnanimity in politics. I consider this book one of my reading life's treasures.

Training of day care workers

Earlier this morning, I was in Sto. Domingo, Albay, for the training/induction program of our Gubat Day Care Workers facilitated by the National Early Childhood Care and Development Council. This activity is in preparation for our building a childhood care and development center at the Aguinaldo Elementary School, which is intended to, among others, upgrade the skills of our day care workers. The municipality is partnering with the Council to improve early childhood education in the municipality.

Job opening: early childhood education teacher

The National Early Childhood Care and Development Coordinating Council is hiring a teacher to handle early childhood education in a center we will be building at the Aguinaldo Elem School. If you are an elem education grad, has been ranked by DepEd, bring you personal data sheet and come to the municipality 6 AM this Wednesday. There's a free jeep you can take going to Legaspi for the job interview.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

In celebration of November, which was declared by the Department of Education as the National Reading Month, we are going to screen the film Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress on Saturday, November 26, 7 PM, at the Encinas Pavilion.




Set during the Cultural Revolution in China, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a coming-of-age story of two teenagers from bourgeois families who were sent by the Communist government to the countryside to be re-educated by the rural villagers. Staying in the mountain village, they fell in love with one girl and, along the way, discovered the illicit pleasure of reading Western literature forbidden by the government.

Balzac had me at its first scene where to escape the destruction of a prized violin and hide their attachment to Western bourgeois music, the two teenagers misrepresented Mozart's Divertimento, K 334 as being entitled Mozart Thinking of Chairman Mao. After which, the village chief, knowing no better, pompously proclaimed that indeed Mozart is always thinking of Chairman Mao. Hilariously funny.

This is one of my all-time favorite films.It has gorgeous landscape, a wonderful story, a political subplot and a heartbreaking ending. I think anybody who loves reading literature will fall in love with this film.

Clash of the Titans

When I was a Grade six pupil (or perhaps It was during the fifth grade, I don't exactly remember now), we had lessons about the different parts of the universe: the planets (named after the Roman Gods), the galaxies and, of course, the many constellations with strange names like Hercules, Pegasus, Andromeda and Perseus. It was also by this time that I came across Edith Hamiton's Mythology, although I do not remember how I got hold of that book. Books were so scarce then when I was growing up and no teacher encouraged reading, so I think it must be a copy a classmate must have lent me.

I remember I really loved that book. It had so many wonderful, magical stories about heroes conquering powerful enemies, gods scheming against each other and, of course, love unrequited. When I was a boy, I had a taste for fantasy stories. My favorite komiks were Kuwento and Pinoy Komiks, and every week starting from Grade 2, I would go to the Enaje komiks joint in Balud to read all the komiks there for only ten centavos each. Whenever I walked home from school, I would always pass by the big tree in front of the church and take a peek at the hole on its trunk. And I believed if I religiously look hard enough, a duwende might judge me worthy of friendship, and show himself to me and give me untold riches which I could bring to my parents (I guess I was materialistic as a kid, probably the reason why no duwende bothered with me).

Anyway, for a year or so sometime around grade six, I was mythology-crazy. One day, I would imagine myself Zeus hurling thunderbolts against my classmates. The next day, I would be daydreaming of travelling away riding Pegasus. Sometimes I would like to be just bad and conquer Olympus and take all the gods as my prisoners. It was also during this time that I, together with some friends, began hunting for betamax tapes on mythology. And it was at Chia's video store that I got The Clash of the Titans, about Perseus, his love Andromeda, the flying Pegasus and the deadly Medusa.

I will be watching The Clash of the Titans again at Encinas Pavilion, 7 PM, this Saturday November 19. It is a classic fantasy film I am sure every kid will enjoy, and yes, it is much, much better than its recent remake, which you probably might have seen recently on HBO. You can read more about the film here on Wikipedia.

Photo contest

DUN & BRADSTREET PHOTO CHALLENGE

Manila, 25 October 2011 – Dun & Bradstreet Philippines (D&B) is inviting all amateur and professional photographers residing in the Philippines to showcase their talent by submitting entries to the Dun & Bradstreet Photo Challenge. Entries may be entered under any of the following categories: Philippine Skyline, Famous Landmarks and Places in the Philippines, The Global Filipino Businessperson in Action, SMEs: The Backbone of the Philippine Economy, The Power of Information, BPOs as a major driving force in economy growth. Multiple entries per contestant are allowed.

Those interested to join may view the complete mechanics and submit their entries by visiting the Dun & Bradstreet Photo Challenge website at dnb.com.ph/photochallenge. The contest runs from October 20 to November 20, 2011. Contest winners will become proud new owners of Canon digital cameras.

Upcoming TESDA training at the municipality

Below are the upcoming trainings to be undertaken by the municipality. If you are interested or have some inquiries, please see PESO Manager Rowena Fajardo at Civil Registrar's Office (tel 311-1061)

TVET Schedule for the last quarter of CY 2011

1. Shielded Metal Arc Welding NC II (SMAW)
2. Electrical Installation & Maintenance NC II (EIM)
3. Carpentry NC II

Community-Based Training for Enterprise Development (CBTED) & AHMP Program

1. Hydroponic Gardening
2. Gulayan sa Paaralan & Barangay
3. Pili Shellcraft & Fashion Accessories Production
4. Paper Recycling