The crumbling of cities —

Yelling, shouting for peace

Stumbling, fumbling for pieces

Of meat and medicine for the sick.

This is the night in Manila,

the dark dirty alleys hidden between

plastered walls that can’t be seen.

Bronze! Silver! Gold!

Children are all sold

So a man can taste a bottle of ale,

And buy women that are on sale.

A child saw his father,

Shot in the head by a police officer,

The man slips something in his father’s pocket,

And the child’s tears unseen from his father’s dead socket.

Tenants and sky towers, oh how

trees sang glorifying the city father

as souls tethered and chained with one another.

Do not peek in a dollhouse of husband and wife,

A happy family, everything is nice.

Unless you peek behind their curtains, knowing it’s not right.

And find out they’re made of plastic and bruises hidden from sight.

A man was given a wrong ideality,

Hide it behind the closet or you shall be sent to hell for eternity,

The society robbed him from his identity,

And ended up destroying himself entirely.

Unheard dreams and voices yet

Blessed are those who stole gold

Feasting, eating as another soul is sold.

Blessed are those who lived in high places,

Hidden behind a façade; a masked smile on their faces,

As caskets piled in front of their thrones

One after another; made of bones.

Comments

Since time immemorial, Thomasians had widely known a particular old and cramped place along the well-lit street of Asturias — there stands an almost hundred year old house. It’s a good place for hanging out with friends, filled with exploding dim colored lights and loud music. But have you ever wondered why a simple house stopped becoming a place to call home, and instead became a place stuffed with noise and lots of stingy alcoholic beverages?

Perhaps being one of the most overlooked stories, the story behind the place we call, “Tapsi,” is darker as we had expected. The house was built in the early 1900s where the clash of Spanish and American Colonization happened. It was owned by a mestizo who had his wife killed inside the very place they call home during the Second World War. Since then, the house has been isolated and never been visited by anyone, but only the owner stayed home. He lived there until the last of his breath, and it was said that before he sold it to a rich family during the 1980s, he warned them of “Echoes and bloodshed,” but the new owners didn’t listen. Every night the new family that started to reside in there were haunted by blood curdling cries and sudden gunshots that can be heard randomly at night. When they look around the house, they find nothing. There’s no person crying, neither is there someone with a gun.

Ultimately terrified by the now haunted house, the new owners kindled an idea. To turn it into a restaurant-bar kind of place. And so they began their business of starting up a resto-bar inside the house. As time passes by, more customers came in and it became one of the busiest places around UST during nighttime. Since then, the cries and gunshots weren’t heard again…or maybe we just don’t hear it, because the banging of the loud music from the speakers and the voices of the constant chit-chatting students conceals the horrifying history of Tapsi.

Comments

A Thomasian alumnus and veteran entertainment writer expressed his dismay over the state’s lack of support for the country’s movie and entertainment industry.

Boy Villasanta, in an exclusive interview with TomasinoWeb  said that the work situation of movie reporters is “really down the ground” during the “Entertainment Writing in the Philippines in the Advent of Social Media” lecture hosted by the UST Publishing House held at the UST Miguel de Benavides Library Auditorium, Thursday, October 17.

“How can, like for instance in our case, the labor situation of movie reporters is really something else, it’s really down the ground. We are not paid accordingly, except perhaps if you are a member of a major media organization, who pays well, or which pays well, noh?” he said.

In his talk, the author of “EXPOSÉ: Peryodismong Pampelikula sa Pilipinas (Movie Reporting in the Philippines)” defined entertainment writing as a profession which gives voice about popular celebrities in television and movies.

“Entertainment writing – ang mga sinusulat namin ay mga artista sa telebisyon, sa pelikula, syempre talagang mga sikat sila,” Villasanta said.

Villasanta also shared that, “This is a very good venue for us movie writers, who are not usually given the space to […] like in print, in broadcast, to express topics which are relevant, more relatable to the audience, not only giving them news on movie stars but how do we contextualize their lives in relation to the ordinary lives of other people.”

He also recalled his early days on TV Patrol, ABS CBN’s TV news program, after the EDSA Revolution.

“After the EDSA Revolution, ABS CBN was restored, and I was already part of it [doing “Balita Ngayon.”] So bago siya mag TV Patrol, ang konsepto niya ay tabloid air at alam naman nating ang tabloid ay napaka-popular hanggang ngayon,” he said.

He then added how people started to patronize TV Patrol by adding two segments such as entertainment news and police report.

“Noong nag-air yung TV Patrol, halos lahat ng mga tao naging interesado sa news dahil hinaluan ito ng dalawang bagong segment na hindi laging ginagawa noong pre-martial law days o kahit noong bago mag-EDSA Revolution. So ginawan nila ng konsepto na lagyan natin ng entertainment news atsaka police report,” Villasanta said.

Entertainment writing on popular culture

Villasanta also mentioned the three basis on determining how popular a certain culture is, in reference to the concept made by sociology doctor Ricardo Abad.

“Yung una is yung statistical. Popular ang isang kultura kung ito ay nasusukat sa ratings – halimbawa pwedeng sa mga radio program, mga TV shows… Kahit yung ngayon yung ratings sa mga politiko ‘diba? So napu-pulsuhan ng lahat kung sino ang popular, […] kung sino yung sikat,” he said.

According to Villasanta, the second basis is the elitist method wherein entertainment writing is regarded as third class, or third rate.

“Ang ikalawang panuntunan na ginamit ni Ricardo Abad ay yung tungkol sa elitistang pamamaraan na ito, kung saan itinuturing ang uring ito na mababang klase ang popular culture […] Ewan ko kung kayo ay sasang-ayon dyan na ang popular culture ay mababa sa tingin ng mga elitist,” Villasanta expressed.

Meanwhile, Villasanta described the third basis, in relation to political concept: “Ang popular na kultura ay tunggalian ng pangmalawakang aliwan na nagluluklok sa lehitimasyon ng naghaharing-uring ideya sa lipunan o ang tinatawag na “pessimist view.”

Bilingualism on entertainment writing

On the other hand, an award winning writer, and UST Journalism Cum Laude graduate, Danny Vibas, talked about bilingual writing in entertainment journalism.

“Bilingualism in entertainment journalism? The broader term is journalism. Is entertainment writing journalism? Yes, it is journalism, it is practiced by respectable people as respectable as lawyers,” Vibas said.

Vibas, who is a bilingual writer, expressed that bilingual writing may also be a language, paired with other native languages.

“It does not [have to be] just in English or in Filipino, pwede namang iba, pwedeng English at Ilokano, pwedeng Filipino at Ilokano, pwedeng Filipino at Hilagaynon – yung lang ang ibig sabihin ng bilingual writing for entertainment.

Furthermore, UST Journalism alumna, and entertainment writer, Pilar Mateo, and entertainment editor, Art Tapalla were also speakers during the said forum. Vhey Tapia

Comments