Dabawenyos at ABS CBN's SUPAHDANZ

Three young dancers from Davao City are making waves not just in Manila but all over the country! If you’re a regular Sunday viewer of ASAP at ABS CBN then you have probably seen them for several weeks already, making their moves and winning the hearts of dance enthusiasts including celebrities like Billy Crawford and KC Concepcion who are among the judges of ABS CBN’s SUPAHDANZ Competition.

The dance competition is a nationwide search for new dancers who can best show the Supahdanz moves. They started with 10 groups and after several thrilling Sundays, we only now have 4 crews who will compete for the finals.

Davao’s P.O.D. Dance Crew is composed of Ayana QUIROS Merquita and Jabs and Pen under the guidance of Jhoey Zulueta. The fight is getting too close as it nears the end but as of last Sunday, the P.O.D. remains at the top of the voting.

Dabawenyos and P.O.D. fans are urged to vote for the crew anytime through http://asap.abs-cbn.com/. Look for the ASAP SUPAHDANZ OFF POLL at the middle right side of the page and VOTE FOR POD. You can vote as many times as you want by just copying the link to your browser and following the same steps.

Bloopers

The incident involving the death of Trinidad "Trina" Etong, wife of ABS CBN broadcaster Ted Failon has stirred the whole country specifically the way the Quezon City Police District treated the case and the people involved in the case. The harsh treatment accorded to Ted Failon and his wife's relatives, who were dragged like criminals, gave rise to the fear among ordinary citizens.

Despite the heartaches and the headaches this case has brought not only to Ted Failon here's one amusing blooper involving an interview between a police officer and Alex Santos of ABS CBN just this morning.

Alex Santos was asking a police officer from QCPD if they have aleady ruled if the Trina Etong case was suicide or parricide.

Alex Santos: Sa tingin nyo po ba sir ang suicide ay krimen?

Police officer: Mahirap hong sagutin yan---alangan namang kasuhan natin yung patay!

Ces Drilon, cameraman released by Abu Sayyaf

The release early this morning of ABS CBN reporter Ces Drilon and her cameraman Jimmy Encarnacion as well as Professor Octavio Dimampo was a relief not only to their families but to the Philippine media practitioners as well. Angelo Valderama was released ahead of them several days ago.

Indanan Mayor Alavarez Isnaji's son Jun said nothing was given to the kidnappers except the promise of livelihood projects for their families and the community. The kidnappers earlier asked for a P15 million ransom and even indicated a deadline yesterday morning.

This was not the first time that a member of the 4th Estate was kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf bandits but this was nevertheless a case in point to show the world why the government could not stifle a small bandits group hiding in a small area like Zamboanga. A lot of people are wondering why the Abu Sayyaf still exists even after the kidnapping and the death of some foreigners who were kidnapped in Patikul, Sulu several years ago. Even the US military was not able to do anything about the Abu Sayyaf despite rumors that they would be hunting down the bandits group. Funny because they were able to get the suspected target of a bombing incident in Davao City right under the nose of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

This incident has one again highlighted how dangerous the job of journalists are. Most journalist, especially those in the provinces (including Davao City) do not have insurance coverage and I wonder if the same earnestness to have the kidnap victims released would be shown had it been a member of the provincial media who was kidnapped and not the high profile media personalities like Drilon etal.

Stretching Lastikman's Verbiage

(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Lastikman has captured the hearts of both children and adults not only in Davao but in the whole country, what with his generosity and kindheartedness, not to mention his cinematic transformations on screen from an elastic man to a helicopter, insect, car, cellphone, etc. It is a simple TV series but with plenty of representations from where children can learn from including the villains who represent the 7 deadly sins (GREED-Agaddon, LUST-Mothra, ENVY-Byutiki, SLOTH-Alingasaw, GLUTTONY-Morphino, WRATH-Dr. Jared and PRIDE-Ayessa.)

But lately, the writers of Lastikman seems to be cashing in on the use of Taglish and text Englsh which is not good for children who are just learning the rudiments of the English language. If Lastikman airs longer and with those Taglish words being emphasized like "Ok ba you? Ok na me" or "Here na me"---willmost likely stick to the minds of children viewers, most of whom are already aping such expressions in their daily language use.

As a web content writer, I realized that one of the Filipinos' edge over other outsourcing countries including India is proper English usage. In fact, the ability to speak English properly seems to be an advantage used even by the Overseas Filipino Workers no matter what country they are in. I hope that the production staff of Lastikman will realize this and do something about it or we risk producing children with text or carabao English.

If this is not addressed soon, I may have to punch out Channel 4 from my remote...

Digong vs Nogie

Two Davao political bigwigs clash anew

The conflict between Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte and Davao City 1st District Congressman Prospero “Nogie” Nograles is finally out in the open.

Duterte spent 55 minutes of his “Para sa Masa…” program at ABS CBN last Sunday cussing and berating Nograles for a lot of reasons primarily because of the manhunt against Diwalwal miner Tata Sala. Sala, who has a pending warrant of arrest, helped Duterte’s candidate during the recently-concluded barangay elections.

Despite the warrant, Sala acted like a free man, even campaigning for Talomo barangay captain candidate Alex Vidal (Duterte’s candidate who won) versus Nograles candidate Art Jimenez. Duterte said Nograles used his influence to resurrect Sala’s case and warrant to get back to the latter for campaigning against his candidate last election.

The conflict between the two started as far back as 1988 until they formed a political alliance during last year’s local elections (with the agreement that both will respect each other’s jurisdiction and support each other’s decisions- local politics for Duterte and national politics for Nograles). However, the animosity between the two was resurrected even before the end of the election due to politics again.

Duterte also castigated Nograles for sending local broadcaster Alex Adonis to jail for libel after the latter tackled Nograles alleged trysts with a married television host.

Duterte and Nograles were interviewed during today’s Umagang Kay Ganda TV program with Nograles live at the studio and Duterte on a phone patch. Duterte showed why he is touted as the original bad boy of Davao City when he cussed Nograles on national television saying “Put…Ina ka ngano ginapaburan man nimo ang mga Koreano laban sa mga Pilipino” as he accused Nograles of owning Apo View Hotel and getting a casino franchise for the hotel.