...the Oscar hopeful

'Ang Babae sa Septic Tank' makes it to Oscars shortlist

 

abs-cbnNEWS.com

 10/15/2011

 

 

Actress-comedienne Eugene Domingo (center), lead star of "Ang Babae sa Septic Tank," with other Cinemalaya 2011 winners. Photo by Kiko Cabuena

MANILA, Philippines – Cinemalaya 2011 Best Film "Ang Babae sa Septic Tank" (The Woman in the Septic Tank) has made it to the shortlist of films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Academy Awards.

The film is one of the 63 entries in the said category.

"Ang Babae sa Septic Tank" tells the story of three filmmakers who did a pre-production, a courtesy call on their lead actress (played by Eugene Domingo) and an ocular inspection of the Payatas dumpsite, their film's major location.

Aside from Best Film, the movie also won Best Actress (Domingo), Best Director (Marlon Rivera), Best Screenplay (Chris Martinez) and Audience Choice Award in the New Breed Category at the 7th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.

Star Cinema, ABS-CBN's movie outfit, distributed the film in mainstream theaters last August. -- Report from ABS-CBN North America News Bureau

...the Sci-Olympiad gold medalist at Modena

RP bags first Sci-Olympiad gold in Italy

 

by Zita Baron,

ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau

 10/15/2011

 

 

MODENA, Italy - Four young aspiring Filipino scientists won medals, including the first ever gold for the Philippines, at the 5th International Earth Science Olympiad (IESO) held here last September.

 

 

Four young aspiring Filipino scientists won medals, including the first ever gold for the Philippines, at the 5th International Earth Science Olympiad (IESO) held here last September/Zita Baron, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau

The victory brought joy for the young achievers as they fulfilled their personal dreams and gave glory to the Philippines.

“I feel really happy and proud because it is the first time that the Philippines got a gold medal and this just proves that the Filipinos can be at par with other countries or even be better than them,” said gold medalist Williard Joshua Jose from the Philippine Science High School main campus.

Jose was also a silver medalist in the 7th International Junior Science Olympiad in Nigeria last year.

“We went here to Italy bringing the hope of giving honor to our country and I’m happy we did not fail and we’re able to bring her honor and happier because this is the first time that the Philippines got four medals out of four,” added silver medalist Christopher Jan Landicho of the Philippine Science High School–Bicol Region Campus.

The other silver medalist, Charles Kevin Tiu of Saint Jude Catholic School Manila, in addition takes pride in being an inspiration to others to appreciate earth science.

“I feel happy because I was able to represent my country and I hope that I serve as inspiration to all young people to appreciate and love science especially earth science” said Tiu.

Bronze medalist John Allan Olesco from Aquinas University science-oriented high school in Legazpi City, the youngest in the team, quipped: “with perseverance, you can achieve and you can reach for your dreams.”

Though their personal motivation varies, they share a common desire and wish that their victory may inspire other young people to treasure whatever interest they may have for earth science and further cultivate their knowledge.

The four were joined by two mentors – Prof. Miguel Cano of Bicol University and Dr. Marietta De Leon of UP Diliman.

Cano, who led the Philippine delegation to the 5th IESO, was the chair of the 2nd IESO held in the Philippines in 2008, while De Leon holds two doctorate degrees (Geology and Education).

The Philippine team was joined by Dr. Helen Caintic, current director of Philippine Science High School main campus as an observer.

The 5th IESO

The IESO, which aims to promote awareness and appreciation for geosciences, is one of the major activities of the International Geoscience Education Organization or IGEO and is spearheaded by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS).

It is an annual world competition for young people 18 years of age or below. The participants are trained and their knowledge tested in different fields of geosciences which include geology,
geophysics, meteorology, oceanography, terrestrial astronomy and environmental sciences.

“Earth Science Renaissance: Science, Environment and Art” is this year’s theme, which drew 26 competing countries and 104 students contestants and 9 observer countries. Every competing country delegation is composed of four members.

The actual competition is divided into two parts. The first part is the theoretical examination which measures or tests the extent of knowledge or information a contestant has on the particular field of geoscience. The second part is the practical examination where the participant conducts a scientific investigation in order to provide solution to the problem fielded.

The Philippines has actively participated since the IESO’s inception in 2007. It has hosted the 2nd IESO in 2008 which was held in Legazpi City, Bicol Region.

The Philippines hopes to continue to be an active IESO participant, but there is the issue of lack of funding. Luckily, there are private organizations which are keen on supporting this kind of undertaking.

“When we go to South America next year, we need a lot of funding. We’re very thankful to the mining companies who supported us financially like Philex Mining, Rapu-Rapu Mining, Hope Christian High school, Geological Society of the Philippines, and here in Italy we have been supported by the Apo Central,” Cano said.

The country is now preparing for the next competition, as four students who will represent the Philippines in 2012 IESO in Buenos Aires, Argentina have already been chosen.

...the World Young Readers Prize recipients

Pinoy couple wins int'l publisher's award

abs-cbnNEWS.com

Posted at 10/15/2011

VIENNA, AUSTRIA - Two Filipinos received an award at the 2011 World Young Reader Prize Celebration, organized by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in Vienna.

Sinag Publishing and Printing Services based in Laguna province is owned by husband and wife tandem Ruel and Raia Landicho.The couple recently received an award for winning the Nataza Prize during the 2011 World Young Reader Prize celebration, organized by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) in Vienna/King Bueno, correspondent, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau

Ruel Landicho and wife Raia, owners of Sinag Publishing and Printing Services from Calamba City, Laguna province, bagged the Nataza Prize which was awarded at the 63rd World Newspaper Congress and 18th World Editors Forum at the Reed Exhibitions Wien in Vienna.

“So kung ang isang maliit na negosyante tulad po namin kayang makakuha ng international recognition by giving social responsibility programs that work, dapat po siguro lahat ng mga entrepreneurs mag envision din ng ganun,” Raia said.

In her speech, Raia dedicated their win to her father “who serves as our inspiration everyday”.

The Nataza Prize is named after Nataza Vuckovic Lesendric (1966-2011), a Serbian who founded and ran a distribution system and then a printing plant for the independent press under the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. She introduced modern practices to the management of both operations while supporting press freedom and introducing this concept to the younger generation.

“So I wanted to see if there were cases like that and I went online and I saw Sinag. So, I especially encouraged them to submit for the prize. Although there were others as well, but they won,” said WAN-IFRA Director, Dr. Aralynn McMane.

Ruel said they do not know yet the effect the award would have on their business and personal life.

“Pero ang isa sa natitiyak naming, mas mapapaunlad namin ito, resulta ng pagkapanalo namin, mas may kredibilidad kami para maglunsad uli ng mas malawak na training seminars,” he said.

More than being nervous, Raia said she thought of her late father who started it all.

“My dad just recently passed away. He really started it all. He was the one. Kung nandito si Itay parang super saya po nung tatay ko. Para sa amin, sana nakita niya yung pagkakatawag sa amin because nobody imagined this would happen to us. So I feel na beyond po doon sa personal malaking bagay po to sa ating mga Pilipino,” Raia said.

Raia’s father established the publishing plant where 2 community newspapers—“Ang Tambuling Batangas” and “Ang Caviteno News Weekly”—are being printed.

“Naisip namin na yung social responsibility program namin connected po doon sa journalism. So we thought of giving free journalism seminars doon sa mga kabataan sa community namin sa Calamba.

We usually tie up with the Department of Education, they would give us free venues and they would help us invite students,” said Raia.

Meanwhile, McMane only has good words for journalists in the Philippines.

“We are very proud of the Philippines and the bravery that journalists have shown there. We know some great newspapers in that country so I have great hopes for the Philippine press to just even get better,” McMae said. Report from King Bueno, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau correspondent

...the global runner

Cesar Guarin helps street kids as he runs around the world

ROSE-AN JESSICA DIOQUINO

GMA News

10/14/2011

Filipino ultra-marathoner and entrepreneur Cesar Guarin is helping raise funds for street children as he embarks on the Australia leg of his run around the world.

Guarin, president and general manager of CEJOGUA Sports Corporation (CSC), is set to become the first Filipino, first Asian, and fourth person in history to run around the world.

The popular line of sports wear "iSports BOTAK, " is the premiere trademark of CSC.

An alumnus of the University of the Philippines, Guarin will fly to Sydney, Australia on October 15, Saturday, for the fifth leg of his 23,000-kilometer (km) "Global Run" project.

Toughest run ever

The Global Run is considered as the world's toughest run ever.

Tha one-of-a-kind marathon began in 1983 and will end in 2016.

Guarin has run 11,583 kilometers in the four legs of his ultra marathon, which he embarked on after an injury disqualified him joining the Olympics.

He has already finished the first four legs of his Global Run

Trans Pilipinas in 1983;

Trans USA in 1985;

Trans Europe in 1992; and

US-Canada in 2009.

Guarin will run 2,053 kms in the Trans Australia marathon, the fifth leg of his Global Run.

For the first time, Guarin is dedicating his run help raise funds for street children.

After completing the Trans Australia leg, he will run across:

the Middle East (2012);

England-Norway (2012);

Finland-Moscow (2013);

Egypt-Israel-Jordan (2013);

Japan-Korea (2014);

India-Myanmar (2014); and

Thailand-Singapore (2015).

According to the Global Run website, Guarin trains by running eight hours a day for at least one to three months.

Tackling Australia's roads

Guarin and his team will be in Australia for 44 days, 37 of which to be spent on the road.

The running enthusiast will begin running in Melbourne on Oct. 23 and expects to close the marathon in Brisbane on Dec. 3.

However, Guarin will use six to seven rest days to meet with the Filipino community and the government in Australia.

“We want to appreciate the global Filipino community for helping the country. That’s my inspiration—to tell them ‘Thank you.’ And also to thank the host country for giving them jobs" he said.

Guarin added that they hope Filipinos will run with them in the first and last few kilometers of the race.

He also shared his hopes to visit the Australian Embassy, adding that Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. has endorsed them to the Foreign Affairs department.

Running for a cause

Guarin told GMA News that his previous runs were more of a personal project.

““This is the start, to make it a fund-raising [project] to reduce the number of children on the streets," he said.

Guarin said they have tied up with organizations helping street children by offering sports development programs.

“’Yun kasi ‘yung core competency namin. Ako, I’m a runner. My passion is running," he said.

He hopes not only to get children off the streets but to inspire them to aim for a better life.

“I think it will be a good way to help less fortunate children, if we get them interested na mangarap. Karamihan kasi wala nang pangarap, [gusto lang] mag-survive," he said. “We want to [build their] interest in life, to aspire."

The Global Run site said a fundraising will be dedicated to street children because "the plight of children in modern-day Philippines is extremely alarming."

"An estimated number of 12.8 million children under the age of 15 are living in poverty, an increase of one million over a three-year period. Many children find themselves living on the streets, with no parents to guide them or provide for them," the site said.

The Global Run's “Batang Pangarap" sports development program hopes to instill in chilren the value of discipline, excellence, and passion. - with Veronica Pulumbarit, GMA News

...the Asian film fest awardee

Iranian, Filipino take top Asian film awards

By Mathew Scott | AFP News
14 October 2011

An Iranian film that reveals the "heart and soul" of its director has shared the top award with a production from the Philippines at Asia's largest cinematic event.

(From L) Directors Kim Joong-Hyun, Loy Arcenas, Stanley Park, Tongpong Chantarangkul, Hitoshi Kitagawa, Mangesh Hadawale, Kamila Andini, Morteza Farshbaf, Midi Z, Tom Shuyu Lin, Siu Pham and Aruna Jayawardana attend a directors presentation at the Shinsegae Centumcity cultural hall during the 16th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), on October 10

Morteza Farshbaf’s "Mourning" was handed one of two US$30,000 prizes given in the New Currents award at the 16th Busan International Film Festival and the first-time director said he hoped his film revealed something of the life of common people in his homeland to the world.

"Mourning" follows the story of a deaf-mute couple who left to care for a young boy after his parents are killed in a car accident.

"It took a lot of people a lot of time to make this film and I am just thankful to everyone who helped me along the way," said Farshbaf.

"There is a lot of myself in this film -- my heart and my soul -- so I am honoured by the fact that this festival chose my film to be in this competition."

New Currents jury head Yonfan, the veteran Chinese director noted for such productions as the arthouse hit "Prince of Tears", said the 13 films representing 12 countries that made it into the final field were so good they had presented unique problems.

"After the first round of selections the jury had only narrowed that field of 13 down to 10, so I think that shows how strong this year'€™s selections were," the director said.
'
The award -- which hands out two US$30,000 prizes to first- or second-time Asian directors -- was shared by first-time Filipino director Loy Arcenas with his family drama "Nino", which focuses on how people are pulled apart by greed.

An acclaimed New York-based production designer and theatre director, Arcenas said he had turned to cinema because the medium allowed him to explore the nature of human relationships.

"I have always been interested in chronicling human relationships and that is what I have tried to do with this film," he said. "I think it is a very small, quiet film but I have tried to show how we as people relate to each other."

The Busan festival’s other main prize -- the US$30,000 Flash Forward prize for young non-Asian filmmakers -- was taken by Italian director Guido Lombardi who presented the gritty drama "La Bas -- A Criminal Education".

The nine-day Busan festival closes Friday.

...the midwife hero

Fil-Am midwife Robin Lim among Top 10 CNN heroes

ROSE-AN JESSICA DIOQUINO, GMA News
10/13/2011



A Filipino-American midwife — Robin Lim — has made it to the Top 10 of this year’s "CNN Heroes" for providing free maternal healthcare to thousands of poor women in Indonesia.

According to CNN, Lim, whose mother is a Filipino-Chinese, put up “birthing sanctuaries" for Indonesians in need of maternal and general health care.

In her “Meet the Hero" interview, Lim said it is common in Indonesia to hold babies in the hospital until the bills have been paid.

Lim, 54, said mothers should only worry about delivering their babies safely and not about how they should pay the hospital where they gave birth.

With average families in Indonesia earning only $8 a day, many cannot afford birthing services in hospitals, which can cost between $70 and $700. Thus, the country holds high maternal and infant mortality rates.

Lim, along with nine other “ordinary" citizens who have made differences in their communities, will all receive a $50, 000 grant and will be honored at an “All-Star Tribute" on December 11.

They are vying for online votes to become the fifth CNN Hero of the Year, which comes with an additional $250, 000. Voting is open until Dec. 7.

In 2009, Filipino Efren Peñaflorida was named CNN Hero of the Year for his Kariton classroom project, which brought the classrooms to children in the streets.

‘Calling’

Known in the area by the local term “Ibu" or mother, Lim began helping pregnant Indonesian women and their babies in 1994, when she and her brood of eight were still settling into the village of Nyuh Kuning near Bali.

The author and midwife easily made a home in the Asian country, having been raised in the Philippines while her father was stationed in Indonesia with the US military.

“When two baby owls fell out of a coconut tree and into my care, the villagers took it as an omen that I should become their new midwife," Lim told the online magazine, STEPS.

While it was unexpected, Lim— who first assisted local midwives in home-based childbirths— decided to return to the US to get a professional certification.

She told STEPS that she took the turn of events as a “calling" to follow in the footsteps of her maternal grandmother, Vicenta Munar Lim, who served as “healer and baby catcher for her people" in Baguio, even after the second World War.

Lim said she owes her values from her “Nanang" Vicenta and her Filipino-Chinese mother, who both taught her the gift of kindness to self and to others.

“My grandmother taught me to be a peaceful warrior. She gave me permission at a very young age to always follow my heart. That’s been my life’s greatest gift," she said.

‘With respect and kindness’

With the Balinese community and their friends rallying behind them, Lim and her husband put up the first clinic of Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Health Mother Earth Foundation) in 2003.

The tsunami tragedy a year later led to the establishment of a smaller clinic in Aceh.

These “birthing sanctuaries"—which also offers general medical services—work on a 24-hour basis and has collectively assisted in 5, 000 births.

Bumi Sehat has earned its share of foreigners and Indonesian celebrities—who all donate for the foundation— but Lim told CNN that about 80 percent of patients who come in express their gratitude with “a few mangoes."

“Rock star or prostitute, everyone gets treated [like a] VIP at Bumi Sehat... with kindness and respect," she said.

‘Reinvent their lives’

Before moving to Bali, Lim was a respected author with two books on maternal matters and a novel titled “Butterfly People." She lived in Hawaii with her husband and their eight children.

However, Lim was “just crushed" by the deaths of three special women in her life, including her sister, who succumbed to a complication that also killed the baby she was carrying.

“But I decided not to get angry. I decided to become part of the solution. If I could help even one family prevent the loss of a mother or a child, I would do that. I would dedicate might life to it," she told CNN.

Lim and her husband sold their house and the whole family trooped to Bali to “reinvent their lives." - with Gayna Kumar, VVP, GMA News

...the Azkal's ranking

Azkals see higher FIFA ranking next week

abs-cbnNEWS.com

10/13/2011

 

 

MANILA, Philippines – FIFA will release its world ranking for men’s football next week.

The Philippine Azkals are hoping to improve its world ranking, especially after they beat higher ranked-Nepal, 4-0, last Tuesday.

The Philippines is currently ranked 166 in the world.

Nepal, ranked 135th by FIFA, is the highest-ranked team among the Azkals' most recent victims.

Nepal bowed to the Philippines, 4-0, in a friendly game at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila.

Apart from the game against Nepal, the Azkals also had a relatively successful finish in the 2011 Long Teng Cup.

They held Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei to successive draws, then beat Macau, 2-0, en route to a 2nd-place finish in the tournament.

The only loss suffered by the Philippines in its recent matches was its 0-2 defeat to Singapore.