Caretaker Short Film Wins Active Vista Audience Choice Award

Wazzup Pilipinas!

A short film which tackles brotherhood, parenthood and belongingness recently bagged the Audience Choice Award in the Active Vista International Human Rights Film Festival short film competition.

Seymour Sanchez‘s Caretaker tells the story of a new caretaker (Rolando Inocencio) who comes in to replace the previous keeper of a vacation house of a wealthy family. He is a single parent trying to make ends meet while taking care of his two sons (Jomari Angeles and Luis Ruiz). He meets his boss (Raymond Riñoza), the owner of the house, and is informed the family will be using it for the holiday. He starts cleaning the house in preparation for the family’s arrival. Meanwhile, the owner’s son (John Paul Duray) has other plans. The caretaker is caught off-guard when the owner’s son comes home one night, with his fraternity brothers. Moreover, the caretaker is unaware that he is in for a big surprise.

Naglalahong Pamana, a documentary by Lucy Lavirotte, Jerrica Manongdo, Berna Sastrillo, and David Simantov-Levi, won Best Short Film “for giving a relevant, poignant, and sensitive discourse on a tribe’s loss of land and culture because of minings and plantations.” Manongdo also took home the first runner-up trophy for her Ipinanganak na Nakayapak short film “for taking the audience in an uneven yet captivating journey in the joys and struggles of a proletariat.” Meanwhile, Hayop by Robert Mark Liwanag got the second runner-up award “for exposing torture and violence in a harrowing narration.”

Richard Legaspi of Red Room Media Productions received Caretaker‘s award from Lourd de Veyra of film festival organizer DAKILA-Philippine Collective for Modern Heroism on behalf of filmmaker Sanchez during the Alab ng Puso: Stand Up for Human Rights program at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani last December 10.

Kamuning Bakery Opens at SM North Edsa, 1st Branch in 77 years

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Quezon City’s pioneer and iconic bakery Kamuning Bakery Café has opened a new branch on December 23 at SM City North Edsa’s East Bridgeway, 2nd floor, this is its first ever branch in its colorful 77 years history.

Founded in 1939 upon the invitation of Quezon City co-founder the media tycoon Don Alejandro Roces, Kamuning Bakery Café’s founder was Atty. Leticia “Letty” Bonifacio Javier, it was bought and revived in 2014 by writer and realty entrepreneur Wilson Lee Flores.

Kamuning Bakery Café has steadfastly continued its unique pugon-style, artisanal, no-preservatives, all hand-made and Filipino/Spanish baking traditions.

Since September 2015, Kamuning Bakery Café has also hosted the non-partisan “Pandesal Forum” where leaders and newsmakers dialogue with media and intellectuals over pugon-baked breads and excellent Philippine coffee

History of Kamuning Bakery Cafe with intellectuals, artists & reform stalwarts: Kamuning Bakery was founded in 1939 as Quezon City’s first bakery by Atty. Leticia “Letty” Bonifacio Javier and her husband Lt. Marcelo Javier (who died fighting the Japanese invaders of World War II in the Battle of Manila). It was acquired and revived in December 2013 by writer, history buff and realty entrepreneur Wilson Lee Flores, he restored the old cafe on March 20, 2015. Kamuning Bakery Cafe continues its artisanal and pugon or wood-fired brick oven baking.

Among its many colorful clients include pre-war media tycoon Don Alejandro Roces who facilitated sale of gov’t. land in 1939 at 50 centavos per square meter, his son the newspaper publisher & activist Joaquin “Chino” Roces, press freedom stalwart U.P. Dean Armando Malay, the late President Cory C. Aquino, national artists like Nick Joaquin and Levi Celerio, many showbiz celebrities, to a public school student who used to walk here to buy pugon-baked breads and is now the first female Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

For inquiries or suggestions, please call Cafe Tels: 4161637, 9292216, 4126628; Office Tels: 4126685, 4112311, 4151692, 3326066... Wilson Lee Flores 09178481818, 09188077777, 09228321888 or willsoonflourish@gmail.com

*Photo above is the main branch

Hontiveros Lauds 2017 Budget with Historic Debt Audit Provision, Health Reforms

Wazzup Pilipinas!

"A historic first in the history of the Philippine budget system."

This is how Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros described the passage of the 2017 national government budget that contains a special provision mandating Congress to conduct a comprehensive audit of the country's debt.

The said provision tasked the Congressional Oversight Committee on Overseas Development Assistance to conduct a debt audit to determine the legitimacy of a list of loan agreements challenged as illegitimate. The said debt audit will be conducted in the 2017 fiscal year.

Hontiveros, who introduced the said general provision, said that the process of a debt audit is an important policy tool to unburden the Filipino people from paying onerous and illegitimate debts and beef up funding for social service spending.

"This is truly a historic first. With this provision, we commit to diligently scrutinize the country’s debts if they are indeed in accordance with the principles on promoting responsible sovereign lending and borrowing by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and repudiate the illegitimate part of our overall debt," Hontiveros said.

"I would like to commend the Senate Finance Committee chaired by Senator Loren Legarda, my fellow senators, the Executive branch and the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) for supporting the inclusion of this provision in our national budget," Hontiveros added.