CALIFORNIA, USA — People showed up to protest government spending, bailouts, taxes, and the economic crisis in the United States.
Do you have a similar video, photo or story? Send it to dropbox.yousendit.com/inquirerbox.
By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net
Last December, blogger Mike Garcia posted on Multiply an entry about a retired janitor from the University of the Philippines Diliman.
People then re-posted the story in their own blogs, while some forwarded it to various mailing lists.
This story eventually got the attention of the Filipino cyberspace community, in particular the university’s alumni.
Meliton Zamora or “Mang Mel” has been the university’s janitor for four decades. But after he retired, he was informed that he would only get about 90 centavos as retirement pay for 171 days.
He also revealed that he has been guarantor for several UP student loans.
COMFORTABLE shoes and sturdy umbrellas are essential things you need when you’re out job-hunting. But have you seen someone who is out hunting for worn-out shoes and broken umbrellas?
One morning, I saw this man with curly long hair carrying a backpack and some umbrellas, walking alone in Kalaw Avenue. What caught my attention was a square tarpaulin attached to his backpack that says: “Repair shoes payong tahi sandals bumabasa ng kapalaran.” In English, that roughly translates to, “I repair shoes, umbrellas, sandals, and I can also read your fortune.”
His name is Felix Cerbito, 59 years old, a native of Northern Samar. Cerbito said he lives and works in the roadsides and walkways of Metro Manila.
By Marjorie Gorospe
INQUIRER.net
ROAMING around a historical place like Intramuros can be more nostalgic if you take a ride on a “kalesa” or a horse-drawn carriage. No need to hire a tour guide because your English-speaking kutsero or coachman can definitely give you background of this historic place.
In my recent tour of the Intramuros, I met Emiliano Ortaleza, a coachman for 40 years. Always ready with a smile and a warm greeting to potential customers, Ortaleza has been doing this job to earn enough money to get by every day.
Ortaleza goes around Intramuros using a borrowed kalesa and a horse named Alasan.
YouTube singing sensation turned international star Charice Pempengco returns to Manila for a one-night concert for Filipino fans. An up-and-coming international artist, Pempengco has performed with foreign artists like David Foster, Celine Dion, Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli. She has appeared in popular television shows including Oprah. In this video, INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Anna Valmero talks to Pempengco about her plans.
VICE President Noli De Castro, a Black Nazarene devotee, shares his thoughts on the annual feast and on this year’s preparations. As in previous years, De Castro says he offers a prayer to the image. Video taken by INQUIRER.net reporter Thea Alberto.
Thousands of devotees of the Black Nazarene attend mass at the Quirino grandstand. Mostly dressed in maroon and yellow, throngs of young and old devotees join the procession, blocking the path of the Black Nazarene as it inches its way to the Quiapo Church. Photos taken by INQUIRER.net reporters Thea Alberto, Izah Morales, Lawrence Casiraya and Marjorie Gorospe.
For every plate of steamed rice on the table, cups of sweat were poured to plant, care for, harvest and process these golden grains. The true heroes who put rice on our tables can be found in Nueva Ecija, the rice capital of the Philippines. INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Anna Valmero asks farmers in the rice fields of Sta. Rosa about their concerns and humble wishes. Video taken by INQUIRER.net production specialists Janie Christine Octia and Rastle Lozano with Lawrence Casiraya and Leo Magno. Royalty-free music courtesy of Kevin MacLeod.
HOW did the economic crunch affect Filipinos’celebration of the coming of the new year? INQUIRER.net VDO went to different places to ask what adjustments Filipinos made to maintain a festive mood while tightening their belts. As expected, fireworks were still aplenty, and injuries were still reported. Video and photos taken by Janie Christine Octia, Izah Morales, Anna Valmero, Marjorie Gorospe, Lawrence Casiraya, Erwin Oliva and Leo Magno.
Also, hundreds fill up the plaza of Eastwood City in Libis with their eyes on the clock tower for the countdown to 2009. Meanwhile, the sleepy town of Mangaldan in Pangasinan wakes up when a Judas Belt firecracker combination worth P20,000 was set off, lasting for a little more than a minute. In Imus, Cavite, residents welcome the new year and turn the streets into a virtual war zone. Video taken by Leo Magno, Erwin Oliva and Alex Villafania of INQUIRER.net VDO.
By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net
YOU only have a few seconds to light a 5-star and move away before it explodes. He can make one with a few more seconds to spare.
Seven seconds, to be exact, was all it took for Dennis Asturias to get a piece of paper, take a pinch of pulbura — a chemical concoction of potassium chlorate and sulfur, or referring to it as “devil” (”Yun pampasabog”) — with his silvery fingers, fold it a couple of times in the process putting the mitsa or fuse (that piece of coiled string wrapped in red) and finally chuck it in a cardboard box already full to the brim with thousands of 5-stars he has made.
The speed by which he can make these deadly firecrackers is nothing short of amazing, considering he uses his bare hands — no gloves, nothing to protect his fingers, only a towel wrapped around his head to wipe his sweaty arms.
In a town where 80 percent of the population is involved in the production of firecrackers, it shouldn’t be difficult to find people like him who can finish a few boxes of 5-stars in a day.
The boxes are used packaging for cigarettes, I couldn’t help but notice the irony in that.
Dennis is from Pulong Buhangin, a remote barangay of Santa Maria, Bulacan, acknowledged as the center of Bulacan’s fireworks industry.
Pulong Buhangin, therefore, is the core of this industry because this is the production hub. Don’t expect to find gated factories, though. Apparently, we discovered during our trip that led us to Pulong Buhangin, fireworks — like Bulacan’s candies and sweets — are literally homemade.
We found Dennis in a small nipa-lined shack in the backyard of, we assumed, was the employer’s house. The wall carried newspaper clippings of his favorite basketball team.
Different shacks like his carried signs like “production,”"wrapping,” and “bodega” or storehouse.
Others like him, meanwhile, were making fountains, kwitis and sawa — the last one is a kind of firecracker, literally a snakelike string of hundreds, sometimes thousands of 5-stars.
Dennis was not at all disrupted even when we were interviewing him while he was pinching, wrapping and chucking — all in one fluid motion.
“Maliit pa lang ako hanapbuhay ko na to. Ten years old pa lang ako tumutulong na ko sa packing (I’ve been doing this work since I was 10),” he says. Dennis is now 27 years old.
But he says this only serves as his sideline, or something he does to earn extra when he can’t find a regular job in Manila. He says he earns about P700 per week.
Of course, the inevitable questions: How many times has he been in any accident involving fireworks? He casually replies, “Di pa ko napuputukan ni minsan (I’ve yet to mishandle firecrackers by accident).”
In this video, he even shares his secret on how to light a 5-star properly and safely.
WHAT would a Civil Engineering Licensure Examination (CELE) board topnotcher construct?
A home for the squatters was the answer of topnotcher Maricel Aquino who garnered a score of 99.1 percent in the November 2008 CELE.
“Ayaw ko kasi ng may palaboy laboy. Nung nagtrabaho ako dito sa Manila, nakita ko ang gulo. May mga squatters. Gusto kong magconstruct ng matitirhan nila [I don’t want to see people loitering in the streets. When I started working here in Manila, I saw chaos. There were many squatters. I want to construct a home for them.],” said Aquino.
