The Boy Who Stutters

When the Filipino masses were mobilizing towards Malacañang, the Marcoses had to evade. Having jewelry at her reach and diapers of her grandchild in a bag, Imelda swiftly slipped some diamonds into the diapers before finally fleeing through the helicopter. That saved them from the coming persecution. Or at least, that’s what she paid for the lawyers. [READ THE UPDATED VERSION HERE:  Kingmaker (2019) Film Review: Diamonds in Diapers – SineSalita (wordpress.com)  ] The Kingmaker , a 2019 documentary film by the American Filmmaker Lauren Greenfield, presents a fair and safe exposition of the extravagant, the insane, and the Imeldific history of the Marcoses. Aside from new video footage from the Martial Law era, exclusive access to Imelda’s splendor, and compelling testimonials from political figures, the film did not offer anything else but a renewal of rage . What Kingmaker achieves is the reminder to Filipinos about the atrocities, the excesses, and the extreme narrat...

A whole new world - where extremities are found as the spectrum prevails. The Alter world has a different atmosphere, but not so different from the society that objectifies the human body and indulges in superficiality. Love and Lust try to co-exist - hence not in that order or sort but in serendipity and desire. A curious teen, confused ones, a lost student, a young professional, pressured peer, a working lad, contractual urban poor, a government employee, passive ones, a married man, separated husband, a medical student, and a nurse. A call center agent, a father to one, two, and three, a massage therapist and a tripper. A teacher, an artist, a writer, a book designer, and actor. A double degree holder and single ones. A musician and a director. From slender wood to solid trunk, the age of the tree does not dictate no one. For the height of the stem complements its branch. Grow. Grow freely and surprise the eyes. The Alter world is the opposite of the exposed. Faces are blu...

“Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.”  In chapter one: The Promise, C. Wright Mills has situated the ‘troubles’ and ‘issues’ that burden man and his world. As he identifies the problem, Mills is able to set an impetus for a better world – even it is yet to be realized. A better world has always been the goal, or is it? History proves that humanity tried and failed; history then teaches the posterity to try again. One has to understand the significance of learning from history and applying certain changes personally for the dream to materialize. It takes a personal evaluation for a collective salvation. Man cannot be isolated from society as a society cannot isolate man from it. And grasping this idea, recognizing the relations between time and people, and being aware of the mechanisms of societal structures and individual dispositions are what drive the sociological imagination. As a premise, the already-...

“Don’t fix the broken, you’ll end up the same way.” “I’m not fixing you. I actually like you, the way you are.” Guess what! I have been on both spectra. At times, I wasn’t sure whether I said that or I was the one who replied. Being single this year has placed me in passiveness, but that doesn’t mean I never became active. I tried. I surely tried. I partly regret some people for I neglected them, or they neglected me that’s why I regret them now. It’s shameful to admit that either is almost always the case. This is the third year-ender entry since the inception of this blog and it is getting more personal.  Just a disclaimer.  My head aches. Last year I wrote about heartaches and asked ‘who has a heart that doesn’t ache?’ I guess our heads are no better bearer. What’s worse - being emotionally bruised or physically scarred? I realized pain is still compared even the agony is shared. My head aches and my eyes have no tears to shed. Don’t make me count t...

You might have been wondering if why I didn’t have any letter this week. I didn’t forget it at all. I planned it so you would ask yourself. Or maybe I really have forgotten it and I missed writing to you one. Whatever my reasons are or whatsoever excuses I have, don’t be sad because I have this one for you. For the love of my life, it’s been three months of being together. Three months seemed so fast that I didn’t notice that we have changed maturely and immaturely at the same time. We were thinking what if we didn’t actually end up like this and we didn’t happen. You, being the old Faith I knew, and I, being the same old Ace you all knew. You have affected me in several ways I can’t put words into. You have affected me in several ways I didn’t expect from you. You have affected me in several ways I haven’t known you could do.  And I have affected you so much that you become addicted to me. I guess you are now addicted to the feeling I let you feel and not to only the idea of ...

             Have you ever wanted to watch a movie but due to financial restraints and priority conditions you weren’t able to? Money and Time are indeed prerogatives which everyone does not equally have. In times where the Philippine cinema and film industry is still progressing, or to put it bluntly, struggling for a legitimate identity and worthy recognition, finding ways to attain such goals is not only crucial but also necessary. For instance, efforts by national agencies and organizations like Film Development Council of the Philippines, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Cultural Center of the Philippines, and Cinemalaya, which have greatly contributed, in their respective dispositions, to the historical development and critical progress of Philippine cinema and film industry still need further reinforcements to achieve its ‘greatest glory’. Having a macro-perspective in finding means to help solve the said struggle, granting free t...

As you walk your way to work, someone hands you a small device. Before you could even see the person and ask what it is, the stranger has mysteriously vanished. Intriguing enough, you kept it until you reached your workplace. You finally recognized it to be a flash drive so you plugged it into your computer and checked what it is. BLUEPRINT OF TIME MACHINE, it says. You opened it and acknowledged that it is; you say so because you are a scientist.             Addressing all scientific complications ever conceived, the blueprint can indeed give a true time machine upon examining – theoretically and scientifically. However, you found a disclaimer at the end that once a time machine is constructed from the blueprint, it will start another world war with a note of PEOPLE FROM THE FUTURE. If the note is rendered true, you then concluded that it was probably someone from the future who gave the source material to you.   Now, s...

“If the field does not provide food for the peasant, then burn every stack of wheat from that field” (Allama Iqbal).  When everything has become political, there is always a huge gap between a majority and the minorities where the latter is more often than not, if not always, oppressed by the former. This has always been the case since time immemorial; the world history proves this with regards to the beginning of political thought and social formations which formed civilizations across lands. From the Eurocentric view of political economy to the modern perspective of the world order, the greed for power in the form of wealth and through politics is greatly sought and lived by people of today and especially of the past. Such ideology for power and domination has caused an immense conflict from people with different dogma, such that of the historically, culturally, and politically marginalized sectors of society. In the context of the Philippines, just like other colonized st...