REACTION. A certain Monmon Ocampo, who claims to be an avid Spotlighter, texted his reaction to our article here last Monday about the need to revive the Cebuano/Visayan film industry. He wrote that this dream can never be achieved if there is no government support to the initiative from the private sector. In other words, he is espousing for a public-private partnership (PPP) in the effort to revive the local movie business.
Money. While we partly agree with Ocampo’s point, but we doubt if such PPP would be possible, considering the fact that state money would be involved. Maybe the government can assist private filmmakers or producers in their venture in some other way but not necessarily play the role of co-producer. Spending taxpayers’ money in movie production would surely be a very sensitive issue and the people, particularly the masa, would be sharply harping on it day in and day out.
Aggressive. Look, Manila movie producers continue to make films all year round, but are they getting any financial support from the government? No. It is our view that being aggressive is the secret to their success as film producers. We hope some moneyed Cebuanos would have the same aggressiveness.
Unite. To us, there is an urgent need to unite all choral directors and foster a harmonious relationship between each other. And we are glad that here in Cebu, there is an initial of 12 choral directors who believe that unity is the key to promote camaraderie amongst themselves. But with the number of barangay-based choral groups as well as campus and Church-based choirs in our midst, we think this number would easily increase.
Coordinator. We also talked to our good friend Niño James Bañares, who is the Central Visayas regional coordinator of the Philippine Choral Directors’ Association (PCDA).
It is a national club of choral directors and choral music enthusiasts established in 2008. We learned from Bañares that PCDA’s first president was Prof. Jonathan Velasco of the Ateneo Chamber Singers. We commend PCDA for its primary thrust which is to promote the beauty of choral music and hope that more choral directors here in Cebu and other parts of Central Visayas would join it. Those interested may visit the PCDA website mypcda.org. “Exciting choral activities and workshops are coming up,” Bañares added.
Amazing. We were able to witness an amazing show last week at the Jose R. Gullas Halad Museum featuring the University of Hawaii-Manoa Voices of Aloha led by Miguel Angel Felipe, director for choral activities of the university. It was actually the choir’s concert tour in the Philippines. The Hawaiian singers performed all of their songs a capella style (without any accompaniment) and all of us members of the audience were amazed at their sterling performance. We were expecting them to sing a Cebuano song, or at least just a portion of it, but they didn’t.
Danceable. However, before the Hawaiian choir performed, the University of the Visayas Chorale, conducted by Anna Piquero, opened the show with four danceable numbers, also a capella style. They first did Awit ni Dodong, followed by Pasayawa Ko Day, I’m Yours (an American pop song) and La Bamba. This local chorale never stops to delight us with its award-winning performance.