My Top 10 Proposed Philippine TV Shows

On my last article, I’ve mentioned that 63.5% of Filipino household has TVs; far more than those with PCs. In line with this, the following are my Top 10 proposed TV shows for the new-improved Philippine programming:

10 – Batas Pilipinas: A gameshow that gauges each Filipino’s knowledge of the Revised Penal Code, his or her Rights and Liberties, Civil Code, Tax Law, and the likes. Prizes are not in monetary form but given as major university scholarships to selected beneficiaries.

9 - Jose Rizal Adventures: A cartoon show that features the life of Jose Rizal that features his voyages, learnings, inventions, discoveries, writings and more. Great for kids.

8 – Si Betty at Si Yasmien: A story of the two high school best of friends. Betty is a Christian while Yasmien is a Muslim.The drama highlights how they value each other despite their religious differences plus other teen issues.

7 – Magtrabaho Tayo!: An informative livelihood show that features top Filipino businessmen and how they succeeded on their business endeavors. The show will also provide tips and tutorials on how to do proper commercial activities in the Philippines.

6 – Disip-Lino: A soap opera that features the day-to-day adventures of the fictional character called Lino. He’s a decent, refined and amazingly disciplined ordinary Filipino. But his life will be full of hardships courtesy of his archenemy: Juan Tamad.

5 – Word of the Lourd: Instead of the less than five minute-segment shown on TV5 before the Evening News, I propose that it should be made into a full-blown 30-minute. Lourd de Veyra’s creative commentaries on social issues and politics should be featured in our larger TV networks. Si Lourd na ang bahala.

4 – Pinoy Big Brother: Politicians Edition: A reality TV show that would have national or local politicians as the Big Brother’s housemates. Activities should challenge individual strength, experience, and leadership qualities. Each week, a politician will be evicted. The Big Winner wins the political seat through votes casted from PCOS Machines. Works best for Senators, Governors, Mayors, Congressmen, and ofcourse for the Presidential seat.

3 – FlipTop TV Battles: A rap battle show that features battle MCs that would never diss or insult the other but instead, would praise and acclaim the other rapper. Instead of uttering some degrading words, only positive things should be said of the other. Anygma and other organizers can also make a “Politicians Edition”. Debates in the Congress or the Senate should be off the top with or without the matching hip-hop beats. An important note though: no reading from prepared statements.

2 – Advertisement Buster: A show that reviews and points out TV commercials and their half-truths/lies presented in our TV sets everyday. Just like in Discovery Channel’s MythBuster, Jamie and Adam would try to scientifically debunk the fallacious promises and lies by the commercials that plagued our TV sets.

1 – Politi-Cam: An expose show that stalks and stealthily checks on corrupt politicians through mounted hidden cameras. The cameras should be secretly installed in any politician’s office, city/municipal hall, and the view under his table (To see if the monies really passed under their office tables). Politicians caught doing bad will then be filed with criminal charges and then be dismissed from their offices. The show should be shown on a primetime, complete with reruns, and little updates (like that of the traffic updates on morning shows).

Wanna share your ideas? You also have your proposed TV shows for the Philippines?

Holler back and type down your proposals on the Comment Section located below this post! :-)

A Critique on the TV Shows in the Philippines

Top 10 Steps on How to Make A High-Rating Soap Opera in the Philippines

Manila Hostage Crisis: MPD Needs to Play Counter Strike

Almost a week has passed since the Manila Hostage Tragedy. This may be quite long overdue but still I had to share my views on this one. With the Philippines being on the international press once again, I should never miss this featuring this one on my blog.

As we all know, the handling of the siege was a failure; there are two things I’ve learned. First, not all Chinese knows kung fu because if they do, they should’ve kicked Mendoza’s guts out. Second, I realized that both the PNP and SWAT need to play Counter Strike. Seriously, this is how my August 23^rd night went:

I just finished taking my midterm exam in Property subject at MSU College of Law. I hiked away to go back home. Before finally going out of the campus, I’ve caught a throng of university and law students gathering in front of the flat screen TV mounted on one of MSU-IIT’s lounges.

What I saw was a tourist bus surrounded by a throng of creeping policemen on a dark rainy night. They lobbed to tear gas into the bus. There was hostage taking situation in the Quirino Grandstand, Manila.

I’ve thought of it as an inconsequential event so I just straddled my way. Maybe it was just a trivial hostage drama, I thought. As I’m approaching towards our lodging house, I’ve noticed that TV sets are all tuned in to the same hostage drama taking place. And it then made me curious why it was broadcasted play-by-play on live TV.

Reaching my place, I hurriedly turned my TV on and found out that yes, it was a hostage taking of a certain Police Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza. Earlier in the day, according to reports, Mendoza hitched a ride on the Hong Thai Bus but then pulled out an M16 automatic rifle and declared he was taking the 25 passengers hostage.

With the hostage taking starting at 10:30 AM, it ended nearly half a day. A total of seven hostages were released before six o’clock and before the agitated hostage taker initiated the carnage. Mendoza would have been trained in police tactics and known what to expect and as it seemed, he was better trained than the 200-strong (?) police and SWAT team that assaulted him.

At the end of the day, eight innocent Hong Kong nationals died. A both fiasco and carnage witnessed by the 90 million Filipinos and the rest of the whole wide world (through CNN, BBC, Fox News,etc.)

If there was a day that made me ashamed of being a Filipino, last Monday would probably be one. Even if I was not personally involved; I was outraged on how things went awry which should have been prevented if only brains were used instead of plain stupidity.

A lot of things and changes ought to be done (as always). Our policemen and SWAT were too coward not to employ an aggression that would follow through. Kapag may putok mula sa bus, kanya-kanya na sila nang retreat at tago. That's why I suggest our cops to play computer games like Splinter Cell, Delta Force or old school Counter Strike. They may also watch movies that should help them improve in strategizing: Misdirection techniques in Swordfish; Injection of sleeping gas, compressed air propelled hook to puncture the door to be pulled by a truck, and false broadcast courtesy of Speed 1. Or infrared scopes from that of the movie, Navy Seals.

MPD have shown to the world that we lack equipment. Are we really that poor not to have ladders? No flashlights attached to firearms? No night vision goggles? Although we clearly had other things that may be of use: a sledgehammer and an old rope that would snap after tying it to the door.

Another possible option’s that they could have just accepted his demands. He could be reinstated in the police - and then be immediately put in prison for life for hostage taking. It’s a must to hear the grievance of Mendoza first, and give initial soft assurance. After all he is not doing it for money.

My brothers and sisters in the media should also be partly blamed for the bloody end of the incident. They covered it as it happens without knowing that they’ve been giving the hostage taker leeway to ascertain the movements of the detachments. The live coverage could have been giving Mendoza up-to-date knowledge of how the police are trying to sneak up on him. Definitely not an intelligent move.

What the media did as part of their job completely disregarded the safety of both the hostages and the police. News blackout might be good as it was used by the Arroyo administration in a coup attempt a few years back. No one was hurt; no fatalities. After seeing his brother’s arrest, the hostage taker started killing some of his hostages in protest of what the police did to his brother. They should not have telecasted live since we know how the police might screw this up.

With its apparent international implications, Pres. Noynoy Aquino should have been visibly engaged in hostage situations. The event surely is a difficult challenge for the communications group of PNoy; not to mention his image-building moves. He just came out after the carnage; obviously showing signs of lousiness. Unavailable and cannot be reached by both reporters and Donald Tsang; that day, I felt that Isko Moreno was our president. Let’s see how he would skip this one. Tan-awa. Mao man gu’y inyong gebotaran.

To quote from Donald Tsang, Hong Kong's leader, “The way it was handled [by the Philippine police], particularly the outcome, is disappointing.” Ouch. The truth hurts. (Click here for the anime reenactment of the incident)

So, what are the things to expect for the weeks, months, and years to come? A lot of negative things. Hong Kong has placed the Philippines on the blacklist of countries to actively avoid, urging its nationals currently in the Philippines to immediately pack up and leave. We may expect maulings and dismissals of our OFW’s working in countries like Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland China. Singapore (with 70% of its population are Chinese) and Malaysia (around 40% Chinese, forming the urban majority in some cities) may follow suit.

At this point in time, a full report is eminent. It has to present thorough detailed crime scene including autopsy reports (if any) of the deceased and surviving victims. Full scale investigation will also be carried out in Hong Kong by those surviving victims and whether there was negligence. If there was sufficient evidence, the victims will then seek legal experts and most likely will convene a class action law suit against the Philippines government for unspecified sum for the deceased and victims.

Our already damaged reputation was exacerbated by our incompetence in handling these situations. As of the moment, it seems there’s a pint of hope left to ease off the siege’s effects. Unless we change our rotten system, the world will have no choice but to see us all in a bad light. We simply can’t beg other nationalities to see us positively with all this happening. Venus Raj’s win in the Miss Universe did not do much. A teenager’s letter hoping that “the world will know who the Filipinos are and that we're not all like Mendoza” did not do much either.

After all, it’s major, major big mistake to correct a big wrong decision.

Top 10 Reasons Why TV is Better than Books

I apologize to my followers for being not able to post my entry yesterday. I was busy studying for my Consti Exam last night. But I still posted it; to see my April 7 entry, click Here.

I think I've got already the hang of writing Top Tens. This is another list. I love TV; I love books. But here's the reason TV scores than books:



10. TV's other name is "boob tube" (it's true, definitely not a joke).

9. Can’t drive and read at the same time.

8. No one ever got a paper cut from watching “24 Oras”.

7. Pacquiao fights.

6. Books written by pasty-skinned geeks; TV full of chesty babes.

5. TVs save trees.

4. Can't watch priceless Wowowee tears on books.

3. Book ask difficult questions, but don’t give away 2 million for right answers.

2. “TV” easier to spell than “book”.

1. Baby James endorsing Manny Villar.

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"Today in History"

Birthday of the Buddha: Birth Anniversary. April 8. Among Buddhist holidays, this is the most important as it commemorates the birthday of the BUddha. It is known as the Day of Vesak. The founder of Buddhism had the given name Siddhartha, the family name Gautama and the clan name Shaka. He is commonly called the Buddha, meaning in Sanskrit "the enlightened one." He is htought to have libed in India from c. 563 BC to 483 BC. Because it is often observed on the lunar calendar, this holiday can occur in April or May. It is a holiday in Indonesia, Korea, Thailand and Singapore.

Quote for the Day:

"It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper". - Rod Serling