The Wily Filipino

Movie Quiz #6: The Answers.

Shot 1:

I can't reveal the significance of the unicorn, though that's been fought over by countless movie fans, sci-fi geeks, and comp-lit grad students. From Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982).

Shot 2:

Takeshi Kaneshiro finishes 30 cans of Dole sliced pineapples, the significance of which I can't reveal either, in Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express (1994).

Shot 3:

"These are the leads. These are the Glengarry leads." One of my favorite films from the nineties: James Foley's Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), from the David Mamet play. (Alec Baldwin's character, whose hands you see in the picture -- that's Kevin Spacey in the background -- is not originally in the play, but his character provides something of an extra, if somewhat unnecessary, impetus for the salesmen's increasingly desperate behavior.

Shot 4:

The boulder in the pool is a portent of bad things to come -- in this case, Ben Kingsley, in his portrayal of a coiled cobra -- in Jonathan Glazer's Sexy Beast (2001).

Shot 5:

It's not just a plot (or hair) twist; it's also a visual analogue to James Stewart's spiraling descent into obsession and madness, in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958).

The quiz forms server messed up and I received several blank entries, unfortunately; hopefully it won't happen next time. Two people guessed four movies correctly: Pat Padua and Brandon.

One person complained about there not being any people in this quiz, so up next: people.

Your New Favorite Song.

The greatest sing-along-chorus song of this century so far, live in San Francisco from about a couple of weeks ago. Heck, people in the audience are practically singing along already before it's even started -- which is perhaps entirely appropriate: it's about days that go too fast, after all.

Hear it (mp3, 5.59 mb).

(This one goes out to an RK fan in 12 Mile and points east.)

Lesson Learned.

So yesterday at Yerba Buena I learned a lesson: no more Maroon Fucking Five For Fighting jokes! I promise!

Tracing TRACE.

The biggest new building in Los Banos -- probably the tallest building, actually -- is TRACE College. Tucked away behind a gas station and a hardware store, on an unpaved street next to a video rental place with barely any room for two-way traffic, TRACE (short for Technological Research for Advanced Computer Education) College was touted, before its opening aabout five years ago, as bringing more money to Los Banos. And money is something of which TRACE seems to have a lot: there are professionally-printed, 6-foot tall advertising banners (of at least 4 different variations) placed almost literally on every other electric and lamp post within the town boundary -- even in the middle of the rainforest up on Mt. Makiling.

Despite the facade, the campus is the real deal: a large, modern, gleaming building, clearly visible from the main highway, is the centerpiece. Forgive me for all the vagueness: I haven't actually been inside, if only for the simple fact that you need to swipe an ID card to get through the security system, complete with an automated gate. Needless to say, it's an expensive setup, especially for a provincial town in the Philippines. I'm also told that the campus is quite huge, the college having quietly bought the surrounding lots in a residential subdivision to its north.

TRACE also clearly has the wherewithal for even bigger infrastructure projects. As recently as last October, the college was the frontrunner to host the swimming events (32 all together) portion of the 2005 Southeast East Asia Games (scroll down to the article by Christine Moncada, entitled "Venue kinks to be ironed out"), though the administrators were "hedging because of lack of funds." Apparently the capital has been found: some of the banners are now announcing that the SEA Games will indeed be held here in Los Banos at TRACE in November. This means, at the very least, the construction of an Olympic-sized swimming pool -- surely the first in Los Banos, if not even the region itself. And where will the competitors, the reporters, the staff and so on -- from 11 competing countries -- be housed? Why, in the hotel (yes, an actual hotel) on the college premises -- if the rumors that I hear are true.

TRACE has moved up quickly from its beginnings as a computer learning center to its new collegiate status. Its latest offering is a nursing school; according to a huge billboard in front of its campus, training begins soon, and they have apparently met all the requirements -- as mandated by the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Memorandum No. 30 -- for accreditation as a nursing school. The memorandum, available on the CHED website, details the standards for nursing schools -- a library, classroom size, necessary equipment, and a contractual affiliation with a 100-bed hospital, in this case, St. Luke's and Chinese General (all quite far away, in Manila).

(Let me digress briefly: the recent bad publicity regarding CHED has had to do with 23 nursing schools ordered closed last November, including, most prominently, the AMA School of Nursing in Makati; AMA, as many of you Filipino readers know, is, like TRACE, most famous for its computer schools. Following an appeal by its owner to the Arroyo government, a stay was granted, overriding CHED's decision; this led to the resignation of its former chair, Fr. Rolando dela Rosa, who had previously made headlines for implementing tighter screening processes to reduce the number of diploma mills. Some of the nursing schools he had ordered closed were apparently owned by members of Congress, who had supposedly pressured him into rescinding his orders. Earlier this month, Malacanang finally ordered CHED to issue a full nursing school permit to AMA.)

In any case, TRACE College seems quite successful at what it does: five degree offerings in computer-related sciences, and a B.S. degree in business administration, all on top of what would be an even more lucrative business in the form of a nursing school. By 2001 TRACE was able to have the government recognize preschool, elementary and high school divisions as well. (The list of accredited higher-education schools in Region IV is available here as a pdf file.)

But the fishy thing, really, is its owner, Efraim Genuino, and these aren't mere rumors. As the head of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) (and, oddly enough, Filipino Pest Control and General Services Inc.), Genuino has long been accused of various improprieties. The printing of Arroyo's election materials, for instance, were alleged to be illegally bankrolled by PAGCOR, siphoned from the corporation's intelligence fund. As the article above details, most of PAGCOR's public relations campaigns at the time similarly all bore Arroyo's name, if not image, almost as if they were election paraphernalia in and of themselves. The main emphasis of the article, written in 2004, is a meeting between Genuino and Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, of "Hello, Garci" fame. (Indeed, I'm tempted to make a bet that the TRACE banners were also printed up by Grand C Graphics Inc. -- almost the same size, coincidentally, as those "Pailaw ni PGMA" banners erected in the last few years.)

In 2003, Genuino, donor to the infamous Jose Pidal accounts (according to Udong Mahusay's testimony) and campaign strategist for Arroyo since 1992, was already under fire for "alleged financial mismanagement," including discrepancies in his declared assets. (At this point Genuino had only been head of PAGCOR for two years.) As an unidentified source told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 2003:

Another manager identified four causes behind Pagcor's financial difficulty: "onerous" deals; a "surge" in new employees in the past two years; "profligate spending"; and "massive, mindless" donations.

At this point PAGCOR was so far down in the hole in terms of spending, Genuino had to borrow P60 million from two banks to cover the deficit.

Finally, in March of this year, Genuino and other members of the PAGCOR board of directors were at the receiving end of a complaint filed by antigraft groups (including BAYAN and Plunderwatch) for an alleged P946 million "sweetheart deal" between PAGCOR and William Gatchalian regarding the rental of two casino-hotels. Genuino has yet to answer for this.

I won't try to connect the dots, but there's something suspicious about a public official being accused of graft and his computer/business/nursing school that seems to be very, very well-funded... At the very least, the assets of a public official who is already the subject of filed complaints and investigations should be examined more closely.

To end, here is TRACE's history as published on its website:

Now, TRACE stands as a Computer and Business College par excellence, a leader in its own race. It has proven itself on top of the market when at its early state, it has reaped honors it rightly deserved. On top of this honor was the 1991 National Programming Competition where TRACE stood among 31 colleges and universities.

As this unfolds, TRACE makes its history all glaring. It remains committed to its goal to produce competent computer professionals and to serve the nation. Indeed, this history would still go a long way.

I think there should be a nice big "[sic]" after "As this unfolds, TRACE makes its history all glaring" -- surely they meant "bright" or "shining" or "glorious?" -- or maybe not. Looking at its founder and owner's history, there are indeed some "glaring" events in TRACE's establishment and growth that, in the face of the massive corruption of the Arroyo government, should seriously be traced.

The Last Week.

Phone's been ringing off the hook this morning probably because it's my dad's birthday. My and Izzy's stay here in Los Banos is winding down -- we hop on a plane for SF on Saturday night already -- and it's sad. Izzy is already missing her cousin Issa (my sister Joy's daughter).

The family went to Enchanted Kingdom in Santa Rosa. This was my first time to this Disneyland-styled amusement park, with different themed areas (an "Amazon Jungle," an incongruous "Main Street" tucked away in the back), an incredibly loud performing stage (the live band was actually quite good), a rinky-dink roller coaster (with two loops!), a brief fireworks display at 9 pm, a very cool carousel with all the trimmings, a giant Ferris wheel, and lots of other rides.

(Enchanted Kingdom received a bit of notoriety when it first opened about 15 years ago when -- let me see if I remember this correctly -- a band wanted to perform a Tagalog song upon request of the audience, and was told by management that (I paraphrase) "This is the Enchanted Kingdom, we're not in the Philippines, so we don't speak Tagalog here" or words to that effect. Not true anymore.)

In any case, we had loads of fun: Izzy could only really ride the carousel and the Teacups-like ride, but it was still great wandering around at night and seeing all the bright lights.

And there is nothing like riding one of these on a summer night. Is there one in the Bay Area?

My head is also bursting with information from my last couple of interviews -- one lasted for almost four hours and now I'm itching to write a paper as soon as I get back to SF.

Plus there were all the high school classmates I ran into. I'm taking the liberty to post a letter I sent to our uprhs86 e-mail list:

Mga ka-batch,

Kanina ang mini-reunion #2 ko -- nag-lunch kami nina Waldo, Noel G, Eric (da boyz -- este, Sherica pala 'yung isa), Ruby, Heidi, Jay at Sandy (da girlz). Unang gimik namin, minus two people, sa Congga Island two weeks ago, na alumni steering committee meeting daw -- "daw" dahil ang daming boteng nainom noong gabi na iyon (and I have the pictures to prove it).

Ngayong lunch naman, sa Kamayan sa Palaisdaan. Sarap ang kain, puro tawanan, at siyempre matamis ang lunch break na dalawa't-kalahating oras, lalo na kapag nakakaapat na San Mig Lite.

Ang menu: pinakbet, sinugno, kare-kareng baboy, sisig, inihaw na liempo...

Bukod sa kuwentuhan tungkol sa interbyu ni Henedina kinabukasan sa US Embassy (at siya'y mag-pPhD sa Kansas State sa Agosto), at sa mga kalokohan ni GMA, at tsismis tungkol sa isang kaklase (is he or isn't he?), mukhang iisa ang takbo nang utak nang mga ka-batch...

Keywords: matigas, malambot, maalat, matamis, sabik, sexual peak, scandal VCDs, pagod, "matagal na akong hindi kumakain nang ulo... nang tilapia," adventures with webcams, "the blue pill," mga motel sa Pasig, premature, "over," "ten percent," "twenty-five percent," laman nang maliit na bag, short time, "unang bola, bingo kaagad"...

Ingat,
Tobenits

p.s. Pinatatanong ni Heidi sa mga lalaking ka-batch: kayo ba'y HH*?

*HH = "halik-hugot." Sobrang dumi nang kahulugan, nahihiya ako tuloy na ikuwento kung anong ibig sabihin...

Going Around.

Sent to me by Dan:

Total volume of music files on my computer: I'm not at my home computer, but I have 2284 songs on my iPod (I think it's about 15 gigs).

Last CD I bought was . . .: M.Y.M.P.'s Versions and Beyond. My Japanese noise / black metal-listening self has an oddly soft spot for this Filipino guitar-and-vocals acoustic duo, which I'll be featuring in a Crash Course in Pinoy Pop mp3 download series one of these days. (Sorry about the Wes Anderson uploads -- I'm on a 28.8K modem and can't upload anything until I get back to SF.) I haven't listened to most of the two-disc set yet -- some of the covers seem rather superfluous -- but there are already at least a couple of tracks that are better than the originals (Kylie Minogue's "Especially for You" and Ogie Alcasid's "Sa Kanya").

Song playing right now: Just the awfully loud hum of my parents' Pentium III. But the last song I heard before going to sleep was a cover of Brian Eno's "Golden Hours," by Ida. (A former housemate of mine used to go out with Liz Mitchell, so that's -- what? -- three Kevin Bacon degrees?)

Five songs I listen to a lot these days: Teenage Fanclub's "Ain't That Enough," Puffy's "Hi Hi," M.Y.M.P.'s "True Colors," Parokya Ni Edgar's "Harana," and M.I.A. & Diplo's "Pop."

And I'm supposed to send this to two people? Hmmm...

Happy, Barb, and Karen, whose Tacit Diseuse blog has fallen into tacit disuse.

A Tangle of Books.

Damn. It's hot & humid & sweaty & sticky & I'm sitting here in Los Banos all alone & I'm reading Angelo Suarez's Else It Was Purely Girls & I swear to god every other poem in his collection is about cunnilingus. Curse you Angelo Suarez!

And curse you too for

& your sweaty palms, slightly bent nose, / shoulders & armpits worthy of psalms -- / your sex songful / with salt & sin.

(Sorry, I couldn't get the PRE tags to work, so I can't reproduce the funky layout of "Back-to-Back Showbiz Love Cycle.")

Or these especially lovely lines, from "To a Girl Sitting on the Table:"

...how distant
the sky! how pluvial the night to reach

for hiding stars! tonight your cheek from there
is the moon for my broken rocket of hand.

Speaking of poetry, though, I am now the happy owner of an actual copy of Paolo Manalo's Jolography -- finally went to the source (UP Press -- I was interviewing someone in Teacher's Village, so malapit lang), to which I should have gone in the first place (got author's discount too!) and found a whole stack. Bought an (older) anthology of essays by Roland Tolentino, who is just about the most prolific UP professor this side of Neil Garcia. Also caught up on the Cornell-Kyoto mafia: Carol Hau's hard-to-find On the Subject of the Nation, and Jojo Abinales' fourth? fifth? book in five years?

Anyway, back to work: interviews to transcribe and all.

June 15 Na.

Dumaan at lumipas din ang ika-12 nang Hunyo -- bakasyon na naman para sa mamamayang Pilipino. Naubos na ang komemorasyon na ibinuhos noong Sentenyal. Sabagay, nakalimutan ko rin.

Paano naman kasi, ang nakakabahala siguro sa ibang Pinoy ay kung dahil bakasyon ito, mas maraming oras para ipuwesto nang mga militar ang mga tangke para sa isa na namang coup attempt. Wala namang nangyari, sa awa nang Diyos, pero kung ito ang Diyos din ni Gloria, aba, mukhang dapat magdasal na siya nang husto.

Mukhang malagim itong mga tapes -- sa transcript pa lang, malabong peke -- at nakakaamoy na ako nang impeachment proceedings, kung hindi paggunaw mismo nang rehimeng Arroyo. Hanggang ngayon pa kamo tameme pa si GMA tungkol sa mga tapes. Huli kasi eh. Kapag napatunayang siya nga ang nagtatanong kay Garcillano kung madedeliver ang mga boto sa Lanao, iisa lang ang mensahe na malinaw: na dinaya ang huling eleksyon, at si FPJ ang nararapat na presidente. Alsa masa nang hindi oras (o sa totoo lang, matagal na dapat nangyari).

Lalo na't nakaraan na ang June 12, dapat pagisipan nang husto ni GMA kung ano ang nararapat para sa bansa -- hindi para lang sa kanya. Hindi tunay na mahalaga ang problema na kung sino ang papalit sa kanya; ang tanong talaga ay siya ba ay nararapat pang maging lider nang bansa. Sa lahat nang mga iskandalo na lumabas sa huling dalawang taon lamang -- ang pagpalakpak nang tainga niya sa pagsapi sa coalition of the willing, ang pagpatay nang mga magsasaka sa Hacienda Luisita, ang paglubog nang ekonomiya, ang pagpaslang nang mga journalist, ang pamilya niyang mga sugalero, at ang mga anomalya sa eleksyon, atbp. -- malinaw na wala na siyang credibility sa mata nang publiko.

Kamakalawa lamang ay nagpunta ako sa Robinson's nang mga alas-diyes habang nagbubukas ito. Tinutugtog ang "Bayang Magiliw" -- este, ang "Lupang Hinirang" -- habang ako pumasok. Akyat ako sa escalator papuntang second floor -- at biglang napahiya ako noong nakita kong nakastand-at-attention ang mga mamimili. Ilang segundo kami roong nakatayo, hinihintay lang na matapos ang kanta -- at narinig namin ang huling linya, at kami'y nagkawatak-watak, upang hanapin ang aming imamalengke.

Los Banos, at Random.

It's funny how everytime I go to the Philippines I get smacked in the head with American pop culture, and sometimes just about the worst of it. First stop from the airport, as always: one of the three or four Starbucks cafes (actually, more like five or six) between the airport and my little hometown in the boonies. That Gwen Stefani song is playing everywhere, and there are big posters of Maroon Fucking Five at the single Odyssey in Los Banos.

The Asian edition of Time this week seems to be prominently displayed in bookstores all over Manila, since it has a Filipina -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whose credibility took an even bigger blow in recent days with louder calls for her resignation -- on the cover. The headline, in large capital letters, reads:

"THE LORD PUT ME HERE"

In case you are reminded of her Texan crony who was similarly fingered by God, the actual context of the quotation is a little more benign, and so the cover is somewhat misleading:

"I am the agent of change," she told Time in an interview last week. "I wish to be remembered as the one who made the tough decisions to turn the economy around, to get its act together ... Maybe that's why the Lord put me here at this time."

Supposedly the people put her there, but even that's in question.

Otherwise I'm in a jetlag daze, as usual: Izzy and I woke up at 3 this morning, and I'm unsuccessfully scheduling my interviews (though I have one on Sunday). It also marks The Hunt For Paolo Manalo's Jolography, Part Two, and I already came up empty-handed at a National Book Store in Sta. Mesa. (Though I did find a reprint of Nick Joaquin's unfootnoted coffee table book A Question of Heroes, and Angelo Suarez's Else It Was Purely Girls, which I'm looking forward to reading.) I'm just too lazy to go to Diliman (though UP Press did put my book out, so maybe I get some sort of discount?).

Recurring Fantasy.

I have this recurring fantasy: A Ford Expedition cuts me off in my rusty '89 Honda Civic, forcing me to lose control and hit a fire hydrant, and the driver, cell phone in one hand and peppermint latte in the other, runs out to ask if I'm okay. I beat him to the ground and, just before I kick him in the ribs, I say, "And I bet you listen to Maroon [kick] Fucking [kick] Five [kick]!"

Movie Quiz #6.

[Quiz is over; answers are already up.]

Movie Quiz #5: The Answers.

Shot 1:

"Got me a movie, I want you to know / Slicing up eyeballs oh ho ho ho." It's Luis Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou (1929), of course.

Shot 2:

In one of the coolest director cameos in recent cinematic history, Roman Polanski slices up Jack Nicholson's nose in his film Chinatown (1974).

Shot 3:

Doh! If you're a monk trying to protect yourself from evil spirits by painting your entire body with sutras, don't forget your ears! From Masako Kobayashi's tetralogy of horror, Kwaidan (1964). (Most popular wrong guess: Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book.)

Shot 4:

More ear violence courtesy of Virginia Madsen's big brother Michael, in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992).

Shot 5:

Woman alone at home + the undead + big nasty splinter on the door = really really really really really really really bad combination. Lucio Fulci's Zombie (1979) (or Zombi 2) is, thankfully, not as misogynistic as his other films, but the splinter-in-the-eye scene is up there with the drill-in-the-head scene from City of the Living Dead. (His homage to Bunuel, above, in the unspeakably nasty New York Ripper doesn't really count.) (On the DVD commentary, David Hemmings' stunned reaction is priceless.) Zombie, however, is my favorite Fulci flick if only for the incredible zombie-vs-shark fight scene. No, really. (Most popular wrong guess: some Argento flick. My favorite guess, from Rebecca Maglanque: "Stephen King Presents Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head.)

The enigmatically named "mshoe" was the only person to get all five films correctly.

Up next: "things."

The Last Three Weeks.

There's a certain form of tunnel vision that you get when you're grading. I've gone through about 50 of 120 exams (about 40 less from last semester -- thank you grad seminar!), and when it's going well I barely look up from the illegible handwriting.

Fortunately the level of writing has been fairly high -- in fact, it's been so good this semester (both in my Asian American Studies and Anthropology classes) that I'm wondering whether there's something in the water, or whether SFSU has taken steps -- both a good and bad thing -- to admit better writers... The Anthro students, for instance, are churning out very impressive, argumentative essays in their final exam, on globalization and mass culture.

[One week later.]

I'm going nuts -- it took me longer than I thought to grade about 120 finals, and now I have an equal number (well, a little less) of papers to grade. At least they're typewritten.

The problem with my routine is that I'm really most productive in the evening; the afternoons are when my regular six hours of sleep finally take their toll.

(I ended up taking a half-hour nap, but stood victorious over the 100 papers or so by 10:30 that evening.)

[About a week later.]

Most of the last two weeks -- prompted by talks with friends and family and one of my students -- I've been thinking about possibilities and endings, about anger and forgiveness, about healing and time, about responsibility and adulthood, and about my research topic (nothing to do with the above). Crap. This is all sounding really maudlin. I've also been thinking about getting a new used car, but wondering if I can afford it.

It's been an eventful two weeks or so. But it's also the time of the year when the regular grind of the semester finally ends and suddenly the day is wide open in front of you and you're not entirely sure what to do with it. (Work, what else?)

Gave out finals and graded like a madman. Arranged a round of interviews for June, and hoping to transcribe them and squeeze an article out sometime in the fall.

Izzy unfortunately wanted to stay at home and watch Puffy videos (the Japanese band, not P. Diddy) -- a shame because the weather was, and is, so beautiful -- but I managed to take her to the 1st Asian Heritage Street Fair. A bit of a bust -- nothing really for impatient kids, but she did like going to Kinokuniya and the Sanrio store afterwards.

Went for Round 2 of Pizza-and-Beer-Night on Clement with Tracy and Jeannie and Darren (this time with Tony and Candy), and D-Dog made us laugh and squirm with tales of his misadventures. Then Darren and I ended up going out with Karen and her friend Valerie: jukebox of Snoop and Kelis, free Amstel Lights on the bar counter from the female bartender who clearly had a crush on Karen.

Had great Thai food at Bangkok Garden *twice*: once with the AAS 833 students (took them out for drinks at dinnertime) and again with Tracy and Jeannie (this time Marlon paid).

Then it was AAS graduation down at the Sheraton in Burlingame; a few students of mine marched, much to the delight of their puzzled parents who probably wondered what an AAS major was going to get their children in the first place. The same evening found me and Darren and Jeff Chan in Bernal Heights looking for Al Wong, but couldn't find him.

And then there was Memorial Day: a so-called '80s karaoke / barbecue at Eloweez and Sean's mansion down in Gilroy. Myra's kids and Dave's kids running around, short ribs and oysters and sausages on the grill, rare '80s remixes, cumbia and bad hi-NRG on the stereo, jugs of beer from Rock Bottom Brewery. There are a couple of pictures that I hope won't see the light of day: a photo of the members of our high school batch singing along to "Build Me Up Buttercup" on videoke, and another of me, um, resting, with the horrible caption "Sunny remembers the soldiers who gave their lives defending the freedom of this country."

I'm heading off for the Philippines with Izzy in less than a week. Pretty excited to go and see my folks and sister, but I'll be missing the nice weather here in the Outer Sunset (it'll be in the mid-90s in Manila, but a little cooler in Los Banos). But I always feel apprehensive before a long trip, even though I'm all prepared with my pasalubong and mostly all packed.

More later, this time from the Philippines.