Pinoy Power : Cecilia Flores-Oebanda rock star of anti-human trafficking, wins global award

Filipina ‘rock star’ to kids is human trafficking warrior

By Tarra Quismundo

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:54:00 04/28/2011

MANILA, Philippines—In the company of children, Filipino human trafficking warrior Cecilia Flores-Oebanda is a rock star.

“I was shocked by how the kids welcomed us. They were running toward us, cheering for us. It was really inspiring. They showed us that we were their heroes,” Oebanda said Wednesday by phone from Stockholm, narrating how she and fellow child rights advocates met with a group of children in the Swedish capital.

“Ang sarap-sarap ng feeling (I love the feeling). It’s really inspiring, energizing. It gives me more fire to fight,” she said.

The chair of the Visayan Forum Foundation, a multi-awarded nongovernment organization that fights human trafficking, is one of two winners of the World’s Children’s Honorary Award in the 2011 World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child.

She shares the award—a recognition accorded child rights advocates from around the world—with Monira Rahman of Bangladesh, who was cited for helping victims of acid attacks.

The top prize went to Murhabazi Namegabe, who has long worked for the release of child soldiers and sex slaves in his native Democratic Republic of Congo.

The three will receive their awards from Queen Silvia of Sweden in a ceremony in Stockholm on Thursday. They will share a cash prize of $100,000.

Global vote by kids

Oebanda said 30 nominees were considered during the search and selection process.

At least 24 million children from 101 countries participate in the global voting for the annual awards.

Among its laureates are the beloved South African leader Nelson Mandela. A Jewish girl, Anne Frank, who wrote poems and stories and recorded her life experience during the Nazi regime for two years until she died in a concentration camp at age 15, was given a posthumous award.

“For me, this is the most important and precious award I have ever received because I got votes from the children for whom I’ve been fighting for for 20 years,” said Oebanda, who has received international recognition for her advocacy over the years.

She said she received some 3.2 million votes from around the world, 100,000 from the Philippines, over six months.

“Schools are their majority partners,” Oebanda said of the award organizers. “They discuss what we do in the schools, so it’s really educational.”

A chance for change

For Oebanda, her latest award serves as a fresh push to continue her battle against human trafficking, a persistent transnational problem that preys on some 300,000 Filipinos annually, including minors.

“It’s really a humbling experience. It gives me more fire and strength and courage to do more,” Oebanda said.

“Sometimes, you think you’re alone in this fight. But you see that people are getting together. That’s why it moves me to tears to see the children. You’d see that we have hope in this world, that in our generation, there is a chance for change,” she said.

Perilous struggle

In a report, Agence France-Presse said Murhabazi Namegabe of the Democratic Republic of Congo was awarded for his “long perilous struggle” to free child soldiers and sex slaves in his homeland.

“Since 1989, Murhabazi and his organization BVES (a French acronym meaning office of voluntary service for childhood and health) have freed 4,000 child soldiers and more than 4,500 girls who have been sexually assaulted by armed groups and taken care of 4,600 unaccompanied refugee children,” the organizers said in a statement.

In all, some 60,000 children have been helped to date by BVES, which today runs “35 homes and schools that offer some of the world’s most vulnerable children food, clothes, a home, healthcare, therapy, the opportunity to go to school, security and love,” the prize jury said.With a report from Agence France-Presse

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20110428-333361/Filipina-rock-star-to-kids-is-human-trafficking-warrior

charice pempengco needs acting and english speaking lessons, FAST!

we like charice and we applaud her success. charice has gone to places where many pinoys have not been to. there is no question she is one of the best, a rising star in singing, but we can’t say the same about her acting and her speech.

charice is appearing in glee, one of america’s top rated tv shows. she is also making a hollywood movie.  just looking at this clip from glee, she obviously needs to take acting and speech lessons.

she is bland in her acting, emotionless and she can’t seem to register emotions on her face.  she looks too stiff, unable to get into acting. she looks and sounds like she is just reading off a dummy board, not acting. she is unable to register any emotion on her face, a key requirement in acting in front of a camera. the poor acting  is just very obvious here that the director and editor decided to cut away from charice and show reaction shots of the other cast members instead.

her english speaking is also very bad here. it is actually using pinoy english speaking, accent and diction made by pinoys who do not speak english often.  that is not bad  when spoken in the philippines and among pinoys but she is appearing in an AMERICAN tv show with an american audience. her primary market as a singer is the US market, she needs to adapt to the ways of the US market and americans.

it is a fact that for one to be understood by americans quickly and easily, it is best to  speak in the same accent and diction that they use. this is not only true in the US but also true in all countries. if you go to hong kong or singapore, it is better for you to speak in the way they speak english to be understood better and faster by them. same thing in america.

charice has gained a very good measure of success in the american market and no doubt she will conquer even more. she can certainly afford to hire an acting and speech coach to help her on these two things, the faster she gets help on these, the faster she will conquer america.

charice has actually improved significantly since she started appearing in the US. she has a little bit of an american accent now, able to  better understand questions and able to give acceptable answers.  but this improvement is not enough. she needs to to exponentially improve even more.

charice pempengco returns to glee season 2 with “all by myself” solo, watch video here

view Glee performance video here: charice pempengco needs acting and english speaking lessons, FAST!

glee watchers are are abuzz with the news that charice pempengco returns to glee 2 this week with a goose bump rendition of celine dion’s “all by myself”.

here is the promo video:

the network released a video of pempengco performing the song in the show but unfortunately embedding has been disallowed and neither can it be viewed in the philippines.

the tv station however released an aido recording of it.  it is just the audio but it is great listening. watching it on the show will be great for sure.

Fox has released the exclusive Glee spoiler featuring the segment of Charice as Sunshine Corazon on Glee’s Night of Neglect episode.

If you cannot wait until April 19^th, play the video below to see the whole segment of Sunshine Corazon (Charice) breaking into William McKinley auditorium and had some confrontation with the kids of New Directions.

On the clip, Sunshine Corazon returns to WMHS and proposed to perform for the Glee club benefit concert. Rachel accused Sunshine working as a spy and considered her as an enemy. “You are a terrible spy,” Rachel said. “I am not a spy. I heard about your benefit concert on Facebook and I wanted to perform,” Sunshine explained. “I’m such a better singer than everyone else so I know how it feels. I’m all alone at the top. Also, I’m really short, so even when I’m in a group of people I feel like I’m wandering alone in a forest,” she added. Puck favors her and asked ND to gave Sunshine a chance.

http://www.zeibiz.com/2011/04/watch-charices-segment-on-night-of-neglect/

Charice was not able to confirm where her role will go from here, but she did reassure fans that her character will be around for more beyond tomorrow night’s episode. As for whether or not Sunshine will be attending the “Glee” prom, we will have to wait and see. Charice giggled and stated that she honestly had no idea if her character was making an appearance during the episode.

The cast has been filming prom scenes for the past couple of weeks. Charice has been in Boston shooting her upcoming movie role in “Here Comes the Boom.” Given her busy movie schedule across the country, it is not likely that we will see her in the prom episode.

http://www.examiner.com/glee-in-national/glee-spoilers-charice-talks-hopes-for-glee-duet-and-prom-episode

Nokia C3 product defect unsolved, 3rd time for repair

the nightmare called Nokia C3 continues. we had previously posted here product defect problems with 2 brand new units of Nokia C3 . one was bought in august 2010 and another in december 2010. the august 2010 unit has been sent to the Nokia Care Center for repairs 4 times already while the december 2010 unit 2 times.

the december unit has been repaired but after only 2 weeks, we have sent it back again to Nokia Care Center for more repairs. this will be the 3rd time we have brought it for repairs since it was bought. we brought the unit back to the greenhills nokia care center yesterday, april 17, 2011.

this is a repeat of the previous problems – the unit very often turns itself off when it is charged  and it turns itself off when being used at times. this is one of the problems we have had with this unit when we had brought it in for repairs. it has not been solved apparently.

a slight good news – it has not deleted all the contacts and files when it turns itself off which was one of the major problems encountered previously.

for this 3rd repair, the nokia care center manager, ronald said they will now need to replace the whole motherboard. they had apparently not done so in the 2nd repair.

if this was a laptop, replacing the motherboard is the most  major repair one can do to a laptop. the cost apparently is almost as high as buying a new laptop. if you had to pay for this kind of repair, the advise you will get is not to have the motherboard replaced but buy a brand new laptop instead. this is probably true for cell phones.

i had asked about my previous request to refund the money we paid for the nokia C3 but  ronald, the nokia care center manager said they will not be able to refund the cost. asked why not, he was unable to give any reason.

i asked who i can talk to about it. he gave me a name and cellphone number to call, a certain janelle. i asked him to call this janelle person so i can talk to her. he went to an inner room and spent some minutes using the telephone but he came out to tell me  janelle was not answering her cellphone. bi wondered what he did on the phone for some minutes if she did not answer.

ronald promised me janelle will call me in the evening of sunday or today. i dialed the cellphone number and he was right, the number just kept ringing.

we will be posting more here later.

read other posts here:

• Nokia C3 product defect – hard resets by itself, deletes contact list, messages and files : http://wp.me/paTrm-1tS
• nokia care center – stupid things at call centers : 3 versions of stupid: http://wp.me/paTrm-1uh

who is dumb – philippine tv or the phillippine tv audience?

the willie revillame mess at his tv show “willing willie” has taken a higher level discussion now from the question was there  child abuse in revillame’s show or none to what is philippine tv and should it be?

we applaud monique wilson for speaking out and for urging other filipino talents to speak their minds on the issue.  she makes a very good point that in recent years we have been seeing more and more

filipinos breaking out and being admired in the world stage. there is now a huge army of them with filipinos and half filipinos who have become and are hailed as world-class in their firleds from many persuasions – music, arts, sports, design, modeling, journalism, medicine, visual arts, business  and many others.

with so many filipinos taking on the stature and reputation as being world-class,  why is philippine tv doing a “dumb down” on the philippine audience?

Don’t dumb down viewers, TV urged

Actress, solon seek quality programs

by Volt Contreras
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:11:00 04/11/2011

MANILA, Philippines—Even the theater star who brought “The Vagina Monologues” to the Philippine stage is aghast.

The list of Willie Revillame’s critics now includes acclaimed actress-director Monique Wilson, who called on local artists to band together, overcome fears of crossing potential employers, and help put the pressure on TV networks that “dumb down” the Filipino audience.

“We keep saying Filipino artists are world-class. Well, let’s prove it now,” Wilson wrote on her blog as she weighed in on the latest controversy hounding the game show host.

“The debate is no longer whether it was child abuse or not,” Wilson said, referring to the widely criticized episode of Revillame’s “Willing Willie” show on TV5 that had a 6-year-old boy gyrating like a macho dancer while breaking into tears for a P10,000 cash prize.

“The facts are plain to see. No one with a sense of respect for another human being can dispute that,” Wilson said.

“The discourse now is how we, as Filipinos, as artists involved in the same industry that created Willie Revillame and shows like his, could have allowed this to go on for as long as it has.”

read in full here: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20110411-330486/Dont-dumb-down-viewers-TV-urged

“True Filipino Heroes” – pinoys got it right 9 out 10, fails in 1

read it here : http://wp.me/pnw03-1rZ

 

willie revillame will sue everyone, enumerates good deeds, vents on sponsors, show off the air on live tv – watch video here

this is a video shown on live tv of an embattled  man – willie revillame as he rants on live tv in his show “willing willie” at abc 5. wait a minute, this is willie revillame, so what else is new? we have seen willie do this on live tv before. not the same topic but on the same sort of emotions and yes the same sort of topic – his misdeeds on his tv shows.

this one is in relation to his most recent misdeed on his new tv show at abc 5 where he allowed a 6 year old, jan-jan,  boy do a macho dance (read : male striptease dance) on live tv. he not only allowed the boy do his macho dance, he also asked the boy to repeat the dance several times with the proper annotation from him on why the boy is doing the dance. what made it worst was that the boy was in tears while he was dancing and the audience, including revillame not only approving the performance but also wildly cheering the boy on. (watch the macho dance video here: http://wp.me/paTrm-1ut)

pinoy internet universe reacted to the macho dance when it was posted in youtube with calls, actually howling, of protest against willie revillame and willing willie. pinoy netizens of twitter and facebook  took to thye streets ofr the internet and called for the ouster of revillame from the show. this is not new to these netizens, they have done similar protests before.

shortly thereafter,  government agencies took notice and declared revillame’s action on the show was child abuse.  the mtcrb, human rights commission and DSWD have put revillame on notice for his latest infraction on the 6 year old boy.

part 1:

this went on for a few days. revillame and abc 5 of course went on a defensive and yes offensive move agaisnt the new storm hitting on the revillame franchise. revillame and the tv station was of course not repentant, not even humble. they clearly declared no child abuse occurred. they did not even admit to a moral mistake, not even a disrespect against the boy. the show went on in between the offensive fight theyput up to defent the honor of revillame and the tv show, unmindful of what has been done to the honor of the boy.

until Ad Power (read : as in People Power) hit the tv show – major advertisers, jollibee, procter & gamble, CDO, lhuillier, del monte and uni-lever pulled their ads off the tv show.l (read it here:   http://wp.me/paTrm-1uy). these advertisers are major advertisers, that means they are the biggest ad spenders in the industry. uni-levfer, procter & gamble and jollibee most probably belong to the top 5 biggest ad spenders in the industry.

Ad Power got the attention of revillame. it’s not surprising, as this power hits revillame and the show where it hurts the most – at the wallet. money is something revillame understands very well. the pull out of these advertisers mean the show cannot go on airing as every day they go on air, they will lose money. and this is not just small change, we are talking of possibly millions of pesos on a daily basis.

with Ad Power slamming its face on the willing willie tv show, revillame last friday announced the show will be off the air for two weeks. revillame is a businessman, he knows the power of Ad Power. revillame will not only lose his salary, he will also lose profit as revillame owns the show and produces it. he finances the show. a pull out of advertisers mean  not only a loss of salary but also profit for his company.

part 2:

this particular live performance  of revillame was supposed to be a simple announcement of the tv show taking a 2 week hiatus but it actually became a stand-up performance of revillame which was actually not funny. it became a rant not only against certain groups but against the world as well.

he first said his tv show will be temporarily off the air for two weeks to return after holy week but in succeeding rants, by accident he let it slip out that the show might not come back on the air.  if the show does not return on air,  we can only conclude abc 5 management had decided to cancel the show  to avoid further problems in the future. he mentioned that he had talked to the GM of the tv station and owner, manny pangilinan.

revillame also ranted, actually threatened to sue fellow celebrities who criticized him on this macho dancing scandal. apparently he felt his fellow celebrities should have just kept quiet about their displeasure on other celebrities.

list of celebrities revillame will sue:

Revillame delivered an emotional 25-minute speech at the end of his program on Friday night. Among other things, he accused celebrities Lea Salonga, Jim Paredes, Aiza Seguerra, Tuesday Vargas, Agot Isidro, Mylene Dizon and Bianca Gonzalez of “prejudging” him on the microblogging site Twitter.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20110410-330314/Revillame-Dont-pulverize-me-I-want-to-help-poor

when he enumerated  the list of celebrities he will sue,  we thought he was unkind to aiza seguera. he challeneged sequera “to be a man”  (“magpakalalake ka”). seguera is a lesbian. he also mentioned the fact that aiza was once a child star herself. we are not sure the connection to the issue at hand, but we think aiza being a child star herself is in a very good position to know how it is to feel exploited as a child which is the charge government agencies are lodging against revillame. we do not know if aiza was exploited when she was a child star, but for sure she has a clear understanding of what is right and wrong for child stars.

with such a long list of celebrities that revillame is planning to take to court for whatever alleged crime/s, we like to congratulate revillame’s lawyers for what might be windfall profits and revenues this year.

where is revillame now after this announcement on tv? we think he is in bigger trouble than before the announcement.

nothing about the announcement was humble, apologetic, reconciliatory or even wholesome. he turned a simple  announcement of a hiatus of the show into a rant and whining about his problems and detractors.  he couls have used the opportunity to gain sympathy from a wider audience other than his fans but instead he may have angered more.l with this announcement he draw the battle lines even deeper and wider.

he may have said things that can be used legally against him, if it comes to a court trialo. for sure, the MTRCB, the human rights group and DSWD will be hard put to kinder and more lenient on revillame with hyis performance in this rant. the message that these government agencies is getting is that revillame will deserve whatever punishment they might put on revillame.

from a PR standpoint, revillame loses badly, dramatically in many ways. his performance in this rant is a PR nightmare. revillame did not defuse anything, did not gain sympathy, he may have ignited more disagreement with what he has done and those against him hardening their positions.

for sure, revillame has a talent in getting ratings. he did it again here but for the wrong reasons and it will hurt him more.

Ad Power puts willie revillame’s “willing willie” tv show off air – uni-lever is 6th company to stop ads

this is called advertising power – with withdrawals of ads from the tv show, willie revillame has announced his willing willie tv show will go off the air for 2 weeks.

before the exodus of major advertisers from the tv show, willie revillame in his show and in interviews, including the tv station’s spokespersons were adamant and strong about no infractions and no child abuse occurred in the show.

it appears money talks and it talks loud to willie revillame. as soon as 5 major advertisers pulled off their ads from the show, revillame showed repentance so it seems and decided to pull off the air his tv show for 2 weeks. without the ad moneys in his tv show, it would have been a huge financial loss for revillame who is the producer and financier of the show.

uni-lever is the 6th advertiser to pull off its ads from the show with procter & gamble, jollibee, del monte, CDO and lhuiller announcing ad pull outs earlier on.  procter & gamble, uni-lever and jollibee are the country’s top advertisers, probably belonging to the top 5 biggest ad spenders in the industry.  private businesses is doing the country a very good favor in pulling out its ads from willie revillame’s tv show.

it is interesting how this is playing out as abc 5 is owned by manny pangilinan whose company PLDT also owns Smart Telecommunications, the country’s leading mobile phone service provider and also one of the top advertisers in the country. will Smart pull its ads as well?

read here : http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20110409-330148/Ad-pullouts-hit-Willie-show

‘Willing Willie’ to go off air for 2 weeks, Revillame says

INQUIRER.net
First Posted 22:17:00 04/08/2011
Filed Under: Entertainment (general), Television, Celebrities
MANILA, Philippines—Controversial television host Willie Revillame announced Friday night that his primetime game show “Willing Willie” will go off air for two weeks starting Monday next week (April 11).

Revillame expressed disappointment over the companies that pulled out their ad placements from his show.

He maintained that he did not commit child abuse in an episode of “Willing Willie” exposing a boy simulating a striptease.

Revillame also warned to file charges against some celebrities who “attacked” him on the social networking site Twitter.

List of companies who have withdrawn their ads from Willie Revillame’s “Wiling Willie” tv show:

1. jollibee corporation
2. procter & gamble philippines
3. del monte philippines
4. lhuillier pawnshop
5. CDO
6. uni-lever

now 4 companies suspend ads at willie revillame’s “willing-willie” tv show

willie revillame’s “willing willie” tv show got a 4th kick in the behind with a 4th company, lhuillier pawnshop announced it is pulling it’s ad money out of the tv show while the issue of child abuse is being resolved by the government.

lhuillier joins  jollibee corporation, procter & gamble philippines and del monte from the pull out of ad money from the show.

we think these corporations are doing the right thing. and in fact we think all the other corporations putting their ad money in the show should do the same. willie revillame need to be taught a lesson, something he has never learned so it seems.  revillame is a serial ass hole on tv.

we are shocked that tv 5 got him after what he has done at abs-cbn. we are even more shocked that he still has the audience when he moved over to abc 5. maybe this latest episode will teach willie a lesson.  finally!

Cebuana Lhuillier suspends ads on ‘Willing Willie’, too

by Karen Boncocan

INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—The country’s largest pawnshop chain, Cebuana Lhuillier Pawnshop, has joined three other companies that pulled out ads from “Willing Willie” television show.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page Friday, Cebuana Lhuillier said it has decided “to temporarily suspend its segment sponsorship in the said show, effective April 11, 2011, while resolution on the matter is pending.”

“While we support programs that give hope to Filipinos here and abroad, we expect our business partners to promote good values, protect children’s rights and exercise prudence in communicating to the general public,” it said.

“I support the RH Bill” tv ad – talking heads that work

talking heads using celebrities is probably one of the most effective way to communicate a message sauc as supporting the RH Bill.

read more about the RH Bill here: http://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/category/rh-bill-5043/

nokia care center – stupid things at call centers : 3 versions of stupid

this is in relation to the the nokia C3  product problems we have elevated to the nokia care center.

we  had called  the nokia care center a few days ago. we called again yesterday to follow up.  when the call center agent talked to us,  we promptly gave the reference number we had for the case. after a few seconds, to give time for the computer of call center agent to have our record appear on his computer monitor, we told him why we called:

me : i called a few days ago and the agent told me she will call me up gain during that day to let me know status of my request. she did not call back then and i have not received a call since then, for 3 days now.

nokia care center agent: sir, nobody called you yet about it?

me : yes, nobody has called me and i want to know the status.

nokia care center agent : did anyone call you , sir?

me: no, nobody has called me yet.

nokia care center agent : sir, nobody has told you the status for your case?

me: wait a minute – look i have already told you nobody has called me about it yet. you have asked me the same question in 3 versions already,  i will give you the same answer. please do not ask me the same question in a 4th version .

listen to me – nobody has called me since i first called to tell me what the status of  the case is. let’s move on and tell me what the status is.

i did not understand why the call center agent asked me the same question in 3 versions. i had to stop him after the 3rd time as i felt he was preparing to ask me the same thing in a 4th version. what was the point of it? did he think i will change my answer if he asked me again? 3 stupid questions in a single call!

the net effect of asking the same question in 3 versions is only to lengthen the conversation. asking the same 3 times will not give the call center agent any other information nor make his understanding of it better but it will only annoy the customer.