On Earth Day, GMA News TV proudly presents Addressing the Climate Crisis—an interview with environmental activist and US Vice President Al Gore by News To Go anchor Howie Severino.
In 2013, Super Typhoon Hi Yan (Yolanda), which claimed more than 6,000 lives, was the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines in recent history. Now, the developing El Niño threatens food security in the country. These recent extreme weather events demonstrate how vulnerable the Philippines is to what experts believe are the very real impacts of climate change.
In the face of this growing threat, how can our country respond?
In this interview with Vice President Gore, a few days after his surprise visit to Leyte in March, the environmental activist discusses the possible solutions to climate change—from the transition to renewable energy to government intervention.
As Gore shares the cost-effectiveness of transitioning to renewable energy, he also emphasizes the urgent need for the Philippines to do so, to avoid having to eventually relocate more than 13 million Filipinos from our coasts. Gore also says that every nation will benefit from addressing the climate crisis, not just in avoiding its devastating impacts, but also in benefitting from what he refers to as “the biggest business opportunity in the world”, as it would create millions of jobs.
Addressing the Climate Crisis airs at 10:15 p.m. tonight only on GMA News TV.
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Cebu reclaims ‘Reyna Ng Aliwan’ crown
Sinulog festival queen Cynthia Thomalla won Cebu’s seventh Reyna ng Aliwan title in glittering ceremonies capping this year’s summer cultural extravaganza.
Baguio’s Andrea Fe Gomez, representing the Panagbenga festival, was named first runner-up, with Airish Yamamoto (Anilag festival of Laguna), Darlene Joy Tabuga (Pintados de Passi festival of Iloilo), and Lou Dominique Piczon (Manaragat festival of Catbalogan) shared second runner-up honors.
The half-German Thomalla also won special awards for Best in Festival Costume, Best in Evening Gown, Best in Swimsuit, and Most Photogenic. As Sinulog festival queen, she also rode the IPI-Sinulog float, which won first prize.
Gomez, a student at St Louis University, also won the award for Miss Unique Smile, courtesy of ACS.
Tabuga, whose features echo showbiz celebrities Ruffa Mae Quinto and Katrina Halili, was named by her fellow candidates as Miss Friendship, and received a special award from Hotel Jen’s general manager Edward Kollmer.
The 2016 Aliwan Fiesta was presented by Manila Broadcasting Company, Star City, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines, in cooperation with the Cities of Manila and Pasay, with support from TM, Pride Detergent, Unique Toothpaste, Shield Bathsoap, Tanduay Rhum, Alaska, Coca Cola, Dunkin Donuts, M. Lhuillier, Columbia Candies, Cherry Mobile, Fukuda, AICS, GES Led Lights, Bayview Park Hotel, Robinsons Place Manila, and Hotel Jen.
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Film workshops with international faculty
Film professors from New York Film School and London Film School will teach advanced courses in screenwriting, editing and directing at the Cinemalaya Institute beginning May 2016. Applications are now being accepted.
Sophia Wellington will teach Writing the Feature-length Screenplay, on May 24 to July 2. Designed for students with scriptwriting experience and with outlines or drafts of existing screenplays, the course will take students through the process of refining a feature idea, creating strong characters, developing a story arc, writing a step outline and a draft of the screenplay. They will study plotting, visual storytelling, scene writing and dialogue as they meet the challenge of a robust outline. At the end of the course, students will have a step outline and scenes to enable them to complete a draft of their feature screenplay. Course instructor Sophia Wellington has taught screenwriting at many film schools including the London Film School and London Film Academy. Wellington is an expert in script development.
Jon Hammond will teach film editing on June 6 to July 1. Film Editing Class is an advanced and intensive four-week course featuring lectures and exercises. Key areas to be studied and explored are editing fiction, making the cuts (conventions and reasons), structure (the architecture of the film and editing as final rewrite), dramatic point of view (subjective and objective shots), editing dialogue scenes, montage sequences, action sequences and transitions, linear time, non-linear time and alternative realities and others. The course is highly recommended for editors with some experience in non-narrative or narrative forms, but would like to master the art of editing narrative fiction films. Hammond is a freelance editor at BBC, ITV, C4, and many others.
Carlos Siguion-Reyna will teach Basic Filmmaking: The Silent Film on May 24 to July 2. This is a six-week course in directing. In this course, students will apply the basics of film language in film exercises and achieve a basic mastery of the classic conventions and tools of the film directors. Siguion-Reyna is an award winning film/theatre director.
Venue for the editing course will be at the Central Digital Lab, while the Screenwriting and Directing courses will be held at the Shooting Galleries, both in Makati City.
The Cinemalaya Institute is the training arm of the Cinemalaya Foundation. Through the Cinemalaya Institute, the Cinemalaya Foundation focuses its efforts on providing education, training and accreditation of practitioners in key aspects of film production.
For inquiries, please call CCP Media Arts Division at telephone number 832-1125 local 1705.
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Lovi says Chiz is a person of substance
After the recently concluded PiliPinas Debates 2016 for vice presidential candidates at University of Sto. Tomas, Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero was the topic of conversation in an unexpected way.
The senator’s performance was way above average as he did not put forward dubious statements and he was able to defend himself from the issues that were thrown at him.
But what was most noticed was his manner of speaking, which according to many, especially the netizens, was monotonous or like a robot and he was like reciting a “tula.”
The senator earned a lot of negative reactions, but his friends, more so his wife, Heart Evangelista, defended him to the hilt posting words of encouragement on her social media accounts.
Even Heart’s BFF Lovi Poe joined the defense team, posting on her Instagram account her thoughts on Senator Chiz Escudero’s performance in the debate.
“Everyone has talked about corruption but only Chiz has actually done something about it by authoring and passing the FOI Bill in the Senate,” Lovi said in her post.
“Words should only hold weight when honest intentions are behind them. #BeAPersonOfSubstance #SayChiz,” she added with a photo uploaded on the IG account.
While Heart admits to getting hurt by the netizens’ bashing of her husband’s manner of speaking, she is not taking it against those who didn’t like Escudero’s way of speaking.