OMB stops piracy of filmfest entries

By Isah V. Red

Edu Manzano, chairman of the Optical Media Board, told the movie press that his office?s campaign against film pirates for the duration of the annual Metro Manila Film Festival has been very successful.

?Four years in a row now,? he said over lunch at Quezon City?s Taste of L.A. restaurant. ?And I would like to give credit most especially to the organization of legitimate retailers in the Quiapo area.?

Since 2003, the OMB has created task forces to monitor the MMFF. In 2007, the Film Development Council of the Philippines reported a 40-percent increase in the gross revenues of Filipino movies, mainly due to the fact that there weren?t any unauthorized copies being sold in the known hubs of pirates in Metro Manila.

To assure a similar success, the OMB created the task force as early as the first week of December last year.

The task force was instrumental in gathering and providing information leading to the apprehension of an individual on Dec. 22 at the SM San Lazaro who was trying to record illicitly the film Twilight.

The camera used by the apprehended individual was hidden in a pack of Doritos nachos chips, which the theater personnel of SM San Lazaro apparently did not notice.

The apprehended individual admitted that he was trying a scheme that meant to be implemented for the duration of the festival.

Edu who denies having resigned from the popular noontime game show Pilipinas, Game Ka Na Ba?, said that on Dec. 17 the OMB was able to close down a replicating facility who failed to comply with the licensing and registration requirements imposed.

?The replicating equipment and materials confiscated from this establishment and forfeited in favor of the government has a commercial value of no less than P40 million. Similarly, we also, in the same day, closed a warehouse located at 1613 A. Rivera St., which was confirmed to be engaged in the illegal importation of counterfeit optical media products. Commercial value of items seized from this establishment is [valued] at P40 million.?

Edu also disclosed that the OMB closed two more warehouses identified to be suppliers of blank discs to be used for pirated CDs.

On Dec. 22, the OMB raided and padlocked a warehouse on S. Severino Street in Sta. Cruz, Manila, that was reported to be engaged in the importation of blank CDs and plastic casings used for pirated films. Again on Dec. 23, the OMB decommissioned a warehouse located at 914 Zacateros St. in Binondo, Manila, also engaged in the illegal importation of blank CDs and plastic casings. Items seized from these two establishments have a commercial value of no less than P70 million.

Edu and his team at the OMB and the legitimate retailers led by Yassin Ibrahim working for the task force said that more than the commercial value of the items seized from the replication facilities and the three warehouses, the OMB was able to stop piracy at its source because it was able to intercept the flooding of counterfeit and pirated CDs even before it is distributed in the market.

Unfortunately for the agency, it has no mandate to dispose of the items, more specifically the blank CDs and the replicating machines, to raise funds for its anti-piracy efforts. ?We crush them, or donate it to schools, students we know can have more positive use for them,? he said.

Sarah thanks the media

Last Dec. 30, Sarah Geronimo threw a thank-you-party at Villa Inmaculada in Intramuros for members of the media.

?We would like to share the spirit of the holidays to everyone who has been very supportive of Sarah,? the singer?s mother Divina Asher Geronimo said in the vernacular to welcome members of the media who came to the party. ?Sarah is nearly five years in the business already, and we have not been given the chance to thank everyone. So, this is the time we can express our gratitude to all of the people who believed in her? Boss Vic [del Rosario of Viva Entertainment group], ABS-CBN, and everyone who has written about Sarah.?

Sarah?s spirit was buoyed by the presence of Vic del Rosario and Crystalle Henares (daughter of Vicky Belo and Atom Henares). Vic gave the singer a Balenciaga bag and Crystalle a Louis Vuitton (see photos) for Christmas.

Sarah is currently the cash cow of Viva Entertainment, especially after the successive hits of her movie with John Lloyd Cruz A Very Special Love and her concert The Next One at the Araneta Coliseum.

We sat down with the singer before the party ended and we learned that You Changed My Life, the sequel to the movie, is now being shot and will be ready for a Valentine release. Before the end of the year, she might do one with Piolo Pascual.

At present, Sarah who will turn 21 on July 25, has no serious (and neither amorous) relationship. While she definitely has crushes among fellow singers and actors at the Kapamilya network, she is very secretive about it, afraid perhaps that she might be misconstrued if she makes it public. In fact, she said that she doesn?t have any ?close friends? in the business, albeit most are merely friendly acquaintances.

Whomever Sarah will finally hook up with in the future should be strong enough to weather the star?s whirlwind schedule of performances, tapings for television, and shoots for movies, which many of us feel she would be tied up to for the rest of the year.

Modern Japanese cuisine at The Fort

Last Tuesday, upon invitation from longtime friend Aster Amoyo, now president of Toki Fudhaus Inc., we went to The Fort for dinner. And we were quite surprised to be in a well-appointed Japanese restaurant called Toki.

It is, Aster said, is the newest Japanese restaurants at The Fort that serves fusion and contemporary Japanese cuisine.

Chef Shinsuke Yonekawa, champion of the Master Chef of Japan Search 2007 and worked in Hyatt Regency in Osaka prior to accepting the posting at The Fort, served us a m?lange of dishes ranging from steaming hot tofu soup to wagyu beef salad, mixed tempura, pork and Japanese-style fruit cocktail.

We nearly went berserk at the abundance of the food we couldn?t consume everything, despite the fact that everything was excellent.

Unlike other Japanese restaurants in the city, Toki uses indigenously Filipino ingredients to all its dishes. This bodes well with growers of spices and vegetables in the country.

The restaurant had been opened a week before Christmas and is already attracting a good number of loyal clients.

Those who came to savor the food during the opening, we were told, were Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla with wife Lani Mercado, Senator Dick Gordon, Gina de Venecia, Kaye Tinga, Bench-man Ben Chan, retired General Mitch Templo and wife Mildred Ortega together with their son, immigration lawyer Michael Templo, talent manager and businessman Wyngard Tracy, Mega Publishing Group?s Sari Yap, singer Eva Eugenio, RTW entrepreneur Gener Gozum, skin-care-line entrepreneur Joel Cruz, Dr. Jonathan Dizon, Sanyo-Philippines vice president Noboru Inoue and actors Richard Gomez, Ricky Davao, William Martinez, Ramon Christopher, Eula Valdez, Jobelle Salvador, Yayo Aguila, among others.

Aster who started in the recording industry in the ?70s has become very successful after interlocking her talents with a Japanese wanting to do business in the Philippines.

Q Channel 11 at the 13th Asian TV Awards

Congratulations to Camera Caf?, which airs on both Q Channel 11 and GMA-7. The show was recently chosen as the Best Comedy Program at the 13th Asian Television Awards held recently in Singapore.

Q Channel 11?s public affairs program Reunions, on the other hand, was ?Highly Commended? as Best Reality Program.

Held every December, the Asian TV Awards draws around 1,400 entries every year from broadcasters?including free-to-air TV stations, pay-TV platforms, and independent production houses?all over Asia.

i-Witness bags 2008 Unicef Child Rights Award

i-Witness? Jay Taruc and his team won the 2008 Abu Casbaa Unicef Child Rights Award.

Out of 69 entries from 10 countries in Asia, the documentary ?Batang Kalabaw? (Child Beasts of Burden) was chosen for the prestigious award this year for being ?the best television programming on children?s rights produced in the Asia-Pacific region.? What makes the award more special is the fact that only one awardee is picked every year to be the recipient of the Abu Casbaa Unicef Child Rights Award.

?Batang Kalabaw? tells the story of 14-year-old Cherilyn and her young friends who trek up and down the mountains of Agusan del Sur for more than six hours to carry logs weighing as much as 15 kilos. Cherilyn is the sole breadwinner of her family and acts as parent to her five siblings.

This is the second documentary of i-Witness that won this award following ?Selda Inosente? (Angels in Prison) hosted by Kara David that won in 2003.

The documentary had also previously received a Certificate for Creative Excellence at the 2008 US International Film and Video Festival and the 2008 Catholic Mass Media Awards.

The awarding ceremony was held last year at The Westin Resort in Bali, Indonesia.

Remember Barbie Hsu?

 The funniest and most bizarre love story to welcome the year has started this week on GMA?s Dramarama sa Hapon.  Find the thing that you least expect in the crossroads of life in Love At The Corner!

 Top-billed by Meteor Garden star Barbie Hsu and multi-talented Taiwanese hottie Show Luo, everybody will surely anticipate this story of serendipity and taking chances. 

Barbie Hsu is Sherie, a young socialite who grew up not knowing the harshness of the world outside her circle of rich comfort.  Smart and beautiful, it seemed that her life would continue being the fairytale that it is, especially after her Prince Charming had asked her to marry him.

 Show Luo plays Kyle, literally a starving artist who wanted to make it big in the city.  Unfortunately, his friend disappeared with all his cash, forcing him to work as a cook in a restaurant to earn money for his dreams.

In an unexpected turn of events, two very different worlds collide as Sherie?s car hits Kyle?s bike, starting a zany story of tentative friendship and love in the craziest of places.

Sherie and Kyle?s paths continually cross, and fate seems to play its tricks on their lives.  As Sherie?s personal fairytale seem to take a turn for the worse, will she find solace in the stubborn Kyle?  What chaos will ensue as one?s life slowly intertwines with the other?  Will they find their destiny that started when they met in that little corner-street?

 Follow Sherie and Kyle as they realize the hard and funny way that love truly sneaks even into the most stubborn hearts.  Watch Love At the Corner, Monday to Friday before Family Feud, only on GMA-7.