At DZUP 1602 with Rose

With Ms. Rose Feliciano

Last Tuesday, July 24 i went to DZUP to meet Sarah Maniago, Broadcast Communication student of UP. She emailed me requesting for an on-the-air interview by Ms. Rose Feliciano for the program called ROSE [Radyo Oble Serbisyo sa Empleyado] AT YOUR SERVICE. It is a program that talks about the different government agencies and institutions for the benefit of employees as well as students, and aims to inform and address the community’s concerns and issues, and helps in the dissemination of information as well as to better address the needs of the community. According to Ms. Feliciano, DZUP started in 1958 at the UP College of Engineering, then moved to Palma Hall…until it found its permanent home at the UP Mass Communication Media Center Bldg.

I lived in Area II, at 107 J.P. Laurel St. in UP for nearly 20 years when my brother Gani was still alive and  teaching there but I only occasionally tuned in to DZUP1602. Possibly because I was already a UP resident, and hot issues, even gossips could easily be heard and gotten. Besides, I worked at the UP Film Center, and my brother taught at the UP Department of History, so together, news from our ends would be enough for us to talk about. Thinking of my brother, and our simple, somewhat rustic life there makes me nostalgic and sad.

Anyway, in celebration of the National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation (NDPR) Week  (July 17-23) which is annually being observed in the Philippines, DZUP 1602 has decided to feature disability as the program’s theme for this month. Advocating for their cause is the reason why I was requested to be there. They invited me, according to their letter “to talk about your film, Alyana which is about the autism in the Philippines. Basically, the episode will concentrate on the said film, your advocacy, the relevance of the celebration of disability week as well as your inspiration in making different advocacy films.”

Re my experiences in making films for special children / PWDs, I ended up talking about them all — ALYANA, SILENT ODYSSEY [my journeys into the autism and Deaf world], even about Arch. Jaime Silva, in A BLIND ARCHITECT-The Vision of Non-Handicapping Environment produced by APCD, and A MI PATRIA, Rizal’s Poems for the Deaf, the Blind including non-PWDs.

How I wish I can already talk about the CP’s!!! My optimism remains, though its making has unfortunately been set aside for long  because of my last work, A MI… But even if A mi is already done, the problem is I have no camera to use when I move around to research. On my line up for interview are Dr. Bernadette Chua and Dr. Mary Ann Prudencio — who are both based outside Manila [another problem!]. But you see, God provides! That has always been my belief. And since I started it, I think 2 or 3 years ago, still I know that I will end up with a film more – on the CPs – in God’s time. I’ll just pray that my passion for making advocacy films never ends.

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