Espiritu with cast of Cenerentola

By Pablo A. Tariman, VERA Files

Filipino tenor Arthur Espiritu – last heard as Cassio in a recent Modena production of Otello – triumphed anew as Prince Ramiro in Rossini’s Le Cenerentola mounted by Pittsburgh Opera last week of April to early May this year.

A Pittsburgh critic’s verdict:” Tenor Arthur Espiritu was superb as Don Ramiro, singing with an appealing lyric quality that matches his character's temperament. He first appears having switched roles with his servant, who pretends to be the noble searching for a wife. Espiritu, as the servant, maintained a certain dignity, which of course provides continuity for his character when his true identity is revealed.”

Espiritu -- who is flying back to Manila this week -- said the opera had a wonderful audience on opening night but he had to adjust on the second night because of allergy problems. “I got through it and sang safely. The audience was very much involved and I heard lots of laughs.”

On the third performance, he was able to

Commentary

Mancao. Photo from ABS-CBN.

By Ellen Tordesillas

On Nov. 16, 2011, there was a hearing of the Dacer-Corbito kidnapping and murder case. That was the day after Gloria Arroyo was blocked at the airport when she attempted to leave the country for Singapore.

A source who was at the courtroom said the prosecution’s witness, former Police Senior Superintendent Cezar Mancao II, was fidgety because his lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio, was not around.

Someone told Mancao, “Hindi na darating yun. Napuyat yun kagabi. (He won’t be coming. He is tired due to to last night’s incident.”

Topacio never made it to the court that day and the hearing was postponed. He was present in subsequent hearings.

Mancao having the same lawyer as Arroyo gives a clue as to the link between the two.

Topacio’s non-appearance that day should have given Mancao an idea what’s in store for him that he had already served the purpose of Arroyo which was to pin down Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

It will be recalled that it was turnaround testimony,

Iloy kag bata (Mother and child)

By Hazel P. Villa, VERA Files

When high school teacher Mary Rose Adelle Pacificar left Iloilo City in the Philippines in June last year to be a foreign language assistant in a university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, she never imagined herself becoming a watercolor artist as well.

While working as the first Foreign Language Teaching Assistant for Filipino at the University of Michigan, she read a call for submissions for artworks for the Ecumenical Center and International Residence (ECIR) Art Nite 2013. With the encouragement of friends---such as Amina Rizwan, a jewelry designer and Fulbright scholar at Cranbrook Academy of Art---28-year-old Pacificar decided to give it a try.

Pacificar co-organized the ECIR Art Nite 2013 that opened last March 25 and ran for a week to “encourage fellow ‘artists-in-residence’ to share their works and help those who are ‘artistically-challenged’ to appreciate art.”

The exhibit featured the digital works, photographs, sketches, poetry and

Journalists prepare to release kites during the ‘Simulkites: Soar High for Press Freedom’ activity in UP Diliman on May 3. Photo by VINCENT GO

By Darlene Cay, VERA Files

Fighting for press freedom is like flying a kite, some journalists found out today. Both have hits and misses and their share of disappointments.

Journalists from different media organizations flew about a dozen kites to commemorate World Press Freedom Day at the University of the Philippines Diliman Oblation Grounds.

Nine kites had letters that were supposed to spell out “free press,” but not all of them soared. An “s” got tangled in a tree and only the letter “e’s” in “free” took off.

But the journalists were undaunted. “We celebrate this day because we continue to unite and fight for press freedom despite the challenges media people face," National Union of Journalists of the Philippines Director Sonny Fernandez said.

In its 2013 press freedom report released yesterday, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) said that the Philippine press, despite a few positive strides, continues to be obscured by restrictive laws and the persistence of the culture

Flutist John Raymond Sarreal

By Pablo A. Tariman, VERA Files

In this intimate concert at the UP Abelardo Hall, the audience was still in a trance after listening to baritone Noel Azcona’s interpretation of Ibert’s art songs.

When flutist John Raymond Sarreal came in for Chaminade’s Concertino, Op. 107, there was another hush in the audience as a refreshing melody all but showcased the best in that French repertoire.

The rapport with pianist Najib Ismail was perfect, the flutist looked like he was enjoying every minute of it and at the end of the Chaminade number, there was loud cheering and applause fit for a rock star.

“I really had such a fantastic time playing to cheering audiences,” he said. “I heard a lot of ‘Bravos!’ and loud clapping. It's an amazing feeling for any artists to be appreciated for his efforts.”

A week later, the same ecstatic response was repeated in the closing concert of the 2013 Catanduanes Summer Music Festival at the Kemji Resort in Virac, Catanduanes. “I guess they reacted the same

By Mark Pere Madrona, VERA Files

The unsolved and unpunished killings of media people in past years have kept the Philippines in third place among countries listed as the most dangerous in the world for journalists.

The dubious distinction appears in the 2013 impunity index of the New York-based press freedom watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists which noted that 55 journalist murders have gone unsolved in the past decade despite President Benigno Aquino III’s vow to end impunity.

CPJ Impunity Index 2013

Released a day before the World Press Freedom Day, this year’s CPJ impunity index includes twelve countries. The Impunity Index features countries “where journalists are murdered regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes.”

The 2013 index covers unsolved media killings that happened from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2012.

“Only nations with five or more unsolved cases are listed. Cases are considered unsolved when no convictions have been won,” the CPJ explained.

The 2009 Maguindanao massacre,

Commentary

PDI's Magic 12 spin

By Ellen Tordesillas

Spin, in media lingo, is using information to support a particular bias or slant.

It’s not exactly false but some aspects of the truth may have been glossed over.

As the campaign for the 2013 elections heats up, spin doctors are becoming more creative that sometimes, I get startled by what I hear and read.

The latest was the “Jun Magsaysay, Risa Hontiveros” in “Magic 12” bannered by not just one newspaper.

The source of the spin was the April 30 release of Pulse Asia of its April 20-22 survey on senatorial preferences where Team PNoy candidates Jun Magsaysay, who has been hovering outside the Magic Circle since the start of the campaign and Risa Hontiveros, who has been struggling in number 17 or 18 in past surveys, finally made it to number 12. Their ranking is actually 12th - 17th.

That’s great news for Team PNoy.

But, they are not the only ones in that level in a survey that has a plus or minus 2 margin of error.

Re-electionist Gregorio Honasan and

By Jonathan De Santos, VERA Files

To reform the Philippine public school system, they have to start at an early age. And that doesn’t mean students. That means teachers.

This was the message of Wendy Kopp, founder of a U.S. group called Teach for All, who is in the Manila to promote the idea of getting the country’s top college graduates and professionals to commit to teaching in high-need urban and rural public schools in the Philippines.

Wendy Kopp. Photo by Jonathan de Santos/VERA Files

Kopp founded the Teach for America program in 1989 to get college graduates to teach at “highest-need” schools in the United States. The idea was to create a highly qualified volunteer teachers' corps as an alternative to the aggressive recruitment by Wall Street firms.

That program, Teach For America, has so far produced 28,000 alumni, more than half of who chose to either stay in education or are working in fields related to education reform.

The program has not only changed participants, many of whom were, like Kopp, part of the “Me Generation”