Lighting Up Cebu

Last week, I joined Chi, Choy and Sansu to Cebu City to meet up with the filmmakers there. And then Chi being Chi, we would also be holding a candlelighting ceremony for Mother's Day. Instead of the usual Hallmark thing, the RH groups wanted to commemorate the mothers who died because of childbirth. Philippines has a high maternal mortality rate because we are holier than thou, thinking of Catholic morality instead of reality. The candlelighting was supposed to be at the Circle which is front of Robinsons Mall. Instead it was transferred in front of the Cebu City Hall, which just happens to be in front of the Church and the Magellan's Cross. So we have the symbol of the Church and the State right there and then. In the afternoon we went to Cucko's Nest, which is the tambayan of the artists. We met up with the owner Bambi Beltran. She also paints but we didn't know that she also acts and writes for indie movies. We learned only about that during the dinner with the filmmakers headed by Publio Briones. More than ten came, which was more than we expected because of the rains. Bambi showed four films and we were impressed. The next night we held the candlelighting. About 300 women came with their purple scarves and all. We were careful not to drip our candles but other than that it was a successful stint. We met some Benguet ladies manning the ukay-ukay shops. Dead giveaway: the country music. Choy bought Fred Perrys and I bought a pre-stressed punk shirt featuring Lou Reed. Our drinking place near our hotel was the Our Place which was where the jaded, bored expats drink. No dried mangoes because the disciples of Quiboloy (the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church) are hawkign them all across the universe. I bought some books at Booksale including the new Zoetrope featuring Lou Reed's photos. Other than that, we didn't buy much because we were still going to Iloilo.