Miss Gay 5 Prettiest 2010

Boom Reyes, a.k.a. Maricar Reyes, won this year's Miss Gay 5 Prettiest title in a pageant held at the Liwasang Bayan in San Pedro, Laguna on December 25, 2010. This 24-year old beauty pageant  veteran wowed the judges and the crowd with her feminine physique, talent and quick wit.

I can only wish I have that body.

The runners up were Francine Garcia, a.k.a. Paris Hilton. (2nd place); Mariane Arguelles, a.k.a. Kim Chu (3rd place); Ashley Marie Futori , a.k.a. Marian Rivera ( 4th place); and Kristine Anna Futari (5th place.). I'm sure you are thinking that these can't be their names but let's give the ladies a break. They all did marvelous during the pageant, showcasing their talents and assets in casual wear, long gown, and swim wear.

Blue looks good on her, doesn't it?

Choosing the five prettiest gays of the night were Belen Advincula, a former high school principal turned owner of a recruitment agency; award-winning haristylist Nonoy San Juan, manager of Salon 28; Warren G. Antaran, professional stylist and creative director if Textures and Tones Salon; Angel Villanueva Mejia, owner of Salon 29 and co-owner of Angel Salon; First Hofileña, international hairstylist and senior board member of Gay Illustrada Association; Mary Rose Gandionco, a Marketing student at PUP San Pedro and a beauty queen in her own right; and Ma. Lourdes Casacop, registered nurse and a beauty queen in her own right.

They remind me of the gays in White Beach

Other candidates who did not make it to the top 5 but were equally amazing in their efforts were Jen Marie Aquino (Bianca Manalo), Angel Lopez (Katrina Halili), Krisanta Marie Futari (Jackie Rice), Frncheska Kate Lozano (Charlene Gonzales), Ligaya Mayumi Aquino (Izza Calsado), Aico Garcia (Jewel Mish), Casey Mendoza (Anne Curtis), Pauline Sytangco (Ruffa Gutierrez), and Channe Mendez (Trisha Mendez).

Go for gold!

Take note that not all of these candidates are from San Pedro, Laguna. Some hail from as far as Quezon City to join the pageant and become one of the Miss Gay 5 Prettiest. This beauty pageant was hosted by Alvin de los Reyes and was brought to us by Gay Illustrada Association of San Pedro, Laguna and is one of the most successful presentations in this year's Paskuhan 2010 lineup of events.

Pretty in pink

Special thanks to Joseph Aman, the overall organizer of the event and member of Gay Illustrada, for providing me with information regarding the event. Watch out for my feature on Gay Illustrada and its activities for 2011, including Ginoong San Pedro.

1st Mayor Calixto R. Cataquiz Youth Festival 2010

Yesterday, December 18, teenagers from different barangays of San Pedro, Laguna gathered at the San Pedro Aktibo Youth & Sports Center in San Vicente for the The First Mayor Calixto R. Cataquiz Youth Festival. This year's theme “AKTIBONG KABATAAN, AKTIBO SA PALIGSAHAN, HAHANGAAN KAHIT SAAN," reflects the youthful vitality that has marked Mayor Cataquiz' administration.

Aside from the sporting events, there were also various exhibits and family-friendly activities for visitors who went to the Youth Festival. These include the Car Show, Art Exhibit, Photo Exhibit, Airsoft, Gunshow, Bonsai Exhibit, Pet Shops, Clown and Magic Show, Giant Maze, Face Painting, Wall Climbing, Photowall, and Photobooth.  The Dance Competition started at 6PM. The highlight of San Pedro Youth Festival 2010 is the FREE concert which happens today, December 19. It will feature one of the best rock bands in the Philippine music industry, Rocksteady.


I encourage every San Pedronian to please like the San Pedro Aktibo Youth & Sports Center in Facebook to get updates on the festival and other events and activities at the center. I intend to check out the place after the festival and see if they really offer FREE Taekwondo, karate, aerobics and gymnastic lessons to everyone.

Philippine Festivals Highlighted in San Lorenzo School's Paskuhan 2010 Presentation

True to this year's theme of Paskuhan 2010, San Lorenzo School of San Pedro, Laguna entertained hundreds of San Pedronians with colorful dance numbers representative of major Philippine festivals like the Sampaguita Festival of our home town. My daughter and I were able to catch some of their presentations, incuding the song number of the lovely Bea Manabat. I was also able to get acquainted with Mr. Jason B. Caldino, who served as the master of ceremonies that night. He was very generous in offering to email me a copy of the programme, which I am posting below.

I.    DOXOLOGY - AMAZING GRACE/FLUTE/GRADE 4
II.   PRAYER - JASON B. CALDINO
III.  PHILIPPINE NATIONAL ANTHEM - SLS CHORALE
IV. OPENING REMARKS -  MRS. PAULA F. TALIMAN
V.   PRESENTATIONS

1. SENIOR KINDER - SAMPAGUITA FESTIVAL
2. GRADE 3 - KAGASANGAN FESTIVAL
3. Song number - Amirah Muyco
4. GRADE 5 - SAYAW SA OBANDO
5. FIRST YEAR - EID’L FITR FESTIVAL
6. Solo number - Bea Manabat
7. SECOND YEAR - PATARADAY FESTIVAL
8. THIRD YEAR -  PANGISDAAN FESTIVAL
9. Duet - Bernadette Berroya & Pocholo Bismonte
10. FOURTH YEAR - SINULOG FESTIVAL
11. Performing arts - OPM Christmas Dance Number
12. SLS Chorale - OPM Christmas Carole

About San Lorezo School

Founded in 1975, San Lorezo School is a non-sectarian school located in 608 Mayumi Street, United San Pedro Subdivision, San Pedro, Laguna. The school prides itself with having relevant, responsive, and technologically-oriented academic and non-academic programs as well as competent and committed teachers. San Lorenzo School offers quality education geared towards academic and moral excellence from the Nursery level to Fourth Year High School level. You can contact the school using the following:


Telephone: +63(02)869-1069, (02)869-4694, (02)520-4421
Fax: +63(02)869-4694
E-mail: sanlorenzoschool.admin@gmail.com
Friendster Webpage: profiles.friendster.com/8442356

Paskuhan 2010 Schedule of Presentations

I guess this is my lucky day because the PAIO emailed me the schedule of  PASKUHAN 2010 within minutes after I visited their office and requested a copy of the presentation schedule.I am posting this here in case you guys want to find out when your alma mater is making a presentation. Mine is doing its presentation on the 10th  of the month!

Dec. 1 - OPENING SALVO - SPMDI
Dec. 2 - St. Peter Academy and Academia Institucion de San Pedro
Dec. 3 - Creative Star Montessorean School and South Fairway Montessori School
Dec. 4 - Sisters of Mary Immaculate School
Dec. 5 - San Pedro Aktibo Aerobics Club, Daycare Students and Holy Angels Learning School, Inc.
Dec. 6 - St. Therese of the Child Jesus School
Dec. 7 - San Lorenzo School and Knights of Columbus
Dec. 8 - Our Lady of Assumption College and IETI - Magsaysay
Dec. 9 - Liceo de San Pedro
Dec. 10 - SPRCNHS
Dec. 11 - St. Louis Anne Colleges
Dec. 12 - Upper Village Christian School and St. Paul Montessori School
Dec. 13 - Laguna Northwestern College
Dec. 14 - DepEd - Public Elementary Schools
Dec. 15 - Pacita Complex National High School
Dec. 16 - Agnus Dei School System and Immaculate Heart of Mary School
Dec. 17 - St. John Bosco and St. Francis Institute
Dec. 18 - Rotary Club of San Pedro South (Gift Giving) and Rapperiologist (Dongalo Wreckordz)
Dec. 19 - PUP - SPE
Dec. 20 - STI / Von Erikka's Talent / TRU
Dec. 21 - The Professional Extreme Styles & Events Management
Dec. 22 - Louise Centre for Performing Arts Creative School
Dec. 23 - Tau Gamma
Dec. 25 - Gay Illustrada Association "Ms. Gay 5 Prettiest"
Dec. 26 - AKRHO
Dec. 27 - Philippine Educational Theater & Art Society (PETAS)
Dec. 28 - Elemento Art at MAGIC
Dec. 29 - Senior Citizens and Kultura
Dec. 30 - Thursday Mason

All events start at 6PM. Be there a little earlier if you want to sit on one of the monoblock chairs provided by the municipal government for this month-long Christmas celebration in the town plaza.

Pamaskong Handog: St. Therese of the Child Jesus

As mentioned in my previous post, Christmas has officially started in San Pedro, Laguna with the treelighting ceremony and opening of the 2010 Pamaskong Handog series here in San Pedro. I intended to watch the presentations every night but since I spent the weekend in Puerto Galera, I missed several already.

I was, however, able to catch part of last night's Pamaskong Handong presentation by St. Therese of the Child Jesus School. Me and my daughter watched a few minutes of a modern dance number by the school's 3rd year students.


Below is a the programme for last night's presentation. Thanks to Teacher Josie Conte for giving me her copy of it. Hopefully, I can get a schedule of the rest of the presenations later at PAIO.

St. Therese of the Child Jesus School Presentation

Part I

I.     Doxlogy - Selected Annex Students
II.    Philippine National Anthem
III.   Intermission - Drum and Lyre
IV.    Panunuluyan

Part II

V.     Folk Dance - Selected Grade 4-6 Students (Annex)
VI.    Folk Dance - Grade 5(Main)
VII.   Folk Dance - 3rd Year (Main)
VIII.  Folk Dance - 4th Year (Main)
IX.    Folk Dance - 1st Year (Main)


Part III

X.     Jingle Bell Rock- 4th Yr Girls Main and Selected Primary Students
XI.    Modern Dance- Selected High School Students
XII.   Song Number by Gian Oliver
XIII.  Modern Dance - 2nd Year St. Jude
XIV.   Sabayang Bigkas - Grade 4 (Annex)
XV.    Rock and Roll - Grade 5 (Annex)
XVI.   Ballroom - Grade 2 Annex
XVII.  Song Number by Kylan Tiongson
XVIII. Acoustic Number by Kiesha Nicole and Ivanne
XIX.   Modern Dance - 2nd Year - Selected Students (Main)
XX.    Modern Dance- Sports Club (Main)
XXI.   Modern Dance- 2nd Year St. Vincent (MAIN)
XXII.  Song Number by Michelle Ann & Alister
XXIII. Song Number by Janelle, E.J, & Rosel
XXIV.  Modern Dance - selected 3rd Year Students
XXV.   Modern Dance - selected 4th Year Students
XXVI.  Chrismas Ballroom Dance - High School Annex
XXVII. Santa Claus is coming to town Mr. Ed Cangco
XXVIII. Star ng Pasko - All Participants

Since I didn't bring my phone last night, I wasn't able to take pictures. But I will be emailing a link to this post to Ms. Josie Conte and hopefully I can update this post with pictures from the event, or I can just make a separate post.

Update as of December  7, 2010: I received the schedule of presentations via email from the PAIO. It seems that this annual event is no longer called Pamaskong Handog but Paskuhan. I will be using PASKUHAN in future posts.

Pamaskong Handog: Christmas Officially Begins in San Pedro

As I write this post, the students and teachers of San Pedro Manpower Development Institute (SPDMI) are still entertaining San Pedronians in the town plaza. You see, it's the start of the annual Pamaskong Handong here in San Pedro, Laguna. It's that time of the year when different schools and organizations in the municipality set aside their differences and come up with spectacular shows to dazzle the townsfolk. This year's theme is "Paskong Pinoy."

This year, 2010, SPDMI opened the month-long celebration. But not before the First Lady of the town, Lourdes "Baby" Cataquiz led municipal workers and hundreds of San Pedronians in the lighting of the Christmas trees and the whole plaza.You can feel the festive mood of the crowd as they watched the liwasang bayang get lit by Christmas lights and the cloudless night sky brightened by the fireworks. She wished everyone to have a prosperous and merry Christmas and an even better new year. She encouraged everyone to think about creating a roadmap for 2011, an obvious reference to her husband's Road Map 2020 program.

After Mrs. Baby Catquiz, the municipal administrator made a brief speech to open the second part of the program, which is the presentation of SPDMI. They opened the program with a doxology, which is best described as an interpretative dance to a religious song. The SPDMI staff, headed by their administrator Dominador Mamerto (I hope I got the spelling right), followed with a song number. They sung the Institute's Hymn. Both numbers have the sobering effect on the audience.

But not to worry. The crowd soon got their festive mood back during the "SPDMI Festival." It was essentially a very long production number, with dancers garbed in colorful costumes inspired by the Caribbean islands, Hawaii, and Africa. There was a girl who stood out among the rest because she was such a graceful dancer. I couldn't take my eyes off her.


But what really took the crowd's attention was the fashion number presented by Cosmetology students of SPDMI, which highlighted their makeup, hairdressing, and costume design skills. It was called "Beauties on Parade."  Fortunately, I sneaked at the backstage before the show and got closeup photos of the models. Here are some of them:

From left to right: Christmas Costume & Fantasy Makeup, Flower Costume, Modern Cinderella Costume, and Glass Costume.

Kevin Ponce models the feather costume. Looks a lot like a Mulawin costume, right?

The Recycled Materials costume as modeled by Jhanice Sedigo  Under the white lights, this costume was stunning.

After the parade, SPDMI presented Hawaii & Caribbean Moods. The girls were dancing to some slow Hawaiian tune when Gabby asked if we could have dinner already. Since it was past 8PM, I obliged. I wanted to see the other presentations -- Winning Moments in Broadway, Then & Now Dance Hits, and Show Girls-- but I figured there are still more nights to see more dance numbers.


I would like to take Ms. Fatima, the master of ceremonies, for letting me have a peek at the program.Looking forward to catching the start of tomorrow's presentation. Hopefully, they'd start on time. Tonight's presentation started almost an hour late.


Update as of December  7, 2010: I received the schedule of presentations via email from the PAIO. It seems that this annual event is no longer called Pamaskong Handog but Paskuhan. I will be using PASKUHAN in future posts.

When the Local Gov't Screws You Over

Some time in July of this year, I approached the local Public Affairs & Information Office (PAIO) to get some basic info about the town of San Pedro, Laguna.  I was after general facts and trivia that I couldn't seem to find on the net. I am building a Wordpress site for the town -- on my own time and expense-- and I wanted to get my facts straight. The PAIO seems to be the best way to go about getting the right information.

I was lucky because I was able to speak directly to the head of the PAIO that afternoon. She was young and understands the concept of blogging. She confided in me that she's got all the info for the web site on data disks but she is having a difficult time working with the people who designed the town's web site. It appears that they were only paid to design the web site and not maintain it. Thus, she cannot get them to upload new content on the site.

 She asked me what I planned to do about the site.I told her that I am planning to build a blogazine about the town since the official web site was not up to my standards. I told her that instead of Flash or Joomla, I'd be using Wordpress because it is easier to manage and fits perfectly with what I wanted to do. I showed her my blogs, Nica's Day Out and The Virtual Assistant, to prove to her that I know what I am doing. I even showed her a Blogger blog for Nothern Allen, Samar which I built for a friend. 

You'd think that with all the chatting we've done, I'd walk away with the information I wanted. Right? Well, I didn't. She wanted me to submit a proposal about my site, including the CMS I am going to use and an overview of the content. She explained that she is just cautious with releasing information. Others have come before me asking for such info and used it against the local government. In my mind I was thinking how could general facts be used for bad publicity, but hey I don't mind doing the proposal. In fact, I thought it was a  good idea. You should always have a plan in hand.

I submitted the proposal in printed format a week after. I was hoping to talk to her but she was cloistered in an meeting so I just left the proposal with one of her assistants. I texted her the same day informing her that I already dropped off the plan. She replied that she got it and promised she'd get back to me next week for her decision.

After three weeks and still no word from her, I followed up by text message. She said that the higher ups haven't decided what to do yet and that she'd let me know once they have made the decision. This confounded me even further. I did not send her the proposal to get their permission to build my blogazine. I just needed information that I can use for my web site. I smell something fishy going on.

As a graduate of Public Administration from the University of the Philippines and a former municipal scholar under the administration of then Mayor Fely Vierneza (thanks to Shie for pointing my earlier error), I know red tape and bureaucratic shit when I see one. This is one of those of moments. My gut was telling me that I shouldn't have given them my proposal but I did that in goodwill. But whatever goodwill I wanted to cultivate was lost in the sneaky manner by which they came up with a new web site.

Fast forward to four months since I went to the local PAIO -- San Pedro has got a new web site, which by the way is STILL under construction. It was done in a layout similar to what I intended my blogazine to be. It even bears an uncanny resemblance to the menus I was planning to put up there. So this was the spoiled fish I was smelled. My ears are getting red.

But then I realized, it's partly my fault. I shouldn't have given them that proposal. I shouldn't have trusted the head of PAIO, who's probably out looking for herself. So I won't get mad. I will just proceed with what I planned four months ago-- a blogazine for San Pedro. But unlike my original plan, I'd do this on a free platform and not even buy a domain name -- for now.