Tiyo Pablo - Naughty Uncle on Spotlight in Another Amateur Show

When Cedes’ husband succumbs to lung cancer, she is left with three sons Daniel (Anton Nolasco), Rodel (Josh Patrick) and Carlo (Walter Navarro); and an eccentric nephew Sam (Jersey Milano). More importantly, her finances are nil. Daniel and Rodel had to quit school while their mother (Carla Varga) is finding ways to earn a living. On the side, Daniel is forced into concupiscent tricks to help out with the grieving family’s escalating bills. But a year after their father’s death, Pablo (Martin Cortes), a relatively young auto mechanic, is pursuing the middle aged widow. But to Cedes’ sons, the arrangement feels spurious. After all, Pablo is just Daniel’s age. And Cedes is “nearing forty” (I was sure it was 50s).

The mismatched couple eventually “gets married” despite Cedes’ wards’ defiant protests. But something about Tiyo Pablo, the young uncle, unnerves the boys. He sneaks in the middle of the night peeping from doors while Daniel gets lost in the reverie of his refreshing shower. And Sam catches him en flagrante delicto.

Was the misbehaving uncle simply caught in a frivolous moment? Would he overstep more boundaries? What happens when he finds himself inside the sleeping boys’ room?

Carlo, Cedes, Rodel, Sam and Daniel share a cathartic moment.

If you think the people, the places, and the narrative arc seem familiar, it’s because this “work” comes from the same people who shamelessly brought us the baffling “Masikip sa Tatlo”. Even the visual affectations are similar: you find Anton Nolasco soaping away in the bathroom while the camera pans his backside – twice! – and that’s been done before in “Masikip sa Tatlo”. Though director Edz Espiritu is just on his sophomore effort, he has unfortunately run out of fresh ideas to share. He echoes himself with redundant themes of forbidden love, replete with dissonant sound played throughout the story like suggestions of an impending doom.

Once again, there’s discordance not just of situations, but of text as well. Cedes, the mother, is quick to suggest that his sons stop schooling due to their tight finances, but she’s adamant in renting out the extra room in their house. She reasons, “Baka di pumayag ang asawa ko,” who, by the way, has been buried 6 feet below the ground. She would rather sell turon and kuchinta around town than take in an income-generating boarder. In another scene, after a hot day out with the boys, Cedes sits at the living room chair and tells Sam, “Linisin mo na ang sarili.” Like he’s some inanimate object, or a robot maybe. I dunno about you, but normal conversation would say, “Maligo ka na.” Another scene: While Daniel bathes (again), Tiyo Pablo suddenly barges inside to borrow soap. Though it has been established that Pablo has a sour relationship with Cedes’ irate sons, when Pablo grabs Daniel’s joystick, the latter doesn’t even turn away. How convenient, right? In another blood curdling bed scene between Cedes and her young hubby Pablo, we see the wrinkly cougar slithering away in orgasmic bliss – bejeweled, fully clothed and fully made up while her consort sports a bulging briefs and nothing else.

I am not exactly sure why these obvious kinks aren’t ironed out. There are several things worth trying to avoid problems like these. A story conference, a discussion of the narrative, will easily tune up the awkward segments – and it won’t even cost a thing! An hour of discussion helps a lot! And I do seriously suggest that these floundering script writers and directors do this basic step. Stop being high and mighty when you’re planning on getting your work exhibited in commercial theaters. Do not punish your audience with these insipid, remediable mistakes that will ultimately reflect on your weaknesses. To be fair about it, “Tiyo Pablo” is a technically “cleaner” work than the annoying “Masikip sa Tatlo”. But it’s still immoral to practice your diddly film making skills on a paying audience.

It's just not right!

Winston Gonzales helps himself with the cash-strapped Anton Nolasco.

Tiyo Pablo loves to fiddle when the boys are asleep.

A voyeur gets caught!

Day of reckoning between Daniel and Tiyo Pablo.

Tiyo Pablo warns the bumbling Sam not to tell.

Anton Nolasco loves to bathe.

Amigo - A Piece of History in an Almost Forgotten Era

In 1900, the small village of San Isidro was invaded by a tenderfoot battalion of young American soldiers headed by Lt. Compton (Garret Dillahunt). They freed Spanish friar Padre Hidalgo (Yul Vazquez) who’s been held under the care of Rafael Dacanay (Joel Torre), cabeza of the barrio. The American forces pursue the revolutionary troops of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, but Compton’s conciliatory tack is to “win hearts and minds” instead. “We’ll pay for every item or service that you provide to us,” informs the leader.

But the colonizers soon make the life of the local folks difficult that even the cabeza, a land owner himself, has to plough his own land. People’s mobility is restrained. They are not allowed to stray far from designated demarcations. Joaquin, Rafael’s son, escapes and joins his uncle Simon (Ronnie Lazaro), a revolutionary. Martial Law is declared, and farming animals are butchered. God is indeed busy elsewhere.

At one point, Rafael is caught leaving his boundaries (he is taken to the hills by the revolutionary soldiers asking for a couple of things: 10 cavans of rice and a treacherous decoy). As punishment, he gets imprisoned by the Americans. This necessitates selection of a new cabeza. The principles of freedom-loving America rest on the concept of the democratic process. So an election is held. To the consternation of the invaders, Rafael once again wins. He is freed to lead his wards.

Soon thereafter, the town falls into a state of harmony. Relationships are built, and even romance blooms between soldiers and the local girls. But peace and harmony don’t always constitute the real motivations of the Americans. When Col. Hardacre (Chris Cooper) surprises San Isidro with a visit, he isn’t amused with the post-Fiesta countenance and the laidback demeanor of its inhabitants. In his mind, they are in a state of war, and barrios are being attacked and plundered. Soon thereafter, Rafael Dacanay is re-arrested, charging fast into events that would escalate into a bloody encounter. The cabeza is forced to spill the whereabouts of the guerilla soldiers. What becomes of his brother and his son? And more importantly, will Dacanay free himself from an impending execution?

Joel Torre resurfaces as one of the country’s most insightful actors. His “Amigo” persona is imposing without being arrogant; congenial without being cloying, and Rio Locsin beautifully complements the cabeza’s cordial demeanor. Garret Dillahunt’s Compton perfectly straddles his conflicted persona: is he the tough “warlord” or the gentle savior? Yul Vazquez’s Padre Hidalgo is such a joy to watch, one of my favorite performances from this spectacular ensemble.

There are a few sore points though: John Arcilla’s Nenong is too caricaturish. His betraying persona would have been more sinister with a little more subtlety. Ditto with Irma Adlawan (as Nenong’s wife Josefa) who, in her limited screen time, churns out an over eager characterization. This has been a habit borne out of theatrical crutches. On celluloid, Adlawan tends to evince ripples in the water when there should only be a reflection. Lee Meily’s camera work is like a breath of fresh air, crystal and in some ways affectionate. Had they decided against the use of the digital medium, cinematography would have turned out even better.

Chris Cooper is mean-spirited Col. Hardacre.

And no, Kyle, this isn’t a worthy companion piece to the amateurish “Baler” (2008), another historical film set at the end of the Spanish occupation in a little town in Aurora. I cringe remembering the emotionally hollow exposition, fake mustache, iffy production values and maladroit Spanish lines and delivery. “Amigo” is too polished and insightful for the unfair comparison.

Told in intimate narrative strokes, Director John Sayles carefully sculpts a town filled with distinct personalities, adequately fleshed out in modicums of amusing anecdotes. The character studies delve into human emotions ingrained in the cultural mores that run a small town. What’s even more interesting is how Sayles is able to capture the Filipino spirit as a community; how Sayles ensnares the gist of a captured spirit. And when a film master like Sayles is able to bridge his vision into something very Filipino, I am simply in awe!

Ronnie Lazaro is Simon.

Master film director John Sayles

Manong Konstru - Exploitative Masterpiece of the Alternate World

Construction workers. We have these preconceived images of burly, muscle-bound, sweat-drenched men with chests that jut out to South America and biceps bigger than my waist line.

In Crisaldo Pablo’s “Manong Konstru”, there’s none of that on show. What’s worse, the supposed titular characters aren’t even “manongs”, and like a sarcastic glib, the film isn’t even set around a construction site, but a hardware store! There is no gray demarcation between the two. The difference between these two is crystal clear - the former builds and "constructs", the latter sells supplies. Kuha mo, Madam?

CONFUSION BECOMES A DIRECTOR

This highlights the director-producer’s myopic vision. Crisaldo Pablo has this annoying habit of fixating on stuff and on words, and he sticks by them come hell or high water. In his “Chub Chaser” (2009) for example, it follows Chubi, an overweight gay guy (Joseff Young) who’s desperate to hook up with anyone interested, but no one was taking the bait. In fact, his advances were embarrassingly rebuffed even by the most hideous-looking characters we’ve seen in cinemaland. In short, no one was chasing the chubby. Why the title then? We’re in the same logic-challenged realm in “Manong Konstru” – which somehow underlines the fact that its writer-director is discombobulated with his terminologies. I wouldn’t say it straddles plain “stupidity”, but the adjective wouldn’t be inappropriate.

Capsule

The story ambiguously follows Joash (Joshua Santiago) who’s coming to terms, albeit awkwardly, with a bundle of concerns: the loss of his mother (she drowned in the floods) and his emerging sexuality. He can’t play basketball and is thus taunted by his peers. Even his father is not as cordial to the possibilities, “Huwag ka lang munang kumembot at ‘di ko pa kaya.” Even his best friend Sieg (Nikko dela Cruz) is conflicted about their association. Moreover, Joash is harboring a crush on Rusty (John Paul Gonzales), a laborer who works for Burog Hardware which his father runs with Draconian fist.

The story’s point of view is a confused mishmash vacillating among the hardware store’s oppressed workers (supposedly the titular “Manong Konstru” folks), Joash and Sieg’s friendship and a bewildering narrative strain of a gay man who bribes these laborers with gifts (“alak at tatlong de lata” – hahaha) in exchange of sexual favors.

ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

Though Joash eventually gets in Rusty’s good graces (the latter would bathe with the infatuated teener inches away from him), the conclusion would permutate into a narrative strain that detours from conventions of believability. In Crisaldo Pablo’s world, every guy is a victim of his loins. When Joash visits Rusty at his shanty, he is greeted by a guy who’s masturbating, and even nonchalantly asks him, “Ngayon ka lang nakakita ng taong nagbabate? Halika tulungan mo ako.” (Haven't you seen anyone jerk off before? Come help.) It’s really an alternate world of homoerotic fantasy – the kind that oversteps boundaries of reality, badly staged with 3^rd rate film making acumen and 4th rate production values.

Joash is conflicted.

CHARACTER MOTIVATIONS

There could have been wistful sweetness in the relationship between Joash and Sieg, but this is gravely under explored and superficially treated. How else could the best friends eventually end up playing with each other’s weiners when there was absolutely no hint of attraction from the start. You have to reference this improbability from Joash’s serious attraction with Rusty who seems to accommodate his mindful attention (Joash brings him snacks while he's shoveling away). In real stories, people delve into their action with adequate motivations. Even consummation of sexual urges ensues from rational motivations. But then rationality is never part of a Queeriosity flick. The point is to get a penis into the frame, who cares about reason; who cares about a circumspect narrative?

TITULAR MISHAP

Which takes us back to the contentious title – “Manong Konstru”! While viewing this in a dingy cinema, I overheard a parlorista commenting on these supposed construction workers: “Ay, mga dugyot!” My point exactly! These wanna-be actors may have a niche in someone else’s sexual fetish, the way some dimwits get turned on by animals, human corpses or geriatrics. But these guys are far from our preconceived notion of a “builder”, a “construction worker”. These are twinky guys with “maninipis na kargada”. Flick them away with your pointing finger and they just might self destruct.

You may see muscular definitions – the rectus abdominis and their tendinous intersections making up the so-called “abs”; the internal oblique muscles draping down the waist; the serratus anterior muscles sliding up the armpit. But all these glorious masculine definitions are too far removed from physical exertion; they're really a product of youth or malnutrition. In fact, Francis Sienes, a Cris Pablo regular, even said, “Sa suweldong tinatanggap namin, kulang talaga ng pambili ng pagkain.” (With what we're making, we don't have enough to buy food.) Thus they had to peddle their “shortcomings” for the fellating requirements of those darn hungry parloristas. There are no “manongs” nor construction workers in “Manong Konstru”. They are mere figments in someone's confused imagination

What we do have is a godawful movie.

Joash visits Rusty and he gets red-carpet hospitality... a front seat to his bathing show.

Requisite peekaboos make the end-all and be-all of a Crisaldo Pablo amateur opus, not coherent storylines.

In this fantasy world, guys bathe together and let it all hang out in wild abandon.

The "burly" laborers: Manongs anyone?

Dose Trese Katorse - MTRCB, Pedophilia & How Not to Make Movies

Experience teaches men to get better; to improve himself; to upgrade his craft. That is a reliable fact of life. But Pink Film producer and director Crisaldo Pablo seems to challenge this because with the number of theatrical releases from his film outfit, it’s becoming evident that his artistic capabilities don’t amount to anything substantial. In fact, Pablo has been churning out cringe-worthy works without an iota of redeeming value. And the more he does them, the worse they get! After “Hinala” and “M2M Eyeball The Movie”, I never thought he could get worse. Guess what!

Director Crisaldo Pablo is becoming prolific in his capacity to release movies for commercial exhibition. In fact, he can probably outnumber Star Cinema's or GMA Films' film output before the year ends. This dubious talent is a sad development considering the stark pedestrian quality on shameless display in any of his films. In Pablo’s latest anthology, “Dose Trese Katorse”, he delves into the realm of pubescent love.

The movie is once again, a trilogy fielded to dutifully accommodate Pablo’s workshop victims, errr, I mean clients.

Joeffrey Javier: sex with a 13 year old.

“Slow Motion” follows the ministrations of best friends Miguel (Jaycob Bulaong) and Edel (Edel Santiago) who are poles apart in their high school’s social strata. While Miguel is popular (he’s running for class governor), Edel is diffident and reluctant. And Miguel pushes Edel to come out of his introverted shell. They devise a plan meant to derail the political ambitions of school rival Maria. But their conspiratorial plan bogs down when they’re eventually found out. That Edel, who’s wooing Maria, is actually gay! What’s a young man to do when he’s more comfortable holding his breath under water?

“Swerte Ni Maxin” centers on Maximo (Roseller Kempis), a fatherless adolescent, who nurtures whimsical attraction with Joewel (Joeffrey Javier), a kanto boy who’s the object of affection of the neighborhood’s fledgling prepubescent gay boys. Maxin and his friends spy on the amused Joe even when he’s bathing. One day, Maxin gets word that Joe is holding a contest (a really ludicrous, albeit campy one involving “long hair” and money) and whoever wins gets to spend a night with Joe. But a gang war erupts and Joe finds himself running for cover – straight into Maxin’s house. Will Maxin find the courage to speak his mind? Will Joe be the accommodating Romeo?

“Luv U Tol” is about Sieg (Joshua Domingo) and Gene (Alvin Notarte) who grew up best friends. Gene is courting Ritz (Kathleen Empleo) and requires Sieg’s help to summon the girl’s attention. Inside a dingy pad they call “tambayan” - an empty room with a single mattress plopped down the floor and nothing else – the three characters exchange their awkward flirtations (if you could call it that). Unknown to Gene, Ritz is really attracted to the bashful Sieg who in turn seems more interested with his best friend than with Ritz.

Roseller Kempis as Maxin.

It is an exhausting routine trying to make sense from these stories when you realize that there’s hardly anything worth picking out from them. These were spur-of-the-moment narratives borne out of incipient whimsy, not talent. The actors are plain awful; they cannot even deliver their lines with adequate verve enough to convince us that they enjoyed what they were doing. This makes watching this opus an exercise in self flagellation. These pseudo-actors deserve to be exiled to Timbuktu just to make sure they won’t have anything to do with films – at least not at the expense of a paying audience. This is P170 shredded into pieces.

In between scenes, like most Cris Pablo flicks, you would hear people shouting, “Cut!”. Even a 3^rd grader, by way of logical deduction, knows that he isn't supposed to hear these things when watching movies. These remediable gaffes (which end up in the film anyway) is a testament to the thoughtless film making process involved here. Artistic bankruptcy, laziness and mediocrity are becoming synonymous with Pablo’s works. Moreover, you find the actors awkwardly waiting for these directions. When basic conventions of film making are blatantly ignored, you wonder about the pointlessness of the whole process. You cease to enjoy “making believe” that this was a re-enactment of a bunch of stories The glaring shortcomings constantly remind you that what's viewable on screen are mere acting class exercises. A bad acting class, that is.

The production value leaves much to be desired mainly because the production outfit doesn’t even try anymore. In “Luv U Tol”, for example, instead of haggling for a real flower, all they were able to come up with was a badly-made “paper flower”. Yup, you better believe it! When you are gearing up for commercial exhibition, i.e. with a paying audience to consider, you can at least up the ante by hiking up your cinematic ambition. And “paper flowers” won’t do the trick. Can't they even find a better place than the dump they used as their "tambayan"? I could swear it might as well be a drug dealer's den. This production is scraping the bottom. Really pathetic.

Kathleen Empleo as Ritz: Torn between friends Sieg and Gene.

Another grave fault is the incongruence of lines and situations. Here’s a dialogue: “May girlfriend ka na?” Reply: “Nag-aaral pa ako eh.” Huh? Even marriage won’t stop anyone from going to school. In fact, young age didn’t stop them from canoodling with each other’s joysticks. While thugs were pursuing Joe, he leisurely knocks on Maxin’s door. No hint of urgency was heard from his voice. “Puwedeng makituloy? May humahabol sa akin eh,” reasoned Joe. He might as well recite Shakespeare: “Let me not into the marriage of true minds admit impediments…” Actors need to be motivated and it’s the job of the director to extract emotions in such counterfeit situations. In this case, it felt like the blind was leading the blind. Or wasn't someone home?

Still on “Luv U Tol”, when the thugs finally catch up with Joe, Maxin simply tells the baddies, “Umalis na kayo. Darating na ang pulis.” And off they go like obedient pups. No resistance of any sort. No threats nor coercion. It felt like a Three Stooges comedy. When Joe finally admits his amorous affection to the shy Maxin (“Eh paano kung ako ang may gusto sa ‘yo?”), the latter becomes adamant because he knew of his friend's similar infatuation towards the twinky kanto boy: “Di kayang ipagpalit ang pagkakaibigan namin dahil sa isang lalaki.” Five seconds later, they copulate. So much for friendship.

Maxin's friends eventually find out about his indiscretions – and “Grace” is livid. (You then hear “Action”.) “Ahas ka talaga!” accuses Grace (who's actually an effete gay boy), then continues, “Pangarap ko pa naman na maka SIX si Joe.” Huh? Yes, you heard it right. He had numerical obsession for Joe; not four, not five, but “six”. Or did he mean “sex?” Haha. But this roller coaster shift of emotions has Grace making a hundred-eighty-degree turn and say,”O sige na nga. Friends na uli tayo. Ang mga lalaking yan, gagamitin lang naman natin sila.” (These are just guys. We’ll just use them.) This is a line coming from a 13 year old. Kuha mo? This steady succession of emotional caterwauling simply takes you straight to Venus and back. This isn’t just drama, but science fiction as well.

Pablo's seeming cinematic indecisiveness is more blatant in “Luv U Tol” where, during courtship, Ritz suddenly blurts, “Sige, tayo na. Pero pag ayoko na, papayag ka ng walang tanung tanong.” Gene sports a grin wider than the Sea of Galilee. He didn’t even fathom the restrictions of the said relationship. If you have never heard of the perfect deal, this one should be it, right? Are relationships really that easily disposable? Or is the script writer living in fantasy land? If romance is the building block that jumpstarts a relationship, it would scurry out of the window just as fast when it hears of such deal.

The last 5 minutes of this segment was even more alarmingly banal. The characters would argue in their “tambayan”, come out the door, walk the streets, then finish their conversation back in the same dingy hole before concluding with a narrative twist that’s vapid and preposterous. Why they have to carry out the whole discussion in several locations is beyond me. Boredom perhaps? Of course it had to turn up that way so Pablo could have his male leads rolling in the vermin-infested, vandal-ridden “hay”.

“Dose Trese Katorse” is a perfect specimen on how not to make a film, and it even rests on a plot that contentiously portends pedophilia. And this bothers me.

I am wondering why Ms. Grace Poe-Llamanzares and her MTRCB staff haven’t caught up with such ruse. A kanto boy seducing and eventually sodomizing someone whose character is only “trese”? Pornography is indeed a state of mind, as director John Sayles implied, but there are clear-cut boundaries that rational beings shouldn’t cross. Cris Pablo should stop exploiting impressionable young minds. Erotica and minors, deceptively set in the context of coming-of-age, are a taboo! They shouldn't make comfortable bed fellows. It is morally despicable, not to mention "criminal". Makes my skin crawl.

Transformers 3 Dark of the Moon - On High-Adrenaline Visual Spectacle & Immoral Trade Practices

The Decepticons are back, and they are convincing Sentinel Prime (Optimus’ erstwhile predecessor as leader of their home planet Cybertron) of an invasive plot against the Earth. Cyberton has ceased to become habitable.

Meanwhile, back to Earth, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has just recovered from a heartbreak (Megan Fox’s Mikaela broke up with him). He hooks up with the exceedingly adorable Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). But all is not well in Sam’s world. Sam misses his robotic pals (Bumblebee has been preoccupied elsewhere). He is also desperately unemployed and, despite having saved the world twice and gotten a Presidential medal from Obama, Sam becomes part of the statistics – though he still has a few more interviews up his sleeve. Times are indeed tough even for heroes.

If that wasn't enough, something sinister is a brewing.

The narrative takes us back to 1969, the year humanity made huge leaps on space exploration. Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. But some salient discoveries have been kept from us – i.e. that the team has discovered a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden at the dark side of the moon, and forces have been after such “rubble”, including Megatron’s allies. Only 35 souls knew. For 50 years, this was a well kept secret.

When Optimus Prime, who carries the “matrix” to repower autobots to life, brings Sentinel Prime back to existence, little did they know that there was indeed a plot to revive the dead planet of Cybertron, by invading Earth and transporting Cybertron into the realm of the blue planet which would, eventually wreck havoc on its resources and inhabitants. This would be done through the 5 “pillars” found in the spaceship. These pillars have the capacity to reshape the universe through teleportation, a power that defies laws of physics. And once again, the fate of the world is in the hands of unemployed Sam and his few allies, no thanks to Mearing (Frances McDormand), a CIA honcho who has condescendingly downplayed Sam’s previous save-the-world effort as mere messengerial duty.

Fun in science fictions rests on the intuitive capability of its story tellers to make every detail plausible, and for the most part, “Transformers” succeeds. The mere transformation of vehicles into robots simply takes your breath away, as every detail has distinct sharpness, and wearing your 3D glasses (which I am not a fan of) takes you to a whole new level. There is stereoscopic grandeur in every slam-bang scene, and the relentless action stokes you like an adrenaline rush that goes on and on and on.

However, Director Michael Bay has to learn to hold back from his propensity for mind-blowing action. Movie goers empathy, as I earlier said, rests on believability. When a human limb gets cut off, the movie audience experiences fear for the possibilities of death and destruction. When humans fall off a 100-story building which is being crushed into smithereens by Shockwave, we experience anxiety because in reality, people who fall off tall buildings die. This makes “Transformers” an alternate world of fantasy, and when Optimus Prime gets his arm chopped off, yet he still charges ahead dauntless and ever powerful, we sit back and get sensitized. After a while, the whole relentlessness of implausibilities loses its novelty. Ho-hum.

Sam and Carly

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, the former Victoria's Secret model

When you challenge reality, you soon end up with a jaded audience who thinks that if Sam Witwicky gets shot, that’s alright. He will still live. They all do.

And that’s not such a great reaction.

Shia LaBeouf has become a formidable screen hero and for a good reason. He is charismatic, young and inhabits Sam Witwicky with endearing charm. If only I didn’t have to pay more for an unwanted popcorn!

Josh Duhamel

Shia LaBeouf for GQ

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

OVERCHARGING AND INCESSANT HIKING OF FEES

And yes, it has been called to my attention that the SM Group of Cinemas have been overcharging their patrons, peddling products that consumers do not necessarily want. If you haven’t noticed, Mr. Henry Sy’s chain of movie theaters have been relentlessly hiking their admission charges that in the last 5 years or so, their prices have escalated to an alarming 75%. Isn’t there a governing body to check these unscrupulous practices? The Philippines is still a developing country and allowing these cinema chains to continually hike cinema seats is immoral. This isn’t Singapore or Hong Kong where its movie going public could afford high value entertainment.

UNSCRUPULOUS PRACTICE

Watching "Transformers 3" in SM was like highway robbery!

A 3D seat is charged P250. You actually see this itemized on your ticket. This is enumerated as follows: Gross – P250, Net – 250, Basic charge – P227.05, 10% Amusement Tax – P22.70, Community Tax (C Tax) – P0.25. Total – P250. Nowhere could you find the P50 they blatantly collect for an unwanted popcorn. But upon payment, they charge you P300 - inclusive of the P50 fee for an unwanted popcorn! Isn’t this deceptive? Why do I need to buy popcorn when the service I want to avail of is only the admission for a movie screening? Trade practice stipulates that every purchase shall have a receipt, otherwise this constitutes a violation. The Bureau of Internal Revenue (B.I.R.) has to take note of such irregularity.

Why popcorn? There are non-popcorn eaters, you know. Why not a choice of, say soft drinks or chips. Why shove popcorn down our throats? Why this desperation? Isn't Mr. Sy rich enough already?

MORALITY AND WEALTH

When I handed my ticket at the cinema entrance, I was asked to go back for my popcorn. But I am not a popcorn eater? What do I do with my P50 popcorn? And really now, doesn’t this unscrupulous and gravely greedy trade practice something to ponder on? I’ve been told that the Sy family has indeed embraced the religious life, thus you won’t see any R-rated flicks (from the impeccably crafted “Brokeback Mountain” to the brain-challenged “Hangover 2”). The big honcho has also been listed in Forbes’ list as one of the world’s richest men. This makes us proud as Filipinos. Who doesn't admire hard earned success? However, you somehow hope that such religiosity, influence and wealth will filter through their trade practices, particularly in their cinema chains.

A PLEA TO SECRETARY GREGORY DOMINGO (DTI)

If you think I’m one of the very few who complains about such practice, google away. There have been several who, apparently, have fallen on deaf ears. The SM people have apparently sent representatives to meet with the complainants but nothing much has really been done about the complaints.

This was anonymously forwarded to me:

http://noelizm.blogspot.com/2010/09/sm-cinemas-deceptive-practice.html

Department of Trade and Industry, wake up!

The movie going public also needs to be protected. Otherwise, there really is a tangible reason why people would resort to buying pirated films instead!

Secretary Domingo boasts of a very impressive trade and industry portfolio. He was former Manager Director of the Chemical Bank in New York and the Chase Manhattan Bank in Manila. He is Wharton-educated (where he holds a master’s degree in Operations Research). He was also a member of the academe; he lectured International Trade and Business Law at De La Salle University’s MBA Program. Now isn’t that a tall order? If you’re not impressed by such glowing resume, I don’t know what would.

But the interesting sidebar here is: He served as undersecretary for the Board of Investments, and also was Executive Director of SM Investments Corporation. And would he brush off our concerns under a rug? Let’s hope not!