Sigaw ng Kabataan Coalition Celebrates Peace Day and Peace Consciousness Month Through PIYC 2018

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Sigaw ng Kabataan Coalition is one with the world and all its youth in celebrating the International Day of Peace (“Peace Day”), commemorated globally every year on 21 September, as well as the National Peace Consciousness Month in the Philippines with the theme, “Mithiing Kapayapaan: Sama-samang Isakatuparan.”

SKC is a national alliance of youth leaders and a consortium of youth organizations in the Philippines firmly believing that peacebuilding is among the strong foundations of sustainable development in the country. This would require the key role of the youth in securing peace and inclusiveness amidst diversity in all regions, supporting the Sustainable Development Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Established in 1981 by unanimous United Nations resolution, Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace. On the other hand, the Philippine celebration of the month of September as National Peace Consciousness Month calls for a unified action towards the shared aspiration for a just, comprehensive, and enduring peace regardless of ideology, religion, and culture. The carrier tagline of this year’s Peace Month is “Peace Na Tayo,” a simple way to communicate the theme’s call for a participative pursuit for peace.

To showcase its strong commitment to peacebuilding and unity towards development, the SKC together with the Rotary Satellite Club of Fort Bonifacio Global City Titans will hold the Philippine Intercultural Youth Convention 2018 on 22-23 September at the Great Eastern Hotel in Quezon City. This convention gathers Filipino youth around the country to unite and embrace the diversity of Philippine cultures, faith, and languages, while discussing with government officials and key experts on the significant contribution of the youth in Philippine development.

"Through the Philippine Intercultural Youth Convention 2018, we celebrate peace with the world and with the country as one youth community that is recipient of peace building efforts of generations before us, and responsible to the next generations that deserve a future with inclusive peace and development."  said Ellirie Aviles, SKC National President and Chiarman of Rotary Satellite Club of Fort Bonifacio Global City Titans.

DOE Petroleum Contracting Roadshow Goes to Palawan

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Department of Energy Assistant Secretary Caron Lascano delivers her opening remarks during the local road show of the Philippine Conventional Energy Contracting Program for Petroleum at The Legend Palawan Hotel on Thursday, 20 September 2018.

The PCECP local road show for petroleum aims to assist the country attain its goal of energy self-sufficiency by introducing its new contracting program for exploration and development investment opportunities.

Following the kick-off of the Philippine Conventional Energy Contracting Program (PCECP) international roadshow in Singapore last month, the Department of Energy (DOE) geared up even further and conducted the first of its three local roadshows yesterday (20 September) in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan.

“The DOE is actively promoting the PCECP as it will ensure both the energy security and self-sufficiency of our country. Our petroleum exploration and development activities have been feeble, considering our last major find was made a decade ago,” Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said.

DOE officials and members of the DOE-Energy Resource Development Bureau gave the roadshow participants an overview of the country’s upstream petroleum industry, the PCECP and its application process, as well as the benefits to be reaped from hosting energy exploration and development projects.

The PCECP is the DOE’s revised and transparent petroleum service contract awarding mechanism that would allow investors to bid for exploration projects through the competitive selection process or by nomination.

Previously, prospective investors could only develop petroleum exploration and development projects within the 14 Pre-Determined Areas (PDA) identified by the DOE. These 14 PDAs are composed of onshore and offshore sites located in the Cagayan Basin (one area), Eastern Palawan (three areas), Sulu (three areas), Agusan-Davao (two areas), Cotabato (one area) and in Western Luzon (four areas).

Under the PCECP, investors would now be able to develop locations other than those on the PDA list by nominating their areas of interest, subject to the approval by the DOE.

The event was attended by over 120 participants, comprised of petroleum service contractors, Sangguniang Panlalawigan Board Members, petroleum engineering students of Palawan State University, as well as representatives from the Philippine Coast Guard, local government units of Palawan, Department of Interior and Local Government–Palawan, Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office and the Philippine Navy.

The next roadshows are scheduled to be held in Davao next week (27 September) and in Zamboanga next month (October).

The PCECP will be formally launched in November. 

Interested parties may contact:
DOE Undersecretary Donato D. Marcos
(+632) 892-7880
uddm7@yahoo.com

ERDB OIC-Director Melita V. Obillo
melita.obillo@doe.gov.ph

ERDB Supervising Science Research Specialist Demujin F. Antiporda
demujin.antiporda@doe.gov.ph

M. Butterfly Author David Henry Hwang Set to Conduct Strictly By Invitation Only Master Class on Sept. 28

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Noted American playwright, screenwriter, and librettist  David Henry Hwang who wrote the 1988 Tony Award for Best Play ‘M. BUTTERFLY’ (which is currently playing at Maybank Performing Arts Theater until September 30) is coming to Manila to conduct a strictly by invitation only “Master Class” on September 28 – 3 pm.
Presented by Jhett Tolentino and Frontrow Entertainment, the David Henry Hwang Master Class will focus on Playwrighting.
A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline — usually music, but also painting, drama, film, dance or any of the arts, or on any other occasion where skills are being developed.

Tony and Grammy Award winner Jhett Tolentino will host the one-hour event to be attended by theater/drama students from select schools and universities; and noted personalities in Philippine theater industry.
David Henry Hwang is probably best known for his Tony Award-winning play M. Butterfly, based on the true story of a French diplomat who had a long affair with a singer in the Beijing opera. The woman he loved later proved to be not only a man but also a spy for the Chinese government.
Hwang’s parents were both Chinese-born, though his mother was reared in the Philippines. They immigrated separately to the United States, where they met, married, and raised their family.

David Henry, the only son and the oldest of three siblings, attended Stanford University (B.A., 1979), where his first play, FOB (an acronym for “fresh off the boat”), was first produced in 1979 (published 1983). The work, which examines the immigrant experience from an Asian American perspective, won an Obie Award in 1980–81 for Best New American Play.


Between graduating from college and winning the Obie, Hwang had enrolled in the Yale School of Drama to gain a better sense of theatre history. During his year in that program, he penned two short plays—The Dance and the Railroad (produced 1981), about two Chinese immigrant railroad workers and their expectations, and The House of Sleeping Beauties (produced 1983), adapted from a short story by Japanese writer Kawabata Yasunari—first performed in an omnibus production with The Sound of a Voice as Sound and Beauty. Hwang later adapted The Sound of a Voice into a libretto for an opera collaboration (2003) with American composer Philip Glass.

In addition to further collaborations with Glass, Hwang worked with a number of composers over the years, including Chinese-born Bright Sheng on The Silver River (produced 1997), a one-act opera based on an ancient Chinese folktale; Argentine Osvaldo Golijov on Ainadamar (2003, revised 2005; “Fountain of Tears”), an opera inspired by Spanish writer Federico García Lorca; and Korean-born Unsuk Chin on the opera Alice in Wonderland (2007; based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice books).

In 1985, Hwang cowrote the screenplay for Blind Alleys, a made-for-television movie. He also penned Rich Relations (1986), his first play without an Asian or Asian American element. Although that play was a critical failure, the playwright found its reception freeing in that it drove him to embrace experimentation over positive critical response. His next drama, M. Butterfly (1988; film 1993), was a wild success and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

In 1988 Hwang also wrote the libretto for Glass’s “science-fiction music drama” 1000 Airplanes on the Roof (1989). The plays Bondage (1992), a short work about stereotypes that is set in a sadomasochism parlour, and Face Value (1993), a comedy that had only eight performances and never officially opened, followed.

Hwang’s next play, Golden Child (produced 1996, revised 1998), had a relatively short run but ultimately was nominated for a Tony Award. Based on the stories of Hwang’s maternal grandmother, it examines the tensions between tradition and change in Chinese society.

Hwang’s next projects involved music in some way. He cowrote the book for Aida (2000), which featured music by British rocker Sir Elton John and lyrics by British lyricist Sir Tim Rice and was based loosely on the Verdi opera of the same name; wrote a new book for the revival of the musical Flower Drum Song (2002); and wrote the book for an original musical-comedy version of Tarzan (2006).





His stage comedy Yellow Face was first performed in 2007. It is both a reflection on Hwang’s activism regarding the use of non-Asian actors in Asian roles (which he compared to blackface minstrelsy) and an examination of the role of “face” (a Chinese concept embodying dignity, reputation, and respect) in American society.

In 2011 Chinglish appeared on Broadway. It was written in English and Mandarin (with supertitles) and examined the subject of cultural and linguistic misunderstandings.

(M. Butterfly will have its last week schedule of performances from September 25 – 30 Tuesday to Friday – 8 pm; Saturday and Sunday – 3 pm
and 8 pm. For tickets, call Ticketworld at 891-9999.)