IAN Del CARMEN

My PBB shoot today...

Even if I'm sick, got sinusitis & coughs (i only smoked after 6pm today!), I went to work today.

I came to the PBB House at 1pm in time for a pull-out with the crew. We first fetched Christian Vasquez at Starbucks ABS-CBN then went directly to ABS-CBN Foundation.

We awarded a 3ok checque to a cameraman of ABS-CBN whose family (almost the whole clan) was one of the many families in that Leyte landslide/tragedy. Whoa! It's so hard to accept that... Imagine, the only left from his clan were him and a brother who also works for ABS-CBN.

Then we went upstairs, to the office of ABS-CBN Foundation to award another checque worth 90k for more Leyte landslide victims thru Sagip Kapamilya program of the foundation. (The OIC who accepted the checque is one pretty gal, promise!)

Then our next stop... (para kaming LBC ni Christian, mga hari ng padala! Delivering all those checques!) OK, our next stop was the Philippine Sports Commission in Ortigas. We came in, there's this usual government employee who's with the marketing office, laughing all her way while talking to someone over the phone before finally assisting us then asked how much the checque is, I said 40k, OK daw 'yun pam-party... And she said we need to go to Vito Cruz office because the officials are there and they should be the one to accept the checque! And... since there are cameras and an artista, 'yung director daw ang puntahan namin.

HUWAAAT??? Can't you just accepth the checque, the DONATION!!!, and send that checque to those officials?

Ayaw.

Oh, well. Government officials...

Uminit ang ulo ko! OK, mamaya na kayo. I decided to serve a much needed checque...

We went to Elks Cerebral Palsy Foundation in Makati. Now called the Philippine Cerebral Palsy Foundation. Wow, pare! Kakaiba 'yung feeling na makita 'yung mga patients! Nakakaawa 'yung mga bata and Christian Vasquez had a great time with them even for just a while. All the people were so happy for seeing us and the Administrator, Ms Marissa L. Ong, was very thankful! Nakakawala ng pagod!

I was thinking if I should serve the Phil. Sports Comm. checque today. Gusto kong paghintayin 'yung mga officials then hindi na pala kami pupunta. But I was not that harsh. So we went to Rizal Memorial Stadium, went directly to the office of that director, finding a guard saying: "Bumaba si Director, eh!"

I said: "Ineexpect n'ya kami."

He said: "Ayaw n'yo yatang maniwala, ayan o! (showing a log book)"

COME ON, DUDE! What I was just trying to say is that he's expecting us because we're handing your organization a DONATION!!! and maybe we deserve to be asked to be seated on your reception room while waiting for that ***!

Hindi na lang ako nakipag-away...

I just asked someone who's the best official to accept the checque. Then there's the Chairman & CEO of the Commision, Mr William Ramirez, who was so accomodating. Buti na lang, mabait si Sir! So we roll the camera, Christian handed over the checque, the nice Chairman thanked us on-cam, and we left.

Along the way, puro kwentuhan lang kami ni Christian. About everything inside the Big Brother house, about theater (he acted pala sa PETA, we have some common friends!), about girls, etc.

And then we dropped him sa Starbucks, the crew and I arrived at the Big Brother house with the cameras rolling on Toni Gonzaga for her spiels, and I turned-over the tape to the archives.

And I smoked. Went home...

============================================
IAN Del CARMEN, 27, is a TV writer and Internet entrepreneur. He is the CEO of the first Filipino-owned and Philippines-based eBookstore on the worldwide web with a real-time payment facility, DIGIBOOK DOT PH. He owns DIGIBOOK PUBLISHING HOUSE and the network of web sites including www.digiBook.ph, www.eAklat.com, www.TripToQuiapo.com, www.GoogleAdsensePowerPack.com, www.PodcastingPowerPack.com, www.BloggingPowerPack.com, www.PublicDomainExtreme.com, and an up-coming webcasting network, www.YeheyTV.com.