Celebrating Social Development in the Philippines

This year’s Social Development Celebration (SDC)!, a development trade fair and a development forum series which includes the Civil Society Dialogue with 2010 Presidential Candidates on December 11 are among the highlights of SDC 2009.

A symbol, reinvented

The most powerful symbol perhaps for the Filipino as a nation is the yellow ribbon tied to Ninoy Aquino and then to the fight that Tita Cory continued to her deathbed.  According to a story published in the Inquirer, it was a friend of the Aquino’s that thought of using the song “Tie a Yellow [...]

Climate change videos you can use for class

One of the reasons I started this blogsite is to increase access to advocacy materials and information for teachers and colleagues in the field of advocacy. Filipinos are very talented and adept in many issues and we do quickly respond creatively as songs and theater have always been part of the rich Filipino culture.
Climate Change [...]

Gabriela gets facelift with VAWC ad campaign

Earlier, I blogged about a technically-good ad spoiled by bad messages. I really love seeing good informational materials and my bad mood was balanced with an ad I didn’t expect to be from a sector that is known for giving a mouthful of historical contexts in their speeches. 
This GABRIELA’s ad for its iVow to Fight Violence Against Women campaign is really good. It’s very [...]

Message nix in Noynoy MTV

After watching the Noynoy MTV electoral ad, “Hindi ka Nag-iisa”,  a feeling of frustration silenced me. Like expecting a hero that never came. Like tasting a suka that was never maasim enough. It is technically superb and is supported by a stellar cast any presidential candidate would have dreamed of but it just didn’t [...]

Policy incoherency in local climate agenda-setting

Psrt of my work is participating on sectoral meetings that aims at crafting a shared agenda for a social or policy issue so that our organization’s own agenda could be reflected.
Since my organization has just crafted it’s advocacy agenda and one of which is climate change, I have started to attend in a multistakeholder discussion [...]

Oneline.ph: increasing chances for non-profits to be noticed

I’m sure you know a lot of non-profits out there who have the best skilled and well-intentioned people with the noblest missions on earth but they just do not know how to say their messages in a powerful way. It might be a problem of audience-message mismatch, visual packaging, core message develepment or campaign strategizing.
If [...]

Photography contests for compelling shots on

To photo enthusiasts who love taking pictures of everyday life — sometimes inspiring, sometimes rivetting — here are forthcoming contests that you may want to look at. I’ve got photos taken during my field work too and they might just be lucky this year. Here are the links:
2009 CGAP Microfinance Photography Contest
Water is Life 2009 [...]

Noel Cabangon sings for climate change awareness

In the sphere of protest art, we can see or hear a lot on human rights but still so few on environment, particularly on resurging issues such as climate change.  Here’s one that I find to be useful for environmental activists and moving for general audiences.

Straight and simple

You must have seen the recent footages of students rallying for Gloria’s ouster. It’s really amazing how they did it this time. No hyperboles. No superlatives. You could really say there were hundreds of students that trooped to Mendiola and thousands who joined the school-based protests last week. The spokespersons also gave crisp, quick messages this time.
They [...]