News in Pictures: December 22, 2024
YEAR ENDER OF PH SHOW BIZ
The Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) opens on Saturday with its customary grand parade in December, led by celebrities riding on intricately designed floats inspired by their film entries in the festival. The parade covered a 12-kilometer route along major roads in Manila, including Taft Avenue, already choked by the Christmas traffic.
Still, pedestrians flocked to the motorcade to have a glimpse of the stars, including Judy Ann santos, Julia Montes and Lorna Tolentino, among others. Festival organizers say the MMFF now marks its 50th year, although its launching as the Metro Manila Film Festival began in 1975, which began 10 years earlier and was originally held on Jose Rizal’s birthday, June 19.
Reporting on the original festival in 1965, the country’s leading writers at that time, including Nick Joaquin and Wilfrido Nolledo, described the event as a culture clash between the “bakya” crowd of working-class moviegoers (so-called after the native sandals) and the “Hindi kami nanonood ng Tagalog” (We don’t watch Tagalos movies) crowd who still checked out the films out of curiosity and in search for “some quality.” —LYN RILLON
MILITARY SHOWCASE
President Marcos accompanied by Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and Gen. Romeo Brawner, Jr., chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, inspects military vehicles on display at Camp Aguinaldo on Friday, the eve of the AFP’s 89th anniversary.
The vehicles, weapons and other equipment of the AFP—including a tank named after the President’s father and namesake, who was commander in chief of the Armed Forces for almost two decades—are among the highlights of the AFP Museum that was launched that day and will soon be opened to the public.—MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
INSPECTION AND HOLIDAY RUSH
A law enforcement team of the Land Transportation Office on Friday visits a bus station in Quezon City to inspect the safety and roadworthiness of their vehicles now crowded by passengers leaving Metro Manila during the peak of the holiday season leading to Christmas Eve.
While some travelers may have found it best to go around the country right after a holiday period like Christmas or Lent, majority of Filipinos put up with the mad rush accompanying these periods as these are their only opportunities in a given year to reunite with relatives outside the capital region. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
HOME BUT NOT YET FREE
Cesar and Celia Vesoso, parents of convicted drug mule Mary Jane Veloso, show their letter to President Marcos appealing for a full clemency for their daughter during a press conference on Friday organized by Migrante. Veloso was detained in Indonesia for 14 years following her conviction in 2010 or possession of heroin. She has vehemently maintained that she had been duped into transporting the drugs by her recruiters, whose arrest in 2015 led to a stay of her execution at the last minute.
The Philippine government’s efforts to free her from detention in Yogya-karta culminated in her return to the country on Wednesday. But President Marcos, who had earlier posted updates on social media regarding Veloso’s return, said on Thursday that clemency for Veloso was still subject to review. She is currently quarantined at a correctional in Mandaluyong. —RICHARD A. REYES
