Quick update on the filming of my Baybayin documentary in Manila. 1 word….change

So much has changed since I lived here from 1996-2003 and visited last visited in 2005

While all the annoying crap like traffic, poverty, lateness and etc is still here, there’s a growing youth scene fueled by a sense of Filipino pride. However, I don’t yet know what the context is of the pride. I have an idea but I would need more time to come to any conclusions.

So far, I’m about 1/3 though my filming. I had the please to interview Dr.Bonifacio Comandante for about 2 hours about his research. Above is a sketch of where he believes the Baybayin Ka character came from.

Prior to coming here, I forgot that we would be in the middle of elections (May 10). Some of the people I had scheduled asked to postpone until after May 10. There seems to be some election day jitters considering this is the 1st time electronic ballots will be used. A failure of elections could really screw up this project. Either way, I’ll be documenting it as an underlying theme. In fact, all the non-Baybayin stuff is an entire project.

Yes, there is a Baybayin community here in the Philippines and it is alive.