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Here's a legend any Filipino music lover would attest to be true:

A dozen years ago, four brilliant but then underrated musicians cast rocks into a pond.

Then lo' and behold! Instead of causing ripples, it created a tsunami that swallowed everything in sight.

They were the Eraserheads. The pond was Original Pilipino Music.

And the tsunami was pop alternative; proudly Pinoy, made flesh then and has dwelt among us since. The end. Not.

Years after Ely Buendia, Raymond Marasigan, Buddy Zabala and Marcos Adoro a.k.a. Eraserheads has parted ways, the music of the acknowledged flag bearer of Pinoy pop alternative music continues to course through the veins of the very generation they defined.

It's all because they made nine groundbreaking studio albulms collectively sold more than a million copies; churned out, oh, only just about dozen or so hit singles that composed the collective soundtrack of a nation and; won every imaginable award the industry could give them.

And though some of their disciples seem to have move on to R&B or acid jazz, trance or acoustic music and maybe even other pop alternative bands, make no mistake about it:

All still feel "Ligaya" and welcome "Toyang" "With A Smile" when they see her "Minsan" during "Sembreak;" standing under a "Maselang Bahagri" in the "Alapaap," just above the "Tindahan Ni Aling Nena" beside the "Magasin" stand where she dances "Ang Huling El Bimbo" in "Overdrive."

Who's "Toyang?," "Wag Mo Nang Itanong," "Pare Ko."

More fantastically, The Eraserheads still serves as shining example to today's new artists, whether they admit it or not.

They admit – hence, "ultraelectromagneticjam."

Slated to become the biggest OPM album of 2005, the 17-track album produced by Jam 88.3 and distributed by Sony BMG Music Entertainment is composed of refurbished Eraserheads' tunes done by an all-star roster tapped from diverse genres in the current OPM umbrella.

These are Paolo Santos (who did "Magasin"); Radioactive Sago ("Alcohol"); Imago ("Spolarium"); Isha ("Torpedo"); MYMP ("Wag Mo Nang Itanong"); Orange & Lemons ("Wag Kang Matatakot"); Rico J Puno ("Ang Huling El Bimbo"); Kitchie Nadal ("Ligaya"); Barbie Almalbis ("Overdrive"); Sponge Cola ("Pare Ko"); 6CycleMind ("Alapaap"); FrancisM with Hardware Syndrome ("Super Proxy"); Cueshe ("Hard To Believe"); Brownman Revival ("Maling Akala"); South Border ("With A Smile") and; Sugarfree ("Tikman").

Eric Perpetua, Associate Program Director of Jam 88.3 who masterminded the tribute album for this unlikely radio station to bankroll it, says pulling together "utraelectromagneticjam" would’ve been a Herculean task had things not fallen into place.

"When I started doing this album, there were so many difficult hurdles," says Eric. "Will Eraserheads give their imprimatur? Will Sony BMG Music Entertainment allow it? How will artists to the project? Which Eraserheads song will each do? And how does one give the justice to E-heads' songs without being derivative?"

Fortunately, the gods of alternative music were listening and so sent friendly arrows along the way. When Eric broached the idea to Sony BMG Music Entertainment that owns the band's catalogue, they readily gave their go signal – provided only named bands do the work "as befitting the stature of the Eraserheads." So one down. Somewhat.

Next, Eric spoke to prospective top artists. You know, the ones who don't need to be "bothered" at this point to contribute to a compilation are already busy plotting their next albums, promoting their current touring all over and / or going back and forth to the bank.

The response Eric got from them floored him.

"Everyone jumped at the idea!" says Eric. "It's as if, they, were waiting for something like this to happen. All were excited; couldn't wait to hit the studio. Like us, the only question on their lips was But which Eraserheads song?"

Unknown to them, Eric has been reviewing the works of The Eraserheads. See, he was hoping of suggesting the right songs to them if they so much ask.

Unknown to him, no one had intentions of doing so – after all, each artist already has his own favorite E-heads' song long before "ultraelectromagneticjam" came up.

These choices would tickle a smile from any The Eraserhead's fan and, maybe, even from the boys themselves.

Isha, known for her Tori Amos-eque piano-and-vocals ways, lets it all rock a change while adding a quirk to 'Torpedo;' a song with lyrics that predisposes it for a male!

Ditto with Kitchie Nadal who couldn't keep a straight face (caught on record) while mouthing the line "ilang buhok pa ba ang aahitin?" from "Ligaya." To this day, she won't say which crop from which part of her body she was thinking of then.

As for Imago and Radioactive Sago Project, who would've foreseen them doing unreleased E-heads' singles? The first dredged up "Spolarium" from the album "Sticker Happy" and made it single material. The second did "Alkohol" circa-"Circus" in fashion that provides liquid, even if that be liquor, seeks its own level.

And remember "Superproxy" that Eraserheads and Francsis Magalona team up? This time, they turn the tables on each other with Francis doing the singing and Ely busting the rhymes!

Wild. Crazy. Out of the box. But then, did anyone really expect different from anything that involves Eraserheads music?

"People have asked me, 'Why the Eraserheads?' The reasons are simple: No other band has made an impression and impact as big as they have on the music scene. No other band can create musical magic the way Ely, Marcus, Raymund and Buddy do when they come together. No other band is as witty, cheeky, spunky and as Filipino when it comes to lyrics. No one comes close to the Eraserheads, then and now," says Eric. Amen.

To the credit of all who participated in this landmark album, these (approximating all the above) were never an issue, anyway. Instead, all went into the studio with a mind to pay tribute to greatness – the essence of which is universality and, most of all, individuality that allow it to be remodeled successfully any which way.

Indeed, there's simply no right way of doing Eraserheads music. All are valid; all can only add to inexhorable, inexhaustible template.

By the way, Eric did get the blessings of every Eraserheads member. Maybe not as quickly as he wanted. But he did.

"Maybe approval was not as forthright because they did not think I was serious. So many have attempted to pull this off in the past in vain, that's why. But we were lucky. And now that the album is out, we say that we are honored," Says Eric.

And where better to launch the album on Nov. 29 than in UP Diliman, the alma mater of Eraserheads?

To be participated in by all of those involved in the fruition of the album, one can rightfully suspect it will turn out to be event of the year, too.

Now, nobody's sure if the Eraserheads would be there, of course.

But nobody doubts it would be one "ultraelectromagneticjam."

November 27, 2005, Manila Bulletin

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When RA 8792, known as the E-commerce law, was passed in 2000, it mandated all agencies of government to use electronic means in government transaction within two years.

Three years after the deadline, it is not clear if the agencies concerned have sufficiently complied with the provision of the law.

But Manila-based bureaus have yet to make significant strides in digitizing their functions, local government units (LGUs) in the countryside are staging the quiet revolution in their attempt to make electronic transactions a real part of their everyday business.

This momentum was primarily triggered by a program called eLGU (Jumpstarting Electronic Governance in Local Government), an initiative of the National Computer Center (NCC) in collaboration with he department of Science and Technology.

Two components under the program, the development of E-Government Applications for LGU and the community eCenter project- are aimed at building up the technological capability and access for the municipalities and the rural folks.

At a recent opening of a Community eCenter in Lubao, Pampanga, these initiatives have started to make it presence felt for the town and its people.

The Mayor, Dennis Pineda, said the municipality is almost done in converting its paper records to a computerized database.

"We started in January but it's taking some time because it is manual process of inputting all our records into the database. But once we finished this, we expect to have a smooth sailing."

October 31, 2005, Melvin Claimag, Manila Bulletin

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Time was when eggplant was just ordinary vegetable crop.

The common notion then, too, was that it had low nutritional value.

Now, it is the country’s number one vegetable in terms of volume of production (about 179,000 tons per year valued at almost P2 billion) and hectares (some 20,000 hectares, almost one-third of them in the Ilocos Region).

The once “lowly” talong also has been found to have a high anti-oxidant property in a study done by the UP Los Banos Institute of Plant Breeding (UPLB-IBP) with funding support form the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR).

These were among the eggplant’s qualities shared by Dr. Desiree Hautea, UPLB-IBP director, and cyber press journalists from Luzon whom attended a workshop on biotechnology held in Los Banos, Laguna, last Sept. 28-29.

Billed “Media Workshop: Understanding and having Fun with biotechnology,” the activity was part of the continuing education program on modern biotechnology by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and research in Agriculture-Biotechnology Information Center (SEARCA –BIC), Agricultural Biotechnology Support Program III (ABPII), and Philippine Science Journalists Association, Inc. (Psci-Journ).

Records show that as of 1999, eggplant had displaced tomato as the country’s number one vegetable crop, according to UPLB-IBP scientists.

Encouragingly, too, talong has been found to be among the best health crops.

Dr. Hautea said eggplant has an antioxidant property, as confirmed by a study done by UPLB researchers led by Dr. Virgilio Garcia.

Antioxidants, known as the “modern-day anti-aging nutrients,” are phytochemicals or substances (mostly present in vegetables and fruits) that neutralized or counterbalance the free radicals generated by the body during normal metabolism (chemical changes in living cells).

A report of the Los Banos-based Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and development (PCARRD) also stated:

“Free radicals are the most vicious and the most toxic by-products of metabolism. When not neutralized, they can travel through the body cells, disrupting the structures of proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates, and cause cell damage. Such damage is believed to contribute to aging and degenerative diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cataract, and the like.”

In the UPLB study, eggplant exhibited the highest antioxidant (98.68 percent). It was followed by sayote (93 percent), ampalaya (91 percent) alugbati (90 percent), sitao (89.78 percent), and malungay (89.61 percent).

Now, you can stuff yourself with eggplant and be healthy.

October 16, 2005, Rudy Fernandez, Philippine Star

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GENERAL SANTOS CITY (PNA) – A Canadian mining firm working on a proposed large-scale mining operation in T’boli, South Cotabato has confirmed the presence of a potentially high-grade gold and silver resource base in the area.

Alicia Nicholson, director of the Sur American Gold Corp. (SAGC), said the company’s ongoing explorations have yielded favorable results that enhanced the viability of the area’s gold and copper deposits.

“The high-grade gold-silver veins at T’boli rremain open at depth and along strike and the potential for further substantial additions to the source both within the initial block and surrounding areas are considered by the company to be excellent,” she said in a statement.

Nicholson said the company’s 2,700 hectare T’boli gold-silver epithermal project has outlined an inferred resource more than 400,000 ounces of gold and 1,500,000 ounces of silver.

The initial drilling results showed the resourced grading at 5.5 grams per ton (g/t) of gold and 21g/t silver.

The company and its local partner Tribal Mining Corp. (ITMC) have established a mineral processing plant to accelerate its ongoing exploration activities.

The company acquired a small carbon in-pulp (CIP) plant to facilitate the treatment of the mineral ores.

Rennie Blair, SAGC president, said the purchase of the plant will hasten its exploration activities which are focused on “conducting tunnel mapping and sampling as well as trenching over many areas of the deposit to confirm previous grades and determine the bulk mining potential in western areas of the deposit.”

Since last year, Blair said the company has undertaken necessary infrastructure projects which include the rehabilitation of the main access tunnel and the preparation of the tunnel portal area for necessary electrical office installation.

The T’boli area is located in area of high grade epithermal gold and silver veins and stockworks. At this very early stage of the project development, management considers the projects to have a potential in the order of 500,000 to 5 million ounces of gold with silver credits to date showing a 4:1 silver-gold ratio,” the company said.

It added that the T’boli projects “has great potential to host a much larger resource than currently defined.”

SAGC and TMC, which is mainly composed of local businessmen, started its exploration area two years ago after acquiring a 40-percent equity interest in the latter.

October 31, 2005

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Chemrez Incorp., one of the two certified distributors of coco-methyl ester(CME) or coco-biodiesel products in the country, is planning to export its output to Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Chemrez Operations Manager Dean Lao Jr. said that once their multi-billion peso coco-diesel plant went full stream, the company would need a market for its output.

Lao said there is a need for the lawmakers to pass the Biofuels Law that would mandate the use of one percent coco-biodiesel blend in the transport sector.

“Initially, our preference is to sell CME domestically. God knows we need it more than Japan. But if we remain slow in adopting it (law), when the plant is up and we will have to keep it running – then we will have to export it first,” he said.

According to Lao, it is high time for the Philippines to pass a law to develop such environment-friendly and cost-affective alternative fuels in the light of the continued rise in global oil prices.

“Japan, Korea, Taiwan. But, a lot of these countries are starting their biofuel law. Just like Malaysia they just passed a law mandating the use of bio-diesel by five percent to take effect by 2007. We hope we could be ahead of them in terms of implementation. There are markets that will be served by competing countries, as everything will now depend on the price of vegetable oil – coconut oil is not the cheapest oil. The cheapest oil is palm oil – so the palm oil producing countries like Malaysia and Indonesia will have an advantage on price,” Lao explained.

But Lao said the country should take the advantage of having an abundant supply of coconut.

“The Philippines, since we’re using coconut oil and though expensive, will have the advantage on the property of the bio-diesel. Its proven time and time again that coconut diesel is better,” he said.

Lao said the industry is looking forward to the commitment of Congress to pass the law within the year.

Lao said there is a sufficient supply of CME in the country. “The export volume is actually big and could take the entire production of the country and will still be insufficient. We want to set aside 70 million liters for the country a year and just export supply surplus,” he added.

Chemrez is putting up the country’s first biodiesel-dedicated manufacturing plant in Asia worth P2.2 billion.

The company is currently constructing Phase I of the in Eastwood, Quezon City and they would spend about P650 million. Target completion is on March 2006.

Phase 2 which would be three times bigger than initial phase, would involve another P1.5 billion capital which will be undertaken by the company within the next two to three years.

October 17, 2005, Donnabelle L. Gatdula, Philippine Star

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Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Peter Sutherland recently hosted a luncheon at the Canadian official residence in Makati City to honor distinguished Filipino-Canadians who were given the presidential Banaag and Pamana ng Pilipino Awards by no less than President Arroyo in ceremonies in Malacanang recently.

These Presidential Awards are given biennially to outstanding Filipino individuals and private organizations for advancing the cause of Filipino communities abroad or for supporting specific sectors and communities in the Philippines.

The awards were organized by the Philippines’ Commission for Overseas Workers and the Department of Foreign Affairs though the Philippine embassies and consulates worldwide.

“It is a pleasure meeting our awardees today. It is an exceptional honor to be recognized out of the 400,000 Filipino-Canadians and the eight million Filipinos living outside the Philippines,” Sutherland said to more than 30 special guests who were invited to meet the honorees.

“You are worthy ambassadors not just for the Philippines but for Canada as well. You are distinguished both by your professional accomplishment and for what you have contributed to your communities in Canada and in the Philippines. We can all learn from your example.”

This year’s recipients of the Presidential citations included two individuals and to organizations: Lawyer Alicia Natividad from Ottawa, the first Filipina lawyer admitted to the Ontario Bar, and founder of the Canada-Philippines Business Council; Art Viola, former Mayor and two-time Deputy Mayor of Niagara-on-the-Lake; the renowned Fiesta Filipina Dance Troupe from Toronto, and the acclaimed Panday Tinig Choral Ensemble from Montreal, both honored for promoting Filipino culture to foreign audiences.

December 27, 2006, The Philippine Star

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PALO, Leyte – A military project designed to combat rural illiteracy and ultimately reduce the problem of insurgency in Northern Samar won this year’s national search for the “Most Outstanding Literacy program” conducted by the National Literacy Council (NLC), an agency under the Office of the President but attached to the Department Education (DepEd).

DepEd Region 8 Director Dr. Sol Forcadilla- Matugas identified the winning program as the “Army Literacy Patrol System” (ALPS) of the Army’s 63rd Infantry Batallion based in Catubig town under the command of Lt. Col. Manuelito R. Usi.

Matuga said ALPS was the official regional entry of Eastern Visayas to the NLC’s 2005 competion for best literacy program.

Lt. Col. Usi, who has always believed the education is vital towards reducing the spread of insurgency in the countryside, personally received a presidential trophy, during an appropriate rites held recently at the Manila Pavillion.

The rare occasion was witnessed by Matugas and other DepEd 8 officials including Northern Samar Schools Diversion Superintended Dr.Thelma Catubig and Dr. Linda C. Cinco, regional chief of the DepEd’s Bureau of Alternative Learning System (BALS).

Matugas said that the ALPS, launched several years ago by the Army battalion commander, through coordination with the DepEd regional office, has benefited thousands of Northern Samar villagers, mostly illiterate adults who failed to complete their elementary education and out of-school youths who dropped out of elementary or secondary school largely due to poverty.

The project, Matugas said, utilizes qualified Army enlisted men as mentors, most of whom have earned some academic units in college, to teach rural folks in one barangay basic literacy skills, notably reading, writing and numeracy.

After the local learners complete the literacy course, the soldier-teachers, who are provided supervisory assistance by DepEd field officials, move to another barangay and repeat their instructional work to another group of “students.”

According to Matugas, the ALPS has been noted by many concerned local government officials to be “slowly but surely combating the evils of insurgency in the countryside.”

Matugas said she has directed the DepEd regional office Alternative Learning System Division to strengthen its support to the Army’s literacy project so it could continue performing its commendable work.

October 22, 2005, Tony Pe Rimando, Manila Bulletin

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ABS-CBN expects its Internet television business to be a major revenue earner as company officials project number of subscribers to easily double by next year.

Through ABS-CBNnow!, an internet based video-on-demand service, viewers primarily the overseas Filipino workers, anywhere in the world can watch ABS-CBN programs using a personal computer with high-speed Internet or broadband connection.

ABS-CBNnow! sales and marketing director Rowell Tolentino revealed that their Internet TV service currently has 23,000 subscriber worldwide.

“Our target is to add another 23,000 by next year or to double existing subscriber base. We also expect average revenue per user to increase,” he said.

The biggest share of our subscriber comes from Filipinos in the United States, more than 8,000 of who have subscribed to ABS-CBNnow!

Another 6,000 are in the United Kingdom, 4,000 in Canada, and the rest in Korea, Japan, and the Philippines, and other Asian countries.

In the Philippines, there around 7000 customer for the service which was launched in April last year.

While the Middle East is a potentially huge market, Tolentino said the limitation is that Filipinos there have no credit cards.

“Their option is to have their relatives in the Philippines buy the prepaid cards and just send the personal identification number (PIN) to them,” he suggested.

In Japan, he disclosed that a Japanese broadband provider which has 15 million subscribers is currently in talks with ABS-CBNnow! for the latter to provide content.

Tolentino revealed that their subscribers base has been increasing at a rate of more than 1,000 every month.

For subscription fee of $4.95 per month, Filipinos abroad can access through the Internet 87 ABS-CBN shows, in addition to pay per view shows for which they can pay $1.99 per show for a seven-day access period.

He said that ABS-CBN will continue to add shows to the menu. “The key to making ABS-CBNnow! is to improve the content,” Tolentino stressed.

Just recently, ABS-CBNnow!, in partnership with BTI Global Communications Japan launched a new type prepaid card service in Japan. Dubbed as an “E-wallet” prepaid card, it has features to make calls, text, and payments for ABS-CBNnow! and Pinoy Big Brother licenses.

In most countries, subscribers can pay either through credit cards, G-cash, prepaid dealer pins, and money orders.

October 10, 2005, Mary Ann Ll. Reyes, PhilStar

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