Dugong Buhay Presscon with Ejay, Arjo, Yam, Jed and Ketchup

Kapamilya Gold's Dugong Buhay continues to live up to its promise, with its heavy action yet heartwarming drama series and the artists' stellar performances, especially from the young actors and actresses. Ejay Falcon, Arjo Atayde, Yam Concepcion, Jed Montero and Ketchup Eusebio shared their experiences and the challenges they encountered in perfecting the teleserye to media and bloggers last April 29.

"We would always give our best and make sure that we own the time slot for our afternoon viewers," Ketchup, who plays the childhood friend of Victor (Ejay) shared.

Pinoy viewers and critics from different social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter continuously commend and shower the young artists with positive feedback regarding their outstanding performances and improvement in their acting. 

"I would owe this to our amazing mentor Mr. Nonie Buencamino, who would always teach and give us advices to improve our acting," Ejay, who plays Victor, shared.

The two leading ladies Yam Concepcion and Jed Montero also shared that they are grateful and honored to be honed by outstanding veteran actors. Along with Ejay, Arjo and Ketchup, they would also teach each other to improve their skills.

Dugong Buhay follows the life of Victor (Ejay), who is raised by Simon (Nonie Buencamino) and is taught to hate the De Laras and seek revenge. Victor tries to get closer to the enemies, but only to realize that he is also getting closer to his true family. 

Follow the action-packed yet dramatic life of Victor every day at 3:30pm in the Kapamilya Gold afternoon drama series. You may visit www,abscbn.com for more updates.

Daniel Padilla: 'Steady lang. Enjoy life.'

The Big Dome birthday concert is looming, and Daniel Padilla is gearing up for his much-awaited rock and roll songs and band performances as he shared his preparations to bloggers last April 12.

"The Araneta concert was a dream come true, especially for someone like me who is just starting my career in the industry," the 17-year-old heartthrob, who will turn 18 on April 26, shared.

Dubbed Daniel LIVE: A Birthday Concert, the Big Dome show will mostly consist of DJ's rock and roll performances together with his band Parking 5, and Princess and I co-actors Khalil Ramos and Enrique Gil with a special participation of Kathryn Bernardo.

I had the opportunity to ask him how he wisely manages his time, balancing his academic responsibilities, his endorsements and singing and acting career at the same time, which not just makes him the ultimate heartthrob of the new generation but also a role model for the youth.

"I love and enjoy the things I do. I think it's an important factor to not take things too seriously. If we enjoy life, we would find meaning in it," DJ shared.

He may be nervous, but Daniel added that his concert will be the show of a lifetime, a performance that he and his beloved fans will truly enjoy.

Daniel also recently finished his second album released by Star Records, following his debut album that topped the charts and hit Gold in less than a week.

Little Champ set visit with Caloy, Chalk and Lulubelle

Sometimes we learn life’s hardest lessons from kids.

A father and a lost son, a gift and a curse, a hero and an ally--these spell ABS-CBN's newest drama-fantaserye Little Champ. Starring the new child wonder JB Agustin Malatamban and outstanding actors, Little Champ is a story of the heartwarming journey of Caloy and his talking stallion Chalk, a quest to live with his family in harmony, and a mission to fight the evil in the world. We had the opportunity to take a peek at one of their shooting venues last April 9. I had always dreamed of working behind the scenes in a movie or series production and just witnessing the shooting venue and the editing process of Little Champ made me realize its sophistication and complexity.

We watched as Caloy, Lulubelle (Sofia Millares), Jason (Renz Fernandez) and Chalk, the talking horse performed a rap song version of Apo Hiking Society's Batang-bata Ka Pa. I was amazed at how JB and Sofia memorized their lines easily and how patient they were enough to endure many takes to perfect the scene. Chalk also seemed very trained and patiently behaved during the shooting that lasted almost an hour.

We also saw how the editing staff worked out the scene and polished the shots to be aired on TV. I was truly inspired at the intricate process and the huge effort of the actors and production staff to perfect such teleserye that truly offers life's lessons to children. It also proves the Filipino art and creativity in making movies and teleseryes that are worthy of recognition.

Don't miss Little Champ, also starring Sen. Lito Lapid, Katya Santos, Jhong Hilario, Jake Roxas, Micky Ferriols, Paolo Serrano, Coleen Garcia and Precious Lara Quigaman and directed by Richard Arellano, every night before TV Patrol in ABS-CBN's Primetime Bida. You may visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/LittleChampOfficialPage and follow them on Twitter at @LChampOfficial.

Bayan Mo Ipatrol Mo Tayo Na: Be aware. Be informed. #BMPMTayoNa

While most of us, especially the younger generation are virtually living in the overwhelming realm of the social network I can't help but ask: just how many of us are informed with news and current events? Just how many of us inform ourselves with such relevant information? And most importantly, while I often see a lot of Avengers Alliance and Diamond Dash application requests in my Facebook account from friends and a trending #SirChief1stHUGtoMaya and other endless rants on Twitter, I can't help but wonder: just how many of us use these social media networks to properly educate ourselves?

From Ako ang Simula and Boto Mo Ipatrol Mo, ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs launched their new  campaign for clean and orderly elections this coming 2013 as Bayan Mo Ipatrol Mo: Tayo Na #BMPMTayoNa with media and bloggers. Hosted by Ms. Jing Castaneda, the campaign promotes a new application for IOS and Android phones that helps patrollers to easily report any campaign-and-election-incident to ABS-CBN and more importantly to help them secure their identities as patrollers. One can also be updated with the latest events about election and be informed about Halalan 101 through the application. 

As a Linguistics student and a blogger, I truly learned a lot  from the conference especially from blogger-journalist Inday Varona who discussed about citizen journalism. I also had the chance to ask their method of information dissemination about this campaign especially to the younger generation who, even though are very much exposed to the social network and are only one click away to relevant information seem to be not too aware about such current events. She said that there is no "shortcut" to this problem and ABS-CBN and the BMPMTayoNa team are currently improving and developing their campaign to be able to reach out to the youth.

I also learned about the experiences of other bloggers about the campaign period especially from my mentor Ms. Josephine Bonsol who for seven years has been assigned as BEI during barangay elections. I realized how much such teachers sacrifice their lives being hostaged and kidnapped because of the endless political "wars" that seem to be more evident in barangay elections. I also learned a lot from head of ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs Ging Reyes, blogger Flow Galindez of www.angsawariko.com and Richard Paglicawan of www.lionheartv.net.

As my mentor Josephine Bonsol always say: the change should always start with us, and we should start by being aware and by being informed with relevant facts. The campaign truly made me more aware about the election system in our country and made me realize that even though I am still young I also have the power to change the system.  I may not be able to show it by marching on the streets, but I can definitely write and share these kinds of advocacy and campaigns through social media networks and pass on to every one of my 1 039 friends this message that may change our lives forever.

Reflections on 100 Days to Heaven

My dad. Drama mode.

Aside from watching Spongebob Squarepants and Mr. Bean, I've finally got to like a teleserye that truly feeds the minds of kids like me, with ABS-CBN's 100 Days to Heaven (directed by Malu L. Sevilla). It seriously makes me cry, laugh like a mad man, and learn the practical approaches in life like "you should manipulate the world first before it manipulates you and buries you alive."

Sofia's (Jodi Sta. Maria) father Andres (Joel Torre) truly moves me to tears, given his situation as a physically disabled man struggling to do his job as a financially-supportive father. With his son Kevin (Louis Abuel) unfortunate enough of having leukemia, he could not sleep at night just thinking about how he could provide for his son's medical needs.

I remember my father every time Andres stays late up at night and pours out his frustrations, saying he feels like a worthless father because of his physical misfortune. I always cry whenever I see him selling rags out in the streets, with all his efforts to earn money for Kevin's treatment. I see my dad in him thinking how caring and emotionally vulnerable he is as well, with his determination to make us successful citizens of the world by always working overtime.

On the other hand, there are a lot more lessons I learn from Madame Anna Manalastas (Coney Reyes) and Anna (Xyriel Manabat). 100 Days to Heaven not only makes me want to love and understand my dad more, but also helps me understand the "art of being the bad guy". Anna shares a lot of reasonable viewpoints about life and its cruel reality we've all overlooked and we take as unreasonable.

In yesterday's episode, Anna was trying to prove to Sofia that she did a big favor to her employees by scolding them and simply telling the truth that they were a bunch of failures. I remembered how my strict teachers back in high school scolded us and I tried to understand their intentions that after all, they simply cared about us, for if they didn't, they wouldn't even bother wasting their time reprimanding us. Maybe it was just the same way Anna did.

I've always loved villains, because they're not bad guys after all. Like what Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) said, "We've all got light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we chose to act on." Anna Manalastas may be that annoying, unreasonable toy empress, but she sure teaches me to look into the other side of bad guys--their good side.