Stories of the Road: The Origins of Banaue Rice Terraces

 

Learning from books is one thing, but learning from people who lived and breathe it would be something so much better.

Dubbed as the 8th wonder of the world, the Banaue Rice Terraces remains as one of the things we all marvel at because yes, as it says, it's impressive to know that it was not made with much tools but with just bare hands. The folks from Stories of the Road (a YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@Storiesoftheroad ) wanted to find out from locals the actual origins of it. Armed with a drone, a few film cameras, they arrived in Ifugao and got the surprise of their life. The community wasn't just plainly taking it easy that day, they were celebrating and yes, it was an opportune time to get to know more about the culture and its people.

This is the handy work of Eric Gamorot (the Director), Rhett Paul Bolivar (the Producer), John Paul Bolivar (Production Assistant), and Marky Ramone Go (Writer). They were in the quest to find out the origins of the Banaue Rice Terraces. It was a different perspective because it didn't come from historians, but the folks who had their own stories passed on from generation to generation. They feel this was a more accurate narrative. They also got DK Tijam to do the narration for the episodes, so make sure you listen in on their conversation.

Eric talked about this lengthily during the Orange Magazine 14th anniversary event, please watch this:

Here is the first episode:

 Here's the newest episode which includes their experience witnessing a full on festival in Ifugao!

 

Their goal would be to go to other places in the country to do the same. They've gotten really good feedback upon releasing their first episode, and recently released their second one on the channel. If you would like travel content like this, you may subscribe to their channel and follow their social media accounts to get updated about their content.

Gina Lopez Partners with Nat Geo

It’s the third season of Gina Lopez’ G Diaries and this time, they’re going international with a partnership with no less than National Geographic Channel, sounds fun? It is!

This new season will feature the 8 communities she introduced in the past events (remember Quest for LOVE?), a project she called I LOVE (Investments in Loving Organizations or Village Economies). NAT GEO will take part in Creating a Planet in Balance to dip their hand in championing communities to make them sustainable agricultural, fishery, forestry and eco tourism sites by including them in their broadcast and digital assets to promote awareness elsewhere in the world. I LOVE sites currently include Benguet, Sorsogon, Zamboanga, South Cotabato, Tawi Tawi, Maguindanao and Bukidnon. Present at the occasion was Ms. Gina Lopez and FOX International SVP and GM Jude Turcuato as they signed a MOA of partnership. This means you will see G Diaries through Nat Geo.

They are also working with PDP (People Design Places) Architects, ESCA Inc. and IIEE (Institute of Integrated Electrical Engineers), Wilcon, UP Mountaineers, Powermac, and they want to tell the story of the Filipino people. She says “We want people, we want change agents, so they can work with 8 government institutes, other organizations that can do things for our country. What we can bring to the picture is prove it. I hope you get to watch it on March 3.”

Can’t wait to see this happen soon. It will start on March 3, 2019 and they need people to watch.

GMA Shows Now Available on iFLIX!

This is good news for Filipinos here around the world as Southeast Asia's leading Internet TV provider iflix give another reason to watch on the app for hours as they bring an unprecedented partnership between them and Kapuso Network GMA as they now include their shows in iflix's library. 

Now you can watch their great shows like My Husband's Lover, the drama Ang Dalawang Mrs. Real, Amaya, news documentaries such as Pinoy Abroad, multi awarded films like Muro Ami, Jose Rizal, The Road and Sossy Problems. You can also catch up with top rating shows like my favorite Half Sisters, My Faithful Husband, Beautiful Strangers and perhaps Pari Koy real soon. 

Aside from that, iflix is just as good when you have Google Chromecast and pretty soon, we heard they'll be including it in subscriptions and also deliver it right on your doorstep. So you better watch out for that! 

Sherwin Dela Cruz says "It's all about content and we have 40 studio partners now and it's still growing. We've got a lot of series, tons of movies, something for the kids, hit shows, Korean and Asian content and even Conan two days after the live show. Now we have GMA TV programs, movies and catch-up shows 7 days after it's shown on TV. We now have 153,000 subscribers in a few months and they're staying. We have more in the pipeline so you can download and play later but we're still working on that so we can do it buffer free. You'll also see iflix 2.0 in the next few weeks. Our promise is a more personalized marketing so all the related shows can be recommended to you right after you finish what you're watching. All our bundled plans will also roll out soon and it's going to be a game changer. Iflix works on 3G and it doesn't look awful at all. We're also localizing CDN so you can load these shows fast, when you want it when you need it! Now it's almost 1,200 but it's still growing. We need to be one click away in almost all channels because we can't lag behind. It's getting bigger with iflix!"

Joel Jimenez Vice Chairman of GMA's Executive Comittee says "This is the future, this is where the youth is going. For us it's an ever changing universe and the app today may not be the best thing tomorrow. It changes, that's innovation and relevance and might get your competitors to offer better because your users might leave you because you didn't innovate and stayed relevant. It is our pleasure to have our programs in your platform, because your success is our success."

Iflix still is Php 129 per month but if you're a Smart, Talk N Txt or Sun subscriber you can get it for 99 bucks! Now that's a deal you can't resist. 

For more information about their service:

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http://iflix.com/