As 25 December came, 0001H, as what millions of Filipinos do around the world at this auspicious time, I had my own noche buena midnight dinner to greet Christmas Day. It’s just a simple preparation of lasagne al forno from Amici (P195), puto bumbong from the neighborhood vendor (native rice cake – P20), jumbo siopao from Kowloon House (steamed pork bun – P49), Red Velvet and sans rival cupcakes from Frostings (P110), Sagada orange from a Divisoria fruit vendor (P20), Cornetto drumstick ice cream from 7-11 (P27) and Coke light from 7-11 (P28). A total of P449 (almost $10).

Every big mall in the country do have scheduled Saturday (anticipated) and Sunday masses every week, a way for the Catholic Church to adapt with the malling culture of Filipinos.

The Grand Marian Procession is an annual religious event held in Intramuros, Manila where several carrozas bearing the image of the Virgin Mary meanders along the cobbled streets of the walled former citadel. This year, there were more than 80 such images from around the country and I was there to capture some images.

At first, I didn’t have much idea what to do but eventually decided to do a series of portraits of devotees infront of their marian image. I did encounter some problems since I was using an 80mm lens equivalent. Because of this focal length, most of the time, I didn’t have much space to go further at the back because of the crowds in an area where these images were waiting for their turn to move.

Well, not so many images but above are some of the portrait studies I did.

To my surprise, Trizer Mansueto, one of the writers of our book, Balaanong Bahandi: Sacred Treasures of the Archdiocese of Cebu, included the full text of my speech which I delivered in behalf of the photographers during the book launch last 26 November. It was published in the 5 December issue of the Cebu Daily News, the regional sister publication of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

This is the second time that I’ve been featured. The first was last 17 May in the Lifestyle section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It was an interview done by Angge Goloy about my transition from a telecoms engineer to a freelance photographer.

While it makes me beam with pride, I am also humbled.

During the weekend, I was in Babag 2, Lapulapu City to document the firecracker makers there for a submission to Demotix. Typically, during late November and on to the waning days of the year, people converge at this barangay to make one of the most popular and in-demand items for Christmas and, especially, the New Year’s celebration. Traditionally, there is this belief handed from the Chinese that lighting these will drive away bad luck for the coming year!

Babag 2 has always been the traditional firecracker capital of Cebu and one 57 year old man I interviewed, claimed that he started making these since he was 13. Unfortunately, these people do not observe personal protection from inhalation of the harmful chemicals and dust while making these firecrackers. When I pointed this out, I was just told that they haven’t suffered any side effects!

Other than this, unlicensed makers usually play cat and mouse from inspecting teams of policemen.

I made a multimedia slideshow consisting of 22 images last year and it is posted at my travel blog.