The Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University is again calling for applications for the Diploma in Photojournalism program which I finished last year. This is really a good opportunity for working photojournalists within the Asian region. Scholarships are available.

Check below for more information:

Applications for admission and fellowships are now being accepted until February 12, 2010 for the sixth offering of the Diploma in Photojournalism, the pioneering program of the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University (ACFJ). Admission is limited to 12 students and scholarship slots are available on a competitive basis.

The program seeks to raise the bar for photojournalism in Asia by providing comprehensive institutional training primarily to working photojournalists, journalists and editors. It is a distance learning program and the courses are offered thru a hybrid of online and face-to-face methods.

The program curriculum was jointly crafted by ACFJ, which is under the Ateneo’s Department of Communication, and the World Press Photo, the world’s leading venue for competitions and training in professional press photography.

The 6 courses, which are offered online or as hybrid courses – mixture of online and on-campus sessions– that make up the diploma program are: Fundamentals of Photojournalism, News Gathering and Writing for Photojournalists, History of Photojournalism, Visual Literacy for Photojournalists, Advanced News Photography and Photo Editing/Photo Essay. On top of these courses, a Final Portfolio will be developed by the students during the later half of the program period where portfolio advisers and reviewers are involved.

Some courses are taught entirely online, while others are taught using a blend of online and classroom teaching methods– a strategy ACFJ has been using successfully since 2002 to bring its programs to media professionals.

Applications for admission and scholarships are available upon request via email sent to newsroom@admu.edu.ph

A Ritual of Faith is my main story for my final portfolio in the ACFJ Diploma in Photojournalism course. It is a work on traditional faith in a northern town in Quezon province that is in danger of disappearing in the next few years.

Self flagellation as an act of penitence has its origins in the 11th century in Italy that spread to Europe including Spain. The practice was introduced in the Philippines by Spanish missionaries during the late 16th century. In the past 400 years, it has been adopted and adapted to become an indigenous ritual. Today, it is mainly performed in Central Luzon, Metro Manila and some provinces in Southern Tagalog and climaxes on Good Friday of Holy Week.

Practitioners, do it as a petition or supplication in the form of a panata or vow, sworn for a fixed period of years. It is intended for the healing of a sick relative or a member of the family or, in many instances, as a spiritual investment in the hope that God will grant grace for the family as well as protection from harm and misfortune.

Most, if not all, of the penitents are Roman Catholics. For them, this is the most important and most solemn of days wherein this kind of self mortification is the ultimate expression of sacrifice in order to share in the passion and suffering of Christ.

In the coastal barrio of Boboin, Infanta, Quezon, around 5 hours trip east of Manila, the self flagellation practice is unique because of the elaborate costume that the penitents don. This sets it apart from the rest of the other flagellants found in other parts of Luzon. The outfit consists of a saya or skirt made from dried banana leaves, a panyabat, the flog, tipped with wooden pegs and a floral headdress called the tukarol.

In the 1950s, as much as 300 men from different barrios perfomed this ritual. By 2009, only around 30 can be found and are mainly from Boboin.

Good news! After talking with my adviser, Philippine Daily Inquirer’s chief photographer, Ernie Sarmiento, I will proceed with the gagamboy story. I have enough images to make one and I will be pursuing this one beyond the course. Well, I really had no choice but to go on with it as time is really tight. I was initially thinking of my La Loma slaughterhouse story as I have already most images but my time won’t permit it.

I just hope, it will pass the panel’s scrutiny.

Just when I’m at the final week of doing my final projects for my Diploma in Photojournalism course at the ACFJ, bad news greeted me in Bagong Barrio, Caloocan. One of the photo stories that I am working on got raided and the men think that I was the one who told the police. The Gagamboy Project is dead in the water. For now.

During the summer months, spider fighting is one of the popular past times for boys and men. The latter usually do this backyard tournaments where modest amounts of cash change hands. Yes. It’s illegal gambling that has caught the attention of policemen in the area.

Since last year, I’ve been meaning to do a photo story on spider fights in Cebu but it wasn’t arachnid season and thus, it was just in my list of projects. While shooting in Bagong Barrio earlier this month, it was happenstance that I learned about this one and proposed this to my adviser for inclusion as one of my final project.

Unfortunately, when I went back today to continue work, I was told that the men would not want to be interviewed and photographed anymore since they were raided with four held in jail. The bad thing is that they think I was the one who tipped the police. One lady advised me:

Huwag ka nang pumunta doon. Baka mabugbog ka pa. (Don’t go there anymore. You might get mugged.)

Utter disappointment.

It’s just four days before our on-campus schedule, the final week of our course as well as defense and I’m at a loss on what stories to do as a replacement. I really can’t continue with this since I still lack some vital information and some shots and my security is not guaranteed. Oh well, I’ll defer this story for the meantime and do some quick thinking on what I will cover.

This is my third multimedia slideshow and the second to be posted in this blog that I submitted for my follow up assignment for the Advance News Photography course subject. I posted the Jai Alai tournament at the previous post.

The idea was to present holiday street scenes that shows people engrossed in the spirit of the season. What better way to show this than to be in the heart of Manila’s bargain destination: Divisoria, a sprawling area known for its cheap goods (many are bootleg items). Almost any kind of products are sold here from food, clothes, decors and a host of bric-à-brac that the sheer variety overwhelms the senses. These are mostly imported from China and are displayed inside malls, along the streets and every nook and cranny!

On a weekend just before Christmas Day and New Year, prepare to wade through a sea of people from every walks of life and from every economic status braving it out for a bargain product that will be given away as holiday presents.

Like the previous work, I’m still familiarizing myself in assembling a multimedia slideshow that combines several audio files with the photographs. I think I still have a long way to go to finally perfect this one.