Actor and senatorial candidate Jinggoy Estrada is definite about his plans on the movie scene. “No movies on the drawing board,” he said when he met with entertainment press a couple of weeks ago before he launched his nationwide campaign for his candidacy in the coming elections.
The 56-year-old former Senator, unlike his longtime buddy former Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla who said he would be back to his first love, that is the movies, is not even thinking of putting on the act to get back before the cameras.
He said, “I am grateful to the industry. I was born in that world, as you all know. My father, President Mayor Joseph Estrada, was once a very popular actor and we benefited from what he earned as an actor. I’ve been an actor myself and I enjoyed every bit of it. Yes, I’ll come back to making movies, but not soon. I have many things in my mind and I’m going to settle things first.”
He is on bail granted to him on Sept. 16, 2017 by the Sandiganbayan on the plunder charge he is facing at the Ombudsman.
In an interview, he said “Kahit ideklara pa na legal nag Korte Suprema ang PDAF o pork barrel, ayoko na. Minsan, nag e-endorso lang ako sa pork barrel, sumabit pa (Even if the Supreme Court would declare the PDAF or pork barrerl as legal, I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with it. One, I merely endorsed, I got burned).”
Despite the plunder charge that led to his detention for nearly three years at Camp Crame Detention Center along with Revilla, Estrada’s likely to be back in the Senate in July, if we base it on the surveys of Social Weather Station and Pulse on candidates that have the chances to win in the coming elections.
Consistently, Estrada’s name has always been in the winning circle. And he is glad that he is because it somehow makes him feel vindicated of the negative impact of the charges hurled at him by the previous administration.
In his visits in Albay, Negros Occidental, Tacloban City, Leyte, Nueva Ecija, and Iloilo, the actor could only think how much the people has loved him, giving him the warmest reception possible for a candidate whose reputation has been smeared many times before. “Nakakatuwa at talagang nakakataba ng puso and ipinakikitang suporta ng taumbayan sa akin at sa pamilya Estrada (It’s heartening to see how the people have been very supportive of me and the Estrada family),” he says.
He says he’ll pay forward (as “Anak ng Masa”) to ensure the greater masses of the Filipino population will benefit from all the bills he is going to propose when he takes his seat in the Senate.
Estrada celebrated his 56th birthday on Feb. 17 with a vow to make his office accessible to everyone, especially those that need help the most.
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Spring Films marks 10th year
So, it has been 10 years since filmmaker Joyce Bernal, actor Piolo Pascual, and entertainment businessman Erickson Raymundo put up Spring Films, a film production company, out of their common love for making films.
It all started with Kimmy Dora with an unlikely leading lady Eugene Domingo. The film was a sleeper and it made Domingo an unlikely star.
Perhaps it was just a fairly abundant season for the three and Kimmy Dora was merely a seed they had recklessly strewn on what happened to be a fertile ground. After all, recent times have been increasingly conducive for independent content production. “I believe we’re in the renaissance of Philippine cinema, coinciding with its centennial this year,” muses Pascual. “We’re adapting to the times and anybody can be a producer. However you look at this, it can be lucrative. There’s a big chance of breaking out internationally because’ the access is already global.”
Raymundo, however, wants to make it clear that their efforts to nurture the growth of local filmmaking aren’t a messianic advocacy, but rather a collaborative one. Although the entertainment landscape has already lent itself to a more competitiveness, the producer and Cornerstone Entertainment founder says, “We work with almost everyone. We offer possibilities. We want to give opportunities to filmmakers and actors na pinaniniwalaan naming tatlo na magagaling at may magagandang materyal pera hindi siguro bibigyan ng pagkakataon ng iba.”
For now, the independent production outfit is wasting no time to showcase the vibrancy of its 13-film repertoire, kicking off with the commercial release of James Robin Mayo’s Kuya Wes that features previously unseen edits.
The promise of spring is the promise of growth, and there will always be Spring Films. Come join the festivities and bask in the glory of a blooming Philippine cinema.
Watch out for the rest of the projects of Spring Films for this year as well as the coming year.
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