Balabag: A documentary film on illegal mining in Zamboanga del Sur The illegal gold mining activities in the sleepy town of Bayog in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Sur have been going on for the past 15 years. Small scale miners have illegally claimed hundreds of hectares of lands in Balabag in the mountain village of Depore and since then have caused tremendous environment pollution.
The illegal miners used cyanide and nitric acid and other hazardous chemicals including mercury to process gold. And despite these problems, Filipino authorities are hapless in putting a stop to illegal mining in Bayog where miners blasted their way through tunnels with improvised explosives. Many laborers and miners had died from landslides and collapsed tunnels, but the greed over the precious metal is stronger over personal safety and the unabated mining still continues.
Directed by Al Jacinto (PMPDA)
A Mindanao Examiner Production All Rights Reserved 2012
For distribution and showing, please contact the Mindanao Examiner Productions in Zamboanga City Ph +6362 9925480 mindanaoexaminer@gmail.com
BALABAG: A photo documentary on illegal mining in Zamboanga del Sur in the Southern Philippines
Title: Hustisya (2013)
Genre: Documentary
Running Time: 25m
Director: Al Jacinto (PMPDA)
Story: This is a true story of a massacre that transpired in a small community in the southern Philippine province of Sulu where Filipino troops, aided by U.S. military intelligence, stormed the village of Ipil in the coastal town of Maimbung on the night of February 4, 2008 following reports of sightings of armed Abu Sayyaf rebels in the area.
Without warning, masked soldiers barged in thatched houses – one by one — rousing civilians from their sleep, searching for gunmen with links to al-Qaeda terror network. Villagers, scared that rebels have attacked, fled the area, carrying with them clothes and their children, as they rushed to wooden boats to seek safe refuge in nearby sandbars and islets, but troops opened fire on them.
An off-duty infantryman, roused from his sleep by the sound of explosions and gunfire, was also nabbed by soldiers despite pleadings from his wife, who told the raiders that her husband is an army soldier who was just vacationing. He, too, was eventually shot dead. In the end, eight people were killed in the raid.
TITLE: “Batang Quiapo”
GENRE: Silent Film
DURATION: 16m
DIRECTOR: Al Jacinto (PMPDA)
PLOT: A story of a Filipino girl, Princess, who at her very young age, learns to survive to be able to live the harsh reality of being poor, in a place where muggers and thieves abound. At 4, she was alone – her parents abandoned her at a corner of a busy Manila road, and later found refuge in the arms of a poor woman who raises her as her own daughter. She was born deaf and mute.
Sulu :
Director: Al Jacinto | Producer: Al Jacinto
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2007 | Story Teller’s Country: Philippines
Tags: Asia, Conflict, Philippines, Politics, Social Development, War
Synopsis: Born of a Filipino Muslim mother, young story writer Arthur Sakaluran Abasalo decides to visit Sulu province in southern Philippines despite the perceived strife and presence of Muslim rebels and Abu Sayyaf terrorists. In Sulu, he meets a former Muslim rebel-turned policeman who tells him about his life story and how he got separated from his family for more than a decade. He returns to Sulu to start a new life after being reunited with his family. Arthur returns to Manila after a short stay in Sulu, bringing with him memorable stories and truths about the island feared by many as a dangerous place to go.