Please, please pray for the people who are yet still inside the bus, though there is no seen movement yet; as well as to the boy who got shot; and for the police to think of a better strategy.

It is so sad that this happened, but it did and now let's storm it with prayers so it will not end bloody. Thank God for the release of the children back at noon.

EDIT:

The news have been so overwhelming and it's so sad that it happened. The wrong move of one man has been the concern of many as well as the whole wide world.



Thank God for it is finished and the safety of those people. Let's just pray for the souls of the people affected, those who was/were shot, and even of the hostage taker.

About two hours ago, I (along with hundreds of Centralians) just watched a film entitled, Brutos: Ang Paglalakbay.

Let me take you a while back first. Out two-hour accounting class was cancelled and we had nothing better to do. We thought about our many boring options which were: a) to sit on the grassy big field and well, watch soccer players, talk, blah blah; b) go to Uy building, buy food, waste money, and complain of having nothing to do; and c) go to SM City. Like duh, option C was the best answer. So seven of us walked to gate seven and rode a jeepney to SM City. Two of our classmates went to the department store, two of them went to the Food court to make use of their laptops and the free WiFi, and the three of us decided to go to B!bo and sing-along. However, much to our dismay, all rooms were full and so we decided totambay at McDo to make use of the remaining hour. We bought fries and a Coke float and sat to let our aching feet rest. We didn't really notice that it was nearly four and so we scrambled our way out and, being the one living near there and probably the one who knows what and where, I guided them to cross the street instead of taking the over pass. BI much? I know, it's just that my feet hurt so bad already. Curse closed shoes! We were waiting for an Ungka jeepney but there was terribly none! It was already four o'clock and we were still waiting and so we decided to walk a block again just to transfer to a loading station of a different jeep. To our relief, a jeepney arrived after a few minutes. The funny and heart-warming thing was, three men had to give up their seats just to let us have it. Awww, i know right? It was quite a fun pre-adventure as well us for us to bond too.

Okay so here's the real thing:

We arrived just quite the right timing. Brutos was about to start! I could not quite understand the story at first. We we're like, 'what?' 'who's that?' 'what did he say' 'Payang, Mayang? what?' And so as the story went on, it slowly unfolds its true meaning. It was an adventure of Payang (girl) and Adag (boy) who are both Mangyans. And, much to our surprise, Brutos is not a human! Haha. It's the illegal loggers, i think. I wasn't really paying much attention to it. So anyway, Payang and Adag set out and built a simple raft so they could go out of the mountains and own to the city to buy medicine and to find Payang's brother. While on the raft, Adag noticed the dark clouds but Payang insisted on going still with their journey. And so the rapids came rushing until they had to jump in the river so they'd survive. Alas, their raft was broken and they swam to the edge and continued on foot.

Along their way, they encountered men with guns whom they thought to be forest rangers. Turns out, the were men in the army looking for the leader of the NPA. They were with them for a few days but they ran away and continued with their main goal. They were building a raft when they found 'Carlito' who journeyed with them. He told the two that he was a doctor and he got lost while his companions are already out of the mountain.

Then Payang starts to get hang of Mang Carlito, which is icky because he's already old! She used improvised make up and fixed her hair to impress him while Adag was obviously jealous. Aaaah. Young love.

Back to the story, they finally reached civilization and Carlito instructed them to deliver this 'paper.' Turns out, Adag already knew he was the leader of the NPA and, well, promised not to tell the army concluding that he was a good person anyway since he gave them medicine and stuff. So while they separated ways, the two were caught by the DENR and confiscated their lumber. Funny thing is they didn't even know they were being caught and thought all the confiscated lumber were to be used to build a big house! Fast forward, their things got confiscated, the army found them again, knew about the messaged to be delivered, caught the NPA constituent and eventually, 'Carlito,' their leader.

Payang was so devastated about 'Carlito's' death just to find out later on that the brother she's searching for is dead too. And so they went back home, delivered the devastating news and, well, continued with their lives. Seems like Adag was slowly showing his love for Payang. Again, young love.

So what about the film? Here's just a few thoughts:

• It's so sad that Mangyans or any other tribes in the mountains get so little education, though they also try. But I guess it's kind of a good thing to preserve that part of the culture too.
• The worse thing is about the illegal logging. Forests now are not what they used to be even though there are constant warnings.
• Old people are just hard to be adapted to change.
• Young love makes you go, 'Aaaaaawwwww.' So cute!
• Being a member of the NPA is hard! LOL.
• It's heart-warming to know that those kids have big dreams like Payang wanting to be a doctor and go back to her people.
• I love how they stress that you can find everything you need in the forest. The sad thing is most part of it is now barren.