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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Timothy J. Libunao is a 32-year old registered Medical Technologist, a father to a 5-year old amiable and smart little boy and a husband to a registered Physical Therapist. He is an accomplished campus journalist, student leader, businessman, salesman and most of all, a loving father and husband, an obedient son, a caring brother, a very loyal and dear friend.


An Editor-in-Chief of his high school and college publications, a student council president for three years in college, a volunteer grade school teacher and a social mobilizer who was able to spearhead various community projects in Quezon City. He led several national organizations including the Quezon City Red Cross Youth Council, College Editors' Guild of the Philippines, Jesuit Volunteers of the Philippines and Philippine Society of Medical Technology Students. His glorious years came when he was elected as a student commissioner of the National Youth Commission under the Office of the President of the Philippines last 2002 and 2003. He worked and was designated as the Chief Medical Technologist of Murphy Diagnostic & Multi-Specialty Center and Hope Medical & Multi-Specialty Center in Quezon City before he entered medical school.

He is the eldest son of Mr. Freddie Mandario Libunao & Mrs. Ma. Sonia Jaleco Jesena of Hughes St., Maasin, Iloilo. He has two siblings: Bryan Paul graduated with a Masters Degree in Integrated Marketing and Communications in the University of Asia and the Pacific and Maria Mikaela who is a second year Medical Technology student of Centro Escolar University.

His wife, Ma. Theresa Acay of Marikina City is a registered Physical Therapist while his son Mikhail Thaddeus is a pre-school pupil of Jesus Christ Saves Global Outreach Christian Academy (JCA) in Quezon City.

He finished his grade school and high school in Ateneo de Iloilo (formerly Santa Maria Catholic School). He earned his Bachelor's Degree in Medical Technology in World Citi Colleges and was awarded as the Most Outstanding Intern of the Year of Philippine Heart Center & World Citi Medical Center. He is presently on his third year Post Graduate course as Doctor of Medicine in Far Eastern University - Dr. Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation where he served as the Treasurer of the Medicine Student Council last 2007 and 2009. He was a former faculty of the KATINKO Wellness Institute Foundation Inc. where he taught Anatomy & Physiology, Massage Economics, Microbiology, Parasitology and Public Hygiene to Massage Therapists. Presently, he is one of the board of directors of Healthville Inc., a wellness company he co-founded with his brother.



Tuesday, December 30, 2008

TAKIPSILIM: Twilight Filipino Version


I have been surfing the internet this past few days since it was Christmas vacation and it has already become my way of reconnecting to the real world since I barely had the time to watch TV or surf the internet when I am having classes in med school. December 26, in one of my millions of site surfing activities, I bumped into PerezHilton.com and was surprised to see a post in that blog stating that ABS-CBN, a Filipino broadcasting network, will be doing a Filipino version of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.

PerezHilton.com blogsite that published the supposed to be plan of ABS-CBN to do a
remake of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.

Surprised and at the same time amazed about what I saw in PerezHilton.com, I searched for more articles or websites using the tag "Takipsilim", the rumored title of the Filipino remake. I found out that other entertainment sites like Yehey, Mukamo, Zimbio and Blogpipiatbingi among others also had the same posting about the Filipino version of Twilight. The articles in the said websites indicated that ABS-CBN has acquired the rights for US$1 Million to do a remake of Twilight and has even included a list of Kapamilya stars as the cast. The said websites also stated that Ignite Media will be the co-producer and even contained details like the names of the lead stars; Rayver Cruz as Edward Cullen and Shaina Magdayao as Bella Swan. They also included the name of the would-be director (Cathy Garcia-Molina), start of shoot dates and even the would-be locations. I was stunned in disbelief with my newfound information. I started doing some sleuthing to confirm my doubt regarding the ramake, that this story is not true. I went back to PerezHilton.com website to scrutinize the Takipsilim poster, saved it and looked for the original Twilight poster, saved it then compared the two.

the original commercial poster of twilight with MTV logo at the bottom as the producer of the poster

Takipsilim top-bills Rayver Cruz as Edward Cullen and Shaina Magdayao as Bella Swan;

Circulating copies of Twilight posters include the theatrical version with all the cinema credits at the bottom and a commercial version solely for the purpose of advertising, which I posted here, has no theatrical credits and instead indicated the participation of MTV in the production of the poster. This simpler version of the poster was, for me, the source of the "photo shopped" Takipsilim" poster. Comparing the two posters, you would easily find that Rob and Bella's coat, Bella's hair and position of hands and fingers are exactly the same in Twilight and Takipsilim posters. The only difference I saw are the title change, addition of a few lines and an ABS-CBN logo. The Takipsilim poster was obviously made to look faded and older in effects to hide the changes: that Takipsilim's poster is no different than Twilight and it is a product of photo shop technology.

I admit that upon seeing the Perez Hilton post regarding Takipsilim, I believed it at first especially after a news article of the remake from the ABS-CBN News website. But it was not long when I started to doubt basing on the obvious facts and inconsistensies especially when the same news article about Takipsilim cannot found in ABS-CBN's website anymore. With the following developments at stake, I started to entertain the idea that the ABS-CBN News website was either hacked by an intruder with an intention to taint ABS-CBN's name or an employee of ABS-CBN itself was responsible for such a demeaning and erroneous press release.

My hunch is that Takipsilim is a hoax and that the idea and the conceptualization of it came from the wild imagination of a desperate Filipino "genius". It became more eminent after I saw that the post about Takipsilim was made last December 23 and they were actually posted a few hours earlier in ABS-CBN News website and other Filipino blogs like Yehey than it appeared in PerezHilton.com which is mostly Hollywood based and American in nature.

Taking into consideration all viable information, I believe that Takipsilim is a hoax and a product of a lucid imagination of a person who would only like to discredit ABS-CBN. The following substantiates my claim:

1) Acquiring the exclusive rights to do a remake of a movie does not give the acquiring party the right to use original or existing materials and merchandise that were already used in the original version.

2) The selling of rights for a movie remake does not happen especially if the movie has sequels more so if they are not yet shown or produced.

3) An author (e.g. Lord of the Rings' JRR Tolkien and Harry Potter's JK Rowling) does not sell exclusive rights to different media outfits, what more for a remake. Exclusivity ensures quality and consistency in movie production results.

4) A media outfit, more so a local network, will not spend US$ 1 Million for an exclusive right to do only one movie remake. That is very expensive.

5) Takipsilim's poster is a photo-shopped version of Twilight. Examine both pictures and see the similarities.

6) ABS-CBN News website has already removed the article regarding Takipsilim's existence. That act clearly states that the company disowns the article. An erratum is usually made when there was an error in previous news articles made and the original is usually not removed from the archives ans instead retained for reference purposes.

7) In my view, the culprit hacked and penetrated ABS-CBN's website and posted the news article there to make his concept believable and convincing taking into account that ABS-CBN itself announced Takipsilim's existence.

8) The mere fact that the "news" about Takipsilim came out in Filipino websites first (hours earlier) before it appeared in foreign websites like PerezHilton.com, implies that the author of the scam is a Filipino with clear intentions to discredit ABS-CBN.

9) One line in the Takipsilim poster blew my mind off: Madilim 'pag Takipsilim; Ang galing ng Pinoy --> what on earth is this? Some corny joke?

With all these bruhaha, I firmly stand by my claim that ABS-CBN's stake to film a Twilight remake in the form of Takipsilim is a hoax, a fake news that is mainly geared towards discrediting ABS-CBN. Therefore, Twilight fans should stop making a big fuzz out of this controversy. Twilight, in the first place, is a simple novel that failed to incorporate exchanging conflicts in the content and obviously has no climactic plot. The story is simple, dragging and boring. The movie was as lousy as the book itself.

A snapshot of a search result showing Takipsilim news articles appearing in ABS-CBN News official website

A snapshot showing that the Takipsilim article is no longer accessiblein ABS-CBN News website after clicking the search result


Yehey website posted the article 9:31 AM of December 23, several hours earlier than a post in Perez Hilton at 10:45 AM

*Unfortunately, I cannot post a snap-shot of the date and time the article was posted in ABS-CBN News website as an evidence since the article was already removed by ABS-CBN from its archives. Nevertheless, for the sake of revealing the information, I can clearly remember that it was posted December 23, 2008, 8:25 AM.
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