The notebook that shocks

One relatively new show to watch Tuesday nights is GMA-7’s Reporter’s Notebook (around 11:30 after Saksi) which is barely six-episodes old. The reporters, including Ruth Cabal, Tina Panganiban-Perez and Cesar Apolinario, really dig up nothing less than skeletons and they present them in a raw style.

One good example was Cesar’s report two Tuesdays ago on the Cavite Center for Mental Health, entitled Sa Loob ng Mental Hospital, which laid bare the heart-breaking situation/condition of the 300 or so patients in that neglected place. If you watched that episode, I’m sure you were shocked (as The Notebook intends to, the better to awaken – hoy, gising!!! – negligent government officials) as many televiewers (this one included) were.

Cesar told Funfare that he shot the episode at the CCMH for one whole day and he ended up running a 39-degree fever.

"We started shooting at 5 a.m. and by noontime, I was feverish (38.8 degrees)," recalled Cesar. "The place was very hot, many of the wards didn’t have light at all and the comfort rooms were so clogged that the dirty water flooded some of the wards. It was just sickening. Most of the wards were dilapidated. By the time we finished shooting at 7 p.m., I was having chills."

You guessed it: Cesar left the place not only with high fever but with a heavy heart.

"If somebody strong and healthy like me could get sick in a matter of hours in that place, how much more the mental patients?"

It was also Cesar who exposed the "pasa-load" gimmick of some women who didn’t have qualms about exposing sensitive parts of their anatomy (on the Internet) in exchange for, yes, a "load."

In tonight’s Notebook, Cesar makes a follow-up to his exposé on the use of gasoline in the processing of garlic. He uncovered an even worse practice involving the use not only of gasoline but of chlorine in garlic-processing. His report also includes a visit to a candy factory in Bulacan believed to be using expired ingredients on its products.

Meanwhile, on the same episode Ruth Cabal reports on the so-called "joy ride" which is about teenage girls engaging in sex with jeepney drivers in exchange for, that’s it, a free ride.

Oh, my. Does sex come that cheap these days?

New idols do have following

Last Saturday night’s successful staging of Night of the Champions at the Big Dome has proven beyond reasonable doubt that we have new idols in the persons of Sarah Geronimo (Star for a Night, 2003), Erik Santos (Star in a Million, 2004) and Rachelle Ann Go (Search for a Star, 2004), including their runners-up Mark Bautista (Star for a Night), Christian Bautista (Star in a Million) and Raymond Manalo (Search for a Star).

The same show also starred Sandara Park (Texters’ Choice, Star Circle Quest 2004) and Hero Angeles (Teen Questor, Star Circle Quest 2004).

"From the start," said June Torrejon of Viva Concerts, Inc., "we knew that we had a hit show when ticket sales reached record high the day we made the announcement for the show."

Fans of singers/performers in their thirties are still there, all right, but there is no doubt a new generation of fans screaming their hearts out for idols they can identify with – you know, the "Sarah Geronimo generation."

So successful was last Saturday’s SRO concert that Viva has scheduled a repeat on Aug. 13, same venue and same time. Before that, the new breed of idols will have a show at La Salle Gymnasium in Bacolod on Aug. 6 and at the Waterfront Hotel Lahug, Cebu City, on Aug. 7.

Even abroad, these new idols have cultivated a growing following, thanks to The Filipino Channel (TFC) which has made them household names. My New York-based friends Raoul Tidalgo and Edmund Silvestre, both of The Filipino Reporter, have asked for not only photos (for their publication) but also the CDs of Sarah and company. In fact, Raoul and Edmund told me, Filipinos in the East Coast are eagerly waiting for The Night of the Champions US Tour (with Sarah, Rachelle Ann, Mark and Christian) on Sept. 18 in New York (to be produced by my good friends Alice and Red Martinez), in Chicago on Sept. 26 and on Oct. 2 in Los Angeles (to be produced by another good friend, Al Chu).

Guy Sebastian is a food lover

Now it can be told: Friday night (July 2) when all his engagements (the MTV Pilipinas Awards, promo for his BMG Records album Just As I Am, TV guestings, etc.) were over, Australian Idol Guy Sebastian and company hied off to Little Asia (along Tomas Morato St., Quezon City) for a hearty dinner.

Guess what Guy ordered – and lapped up with a resounding burp.

Yes, these (according to Little Asia owner Charlemagne Lim): Vegetable and Seafood Soup, Cantonese Prawns, Steamed Broccoli with Prawns and Mushrooms, Yang Chow Fried Rice, Five-Flavor Honey Squid, Sea Bass in Creamy Dill Sauce, Fried Green Beans, Ebi Tempura, Carbonara and Beef Hafan. What a feast!

"Guy’s instant favorite," according to Charlemagne, "was Cantonese Prawns (sauteed Prawns with Melted Cheese and Cream Sauce)."

So satisfied was Guy (and company) that he left an 8x10 BMG publicity photo with this dedication: To Lil Asia...Smile always & keep serving those crispy prawns. They rock! Love, Guy Sebastian.

Guy is such a food lover that, no wonder, he’s on the chubby side.

(E-mail reactions at [email protected])