DepEd, NCCA endorse Baler

Baler by Viva/Bida Films got the most number of honors, besting seven other films, in the recently-concluded awarding ceremony of the 2008 Metro Manila Film Festival. The film is endorsed by the Department of Education (DepEd) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), headed by its chairman, DepEd Undersecretary Vilma Labrador (rightmost), and executive director and Presidential assistant on Culture Cecile Guidote-Alvarez (leftmost).

A review writing contest on Baler, coordinated by DepEd and NCCA is still ongoing, in which the story focuses on the love story of a Spanish soldier and a Filipino girl set against the historical backdrop of the last stand of Spanish soldiers in a church during the last days of the Spanish regime. This act earned admiration, and the event is now being commemorated as Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day every June 28 in the provincial capital of Aurora.

Also in photo arePhillip Salvador, Anne Curtis and Jericho Rosales (second, third and fourth from left).