In 1986, in the evening of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines, ten-year old Lucas Munozca catches sight of the First Lady’s 3000 pairs of shoes at the Presidential Palace and decides to steal a pair.
In 2006, Lucas, now a professional wedding videographer, is seemingly stuck with one kind of footwear: white sneakers. He, too, is stuck with his past; unable to move on from losing the love of his life, the “well-heeled” Bettina, who, when they were still a couple, always wore flats being taller than Lucas.
Lucas’ mother, Chat, is similarly stuck on her past. Doing manicures and pedicures for a living, Chat gets to take expensive shoes off the feet of affluent women. After all these years, she still grieves the loss of her husband, Lucas’ father, Domingo. A construction worker who loved to walk barefoot, Domingo perished along with an untold number of workers during the collapse of an upper floor of the Manila Film Center in 1981, a pet project of the then First Lady Imelda Marcos. Chat has almost given up trying to contact the spirit of Domingo until she meets a talented spiritist, Madame Vange, who happens to be, of all things, an Imelda impersonator.
When Lucas accepts a high-profile wedding video assignment, he discovers that one of the principal sponsors is Madame Imelda Marcos herself. He is then forced to confront the consequences of stealing the shoes of the former First Lady and to reveal the real reasons why he did it: for poetic justice and for love.
As a boy, Lucas had originally wanted to steal two pairs of shoes--one for his mother Chat to be a token replacement of the shoes she never got for her birthday from her husband Domingo because he died constructing Imelda’s film palace; and another pair of shoes for his childhood sweetheart Bettina whose family had suffered from the Marcos regime. But young Lucas lost his nerves and only managed to steal one pair. And so, he had given the right shoe to his mother; and the left shoe to his beloved.
Twenty years have separated the shoes and, now, Lucas retraces his journey and discovers that the Imelda shoes is his way back to healing and redemption.
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Our goal is a USC that moves forward in building a new culture of leadership and service in our University.
To achieve this goal, we propose a balanced and feasible General Program of Action (GPOA) that empowers you, the iskolar, through worthwhile activities. We offer relevant projects and practical services that enhance the quality of your UP experience. And we provide timely campaigns and advocacies that motivate your idealism to serve the country.
KAISA has always been at the front of providing an innovative, inclusive and responsive GPOA. This year, we uphold our reputation of platform excellence through a GPOA that brings us together to move forward with a USC built on your trust, a USC fueled by your ideals, a USC that stands for you.
This elections, let’s move forward and make the USC a true YouSC.
Campaign: Blue, Red and Yellow
Colors have been associated with those who are running for the Philippine Presidency. Senator Noynoy Aquino, Former President Erap Estrada, Senator Richard Gordon, Senator Jamby Madrigal, Former Defense Chief Gibo Teodoro and Senator Manny Villar have been identified with the colors yellow, orange, red, green, green and orange respectively. These colors represent, brand and package these candidates in a way they stand out and appeal to their supporters and the people in general.
The University elections will come as a shock, and sometimes an entertainment, for the freshmen, who will get to know and see first time the candidates who are campaigning all around the campus. They will also see some if not many similarities and differences between campus politics and national political exercises.
As starters, candidates are trained all the works – from how to dress, walk, talk, shake hands, engage students in interactive discussions, and a lot more – this is why when a candidate comes in your classroom and campaigns, you’ll be impressed at them
Issues and the Internet
All electoral exercises have rules promulgated by the authorized electoral body responsible for the elections. But even with rules in place, people get to find loopholes and ways how to circumvent or avoid violations of these election rules.
Sometimes, similar to Senator Jamby Madrigal or Senator Richard Gordon attacking the credibility and person of Sen. Manny Villar because of issues that hound him, true or not, ways to discredit and malign candidates happen even in the university level.
Last year’s campus elections started to utilized not only room-to-room campaign, poster, fliers and pins but also the internet, specifically the social networking sites and the blogs. This year, some parties, who have the money to spend, have even bought targeted ads in Facebook. It’s not far-fetched to see online advertising in Google in the next few years, like how current national candidates dominate the ad spaces and optimization in search engines.
Youth Leaders in Action
As youth leaders of the University of the Philippines, it is necessary and crucial that we must transcend politics, and adapt to the changing times and context of our society. Beyond the colors, or the parties, one thing is clear – we must progress and develop.
In this time that we are faced with the election of our new leaders of government this May 2010, the youth must bond, and select leaders which champion the youth and our nation’s future.
It is always said that the youth has the largest stake in this coming elections. Let us prove that we care, that we are not apathetic or indifferent to what is happening not only to us, our friends, but also to the rest of the nation.
Let it be said that we never try quitting, and never quit trying in finding inclusive solutions to this countries’ mistakes and problems. At the end of the day, we, the elected student leaders have a great burden to change and touch the lives of our constituents, and lead each other to a better state.
