"Buti pa si Onyok at Monsour, mas mahaba pa ang sinabi."
This was the hilarious text I received from a friend as she referred to the commercials that showed former Filipino Olympians talk about their experiences. This came after seeing a literal several second GLIMPSE of the RP contingent as they paraded for the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. I think we saw them in about 2 blinks of an eye.
At least her text brought some humor to a very irritating and frustrating evening. After waiting for this night for some time now, it ended in a very anti-climactic manner.
With all the commercials that Solar showed (and is still showing at the time of this writing) during the live coverage of the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics on C/S (RPN 9), they were probably late in switching over to the live coverage and missed showing the RP athletes as they came into the stadium and was introduced by the announcer. The most we saw was Manny Pacquiao holding the flag, and he isn't even a participant!
We were actually fooled by Solar when they practically showed the entire artistic program prior to the parade of athletes. Once the parade began, so did the continuous and recurring commercials.
Was the motto of Solar for this coverage "let's show a barrage of commercials but hide it behind the name: "Live Coverage of the Opening of the Beijing Olympics!" ?
The entire telecast seemed like more of a slot machine for Solar! A total disservice to the Filipino people!
What I don't get is that Solar probably made a killing already with the pay-per-view tie ups with different cable operators. They had to bombard the coverage with sponsors. Fine, they need to make money. But why couldn't they even get the showing of the RP athletes right??? That's what the Filipinos watching were patiently waiting for, and they fumbled it. I even saw more of the Moroccan team than our own. Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!
Special TV Broadcast? or Special Commercials Broadcast?
I don't understand why you couldn't think of your fellow Filipinos and just had a scrollbar at the bottom of the screen so sponsors could just appear there? This event happens once every 4 years and you couldn't even give a decent broadcast to your fellowmen.
And don't tell me that I should've availed of the pay-per-view. After seeing the line-up of sports...duh?it isn't worth my Php2,500(and besides, my area isn't serviceable).
My sentiment is that we were robbed of witnessing probably the best Olympics Opening Ceremonies ever.
Now the question is, will Solar redeem itself in the coming days. I highly doubt it...KA-CHING! KA-CHING! KA-CHING! While the viewers are left memorizing the Coke jingle and Gran Matador commercial.
I wonder if it would've been different had SkyCable got the rights to the coverage. I'm pretty sure they would've done a better job at in the least, timing the commercials. I used to feel sorry for Solar when they were supposedly booted out from Sky. But after what you guys did tonight..hay naku!
Okay...at least you showed the lighting of the torch until the fireworks display without a break. But then even before the ceremonies ended, you just had to take another break.
I wanted to see our athletes. That was their moment and you took it away from them by giving in to your sponsors! What a way to support Team Philippines guys!
I just hope someone looks into this. As usual, kawawa nanaman mga Pinoy.
Nope, that isn't Snoopy. It's our new baby! A 3 month old Siberian Husky named Shadow. A birthday gift to my brother but since dogs aren't allowed in his condo, he had to leave Shadow at home with us to the delight of everyone in our household. He now joins our reliable askal Ampon.
Though he is a real hyper pup and wreaks havoc now and then, he has brought much joy to us, just like a new baby. We were able to teach him to sit, lie down and jump up. He still loves to bite or nib since he is still teething so we have to keep directing him to his chew toys. 
