by Enzo Gool
Our quest
for the Bakal na Krus is on. Are you brave enough to venture Juan de la Cruz's
birthplace?
Standing its three hundred year old grandeur
completed in the 1700s. The church of St. Peter of Alcantara towers above this
little town with great magnificence in its golden brown facade - a mark of
power and pride of Pakilenyos. An enigmatic mammoth structure that is waiting to
tell its story.
And just recently,
the church of St. Peter of Alcantara just became as one of the most iconic
church to ever graze our local television.
'Epic' serye - a new approach on modern
television viewing that let us explore our rich history. This newest hit
Kapamilya primetime television series aptly named Juan dela Cruz has been rated
highly for having a refreshing and original storyline. The program offered a
more very Pinoy flavor to our daily evening habits by having a modern
aswang-fighting hero with a magical multi-faceted weapon cheekily portrayed in
the form of a cross. A totally different approach from the face-slapping and hair pulling
'teledramas' that we came accustomed to.
Upon its pilot
episode, it became a massive hit and trended all over to twitter. But the best
part of it is that a lot of people are commenting more about the where it was
shot. "Sa Pakil yan ah!" most tweets would say and Pakilenyos on
Facebook had been bursting with statuses and shares.
One of the reasons
why they chose Pakil as their location is because it is just a 3-hour drive
down south. Location Managers don't have to go to far-flung provinces to get
that authentic provincial look for their show. They'll just look for a place in
Pakil, and it would fit right perfectly to what they are looking for. And also,
Pakil has numerous vicinity closely knitted
together with nearly complete supplies to cater their production needs.
I still remember the
first time Juan dela Cruz had their shoot here. It was for their teaser and
everybody got so excited because there were rumors that Coco Martin was the
lead star. And true enough, during the first few weeks of the shoot, Pakilenyos
gathered and watched Coco Martin live in action. Even the adjacent towns came
over just to see him. It was utterly chaos for such a big star to visit this
little small town. Coco had to be escorted by body guards wherever he goes.
With the continuous
shoot of Juan dela Cruz in our town, adjacent people from different towns
started pouring in trying to get a glimpse of Coco Martin and his co-stars and
clamor to get a photo with them. Technically, this brings quite a good
attention to Pakil. People visiting, and needing to eat, which gave the local
stores around the plaza a pretty good income. Even the local barangay tanods
had a little something extra from the shoot. This made our town bustling with
people, business is sort of booming quite a bit.
Though as weeks
past, I noticed that people are getting bored of them as well. I thought I was
the only one. We have been accustomed to seeing media people hustling and
bustling around the town. But people aren't that excited as they were before.
Probably because Coco Martin isn't as much shooting in our town anymore because
of the working story.
Personally, it's a
kind of relief that there aren't much people around the church which is usually
the base of the television production. By-standers and the fans tend to cause
too much litter. Especially when they are waiting for their favourite actor to
show up and they get hungry and opt to buy street foods and just throwing their
litters everywhere. That is one of the downside of having the shoot in town.
In addition to that,
the national road was closed during the tapings which is right next to the
church, so they block off he main road and divert the traffic on the
hi-way, which makes it harder for
commuters to travel because they have to catch their ride all the way to the
outskirts of town and wait. Some local drivers are not thrilled as well with
their confusing routes and unstable income.
Also, business
owners along the national road aren't amused. If the route gets diverted, it
isn't convenient for their customers to come all the way from the hi-way
especially to the medical businesses on Tavera Street.
Nevertheless, these
all go with the changes whenever Juan dela Cruz is in town. These are just little prices to pay in
exchange of the unique tranquility of our town. The fact that it has been
recognized by the big bosses of media to be a strategic spot for shooting
locations is a such a big thing. And nothing makes us even more proud as a
Pakilenyo than to see our church flash on our screens.
But even before Juan
dela Cruz started shooting in our town, Pakil has been featured in television
countless of times. Even back then, the grandeur of our church has appealed to
producers even having the great Dolphy back then, shooting way back in the 70s
and 80s. Though recently, Pakil has had strings of media attention. During
2010, Pakil has been featured in Umagang Kay Ganda for our September festival.
Also in the same year, Juanita Banana (ABS-CBN) did some production here too,
wherein Vista's Art Space and Cafe was under the spotlight. Then, in another
primetime bida roster Piolo Pascual's Dahil sa Pag-ibig generated attention
(ABS-CBN) wherein there has been a big assassination scene of Christopher de
Leon and Piolo fighting over the veranda of the church. They involved a lot of
people on that production as well with elementary kids as majorettes performing
in front of fake towns people.
 |
| Photo from Fr. Mario Rivera |
 |
| Photo from Fr. Albert San Jose |
 |
| Photo from Fr. Albert San Jose |
 |
| Photo from Dra. Cyndee Fornoles |
Also, whilst Juan de la Cruz was shooting in Pakil, they shared the same backdrop to a rival company's epic serye as well, GMA's
Indio. Their Spanish themed program would definitely have Pakil on their radar because of our one of a kind church. And on one occasion, GMA and ABS-CBN had shoots back-to-back. Even the people were confused on who's shooting in town "
Ano ba to? Juan de la Cruz o Indio?"
 |
| Photo from Dra. Cyndee Fornoles |
 |
| Photo from Dra. Cyndee Fornoles |
 |
| Photo from Dra. Cyndee Fornoles |
 |
| Photo from Dra. Cyndee Fornoles |
With the success of
Juan de la Cruz, the big bosses of ABS, did another first in their playing
cards, they created a spin-off for the young Juan dela Cruz. Since the early
days of young Juan is so much entertaining and appealing to kids, they made a
show of its own. Which means, every now and then, up to now, there will be grip
trucks and cameras rolling around town for the shooting of the well-received
afternoon television show,
My Little Juan.
 |
| Photo from Dra. Cyndee Fornoles |
 |
| Photo from Dra. Cyndee Fornoles |
Juan dela Cruz
currently airs in ABS-CBN right after TV Patrol and My Little Juan during 2:30
P.M.
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento