Timow's Turf

It’s 93 days until Christmas, 100 days until the New Year, and most importantly, 60 days until November 22—the long-delayed, bureaucracy-battered deadline when free-to-air analog TV in Mega Manila officially goes dark, barring any calamities that would come like an earthquake near the Valley Fault or a supertyphoon. Stop the presses. Sound the alarm. Warn the elders. Or don’t. While regulators pore over spectrum and carrier multiplexes in air-conditioned boardrooms, 90% of people (probably you also) are fixated on a 15-second TikTok, scrolling Netflix, or streaming pirated HD on a second screen. The 20-year tech saga’s grand finale is here, but the audience has long since left for boba. The analog switchover in the Philippines is the ultimate tech milestone, arriving fashionably, hilariously, and tragically late.

Since I wish to update on my situation, we must face a far more serious and unsettling reality. It has been just over 24 hours since the earth tore apart in Southern Mindanao. Yesterday morning, a Magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Region XI (Davao), Region XII (Soccsksargen), and BARMM. As of this writing, the grim reality unfolds: at least 36 dead, over 200 injured, and a dozen missing. Mountainsides have collapsed, critical infrastructure fractured, and the financial damage in General Santos City exceeds ₱1 billion. DOST-PHIVOLCS confirmed the tectonic event originated offshore, about 32 km west of Maasim, Sarangani, along the volatile Cotabato Trench—the same faultline that caused the 1976 quake. Tremors were felt as far as Leyte. Since the main shock, over 138 aftershocks—from Magnitude 1.3 to 6.7—have kept the population on edge. As the dust settles, a harsher reality emerges: this tragedy is not just about tectonic plates shifting but exposes our systemic unpreparedness, outdated i...

On April 10, the  NCAA-GMA marriage  had ended as scheduled. Following the Letran Lady Knights’ volleyball win, Martin Javier thanked GMA (especially HOA Channel) for the coverage, as they are not renewing their broadcast rights, a decision reportedly made last December. For those keeping score, the "widest reach" network is essentially saying, "Thanks for the content, but we prefer airing movie blocks over another San Sebastian-Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC) matchup. The country’s oldest athletic league is now officially homeless, clutching its neocentennial trophies and a suitcase of broken dreams. Let’s dissect this mess. The GMA Era: High Definition, Low Vibration When the NCAA moved to GMA after ABS-CBN’s shutdown, it was called a "masterstroke." If you define a masterstroke as becoming the secondary priority on a channel with a name that sounds like expired motor oil (GTV), then it was a success. I doubted at first, but now I believe. GMA promised the moo...

Back in 2014, I went on a rant on WordPress about the PMPC Star Awards for TV , frustrated by what felt like blatant favoritism toward ABS-CBN .  Year after year, if the Kapamilya network had nominations, it seemed like a guaranteed win, leaving fans of other networks questioning the credibility of the awards. It’s not that they didn’t produce great shows, but the perceived bias was hard to ignore. The PMPC, composed of tabloid reporters and entertainment press, should theoretically be neutral. But it felt like a local version of the Emmys , except with favoritism that was a little too obvious. Fast forward to early 2020 , right before the pandemic flipped the world (and the industry) upside down, and the PMPC publicly supported ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal . We all know how that ended—outright rejection, thanks to the former president’s ego trip . (Speaking of that former president. He's now in the Netherlands facing an ICC trial.) This deliberate turn amidst the unpredictable wo...