Colorful Silence – Manila Bulletin Article about Emil Zion Punzalan’s Photography Works

Guys, may I interest you again with another successful Filipino deaf entrepreneur, Emil Zion Punzalan. As one of the proud products of MCCID, he has ventured into a field where communication is a non-issue and the entire world is his portrait. He was recently featured in Manila Bulletin. I reposted the article below.

Colorful Silence
By Jojie Alcantara
Published: May 7, 2013

In history, many hearing-impaired people have worked professionally as photographers for decades. Several of them have stood out with their eye for details and visual impact while living in a silent world.

Emil Zion Punzalan from Sampaloc, Manila accepted his diploma in Business Technology at the Manila Christian Computer Institute of the Deaf back in 2003.

“When I graduated college with a computer course, my grandparents were a little worried about what job I would get since I am deaf,” he explains. “They pushed me to photography, encouraged me to attend seminars. With the course I finished, plus photography which complemented it, I ended up as a photographer. I found pleasure in it and made a career out of it.”

He has no particular favorite subject or theme. “Ideas are everywhere. I love to capture still life, animals, food, landscape, aerial, people, travel, seascapes, and more. The possibilities are endless and I do a little bit of everything to keep myself shooting.”

For Zion, an effective photography is when the photographer transforms lifeless shots to amazing images.

“The photographer’s mood is important in coming out with good pictures. It sets the atmosphere of the piece, evokes happiness or sadness, creating an emotion. The moods of my shots are varied.”

He has joined several photo contests and won: gold medal in NCR Abilympics Skills Competition in 2005; bronze medal in the 12th National Skills Competition in 2005; and Pixoto hailed him as one of the Best Photographers of the Year 2012.

“My goal as a visual artist is to be able to create an image that is even better and beautiful than the actual subject I am shooting,” he says.

“Creativity is the best thing about being a photographer. How you compose a shot will tell the whole story – showing faces, expressions, movements, moods, situations, and experiences. For me, the most basic and most important factors are good lighting and exposure. I create the mood with lighting.”

He continues, “Exposure is the amount of light entering my camera. It describes how light or how dark the photographs are. Underexposure is when photos come out too dark, overexposure is when photos come out too light or washed out. However, slightly underexposed and overexposed images can be great for artistic or stylistic reasons. They may be visually appealing.”

Appealing may be more than one way to describe Zion’s images. Adjusting above auditory disabilities, he creates and composes images as though they were paintings infused with vivid hues that jump out from a canvas. In a silent but colorful world, he soars beyond his limits.

“For me, photography is beyond capturing family memories or documenting an event. It offers a chance to be creative. It is an expression using lighting, color, depth, content, and composition to make photographs into more than snapshots,” he says.

Now at 30, Zion looks forward to his coming inspiration with eager anticipation, the birth of his first born baby this June.

The original article appears Picture Perfect Special Lifestyle Section and the Mania Bulletin website.

For those who are in need of professional photography and other related services, I highly recommend his services. Go to his Official Facebook page to know more about how to get in touch with Zion.

One of my deaf students tagged me in her Facebook photo. In one of our House Visits wherein we interview the families of our deaf students in the comfort of their homes, a hearing parent who works in Dubai requested me to interpret her message appealing to her daughter to focus more on her studies. Since I cannot sign while holding the phone, one of my students volunteered to hold it for me. Cool!

This is what appears on their page which currently has more than 1,800 members:

We should show our appreciation to the interpreters. They work hard to help people to communicate via different languages. It is time for us to give the shout outs for their hard works. We did the polls here. We decided to do first Monday of May every year. May 1st will be our very first official Interpreter Appreciation Day.

The group declared that:

We celebrate our nurses on May 6, our Armed Forces on May 18, our teachers on May 7, and even our bosses on October 16. Today (Apr 24), it just so happens to be Administrative Professionals Day. But what about appreciation for the nimble-fingered professionals who break down communication barriers with the hearing world?

I have been a sign language interpreter in the Philippines since 1991. I love this work, although most of the time, I considered this as a thankless career. Living in a developing country such as the Philippines, sign language interpreters are “thought” to be just a helper or “Personal Assistant” of a deaf person and not a service provider. Interpreting, from the perspective of my countrymen, is not a profession but rather a mission or vocation and you must not expect any compensation from your work except, the “crown in heaven”.  View my entire post on another blog here.

That is why our Deaf citizens who are in need of interpreters are often being served by half-baked, unskilled and even unprofessional interpreters. Their reason for not rendering a better service is that they do this for free so don’t expect an excellent work.

My primary goal in blogging for the past five years is in order for people to become more aware and sensitive about the needs of the deaf while at the same time appreciate the work being done by service providers like us TERPS.

Deafview.com has a wonderful list of suggestions a deaf person might want to do in order to show his appreciation to his sign language interpreter. Come visit their page. Among those are educating your friends about what sign language interpreter does, small gifts or flowers and vlog them.

So it’s “official”. Sign Language Interpreter’s Day will be held every 1st Wednesday of May. Since the first Wednesday falls on May 1, which fittingly coincides with my country’s Labor Day, then, May 1, 2013 is SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETERS‘ DAY. Happy TERPS Day to all my colleagues in the sign language interpreting world.

THE regional office of the Department of Health (DOH) started on Wednesday training health-care providers on Basic Filipino Sign Language (BFSL) for them to use in communicating and understanding patients in health-care facilities with hearing disabilities.

“This is the first phase of our development program for our health workers who are involved with patients with disabilities [PWDs]. We want to make health services to better serve those who have disabilities and make it easier for them to go to a health center and tell a health worker what they need without worries,” Regional Director Eduardo Janairo said.

Janairo said the training will also increase their knowledge and understanding about PWDs and how they can improve their attitudes towards patients who are disabled.

“These improvements are not so difficult or expensive to do. All we need is determination and dedication and the proper skill to make it possible,” Janairo emphasized.

The first batch of trainees will be provided with a module that will familiarize them with the basic signs for communication with deaf patients. These includes the alphabet, numbers, greetings, time, days, months and commonly asked questions inside the emergency room. After memorizing simple gestures and facial expressions, trainees can interact with hearing impaired patients.

Among the 25 participants included in the training are health workers from the Lung Center of the Philippines, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Philippine Heart Center, Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital, Las Piñas General and Satellite Trauma Center, San Lorenzo Ruiz Women’s Hospital, Valenzuela Medical Center,  San Lazaro Hospital, Ospital ng Makati, Mandaluyong City Medical Center, Philippine General Hospital and Region 4A.

Media practitioners from the Philippine News Agency, Philippine Information Agency, LOQAL.ph-Filquest Media Concepts and Public Information Office of Marikina were also invited to join the training.

The DOH-NCR launched the first BFSL Module for Health Workers on November 13, 2012, with the objective of educating health workers with basic sign language for them to better communicate and understand deaf patients in their care.

It was developed through the support of the University of the University of the Philippines-PGH, CAP College for the Deaf, De La Salle University’s College of Saint Benilde and the Department of Education-National Capital Region.

Janairo said health workers provide treatment and care to many people daily and some patients are not fortunate to communicate the normal way.

“We want to help the patient but we do not speak his language and he on his part cannot convey to us what he needs. Some of these patients are not accompanied by relatives. That is why it is imperative for us educate ourselves with their language to be able to communicate with them and give them the proper health care treatment,” he added

“We will extend this training to all health providers in the region until most health workers are taught how to communicate using signs. This skill is essential as we do not want to commit errors and prescribe the wrong treatment just because we lack the knowledge to communicate with our patients,” Janairo added.

7:20 am | Thursday, March 21st, 2013

A restaurant in Cebu City is facing charges after some waiters allegedly made fun of five deaf-mute customers and refused to give them a discount.

The five customers yesterday went to the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office to file a complaint against Boosog Lasang Pinoy Resto for violating Republic Act 9442 or the law amending the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons.

Spouses Joseph Gregory and Roslyn Onglatco, Almira Pacubas, Alyssa Rose Binghay, and Glenda Casa, however, were asked to submit a sworn-affidavit to the City Prosecutors’ Office, instead of a simple statement.

They are set to return to the prosecutors’ office today to file the complaint.

Lawyer Ralph Sevilla of Boosog Lasang Pinoy Resto earlier issued an apology to the five deaf-mute customers during a conciliation meeting at the barangay Kasambagan hall.

But that wasn’t enough to satisfy the complainants.

“We came up with certain things to pacify them. But they can go and file a case,” Sevilla said.

According to the complainants, they went last March 9 to Boosog Lasang Pinoy Resto on g Juan Luna Street in Cebu City.

Upon entering the restaurant, they noticed that one of the waiters was laughing and trying to immitate their hand gestures.

“When we saw those gestures, we felt insulted and hurt,” they said.

After eating, they asked for the bill and sought a discount as provided by RA 9442.

The complainants also showed newspaper clippings about PWD discounts.

They were told that the restaurant was not giving discounts to persons with disabilities (PWD).

They ended up paying the full amount of P1,187.

Section 32 (a) of RA 9442 entitles PWDs to “at least twenty percent (20%) discount from all establishments relative to the utilization of all services in hotels and similar lodging establishments; restaurants and recreation centers for the exclusive use or enjoyment of persons with disability.”

Sevilla said the management tried to review footage of the restaurant’s closed circuit television (CCTV) but they didn’t see the employees making fun of the complainants.

“We didn’t see anything,” he said.

The five customers insist they were subjected to ridicule and that the CCTV footage could have been edited.

“We were the ones who were there,” the complainants said through an interpreter.

Please ignore the “Deaf-Mute” tag. The article writer is not fully aware of the term usage. View the original article here.

Today, may I share with you a post-Valentine love story of a deaf man and his sign language teacher which was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer? I know personally the lady teacher here, Mrs. Beatriz Go.

More fondly called as Ma’am Beth in the deaf community, she has been one of my wonderful inspirations in the deaf world and at the same time belongs to one of those looked up pillars in Filipino Deaf education. Although she did not became my sign language mentor, her awesome dedication to the teaching of sign language manifests as the long-time coordinator of Philippine Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (PRID), a pioneering sign language training institution in the country.

As one of the products of PRID and was recently awarded as one of its Outstanding Graduates, I have observed her caring for the welfare of sign language. Well enough about me. I have re-posted the article below written by Jodee Agoncillo. To Ma’am Beth, you are truly an amazing woman. So guys! Be inspired. Be very inspired.

Love story beyond words

Deaf man, sign language teacher form lasting bond

10:32 pm | Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

ROMANCE UNSPOKEN YET ENDURING Beatriz Go with husband Alexander, children Anthony Benedict, Abigail Bernadette, Albert Noel and the adopted Jasmine

Beatriz Go has never heard her husband say “I love you.” She has heard no love song, no sweet nothings, from the man she has been living with for the last 35 years.

Instead, Alexander, being deaf, has loved her in ways that go beyond words.

She’s 66 while he’s 53. A former nun, she used to be his sign language instructor at the Philippine School for the Deaf in Pasay City. The wide age gap being no barrier, his special needs led him to her and her special calling found a vessel in him.

Today they form the pillars of a family of 10—including three children of their own and five more who are adopted. Three of the adopted children are also deaf.

“It just happened.  He was 22 when he started making an effort for me,” said Go, whose face may be familiar to televiewers as the sign language interpreter on TV Masses and previously on the public service program “Kapwa Ko, Mahal Ko.”

“He would come over just to cook for me or bring me lunch. He lived on España, Manila, but would always be my escort taking me home to Pembo, Makati City. He was that consistent,” she said.

One summer, Alexander went on a solo trip to Marinduque province to see her family and ask for her hand in marriage.

There he met some stiff opposition: Some of her relatives disapproved, citing potential “communication problems” between the two. They also saw him becoming a mere dependent because of his disability. Others found the May-December romance too good to be true, and saw something awkward when a student hooks up with a former teacher.

But by then, Go was already in love as well.

Thirty-five years of blissful marriage later, Go said she still catches Alexander, now a retired electrician, telling his friends about their unusual love story—in sign language, of course.

Like any normal couple, they also have occasional spats, usually over the family finances. But such misunderstandings are often resolved especially with the help of Sarah, 42, one of their adopted deaf children, who mediates also through sign language and “interprets our conversations more accurately.”

“We complement each other,” Go said. “Our age gap and physical limitations have never been a hindrance. I defer to him as the head of the family. I guess that’s the secret of our relationship. I am not the nagging, demanding type; I’ve never even gotten hold of his ATM.”

Go currently works at the Philippine Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. Inevitably, the principles that guide her at work have found real-life applications in her relationship both with her husband and their deaf children.

“Deaf people mostly feel that they are alone because most of their family members don’t get to learn sign language. They need someone to understand them,” she said.

“They are generally suspicious of other people; when they see someone laughing, they think it’s about them. They won’t give their trust unless you show that you are really interested in them.”

Alexander must have overcome these doubts, these suspicions, the day she started teaching him sign language when he was just 15 years old.

“I guess love is really a function of communication,” Go said, looking back. “Yet sometimes you just need to feel it and leave everything else to God.”

I recently copied all the post contents of my blog to my new official home at www.deafphilippines.net. It’s also a WordPress site but uses the Responsive Design Theme. It means, the site can be viewed from any screen size including smartphones and tablets.

I want to mirror my blog post just in case I decide to pull the plug out of WordPress.com site. Also, I want to have a personal hand in tweaking the codes within the site. I will try to make this WordPress site updated while I now focus on my new personal domain site. I hope my subscribers will also visit my other home.

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