Batibot

Like most 80s kids, I grew up watching Batibot -- Pong Pagong, Kiko Matsing, Kapitan Basa, Irma Daldal, Manang Bola. The Americans took them away from us. The puppets were lent to local producers by the Children's Television Workshop, the same people behind Sesame Street. Karma will catch up with them.

I will never see Pong Pagong, or anyone from Batibot for that matter. The closest I got was seeing locally-made Koko Kwik-Kwak shoot a post-Pong and Co. episode in front of the Post Office in UP Diliman during my freshman year.

I've seen Kuya Bodjie the story-teller twice at the Araneta Center. But my mental image of him was changed forever when I saw "Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros," where he shot dead the lead character's father in a dark alley.

The first casette tape I bought was a collection of Batibot songs: "Alaga naming si Puti," "Tinapang Bangus" and a song by Manilyn Reynes about saying "po" and "opo."

In honor of Batibot, I am naming my blog after Pong Pagong.