{"id":49527,"date":"2015-05-15T00:32:05","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T16:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=49527"},"modified":"2015-05-15T00:32:05","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T16:32:05","slug":"forevermore-crew-protecting-benguet-is-a-shared-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/05\/15\/forevermore-crew-protecting-benguet-is-a-shared-responsibility\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Forevermore\u2019 crew: Protecting Benguet is a shared responsibility"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Enrique<\/a>
Enrique Gil and Liza Soberano. Facebook Photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 With Sitio Pungayan, the setting of ABS-CBN\u2019s teleserye \u201cForevermore,\u201d slowly turning into a tourist destination, the crew and cast remind the public to protect and preserve the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe constantly remind people to protect it. We integrate this message into the story, like when crops were attacked by pests. We discussed right farming techniques. We tried to point out to the audience how important La Presa is to the people here. If their crops were destroyed, they would lose their source of livelihood,\u201d said Forevermore lead male actor Enrique Gil.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether or not to turn the place into a commercial area is not the network\u2019s decision but of the local government and the tourism office. We just want to remind people that protecting this region is a shared responsibility,\u201d said Forevermore head writer Mark Angos.<\/p>\n

Sitio Pungayan is an upland village in Mount Kabuyao. It is the location of the teleserye\u2019s fictional Sitio La Presa, hometown of its lead female character, Maria Agnes Calay, played by Liza Soberano.<\/p>\n

Since last year, the Forevermore crew had called it its home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just us back then. It was so quiet. I remember that there was only one small sari-sari store standing here. We would buy snacks from it. A few months later, it began selling what it called La Presa hats as well as necklaces similar to what Agnes would often wear. That started everything,\u201d said Soberano\u2019s onscreen partner Gil.<\/p>\n

With its final episode set to be aired on May 22, the crew will soon leave the haven. They, however, planned to leave behind what they had built in the area, including a small shack, an iconic bench, and a signpost.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hoping that the people will keep them because they are iconic and are important elements in the program,\u201d said Angos. \u201cBaguio and Benguet became characters in the story, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Popularized by the teleserye, Sitio Pungayan\u2019s tourism continues to boom. Although this has given business opportunities to locals, garbage dilemmas and congested roads have also occurred. These alarmed the residence and the local government.<\/p>\n

ABS-CBN management has earlier announced a Forevermore concert to be held in the region as a thanksgiving event to all its avid viewers. They had, however, postponed the concert due to \u2018environmental concerns on its venue.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Forevermore crew and cast still continue to thank its audience for their support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey tell us that even TFC (The Filipino Channel) viewers like it. We\u2019re up here and don\u2019t really know what\u2019s happening in other places. We don\u2019t have any idea how big the show has become. We\u2019re just happy with the feedback. It\u2019s so unexpected,\u201d said Gil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 With Sitio Pungayan, the setting of ABS-CBN\u2019s teleserye \u201cForevermore,\u201d slowly turning into a tourist destination, the crew and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":29843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment-ph","category-travel","mauthors-jane-moraleda","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}