2021

Is Palawan a Trans Fat Free province? By Evo Joel Contrivida/ Palawan Daily News

Country/area: Philippines

Organisation: Palawan Daily News

Organisation size: Small

Publication date: 4 Oct 2020

Credit: Evo Joel Contrivida,

Project description:

HEART DESEASES- This is the primary cause of death in Palawan, base on study, this is brought by the food we eat that contains Trans Fatty Acids ( SAKIT SA PUSO – ito ang Isa sa mga pangunahing ikinakamatay ng mga taga-Palawan. Batay sa mga pag aaral, ito ay dulot nga mga pagkaing nagtataglay ng TRANS FATTY ACIDS. Alamin ang panganib dulot ng TRANS FAT sa ating kalusugan, at ano ang magagawa ng ating lokal na pamahalaan tungkol dito. Panoorin ang special na dokyu na ito – produksyon ng Palawan Daily News katuwang ang Probe Media Foundation, Inc. at Imagine

Impact reached:

One thing this pandemic taught us, is to be aware of the kinds of food we eat, many became health conscious and change their diet. One of that is avoiding food that contains Trans Fatty Acids (TFA), this is usually found in the food that undergoes process like cooking or frying it with oil that came from animals.

Palawan being known as world’s best island is no exemption with that, but this treat of Trans Fat is somewhat new to many Palawenos, majority are unaware of the danger that food contains TFA may bring to their health.

According to the data from Palawan Provincial Health Office, Cardio Vascular Diseases (CVD) is rank 3 in the causes of mortality with 139 cases for the year 2018, while its capital the City Puerto Princesa listed Acute Myocardial Infarction as the leading cause of mortality for the year 2019 with 183 cases, and hypertension is on the fifth slot with 92 cases.

The said diseases mostly connect with heart problems, as per study it can be resulted by consuming Trans Fat in our food, the World Health Organization also reported that there are 540,000 people worldwide annually die of CVD.

Techniques/technologies used:

The special project uses video camera and mobile phones in conducting interviews to key persons who can answer the situation of our food in the City, and in the province of Palawan. Application software was also utilized in editing the videos, add color and texture to it. Sound app in the mobile phone was instrumental in capturing the audio during shoots and interview conducted in different places, We use Filmora editing software for the video editing specifically, and Adobe Premiere in adding some graphics. 

What was the hardest part of this project?

The biggest challenge in producing the said content is gathering data, the local government specifically the health offices didnt have that much info about the facts of health status in the locality, we have to relay from worldwide and national source and adapt it local so it can be relatable to our own market, which is the people of Palawan, a province here in the Philippines. Another major challenge is the lack of technology we have, Palawan Daily News is a start up company barely two years old and we dont have that much equiptment to shoot the story, we have to combine our resources using an old DSLR camera and a our mobile phones to shoot our interviewee, we dont have that microphones also that can capture good sounds for our sound bytes, nevertheless we found some apps in our mobile phones that we can record directly and place it as a file during the editing, so it could hear good upon watching the documentary. 

What can others learn from this project?

One big reason we realize in producing this Documentary is that, no matter what equiptment or technology we have today we can still produce good and quality content, coming from a start up company who dont have all the tools needed for producing video documentary, we still thank this innovative technology that we can adapt in order to present our product in high quality. Bieng a journalist we should relay not on what we have as a tool, but rather find alternative like us who dont have a latest and high end camera for shooting, yet we resort to use our mobile phones who can give quality imagery of the subject you want people to see, for us its the content that matter next to the quality of videos and other means. 

Project links:

www.facebook.com/palawandaily/posts/986454898539151

tribune.net.ph/index.php/2020/10/17/trans-fat-in-palawan/