He described his setup as very light as he is able to work at home. With Hong Kong just an hour and a half away by plane, he travels to Manila every weekend.

HOSTAGE-TAKING AFTERMATH. Even as he's directing here, Eric still has to report and attend meetings in Hong Kong once a week. He was there when the people held a rally in the aftermath of the hostage incident which took place at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila last August 23.

"It was really more of a silent protest. The only thing that they are demanding is justice," Eric said. "They want justice for the victims. They want a thorough investigation. Yun lang ang gusto nila. They just want to find out what really happened. The whole world was watching that time."

During the hostage crisis itself, wherein a disgruntled ex-policeman armed with an M-16 assault rifle hijacked a tourist bus filled with Hong Kong nationals, Eric was in the Philippines and was awakened by his boss to watch the incident on television that Monday evening.

Eric could only shake his head at the bungled police rescue that left eight hostages killed and several injured. "It's something embarrassing and sad. I just hope that it doesn't lead to something anything grave or war or whatever."

"It's a natural reaction by them. Kung tayo nga mga Pinoy, sinulat lang sa atin ng isang taga-Hong Kong about us na negative, nag-react tayo kaagad. We demanded an apology. They're not asking for an apology. They're just asking for justice, which is right.

"Imagine kung sa atin nangyari iyon at yung mga Pinoy yung namatay. Ganoon yung blunder na ginawa, aren't you going to ask for justice? Of course, we would. That's the normal reaction."

Eric said that he's been receiving a lot of text messages and e-mails that say bad things about the Chinese. But he finds this behavior unreasonable and hopes this won't turn into a hate campaign.

"I think it's the wrong thing to do. Parang mali that we retaliate for whatever happened in the past. Dapat hindi na. Dapat wala nang mga ganoon.

"There's nothing wrong when you humble yourself. We made a mistake. We just have to accept the fact that we made a mistake. And that's it. It's so sad that it happened. I just think there's no reason to say that we are proud to be Pinoys. We can be proud any time. It's just that what happened that time was nothing to be proud of.

"Let's just accept the fact that we made a mistake. I think we should give the family of the victims the justice due them."