Reflections on Christmas
THE season readily evokes thoughts of family, of being together, sharing food on the table, and most important of all love for each other expressed with gifts, hugs and other ways. Yuletide is indeed meant for the family. Hence, the President declares a truce from fighting (though called a “sham” by the NDF) to enable both soldier and rebel to be with family. During the First World War, guns were silenced on Christmas Eve, and in some instances soldiers sang carols answered by those in the opposite trench with their own versions, or they would meet across no man’s land, greet each other and share drink or food. British and German soldiers even played a game of football during the lull in fighting. Would that our brothers on both sides, if the powers that be will it, reach the stage of a permanent ceasefire and peace agreement.
Read on…
sendong & the president
finally read the looong statement of the president in tagalog, then too the english version, and i’ve been sitting here since, trying to figure out why it doesn’t work for me, why it’s too much and too little at the same time. i suppose because not all the carefully worded promises and reminders, not the most efficient task force looking into the why’s and who’s and how’s, will better equip us (not soon enough, anyway) in this age of climate change to prevent a sendong or an ondoy from again and again wreaking wanton disaster and death anywhere on these our widely populated but environmentally degraded and deforested islands.
And Just Like That…
I practically exhorted my Mom into writing in fairness to the president. “This is a show of force, a fierce display of political will,” I said. This is how he’ll get things done in Philippines politics — with change happening so fast it’ll make the trapos’ heads spin. And isn’t this how you’d want it? The only possible way it can happen? The only way to dig out of our entrenchment in the status quo? (Yeah, I was on something of a roll.)
And just like that — the party, the defensive sisters, deleted tweets — he shows you why he doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt. That, on top of flatfooted government response so sorely in need of leadership and, you know, something that gives the impression of actual conviction — never mind love for countryman.
Read on…
The Anatomy of Murder: Tropical Storm Sendong/Washi
The weekend was approaching. A low pressure area near Palawan had just begun its journey down to Vietnam, although I saw it as going to Malaysia before dissipating. It did. The skies of the metro were cloudy, threatening to disappoint those of us who were waiting for the red moon, the last total lunar eclipse until 2014. People were asking why it was not getting colder, why it was rainy. Bettina was struggling to explain the NE monsoon.
Read on…
The waiting room
IT is also known as the departure lounge for people of “un certain age” as they say in Quebec, although anyone above sixty or one who just survived a heart attack or is diagnosed with a terminal ailment may well be a passenger in waiting.
December 15 I turned 82. No big deal for Frankie Sionil Jose. The last time we met, he asked me to his lair where he types out his fiction or essays, “I have something to give you, “ and handed me a small ornate blue vase. “What’s this for?” I asked. “Well, I am giving my things away,” he said, “I am 87 and may go any time.” We both laughed. And that’s how it usually is in the waiting room. People are ready (or almost ready) to board, sometimes joking about their mortality or affliction.
Read on…
Philippine higher education: Put the right people in charge
By Flor Lacanilao
This is a review of some issues I have discussed related to higher education. Although some have asked why I often repeat what is already said, I remind those in science that I repeat only what is important, for emphasis, like in a scientific article. Here, the principal result is often mentioned five times. It is usually made the Title of the article, stated in the Abstract, Introduction, and Results sections, and explained in the Discussion.
My concern is the ignored issues in Philippine education reform — which should start with higher education. Studies have shown, “It is doubtful that great progress can be made at the primary and secondary levels until a higher standard of science learning is set at the post-secondary level.”
Read on…
in fairness to the president
it was a kneejerk reaction, i admit, the fear of what else president aquino and the house of reps could railroad, given the surprisingly speedy impeachment of corona. it brought back tense memories of the nograles congress’s attempt back in 2009 to rush through the transformation of the legislature into a constituent assembly, the easier, the faster, to foist charter change on a chacha-suspicious public. i had visions of the aquino-belmonte team succeeding where arroyo-nograles failed, and it was scary.
but okay, benefit of the doubt, credit where credit is due. would that the president apply the same kind of zeal to getting passed the RH bill and the Freedom of Information Act both pending, and dragging, in Congress, and the same kind of passion and creativity and transparency in turning around the economy through appropriately drastic rather than quick-fix measures.
read Huffington Post‘s Of Circuses And Sanity In The Philippines by Edsel Tupaz and Daniel Wagner.
corona impeachment: let’s hear it all, prosecution AND defense!
i like it that chief justice corona is not resigning, instead will face trial in the senate. it would be good for us all, since phnoy has seen fit to get him impeached by the house of reps, to see due process taking its course, whether toward an acquittal or convicton. i hope corona does not change his mind over the holidays.
i still remember erap’s trial, all the dirt and rot that surfaced, and the named names, which i suspect was the underlying reason for the representatives-prosecutors’ pouncing on the second-envelope fiasco, any excuse to walk out before the defense could be heard, which may also be the reason certain quarters would prefer that corona do a merceditas na lang?
please lang, no walk-outs, let us hear it all, prosecution AND defense!
meanwhile, listening to lacierda lash back at corona after the latter’s address to the nation only makes me wonder/wander back to why phnoy has gotten so ballistic. he got his way, after all, on holding gma in the country and getting her arrested (in another blitzkrieg process). kinda creative naman sila pag gitgitan na.
corona impeachment is to save hacienda luisita?
i thought the house of reps was working on impeaching supreme court justice mariano del castillo for plagiarism. as it turns out, that was just a distraction. behind the scenes, the reps (188! medyo o.a.)were working pala on the impeachment of bigger, nay, the biggest, fish, chief justice renato corona. phnoy’s valte and rep. tupas et al can deny it all they want, but clearly the prez was behind it — i just heard him gloating on anc as he addressed house allies — and it’s quite believable, as edcel lagman claims, that many reps signed to make sure they get their pork barrel next year (ay, shades of gma) and, of course, marami sa kanila ay pumoposisyon for the basbas of phnoy sa 2013 elections.
blogs carlos conde:
According to this story from @moveph and the venerable @glendamgloria … President Aquino’s recent attacks against the Supreme Court were calculated, designed to prepare the public for the possible impeachment of the “last Arroyo holdout,” Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona, whose court the Aquino administration has accused of being obstructionist in its fight against corruption.
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The lost boy
By Edith Burgos
As told to Patricia EvangelistaMy husband Joe Burgos was the perfect husband. We were together for more than 40 years, and we were still in love until the day he died. He was a very good father, very strict, a disciplinarian. He wasn’t around most of the time. He would tell me, “There’s something bigger than just the family.” And it was the legacy he wanted to leave with his children.
On April 28, 2007, my son, Jonas, was abducted in a mall in Quezon City. He was 37 years old at that time. The whole family was supposed to meet that night, but he didn’t come. The next day, he answered my calls, it was about noontime, but his voice was very, very weak, and he didn’t make any sense. Then his phone went dead.
read the rest here
Nationalist writers
EDUCATED in English from grade to graduate school, I belong to the generation(s) of what Renato Constantino called “the miseducated Filipino.” My exposure to Tagalog literature was limited to a high school subject using Diwang Kayumanggi as text. At home, my parents spoke Spanish to each other and English or “garil” (fractured) Tagalog to their children, who in turn spoke Manila street Tagalog to each other. Ilokano and Bikol were also heard at home whenever my father’s relatives or my mother’s kin visited us.
Read on…
mo & RHian
i didn’t even “know” rhian ramos before the sh*t hit the fan; these showbiz girls all look the same to me. but mo twister i couldn’t help noticing from the first because he speaks perfect english and is simpatiko naman, reminded me of martin nievera in MAD days.
that they were a couple pala i only found out when a few facebook friends posted mo-rhian related statuses. in fairness, no one posted the video, or link, unless i missed it lang, which still means it wasn’t being posted all over the place. which led curious me to pep.ph to get the gist and find out the latest — to wit, the video was recorded by mo while in singapore, crying over his girlfriend’s abortion against his wishes, which video was released on the internet by unidentified ones, which has led to apologies from mo, but no denials from rhian, only complaints of what-sounds-like emotional battering.