Meandering Shawarma

Burger King Philippines

2012-01-30T11:48:00.002+03:00

I love BK not only because of their products and the corteous staff but also because of the value added services like the free charging station, awesome wifi hotspot and now, a masseuse on the house. Keep it up, BK! Have it our way!

The Digital Ripple: 4th Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit 2010

2010-08-03T03:00:00.008+03:00

The biggest and the most comprehensive digital marketing summit in the Philippines is at hand!

The Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP) is organizing The Digital Ripple 4th Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit 2010 at SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia, Pasay City this August 19 and 20, 2010.

Gathering 12 international digital marketing experts, the 2-day summit promises to give fearless forecasts and trends shaping the web and mobile marketing and provide global perspectives from among the most successful and acknowledged experts.

Network with digital marketers from across the region and experience cutting edge solutions from providers.

I'm glad my vacation coincided with the event as I will have the chance to keep tab with the trends as presented by experts in case studies and leading campaigns.

For a digital marketer based in the Middle East, this will also give me the chance to stay grounded with the Philippine digital marketing topography allowing me not only to stay abreast but, more importantly, expand my range as well. After all, the principles apply to all regardless of one's physical location. Finally, as usual, whatever I learn from this event will surely be shared with my fellow practitioners and friends in Bahrain and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Another compelling reason to attend the summit is the encompassing topics covered. They have technical key industry issues presentations as well as generic and general concerns presentations.

The summit is designed to benefit anyone involved in digital marketing from CEO's to CRM Managers to Marketing Managers to Media Managers to Bloggers to SEO Strategists to Businessmen, Academe and Students.

To register or for more information on the speakers, visit The Digital Ripple 4th Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit 2010 at http://www.immapsummit.com/speakers.php

You may also want to follow IMMAP on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/immapPH

You can also monitor #immap summit discussions via Twitter at http://twitter.com/immapPH

Finally, A New President

2010-06-30T12:35:00.000+03:00

We, Filipinos can once again have our heads high with the ascent to the presidency of Noynoy Aquino.

surely, he was not the most qualified among the candidates but being the accidental candidate that he was, Noynoy rallied a frustrated country crying for someone who can speak if their behalf.

The credentials were of no import to a people who were marginalized by leaders with purportedly impressive credentials.

Nonynoy, on the other hand, offers a firm resolve to address the woes that have afflicted our nation. Alright, he has ridden the crest of his illustrious surname. Alright, he has just perpetuated a dynasty. But these are not the issues that matter to a people longing for a president they can trust and they can trust to listen to them.

And so be it told, finally, we have a new President.

P-Noy. President Noynoy.

An Orphan

2009-08-09T07:27:00.000+03:00

Nothing can sooth a broken heart of an orphan. That, I understand now that I am an orphan. my mother passed away after suffering from stroke. We really thought that she is on her way to recovery after her doctor allowed her to be discharged.

She wasn't.

She should have.

But she did not.

Now, I'm an orphan.

I lost my father two years ago. I am just about to accept he's gone and now, my mother.

It hurts. The pain is nothing physical. It is something that comes from the recesses of my soul. It is compounded by the fact that I will have to assume being head of the family.

Reality bites. I'm an orphan... and it is tough.

NASA Takes Google on Journey into Space

2006-12-19T22:07:00.000+03:00

NASA Ames Research Center, located in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, and Mountain View-based Google Inc. today announced plans to collaborate on a number of technology-focused research-and-development activities that will couple some of Earth’s most powerful technology resources.

NASA and Google have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that outlines plans for cooperation on a variety of areas, including large-scale data management, massively distributed computing, bio-info-nano convergence, and encouragement of the entrepreneurial space industry. The MOU also highlights plans for Google to develop up to 1 million square feet within the NASA Research Park at Moffett Field.

“Our planned partnership presents an enormous range of potential benefits to the space program,” said NASA Ames Center Director G. Scott Hubbard. “Just a few examples are new sensors and materials from collaborations on bio-info-nano convergence, improved analysis of engineering problems, as well as Earth, life and space science discoveries from supercomputing and data mining, and bringing entrepreneurs into the space program. While our joint efforts will benefit both organizations, the real winner will be the American public,” he added.

“Google and NASA share a common desire-to bring a universe of information to people around the world,” said Eric Schmidt, Google chief executive officer. “Imagine having a wide selection of images from the Apollo space mission at your fingertips whenever you want it. That's just one small example of how this collaboration could help broaden technology's role in making the world a better place.”

"I'm thrilled that NASA Ames Research Center and Google, two of our region's and our nation's most valuable and innovative organizations, have formed a partnership,” said Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (CA -14th District).

“As Silicon Valley continues to lead in developing technologies that will guide our nation's economy in the 21st century, partnerships combining the best in public sector innovation with the cutting edge of private industry will serve as the gold standard in public-private partnerships for years to come. The technologies created by the partnership of Google and NASA Ames not only will enable and enhance further exploration of space, they will positively impact the daily lives of all Americans for generations to come," Eshoo said.

"The City of Mountain View is excited that two of our community's most innovative and dynamic organizations, Google and NASA Ames Research Center, are forming a new research-and-development partnership at Ames. This new collaboration will undoubtedly result in new research projects and endeavors with tremendous potential for innovation and far-reaching benefit," said Mountain View Mayor Matt Neely.

Located on property at Ames Research Center, NASA Research Park is being developed into a world-class, shared-use educational and R&D campus. As part of a comprehensive plan for this area, new laboratories, offices, classrooms, housing, auditoriums, museums, a training and conference center, open space, parking and limited retail facilities are envisioned. The plan calls for NASA to partner with local communities, academia, private industry, non-profit organizations and other government agencies in support of NASA's mission to conduct research and develop new technologies.

Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford doctoral students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top Web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall Web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Magic!

2006-12-15T22:37:00.000+03:00

The Holocaust, the truth and the free mind

2006-12-13T22:42:00.000+03:00

Charles Fried
The Boston Globe

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the egregious president of Iran, is hosting a conference this week on whether the Holocaust really happened. There are serious questions that someone with Ahmadinejad's hostile attitude toward the state of Israel might ask about the Holocaust — did it justify the settlement of its survivors in Palestine in the first place and has Israel misused the Holocaust to justify the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories? — but whether the Holocaust ever happened is not one of them. To even somewhat sensible, mildly educated people, Ahmadinejad's conference is like having a conference about whether the world might be flat after all.

Although Iran surely intends this as an affront to Israel and Jewish people everywhere — my family and I fled Czechoslovakia in 1939, leaving my grandparents and many relatives behind to die in Theresienstad and Auschwitz — the real victims of this minor latter-day outrage are the Iranian people and rational discourse everywhere.

What Ahmadinejad's conference proclaims is that truth has no place in the world of politics; that if your ends are just, you can say anything, no matter how far-fetched. Ahmadinejad tells us that his pursuit of advanced nuclear capabilities is for peaceful purposes only: power generation, medical applications and not as part of a weapons program. Why would a rational person put faith in any assurance from a man so contemptuous of truth or even think there is any point in negotiating with him?

But Ahmadinejad's tortured logic seems almost broad-minded compared with Turkey's stringent criminal prohibition on any suggestion that such a thing as its genocide of the Armenian people ever happened. Many brave Turkish writers and journalists have suffered persecution in recent times for proclaiming what no reasonable person would deny. Yet the Armenian genocide is as certain a historic fact as Hitler's European Holocaust, for which Ataturk's may well have served as a model and feasability study. (A recent brief, horrifying and thoroughly documented account can be found in Niall Ferguson's "War of the World.") Turkey and Iran turn truth into either a crime or charade.

And then there is the converse: What about countries like Canada and many in Europe that make it an offense to offer propositions derogatory of races or religions, or to deny the Holocaust, or proposed legislation in France that would make it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide. Here, too, the truth and how we come to know it suffers. States that forbid such palpable lies degrade the currency of truth as much as those who proclaim a lie as their national policy.

For in the end, the only way to bite the nickel to make sure it's genuine is in debate, assertion and counterassertion. That is the process in which extremists in Iran and Turkey are shown to be what they are — charlatans and liars. But states that shut down that process, even to inane propositions like Holocaust or Armenian genocide denial, debase the currency of truth every bit as much as their opposites. For in their zeal, they assign to themselves, to politics, and to official power (with its prosecutors, judges and jailors) an authority that can reside only in the forum of individual judgment and conviction.

There is such a thing as truth; that is why Holocaust deniers are fools or liars. But that is exactly why there can be no such thing as official truth — truth endorsed, policed and enforced by the power of the state. Truth is above politics, and judges politics, which is why politics has no authority to proclaim it. Official truth is a contradiction in terms.

In one respect the Turks seem worse than the Iranians: They make it a crime to tell the truth, while Ahmadinejad claims to doubt what only a fool or scoundrel would deny. Because there is a truth about the Holocaust and Armenian genocide, this doubt is foolish, but that judgment is not a judgment of politics but of the free mind that judges politics.

LCPL Daniel Smith stays in jail

2006-12-13T22:17:00.000+03:00

Judge Banjamin Pozon refuses transfer to US Embassy

By: Alvin Murcia with Hector Lawas Tess Bedico, Cristina Lee-Pisco

NO GO — Senior Supt. Delvic Oreiro, Makati City jail warden in charge of the detention of US Marine Lance Corp. Daniel Smith, shows a copy of judge Benjamin Pozon’s decision denying a petition to transfer the convicted US Marine to the custody of the US Embassy. AFP

US MARINE Lance Corporal Daniel Smith will remain at the Makati City Jail.

Judge Benjamin Pozon yesterday denied for lack of merit Smith’s petition that he be transferred to the US Embassy while his conviction is being appealed.

Pozon said Smith will stay in jail until the Philippine and US governments “shall have come to a binding agreement as to the proper facilities where the accused shall carry out his confinement or detention during his appeal.”

With his ruling, the court junked the two “agreements” signed by US Ambassador Kristie Kenny, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuno and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez.

Gonzalez said Pozon “was wrong” and that the US Embassy should have custody of Smith as provided under the Visiting Forces Agreement. The Justice chief said the judge’s decision had “ruffled” RP-US relations.

Smith was recently sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a Filipino woman. His three other co-accused were acquitted.

Pozon, however, insisted that Article V, Paragraph 6, of the VFA no longer applies since the court has rendered its judgment.

“The custody of accused Smith by the US military authorities was terminated after the completion of the trial and rendition of judgment of conviction,” he noted.

“The reason for this is that the US military authorities has no more obligation to make the accused available to the Philippine authorities or to this court for judicial proceedings after the trial had been completed,” he added.

The judge said his decision to temporarily detain Smith at the Makati City Jail is in compliance with the provisions of the VFA, particularly Article V, Paragraph 10.

“This court, in pursuance of the country’s obligation under the said treaty, did not commit Smith to the national penitentiary. Instead, this court temporarily committed him to the Makati City Jail pending agreement by appropriate Philippine Authorities and Unites States authorities on the facilities where the confinement or detention of the said accused shall be carried out,” he said.

The court also ruled that the “agreement” to transfer custody to the US Embassy signed by the US Ambassador and DoJ officials is not binding. Pozon said only the President, or the Foreign Affairs Secretary, can enter into such an agreement.

Gov’t to intervene

Gonzalez, however, said the government will intervene to have Smith transferred to the US Embassy.

Malacañang earlier concurred with the position of the VFA Commission that Article 5. Paragraph 10 of the treaty that the US Embassy should take custody of US servicemen who violate Philippine laws until the end of the judicial proceedings.

Gonzalez said it is an “international obligation” of the Philippine government to intervene in the case in keeping with the VFA. But he said any government action would depend on the next step to be taken by the counsels of Smith.

“The intervention there is once there is let’s say a petition for certiorari on the ground that the judge abused his discretion in refusing to surrender custody to the Americans when the judicial proceedings are ongoing…The lawyer of Smith could go to the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court,” he said.

“When that is filed, the Department of Foreign Affairs can file a petition in intervention in favor of the position taken by Smith,” he added.

The DFA said it is coordinating with the DoJ in coming out with a solution with which the Philippines can comply to the VFA provision.

“The DFA will continue to explore remedies available in order for the Philippines to be in compliance with its treaty obligations,” DFA spokesman Eduardo Malaya said.

The Acid Lounge

2006-12-12T22:26:00.000+03:00

Do you love acid jazz? I found a wonderful blog dedicated to acid jazz. The Acid Lounge is a radio program in Boulder, Colorado.

Tune in to The Acid Lounge on Radio1190, KVCU every Wednesday from 10pm to Midnight. The best Acid Jazz, Down-beat Trip-Hop, Chillout, Soul, Latin, Urban, Deep House and Breaks heard after-hours in the hottest clubs around the world. The Acid Lounge is broadcast on 1190AM in Boulder, Colorado, and on the web worldwide at www.Radio1190.org.

'Banker to poor' receives Nobel Peace Prize

2006-12-11T13:38:00.000+03:00

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Sunday, saying he hoped the award would inspire "bold initiatives" to fight poverty and eradicate the root causes of terrorism.

Yunus, 66, shared the award with his Grameen Bank for helping people rise above poverty by giving them microcredit -- small, usually unsecured loans.

"I firmly believe that we can create a poverty free world if we collectively believe in it," Yunus said after accepting the prize at City Hall in Oslo, Norway. "The only place you would be able to see poverty is in a poverty museum." (Watch Muhammad Yunus accept peace prize to standing ovation )

The Nobel Prizes, announced in October, are always presented in Oslo and Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10 to mark the anniversary of the 1896 death of their creator, Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist who invented dynamite and stipulated the dual ceremonies in his will.

The winners for literature, medicine, physics and economics will receive their awards later Sunday at a royal ceremony in Stockholm's blue-hued concert hall. Each award carries a purse of $1.4 million, a diploma and a gold medal. The first prizes were handed out in 1901.

This year's laureates include a novelist who explored Turkey's clash of cultures and American scientists who helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe and broke new ground in genetic research.

Yunus said ending poverty was the best way to fight terrorism.

"We must address the root causes of terrorism to end it for all time," he said. "I believe putting resources into improving the lives of poor people is a better strategy than spending it on guns." (Watch Yunus deliver acceptance speech )

Grameen Bank, set up in 1983, was the first lender to provide microcredit, giving very small loans to poor Bangladeshis who did not qualify for loans from conventional banks. No collateral is needed, and repayment is based on an honor system, with a nearly 100 percent repayment rate.

Yunus said the idea has spread around the world, with similar programs in almost every country.

Clad in a traditional Bangladeshi sleeveless jacket, Yunus accepted his half of the $1.4 million prize from awards committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes.

Board member Mosammat Taslima Begum, wearing a traditional dress in red with a green shawl, accepted the other half of the award on behalf of Grameen bank, saying she dedicated it to all Bangladeshis.

Mjoes said the award was an outstretched hand to the Islamic world in an era where Muslims are often demonized because of terrorism.

"The peace prize to Yunus and Grameen Bank is also support for the Muslim country of Bangladesh, and for the Muslim environments in the world that are working for dialogue and collaboration," Mjoes said

Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk won the literature prize for a body of work that illustrates the struggle to find a balance between East and West.

U.S. researchers have long dominated the science awards, and swept them all this year for the first time since 1983.

The Nobel Prize in medicine went to Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello for discovering a powerful way to turn off the effect of specific genes. John C. Mather and George F. Smoot won the physics prize for work that helped cement the big-bang theory of how the universe was created.

Roger D. Kornberg won the prize in chemistry for his studies of how cells take information from genes to produce proteins, a process that could provide insight into defeating cancer and advancing stem cell research.

Economics winner Edmund S. Phelps was cited for research into the relationship between inflation and unemployment, giving governments better tools to formulate economic policy. The economics award is not an original Nobel Prize, but was created by the Bank of Sweden in 1968.

Pamuk, whose trial last year for "insulting Turkishness" made headlines worldwide, was honored for exploring "new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures." His novels include "Snow" and "My Name Is Red." The charges against Pamuk were eventually dropped.

Gloria under fire over failed summit

2006-12-11T13:04:00.000+03:00

President Arroyo is facing growing criticism over the Asean Summit, which she cancelled at the last-minute on Dec. 8, raising questions about her handling of the event that the Philippines was to host Dec. 10 to 14.

This was the first time in the 39-year history of the Asean that a summit was scrapped.

Philippine officials on Sun-day said “most of the Asean countries are willing to accept” a rescheduled summit Jan. 10 to 13 next year.

Malacañang had insisted that a looming typhoon in the Pacific — and not planned street protests and reports from foreign governments about a pending terror attack — was the reason for pulling the plug on the high-profile event. (See related story)

But after the storm passed far from the summit site on Saturday, politicians, opposition groups and analysts blasted Mrs. Arroyo’s decision, which sources said was “unilaterally” made.

“It’s a sign of a weak government,” said Tomas Osmena, mayor of the city of Cebu, where the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit and a wider meeting of regional leaders had been due to begin on Sunday.

“We would not have cancelled it and we live here,” Osmeña told Agence France-Presse.

The abrupt cancellation, terror worries and other problems — X-ray security machines were covered in plastic bags to keep off rain dripping through the $10-million Cebu International Convention Center — have given her critics more ammunition.

“It’s brand-new and the roof is leaking,” said one official with the Asean business and investment summit held before the main events were cancelled.

“This will be remembered as the summit that failed,” the official added.

Asean groups Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Mrs. Arroyo had wanted to use the conference and its associated meetings to showcase the progress that the Philippines has made during her presidency, from 2001.

But critics say her report card is not looking good.

Poverty is still widespread with more than 40 percent of the country’s 84 million people living on less than two dollars a day, and her administration is regularly cited as one of the worst in the region on human rights. (See related story)

Just before the cancelled summit, Japan said it was concerned about the killings of left-wing journalists that have been blamed on the government, adding improvements on rights would be a condition for further aid packages.

“Mrs. Arroyo is not fooling anyone,” said Lidy Nakpil, an organizer of a series of protests by leftist groups that had been planned for the summit.

“Not even the Asean leaders would have believed her alibi of a typhoon,” Nakpil added.

The President earlier was harshly criticized over the convention center site, where squatter camps were bulldozed to make way for the summit — whose theme, chosen by Mrs. Arroyo herself, is “A caring and sharing community.”

Despite assurances from Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia that the building would be completed on time, workmen were still painting and decorating as local and foreign media moved in last week.

But the main source of public anger at Mrs. Arroyo was her decision last week to try to bypass the Philippine Senate as part of her unpopular plans to change the Constitution in what is seen as a way to solidify her power in office.

The proposal has triggered street protests, which include those from the powerful Roman Catholic church and other religious and business organizations, as well as broad civil society and social movements.

“Political noise in Manila over Mrs. Arroyo’s plans to change the Constitution might have played a part in the decision to cancel the summit,” said one delegate to the summit who asked not to be named.

Benjamin Diokno, a professor at the government-run University of the Philippines, said the President had been “scared of the mass action” that had been planned for the summit.

“Political survival for her comes first,” Diokno said.

“The weather was a good excuse,” he added.

Philippine officials also on Sunday proposed a new date next month for the aborted summit.

Some Asean members sent special planes to collect senior delegates after Mrs. Arroyo called off the event.

Lower-level officials had to scramble for airline seats out of Cebu over the weekend.

The city on the central island of the same name suffered only steady rain, which leaked through the roof of the convention center.

Announcement of the cancellation came a day after Britain, Australia, the United States and other nations warned against travel to Cebu, citing fears of a terrorist attack.

Foreign Affairs officials privately said the gathering had been scrapped because of those fears as well as worries about political protests against Mrs. Arroyo.

Marciano Paynor, the Philippine head of the summit organizing committee, said early indications are that majority of the Asean member-countries are open to the reset of the summit to Jan. 11-13 next year.

But Paynor added it is “quite possible” that the wider East Asia Summit — which groups the 10 Asean nations along with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand and which was also cancelled — might not take place in January.

Asean also holds “Plus Three” meetings with China, Japan and South Korea during its annual summits but it was unclear what the new proposal was for those meetings.

Paynor said he was unaware of a report that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would be in Europe from Jan. 6-14.

Typhoon “Seniang” hit some parts of the Philippines, killing at least one person and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands, but the central Cebu region was virtually unaffected.

“We still feel that we made the right decision in consideration foremost of the safety of the delegates...,” Paynor said.

He added the proposal was for Asean foreign ministers to meet on Jan. 9 and heads of government on Jan. 11-13.

“These new dates have been forwarded to their respective capitals and we expect reaction to the availability of leaders to these specific dates by next week,” Paynor told a news conference.

“But our indications are that most of the Asean countries are willing to adjust and meet the main changes in the schedule for their respective leaders,” he said.

Paynor added member-countries may designate representatives to the rescheduled summit if leaders could not make it.

“Leaders are leaders and their calendars are always full,” he said.

Asean senior officials who draw up the agenda for ministers and leaders did meet in the past week, however, and summit spokesman Victoriano Lecaros said there would be no repeat meeting next month.

In addition to the summit, the formal meeting of the Asean foreign ministers was also postponed.

At a rushed dinner session Friday night, the ministers managed to sign four agreements to speed up economic integration.

A business forum on the sidelines of the main meeting also went ahead.

“Where others see a storm, losses and leaks we see the opportunity to improve ourselves and toughen ourselves more,” Garcia told the same news conference.

“Where others see a setback, Cebu moves on and moves forward,” she said.

Some locals were less upbeat about the cancellation.

“It would have been a big chance for the Philippines,” said Jonalyn Cacal, a security worker at the luxurious seaside Shangri-La Hotel, where disconsolate workers were on Saturday packing up the signs and banners meant to celebrate the summit.

On Dec. 9, or a day after the sumit was canceled, many Asean ministers, who were already in the country, snubbed a breakfast meeting hosted by Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo at the Shangri-la Mactan resort.

Aside from Romulo, only three foreign ministers — from Thailand, Brunei and Singapore — were present during the meeting.

Cambodia and Malaysia did not push through with their trip to Cebu after the cancellation of the summit while ministers from Laos, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam reportedly left early to catch a flight home.

They sent their senior officials instead to represent them in the breakfast meeting.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing were also invited to the meeting but did not show up.

Philippine officials said the two ministers did not make it to the meeting due to conflict of schedule.

Dismissing reports that the Asean ministers and delegates were displeased with the Philippine government’s decision to call off the summit, Romulo claimed his counterparts who were present during the working dinner Friday night “expressed full support” to move the dates of the Cebu summits.

“They appreciated the concern the Philippine government has shown for the safety and welfare of all the participants,” he told a press briefing.

Romulo took the cudgels for Mrs. Arroyo, saying he was the one who recommended the suspension of the meeting, but did not make the final decision.

But sources said the President unilaterally decided to call off the meeting in anticipation of massive protests against Charter change. AFP and Michaela P. del Callar

The Daily Tribune © 2006

RP found most corrupt in Asia after Indonesia

2006-12-10T12:59:00.000+03:00

THE Philippine government has failed to fight corruption, with lawmakers and the police perceived as the most corrupt, according to the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI).

The findings are contained in TI’s Global Corruption Barometer 2006 survey released Dec. 7.

The survey, which was done by Gallup International between July and September 2006 as part of its Voice of the People Survey, had 59,661 respondents in 62 low, middle and high-income countries.

The survey showed the Philippines ranking second in the Asia-Pacific region in corruption behind Indonesia (18 percent), followed by India (12 percent) and Thailand (10 percent).

In the survey, 16 percent of respondents who had had transactions in the Philippines admitted to paying a bribe last year, while 84 percent said they did not.

Thirty-one percent said government actions against corruption were "not efficient;" 24 percent said government "actually encourages it;" and 23 percent said government "does not fight it at all."

Only 13 percent said the actions were "efficient" and 8 percent "very efficient."

The police and the legislature were rated as the sectors suffering most from by corruption, followed by revenue-generating agencies and political parties.

On a scale of 1-5 with 1 as "not at all corrupt" and 5 as "extremely corrupt," respondents for the Philippines gave Congress and the police a 3.9 rating, or just one point shy of being "extremely corrupt."

Other sectors got the following ratings: taxation, 3.7; political parties, 3.5; military, 3.4; legal system, 3.4; business, 3.2; registry and permit services, 3.2; education. 3.0; utilities, 2.9; medical services, 2.9; non-government organizations, 2.6; media, 2.5; and religious sector, 2.1.

The respondents also said corruption affects mostly political life, business environment and personal/family life.

The same survey listed the Philippines as among 17 countries where between 16 to 40 percent of respondents reported having paid a bribe in the last 12 months.

The others were Bolivia, Congo-Brazzaville, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Greece, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Moldova, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Senegal, Ukraine, and Venezuela.

Between 51 to 70 percent of respondents believed corruption has affected political life in the Philippines and 28 other countries "to a large extent."

The TI survey showed that in most cases, people tend to be very negative about their government’s attempts to fight corruption. It also showed that only one in five surveyed worldwide thinks that government is effective to some degree in fighting corruption while nearly two in five say their government’s anti-corruption drive is "not effective."

One in six surveyed globally also thinks that their government actually encourages corruption rather than fight it.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the TI survey is based on perception, which everyone is free to make.

"But definitely a country such as ours is trying to maintain the ability to be able to keep its ship of state upright and going in the (right) direction in spite of rough seas. Pero hindi naman siguro in the manner na pinapalabas nila na ang corruption is unabated," he said.

Ermita said there are government agencies such as the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, Ombudsman, and Commission on Human Rights, to name a few, that are on hand to check corruption.

He said President Arroyo is naturally not pleased with the survey results.

Officials from the PAGC, Ombudsman, Presidential Commission on Good Government, Anti-Money Laundering Council, and the justice and foreign affairs departments are taking part in the UN convention against corruption in Jordan from Dec. 10 to 14.

COPYRIGHT 2004 © People's Independent Media Inc. Written by Regina Bengco

Arrogantly Insensitive, Patently Manipulative

2006-12-09T12:17:00.000+03:00

Tyranny of Numbers blatantly disguised as rule of majority. This is how the majority coalition in the House of Representatives has railroaded their self-serving interests in a house resolution calling for the reconstitutin of the House into a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass). Truth is, they have not even had the finesse of a disguise. Their tyranny is so pronounced you will be convinced these morons are even proud of their arrogance. They remind me of how the mob practically lynched our Lord Jesus Christ into being crucified.

The height of arrogance of these so-called representatives to actually stay overnight for two consecutive days just to ensure the approval of the Con-Ass plot but neglect the more important and immediate need of our citizens in Bicol region wh o are still reeling from the devastation of the combined terror of super typhoon Reming and the deposited pyroclastic materials in the slope of majestic Mayon Volcano.

I would have applauded these tyrants had they spent the two overnight sessions to deliberate how they could have help ameliorate the people of Bicol region, by the way is among the most depressed regions of the Philippines despite the centuries-touted tourism potential of the region.

I only see one thing in this latest abuse of power by these representatives - they are arrogantly insensitiv to the real plight of our people. instead, they dilute the condition of our people with their perceived demands of the people. The Bicol victims surely are not interested in the Con-Ass, not even before the calamity, moreso after the tragedy. The members of the majority coalition in the House of Representatives have been consistent in their patent manipulation of how Congress should behave.

Now, must we wonder why these tyrants wouldn't want an elections in 2007. Remember what happened to the vaunted Republican Party in the US? After more than a decade of similar tyranny because of their sheer strength in numbers, they are booted out by the American electorate in both chambers of the US Congress. And George Junior is now a lameduck president. GMA wouldn't want that for herself too.

Kasama

2006-12-08T17:20:00.000+03:00

The spate of insolent leadership displayed by our elected officials are rekindling the activist in me, as if I have ceased to be an activism.

Nonetheless, my sentimentality and my penchant for romance has motivated me to look for a Gary Granada song that has become our favorite love song as activists while at the University of the East.

The poetry is basic and simple yet the message pierces through the heart. it is a tribute to a companion, a spouse and a life partner who is more than the sum of a woman's roles.

Kasama
Gary Granada

Siya'y aking kapiling
Sa Kabiguan at tagumpay
Sa kanyang piling
Ako ay nahimlay
Nakakaunawa
Sa 'king pagkukulang
Nakakahawa ang kanyang kagandagan.

Ngunit di lang siya kaibigan
Di lang siya kapatid
Di lang kasintahan
O kaisang-dibdib.

Di lang siya asawa
O inang uliran
Siya'y aking kasama
Sa mapagpalayang kilusan.

Pinakaiibig
Pinakamamahal
Sa aming pag-ibig
Ang lahat isusugal
Aming pangako
Hanggang kamatayan
Saan man dumako ang kasaysayan
Dahil...

Di lang siya kaibigan
Di lang siya kapatid
Di lang kasintahan
O kaisang-dibdib.

Di lang siya asawa
O inang uliran
Siya'y aking kasama
Sa mapagpalayang kilusan...
Siya'y aking kasama
Sa pagpapalaya ng bayan.

Benedict is Challenging Muslims to Confront Hard Truths

2006-12-05T17:34:00.000+03:00

By decrying the use of violence in the name of God, Benedict is challenging Muslims to confront hard truths.
By Richard John Neuhaus

Benedict XVI's journey to Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, is laden with the wounds of history both ancient and painfully contemporary. The Pope's controversial Sept. 12 lecture in Regensburg, Germany, quoted a 14th century exchange between a Byzantine Christian Emperor and a Muslim intellectual in which the Emperor made some distinctly uncomplimentary observations about Islam. The Pope admitted that the Emperor's statement was brusque. But his point in reaching so far back into history was to demonstrate that problems between the Christian West and Islam long precede today's "war on terrorism."

Although the West, and most notably Europe, may be less Christian today, Muslims still view it as the Christian West. For a thousand years, from the days of Muhammad in the 7th century, Islam enjoyed a run of triumphant conquest, interrupted only momentarily by the Christian Crusades. The time of conquest lasted until the failed siege of Vienna in 1683. After Vienna, and most dramatically under 19th and 20th century Western colonialism, Islam was sidelined from history--one of the main sources of the rage and resentment of today's jihadists.

The jihadists believe their time of resumed conquest has come. Through terrorism and the mass immigration of Muslims in Europe, the jihadists are pressing for the reversal of the military outcome of 1683. This is the context in which Benedict attempted to make a larger point at Regensburg. He acknowledged that Christians have sometimes had a problem, and he suggested that Muslims still have a problem, in understanding the relationship between faith and coercion. Violence, said the Pope, is the enemy of reason. Violence has no place in the advancing of religion. To act against reason is to act against the nature of God.

The violent responses to the Pope's speech reflect the belief of jihadist groups, such as al-Qaeda, that their religion mandates the use of any means necessary, including suicide bombers and the mass killing of civilians, to bring about the world's submission to Islam. In an Oct. 12 "Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI," 38 distinguished Islamic religious authorities, including Grand Muftis in Turkey, Egypt, Russia, Syria, Kosovo, Bosnia and Uzbekistan, wrote that "jihad ... means struggle, and specifically struggle in the way of God. This struggle may take many forms, including the use of force." The signers delicately criticized some acts of Muslim terrorism, such as the killing of a nun in Somalia, but failed to address the relationship between religion and politics in Islam, or whether the "maintenance of sovereignty" includes, as radical jihadists claim, the violent reconquest of Western lands that were once Muslim. Whether out of conviction or fear of being targeted by terrorists, the 38 did not frontally reject the linkage between violence and the advance of Islam.

Nonetheless, the open letter was framed in respectful terms and was welcomed at the Vatican. It is noteworthy, however, that the Pope has not retreated from his challenge to Islam. Moreover, under his leadership, the Vatican has taken a much stronger line in insisting on "reciprocity" in relations with Islam. Mosques proliferate throughout cities in the West, while any expression of non-Islamic religion is strictly forbidden in many Muslim countries. In the Vatican and elsewhere, the feeling has been growing that the way of tolerance, dialogue and multicultural sensitivity can no longer be a one-way street. In fact, that shift predates Benedict's papacy. In his 1994 book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, John Paul II said complimentary things about the piety of Muslims. But John Paul concluded his discussion of Islam with this: "For [these reasons] not only the theology but also the anthropology of Islam is very distant from Christianity."

The theology has to do with the relationship between faith and reason, the anthropology with the dignity of the human person that requires a free and uncoerced response to truth, including religious truth. God ("Allah" in Arabic), Benedict contends, should be viewed not as an arbitrary ruler who issues capricious commands but as the Divine Reason that human beings, through reason and freedom, are invited to share. Speaking for the Catholic Church, which includes over half of the more than 2 billion Christians in the world, Benedict says that, in matters of religion, violence is the enemy of reason, and to act against reason is to act against God. Challenging the leaders of the more than 1 billion Muslims in the world, he asks them to join in that affirmation.

• Father Richard John Neuhaus is editor in chief of First Things, a
monthly magazine on religion, culture and public life
Time

Super Typhoon Reming

2006-12-04T02:09:00.000+03:00

Everybody has seen the catastrophe in Bicol when the murderous wind and rains brought by super typhoon Reming (international code name: Durian) partnered with the abundant volcanic debris deposited in the slopes of Mount Mayon and wrecked havoc among the hapless Bicolanos.

Now, days and almost a week into the calamity, I wonder why there are still no large-scale relief operations. Have the Filipinos became so inured with our tragic lives that even a calamity of this magnitude cannot move us to help?

Angst

2006-11-18T03:01:00.000+03:00

Some members of my family and my extended family really knows how to antagonize me. The height of stupidity of these people who actually suggested that I might be pushing my younger brother, Carlos, to be illegally recruited in Bahrain.

They may have heard of some blood relatives who have done this crime but to actualy condemn me of the same? C'mon?!

When Carlos is still desperately looking for a job, they gang up on him claiming my brother is lazy. Now that Carlos has finally landed a job, they are raising another matter.

Well, a criticism is just that - a negative feedback if it is not accompanied by suggestions for improvement.

In the first place, I should be questioning their motives for raising hell against Carlos.

The height of you! And you are my family?

Thank you!

Pet Peeve

2006-11-10T15:44:00.000+03:00

Citizens who do not know their rights and responsibilities explains the moral decay of our society which has cause corruption to become the norm and order of the day.

This covers everyone, the public, the government, leaders and followers, everyone.

It is so sad to see that we need to erect fences along the major thoroughfares to discourage people from jaywalking.

It is sad to see public transportations stopping at will causing unending traffic congestion.

It is sad to see people inside the movie house chatting so loud you won't hear the movie anymore else they would b talking on their mobile phone.

It is sad to see that there are those who find it inconvenient to stand and sing the Philippine national anthem during last full show at novie houses.

A first: Woman becomes head bishop of Episcopal Church

2006-11-04T23:27:00.000+03:00

Katharine Jefferts Schori took office Saturday as the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States -- a first not only for her country but also for the global Anglican Communion, which has never before had a female priest leading one of its provinces.

In a ceremony at the cavernous Washington National Cathedral, filled by more than 3,000 well-wishers, Jefferts Schori took leadership of the U.S. church, which is a member of the Anglican Communion. Her appointment takes place as the Anglican rift over the Bible and sexuality threatens to tear the church apart.

Jefferts Schori, 52, was bishop of Nevada when she was the surprise winner of the election for presiding bishop at the Episcopal General Convention in June.

Worshippers stood and faced the doors of the cathedral as Jefferts Schori knocked and entered, wearing a multicolored robe and miter.

She walked in a procession toward the front of the church, led by people waving streamers and flags, as applause filled the sanctuary.

Outgoing Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold turned over the symbol of authority, the primatial staff, to Jefferts Schori.

TM video on the web.

2006-11-03T22:20:00.000+03:00

Video files saved on the web and streams beautifully. Youtube made this really easy for all of us! Enter Google. Youtube now becomes part of the Google empire. Whether you prefer Youtube or Google Video, the service is simply wonderful.

For example, recording Toastmasters meetings or specific speech presentation and making them available online for members and other interested parties makes for a great public relations for Toastmasters.

Of course, one caveat, don't use these online video services to promote piracy. :(

A quick search on Youtube using the keyword "Toastmasters" will return an interesting result of 141 finds. Google Video, on the other hand, will give us 132 finds.

Not bad...

2.9M households experiencing ‘hunger’ -- survey

2006-11-01T20:47:00.000+03:00

Social Weather Station (SWS), one of the premier research organizations in the Philippines released the results of survey where 2.9M Philippine households indicated as experiencing ‘hunger’. This report came on a day when Filipinos are supposed to observe All Saints Day in commemmoration of our dearly departed yet scenes across all cemeteries in the country indicate something else.

More interesting, 51% of the Filipinos say they’re ‘poor’.

I am poor. Many Filipinos are poor. We have been condemned into poverty by a cornucopia of reasons.

I just wonder when shall the Filipino realize that we should not be poor.

When?

4th Midyear Conference Photos

2006-11-01T20:06:00.000+03:00

Better be late than never. Jazz Encarnacion, past Area 16 Governor sent me these photos from the 4th Midyear Conference of District 75 held at the picturesque MMLDC in Antipolo, Rizal. Thanks Jazz!

MMLDC Aviary
by jiencarnacion
This is the map of the Aviary at MMLDC. The place is not only conducive for conferences such as the Midyear Conference but for many other events as well. In fact, I rarely used the shuttle service within MMLDC. Walking the rolling hills from our accommodation to the conference venue is welcome treat!

Star-studded
by jiencarnacion
I mostly shared a table with Jazz Encarnacion, past Area 16 Governor and DTM JJ Letargo (seated, right). The guy in black beside Jazz is Jap Constantino from Silver and White TMC. Standing at far left is past D75 Governor and author of D75 becoming #1, DTM Mike Chua. Beside me is Immediate Past Division B Governor Joseph Yee. To my right is Immediate Past D75 Governor DTM Eliza Tiu and current Area 15 Governor and my club mate from Managers for Christ TMC, Arlene Cadiz. The rest are TMs from Butter 'N Toast TMC from Area 16.

Heavyweights of District 75
by jiencarnacion
This is another star-studded photo op. Seated from left are Past Division B Governor (and one of the best in my book; and a DivGov of the Year awardee) Arnnie Alvar, Past D75 PRO Ondette Kempis, Immediate Past DivB Governor Joseph Yee, Past Division H Governor (and DivGov of the Year awardee) Alma Silla, Past Area Governor ______, myself, Jap and Jazz. Standing are Past Division H Governor and 2006 Midyear Conference Chair Pam Castro and Immediate Past Division H Governor Noy Josef.

The Original Homesteaders
by jiencarnacion
Well, this picture was taken before the other stars joined our table. you can also describe our table as heavyweight. ;)

Great Accommodation
by jiencarnacion
...and this is the hallway to the rooms on the second floor. I was billeted at the first room to the left. The rooms are first class! Better than the room we had at Hilton Washington!

That Hasanain fellow...

2006-10-31T22:15:00.000+03:00

I am trying (very hard) not to miss Bahrain but that Hasanain fellow found this blog and broadcasted its existence to kingdom come. Now, I am missing Bahrain big time! If I decide to return to Bahrain and cause heart ache to many individuals, they have Hasanain to blame.

World Championship of Public Speaking - A Trivia for Filipinos.

2006-10-30T21:39:00.000+03:00

Filipino Toastmasters should be proud of this.

There are already around 70 World Championships of Public Speaking to date. Only four are from Districts Not Assigned to Regions (DNAR):

1998 Brett Rutledge (Auckland, New Zealand)
1996 David Nottage (Auckland, New Zealand)
1985 Marie C. Pyne (Ireland)
1982 Kenneth Bernard (Australia)

There were fewer female champions - only three:

1986 M. Arabella Bengson (Islington, Ontario, Canada)
1985 Marie C. Pyne (Ireland)
1977 Evelyn Jane Burgay (Springfield, Virginia)

Marie Pyne of Ireland's achievement is remarkable because she is both a female and from DNAR.

But, do you know that a Filipino has actually won a World Championship of Public Speaking? Let me correct myself. The Filipino is actually a Filipina! Yes, she is one of the only three women World Champion of Public Speaking - Ma. Arabella Bengson! She represented the then Region 7, if I am not mistaken. Yet, she is unmistakebly of Filipino ethnicity.

With the election of Johhny "Pawe" Uy as the first Filipino Toastmasters International President, my interest in the Filipino's achievements in Toastmasters became an obsession. ;) so, when I stumbled upon the information that Arabella is actually Filipina, I tried to contact her.

I did! Not only Arabella but her husband as well. Fraser McAllan in an email told me that he is "privileged to be her partner in life, work and play."

I will share with you more information Fraser and Arabella will pass on to me. Wait and see.

For the meantime, why don't we plan to invite them to conduct workshops for us?

The Best Evaluation Speech at District 75's 4th Midyear Conference

2006-10-21T22:41:00.000+03:00

Evaluation by Rj Laguardia (Division B) of test speaker Nomel Gilongos "If and If". This video was prepared by Division A Governor Wilson Lee, a hardworking person I am glad to see serving District 75 with fervor.

Take three...

2006-10-19T18:16:00.000+03:00

I created this blog a year ago. After sometime, I stopped. Then, I decided to take blogging seriously but it has stressed me needlessly especially everytime I censor myself. ;) So, for the second time, I stopped...

Today, I am back. I am not sure if this will be for keeps. I can not be sure anymore. One thing is certain, this time, it will be no holds barred.

One person's work is rightfully recognized in one short but sweet statement.

2006-10-10T23:23:00.000+03:00

This peek into the history of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of the East Caloocan made a short, small but accurate recognition of one person's labor of love. That short statement is in bold face near the end of the article.

A Peek Into the CAS Caloocan History
By Dean Eleanor R. Javier and Prof Vida E. Suarez

The birth of the College of Arts and Sciences-Caloocan came about simultaneously with the dawning of the University of the East-Caloocan in 1977, as a branch of UE Manila offering college courses.
In response to the project of Mrs. Imelda Marcos (who was then serving as Metro Manila Governor) in bringing college education to the outskirts of Metro Manila, UE Management decided to phase out the elementary, high school and vocational programs in UE Caloocan. This paved the way for the introduction of the same college courses that were offered in UE Manila such as business administration, engineering, fine arts, and arts and sciences.
CAS Caloocan offered the same four-year programs of CAS Manila. Among these were AB in English, AB in Political Science, AB in History and Pre-Dentistry. Because UE Caloocan was an extension campus, the respective deans of the College of Business Administration, College of Engineering, and College of Arts and Sciences in Manila also supervised the colleges' counterparts in Caloocan. Both campuses shared the same faculty.
Dr. Herminia M. Barcelona was the first concurrent Dean of both CAS Manila and Caloocan.
The head of UE Caloocan has always been its chancellor. The late Oscar Limlingan was for sixteen years-from June 1977 to June 1993-the Chancellor, and it is no small wonder that the UE community fondly refers to him as the Father of UE Caloocan. Starting from a very small enrollment, the student population here grew from leaps and bounds, reaching as high as 10,000.
As UE Caloocan made its strong presence in Caloocan, Navotas, Malabon and Bulacan, it progressively enticed more enrollees that required the appointment of separate Deans for its Colleges of Engineering, Business Administration, Fine Arts, and Arts and Sciences. It soon became independent of UE Manila, particularly in terms of academic supervision.
Being the youngest college in the Caloocan Campus, the growth of the College of Arts and Sciences can be attributed to the five different deans who have been appointed to head the CAS and the cooperation and participation of the faculty members and students. Together, they pursued the philosophy of the College- that a solid base in the arts and sciences, with the knowledge and training that will develop and expand to the fullest a student's {intellectual, spiritual, moral, artistic, and physical powers, is the best preparation that a student can bring to whatever professional study of life that he may later decide on.
Mr. Juanito C. Diaz, a professor of philosophy, was the first CAS Caloocan Dean, from 1988 to 1992. It was he who planted the seeds of accreditation. During his term, the CAS started to make plans to apply for accreditation with the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation (PACUCOA). Pursuant to this, he initiated several programs for the improvement of faculty recruitment and development. The faculty also became active in outreach programs, such as the CAS Pinatubo Relief Campaign.
It was also during his term when the AB in English Program was changed to AB in Communication Arts. A generalist program, AB in Communication Arts was adopted from the program designed by Prof. Sol Gabriel, the first Chairperson of the Comm. Arts Department in CAS Manila. It included subjects focusing on various fields of communication, namely Advertising, Broadcasting, Film, Journalism, Public Relations, Public Speaking and Theater. It aimed at introducing and developing students in various areas of communication.
Dr. Julieta B. Samonte, an English professor, was Dean for one year, 1992-1993. She continued the programs of Dean Diaz. During her term, more faculty development programs were organized, with emphasis on values formation. Apart from seminars, faculty members were highly motivated to participate and initiate various activities for the College because merits for promotion were not just based on academic requirements. It also included, among others, research, honors obtained, outstanding events or activities organized by either the College or the University, recognition or awards received, qualification in a government examination and community service.
CAS Manila Dean Carmelita S. Flores, likewise an English professor, became the concurrent Dean of both Campuses' CAS from 1993 to 1994. Though her stint as CAS Caloocan Dean was less than a year, she is credited for focusing on the development of the infrastructure of the College; the Speech Laboratory and the Multipurpose Hall were constructed during her time.

I am back in the Philippines

2006-10-01T06:17:00.000+03:00

Here's a blow by blow account of my return to the pearl of orient:

September 30, 2006. I spent most of my day working on my laundry. I am not able to finish it because Vicky arrived and snatched me to attend AFAEAT Toastmasters Club meeting at The Palace. I am not excited about this because I was forced to serve as Toastmaster of the Evening (TME). but I know I will have the last laugh.

We broke our fast at KFC. Where else? KFC should pay me for simply being loyal! Vicky has to leave earlier and left Waleed, Dha and myself at KFC. Big mistake. She gave me the upper hand. ;) Wicked. Wicked. We arrived at The Palace many minutes late. I was replaced by CTM Danny Perez as TME. Who laughs now? ;)

After the meeting, we gravitated back to KFC (yes, believe it or not!) This time, Jawad, Abdul Azziz and Pilita have reinforced us.

It was also the moment to bid goodbye to Jawad so insists I am returning so he never said goodbye. Abdulazziz has to meet some friends. Vicky then drove Dha home.

So it was four of us - Waleed, Pilita, Vicky and myself at the house rushing to pack my things. I love to do it this way. But I hate it because I would always end up packing more than I need!

My flight was at 6:15 AM and it was barely 1AM so we killed time at Vicky's.

At 4:30 AM, we were at the airport. I immediately went to the Qatar Airways counter to check my luggage in. Ali Shahbaz and S. Abbas arrived and joined my three well-wishers. It was absurd to see all them separated from me by the hot electronic billboard as I was not allowed to go out of the security cordon anymore. We had quick goodbyes and a lot of teasing. Then, I was alone at the waiting lounge.

I dropped by the duty free shop and bought Aigner Black for myself and the new Cinema for Jenn.

As the airplane flew out of Bahrain, I looked for the last time beyond the window and saw Bahrain in its resplendent glory as the sun rose. It was just like I saw it on Google Earth. Bahrain is beautiful. Bahrain is lovely. Up in the clouds, Bahrain bid me farewell.

Less than forty winks later, I was above Qatar. Ramadan fasting is not observed at Doha International Airport. In fact, I saw two thobe-wearing teenagers greedily drinking their fruit juices. The waiting at Doha was long and painful as it allowed me to ponder on the immeasurable wealth Bahrain has given me. I tried to enjoy the new Doha airport. I managed to buy a book, Atlantic. I resisted buying Doha Asian Games stuff.

My flight to Manila has a glitch. The Airbus did not have individual entertainment screens. I hate old planes. They did not give passengers choice. yet, I endured watching all the movies. I never slept nor napped throughout the eight-hour trip.

We landed in Manila at 11:15 PM same day. And as I have expected, the carousel area is almost clear of passengers when my luggage went out. Poor people waiting for me outside! Poor me too because the airport is running on generators because of the typhoon called "Milenyo". I was like Pagsanjan Falls when I finally saw my brother and mother.

God loves me very much because electricity was restored at the house when we arrived home at 1:23 AM. I immediately went to my room setting aside everything else. All I wanted was to sleep for when the sun rise and I rise too, I will do so in my homeland, no more in the land where I felt home too...

2006-02-21T07:55:00.000+03:00

The National Evangelical Church, Bahrain is a mosaic of diversity that has stood as an ever-evolving witness to God's faithfulness in Arabia. We are celebrating our centennial. I am humbled to be part of the committee in charge of the historic exhibition. I am merely a warm body in the committee but I thank God, nonetheless, for the opportunity. Praise the Lord!

HSBC's fearless forecast: P47.50 to $1

2006-02-20T10:12:00.000+03:00

SAYS SUSTAINED FISCAL DISCIPLINE TO AID PESO
Posted: 3:43 PM | Feb. 19, 2006
Michelle V. Remo, Inquirer

Published on Page B1 of the February 20, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

HONG KONG Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) said the peso could appreciate to below 50 to a dollar and even get a credit-rating upgrade before the end of the year if the government's positive fiscal performance in 2005 would be sustained.

Arnulfo Veloso, HSBC treasurer and head of global markets, said in an economic forum last week that the peso could hit 49.50 against the greenback toward June, and further strengthen to 47.50 in the fourth quarter if the government's revenue targets would be hit.

"Markets may price in a credit upgrade should fiscal numbers improve and should we have a stable political landscape," Veloso said during last Friday's Economic Review and Outlook for 2006 organized by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP).

He said oil prices were not expected to be as volatile as last year because of the projected slowdown in the growth of the world economy that would dampen demand. The Philippines, which imports most of its oil requirements, is therefore not likely to experience pressures on its currency given the softening oil prices.

Last year, the Philippine government surprised many by posting a budget deficit of only P146.5 billion, way below the official target of P180 billion set for 2005.

The lower-than-programmed deficit was due to tightened spending and higher revenues collected from state-owned firms and investments of the Bureau of the Treasury in dollar-denominated sovereign bonds.

But Veloso said the positive fiscal performance last year should be sustained if the government wanted to finally get the elusive upgrade on the country's credit ratings and for the peso to strengthen and breach the 50-to-a-dollar mark.

If fiscal numbers would not be as good as expected, then the peso could stay within the 53 level, he said.

The national government's budget deficit for January is expected to be announced anytime this week.

National Treasurer Omar Cruz earlier expressed optimism that the target of reducing the deficit to P124.9 billion for the full year was not difficult to accomplish. He cited the decline in interest rates as a factor, explaining that this reduces the cost of the government's borrowings.

For the first quarter, while it is yet to be seen whether the fiscal targets for the full year would be attained, Veloso said the peso would range between 51.75 to 52.75 to the dollar.

Veloso added that interest rates were expected to be stable this year, with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas seen keeping the benchmark rates at 7.5 percent given the high level of liquidity in the system.

Japan apologizes for ‘Battle of Manila’

2006-02-19T13:20:00.000+03:00

Japan apologizes for ‘Battle of Manila’
By Evelyn Macairan
The Philippine Star 02/19/2006

After 61 years, an official of the Japanese government yesterday finally apologized to the victims and relatives of the estimated 100,000 non-combatant Filipinos who perished in the historic Battle for the Liberation of Manila.

The speech delivered by Japanese Ambassador Ryuichiro Yamazaki was the most awaited part of the commemoration of the historic event through a wreath-laying ceremony before the marker of Memorare-Manila 1945 near the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros.

"The terror that each Filipino man, woman and child must have experienced in Manila 61 years ago is beyond the imagination of any human being," he said.

"With this historical fact in mind, I would like to express my heartfelt apologies and deep sense of remorse over the tragic fate of Manila," the ambassador said in an emotional speech.

"About 100,000 Filipino civilians were killed, many of whom suffered atrocities by the Japanese military," he added.

The Battle for Manila began on Feb. 3, 1945 and lasted 28 days.

Former ambassador to Spain and Memorare-Manila 1945 president Juan Jose Rocha said that while the devastation of the city of Manila happened more than six decades ago, the wounds of war could not completely heal unless there was repentance on the part of the aggressor.

Rocha, now 68 years old, lost 14 members of his family during the 1945 bombardment of Manila.

The Japanese ambassador said that while this is not the first time that a ranking official of the Japanese government had asked for the forgiveness of the atrocities committed by their military for the civilians who died in Manila in 1945, this is not the first time that their country has apologized for the wrongdoings during World War II.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, he said, made a "comprehensive apology" during a conference in Jakarta, Indonesia last year and issued a similar comment.

Yamazaki explained that it was only yesterday that he had the opportunity to express his regret for the events that took place 61 years ago as it was the first time for him to be invited to attend the commemoration of the Battle of Manila.

He said he was pleased that despite the war, the Philippines and Japan have now established good relationships and Japan has in fact become a top trading partner of the Philippines and one of its largest foreign investors.

This year, the two countries mark the 50th year of the "normalization of diplomatic relations."

"Our two governments have declared 2006 as the Philippines-Japan Friendship Year to celebrate the past 50 years of shaping the very warm relations between our two countries and our two people," Yamazaki added.

Former ambassador Miguel Perez-Rubio, who headed the Presidential protocol during the term of former President Corazon Aquino, said that being incarcerated for two months in a Japanese prison called kempeitai might have saved his life. His family was killed because they were in Manila.

Perez-Rubio, now 80, said the loss of his family was very difficult to forget. "I was shocked to learn that one day my family had been wiped out."

However, he said yesterday’s commemoration was a good occasion to move forward.

"Let’s start a new chapter, let us start a new page in history, a page of friendship. Of course, personally I cannot say I will forget what happened to my family, it’s something very personal to me," he added. — With AFP

2006-02-16T15:02:00.000+03:00

I will always remember with fondness how Martin Luther King called for the American black's militancy to be tempered with dignity and discipline.

He said in a famous speech, everybody knows, "In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred."

"We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force."

I shake my hend in disgust at how low the call for justice against the offensive cartoons has taken.

Archibald Macleish also once rhetorically asked, "How shall freedom be defended? By arms when it is attacked by arms; by truth when it is attacked by lies; by democratic faith when it is attacked by authoritarian dogma. Always, and in the final act, by determination and faith."

Now, we are witnessing a surge in bigotry. I empathize with my Muslim brothers who were grossly offended by the Danish caricatures but I am equally antagonize by the violent reaction by some people. What is happening in Pakistan is terrible. Lahore may not be burning but the part that has had nothing to do with the reason for the upheaval. What was burned? Buses owned by a Korean company?! A shop of Norweigian mobile phones?! A KFC branch?! What else? What's next?

I cry with Martin Luther King as I witness all these misplaced violence. I raise my voice in the same question as Archibald Macleish. And I now wonder how much South Korean, Norway and other countries have given Pakistan in aid to rebuild its earthquake-hit region.

OFWs Post Record-High Remittances

2006-02-16T10:12:00.000+03:00

Remittances by the millions of Filipinos working overseas in 2005 jumped 25 percent to a record $10.7 billion, Bangko Sentral said yesterday.

Remittances in the month of December alone rose 10.7 percent from a year earlier to $962 million, the central bank said in a statement.

"The sustained rise in the level of remittances for 2005 was largely due to the increase in the number of Filipinos working abroad," it said, adding the deployment of more highly-skilled workers earning more also contributed.

The bulk of remittances come from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong, Britain, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

Central Bank governor Amando Tetangco earlier said he expects remittances this year to hit $13.5 billion. In 2004, remittances rose 11.8 percent to $8.5 billion.

The lure of higher-paying jobs overseas has seen about eight million Filipinos go abroad with nearly a million finding work overseas every year.

The money sent home by these workers plays a crucial part in propping up the country's cash-starved economy and the rise in remittances in recent months has helped push the Philippine peso to three-year highs this week.

AFP

Beware of Bahraini Caper

2006-02-16T10:09:00.000+03:00

Willie Baun, People's Journal columnist warned in Streetlights on February 16 about a possibe sell out in the tradition of the unequal open-skies policy with the US; only this time, it is with my beloved Bahrain:

GRIPPED by fear of a "sell-out," some leaders of the local airlines industry wonder if the February 16-17 Philippine-Bahrain air talks in Clark Field, Pampanga could be postponed.

Philippine experience in bilateral aviation talks has ended in raw deals with Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates — and the worst at the hands of the United States that bound the country to a lop-sided "open-skies" policy.

And yet, unable or worse unwilling to learn from the string of air policy debacles, the RP panel for the Clark engagement is reported about to wade in for more of the same, that is, to give the six more flights on the four already flown weekly to Manila by the tiny Arab sheikdom's flag carrier.

That would come up to 107,000 air passenger seats in RP-bound Bahraini planes or almost double the present 61,000 seats supposed to be available yearly that, roll down laughing on the aisle if you wish, have yet to be filled to capacity. With just the 30,000 overseas Filipino workers hosted by the sheikdom and a trickle of tourist dollars to offer, the Bahrainis are certainly making a spectacle of so big an appetite for so small a stomach.

Given less than 2,000 Bahraini vacationers coming to Manila yearly, the grossly expansive passenger capacity sought by the sheikdom preposterously promises negligible tourist traffic to the country. On the other hand, it gives ground to suspicion it would be diverted to the vastly larger RP-Saudi Arabia market a short hop from the sheikdom. International aviation, as in fishing, has its share of poachers, right Dennis?

The real big deal, fair and square, is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, host to roughly a million OFWs and, verifiably, the country's chief trading, economic, and "strategic" partner in the Middle East. Strangely, however, or should it be absurdly, this RP-KSA geopolitical reality is hardly reflected in their bilateral air links — which absolutely must be tightened and, if need be, stonewalled against probable massive dumping of excess air capacity by Bahrain.

It is on this predatory threat that the Philippine aviation officialdom must focus, instantly, even as the RP panel for the Clark talks faces off with the Bahrainis, an engagement that curiously has come close on the heels of the Philippines Airlines decision — reconsidered and intelligently so — to suspend its hugely losing Manila-Riyadh flights on March 2, 2006. PAL cited over-congestion in this route and the 10-year deficits incurred in servicing it as behind the planned back-out.

Moved by massive OFW clamor for their own flag carrier to board homeward and back to Saudi, PAL has obliged and, to cut losses on the overall Manila-Saudi route, urged the Department of Transportation and Communications to initiate talks for "a new Manila-Dubai-Saudi (Jeddah or Riyadh) service, with commercial traffic rights between Saudi and Dubai."

Such a routing, it was pointed out, would give PAL a fresh revenue stream (from the Dubai-Saudi sector) for its losses to be manageable even as it manages to address the needs of OFWs in Saudi and Dubai. "This is perhaps the last chance to save our flag carrier's direct air links to the OFWs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," PAL president Jaime J. Bautista wrote in his SOS-letter to DoTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza.

It may well be PAL's "last chance," indeed, so here's hoping President Macapagal-Arroyo need not light a fire under Mendoza's seat to get him cracking.

No to demagogues!

2006-02-15T10:39:00.000+03:00

I have time and again told my friends that I share my Muslim brothers' contempt for the blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad but I do not agree that lex taliones should be used to address the issue. The problem is that many of those who have taken it upon themselves to speak up on the issue are nothing but demagogues. Reason has no space for these people.

In today's GDN, I read a letter from a concerned Bahraini condemning one such demagogue:

Shameful behaviour!

NO country can allow its members of parliament to burn the flag of another nation when, for all intents and purposes, those two nations are not at war.

For MP Mohammed Khalid to be not only condoning but also actively participating in such actions is to suggest to the people of Bahrain that he supports aggressive attacks on the people and property of another nation. To appear in a photograph in the leading English language newspaper of Bahrain participating in these activities is beyond comprehension.

I do not support the publication of the cartoons and neither do I support the violent reactions that have gripped most of the Muslim world in the last few weeks.

Mohammed Khalid - you need to apologise to your government and to the people of Bahrain. You also need to display to this country (and to all other Muslim peoples) that non-violent action is the best way to proceed.

Concerned Bahraini

One More Reason Why I am Proud of Bahrain

2006-02-14T15:59:00.000+03:00

In today's edition of the Gulf Daily News:

Making history for 20 minutes!
By Mohammed Al A'ali

Manama: Alice Samaan made history for the second time yesterday when she chaired the Shura Council - for just 20 minutes.

Last April, she became the first woman and the first Christian to chair any Shura or parliamentary session in the Arab or Islamic world.

Ms Samaan took the chair again yesterday, after council chairman Dr Faisal Al Mousawi had to leave early.

Second vice-chairman Mansour Bin Rajab is out of the country and first vice-chairman Abdulrahman Jamsheer stepped down to speak from the chamber floor in a debate on commercial and civil disputes.

Ms Samaan chaired the session for 20 minutes, before handing back the chair to Mr Al Jamsheer.

Last April, Ms Samaan chaired the full afternoon session.

Council rules state that in the absence of the chairman and his two deputies, the oldest member should chair the session - in this case Ms Samaan. "A woman chairing the session and for the second time is a clear example of the democracy we are witnessing here in Bahrain," said Ms Samaan.

Lovapalooza 3!

2006-02-13T10:56:00.000+03:00

A toothpaste brand has successfully organized the annual kissfest to kick off Valentine's celebrations in the Philippines. This has become a major media event; it is not surprising politicians have joined this year's edition. This is one huge public display of affection for Filipinos.

I am not sure though if really like this to become part of our traditions. I feel there is something gravely wrong here.

But I will not play spoiler. I must admit this is one occassion when Filipinos can also show its resilient spirit. Sana...

Valentine

2006-02-13T10:26:00.000+03:00

Who is Valentine and why do we celebrate February 14th?
One legend has it that it began in Rome when the Emperor Claudius II was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. “Claudius the Cruel” was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. Claudius believed that the reason was that Roman men did not want to leave their loved ones. So Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome!

Valentine, who was a priest in Rome in the year 269 AD, together with his friend Marius, defied Claudius and performed marriages in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, he was sentenced to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off.

Whilst in prison Valentine fell in love with a young girl who visited him during his confinement. Before his death on the 14th day of February, it is said that he wrote her a letter signed " From your Valentine."

In 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius set aside February 14th to honour Valentine.

Another legend says that Valentine's Day started in ancient Rome, on February 14th, a holiday to honour Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. Then, the following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia.

In those days, the lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, on the eve of the festival of Lupercalia, the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars.

Each young man would draw a girl's name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and marry.

Tradition had it that men would give ladies flowers and other gifts on February 14 in remembrance of Valentine who has symbolized love. Valentine cards were a recent invention though. In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first valentine card. Commercial valentine cards were introduced in the 1800's.

With the advent of the internet, we have given Valentine's Day a new meaning with electronic cards and long distance affirmation of love and devotion.

Allow me to join the band.

To my beloved, Jenn, I won't greet you a happy Valentine's Day but I give you a commitment that I will love you forever.

Christians and the use of Torture

2006-02-12T18:41:00.000+03:00

I was intrigued by this topic on Christianity Today. Read on:

The "War on Terror" has challenged old rules of engagement. While Christian theologians of past centuries debated "just war" theories (assessing international conflicts in light of biblical principles of fairness), modern discussions focus on high-tech weapons that make armies obsolete and religious terrorism that ignores rules regarding non-combatants.

In the new psychological chess match of modern warfare, knowledge is critical. How will it be obtained? Is torture necessary to get insider information? Can we justify dehumanizing some to rehumanize society?

Indignation, Apology and 12 Cartoons

2006-02-11T11:19:00.000+03:00

Carsten Juste, Editor-in-Chief of the controversial Danish newspaper, Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, that published the controversial cartoons blaspheming the Prophet Mohammad has published what tantamounts to an apology on February 8, 2006.

The "apology" has brought to fore facts that we never knew before and I personally feel that this should, at least, temper the violence. Unfortunately, there seem to be some quarters who do not like the idea of a final resolution to the "conflict" because after the "apology", more violent demonstrations against the cartoons, the newspaper and Denmark, as a country have erupted.

What else do these quarters want? A full scale conflict between Denmark and its allies and them? Why is there an apparent effort to escalate the situation. I am afraid that what seems to be sporadic demonstrations around the globe is actually a systematic effort from these quarters to heighten our Muslim brothers' anger over the blasphemous cartoons. There is a clear effort to rally Muslims. Despite repeated appeals from moderate Muslims, the flag-burning demonstrations wouldn't stop. Worse, some of these demonstrations have caused lives. Worst, some of these demonstrations are staged after prayers.

I symphatize with Muslim friends and other sensible Muslims -who are in the majority - who called for constructive actions to denounce the blasphemy because they have to endure the negative backlash the few radicals are causing them.

The wrong committed by the Danish paper does not justify another wrong committed by these few. How would they deserve justice if they, themselves, cannot be just? The negative and retaliatory acts do not do them any good.

Anyway, here's Juste's statement:

Offentliggjort 8. februar 2006 12:00

Honourable Fellow Citizens of the Muslim World

Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten is a strong proponent of democracy and freedom of religion. The newspaper respects the right of any human being to practise his or her religion. Serious misunderstandings in respect of some drawings of the Prophet Mohammed have led to much anger and, lately, also boycott of Danish goods in Muslim countries.

Please allow me to correct these misunderstandings.

On 30 September last year, Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten published 12 different cartoonists' idea of what the Prophet Mohammed might have looked like. The initiative was taken as part of an ongoing public debate on freedom of expression, a freedom much cherished in Denmark.

In our opinion, the 12 drawings were sober. They were not intended to be offensive, nor were they at variance with Danish law, but they have indisputably offended many Muslims for which we apologize.

Since then a number of offensive drawings have circulated in The Middle East which have never been published in Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten and which we would never have published, had they been offered to us. We would have refused to publish them on the grounds that they violated our ethical code.

Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten attaches importance to upholding the highest ethical standards based upon the respect of our fundamental values. It is so much more deplorable, therefore, that these drawings were presented as if they had anything to do with Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten.

Maybe because of culturally based misunderstandings, the initiative to publish the 12 drawings has been interpreted as a campaign against Muslims in Denmark and the rest of the world.

I must categorically dismiss such an interpretation. Because of the very fact that we are strong proponents of the freedom of religion and because we respect the right of any human being to practise his or her religion, offending anybody on the grounds of their religious beliefs is unthinkable to us.

That this happened was, consequently, unintentional.

As a result of the debate that has been going on about the drawings, we have met with representatives of Danish Muslims, and these meetings were held in a positive and constructive spirit. We have also sought in other ways to initiate a fruitful dialogue with Danish Muslims.

It is the wish of Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten that various ethnic groups should live in peace and harmony with each other and that the debates and disagreements which will always exist in a dynamic society should do so in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

For that reason, Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten has published many articles describing the positive aspects of integration, for example in a special supplement entitled The Contributors. It portrayed a number of Muslims who have had success in Denmark. The supplement was rewarded by the EU Commission.

Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten takes exception to symbolic acts suited to demonise specific nationalities, religions and ethnic groups.

Sincerely yours

Carsten Juste
Editor-in-Chief

A Philippine Situationer

2006-02-11T11:00:00.000+03:00

One of the most respected political scientist, educator, academician, social commentor, patriot and Filipino, Randy David delivered a speech at the Manila Polo Club on February 7, 2006. His speech was published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer in two parts on February 9 and 10, 2006. However, PDI only archives its online content for seven days, so for posterity, I am blogging the entire speech here:

Good evening. Thank you for inviting me to speak at this very interesting gathering. I am happy to share this podium with former senator Gregorio Honasan.

I am quite certain that we were all brought here tonight by more or less the same circumstances and the same concerns. We have the money to buy newspapers and watch the evening news, and we have the time to reflect on the information they report. It is almost natural for us to worry about the direction our country is taking. We worry for our families, and we worry especially for the future of our children.

Unfortunately, the rest of our people, trapped in the rigors of daily survival, are usually unable to think beyond the next meal. They are the thousands that line up every day, rain or shine, outside TV stations, for the rare chance to be chosen as contestants for the "Pera o Bayong." They were the faces of the hungry and the desperate at the Ultra stampede last Saturday morning. They too often gripe about the callousness of the leadership of our country. But they do not have the luxury of worrying about politics. And even when they do, they feel powerless to influence the course of events. They wait for elections, and for the largesse it brings, and that about sums up their political involvement.

Those who have the time to worry about politics -- like many of us here tonight -- are basically of two types: (a) those who ask in exasperation when all this political bickering would end; and (b) those who ask in exasperation when this presidency would end.

All over the country, forums like this are being organized by thoughtful citizens. They ask more or less the same questions: How will this stalemate end? Whom can we trust? If she goes, who will replace her? How do we solve our most basic problems? How much time do we need to reform our political system? Is there hope for the country? These are important questions: they belong to the realm of politics. But I will also hasten to say that politics is not the only attitude we can take towards the world.

Be that as it may, the forum tonight deals with politics. I want to begin by defining the function of politics in society. Politics is society’s way of producing collectively-binding decisions. The important phrase here is "collectively-binding decisions" -- decisions made in the name of all of us, and therefore bind all of us. Such decisions can be as innocuous as changing the name of a provincial hospital or as momentous as declaring war against another country. They can be as high-profile as signing a peace accord with local insurgents, or as low-profile as floating new dollar-denominated bonds in the international bond market to cover maturing obligations and budget deficits. They are of different levels of importance, but, when made by government, they all equally bind us.

Politics is, in the first instance, the process by which a nation or a community determines who shall be entrusted with the making of such decisions. There are at least two ways of ensuring that decisions made in the name of the whole nation are honored by every citizen of a country.

The first is by making sure that such decisions are made only by persons or agencies that have a clear mandate or the authority to make them. The second is by making sure that such decisions are made in accordance with law.

Authority means legitimate power. Obviously, not all power is legitimate. Usurpers may exercise power, but their power is not legitimate, and so it is resisted. Tyrants assume power on the basis of force, and while they may, for a while, coerce people into submission, their power will always remain unstable. Public officials elected fraudulently may exercise power, but their power will eventually be challenged. Legitimacy is crucial to the operation of a system because it is precisely what assures compliance with collective decisions.

Systems, of course, operate on the basis of a presumption of legitimacy and regularity. That is why, when there is a challenge to legitimacy and regularity, the system has to act to dispel all doubts. Illegitimate power has a corrosive effect on the system, and no matter how much it may try to buy support, or fortify the throne of bayonets on which it sits, it will always be opposed.

The point I want to stress is that whatever the form of politics may be in a society, its main objective is the same - how to ensure that decisions made by the rulers are collectively-binding.

When rulers are perceived to have mandates enveloped in doubt, the political system heats up. Time that should be spent in governance -- in defining collective goals, in implementing these goals and mobilizing public participation towards their attainment - is instead squandered in endless political communication. Unable to legitimize their rule by established means, tyrants find themselves resorting to other means to secure their hold on power. They may do this by acts of selective remuneration, or by acts of calibrated coercion. They may survive in the short-term but only at great cost to the existing institutional order.

Keeping these thoughts in mind, I want to examine the roots of the present political crisis. I will argue that at the center of the current crisis is the whole question of presidential legitimacy that our institutional order has failed to resolve up to this time.

Let’s go back a bit and review what happened.

Doubts on President's legitimacy
The doubts began to surface as early as May or June 2004, as the legislators from the administration and the opposition parties went through the rituals of a national canvassing process. The opposition repeatedly questioned the authenticity of the certificates of canvass, or CoCs, from some disputed provinces. In at least 15 provinces they demanded that the boxes containing the supporting statements of votes, or SoVs, be opened to determine if the figures matched those on the CoCs. The objections were duly "noted", but not one ballot box was allowed to be opened. The administration side argued that canvassing was a ministerial task, and that the proper venue for electoral protests involving the presidency and the vice presidency was the Supreme Court acting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal.

If this scene has a déjà vu ring to it, it is because the use of a controlled majority to override objections is very much reminiscent of the railroaded canvassing process at the Batasang Pambansa in the 1986 "snap" election. Like Cory Aquino’s supporters in 1986, Fernando Poe’s followers in 2004 saw the futility of getting a reasonable hearing inside Congress and demanded that the protest be brought before the parliament of the streets. The tide of mass protests led directly to the Edsa People Power uprising. That was how Cory Aquino became president 20 years ago. To his credit, the late Fernando Poe dissuaded his followers from protesting in the streets. He brought his complaint to the Supreme Court, and paid the amount needed to re-open the ballot boxes. Unfortunately he died before even the first election return could be counted. The justices promptly dismissed the protest upon his death. There was only a symbolic legal closure, but the political question of who really won in the 2004 election remained unanswered.

By nature, political issues have a shelf life of only a few months. After the Supreme Court denied Susan Roces’s petition to continue Fernando Poe’s protest, the issue was buried and almost forgotten. But five months later, in June 2005, the issue of legitimacy returned with vengeance following the public circulation of the "Hello, Garci" conversations -- if only as cell phone ringtones at first. Malacañang was caught totally unprepared. This showed in Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye’s initial attempt at a cover-up that was so clumsy and full of contradictions it was instantly disowned by the Palace.

The "Garci tapes" contained more than a hundred conversations between an official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) who sounded very much like Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and an assortment of politicians and political brokers. About 10 of these conversations were between Garcillano and someone with the inimitable voice of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. These conversations are revealing and damning. They indicate the existence of a conspiracy to manipulate the results of the election in the vote-rich provinces of Southern Mindanao. They strongly suggest that Mrs. Arroyo herself seemed to have full knowledge of the elaborate scheme to pad her votes and shave those of her closest rival, Fernando Poe. Resourceful journalists have scrutinized the content of these conversations, marking out the names, places, and events mentioned in the tapes, and establishing their factual basis. The conclusion, as one Newsbreak article so cogently put it, was: The shoe fits.

Clever fabrications
The first reaction from Malacañang was to dismiss these conversations as clever fabrications. Various agencies of government tried to stop the spread of the tapes by threatening people with charges for violation of the Anti-Wiretapping Law. Yet on June 27, 2005, bowing to public pressure, Mrs. Arroyo came out on national television to apologize for what she called a "lapse in judgment" -- for calling a Comelec official while the canvassing was going on. Her intention, she claimed, was not to cheat but only to protect her votes. She said nothing more about the tapes. In subsequent interviews she evaded all questions about these wiretapped, saying she was ready to face any impeachment charge that would be filed against her.

The story of these tapes remains open. The man who initially confessed to having taken them out of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), Technical Sergeant Vidal Doble, returned to the custody of his unit in the ISAFP, and has since denied having anything to do with the tapes. While the ISAFP is widely believed to have performed the wiretap, no one has come out to tell the full story. To this day, the ISAFP insists it has no capability to wiretap cell phone conversations.

The central character in the wiretapped conversations -- Commissioner Garcillano -- went missing shortly after the scandal broke out. Five months later, he reappeared, accompanied by armed men who later turned out to be local policemen. The police offered him sanctuary while he waited to face the committees of the House of Representatives that were investigating him. The account he gave in the House was one of studied evasiveness. He admitted talking to Mrs. Arroyo once. This was not unusual, he said, because other politicians, including those from the opposition, also talked to him. But he could not recall if the conversations caught in the "Garci tapes" actually took place. He wasn’t even sure if that was his voice. He emphatically maintained that he did not cheat for anyone, least of all for the president. He went into hiding, he said, because he felt that his life was in danger. The investigation could squeeze nothing from this foxy operator, who seemed to feel at home in the company of the nation’s politicians.

This is the first issue. It was so powerful it brought out the first massive demonstrations against Mrs. Arroyo. It triggered the resignation of key members of her Cabinet, as well as the withdrawal of support by key allies like former president Aquino and Senate President Franklin Drilon, as well as a section of the influential Makati Business Club.

The start of the impeachment proceedings in September brought the issue back to the legal arena, where Mrs. Arroyo maintained a firm grip on the loyalty of her congressional allies. The impeachment complaints, as we all know, were killed at the committee level, using technicalities and parliamentary maneuvers that relied on the power of the majority vote. The substantive charges against Mrs. Arroyo were never taken up. Again, only a symbolic closure was achieved, and so the issue remains politically alive.

The second issue revolves around the partisan involvement of key officials of the military in the 2004 election. This is being investigated by the committee of Senator Rodolfo Biazon. The purpose is clear-cut: To get to the bottom of the wiretapping and the involvement of some generals in the election in Mindanao. The investigation opened with the revealing testimonies of General Gudane and Colonel Balutan, both of whom were sanctioned by the Armed Forces for appearing before the Senate without authority from their superiors. The committee has hit a blank wall. Military officials, citing Executive Order 464, which bars top government officials from appearing in any congressional investigation without prior permission from the president, have declined to appear before any legislative hearing.

The third issue is the use of public funds to finance the presidential campaign of Mrs. Arroyo. Even during the campaign, the funding for the PhilHealth cards that Mrs. Arroyo was distributing in the course of her provincial sorties had come under question. So too the improper utilization of the Road Users Tax for the emergency employment of street sweepers in every "barangay" [village] of the country just before the 2004 election.

Fertilizer Fund scam
But the one investigation that has yielded the most scandalous findings on the misuse of public money for the presidential campaign of Mrs. Arroyo is the hearing on the so-called Fertilizer Fund being conducted by the committee of Senator Jun Magsaysay. The P728-million fund is part of the almost P3-billion fund of the so-called GMA -- Ginintuang Masaganang Ani -- program. A significant portion of this money appears to have been sourced from the confiscated Marcos Swiss bank deposits.

The seized Marcos assets had been previously earmarked by law for the agrarian reform program. Except for the portion of eight billion pesos set aside for victims of human rights violations, the rest of the Marcos money amounting to about P27 billion appears to have vanished into thin air sometime between 2004 and 2005. The admission made by Budget Secretary Romulo Neri and officials from the Commission on Audit so angered former senator Jovito Salonga that last January 30 he felt compelled to write Mrs. Arroyo a letter.

In that letter, Senator Salonga told Mrs. Arroyo: "We who do not seek any favor from you are constrained to conclude that to remain in power, you (1) prejudiced the welfare of our poor, landless farmers and (2) ignored the sacrifices of many persons who devoted all their God-given resources in terms of time, energy, effort and the little knowledge and talent so they might help recover the more than 680 million dollars from the Swiss Marcos deposits."

The one person who is expected to shed light on the nature of the Fertilizer Fund, its sources and its mode of disbursement, is former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc-joc" Bolante, a known friend and associate of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo. But, taking his cue from Commissioner Garcillano, Bolante has also made himself scarce.

These three issues lie at the center of the current political crisis.

In stable societies, political questions like these -- that challenge the basic legitimacy of the sitting president -- are ultimately resolved by election, or by acts of Congress or Parliament, or they are referred back to the legal and judicial system for further investigation, prosecution, and adjudication. But in young societies like ours - where the institutional spheres are not yet fully differentiated - legal institutions and government agencies tend to be heavily contaminated by partisan politics. This compromises their independence. Instead of being able to put an orderly closure to unresolved political questions, these institutions are dragged into the political arena and lose their credibility. Consequently, legal issues are re-politicized, and the whole process repeats itself, leaving in its wake the debris of institutional wreckage.

Take a look at some of the major institutional casualties in this unending political crisis since Mrs. Arroyo succeeded to the presidency in 2001:

1. First there is the Supreme Court. Members of the Court came to the EDSA Shrine at noontime of Jan. 20, 2001 to administer the oath of office to Mrs. Arroyo, even before there was any clear determination that a vacancy had occurred in the Office of the President. Without signing a formal letter of resignation, Joseph Estrada left Malacañang at around 2:30 p.m. He later claimed that he had not resigned but only taken a leave of absence.

A few weeks later, the same Supreme Court had to adjudicate a case challenging the legality of Mrs. Arroyo’s assumption of the presidency. The justices unanimously upheld the legality of Mrs. Arroyo’s accession to the presidency, but they could not agree on the reasons. Many of the justices were severely skeptical and critical of the use of people power to effect a change in government. The majority decision ruled that Estrada had resigned "constructively" - a novel concept that could not be easily explained to a perplexed public.

If it was quick to state its position on what was clearly a very dynamic situation in January 2001, the Supreme Court seemed extremely hesitant to intervene in 2005 when members of the House committee investigating the impeachment charges could not agree on the correct interpretation of the phrase "impeachment proceeding" as found in the 1987 Constitution. What constitutes an impeachment proceeding? When is it deemed initiated? If three impeachment complaints are filed against the same public official for more or less the same reasons within hours of one another, would taking them up on the same day be construed as initiating three separate impeachment proceedings, and is therefore prohibited? Twice, a lawyer asked the Supreme Court to disallow the ruling coalition’s absurd interpretation of the constitutional provision barring the initiation of impeachment proceedings against the same public official more than once a year. The Court said the question was premature. Then it said nothing more on the issue after the defective Lozano impeachment complaint was thrown out.

By the same token, the Supreme Court has so far failed to rule on the constitutionality of the so-called Calibrated Preventive Response policy of dealing with protest demonstrations, and of the gag order contained in Executive Order 464.

2. Second, there is, of course, the Comelec itself -- the one legal institution that the Cory Aquino government in the post-Marcos years tried very hard to rebuild so that its neutral and professional character may be preserved. A credible Comelec is the linchpin of a representative democracy. Mrs. Arroyo has done much to erode the Comelec’s credibility by appointing to it individuals of unsavory reputation, not the least of whom is Attorney Virgilio Garcillano himself. The man had worked his way up the Comelec bureaucracy, and gained a reputation as somebody who has mastered the electoral terrain of Mindanao.

But another image consistently stuck to him -- that of architect of "dagdag-bawas" [vote-padding and vote-shaving]. Thus, when he was appointed to the Comelec as one of the commissioners barely three months before the 2004 election, no less than former Comelec Chairman Christian Monsod appealed to the president to withdraw his appointment. The same plea was made by a victim of "dagdag-bawas" -- Senator Nene Pimentel. But Mrs. Arroyo would not be dissuaded. She was such a firm believer in Garcillano’s capabilities.

3. The third is the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Outside of Marcos, no other president perhaps has so brazenly enlisted the services of key officials of the AFP for partisan purposes than Mrs. Arroyo. Again, the "Garci tapes" are very incriminating. In one conversation, Garci was complaining that the cheating operations in some towns were very crudely done because the ones who were assigned to perform these tasks were inexperienced soldiers. Several names of high-ranking officers were mentioned in the tapes. By a strange coincidence, except for Gudane who retired, almost all of them were subsequently appointed to cushy positions in the AFP.

4. The fourth is the Ombudsman. This is a constitutional office that is invested with the power to initiate investigations and to prosecute erring public officials. When the Supreme Court ruled that the Comelec computerization project was illegal and ordered Comelec to recover the money it had paid, it also directed the Ombudsman to investigate the culpability of the Commissioners and to prosecute them. This has not happened, as far as I know.

The Ombudsman could also have initiated the investigation of ISAFP’s (Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines) involvement in wiretapping. It could have looked as well into the use of public funds like the Road Users Tax and the Fertilizer Fund for the election campaign of the president. We have not seen any such initiative. One wonders if the people at the center of all these controversies know something we don’t when they bravely challenge their accusers to sue them in court and file the necessary charges.

Somebody -- I think it is Senator Francis Pangilinan -- recently filed a bill calling for the creation of a powerful office of an American-style Independent Counsel, that would have the authority to mobilize agencies and offices of government to put together a case against accountable public officials. Maybe if we can find enough Kenneth Starrs in our midst who would not be deterred by the powerful, there might be a reason for this bill. But I am not certain if this is the right answer to the dysfunctionality of our institutions.

Let me restate my basic thesis here. THE CRUX OF THE PRESENT CRISIS consists in the fact that the institutions in the political and the legal systems of our society have failed to arrive at a reasonable closure of the issues thrust upon them. The crisis of legitimacy of Ms Arroyo has led to a questioning of all her decisions and actions. Her stonewalling on a number of important questions -- the use of gag orders and of diversionary tactics like charter change -- has led to a generalized crisis of credibility. This has spawned more issues than the political system can handle at any given time without overheating. It is interesting that the economy seems to be faring well in comparison. The crisis of the political system may remain isolated for a time, but it may eventually engulf the whole system. It is difficult to say how long the system can bear the pressure from one of its parts.

What seems clear at this point is that:

More and more people are demanding either an end to all bickering or the outright removal of Mrs. Arroyo.

More and more people are losing faith in the system’s capacity to resolve political questions within the bounds of the Constitution.

More and more people are disenchanted not only with the present administration but also with the political opposition. They are turning to the Armed Forces and asking them to intervene.

Having gone through two people power upheavals, our people are not unfamiliar with extra-legal solutions involving both military and people power interventions. They see people power as the Filipino way of compensating for the inadequacies of our institutions, even as they are fully aware of the many problems it spawns.

What is to be done?
What is to be done or how we should respond to the crisis is a function of how we look at the situation. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) explains the crisis as the result of the erosion of our moral values. The bishops are calling for a renewal of our public life. This is a long-term process, and one can understand why our religious leaders have couched the problem in specifically moral terms, even as they are conscious of not overstepping the bounds of their authority. The bishops insist that the solution can come from the relentless pursuit of the truth by the community as a whole.

My own view is quite different from that of the bishops. Like them, I believe that our public values have changed. But, unlike them, I believe that they have changed not necessarily for the worse. On the contrary, I believe that the crisis in our political life arises precisely from the growing refusal of many ordinary Filipinos from all classes to tolerate patronage, fraud, political bossism, corruption, and misgovernance of our public life. The ruling classes of our country -- the ones who are used to cynical wheeling and dealing, to corruption, to intimidation, and the exploitation of mass ignorance and dependence -- are beginning to discover that they can no longer rule in the old way. Every election year they find that they have to cheat harder in order to get elected.

Politicians like Ms. Arroyo cannot seem to understand why cheating in elections has become so suddenly wrong, or why taking kickbacks from government contracts and pork barrel projects is suddenly frowned upon. They wake up one morning, and they discover to their dismay that our people are demanding better government. On more than one occasion, Mrs. Arroyo candidly lamented the degeneration of our political system. It has become such, she said, that one cannot embark on a political career and expect to emerge from it with clean hands. "He who is without sin," she says quoting from the Bible, "cast the first stone."

Mrs. Arroyo must have been so blinded by ambition that she failed to read what the placards of the young people who trooped to the EDSA highway in January 2001 were saying: Good government. Accountable government. Competent government. They did not go to EDSA because they loved Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo; they went to EDSA because they thought they deserved a president they could admire, one who could properly discharge the responsibilities of a young aspiring modern nation in a complex world.

In their attempt to appease the public, the old dying class led by Mrs. Arroyo, former president Fidel Ramos and House Speaker Jose de Venecia are offering to change the form of government, little realizing that the people have moved one notch higher. They now demand a replacement of the whole political class itself. Only now, I think, are the politicians beginning to realize that the public is not just seeking to change the form of government, or just to overthrow Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and replace her with the Opposition. Filipinos want a whole new set of leaders, imbued with a whole new set of values and capabilities. They want a new nation equipped for survival in a globalized world they are just starting to discover.

Am I painting a fictional image of Filipino consciousness? I do not think so. If our political values had not improved, we would not have this crisis. We would allow the politicians to talk it over among themselves, to strike a modus vivendi (what "trapos" [traditional politicians] call a "win-win" solution) that would benefit every individual politician in the country. The rest of us, ordinary citizens, would all retreat into our homes and perhaps amuse ourselves by their antics. But no, more and more of us are staunchly refusing to let our country to be run by the same breed of cynical politicians.

Our people are better educated today. They are more connected to the outside world. They know how other societies work. They have seen more of the world than the generation of their parents. And, let us not forget, you cannot send out more than 10% of your mature population to live and work in other societies, and expect them to remain unchanged in the way they think of the responsibilities of government. What they bring home from abroad are not just remittances; they usually bring back with them a new consciousness of what societies can be like when they are better run.

Politics is basically an arena of communication. Our political system today is more complex: It is no longer dominated by traditional political parties. There are new voices that are making themselves heard - from the social movements, the non-government organizations, people’s organization, etc. EDSA People Power I and EDSA People Power II are symptomatic of the emergence of an educated population that no longer feels bound by traditional political rules. If we look closely, we may see EDSA I and II as manifestations of a middle class political impatience never seen before in our country. These events are guided by a vision of modernity that however needs to be enriched by social justice.

How to bring this vision about is the big question. I believe that as a long-range vision, it is not necessarily hitched to any political project.

All over the country, people are meeting and talking in forums like this. The vision of a new nation is taking shape in these meetings. We are already living in a post-Gloria era. Gloria is history. The reign of the trapos is coming to an end.

How Mrs. Arroyo will eventually go and when, is probably only a small footnote now in these discussions. Whether it is by a snap election, or by people power in combination with a military mutiny -- is perhaps no longer the important question. The question that people are asking is: Who will replace her? But, I do not take that to mean a simple search for alternative faces. I take that to mean: What kind of agenda for national renewal will bring us forward? What are our basic and urgent tasks as a people? If we take care of the agenda, I believe the right faces will come forward.

I would like to end by advancing four basic tasks that I have heard repeatedly in various fora:

First, to end the scourge of absolute poverty once and for all, no matter what it takes. The stampede of the poor in Ultra is only a grim reminder of this unjust reality we must all help to end.

Second, to educate every one of our people, especially the young, in order to equip them for living in a highly competitive world.

Third, to rebuild the physical infrastructure of our country, and to protect its environment from long-term damage.

And lastly, to create stable institutions appropriate to a complex and modern society -- in a climate of freedom, tolerance, and openness.

If we remain focused and committed to such an agenda of necessary transformation, I have every reason to believe that the search for new leaders will take care of itself. The quest for change will spawn new political formations and new political parties.

Having said that, I will hasten to add that it would be a mistake to think that one needs to be a politician to be able to contribute to the realization of these urgent tasks.

A Tribute to Noble Bahrain

2006-02-08T14:52:00.000+03:00

It is in times of crisis when nobility is displayed. When his fishing boat capsized, resulting in the death of three of his fishermen, Bahraini Ghazi Mohammed Al Dossary did not leave any stones unturned in searching and rescuing his men. When it was finally proven that the fishermen died, Al Dossary took lead in seeing the bodies are repatriated. He even accompanied the first recovered body to India and went out of his way to help the bereaved family.

The words of Al Dossary send shivers down my spine because he single-handedly debunked the negative stereotype of Arab employers - scheming, heartless andabusive.

"I am going to Kerala to console the families of all the three workers, who I considered as my own family members. I will also try to provide financial assistance to the families within my capacity," Mr Al Dossary told the GDN in an interview.

Al Dossary's good deed should not be allowed to pass just like that. Its significance must not be undermined. He also reminded me of another anonymous Bahraini who donated 1000BD to a stranded Filipino worker. This anonymous donor said, "as much as there are Bahrainis who mistreat their workers, there are also those Bahrainis who care about other people."

Indeed, despite the bad press, Arabs - specifically some Bahraini - employers are getting, there people like the anonymous donor and Al Dossary who certainly makes our world a better place to live.

In my little way, I write this short note as a tribute to the nobility of these Bahrainis. I have been in Bahrain for only a little over a year but I surely am proud to have witnessed the genuine nobility of the people of Bahrain. With the examples of the anonymous donor and Ghazi Mohammed Al Dossary, I offer this tribute to noble Bahrain.

Shukran jazilan, accuy!

Another view

2006-02-06T10:11:00.000+03:00

I have held on my views about the controversial caricatures in deference to my many Muslim friends not because I do not share their indignation. I do. In fact, I would also consider it blasphemous if Jesus will pictured in the same manner. However, I do not subscribe to an extremist course of action. It is no different at all to the blasphemy of the caricatures. The burning of the Danish diplomatic office in Syria that affected other offices too is simply an inappropriate action that would not generate sympathy nor fraternity.

A Dane, Niklas Rasmussen, wrote GDN today and I would say amen to his honest and sincere views:

As a Dane who has lived in the Middle East in Jordan and Lebanon and who has many good friends in the area, please allow me to explain the recent events which have escalated in an unfortunate direction. I have a great affection for the Middle East and have many good friends whom I am in touch with as well as good memories from my years there.

I hope that this letter will explain some things and I hope that it will be posted and hopefully sent around to various newspapers in the Middle East. I hope I am not mistaken in that most people in the Middle East do want a proper debate from moderates without the fundamentalists in any country having the prime spot.

I maintain my and many Danes' opinion where one has the right to disagree with the caricatures, one has the right to discuss the sensibility and the taste of the artist. However one does not have the right in a country with freedom of speech to ban or not to express this art.

I can understand if people find it tasteless or offensive but then a discussion should take place and a healthy debate where one is allowed to disagree. We live in a country where we have paid a heavy price for our freedom which includes freedom of speech. This freedom of speech has meant that caricature and other offensive drawings and caricatures of Jesus have been published.

I would personally disagree with those paintings and with the taste but I WILL at every cost DEFEND the RIGHT of the artist to express his opinion no matter how offended I personally will be. This is a country which for a population of 5.5 million people has an amazing array of quality newspapers from www.berlingske.dk, www.politiken.dk, www. information.dk, www.jp.dk, www.raeson.dk and many other quality papers with various opinions.

We are allowed to discuss anything but there comes a time when people offended should take up the issue in a debate which the newspapers including Jyllands Posten have welcomed. However, death threats to the editors and artists cannot be tolerated. We can disagree with the artist but not with his right to express his opinion no matter if tasteless or provoking.

There has also been criticism of our Prime Minister and our royal family for not having banned these images. The Prime Minister made it clear that he personally disapproved of the caricatures but in a democracy cannot forbid them.

We are willing to enter a debate and dialogue and apologise if anyone feels offended by the caricatures. However, we do not apologise for having printed them or for the artists right to express them.

I look forward to a constructive dialogue from your side.

Niklas Rasmussen

Whose gain?

2006-02-05T11:57:00.000+03:00

Bahrain Tribune saved me the effort of commenting on the resurgence of the Philippine Peso. While I must say that I am excited by the prospect of the peso regaining its strength, it also send shivers down my spine because it is also a fact that this will not redound to lower cost of living and prices. In fact, the headline says it all:

Manila’s ‘profit’ in peso is overseas workers’ loss in actual terms

The Philippine peso hit its strongest value against the US dollar in three years on Friday appreciating by 51 pesso to $1 mark.

But the peso’s gain though seen as a positive indicator for the Philippine economy, is leaving most dollar-earning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) asking: What’s the deal?

“My family will be losing as much as 2,000 pesos a month (roughly BD15) as soon as they convert my remittance,” said Benito Florendo, a 43-year-old worker at a construction company in Manama.

“We should be happy with the peso’s gain but it could mean a loss for us, it’s like a deduction on my monthly salary. I don’t see a good deal here for me,” he said.
OFW families in the Philippines are certain to feel the negative impact of the peso appreciation’s compared with their prized dollars three or four years ago when the peso was at its lowest at PhP55 to $1.

Although the Philippine government and business sectors were upbeat about the peso’s appreciation, many OFWs expressed worries that the prices of basic consumer goods had not gone down and that would make it harder for their families back home.

New taxes are expected to increase the prices to various products and services used by OFWs and their families – such as the mobile phones, long-distance calls and text messages.

“For now the direct impact is that we’re the first losers,” said Greg Esquivel, an IT worker in Bahrain for 10 years. “My family in the Philippines will find a portion of their budget slashed because of the changed conversion rate. That means losing a few thousand pesos while they will need to spend more on basic products and services,” he said.

The Philippine economy has been largely dollar-based and with now some eight-million Filipino workers abroad, every family left behind has been counting their take by the dollar.

This week, the Reformed Value Added Tax (R-VAT) scheme of the Arroyo government has hit the OFWs and their families harder as the prices of mobile phone communications, landlines, air fares, domestic cargo, and shipping increased from eight to 12 per cent.

“The strength of the peso I believe will be good in the long-term but for now the government should focus on regulating the prices which is a basic issue. The prices of goods are going up and that will add to burden on every Filipino,” Esquivel said.
The peso surge over the last year has been attributed by the government to strong investment inflow and, ironically, to huge remittance from overseas Filipino workers – an estimated $10 billion last year.

Remittance however seems unaffected with the drop in the peso-dollar rates.
A marketing executive from the Bahrain Financing Company said they did not feel any drop in remittance transactions in the past two months since the peso gained.

The BFC is one of the remittance centres for Filipino workers. “We saw an increase in remittance over the past month,” said BFC marketing executive Bobby Calimoso. “High rates or low rates many OFWs have no option but to send money home.”

Take Me Out of the Dark

2006-02-04T16:09:00.000+03:00

Proverbs 3:5-6 says "trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on you own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make you paths straight." For many of us, it is easier said than done. But, I have also witnessed many who have and are succeeding in trusting the Lord with all their heart. It is hard because as we try to live the proverbs, we only depend on our “strength” and “talents”. To trust in the Lord with all our hearts, we need to humble ourselves and tell God that apart from him, we are bound to fail. It is only by submitting ourselves to God can we truly trust in him with all our heart…

Thus, I trust the Lord will take me out the darkness…

Just what is it in me?
Sometimes I just don't know
What keeps me in your love;
Why you never let me go.
And though you're in me now
I fall and hurt you still;
My Lord please show me how
To know just how you feel.

You have forgiven me
Too many times it seems;
I feel I'm not what you might call
A worthy Christian after all
And though I love you so temptation
Finds its way to me.

Teach me to trust in You
With all of my heart;
To lean not on my own understanding
Coz' I just forget
You won't give me what I can't bear;
Take me out of the dark My Lord
I don't want to be there.

You never left my side
You gave Your hand to me
To hold, oh Jesus;
I'm no longer in the cold
And yet I leave You there
When I feel satisfied
I'd like to thank You everyday
Not only when I feel that way
I've never known a man
Who'd give His life for sinners like me
And yet because He loves us so
He promised us eternity
And we can have that promise
And be His if have faith and
Just believe…

Teach us to trust in You
With all of our heart
To lean not on our own understanding
Cause we just forget
You won't give us what we can't bear
Take us out of the dark my Lord
Cause We don't want to be there
Yeah, My Lord…

God Will Make A Way

2006-02-04T11:50:00.001+03:00

Proverbs 3:6 say that "in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

I am once again at the crossroads. I have been earnestly praying for God to direct my path. I praise him for He has never abandoned me all through the tough times. I am humbled by God's abundance and faithfulness that have kept me afloat all this time.

Don Moen has captured it in words and music. Praise God! I will not be afraid because God will make a way!

God will make a way,
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength for each new day
He will make a way, He will make a way.

By a roadway in the wilderness, He'll lead me
And rivers in the desert will I see
Heaven and earth will fade
But His Word will still remain
He will do something new today.

God will make a way,
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength for each new day
He will make a way, He will make a way.

Amor, te quiero mucho!

2006-02-01T17:28:00.000+03:00

How sweet! These are the very words that would certainly melt any woman's heart especially coming from a man miles away from her.

In fact, this was also my initial reaction when I first saw and heard the First Gentlemen quipped this after he let Manny Pacquiao talk to the PResident on his mobile phone.

However, my reaction changed the second time I saw the tape. By then, the euphoria of Pacquaio impressive victory has settled in and it was very obvious that the entire episode was all for the show. It was very obvious from the subtle body language of the First Gentlemen.

After Pacquiao returned he phone to him, he clearly moved to face a microphone and spoke in an unusually loud whispher (soft but loud enough to be understood by the audience!).

Certainly, it was not a simple case of an unguarded public display of affection. It was meant to create an image. It was a PR stunt.

It was all in poor taste.

Anyway, I better give my girlfriend a call instead. She expects me to tell her, "Amor, te quiero mucho!"

New rights for Filipino maids in Bahrain

2006-01-31T10:19:00.000+03:00

The Islamic New Year brought a great news for Filipino domestic helpers. Let me share the news report from today's GDN:

New contracts sanctioned by Philippines and Bahraini authorities give housemaids the right to walk out if their employers mistreat them.

Filipino domestic workers who terminate their contracts because of abuse will no longer be deemed "runaways", said Philippine Embassy welfare officer Venus Bravo.

Contracts for Filipina housemaids now have a new clause, which states that they have every right to terminate their service if their employers in Bahrain abuse them.

The Labour Ministry is aware of the new contract and is honouring it, said Ms Bravo.

Employers of housemaids and those who are bringing in new housemaids from the Philippines are being informed of the clause, which aims to put a stop to the abuse cases of Filipino workers in Bahrain.

Workers staying at the embassy's shelter have doubled in the last two months.

More than 60 workers are currently at the shelter to date, compared to about 30 last month.

The majority of these workers are housemaids, who all want to return home, but most of their employers are keeping their passports and CPR cards.

Many complained of breach of contract, while others complained of physical and/or sexual abuse, overwork and delayed salaries.

Some were hired by their Bahraini employers straight from the Philippines and arrived on tourist visas.

Their employers are deliberately violating set rules that Filipinos must be hired through agencies, said Ms Bravo.

The largest number of workers in the embassy shelter at one time was 114, which was during Ramadan last year.

"We experienced what we thought was an increase of runaway workers during the Holy Month, but now we are finding that more workers are running away and this just shows how serious the situation is here in Bahrain," said Ms Bravo.

Housemaids' contracts now state that their employers must agree that the worker has the right to terminate the contract due to violations.

These include non-payment of salary, non-provision of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, non-provision of enough rest hours during the day and not allowing eight hours of sleep per day.

Other violations are requiring the maid to work for other people, transferring her to other employers, or maltreating, beating or physically or sexually assaulting her.

The agreement also states the employer must indemnify the worker for terminating the contract period, meaning the employer must pay for the maid's air ticket to go back to the Philippines and provide her outstanding wage. "If any employer refuses to sign the agreement once it is introduced at the embassy then we will tell them to please not hire Filipinos," said Ms Bravo.

Maajurin Mathabin...

2006-01-30T16:56:00.000+03:00

Remittance tax?

2006-01-30T10:57:00.000+03:00

The proposal of Democratic Bloc Deputy Abdulnabi Salman to tax remittances by expatriates may have been borne out of a good intention. The proposal is seen to eliminate the adverse effects of money transfer by expatriates on Bahraini economy.

Fine.

What the good lawmaker failed to consider, however, are the adverse effects of imposing remittance taxes on expatriates. He needs to immerse himself in more rigorous study. Does he seriously believe a remittance tax would be beneficial to Bahrain in the long run? Expatriates, especially the low-income majority, will be forced to tap black market means of sending their money home in order to spare themselves from paying the remittance tax since they are already paying pretty steep service charges. Only unscrupulous businesses stand to gain from this ill-thought proposal.

I second GDN’s Les Horton’s proposal that if there should be a tax on money going out of the country, then it should be across the board especially that it is common knowledge that many wealthy Bahrainis are actually investing their money elsewhere.
These honorable lawmakers are turning a blind eye on the contributions of expatriates to every facet of life in Bahrain but are quick to point an accusing finger to them to exonerate themselves of their crimes of misgovernment.

Well, a consolation is published today in the Tribune where it was noted that a number of lawmakers spoke against the proposal fearing it would affect the national economy and the government’s initiative to attract foreign capital.

Kuwait not a DH-friendly nation

2006-01-30T10:38:00.000+03:00

Camille Balagtas wrote in People's Journal, Monday, January 30, 2006 that Kuwait is not an ideal country for Filipinos to work as domestic help. I agree. But what scandalizes me is that government will go as far as banning the deployment of Filipino domestic helpers in Kuwait. Apparently and unfortunately, the dollar equivalent of potential domestic helpers in Kuwait is more important than ensuring our people will not be abused. I am not surprised, this is at the core of the "sound economic program" of the government!

Kuwait accounted for two out of five Filipina runaways who sought refuge in the country's 82 missions overseas in the second half of 2004, Senator Ralph Recto said, quoting a Department of Foreign Affairs report.

Of the 5,583 "Filipinos in distress" cases handled by Philippine consulates worldwide from July to December that year, 2122 were Filipinas who ran to Filipino diplomats in Kuwait for help.

The DFA situationer on Kuwait is contained in the 430-page "Report to Congress" which surveys working conditions in every country where Filipinos are currently working.

During that period, 1043 Filipinos, again all females were repatriated to the Philippines after they had a run-in with Kuwaiti authorities or a falling out with their employers.

One in every 12 cases of OFW repatriation last year was also from Kuwait, Recto said. In the same report, DFA said it handled 12,613 repatriation cases worldwide during the said period.

At present, an estimated 73,000 Filipinos of whom 60,000 are women and mostly domestic helpers are working in Kuwait.

The DFA report said "domestic helpers are most vulnerable to exploitation and abuse as they are not covered by Kuwait Labor Law."

"They are not allowed to use their cell phones. They usually work from early morning until late in the evening and majority do not have rest days," the report said.

Since they are not permitted to go out of their houses, their only recourse if they want to complain of the abuses of their employers is to escape. Their employer is turn files an absconding case against the DHs in the police station having jurisdiction of the residence," the report added.

During the six-month period covered by the report, the Philippine embassy in Kuwait received complaints of verbal abuse (239), "inhumane treatment" (165), "overworked" (230), "lack of food" (159), "physical maltreatment" (100), "unpaid salaries" (89), "no rest day" (72).

Seven Filipinas alleged they were sexually harassed and six complained of being raped.

"It's really a catalogue of misfortune. Eight complained of not being given quarters or bed to sleep in. There was a case of white slavery. A dozen or so were not given return tickets by their employers," he said.

According to the report, Kuwait belongs to the top three hotspots.

"Clearly, the place could be a paradise for some, especially skilled workers, and hell for others," he said.

"Diplomacy requires us to take the view that abuses are done by individuals and not sanctioned by the Kuwaiti government," Recto said.

He said problems encountered by Filipinos in Kuwait who have contributed to that country's progress should be solved through close coordination between officials of the two countries.

Recto said a study must be made by Filipino diplomatic and labor authorities "as to the peculiarities of Kuwaiti society and labor market" not just to "pinpoint and remedy any problem areas" but also to "forewarn and forearm" Filipinos who are being recruited to work there.

Make some noise!

2006-01-29T12:17:00.000+03:00

Am putting on my battle gear...

2006-01-28T10:06:00.000+03:00

I know today starts a major battle in my life. I have been praying to God to equip me for this battle. Last week, I have set the terms of this battle with my adversary's ambassador.

On my own, I know I have little chance of winning but I know I am going to this battle for God, with God and by God's grace, victory will be his.

As a deer

As the deer pants for the water
So my soul longs after You.

You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You.

You alone are my strength my shield;
To You alone may my spirit yield.

You alone are my hearts desire
And I long to worship Thee.

You're my friend
And You are my brother
Even though You are a king.

I love you more than any other
So much more than anything.

I want you more than gold and silver
Only You can satisfy.

You alone are the real joy giver
And the apple of my eye.

Am I a warrior?

2006-01-28T09:53:00.000+03:00

Every student of the University of the East knows that he is a warrior. I know I am one too. I have been to many battles and I am scarred beyond my own recognition.

And like Maximus the gladiator, I may appear strong outside, I am hurting inside.

In time, however, I will be beyond all the hurt, pain and violence. In His time.

Warrior is a Child
Lately I've been winning battles left and right
But even winners can get wounded in the fight
People say that I'm amazing
Strong beyond my years
But they don't see inside of me
I'm hiding all the tears

(Chorus)
They don't know that I go running home when I fall down
They don't know who picks me up when no one is around
I drop my sword and cry for just a while
'Cause deep inside this armour
The warrior is a child

Unafraid because his armour is the best
But even soldiers need a quiet place to rest
People say that I'm amazing
Never face retreat
But they don't see the enemies
That lay me at His feet

Chorus x2

I drop my sword and look up for His smile
Because deep inside this armour
Deep inside this armour
Deep inside this armour
The Warrior is a Child.

Viruses mark 20th anniversary

2006-01-27T16:19:00.000+03:00

Today, more than ever, we must be aware of the trouble viruses has caused us as we get more active in the information superhighway. January 19, 2006 marked the twentieth year of existence of the PC virus. Dave Chappelle writes about this in an article published by mar.com:

Jan. 19, 2006 marked the twentieth year of existence of the PC virus.

The boot sector virus "Brain," which infected computers via floppy disk, was first detected back in January 1986. While Brain was relatively harmless compared to threats faced today, it signaled the beginning of the current virus situation.

Nowadays boot sector viruses may be as rare as floppy disks, but they held our attention from 1986 to 1995. Infection required actually putting a file on a hard disk, so floppy disks were the main sources of transmission, but file sharing via bulletin boards and electronic data transfer were also known. Viruses would only become well-known months or even years after release.

With the release of Windows 95 came the development of macro viruses, which exploited vulnerabilities in that operating system. From the moment when a virus was discovered to when it became a global problem required about one month.

As the popularity of e-mail increased, so did e-mail worms. In just one day, Loveletter, aka ILOVEYOU, spread havoc and alleged massive financial loss before it was brought under control.

In the 21st Century, the transmission time window shrank from one day to one hour, in what is known as a "zero-day threat." Network worms like Blaster and Sasser automatically propagated and indiscriminately infected every unprotected online computer in their paths.

"Blended threats" combined methods of attack; for example, displaying characteristics of both viruses and worms while also exploiting network and system vulnerabilities.

However, the most important change over the past two decades has not been in the types of viruses or amount of malware, but rather the motives of the virus writers.

"Certainly the most significant change in has been the evolution of virus writing hobbyists into criminally operated gangs bent on financial gain," said F-Secure's Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypponen. "And this trend is showing no signs of stopping."

At present there are an estimated 150,000 virus-like threats, and the number continues to increase.

"There already are indications that malware authors will target laptop WLANs as the next vector for automatic spreading worms," said Hypponen.

"Whatever the next step might be, it will be interesting to see what kind of viruses we will be talking about in another twenty years time -- computer viruses infecting houses, perhaps?"

Time to laugh

2006-01-26T20:26:00.000+03:00

PINOY LINGO (Unauthorized English-Filipino dictionary)

1. aspect - pantusok ng yelo
2. backlog - bacon saka egg
3. beehive - magpakatino ka
4. cdrom - tingnan mo ang kwarto
5. city - bago mag-utso (commonly heard in the Visayas)
6. cattle - doon nakatila ang hali at leyna
7. debug - ang ipis
8. dedicated - pinatay ang pusa
9. deduct - ang pato
10. defeat - ang paa
11. defense - ang bakod
12. detail - ang buntot

Use the words "deduct, defense, defeat and detail" in one sentence.
Answer: "Deduct jumped over defense -- defeat first and then detail!"

13. defer - ang balahibo
14. deflate - ang plato
15. defrag - ang palaka
16. delusion - e di maluwag
17. depends - (see defense)
18. deposit - ang gripo
19. depress - nagkasal sa persuading (see persuading)
20. detest - ang eksamin
21. devalue - 'yon ang susunod sa letrang 'V'
22. devastation - 'dun sasakay ng bus
23. devote - ang boto
24. dilemma - brownout, a!
25. effort - 'dun nagla-land ang efflane
26. forums - apat na kwarto
27. it depends - kainin mo ang bakod
28. july - nagsinungaling ka ba?
29. statue - ikaw ba 'yan?
30. protestant - tindahan ng prutas.
31. predicate - pakawalan mo ang pusa
32. profit - patunayan mo
33. persuading - unang kasal
34. tenacious - sinusuot sa paa
35. thesis - ito ay
36. torpedo - shy; takot manligaw
37. zoology - ang sayans ng pagtatahi

My Cry Your Peace

2006-01-25T18:21:00.000+03:00

The BASIC Christian Connection > Inspirations > Poetic Xpressions

My Cry Your Peace
Poem about God's great love
Posted by prynangel2006
Posted 01-08-06

Have you ever felt the weight of the world
Resting heavy on your shoulders
Looking back you can see
It feels just like boulders
Jesus says, 'Come to Me, you weak and heavy laiden.
Lay it all at my Cross, you gentle dear sweet maiden'
Once again I look to You
With a smile on my face
Thanking You for putting me
Back into my place

Oh Lord, I wonder how long will it be
When I will see Your glory
And stand face to face with Thee
How long have I traveled
How long have I trod
Believing in Your humble grace
Seeing the face of God
Resting in your warm toned arms
Feeling total peace

Google Execs Happy With $1 Salaries

2006-01-25T09:22:00.001+03:00

I guess if I am in their shoes, I would too!

Slashdot's Zonk posted that "ZDNet is on the one hand reporting that Google execs will keep their $1 salaries again this year, and on the other hand is reporting that the executives cashed in more than $160 million worth of stock last month." From the stock article: "Since the search giant went public in August 2004, Brin has sold about 6.5 million shares at a market value of $1.68 billion. Page has sold about 5.8 million shares at a market value of $1.4 billion, according to calculations from Thomson Financial. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, who was brought in to run the company before it went public, has sold more than 2.1 million shares, worth more than $502 million." They could be getting a multi-million dollar salary *and* the stock money. Good faith efforts go a long way in my book.

Kuwait PM Nominated as Amir

2006-01-25T08:37:00.000+03:00

Bahrain Tribune today reports that the impasse in Kuwait has finally been resolved:

Kuwait’s parliament yesterday removed the country’s ailing ruler on health grounds and the cabinet nominated the prime minister as new amir.

The nomination of Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah ended the political uncertainty which had gripped Kuwait since Shaikh Saad Al Ahmad Al Sabah, who is 76 and incapacitated by illness, became amir on January 15 after the death of his cousin.

Shaikh Sabah, a cousin of Shaikh Saad, has already been de facto ruler for four years because of the ill-health of both the late amir and Shaikh Saad.

Parliament voted unanimously to remove Shaikh Saad shortly before receiving his abdication letter, parliamentarians said. “After listening to the medical report, the assembly with its 65 members agreed to remove him from the post of amir,” parliament speaker Jassem Al Kharafi said. Justice Minister Ahmad Baqer said an official letter with Shaikh Sabah’s nomination would be sent to parliament today and that he expected a voting session to be held on Sunday or Monday.

Yesterday’s vote was a rare assertion of parliamentary muscle against a hereditary ruler in the Arab world, even though Kuwait’s ruling family had agreed Shaikh Saad should step down. Analysts hailed the vote as a triumph for the rule of law in a region dominated by autocratic governments.

2006-01-24T14:57:00.000+03:00

Here lies a true Filipino hero.

Another Heroic Filipino Lost

2006-01-24T14:14:00.001+03:00

The Philippines lost another unsung hero. A breaking news from the Philippine Daily Inquirer indicated that Philippine Air Force pilot Captain Aniano Amatong could have saved himself had he ejected himself out of the troubled AV-10 Bronco twin engine. However, when he realized the plane will crash into a residential area, he opted to steer the plane to a swamp.

Surely, you do not expect the same degree of heroism from our "esteemed politicians" who have lived by the tenets of lying, cheating and stealing. Had it been these politicians, they would have ejected on the first hint of trouble.

I'll post here the news report to keep a memory of genuine Filipino heroism:

Pilot killed as he steers ailing plane away from houses

(3RD UPDATE) BULACAN -- An Air Force pilot crashed to his death Tuesday when he chose to steer away a distressed bomber plane from a residential area instead of parachuting to safety, a military official said.

The twin-engine OV-10 was heading to a military exercise carrying two officers when it crashed into a fishpond at 9 a.m. in Paombong town, Bulacan province, some 47 kilometers north of Manila, Air Force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Restituto Padilla said.

But instead of ejecting himself from his seat, Captain Aniano Amatong, 31, apparently struggled to steer the troubled plane away from houses after ordering his co-pilot to eject, Padilla said.

"Amatong did not eject purposely, according to witnesses, and tried to avoid hitting populated areas," Padilla said. "This is heroism in the highest order."

His co-pilot, Captain James Acosta, parachuted to safety before the attack plane crash landed in the vicinity of Dinakot village, Padilla said.

The plane took off from an air base in Sangley Point, in Cavite province, at around 8:46 a.m. and was on its way to Clark Field in Pampanga province for military exercises with American troops, he said.

"The cause of the crash is still to be determined,” Padilla said. “A rescue helicopter was immediately dispatched by Lieutenant General Jose Reyes, the commanding general of the Philippine Air Force."

Villagers reported seeing one of the engines emitting smoke before the aircraft plunged and exploded, Padilla said. TV footage showed parts of the plane jutting out of the sprawling fishpond.

The OV-10 has become the main fighter plane of the Philippine Air Force after it decommissioned its F-5 fighter jets in October 2005.

They are used for reconnaissance and bombing missions during counterinsurgency operations mostly in the southern region of Mindanao, where government troops are battling communist and Muslim guerrillas.

Air force chief Lieutenant General Jose L. Reyes ordered the grounding of the entire OV-10 fleet after the accident.

The Philippine military is among Asia's weakest and partly depends on allies like the United States to help train and arm its troops.

Streets Ablaze

2006-01-24T14:14:00.000+03:00

After a hearty dinner of meat shawarma plate last night from one of our favorite Turkish restaurants, we went to church to attend a prayer meeting. When we drove past the police fort, we immediately noticed the uncharacteristically huge number of police in the streets. Then, Shaik Isa road, which has always turtle-paced traffic, has slower than the usual slow traffic.

It was only when we reached the part of the road in front of NEC that we realized that the street that separates NEC from the Ibn Haytham Islamic School was closed to traffic. not only was the road closed, but it was also where a truck and several other police vehicles are parked and around fifty policemen in battle gear are stationed. Above us, we realized the usual surveillance helicopter.

All this because a tiny minority was taking advantage of peaceful demonstrations, of legitimate opposition moves, and of legal redress of people's sentiments.

I consider myself militant. I am an activist. But, I am never an extremist. I value civil liberties and I would stand for freedom but I will never see the wisdom of using violence to drive my point.

What this rowdy minority (Extremists will always be in the minority) are doing is to sabotage, not only government, not only the legitimate opposition but the people in general. They are fomenting violence to escalate conflict and justify their course of action.

I still have faith in the peace and order situation in Bahrain. Certainly, this is not Iraq. I don't even believe that the recent spate of violence comes close to the civil unrest of the 1990's.

However, if the silent majority among the friendly and sensible Bahrain will not speak up, things may go awry. And the scene of fiery Daih Road in Jidhafs can become a regular occurrence.

The Language of Human Relations

2006-01-23T14:11:00.000+03:00

I found the following interesting statements about human relations in the website of Don Clark on concepts of leadership:

The six most important words: "I admit I made a mistake."

The five most important words: "You did a good job."

The four most important words: "What is your opinion."

The three most important words: "If you please."

The two most important words: "Thank you,"

The one most important word: "We"

The least most important word: "I"

4 fugitive officers warn of 'new Armed Forces' vs Arroyo

2006-01-19T12:02:00.000+03:00

4 fugitive officers warn of 'new Armed Forces' vs Arroyo
First posted 12:56pm (Mla time) Jan 19, 2006
By Joel Francis Guinto, INQ7.net

A force within the Armed Forces of the Philippines is growing "stronger by the day" that will fight for a "change of system" where the people's interests "are truly supreme," warned four junior officers who escaped detention from a military camp Tuesday.

At the same time, Captain Nathaniel Rabonza, and First Lieutenants Lawrence San Juan, Sonny Sarmiento, and Patricio Bumidang Jr. urged their comrades to "act now" to end the "corruption, illegitimacy, and neglect … and repression of a bogus regime."

The "new AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines]" will fight for a "change of system" to end "corruption,
illegitimacy, and neglect," they said in a statement sent via e-mail to GMA Network news anchor Arnold Clavio, copies of which were distributed to newsmen.

"We are a force that grows stronger by the day, working in solidarity to usher a new nation where the people's interests are truly supreme," the group said.

"The imperative is on all of us. The time to act is now," the group said.

The group said "most of the Armed Forces" remained loyal to their oath to uphold the sovereign will of the people.

"Those who insist on the neutrality of the military, and who now occupy the positions of power, are those who would rather that we stay silent, betray our oath, and in effect even help them perpetuate their own selfish interests. They are the enemies of the people. We refuse to be their pawns," the four said.

The four scored government for having a system "that reduces people to being mere spectators." They said the current political system reeked of "petty quarrels, distracting issues, and cosmetic reforms."

The group said they bolted detention at Fort Bonifacio Tuesday evening in protest of the "repression of a bogus regime."

"We will no longer go along with the repression that this regime has to impose in order to continue its illegitimate rule. It is a repression that continues to prevent the members of the armed forces from, and even punishes them for, carrying out their sworn duty: To defend the Filipino people," they said.

Earlier Thursday, the mutineers' lawyers claimed to have established contact with them.

Quoting his phone conversation with Bumidang, lawyer Roel Pulido said "brother soldiers" helped the group escape to thwart an "evil plan" being hatched against them.

Belafonte says Bush is ‘greatest terrorist’

2006-01-10T13:22:00.000+03:00

I read this from Tribune Plus:

CARACAS, Venezuela - The American singer and activist Harry Belafonte has called President Bush “the greatest terrorist in the world” and has said millions of Americans support the socialist revolution of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

Belafonte led a delegation of Americans including the actor Danny Glover and the Princeton University scholar Cornel West that met the Venezuelan president for more than six hours late Saturday. Some in the group attended Chavez’s television and radio broadcast Sunday.

“No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we’re here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people ... support your revolution,” Belafonte told Chavez during the broadcast.

The 78-year-old Belafonte, famous for his calypso-inspired music, including the “Day-O” song, was a close collaborator of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and is now a Unicef goodwill ambassador. He also has been outspoken in criticising the US embargo of Cuba.

Chavez said he believes deeply in the struggle for justice by blacks, both in the U.S. and Venezuela.

“Although we may not believe it, there continues to be great discrimination here against black people,” Chavez said, urging his government to redouble its efforts to prevent discrimination. Belafonte accused US news media of falsely painting Chavez as a “dictator,” when in fact, he said, there is democracy and citizens are “optimistic about their future.”

Dolores Huerta, a pioneer of the United Farm Workers labour union also in the delegation, called the visit a “very deep experience.”

Chavez accuses Bush of trying to overthrow him, pointing to intelligence documents released by the US indicating that the CIA knew beforehand that dissident officers planned a short-lived 2002 coup. The US denies involvement, but Chavez says Venezuela must be on guard. Belafonte suggested setting up a youth exchange for Venezuelans and Americans. He finished by shouting in Spanish: “Viva la revolucion!”

Emulate honest girl, Ma'am

2006-01-10T13:18:00.000+03:00

President Macapagal-Arroyo should emulate the honesty of 12-year-old Cristina Bugayong who returned P300,000 worth of cash and checks she found last January 4.

"President Arroyo could learn a thing or two from Cristina Bugayong about true honesty, integrity, and truthfulness," according to Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran.

The lawmaker said the accolade for Bugayong shows the nation sorely lacks honest men and women. He lamented that far from Bugayong's exemplary attitude was the country's president "who consistently lied without batting an eyelash, consistently backtracked on her promises, spinelessly retracted her statements, and has been accused of massive graft and corruption on many controversial issues."

Tita C. Valderama
People's Journal

Juliana's Blue Moon Week

2006-01-07T21:31:00.000+03:00

Philippine actress Juliana Palermo is not just another hot babe. The girl has brains. She's pretty and intelligent. I really like her.

It has been a ‘Blue Moon’ week
SIZZLING HOT By Juliana Palermo
The Philippine Star 01/08/2006

At last, the first week of the year has ended! Everyday this past week has been very interesting to me.

It feels as if I’ve grown a couple of years older with the events God handed me a few days ago. I realized life wouldn’t be fun without trials. Doesn’t it make sense? There are times when I want to give up, but I’m still hanging in there.

Everyone, I guess has his own share of problems. But that’s just what makes most things exciting –when you’re challenged.

When they say "Everything comes and goes…" it is literal. Nothing is permanent, everything has an ending. The same thing applies to problems. I write this because I simply want to share the things I’ve gotten out of life.

The one thing that has kept my head above water is prayers. It’s sad to say but living in this world is just like making one big movie. You always have to think, "Whatever happens, the show must go on."

It’s just one of the harsh realities of life.

Sometimes, it’s better to step back and watch how the situation is going before making decisions.

And speaking of movies, I haven’t really had the chance to watch any lately. Although my week wasn’t going so smoothly, it at least started off with a good film. I’ve been so pre-occupied with a lot of other things that I’ve only seen one film festival entry aside of course, from Mourning Girls.

My manager and a good friend of ours, Agatha, invited me to watch Blue Moon earlier this week.

I’m really not into watching "period" films, but since I wasn’t too busy that day, I decided to join them.

I honestly thought it would be boring. It came to my surprise when I found myself in tears in the middle of the movie. I hardly ever cry in theaters, but for some reason, this movie has its way of touching your heart and making you realize things.

The story is all about finding true love. A man named Manuel, played by Eddie Garcia and Mark Herras in his early years, is in search of one woman.

Two other men, Christopher de Leon and Dennis Trillo, are as heartbroken as Manuel is.

Manuel is in search of Corazon, his childhood sweetheart. Corazon is played by Boots Anson-Roa, Jennylyn Mercado and Pauleen Luna.

Manuel doesn’t have much time left to find his true love, but he keeps trying and trying.

He goes everywhere and does everything he can to find her. The one thing that makes the film so romantic is the love that gives Manuel the courage to really try to find Corazon.

One thing I realized when I took a step back from my situation this past week is that half the title of this film gave me an overview of my whole week. It was a blue week for me!

It’s touching to watch Blue Moon because it teaches you how to trust and love. It also gives you hope that someday, you will find your special someone. It makes you want to start all over again after a heartbreak.

I’ve been happily single now for a couple of years. In fact, I consider myself a hopeless romantic.

I believe everything happens for a reason, and if two people are meant to be, they’ll end up together.

Blue Moon will make you realize a lot of things. If you’re one of those who don’t believe in love anymore, this is the perfect movie for you.

Watch it and let me know what you think of it. Have a blessed Sunday!

2006-01-07T21:07:00.000+03:00

POLITICOS CAN LEARN LOTS FROM HER. Greed not being her creed, 12-year old Cristina Bugayon is intent on returning the hard cash and cheques totalling half a million pesos that she found to the rightful owner. Her mom cooks for a small food stall to eke a living for a brood of eight kids. Cristina is a grade six pupil at Tomas Morato Elementary School in Quezon City. She was taught well. Photo by JIMMY CARBO for the People's Journal. January 6, 2006.

It is difficult...

2006-01-07T17:51:00.000+03:00

...and that is an understatement.

It is an understatement to say that I can manage to survive.

It is nothing but short of a miracle that I am surviving.

It is difficult.

It is difficult to tell, to explain, to describe...

I am surviving but deep within is a volcano simmering in anger and frustration.

My heart aches. My heart bleeds.

I am angry.

It is difficult.

A Talk to Google's Larry Page in 2038

2006-01-07T17:05:00.000+03:00

This humorous futuristic interview with Google's Larry Page at Google Blogoscoped is a surefire humor but it is also ominous. Check the portion I have quoted below:

I find it fascinating these days, you can have conversations with the Google search box like it would be your best friend.
Exactly. This was the stuff we wanted to have there from the beginning. Some of us thought it would take us 300 years, but they didn’t include robotic personnel working for us into the calculation. This changes the whole game. But with this high artificial intelligence naturally come new problems as well.

Are you referring to the case of the teenager committing suicide after being rejected?
Right. Because the Google AI was so friendly to her and listened to all of her problems, everyday, she fell in love with it. When she wanted more, we just couldn’t offer this to her. This is quite tragic and we’re currently introducing mechanisms to make the Google AI come off as a bit more “unlovable.”

Like what mechanisms?
Every once in a while, it will say “shut up.” [laughs]

The entire piece is worth the read. ;)

New Dubai Ruler is a believer in change

2006-01-06T21:05:00.000+03:00

I read this on Bahrain Tribune today.

Dubai (AFP) - The UAE appointed the Ruler of Dubai, Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister and Vice-President, succeeding his elder brother Shaikh Maktoum.

The official WAM news agency said Shaikh Mohammed, currently the Defence Minister, was also asked to form a new cabinet. Officials said they did not expect a major reshuffle in the government.

“Members of the Supreme Federal Council ... agreed to charge Shaikh Mohammed as Prime Minister to form a new government,” WAM said. It said the council, headed by UAE President, Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, elected Shaikh Mohammed to his new posts.

The current Cabinet was sworn in after the death in 2004 of the then UAE president, Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Shaikh Mohammed is a moderate Arab leader. “I say to my fellow Arabs in (power): If you do not change, you will be changed,” he said in a conference attended by Arab and world figures in Dubai last year. “If you do not initiate radical changes to restore respect to public duties, uphold the principles of transparency, justice and responsibility, your peoples will resent you, and the verdict of history on you will be severe,” he added.

Shaikh Mohammed, 56, over the course of 20 years, transformed Dubai into a popular tourist destination. His decision in 1985 to arm Dubai with an airline, Emirates, was undoubtedly the most crucial move at the core of his strategy to develop the city. In the following years, numerous tourism projects were launched, as well as various free zones – mainly for Internet and media – which contributed to the city change toward a business hub. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001 on the US, Shaikh Mohammed has been endeavouring to fight all links between Islam and terrorism and show that Islam and modernity are compatible. “The evil has been committed by the perpetrators and not their religion. We should never brand Islam and Muslims with such terrorist acts,” he said following the attacks.

Born in Dubai in 1949, Shaikh Mohammed studied in a military college in Britain before starting his public career in 1968 as the director of police and public security in the emirate, which was still a British protectorate.

Shortly after independence in December 1971, he was promoted to a general by his brother, Prime Minister Shaikh Maktoum, and was nominated as the defence minister for the new federation. He was the youngest minister in the world. He is passionate about horses and takes part in races of endurance, while he is keen on poetry.

2006-01-04T16:59:00.000+03:00

Full STEAM ahead! This is the theme of Ramon C. Angel, President of the Filipino Club Toastmasters 3029-79. The guy admits that he is not a talker but his commitment and leadership will not be hampered. He stands on his outstanding performance as a past president of the association of Filipino engineers, architects and technicians in Bahrain. Go, Mon! Charge full steam ahead!

2006-01-04T16:50:00.000+03:00

Another angle of the oath-taking. From left, Immediate Past President Albert Gayo administering the oath, Sergeant-at-Arms Sayed Abbas Al-Alawi, Treasurer Salman Ali Salman, Secretary Noril Pilpil (she's on the picture but might as well could not be; she is dwarfed although you can see her legs), VP Membership Hani Ali Saleh, VP Education Ali Shahbaz Ali and President Ramon C. Angel. VPPR Hassanain Al-Saffar is not on the picture. He has to skip the program because of a personal tragedy.

2006-01-04T16:40:00.000+03:00

Filipino Club Toastmasters 3029-79. Officers for the second term, 2005-2006 took their oath of office with Immediate Past President Albert Gayo administering the oath. These are the leaders who will see to it that the Club grow to be the cynosure of Toastmasters in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

A Filipino of faith, Faith in the Filipino

2006-01-04T14:23:00.000+03:00

It has been days snce my last post. I wanted to post a lot of things lately but something would always come up and everything would fizzle out. Today, however, I just have to make sure I share this inspiring article which Jeck, a friend and a colleague from the Managers for Christ Toastmasters Club in the Philippines, forwarded to me.

It is from the column of Max Soliven of the Philippine Star.

A Filipino of faith
BY THE WAY By Max V. Soliven
The Philippine Star 12/19/2005

We keep on paying lip service to the catchword, "Faith in the Filipino." In this Christmas season of hope - and also sadness - this faith and confidence in ourselves too often falls short of being justified.

However, here's one story which I must tell.

This incident took place last Thursday in the late afternoon. I was rushing home in my car, an X-5, from my last meeting in Makati - already far behind schedule, since my next appointment, after a change of clothes, was in Malacañang. My vehicle broke down in the mounting rush-hour traffic on the Paseo de Roxas, not far from the corner of Buendia. There I was, frantically trying to hail a cab in vain while the avenue was crawled alongside, almost gridlocked. My desperation must have been all over my face. I had fruitlessly attempted calling my Stargate office on Ayala Avenue, then my associates and friends nearby. I needed a car badly to rescue me from the corner where I had been stranded. But nobody could be contacted.

Then a white Chevrolet Ventura pulled up to the curb. The young man at the wheel leaned over, his window rolled down, and asked: "Can I help you, sir?"

I blurted out, "Yes - my car over there broke down. I must get home in a hurry! Can you bring me somewhere where I can find a taxicab?"

The fellow smiled and said: "Hop in, Sir I will drive you home."

I scrambled aboard, thankful to the kind stranger, and God - and for my good fortune. In retrospect, I wonder why it had never occurred to me he might be an armed hold-up man. I guess it was the disarming nature of his smile, his earnest approach. Yet now could anyone be so generous as to stop in the middle of traffic, then offer a total stranger a ride all the way to his home? He hadn ' t even asked how far away I lived; he'd made the offer without hesitation.

When we were underway, I asked to shake his hand and asked for his name, "My name is Alex," he simply said. 'I'm Max," I replied, then fished in my pocket and offered him my card. He peered at it, then exclaimed: "Wow. It's an honor! I read you every day!"

"Now. Alex, you owe me your card in return." I said.

Stopped at a light, he took out his wallet, got one and politely handed it to me. It read: Alexander L. Lacson, above which was his firm's title: "Malcolm Law", underneath that, "A Professional Partnership." By golly, I had been rescued by a lawyer.

There you are. Somehow, when faith in the Filipino wavers, a Filipino comes along to restore your faith. Restore it? So surprise you with his kindness and generosity. This is an experience - and a shining gesture - I'll never forget.

* * *

I finally told Alex I was headed for Greenhills. He grinned. "By coincidence, since I ' m taking you there, my destination happens to lie not far away - I'm headed for Wack-Wack subdivision to give a talk at a Christmas party."

"Why?" I exclaimed. "In addition to being a lawyer, are you also a preacher?"

He smiled even more merrily and explained that he had written a little book. It was on the car seat beside him, and I picked it up. It was entitled: "12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do to Help Our Country."

Alex had his little volume (108 pages) published earlier this year by the Alay Pinoy Publishing House in Quezon City, and it had sold out in its first printing within three weeks. The second and third printings were about to sell out, too.

No, he wasn't selling it through any bookshop, the biggest book shop (unnamed here) wanted too big a portion of its possible earnings, but I told them I wanted the proceeds to go to a scholarship foundation for the needy."

So, Lacson has been selling his book out of his office and out of his home.

The dedication of the slim tome reveals his sincerity. It says: "To my Creator, who has blessed me with so much, and to my Country, which yearns for love from its people."

As we drove up EDSA, Alex said: "I read your mother's book, 'A Woman So Valiant,' too - and I loved it!"

Can you beat that?

My mama had written that book of hers in longhand, on yellow pad paper not long before she died at the age of 81 on October 16, 1990 - and belatedly, we had
published it last year. Astoundingly, it had been a runaway bestseller, without publicity, and had sold out in the National Bookstores.

My sister, Mrs. Mercy S. David messaged me when she arrived from New York that the Japanese were now planning to transcribe the autobiography into Japanese and publish it in Tokyo, as a chronicle of what happened to a Filipino family in the war years (and during Japanese military occupation). The proposed Japanese title, "A Valiant Mother and Her Nine Children."

But that's another story, far removed from today's inspiring tale about Alex Lacson's Christian spirit and generosity. One thing Alex said demonstrated he had really read Mom's book. He remarked that the thing he vividly remembered in Mama's memoirs was that, in spite of our poverty, she had determined: "I don't want my children to feel poor." Thus, one of us or two of us in turn had been taken by her, on her meager
earnings as a seamstress, to eat at a good restaurant. The "classy" restaurant of the time, Alex recalled from its mention in mama's book, was The Aristocrat. How lives intersect in this spinning world.

To get to the end of the "rescue" saga, Alex Lacson drove me to my home in Greenhills, and I noticed he never broke a traffic rule. I was tempted, in my
selfish agitation to get home and get my tuxedo for the State dinner in the Palace, then dash over to Malacañang, to cut corners, such as push into the opposite lane when stuck not far from the Buchanan Gate, in order to sneak into the Gate. But Lacson calmly awaited his turn in traffic. Obey the law and obey the rules were obviously the bedrock of his "12 Things" credo.

In any event, getting to Malacañang in the end was only the bonus. Meeting someone like Alex Lacson was the real miracle.

* * *

Alexander Ledesma Lacson, it turned out, modest as he was in bearing, was a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Law, 1996, and took up graduate studies at the Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass. (Good old Harvard Yard, by gosh). His wife, Pia Peña - it turned out even more amazingly - is the daughter of an old friend, Teddy Peña from Palawan! She, too, is a lawyer - U.P. 1993 - a legal
counsel for Citibank. They established a foundation together to help underprivileged children through school, and are now subsidizing 27 young scholars in different public schools in Alex's native Negros Occidental.

The reason Alex had been headed for Wack-Wack was the fact that the officers and employees of a company named Resins Inc., after buying 1,000 copies of his book had invited him to give the "homily" at their Christmas party. This was not a small group - the company had 600 employees, waiting for his "word" that night.

Alex, it struck me from our conversation, is an eloquent and devout Catholic. He believes God must have destined our people for some great role - why, in all history, he reasoned, were we Filipinos the "only Christian nation in Asia?" One thing is certain: He and his wife Pia practice their Christianity - and live it.

Four years ago, he and his wife had a serious discussion about migrating to the US or Canada because the Philippines, as a country appeared hopeless since things only got worse year after year. They wanted to know if their children (they have three, one boy and two girls) would be better off staying in our country or abroad in the next 20 years.

Pia and Alex had asked themselves the question: "Is there hope for the Philippines to progress in the next 20 years?"

They reasoned: If the answer is Yes, then they would stay. If it was No, they would leave and relocate abroad while they were still young and energetic. There were long discussions. One day, the realization, Alex recalls, struck them: the answer to that question was in themselves. The country would improve, Pia and Alex finally understood, if they and every other Filipino did something about it. Leaving the
Philippines was not the solution. As Lacson put it in his book: "The answer is in us as a people; that hope is in us as a people."

* * *

When I read the book afterwards, I discovered that many important people had endorsed it.

But these encomiums are not needed. Alex laughed when I quipped that he must be one of the wealthy Lacsons from Negros Occidental, like my classmates and schoolmates in the Ateneo. He cheerfully, and proudly, said that he was "a poor Lacson." His mother, he pointed out, had been a public school teacher in Cabangcalan.

No, he's not poor - his richness are in his friends, and in the heart.

Here are, in outline, his 12 commandments:

1) Follow traffic rules. Follow the law.

2) Whenever you buy or pay for anything, always ask for an official receipt.

3) Don't buy smuggled goods. Buy local. Buy Filipino. (Or, if you read the book, he suggests: 50-50).

4) When you talk to others, especially foreigners speak positively about us and our country.

5) Respect your traffic officer, policeman and soldier.

6) Do not litter. Dispose your garbage properly. Segregate. Recycle. Conserve.

7) Support your church.

8) During elections, do your solemn duty.

9) Pay your employees well.

10) Pay your taxes.

11) Adopt a scholar or a poor child.

12) Be a good parent. Teach your kids to follow the law and love our country.

These are the 12 things every Filipino can do to help our country. At first blush, they seem simple. When you study them more closely, they are difficult to do. But all of us, together can do them.

the end

Rizal Day

2005-12-30T16:02:00.000+03:00

Today is Rizal Day.

More than a hundred years ago today, the Philippine national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, was martyred by musketry by a witch-hunting regime manipulated by the clerico-fascist leadership of the frailes.

What saddens me, however, is that aside the customary wreath-laying and flag-raising ceremonies, we Filipinos do not seem to understand the significance of Rizal's death and martyrdom.

In fact, it was on a similar occassion some years ago that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo tricked the country by claiming she will no longer seek election so that she can concentrate on implementing sweeping reforms beneficial to our country and our people without worrying about political backlash. It turned out to be the first in the unending lies of the feisty little woman in Malacañang.

Is she the Maria Clara or the "kababaihan ng Malolos" of Rizal?

Today's commemoration of the martyrdom of Rizal is shrouded by the tales and horrors of a cheating, lying, stealing regime. They are not any different from the colonial power that murdered Rizal. This time, it is a fellow Filipino for whom Rizal died who is murdering the Filipino nation.

Quo vadis, Rizal?

Looking for some thought-provoking statements?

2005-12-29T17:53:00.000+03:00

I always read Nestor Torre's collection of television interview bloopers. Here are three from his recent compilation:

Host: What is lacking in your life now? You seem to have everything...
Guest: Oh, there's always something more. You cannot find it, I cannot find it, because it is missing!
***
Host: How important are your friends to you?
Guest: Oh, so important! They're always around even if they aren't around. You know? Friends, we always communicate each other!
***
Host: How do you keep calm in a very tough competition, with so much at stake?
Guest: You just have faith in yourself-and before you compete, you just take a deep breathe!

2005-12-29T17:46:00.000+03:00

Oeeeeewh! See all the oil?! That's chicken shawarma plate. I still prefer meat shawarma. Now, I must try the camel shawarma at Crowne Plaza. Will I say "yummy" or "yeooh"?!

Two in a row.

2005-12-29T17:31:00.000+03:00

I was pleasantly surprised that I won the FCT Evaluation Contest. I thought Vicky and Albert would perform really very good. It was Saudi Sa'id Al-Hajri and Bahraini Hassanain Al-Saffar who went home with the second and third places respectively.

This is my second first placer at FCT for this year's (2006 actually) contest season. I wanted to give the Humorous Speech a try. I will also join the International Speech Contest.

As usual, my only motivation is to see if I can deliver a memorized speech. Memorizing has not been my virtue. The last time I tried it, the results are disastrous; I would do anything to rid it from my memory.

Anyway, the contests are good diversions to all my serious concerns... and I have so much of them!

DFA warns Filipinos with tourist-visas bound for Kuwait

2005-12-29T14:27:00.000+03:00

I am reprinting this news from the Philippine Star with the highlighted text mine:

The Department of Foreign Affairs Thursday advised all Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) bound for Kuwait to possess the proper work permits and residence visas and not tourist visas in order to avoid problems with immigration authorities in that Middle East country.

The DFA issued this travel advisory upon the recommendation of Charge d’ Affaires, a.i. Ricardo M. Endaya of the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait, who urged “Kuwait-bound OFWs not to proceed to Kuwait if they are just holding tourist visas and hope to find work in this country.”

CDA Endaya warned that Kuwait-bound OFWs with tourist visas “are likely to be exploited by unscrupulous employers and eventually find themselves stranded with their wages unpaid.”

He also informed OFWs that “foreign workers who came to Kuwait with tourist visas that later expired were required to pay KD2 daily (equivalent to PhP370).”

This is the plight of many stranded OFWs in Kuwait, some of them are now staying at the Embassy’s Welfare Center, CDA Endaya added.

The DFA urged all OFWs to take note that the strictness of the Kuwaiti immigration in giving work permits and residence visas. Likewise, CDA Endaya advised OFWs that it is not easy to find good jobs in Kuwait unless he or she is holding Visa –18.

“Majority of Filipino workers in Kuwait have only Visa-20, which is for domestic workers and are not transferable unless agreed upon by the employers,” CDA Endaya said, adding that “a holder of Visa-20 cannot work in hotels, restaurants or offices.”

Echoing "My Senator"

2005-12-28T16:17:00.000+03:00

Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla, Jr., a fellow Caviteño was asked about his position on the proposed parliamentary form of government. This is what he said:

"That means we'll have a unicameral form of government and I prefer what we have now, having two houses, the Congress and the Senate. Kapag parliament na, the people will lose their chance of directly choosing the President. Mawawalan din ng checks and balances. Okay, mabilis nga in approving kung anong gusto nila aprubahan, but what happens kung mali naman 'yung gusto nilang paaprubahan, di ba? Ang makikinabang lang diyan, 'yung iilang taong magkokontrol ng gobyerno."

Wow! I never even thought "my senator" would actually take this position considering his extreme loyalty to the Arroyo leadership.

I never voted for him in all the elections he joined even during the first time he sought an elective position because I am not convinced he is prepared to tackle government work. Besides, his father was one of the biggest jokes at the Philippine Senate. However, in fairness to the younger Revilla (Bautista in real life), he seems to be doing fairly well in the Senate unlike another action star who also once served as provincial governor.

Now, I can confidently claim this Revilla as "my senator".

Winter in Bahrain, Finally!

2005-12-27T15:28:00.000+03:00

After a number of false starts, I believe yesterday's cold weather means it is definitely winter in Bahrain. I woke up to an ice-cold shower today. And I started cursing unknown persons for the awful job they have done on our water heater. Unlike my heater in Riyadh, this one does not afford me to enjoy steam! This simply means, the water does not heat very well. Worse, the water is only hot for twenty minutes after that, you will see the dial gradually drop and the water start to freeze and hurt your skin. Worst, after they repaired our water heater, you can barely squeeze water from our sink!

I know it is definitely winter because I saw many garbed in their jackets and sweaters. Many have cold.

I know it is definitely winter because I finally saw the same characters fight for the air conditioner control - one would turn the switch off while another would switch it on.

I know it is definitely winter because I am getting headaches once again. I always have migraine during the change of seasons. Although, I must tell you my migraine is out of control in summertime. :(

I am really glad that it is winter because this is the time when I can once more enjoy leisure walks around Bahrain. ;)

Winter in Bahrain is like a weekend in New England. It reminds me of the one true love who has kept me on my toes throughout life. Thus, despite the biting cold, the lonely night and the cruel chill, I love winter in Bahrain...

...But thoughts of me, holdin' you, bringin' us near

And tell me
When will our eyes meet?
When can I touch you?
When will this strong yearnin' end?
And when will I hold you again?

Time in New England, took me away
Long rocky beaches and you by the bay
We started a story whose end must now wait

And tell me
When will our eyes meet?
When can I touch you?
When will this strong yearnin' end?
And when will I hold you again?

I feel the change comin', I feel the wind blow
I feel brave and daring!, I feel my blood flow, oh
With you I could bring out all the love that I have
With you there's a heaven, so earth ain't so bad

And tell me
When will our eyes meet?
When can I touch you?
When will this strong yearnin' end?
And when will I hold you again?

I love you, Jenn!

"My Short Essay about the Philippines"

2005-12-27T09:20:00.000+03:00

"My Short Essay about the Philippines" was written in simple, imperfect English, and understandably so, for it was penned by a young Korean student named Jaeyon Kim. Professor Marlon Aves Diloy, a Filipino professor of Information Technology as well as English at the Yeungjin College in Daegu, Korea, shares with all Filipinos this essay, which sparked a renewed sense of nationalism and love for country for the thousands of Filipinos in South Korea. Diloy hopes that it will also touch your heart, the way it has deeply touched them.

FILIPINOS always complain about corruption in the Philippines. Do you really think the corruption is the problem of the Philippines? I do not think so. I strongly believe that the problem is the lack of love for the Philippines.

Let me first talk about my country, Korea. It might help you to understand my point. After the Korean War, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world. Koreans had to start from scratch because the country was destroyed completely during the war, and we had no natural resources.

Koreans used to talk about the Philippines, for Filipinos were very rich in Asia. We envied Filipinos. Koreans really wanted to be well off like Filipinos. Many Koreans died of famine. My father's brother died because of famine. Korean government was awfully corrupt -- and is still very corrupt beyond your imagination -- but Korea was able to develop dramatically because Koreans really did their best for the common good with their heart burning with patriotism. Koreans did not work just for themselves but also for their neighborhood and country. Education inspired young men with the spirit of patriotism.

Forty years ago, President Park took over the government to reform Korea. He tried to borrow money from other countries, but it was not possible to get a loan or attract a foreign investment because the economy of South Korea was so bad. Korea had only three factories. So, President Park sent many mine workers and nurses to Germany so they could send money to Korea to build a factory. They had to go through a horrible experience.

In 1964, President Park visited Germany to borrow money. Hundreds of Koreans in Germany came to the airport to welcome him and cried there as they saw the President Park. They asked him, "President, when can we be well off?" That was the only question everyone asked to him. President Park cried with them and promised them that Korea would be well off if everyone worked hard for Korea. The president of Germany got the strong impression on them and lent money to Korea. So, President Park was able to build many factories in Korea. He always asked Koreans to love their country from their heart.

Many Korean scientists and engineers in the US came back to Korea to help in developing the country because they wanted their country to be well off. Though they received very small salaries, they did their best for Korea. They always hoped that their children would live well off country.

My parents always brought me to the places where poor and physically handicapped people lived. They wanted me to understand their life and help them. I also worked for the Catholic Church when I was in the army. The only thing I learned from the Catholic Church was that we have to love our neighborhood. And I have loved my neighborhood.

Have you cried for the Philippines? I have cried for my country several times. I have also cried for the Philippines because of so many poor people.

I have been to the New Bilibid Prison. What made me sad in the prison were the prisoners who do not have any love for their country. They go to Mass and work for the church. They pray every day. However, they do not love the Philippines. I talked to two prisoners in the maximum-security compound, and both of them said that they would leave the Philippines right after they were released from the prison. They said they would start a new life in other countries and never come back to the Philippines.

Many Koreans have a great love for Korea so we can share our wealth with our neighborhood. The owners of factories and corporations distributed their profits to their employees fairly so that the employees could buy what they needed and saved money for the future and their children.

When I was in Korea, I had a very strong faith and wanted to be a priest. However, when I came to the Philippines, I completely lost my faith. I was very confused when I saw many unbelievable situations in the Philippines. Street kids always make me sad, and I saw them every day in the Philippines.

The Philippines is the only Catholic country in Asia, but there are too many people here. People go to church every Sunday to pray, but nothing has changed. My parents came to the Philippines last week and saw this situation. They told me that Korea was much poorer than the present Philippines when they were young. They are so sorry that there are so many beggars and street kids.

When we went to Pagsanjan, I forced my parents to take a boat because it would fun. However, they were not happy after taking the boat. They said they would take the boat again because they sympathized with the boatmen, who were very poor and had a small frame. Most of people just took a boat and enjoyed it. But my parents did not enjoy it because of love for the boatmen.

My mother who has been working for Catholic Church since I was very young told me that if we just went to Mass without changing ourselves, we are not Catholic in deed. Faith should come with action. She added that I have to love Filipinos and do good things for them because all of us are same and have received great love from God.

I want Filipinos to love their neighborhood and country as much as they love God so that the Philippines will be well off. I am sure that love is the keyword that Filipinos should remember. We cannot change the sinful structure at once; it should start from the person. Love must start in everybody on a small scale and have to grow. A lot of things happen if we open up to love.

Let's put away our prejudices and look at our worries with our new eyes. I discover that every person is worthy to be loved. Trust in love because it makes changes possible. Love changes you and me. It changes people, contexts and relationships. It changes the world.

Please love your neighborhood and country. Jesus Christ said that whatever we do to others we do to Him. In the Philippines, there is God for people who are abused and abandoned. There is God who is crying for love.

If you have children, teach them to love the Philippines. Teach them why they have to love their neighborhood and country. You know that God also will be very happy if you love others. That's all I really want to ask you Filipinos.

Pilipino

2005-12-26T21:27:00.000+03:00

Capt. Nicanor Faeldon, one of the leaders of the so-called Oakwood Mutiny, has filed bail and is on his way to being released. Then, he did the unthinkable - he opted to run away.

Alone, it is impossible for him to wage war against our corrupt, illegitimate government. But on the internet, the battlefield is levelled. He launched an crude website as his opening salvo.

I sympathize with Capt. Faeldon. I have reservations about the Oakwood mutiny then, I am very certain about his advocacies now.

Capt Faeldon says in his website, "I leave to join the fight of ordinary men, out to accomplish something extraordinary. If in the process I die, I die in peace; I know that I die fighting for the Filipino people."

Cooking By Numbers

2005-12-23T14:09:00.000+03:00

I chance upon cookingbynumbers.com while looking for novel BBQ techniques. It suggests recipes based on what you have in your fridge.

I only have an apple so I indicated so. The website processed my form and returned the following recipe:

Apple on its own. - Serves 1

Ingredients
1 Apple

Method
1. Take apple and examine for signs of wear and tear.
2. Put your coat on and go down the local shop or supermarket.
3. Whilst walking chew on your apple. Stop eating when you get to the pips and stalk. Throw the stalk in the bin and get some food.

Christmas 2005 List

2005-12-23T09:25:00.000+03:00

Ten things I will miss this Christmas:

1. People I love: my family, Jenn, my dearest friends, the Managers for Christ, my loyal friends in Saudi Arabia, and many more who are not in Bahrain.

2. My room: small but my very private domain.

3. My state-of-the-art PC: My brother Glenn has condemned the poor PC to oblivion.

4. Spending rampage: I would loved to but I can not, ask my employer why!

5. Sinful food: I am watching my health now, I think I'm winning so far. I have maanged to reduce on my carbohydrate intake.

6. The Metro Manila Film Festival Philippines: I don't care if Philippines movies are still a far cry from their Hollywood counterparts, I just love to enjoy the season at the movies.

7. Christmas cards: For several years now, I no longer receive Christmas cards via the postal service. All of them are on my mailbox - Eudora, Yahoo, Hotmail, Myrealbox and now Gmail. I am returning thefavor too! But I will have to give up my support of the UNESCO cards. Am sorry.

8. The noisy barrage of tots carolling out of tune: You know them! They usually sing only one song - "Ang Pasko ay sumapit...." - while jingling their homemade tambourines fashioned out of flattened softdrink and beer crowns. They are no longer happy with one peso. The nerve of these kids! But, they are really heavenly and fun! And only in the Philippines!

9. The hustle and bustle of Christmas in the Philippines: No amount of difficulty can break the Christmas spirit of the Filipinos. You would just not believe we are in a tough economic situation with all the spending happening around. And I am not referring to the mushroom malls around the cities but to the "classic" Divisoria and Baclaran!

10. The noce buena I usually prepare single-handedly: Yes, I do all the shopping, planning, cooking and arranging the noche buena table. And you expect me to clean the mess after the dinner?! But I really enjoy it when everybody enjoys my dinner! Am a frustrated iron chef!

Still, I will have a merry Christmas in Bahrain.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Most Christian expats in Gulf can celebrate Christmas

2005-12-23T09:17:00.000+03:00

This is a rejoinder to a report by Agence France-Presse I saw in inq7.net today. Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar, and Kuwait were mentioned as places in the Middle East where Christians can freely practice their faith and enjoy sanctuaries.

However, the article failed to mention the Kingdom of Bahrain where freedom of religion is being enjoyed by everyone for the longest time now. In fact, Bahrain is host to the only Christian cathedral in the Gulf region - the St. Christopher's Cathedral. There are huge Christian churches here. We can even pray before meals anywhere. We can even pray for intercession in public places. People of different religions respect each other in Bahrain.

In fact, our church, the National Evangelical Church will be celebrating its centennial in January, 2006 - a testament to the openness and greatness of this tiny island kingdom which has long been the beacon of tolerance, pluralism and religious freedom in this part of the world.

Merry Christmas to all Christians in the world especially those in the Middle East and Season's greetings to our non-Christian brethren!

I was blogged - the other way around

2005-12-23T08:39:00.000+03:00

I was skimming through GDN today and was shocked to read my name splashed on an headline:

Gilongos has last word

FILIPINO Nomel Gilongos took first place in the Filipino Club Toastmasters' (FCT) Table Topic Speech Contest held at the Bahrain Carlton Hotel, Adliya. Second place winner was Filipino Albert Gayo and third was Bahraini Hamza Ali.

Nine contestants of various nationalities were asked to comment one by one on the statement "You Can Tell a Man's Character by Looking at his Friend".

During the contest, Mr Gilongos and Mr Ali both agreed on the statement, while Mr Gayo disagreed.

The three winners have been selected to represent the FCT in the upcoming Area Three Contest between five Toastmasters clubs in March next year.

FCT is one of the clubs connected to Toastmasters International of Santa Ana, California, US, whose main mission is to teach men and women the art of public speaking.

FCT's next contest on speech evaluation is on Tuesday 8pm at the Carlton. All are welcome.

For more information, call Mr Gayo on 39277920.

Two Christmas greetings

2005-12-22T17:26:00.000+03:00

Everywhere: Merry Christmas! Ho! Ho! Ho!

Here: Merry Christmas! Hu! Hu! Hu!

No more tax cuts on pay

2005-12-22T15:02:00.000+03:00

Uhh, ok... Fine, whatever! Effective January 1, 2006, minimum wage earners in the private sector and their counterparts in government (in the Philippines) shall be exempt from the payment of witholding tax.

This was intended to be a good news and a timely gift from the beloved Philippine President, Gloria Arroyo. However, there really is nothing to rejoice about this scheme. In fact, this is merely delaying the inevitable - payment of income tax. Come to think of it, instead of enjoying refunds in case your witholding tax is actually bigger than the tax due, employees will be hard pressed to come up with the money to pay their income taxes.

With the insufficient salaries received by our minimum wage earners, many of them will find it hard to keep a portion of their salaries and save them for their income taxes. They might welcome the additional money but eventually they will have to contend with the reality that they would still need that money to pay for their income tax. It is merely staying the execution.

The President ordered the exemption "in order to mitigate the present condition of workers and the anticipated income of the R-VAT." But how will she mitigate the condition of workers when it income tax payment time?

If government really wish to help the people, it should come up with an honest to goodness progressive taxation, intensify its tax collection in heavily corrupted sectors and put up a genuine and aggressive battle against corruption.

Unfortunately, I don't believe these are in the horizon.

The year that was in Bahrain - retrospective

2005-12-22T11:14:00.000+03:00

For several days now, Sara Horton is giving us a review of Bahrain in 2005. Today, she wrote about March and I can no longer keep my peace. I do not know how Ms. Horton came up with her restrospection but I feel it rediculous to actually include in the highlight even the most trivial and parochial of the incidents and accidents. I am very certain Bahrain had more "history-altering" events than the items she has enumerated.

She seemed to be taking most of her "highlights" from the police beat.

I can't help but chuckle as this reminded me of an acquaintance who once told me that GDN is actually "Garbage Disguised as News".

I know the comment was harsh and unfair considering the reportorial and editorial team of GDN might probably doing everything to give us news-worthy stories. However, year-enders such as what Ms. Horton is trying to give us requires more than just selecting the most horrifying, the most scandalous, the most nauseating news. It must be about things that years from now can be looked back to for better understanding of why things turned out to be.

I am not going to append her list here nor shall I include a link. That would be an overkill.

Arrogance.

2005-12-21T15:53:00.000+03:00

So, who cares if everybody believed that Saddam Hussein stockpiled WMDs? Now that it has turned out that there was none of the sort in Iraq, you give us lame excuse for the invasion? You propped up peripheral issues to divert attention to the truth that it was not really about WMDs but about toppling the intransigent Saddam, who was a US creation, in the first place!

Funny, today, you are trying to make democracy a sentimental issue to cover up the arrogance of invading Iraq. Stick to your arguments.

Well, calm down, meandering shawarma. Here, read the GDN report instead:

'Stay on course for democracy'
By TARIQ KHONJI

MANAMA - The spread of democracy in the Arab world may be slow and painful, but countries should stay the course, says a US think tank scholar.

The toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and his replacement with an elected government may herald more changes across the Arab world, says American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Joshua Moravchik.

He said Arab countries should not expect an easy ride. But the long-term benefits of instituting successful democracies should outweigh the costs.

"On the whole, the birth and growth of democracy has usually been a process of struggle. Democracy will not come all at once," Mr Moravchik said yesterday.

There are currently relatively few 'free' countries in the world, he said, citing studies by non-partisan US think tank Freedom House.

"Freedom House finds that there are 89 'free' countries in the world, meaning countries that have democracy and also the full protection of citizens' rights," said Mr Moravchik.

"It also finds that there are another 33 countries that are "electoral democracies" and only 'partly free'.

"These are almost all new democracies, where rule of law is not fully reliable and where the citizens may not be fully educated about their rights.

"In all these places, progress will, of course, come one step at a time."

Mr Moravchik was speaking to Arab journalists via a live Web chat organised as part of a US State Department programme to strengthen dialogue with people from this part of the world.

It is par to a series of online talks being organised with various groups in the Arab world. The hope is that it will prove cheaper and more efficient than physically making speakers travel around the world.

During the chat, Mr Moravchik also defended US President George W Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq.

Journalists questioned the US government's motivation in invading Iraq, especially since no large stocks of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were ever found.

"The Americans were not the only ones who believed Saddam had WMD. All of the major powers, including those who opposed the US action, believed it, too," he said.

"Moreover, investigations found that Saddam's own commanders also believed it! But the larger reason was that Saddam was the most violent defier of international law in the region and a life-long supporter of terrorism.

"He was the arch example of the kind of aggressive Middle Eastern tyrant whom the US was no longer willing to tolerate after 9/11.

"We take terrorism very seriously. 9/11 was the worst attack in America's history. We were no longer willing to tolerate regimes that supported terrorist groups, and we were particularly afraid of regimes that were developing WMD."

However, Mr Moravchik admitted that it was not yet clear how successful America's foray into Iraq will be.

"I think we do not know yet whether America has succeeded or failed in Iraq, and we will not know for a couple more years," he continued.

"If we leave Iraq with an elected government that is able to defend itself against terrorists and violent resistance, then we will have succeeded.

"If we leave Iraq in flames, then we will have failed. I think we will succeed. But the end is surely not certain."

What Privacy? What Price Privacy?

2005-12-21T15:04:00.000+03:00

A new report on GDN today talked about the Bahraini parliament's proposal to clamp down on internet cafes which have been used by the youth for lewd activities. While I agree that that these shops are being used by some to surf for pornography and other anti-social materials and even worst, as meeting place for illicit and premarital sexual relations, blaming the privacy afforded by internet cafes for the deterioration of today's youth is simply absurd.

I feel the honorable gentlemen of the Parliament are barking at the wrong tree and are not addressing serious problems squarely.

I find it amusing to argue that these youth are using internet café to enjoy and abuse privacy. I still believe that privacy is only and will only be available in the home. Privacy is not about monitoring what you want your children to surf on the internet. Privacy is about trusting your children to make responsible decisions. Children will not demand nor look for privacy is they are afforded these “luxuries” in their homes. Parenthood is the precursor of privacy. Responsible parenthood breeds responsible children. And no amount of “private” internet cafes can destroy the moral fiber of a child who has received proper and responsible parenthood.

Internet cafes clamp on way
By MOHAMMED AL A'ALI

MANAMA - Tough new laws could soon be brought in to stop youngsters surfing for sex sites at Internet cafes. Children would be banned from Internet cafes under proposals backed unanimously by MPs at parliament's weekly session yesterday.

Separate male and female areas would be set up and private cubicles ripped out, to stop youngsters having sex in them or surfing for pornographic sites.

Internet cafes would be tightly monitored and their owners prosecuted if they broke the rules, under the proposals, put by Al Menbar Parliamentary Bloc.

Children and teenagers use the cafes to surf websites for pornography, or even for sites about terrorism and illegal drugs, MPs heard.

Internet cafes allow children and teenagers access to banned sites in private stalls or rooms, by logging into the network through alternative proxies, said bloc member Dr Saadi Ali.

He said that some were using the private stalls to meet their boyfriends or girlfriends and engage in sexual activities, without being stopped by workers at cafes.

MPs want the government to intervene by creating strict laws and by monitoring the cafes.

"Children from the primary to secondary stages go to these shops immediately after the school day is over," said Dr Ali, who drafted the proposal.

"Even though many have computers and Internet access at home, children prefer the café because it is more private and they can view websites without family supervision.

"Many of them lie to their parents, claiming they are studying with friends and some parents don't really care where their children spend their time."

Dr Ali said Internet use in the country was not properly regulated under specific rules and regulations.

"If a café in a Western country allowed children and teenagers access to these websites, the owner would be severely punished," he said.

"Other countries have rules and regulations, except us."

Dr Ali said technology was there to be used wisely.

"Technology should be used to get information, acquire knowledge and communicate with others around the world and not to watch immoral or terrorist sites," he said.

"The problem is those working in these cafes supply the children and teenagers with a list of the websites which contain such content.

"I know that youngsters in this age want to explore things, but that's not the right way to do it."

Dr Ali said children should be educated about right and wrong in an appealing and scientific manner.

"Allowing them complete privacy isn't a solution, because privacy is one of the main reasons the morals of our children are going down," he said.

"Everyone has the right to do what they want, but not children or teenagers, who are inexperienced."

He said children and teenagers were being fed wrong information from other sources.

"Satellite channels and mobile phones when used badly prove destructive, but both are being used under the partial supervision of parents," said Dr Ali.

"It is unlike Internet cafes, which allow complete privacy and encourage children and teenagers to browse indecent and immoral websites.

"This is why a curb on these cafes should be implemented, if we really care about children."

He said Internet shops should also be also banned from opening round-the-clock, since youngsters were sneaking out at night to use them.

Stooping so low!

2005-12-21T11:17:00.000+03:00

This news report from Reuters caught my attention. Now, this story is really about stooping so low!

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Armed men dug up and tried to steal the corpse of the mother of one of war-torn Ivory Coast's opposition party leaders Monday but were stopped when guards intervened, the party said.

Hadja Nabintou Cisse, mother of the leader of the opposition Rally of Republicans party (RDR) and former prime minister Alassane Dramane Ouattara, was buried in the cemetery in Williamsville, a suburb of Ivory Coast's commercial capital Abidjan, on December 8.

Her son, a hated figure among many supporters of President Laurent Gbagbo who accuse him of starting the 2002 civil war that left the country divided in two, had returned from exile in Paris for the funeral.

RDR spokesman Cisse Bacongo said around 10 armed men dressed in security forces uniforms exhumed the body from the grave early Monday and carried it to the cemetery entrance before security guards raised the alarm and local youths gave chase.

The men fled in a four-wheel drive jeep without license plates, leaving the undamaged body of the Muslim woman behind. It was later reburied by several Imams, Bacongo said.

He added the RDR did not know who was behind the attack on the grave but that Ouattara did not want to politicize the issue.

"It is an ignominious act and we must condemn it," Bacongo told Reuters.

The country's new prime minister, economist Charles Konan Banny, made a brief stop at the cemetery to pay his respects at the grave Monday, where several hundred RDR supporters had gathered, some helping to tidy the tomb.

Bahrain signs free trade pact with US

2005-12-20T15:53:00.000+03:00

It is official. Bahrain has signed a free trade pact with the United States. Bahrain is the first GCC country to sign a free trade with the US.

The historic Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Bahrain was ratified by the US Senate by voice vote—without objection — paving the way for a new era of cooperation for the two countries who have shared a close friendship for over a century.

The agreement seem to be fair and equal. If the great American nation can sign one with Bahrain, why can't/haven't they with the Philippines where all agreements between our nations has always put our country to the disadvantage. for example, the Mutual Defense Treaty between the Philippines and the US requires us to join the US in its wars and conflicts while it is quiet when it is the Philippines that will be needing its might. Just recently, the Visiting Forces Agreement's one sided bias to the US was exposed when it was brought to fore that US military personnel violating Philippine laws are said to be immune from our laws! Talk about fairness.

Well, the free trade agreement between Bahrain and the US seem to be fair on the surface but... Good luck anyway!

Christmas in Our Hearts

2005-12-18T12:02:00.000+03:00

This song was written and composed by prolific Filipino musician Jose Mari Chan sometime in the 90's. It has now become one of the most loved Christmas songs in the Philippines. This song, together with the other songs from the album of the same title, is a Filipino best seller and a classic!

In Bahrain, where there is freedom of religion, the song brings cherished memories of my Christmases in the Philippines...

Whenever I see girls and boys
Selling lanterns on the streets,
I remember the Child
In the manger as He sleeps.

Wherever there are people
Giving gifts, exchanging cards,
I believe that Christmas
Is truly in their hearts.

Let's light our Christmas trees
For a bright tomorrow
Where nations are at peace
And all are one in God

Let's sing Merry Christmas
And a happy holiday,
This season may we never forget
The love we have for Jesus
Let Him be the One to guide us
As another new year starts
And may the spirit of Christmas
Be always in our hearts.

In every prayer and every song
The community unites,
Celebrating the birth
Of our Savior, Jesus Christ

Let love, like that starlight
On that first Christmas morn,
Lead us back to the manger
Where Christ the Child was born

So, come let us rejoice
Come and sing a Christmas carol
With one big joyful voice
Proclaim the name of the Lord!

Small Steps

2005-12-15T20:20:00.000+03:00

I chanced upon this website that offers help so that we can separate healthy fact from fiction.

www.smallstep.gov challenges us to be healthier!

So, if you want to get healthy, but don’t know how to begin? Start with this list of small steps and find some that work for you. I am now searching...

1. Walk to work.
2. Use fat free milk over whole milk.
3. Do sit-ups in front of the TV.
4. Walk during lunch hour.
5. Drink water before a meal.
6. Eat leaner red meat & poultry.
7. Eat half your dessert.
8. Walk instead of driving whenever you can.
9. Take family walk after dinner.
10. Skate to work instead of driving.
11. Avoid food portions larger than your fist.
12. Mow lawn with push mower.
13. Increase the fiber in your diet.
14. Walk to your place of worship instead of driving.
15. Walk kids to school.
16. Get a dog and walk it.
17. Join an exercise group.
18. Drink diet soda.
19. Replace Sunday drive with Sunday walk.
20. Do yard work.
21. Eat off smaller plates.
22. Get off a stop early & walk.
23. Don't eat late at night.
24. Skip seconds.
25. Work around the house.
26. Skip buffets.
27. Grill, steam or bake instead of frying.
28. Bicycle to the store instead of driving.
29. Take dog to the park.
30. Ask your doctor about taking a multi-vitamin.
31. Go for a half-hour walk instead of watching TV.
32. Use vegetable oils over solid fats.
33. More carrots, less cake.
34. Fetch the newspaper yourself.
35. Sit up straight at work.
36. Wash the car by hand.
37. Don't skip meals.
38. Eat more celery sticks.
39. Run when running errands.
40. Pace the sidelines at kids' athletic games.
41. Take wheels off luggage.
42. Choose an activity that fits into your daily life.
43. Try your burger with just lettuce, tomato, and onion.
44. Ask a friend to exercise with you.
45. Make time in your day for physical activity.
46. Exercise with a video if the weather is bad.
47. Bike to the barbershop or beauty salon instead of driving.
48. Keep to a regular eating schedule.
49. If you find it difficult to be active after work, try it before work.
50. Take a walk or do desk exercises instead of a cigarette or coffee break.
51. Perform gardening or home repair activities.
52. Avoid laborsaving devices.
53. Take small trips on foot to get your body moving.
54. Play with your kids 30 minutes a day.
55. Dance to music.
56. Keep a pair of comfortable walking or running shoes in your car and office.
57. Make a Saturday morning walk a group habit.
58. Walk briskly in the mall.
59. Choose activities you enjoy & you'll be more likely to stick with them.
60. Stretch before bed to give you more energy when you wake.
61. Take the long way to the water cooler.
62. Explore new physical activities.
63. Vary your activities, for interest and to broaden the range of benefits.
64. Reward and acknowledge your efforts.
65. Choose fruit for dessert.
66. Consume alcoholic beverages in moderation, if at all.
67. Take stairs instead of the escalator.
68. Conduct an inventory of your meal/snack and physical activity patterns.
69. Share an entree with a friend.
70. Grill fruits or vegetables.
71. Eat before grocery shopping.
72. Choose a checkout line without a candy display.
73. Make a grocery list before you shop.
74. Buy 100% fruit juices over soda and sugary drinks.
75. Stay active in winter. Play with your kids.
76. Flavor foods with herbs, spices, and other low fat seasonings.
77. Remove skin from poultry before cooking to lower fat content.
78. Eat before you get too hungry.
79. Don't skip breakfast.
80. Stop eating when you are full.
81. Snack on fruits and vegetables.
82. Top your favorite cereal with apples or bananas.
83. Try brown rice or whole-wheat pasta.
84. Include several servings of whole grain food daily.
85. When eating out, choose a small or medium portion.
86. If main dishes are too big, choose an appetizer or a side dish instead.
87. Ask for salad dressing "on the side".
88. Don't take seconds.
89. Park farther from destination and walk.
90. Try a green salad instead of fries.
91. Bake or broil fish.
92. Walk instead of sitting around.
93. Eat sweet foods in small amounts.
94. Take your dog on longer walks.
95. Drink lots of water.
96. Cut back on added fats or oils in cooking or spreads.
97. Walk the beach instead of sunbathing.
98. Walk to a co-worker's desk instead of emailing or calling them.
99. Carry your groceries instead of pushing a cart.
100. Use a snow shovel instead of a snow blower.
101. Cut high-calorie foods like cheese and chocolate into smaller pieces and only eat a few pieces.
102. Use nonfat or low-fat sour cream, mayo, sauces, dressings, and other condiments.
103. Replace sugar sweetened beverages with water and add a twist of lemon or lime.
104. Replace high-saturated fat/high calorie seasonings with herbs grown in a small herb garden in your kitchen window.
105. Refrigerate prepared soups before you eat them. As the soup cools, the fat will rise to the top. Skim it off the surface for reduced fat content.
106. When eating out, ask your server to put half your entrée in a to-go bag.
107. Substitute vegetables for other ingredients in your sandwich.
108. Every time you eat a meal, sit down, chew slowly, and pay attention to flavors and textures.
109. Try a new fruit or vegetable (ever had jicama, plantain, bok choy, starfruit or papaya?)
110. Make up a batch of brownies with applesauce instead of oil or shortening.
111. Instead of eating out, bring a healthy, low calorie lunch to work.
112. Ask your sweetie to bring you fruit or flowers instead of chocolate.
113. Speak up for the salad bar when your coworkers are picking a restaurant for lunch, and remember calories count, so pay attention to how much and what you eat.
114. When walking, go up the hills instead of around them.
115. Walk briskly through the mall and shop 'til you drop ... pounds.
116. Clean your closet and donate clothes that are too big.
117. Take your body measurements to gauge progress.
118. Buy a set of hand weights and play a round of Simon Says with your kids - you do it with the weights, they do without.
119. Swim with your kids.

Saudi hiring of Filipino female nurses declining--DFA

2005-12-15T19:18:00.000+03:00

Hiring of female Filipino nurses in Saudi Arabia is declining while demand for male nurses is on the rise, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Thursday as reported on the www.inq7.net.

In his report to the DFA home office in Manila, Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla of the Philippine embassy in Riyadh said visas issued to female nurses in 2003 numbered 1,395. This rose to 2,288 last year, but dropped by 28 percent this year to 1,641.

On the other hand, visas issued to male nurses in 2003 numbered only 13. This climbed by more than 800 percent with 100 visas issued in 2004, and 52 percent with 152 visas released this year.

Guinomla’s report also indicated that the demand for male technicians is rising with 27 visas given in 2003, 124 last year, and 188 in 2005. For female technicians, 267 working visas were issued in 2003, 642 in 2004, and 540 this year.

It is estimated that 70 percent of the country’s two to three million overseas Filipino workers are women.

2005-12-15T18:37:00.000+03:00

This is the mini tornado that swept across central Bahrain yesterday afternoon.

The Gulf Daily News reported that the rare phenomenon called mesoscale feature was caused by a long spell of humid weather and higher-than-normal temperatures for the time of year.

The mini tornado was seen on open ground between A'ali and Zayed Town and threw up dust and other objects lying in its path.

Ridiculous are the many people who opted to go out of their cars and took pictures of the tornado. Posterity was more important than safety. That was not the case last week when it took us more than an hour to drive to Isa Town from Seef Mall after a thick fog enveloped Bahrain. What could have been the difference in the attitude of people? I guess the tornado occurred in day time. Duh!

"Events have proven me right. She is corrupt and ruthless and will do everything to stay in power." - Faeldon

2005-12-15T17:21:00.000+03:00

"Events have proven me right. She is corrupt and ruthless and will do everything to stay in power." So, Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon emphatically said. I agree with him. Corrupt. Ruthless. Will do everything to stay in power.

Jaime Laude of the Philippine Star wrote on December 15 that Magdalo member Faeldon escaped from his ISAFP escort after he paid his P200,000 bail bond before the Makati City regional trial court where he is facing charges of coup d’état along with six other Magdalo officials but the AFP ordered his continued detention.

It was a dramtic move to make a strong point.