2012 Musings

Hello, World! I've been too busy to be all lame about it. I've gone back to school in November. As to why I did that, I don't recall anymore but no regrets. Looking back to 2012, what say I?

Well, I was right about saying Pacquiao to quit boxing after the Bradley loss. An opinion over an opinion, of course.

This year has also proven to the skeptics that I was right about trusting Noynoy the presidency. To those who say that all the good news about the rise of Philippine economy are just press releases from the government, you probably don't go to supermarkets to notice that the prices of goods have gone down over the holidays. It is one good indicator that at least the middle class is feeling the effects of good governance. I'm positive that in no time, those in the lower class will feel the effects too.

Lastly, I hope Henry Sy will be more grateful to the Filipino people who have made him a billionaire, by paying his endo employees better, and eventually giving them regularization papers. And not sending them to jail when they are caught eating P23-potato chips while on duty.

Ti Amo, Talking Italian

For close to a month now, I have been working on my Italian as an ambitious attempt to surprise my professor when I present my report on Contrastive Analysis between Tagalog and Italian. To date, I can only read Italian, and speak some generic greetings and expressions.

As part of the learning process, I have downloaded Italian pop and classic songs to replace Bruno Mars music in my BB that also serves as my music box. (For the time being.)

And lo! A song stood out and captivated me the first time I listened to it. I fell in love. It has been playing on repeat in my ears for days now.

Here it is: Umberto Tozzi's "Ti Amo," a huge European hit in the late 70s which was recorded in English by Laura Brannigan which was also truly lame. Whoever translated it into English didn't get the right emotional nuisances of the song and its music. By the way, Umberto Tozzi was also the original artist in the song Gloria which Brannigan also translated to English which finally became a worldwide hit.



Arrivederci!

Good Luck, USA!

So, it's Obama for four more years. Surely, there are Americans who still ask if they did the right thing: re-electing a president who promised hope and delivered just that - hope. Perhaps, the next four years, he will deliver the promise of concretizing it. He promised to support the middle class, to give everyone "willing to work hard" equal opportunities: "black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight." Now, we know why he won. Had he included mammal or reptile, amphibian or invertebrate - dogs, cats, snakes, crocks and flies - would have also voted for him. :)

As for me, I gave This Guy six years to do his job, to work on what he's promised, and two years later, he's done what Obama could only hope he had achieved in his first term as President. My Guy won in a landslide election without promising to support divorce, legal use of drugs, abortion and same sex marriage.

Now, more than ever, I believe in the power of choosing right. 

Good luck to the United States of America!

Young Girls

By Bruno Mars

(I'm being oh so shameless here. I love, love this new song so much! )

I spend all my money on a big ol' fancy car

For these bright eyed honeys

Oh yeah you know who you are

Keep me up till the sun is high

Till the birds start calling my name

I'm addicted and I don't know why

Guess I've always been this way

All these roads still weave on

But I still drive them all night long
All night long

All you young wild girls

You make a mess of me

Yeah you young wild girls

You'll be the deàth of me
The deàth of me

All you young wild girls

No matter what you do

Yeah you young wild girls

I'll always come back to you
Come back to you

I get lost under these lights

I get lost in the words I say

Start believing my own lies

Like everything will be okay

Oh I still dream of a simple life

Boy meets girl makes her his wife

But love don't exist when you live like this
That much I know, yes I know

All these roads steer me wrong

But I still drive them all night long
All night long 

All you young wild girls

You make a mess of me

Yeah you young wild girls

You'll be the deàth of me
The deàth of me

All you young wild girls

No matter what you do

Yeah you young wild girls

I'll always come back to you
Come back to you

You you you
You you you

Yeah you you you

You you you

All you young wild girls

You make a mess of me

Yeah you young wild girls

You'll be the deàth of me
The deàth of me

All you young wild girls

No matter what you do

Yeah you young wild girls

I'll always come back to you
Come back to you

Source: http://www.eliterics.com/2012/10/young-wild-girls-lyrics-bruno-mars.html#ixzz2AEIF9xpk

Noynoying, Really?

What do I say? Pnoy's administration is full of activities and drama. And here's the President mocked for "Noynoying"!

A year ago in November, we saw how GMA was trumped from leaving the country despite Supreme Court's order allowing her to seek medical treatment abroad. DOJ Secretary Leila De Lima just wouldn't be taken for a fool, disbarment or not.

A few days before Christmas last year, Renato Corona, the 23rd Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, was impeached.

And more debates delivered grandstanding senators on the Reproductive Health Bill. We saw one cry. The same was caught plagiarizing twice.

Then just recently, the passing of the Anti-Cybercrime Law. All twitter-verse broke loose, blog-dom came down, FB and the vast Internet raised arms! Bill author and supporters turned the coat and pleaded amendments. Shortly, Supreme Court issued TRO for 120 days.

Then about a week ago, Senator Ralph Recto got the boot for watering down the Sin Tax bill that would have delivered 60B in revenues aimed to support health services for those afflicted by smoking and drinking related diseases. Senator Franklin Drilon took over.

This year, global creditors, financial and business analysts and institutions gave the Philippines thumbs-ups, taps on the back, positive ratings, and rave reviews. Of course, our dear OFWs are always quick to take the credit. Oooppss! Hey! Anti-Cybercrime Law TRO is in effect!

Then there's E.O. 79 institutionalizing and implementing reforms in mining in the Philippines.

A couple of months ago, the 24th Chief Justice of the Philippines was named. A female who has been widely criticized for her audacity to display her faith during official functions.

Gloria Arroyo on hospital arrest. This lady gets sick on special occasions: Pnoy's SONA, Corona impeachment trial, arraignments, etc. But when lull time, you get to see her enjoying the spa in Tagaytay! This is one sick joke. PDI editorial hits the bulls eye today, "But if Arroyo is truly ill, why is she running for Congress the second time?"

On its second reading, K to 12 has just been approved by Congress as of this writing.

And of course, there's China Crisis. Political Dynasties reload. Local Elections. Grace Padaca in COMELEC. Bam Aquino, Pnoy's nephew and Noynoy Aquino look-alike is running for senator. THERE IS NO WAY IN THE WORLD I AM GOING TO VOTE FOR THIS ONE. Manny Pangilinan throwing tantrums...


Well, what...it's been two years?

Public Display of Faith: Politically Incorrect?

I was going through my Sent Box when I saw this e-mail I sent to a columnist to whom I send feedback regularly and who never failed to reply, only hours, sometimes minutes after sending my e-mail.

However, this one never got a reply. Not a word. Not a sigh.

___________________

"We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society, and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity, the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace, do ordain and promulgate this Constitution." Preamble, 1987 CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES.

Dear Mr. ________________,

Yours and Mr. __________ columns today criticize the new Chief Justice Sereno's "repeated reference to God's will to explain her appointment." That it is tactless, "supremely arrogant, if not delusional."

Why? Are we turning into Americans who prohibit prayers in classrooms, who mock an outstanding football player for praying before and after every game, win or lose? 

Why is one's manifestation of faith inappropriate now? Why cringe when we hear someone refer to God during an official event? I won't start quoting Biblical verses here, but shouldn't we acknowledge the Almighty One in every thing we do, give thanks for every little thing we receive? Or should we only do that when no one else pays attention? 

"And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,
And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,
And all work is empty save when there is love;
And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God." There that's from Kahlil Gibran.

Above, I copied the Preamble from the 1987 Constitution. Why don't we all cringe reading that? Should we go for Charter Change, let's strike out "imploring the aid of Almighty God," then we will all be politically correct.

Mr. _____________, I am disappointed.

Anti Cybercrime Law: Locked Out of Heaven

Bruno Mars launched his newest single "Locked Out Of Heaven" from his second album called Unorthodox Jukebox earlier today over Youtube via videochat, champagne, and #AskTheDragon.


This song is a good soundtrack on the implementation of the Anti-Cybercrime Law.

Just What Do They Eat in Bicol?

Both my parents are from Catanduanes, the favorite entry way of typhoons, that island off the seas of the Bicol region. The Bicol Region.

Last night I was glued to the TV set for the recap of the day's big news about the discovery of the body of the late Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo's from the plane's wreckage about 180 feet under the Masbate seas.

His former constituents in Naga City which he served as mayor for six sterling terms beginning in 1988, were interviewed, all speaking in Bicolano, a dialect I can understand but cannot use to communicate. At that moment, I wished I had taken my parents' constant advice to learn it.

Fifty-four is such a young age to die. Think Steve Jobs (55). Think Michael Jackson (50). And if faith would have it, Robredo, Jobs and Jackson were all born in the 50's. What were they eating in the 50's to have produced these men?

Heck, what are they eating in the Bicol region to produce great men the likes of Raul Roco, Jesse Robredo, Sonny Escudero? Red hot chillies. Laing. Coconut milk.

Perhaps the place and time where one is born are simply incidental. The way one lives, what one leaves behind are purely one's own.

The Economy and the Olympics

Pacquiao's boxing career has spanned over a decade, and he has been considered the best boxer in this era. But he has never graced the Olympics. Oh, but if you are to count the time he carried the flag during the Beijing Olympics...that's another story.

Pacquiao turned pro too soon to represent the country in the Olympics which fields amateur boxers only. Our two Olympic silver medals came from our boxers, Anthony Villanueva (1964) and Mansueto Velasco (1996). But can you blame the guy? Amateur boxing pays peanuts. Representing this country pays noodles.

So why do we bother to send athletes to the Olympics when we don't give them ALL the support they need to prepare and win? What is the use of the Philippine Olympic Committee when it cannot defend its objectives to the government to give them decent financial resources?

Derek Ramsay who was sent by TV5 to cover London Olympics must have been paid more than the athletes we sent to represent the country. The media men and women sent by giant TV networks must have received more decent allowances.

Seriously, does a country need to be rich to win gold?

Current Medal Standing (as of 31 July):

Kazakhstan has just received its independence in 1991 from the Soviet Union, and has 16.6 million population (2011). In 2006, the personal income tax in Kazakhstan was reduced from 30% in 2003 to a flat rate of 5% for personal income in the form of dividends and 10% for other personal income. Kazakhstan suffered a budget deficit level of 3.5% of GDP in 1999 to a deficit of 1.2% of GDP in 2003. Government revenues grew from 19.8% of GDP in 1999 to 22.6% of GDP in 2001, but decreased to 16.2% of GDP in 2003. In 2000, Kazakhstan adopted a new tax code in an effort to consolidate these gains. According to the 2010-2011 World Economic Forum in Global Competitiveness Report, Kazakhstan is ranked 72nd in the world in economic competitiveness. (Wikipedia)

And they already have 2 golds week one of the London Olympics.

Lesson: Let's fix our country. When done, let's send athletes to the Olympics.

Who Do You Go Home For?

"Para kanino ka gumigising?" Zsa Zsa Padilla recalled a TV ad which she now relates to her situation. It is a sad thought to have no one and nothing to serve as your reason to face the day with a smile, even with a scowl. The important thing is you get up and go despite. It is a sad state we are in when we just refuse to get out of bed to hide, to refuse to live because...

I don't have problems getting up in the morning for all the duties I have to attend to at work. I love my job. Seriously now.

But when half of the day closes and you're done, the other half of your life in a day draws in. Do you go home right away or while away the time, pushing the pause button of your life and allow traffic jam in EDSA, SLEX or NLEX to give you an excuse for it?

Or do you brave the rush to go home for, not to, people closest to your heart?

These are who and what I go home for:

Dolphy

I am part of the generation that was fed with old black and white Sampaguita and LVN films 7 am in the morning, and in the afternoon after Student Canteen. In the evening, there was PPP (Piling-Piling Pelikula)  in Channel 13 after the English news. And boy! Was it good!

The black and white films showcased the best looking actors and actresses who have yet to be outclassed by this generation's best. Even the supposedly "ugly" actors looked good on screen. The kontra-bida ones looked devilishly gorgeous. The comedians looked photogenically comic, not pathetic.

Only those who could sing, sung. Only those who could dance, danced. Those who could do neither did theirs with exaggeration, calling attention to their inability, and ended up forgivably funny and acceptable.

The various tributes to Dolphy after his passing have brought all the memories back. Dolphy playing extra. Dolphy playing the sidekick. Dolphy playing the star. Dolphy playing gay. Dolphy playing the Dad, the Mother, the Playboy, the Secret Agent, the superhero, the Chinaman, the Everyday Man.

Of all the Dolphy films I have watched, one movie has left a mark: Ang Tatay Kong Nanay, directed by Lino Brocka and co-starred with Nino Muhlach. It was one Dolphy film that wrenched my heart and broke the dam of tears from my very young eyes. When Coring (a gay beautician played by Dolphy), caught Nonoy (a boy he adopted as a baby played by Nino Muhlach) putting on lipstick to copy an Indian from a book, he scolded the boy out of fear of him turning into a homosexual. When the boy explained that he was only trying to copy an Indian from his book, Coring's fears vanished and he lovingly hugged Nonoy.

 As Dolphy's tomb was about to be sealed, people started clapping, and for some strange reason, I just started crying. Beauty does that to me. To borrow the line of Terry McKay to Nickie Ferrante.

It wasn't a sad affair. It was an affair to remember.

Students Today Should Have Their Own "Nilo Rosas"

As a child, I remember waking up early on a school day despite the rains, the typhoon, the thunder, and any form of weather disturbance, hoping to hear the soothing, re-assuring voice of Mr. Nilo Rosas declaring classes are cancelled for the day in all levels. His was the only voice listened to, anticipated for, and was never questioned, during calamities.

These days?

Whoever decided to change the old system must be nuts, was never a child, and wasn't thinking right.

These days, you wait for DepEd announcements for pre-school, grade school and high school class cancellations. For college, you wait for CHED. Well, good luck with CHED. This government institution doesn't even have an official Twitter Account. If you're lucky, local government units headed by the Mayor would issue an announcement at 9 AM when everyone is already in school.

No one wants to be accountable. Kanya-kanyang declaration. Now, they are proposing that announcements should come from barangay officials. Just what are the chances that your school is located in your own barangay? Many college students who study in Manila live as far as Cavite and Bulacan, haven't they heard? Will all barangay officials call the radio stations to make their individual announcements? There are hundreds of them in NCR alone. Will you leave it to school officials to make the decision and announcements? There are thousands of them! Besides, it is inefficient! You want the schools to text all its students about class cancellations. Do you know how much that will contribute to the school's overhead, when a single point of contact from the government will do, for free and more efficiently?

Common sense is so uncommon these days!  

Rizal @151

Last year, I was lucky enough to present my paper during the International Conference to commemorate Rizal's 150th birth anniversary.

I remember vividly a question asked by one of the audiences, a teacher, I suppose. "How do we teach Rizal's novels? Do we base it on various interpretations of scholars or the actual meaning of the work?"

Well, who knows exactly the meaning of any work? Even the creator of the work will be hard put to interpret his own work. I remember a song writer/producer who was asked what he meant by his work. He said, I don't know. I just wrote it.

A lot of works suffer from over reading. Rizal's works are not exemptions. Pick any book written by Ambeth Ocampo on Rizal, and you will see how every phrase of the novels Noli and El Fili are given symbols and meanings. I was pretty embarrassed that Ocampo pointed out that the five holes on the floor of the boat that the excursionists used to get to the picnic grounds meant the five women on it. It was a happy occasion in the novel to be tarnished that way. Ugh. But I love the vivid description of how the sinigang was made out of fish fresh from the fish traps in the river. Just gotta love Rizal, but I hate the "holes" metaphor!

So, how does one teach Rizal?

Know him.
Then you'll love him.

And He Won

The five international boxing judges commissioned by WBO have unanimously chosen Pacquiao as the winner in the Pacman versus Bradley fight.

Now, it has been confirmed that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Isn't that amazing?

Be that as it may, I still say NO to rematch.

DepEd Needs Help, Don't We Get It?

Each year when school opens in June, media is full of DepEd news, recycled news, that is. DepEd lacks thousands of teachers. DepEd lacks thousands of classrooms. DepEd lacks textbooks, and desks, and pieces of chalk. We shake our heads and curse the government. We shrug our shoulders and blame corruption.

However, this year, media outfits have something new to report about DepEd. Alongside the usual lack of this and that, learning alternatives take some airspace. For a change, the government is actually giving us alternatives.

To mitigate our lack of teachers and classrooms, DepEd offers home schooling and distance learning where students meet only once a week. To this news, parents and students are shown in havoc and indignation. No, they'd rather be with a hundred students in a classroom built for a class size of forty than be home schooled. They'd rather spend lunch money and daily fares to school than be home schooled. A once-a-week school is not a school at all.

Tsk! A good information campaign during summer could have solved the confusion, but DepEd has been busy selling the K to 12 project they must have missed it. For me, home schooling and distance learning would have made a greater and more immediate impact because it offers a solution which effect is immediately measurable and realizable. You cut down the number of students per class, and the teacher becomes more effective. You cut down the number of regular-school-day students, and you cut down the need for desks and classrooms. (May be not chalk.)

But there's a catch. You need outstanding teachers to handle students under home schooling and distance learning for these programs to succeed. The Philippines is a 90-million strong nation. Campaign for volunteers. These volunteers can come from individuals who have successful Monday to Friday jobs, individuals who are willing to give back, individuals who want to change this country but don't know how, retired professionals who hate to be considered useless, individuals who could have made it big outside the Philippines but stay put for the love of country, individuals who believe that to build this nation, they have to be here in this nation. How hard is it to try and ask them to volunteer for a day in a week?

Every month of June, DepEd cries for help. Have we all gone deaf and blind? I hope I haven't.

Of course, I'm simply talking to the moon.

Why is Everyone on Wheelchair?

Former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

Impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona

Timothy Bradley, Jr. (Why are most boxers Junior?)

Travesty!

It's Independence Day and most Filipinos and boxing fans of the world still can not get over the pay-per-view robbery committed against Manny Pacquiao.


An American boxing Youtube commentator, Bigragu, has apologized "for the awful judging and "hometown" Bullsh*t. I am embarrassed for my country from a boxing standpoint." 


Conrado De Quiros gets away with "F-ked" as his column title today. "This was in-your-face shoving the dirty finger and saying “F–k you.” In the face not just of us Filipinos but of boxing itself, in the face of those who elevated the game from savageness to human striving, from primitiveness to art."


At least GMA robbed our country of the presidency in the dead of night, and orchestrated that midnight appointment of Chief Justice Corona with only a handful of people present. The crooks in Las Vegas robbed the boxing world blind in pay-per-view, in arenas, in public squares, in cinemas, in multimedia, and yes, before "the thousands in attendance, and the millions watching around the world." I hear you Michael Buffer. I'm not saying GMA and Corona are decent cheats. I'm saying, the western world sucks as much. But that's another story.


Manny, hang those gloves. Don't renew your contract with Top Rank. You know who screwed you. Don't dignify this travesty with a rematch. 

And He Lost

After seven years and 15 straight wins.

In a split decision his opponent didn't deserve.

But he shouldn't have left his fate to boxing judges in the first place.

He's had bouts that ended in decisions way too many. Boxing isn't and shouldn't be about judges' decisions.

Manny Pacquiao was the clear winner in the Pacman-Bradley fight had the judges not suffered Saramago's unexplained "white blindness."

But Pacman should have done better. He's set the bar so high in this era's boxing, he's found himself struggling to reach it. And failed.

Interesting news:

Pacquiao vs. Bradley bets refunded by Irish betting site

An Irish betting site is refunding bettors their Manny   Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley bets. (Joe Klamar/Getty Images)

The day after the stunning split decision that gave Timothy Bradley a controversial victory over Manny Pacquiao, an Irish betting site is refunding Pacquiao betters in what it calls a “justice payout.”
Paddy Power, Ireland’s largest telephone betting service, issued this statement on its blog on Sunday:


It was a result that stunned the world, even by modern professional boxing standards. Last night in Las Vegas the brilliant Filipino Manny Pacquiao lost his WBO welterweight belt to Timothy Bradley in a controversial split-decision defeat.

With that Paddy Power has rolled out one of our famous Justice Payouts. If you had placed a bet on Manny to win in a pre-fight outright or on points, that money is now back in your account. We Hear You!


On Sunday, Floyd Mayweather Sr. also blasted the decision, saying that the judges of the Pacquiao-Bradley fight need to “find a new job.”

“I feel like Pacquiao won the fight but I am not going to sugarcoat nothing. The last fight belonged to Marquez,” Mayweather said while referring to Pacquiao’s majority decision win over Juan Manuel Marquez this past November. “This one belonged to Pacquiao. I’m calling it like it is,” Mayweather continued.

The boxing world reacted with collective shock when the judges handed the split decision to Bradley. That decision came despite Pacquiao landing almost 100 more punches throughout the fight. He also landed more punches in 10 of 12 rounds.


“Can you believe that? Unbelievable,” said Bob Arum, the fight’s promoter. “I went over to Bradley before the decision and he said, `I tried hard but I couldn’t beat the guy.”‘

(http://tracking.si.com/2012/06/10/pacquiao-vs-bradley-bets-refunded-manny-timothy/)

Playing Shaider of Morality, Justice, and Human Rights

Suddenly I'm scared to say what I mean and mean what I say.

Suddenly everyone has become vanguards of morality, and policemen of human rights.

Just recently:

1. Justin Bieber called Indonesia "some random country."

2. Miriam Quiambao quoted the Bible and said homosexuality is a "lie from the devil."

3.  Manny Pacquiao gave an opinion that he is against gay marriage.

4. Tony Gonzaga admitted she stopped listening to Lady Gaga because the latter's music has spawned "double meanings."

5. Bayo, the clothing company, launched "What's your mix?" campaign insinuating that a mixed blood between Filipino and another (Australian, Chinese, Indian, British, American) is a sure-fire formula to becoming beautiful.

All of the above have been stoned. Never mind who cast the first one.

This is not to agree with their opinions. This is to allow them their opinions.

Granted that their platform is wrong. Granted that their grammar is horrible. Granted that their ideals are misplaced. Who are we to stand perfect?

Grant that they have the moral obligation to society, to speak fairly and just, to be the role model.

But as members of society now, what have we done to deserve leaders we expect to be in the company of Plato, Alexander the Great, Mahatma Gandhi, Rizal, Martin Luther King, Siddhartha...JESUS!

When Education Interrupts Skills and Knowledge Acquisition

I wouldn't say my nephews are geniuses. But boy! They are smart for their age! Today, the older one enters Grade One. I look back at my own first day of school (I didn't go to any pre- and kinder school.), and I don't think I knew then a quarter of what my nephews know now.

My Grade One nephew can read, can count, can argue, can be fierce in street games, can play strategy games like Cut the Rope, Push Cars, and Lorax, never mind that he scores more than 1.5 million in Temple Run.

My three-year old incoming pre-schooler can count, knows all the channels in cable as the TV remote custodian, "reads" interactive books, creates folders in iPad and re-arranges icons in and out of folders (And he learned it on his own), plays "Mahjong" better than my sister (He will hate any teacher who will give "match/ put similar things together" tests.). He knows "download," "delete," "complete," "game over," "next level," "internet," "wifi"...

I can only hope that the school will provide the right environment where they can acquire skills and knowledge as they do at home. I don't expect that they get brilliant teachers, only patient and caring ones who will teach only what they know to be 100% accurate and right.

I hope their learning at home will not be stunted by their going to school for some formal education.

The Mighty Twenty and the Lousy Three

I did not intend to watch verdict day of the Corona impeachment trial, but when I came in at the GHQ, a TV set was placed atop the executive assistant's cabinet, through the wishes of the CEO. I could easily read my boss's mind. Staff would pretend to be working, but secretly would be watching live streaming of the trial. From 2 to 6 PM, work stopped its grind, the world stood still.We renewed appreciation of our boss.

I came in at the middle of Angara's speech. When he gave his "guilty" verdict, the office roared in delight. Never mind  it was only the first vote out of twenty-three. When the Joker pulled out his vote for acquittal, one quipped, "Akala ko ba, pag bad ka, lagot ka?!" Well, some people grow old to shine. Others just wither away.

When Allan Peter Cayetano gave the "guilty" vote, we were all sure his sister Senator Pia would take the same route. And it was 3 to 1. We were keeping scores like watching a ballgame in an arena.

Then came Franklin Drilon, Francis Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, TG Guingona, Gringo Honasan, Panfilo Lacson, Lito Lapid, and Loren Legarda. Guilty votes came in torrents, broken only by Marcos Junior. No one in the room was surprised. But the Junior's attempt to glory was just that, an attempt. For halfway into his speech, everyone was still talking about Lito Lapid's "pizza pie." Why is Bongbong even a Senator in our midst?

Then we had Sergio Osmena III, Kiko Pangilinan, Koko Pimentel, Ralph Recto, and Bong Revilla. All voted to oust Corona from the Supreme Court. The score: 16 to 1. Bong had the honor to seal the deal.

And we all had been better off to skip the next judge: Miriam Santiago. It was the first time I saw Santiago do her theatrics in this trial. I thought the news was just exaggerating about her feistiness. She was INDEED a first-rate virago and termagant. I had to leave the room after she talked back at the presiding officer Juan Ponce Enrile who reminded her of the time, to which she retorted, "I thought I was unlimited." She could say that, but my endurance and patience had limits. I stepped out of the room, out of the office and went to 7-11 to get some Magnum (the chocolate bar, not the gun. But I could have used one on the TV set.), canned juice, and a bag of chips. If Miriam thought everyone would cling to her every word, she was mistaken. I'd rather endure the rancid, dog-pee smell along Eastwood sidewalks than let her finish the speech which would only conclude to her acquitting Corona.

When I re-entered the room, Antonio Trillanes was just wrapping up his "guilty" vote. The score was now 18 to 3, Tito Sotto having voted against Corona, too. Then Manny Villar came in: 19 to 3. But Villar could have stayed away from grandstanding. This trial was not about him. Sheesh! And by the the way, Mr. Villar, I didn't vote for you.

Then finally, Dumbledore. Excuse me. What I meant was, Juan Ponce Enrile, the captain of the impeachment trial. After a long, circuitous speech, he voted "guilty." What can I say about the man? At 88, he redeemed himself from his gory past. Martial Law, anyone? He had been heroically smart against the lackluster job of the prosecution (Let me just say this. This trial was won not by the "brilliance" of the prosecution, but by the _________ of the defense.) and heroically strong against the "nerve" of the defense and the accused. 

And it all came to pass. Twenty (20) voted guilty. Three (3) voted not guilty. No one dared to play safe and abstain.

I pity the three who let political partisan ruled over common sense. Never mind their lack of regard for the common tao. That was a given. Those who brag about education and diplomas, of Harvard, and the Ivy League, are the biggest letdown when the rule of the game shifts down to common sense. Whereas, whereas, my ass!

Code Red

Chief Justice Renato Corona has finally admitted to having four dollar accounts, not eighty-two as reported by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and presented by Ombudsman Morales. That the accounts contain only $2.4 million, not $10-12 million as reported by the same. Be that as it may, he did not declare them in his statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) because declaring his dollar deposits would be going against the Foreign Currency Deposits Act (FCDA). Wow, what a genius!

Does Corona know any other government employee or officer who does the same? With whom does he exchange notes ? Seriously, is this a practice people in the government do, but just won't talk about it because it is ill? Ill and evil, but it's there? Not in the book, but it is there? Or is this just another legalistic alibi Corona uses to get away with crime?

What then is the use of issuing SALN if you can hide your other assets behind dollar accounts with the absolute protection of the foreign currency deposits act? Pray tell!

“I have more responsibility than you can fathom.           

You weep for Santiago and curse the Marines.           

You don't know what I know.

Santiago's tragic death saved lives.         

And my existence, while grotesque to you, saves lives!         

But deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, -           

- you need me on that wall.            

We use words like honour, code, loyalty.

They're the backbone of our lives.

You use them as a punchline!

I haven't the time or inclination to explain myself -

- to a man who needs my protection - but questions the way I do it.

Better just to thank me.

Or pick up a gun and stand a post.

But I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to!”

“Did you order the Code Red?”

“You're goddamn right I did!”

Corona must have thought he could pull out a Jack Nicholson with his acting. But his excuses are lame and his acting pathetic.

Brat!

You disrespected the Filipino people by walking out of the impeachment court. You made a mockery of The Supreme Court by shedding crocodile tears after churning out motherhood statements all three hours you hugged the limelight to yourself.

You were there as a witness to be cross-examined that you might have shed light to the "lantern of lies" you so vehemently deny, and other vengeful acts against you by the Aquino administration, as you so tearfully lament. But you pulled a DJ Mo Twister act and delivered a monologue all three long hours. When you were done with your one-man show, after signing a waiver allowing your bank accounts to be opened that holds true only if half of the country signs a waiver too, you, the Chief Justice of the Republic of the Philippines "wished to be excused," closed your script, turned your back, and walked out.

Thank God for Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile's quick wit, you were locked in before you could pull a Houdini. Half an hour later, your relative and one of your defense lawyers talked to the press to announce you have a "slight" medical problem caused by the dropping of your blood sugar, and other medical possibilities, which once again proves that in this country, lawyers hold two degrees: law and medicine.

After some grave threats from JPE who got so angry enough to put the Hulk to shame, Corona appeared in a wheelchair before the court. What a foolery!

If he was feeling faint to continue, how hard was it to speak so? If the way he just walked out of the room, so full of himself, appeared like he was going to faint, as his counsel Cuevas claimed half an hour later, then I am Lady Gaga.

JPE's shining moment was when he castigated Cuevas for Corona's misbehavior in the presence of the Chief Justice himself, but Enrile directed all his wrath to Cuevas as if Corona was not there in his wheelchair listening. Enrile was like a grade school principal reprimanding a parent (Cuevas) for raising a brat (Corona.)

Corona ought to have been cited for contempt, or may be not if he pleads temporary loss of sanity. But fainting spells? Ano ka, tiyahin ni Scarlet O'Hara?

CNN's Eye on the Philippines

CNN's Anna Coren is asked:  "How do you make a show like “Eye On The Philippines” relevant to the West, which is only now starting to really take notice of Asian culture and growth?"

She says: "That’s definitely the case, and a lot that has to do with the improvements that are being made. You’ve got growth here; so much of the world is not experiencing growth. You’ve got four percent growth in the Philippines, you’ve got an economy that is improving after so long. From being the “Sick Man of Asia,” there’s real potential here. And that is why the world is sitting up and taking notice.

"You’ve got foreign investors coming in, the Ayala brothers told Andrew Stevens they’re investing $1.4 billion in the Makati area. The fact that money is pouring in is a positive sign, the fact that the government is cracking down on corruption is a positive sign. That’s what foreign investors want: stability and certainty. And that’s what this government is obviously trying to do. I mean, they need to do it if they want that investment."

And the CNN Press Release goes: "CNN’s ‘Eye On’ series is shining the international spotlight on the Philippines, with a special week of programming dedicated to the Southeast Asian country, airing to more than 280 million households around the world.

"From April 30 to May 4 ‘Eye On The Philippines’ features live daily reports from Manila, Batangas and Lake Taal and in-depth reportage on the people of the Philippines, the country’s politics, business and culture.

"The special week of coverage culminates with a half-hour program featuring highlights from the week, airing May 4 to May 6."

There is no way the Philippine government pays for this big time advertisement, not the whole Department of Tourism, not the whole Philippine business community.

This is one aspect of the Johari Window on the Philippines I will be watching.

Schedules of Airing:
Live reports air daily until May 4 (7 a.m.) on “World Report.” “Eye On The Philippines” airs
May 4 (11 p.m.), May 5 (6 p.m., 11:30 p.m.) and May 6 (8:30 a.m.). “Talk Asia: Jaime Augusto and Fernando Zobel de Ayala” airs May 3 (12:30 p.m.); “Talk Asia: President Benigno S. Aquino III,” May 4 (5:30 p.m.), May 5 (8 p.m.), May 6 (6:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.), May 7 (8:30 p.m.), May 8 (3:30 p.m.) and May 10 (12:30 p.m.).

Bonifacio is Dead!

Giant China insists claim on Scarborough Shoal as it does on Spratly Islands. And based on most of the commentaries I read and hear, a lot of Filipinos are willing to go to war if China does not bug off.

How sweet! We cannot even win a war against one Henry Sy who insists on earth balling Baguio pine trees to put up his parking lots, we dare go to war against his whole country?

We are willing to go to war for measly shoals and coral reefs, but we close our eyes on people who fuck up the whole nation. Real sweet! Gawd! We cannot even eradicate Abu Sayyaf, the MILFs,  the NPA!

Every other Filipino wants to leave this country any way, why care about a few islands China has been drooling to conquer and own?

Enough of play acting bravery. Bonifacio will not resurrect.


In other news, "PH: World's best country in business English," and "Filipinos among 'least rude' in the world, says survey."

The Vow of a Sexless Life

I was a couch potato most of the long Holy Weekend: playing Fruit Ninja, getting exasperated by Temple Run, chilling out with Bubble Explode, jogging in place to The Voice super marathon, watching endlessly movies playing both on cable and free channels. Nora Aunor's "Naglalayag" was fairly interesting. I didn't know Yul Servo could really act.

And there it was, a foreign film (Mexican I guessed and my guess was right when I checked the movie details later.), dubbed in Filipino over Cinema One. I was channel surfing when the remote hovered over it. You have to hand it to Cinema One. When they dub non-English foreign films to Filipino, the films are most likely notable. So I checked what was going on. I didn't catch the opening credits of the film, but the scenes were so good, one would be easily drawn into it. It is one of those films that can start in medias res.

The movie The Crime of Father Amaro was first released in Mexico in 2002. It caused a lot of controversies and mayhem on the part of the Catholic groups who tried to stop the film from screening. But this chaos only helped the film be one of Mexico's top grossers of all time. When it was released in the United States, it received the same protests from American Catholics. And like a moth to a lamp, moviegoers gave it its renewed commercial success. I wonder if it was also shown here in Ph.

And here's Cinema One showing the controversial movie for free, late afternoon of Good Friday, the Catholic Church's most sacred day. Good job!

The movie is about a young priest who fell in love with a 16-year old teacher of Catechism whom he got pregnant and who died after he sent her to an abortionist. The film offered he could have left the Church and gone to a place where no one knew him and the girl, where they could start a new life together as husband and wife. But Father Amaro wouldn't leave priesthood because it is his life, and that it gives him immeasurable joy to help people with his teachings of the Word of God. The movie showed no sarcasm in this. It was the young priest's twisted belief in what is right. He taught that what feels good must also be right.

The movie also tackles the church's cuddling of a drug lord who financially supports the hospital project of the church. This reminds me of our own bishops who received SUVs as "gifts" from the former administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Never mind that it was illegal, mind only that these vehicles helped them help the poorest of the poor. Some of the bishops said, or something like that.

The film also depicts the path that the late Father Balweg took. It shows a priest who joins the insurgents and defies orders from the Catholic hierarchy to come back to the fold , and who later on is slapped with ex-communication.

Then there is Father Benito, an elderly priest who has taken a widow to bed as his mistress. He defends that she needed him after her husband died. In the beginning, it was just an act of kindness, but love came in and sex came, too. The widow's daughter is the 16-year old who fell in love with the young Father Amaro. At the third quarter of the film, Father Benito finds out about Father Amaro's affair with the 16-year old religion teacher. The elder priest's driver informs him about Father Amaro's little excursions to his house, and the young priest using one of his rooms to teach the girl the basics of the nunneries. Of course, this is just a scheme for the young priest to have the girl all to himself.

One of the strongest scenes in the movie that impressed me is when the bishop is shown giving orders to Father Amaro to lead the parish after Father Benito sustained an injury which the former caused (See the movie to know how it happened.), and the rebel priest got booted out of the fold. While Father Amaro is talking at the other end of the line, the bishop is on his cellphone, naked and is seen getting ready to take a bath in the tub. This metaphorical scene tells how human the bishop is like everyone else doing humanly chores. It is a big departure from a lot of films that show religious men impeccably clad in robes and other paraphernalia of their ranks when they perform official duties in their office, surrounded by assistants. It shouts to me "Don't attach divine attributes to God reps , they are as fallible as you and I."

So should priests be forced to carry to the ends of the earth the vow of celibacy? Never mind marriage. It is not even discussed in the film. The movie doesn't show the struggles of both Father Benito and Father Amaro to want to marry their women. They don't say they are willing to commit sin to marry them. They are only ready to commit sin to satisfy carnal desires, the call of the flesh, the way of the flesh.

Just because they can't marry the women, they will just have sex with them. This is too crass. It isn't about marriage at all. It is about the vow of a sexless life.

Bikinis and Graduation

St. Therese College of Cebu has been too hasty in imposing punishment on five of their female students who posted on Facebook pictures showing themselves in their bikinis, with liquor and cigarettes on the side. The school sure knows how to punish where it hurts the most: a ban for all five from attending the school graduation rites.

I would love to see the STC's school handbook where it prohibits its students from "posing and uploading pictures on the Internet that entail bodily exposure."

STC claims the "girls were still allowed to graduate. They were not expelled. The only penalty imposed was the prohibition from joining the graduation ceremonies."

Does the school handbook have "prohibition from joining graduation ceremonies" as part of its sanction list? Is this the girls's first time to commit this offense? Second time? Third time? What I remember about school policies is that offenses are sort into categories of being minor, quasi-major, and major offenses. And each category has levels of sanctions. For minor offense, a first time offender may be given a verbal warning; second offense written warning. For major offenses, the highest sanction can be expulsion. So I ask, is "posing and uploading pictures on the Internet..." a major offense, that STC is so proud to announce that the students were not considered for expulsion. This as if the school has delivered their most merciful act.

And how can you expel students when they have most certainly completed their academic requirements to be considered for graduation? They cannot expel them either. The school is almost over.

STC punished them where it most hurt. What could be worse than being banned from attending your High School graduation? Never mind college. But high school?

The students might have offended the school and its ideals, but is it too hard to embrace those who did wrong and while you say you love them, lead them to the right path?

Mon Downs

First off, I'd like to thank McDonald's Fastbytes for the free WIFI.

Back at the office the connection has been stone-age-ish since the weekend. And while I download those emails, here I come with some thoughts.

McDonalds has been playing some cheesy songs from Martin Nievera (Just Say You Love), Michael Bolton (I Said I Loved You But I Lied), Depeche Mode (Somebody) etc. this morning.

The sun is up from where I sit. Real summer sun. Trees sway ever so lightly.

David Archuleta released an OPM album last week. Forevermore. I think the track "Maybe" by NeoColors was the best from the other four I heard. (Shut up!)

Mike Enriquez has been very careful pimping CJ Corona. Or is it because, we have not been tuning in to DZBB lately?

Finished reading "The Catcher In The Rye." Will take note to write about it when the mood catches me.

Disease as Metaphor: Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo

In the world of literature, diseases are often used to represent dysfunctional societies.

An Internet definition describes disease as "any disturbance or anomaly in the normal functioning of the body that probably has a specific cause and identifiable symptoms. Diseases are one of the factors threatening us from having a properly functional life. Throughout our history, epidemics have caused the extinction of whole populations. Over the last century, man has discovered many microorganisms that cause diseases in humans and animals, and has learned how to protect himself from them, by either prevention or treatment" (Era-net PathoGenoMics, 2007).

If that definition is applied to characterize social malady, it will be:

A social malady is any disturbance or anomaly in the normal functioning of society that probably has a specific cause and identifiable symptoms. Social afflictions are one of the factors threatening us from having a properly functional society. Throughout our history, social injustice, political tyranny and religious abuses have caused the extinction of whole populations. Over the last century, man has discovered various factors, origins and agents that cause society's degeneration and decadence and has learned how to protect himself from them, by either prevention or purgation.

Some works of literature that utilize diseases and epidemics as society's allegorical symbols are Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love In The Time of Cholera (Colombia, 1988); Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward (Russia, 1967); Albert Camus' The Plague (France, 1947); Thomas Mann's Death In Venice (Germany, 1912) and Magic Mountain (Germany, 1924); Joseph Marie Eugene Sue's The Wandering Jew (France, 1844); Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" (United States, 1842); and Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron (Italy, 1353).

As shown by the examples, societies and cultures suffer the same ailments across time and space.

Moreover, the choice of a specific malady to represent a schematic idea varies among authors. Some use the prevailing disease of the time when the piece of literature is set. The 1340s bubonic plague or black death was used both as a backdrop and social commentary by Boccaccio in The Decameron and the 1830s cholera epidemic was used in The Wandering Jew, Death in Venice, The Plague, and Love in the Time of Cholera. Others use personal experiences like Solzhenitsyn in Cancer Ward and Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Mann in "The Masque of the Red Death" and Magic Mountain, respectively. Mann's wife was suffering from lung disease during the time the novel was being written. Likewise, Poe's wife was suffering from tuberculosis (or consumption as it was known at the time) when the former was writing the short story "The Masque of the Red Death."

Noli Me Tangere was published in Berlin in 1887. Through the novel, the stifled cry of the natives found release.

"Noli" is a canvass of the 19th century Philippines during the last years of Spanish colonization. It is peopled with characters whose colorful stories range from painful to mysterious, from romantic to bizarre. As Saramago, in his 1998 Nobel Lecture said, "it was with such men and women risen from the ground, real people first, figures of fiction later."

There are the old women and men who tally divine indulgences for tickets to heaven and numbered stubs to save souls in purgatory. Then there are the men in skirts who make thriving businesses out of Catholicism: selling masses at various lengths and importance, and scapulars and other itemized divines, wooden or otherwise.

A son who lost his father and a mother who lost his sons. Men and women who lost their lives. Some even lost their minds. There are the rich and the educated. It is also where the powerful are the strongest; the poor and marginalized the weakest and the most forgiving. There are foreigners acting like natives and natives wanting only what is foreign.

It is an era where textbook injustice takes form. It is where the voice in the pulpit is also the voice of power; the government only the chamberlain of his master. Where religious infallibility reigns, Manila should have been the seat of Catholicism.

This is the society's canvass in Noli Me Tangere. The picture is wicked, misshapen and offensive. One easily recognizes the anomaly and disturbance in the daily grind of human lives. The specific cause is colonization of this once peaceful, promising, and non-Catholic trade hub in the southeast.

The symptoms glare like the noonday sun. The rich get richer, the poor not only get poorer, some of them die before finding out what is worse than being poor and an indio at the same time. Still, both the rich and the poor; the educated and the unlettered are puppets on a string. One bows one’s head to the tiniest flick of the stick or suffer equality with the dead.

Elias, the foil of the central character Ibarra, traces his accursed fate back to the roots of the latter in a revelation orchestrated so masterfully, untangling layers and loops of gothic sub-plots. The story of Elias puts to shame prime time television.

Having gone through the worst during those bad times: losing the good life he was raised in and discovering his malignant past, Elias seeks vengeance first for himself and while he is at it, perhaps save his country along the way. It is unthinkable to see one’s mother lying and wailing on the ground, wide-eyed on the sky looking at the severed head of one’s brother in a basket hanging on a branch of a tree.

Ibarra, despite his family's good social standing, lost his father to a tyrant in cassock who will eventually be revealed as the real father of his "comfort in the solitude of his soul" and the dream "wrapped in the warm light of early dawn" whom he will lose to a priest whose concupiscent desires break the sweat out of all his pores.

Both Ibarra and Elias find themselves afflicted with cancer that slowly eats away hope and faith. Dignity having been the first to go.

To cure this social cancer, Ibarra advocates education, saying: "I desire this country's good, that is why I am putting up a school. I will seek for that good by means of instruction, by progressive advancement. Without light, there is no way."

Elias, on the other hand, calls for struggle for "without struggle, there is no freedom.” He believes that struggle will awaken freedom that has been sleeping for centuries. "One day lightning struck, and the lightning, in destroying, brought forth life."

Each thinks of the same end, but their means are worlds apart. Further metaphor will render the first preferring to learn to be a doctor to cure and prevent future cancers. Regardless that the wait may kill those already afflicted.

The second wants to cut the part with gangrene and is most cancerous so the disease will not multiply or spread throughout the body. Never mind that the rusty knife may also kill.

Elias, who is Ibarra's constant savior, sacrifices his life for Ibarra in that famous chapter "Pursuit in the Lake." Elias dies "without seeing the dawn break on (his) country" but before drawing the last breath asks those "who are about to see it, greet her" and "not forget those who have fallen during the night."

Both Ibarra and Elias are pushed to the fore of their Messiah-nic impulses. In their sleep and in their hopelessness, they ask: If not now, when. If not I, who? To whom the disease had clung like a parasite to survive, to take the life of the host for its own, who would not have chosen to self-medicate?

One of them dies while the other resurrects. Ibarra returns in the guise of Simoun in El Filibusterismo published in 1891.


As the jeweler Simoun, Ibarra returns to the same islands thirteen years after his escape that lonely, dreadful Christmas Eve when the other messiah died. Thirteen years and before him are the same vultures of vile and greed feeding on a corpse that "let itself be torn to pieces" whose "decay and total disintegration were taking too long." Because the corpse will not turn against its oppressor, Simoun "incited even greater greed, facilitated its satisfaction, and injustices and abuses have multiplied." He "encouraged crime and cruelty to accustom the people to the thought of death, fostered insecurity to drive them to seek the most desperate solutions, crippled businesses so that the country, impoverished and ruined, would no longer have anything to fear." He "whetted appetites for the public funds" and "wounded (the people)in their most sensitive spot" by making "the vulture insult and pollute the very corpse on which it lived." "Extremis malis extrema remedia," that is to say, desperate diseases must have desperate remedies; desperate times call for desperate measures.

Then again, Simoun finds himself another foil in the person of Basilio, the altar boy whom Simoun-then-Ibarra helped to bury the mad woman Sisa, Basilio’s mother. He is the same boy who helped him burn Elias' body on the same hillock where Simoun's ancestors were laid to rest many years before.

Basilio is a phoenix who rises from the ashes of his childhood's misfortune. After burying his mother and failing to find his younger brother who has been accused of stealing from a friar, Basilio leaves his hometown and moves to the city to work for a rich family and then study in his spare time. Basilio lands in the home of Capitan Tiago, the father of Maria Clara, Simoun's former sweetheart.

Basilo performs well as a student of medicine subsequently helping Capitan Tiago cope with his opium addiction. Basilio is on his final year of studies and expecting to graduate with honors, marry his childhood sweetheart Juli, have a happy family life while serving his community by "alleviating the physical ills of his fellow citizens." (44)

However, dreams, even the simple ones, will wither and die in a "field that has been eaten bare, and the locust moves on." (217)

Tragedy comes to Basilio one after the other. His connection to the group of students petitioning for a permit to open an academy to teach Spanish leads to his imprisonment. Among the group of students, he is the one who has suffered the most, not because of the enormity of his guilt, but because of his lack of patronage and strong political influence. Basilio misses his final examinations. His sweetheart Juli dies of a gruesome death after throwing herself out of the window of the parish house the day she takes the courage, having been goaded by a religious elderly neighbor earlier, to seek help on Basilio’s behalf from a friar who has once asked her to make "certain sacrifices."

The phoenix in Basilio fails him this time. Now, he "looked as if he had risen from the dead, horrified by what he had seen on the other side of eternity." (218)
He knocks on Simoun's door and asks for forgiveness for he "had been a bad son and a bad brother who forgot his brother's murder and the tortures his mother suffered…now all he has left is the determination to return evil for evil, crime for crime, violence for violence!" (218)

In a trance, Basilio listens to Simoun's description of his plan to create his own Sodom and Gomorrah. Something snaps and Basilio returns to his senses. He knows "that only God can try such methods, that God can destroy because He can also create, that God has eternity in his hands as a recompense to justify His acts, and man has not."

Thus, for the second time, Simoun's plan fails and curiously so both because of love. Basilio, despite his misgivings, agrees to help Simoun carry out the plan. However, as fate will have it, he sees on the street of Anloague his friend Isagani spying on the wedding feast of the latter's former sweetheart, Paulita. Basilio wastes no time and seizes Isagani by the arm and tells him to get away from the place. He has no choice but to tell him about the bomb planted in the house where the wedding reception is being held, doomed to blow up and be the grave of everyone in it. Isagani whose "generous heart remembered only his love for Paulita" runs into the pavilion and seizes the lamp that contains the dynamite and throws it to the river.

The first failed siege is the day when Maria Clara dies, the same day Simoun plots the revolt. For Simoun wants only to "…rescue her. He had wanted to live only to rescue her. He makes a revolution because only a revolution can open for him the gates of the nunneries!"

In the end, everything is left to God. In the voice of the Filipino priest Father Florentino, the rebellion fails, regardless of its reason, because Simoun "chose a means of which God could not approve." (250) Simoun dies alone save for Father Florentino who prays over Simoun’s dead body: "God have pity on those who led him astray!" Plans of rebellion are thrown into the sea and will emerge only when God wills it. It is at crucial and hopeless times such as this when Filipinos look up, let go and say "God, it is yours now."

In the end, social cancer has become so malignant, only a miracle can heal it.
Much of Rizal's religiosity is put into his works. He dedicated El Filibusterismo to the three Filipino priests Gomez, Burgos and Zamora who were executed on charges of subversion arising from the Cavite uprising in 1872. While it is true that he relentlessly attacks the Catholic church and his most acidic criticisms are aimed towards the Spanish friars, he has also given voice to the humility and piety of some priests in the forms of Father Florentino and the friar-teacher Father Fernandez. It may also be said that the religious leanings of his works, contrary to how they have been perceived over the years, are geared towards the sentiments of the time when most people feared God and believed the after-life despite.

In Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, Rizal exposes Catholicism in its ugliest form on one hand. Readers encounter priests stealing property, lusting for young ladies, impregnating women, making false witness against innocent people, corrupting government officials, turning religious indulgences into business ventures, etc.

On the other hand, he presents the most honorable and loyal people in the characters of other priests and in the quiet faith of some of the pious men and women. Making it debatable if indeed the medium is the message.

Spain sent Catholicism to conquer this brown nation. The messengers of faith held hostage the faithful with the sweet promises of heaven and the stern warnings of hell. Intelligent and learned individuals will consider this premise too simplistic and suited for the gullible mind. Notwithstanding, Rizal with his exposure too advanced for his time ends his two novels with religious metaphors, consciously or otherwise. The first one concludes with two messiahs but one giving way to the other. The second novel closes with reluctance as the messiah fails to save his rotten sick society, leaves fate to the hands of the Father.

You Need Spoilers to Read Anne Frank

The ending of "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank has left me cold: ice water crawling down my spine into all the veins of my being.

It is one of those works that spoilers could benefit a reader. I've known about Anne Frank and a little about her story. Lucky have I always been for having this academic flaw. I don't pay attention to peripherals. I don't put to mind summaries of books I have not read only to mouth them to sound intelligent. It must have been in grade school when I first encountered the name Anne Frank. She was that Jewish girl who wrote in real time a diary telling about her family's experiences in hiding during the second World War when Hitler decreed that all Jews are the world's abomination and they should all perish. Any CNN reporter would have been envious of her manner of reporting.

Obviously, my history teacher read only the summary of the book. I must have encountered the name again in High School and College, but I didn't bother reading the book. I wasn't given enough motivation to do so.

How glad I am that Anne Frank's Diary was not part of my required reading list in school. I was never asked to reduce it to a lousy, childish term paper, or into an atrocious oral report project. Come to think of it, the best books I've read are those I read outside of school. Academic questions, and analytical studies take the fun away from great works of art, any work of art. Endless, scholastic analyses squeeze the juice out of the works, until they are drained into pulps and are forced upon us by teachers to digest.

Anne Frank started her diary a couple of days after her 13th birthday in 1942. Her final entry was dated August 1, 1944.

In the beginning, she spoke about the big world: life and its promises: family, friends, love, books, and dreams. Those which made life life. It was when the noose was still worn loose. Until shortly, the knot was tightened up. Her whole universe was diminished to a backroom of a spice factory; her community cut down immediately to eight people, and five loyal Christian friends from the outside world. Her sky, the size of a peephole through a small window, the rain viewed through a slant between heavy curtains.

Her scaled-down world magnified everything around her thrice over. In her mind's eye, the people in The Secret Annex - as she called their hiding place - turned into giants whose flaws roared at her like monsters, whose ordinary goodness morphed to perfection like angels. Despite all, her world was still a microcosm of the world. Every bit the big world had in terms of human behavior, aspirations, conflicts, they had. Except that theirs appeared to be under a magnifying glass. Everyone's radius overlapped with another's. They were planets in each other's orbits, ready to explode at the smallest contact.

Reading it, I was transported to The Secret Annex. I felt her fear of burglars and bombings and getting caught. I fell in love with Peter as she did. And no matter how much she denied it in every opportunity she had, I don't buy it. Writing it, she was afraid that someone else might read it. In the beginning, she was without care about her feelings and expressions which she entrusted to Kitty - the name of her diary - but when an announcement over a Dutch Radio encouraged the Dutch citizens to keep letters, journals and diaries for publication after the war, she started cleaning up and reviewing old entries.

But she was too real, and her world too small to sanitize reality. She spoke of her hatred toward her mother, her awareness of her sexuality, her disappointment with her father, her inward and outward self. One time she could be hopeful, another time hopeless and desperate.

I was with her eating peas and potatoes only. I was with her eating "hot cereal with strawberries, buttermilk with strawberries, bread with strawberries, strawberries for dessert, strawberries with sugar, strawberries with sand." When they were stripping pods almost around the clock, my ears were also humming the following refrain: "snap the end, strip the pod, pull the string, pod in the pan, snap the end, strip the pod, pull the string, pod in the pan..."

I allowed her to rant about herself, the world, everyone and everything. I gave to her what the world then wouldn't. Freedom. Because I couldn't suspend disbelief, I suspended my opinion. She made me believe in humanity. She who was abandoned by the world, save from it giving slowly stewing hope over BBC Radio about the promise of invasion by the allied forces, and freedom from Hitler's Germany.

She said: "It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."

Like an overall, Anne Frank turned herself inside out for all the world to see, "Until I just can't keep it up anymore, because when everybody starts hovering over me, I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning my heart inside out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside."

And before I knew it, her last words were, "I keep trying to find a way to become what I'd like to be and what I could be if...if only there were no other people in the world."

Until: "Anne's Diary ENDS here." (Emphasis mine.)

And the Afterword.

Something is wrong here, I told myself.

But the Afterword comes:

"On the morning of August 4, 1944, sometime between ten and ten-thirty, a car pulled up at 263 Prinsengracht...Someone must have tipped them off."

I went back to her last entry, checked the date, and found August 1, 1944. Anne Frank and her family didn't see it coming.

She was facing a crisis in her own little world, only to be devoured by the big, bad world.

All eight residents of The Secret Annex were arrested, including two of their helpers.

Peter, her Peter was forced to join the "death march" from Auchwitz to Austria, and died a few months later.

Anne's mother died in a concentration camp from hunger and exhaustion five months after their capture.

Margot, Anne's sister, died from the typhus epidemic that broke out in the winter of 1944 and 1945. A few days later, Anne died from the same. Anne and her sister "were probably dumped in Bergen-Belsen's mass graves."

Only Otto Frank, their father, survived to tell the tale and share Anne's legacy about a world gone mad, and a few people who remained human and humane despite.

I have always thought that Anne Frank would live to old age with the vibrance of the youth. Reading the diary, I have visualized Anne Frank to be freed and live the dream that the world might redeem itself from the muck it had sunk itself.

I should have read spoilers! They could have saved me from this disappointment.

But would Anne Frank become this big a figure of human spirit if she attained her happy ending?

The Holocaust is one of those bullets in God's checklist when the time comes for all of humanity to face Him in judgment. It will be a big, black mark against us all when He asks, why did you allow that to happen to your fellow human beings?

E for Everything

The advent of high technology brought about by relentless improvements in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has brought everything down to e-.

That thing that started it all -- the most popular of all is e-mail. Then came e-commerce. E-learning. E-book. E-bay. E-passport. E-pass. E-ticket.

On the local front, we have e-load that turned into a booming business side by side sari-sari stores.

Then, what do you know! E-burol! Relatives of deceased individuals don't have to be physically present to attend a wake or a funeral, they simply need access to the site that hosts the virtual burol.

Here's another: e-dalaw. Do you have a relative imprisoned in the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa? No time? Too far? Get a scheduled online video-chat with your relative-inmate from the Bureau of Corrections office, and you will be granted a 10 to 20-minute e-dalaw privileges. Amazing, huh?

Too sick to hear mass? Log on to e-mass!

What will they think of next? E-wedding? Then we will have e-honeymoons. (Hmmm...Isn't this another term for...er..). Then we may as well have e-babies and e-families living in e-houses, eating e-food, driving e-cars!

Oh, E.T., we miss you!

"Friendly" GMA TV Network

As expected, Chief Justice Corona's media campaign exclusively over GMA TV Network was picked up by other outfits: radio, television and newspapers, including the arch rival ABS CBN's Kapamilya Network and DZMM Radio.

The next day, it was all what the newspapers carried as headlines.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer emblazoned "Corona Counterattacks in GMA TV Network" which said, "A member of the Corona camp said the Chief Justice’s visit to GMA 7 yesterday was a start of his “media hopping” to “friendly” media companies."

The word "friendly" caught me and had me do a double take. So if it were true, I was right in my observations about GMA 7's political leanings.

That same day, I sent a tweet to @gmanews, "The Official Twitter Account of GMA News in the Philippines:"

"@gmanews, what say you about PDI calling you a "friendly" television network to Corona? & I thought I was the only one who noticed."

There was no reply, of course. But I got my reply by way of a letter GMA Network, Inc. sent to PDI Letters Section today billed as "'Friendly' GMA: source grossly misinformed."

The letter sender, Butch S. Raquel, GMA Network, Inc.'s consultant for corporate communications, said GMA requested for an interview with Chief Justice Renato Corona as early as December 2011 when the impeachment against CJ Corona was ratified by the Lower House. That they have "persisted in that request in the weeks that followed in the interest of fairness. Last Wednesday, he finally agreed." The consultant sounded as if they were the only one who thought of asking the Chief Justice for an interview.

Well, it is not their fault if CJ Corona chose GMA Network over the others.

But if you are a regular listener of Mike Enriquez in his morning radio show, er...program, you will know why Corona chose GMA for his "exclusives." Will not dwell on this further. One blog about Mike Enriquez and CJ Corona is enough.

About time GMA Network changed "Kapuso" to "Kaibigan."