When the Bus Flew Off Skyway

December 16, 2013. I left Southwoods Exit at 4:50 AM. South Luzon Expressway was pitch dark save for the headlights of vehicles taking the route. The roads were slippery from the rains. These two are ingredients for disaster. Never mind who is cooking. I took the third lane, running between 60-80 kph for safety while vehicles whizzed me by. I wondered what important matters they needed to deal with to risk it.

At about a quarter after 5, I was under the Skyway along SLEX. The concrete road was dry. The Skyway kept the rains to itself.

Without me realizing it, a few minutes later, a red bus would fly off from above it, killing dozens, injuring more.

At 5:45 AM, I reached the Pope Pius Catholic Center and joined friends in what was left of the 4:30 AM Misa de Gallo. The celebration took longer than scheduled. The Choir sang some carols as we made our way out of the Church.

But back in SLEX below the Skyway...

A Mirror of Each Other - Yoling and Yolanda: 42 Years Apart

Typhoon Yoling struck on November 20, 1970. Those in their 50s and 60s and even 70s still remember it well like a nightmare. In the province, pigs in their sty drowned. Nipa huts were shredded like palay stalks fed to rice granaries. In the city, glass windows shattered in hospitals and concrete homes and buildings. Flood washed away everything in the way -- that went without saying, either. "Climate change" was still grammatically incorrect and Al Gore was only 22 years old.

November 8, 2013 CE, Super typhoon Yolanda - billed as the strongest typhoon ever recorded in world history (never mind Noah's and Gilgamesh's accounts of The Great Flood BCE) - struck Central Philippines and how!

News feeds remind you of Hollywood movies; what happen to the victims in the aftermath reminds you of novels telling the theme of dehumanization: The Call of the Wild, 1984, Lord of the Flies...

The world has come together to extend a hand: countries (developing and highly developed, friends and foes), leagues (big and small), individuals (popular and notorious; known and unknown; rich and poor).

The world has shed tears, some bent their knees, too.

There is a lesson here. May we pass the next open book exam henceforth.

(Hopelessness and Hope)

 (They have had enough posing for aerial views.)

(NYC's Empire State Building in Philippine Colors to show solidarity with our people) 

Anti-Epal Law? Just Scrap Pork.

Mr. President, 

You don't need to admit it, but quite a number of people know it. You need PORK to bribe senators, congressmen, and the powers-that-be to pave your dream "daang matuwid." You need PORK as a carrot to push the rabbits, nay, the crocs to do your bidding. 

I wouldn't be surprised if you used PORK to ensure Corona gets impeached. You used PORK to get more allies. Mr. President, seriously, aren't the majority of the Filipinos, those who voted for you, not enough to cover your back? Aren't we enough to stand by you while you do the right things you promised in your campaign? We have your back. You do not need the dirty, greedy politicians. 

Just scrap the goddam pork! Enough of the Mayors and Congressmen and Senators putting up Pamantasan ng Lungsod/Baryo/Iskinita ng ___ then marking school buildings as Gusali ni Mayor/Senador/Gov/Cong. Enough of Mayors/Govs/Senators/Congs distributing ambulances for I have not seen a public ambulance that has no politician's name on it! Enough of every bit of public infrastructure from roads, to footbridges, to day-care centers, to public markets, to bridges, to basketball courts with names of politicians on it! Enough of putting name tags on every property bought and acquired using OUR money! 

Anti-epal law? That will be the thing of the past, if you scrap pork. So save people's money and people's ears from Sen. Miriam Santiago's grandstanding about her anti-epal bill.

Let your agencies do their work. Let CHED, TESDA and DepEd build schools and provide scholarships. Let DPWH build infrastructures (and allot one CCTV for every 10 employees of this agency, too.) Triple the manpower count of COA. Let DOH provide for ambulances and other medical needs to cities up to and down to the remotest of villages. Let DSWD provide for the emergency needs of the poor and even the not so poor - from the simple fare to one's province to caskets and burial expenses. Let NHA build houses for the disenfranchised, but I don't mean here the informal settlers. Let DENR take care of the environment. Let DA take care of the farmers. 

You are not going to be the president forever. Scrap pork in your term so that the next government regardless of its president will be hard put to undo it. If you scrap it, the Filipino may be assured that those running for public office will not be running after PORK.

So just SCRAP it!

Writing About "Before Midnight" After Midnight

Ethan Hawke in an interview for this movie said he hates romantic films that make you feel bad about your own life. He loves the idea of being in a romantic film with real men and women in it, where people aren't perfect so it doesn't make you feel bad about your own relationships.

That is the reason why I love the trilogy Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight. Never mind that Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are attractive actors. Heck, but they cannot help it. But their characters are everyday people with everyday worries and aspirations and inanities.

I want it to be my own story. Umaasa lang! Hindi masama!

A Not So Thoughtful Take on "Man of Steel"

My 7-year old nephew is the fire that bends the Iron Me.

Watching movies has ceased to be one of my favorite things. It is expensive as it is impractical. At what other period in human history when a movie pass is more costly than a book? Moreover, the high cost of going to cinemas doesn't guarantee you will see a movie so beautiful it makes you cry. That's all gone now.

These days, movies are about computerized effects and a blue backdrop. As Alan Rickman expressed of his final scene with Ralph Fiennes in the effects-riddled last installment of the Harry Potter Series, "Finally, there are just two actors acting."

And since my nephew is the fire that bends the Iron Me (I feel that's a good line, it begs to be repeated.), he turned my Sunday plans to smoke and steered me toward the cinema where "Man of Steel" like the low density, high strength titanium paper weight, sits on some hapless films brave enough to clash with Superman with an "S" which according to the movie is really not an "S."

Weed out what has been written before the film showing, these are my thoughts of it:

1. One half of the movie reminds me of 2011 Thor starring Chris Hemsworth, and 2012 The Avengers. Hollywood has to stop imitating our very own ABS CBN and GMA 7 in being recycle experts.

2. The city is ripped apart, turned upside down, blown to smithereens, bombed every square foot, and what else do you see? Those splendid city lights giving Kal-El and General Zod a dazzling metropolitan backdrop as the two unbelievable superheroes give the Cullen's and the Volturi a run for their immortality bid. Oh, I forget, in the superhero world, you don't need to turn off the power grid when disasters strike. Calling off Apocalypse. Oops, that's from another movie!

3. One fourth of the movie is Twilight. Clark Kent doing an Edward Cullen surliness. Man, you have everything going for you: strength, power, good looks, sexy bod, killer abs, great dad, great mom. But you need to search for...truth. Pft!

4. Every child, including the one with me, came to see Superman in the red cape fly. What does this film do? It takes its sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet time unfolding while giving us a bearded Clark Kent for a hundred or so excruciating minutes. My nephew has been this way and that on his seat, asking for this and that, this close to throwing in the white towel and storming out of the movie house. The kid just has so much pride. It is the other nephew who cannot finish a whole movie in the theater, not him.

5. And why is there no "(Ninoy) Hindi ka nag-iisa" in the movie? The world is manned by our OFWs. We need our own translation of "You are not alone."

I am not going to shoot down the film in this blog's entirety. It has its own shining moments, too.  It happened in the last sixty seconds of this two hours and 34 minutes long movie. If only for those few seconds, I am going to watch the sequel.

Oh, and also for Laurence Fishburne.