Our Independence Day stirred intense patriotic feelings in me, and I am sure in many others as well. Even though I did not participate in memorial celebrations, I tried to catch as many of them on television. And in my own way in cyber space, I tried to share thoughts and images of freedom and our flag.
That the poverty situation in the Philippines has not improved has been the cause of much concern lately. According to the National Statistics Coordination Board, 27.9 percent of the population currently lives below the poverty line, a figure that was practically unchanged from the figure of 28.6 per cent and 28.8 respectively in the first half of 2009 and first semester of 2006, respectively.
We are in between worlds, established superpower America of the West and emerging superpower China of the East. It is a contrast territorially and ideologically. The contrast of sunrise and sunset had carried with it much conflict historically. When the West discovered the East, expansionism by conquest and/or trade was the order of the day. For several centuries, relationships were defined by violence and greed.
Sometimes, we need a foreigner to articulate a truth so we can confront it. Dan Brown, author of the bestseller, “Inferno”, a fiction and sequel to previous books like “Da Vinci Code” and “The Lost Symbol”, mentions Manila in ways not so flattering. In fact, MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino reacted quite sharply to Brown’s choice [...]
No one thought she had a ghost of a chance. All surveys prior to the just recently concluded elections nowhere showed senatorial candidate Grace Poe Llamanzares shining through—until she decided to drop the name Llamanzares and put the stress on Poe (her late father’s surname, cinema’s “action king,” Fernando Poe Jr. or FPJ). “Grace Poe, [...]
Alona Bagayan, a 31-year-old Filipino domestic worker from Kalayaan, Laguna, lost her life in Dubai on Feb. 5, 2013. The Director of the Forensic Department of the Dubai Police General Headquarters classified the death as “suicide” in a report submitted on March 17, 2013. Shortly after Alona’s body arrived in the Philippines in early April, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) did a second autopsy, the report of which was authorized for release just over a week ago.
I have been monitoring the hunger incidence statistics of the Philippines as reported quarterly by SWS for over ten years, as long as I have been involved with the Gawad Kalinga movement. Because I was a late-comer in anti-poverty work at that time, I remained observant but quiet. I thought I could not speak up when I was just like most people I knew then—uninterested, uninvolved and concerned with a million other things.
The words were so brazen that they have created a firestorm globally. This was the comment of Mayor Toru Hashimoto of Osaka, described as “outspoken” and “brash” in the international media, that “comfort women”– the thousands of Asian women who were forced to serve as prostitutes during the Second World War–were “necessary” for the morale of the Japanese troops.
I really like what Sen. Serge Osmeña said about the recently concluded senatorial elections, “P-Noy won but Binay did not lose.”
It’s that time again when traditional sources roll out their unsolicited advice. Vote wisely, vote responsibly, don’t sell your vote, etc. Now that the Internet affords more opportunity for any user to join the chorus from traditional media, including posters on Church walls, the volume of unsolicited advice has increased.
Poverty in the Philippines cannot be effectively and substantially resolved. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men cannot raise at least 5 million Filipino families out of poverty, not for as long as they do not change the way they look at the poor.
After a lot of traveling abroad, I have picked up local traveling once more, taking advantage of summer and special events taking place in the Philippines. Last month, I went to four provinces in one week to attend the most spectacular volunteer event ever held in the country, the Bayani Challenge 2013. 80,000 Filipinos (with some foreigners, too) joined the event, most of them for five whole days, at their own expense. The Bayani Challenge invites the participant to be part of community-based activities which range from building homes for the poor, repairing/repainting public school buildings, planting trees, rehabilitating mangroves, medical missions, and giving poor children the time of their lives with games, food and balloons. For five days, Filipinos gave of themselves to prove bayanihan works and should be the foundation of nation-building. 37 sites in 33 provinces hosted Bayani Challenge 2013.
