I Beg to Differ
Dear Ms. Iya Justimbaste,
I am writing this blog post for the sole purpose of addressing the issues you have raised in your blog post: Filipinos’ lack of individualism. I beg to differ.
While many readers are seething angry at your post, I find it laughable. It shows how much depth there is in you. Needless to say, not enough to merit engaging a debate with you. However, I find it necessary to reply with this post to assert that Filipinos do not lack individualism.
Just because you have friends who have the ” inclination to follow the norms of the society regardless of how flawed and shallow these norms are,” that doesn’t mean the rest of the Filipino are the same. Just because the people around you don’t know how to pick their leaders, don’t have conviction, and can’t think for themselves, doesn’t mean the rest of us are the same.
Sun.Star Editorial: Let Us Never Forget
Sun.Star Davao‘s Editorial today reminds us to never forget:
“We have been in suspended disbelief for so long, as one bizarre incident rolls into another. Thus, the appeal, let us never forget.
Who could have imagined a president being convicted of plunder as the nation mourned over the second envelope that remained unopened and sent a lady senator to dance in glee. Bizarre.“
Outrage
There are no words. No words to express the shock and depression over what happened in Maguindanao. Over 40 people seized. More than 30 persons killed. And women reportedly raped before getting killed.
People were killed. More than just statistics. More than just numbers. More than just names. More than just issues. People, actual people with lives, work, and families were killed. Lives ended.
Not quite random. But senseless.
Manzano, Santos-Recto, and Recto
Woke up one day with news that former OMB Chairperson Edu Manzano is running for Vice-President under the administration’s Lakas-Kampi with Gilbert Tedoro as presidential candidate. Manzano was formerly the vice-mayor of Makati City but lost when he ran for mayor. Lately, he has been Chairman of the Optical Media Board, and host of at least 2 televsion shows. Manzano was also tagged as one of the leaders behind the Ako Mismo movement.
Ako Mismo, when launched as a television commercial, earned the interest of a lot of people since it seemed like a political campaign ad but the source or funding was only vaguely revealed to the public. Manzano, in an interview about Ako Mismo, denied that it was made as a prelude to his candidacy for any position. Manzano asserted that politicians were not allowed to join the TVC or the movement as to avoid doubts regarding the movement’s motivation.
Royal Rumble in the Davao City Local Elections 2010
With the end of Rodrigo Duterte’s eligibility to run as City Mayor, the mayoral race for 2010 is going to be a very interesting one. The last time Duterte was ineligible, his longtime City Administrator and one-term Vice-Mayor Benjamin de Guzman ran for Mayor while Duterte ran as Representative of the First District of Davao City (a post currently held by Speaker Prospero Nograles). They both won. After three years, they had a falling out, Duterte ran again for Mayor against de Guzman.
This time, Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte, current City Vice-Mayor, is being groomed to run as Mayor for next year’s elections. It is rumored that the elder Duterte, former Vice-Mayor Luis Bonguyan, or 1st District Councilor Mabel Sunga-Acosta will run as Vice-Mayor with Sara under the Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod Party of Rodrigo Duterte.
Acosta, is one of the six incumbent First District Councilors already ineligible to run for the City Council in 2010. The incumbents in the 1st District who will be ineligible to reelection are Acosta, Leo Avila, Nilo Abellera, Peter Lavina, Angela Librado-Trinidad, and Bonifacio Militar. Several council seats will also be left vacant in the Second and Third Districts. Some of the incumbent councilors are also rumored to run either as Vice-Mayor or District Representatives.
Never Forget
Erap Estrada Illustration by Macky Pamintuan
Joseph “Erap” Estrada (real name Joseph Ejercito Jr.) was charged and found guilty, convicted of committing the crimes of corruption and plunder. NEVER FORGET!
Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change
When I was an Environmental Science major two things stuck to my mind: an anecdote and a quote. Our teachers always told us the story of two frogs. One frog was put on a pot of hot boiling water and the frog immediately jumped out of the pot. The other frog was put on a pot of cold water in a pot and the temperature was slowly turned up until the temperature was high enough to kill the frog without the frog noticing it.
The experience of the first frog is the one a lot of us have experienced the past few weeks. Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng hit us so hard that we had a knee jerk reaction to it, realizing that in a few minutes our lives, our loved ones, and our properties could be lost in an instant. But what we do not realize is that we have also been like the second frog. Slowly, our environment, our home, has been changing but we have been too busy, too complacent to notice it.
It took us two typhoons to realize that “hell yeah, the wrath of Mother Nature can really kill us.” The next time it happens, sad to say, we might not be so fortunate. The next calamity might not spare any of us, not even us who are typhoon-free here in Davao City. A scarier thought would be if it would not be a calamity but a series of unnoticeable, seemingly insignificant events that will lead to our death. The time to care and take action is now. Not tomorrow, not next week, not when the situation is very much desperate already.
Our Cory Aquino
People ask and many young Filipinos and future Filipinos may ask, why did we grieve the loss of Corazon Aquino? Why do we feel the pain and loss of the death a former president?
Aquino, to many, was an icon of hope. Of faith. Of democracy. She was not perfect. Her administration, her presidency was riddled with controversy, coup attempts, and unanswered questions. And yet we admire her. We shed tears for her death. We feel her family’s pain.
Because in a time of uncertainty, during the time when we thought nothing can be done, a housewife of a slain political leader somebody we never thought could lead a nation, led a nation towards attaining democracy. And she didn’t do it by heavily politicking. She didn’t do it with machinery or money. She didn’t get to the presidency by way manipulation or scheming. She did it by inspiring people, by waking them from their apathy and fear.
28 years old from Davao City, blogging since 2004. :)
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