(Cory doll)

Last August 1, former President Cory Aquino died due to cardiac respiratory arrest at the Makati Medical Center. It was already expected because she was already suffering colon cancer but I didn’t realize that it would be this early.

I watched Kris Aquino’s show, “The Buzz” (i.e. the Kris Aquino show – I rarely heard Boy Abunda’s voice all throughout the duration of the show) and listened to Kris’ narration of the memoir she wrote during the last month of her mom’s life. It made me teary-eyed and because Kris narrated it in such a way that you will feel like you were really there. I must say that she is a good memoirist. Read the rest of this entry »

The 2010 Philippine elections is just 10 months away and again, we need to choose a new president for the country. No one has confirmed that they are running for the presidency; obviously, they will be filing their certificate of candidacies on or weeks before the very last day of COC filing. Even though no one has confirmed yet who will be running either for president, vice-president or senators, we are already getting the hunch on who will be aiming for public office (again).

A socio-political networking website, www.politicalarena.com, is said to enlighten us voters (and aspiring voters) to know the background of politicians who, according to “public opinion”, will run on 2010. It’s the first of its kind here but it’s not owned by the Comission of Elections (COMELEC). This project is in partnership with 88db.com, meaning they funded the whole website. Read the rest of this entry »

10 days of the loud clamor of Filipinos against HR 1109, President GMA probably heard it and placed ConAss on hold. GMA ordered her allies to temporarily suspend HR 1109 on the day of Philippine Independence, June 12th. It was a temporary victory for us and an additional reason to celebrate this freedom during our day of Indepence.

I say temporary because we cannot trust GMA,or any of her allies, that this won’t be pursued again before the national elections. But nevertheless, temporary victory is better than none at all. Read the rest of this entry »

Shame on you. Shame on the congressmen/women who allowed the passing of HR 1109 in the House of Representatives (or you can call it Bastusang Pambansa). They have the guts to pass this bill 11 months before the national elections! A few weeks ago, the Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili sex scandal being queried at the Senate and now HR 1109!

Click here to view the document of HR 1109.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Great Philippine Book Blockade of 2009 is one of the most sought after issues that we, as a society, faced in the recent month. Bureau of Customs are hoarding imported “uneducational ” books from January to March because of the refusal of book importers and sellers to pay the custom’s taxes. “Uneducational” books, according to the Bureau of Customs, are novels such as “Twilight”, “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings” which according to them again do not bring educational value to the readers. Apparently, the BOC is confined to the realm of hard science as the only legitimate education and making the arts and culture.

Many people were raged against this issue and felt that taxing imported books only hinder us from knowing things that are outside our boundaries. We know that the internet is already existing however most of us (including me) would still prefer to read printed materials. The quest for knowledge shouldn’t only be through one medium, the reader has the right to choose in which format he or she prefers to get information from. The BOC is being too greedy to Philippine society and they have the gall to be arrogant that they know the law. In fact, they have already been violating the Florence Agreement (United Nations Treaty) which was signed by the Philippines in 1952, stating that all nations have the right to imported information and books and other printed documents should not be taxed at all. Read the rest of this entry »

Caged Prostitutes in Japan photo credit: Okinawa Soba

What is Human Trafficking?

Human trafficking is the illegal trade in human beings and their use by criminals to make money. That could mean deceiving and/or forcing people into prostitution, domestic servitude or manual labor.

It is a tragic form of modern-day slavery and is one of the most urgent human rights problems in the region.

- MTV Exit

Human traffickers target individuals who are eager to elevate their status in life. These criminals woo their targets by luring them with false promises of a bright future. The so-called “victims” are trapped in the (un)safe houses of these syndicates – controlling every move of their modern day slaves. Calling them ‘victims’ would only make them powerless and we need to also change this kind of ‘victim’ mentality. Read the rest of this entry »

After 7 months of waiting, the Eraserheads reunited once more. We don’t know the reasons of this re-reunion but being an Eraserheads hardcore fan, it is good news for me. For the people who ask why they are doing this, it’s not really our bloody right to know.

The night before the concert, I was up until 5 am. Supposedly, I was going to sleep early to prep up for this event but something came up. Anyway, I woke up at 11 am and headed to SM Mall of Asia with Karla. We first hung out at Bona Coffee opposite the concert grounds. Karla was wearing her Noytee shirt, the shirt I got didn’t fit me so I requested to meet up with someone from Noytee to get a larger size at 3:30 pm.

Around 4:00 pm, we headed to the VIP entrance as we are expecting that the gates would open at 3:00 pm. Apparently, they’re not letting anyone in yet. Karla and I were the 3rd and 4th person on the right side entrance (near the bay). Patricia and Gerard (newly found friends from Circus) were the 1st and 2nd on the line. We’re complete strangers but the Eraserheads binded us as if we’re already familiar with each other. The guards then were instructed to let the audience in around 4:30 pm. I was really surprised to see how near I am from the stage. Read the rest of this entry »

Gary Granada, an established composer and lyricist in the Philippines, complained about the illegal use of his music by GMA Kapuso Foundation and Procter and Gamble. If you have been watching the GMA 7 recently, they are already airing the jingle (with Mel Tiangco as the lead character). Listen to the recording above to understand why Gary Granada is upset about it. You don’t need to be a music major to understand where he is coming from.

After listening to it, again the issue of intellectual property rights comes to mind. Why do some people have problems in acknowledging other people’s work? Is that so hard to do? Why do people STEAL other people’s work? Probably some people are too ashamed to admit that they are not knowledgeable about it or probably it’s just plain LAZINESS. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember the faces of these father and son political tandem who mauled a 56-year old father and 13-year old son at the Valley Golf and Country Club in Antipolo City. The picture above is Department of Agriculture Secretary Nasser Pangandaman and the other mauler is his son, the Mayor of Masiu City in Lanao Del Sur, Nasser Pangandaman Jr.

Read the whole story here and SPREAD THE WORD.

The California Proposition 8 has been already out in the news and I guess you already know what happened, it was PASSED. 52.3% voted yes and 47.7% voted no. It was a close fight but we were not able to succeed. If you already know me personally, I am based here in the Manila and maybe you’re asking why I said WE were not able to succeed. I am saying WE because WE may belong to a different ethnicity, geographical location, etc…but WE are part of the global LGBT community. We may not have same sex marriages here in the Philippines but we are part of the community that is being discriminated by hypocrites.
I was watching the show “The View” yesterday and what really struck me is what Whoopi Goldberg said. It’s just an issue of semantics ( and that’s what I also believe ). These hypocrites only relate the word marriage as the sacrament and would like to claim ownership among “their kind”. They don’t want the word gay beside the word marriage probably because it insults the “holiness” of the word itself. Bottomline, just change the word “marriage” into UNION. The hypocrites want to own the word marriage so give it to them. In my own opinion, I would get married not because of its religious functions but because of practical reasons. I am concerned about have equal rights with my partner in some legal documents like owning a property ( conjugality ) or the right to claim my partner’s body if ever she dies ( I’m not wishing this to happen to my partner). It’s just the pragmatism of it so that we as members of the LGBT can work our way out also with these mostly heterosexual-made laws. This is far cry from happening here in the Philippines. I would like the Anti Discrimination Bill to be passed first before asking for same-sex unions.

Oppose Prop 8!