bury me in this dress

This post serves as my contest entry to avalon.ph’s Moleskine Colour A Month Daily Planner Contest.

2009 is a very trying year for us Filipinos. There was the death of our beloved former president Corazon Aquino. The typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng brought so much devastation and grief and we here in Metro Manila were directly or indirectly affected. More recently, 57 people met their untimely death with a horrendous massacre. One would think that we have nothing to be thankful for but the fact is, there are many things we can.

• I am thankful for the outpouring of love from all walks of life during Cory’s wake.
• I am thankful that so many Filipinos were ready and willing to help the victims of the typhoons.
• I am thankful that my friends and family weren’t severely harmed during Ondoy and Pepeng.
• I am thankful for my successful operation.
• I am thankful for the love and support of my friends and family.
• I am thankful that our business is doing well.
• I am thankful for my family’s safety and good health.
• I am thankful that people read my blogs

I’m sure I forgot something but you get the idea.

The politically-motivated killings that happened in Maguindanao yesterday is truly deplorable. We only used to read about such brutality. We condemned mass killings but we were detached and grateful that we aren’t the ones experiencing it. However, it is now in our turf and cannot be denied. The massacre is an eye-opener in how bad the situation is in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) region and the realities of political clans and warlords.

Based on the most recent reports, a group composed of unarmed media people and women were on their way to the COMELEC to file for Esmael Mangudadatu’s Certificate of Candidacy when a hundred or so heavily-armed men abducted them. Later that day, not less than thirty brutally murdered bodies of those belonging to the group were discovered, including the wife of Esmael Mangudadatu. Some were raped, some were beheaded, some were hastily buried in a mass grave, and some are still unaccounted for. It is alleged that the armed men are under the employ of Maguindanao Governer Andal Ampatuan and that the Mangandadatu is his political rival. There is no solid evidence yet to implicate Ampatuan but the fact that he cannot be found and that he did not do anything after the crime hit the news are suspect.

After reading and watching news about the incident, I am left with some questions.

1. Why does Esmael Mangandadatu appear emotionless after all that has happened?
2. Will the government punish the Ampatuans even if they are party-mates and that they played a big role in securing the Maguindanao votes in the past presidential election?
3. How will the COMELEC ensure that there will be an election there?
4. How will the government protect the citizens of Maguindanao?
5. Who will attempt to run against known warlords or political plans?

The atrocious crime is not just an act against a rival clan. The extent of the gruesomeness is an act against women, journalists, the political system, democracy and Filipinos. Whoever is behind it deserves a punishment worse than death.

I just read Tonyo Cruz’s blog entry about Paypal’s discrimination against the Philippines and other countries in our region. Tonyo Cruz is the man behind TXTPower.org and he unselfishly used his paypal account so people outside the country may donate to aid the victims of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana). Paypal Pte Ltd of Singapore handles Paypal Philippines and neighboring countries’. Paypal froze his account as well as the one Mike Villar set up for PhilippineAid.com. They did so despite knowing full well that the accounts were for donations and despite Cruz and Villar’s submitted proofs. Let me highlight some of the contents of his post.

… Paypal denied the appeal. Moreover, instead of saying that the explanation and documents I submitted were insufficient, Paypal changed its tune and used an insurmountable and grossly unfair justification.

In an email (Oct. 1) , Paypal’s Compliance Department said:

Due to legal and regulatory constraints, PayPal Private Limited is no longer able to process payments for Charities, Political Party/Organization Donations, Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs), Religious Institutions, etc in those countries under its jurisdiction.

Upon receipt, I emailed another appeal. Paypal’s reply:

[...] sorry that at this time, as you are unable to complete the appeals process for your PayPal account(s), then access to the account(s) will remain limited. In accordance with our User Agreement, the funds in your PayPal account balance will be held for 180 days from the date the limitation was originally placed on your account. The balance is held to cover any disputes that may be filed against the account. And your balance can be handled in one of two ways:

1. Your remaining account balance can be used to provide refunds to your buyers (if applicable).

OR

2. Your remaining account balance will be held in your PayPal account for 180 days from the date your account was limited. After 180 days, you will be notified via email with information on how to receive your remaining funds.

Paypal was, by this time, acting like a typhoon worse than Pepeng. First, they asked for documents (we gave them all they need). Then, they said it was impossible for them to service Charities and Non-Profits. This time around, they insist that we have not passed the evaluation process — and asked that we refund donors or wait for six months before we get the money. Elsewhere in the Philippines and across the region, more and more people cry for relief aid and here we are being harassed by Paypal.

I emailed another appeal and asked if it was possible for us to just make a donation to the Red Cross’ official Paypal account which they set up two days before. I told them the can shut down my account permanently as long as we get the money immediately to the Red Cross.

The reply from Paypal? Another rejection. In an email (Oct. 2), Paypal said that:

Per PayPal policy, you could only choose to refund to the buyer of each payment.

I can’t believe Paypal will deny donations for much needed aid. People were dying and are still dying in our country.

On Oct. 6 (imagine the time wasted by Paypal’s obnoxious behavior), Paypal emailed to explain that “your desire to take donations through PayPal for your worthy charitable cause is one case that causes issues for PayPal because PayPal Pte Ltd, the Singaporean company you contracted with for your PayPal account, is unable to process donation transactions”.

Paypal said that:

Our regulatory approval in Singapore only permits PayPal Pte Ltd. to process payments for goods and services. Under Singapore law, which governs your relationship with PayPal, PayPal Pte is restricted to [be] used for processing donations. This policy and approach applies to all customers in all countries which contract online with PayPal Pte Ltd. It is not specific to you, your organization, or your country.

As a consolation, Paypal said that “in light of the dire situation with the typhoon victims in the Philippines, our Legal and Compliance Department has reviewed your appeal and agreed to provide a one time exception to lift your account restriction if you are able to provide us with a written assurance that the collected funds you have accumulated in your PayPal account will go to the Philippine National Red Cross for the stated purpose”.

In other words, Paypal Pte Ltd agreed to release the donations but Cruz and Villar can’t use their service again to ask for more donations. As of last night, 150 people have died because of Typhoon Pepeng but since we can’t use Paypal to ask for donations, we have to look for other ways to accept online donations. They even rejected Citezens Disaster Response Center’s application for a donation account. I’m guessing that they will not accept donation accounts for the victims in Indonesia, Samoa, Vietnam, Cambodia, and India. Perhaps Paypal Pte Ltd is not to blame but the Singaporean government BUT there should be exceptions to their rule. Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, the earthquakes in Indonesia, the tsunamis, etc. are critical situations and since third world countries like the Philippines lack the funds to aid the victims and rehabilitate devastated areas, we direly need all the donations we can get. There are so many who are willing to donate but Paypal is hindering all of this.

Besides the fact that I will become his First Lady, I do have valid reasons why I believe Noynoy Aquino will make a good President of the Philippines.

Reason no. 1

He has rekindled hope for most of us Filipinos. Many have given up and have started to believe that the current state of politics in the Philippines is our fate and that somehow we deserve it. That traditional politicians and deceitful leaders will always have the last laugh. Cory Aquino’s death reignited the spark of hope in the hearts of so many Filipinos. Through lineage, Noynoy is the living symbol of that hope as well as dreams for a brighter future for the country. This hope should not be belittled because it has the potential to become a very powerful force.

Reason no. 2

Sincere or not, he is bringing out the best in other Presidentiables. Mar Roxas arguably became a statesman when he stepped down to let Noynoy become the standard bearer of the Liberal Party. Gov. Ed Panlilio, Grace Padaca, and Francis Pangilinan have stepped down as well to give Noynoy more leverage. There are already talks that former President Joseph Estrada might withdraw as well. These are sacrifices made for the good of the country, far from selfish acts done by the past and current administrations.

Reason no. 3

If survey results confirm that majority of the Filipinos will vote for him, the Spirit of EDSA which is very much alive in all of us will revolt if he gets cheated in the elections. We will just not allow this to happen.

Reason no. 4

His character. Noynoy is a family man. He is humble, fair, with no reported taint of corruption at all. He is protective, low-key, spartan, and courageous. Some would argue about dynasty but it was the people who urged him to run for President so this shouldn’t apply to him. He was a reluctant leader but his upbringing wouldn’t allow him to just ignore the people’s voice. I could add more to his list of positive traits but that might be overkill.

Reason no. 5

His candidacy is rattling the administration even though they keep on denying it. In fact, cracks have appeared in Lakas-Kampi and I wouldn’t be surprised if those who broke away from the partylist express their support for Noynoy in the coming days.

Reason no. 6

His receding hairline is a good indicator of his virility. So ok, reason no. 6 isn’t valid but everyone keeps on complaining about his baldness.

I’m just a citizen with a renewed hope for the country’s future. I know that if Noynoy becomes President, it wouldn’t be a perfect presidency. He will face numerous trials, hopefully not insurmountable. I just believe that we need a good motivator and a person who can make us trust the government again. In the end, it will be the people who will bring the necessary changes and not the President.

P.S.

I am so tempted to post “our photo” but I fear the public outrage. lol

The first time I heard about Cory Aquino, I was only 6 years old. It was during the time of People Power and I was already aware that something big is happening. Mom told me that the People Power is good. People are making a stand against the bad man, Ferdinand Marcos. Mom and her officemates planned to join the People Power and I told her that I wanted to go too. She wouldn’t let me, saying that it might be dangerous. She she went off with her mates and I learned that there were children with them. I felt cheated. I know it’s selfish of me but I was only 6 years old.

I guess I can say I grew up during Cory Aquino’s Presidency. I heard many complaints about how she was handling the country. I may have echoed the populace’s complaints once of twice but I was too absorbed with my growing pains. It was during Fidel Ramos’s term that I reflected that Mrs. Aquino had a very difficult job during her time as President. She had to restore democracy, had to still deal with the Marcoses and his supporters, had to deal with military unrest, had to learn protocols and everything that comes with being a President. She was a housewife and she was yanked to take care of us. Despite of the hardships, she was able to bridge the Philippines to other countries. Reagan was cordial because the Marcoses are his friends but Aquino was able to charm the other US politicians. She captured the heart of other world leaders.

(more…)

I hope I don’t get into trouble with Washington Times for pasting the full text of their editorial but this is just too good. It’s a slap on the face for GMA. Arroyo, wake up and smell the dirty socks!

The Washington Times

Sunday, July 26, 2009

EDITORIAL: Obama the sanitizer

Somebody at the National Security Council dropped the ball. On Thursday, President Obama is welcoming Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the White House for his presidency’s first visit by a Southeast Asian leader. The choice of Mrs. Arroyo for this honor was a mistake because Mr. Obama is being used to give political cover for the Philippine president’s troubles back home.

Mrs. Arroyo’s domestic political position is precarious. A poll released June 8 by the Pulse Asia polling firm pegged Mrs. Arroyo’s public approval at only 26 percent. Street demonstrations against her are routine and growing in size. These protests are in response to a dubious mandate following a dirty 2004 election and numerous allegations of corruption against her family and administration. Her husband, Mike Arroyo, has left the country and used doctors’ notes to say he is too ill to obey court summons related to corruption charges.

The Philippines has become less free during Mrs. Arroyo’s 10-year presidency. According to Freedom House, “Corruption is extensive throughout the Philippine state apparatus, from the lowest to the highest levels. Bribes and extortion seem to be a regular element of the complex connections among bureaucrats, politicians, businessmen, the press and the public.” In Transparency International’s 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index, the Philippines ranked 141st out of 180 nations on a list in which No. 1 is the least corrupt. The level of Philippine corruption is tied with Iran and Yemen and worse than in dodgy places such as Libya and Nigeria.

The corruption problem is affecting Manila’s relationship with other allies. A senior Philippine official told The Washington Times that German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent Mrs. Arroyo an ultimatum last month that Berlin-Manila ties are at risk if the Philippines doesn’t pay $60 million owed to the German government for Manila’s new international airport. The Philippine government seized the airport and refused to pay a German company — which is partly owned by the German state — for its construction after revelations that the contract allegedly was laden with millions in bribes and kickbacks.

There are also serious human-rights abuses in the archipelago. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, “The Philippines ranks sixth worldwide among countries that fail to prosecute cases of journalists killed for their work.” Between 1992 and 2008, at least 34 journalists were murdered in the Philippines; there were convictions in only three of these cases. Four more members of the press were killed this June alone. Opposition voices regularly disappear as well.

On top of all this are machinations by Mrs. Arroyo to cling to power by setting aside next May’s presidential election. The president and her allies are pushing to amend the Philippine constitution to change the current U.S.-style presidential system into a parliamentary system whereby Mrs. Arroyo could serve as prime minister. This would allow her to circumvent the presidential term limit which prevents her from staying in office. This move, incidentally, is similar to the strategy strongman Ferdinand Marcos used to stay in power after declaring martial law in 1972.

The relationship between Washington and Manila is an old and important one. After the U.S. victory in the Spanish-American war in 1898, the Philippine islands were a U.S. colony for half a century and have remained a close ally in the six decades since independence was granted in 1946. The current Visiting Forces Agreement between the two countries allows U.S. troops on Philippine soil to help in the war on terrorism and to assist the Philippines with its fight against Islamic insurrection in the southern islands.

But the nation should be differentiated from its lame-duck leader. Welcoming Mrs. Arroyo to the White House only validates her troubled rule.

The Washington Times
Sunday, July 26, 2009
EDITORIAL: Obama the sanitizer

Somebody at the National Security Council dropped the ball. On Thursday, President Obama is welcoming Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the White House for his presidency’s first visit by a Southeast Asian leader. The choice of Mrs. Arroyo for this honor was a mistake because Mr. Obama is being used to give political cover for the Philippine president’s troubles back home.

But the nation should be differentiated from its lame-duck leader. Welcoming Mrs. Arroyo to the White House only validates her troubled rule.

Mrs. Arroyo’s domestic political position is precarious. A poll released June 8 by the Pulse Asia polling firm pegged Mrs. Arroyo’s public approval at only 26 percent. Street demonstrations against her are routine and growing in size. These protests are in response to a dubious mandate following a dirty 2004 election and numerous allegations of corruption against her family and administration. Her husband, Mike Arroyo, has left the country and used doctors’ notes to say he is too ill to obey court summons related to corruption charges.

(more…)

Last night, I was following the “progress” of House Resolution 1109 in the Congress. I was glued to twitter, plurk, and ANC up to the time the H.R. was passed. Feelings of disgust, alarm, outrage, and helplessness consumed me the entire time but I also felt sadness. Sadness because the rest of my family didn’t seem to care. Same goes for most of my contacts in Facebook who just kept on answering quizzes and playing online games just like any other day. Were they aware of what was happening? Hardly anybody paid attention to my status updates about the H.R. Didn’t they know that their future is at stake? I wanted to shake all of them but who am I to do that? After all, I was just like them earlier. I ignored the warning signs in GMA’s regime. I do not have the right to preach because I’m just as guilty as them. I just hope that they wake up before everything is too late.

In case anybody wants to know what the passing of House Resolution 1109 entails, it means that the Congress may now propose amendments or revisions to the Constitution with just 3/4 votes of all its Members. Amendments to the constitution is fine but now is not the right time. And definitely the way the House of Representatives railroaded the passage, blatantly disrespecting the outcries of the opposition and ignoring the opinion of the populace, is deplorable. This shouldn’t happen in a democracy. Furthermore, what happened is illegal. It disregarded the Senate and the passage was done in haste. Too hasty in fact which makes it even more suspicious. Just look at these proposed Charter Amendments:

Matrix House Proposed Charter Amendments

The changes (deletion of Congress and Senate, Parliamentary system, etc) if approved will affect the lives of ALL Filipinos. It will give politicians who want to hold on to power more time to do so. Politicians who betray us citizens over and over again. So let me express my indignation.

I say no to apathy!
NO TO CON-ASS!

Other blog protestors:
Stop Gloria Forever Moves! Kick ConAss!
Please Let Me Vote on 2010
I, Filipino Citizen
The Assembly’s Statement on the Plenary Debates on Charter Change
Dear Congressman Nograles
Oppose Constituent Assembly
In the Grip of Electoralism
Lighting the Beacons for a Phoney War?
There’s A Reason We Call It CON-ASS
House Resolution 1109 and the People
Have You No Shame?
The Pronoun ITS in Con-Ass Rez

If you have a blog post against Con-Ass and want to be added to the list here, just let me know.

I wrote this rant last May 19, 2009 in WriteBite.

I am a Filipina living in the Philippines. I didn’t find Baldwin’s joke insulting at all. Mail-Order-Brides are a dime a dozen here so it’s not like what Baldwin said is all made up. Besides, he meant it as a joke! Jesus Christ, there are so many overly sensitive Filipinos and there are already calls to boycott “30 Rock”. They’re the ones who are giving the Philippines a bad name, not Baldwin! Are the Russians protesting his remark? Hell no! They have a better sense of humor than us. I suspect Revilla has plans to run this coming election (2010). He’s making a lot of noise and that’s what they are…NOISE!

I’m taking my cue from Jayvee’s post, I want to express my indignation at what Espela Sales’ “palusot” regarding the taxation on the importation of books.

The treaty has provided for duty-free importation of books to guarantee the free flow of “educational, scientific, and cultural materials” between countries and declared that imported books should be duty-free.

But Sales reportedly brushed off this argument, saying novels and reading books are “not educational.”

The imposition of duties on foreign books has caused book importers to reconsider future importations due to higher importation costs for the books.

Filipino is my mother tongue. That’s the language we use in the household. Growing up, I was a lazy student who didn’t pay attention to grammar lessons. I was anti-social too and discovered the magical world of books. It was a form of escape for me and I devoted hours reading my Archie comics and young adult books instead of reading my school books. But you know what? My grammar improved immensely because of those “non-educational” books. You will just have to believe me when I say that my English was atrocious before I started reading.My view of the world broadened because of those books as well. I became familiar with the Western world, a knowledge essential to the hundreds of Filipinos working as call center agents. That knowledge is not the same as when watching foreign shows on TV.

I suspect Sales is not an avid reader. Otherwise, she wouldn’t say such things. Reading stimulates the mind. Neurons are fired up whether a person is reading a trashy romance novel, a comic book, or a 700-page dissertation on the evolution of man. Other countries are encouraging their citizens to read more instead of watching television. By imposing taxes on certain types of literate, Sales is discouraging literacy. Books are already expensive and adding more taxes will them even more unaffordable. Actually, I believe that the government should subsidize a small percent of book costs but that’s too big a dream.

Sales should put a stop to her bullshit unless she wants the Filipinos to end up using text speak as the national language. If the taxation pushes through, she deserves a place in Friendster hell.

PS

I guess I have a lot more reading to do since it’s book blockade, not book blockage *facepalms*

This is for all Filipinos, especially the ones residing in the Philippines.

I just joined One Tama, a site which encourages Filipinos to do actions to improve our country. There are suggested actions and you can add them to your profile and track if you are doing them. The group behind the website is Duyan ng Giting, an organization of young people inspired by Jose Rizal’s words. I hope you will join the site too and tell your friends and relatives about it because the site was overshadowed by Ako Mismo’s launch.