Hello world!

I shall be writing topics as it comes to mind. It could be topics, past or present, but relative to the times. I shall also be reacting to articles published, whether domestic or foreign, and voicing my opinion. My views shall always be objective.

Some articles read here may have been published in local papers, most especially in Sunstar Cebu. What you read, however, are the raw, unedited version. It is what I personally want to tell the world.

I welcome you to my blog site and I look forward to inter-acting with you.

Your participation, your thoughts and commentaries, either for or against, will be very much appreciated.

We may have differences in opinion but that is the essence of being rational, to be able to agree to disagree. It is my aim that as we go along we enlighten not only ourselves but also those that finds the opportunity/chance to visit this site.

Let us enrich each other in knowledge and build each other up in friendship.

Thank you.

Quierosaber

POLITICS: no longer a personal commitment but a business opportunity

It used to be that when one joins a political entity in government, it is with the honest intention of serving the nation and becoming a true public servant of the people.

There was no other consideration, for in fact politics is also defined as the art or science of guiding and influencing government actions, practices, and policies to benefit, at all times, the nation and its people.

Thus, politics is a personal commitment that goes beyond being responsible to ones own family.

To enter politics is to enter the realm of governance where one works for the preservation of the integrity, respect, safety, peace, and prosperity of the nation while at the same time protecting the rights of the citizens by keeping the nation strong through the use of its vast resources.

Alas, politics in this country has evolved into something that has tremendously deteriorated the morals of the politicians – the nation’s public servants.

Through the years, politics have become more and more a window of opportunity for a superb business prospect.

Through the years, we have seen that our national legislative bodies are no longer the monopoly of brilliant lawyers to formulate and enact laws, but include now a gamut of other professions like businessmen, military men, showbiz personalities, media personalities, etc.

Through the years, running for Congress has become a lucrative business that not only has it  corrupted the minds of some legislators, but greed seem to have conquered them, that in the process chances for others to run and serve the country have been nil, for they don’t want their influence, power and wealth to go out of the family circle.

Thus, political dynasties have been established.

Many have clamored for this political system that is becoming to be the norm in Philippine politics, to be prohibited. But, only a foolish member of Congress will have an anti-dynasty law passed and approved.

To be a member of an august body that is the Congress is like heading your own corporation. You can’t seem to trust other people outside of your kinship. You simply have to play the merry-go-round among yourselves, strengthening and controlling the areas you are representing for it is the only way power can remain in the family.

Even the incumbent president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who has already reached the zenith of her political career, has ignored all calls from the different sectors of society to give up her political ambition to run for Congress and instead become an active stateswoman or an unofficial adviser of government.

Congress is just so attractive to turn your back on!

From being coy to being narcissistic

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has finally decided to run for Congress representing the second district of Pampanga in the elections of 2010.

After months of speculation about her future political plans, she succumbed, so to say, to the clamor of the Capangpangans to continue serving them.

“As you know, the people of my home district in Pampanga want me to remain in public life,” she said.

Seeing President Arroyo smiling and remaining coy when her supporters were chanting her name and urging her to make her decision to run for congresswoman on next year’s poll inside the Malacañang grounds a few days ago, was distressing enough, to say the least.

Why distressing? Because this nation has had enough of her and the citizens are simply fed- up with her, that’s why! Yet the orchestrated affair still seemed to have titillated her.

But her coyness coupled with that big smile on her face said it all. Then and there the speculation ended. The die was cast.

What a regrettable decision and what disservice to the nation!

It is not a question of whether she is still young or old, but rather a question of whether or not majority of Filipinos still loves her and wants her to be their leader.

To be a cabalen is one thing. To be a Filipino, is another.

Her cabalens want her to continue serving.

Most Filipinos want her to fade away and write finish to her selfish ambitions.

If President Arroyo still has what it takes to provide public service to her Capangpangan constituents, as her election lawyer, Atty. Romulo Macalintal claims, then by all means let her participate in Pampanga’s local elections.

But for her to run for national office and become a member of Philippine Congress after her Presidency smacks of arrogance, deception, and greed. It is an attempt to hoodwink the populace about her ultimate ambition.

President Arroyo can fool some people sometimes, but she can’t fool all the people all the time.

Thanks God, we know better! Congress is the last place most people want her to be in– again.

After all these years in power, how narcissistic President Arroyo has become!

Is she trying to redeem herself for her failed administration or is she just simply and undeniably arrogating herself into power knowing that those beholden in Congress has yet to pay their debts?

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo does not even come close to the attributes of her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal. Being the first poor man to become president, the latter was aptly tagged as the ‘Man of the Masses’ and the ‘Incorruptible’ for his unquestionable integrity.

With the appalling unpopularity of Gloria, exacerbated by her devious political plans, the late president must be turning in his grave for what has become of her daughter.

Soda can safety tabs still being swallowed by some kids

 

A 16-year study at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre has found that children are still brought to the hospitals for swallowing the safety tabs from canned soda or other beverages given them.

The safety tabs are especially found mostly in teens despite having it redesigned by beverage companies to fold back upon opening but stay attached to the containers.

“I think we all know if you fiddle with these stay tabs, you can easily break them off,” Dr. Lane Donnelly, who led the study, said during the Radiological Society of North America meeting in Chicago.

Donnelly believes children play and eventually break off the tab, drop it into the soda can and accidentally swallow the tab. The detached tabs have jagged edges that could injure the stomach or intestine.

Parents are advised to be aware of this problem when giving kids canned soda or other beverages.

It will also be beneficial if beverage companies consider a new design that makes the tabs harder to break off when fiddling with it.

Perversion of justice and mockery of intelligence – The Ampatuan way

 

If the hiring of 40 lawyers by the self-declared ‘harassed’ Ampatuan clan is not a perversion of justice in the highest order, I don’t know what is.

And, for a member in the family to claim that the Ampatuans are innocent, while everybody else are pointing their fingers at them as the culprit of the macabre and monstrous killings in Maguindanao, that included immediate members of another clannish political adversary, the Mangunadadatus, and a group of journalists from all over Mindanao, is not a mockery on the intelligence of the Filipino people, I also don’t know what is.

Government must have in their possession more than enough evidence against the Ampatuans, that if it will let the alleged suspects continue to rule and discharge the functions of their positions, that government itself is remiss and guilty in the administration of justice.

The suspension order meted by government on the Ampatuans is a show of its resolve that justice in this country cannot be trampled upon by the powerful with his money, guns, and goons. At least I hope it is.

The Supreme Court should come out with a formal statement announcing whether or not government was right in its decision to refrain the Ampatuans from further exercising their duties and responsibilities of their positions. The legal issues should be cleared as soon as possible so that the wheels of justice could proceed smoothly.

The question now is: While the Ampatuans have the resources to very well hire and compensate high caliber lawyers to win their case, will the families of the poor, helpless, and innocent victims of the gruesome murders be able to avail of the services of legal representatives, either from government or the private sector, to win them the justice they all deserve and send the alleged criminals to jail, even at a meager cost?

THE HEIGHT OF IRRATIONALITY – The Maguindanao massacre

 

 

We have always been made to believe that man is a rational being; that he is sane and endowed with the capacity to reason or use logic when thinking out a problem.

Thus, when a man is sick in the head, is insane, inconsistent with reason or logic and no longer in control of his thinking faculties, then we always view the man as becoming an irrational being – an animal or a monster, depending on how absurd his thoughts have become or how bizarre his actions have resulted to be.

Irrational people live in a different reality than the rest of us. They hear things differently, see things differently, and deduce things differently.

This has what has seemingly become of the matured, male Ampatuans of Maguindanao who are allegedly suspects in the brutal and unforgiving slaying that cut short the lives of 57 innocent people – mostly women and journalists, who simply wanted to witness the filing of certificate of candidacy by the wife of Buluan Vice Mayor Datu Ismael “Toto” Mangunadadatu, on behalf of her husband who intended to run for governor against the son of incumbent Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. The wife was not spared, either.

As if it was not enough killing them mercilessly, the victims were herded to a place where they were still made to suffer the grave cruelty of the murderers by mutilating their bodies – perhaps even before the bodies were left lifeless.

That there was a backhoe in the area which has dug a huge burial chamber for the victims and their vehicles is a testimony that the crime was premeditated and would have concealed all evidences of the transgression, as if the convoy of journalists, aides and relatives of the Mangudadatus just disappeared in thin air.

Fortunately, time was not on the side of the perpetrators and the tortuous job of covering up the crime scene remained unfinished.

Had the criminals succeeded in completing the cover-up, who, among the relatives, would have gone near the area asking and verifying where the missing persons were? No body and not even the Mangudadatus, for this is the much dreaded Ampatuan country!

If, indeed, it is the Ampatuans that masterminded this deplorable and heinous crime, as it is alleged, what could possibly have made them get to the height of their irrationality?

Can nobody challenge them politically anymore? Is their existence being threatened?

Is the Ampatuan bailiwick that bears their name, exclusively for the Ampatuans?

Is their strong connection with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo given them a false sense of power and dominion over the area making them feel they are above the law in an autonomous region?

For sure there are many more questions to be asked as to what has driven the Ampatuans to the height of their irrationality.

But for now, we can only hope that in the twilight of President Arroyo’s term, swift and decisive action against the alleged criminals will be relentless pursued, if only to make the families of the victims feel that they are not wanting in justice under an administration beholden to the criminals.

 

 

 

Drop-side crib recall continues to enrage parents

Parents are said to be still irate even as The Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled 2.1 million Stork Craft cribs that caused recent death in four U.S. children as a result of 110 incidents.

It happened when the drop-down sides of the cribs got detached, which consequently entrapped the babies between the side and the crib frame, or falling out of the crib altogether.

Some parents want the Stork Craft drop-side cribs banned for their insufficient safety verification that may yet spread out to include their high-chairs and strollers.

“Most parents are not aware that there was no requirement that the products be tested for safety before they were sold,” said Nancy Cowles, who runs a child advocacy group called Kids in Danger.

Although it appears that there is already a law requiring manufacturers to have their products inspected for safety by an independent third party, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), however, has not been able to monitor this provision and implement tougher inspection requirements.

The recall of the Stork Craft cribs, which has been in circulation since 1993, is said to be the largest recall in U.S. history.

Garlic most sought after ‘medicine’ against H1N1 virus in China

 

Morgan Stanley economists say that in China, garlic, at the moment, is the country’s best performing asset, outstripping gold and stocks. It is said that the price of garlic has nearly gone up 4-fold since March.

The reason given for the price appreciation of this pungent bulb is because the Chinese strongly believe that it can ward off the H1N1 swine flu virus that is increasingly affecting the country today.

Garlic has long been considered a herbal “wonder drug”, with a reputation in folklore for preventing everything from the common cold and flu to the Plague!

“I don’t know about H1N1, but it can prevent ordinary colds,” Zhang Ping, 74, said at a vegetable market in Beijing. “Take me. I’ve not had cold for many years and every year I buy several dozen pounds of garlic.”

It has been reported that in Hangzhou, a flourishing city in eastern China, a school purchased 200 kg of garlic and made students eat it every lunch to stay healthy.

Beckham revealed as asthmatic

 

England midfielder David Beckham has suffered from asthma since he was a boy, but it does not affect his performance, his agent was quoted as saying.

The 34-year old England star was photographed using an inhaler during the Major League Soccer (MLS) Cup final in Seattle where his LA Galaxy team lost to Real Salt Lake.

“He has never sought to make it public but if it does inspire any sufferer to think they can achieve great things like many other sportsmen have done then so much the better,” Beckham’s agent, Simon Oliveira said.

The England veteran is due to go back to Italy’s AC Milan on loan after the MLS season, and has said he hopes playing in Europe will boost his chances of making England’s 2010 World Cup squad.

Pinoy hero and the politician’s turn to make the Filipinos proud

 

 

The praises heaped upon and honor being bestowed on Efren Peñaflorida, CNN’s Hero of the Year, by government reflects of a nation wanting so badly of a true public servant.

That government will be conferring upon an authentic Pinoy hero the Order of Lakandula, one of the country’s highest honors given to an individual, for an achievement that has marked the worthiness of the Filipino race, only shows how much we appreciate people of deeds.

But, do we have to wait all the time that an individual’s feat has to be commended by others, and most especially by the global audiences, before we acknowledge the valuable contribution that that individual is doing to our own people and country?

The truth is that even if Peñaflorida was just a nominee among the many worldwide in the giant cable network’s search for a hero, he should have been given already due recognition and applauded.

Government never did, and only came forward to pay the highest tribute on Peñaflorida when CNN finally declared him Hero of the Year for his extraordinary work and ways of promoting education among poor children.

Indeed, what an irony!

Efren Peñaflorida is not only a symbol of hope for the many poor Filipinos, but more than anything, he is a lesson to be learned by many of our politicians who claims to be public servants only in words, but lacks Peñaflorida’s sincerity, determination and desire to help uplift the lives of the poor.

Our Pinoy hero does not have a pork barrel allocation like the politicians have in congress, yet he was able to make a difference in the lives of people, that even citizens of other countries got touched and moved by his indomitable spirit and heroic example as an ordinary person.

Peñaflorida didn’t need to have big printed signboards advertizing that a certain project under construction is made possible by a certain politician.

What Peñaflorida had to show was simply his trademark pushcart full of books, teaching impoverished kids to read and write at the most unlikely places.

This is the kind of public servant the nation needs. Public servants, not in words, like most politicians are, but in deeds.

Filipinos have been showing their exploits here and abroad, proving greatness and heroism that have made this country proud many times over.

Perhaps it is time for the public, nay, the electorate, to say this to the politicians and government officials, supposedly the nation’s public servants: It is now your turn to make the Filipino race proud.

 

VW-Porsche merger will make them top auto makers

 

The planned acquisition by auto company Volkswagen of sports car manufacturer Porsche in Europe is set to make them the world’s top auto maker, dislodging Japan’s Toyota down to number two.

The mergers of Volkswagen and Porsche have been approved by the boards of directors of the two car companies, thus finally ending years of acquisition battle between them.

The merger came as a result also of the agreement between the two estranged family clans who partly owns the German automobile giants to settle their difference in order to protect their stakes in the company.

First stage of the merger will start with Volkswagen taking over 49.9% of Porsche till the end of 2009. Complete takeover is scheduled by 2011.

Meanwhile, Porsche is expected to operate within the VW umbrella as its 10^th brand.