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

Gibo Teodoro’s questionable loyalty

“Anybody but Gibo…anybody but him.”

The hurting statement above was emphatically uttered by Mrs. Gretchen Oppen Cojuangco, when asked who her husband, business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, would support between Gibo Teodoro and their other nephew, Liberal Party standard bearer Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

“I feel bad for my husband because Gibo left without saying a word to his uncle, who helped and supported him (in his political career) for nine years. My husband had big plans for him (Teodoro),” Mrs. Cojuangco lamented.

If this doesn’t tell you anything about Gibo’s loyalty, I don’t know what will?

This negative perception has been further exacerbated when Gibo acknowledged, during the Inquirer-organized presidential debate at a packed UP Theater, that he valued his mother-in-law more than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and his uncle Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr.

If to have the daughter for a wife makes a mother-in-law priceless, what would it make of his father-in-law, who sired a daughter to become Gibo’ wife? Would there be a Nikki Prieto-Teodoro without his father-in-law?

But, that is neither here nor there.

The question now is: Can we trust Gibo not to turn his back on us after we shall have assured him the presidency or will his loyalty to the people ends where his loyalty to his mother-in-law-begins also?

Will Gibo be doing more for the greater number of people or shall he be cowed to serve and give special consideration only to those closest to him?

There is no denying the expression of seething anger and disappointment in Mrs. Cojuanco’s face when she said, “Anybody but Gibo…”

This has made Gibo an ungrateful person and a pariah to the Cojuangco clan.

Perhaps Gibo has gotten too big for his britches when he was chosen by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to serve her government as her Secretary of National Defense. With this position, he was feeling high and mighty and his arrogance got the best of him by forgetting his indebtedness to the man who nurtured his political career.

“Galing at talino” is good if you also know how to show recognition and gratitude to the people who have helped you on your way up. It’s a bane when intertwine with greed and lust for power.

A two-way presidential contest looms

As campaign period kicks off, it appears more and more that the presidential race is heading towards a two-man contest.

This is making the selection easier and uncomplicated for the voters. It is either one is for Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino and his yellow torch bearers or for Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar and his orange checkers.

Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, said with Aquino and Villar consistently topping presidential surveys, it would take a “dramatic event” for other candidates like former President Joseph Estrada and administration candidate Gilbert Teodoro to catch up.

There are two important factors now that most likely will determine the winner.

First is that whoever comes up with credible campaign ads this time that will continue to make an impact on the electorate will have the advantage. Manny Villar’s advertisements have been acceptable and believable during the pre-campaign period, thus, enabling him to keep nibbling Noynoy Aquino’s lead in presidential surveys.

People seem not to mind the C-5 road controversy, for on the more positive note, Villar has been depicting himself as the knight in a shining armor helping the poor in this country and the helpless OFWs abroad. This is not to mention the single tremendous boost to Villar’s candidacy when endorsed by the serious looking king of comedies, Dolphy.

Noynoy Aquino has barely three months to re-invent himself. Sad to say that the people seem not to give him the carte blanche to run this country the way his venerable mother, Cory, got it. Integrity and moral ascendancy seem to have lost its spark in politics and on the people.

This brings us to the second factor that could undermine even the voter’s candor and principle to allow an undesirable to win – MONEY!

Manny Villar have caboodles of money and, as sure as the sun rises from the east, Villar’s wealth is expected to flow from now until election-day, like we have never seen before. This is how much he covets the presidency.

This doesn’t mean that Noynoy Aquino won’t be squandering his own funds to win an election, but he can not simply match Villar’s bottomless pocket.

“I have never seen a candidate that has spent a lot in campaign ads,” Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told reporters after attending the weekly Kapihan sa Manila Hotel media forum.

Well, what Enrile saw was only the beginning.

Take vinegar and lose weight

Looks like more and more people these days will do anything, take anything and even pay atrociously for something that will make them lose weight, appear healthy and look stunningly attractive.

Mother of vinegar in a cup

Well, before you start paying a high price and taking something alien to you that promises effective results but with some amount of risks in it, that you may not know, why don’t you try taking something safe, familiar, organic and an important condiment in the kitchen – VINEGAR!

Vinegar has been used all these times for dressing salads, making pickles, removing bad smells, cleaning coffee makers and even added to certain food preparation to increase its shelf-life, as it inhibits the growth of microorganisms.

It’s also an ancient folk remedy, touted to relieve just about any ailment you can think of. My mother used to apply a cloth soaked in vinegar on our forehead to bring down high fever. We did the same to our kids.

In recent years, vinegar has been singled out as an especially helpful health tonic. The kind of vinegar being specifically referred to here is the apple cider vinegar.

Arizona State University’s Carol S. Johnston, Ph.D. and a team of scientist accidentally stumbled across the weight loss power of vinegar while conducting a study to determine whether vinegar would help lower cholesterol levels.

While there was no remarkable change in the cholesterol level in the study, what the researchers discovered instead, among the study participants, was that they lost, on average, half a pound a week, even without dieting.

The participants were simply made to take two tablespoons of vinegar before lunch and dinner.

Vinegar is a product of fermentation. This is a process in which sugars in a food are broken down by bacteria and yeast. In the first stage of fermentation, the sugars are turned into alcohol. Then, if the alcohol ferments further, you get vinegar.

Apple cider vinegar comes from pulverized apples. The main ingredient of apple cider vinegar, or any vinegar, is acetic acid.

There is evidence that acetic acid in vinegar may reduce the activity of intestinal enzymes used for carbohydrate digestion, so fewer calories from the starches enter the system. Vinegar also suppresses feelings of hunger.

The question now is: Is our raw, unfiltered and organic coconut vinegar comparable with the apple cider vinegar?

I would say, why not?

Health crusaders who believe in the slimming power of the apple cider vinegar endorse the drink especially with the presence of the mother of vinegar (madre) at the bottom of the container.

Mother of vinegar is a substance composed of a form of cellulose and acetic acid bacteria that develops on fermenting alcoholic liquids, which turns alcohol into acetic acid with the help of oxygen from the air. In essence, it is what produces the vinegar.

Because we don’t grow apples in the Philippines, let us use our very own coconut vinegar!

Quiboloy’s pastoral ability and his ‘vote-rich’ Christian assembly

For Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, head of the Davao-based Christian sect Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Name Above Every Name (KJC), to have the honor of being, reportedly, visited twice in less than a month by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in Davao signifies that the self-proclaimed ‘Son of God’ is either highly regarded by the president for his pastoral prowess or that Mrs. Arroyo simply values Quiboloy’s ‘vote-rich’ Christian sect.

Don’t start giving us that baloney that the president is in search of another spiritual leader. She already has an array of religious leaders who have prayed and laid hands on her so many times in the past, yet where are we and where are we heading?

How do we fare as people compared to her immediate family and cohorts?

What could Pastor Quiboloy still do to Mrs. Arroyo that others, including our Cardinals, haven’t already done? And, to think that she has only a few more months to go as President!

Nothing! Nothing, really, except that this is an election year, very crucial to the administration candidates, and Mrs. Arroyo knows that Pastor Quiboloy has the influence to unload 6-million solid votes coming from his followers to whoever it pleases him.

Don’t be misled by a person’s religiosity. They could be pious and appear saintly – “mas papista que el papa (more pious than the pope), as they say it in Spanish, yet behind all these veils of impersonation is an evil called “ulterior motive.”

Quiboloy said politicians were going to him because “they feel blessed and guided by a genuine heart—which has no desire whatsoever, and has no strings attached—except that they will be blessed, that the Almighty Father will delight in whoever will be declared as president.”

No strings attached? Hellooo!!! You mean it could happen in Philippine politics – no strings attached?

C’mon! Tell it to the marines!

Will the real Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson, please, come out

How ironic it is, indeed, for a man in the person and caliber of Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson, who, throughout his military career and as a Senator of the realm, has shown the tenacity, the toughness and the seemingly invulnerability of a raging bull when cornered, to be reported to have fled the country allegedly in hiding.

Lacson always seemed to be so sure, so confident of his statements and body language that he wanted people to believe that what he says is true and anybody disputing it is a liar.

He always had that spunk in him bordering on arrogance and defiance. The highest degree of morality seemed to be his virtue.

Were all these appearances and stance simply for public discernment and acceptability of himself as a person or was everything a sham trying to masquerade his doubts and fears about his personality and masculinity?

Was Lacson really tough or weak?  Good or evil? Righteous or corrupt?

Unless Lacson comes out from hiding and face that which he is running from – the truth- we will never know who he really is.

Lacson says, “My concern is my own personal safety and security. I will not allow Mrs. Arroyo and her cohorts in the DOJ the pleasure of seeing my life miserable and in danger. This is one case that I will dispute the argument – flight is an indication of guilt. I am not guilty but I cannot risk putting my life and security at the mercy of that evil conspiracy.”

But, is this case really about his personal crusade against Mrs. Arroyo and her cohorts or is his disappearance more to do with his involvement in the Nov. 24, 2000 murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and driver Emmanuel Corbito?

Why would Lacson go into hiding if he thinks he possesses the evidence needed to back his accusations against President Arroyo’s ‘scandalous’ administration? Hasn’t other opposition politicians been doing the same?

But there is nothing more damning to Lacson’s personal and political life than being tagged as the man behind the killing of Dacer and his driver, Corbito, when he was still head of the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF).

Justice has taken its course against Lacson, not because Mrs. Arroyo has willed it. It is simply because the ‘blindfolded lady’ has finally caught up with him and is ready to unmask Lacson and serve him the justice he deserves –  if found guilty.

All Ping Lacson has to do is come out and prove that he has spoken the truth, that he is tough and honest – that he has got no blood in his hands.

Oral sex, stabbed wound and pregnancy

Tell me that this is not true!

It is about a bizarre story of a 15-year old girl in the small southern African nation of Lesotho who went to local doctors with the tell tale signs of pregnancy.

Upon examination, however, the doctors were all taken aback when they found out that the girl did not have a vagina.

“Inspection of the vulva showed no vagina, only a shallow skin dimple,” so doctors delivered a healthy baby boy via cesarean, the authors wrote in a case report published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

While it did not necessarily shock the attending physicians her kind of birth defect called Müllerian agenesis or Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser Syndrome, what got them dumbfounded was her pregnancy.

Needless to say that even the 15-year-old girl herself could not believe she was pregnant.

What happened then?

Thorough investigation of the girls past revealed that she was admitted in the hospital 278 days earlier with a knife wound to her stomach. The average pregnancy lasts 280 days. Further verification disclosed that just before she was stabbed in the abdomen she had practiced fellatio with her new boyfriend and was caught in the act by her former lover.

The doctors have found out that the girl had an empty stomach when brought to the hospital after being stabbed. There was also little stomach acid around at the time she got stabbed which wound reach up to her abdominal cavity.

It has been theorized that what happened next, after doctors washed her stomach out with a salt solution and stitched her up, is that spermatozoa gained access to the reproductive organ via the injured gastrointestinal tract and, thus, the pregnancy.

Unbelievable!

I could only salute to the swimming ability, if not the tenacity, of the sperm!

Sen. Trillanes spends big in ‘travel’ even in jail

This could only happen in the Philippines, unless am shown of another elected official, in the same predicament, doing it.

This is about Sen. Antonio Trillanes, a jailed senator who allegedly has claimed thousands of dollars in travel expenses while languishing in prison on rebellion charges, making him one of the most expensive lawmakers in the country.

Despite being detained, Trillanes still managed to join the ranks of the top five biggest spenders at the Senate along with Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Senators Gregorio Honasan, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Francis Pangilinan.

Trillanes, who campaigned and won his seat in 2007 while detained at a police jail in Manila, billed taxpayers more than 17 million pesos (365,000 dollars) for the year, including nearly 250,000 pesos for travel expenses, a Commission on Audit report said.

While it was money well spent by his staff, who had conducted outreach and medical missions to depressed areas of the country on behalf of the jailed senator, according to Trillanes’ chief of staff, Reynaldo Robles, why wasn’t this given a media mileage by the senator so that people will know that a jailed senator could do better than those at liberty?

Where was this huge amounts of money exactly spent? And why the travel expenses, for chrissakes!

Unlike congressmen, who represent a region or an area, senators are elected to represent the whole country.

The same could be asked of the rest of the big spenders. Where, indeed, did all these money go?

Don’t we deserve statements from the good senators so doubts will not linger?

Faith healing or fake healing?

The country’s Department of Tourism (DOT) has been enticing foreigners, especially the elderly,   to travel and come for their health care needs.

This is what medical tourism or global health care is all about – inviting and urging people to travel across international borders to obtain reliable and affordable health care.

Understandably, when we talk of health care it is always meant to be a medical care and treatment by a professional doctor, including the professional services of other specialists and technicians within the scope of their licenses.

Recently, Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano has announced the inclusion of faith healing services in the DOT’s medical tourism program.

The question now is: would this be a boon or a bane for the country?

Faith healing refers to healing that occurs supernaturally, as the result of prayer rather than the use of medicines or the involvement of physicians or other conventional medical care. Such healings are often referred to as miracles. It could also mean visiting a shrine or simply having a strong belief in a supreme being.

This type of healing is pretty much accepted now by the medical profession here and abroad.

This, definitely, does not pose any problem for the country, especially if DOT’s marketing people can convince the sick and the curious to believe that this is the place and the people that have the ability to cure and heal illnesses.

Is their a possibility, however, that this well-intentioned health care program could go haywire resulting to being a bane to the economy of this country? Certainly!

Unless DOT makes sure that the medical tourism they are promoting is honest, undisguised and bona fide health care services by experienced professional medical doctors, the possibility of unscrupulous practitioners, like the fake healers, to deceptively participate can happen.

DOT should not allow the fraudulent practice of medicine by fake healers, for this will only bring disgrace to the nation if discovered.

The sleight of hand when doing psychic ‘surgery,’ where healers fake an incision by running a finger along the patient’s body, apparently going through the skin without using any instruments in order to get rid of the ‘negativities’ in a patient’s body should be prevented.

The fake practitioner’s hands appear to penetrate into the patient’s body painlessly and blood seems to flow. The phony healer will then show organic matter or foreign objects apparently removed from the patient’s body, clean the area, and then end the procedure with the patient’s skin showing no wounds or scars.

Faith healing is acceptable.

Fake healing is anomalous and will discredit the country.

Eat pork and enjoy sex

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has said that eating pork is as effective as popping a Viagra pill to spice up sex life.

Fernandez related her experience of eating some roasted pork over the weekend with her husband, former president Nestor Kirchner, at the couple’s retreat in Argentina’s bucolic southern Patagonia region, with “impressive” results.

“It went very well that weekend, so it could well be true,” she said.

The sexy talk on pork was aimed at expanding the protein horizons of Argentina’s staunch beef-loving public.

Fernandez approved subsidies to keep the price of pork low despite inflation, and her government has also recently subsidized red meat producers after beef supplies sharply declined in the South American country.

The head of the association of pork producers, Juan Luis Uccelli, supported Fernandez’s speech by saying that Denmark and Japan have a much more “harmonious” sexual life than the Argentines because they eat a lot of pig meat.

CBCP applying strong-arm tactic on Gibo

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) appears to be a bullying organization. The strong-arm tactic that they are applying on presidential candidate Gibo Teodoro is a testimony to this.

This has reference to CBCP’s tacit expression of hope that the administration’s candidate for president shall withdraw his support for the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) or risk losing the Catholic votes.

CBCP-Public Affairs Committee (PAC) chairman Kalookan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez said Teodoro’s decision to remove his support for the bill would be a “plus” factor since it is one of the criteria the Catholic Church is looking for in a candidate.

In reality this is not only a peremptory approach on Gibo, in particular, by the Catholic hierarchy, but also trying to crack the whip on its faithful followers.

The fact that Gibo’s wife Tarlac Rep. Nikki Teodoro, one of the authors of the RH bill, has already withdrawn her support for the bill, after her husband declared his candidacy, could only mean that she has felt, too, CBCP’s intimidating pressure.

Having succumbed to the pressure, Rep. Teodoro’s change of course could only be interpreted by many that, for her, winning an election with the help of the Catholic votes is gratifying, if not dazzling, than working and seeing the population controlled.

It is sad to notice that Gibo’s wife initial strong and principled belief that the RH bill she helped sponsor is what this country badly needs, could easily be dampen by the promise of a Catholic votes by the Church.

Again, greed and self-interest has prevailed over service for health and welfare of the burgeoning Filipino population.

It is the expectation of many Filipinos, however, that Gibo, unlike his wife, will remain steadfast in his conviction that supporting the RH bill will ease the burden of government in caring for a huge population, improve the lives of the people and put the state of the nation on the path to recovery and eventual prosperity.

After all, the presidential elections in 2010 is about choosing a leader of a third world country, poor and overpopulated, who can stand by his own certainty of judgment and opinion and can speak freely on his own freewill and accord.