Now that the midterm elections are over and the 9-3 win for Team PNoy in the senatorial race an indication of the people’s trust in President Benigno Aquino and the way he is managing the country, there is no better way to do now, even among the opposition groups, than to support the vision and mission of the Aquino administration.

The country is at a very critical juncture now in the sense that President Aquino has taken the Philippines economy to new highs. The Filipinos are seeing it and the world community is recognizing it.

“Among the biggest contributors to this growth were trade, renting and business activities, real estate, construction activities, and on the demand side, household consumption, and net exports. These indicate increased private sector activity and capacity, signs that growth has become more sustainable,” Mr. Aquino said.

He said economic growth benefited from his government’s “commitment to good governance — ensuring that integrity, transparency, and accountability guide government operations.”

“Restoring faith in systems eroded by corruption also means holding each public servant and institution up to the standard of integrity,” Mr. Aquino added.

Aquino’s battle cry of “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahira (No corruption, no poverty)” is now paying dividends and the need to sustain it cannot be overemphasized enough.

Sustaining it and those of the programs and policies of Aquino’s good governance means continuing the momentum of economic growth which will redound to more local and foreign investments, more jobs, better pays, healthier and stable nation and, hopefully, militarily stronger.

This is not wishful thinking at all, if we know what is best for us, as a nation. And what is best for us is to finally put a stop at other nations from bullying us.

Taiwan citizens burning the Philippine flag in protest over the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman

The unfortunate controversy the country is having with Taiwan over the death of its fisherman, when the coast guard opened fire at Taiwanese fishing vessel trying to ram at the coast guard boat that caught it in Philippine waters is, indeed, a wake-up call for our politicians.

Let us stop playing politics and bringing each other down. It is time for cooperation and edifying one another regardless of party affiliation if it is for the good of the country.

Our politician’s folly has brought us to a situation where, because of our being poor and weak as a nation, our own citizens working in Taiwan, among the many countries they have ventured, are being bullied and harmed.

The worst thing about this is that our government could not and does not have the means to protect them.

Isn’t that pathetic? And, to think that it is not their fault that they joined the throng of what is now known as the oversea Filipino workers (OFWs).

What makes it even more heartrending is that their collective remittances is what forms the greater part of the money that is propping up the country’s economy.

It has been reported that in 2012, overseas remittances coming from Taiwan totaled $167.98 million.


Isn’t that shameful for government?

This is now the time for our politicians and leaders in the national level to wake up and work together.

The reality is that we cannot be poor and weak and be the door mat of our Asian neighbors all the time.

The interest of the country and its people should now be given the utmost concern and attention so that not too many Filipinos will be forced to leave and risk working abroad because of necessity.

I have written a couple of interesting articles about honeybees before (http://quierosaber.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/honey-and-bee-sting-natures-wonder-drug/ and http://quierosaber.wordpress.com/tag/honeybees/), but this latest one is simply unbelievable and intriguing, yet very promising if, indeed, it materializes.

It has been reported that researchers are training honeybees to find land mines in Croatia and the rest of the Balkans, for that matter.

It will be remembered that most of Croatia was devastated when it fought for independence and the preservation of its borders against the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People’s Army, which opposed the secession and wanted Croatia to remain a part of Yugoslavia.

Croatian officials estimate that since the beginning of the Balkan wars in 1991, about 2,500 people have died from land mine explosions. During the four-year war, around 90,000 land mines were placed across the entire country, mostly at random and without any plan or existing maps.

Deactivating a land mine

Dijana Plestina, the head of the Croatian government’s de-mining bureau, said the suspected devices represent a large obstacle for the country’s population and industry, including agriculture and tourism. In the nearly two decades since the end of the war, land mines have taken the lives of 316 people, including 66 de-miners, she said.

“While this exists, we are living in a kind of terror, at least for the people who are living in areas suspected to have mines,” she said. “And of course, that is unacceptable. We will not be a country in peace until this problem is solved.”

It is for this reason that Croatian scientists are turning to honeybees in their dire need for a lasting solution to their problem.

Honeybees are known for their “perfect sense of smell”, according to Nikola Kezic, an expert on their behavior. So they have tried adding the scent of TNT to their food and train them to seek out explosives so it will be easier for mine sweepers or de-miners to explode or deactivate them.

Rats and dogs are also used to detect explosives worldwide, but unlike honeybees, they could set off blasts on the minefields because of their weight.

This is going to be a serious and important undertaking by Croatia since they are set to join the European Union on July 1 and to be free of mines and be able to reclaim more areas for development will be a big economic boast for the country.

Osmeña and Young

It has been nearly a week now since Cebu City rejected the Osmeña-Young tandem in favor of the Rama-Labella ticket for mayor and vice mayor, respectively, and the result continues to stun Tommy and Joy that to this day they haven’t conceded defeat yet.

In the first place, the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) candidates still do not know what hit them after believing of their partnership as invincible in a place where they thought was an Osmeña country.

In the second place, having been in power for so long, defeat could only come if there was cheating in the polls, and since defeat is an embarrassment and hard to swallow for the presumptuous, the only way to show that you still have face is to contest the result, which both losers are doing.

To claim that they were defrauded or that the glitches of the Precinct Count Optical Scanner (PCOS) machine did them in is a lame excuse in an election exercise where every stakeholder made sure that it was going to be peaceful, orderly and transparent.

For Osmeña and Young, who think highly of themselves, but whose political antics, arrogance, sycophancy and conspiracy for their own and their party’s interests have earned them the antipathy of the people, defeat is a bitter pill to swallow.

Rama and Labella

Sympathy went to Rama and Labella because the city electorate saw that despite the obstruction and the hard time the Osmeña-dominated council was giving them, they were sincere in their efforts to carry on their programs of good governance, which had the interest of the people and the city foremost in their minds.

The city electorate also found Rama and Labella pleasant, friendly and approachable and very much unlike the pugnacious attitude of Osmeña that has started to rub on his sidekick, Joy Young.

At the end it was more a choice of whose tandem had greater promise of better servant-leaders:

-          Those who will work for the interest of Cebu City first and the South Road Properties (SRP) second, or

-          Those who will work for the interest of SRP first and Cebu City second.

Clearly, Cebu City residents has handed the verdict.

Filed under: Elections, Local government, National event, National news, Politics Tagged: BOPK, Cebu City, Osmeña-Young tandem, Rama-Labella ticker, South Road Properties, SRP ]]> http://quierosaber.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/election-results-stun-osmena-young/feed/ 0 quierosaber Osmeña and Young Rama and Labella http://quierosaber.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/comelecs-hasty-proclamation-of-6-senators/ http://quierosaber.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/comelecs-hasty-proclamation-of-6-senators/#comments Sat, 18 May 2013 10:03:17 +0000 quierosaber http://quierosaber.wordpress.com/?p=9705 ]]>

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has so many post elections problem confronting them that they still had the wherewithal to make a hasty proclamation of the first 6 winning senators.

Naturally, it created an amount of fuss, even to one of those to be proclaimed, Nancy Binay.

One of those who also denounced the early proclamation is Senator Aquilino Pimentel III himself, who is among those in the winning circle, calling it “premature” and “wrong.”

Pimentel, who is known as stickler of rules and procedures, said that “partial proclamation should be done only if the total uncanvassed votes would theoretically no longer affect the results.”

“Yes, that is the doctrine! That is the rule based on logic, common sense and fairness,” he added.

For some reason Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes sounded and acted so autocratic in ordering the proclamation Thursday, May 16^th.

“We will proceed with the partial proclamation tonight. And hopefully, we will be able to proclaim all winning senatorial candidates by Saturday,” he said in a press conference at the PICC where the national canvassing is being conducted.

This, even as a petition from the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) was filed Wednesday night, seeking to suspend the proclamation and questioning the slow-paced canvassing procedure.

At the time it was reported that only 72 of the 304 certificates of canvass (COC) had been officially tabulated by the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) at the Philippine International Convention Center. The 72 COCs represented just about 13 million votes out of the 52 million registered voters or about 25 % only of all the votes.

So, why make a hasty proclamation and invite controversy when the nation could wait for a later proclamation if only to avoid controversial petty issues and bickering. We have had enough of the latter already.

Continuing with Brillantes’ imperious move, despite the negative, reactions from some public official, the NBOC again proclaimed the following day 3 more senators-elect, namely, Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and Antonio Trillanes IV,based on 117 certificates of canvass (COCs) transmitted to the NBOC. Note that the latter is composed of Comelec commissioners. Of the 3, only Aquino attended the proclamation.

All this time Brillantes was daring the public that he would resign if any one of those proclaimed earlier will be dislodge from the magic 12 after the last count has been made.

It is not about the result of being dislodged that people have been saying negative words about the hasty proclamation, because there is no way, shape and form that the trend could change any more. Each of the senators-elect has enough buffer votes to protect their rankings, except perhaps the tail-enders.

The question is: Could it really have made a hell lot more of a difference if the NBOC just waited for most of the COCs to come in and proclaim the 12 senators-elect in one go thereby saving money, time, effort…. and most especially, controversy?

It is about the right and the best thing to do and not about who the boss is at Comelec, though I still have high regard for Chairman Brillantes for a job well done – generally.

Filed under: Elections, Government, National event, National news, Politics Tagged: 2013 elections, 6 winning senators, Certificates of Canvass, COC, Comelec, Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes, Commission on elections, Hasty proclamation, National Board of Canvassers, NBOC ]]> http://quierosaber.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/comelecs-hasty-proclamation-of-6-senators/feed/ 0 quierosaber Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes http://quierosaber.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/a-letter-for-senator-elect-nancy-binay/ http://quierosaber.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/a-letter-for-senator-elect-nancy-binay/#comments Sat, 18 May 2013 06:28:34 +0000 quierosaber http://quierosaber.wordpress.com/?p=9700 ]]>

Senator-elect Nancy Binay

This letter has been circulating around, presumably, and was sent to me by one following my blog. I don’t know if a Dr. Patrick Moral exists, but whether or not he exist is immaterial. What is essential is the lesson imparted by this profoundly cerebral letter to those  following the path of their parent’s vocation, either by design or by their own free-will, and believing they could be equally apt for the job and come out successful as their parents are simply because they have the same family name.

In fairness to Nancy Binay, she ought not to be singled out here just because, by her own admission, her greatest qualification to hold public office is her 20 years on-the-job training with her parents.

This incisive or ‘diagnostic’ letter, mind you, also applies to the many movie, radio, media, etc., personalities who have been joining politics and taking advantage of the fact that their popularity and name recall will surely catapult them to that lofty and equally profitable position they are aspiring for, despite their lack of adequate credentials. Within this purview are also the members of the scandalous political dynasties.

This is yet the best analogy and analysis I have read about those personalities I had been skeptical about that are, regrettably, in politics now or have plans of throwing their hats in the political arena.

Dearest Senator Binay,

By the time this letter is done, you would have probably become elected Senator of my beloved country. I will not say that you were elected because the majority of our electorate are illiterates who cast their ballots simply on name recognition. I will assume the best in that they see in you, someone who can do her best in the legislative body of our land.

I would like to review with you though what you said was your greatest qualification to hold public office: that you had 20 years on-the-job training with your parents. I will not question how important this may have been, but I question whether it is truly enough.

As a physician born into a family of physicians, I too had over 20 years on-the-job training before I entered medical school. I requested for a medical toy set early in my years to learn to examine inanimate objects in the house masquerading as human replicas. In my elementary years, I would sit in my mother’s clinic, writing prescriptions for her many patients. In my high school years, my grandmother became frail, requiring my parents to provide more medical care to which I was witness to. By the time I applied for medical school, I had probably seen more patients than some fourth year medical students in their lifetime.

I always had a question whether I should pursue my dream in a school where my parents were better known as it was a double-edged sword. If you did well, they would say your parents and your name helped you out. If you did poorly, they would ask how it was possible that you could be so stupid when you had brilliant parents. So believe me when I say, I can understand your predicament.

Our pathways diverge however, as I had to apply for my position. You might say that being elected is also a form of application but I had to defend myself. My interviewer for my application asked me this question, which still rings in my ears today, even after twenty-two years: “Do you think that you deserve to be admitted to this medical school just because of your family name?” I could have taken offense but I understood where this was coming from. There were numerous applicants for such limited slots, some probably definitely more deserving but my name was calling out to feel more deserved. If you removed your surname, would you still feel you have enough qualifications for the office you applied for? I rattled off my achievements, never once quoting my association with my surname. I felt I deserved it. What we truly feel however, will be left to us and our conscience.

I was accepted into medical school and I went through classroom activities, where I was held responsible by my professors. I went through clerkship and internship where I was held responsible by my residents and mentors. I went though residency where I was held responsible by my attendings and my hospital. Someone held me to my actions at every point in my desire to be a doctor. I know you have held a position as a personal assistant to your parents. Unfortunately, I do not know how much our parents will hold us responsible for our actions. To my mother, I was the most intelligent and handsome son anyone could have. My superiors and mentors made me realize that I was not. I am sure that to your parents, you are the most able and beautiful daughter anyone could have. That is how parents should treat us, but that is not the way a boss or superior would.

I have been a physician now for nineteen years. I am always held responsible by my patients. I have been held responsible, by someone else aside from my family for over twenty-two years. I have been responsible for the lives of a few thousands of our countrymen. Your OJT is actually Opening Just Today. You will be held responsible for the lives of almost a hundred million Filipinos. They will not be as kind as your parents, as I am sure you have had a taste of. You have said that this was a calling. I hope you have prepared well for it as I certainly prepared for mine.

You might say that your voice in the Senate is only one of twenty-four. If that voice remains silent in crucial moments, it may spell the difference for our country. If that voice cannot defend the legislation it aims to pass, you might as well leave the lawmaking to someone else. If that voice will only serve as the speaker from which emanates the voice of another, then the voice at the microphone should have been the one to get the electorate’s votes.

I did not vote for you as I believed and I believe you do not deserve my vote. But the beauty of democracy is that I should learn to abide by the voice of the majority, no matter how uninformed I feel it may be. My choices have not always won elections. If they do, I pray that their path follows the way my conscience and my mind convinced me to vote for them. When people like you win, I only have one prayer: to be proven wrong.

Mine is a voice that you may never hear but I have never stifled it with the fear of creating waves in the calm waters. The ripples I make will hopefully make you gather your oars and work your way back to shore. You are not perfect and neither am I. I sincerely hope though that you work towards it and I will happily see how much more imperfect I am.

A citizen of the republic.

Patrick Moral, MD

At this time when the country is having serious territorial dispute with China, another bickering with another Chinese nation, Taiwan, is the last thing that we would like to have.

 Unfortunately, the incident that resulted to Taiwan’s utter show of animosity towards the Philippines is not a minor one as it cost the life of one of their fishermen.

 To them the Manila hostage crisis of 2010, where eight Taiwanese hostages were killed, has barely healed the wounds of the victim’s families, when another fatal shooting has been committed by a Filipino on their citizen.

 According to reports, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) had warned first the Taiwanese fishing vessel that they were in the waters of the country’s exclusive economic zone, but the vessel did not leave and instead tried to ram the PCG boat.

 In self-defense, the coast guards opened fire on the fishing boat hitting Hung Shih-cheng, 65, who died from a bullet wound in the neck.

 The underlying problem here is that the location the fishing vessel was found in is the same exclusive economic zone that, like China, Taiwan is also trying to claim as theirs.

 The highly regrettable incident is just the latest proof that the South China Sea is an emerging flashpoint over competing claims, in part, by nations like the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, and claiming it in whole is China and its estranged neighbor, Taiwan.

 Because of this, Taiwan has announced the withdrawal of its representative in Manila and said it had stopped accepting applications for Filipino workers, as a retaliatory step for the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman.

 But what does not augur well with our country’s relationship with Taiwan is that the office of President Ma Ying-jeou, has rejected President Benigno Aquino’s apology, branding it as inadequate.

 They didn’t want PNoy calling the shooting as “unfortunate” and “unintentional”, as if it is in our character to be trigger happy and assassins.

 What is exacerbating the worrisome situation is the threat that Taiwan’s Navy and Coast Guard would stage an exercise as a show of strength in disputed waters near where the upsetting incident occurred.

 Shall we be seeing then Taiwan’s F-16 fighters, Kidd-class destroyers and other warships, if only to show how militarily muscled they are for our own good?

 We just hope this lamentable problem can be settled diplomatically before it worsens and pray similar incidents will not happen again.

The K-12 program, otherwise known as the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, is now in effect after President Benigno Aquino signed it into law.

With its implementation, enrollment in kindergarten is now deemed compulsory before children can begin the traditional six years of primary school, four years of Junior High School, and two years of Senior High School [SHS]), before heading into higher education.”

Suffice it to say that state-run high schools, which currently only have a four-year curriculum, will also be required to add two extra years. Students will have to complete the extra education to qualify for university.

Schools operated by the private sector must also begin implementing the reforms in the next school year, which starts in June.

The government said it was building tens of thousands of new classrooms, hiring nearly 18,000 teachers, and printing tens of millions of textbooks this year to implement the program nationwide.

The education department budget has been raised to 232 billion pesos ($5.64 billion) this year, up 44 per cent from 2010 levels, largely to pay for the extra services.

Now that the student has to undergo three more years of schooling, we can only hope that this is the answer to the unemployment woes of many Filipinos and improve our competitiveness in finding employment abroad, not to mention the fact that it will help students adjust easily if they study abroad.

What is important to remember, however, is that adequacy in education is not solely a factor of a nation’s educational curriculum, but what determines it also is how competent the teachers are and what support a student has at home as far as tutorial is concern.

Let us not forget too that with so many distractions now-a-days, especially with regards to electronic gizmos, discipline has to be instilled in the students.

During their time, our parents may not have finished high school or some lacked the means to enter college, but they were knowledgeable.

It continued during our generation – still having good, competent teachers and elder siblings teaching the younger ones at home.

The result of our educational system started deteriorating when developed nations abroad started hiring Filipino professionals, including our good teachers for more lucrative pay.

This brain drain among teachers will not stop unless the country’s pay scale and training programs improve.

K-12 coupled with incompetent teachers is a disaster not only to parents, but also to the students.

We Cebuanos should congratulate ourselves for a job well done!

We have shown the rest of the country that we are no longer run-of-the-mill electorate.

We are starting to evolve, becoming more insightful or intelligent, if you may, in our choices of candidates that should manage the affairs of out towns, cities and province.

We have manifested through our ballots our resolve to try and take the risk of electing new names and new faces as our leaders and giving them the chance to prove their worth.

At last we have learned to discern appropriately, who are those worthy of our trust and confidence, who should give us back in return their utmost concern and selfless service.

This is what happened when Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama got the city resident’s support and majority of the votes to beat his erstwhile political ally and mentor, Rep. Tomas Osmeña, who has not lost an election since he entered politics in 1988. The same thing happened to Osmeña’s lackey, incumbent Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young, who was beaten by Councilor Edgardo Labella.

This is what happened when the Cebuano electorate repudiated the leadership of the Garcias, when the patriarch, Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia, a veteran politician, lost to Provincial Board Member Wilfredo Caminero for congressman in Cebu’s second district. His son, Rep. Pablo John Garcia, failed to win the gubernatorial race against lawyer Hilario Davide III.

This is what happened when Talisay City residents decisively decided that they had had enough of Rep. Eduardo Gullas and made sure that businessman Johnny de los Reyes, who previously ran for mayor six times, would win this time, and he won, ending the former’s 38-year winning streak.

This is what happened when Cebuanos in the north district decided to go for former congressman Raul del Mar instead of having a talent manager like Anabelle Rama to represent them in Congress.

These are just some of the glaring upsets that I consider well deserved.

Some call it the slaying of the titans.

Others call it the trouncing of the gods.

I call it end of arrogance, greed and excesses in the guise of public service.

I describe it as heeding the call for a positive change.

I would like to share with you this comical, yet true realities of life and will not add a single word as they are all self-explanatory.
I hope you will have fun identifying the stage or phase you are in and at the same time accepting the reality of it.
Enjoy!

Some Catholic Church officials are expressing dismay over the result of the elections, specifically concerning the senatorial race.

Good for them!

If you ask me, the result should silence them and should make them realize that their concern is in the affairs of the church and it should stop, when beyond that the affairs of the state begin.

I am not saying that they should not get involve in the political process of the country, for more than being priests they are citizens of the republic.

Their participation and role, however, should be on an individual basis and should not include the church in meddling in the affairs of the state.

Like government officials responsible for the earthly welfare of the people, the church officials also have heavenly responsibilities for their flock.

Both responsibilities, mind you, are far-reaching such that if one interferes with the business of the other, it creates animosity and divisiveness that not only mars the relationship between the state and the church, but also hinders the growth and progress programs of both institutions.

Such was the result of the acrimonious discord over the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill that went on to be the tool used by some high Catholic officials in identifying whom to vote for senator during the election.

They put up large tarpaulins in church surroundings bearing the names of candidates who opposed the RH law, branding them as “Team Buhay” and those who voted for the measure as “Team Patay.”

Note that the controversial measure was signed into law by President Aquino last December to provide poor people with information and access to various forms of family planning or birth control methods, including the use of condoms and other contraceptives, in order to save lives and improve the quality of life for those living and about to be born.

Believing that there is such thing as ‘Catholic votes’, the church went full bore on this idea, only to find out after the elections that those whom they black-balled for supporting the measure landed as clear winners in the senatorial race.

This is what dismayed them. But, what should dismay them more is the backlash it has generated among some of their followers who used reason and sensibleness in going against the wishes of the ranking church officials. They found the church’s advocacy on this matter suffocating, if not irrational, and are beginning to distance themselves from the church.

One consoling and encouraging reflection of the election results is that the Catholics are beginning to speak their own minds in matters relating to the affairs of the state and not be influenced by the dictates of ranking church officials whose myopic stand on such an important issue as health and responsible parenthood is senseless, at best, and deplorable, at worst.

Filed under: Elections, Government, Local government, National event, National news, Politics, Religion Tagged: 2013 elections, Catholic church, Catholic votes, RH bill, Team Buhay, Team Patay ]]> http://quierosaber.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/election-result-dismays-catholic-church-officials/feed/ 4 quierosaber church