Just The Facts

What Lies Ahead

2008-03-01T04:46:00.000-08:00

Whenever I see children playing on the street, I remember those happy days when we were kids. Never there have been a dull moment when we were playing with my playmates. As long as we were enjoying ourselves playing, we never think what will happen next, we don't even worry for ourselves though sometimes there was harm in the games we played. "Que sera sera" like what the song says.

Unlike now, now that I have my own family, I have to think of everything. From shelter, food to eat, clothes to wear etc. But for me, one of the most important thing a family man should think is the future of their kids. Every parents want to give their kids the best, so do I.

But I'm asking myself, can I still be able to give my daughter the best amidst the present economic and political situation of the country? The world knows that the present political & economic situation in the country is getting worse following the revelation of the anomalies that the president together with her family headed by her husband and their allies did for numerous government projects. It has been said that the First Family was behind every overpriced government transactions.

After the anomalous NBN-ZTE deal was exposed to the public, star witness Mr. Jun Lozada then said on a hearing that the Senate must also investigate on the previous government projects such as the South Rail project which costs roughly around 932 million US Dollars and that previous government projects must be subjected for investigation to see if there has been an irregularity happened before, during and after the project has been agreed upon by the government and the contracting party and to see if the President had her participation on the alleged overpricing on the said projects.

People from all walks of life and even students in different universities joined hands to urge the government to speak for the truth, they even staged an inter faith rally in Ayala Avenue in Makati late last month to call for the resignation of Mrs. Arroyo but the palace belittled the demonstrators act.

There had been reports that the policemen barred some militant groups from the provinces to join the said rally to lessen their numbers but they strongly deny this allegations.

Some politicians, educators and businessmen merged to build an independent commission they called The Independent Citizens' Debt Audit Commission, consisting of not more than 30 individuals of proven probity, credibility and expertise and shall be conducting a comprehensive audit of all public debt and contingent liabilities aiming for an accurate historical, contextual and comprehensive examination of the Philippine debt problem.

Milo Tanchuling, PAID (People Against Illegitimate Debt)! co-convenor and secretary general of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, said "with Rodolfo 'Jun' Lozada's revelation on the aborted $329 million ZTE-NBN deal, the Philippines' debt problem and the continued accumulation of illegitimate debts has once again been put in the spotlight".

To date, the National Government has a debt of P3.78 trillion or $81.6 billion. The total consolidated public sector debt as of percentage to the Gross Domestic Product is 81.9 percent.

Each Filipino, from the newly born baby to a dying septuagenarian, is indebted by as much as P43,487, paying P7,012 annually to service the debt, the group's statement said.

Imagine that, even before our baby born, he owe this government a debt he don't even know who benefits from it.

After all of this scandals, can we still say that we still can provide our kids a better future now that Mrs. Arroyo is facing treason charges by allegedly allowing the Chinese government to explore Spratly Island to look for an oil deposit?

Conspiracy in the Philippine Government

2008-02-16T19:49:00.000-08:00

The Philippines and it's leaders are now facing a great scandal following the exposè about the alleged overpricing led by the First Gentleman on the deal between the NBN (National Broadband Network) project of the government and the ZTE Corporation of China.

It all started when a certain businessman named Joey De Venecia appeared on a Senate hearing a few months later and said that the First Gentleman points his finger on him and said "back off" which according to De Venecia, the First Gentleman wants him to back off as a bidder on the said government project.

Few months after this, former House Speaker Jose De Venecia, father of Mr. Joey De Venecia was thrown out of his post on the Congress amidst the fact that before this revelation came out, the Speaker and the Palace had a great political relation.

Few weeks after leaving his post, he said in an interview that when his son Joey started to reveal the anomalous acts of the First Gentleman and their allies, Mrs. Arroyo talked to him and urged him to stop his son from telling what his son knows about the said deal between the NBN and the ZTE, or else he will be thrown out of his post. He even said that Mrs. Arroyo uses her two son Datu and Mikey which are also members of the House to lead the move against him should he fail to stop his son from telling the truth about the deal.

Then another witness came out in the name of Mr. Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada, an electronics and communications engineer by profession and the former president of the Philippine Forest Corporation (PFC).

Being an expert in IT, Commission on Higher Education chairman Romulo Neri, then socioeconomic planning secretary and head of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) hired Lozada as consultant for the NBN project.

Neri said former COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos offered him P200 million in exchange for his endorsement of the NBN deal with ZTE Corp. but the former chairman deny the allegations of Neri.

And before Lozada's appearance in the Senate, he reportedly to have been abducted by some policemen and a member of the Presidential Security Group after his arrival on the airport from Hong Kong.

The Philippine National Police headed by Avelino Razon denies this allegations saying they know nothing about this and that the alleged kidnapping happened in the part of Lozada was just a mere drama. They said that it was Lozada who asks the help of the police for his protection following numbers of death threats he had receive even when he was in Hong Kong.

While in Hong Kong, he said he was given some Php500,000.00 by Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite as pocket money, he even told that some Palace officials advised him to go to Europe for he and his family's safety instead of going back to the Philippines but he insisted to go back to his native land and face the consequences of what he has started.

So many names came out following his revelation but no one among them admits their participation or knowledge in the controversy, they were all covering each other and pretends to be innocent.

Filipino people are sick and tired of this kind of political conspiracy, someone is hiding something over the other and the leaders who are doing bad things are always using their accomplice to hide the truth in exchange of a higher government position or a big amount of money sufficient enough to live luxuriously.

Every time a Filipino made good things over the other race, be it in sports, arts, inventions etc., many Filipino said that "I'm proud to be a Filipino", in fact Filipino's are known for almost every corner of the world in many different fields, but with this kind of political system we have right now, can we still face them bravely and say that we are proud to be a Filipino?

On my part, I still can say that I'm proud to be a Filipino. What I am not proud of is the dirty system that this government runs and the leaders that instead of being a good example to their fellow countrymen in uplifting their lives and taking the country out of the list of the most corrupt country in the world, they are adding more bad impressions to the world by doing such things

As what Lozada said, "it was the high-level corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency that made many Filipinos lose trust in the government and its institutions".

Effects of a Growing Economy

2008-02-01T04:58:00.000-08:00

I was so amazed when i accidentally had a glance on a headline of one of the leading broadsheet last Friday, it says that the Philippine economy turned in its best performance in 31 years. The Palace also said that the high growth rate registered in 2007 was a clear manifestation that President Arroyo has taken the right economic strategies and fundamentals and steps have been taken to sustain the momentum.

Despite all of this "good news" the Palace said, majority of the Filipino people doesn't believe in them. Why? Because for almost every time they speak to public, they always said that the Philippine economy is playing very well against the other Asian country and that for now Philippines is now in the lead in terms of economic growth in Asia.

Mrs. Arroyo also said that she will end her term with “a bigger stride in economic growth, surge of more foreign investments, more jobs for our people, strong currency and better delivery of basic services that will all be benefiting the poorest sector of our society.”

But would you please take a look at this pictures and tell me if the growth they are telling are for real

Homeless Families

Toiletless Community
Scavengers

Juvenile

Children Suffering from Starvation

Garbage Problem

Now I asked myself, is this the fruit of Mrs. Arroyo's hard work for her alleged uplifting of the lives of the Filipino people? Or this is just another tale she created on her mind?

The Filipino people are sick and tired of asking when should they feel the effect of the "good news" to their lives. Till when will they suffer from poverty, extreme starvation, justice unfairness and a lot of promises they had made before they took their posts?

Though its sad to say, we cannot deny the fact that they were all part of a broken promise.

Wrong statement(?)

2008-01-18T02:07:00.000-08:00

21 years after the government troops sprayed bullets on militant farmers that staged rally in Mendiola Bridge in Manila which was dubbed as "Mendiola Massacre". The troops then killed farmers who was just after the promise made by then administration of former president Corazon Aquino that the land they farm would be given to them. They were demanding for the distribution of lands and zero retention of estates by landowners, though supported by organizations of churches, youth, workers and other sectors, they decided to proceed to Malacañang after they felt that a series of talks with Alvarez failed to yield results and that the government broke their promise that triggered the farmers to stage protest against the administration of Mrs. Aquino. The government then said that they never meant to do it but the farmers forced them to do so that resulted in the killing of 13 farmers and wounding 80 others.

On the 22nd of this month, the farmers will again stage demonstrations at the site of the killing to commemorate the 21st year of this event but reports said that the PNP earlier announced that 10,000 policemen have been placed on standby to allow them to attend to any eventuality following reports that an alliance between the New Peoples Army and the Magdalo Group was formed to stage another destabilization plot.

Five ex-army were caught last Tuesday while transporting high powered firearms believed to be use in preparation of the alleged plot. But the wives of these soldiers said that their husbands were forcibly picked up by military in their home to be use as evidence on the destabilization plot and they were not transporting firearms for the firearms were planted by military. But one of five dismissed soldiers arrested for alleged links to a destabilization plot was freed yesterday from the custody of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) after the Department of Justice (DOJ) cleared him of charges.

Compared to the past administration, I can say that this administration has the most numbers of destabilization attempts. Though ranked number four from 100 Most Influential Women in the World, Forbes.com earlier associated the word "scandal-plagued president" before Mrs. Arroyo's name following news of anomalies and controversies against the president from the very first day she take her post. Many people speculate that more and more uprising will come her way by the way she as a leader and her allies do their job. But amidst these rumors of destabilization, the Arroyo government said that they are very much ready to handle situations and they also warned destabilizers not to pursue their plan for they will fail... again.

“Let me be realistic, 2007 was not always smooth sailing, not least of which is the political sector. The November coup attempt fizzled but it gives a black eye to our nation” Mrs. Arroyo said in her speech which refers to the brief takeover by detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and several Magdalo Group members of the Peninsula Hotel in Makati City last Nov. 29.

She also added that “the reality is that we have become stronger, a more stable nation as these (acts) of political shenanigans fall flat with you and with the people” despite the fact that numbers of families suffering from extreme starvation are growing and growing.

Is this what she mean for her statement?

A call for Mankind

2008-01-06T02:57:00.000-08:00

Two years from now, the Filipino people will again decide who among the handful of would-be candidates will they vote to be the next President of the Republic to lead the country in combating major problems such as poverty, terrorism, corruption, oil price increase, increasing rate of unemployment, population growth, food shortage and the likes. President that will help improve the lives of the Filipino people as what all candidates promises during their campaign. But only few of the then elected leaders made their promises which earns them a great respect and support from the countrymen. As the saying goes, "promises are made to be broken" and I think this is the motto of most of the candidates once they've been elected.

It's quite a long time before the election period but as early as now, aspiring leaders are now planning their strategies in order for them to be recognized by the people and they even do something in favor of the people though it's against their will just to assure that those people will support their candidacy.

On the coming months, several countries around the world will have to choose their best bet to be their next President.

In Pakistan, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated a month before their general election on the last week of this month. Now, many people predicts that violence will overflow in the coming election . Later this day, a suicide bomber approached a crowd of police officers outside a courthouse in Lahore and set off a powerful explosion, killing at least 23 people and wounding 58, twenty-two of the casualties were police officers, and the police said many of the wounded were in critical condition till this very moment. Can we call it a trend, a revenge or what? For almost everywhere where there's a coming election, you will heard news or even experience election-related violence.

In United States, fifteen great men and women are competing in order to attain the highest votes they need to be the next leader of one of the most powerful country in the world. Whatever ideas these candidates have in mind to bring betterment to their country, we can never deny the fact that amidst being one of the worlds most powerful country they cannot resolve the problem mankind is facing these days and on the coming years, it is the problem of global warming and climate change.

These issues were ignored by many but we must take it very serious for we only have one planet to live in. A lot of studies and explorations were made by many countries to see if there is a certain planet out there that we can live in. But till this very moment there were no concrete evidence or proof that we can live in some planets though it has water and oxygen.

The fact is there is nowhere we can live other than this planet so we must all act now before it's too late.

Year of the Rat

2008-01-01T01:47:00.000-08:00

Year 2007 has finally meet its end. Now, we must welcome the year 2008 with hope that someday we can be able to see the world free from pollutions, no beggars in the streets, less crime, less poverty, no homeless families, no corrupt officials and most of all no war.

Year 2008 is the Year of the Rat according to Chinese Zodiac. They believe that the rat symbolizes "good luck and wealth" for its quick wits and its ability to accrue and hold on to items of value.

For some this is just a superstitious belief, but for me, all I can say is that no matter how we believe in superstitions, we are the one who decides on what we want to be or what we want to have for I believe that every decisions we have to make for today will reflect on our future.

There are three stages of life, the pre-adolescent period, the adolescent period and the adult period. In the 1st and 2nd stage, most of the decisions comes from our parent, from what to wear, what to eat, whom to be with and so on. In the 3rd stage, we dominate ourselves from decision making. We are the ones who make our own decisions. So be careful in making decisions.

Have you ever wonder why there are uneducated but successful person like Bill Gates? The answer is simple, they made the right decisions.

It never means that if you were born poor you will die poor. Remember that as we play in the game called life, there are a lot of opportunities that will somehow change our life or shall I say our way of living. If we will only be brave enough to face the consequences this opportunities bring, there may be no more regrets.

We don't know what this year brings to mankind. As the Chinese belief, this year is a year of good luck and prosperity. But there are some questions I want to ask and here are they

Will this year bring good luck to millions of people around the world who are suffering from extreme poverty?

Will there be enough supply of food to the remote areas who are suffering from starvation?

Will there be no one die from extreme starvation?

Will there be peace on earth and in our heart?

Will there be no terrorism acts that leads to the death of many innocent people?

What would be the actions of the leaders of the world towards global warming?

What alternative ways do they imply in order to lessen the pollution we emit?

If we will all rely on good luck and never make our move, we cannot change things for better. We must all act and think for even a simple way on how we can help solve these problems the world is facing.

We must all act, NOW!

Conundrums

2007-12-28T03:28:00.000-08:00

Only three days left and we'll have to say goodbye to this year and welcome the coming year. Only three days but still I had conundrums and I think it will remain unanswered till new year comes.

In Pakistan, former Prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber after a speech in an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi that leads the Pakistanis to stage violence in the city and in the nearby provinces.

The assassin as said by the officials investigating the crime was "very well trained or too close to her" to make those shots that killed her almost instantly. He even blew himself up before the people catch him and killed at least 10 people.

Thousands of supporters mourns to her death. "We've lost a great leader. We hoped she would bring peace to our area but now chances are very slim," uttered by her supporters.

Till this very moment, no one had been captured for her assassination. No one knows who is behind this plot.

In the part of the attacker, is it worth for him to sacrifice his own life just to kill her or is he just also a victim of the terrorist behind this killing?

Every time new year comes, a lot of people make their new year's resolution for they want to change something in them for better but the fact is not all of the resolutions they have listed will be followed religiously.

Everybody wishes for peace on earth, but how can we have peace if we never open ourselves for acceptance. Just like the one's behind Bhutto's assassination, if he only admit that Bhutto can be of great help to the Pakistani people to attain peace, he could have not did this plot.

If we only can realize that in able to achieve world peace, we must start it in ourselves. Words are not enough we must act, talk and think peacefully.

Sometimes we must set aside our personal gains to attain our goals but we must admit that this thing is almost always forgotten.

How brittle our life is....

2007-12-18T03:06:00.000-08:00

Being a doctor is not an easy profession. Sometimes, lives of their patients are in their hands. In every hospital, whenever there is a patient in critical condition you will hear the words "please do everything you can doc". But the reality is, no matter how great they are in their chosen fields, they really can't prolong the lives of their patients.

Two weeks later, I saw one of our aluminum installer named Bong leaning on the side of our delivery truck with arms holding each other between his legs and shivering. I ask him why, he said he had a flu. I told him to go home and get rest, he said its better for him not to treat his flu seriously cause if he do so, his flu might get serious, instead he go to work to do his unfinished jobs. But he can't even manage to walk in a normal way for being dizzy. His fellow installer Adonis brought him to the nearest clinic when he saw Bong in bad condition.

There he had his blood examined for he might be carrying a dengue virus as theorize by his attending physician for his "on & off" flu which is one symptoms of having a dengue virus. After
a few hours, the results came out and it says he is negative in carrying a dengue virus. He then brought by Adonis to his apartment to have rest. That night he began having trouble breathing. His relatives were informed by his landlord of his condition and even ask them to come to attend Bong.

His brother decided to bring Bong to their province for them to able to monitor his condition. For Bong's safety, his landlord allow his brother to their decision knowing that Bong will be in good hand with his brother.

But, instead of bringing Bong to the hospital, his brother choose Bong to stay to their home to have a good rest. The following day, the only thing Bong can move is his eyes. He can't even talk nor open his mouth to eat. His brother begin to panic and rushed Bong to the hospital. There he had a series of examination and later found out that he had a sepsis.

Last night I have received a text message from his girlfriend saying DEI MORTUARY SERVICES, 301 Shaw Blvd. Mandaluyong city...... there is where Bong's cadaver given mortuary services.

It really shocked me, I almost can't believe that. It even turn my hair up.

Sometimes this things affects us very seriously, but we all must learn how to turn every negative into positive for us to see the positive side of every bad things that happened to us.

This shows us how brittle our life is. No one knows what will happen next or when or how we will die. Life..... as said by an apostle is as brittle as a spider web.

It may really be hard to admit that sometimes the one's we treasure the most is the one who will leave us.......

and will never come back.......

forever.

Vacacion Grande

2007-12-07T03:11:00.000-08:00

3rd of December Two Thousand and Seven, the day when Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo leave the country with more than 30 lawmakers to visit Europe (four of whom are traveling with their spouses). More than 30 lawmakers which should be present in the session for the deliberation of the Cheap Medicine Bill, the bill which somehow will benefit the poor countrymen who cannot afford to buy medicines to cure their illnesses and likewise use alternative medicines like the herbal medicines recommended by some quack doctors or faith healers. But how can Congress pass this bill if a big number of lawmakers are absent in the middle of the deliberation of this bill?

When I heard about this news, a lot questions arise on my mind regarding this move by Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

First, why does the House Speaker allow these lawmakers to go with the President though he know that the Congress is in Session and in the middle of the deliberations of the Cheap Medicine Bill?

Second, is it a must for these lawmakers to join Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to her trip? If so, what important role should they and their spouses play for this trip that will be beneficial to the filipino people?

Third, aren't they needed in the Congress to be a part of the deliberation of the bill they created? Should they are not needed to be there, what are they doing in the Congress?

Fourth, don't they even think of the huge amount of money this delegation should spend just by visiting Europe?

By now, it is Php41 against a dollar. For this entire trip alone they will spend roughly around 17 million pesos for their 9 day vacation to Europe. Huge amount of money isn't it?

Fifth, who funded this trip? The speaker then said that the House did not spend even a single centavo for the lawmakers trip with Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, then who funded them? Is it a part of the alleged bribe handed by a certain member of the House to other lawmakers and local government officials last October 11 in a meeting at the Malacanang Palace? Note that if we divide 17 million by 34 lawmakers, each of them will spend 500,000 pesos, same amount of the alleged bribe they handed out last October. The speaker also said that some of them might be traveling at their own expense(?).

With this move by Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, many filipino people said that instead of spending this huge amount of money for traveling abroad with these "biggest delegation of House junketeers" as said by an oppositional lawmaker, might as well spend it for helping the victims of the past three typhoons that wrath several provinces in the northern part of the archipelago. Some provinces are still craving for shelter, food and clothes, while our lawmakers are there in Europe enjoying the rest of days of their Vacacion Grande.

Economic growth

2007-11-30T17:19:00.000-08:00

There was a time I was watching the news on TV and it says that the Philippine economy was rising for the past several months and its getting stronger. They said that one of the reason is the dollar remittances sent by millions of filipino overseas workers around the world to their love ones and the good governance of Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who, as an economist, never stop finding solutions to the economic problem of her native land. Her Excellency did a great job indeed as a fact, she ranked number four as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World by Forbes.com. She untiringly fights terrorism, corruptions and poverty and as a result of her excellent job, she again encouraged more foreign investors to invest in the Philippines that makes the Philippine economy quite stronger than the past administrations.

For the past administrations, none of them (the then Presidents) strengthen the value of Philippine peso against US Dollar, instead during their terms Uncle Sam overpowers Juan Dela Cruz in terms of monetary value coz' they were focused on controlling the price of prime commodities to rise which benefited the Filipino people most likely the poor. But we cannot hide the truth that though they did control the price of prime commodities to rise, they can't manage to control the value of US Dollar against Philippine peso and it even reached to Php56/US Dollar.

For Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's brilliant ideas and dedicated service to the native land, little by little she empowers Juan Dela Cruz over Uncle Sam. She slash down the then Php56/US Dollar to only Php42/US Dollar. It's not an easy task and we all know that. That's why she earns a big respect from the leaders of the neighbor country & the business sectors as well.

But on the other hand, prices of petroleum products continues to increase almost every week which triggers the transport sectors to stage protests against her administration. It was immediately followed by the increase of vegetable prices and other prime commodities.

Non Government Organizations (NGO) were always conducting feeding program for the under-nourished children in metro manila and in some provinces. Their objective is to give kids the right nourishments they need. Statistics shows that the higher percentage of under-nourished kids are in metro manila and still growing in numbers. They were the ones you see in the middle of the streets chasing cars and passenger jeepneys begging for someone to give them something they can use to end their starvation. But the truth is not all of them have the same goal, some of them is begging not to buy food but to buy something that can make them forget the pain they feel for being starved and the cheapest among them is the so-called rugby, they say that when they sniff it, they forget starvation and started getting hyper. You can even see some of the beggars who even uses their babies while begging, they don't even think of their baby's safety or is it because they can't be able to think right because of starvation?

Thanks God there are some NGO's who are somehow concern for the kids, thanks to them for having a big heart to the needy kids which someday might be one of the good leaders given the right nourishments they need.

There was once a documentary I've watched, I just can't remember its title but the documentarist talks about the families living under the bridge in almost every part of metro manila. She documented the risk of living under the bridge and even ask them why do they choose to build their homes under the bridge and they say that for them, it's the safest place to build home. Though risky, there's nothing they can do coz' they can't afford to rent even a room.
For the increasing number of homeless families, the documentarist then ended the story saying "where there's a bridge, there's a family underneath".

As I am writing this blog I've heard the news on the radio that senator-elect Antonio Trillanes IV together with his co-accused Magdalo Group walked out of the court room while on hearing at the Makati Regional Trial Court and march towards The Peninsula Manila which is located in Ayala Avenue. We don't know what will happen next to this incident. Is it another revolt against the administration? Is it their way of expressing their grievances? Will they call for the president to step down to her post? No matter what their goal is, I know that they had a purpose.

Now, can we say that the Philippines now have an economic growth amidst the fact that one of every three Filipino's wanted the president to step down to her post for a change?

Instead, we must admit that no matter how hard we try, as long as personal gain is in the mind of our leaders, corruption follows and if there's corruption, poor people gets poorer and sometimes poverty pushes them to do things that are against the law.

This is the face of a strong republic.