tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2103792217374668742024-02-19T14:58:52.247-08:00Sailing on the CloudsBenjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-86424664304110759512013-09-15T04:28:00.000-07:002013-09-15T07:53:54.354-07:00May We Not Slumber<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">August 26, 2013, Heroes Day. In Luneta, as well as, in
other parts of the country and of the world, people from all walks of life
gathered: students from different colleges and universities, employees, OFWs, families,
activists, tv personalities, professors, vendors, and all the ordinary people
converging to a common goal. On that day, we vented out a demand to abolish the
twisted pork barrel system and, ultimately, to change the nation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> It is
true that the protest wasn't that organized, as some people claimed—with
different programs scheduled by different organizations— it, nevertheless, met
its agenda: to show that we had enough! That we want change! Until this day,
September 15, 2013, a series of mass movement have been organized to let the
government know this demand (we are the “bosses” of the president anyway).</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> September 13, Friday. I
returned to Luneta for another rally noticeable was
the well executed program that sustained the attention of those who attended.
The program was initiated by various religious groups for a prayer. Too various speakers took the stage, sharing their sentiments, providing
us with different points of view, of different perspectives on how corruption
and the system robbed people of opportunities and abused their rights. Not to mention performances of artists: Darryl Shy, Didi Garcellano, Abra, Jesse Santiago and many more. The night was packed indeed. </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> But I
wonder how much can we sustain this. As I look at the composition of the
crowd last Friday, I asked myself how many would go to the next rally, and to
the next, until the transformation in our society is actualized. What would
sustain the flames which have belched forth during Heroes Day? </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> It is
no secret that the Philippines have been rocked by seismic scandals: the ZTE deal,
the Erap impeachment case, the fertilizer scam, the hello Garci recording, the
Corona impeachment (the main accusation being was corruption). I am pretty sure
that there is more I forgot to mention. But what have come about from these
investigations? Everyone goes missing or under hospital arrest. The guilty lives in suites while the many have barely a roof above their heads. Come on! We are
being made fool of.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> We saw
time and again that these news are replaced the next day; from ZTE to Kris Aquino-Joey
Marquez love foibles (if I recall correctly), and so on, until our collective
memory of the issue is buried under rubble of information. My concern was such
fate might also befall the Napoles case. Now, the problem is: THERE IS NO
BIGGER CASE THAN THIS! If we sleep over this issue once more the nation might
be anesthetized, and get used to it. Like the asinine traffic schemes implemented: we get used to it!</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> And
so, when this issue gets buried again, when our consciousness tires, would we
ever awaken again? Because if we do not take action—if we just complain and not
act!—if we slumber past this issue, like having rattled the termites from a
tree, the schemes of corruption will take its grip even tighter, its roots will
bury even deeper, more complex. Then they’ll resume siphoning not only the
national coffers; they rob us not only of money but of opportunities to a better life, of a means to ever dream. The damage: bearing mark from
generations to generations. Yes! In our sleep, the nightmares that haunted us
as a nation will continue. The injustice that we have swallowed will forever
choke us.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Remember
the proverbial saying, “what doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger.” The
same could be said to corruption and the parasites in the government. May we be awake and continue to fan the flames that led us to Luneta!</span></div>
Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-49268605693037421242013-07-04T19:30:00.002-07:002013-07-04T19:37:46.627-07:00Memories of Rain<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When the rain comes we are born
anew. We take the form of sailors and
pirates—captains of the seas! We are a one-man crew, our ships fashioned in paper,
fully colored, with names, drawings of cannons and all. The seas we sail on are
creeks and canals that have come to life with turbulent streams, even
whirlpools. There we race and sink each other’s ships to the concrete bottom of
our ocean. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
remember, all too well, a small pond would well up and we would find ourselves
playing in its waters. If it had rained hard for days we would often catch
fishes were we kept in ice plastics. We were, ever since, perplexed as to why
catfishes and guppies managed to find their way there. Did they sprung out from
nowhere? Maybe it grew from algae? Or maybe it drizzled from the skies along
with the rains. There we managed to produce our own Darwinian concepts and our
own story of evolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Among
the many mysteries we—my sisters, cousins, and I—would always marvel in is to how
the taste of <i>champorado</i>, <i>monggo</i> and <i>tuyo</i>, would taste a lot better during these times. Does weather
have a direct effect on our tongues? We are also amazed on how our
grandmother’s stories would sound even more enchanting as if her voice opens a
portal into the past; this is especially true when electricity is cutoff and
the rain lasted until the next morning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">True,
I secretly long for the rain—especially during mathematics classes in primary
and secondary education—where I whisper to the skies to bring the pall that
will send us home. I am thrilled when it answers with a roaring thunder. My
classmates and I would feign fear and bawl from the room sending our teacher to
calm us down. Again, we see the bolts of lightning racing from the dark clouds
and the explosion it would definitely ensue.
I know that heaven, in spite of the many unanswered wishes, still listens.
Then the sound of school bell rings, nature has become our ally. Yes, how we
love the rain!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">However,
the other month, in my volunteer work, I have talked to a kid who hated it. “I
wish it never rained at all!” I thought he was kidding but his eyes seem to be
gazing into depths of some morbid memories. The smile painted on my lips is
gone. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When I asked why, he said even before <i>Ondoy</i>,
a simple rain would bring the flood water into their homes that immobilize them
for days. He recalled the time when all of their belongings were swept by the
flood and had to begin from scratch again. They would miss school for days and
eventually returning back to the same grade the next year. His neighbors
experienced even worse, as they helplessly watched loved ones gobbled by the
dark water flood never to return. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Disease
brought by the rain and their living conditions took toll on them too. A brother could die from a variety of
diseases such as dengue and <i>leptospirosis</i>,
not that it is incurable, but because they have nothing to pay the hospitals
with; public hospitals may come with minimal expenses for medicines and other
services but still out of reach for the many who are poor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Inevitably,
he and his brothers were pushed, rain or not, to work—collecting mussels,
scavenging in the garbage, usually referred to as <i>kalakal</i>, and many other odd jobs—to be able to live and provide for
their family. In the words of that kid, “The
rain can be cruel!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
is the paradox between our memories and our experiences. That while I long for
the rain because of the merriment it brought us when we were kids is also the
same rain that spells nightmare, even doom to others. In a way, this perceptual
difference symbolically represents the gap among us, Filipinos, as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
story of the kid I met is not unusual in a country such as ours. It is a shared
reality by anyone living in the clutches of poverty. It shows us how the many
of us, who mostly live in dire conditions, suffer the most even by the minutest
change of weather. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
know I cannot fully comprehend the gravity of hardships they encounter during
times of calamity and in their everyday living, words would simply fall short.
But it strengthened a belief in me that we need to unselfishly work together,
as Filipinos, towards a single dream in improving the quality of living. Too, along with the nourishment of basic human
needs—clothing, shelter, education, food—a definitive change in perception
would ensue once these were addressed. And that even the simple comforts life
could give, like the soothing drops of rain may also be enjoyed by others
either through play or in quiet slumber. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For
that kid, summer cannot contain the rain. It will definitely come. But one day,
as dreams are forged in unity, and as this nation awakes from its centuries of
apathy, maybe one day you’ll come to embrace it. Then, together, witness the
promise of rainbows that every rainfall brings. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll
come to love the season that brings it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-55295620959172107722013-05-27T14:10:00.003-07:002013-05-27T14:12:37.827-07:00 Never too Late to Know Your Senatorial Bets<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
The dawn before election. As people are preoccupied making final thoughtof names to support a little information and education is never too late. TheMovement for Good Governance has made a profile of our 2013 senatorial betsbased on four points: effectiveness, empowering, ethical and platform. Simplyput it the items for <b>effectiveness</b> are the abilities (education, awards,etc.) and track records of the candidates (also listed is absenteeism). <b>Empowering</b>is the “candidate’s ability to unite and engagestakeholders to develop and implement policies and programs that meet genuineneeds of the populace”. Now, the items for <b>ethical</b>gives light to the character and integrity of thecandidate. In addition, <b>platform</b>items are the attested focus and advocacy of the candidate which they would, most likely, sponsor. Note that we can compare this to what they have already done.</div>
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Along with the MGG scorecard one could actually rate the candidates andmake their decisions based on these. Although the list may be impartial thereis still enough time to think who we cast votes and seat for the coming yearsthat may spell difference between progress from peril. Below are the list fromMGG’s website:</div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>CANDIDATE:LORNA REGINA “Loren” LEGARDA</b></div>
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<b>STATUS:Re-electionist</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· TOWNS and TOYM awardee</div>
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· BS in Broadcast Journalism, UP; MA in NationalSecurity, NDCP.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Principal Author: Climate Change Law, Magna Cartafor Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Act, Anti-Domestic Violence Act,Anti-Child Labor law, Expanded Senior Citizens Act; Universal Newborn Hearing,Screening and Intervention Act of 2009; Barangay Kabuhayan Act; Clean Air Act,Phil Tropical Fabrics Law; Agri-Agra Reform Credit Act; Phil. Ear ResearchInstitute Act</div>
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(source: Rappler)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Present for 81 days out of 94</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Founder, Luntiang Pilipinas – nationwide urbanforestry program, planted 2 million trees in</div>
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33 provinces and 28cities</div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Catholic Mass Media Hall of Fame; KBP Golden DoveAward, Gawad CCP</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· PDAF spent on construction of schools.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Signed the resolution clearing Villar on his disorderlybehavior re-C5; teamed up with Villar; a turnabout of her previous positionvoting to oust Villar as Senate President (source: Vera files, “PoliticalProstitution” by Ellen Tordesillas)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Education</div>
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· Health care</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Improvement of working</div>
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conditions of ourFilipino</div>
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workers</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Safer and disasterresilient</div>
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communities</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Environmental protection</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Cultural preservation</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>FRANCISJOSEPH “Chiz” ESCUDERO</b><b></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>STATUS:Re-electionist</b><b></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· TOYM Awardee in Youth Leadership</div>
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· UP Law; MS International law, GeorgetownUniversity</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Main sponsor of laws on Subsidiary Imprisonment, DecriminalizingVagrancy; Phil. Red Cross Charter; Holiday for the Observance of Eidul Adha;International Humanitarian Law; Anti-Image Voyeurism Act; Judiciary Retirement Benefits</div>
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· Chaired Committee on Justice and HumanRights—passed all 281 bills on additional trial courts (15<sup>th</sup>Congress)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Chaired Committee on Environment and Natural resources(heard 300 bills and resolutions)</div>
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· Opposed sin tax law (he is against new taxes-Bus.Mirror, Nov. 24,2012)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· for decriminalizing libel</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Present for 91 days out of 94</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Voted in favor of RH bill</div>
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· Present for 91 out of 94 days (among those withtop attendance)</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· PDAF spent for school buildings, cooperatives, solardryers, medicine, sports equipment, public markets.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Bolted NPC because of refusal of Danding Cojuangcoto fund his planned presidential campaign (source: Rappler)</div>
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· Among those who pushed for the impeachment ofthen President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo</div>
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· Relatives in government: Sorsogon Vice Governor AntonioEscudero (uncle), Vice Mayor in Casiguran, (Uncle) Councilor Hatoc in Casiguran(uncle); Councilor Escudero in Casiguran (uncle) (source: Rappler)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>ALAN PETER CAYETANO</b></div>
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<b>STATUS:Re-electionist</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· BS Political Science, UP; Law degree, Ateneo deManila, 2nd honor</div>
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· As chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, heled the probe into controversies involving Arroyo’s close allies such as theNBN-ZTE deal and the fertilizer fund scam.</div>
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· TOYM Awardee in the field of government andpublic service in recognition of his valuable efforts in advocating public accountabilityand transparency.</div>
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· Main sponsor Anti-camcoding Act; national BookDevelopment Trust Fund; University of the Phil. Charter of 2007</div>
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· Present for 68 days out of 94 days, late 19 times(claimed official mission for 23 days)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Questioned appointment Chief Justice Renato Coronaamid an appointment ban</div>
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· Signatory of the impeachment complaint againstPres. Estrada.</div>
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· Relatives in government: Sen. Pia Cayetano(sister); Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano (wife); Barangay Fort Bonifacio Barangay ChairLino Cayetano (brother).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Public accountability and transparency</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>GREGORIO “Gringo” HONASAN</b></div>
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<b>STATUS:Re-electionist</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· PMA and MPM at Asian Institute of Management</div>
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· Principal sponsor: Freedom of Information Act,2012; Clean Air Act of 1999; Sponsor, Qualification Standards in the Appointmentof Uniformed Personnel to BFP and BJMP; Education Requirements for Promotion inthe PNP; Strengthening the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program; Revised FireCode; Disposition of Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Present for 91 days out of 94</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Proposed a Mini-Marshall Plan for Mindanao tohelp jumpstart economic development, peace and order, and political unity.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Helped in plotting a mutiny against President Marcos</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Led 2 unsuccessful coup attempts against the CoryAquino Administration</div>
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· Accused of masterminding the 2003 Oakwood Mutinybut case was dropped by a Makati Court.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Environment</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Social reform</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· National security</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Peace</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Good governance</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Youth</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Education</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>ANTONIO “Sonny” TRILLANES</b></div>
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<b>STATUS:Re-electionist</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· PMA & UP Open University) MPA graduate</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Present for 42 days (detained for 49 days), late 12times</div>
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· No information on principal sponsorship butCo-author of Archipelagic Baselines Law; Immediate Release of Retirement ofGovernment Employees; Salary Standardization Law 3; PAGIBIG Fund Law; MagnaCarta for Disabled Persons; Cheaper Medicines Act; Philippine Coast Guard Law; TourismAct; Military Service Board Act; PNP Education and Promotions Act; ExpandedSenior Citizens Act; Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management SystemAct.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Pushed for the enactment of an "anti-epalbill" or a measure that seeks to eradicate the unethical practice amongpublic officials of claiming credit for various public works projects funded bytaxpayers' money.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Was among the key officers who led the OakwoodMutiny and standoff in Peninsula Makati to protest corruption in the militaryand the Arroyo administration.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Reported by COA to be top spender in Senate 2011:28 million for office operations; 17m for staff salaries and 7 million MOOE.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Anti-corruption measures</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Police and civil service reforms</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Education</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Health</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Environment</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Energy</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
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<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>AQUILINO MARTIN “Koko” PIMENTEL, III</b></div>
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<b>STATUS:Re-electionist</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Studied Math and Law at Ateneo de ManilaUniversity</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Bar topnotcher</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Law Professor at FEU Co-author, Foster Care Act (onlyproclaimed in August 2011)<b></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Launched the Kontra Pandaraya Movement to fightelection fraud and other forms of cheating and scams.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Principled politics</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Clean, honest, and credible elections</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Local autonomy</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Environment</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· OFWs</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Youth</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Justice</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>RICHARD "Dick" GORDON</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>STATUS:Returning Candidate</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EFFECTIVE:</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Principal author of the National Tourism PolicyAct of 2009 or Republic Act 9593, Automated Elections System (RA 9369), and Veteransbill which lifted prohibition of Filipino veterans to claim compensation fromUS and Philippine government</div>
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· Served as Tourism Secretary responsible for theWow Philippines campaign which reversed the negative growth of tourism due toSARS, Oakwood mutiny and kidnappings</div>
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· As Olongapo City mayor for 13 years, hetransformed the city to a “model city" in waste and traffic management</div>
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· SBMA chairman responsible for attracting foreigninvestments like FEDEX, ACER creating 200,000 jobs</div>
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· Chairman of Philippine National Red Cross.</div>
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EMPOWERING</div>
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· As SBMA chair, led civic spirit volunteerism todevelop Subic after the Mt. Pinatubo eruption.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· Several relatives in politics: wife, brother,cousins</div>
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· Dual role as a politician and Red Cross Chairman</div>
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· Opposed imposition of martial law in Mindanao andamendment of the constitution through a Constituent assembly</div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
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· Education</div>
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· Agriculture</div>
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· Enhancement of tourism</div>
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· Information technology</div>
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· National defense.</div>
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· Sees himself as a transformational leader whowill instill a culture of discipline in the country.</div>
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<b>CANDIDATE:</b><b> RAMON "Jun" MAGSAYSAY JR.</b></div>
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<b>STATUS: Returning Candidate</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
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· Headed the investigation on the fertilizer scamof the Arroyo administration and demanded accountability and good governance</div>
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· Sponsored Agriculture and Fisheries ModernizationAct and Anti Money Laundering Law, · Mechanical Engineering from DLSU and MBA from HarvardBusiness School and New York University</div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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· Introduced the concept of strategic agriculturalzones for the farmers and cooperatives to harness their agricultural activitiesand the provision on model farms, which gives landowners the option to enterinto management contracts with corporate entities for high-end quality productionthrough up-to-date technology</div>
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· Vice Chairman, Work a Year with the PeopleVolunteer Doctors’ Program with Sen. Manglapus</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· Generally respected for 12 years of service tothe Senate which are untainted with scandal or controversy.</div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
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· Anti Dynasty measures</div>
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· Attracting investments in provinces</div>
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· Good governance</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>CANDIDATE:ERNESTO “Ernie” MACEDA</b></div>
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<b>STATUS:Returning Candidate</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
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· 50 years of experience in government, 3 terms inthe Senate and 5 Cabinet positions, Senate President and Ambassador to US</div>
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· Sponsored laws that granted Christmas bonus to employees,increased wages, lowered of majority age from 21 to 18, banned mail orderbrides</div>
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· Bachelor of Laws, Valedictorian, Ateneo de Manila;Master of Laws with Distinction, Harvard University<b></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· Called “Mr. Expose” but accused of using Senate inquiriesto harass political rivals (source: Rappler)</div>
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· Branded by Mayor A. Lacson as “so young and so corrupt”(source: Rappler)</div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Review of sin tax law and law on reproductivehealth;</div>
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· Encouragement of SMEs</div>
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· Incentives to foreign investor</div>
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· More spending on Infrastructure.</div>
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<b>CANDIDATE:MARIA ANA "Jamby" MADRIGAL</b></div>
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<b>STATUS:Returning Candidate</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
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· Senator from 2004-2010, authored the Anti-Child PornographyLaw; Magna Carta for Women; Tubbataha Reefs National Park Act</div>
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· Degree in Economics and French, Sta. Clara University,California</div>
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· Accused Sen. Villar of corruption by double-fundingthe construction of C5<b></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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· Before entering politics, she headed foundations thatpromote child awareness and education</div>
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· Founder,Books for Barangays<b></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· Unafraid to be popular and speaks her mind out; clashedwith Sen. Villar, Cayetano, Sen. Enrile and her own relatives<b></b></div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
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· Environmental protection</div>
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· Women and children</div>
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<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>JUAN MIGUEL “Migs” ZUBIRI</b><b></b></div>
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<b>STATUS: Returning Candidate</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Worked for the passage of Renewable Energy Act of2008, the Biofuels Act of 2006; Wildlife Conservation Act, Organic AgricultureAct</div>
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· Perfect attendance both as Congressman andSenator</div>
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· BS in Agri-Business Management, UPLB; Masters inEnvironment and Natural resources Management, UP-Open University</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· Resigned after a series of exposes on election cheatingin 2007, and days before the Senate Electoral Tribunal proclaimed Sen. KokoPimentel as winner</div>
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· One of the 6 Spice Boys who worked for the impeachmentof Pres. Estrada; now running as Senator in Pres. Estrada’s party.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· 100 percent health coverage for the poor</div>
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· Food for Schools program, i.e. free breakfast andlunch for school children</div>
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· National land use and forest preservation.</div>
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<b>CANDIDATE:JUAN EDGARDO “Sonny” M. ANGARA</b></div>
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<b>STATUS:Members of the Lower House</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· TOYM awardee</div>
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· 3-term Congressman</div>
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· BS Economics, London School of Economics; Bachelorof Laws, UP, Master of Laws, Harvard</div>
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· Chairperson: Committee on Higher Education</div>
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· Authored 250 House bills, e.g. right of access toinformation, assistance to students and teachers in private education, comprehensivestudy now-pay-later program<b></b></div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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· Partnered with various academic and socio-civic groups,such as Gawad Kalinga, the University of Asia and the Pacific, the Universityof the Philippines, GILAS-Ayala Foundation, Rotary Clubs, the Federation ofFilipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, to meet the needs of his constituentsin Aurora<b></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· Relatives in Government: Senator Angara (father);Aurora Governor Bellaflor Angara (aunt); Aurora Mayor (uncle)</div>
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· Used the funds allotted to his office to buildover 100 classrooms, and provide funds for indigent constituents in 12 governmenthospitals and hundreds of scholarships to deserving students at various stateuniversities and colleges (SUCs).<b></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
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· Aims to institute reforms to make educationaccessible to more Filipinos, as well as improve the quality of the country’seducational system.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>TEODORO “Teddy” CASIÑO, JR.</b><b></b></div>
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<b>STATUS: Members of the Lower House</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
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· BA Sociology, UPLB</div>
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· 3-term BAYAN MUNA party list representative in Congress</div>
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· Sponsored 224 bills, e.g. protection of whistle blowers,ensuring public access to officials records, compensation of martial lawvictims, regulating tuition fee in private colleges; removal of VAT on power.</div>
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· Co-author of Public attorneys act, rentcontrolact, anti-torture act.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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· Spearheads <i>BuyPinoy,Build Pinoy!, </i>a grassroots campaign promoting the consumptionof Filipino-made products and the development of integrated, world-class Filipinoindustries.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· Worked for KMU and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan(BAYAN) as Secretary General</div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
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· Honest and excellent public service</div>
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· Apro-Filipino economy</div>
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· Adequate work and decent wages to the workers</div>
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· Free land and subsidy to the farmer</div>
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· Greater access to social services</div>
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· Protect the environment</div>
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· Advance the peace process.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>ANA THERESIA “Risa” HONTIVEROS-BARAQUEL</b><b></b></div>
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<b>STATUS: Members of the Lower House</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
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· Former Akbayan party-list Representative ;current chair of AKBAYAN</div>
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· ABSocial Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University</div>
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· Co-authored Cheaper Medicines Law, ComprehensiveAgrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) Law</div>
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· Lobbied actively for the passage of the RH bill</div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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· Founded the Nuclear Disarmament Group</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· Filed case against GMA for PCSO plunder raps</div>
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· Filed impeachment complaint against former OmbudsmanGuitierrez</div>
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· Human rights advocate</div>
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· Fought against the abuses of GMA administration</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
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· Bills on Anti-Prostitution</div>
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· Gender Balance Bill</div>
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· Students' Rights and Welfare</div>
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· Training of barangay health workers.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>JOSEPH VICTOR “JV” EJERCITO</b><b></b></div>
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<b>STATUS: Members of the Lower House</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· AB Political Science, DLSU</div>
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· TOYM awardee</div>
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· Mayor of San Juan for three terms and led San Juan’seconomic boom; city is only 20 percent dependent on grants from centralgovernment and generates 80 percent of revenues from local sources.</div>
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· Co-author participatory governance through CSO empowerment,mercury exposure information, local housing board, domestic workers act.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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· His TOYM award for 2007 recognized his provisionof affordable medicine for the poor, establishment of a city college andhousing for the very poor.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· PCIJ reported that he has an offshore account ina tax haven country, British Virgin Island</div>
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· Relativesin government: Mayor of San Juan City, mother; Senator Estrada, brother</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
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· Attune Educational Program to job marketpriorities</div>
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· encourage investors in sectors that are fitted toFilipino skills</div>
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· Priority Program and Funds for Full-ScaleMindanao Development</div>
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· Developing Regional Educational Hubs</div>
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· Align Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program towardsprograms that increase productivity and lead to job creation among the poor.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>MARIA MILAGROS ESPERANZA “Mitos”MAGSAYSAY</b><b></b></div>
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<b>STATUS: Members of the Lower House</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Business Administration graduate, UP</div>
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· 3-term Congresswoman</div>
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· Sponsor limits on forest lands in Olongapo;creating additional branches of Olongapo Regional trial Court; franchise for OlongapoElectric Distribution Co. (source: Rappler)</div>
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· Voted against RH bill and sin tax law</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Staunch ally of Ex President GMA-GMA appointedher 23 year old son to the SBMA Board without any work experience</div>
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· One of the signatories of House Resolution 1109 callingfor a constituent assembly to amend the Constitution.</div>
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· Two sons are running as Congressman and vice mayorof Olongapo</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
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· Oversight function of the Senate and will conveneregular meetings with agency heads.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>CYNTHIA AGUILAR VILLAR</b><b></b></div>
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<b>STATUS: Members of the Lower House</b></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
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· Worked for the passage of legislations promotingthe welfare of women, children, and family such anti-trafficking of women andchildren, anti-violence against women, protection of children in the workplaceand the juvenile justice system</div>
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· Worked for the passage 2 versions of the Senior CitizensAct in 2003 &2010.</div>
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· Worked for the ladder-like system of educationand the distance-learning open university system for the benefit poor people tohelp them attain higher education</div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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· Served as chairperson of the CongressionalSpouses Foundation from 1998 to 2000. During her term, she built 11 regionalcenters for women who are victims of abuse.</div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· Owns Vista Land, the biggest homebuilder in the Philippinestoday, one of the companies said to have benefited from the controversial C-5road extension project where double funding was alleged</div>
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· Succeeded Senator Villar as Congressman representingLas Pinas; was succeeded by son Cong. Mark Villar</div>
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· Pres. Noynoy and Cong. Vilal are described as strangebedfellows</div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
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· Push for livelihood opportunities for the poor andpromote income opportunities for women</div>
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· Willfile a bill that prevents colleges for not giving examination to students withunpaid tuition fees</div>
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· Measures that punishes unjust abandonment of husbands.</div>
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<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>JUAN PONCE “Jack” ENRILE, JR.</b><b></b></div>
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<b>STATUS: Members of the Lower House</b></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
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· Representative of Cagayan, 1998-2007;2010-2013</div>
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· Former President and CEO of JAKA Corporation</div>
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· BA, Christian Heritage College, California; MBA, PepperdineUniversity</div>
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· Authored Kasambahay Bill</div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· One of top absentees in Congress; claims he is a changedman and would like to continue legacy of his father, Sen. Enrile (source:Rappler)</div>
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· Was implicated in the deaths of Ernest Lucas and AlfieAnido; cleared by government investigators and denies involvement (source:Rappler)</div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
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· Food security</div>
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· Credit card reform</div>
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· Anti-monopoly</div>
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<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>MARIA LOURDES “Nancy” BINAY</b><b></b></div>
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<b>STATUS: Neophyte</b></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
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· Personal assistant of Vice President JejomarBinay (father) and Former Makati Mayor Elenita Binay (mother)</div>
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· Bachelor’s degree in Tourism, UP</div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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· Trustee of several foundation for children whichgrant scholarships</div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· Relatives in government: Vice President Jejomar Binay(father); Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr (brother); Makati 2ndDistrict Rep. Mar-Len Abigail Binay-Campos (sister)</div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
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· Housing</div>
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· Children’s welfare, tax deductibility ofpre-natal care tax, establishing more children’s hospitals or bigger wings ingovernment hospitals for children and more day cay centers.</div>
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<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>JOHN CARLOS "JC" DE LOS REYES</b><b></b></div>
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<b>STATUS: Neophyte</b></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
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· Councilor, Olongapo City</div>
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· President, Intramuros Tourism Council, Departmentof Tourism</div>
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· Managing Director, Barbara’s Food</div>
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· Taught Philosophy at UAP</div>
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· MPA, University of the Philippines</div>
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· Law degree, St. Louis University</div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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· Organized barangay human rights action centerswhen he was a councilor</div>
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· National animator of Solidarity Philippines to pro-activelyadvance the Social Justice Agenda of the Church</div>
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· Executive Director of Breaking the Yoke of PovertyFoundation whose project is Jubillee homes for the Poor, a housing project for60 families</div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· Critic of opening casinos in Subic</div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
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· Prohibition of political dynasties</div>
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· Abolition of the pork barrel system</div>
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· Legislated gun control</div>
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· Passage of the freedom of information bill</div>
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· Opposition to the reproductive health bill</div>
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<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>EDWARD “Ed” HAGEDORN</b><b></b></div>
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<b>STATUS: Neophyte</b></div>
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<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
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· Transformed Puerto Princesa City as a major eco-tourismdestination and model in environment protection, Hall of Fame Awardee for beingthe cleanest and greenest component city in the Philippines</div>
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· Galing Pook awardee for Bantay Puerto, OplanLinis, Carabao, and Tractor Pool</div>
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· Lowest crime rate In the country (source: Newsbreak)</div>
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· Anti-Jueteng Czar during the Arroyoadministration and introduced the Small Town Lottery to replace jueteng</div>
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· Studied in San Sebastian and UE but did notfinish college (source Rappler).</div>
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<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
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· Mobilized the community for massive reforestation(more than 2,000 has.) and to guard against illegal logging and fishing</div>
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· Partnered with rural banks to provide livelihood programsfor families.</div>
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<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
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· Newsbreak reported that he bought helicopterusing P23 million of public funds.</div>
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<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
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· Environment</div>
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· Jobs</div>
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· Decentralization</div>
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· Renewableand sustainable energy</div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>BENIGNO PAULO “Bam” AQUINO</b><b></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>STATUS: Neophyte</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Management Engineering, Ateneo de Manila, Summa cumLaude and Valedictorian</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Chairman, National Youth Commission, Arroyo Administration</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Co-founder of Microventures-microfinancing CSO,Hapinoy developed a supply chain for sari-sari stores</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· TOYM awardee; Social Entrepreneur of 2011; Ten OutstandingYoung Persons of the World</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Worked with small and family forms giving them trainingand access to financing</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Accommodated in the Liberal slate shortly afterhe was sworn in as party member</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Member of the Aquino clan of Tarlac; relativeswho were Senators include Benigno Sr. Benigno Jr; Agapito, Teresita, Benigno III</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Jobs</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Youth</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Schools-to-jobs matching program</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Improvement of the government’s conditional cashtransfer or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>MARY GRACE “Grace” POE-LLAMANZARES</b><b></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>STATUS: Neophyte</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Chairman of the Movie and Television Review and ClassificationBoard, spearheaded major changes:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
(1) addition of TV rating “Strong ParentalGuidance”(SPG); (2) banned showing of films with excessive violence and sexualcontent in public utility vehicles; (3) Protection of child actors; (4)Incentives to independent filmmakers.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Pre-school teacher at Montessori School in US;</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Procurement and Product Manager, scientificcompany in the US</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· COO and Treasurer, FPJ Film Company</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· BA Development Studies, UP; BA in Political Science,Boston College</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Responsible for continuing the charitable causesof Fernando Poe Jr., which include support programs for victims of natural calamities,scholarships for the youth and medical assistance for the sick</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· As Kontra Daya convenor, engaged the COMELEC and otheragencies on major policies in the elections;helped unite various forces opposedto electoral fraud</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Protection of children’s rights</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Good governance</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Poverty alleviation</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Electoral reforms</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Job matching program and loans for students</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>CANDIDATE: </b><b>MARGARITA “Tingting” COJUANGCO</b><b></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>STATUS: Neophyte</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EFFECTIVE</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Master’s degree in National SecurityAdministration, two doctoral degrees in Philippine History and Criminology</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Former Tarlac governor, 1992 to 1998</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Former Undersecretary, DILG</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>EMPOWERING</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Known for her work among Muslim communities</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Participated in the peace talks with the MoroNational Liberation Front</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>ETHICAL</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Kamag-anak, Inc., alleged deals and influencepeddling during the Aquino administration (Source:Newsbreak)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Allegedly supported Noy-Bi instead of Noy-Mar(Source:Newsbreak)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Filed a libel suit against Marites Vitug whocited an article that used the term “barter queen”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<b>PLATFORM</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Food</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Peace and order</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Public safety</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
· Farmers’ welfare</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
May you be guided accordingly. And please help educate. This is how our vote may truly count!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">
<i>You could also get these information at The Movement for Good Governance's website (</i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/ryan-ra%C3%B1eses/never-too-late-to-know-your-senatorial-bets/596774220346733#" role="button" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><i></i></a><i><a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmggphilippines.com&h=9AQEF60Uf&s=1" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://mggphilippines.com</a></i><i>). </i></div>
Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-91751206400445702072013-05-05T23:50:00.000-07:002013-05-06T00:12:32.459-07:00Election Tirade I: Bidding Game <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLavVe3is5lpDQNunInM4VNPh_VX3WGdsJixmjZp0SbKvtHXeGfw7SQwKIUQl06t9zs5f9pFnuwVWGOVHQIkTKTqhWWADYoeqdrvoe_v2O0Jf_gR3v81oeGWk7FXQwpjr34fBny5SWQ5U/s1600/132.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLavVe3is5lpDQNunInM4VNPh_VX3WGdsJixmjZp0SbKvtHXeGfw7SQwKIUQl06t9zs5f9pFnuwVWGOVHQIkTKTqhWWADYoeqdrvoe_v2O0Jf_gR3v81oeGWk7FXQwpjr34fBny5SWQ5U/s200/132.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Tuwing
election doon lang pantay-pantay ang lahat. And isang boto ay isang boto
mayaman man o mahirap.” <i>During elections
everyone becomes equal. </i>One vote is one vote whether one is rich or poor. These
are the lines my social worker friend reiterated as she quotes one community
leader. I remember this quote and the promises it held, the pride it bears as
one participates in the nomination of our leaders. I remember it especially now
that the election approaches. These,
however, are the very same line that haunts me—taunts me even! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My
mother is involved in community work in our barangay. Since it was elections
they were serenaded with sweet promises of development and commodities by
politicians. It is not an unusual scene.
This small but densely populated town where most people live in poverty is a favorite
watering hole of votes for politicians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently,
the people were gathered by a political party. They were assembled in a local
university gymnasium, thinking that this is just again a political sweet talk
my mother prepared herself for the long hollow oratories. However, they were
surprised as they were blatantly offered the cost of five hundred pesos for a
straight vote, from senators down to councilors. One of our close neighbors who
agreed to vote straight received two hundred pesos only but she took it nevertheless. She said many others did
the same. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Their
unvoiced question: what happened to the remaining three hundred pesos? It could
have easily trickled to middlemen and organizers. But I ask: what happened to the voter’s
education that the barangay held? What happened to the equal rights if it can
be easily swayed and bought? When would they realize that the very politicians
that buy their votes are the very ones that would readily siphon the funds
intended for them. They are the ones that would hastily recover the amount they
have lost. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
asked our neighbor why she sold her vote. Speaking with a jovial voice, she said
that they needed it to buy food and basic necessities. “Kailangan namin!” <i>We
needed it! </i>In my mind the exchange isn’t quite fair. The two hundred pesos will
only last for two days, lucky if it reaches to three. While in return they are
seating leaders who may rob them for years to come. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who
would blame them? I’ve lived in this place for almost a decade—that is equal to
three elections—and no matter what party won nothing has changed. The roads are
still potholed. People still need to go to the nearby towns to get medical
attention. Peace and order still remains chaotic especially the neighborhood
gangs that plagued the streets at night. Mostly, the people are still in threat
of being relocated due to a pending battle with land ownership. Truly, it is only the face that changes in
politics. When one lives day to day via hand-to-mouth how could they even look
farther than the hopes of sleeping with their bellies satiated from its violent
churning. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In
the end, it doesn’t matter who won and will win, they simply get the most out
of the elections and the money the campaigning so eagerly spreads. Thus the
bidding game of promises, of money, of gift checks, etcetera. Yes! it has
become a bidding game where people acquiesce to the highest bidder. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
look back to the words of my friend. Not so much as to how many votes are cast
into the ballot for there will be only one, but so much as to how anyone could
put price to it. How cheap they believe it to be. How they exploit the needs of
the people, the masses who barely have anything. What is the worth of a vote
then? Surely, it is more than two hundred pesos. It is priceless. For it could
bring about the transformation to our ailing nation by electing—no matter how
hard they may seem to find—deserving leaders and public servants. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> **********</span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
night after the vote bidding/buying there was a videoke machine playing until
dawn; our neighbors happily singing. I could hear the merry-making, the
unceasing laughter of people and the stuttering conversations which only
alcohol could influence. Sadness and frustration came upon me because I know
that their votes have gone the drain, contributing to the spiral that impedes
the progress we, Filipinos all have dreamt for this country. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
news about vote buying have been all around the news. It is true that there is
so much underlying histories and mechanisms to it embedded in our elections.
Too often most of us consider it a tradition, even so a culture. But then if we
do sell them: are we victims or accomplices to our own decay?</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-14520313780688884252012-11-05T07:05:00.002-08:002012-11-11T15:14:06.511-08:00Atoms of Hell<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7LYG7lZHonzm0zvwE4qSnr47i5uI19iEwROTpitp6JM-3J8sBOCuXFn1r__q_alHgP4Taz3OwtlYozuN3k99PuaaYgp2uJeXeM2QD62DZRNiIMkptItro8BrVVmhBHMjYYVRAfxCVK48/s1600/sa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: black; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7LYG7lZHonzm0zvwE4qSnr47i5uI19iEwROTpitp6JM-3J8sBOCuXFn1r__q_alHgP4Taz3OwtlYozuN3k99PuaaYgp2uJeXeM2QD62DZRNiIMkptItro8BrVVmhBHMjYYVRAfxCVK48/s320/sa.jpg" width="316" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">art by the author</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Earlier</i></span><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> this afternoon, I was
in a full-packed eleven-seater jeepney—which could easily pass for a
nine-seater—going home. At the Biñan area, when the vehicle is in a full stop,
a kid got into the jeep carrying her baby sister. They are Badjaos. The girl wobbled
going to the front of the jeep, poorly balancing themselves, as she hurriedly
distributed tattered standard mail envelopes to each passengers.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span>Now, almost as common
sight when in the area, we already knew what they need, as written on the
envelope of what seem to be a child’s penmanship: “tulong” or <i>help</i>. But this
time, the girl stood at the middle and sang a song whose lyrics I cannot
understand. The song, in her raspy voice, reverberated and spoke for them:
their weariness, their hunger, their pleas—and that stung me. I gave her my
snack-pack that I always kept stashed in my bag (I am no philanthropist
though). She collected her envelopes then they got off the vehicle. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<br />
However, before they totally got off, the woman in front of me said, “sigurado
na ang punta ng mga ‘to sa impyerno.” <i>They are sure to go to hell</i>. I was taken
aback—shocked. But more so, some passengers nodded, smiled and exchanged a few
lines with each other. They seem to acquiesce with that notion. I was tempted
to object, to challenge that erring idea but instead I held back. I halted the
jeep and got off on a fiery road and walked, I don’t mind the sun because my
innards—yeah! Gut and all!—were more fiery—ablaze!<br />
<br />
My thoughts: perhaps they truly are in hell because the people around them have
condemned them, and that the government that supposed to support them has
ignored them—apathetic to a more lasting solution, not the dole out that they
were being given, if there is any. Where is the social support that LGUs are
supposed to provide? And even the national government? Where is the human
dignity that under law should be assured? What did these smiling politicians
who have so flamboyantly displayed their faces along the San Pedro-Biñan area
ever did to ascertain their continuous development?<br />
<br />
And to that woman, this is what I restrained myself to say: “Maybe these kids
are in hell already. And if so, around her are their demons!” </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-59057352868418808002012-05-31T06:13:00.003-07:002012-06-04T03:24:02.452-07:00More than the Verdict<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Tu1G1bGZsO8NPmeP9Rvpj-TlVoxcgZT3bLqvoQANBj19sBZUepbc93-gVfHMoOCWbHOaU8Q-TRk2_f1tmJxwq8P2gSJRjwHhuJAzBTiL4YiVbft05w4zqaby5gynN9QbXFL6busCxFw/s1600/cj.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Tu1G1bGZsO8NPmeP9Rvpj-TlVoxcgZT3bLqvoQANBj19sBZUepbc93-gVfHMoOCWbHOaU8Q-TRk2_f1tmJxwq8P2gSJRjwHhuJAzBTiL4YiVbft05w4zqaby5gynN9QbXFL6busCxFw/s320/cj.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo edited by the author</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
With the national limelight focused on the final day of the
historic impeachment trial—undeniably, it will be the talk of gossipers on the
streets, thread in social medias, and a rich topic that writers could dissect
and siphon dry for weeks—but there is more to it that I goad myself to
acknowledge. What I hope to believe is that we have achieved so much more than
the conviction of the highest magistrate in this country whose background and
appointment inchoate of integrity and hounded by anomaly. More than this “cleaning” and the current government’s
righteous purgation—which has been their double edged sword from the beginning—what
I want to see is that the people’s acceptance of that shard of possibility to
break away from the ancient tethers that held them, this very chains that mired
development and the growth of the nation. Acknowledgement of this opportunity,
no matter how miniscule accommodation it settles within a person could provide
a much needed starting point to liberate one’s mind from that archaic prison it
was detained to.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But could we break away from that when all else failed.
History tells us that although we are a heroic people, although heroes arose to
defend the rights of their brothers, it also shows us that time and again our
leaders have pandered against our oppressors to gain whatever comfort and
luxury they could pilfer as their own. Look at the <i>illustrados</i>’ behavior in the Philippine revolution who had taken
seats in the fledgling republic only to take bigger pieces of the cake for
their own. Look at the conspirators to our colonizers—they are the elitist and
those who call themselves nationalist who have exploited their own race. Look
at our politicians who viewed their seats as a privilege for their personal economic
progress and their own asinine legacies for their emblazoned family names. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In spite of this plight, whenever I see this malaise that
stricken us— more than the economical emaciation is the psychological implant
it carved into our collective beings—I remember the words of Renato
Constantino, “…<i>when history has a goal,
the past ceases to dominate the present and to hold back the future. Then
history could be consciously made.”</i> Here, in my own, humble interpretation,
it connotes that if people aspire for a single encompassing goal for the nation
then we could rise above ourselves to form a better nation no matter what mud
and stain was hauled into our images. Yes! If we come together as a nation we
could develop, we could progress, we could all have better lives.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Now, what does this have to do with the dethronement of the
chief magistrate from his seemingly indomitable office? I would not claim to be
well versed of judicial proceedings nor am I the repository of evidences,
instead my eyes have set into interpret the symbol that the former chief
justice, unknowingly or willfully, embodied, and the downfall that we all
witnessed. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Whether the allegations were true, most of the people whom I
have come to get the opinion of has seemingly, unanimously, agreed that his
reputation is hazy and his persona conceited; they became even more convinced
when his melodramatic, asinine speech was delivered in the senate hearing and
his impertinent exit was witnessed by the nation. His calloused and arrogant
demeanor before the senate was a figure and character most of our public
officials and employee have towards their position. Instead of serving the
people, ironically, it is the people who are serving them. They became drunk
with their positions and like most drunkards they forget, they become oblivious
to the world and to the people they would run amok upon. These pompous leaders
get what they want. They have the law to shield their readied siphons set to
channel growth to their own illusory, corrupted nirvanas. Yes, the law could be
bent and its malleability depends on how much booty they could dispose.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
On top of that, they could perfume their images anew, cloth
themselves in a nationalist ideologies and pro-<i>masa</i> projects that curtains their voracious scheming. It is like
hiding an elephant underneath a worn-out flag and telling us nothing is there.
I believe, for I have witnessed, because I too live in that neighborhood where
population is highest, where politicians go to when they need majority voting,
I come to realize that they, although most of them, in spite of not having a
prestigious college degree, are not dumb! They know too well these politicians
need their votes for their own vainglorious wants. And they could feel, most
sensitive to it even, that vaunted distance, that condescending, irksome
demeanor these politicians emanate which fumes out from their faked and forced
smiles. But they know too that they cannot eat morals. They need to first
attend to their stomachs and to the many dependent on their scavenging. They
sell their votes to the highest bidder, if not to those who swore their
allegiance. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
How much farther the people could see these scheming, I do
not know. But politicians know how to suck it up during elections. They are
seen gallivanting with townsfolk. These are all for show. After election, they
take their seats and begin the plunder. Politicians and officials not like them
are more of an exemption than the rule. Because of this traditional politics
that has carved into our history, people came to accept it. “We cannot do
anything about it.” “We cannot change anything.” These are the usual reactions
you get. <br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But what if the disgrace of the chief justice could signify
that there is some fighting chance to change and break this traditions and
perspectives of power in this country? What if this verdict could actually
serve as a symbol that traditions can be altered? What if with this historic
event, we could trace the roots that impinged our growth as a nation and take
action to amending it. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Yes, we know too well, that behind the man of chief justice,
and the many political leaders, public officials, is an ominous shadow that
created them, a system that tainted the aspiring leaders, the faithful servants
of mother nation, and turned them into vicious tyrants and hoodlums, corrupting
our very nationalist DNAs.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Yet, with this verdict, I hope to believe that there is so
much more to it. I hope to believe that it is more than political vendetta but
rather that heroic consciousness that awakened from its apathetic slumber. I
hope to believe that it is so much more than mere words and spoiled actions but
a genuine path towards change. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
With this verdict, I hope there is so much more that I have
seen to believe. And my sanguine faith that maybe people too have seen this, no
matter how elusive that fissure of hope to change is in our long history of
redemption. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-59052777669319417062012-04-08T18:51:00.001-07:002012-04-09T05:41:11.521-07:00We are Travelers<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiibcgxPJGQutD8IPUa8j7rUMJWkWp4Mzjz5iTmLXW2RQGDRTAscM3RX7EffJVtPxUFD_19kb9zIdXAcajreIApksvJL5OU0-f7NEeE9oCmTetE41yzhMQ5RoQCUAV8DVIYjC9mtCJm4-Q/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiibcgxPJGQutD8IPUa8j7rUMJWkWp4Mzjz5iTmLXW2RQGDRTAscM3RX7EffJVtPxUFD_19kb9zIdXAcajreIApksvJL5OU0-f7NEeE9oCmTetE41yzhMQ5RoQCUAV8DVIYjC9mtCJm4-Q/s320/Untitled.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Mel Spencer Sucgang</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i>“All journeys have a secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”</i><br />
-Martin Büber<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Palaboy</i>. Wanderer. This is what my grandmother would always quote when she sees me violently scratching my foot. Even though I know this was all part of her superstition I would always be amazed as to why, when I am always confined to the safety of my room fiddling with the pencils I treasured so dearly.<br />
<br />
Only recently have I realized that I have been so all my life. I have been to places that people would rarely dare go either because of financial restriction, of comfort, and/or of opportunities. I have been to slums, to islands, the rural areas, ate buffet in five-star hotels, feasted on bagoong and boiled fish at barrios, climbed a mountain, visited provinces, islands, puzzled with our native dialects, and found myself in places drunk in awe from the setting suns. All of these simple things I deemed so unique. These were the marvels of travel.<br />
<br />
However, these feats accomplished have not always been a credit from my solitary escapes but, those that mattered, was shared with other individuals, when I am part of a group. One of them, I have bonded with yet again for another adventure.<br />
<br />
For three straight days we have explored the hidden wonders of the Ilocos region: Vigan, Laoag and Pagudpud. We were all bedazzled by the pristine beauty of the places. As we drove further up north one could feel the essence of the places imprinted on the sceneries that unfold before us. It was breathtaking. The people we encountered—most hospitable; this must be the Filipino hospitality one describes in textbooks. We were even invited to a graduation party by our friend’s relative and were welcomed with open arms, as if we were all part of the family.<br />
<br />
As I was counting time, nearly a decade has gone by since we have been introduced (at my count 8 years have already passed). It was in that huge hall in the Lasallian auditorium were students from various colleges gathered—thirty to fifty in number—to join a volunteer organization called SERVE. The hall was filled with many faces: bored, curious, tantalizing, the dumbfounded, and almost all of the faces represented by Yahoo’s smileys—yes, even the drooling, the alien and the clown. Yet from fifty the members (the active ones) got less and less in number. No matter what convincing one does there is no stopping the unwilling. But with that uncertain period, our bonds were unknowingly shaped in that unheard-of room in the University.<br />
<br />
The old mangy veranda in the then SBC building was like a haven to us volunteers. We call it the Workroom. But really, it is more like a home to us. It is our sanctuary. No rules! No D.O.s! We are simply there. Free to do what we want to do. But because we are free to be who we are, the relationship that we have were all minus the mask. And with this strong alloy that sealed us, we were able to go into the communities and trust each others’ gut. We could sense each other and know where to butt in and/or walk away. It was a mutual respect of space and personalities that integrated us and that is why I believe our work has been effective all throughout. Sure there were trials. Sure there were fights and subgroups. But at the end of the day we could all laugh it out and raise our bottles to a toast.<br />
<br />
Recounting on our Ilocandia trip, this sense of affinity I ascribe to our group is ever present. No mold. No rust. And because of this, as a proof, we could always be ourselves without erecting bastions of defenses protecting pride and ego. We do not need to piss higher than the other for there was no use at all. Medals, salaries, licenses, diplomas did not matter. Every one could just come as they are.<br />
<br />
Perhaps this trip was not only a road in which we had moved forward, but also a mirror that plunged us back in time when we shared meals and fares, tears and laughter, jokes and heartaches. Those collegiate years that are still alive in memories were brought forth again in the short span of time we have spent.<br />
<br />
Boldly, I could say that the greatest comfort that one could get will not be from the posh accommodations or fancy hotel rooms but from the people you are with. It is your fellow travelers which are the greatest luxuries one could have. They become rare treasures during a nebulous voyage where you are cold and clueless on what to find—they are certainties in an often uncertain journey which you could always turn to. And this is mostly true in travels and in life.<br />
<div><br />
</div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-72568711696409728432012-01-07T22:39:00.000-08:002012-01-07T23:02:51.558-08:00Our Commercialized Education and the Mold that Creeps in It<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas> <v:path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"> <o:lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"> </o:lock></v:path></v:stroke></v:shapetype><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_2" o:gfxdata="UEsDBBQABgAIAAAAIQDI4TOSFQEAAFICAAATAAAAW0NvbnRlbnRfVHlwZXNdLnhtbKSSTW7DIBCF
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbGzafIecPgl4ZYJ3xAsr7T8YVPWmu7HXQzaIL9muV-HxFI475K0oRKCTxPA4xwh0eQcn9hntg5jGnigPpTci2Txfu_Cbf6qJ7b92RLG_lG0TOBIgBG_DOzsesgXW_0Nszj8RWVkofxLg/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbGzafIecPgl4ZYJ3xAsr7T8YVPWmu7HXQzaIL9muV-HxFI475K0oRKCTxPA4xwh0eQcn9hntg5jGnigPpTci2Txfu_Cbf6qJ7b92RLG_lG0TOBIgBG_DOzsesgXW_0Nszj8RWVkofxLg/s1600/Untitled.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">artwork by the author</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The other day, news coming from the Commission for Higher Education (CHED)—actually issued last 2010—created a lot of unease to many students and school administrators. The CHED memorandum order no. 32 series 2010 is aimed for the suspension on the opening of selected college programs (graduate and undergraduate) which will be effective for the school year 2011-2012. The reports said the department issued a circular that would limit the number of enrollees in nursing, business administration, teacher education, HRM, and IT. Their memorandum would either force the school to transfer their students to another school with the same program or by choosing a totally different program for their current students. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The good part is that this is only for schools with low passing rate of graduates in the nursing licensure exam that has been dropping through the years. However, the passing rate was not the main basis of the said prohibition but of employment.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The unemployment rate of nursing graduates (I am using nursing in particular because they are of the main concern and at the spotlight right now) has reached an alarming number of 200,000 in 2010 and the numbers are accruing. To compensate, some nursing graduates—non-board passers and the registered ones—accede to jobs that are beyond their expertise, or should we say tasks that they have not specialized in during their collegiate years such as in call centers, sales, marketing, online teaching and so on. I know one who accepted a job as a private assistant for a Korean family in an exclusive village which later as I found out the title was a euphemism for a<i> yaya</i>. But the travails of our graduates—not only nursing—do not end there.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Apparently, there was also a roundabout in working in a hospital or for the many “getting experience”. They have to pay to be able to work as a trainee, volunteer, apprentice so that at the end of 50 to 100 hours they would get a certificate that they could present to their employers abroad. Another option is to look for recruitment agencies that have a direct link to employers internationally. And for some, they head straight to foreign lands to gamble in uncertainty for the hopes of a veiled employment.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It is true that we have a lot of manpower resources not only in nursing but in many other fields. Maybe too much. Ironically, in sectors such as education and healthcare—where the needs are magnified—the scarcity of professionals that is in service to their own country have been decreasing steadily over the years. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Why is this menacing satire pervades? It is because the resources aren’t spread evenly. While the cities abound medical practitioners, those from the barrios are left out. The concentration of professionals is mainly in the metropolitan area where profit is good and where chances of going abroad are high. What could the barrio give them or compensate them with anyways? Surely, financial convenience would be the last of thought. And security of placement and of the place itself is veiled. Even the supplies and other means would be stiff and scant. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Would there be a logical person that would take up this burden? Where they could see their colleagues prosper. Where they could see them flaunt their <i>Porsches</i> or <i>Mazdas</i> while they commute everyday. Or while their friends have purchased their dream homes, they remained in their dilapidated apartments for rent. For sure, this is not what nursing has promised them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Let me digress.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I witnessed some years back the same department that is CHED to have promoted the nursing course. In fact they made a list of profitable courses that students should consider and at the top was nursing and this was so for years and years. The “promotion” was because of the high demand of the said professionals internationally. A news program aired before: foreign hospitals preferred Filipino nurses because of their virtues (or is it all because of that?). And true to that claim, most of the nurses sent abroad—with their astronomically converted monthly salary of 50,000-150,000 Pesos—became opulent. For sure they wouldn’t be so if they have worked here. They would be shuffling in their hands the meager salary of 8,000 to 15,000 Pesos to last until the next payout. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The promise of fortune was made even more forceful when DOLE also commercialized nursing jobs abroad. In result because of the high demands on the market and with the longing to move up in the dung heap parents encouraged, even forced their children to enroll in nursing programs. What could a youngling do anyways? They are not the ones sweating with blood for the payment of tuitions. They are not the ones who hassle with overtimes to pay bills. So in the end they follow the behest of their parents; such is the close ties of Filipino families. There are some who, with no clue on what they want to do, took up nursing because of their practicality and of the high demands across the globe.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">With this craze, colleges opened nursing programs to accommodate this need. Nursing schools mushroomed everywhere with promos and packages for those who would enroll. While the computer colleges thirsting to fish some of the greens that the craze have brought, changed their specialty from computer science to nursing. How insincere and crass this is. And how terrible this commercialization can be. While this has sufficed for almost a decade, a sudden shift in the world market demands has shaken the government from their drooling slumber of remittances. They awaken to a nation of unemployed professionals who would do anything just to sail away from their motherland to earn a living. Some of them possess an adamant resolve never to return again. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Who is to blame in this ballooned problem? Who is but the government itself for the policies they have created, for the dream they fed to the people, to the youth. And to the parents who was dazzled with stories of success and comfort. They have conditioned their minds to the promise of fortune in another country. And at the same time, they have encouraged the educational institutions to cater to this dream that they are creating. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course, part of this problem is burdened to the schools and colleges that allowed this. Why did they not predicted this when it is so obvious and common sense? Why? Because nursing—but not limited to it only—has continued to become their watering holes until now that kept their institutions ambling. They have become money-making corporations that profited from the hype than an educational institution. They have appeared more similar to fast food chains that appeared across the country without the thought of the by-product of their serving. Yes, nursing programs are questionable in some schools. In the end, aren’t they making a fool out of the students they are accommodating hiding in the cloak of education? They have made nursing more of a merchandise, a franchise than a profession—a degenerating form of consumerism that discounts choice because they are driven into a corner in which they are cornered to pick from a or b.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">However, most importantly, the problem should be answered by the students, the individuals themselves for they are the ones face to face with it. They are in direct contact with this malady. They are the ones that will go through it. It should be a challenge for them to find what they truly wanted to do in life for in the end when the pressure is pummeling them this is what they would keep them going. When their stomach is murderously churning they could proudly say: “this is what I love to do! I chose this!” Let’s reject the formula that has been handed unsparingly. Instead they should ask themselves: what is it that I love to do? What are my passions? <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It is a challenge to us to rethink our definition of education and what it represents. We do not go to college just to go through it. We do not study because at the end we would be earning, and profiting from it; more so it is not to gain social prestige and status. We go through college, pursue graduate courses, doctorates so that we could do what we want to do in life. We do not study just so that we could earn. But because by doing so we could have more power to do what we wanted to do in life. We have more freedom to pursue what we truly wanted to do.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It is a challenge for the students to go beyond the commercialized education. It is a dare for them to look through the façade that it is being presented to them. The reason behind this is that as soon as these demands are changed so too are the needs in the corporate world; we all could see once this need have been satisfied, the excess would have lost their supposed value; they are marked as "oversupply", and what a miserable tag to give to a candidate. Like a fashion trend that is due to expire. And by then the formula that the government has presented would have been junk. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What’s next? Culinary arts? HRM? Midwifery? Caregiving? We could not let the market demand to us what we want to do, but instead let us decide that for ourselves. For at the end of the day we will be before our own selves and we cannot hide the lies that we continuously tell ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The mold that creeps in our educational system is that it was paraded by the government without any reservation. Perhaps in their mind they said, “let’s get the most out of this.” Sure, we got billions of remittances from them. Sure they made the lives of people comfortable and the economy as well. But what they have not anticipated—what it seems their grave mistake—is that the need was, the demand and interest is, solely for foreign countries. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What they have silently done is to promote a diaspora of able workers, of qualified professionals to work outside the country (some would never return, the others view this country as vacation places, the others of course come back). This has stripped or blockaded the minds of the people to think more of our national demands instead those of another countries'. They have commercialized the American dream or nowadays it was transformed to an any-country-would-do dream.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">More so, the reason why it perverted the educational system is that we—the students, the policy-makers, parents, officials, the people—have allowed it. We have accepted the concoction that they have given us. A band-aid remedy for a deeper incision in our ailing nation. We should go beyond what we could see. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Follow your passions. Follow your dreams. But more importantly, dream for this nation for you will be forever tied to it. No matter how much you wish to cut the umbilical cord to your motherland you are forever identified with it. No matter how many times your skin goes whiter, and your slang varies you are of this nation. We can never escape the warmth of its embrace and also of the pain that have been smothering it. We only have one mother no matter how much we renounce them. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">To you out there, think of this nation. Act for this nation. Let your education be a shining light to the seemingly endless dark of the tunnel our nation is passing. And with the same light, with that same fire burn the mold that creeps!<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p><br />
</o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p><br />
</o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">copyright benjamin ryan rañeses, iii sailingontheclouds® January 8, 2012</span></div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-41599684658975123392011-11-20T04:23:00.000-08:002011-11-20T16:53:30.628-08:00ALL IN A BOWL<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCCE4fiI-KOpjzbu0KCiHzudfxJ_rEbfWVIRLmPtiLTzOQWj12A1LTk2kQI_COBQaOhSUTdcRjcBLWP8EquGa4N3jhNG8yrz2RGnrCPaLZnQpxlakN2Jc0DhlCgGVn8J0-CXXCKD_gExE/s1600/DSC04730.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCCE4fiI-KOpjzbu0KCiHzudfxJ_rEbfWVIRLmPtiLTzOQWj12A1LTk2kQI_COBQaOhSUTdcRjcBLWP8EquGa4N3jhNG8yrz2RGnrCPaLZnQpxlakN2Jc0DhlCgGVn8J0-CXXCKD_gExE/s320/DSC04730.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Favorite Special Beef Mami </td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><b><span style="font-family: Pristina; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">Quiapo</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> is a word almost synonymous to the gargantuan edifice of the parish church; I hear people use it in direct reference to the church itself which is actually the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, similar to those who use “Baclaran”. For the many devotees this is the defining landmark of the place amidst of the teeming life that surrounds it. And why not, Quiapo’s life is almost centered to the Church whether one is a devout catholic or from a different sect, merchants, jeepney drivers, barkers, lotto fanatics, tourists, beggars, and so on. Life and commerce gravitates around it. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I, too, frequented Quiapo. I go there mindless of the considerable distance that I have to travel from where I come from (I live in Cavite), and with that the nauseating price of the fare. I go there with all the mustered patience that I could summon against the infernal traffic that seems almost both pathetic and infuriating. Let us say I religiously go there—not the traffic, not the fare hike, not the heat nor the rain could ever stop me—I will go there. However, although I pass inside the church and contemplate about the strange feeling some churches have, which touches me with awe, this is not my destination! It is the small restaurant five stalls away from it—R. MA MON LUK.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My meeting with R. Ma Mon Luk’s noodles was a chance encounter. I was ambling down the streets of Quiapo towards Recto to purchase art materials that I would be experimenting on; there are stores who sell quality products with a wide range of selection at a very reasonable price. As it has been a long day, I could almost hear my stomach grumbling. I was vying for those buy-one-take-one hamburgers that spread across the metro for it promised instant nourishment at twenty-pesos. I know there was one so I looked for it. As I was scanning the area, I glanced at this old restaurant that looked exactly the Chinese restaurants that one finds when watching an ancient Tagalog film. I halted for a second to think. I remembered my father’s stories right on the mangy tiled pathway where I stood. I remember him quoting this very restaurant when he used to dine when he was young. I felt curiosity shot up to my spine. I forgot the hamburger that I crave for and turned to enter.<o:p></o:p></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZTVaYcvT_abU1uNY1kf5d7gOBc2LHr2DtBz-qNAdjzQx1YCEP1jjOpxQ5bYSdhkPyIcAjJRQCiu1S8AOONky6_Af-xc-vqZ-MuhfXK039ZRcdTTBKnsZIiliuLmsYeXIIp5_QJ7yzTg/s1600/DSC04734.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZTVaYcvT_abU1uNY1kf5d7gOBc2LHr2DtBz-qNAdjzQx1YCEP1jjOpxQ5bYSdhkPyIcAjJRQCiu1S8AOONky6_Af-xc-vqZ-MuhfXK039ZRcdTTBKnsZIiliuLmsYeXIIp5_QJ7yzTg/s320/DSC04734.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">The sign that marked in the memories of its patron (young and old alike)</span></td></tr>
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The place is aged. Inside, it seems that I took a time warp back to the 80’s (maybe even way back) with its antiquated architecture, the stained tiles, the framed clippings from magazines and newspapers, and the aging walls and swinging brown doors of the kitchen. This place is really from before. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A waiter approached me to get my order. My first order: beef <i>mami</i>, siomai, and their special <i>bola-bola</i> siopao. On my next few visits I ordered their <i>asado</i> siopao special and special mami. The other visit Sang Tuk pao and another <i>mami</i>. Then I tried their ordinary siopao: <i>asado</i> and <i>bola-bola</i>. I ordered everything each time I go to Quiapo until I exhausted every item on the menu.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now, the taste. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5PJKG0xSj5rooLZu5v1KT3LjySqi_LNcLuKgKNNJ2I3tyJc9k6hIAfui9Sr29gzZE54WsZ_2x_cUmXQVIKbmASnqx3E_n1lE6REVLPm2c7nopMI1EcxBc9FI0eR-V3wI0Jo0FbGv7okw/s1600/DSC04841.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5PJKG0xSj5rooLZu5v1KT3LjySqi_LNcLuKgKNNJ2I3tyJc9k6hIAfui9Sr29gzZE54WsZ_2x_cUmXQVIKbmASnqx3E_n1lE6REVLPm2c7nopMI1EcxBc9FI0eR-V3wI0Jo0FbGv7okw/s320/DSC04841.JPG" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Special asado is my choice of flavor when it come to siopao</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>SIOMAI.</b> The dimsums here are big. The taste is mild. I find it perfect if you mix it with your mami, transforming your bowl into an instant dimsum-mami dish. Other than that I find it ordinary. Maybe if they serve it with chili sauce the dumpling’s taste would be highlighted. Or maybe if you use the siopao sauce the same effect will ensue. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>ASADO SIOPAO.</b> Whether you ordered the special or the regular one you can be guaranteed that the meat inside is flaky, similar to your 3-week-old <i>adobo</i> (<i>adobo</i> tastes better as it grows older) which you have dried up and chunks reduced to crumbled parts of the diced meat. Different from all of the <i>asados</i> that I have eaten, it is not too sweet, in fact the saltiness balances it. I especially like the mildness that does not overpower the <i>mami</i> (they are a “couple”). Add the sauce to it and the taste heightens even more. For me I add hot sauce to it which really bolsters the flavor. The only difference is that the special order has salted eggs inside.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>BOLA-BOLA SIOPAO.</b> The filling of this siopao is ground pork meatball comprised of a little chorizo (finely chopped), and their balanced taste of seasoning—not too strong and not too overpowering just so it compliments to whatever <i>mami</i> you will be ordering. Salted eggs comes with the special one. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyqL2-aRJKEmvbX9_ykWf4V_ceFhkgtU36qauD3_tB-xfLkOck0zZczvuUsuz5DEfYKTNmeBYqc3yFPwTn10yrNb9XqqlYvRA-LO1mcRB6XeOpYps-vXBx4x5T4KMulKad9ifvQYl4YM/s1600/DSC04838.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyqL2-aRJKEmvbX9_ykWf4V_ceFhkgtU36qauD3_tB-xfLkOck0zZczvuUsuz5DEfYKTNmeBYqc3yFPwTn10yrNb9XqqlYvRA-LO1mcRB6XeOpYps-vXBx4x5T4KMulKad9ifvQYl4YM/s320/DSC04838.JPG" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Special mami is served in two bowls: one for its soup, the other for the mami.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4gA3FQIgGQKpDGbmiTtVGA1ewt4-G2Xm-DEdGo6DEte0UKKedFSafvm0WzJzlDWjxL8ChLeEt15UrMrUEH_W9r4gQS81rHotgHzTFz2Fr5D62zbKoDUbc7kFbp23CFrbFlKLZ03vkvI/s1600/DSC04840.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4gA3FQIgGQKpDGbmiTtVGA1ewt4-G2Xm-DEdGo6DEte0UKKedFSafvm0WzJzlDWjxL8ChLeEt15UrMrUEH_W9r4gQS81rHotgHzTFz2Fr5D62zbKoDUbc7kFbp23CFrbFlKLZ03vkvI/s320/DSC04840.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">A closer look to this savory dish</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>SPECIAL MAMI. </b>The special <i>mami</i> that you will order will come in two bowls: one for the soup, and the other for your noodles with its broth. I was very impressed with the serving of their <i>mami</i>, the meat: steamed diced chicken and slightly fried chopped pork is one-third the volume of the noodles which means had there been any rice I could have made it into a viand (this is how sometimes you could eat <i>mami</i> on the streets). The scent is reminiscent of a seasoned broth that boost with calamansi. Actually, it works perfectly with it. And a hint of a lingering sweetness is present in every spoonful or slurp of the broth. The noodles are firm and not soggy. I like chewing into its texture it offers a slight resistance to my every bite.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>BEEF MAMI. </b>When I was served the beef mami, the scent maybe compared to those of braised beef’s. The beef and its broth are served at the top of the noodles. So here you will taste the two sauces one from the beef and from the broth of the mami. You could literally see the beef broth mix with the lighter mami broth, like yin and yang so to speak. I have NEVER tasted nor seen a mami done this way. The hint of sweetness of the beef concoction lingers in the tongue that makes you crave for more. Mouthwatering. And like the special <i>mami</i>, I swore I could have had it with rice with all the beef that was served along with the noodles.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As I was waiting for my bill when I went there for the first time, I read one of the clippings framed on the wall. It was written by F. Sionil Jose, one of my favorite Filipino writers who met Mr. Luk when he was still alive. And his story was one of those success narratives that I admire.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1918, Mr. Luk or Ma as he was called boarded a merchant’s ship bound to the emerging nation which is the Philippines to try his luck and earn a fortune. Having no place to teach or maybe there is nothing to teach in this foreign land—he was a teacher in Guangdong—he peddled food on the streets of Manila. Perhaps, he knew that without the mastery of the native language the best way to reach the people, his prospect clients, has to be done differently. It has to be through food where we do use our tongues but without words and in such regard we are all equal. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He walked on the streets selling his egg noodles with two big metal canisters supported by a sturdy wood placed on his shoulders; the first canister contained his noodles where he cut with a pair of scissors as he served them along with the meat, and the second canister contained the flavored broth heated with charcoal at the bottom. He sold his noodles to students, workers, and every one regardless of their social status. In the absence of commercials and PR works, he frequented establishments and promoted his own products by giving out free samples of his siopao, he also befriended the influential people at that time: senators and even the late president Elpidio Quirino. And as time passed his name was etched and became legendary—he was the MAMI KING! From his name Ma, and from the Chinese word “mi” for noodles his famous culinary masterpiece was named in his respect. Until today we use the term without even knowing his influence. We peddle <i>mami</i> on the streets as he did. We made it available to everyone as did he. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">More than 50 years after his death on September 1, 1961 his restaurant remained an institution that boasts not only of great food but also of history. One could still see the influx of people: young and old, politicians, writers, even movie stars eating the famous combo of mami and siopao. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">Furthermore, as some of the waiters and old customers conversed, in this place, nothing has really changed. It is the same old comforts that they could afford. It is the same place that was recorded in their unwritten memoirs: in their triumphs, their loves, and even in their failures. And that this place in return bore witness to the changing life outside its four-walls that are mute from language but could only correspond, just like Mr. Luk when he first set foot on this land, all contained, more than just the noodles, in a bowl of his <i>mami</i>. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ8R4R83m3YZijYmc_OqA49g74OOaZqIXfH3xDjQAnDK0sT3ezct-IO-FbfywE4kqICFvaNc80Y8o4I0eZhXQ2fpq_kfGKISjafOiCK6LWy3F7p7GWKCwITxoHtpc1ycPjRRPSCqWWqGg/s1600/DSC04845.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ8R4R83m3YZijYmc_OqA49g74OOaZqIXfH3xDjQAnDK0sT3ezct-IO-FbfywE4kqICFvaNc80Y8o4I0eZhXQ2fpq_kfGKISjafOiCK6LWy3F7p7GWKCwITxoHtpc1ycPjRRPSCqWWqGg/s320/DSC04845.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">When I dine nothing remains.</span></td></tr>
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</span></span>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-46983070714140047532011-10-30T09:23:00.000-07:002011-10-30T22:30:24.691-07:00DEATH BEFORE DEATH<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><i><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQaBHegg4eWUEciGDozA7rmY6WJEDIX2xgarT1TOxYgQilOYIyuOzWFbczTJLilBUnjLx7DtkwFMUXzssqvhYb3n1wlDOFurJ5D6d4aGWkNiyb-_bxs-WqjHmxGL5MpIxvlxq2C-77CVI/s1600/death+prompt+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQaBHegg4eWUEciGDozA7rmY6WJEDIX2xgarT1TOxYgQilOYIyuOzWFbczTJLilBUnjLx7DtkwFMUXzssqvhYb3n1wlDOFurJ5D6d4aGWkNiyb-_bxs-WqjHmxGL5MpIxvlxq2C-77CVI/s320/death+prompt+3.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artwork by the author</td></tr>
</tbody></table><i><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">“When the game is over, the king and the pawn go into the same box.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">-Italian Proverb<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">DEATH is one of—if not the only—the single most powerful word that man has come up with in its entire existence! It is used to define that of which we could measure—by pulse, and other medical machines—the tangent means, and those that is veiled in mystery. Death in this manner could be both finite and infinite. In the finite, Death is confined to the ceasing of heartbeat, the end of pulse, the termination of bodily functions, in this area people, regardless of religion, reach a unanimous acquiescence to. While in the infinite, Death is regarded as a doorway: to heaven, to the Kingdom, to Olympus, to reincarnation, to hell, to Hades, and what have you.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">The effect of this word has stirred the governing morals, philosophies, acts, policies, in different civilizations across time. It has remained a great influence amidst the ever changing pages of history. It is never outdated! It is used in so many ways: as a threat, to control, in religions, a cuss, as an ultimate form of sacrifice. Death’s semantic power is lent to the entire human race no matter their stature is in society. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">I view Death in as much as the same manner that everyone does. I define it in its finite and infinite meanings—what it is in medical science, and in its literary and mystical connotations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">A friend mentioned the other day—the “game” I am responding to—that Death is one of my “loved” topics. And as I gawk in a nook where my mini library is, I could see that random titles are dedicated to its study. And having read, contemplated, and having seen, there is another definition of death that led me to realize that for the most part of my existence on this planet, that while I am here, I am nonetheless—DEAD!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">I see dead people like me. They are on the streets, they attend concerts, they buy things, they eat, they sleep, they marry, they attend seminars, they work and earn hundreds to millions. They are everywhere. And yes they do not notice. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">Sorry, I am no Casper and I do not have a third eye (or at least an active one). However, this form of death, this definition is both different and encompassing from the earlier two. Let me share it:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">“Death is the inability of man to live.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">And yes, here, by taking this gist a lot of us died long before death could claim us. Our heart might beat, our chest might take in air, our mind sending synapses, and our organs in full functioning but here I ask: is this living? Is the ceasing of our heart’s beat, our one gasp of breath the final act of Death? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">Some of us would readily embrace Death because out there another life awaits. After here, there is the reward, the rest, the repose, the vindication that we have prepared ourselves for. For others Death is the reset button or similar in pressing the ctrl-alt-delete keys simultaneously. Man feared death for centuries, but I say man feared Life more.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">Why not? Life is filled with uncertainties—Changes. It is tainted by heartaches and betrayal. It is plagued by despair and humiliation. And the loneliness that lurks is as haunting as ever. The world in itself is bedeviled by these elements. So we hide in the shell of fear and regret. We cower from the madness and chaos that tests us. In turn, our dreams are abandoned because the road is dark and fogged. We give up our dreams because it’s impossible. We succumb to the lies of commonness in all the remaining sands in the glass. We trade Life for Safety and the Known, and this in turn injects us with fierce venom that kills us instantly. And here, the many dead are amongst us.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">The third definition is by far the most lethal, the most excruciating, the longest, and at times contagious. But with this death, there is always the other side of the coin. With this we could always come back and live. And to be able to do so we need to realize and experience that Life, amidst the dark and unknown waters that we need to thread, is also unexpectedly beautiful.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">And before we go to the graves of our love ones, light a candle before their names etched on marble, perhaps it is only proper to ask ourselves: have I truly lived?<o:p></o:p></span></div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-2287705257349886622011-10-13T17:57:00.000-07:002011-10-16T15:41:45.168-07:00Of Gifts and Expecting<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmyEw76VwSMjMFsbSkXahegv0tN00rg1VUetqQMNApbtaiqw1_7IxWTPlPlzGCI0tZIInOKvfVHsEJBCIduF2A1f8CrSrwgRm3O9i_vFeZAbqVKCf7mmfE15nqBZfDtKNZ69wSMdW-mxk/s1600/trees.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmyEw76VwSMjMFsbSkXahegv0tN00rg1VUetqQMNApbtaiqw1_7IxWTPlPlzGCI0tZIInOKvfVHsEJBCIduF2A1f8CrSrwgRm3O9i_vFeZAbqVKCf7mmfE15nqBZfDtKNZ69wSMdW-mxk/s320/trees.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artwork by the author</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
One of my college friends started a 30-day project in which we are asked to respond—in any media, in any way that we could better express ourselves—to the questions or other forms of media that she would give us; she is using <i>Facebook</i> as venue for a group of some twenty people to reflect on each others’ response; she believes that the site can be of better use, instead of all of the usual things that we could see, and my friend being a Christian chose to relate her project in Jesus’ relevance to our lives. I participated not because I am a devout Catholic but because I believe that the Divine could participate in a very pragmatic manner in which discussion would help us better understand. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The first weeks prompt pervaded in me with much awkwardness; the question: what do you expect during gift giving sessions? Instead of me thinking of something, memories of my childhood flashed back into my thoughts, or rather relived in my mind. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The year is 1996—I was a kid again! My birthday is near; my parents asked me what I would want most as a gift. Without any hesitation—for I do remember even now what I want—rubber shoes, no not like any other rubber shoes, I wanted <i>Dino Lights</i>! Back then, everyone is wearing them: my classmates, my neighbor, even my senior. It was the craze of the time, the fashion (like iPad, Facebook, and hair rebonding)! I imagined myself wearing the shoes, running while the lights flickered with the speed of my pacing feet. It was a certainty that I would get the shoes. My parents, after all, were serious when they asked me that question, which turned on a thousand light bulbs above my head. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">They went to the mall on a Sunday; malls then are not too common (I like it best that way, not the mushrooming <i>SMs</i> that sprouted out of nowhere). They went to <i>Plaza Fair</i>, which is the <i>Rockwell</i> of that era. Earlier, they asked me to get a measure of my foot, which I traced in a bond paper. It was only a matter of time, a thought that I rejoiced over. When the doorbell rang that night, I ran as fast as I can to unlatch the gate and welcomed my parents. And there they have this huge rectangular box it could only be one thing—my shoes! </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">It was my shoes alright! I was jumping with joy, thanking my parents to no end. However, when the box flipped, it was no <i>Dino Lights </i>but sturdy yellow hiking shoes. My heart was chipped. I was disappointed. Yet I have to keep my smile, I know my parents paid for it (they rarely buy us stuff). And for the succeeding gift-giving occasions it would be so. One Christmas passed and I didn’t get the toy that I wanted. The other time, I didn’t get any worthy of note. There was a time when I have to write to Santa Claus—inspired by the <i>ABS-CBN</i> cartoon, which they air every yuletide season—but even Mr. Claus is too distant. And as we grow up, it is as if gifts are not malleable to our own desires and wants. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">I have realized that gifts are blessings that too often shadowed for something that we desired for. We tend to look at the things that we want to get, not what we already have; gifts are a reflection of the people that has given them to us, which for me means that material value is not as important as the person giving them. There is a quote in a book, whose title escapes me now, it says, “a friend is enough a treasure one can acquire in a lifetime.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">I believe that the Unseen Hand gave us, and is continuously giving us gifts be it people (those who nurtures us, and those who tests us), opportunities, situations, experiences, toys, books, things, talents, skills, jobs, dreams, health, and most of all our breath. We just need to look at it as such. I may have seen this in the hard way, or am still telling myself to see whenever I choose not to or can’t. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Nowadays, I could, though I am not saying always, look at gifts not in a manner of expecting but rather of accepting.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">*kids (and those that think they are) should still write to Mr. Claus for fun. :)</div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-11714302521651564172011-10-09T17:18:00.000-07:002011-10-09T17:20:01.773-07:00Owning Creations<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;"></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLZTNHNKO9QgRwXEvbjXX2Up9xy_XGvxMoZThthAfcuLnPulfEWWQ4y7p7W7IcqmVfpXPUTW_ro71tL2DvKMSoI7lInB1pC_KhFLQ1QIhJ306_Dhshww9VqIhtyB-NAmqZpl-A39mEHzI/s1600/owner.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLZTNHNKO9QgRwXEvbjXX2Up9xy_XGvxMoZThthAfcuLnPulfEWWQ4y7p7W7IcqmVfpXPUTW_ro71tL2DvKMSoI7lInB1pC_KhFLQ1QIhJ306_Dhshww9VqIhtyB-NAmqZpl-A39mEHzI/s320/owner.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">*a clip from The Philippine Star that unveiled the owner of the sun</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our society too often defines us based on what we own. The world appears to be a huge property to be coveted for, as if by taking a parcel of it under our name bit by bit we are led closer to peace, success, prosperity, happiness, completeness, and all of those abstracts. Our existence is based on what we could own. While this is inevitable—there is a need to own no matter how simple our definition of it is, and I will not be a hypocritical about it—there are some owners that are pretty farfetched. There was one who declared himself as the emperor of USA; Joshua Abraham Norton I is the first and only monarch of the entire United States of America. Lands are named in the name of kings and queens, by tribe or faith. Some already claimed ownership of the celestial bodies: meteors, asteroids, comets, planets. Even our billion year-old sun has an owner. She lives in Spain. </span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Although we could laugh about it, shrug our shoulders and turn away from these outrageous entertainment (for this is what it is for people—entertainment), there also exist something wrong in this context.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We need not to move beyond our atmosphere, in this country we could see this kind of materialism. Islands sold from person to person, ignoring the people that lived there long before their fathers could learn to walk; look at Fuga island, islands in Palawan, and other places in this archipelago. Land owned in rapacity, and even self-righteousness, is plaguing this country (and the world). And what frightens me is that mostly they are considered legal.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A friend once commented about ownership that lingered in my head. “How could we own something that is older than us…that existed before us?”</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Truly, more than the bounds of the laws, ownership should not only be legal but should also be, in every sense, moral.</span></div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-37122665282013876562011-08-23T20:41:00.001-07:002011-08-24T20:37:55.813-07:00Divided by Faith—but still, Brothers!<m:smallfrac m:val="off"> <m:dispdef> <m:lmargin m:val="0"> <m:rmargin m:val="0"> <m:defjc m:val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent m:val="1440"> <m:intlim m:val="subSup"> <m:narylim m:val="undOvr"> </m:narylim></m:intlim> </m:wrapindent> </m:defjc></m:rmargin></m:lmargin></m:dispdef></m:smallfrac><br />
<m:smallfrac m:val="off"> <m:dispdef> <m:lmargin m:val="0"> <m:rmargin m:val="0"> <m:defjc m:val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent m:val="1440"> <m:intlim m:val="subSup"> <m:narylim m:val="undOvr"> </m:narylim></m:intlim> </m:wrapindent> <m:smallfrac m:val="off"> <m:dispdef> <m:lmargin m:val="0"> <m:rmargin m:val="0"> <m:defjc m:val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent m:val="1440"> <m:intlim m:val="subSup"> <m:narylim m:val="undOvr"> </m:narylim></m:intlim> </m:wrapindent> </m:defjc></m:rmargin></m:lmargin></m:dispdef></m:smallfrac></m:defjc></m:rmargin></m:lmargin></m:dispdef></m:smallfrac><br />
<m:smallfrac m:val="off"> <m:dispdef> <m:lmargin m:val="0"> <m:rmargin m:val="0"> <m:defjc m:val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent m:val="1440"> <m:intlim m:val="subSup"> <m:narylim m:val="undOvr"> </m:narylim></m:intlim> </m:wrapindent> </m:defjc></m:rmargin></m:lmargin></m:dispdef></m:smallfrac><br />
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</span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">Religion joins the few and divides the many. This is the belief that fortified within me from the years that passed. When I was in fifth grade, I had a friend, and as it was then, living in a small town affords one to chance acquaintances, most especially at Sunday masses, and since we lived nearby I decided to look for him. On the Sunday Masses, I searched fervently for my friend yet for naught, every mass session i coaxed my parents to go varying the schedule every week. How big is this edifice anyway? Why can I not see him? And as we drove away from the church not a semblance of his shadow paced my vision.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">I was bewildered: how could we miss each other? The church only had around twenty pews then, and come communion every person is visible in the long line leading to the altar. I brought this up to him and the mystery has been unveiled, we have different religions—he is a protestant and I was catholic! It is then that the realness of difference in faiths sprang to my consciousness.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">Later as I grew up, I witnessed people from all walks of life denigrating those that have different names of worship; this apparent chauvinism could be seen on those shows aired on television only to defend the bastion of their interpretations and customs, putting down another to go up higher. This self-righteousness irked me. How could this be a way to save us from the rupture? But still, what do I care about this. I am far from their chasms. I could turn the remote easily. I could shrug my shoulders at a debating fanatic. Who gives a fiddler’s fart about this? I don’t. For all I believe is that it is not the confessions that you make nor the prayers that you sang communal that matters but it is the relationship with yourself and the Almighty that will solely determine one’s salvation either from this earth’s carnal disintegration or from those that Death would gladly bestow without reservation. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">In spite of my apathetic stance—perhaps borne from the laymen’s unperturbed cacophony of mores or from my experiential realizations—this collective separation cannot be ignored for the tumult it creates provides a threat for dismemberment not only for people, but for this nation as well. More than the unspoken caste that hounds our people, wars have been waged and fought for this sake. And yes, we could easily point our fingers to Mindanao—the Moro wars.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">Regimes, administrations, has passed like the years that withered into decades (maybe in another millennia still) the conflict between the Muslim separatist movement fighting for an independent Moro nation is still left unresolved, like a wanton courtship between the government and the revolting faction, honeyed by peace talks yet often led to bloodshed; it is often annotated as a Muslim-Christian conflict.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">What are they really fighting for? Why do they want to separate? By so doing remove a star from the half-risen flag, maiming it forever. I hate to see the Philippine map fade, the archipelago reduced. And if so do we need passports to go to and fro. Then we will endure to forget the favourite line, “…mula Aparri hanggang Jolo.” Truly, the effect of that separation would be equal to castration, even to impotency to progress. I hate to see them go—a nation divided! Brothers at war!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">But who am I to stop their so called independence? Who am I to tell them—or any one in that matter—to stop and accede to the government? Who am I to tell them to remain? I haven’t even plodded my feet to the land they so fervently fought, and whose rights they give their life so wilfully. I haven’t even bled a single drop to their cause nor spent an hour with them—how could I understand! I am alien to Mindanao, alien to the brothers I avidly trace on the map. Perhaps I know more about America than of this fallow land. Aren’t we all in the Metro the same? Too, those in the south knows more of Malaysia for there it is more real; Sabah is nearer than Manila anyways. Perchance more akin to other Muslim nations even to those across the endless deserts and jagged seas. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">There are a lot of peace treaties that has convened yet these are mere negotiations that fell short. There were different pacts discussed but still this war waged on, claiming lives by the hundreds, leaving people homeless, their stomachs violently churning, their mouths frothing. And when a loved one dies</span><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">¾</span><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">by accident or by fighting—a sense of repulsion, fear, worse of all, hate is injected in the hearts of those who were left. With this cycle a new Moro will replace the dead, a new soldier will replace the ranks of those who was decimated; the Moro dies a faithful martyr, the soldier a gallant hero. Yet always, and always it was a deadlock. More so, although blood has spilled the soil are they really enemies?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">Once I have read that it is not the difference in religion that sprang war but disparity over land. More than what the Moros claim of ancestral domain, it refers to the soil that is tilled, the soil that nurtures man, the soil that provides. I believe this is so, too. Adding to that it is the neglect that the Moros in Mindanao have faced, far from modernization—aloof (might be self-implicated too) from progress. While Luzon is crammed by buildings, malls sprouting out of nowhere, edifices are meek and scarce in most areas of the Muslim region, at least those which are functional and opt for public. Hospitals, roads, schools, libraries, transportation these are gifts of development scarcely reached even to the proximity of the war-torn area.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">Aside from the blooming suburbs and condominium units, malls, schools in the city—if you would like to define progress with it—Mindanao has been left emaciated. Its growth stinted, the structures that they built reduced to rubbles. Illiteracy,hunger, health are identified not only to the government’s inchoate policies which are not sensitive to the real needs that needed addressing—and please, clear-cut policies not the patch-me-up projects (though sometimes it as all that can be done for the moment). While those in the seats of power, those politicians championed attention in these concerns, none of them, though, really did action, <i>ningas cogon</i>—all words, little action<i>.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">This is a regurgitating betrayal. Here is one clear cut reason why these things has never been resolved after decades and decades of dialogue for the people seated are—in both sides—not sincere enough to listen, their agenda is always a hidden constrict at the back of their minds. There will be no enough deaths; no amount of blood could stop these macabre for generations are born anew. They will take oaths and swear duty under the flag and to their faith. Discriminations will never end, more so the war. I heard one of my religious friend say, quoting a passage which, forgive me I cannot recall where nor could I rehash impeccably, it says, “if I fought for God nothings is against us…how could we lose?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">But when will we win? Before the many dead that were sent to the ether. Before the children that may never learn to read and write. Before those who bore the ancient odium that blinded them with power and sanctimonious dogma. Before the land that stood silent witness to the hearts of men that flung dead to her cause and accepted them as they return to earth as earth. Before us are lives that never be. Aren’t all these enough a loss?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-size: small;">No matter how seemingly desolate the situation is, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=210379221737466874&postID=3712266528201387656&from=pencil" name="_GoBack"></a>I believe that there is still hope for understanding, for peace. We have known war for so long, especially the Moros but yet not the peace we fought for subsisted. But as long as we have hope, new minds shall be conceived—both from the womb and in one’s own experiential incubation—grasping the realities that we cannot see now, opting for a better way that was averted and ignored. Then a longing that one day this nation would rise above this part of our history, breaking the chain of hatred and glum. Thus, allowing people to see that we are all given breath by the Unseen Hand, placed before some distant islands. I know, though we are divided by faith, we still live under the same home. We are still brothers! </span></div><br />
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<span lang="EN-PH" style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">*photo by the author </span></div><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"></span>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-57772535824366098752011-07-04T01:44:00.000-07:002011-07-04T01:44:56.041-07:00WHY WE ARE POOR: THE FISHBONE IN OUR THROATS<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--> <m:smallfrac m:val="off"> <m:dispdef> <m:lmargin m:val="0"> <m:rmargin m:val="0"> <m:defjc m:val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent m:val="1440"> <m:intlim m:val="subSup"> <m:narylim m:val="undOvr"> </m:narylim></m:intlim> </m:wrapindent><!--[endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxJY_HDG374SZJrVvavcDjrvhpVdtBOeTCElGWJhl0cHtXidE0rDS96ND5G3mVtLz3TUNIJD9VkHr3smLXQBpE8hBrdNNFXOy9WwH3U6PlKGULNPZ2S_Dvd641LGzf1T94hIV4baZ6tmg/s1600/for+why+we+are+poor.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxJY_HDG374SZJrVvavcDjrvhpVdtBOeTCElGWJhl0cHtXidE0rDS96ND5G3mVtLz3TUNIJD9VkHr3smLXQBpE8hBrdNNFXOy9WwH3U6PlKGULNPZ2S_Dvd641LGzf1T94hIV4baZ6tmg/s320/for+why+we+are+poor.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-family: Algerian;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH" style="font-family: Algerian;">I slumbered</span><span lang="EN-PH"> deep into the apathies of my comfort. For 26 years I was raised knowing so little of the travails and hardships of living except those that academics imposed and the inanities of my childhood concerns. Having said this, it is by no means to rob the color and disparage the importance of my experiences for it did gave me my identity, which I cannot deem to extinguish and I am powerless to alter; history cannot be undone no matter how petty it is.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>The reason I mentioned slumber is that during our sleep we are detached from reality and within these vaulted years―even when my inquisitiveness about our past, and the swelling distaste of the affairs in our country mounted―I remained distant from the realities in our society; these realities I was hid and protected from, by my family. I did not live like as a prince would have had but we have <i>katulong</i>―helpers as the term imply, shared work is what should be provided―they, ironically, did everything for us. These people labored for us, catered to our every whims, patient with our erratic personalities and eruptive tantrums. In short, they did all of the work that we should have done together, and enjoyed so little in this separateness.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>There is nothing devious or alarming in this arrangement; it is as common as any middle-class household in this country―the magnitude is tenfold with the elites where uniformed maids come in platoon, even with ranks. But recently, I’ve felt the necessity to free myself in this kind of setting. I felt the comfort, minute as it is, is suffocating me, that the chores in the house are not as important as the tasks in the office and the readings in the university. It is not the chores though, it would be ludicrous to rant about that, but instead what is being plodded has been always selective. It is also to say that this way of living protected me from a far greater reality that protrudes away from home―that in this antiseptic treatment denied me the totality of experiences that I should deal, that I should suffer, feast over, enraged, troubled, anxious, defeated, and joyful with. And yet outside, the world is much, much more.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>This country is much, much more.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>And perhaps in this cave of our security media is the only vista to reality―but they are no different. They are half-asleep too. They could do better. They could go and traverse the frontiers of this society that has remained unchartered. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>I must admit that it is a great instrument to unearth the truth: the facts, evidence, and use of creativity to educate the greater impoverished populace. It is a tool for unity; understanding between cultures could be initiated. The faculties of expression are also in multitude that could be used to capture the audiences across our diversity. Surely, it is an important tool for imparting knowledge which we starve from.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>However, the giant networks that has the greatest reach and influence did nothing but cater to their prosperity, focused on their own competitions and marketing; the small ones are even worse, they are propelled by religious ministries hollering dogmas out of the somber air or private denizens boasting their opulence. Although these elements―marketing and profit―are inseparable from business they should have ventured farther and fearlessly to the education of their viewers, mainly the <i>masa </i>who considers television and radio one of their indispensable luxury.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>Of course, we could see the noontime shows or other programs, their hosts doling out money in barangays. They are welcomed inside people’s homes―shacks patched with <i>palo china</i> scraps, rusted iron roofs, plywood, and whatever to conceal the holes with. Some are lucky to live in a decent environ, with cemented walls and iron roofs that do not leak. And in this shows, one apparent character is the interview. Always they try to unearth the bones in the grave that delivers one to the brink of tears. They try to console them and act like messiahs of prosperity. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>Observed and scrutinized these philanthropic acts are arid and hollow. They are rooted not from genuine concern for humanity but rather to demolish the competition and to heighten their ratings. <i>AtingAlamin</i> is one of the few genuine programs that I know of because they empower people by knowledge not by money. They provide variation rather than <i>sari-sari</i> store package alone. Also, shows that ventures farther are represented mostly by the documentaries, reportage from our respected journalists―Howie Severino and Kara David just to name a few―gives an authentic touch to their work and a much needed depth in research for a spine. These shows stir the imagination and affixes heart in their deed without the showcases that is showered aimlessly.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>But programs like this―those that imbue choices, alternatives―are less patronized. Perhaps it is the lack of capital, and the labor that comes along herewith is incomprehensible. What would it do to people mired in poverty? Could it ever compete to the allures of the opiate the other shows provide? Or is there ever a need for alternative if they only wanted is to get by in the day? <i>Isangkahig, isangtuka</i> way of living. This is the hidden face that they tried to mask: stars that cannot act, money that exudes a blind hope, and the earnings a station should capitalize.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>However, what more vicious, ghastly creatures there exist than those flaunted in the government and other public seats. We could see them even in our small gallivanting. We see muddied pigs dressed in posh barongs, designer suits, and gowns that they wore with such casualty. They work on projects―why they should have been elected in the first place―then they put their condescending faces, printed in costly, gigantic tarpaulins paraded loftily with their smiles as phony as their campaign slogans and the lame, irksome jingles that plague the air during election campaigns. Truly, without shame! Is there more to be said? For everyone is already aware of their crimes, but yet we are, we feel powerless to defeat this malaise and cancer that retarded the government, hence the nation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>As I speak of these, I beheld no power to defuse this ticking bomb that slowly implodes in everyone. No one can―NO ONE MAN CAN! I would like to say: no one ever tried. But there was Rizal, martyred too early. Bonifacio betrayed by his fellow revolutionaries. The other unsung heroes across our history rotted in penury, their cries forgotten. Here, no one ever lived long enough to see the fruits of unity and prosperity, neither of equality.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>Is this why we are poor? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>I don’t know if we are poor because we have been ravaged by three nations. I don’t know if we are in mendicancy because of the opportunist snakes working in our government and other public seats. Nor was it because of the conspiracies of landlords and tycoons for personal economic advancement. Was it because of the endless wars waged against our communist brothers in the mountains? And the <i>moros</i> in Mindanao?Or is it because our population quadrupled in the past decade, while our resources depletes? Is it because of the dwindling importance to education? With all of these I am not certain.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>What I know is that there are more fashioned as I am. There are many who are still slumbering within their own comforts, strewn across the nation. A prominent writer, who I look up to, F. Sionil Jose augured and herald that the greater part of change should come from the middle-class, that it is in their class, in particular the youth that would beckon the change in the society―to serve as the ram in the ideal revolution promulgating true transformation―because they have the means, the space to move about in that direction.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>While I belonged to a middle-class Filipino family who is spartan in most days and extravagant during occasions; we can afford education even at the expense of drudging work; we can purchase the new clothes and other things even by scouring crumbs from the meager allowance. Yes, we have more space to move, more freedom for action. Yet I am sorry. We are no beacon of change. We are no light to a revolution. On the contrary, we are poor because my kind, my class pervaded, dwelled in the cool modern nooks of our homes without the thought, without the genuine concern to our motherland―Filipinas.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>I am sorry because we haven’t done anything to provide the strength to move your wheel, the wheel of the nation that has been stuck in the quagmire. We worry of menial things: our college degree and our corporate job hereafter; the ascension in the blue-collar ladder; the latest trends in technology, the things that we could buy; our dates and dreamt-of marriage; our house bills and paunches that need to be filled. All of these are inadvertently imposed on our living, and that we should be responsible for its provision. But we stop there. We halt because we don’t know where to amble. We halt because we are afraid of the very step to take. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>We are afraid of the cross of this country. We could see in the horizon that it is being heaved from atop by the oligarchs and elitist while at the bottom the dishevelled, emaciated bodies of the masses, the poor. And that we don’t know if we would be stepping, trampling the people who are already suffering or would we be crushed by the oppressive weight.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>We have not done anything because we will be threading in unknown waters, where the waves are engulfing, the hue dark and crimson. We are afraid because we might drown in spite of our ideals, sank at the bottom without nothing, that before us a lightless tunnel. So we grasp whatever ropes of security we could reach. We fear that all of that we have and will have will be gambled for naught.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>I am sorry because of the lethargy that I face my duties with, a duty set aside for too many a year. I procrastinated from action, and I grumbled from the bedevilled society we are in―I hated the politics, I whine about the lack of opportunity, I cuss about the metropolitan traffic, and I lash out from the scarcity that is omnipresent in this godforsaken land.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>I am sorry Filipinas! Your poverty roots from too many devils from our history, but you are poor because the children you expect to give have not. They have denied you of the love that you deserve.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-PH"><span> </span>Although if it is not too late, if I could open my eyes deaden from sleep, maybe I could see clearly your face. If I touch the wound that has festered for generations, maybe I could feel your pain and your suffering. If I start to believe in the hope that the sun and stars in the flag represent, maybe I could understand the difference of our people and maybe the light of justice too. If I act from your love, maybe you could impart the knowledge of your ancient burden, and the opportune chance of vindication. And maybe one day, if there are more who have done so too, maybe my beloved motherland, you shall be redeemed. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</style> <![endif]--> </m:defjc></m:rmargin></m:lmargin></m:dispdef></m:smallfrac></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-PH">Illustration by b. ryan rañeses, III</span><span lang="EN-PH"></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-31857420859438135152011-04-30T02:37:00.001-07:002011-04-30T02:37:33.898-07:00Breaking PactsBenjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-81262824154768031522011-03-31T04:09:00.000-07:002011-03-31T04:10:15.613-07:00Letter to A Preacher<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">My Friend, know that I never have judged you for I don’t have written laws of men nor do I compose an audience to the floors and pews of court, for aren’t we the judge to no one but our own selves. And aren’t we all face to face with our trials in every day. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">I need not witnesses or people to laud my verity, for isn’t it that our own hearts are enough a compass to direct—to push forth or to recant—our deeds, in this way my silence my refuge and my actions are vindication to my beliefs. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">But here let me say the things that I believe in, and here, perhaps you’ll be able to understand the conversation that you sanguinely desist. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">The truth cannot set forth to the shores of men who are afraid to listen, to hear his brothers’ stories and life. I hear, you readily reject and undermine the narrative of another based on the semantics one use or the names one resound, while on the other you accept a person, embraced him with ornamental praises and crest of royalty that imbibes a certain caste when that person utters a single syllable of one’s own provincial tongue. By this way, my brother, you throw away the nature of Truth and you rest your proud head upon the comforts of your own blind ignorance.</span></div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-75992124667674412772011-02-21T16:54:00.000-08:002011-02-21T17:12:05.645-08:00To A Love Lost<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7Do7zBwRnxTkxmN-bspZolVlKvzeY9aLLV1FQyjcJ0AUl6P0rb0jIr5GroR4bnCM6AprEKFiCpGrfQvrEAfD3OLjZnR4rxvZvXDCMze306a6L88Q8Xd-6CgU6wg_7V3zP-6vhNUZmCY/s1600/blo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7Do7zBwRnxTkxmN-bspZolVlKvzeY9aLLV1FQyjcJ0AUl6P0rb0jIr5GroR4bnCM6AprEKFiCpGrfQvrEAfD3OLjZnR4rxvZvXDCMze306a6L88Q8Xd-6CgU6wg_7V3zP-6vhNUZmCY/s320/blo.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">The illiterate voice of pain from your love bygone is trying to limn its ethereal wail through a one final hymn. It forges a litany from a language unbeknownst from my mortal tongue. It tries to depict its lament and the churning passion within, but it finds man’s words short and shallow, for it cannot dive into the abysmal darkness I crept in nor see the warm light bathed by the memories of joy. Although, I find my reason plagued by ignorance and idiocy I carve in words the ghosts that simply won’t let me be, for his ailing is my ailing thrown unto the dusty pits of time. Truly, these are the words kept me coiled to your sea.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">Perhaps, one day you’ll pass upon my days again to listen to these litanies that warbled on your ascension. Then, grant mercy and dispel the mourning I bewail. Here, listen to the days you are no more.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">“You arrested the violent tempest in my heart when you came. The deathly winds that once scathed and the dark clouds that were once are no more.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">“You entered my life like a pebble thrown on the placid lake of mediocrity. You set forth the tides of living and the ripples of the waters unto the flowing river of my dreams.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">“O, yes. Dreams. Our days are shared visions of morrows, of hopes, of kindled wishes from our ageless hearts. We spoke as if the world is ours and we, in return, to the earth. How lucid were the canopies. How real was the salt of the sea in the air. How enamored was the music of violin, lute, and piano during the sunset of that place. How comforting was your hand in the morose days. How serenity bore upon my heart when your voice an angel ingrained, and the smile that you contained in every waking nourished my spirit for the better.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">“All of these are life’s gifts, and is most real. For amidst the distance, I could stare at the mirrors of your eyes, and I could feel our souls’ embrace.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">“You carried a divine melody that gently whispers to my ears, like a cold breeze in the unbearable desert, which I too often, verge. I held your hand and we could cross the scorching dunes it consists.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">“But how am I to picture you when you are gone? How could I keep pace to the ambling of my thoughts when it is like unbound pages of a book blown by gusts of indifference, scattered frantically to horizons that memories can’t seek, and imagination will forever err to describe. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">“The pictures kept enshrined appear to me like divine ghosts, pure, pristine, yet forever afar from my fading gaze. It wakes me to dark moments of dawn and dusk where all the colors are stripped away. Thus, the open hours of morning are wishing hours to dreamland, and sleep a forbidden fruit I guiltily savor to the restless banishment of loneliness’ pain.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">“The pain, the sweet pain, seems like a vicious poison in my veins coursing to the core of my heart—to finally consume the final pieces of joy and mirth. It will one day demolish and pillage the shrine and altar of my love to the ripping jaws of oblivion.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">“But perhaps at the place of burnt images births a flower of wisdom. Yes. Even pain does teach that is, if the source is immaculately founded. Although, nothing is heard except for the cries and reeling memoirs as of now, a madman I crest upon the many, and a fool digging a grain of sand upon a grave. But isn’t it a love lost is still love, and love should always be honored, paved tribute to, even at the cost of endless pain and tears. And hence, a tribute, a litany, a longing all meshed into one where these words are borne to.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">“Though mortals may misconstrue the language of hearts, for it limits the mystery to a definition of scholastic articulation, cornering it to reason when it is beyond it. Yet what resort have I got when I only have my voice and pen, for all of that which is dear are gone and frothed to the ethers. So let these be said of your love though, at the end, these words you may find short and shallow.”</span></div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-17378487058370791832011-01-30T15:50:00.000-08:002011-01-30T16:24:39.009-08:00Encountering a Different Kind of Cat<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuncPmE21UGXJr90nS-bg6UdHM94zH4ucVLARkNlgEbTifXoKjP6VjFyW2hUbtdVrs9hAhZOv1DeNAGuX4T8SsUxlwQNeFqoNIymLYj8Nw6WtknBF0A5A5eXFfeqKvjM7FzEejm9fQFIU/s1600/cloud.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuncPmE21UGXJr90nS-bg6UdHM94zH4ucVLARkNlgEbTifXoKjP6VjFyW2hUbtdVrs9hAhZOv1DeNAGuX4T8SsUxlwQNeFqoNIymLYj8Nw6WtknBF0A5A5eXFfeqKvjM7FzEejm9fQFIU/s320/cloud.JPG" width="233" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Cats are independent creatures—they feed on your plate, cuddle with you on the sofa, then go about their way: playing solitarily, cavorting with cats, hunting mice with total absence of human aid—that can only be half-domesticated. They are like tamed stallions from the wild whose instincts are kept at bay. They are neither at the mercy of no one, except of course, from the Almighty.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Winning their trust requires sincerity and determination that is the only time they allow themselves to be domesticated. But amidst of this there is an element in them that mirrors the untainted wild, which until now mystifies me; no wonder cats have been the symbol of the occult and the rogue that is adjacent to human contact.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">One cat stays with us; he could come and go as he pleases, and one day may not simply return so I prefer the term “stay” than “have”. Like most kittens that we, my sister Bea and I, picked and salvaged from the torrential streets of Cavite—our oldest tenant and friend Claudius a.k.a. Cloud is one of them too—was found feeble, masticated by hunger, and whose cries echoes the looming voice of death. Here, in the same manner, I set to meet yet but another.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I was on my way to meet a friend to return the gargantuan statistics book to a friend around 4pm. When the bus was passing along <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carredo st.</i> I felt an urge to go down and walk my way through the busy streets of Manila. When the bus halted to abide the behest of the red light, I got up end leaped off. I ambled my way. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">On the street, I pass kiosks and stores, combing my hair in front of the reflection of car mirrors that are parked in an astonishing jigsaw manner (I wonder how they will manage to get their car out). I saw students standing in queue as they busied themselves photocopying volumes of textbook materials, perhaps wondering how they could fit it all in their Prada and Louis Vuitton imitations. Others are jostling to and fro. All of which is enough a proof that I am once again a part of the picturesque Manila life. Then out of nowhere a man spoke to me.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, in Manila, people wouldn’t usually talk to you, not even a classmate who asked for answers during an exam. People who do either know you and takes a particular affinity towards you or they are either people who needs something from you: street dwellers asking for alms, merchants who wanted to sell, and worse of all, but perhaps most common in surveys, there are thieves and hustlers who will rip you off. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I looked at the man’s dusty face: he is far from being an acquaintance. Although his clothes are tattered and his appearance resembled flagellations of poverty, his aura felt too fierce and egotistical to be a beggar. Although his words are rehearsed, he is cloaked with cunning and his tongue fed by morsels of curses, he is not a preacher. Although he sells and talks grandiose materiality he is empty handed himself. Then, this man is, there could be no other, a thief!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I was about to brush him off with indifference and probably even a daunting glance to do away with him, but even Adam and Eve’s faith stuttered at the fruit of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">serpent</i>. For me it was a real fruit, it was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Apple</i>—a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mac</i> computer. Aside from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mac</i> laptop he said he has other gadgets: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Asus</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blackberries</i> and a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">PSP</i>. But all of these items sells for a fortune even for a guy like him he will charge at least a thousand, and a thousand is a price I frugally afford myself. Then, with a well-thought of plan, the man added, “One item, any item, for 850.00 Pesos.” <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There are reasons playing in my head during that time, dialectic forces alluding to specific advantages. I remember the cartoons that we used to watch—I think it was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Looney Tunes</i>—were an angel and a devil pops out of nowhere debating just right before an important antic, the character in between torn, confused, and undecided. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Three things that I have to consider: first, the items were loots out of some bar in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Las Pinas—</i>the goods are stolen, however all of which were loaned for quick money somewhere near the vicinity; the man needed eight hundred and fifty pesos to bail out the items. Second, the items would be sold eventually and I needed a computer more so a laptop—I am borrowing one from my father and the one that I mutually share with my sisters is already at the brink of retiring; I am buying one myself soon and if I could save money then the better. So, if it would be sold to someone I asked why it should not be sold to me. Lastly, this is a gamble! And in gambling you either win or lose. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The man led me across the streets of Manila in a hurry, these are streets that I barely knew existed nor would I pry to go into. When we reached the store that he said he wagered the items to he asked me to stay inside a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mini Stop</i> outlet. He said he cannot afford “people” suspect me as a snitch after all he said I had just entered a drug-dealing community, and I could lose my life in an instant; he cannot defend me if that so happens. I looked around me, and for sure, I would have attested that people were secretly gawking at me. And their presence reeked of malignant intent like dogs that stopped barking and ready to pounce. Fear engulfed me.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Killings on the street are a common affair if you read tabloids. What is appalling and saddening is that it became too common that people could simply shrug it off from their minds. It may even seem to appear like fictional subterfuge made for sales. And I don’t want to end up at the front page of a paper beside the picture of a naked young girl, atop from the nonsensical updates of actors and actresses as if extramarital escapades and courtships are beyond mortal dealings. The horror is true and that the curtain which death holds might unveil with any misstep. But right were my fear gripped me, I began to hear a voice that I kept subdued in this exploit—my heart spoke.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It told me, amidst of the cacophony of terror in my head, to get out of the place and reiterated not to stay for another minute. The man came back this time without the items asking for the rest of the money; he needs the full amount to retrieve the items. Then with some point of light that shoved the clouds out of my head I gave the 500-Peso bill and said, “alam kong kailangan mo ng pera, ngayon kung bumalik ka man o hindi dala ang gamit na sinabi mo sana makatulong ‘tong pera ko pantawid mo.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I know you need the money, now whether you return or not with the item you promised may this money help you to get by.</i> He mumbled few words of assurance but this time I understood his ploy. He will not return.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">After the man left I waited for a minute, a promise that I assured him before. Then, I left the store and strolled to where my friend was. I was shaking my head with smile and awe. I should have been furious. I should have got even with the guy, but this event taught me a lot.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> A lesson from the streets: if one gives consent to thieves and takes from their devious doings then one is no different from the hands that stole the banquet. And once one has assented to its caves one needs to pay the price for its exit but it is, nevertheless, a price to be paid—no one gets out without the price. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">More so, I consented because I wanted to get the purchase without paying its full price, it was the strands of avarice and sloth. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">The greed of man is present to everyone living, the only difference is that some men kept its seeds arid—left to dead, its waters drizzled over to the seeds of virtue instead. And I needed to cultivate those of virtues’ with more vigilance. I remember a quotation, “…Warriors of the Light never accept what is unacceptable.” as Paulo Coehlo stated. And to reject what is supposed to be requires strength and sobriety, which I need to work on. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">"Meeting people are never by coincidence.", a colleague of mine once said to me. I believe this was so too. Having met this man allowed me to be aware of the elements that warbles in me: the yin and yang. Even more it gave light to the things I need to improve on. And that it led me to listen fearlessly to the voice of my heart, which no straightness of logic could ever compete to its wisdom.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Yesterday, I met a man tattered, scarred, and old beyond his age. Perhaps he brought the laptop at the store or perhaps he didn’t. There is no way of telling. I am not passing down judgment to thieves nor harbor them. I do not blame him for what he has done. For in exchange of my ample savings a lesson has pierced my awareness. I should thank him if I meet him. But he said he doesn’t know me, or do I of him, after the deal is done. Maybe to remember his name is enough a tribute, what was it again? He said call him, for that was he is famous for on the streets, his name is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pusa</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the Cat</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-19857193570902720772010-12-29T16:58:00.001-08:002010-12-30T17:08:29.058-08:00A Road to Christmas<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-size: small;">The highway seems like a vast ocean of cars, absent is the graceful waves it naturally possess; it is a stagnant unmoving ocean. I peeked outside and saw that I am stuck in an impossible traffic condition—the Christmas traffic. From Ford to Sarao, from trucks to SUVs, from jeepneys to two-door sports cars, it doesn’t matter what engine you have under the hood, every automobile runs a mile per hour estimate; in this condition everyone is equal. So, to detach myself from this frustrating traffic, I slept. <br />
I woke up with a smile, but quickly that changed to a furrow on my brows and an irked grin. I am still in the traffic, and the vehicle moved but a short distance. My humor returned when I saw most of the passengers grunting and cursing, hoping an empathic remark, silently hoping to be acknowledged by the others. Conversations changed the mood. Everybody was sharing their stories. I kept silent. Instead, I pulled out Dante’s <i>Inferno</i> and read.<br />
It was 9 o’ clock when I arrived at the mall—my shortcut going from place to place—where people looked like bees and ants in the crowd. I would never, and under no circumstances, would have gone out to shop or even travel at this time of the year. I would peacefully remain in the comfort of my blue-wall room, read a book, watched a film, and slept. If it wasn’t for the schedule I was given, if it wasn’t for my work, this is exactly what I would do. <br />
As I walk around the mall passing stores and kiosks, I felt odd. It is hard to describe the feeling, but the scenery seems to be perforated by frenzy, a spending frenzy that is. Although we have 13th month pay, bonuses, gift giving, and aguinaldos (kids and adults alike) there is a scarcity that hounds the season. There seems to be not enough in spite of the festivities around.<br />
At work, this illusory scarcity has also made an impression, since we would be working on Christmas Eve—all establishments are closed except of course, with 7-Eleven (when do they close anyway? I forgot that joke/fact)—a decent meal should be prepared. But as the discussion took place, it became too dragging; we were unable to decide what to bring. My colleague insists or is somewhat alluding for a more extravagant meal. I thought: how much are we going to eat anyway? <br />
The pigging-out at parties, getting drunk to oblivion, automated exchange gifts, Christmas leftovers, pilgrimage to the malls, buying things that we thought we need but don’t, even the <i>simbang gabi</i> or midnight mass seems to be losing its real essence for it was shadowed by the prospects of dating and goofing around. At this time of the year, the power of consumerism seems too hypnotic, it beckons people to spend, to empty the once full brim as if they could understand the meaning of the season by so doing. <br />
I am not however, saying that this is wrong for isn’t it that social morals is decided by the many, but what I am implying is that Christmas for some (or the many) has become too artificial. It looked like a fiesta whose effigies became more important than the saint the celebration is about; the skin of the fruit became more revered and enjoyed than the fruit and seed. Then, what is Christmas anyway?<br />
It was not until I was stuck in another dreaded Christmas traffic would I catch or recapture the gist most appropriate in my queries. In the jeep, again I took out Dante’s first book of his Divine Comedy and read. As it was before, I ignored the kindling conversations of the passengers. Their conversation grew more animated after a time, my concentration seems to be out on the book and more to the discussion; I eavesdrop, feigning reading. They were discussing what to give their loved ones this time of the year. An unexpected answer came from an aged dark skinned man—who might be a laborer or a carpenter based on his tired masculine look and calloused hands—spoke. He said, with a hint of hesitation tinged with timidity, “wala akong regalo e.” <i>I don’t have any gifts</i>. He paused then raising the package he got perhaps from his employer, “pero meron kaming tinapay, keso, pancit, salad (fruit), at ham…at kwento.” <i>But we have bread, cheese, noodles, salad, and ham…and stories</i>. Then he smiled with his broad lips taut across his face showing his crooked teeth, with the sparkle in his eyes looking at the other people he is talking to. <br />
I didn’t hear the next words they uttered. I was filled with awe, more so engulfed by it. How simple that is. Here we are concerned at the trivialities of the season: parties, people to meet, gifts to give, and the grand meal at the table. But here is a man whose anticipation is so common yet sounded so unique and special. Perhaps, his profession pays him so little, perhaps he received but a high school degree yet he understood the season more than the rest of us.<br />
Christmas is truly a time of giving, of sharing—in the Bible God gave, shared his only son, the infant in the manger, the savior, Jesus Christ the ultimate gift. We often misconstrued it for extravagance but isn’t it the time of simple joys, of reunions, of songs, of laughter, and of a birth of new hopes. It is supposed to be more solemn, more soul-full. These are the things that we often forget during Christmas. <br />
I know that this frenzy will come again next season, even I would be obliged, even mandated by people to spend and participate. On the other hand, come next year, because of this road that I took during yuletide traffic, I would be reminded of those things which are really important. Thus, I believe the verity of these tenets is what provides this time of the year its real meaning, which the hypnotic gravity of consumerism can never provide us with during our lifetime. </span></div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-42711793434274251562010-11-07T17:59:00.000-08:002010-11-15T18:41:52.283-08:00Candle Balls and the Ghost of the Good Things<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">There were really no Halloween traditions in the Philippines, “the” Halloween, none that I could remember of. No trick-or-treats; no candies doled out, like money given in Christmas carols. We don’t dress like creatures of the night: vampires, mummies, witches, ghosts, and what have you. There were no parties assembled at schools and offices, all dancing to the holiday anthem: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thriller</i> by the king of pop, Michael Jackson.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">Our Filipino way of commemorating is different. We go to overcrowded cemeteries with our family. Pray—rosary, novena, or a silent litany kept in our hearts—at the tomb of our departed loved ones. Maybe, attend a mass solely dedicated for the souls of the dead. If the year have been generous enough, some even left food at the tomb, although I don’t really know how it would be digested by the very person it was served to. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">For most people our way, the Filipino way, if it would be described in one word, would be spelled B-O-R-I-N-G. The luster of the western festivities seem so appealing from children to socialites; the latter sees the occasion as a perfect excuse to get drunk and snooze the rest of the weekend. However, I find our local commemoration possessing a certain indiscernible solemnity (amidst of chaos often associated in the cemeteries); It emanates a tradition, poetic even, after years of repetition. But most of all, it reminds me of my childhood venerated, and missed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">Every 1<sup>st</sup> or 2<sup>nd</sup> of November, two families, my cousins’ and ours’ packed for the trip to the graveyard. I would have sworn it was for three days worth of provisions, although we will not sleep nor be gone for more than a day—that is how big our families were! But I guess we were born contortionists because we all fitted inside our Toyota L300 van. Imagine two big families, 15 people fitted in one vehicle. My dad and mom, my aunt and uncle, my grand mother, my great grandmother, my two cousins then, my sisters and I, as well as other houshold members all jostling of whatever space we were given.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">Now, having that many adults isn’t an assurance that the trip would be reinforced by adult restrictions and reprimands, in short devoid of fun. In fact, the trip to the graveyard is a treasure chest of excitement, mischief, and adventure.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">The children would always sneak pass from the eyes of the adults to roam the cemetery. We run around and explored the place. A renowned pride was observed whenever we placed our foot on uncharted regions, given that we don’t get lost less it would be teasing afterwards. But getting lost allows us to discover the eerie crypts, and extravagant mausoleums in which we either concluded as haunted or beautiful. We were cartographers of the graveyard.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">The adults once hearing our not too scary stories join in the group. Their narration of what seems to be a bequeathed legends, in spite of hearing it a multitude of times— especially when they want us to sleep but can’t—displays a mesmeric effect of horror and amazement for us that our eyes widened, our ears sharply audient, and imaginations reeling the scenes. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">At dusk, as the darkness spread all across the skies, we clung close to one another because the blackness of the night seems to veil something sinister lurking, ready to pounce anytime. The doubts that we have of the tales of the grown-ups suddenly were dispelled; those characters were more real than carved pumpkins, vampires, and zombies. We visit two cemeteries each emanate their own urban legends that we kept reminded of.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">We visit Loyola Memorial Park in Sucat first, where my grandfather is buried. Then, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Libingan ng mga Bayani</i> which is the resting place of our great grandfather, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lola Ba</i>, his wife, always recounted war stories and how they survived the atrocities of the Japanese regime; If there were stories to topple the ghoulish excerpts this is it. We regard our Lolo Salvador as a proud banner of our heroic ancestry. Come to think of it, it is not only her that told us this kind of stories, because once the prayers were finished every adult told their own ancestral past, or those that they could be proud of. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">These stories, the cryptic tales, and the experiences have been enduring memories for me. The camaraderie between two families. The stories that was shared with the suspension of judgment. The trips together. The warm ebullient air when we all meet. The laughter with my cousins. These memories haunt me whenever November comes. These are ghosts of the good things.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">Now, these events like caskets that were buried six feet under hint that these will never come to pass again. They were buried by a far heavier soil, and devoured, consumed by an unrelenting worm: family feuds between mothers; the younglings caught in these silent wars, who never knew the jocund days; marital conflicts between my uncle and aunt; freeloading of my desolate uncle who somewhat surrendered his fate to drinking, haplessness, and derision; the selling of the L300 van; the selling of ancestral houses in Pacita that led us farther away from each other; financial crisis; the death of my two grandmothers: Lola Ba, and Lola Zon, who in my opinion never saw the light of day because of these crisis—I just wish and hope they died smiling and now is singing with the angels in heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">But as Jesus reanimated the dead, Lazarus I too hoped that these memories wouldn’t be buried forever, that there would be a time that we would again visit the cemeteries together, and maybe assume the role of a storyteller, scaring the wits out of our nephews. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">As for now, perhaps the only remnants of these memories, like the tombstones with names and messages engraved, are the candle balls that we collected during those times. And like tombstones’ sole duty, it tells me, both in ghastly horror and playful mirth, “do not forget!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-27816856369010542812010-10-16T01:57:00.000-07:002010-10-16T01:57:01.985-07:00A Kid in the World of Spongebobs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcMDcA-UleBVWYBMRAypbh1LX7IceCGq0soQsI5KbZXWjYOiYlFskgfLitndDoZU6Cya_-vVotxWwv60YfdWSl1aYKN2pbR02cVEBJhsnOX5dYtIqbS_02WLHeO27aBCtdIpjU7WIkQV4/s1600/josh+in+the+world+of+spongebob.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcMDcA-UleBVWYBMRAypbh1LX7IceCGq0soQsI5KbZXWjYOiYlFskgfLitndDoZU6Cya_-vVotxWwv60YfdWSl1aYKN2pbR02cVEBJhsnOX5dYtIqbS_02WLHeO27aBCtdIpjU7WIkQV4/s320/josh+in+the+world+of+spongebob.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">Mornings are busier than the afternoon. Well, in our house at least. Here, people paced from place to place just so that they could beat the clock and make it through their respective schedules. Frantic searches for lost school items are often a scene. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tupperwares</i> left on the round dining table, the owner temporary oblivious at the moment, come recess or lunch they’ll sure wish they took their time. But it’s a different day <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yay</i> Nieves and my mom were more didactic, more softly spoken about the lessons of my nephew even preparing a special breakfast. This could only mean one nostalgic thing—examination day!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">The test taker is Joshua. He’s on kinder now. Having taught him in few of his assignments I know what he’s examination would be like: naming of shapes; naming of colors; the ecosystem. True to my hunch all of these topics were covered. The first part was identification by encircling the answer, and matching type. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yay</i> Nieves—the narrator of the story who fetched Josh on that day—told us that the kid answered the items swiftly with great air of confidence.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">The second part was drawing. At home Josh drew a lot (not to mention even on walls) that made me allude that this test would be over in a jiffy. As what he did on the first part of the exam Joshua quickly finished the task. He was free to go earlier. However, the teacher noticed something odd and disturbing about the kid’s drawing that it pushed her to prod for an explanation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">They were asked to draw a picture of their families (a typical task for pre-school kids). While the rest of the kids drew a semblance of their families Josh’s papers were more “bizarre” (for the teacher). When she asked the child what the kid drew Josh replied “si Spongebob po at and kanyang pamilya…” The teacher pointed to another set of characters that were different from the Spongbobs and asked about it. “Ang kapitbahay po nila si Patrick at ang kanyang pamilya.” Josh proudly replied. The teacher hiding her laughter bit her lips nodded and waved goodbye to her student.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">At home we all burst into a wild chuckling. We asked <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yay</i> Nieves to repeat the story whenever there were new arrivals. Each and every time we howled full of mirth with that anecdotal. Josh watched us with his smile while his skin blushed. Yet behind those jokes I somewhat believed that it was not out of misunderstanding nor was it due to the kid’s inability to comprehend did he made such drawing. Josh is a smart kid though he can’t read yet (he could recognize and write alphabets) his intelligence doesn’t come with education—I just can’t put my fingers to it—but it emanates deep inside the core of his being. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">Often we find him busy in front of the TV watching his favorite cartoons. But when he speaks out his mind he usually astonishes me with his questions even more his answers. I remembered once when I was so down trodden by the enigmatic formulary of statistics and he spoke, “o hayaan mo nalang muna yan, maya mo na sagutan” he said with great air of concern, “relax ka muna tito baka matulad ka kay Squidward.” Succinctly I was pulled out of the Labyrinthine worries that I have. I felt he was the elder and I am the kid. I flashed a smile of relief and patted his head.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">Perhaps, I was a Squidward in their eyes when I seem to direct my attention at paper works, assignment, good etiquette, and social formality. To them that is simply boring. Sometimes we are Mr. Krabbs concerned with money, work, and yes, more money. Or maybe we are Plankton in his egotistical and conceited daydreaming submitting the world into his tyranny, and of course, getting that secret <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Krabby</i> patty formula. While it is funny and comical on TV it may not be so humorous at real life. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">Although, this things are unavoidable because we need to pay bills and abide the social standards these kids (my three nephews) led by Joshua, the eldest, are giving me something of benefit for me. Once in a while I give them lessons: alphabet, reading, counting, and some other things. While them, they teach me to see the world as a child sees them, though I confess I might see it while my eyes were squinting.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">Returning to his work, while he drew something that will not be graded in excellence, I find his work authentic and rich with imagination. He was brave enough to show the world who he is regardless of whether people might laugh at him or grade him lowly. And how many times have I caught myself draping myself with an edifice of etiquette for approval or in fear of failure. For a child it is okay to trip and fall there is always tomorrow anyways, wounds heal. They enjoy themselves every moment by being simply the kid that they are.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">In Bikini Bottom anything is possible. For isn’t it Spongebob himself, along with Patrick Star, who created wonders out of a box armed only with imagination and believing themselves. Josh has this innately. After all, he is living in the time of Spongebob and other heroes. In their way anything could be done. Impossible didn’t exist. Yes, amidst of their blunders and histrionics they were their own, well, genius.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Century Gothic", "sans-serif";">Whenever I am with the kids I sure do remind myself who the student is and who is the teacher; who teaches and who learns. For children are teachers too without even reading or writing. And while I find it hard to live without worries I know that I could be able to understand the enigmas of their tutelage after all I am once, too, in their world—a child. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-73579413602810873722010-10-08T22:55:00.001-07:002010-10-08T23:05:07.809-07:00Facing the Petty Tyrants in our Lives: Don Juan’s Encounter<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYulTCWVMn536TUTBzlRjtjPKsSYEwLeJdz91SaCkyEprHsiecqWYNkQBbXxi1WRlMZa9tBcXRug99ZcXJZRKjIy93SQx7L4MYqVsXRRuwhsVhEqPiRhSTygWwsxemVZLnRJ0uwwCT2I/s1600/fire.GIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYulTCWVMn536TUTBzlRjtjPKsSYEwLeJdz91SaCkyEprHsiecqWYNkQBbXxi1WRlMZa9tBcXRug99ZcXJZRKjIy93SQx7L4MYqVsXRRuwhsVhEqPiRhSTygWwsxemVZLnRJ0uwwCT2I/s1600/fire.GIF" /></a></div><br />
<br />
In some point in our lives we encounter a person who tests us beyond limits of our endurance. We view it often as a curse for meeting such person. We avoid. We run away at the very sound of his/her thumping shoes. The very thought of it simply evokes an eruption of negativity.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">It is normal I guess to take flight most especially if we are in the disadvantage. Even the emotions of repulsion, fear, gloom, helplessness are justifiable and appropriate for the psyche. It allows us to cope at the danger and even to avoid it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">However, as I read on with Carlos Castaneda’s <i>The Fire from Within</i> I came across a story of Don Juan and a time when he met one of the most violent and vicious individual that delivered him to hell and back (both literally and metaphorically). They were called, in the Toltec’s words, petty tyrants. They are the people who wrought suffering to others without guilt or remorse.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Even though the story happened decades ago before and during Don Juan’s apprenticeship as a sorcerer these petty tyrants, as we could see, exist even today with different faces and statures in our society. As they exist so there would be victims under their dreadful clutches. On the other hand, how Don Juan dealt with the fiend of an individual was astonishing that made me rethink of my own dealings with my so called “villains” in everyday life. It would be a great pleasure to share the story.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">Don Juan worked at a sugar mill as a laborer when he was barely twenty. He was not only strong but also well-built for his early age. One day a rich domineering woman in her fifties came by. The woman looked at Don Juan and spoke to the foreman. She left immediately afterwards. Then the foreman called on him and said that for a price he could have a job in the boss’s house. Being, then, a lowly Indian who lives from hand-to-mouth this felt like a grace from the divine as he agreed to pay large amount in installments.</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"><o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">When he got to the mansion he was asked by a huge ugly somber man questions. And he grinned maliciously when Don Juan said he doesn’t have any family. He promised that the pay is sumptuous and he could save some money for he would be eating and sleeping at the mansion. The man then laughed sinisterly, so diabolic that Don Juan was terrorized and run out of the house for he knew he had to escape. But the man out paced him and cocked a gun and rammed it on his stomach. “You are to work yourself to the bone!”</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> <o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">There were men hovering around with machetes making the place look almost like a fortress. Everyday Don Juan was given the most dangerous and toiling tasks without break, and worse he was bullied to no end. “You’ll work here until you die…and when you die another Indian will replace you as you replaced one!” the petty tyrant exalted. He was threatened that if he run away he would be sent to jail for an attempted murder of the Lady as the foreman will falsify everything. He had the leverage in court trial anyway. As he survived a day all it meant the next morning after opening his eyes is that he needed to undergo in the same inferno. It was hell!</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"><o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">What served as the final wick to it all was when Don Juan asked for a time off to pay the other foreman but he was denied and was told that he was already in greater debt for having worked in the mansion. Don Juan knew these traps. He then understood that the two foremen were in cahoots. Their strategy was to work the laborers to their deaths and split their earnings.</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"><o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">This thought made Don Juan exploded with anger and ran inside the kitchen then to the outside screaming. Everyone was surprised but as he went by the road he was shot by the foreman and left to dead.</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"><o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">His benefactor found him and healed him. Upon hearing the story Don Juan’s benefactor urged him to go back at the mansion and face him again. It’s a rare opportunity to be with a petty tyrant he said.</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"><o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">Three years later, armed with the strategies and teachings he got from his benefactor, Don Juan returned to the sugar mill where he worked before. Nobody noticed him for no one gives a fig about laborers there, especially an Indian laborer. Again the same woman came, looked at Don Juan—who was even stronger than before—and talked to the foreman. He told him that he could get a job at the mansion for a price. But Don Juan refused to pay this time. No one ever rejected such proposition before so the man was taken aback. He threatened to fire Don Juan from his job but retorted that he knew where the Lady lived and would come see her to report about the foreman’s actions, and about the job. In the end, the foreman gave in and paid.</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"><o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">Upon arriving at the mansion Don Juan ran and looked for the Lady, and when he did he dropped on his knees and thanked her for her kindness. The two foremen were livid upon the sight. As it was before, the petty tyrant was an ogre of a man and gave Don Juan the most dangerous jobs especially at the stables where the horses and wild stallions are. The petty tyrant again bullied Don Juan to no end.</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"><o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">As part of the strategy, he has managed to note the weaknesses of the tyrant: he loves his job completely which he doesn’t want to endanger; he is a family man whose shack is near the mansion; the most fatal, he is nauseated by the scent of the horses’ stable. His strongest point would be his adamantine violence.</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"><o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">Meanwhile, Don Juan’s shield from the petty tyrant was the Lady who got him the job. He kneeled and thanked her every time he saw her. He even asked for the medallion of the lady’s patron saint so that he could pray for her health and well-being.</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> <o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">The petty tyrant was shocked when the Lady gave Don Juan the medallion. Even more, when Don Juan assembled all the servants to pray at night his temper become intensified. He decided to kill the vexatious Indian. Sensing this, Don Juan never slept in bed he climbed the roof and saw the murder in the eyes of the man while he twice searched for him. Don Juan’s countermeasure: he arranged all the servants to pray the rosary, which the Lady of the house praised him for and believed he has the elements of piousness. The tables were about to turn.</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"><o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">One day, Don Juan, in front of all the servants, and at the view of the Lady, insulted the petty tyrant. He called him a coward for mortally being afraid of the boss’s wife. The man was so infuriated, but the Indian had already run and was kneeling at the Lady, Don Juan knew that he won’t dare kill him at the sight of the lady nor use a gun due to its noise. Moments later, he was called at the back of the house by the foreman’s friends asking him to do something. He acquiesced but he knew their ploy.</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> <o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">Instead of going to them he ran into the stables in hopes that the horses would make a ruckus sending the owners curious enough to go outside. The petty tyrant white with rage ran after Don Juan. He jumped inside the stable of the wildest stallion. Having blinded by rage, the petty tyrant forgot about the stables stench and the stallions ready to end the fool. However, while he was armed by a knife, Don Juan was hiding at his planks that he made for protection from the brute strength of the beasts something the tyrant never knew about. So with just one kick from the stallion the petty tyrant fell.</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"><o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The strategy that Don Juan employed was the four attributes of <i>warriorship</i>: control is to be in command of the self, aware at the moment while in fulfillment of the idiotic behests; discipline is focusing on his tasks intended, gathering all the information needed—the weaknesses and quirks of behavior of the petty tyrant; forbearance was the simple joyful holding back to what is due to be given; timing is the essence or quality that regulates what is held back. “Control, discipline, and forbearance are like a dam behind which everything is pooled. Timing is the gate in the dam.”<br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"><o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The literature further adds that what transpires in the chanced encounter was the shattering of self-importance. “Any man who has an iota of pride is ripped apart by being made to feel worthless.” Don Juan said. Truly worthlessness exist upon the presence of pride and vice versa, therefore our own causes of misery. If that self-importance is torn apart we felt victimized, often or not seeking vengeance but Don Juan doesn’t have any a virtue honed in his apprenticeship.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">What is more astonishing is that Don Juan in spite of the barbarism of the petty tyrant, even though his tears might be falling, while his blood and sweat dripped at the soil, while he shivered in the stench and dangers of the stables, he didn’t hated the petty tyrant nor did he plotted against him, there he was smiling inside—he was happy!<br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Here, I realized the Buddhist premise, “your enemy is your greatest teacher.” They could teach you something that you weren’t able to learn, they will help you to go far beyond yourself. Like a glass rigid with self-importance placed at the furnace fires, molded into something new. It all starts at taking a different perception, taking a different stand.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">These encounters are either a curse or a blessing. It all depends on the choice that we make, either we choose to be victims or become impeccable warriors. The first leads to misery while the latter to knowledge. And nobody can run away from these we are automatically pushed to decide—we become either one—we will have to inevitably pick upon finding ourselves face to face with the fiend and beast—the petty tyrant.<br />
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</div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-23065040277041296902010-10-01T21:44:00.000-07:002010-10-01T21:58:02.940-07:00A Fifty-Peso Fraud<span style="font-size: small;"></span> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">The Conductor vs. the passenger! This seems to be the scene as I am riding an ordinary bus home (known for their bullet fast acceleration). Their voices were boisterous and their argument apparently heightened. And, at my guess, it would only be a sudden loss of patience from a nonverbal pose or a provocative word that might send the final wick of this debacle to explode. <o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">People were looking; passengers who were disturbed from their snooze turned their heads towards the two. Sensing a furious exchange of blows or even a flagrant hitting commentary would suffice for these people. Me? I didn’t give a fuss. I was, after all, recovering from the loss of my 700-peso automatic black with green pinstripe <i>Fibrella</i>, which have been one of my few remaining “possession” from my old job; it was stolen from a computer shop were I was just typing an assignment. Who would steal an umbrella for heaven’s sake! <o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">I was more furious than these two combined. However, as their argument came to a long dragging repetitious dialogue, fed up from the irritating persistence of the other fellow to take his money the conductor unable to control his tempering mouth in a high pitch tone― which he might not be cognizant of―blurted, <i>“pare peke ang pera mo!”</i> Then the bus fell into a deep silence, as if everybody paused and waited for a final verse in a play. That is when my curiosity sprung into life. <o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">While the worker sat on the bus froze to what has been said I asked the conductor about his conclusions of the fraudulence of the money. <i>“Paano naging peke to?”</i> I asked in an inquisitive manner. He then gave me the money and asked me to hold and feel the bill’s surface. Seriously, when I saw the crumpled money it was like the 50-peso bill that I have. It’s real! But the conductor pointed out that the surface of the bill is smoother and more crisp like an ironed paper while the real one was soft, more defined in its surface. The difference seems to be apparent and if we could detect fraud by that factor the rejected money was truly a fake.<o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">The passenger iterated that it was given to him as a change by another bus line earlier and now, being in a fixed allowance, is now his only money at his disposal. Fortunately, I asked the conductor what he thought of that whether he would ask the man to get out of the bus―we are at the middle of Skyway―or whether, in his kind nature, mark off the fare from the person just for today. Luckily for the passenger the latter choice won out.<o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">My point here is not merely exposing the verity of the existence of forfeited money nor would I be proving any facts delineated by the conductor as a proof of counterfeited money. I would care less about that; the mere fact that both money (real and sham) all had features or expected features of the real one, that crispness and smoothness alone defines it would be even dubious to allude to any conclusion, truly it was head bashing, so let us leave that.<o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">What I am alluding to is the fact that these events (the bogus bill and, yes, my stolen umbrella) to occur is pitiful, downright foul, and a con that takes advantage of the less advantaged many. If a 50-peso bill has even pushed a person to put another into this predicament does it sound too ridiculous? A 50-peso bill, an amount not even too big to buy a 1-piece <i>Chicken Joy</i> has tempted and prompt individuals to forge a life they don’t have, isn’t that saddening? That an umbrella is stolen right at your back in a formal place like a computer shop isn’t that mortifying? <o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">Truly, the adage money is the root of evil is true. But let me add to that, man becomes evil when he allows money to be his root. And there are far worse thieves than those who have done this they sit in an esteemed and respected chair with suites, uniforms, <i>barongs</i> and <i>filipinianas</i> on, while stealing more umbrellas and 50-peso bill from the people―they steal opportunities!<o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">This was written on the 3<sup>rd</sup> of August now that we are nearing the yuletide season maybe they have populated even more. <o:p _moz-userdefined=""></o:p></span></span></div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-70191461951008871942010-09-25T01:32:00.000-07:002010-09-25T01:33:31.203-07:00A Beauty Far Beyond the Skin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnF6kSwv2PNuONZwY-WbI_tXg_iclyuTcHj0iJ5rLcFzK3_0mwq6JvbSXZy7-orvW6RyNCGnuEWqr3F14budvRdDdis_Q6cxbhQTH9D49LBE5h6FMf-qHT4sMYuyKMstnEs1buyNfTEtE/s1600/44557_147399005284259_100000424808149_323210_4396644_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnF6kSwv2PNuONZwY-WbI_tXg_iclyuTcHj0iJ5rLcFzK3_0mwq6JvbSXZy7-orvW6RyNCGnuEWqr3F14budvRdDdis_Q6cxbhQTH9D49LBE5h6FMf-qHT4sMYuyKMstnEs1buyNfTEtE/s320/44557_147399005284259_100000424808149_323210_4396644_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<m:smallfrac m:val="off"> <m:dispdef> <m:lmargin m:val="0"> <m:rmargin m:val="0"> <m:defjc m:val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent m:val="1440"> <m:intlim m:val="subSup"> <m:narylim m:val="undOvr"> </m:narylim></m:intlim> </m:wrapindent> </m:defjc></m:rmargin></m:lmargin></m:dispdef></m:smallfrac><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">Its early morning for <i>malling</i>—though I’m not really fond of malls—yet I sat outside Jollibee’s bench oblivious of the people passing by. My book preoccupied me so amidst of the cacophony created by the students who lined outside and the waiter who kept on giving me the look as if telling me to get lost my equanimity prevailed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">Truth is I am not going inside the mall, not even to the bookstore. However, the mall is the rendezvous point. And I was early!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">It was around 11 am when I met them (so much for the 7 am agreement). Elsa, Monette, Ize, and Jeff were all there. We were all in high spirits. Our laughter echoed in the restaurant and exchanged hilarious comments about each other and how we were different back then. But why we decided to meet up is no laughing matter. If we were all fooling around it is only to cloak the graveness of what is at hand.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">We are going to visit Ria, one of our batch mates who is in a serious medical condition. When I heard of it I was ambivalent. I don’t know whether to believe, and yet at the same time I felt a deep sympathy for her. We were all in our mid 20’s and it would be an unthinkable probability of accumulating such disease. No one could believe it, it was surreal. No one wanted to, mostly, perhaps not even Ria herself.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">She has cancer of the breast. It was an irony because she is an epitome of goodness. She didn’t smoke. Never drank alcoholic beverages (or maybe just a little). She was always calm and smiling. And all of us wished it was all a case of misdiagnosis. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">We were welcomed at the patio of the house; it’s an old gazebo-like architectural piece resembling simplicity of the provincial life yet more spacious than those in the metro providing a hint of grandeur. A woman in red wearing a floral bandana received us. My friends hugged the woman, I was nonchalant both because I don’t know who it was and I don’t want to give of the vibes of pseudo-closeness. When she spoke her tone reminded me of the person that we’re visiting. There was a log in my mind trying to corroborate my memory and the woman. Then as the mental log drizzled I realized, as I look at the woman, it was her—Ria!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">I haven’t noticed her for a while. Her body changed. She lost her long black hair, even her eyebrows were gone. She lost weight, though not that much. There were blisters on her skin that she said was the effect of the intravenous medication. Cancer has indeed invaded her body.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">As we were expected for lunch, we were urged to go to the dining area were a sumptuous feast was served. So we ate. It was luscious especially the <i>morcon </i>and the <i>macapuno</i> that we downed almost instantly. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">We joked around and often found ourselves giggling no matter how lame the jokes are. Recollections of our collegiate days brought a joyous nostalgia in the conversation. There were moments of breathless silence that seems to be a conscious effort on everyone to censor every word so as not to tamper the joviality at the table.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><m:smallfrac m:val="off"> <m:dispdef> <m:lmargin m:val="0"> <m:rmargin m:val="0"> <m:defjc m:val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent m:val="1440"> <m:intlim m:val="subSup"> <m:narylim m:val="undOvr"> </m:narylim></m:intlim> </m:wrapindent> </m:defjc></m:rmargin></m:lmargin></m:dispdef></m:smallfrac></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">It was Jeff who I believed who grew serious with the conversation asking questions about Ria’s condition with great concern, casualness, and dexterity of his verbal censorship. Our colleague answered in all sincerity and it sounded without a tinge of emotion, like a daily banter. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";"> After a while, we were served the specialty of the house—<i>kapeng barako(a name given to a strong coffee)</i>. It is contained on a large green thermos. The coffee is already made. No need for cream or sugar. All one is required is to chug it in. In spite of the name given to the coffee I found it light, sweet and refreshing. It’s more like of a soft tea. I think I had 8 cups at the least. I swore I’ll be back someday for more.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">Our visit to Amadeo, to Ria is somewhat analogous to the coffee we just drank. The coffee even though it was named and affixed with the label <i>barako</i>, which is supposed to be strong and bitter it proved to be rather different. It was the reverse. Here, I pictured a depressed sullen colleague who needs comforting. However, no matter how I groped for a consoling word and an empathic statement it seems that she doesn’t need it. She was strong. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">Her strength showed me that amidst of the struggles that she is undergoing right now a display of beauty put me into contemplation. However, it is not in the physical sense. It was something way beyond that. Her splendor was more on her impeccable grace and her strong character than of the physical elegance that we immediately notice or often look for. It was a certain feeling that emanated in me, it was a radiance filled with peace. Maybe the cancer has struck her body but not her spirit.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">I remembered the saying, “beauty is but skin deep.” And now I realized what it truly meant. Our visit gave me a fortunate chance to ponder on the true gist of this quotation. Truly, we cannot control how we look, perhaps with cosmetics and the potent power of artificiality we could. We could straighten our curly hair. We could lighten our dark skin. We could choose an angle for our noses. Implant whatever is lacking, or remove whatever is bulging. Yet we cannot fake the beauty that emanate deep within. It will remain unshaken amidst of disease or disfigurement. It cannot be counterfeited nor implanted more so purchase it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">And I wonder how many of us are physically able yet decrepit inside, whose will are impeded and rusting. People who deter and plot instead of serve as light. People on some instance lived on excessive vanity and looked down on others because of their features. That might be going too far though, it wouldn’t be for all. But here is a verity her beauty will serve a light so that few blind men could see—as I too saw.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">Here, I witnessed a beauty far beyond the skin.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%;">Copyright Benjamin Ryan Raneses, III 2010<sup>©</sup></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br />
</div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-210379221737466874.post-65562382857520432732010-08-18T00:43:00.000-07:002010-08-18T00:46:58.994-07:00Our Culture, Our Mother<b><b><b>Our Culture, Our Mother</b></b></b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Our culture is our mother no matter how distant their semblance to us. We take up their name and stride chin-up. Our mothers show the world to us as they lived it with variations and idiosyncrasies. They teach us lessons uniquely as our fingerprints. The world of a child is but a reflection of the parents and yes, mostly from the mothers. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our culture is our mother in the light that cloaks us our way of being. As it was always iterated in books, we are powerless in choosing neither our mother nor any of our circumstances during our birth. We, too, have the same relation with our culture. We either live in daily celebration of what is, or we slump into our stature dreaming the American Dream (or just pretty much any white man’s land to migrate on) embracing the strand of opportunity that presents. Thus, the diaspora began.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, this departure from the culture isn’t only on a geographical means but there is a more pervasive and more alarming form, the fleeing to our culture. It cannot be taken away, though, that our society is compounded by third-world struggles: hunger, corruption, famine, homelessness, and illiteracy are of the top of this list. It cannot be taken away from those people on the streets and have nothing to chew on but a molded morsel of bread―considered as lucky man in the gutters of Manila―that there is something inhumane pouncing the country. There is an enough reason as they say to live a better life if not abroad at least in the confines of the façade erected by capitalism and industrialization.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The development industrialization harnessed in our country benefitted a multitude of aspects in our living. It improved health services and treatment procedures. Technology promoted connectivity among distant love ones. Highways and transportation made travelling a lot easier and faster (if you have been in SLEX I think you know what I’m talking about). And so the list goes on. In spite of this, the utopia that it idealized is but partly or fully nightmarish to others. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of a well-versed example of this dilemma is about the case of the Kalingas. Being fortunate enough to watch the documentary of Kara David “Ang Huling Mambabatok” allowed me to ponder even closer to this tenet. Now, the Kalingas a tribe of pride warriors covered in tattoo―man and woman―that symbolizes honor and beauty. They were proud people who boasted of not being taken over even by the Japanese troops. However, modernization threatens to erase their culture that once held their head up high, it even made their sons and daughters into shame. As they walk on the lowlands they clothe, or better yet conceal the etched dignity in their skin. What’s worse is that no one in the tribe shows interest in continuing the culture.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even more so our education is indifferent to these cultural problems. Sure they deliver the impeccable textbook explanations. Sure they included without amiss all tribe names or traditions. But what lacks is the activity and dynamics to allow students into realizing the importance. They should teach how to promote a genuine appreciation of what they are learning.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Instead, we are dealt with exonerated ideals that stems to this apathy. Our culture is to promote what sells in the market. What is important is what makes more money. Of how much acclaim is engendered. The more noble jobs like teaching to remote places are less and less of a choice; every one is eyeing for a little of this and that and that is only appropriate and rational―we live in a society were economic stature is valued. But my appeal is that the government takes action on this one, on this single piece of DNA that we have as Filipinos. Let us preserve it, no let us cultivate it!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After all, our culture is our mother waiting for us at dusk after playing outside the house oblivious of her. And as we step back in all we need to do is take her hand, bow our heads, and surrender to her embrace. For as Dr. Rizal, our national hero, professed “kung sino ang hindi lumingon sa kanyang pinanggalingan ay higit pa sa mabaho at nabubulok na isda”. And sure, even as straying, like the prodigal son, we too will be welcome back in an unprecedented abundance that we thought was not even there. Our culture is still but how long must we run away to a mother that cradled us in a womb of priceless heritage.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">July 19, 2010</div>Benjamin Ryan Rañeses, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09342986384450761504noreply@blogger.com0