But what really troubles me all the time were news of her Presidential Pardon to high-profile convicted criminals i.e. Manuel Teehankee, Jr ( a murderer ), Erap ( a Plunderer), Jalosjos ( a rapist!) ,  and the 10 convicted murderers of national hero Ninoy Aquino, to name  only a few.  I am not sure if she has pardoned less celebrated cases as well but I wouldn’t be surprised.  It troubled me so much I wrote a blog about it here.

And then, November 23, 2009 happened. Up until this day, it was hard to accept that something as monstrous and as merciless could happen. I gave myself time before I wrote about this because I wanted to keep my emotions in check. But it is the hardest thing to be un-emotional about something that could not even be accurately described.  All the seeming apt adjectives just simply becomes an understatement.  How can one live the same life when her memory is stained by an atrocity so enormous you wonder why the perpetrators are still alive.  No event in recent history have inspired so much  sympathy for the victims and equal hatred for the monsters who committed the ghastly act. I read with interest some of my Facebook friends ‘suggestions’ on how to punish the murderers e.g. skinning them alive and spray them with rock salt;  or tie them around a tree that is infested with big, red ants, scorpions, and poisonous insects; or public execution.

None of these, though, would redeem the death of each victim as there was absolutely no reason for them to meet that gruesome fate. None of them deserve what was done to them. How could anyone think of summarily executing 57 (or 58?) people whose only ‘fault’ in the minds of the criminals was to challenge their fake leadership and status? And it wasn’t enough that they gunned them down and buried in shallow graves that were waiting for them at least a  day before, it wasn’t enough that they orphaned at least 57 families in that massacre, they also disrespected some of the women in the group, raped and mutilated them and what is most disheartening, they cut open the bellies of the two pregnant women in the group and killed their unborn children! Monsters!

As of press time, the main suspect in the massacre has been detained at the NBI. He was surrendered by his family four days after the massacre happened and yet, on the day it happened he was already tagged as a suspect. I won’t even go into how the government handled, or mishandled, the case.   It seems to me that they were so afraid of the monsters they created, fed, tolerated, supported, cavorted with in that part of the country.

I want to ask the biggest question of all: Why did it happen?

Friends, my countrymen…

It happened because in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, life is cheap while votes are expensive. Votes can give them power, money and status, while the opposition can take them all away. It happened because they delivered votes to Gloria’s fake victory in 2004 and they will never let her forget that. The monsters that Gloria and the politicos who preceded her created just grew bigger than themselves. They struck with impunity  anywhere and at anyone who challenged them and which they did last November 23, another day that will surely live in infamy, just as Gloria have done with several EOs to pursue her agenda, she has elevated the bar of corruption in this country way high that it leaves you numb with disgust.

Evil has been born and bred in that part of Mindanao, but the seeds must have come from the Evil with a mole in Malacanang.

Amid all these, when you would expect a President to exert and devote her time to resolve the case the soonest time possible for the victims’ families and love ones and punish the criminals with equal impunity, she went and filed her COC for a congressional seat!  Demoting herself must be a desperate act to cling to power that she may soon lose and then all the evils she did might as well find their way to her.

And all Hell will break loose.

Being home-bound for about six months now, I have slowly adjusted myself to the humdrum of domestic life; fulfilling my roles as primarily my daughters’ love- and care-giver; my husband’s not-so-dutiful-but-he-still-loves-nonetheless-wife; and overall in-charge of the household’s physical and physiological needs.

But adjustments also include me getting into a conscious effort to keep myself up-to-date with what’s happening politically, culturally, and economically, not just in the country but also around the world. Thank god for the Internet, getting informed is as easy as clicking the mouse. It’s also the best way for me to continually sharpen my mind and resist the possibility of dullness brought about by the monotony of keeping house. But oh, my girls always keep me on my toes. With growing naughtiness and smart alecky-ness by the day, I often need new strategies and tactics, ergo they keep my mind sharp and alert.

So it was with anticipation that I watch the news for updates and breaking news. Company after company are closing down, laying off staff, or asking for bail-out. It does not even matter no more that most of these companies have been in business for a very long time. You’d think they are the more stable, more dependable, least likely to go down but no, one cannot really tell anymore. Moreover, US companies where investments from all over the world are put into them drag down these companies with them when they collapse.

Having presented this situation, I was disgusted to find out that at this difficult time some businesses that are in financial trouble,  which by the way resulted from years of selfish, opulent spending, would take advantage of this bland opportunity to find the perfect scapegoat.  Governments, as well, who have plundered and corrupted their citizens now simply blabber off the perfect excuse why they cannot do what they are supposed to do. It’s preposterous!

I can’t help but think that the economic recessions of the past have not helped abate the same situation to happen again. Finding ourselves in the midst of a global economic meltdown at this age and at this time, only somehow shows we never learn the lessons history always tries to teach us. When nature’s course is supposed to bring us to progress, this crisis proves otherwise.

Economists call this current economic state “recession”. Darn, might as well call it Regression from everything we ought to learn! Sigh. We never learn.

I am personally glad that young americans have redeemed the past sins of their ancestors to elect a black president to the white house. Looking past the color of his skin, they took matters into their hand and chose him to lead them out of their present quandaries: the impending recession; the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan; and the continuing struggle to bounce back and re-claim the american dream for so many others. Barack Obama gave them hope for a positive change. I watched his president-elect speech ( he is very good at it ) on CNN and I noticed the sudden weight on his shoulders. He must have realized the gravity of the responsibility of his job to fulfill his promises to the people. And he had no time to be jubilant. But with the trust and faith that the majority gave him, yes he can. I will be watching him and so will the rest of the world.

I first became interested in the US electoral process back in 2000 while working for a political consultant in Iloilo City. My ex-boss was a hard-core republican though not a member of the party since he chose to be a Filipino citizen but he had the option since his dad’s american. We followed the republican and democratic conventions of Bush & Gore, respectively, but most times our office TV was glued to Fox channel, a known staunch supporter and defender or anything and everything republican. On the side, our office subscription to Time magazine provided a much-needed boost to my fledgling education of the american electoral process.

In a nutshell, I learned that the US has two main parties: the Republican (conservative) and the Democrat (liberal). As you might expect, the former’s ideals are of family, tradition, and ideally oppose gay marriage, abortion and anything that threatens the basic component of the society. While the latter advocates pro-choice, gay marriages and partnership, and welfare system. The beauty of this two-party system is people aligning themselves with the party that speaks for their personal ideals. You are either one or the other. You can’t be both. But you can be neither.

During election season, each party holds a convention to choose their standard bearer. Those interested within the party can run and gather support. But at the end of the day, he who has the most funds, has the most support to gather the funds needed to run a  presidential campaign prevails. And that’s just step one.

Step two is the campaign proper. It’s usually a rigorous process, the candidates spending most of their time jet setting from one State to another. You can’t just sit in your office and call a Garci to buy the votes from. You have to get out. Voters have to see you, feel you, talk to you, take pictures with you etc.

Then on election day, people go out and vote. And it’s usually not a mind-boggling process. If you belong to a party, you will most likely vote for your party’s candidate through the state Electors.  But this is a conservative assumption.  What’s interesting here is that they have what they call a popular vote AND an electoral vote.  Popular vote is obviously the direct vote from the masses while the electoral votes come from the representatives of the 538-member electoral college. They are tasked to vote for the candidate that won the people’s mandate. Each state has a corresponding number of electors. But in the end, if a candidate wins the popular vote but loses the electoral vote, he loses the election. And it’s been that way since 1964.

Going back to the present, I was amazed at the turnout of  voters and the speed by which the result was released. While watching the news on CNN, I found myself day dreaming of an election day similar to that of the US. I have to admit I am envious of the americans’ ability to turn things around. When they don’t like what’s going on they clearly manifest it through their votes. And that’s very powerful. That reflects the citizens maturity and the political leaders as well. You can absolutely say and express your disgust for any sitting president there and you won’t be afraid to do so.

Well, for one thing they don’t have a justice secretary that blabbers off EOs threatening sedition, libel to sue you with. They don’t have a person like Bolante who obviously loved to ‘fake it’ and get away with it. And a president non-elect’s husband going on TV expressing pity and sympathy to an old friend who stole from our farmers!  Stupid!

For all of these, I can only think of one resolution: We should shorten the presidents’ term to three years, with an option for re-election, just like the current terms for representatives. That way, we won’t be vulnerable to people power or coup d’etat. Three years is bearable when dealing with a corrupt president, we can kick her ass after three years but six years is agonizing, torturous and we are giving her more time to plot and scheme  and steal more.

Oh, sorry. I’m still dreaming.

I checked our food products one by one and a trip to the supermarket now involves checking the labels to make sure nothing is made in China. That’s exactly what we did on a trip to Crossing supermarket last Thursday. While there, I looked at several options for their snacks.In the end, I picked up a pack of Nissin choco wafers and Oreo cookies.

At around 3PM, Maia had a pack of Nissin choco wafer; she went to take a nap right after that. When she woke up at around 6PM she had dinner, with Ube ice cream for dessert. Then she started throwing up, every 20 minutes or so, until she started vomiting this frothy, yucky, icky, yellow-greenish discharge. At about 10PM, she started to look dehydrated so we rushed her to the ER, leaving Lilaa with the yaya who was understanding enough to stay when I explained that we had to bring her sister to the doctor.

The St. Luke’s Medical Center ER was a mad house, and a full mad house at that. Maia was admitted and immediately hooked up to an IV line. We had to wait in one of hubby’s department office rooms meanwhile waiting for an available room. We finally got one at around three in the morning. We were so tired and sleepy, we slept like babies for a few hours. I’m glad I did because looking back, it prepared me for something worse.

Early Friday morning, after hubby left to get more stuff from home, I checked my phone for messages. I was so shocked to get a SMS from my yaya relating that Lilaa’s been up the whole night throwing up also. I called but hubby, Lilaa and the yaya were at the door already. My heart was racing and I didn’t have to ask anymore questions. The yaya volunteered that she fed Lilaa the Nissin choco wafer right after we left so she can bribe her to sleep early.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what the culprit was. Tracking the household’s food intake the past forty-eight hours, we realized that only Lilaa and Maia had the wafer, and they’re the only ones downed by whatever was in it. My next action is sending a sample of the Nissin choco wafer to BFAD for testing. I read the label and it does say it’s made in RP but of course, no information is given on where the raw ingredients like milk comes from.

We were discharged after lunch today. Despite it all, my girls were in high spirit most of the time. Except when Lilaa was being hooked up to an IV, she cried so hard and kept saying “no way, no way!”. My little girls grew up overnight having subjected to these torturous episodes.

Indeed it was a close call. We yet have to find out what really caused these, we hope we do so, soon.

In early 2007, a recall was made on pet food (Purina Alpo & Del Monte) made in China when it was found to have high levels of melamine. Pet owners in various message boards and fora where up in arms when they traced their pets’ death and sickness to this chemical.

Later that year, major toy companies also recalled products made in China when they found out that the toys made there contained lead, a potentially deadly component for children to play around with.

And now the milk scandal.  With four babies dead and the number of sick babies growing, I cannot just imagine how these unscrupulous businessmen risk their reputation for this. For more profit? You think after this scandal and the millions of recalled product, they’d still be able to earn a cent? For a quick million bucks, maybe? It boggles my mind how they would even think on mixing this substance with food; food we feed our pets, our children and ourselves.

I have been following the local news and international news websites about this subject. On TV Patrol World last night, they reported that a private testing laboratory Qualibet Lab, conducted an independent testing of several food products and their results showed that even canned food from China is tainted with Melamine! Watch the video clip below:

At about 7PM, I switched to Tony Velasquez’ Prime News on ANC. He was able to interview BFAD Director Leticia Gutierrez. When asked about the findings of Qualibet, Gutierrez expressed…hesitation? I can’t be sure but she wasn’t being straightforward. Pressed for comments if BFAD would now issue a ban on the products tested positive for Melamine, or if BFAD will now do an urgent/immediate testing to confirm/thwart Qualibet’s findings, Gutierrez could not, or rather would not give a straight yes/no answer. Tony didn’t give up and asked if her answer meant that in the absence of confirmation by BFAD, consumers can still go and buy these melamine-tainted products, she can only say: “BFAD is prioritizing milk and milk products testing for now…”

I understood that to mean: “In the meantime, the public can go buy and poison themselves…”

Today on ANC’s Dateline Philippines with Ricky Carandang & Lynda Jumilla, DOH Secretary Duque was interviewed right after the press conference where he announced that two china-made milk products are positive for Melamine. When asked the same question Tony asked Gutierrez, Duque somehow resented the fact that a private testing laboratory beat them to the media with their findings. He added that how can they be so sure of their reference standard when DOH/BFAD’s equipment just arrived?

Ah, Mr. Duque, we are sorry to disappoint you but private companies actually are more efficient with their resources? I mean, they don’t get millions in budget (or maybe they do) but their money goes where it should go. And you hated that?  That was just so irritating. Here is one entity trying to help the public by informing them on which products to avoid and DOH/BFAD are being myopic on power play!

I understand Mr. Duque’s concern that BFAD has to be the sole, reliable authority with regards to this issue . But then everyone knows, except maybe for DOH/BFAD, that they are short on resources. And may I add, that if they were only doing their job i.e. checking, assessing and testing every product coming into the country, we wouldn’t even have this problem now!

I’m beginning to think that this year’s gonna be the scariest Halloween ever!

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, “What is politics?”

Dad says, “Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I’m the
breadwinner of the family, so let’s call me capitalism. Your Mom,
she’s the administrator of the money, so we’ll call her the
Government.
We’re here to take care of your needs, so we’ll call you the people.
The nanny, we’ll consider her the Working Class. And your baby
brother,
we’ll call him the Future. Now, think about that and see if that
makes sense,”

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what dad had said.

Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to
check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper.
So the little boy goes to his parents’ room and finds his mother
sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room.
Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father
in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next
morning, the little boy says to his father, “Dad, I think I
understand
the concept of politics now.”

The father says, “Good son, tell me in your own words what you think
politics is all about.”

The little boy replies, “Well, while Capitalism is screwing the
Working Class, the Government is sound asleep, the People are being
ignored and the Future is in deep poo.”

I have to admit it’s been a while, a little less than a month since I last wrote an entry. Summer sorta got in the way and I have a family to spend time with. We went home to the province and went on out-of-town trips when the kids aren’t sick. It’s nothing serious, just the usual colds and fever and are manageable with Tempra. 

Anyway, I came across this blog entry and I was reminded by my previous entry here. A parallelism can be drawn because if you really think about it, arrogance has no room in public service. Hello, it’s like tolerating your yaya or maid to be arrogant to YOU, the Amo.  Where else can you encounter such things but only here in the Philippines!

Arrogance in public SERVANTS is like the biggest misnomer of all. I think DILG needs to re-educate its public servants of their true calling, that it’s actually humility that they should display. After all, it’s our money that they’re spending.

DepEd in its website states there are more or less 12 million elementary students enrolled in public school for SY 2006-2007. Given these, let’s do some mathematical operations, shall we?

12,000,000 elementary students

x 5 kilos of rice a week

x 12 weeks (Jan-March period)

————————–

720,000,000 Kilos of Rice distributed since January 2008

Before you pro-Gloria start wagging your tongues, let me just say that I am not hitting the program itself. I think it’s a big help to the majority of filipinos who receive these rations. Who knows how many millions of Filipinos are subsidized by these and politics aside, they must be grateful. I’m just wondering why this was implemented when there is a pending crisis. I’m sure Gloria’s advisers knew and were adequately warned ahead. It’s odd to know that they pushed through with the program at this time when they know they won’t be able to import more to replace what was distributed.

My question remain: was this a self-inflicted crisis? A desperate act to wag the dog?

I do not understand the apathy, but I am trying to find a glimpse of understanding.

Amid all these happenings, Brian Gorell happened. In all instances, we should be like him. Somebody he trusted cheated on him, lied to his face, stole his money and hell hath no fury like a person’s intelligence insulted this way! He put up a blog and turned against his ex-lover. He is enraged. He wants to get back what was supposed to have been stolen from him and unless the Ex pay up, the blog will continue to run, and the high society ‘secrets’ will cease to be… secrets. Meanwhile, the Pinoys went crazy over it, blog traffic was incredible in today’s standard for a personal blog. Some even left comments to commiserate, support, offered sympathy and best wishes. Nothing wrong with that, really.

But the way I see it, what happened to him is simply a microcosm of what this nation of Filipinos needs to do, now. You see, the collective Filipinos are in Brian’s shoes: cheated, lied to, stolen from by the person he trusted, in our case it’s Gloria and her government. But while he created a storm with his revelations and his fight to get back what was stolen from him, we did nothing of that sort.

Another observation. Take a hard look at Brian’s case. He’s a foreigner but he gets more sympathy than this country could ever get. How can we rant and rage to give him justice when we couldn’t even stand up against the real thieves and cheats in our own backyard? I am not saying he doesn’t deserve to get his money back, in every respect he should and must and with it, his sense of pride and self-esteem.

But if we can rally behind a foreigner against our own kababayan who he alleged to have duped him, why can’t we do that for the country and the future generations? If we could believe his allegations, how come it takes a lot more evidence and time to believe the exposes and investigations against gloria and her cohorts?

The answer came to me from where else but my trusty best friend, a book.

In the Foreword of his book, Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People he enumerated the present society’s Challenges, Blame & Victimism as one of them. He wrote that

“…the children of blame are cynicism and hopelessness. When we succumb to believing that we are victims of our circumstances and yield to the plight of determinism, we lose hope, we lose drive, and we settle into resignation and stagnation”.

He added that so many bright and talented people feel this and suffer the broad range of discouragement and depression that follows and that the survival response of popular culture is cynicism:

“Just lower your expectations of life to the point that you aren’t disappointed by anyone or anything.”

I believe this has got to be the best explanation of this pitiful condition.

Sad, but true. Now, my next question is how do we get back our collective sense of pride and fight the cheat, the liar, and the thief like Brian did?