Junk the Cybercrime Law! October 3, 2012
Posted by pilibustero in Personal, Politics & Society.Tags: angara, cybercrime, cybercrime law, kabataan partylist, libel, palatino, tito sotto
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Sign the petition HERE.
SI YNIK ANTE ANG ATING USC CHAIRPERSON March 7, 2012
Posted by pilibustero in Personal, Politics & Society.Tags: ceb, devcomsoc, statement, tuition fee, up, uplb, USC, ynik ante
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Opisyal na Pahayag ng UPLB DEVCOMSOC sa Hindi Pagproklama ng CEB kay Ynik Ante bilang UPLB USC Chairperson
Ito ay malinaw na pambabastos at pambabalewala sa boses at lakas ng mga estudyanteng bumoto at nagluklok kay Ynik Ante upang mamuno sa konseho. Ang kawalan ng kapasidad ni Ante na makapagbayad ng matrikula ay isa lamang indikasyon ng lumalala pang komersyalisasyon at pribatisasyon ng edukasyon, hindi lamang sa UP kundi sa iba pang state colleges at universities sa bansa. Ito ay tahasang pagsagasa sa karapatan ng mga lider-estudyanteng handang maglingkod upang isulong ang karapatan ng mga Iskolar ng Bayan. Hindi magiging malaking isyu ito kung iginalang lang sana ng ilang miyembro ng CEB ang karapatan ng mga mag-aaral na tulad ni Ante.
MARIING KINUKONDENA NG UPLB DEVCOMSOC ANG DESISYON NG CEB AT AMING IGINIGIIT NA SI YNIK ANTE ANG DAPAT IPROKLAMA BILANG USC CHAIR. Kaisa ng pinakamalawak at natatanging alyansa ng mga organisasyon sa UPLB na nagsusulong ng interes ng mga mag-aaral, ang SAKBAYAN, at ng kalakhan ng mga nagkakaisang Iskolar ng Bayan, hindi natin hahayaang manatili ang mga represibong hakbangin tulad nito. Hindi natin hahayaang manaig ang interes ng iilang ganid sa kapangyarihan. Bagkus, ating patuloy na itataguyod ang interes ng higit na nakararaming Iskolar ng Bayan. Patuloy tayong maninindigan laban sa komersiyalisasyon at pribatisasyon ng edukasyon upang hindi na maulit pa ang mga insidenteng tulad nito at hindi na madagdagan pa ang mga estudyanteng kapos sa pinansya at hindi makapagbayad dahil sa napakataas na matrikula sa pamantasan.
Higit sa lahat, nananawagan kami sa CEB na manindigan sa tama at nararapat. Huwag pigilan ang proklamasyon ni Ynik Ante bilang UPLB USC Chairperson sa dahilang walang kakayahang magbayad ng matrikula. Siya ay lehitimong estudyante at siya ay nararapat na mamuno sa konseho.
I-abante ang karapatan ni Ynik Ante, ang karapatan ng mga Iskolar ng Bayan!
DEFEND OUR VOTES!
PROCLAIM YNIK ANTE!
Tribute Video to the Victims of Lawlessness and Violence in Los Banos March 6, 2012
Posted by pilibustero in Personal.Tags: crime, holdup, los baños, murder, rape, ray bernard penaranda
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Justice to Ray Bernard Peñaranda, Rochelle Geronda and Gicen Grace Cebanico!
Notes of the Week February 2, 2012
Posted by pilibustero in Arts & Culture, Personal, Politics & Society.add a comment
Impeachment Trial. Despite my busy days as my end-of-contract is just around the corner, I still manage to follow the daily Impeachment Proceedings and be educated and amused with it. So amusing that my office mates are wondering of my sudden and random burst of laughter usually between 2 to 5pm. Special mention to ANC (when I’m at the office) and to Radyo 5- 92.3 FM (accessible via my phones’ FM Radio, whenever I’m already heading home) for the coverage and analyses.
New Vocabulary: Llamas. Someone from Twitter coined a word called llamas meaning pirated or piracy. Ex. Hindi ako bumibili ng na-llamas na DVD (I don’t buy pirated DVDs). Obviously, this is inspired by no less than the controversial PNoy’s Political Adviser Sec. Ronald Llamas who is now referred to by some to as the ‘Pirate King’. As of posting time, Llamas purportedly had already asked apology to the President. Llamas is also an identified Akbayan stalwart before his appointment in Malacanang. Late last year, his bodyguards were intercepted and caught in possession of several high powered firearms, including an AK-47 inside his SUV.
Beauty Contest Bloopers & Sen. Gordon. Spot.ph‘s Top 10 List of Most Unforgettable Pinay Beauty Queen Answers just made my night the other day. While I was amused by the unintended blunders and shortcomings in said events, I was equally tickled seeing former Sen. Richard Gordon’s reactions while Jeannie Anderson (Top 1o in the list) was answering the the question thrown by Ms Universe ’69 Gloria Diaz. See for your self HERE.
Youngblood: A Simple Man January 24, 2012
Posted by pilibustero in Personal.Tags: father, inquire, ofw, PDI, roge gonzales, rogene gonzales, youngblood
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I am sharing/reposting below an article written by a friend, Roge Gonzales which appeared at the Youngblood section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Roge, 23 is a development journalism major at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. He was a former regional chairperson of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines:
Youngblood, PDI — My dad died several months ago. A heart attack triggered by complications from his diabetes ended his life at 62 years.
It was most painful to see my father lying inside a casket especially because I had not yet fulfilled the dreams I wanted to accomplish for him. But his passing also gave some kind of strength to every one of us in the family.
He did not have political power because he was not a public official. Neither did he have fame since he was not an actor or celebrity. But his funeral rites drew almost a thousand people. He was a simple man but a great man nonetheless.
My father spent most of his life as an overseas worker, someone whom the government gives the flattering title of “bagong bayani.” As one of the topnotchers in the civil engineering board exam, it was easy for him to join the first exodus of professionals to the Middle East during the Marcos era. He was there even before he married my mother. They kept their romance alive through love letters.
I practically grew up without a father by my side. However, he never failed to attend every commencement exercise in my elementary and high school years. One time, he arrived as the awards were being handed out after a nine-hour bus ride from Manila and, before that, a long flight from Doha, Qatar.
Shortly after he decided to stop working abroad, he suffered a mild stroke. He was partially paralyzed and almost lost his speech. Thankfully, he recovered—but only after several months of hospitalization and therapy. His medical bills, including professional fees for his doctors and multicolored tablets and capsules, wiped out everything he had saved over several decades as an OFW.
To save money, dad had one of his operations done in a public hospital. I can still picture how the wards at the Philippine General Hospital looked like, with around a hundred patients lying in one room, each one requiring urgent medical attention, much like an infirmary in a war zone.
My father once told me that the governments of countries in the Middle East provided people like him with additional medical benefits (he was given a free supply of insulin, for example). From that point on, I always wondered why in our country hardworking people do not get the services they deserve.
Entering the University of the Philippines and getting involved in the school publication eventually provided me with the answers. I learned that protecting workers’ rights was never a priority of lawmakers. I learned that sending workers abroad was not just a matter of “personal choice” but part of the government’s labor export policy. I was awakened to the fact that allocations for social services, such as health and education, were drastically reduced during Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s term.
In one of our conversations, I asked my dad why he chose to work abroad. He told me that he couldn’t bear to be part of a corrupt system that was devouring the motherland. He used to work at the Department of Public Works and Highways, but in just a few months he was seeing contractors making payoffs and politicians getting kickbacks from government projects. He said he didn’t want to feed us, his children, with food that came from stolen money. Because of my father’s example of making a living through honest labor, I find it hard to comprehend how powerful individuals can live from day to day with their conscience even as they pick the pockets of the people who pay taxes.
These days at home, I sometimes miss my dad’s frank commentaries as he read the newspapers or watched television. He had the ability to make concise analyses of burning issues. I wonder what he would have said now that the peoples of various Arab countries, where he once worked, are protesting against their fascist regimes. What would his take be on the Occupy Movement’s protest against corporate greed around the world?
I have come to realize that my political views were forged neither inside the walls of the university nor in street protests but by a whole lifetime of dad’s experiences. He was able to point out to me the conditions that need to be transformed into something much better.
These days I can’t shake off the feeling that what I believe to be the purpose of my life isn’t any different from what a mother of a desaparecido, such as Erlinda Cadapan, or a daughter of a slain journalist, such as Mika Ortega, yearn for. All of us want to attain social justice and to do away with a system that tolerates neglect by those who should be held responsible for making our society better.
During dad’s burial, I sent a text message to close friends which dad inspired during our family’s darkest hours. It read:
“We need to change this kind of society wherein parents are forced to sacrifice their love for their families and leave their homes in order to overcome the harsh realities of our society. We need to continue building our dream of a better future so that the next generations will no longer have to act this way.”