hostages

I'm no expert. I don't know anything about police work or SWAT training. About the only time I've fired a real gun was in PE class. Whatever I know about tactical assaults or rescue missions I got from movies or computer games or books. So there. That's out of the way.

But I could not help myself from screaming at the television set as the Philippine National Police began their assault on the hijacked tourist bus at the Quirino Grandstand just a few hours ago.

Note that much of this is pure speculation on my part, albeit based on the live airing of the actual assault on local news media.

It was frustrating to see SWAT teams charging towards the bus just a scant few minutes after the bus driver was freed by the hostage-taker. It seemed to be a spur of the moment decision by the commander on the scene. No visible effort was made to verify the driver's claims that the hostages were dead, and when the police got to the bus they did not even try to check where the hostage-taker was.

Common sense alone is enough to tell you to look before you leap. In this case, the police blindly leapt into the assault, wildly smashing the bus' windows and doors with a sledgehammer.

Let me emphasize that. A sledgehammer.

There was a man confirmed to be armed with an M-16 rifle inside the bus and the police were attempting to gain entry into the bus with a sledgehammer. No attempt was made to at least surprise the gunman, even to at least stun him before the police made their move.

I'm just guessing here but shouldn't any half-decent assault have the assault team coming in through multiple entry points broken open by explosive charges and covered by smoke or stun grenades? With the aim of capturing or incapacitating the hostile target and getting any hostages out alive, of course. And it should all be over in just a few minutes.

This assault lasted well over a few minutes. Surprise and speed could have ended the hostage crisis less tragically, but the police threw them both away.

We were all treated to over thirty minutes of live video showing the sad and pathetic attempts of the police forces to gain entry into the bus. They used sledgehammers to smash the windows and the windshield and the door to no effect. They tried to smash through the back window. They tried to pull the door open with rope tied to a police vehicle. And it snapped.

The rope, not the door.

Shots were fired from inside the bus at different times during the assault, hitting one bystander. Police snipers appeared to be the only ones doing their job properly, as the gun man visibly avoided the windows after a few shots were heard from off-camera.

One patently pitiful scene showed police throwing flashbang grenades into the bus in an attempt to stun the hostage-taker. It was a good move, if only they had gotten the door or another entry point open first and used the precious few moments when the gunman would be incapacitated to get him and the remaining hostages out alive.

In the end, the police resorted to using tear gas. Yellow smoke filled the back of the bus and soon after the hostage-taker was forced to move to the front, where snipers took him out. As of this writing, the hostage-taker, Rolando Mendoza, himself a former police officer, and at least four hostages are confirmed dead.

It all could have ended worse, yes, but it sure as hell could have ended better.

SWAT means Special Weapons And Tactics. If the Philippine SWAT teams have sledgehammers as weapons and if this recent event shows the extent of their tactics then we have a very serious problem on our hands.

This has happened before. In 2007, 26 children were taken hostage inside a bus in front of the Manila City Hall. That hostage crisis ended peacefully, with no need for the police to stage an assault to free the hostages. What if something like this happens again? How many people need to die before we learn our lessons?

The government should take a long and hard look at the state of our country's security forces. I have been brutally critical of the police assault that ended the hostage crisis a few hours ago but I want to point out that I am criticizing the weapons and the tactics used by the police, and not their bravery or their dedication to their jobs.

It was painfully clear on the TV screen earlier today that even with a depressingly inadequate inventory and a seemingly poorly planned and executed assault attempt the police still braved the rain pouring down from the sky and the bullets flying out of the bus.

We have no shortage of dedicated police men and women, or of soldiers, sailors, and pilots. What we have is a shortage of equipment and training. What we have is a shortage of funding and support for the men and women we all eventually blame for the use of unnecessary force or human rights violations or for letting hostage crises spiral out of control.

This tragic event is another challenge for the new Aquino administration. The problem has been laid out for everyone to see. I was switching between GMA7, CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera as the hostage crisis dragged on and I saw the same thing on all channels: a police force in dire need of proper support and training.

Well, at least much of the same thing.

I was able to see every single move of the police during the final assault on the bus. I knew when snipers fired and when police vehicles moved. I learned about where and when the police moved another SWAT team into position. GMA7 reporters detailed every move the police made, and their cameras covered every angle. CNN showed live feed from ABS-CBN. The BBC had its own camera on the scene, as did Al Jazeera.

Now that's not a really bad thing. Every Filipino and, with CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera broadcasting live from Manila, every soul on the planet could watch as the police moved in and killed Rolando Mendoza. Information on demand, live and in color.

Every soul on the planet, including the hostage-taker watching on the television set inside the bus, could see every move the police made.

Oops.

CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera are not available without a cable connection. But GMA7 and other local channels could be seen on the bus' TV. And they were all reporting live from all around the bus.

Maybe our local media practitioners should read Guidelines for Covering Hostage-Taking Crises, Prison Uprisings, Terrorist Actions from Poynter Online. It states first and foremost that

In covering a developing raid or law enforcement action, journalists are advised to:

Be extremely cautious to not compromise the secrecy of officials' planning and execution.

Everything was laid out for everyone to see in this latest crisis. This brings back memories of the Oakwood Mutiny, or of the more recent Manila Peninsula crisis, where the local news media reported every move of government security forces and, in the case of the Manila Peninsula crisis, blatantly ignored government orders for their reporters to evacuate the hotel prior to an armed assault.

The freedom of the press is a constitutionally guaranteed right in this country. But it is not, and cannot be used as, an excuse for putting the lives of innocent civilians - in this case, the remaining hostages - or of the soldiers or police at grave risk. Making live broadcasts of troop movements or SWAT team deployments puts the lives of those men and women at risk. Showing that an assault is imminent puts the hostages' lives at risk.

I said earlier that much of the same thing was on all the channels. Indeed, all showed live video from the Quirino Grandstand. Except for the BBC, that is, which had a small note below its video feed stating that "images are delayed for 10 seconds due to threats to kill".

That's a good thing. It denied the hostage-taker, if ever he had access to the BBC video, real-time knowledge of police movements. And the BBC and Al Jazeera cameras were all focused on the front of the bus - a far cry from GMA7's three video feeds showing every side of the bus.

What gave us all the excuse to criticize every move the police made also gave Rolando Mendoza a real-time view of what was happening outside his bus. And that gave him a marked advantage over the police SWAT teams.

He could have watched their every move while they could only guess at his whereabouts and disposition inside the bus.

We could all speculate on whether or not the media actually caused the crisis to spiral out of control or if it actually had a hand in the bloody shootout that ended it - I do not know for sure if Rolando Mendoza actually watched the live news reports inside the bus - but one fact remains: the news media's handling of this and other crises in the past put lives at risk.

It would have been better if the media refrained from showing the moves of security forces while keeping its viewers informed of developments in the crisis - not blow-by-blow accounts of police actions.

What this latest crisis has taught us is that improvements have to be made by both the police and the media. These improvements in training and support for the police force, and in more responsible reporting in the media, should be implemented as soon as possible.

Next time, the casualties could be even higher.

the name of the blame

*This is my second paper for my Journalism 103 (opinion writing) class.

Metro Manila is a mess. Roads are congested. Piles of garbage line its streets and fill its waterways. The city reeks of its own filth.

And that was before tropical storm “Ondoy” came.

On the day that over 400 millimeters of rain came pouring from the sky, the mess became a catastrophe. What we left mismanaged and damaged came back to haunt us all.

We stared in awe at the sheer volume of the rising flood waters and asked where all that water came from, knowing all too well that the denuded mountains and hills in the distance held the answer.

We watched helplessly as the homes, factories, and shopping centers of a poorly – if at all – planned metropolis sank in the middle of natural flood plains between the Marikina and Pasig rivers.

We waited desperately for help to come in the midst of the storm, only to be frustrated by news of rescue teams blocked by congested roads and suffering from a lack of equipment.

When the rain finally stopped we picked through huge piles of garbage. Our own trash, disgorged by the very waterways we turned into latrines, plus the debris from all the destroyed buildings and the mud and silt from the mountains, covered all the streets.

Metro Manila is a mess. Roads are congested. Piles of garbage line its streets and fill its waterways. The city reeks of its own filth.

This is after tropical storm “Ondoy” left.

In the days after the storm, thousands of volunteers picked up the pieces and gave food and supplies to those ravaged by the floods. Unfortunately, such a picture of one nation and one people engaged in bayanihan was not meant to last.

That fleeting moment of national unity was quickly overshadowed by politicians, personalities, and people all pointing fingers and blaming each other for the disaster that brought the capital to its knees.

Critics slammed the national government’s feeble disaster-response capability, even though the blocked roads prevented the rescue teams from getting to where they were needed most.

They scored the weather bureau, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), for not warning the people about the amount of rain brought by “Ondoy”, even though the tools for doing so were not available.

They blamed the managers of the metropolis’ drainage system for not opening the pumps out of the city, even though doing so would have entailed pumping water into already full rivers.

But these critics need not look far for those who are ultimately to blame for last month’s deluge. They only have to look in front of them, behind them, beside them, around them, within them, for the cause of the disaster.

Yes. We are all to blame.

Our mad rush to build a city caused us to irresponsibly put houses and infrastructure in hazardous areas. Urban planning took a back seat to profit-making.

Our disregard for proper waste management filled our drains, our creeks, and our rivers with garbage that so congested the waterways that the water had nowhere to go but into our living rooms.

Our disrespect for the law led us to tolerate squatters who blocked the main drainage channels out of the city and added to the congestion of our waterways.

Our greed led us to strip the mountains bare of trees and plants, leaving our watersheds without any cover at all from the rains.

Our ignorance kept us from preparing for the inevitable, with money going into worthless endeavors such as junkets abroad instead of proper disaster response equipment, adequate warning systems, and Doppler radars which could have warned us of the amount of rain brought by “Ondoy”.

At the end of it all, we are left with what we have sown.

Now, let us plant new seeds in the mud left by this disaster. Let us learn from our mistakes, and not repeat them in the future, lest we suffer another “Ondoy”.

defending the osr

It's almost a month later and I still can't get over the UP Lantern Parade. The fireworks display at the end was the best I've ever seen - even better than those at Ayala during the Millennium celebration eight years ago.

I still remember laughing out loud when a marching band playing "Stars and Stripes Forever" came after a long line of protesters carrying banners screaming "Defend the OSR". The irony was really amusing.

Back then, I had absolutely no idea why we have to defend the Office of the Student Regent. Back then, I was annoyed at having activists screaming and chanting during one of the most festive days of the year.

Now that I know why, I'm even more annoyed.

The protesters were right. We have to defend the OSR. However, I believe that we have to defend the OSR from those who are crying "Defend the OSR".

Why?

The campaign being spearheaded by STAND-UP is misleading at best, blatant disinformation at worst. There is no threat to the Office of the Student Regent stemming from the passage of the UP Charter last year.

What the 2008 Charter calls for is a referendum on the rules for the selection of the Student Regent. This is what the "Defend the OSR" campaign is all about. They are telling us to vote "yes" in the referendum two weeks from now - a vote that, if successful, will institutionalize the existing Codified Rules for Student Regent Selection (CRSRS).

A "no" vote in that referendum will not lead to the abolition of the Office of the Student Regent. The OSR is a part of the UP Charter and as the Charter is a law (Republic Act 9500) passed by the Philippine Congress, it cannot be removed by a mere student referendum. A "no" vote will, in effect, open up the CRSRS to review and possible amendment.

And that is what I believe to be the "threat" that the "Defend the OSR" campaign is calling us to "defend" against.

The two other major political parties in UP, ALYANSA and KAISA, are calling for amendments to the CRSRS. These amendments include having a minimum academic requirement for would-be Student Regents, the inclusion of the duties and responsibilities of the Student Regent, the removal of KASAMA sa UP from the CRSRS as secretariat, and the revision of the Student Regent selection process which would give every UP college one vote each.

So what is the threat here?

A minimum academic requirement that would prevent the likes of a Joseph Estrada from leading and representing the UP students at the Board of Regents?

The definition of what the Student Regent can and should do for his or her constituents?

The removal of a partisan political body from a position wherein it could influence or even control who can become Student Regent?

The democratization of a selection process that today gives disproportionate votes to each UP unit?

I don't see any threats here, other than the removal of certain advantages from a certain political movement we all know and love. But that is just me speculating.

This referendum gives us the perfect excuse and opportunity to review and amend the CRSRS to further professionalize and democratize the Office of the Student Regent. Now what could be wrong with that?

Those in the "Defend the OSR" camp say that a failure of the referendum will lead to the abolition of the OSR or at least open up the OSR to a Malacanang appointee. If the referendum fails, the sitting SR will remain until a replacement is selected.

However, that replacement will have to be chosen by the students in accordance with rules and qualifications approved in a referendum by the students as written and enforced in the UP Charter. A failure of the referendum will leave current SR Shahana Abdulwahid as SR until her replacement is selected by the UP students. Her replacement will have to wait until another referendum is held to ratify the CRSRS or an amended version of it.

The bottom line here is that there can be no Malacanang appointee or abolition of the OSR. The "Defend the OSR" people are only using this bogey as a scare tactic, plain and simple. And what they are doing is blatant disinformation. They are being dishonest with us.

They are lying to us.

Yes, we should defend the Office of the Student Regent. The Student Regent represents us and fights for us at the Board of Regents. It is our sole voice in the highest policy-making body of the University of the Philippines.

We should defend the OSR from those who would use it for their own partisan ends. We should fight for its professionalization. We should call for the further democratization of the SR selection process.

If the referendum for the ratification of the CRSRS scheduled on January 26-29, 2009 asks me whether or not I want to keep the Codified Rules for Student Regent Selection as flawed as they are right now,

I will vote no.

that perfect moment

I hadn't seen the inside of a Starbucks in a very long time, so it was a real special treat when I walked into the one at Santana Grove in Sucat this morning.

I had a fun time at our batch reunion last night, even though I was tipsy the whole time from four straight shots of Absolut Vodka. Hahaha. At least I did not walk into any glass doors!

It was all worth it though - I won a Starbucks gift certificate! It's always the little things... That's 100 pesos worth of free stuff from my favorite coffee shop, and I still have that other gift certificate I got nearly two years ago.

So there I was at Santana Grove. I wanted a steaming cup of White Chocolate Mocha, my favorite drink since I discovered coffee. Hahaha. Who knew that I would cause such a fuss in that little shop?

I had been saving my other gift certificate. It was a Christmas gift from my cousins, and it would get me any drink of any size I wanted anytime I wanted it. I was waiting for the perfect moment to cash in that certificate for a Venti White Chocolate Mocha, and I thought, what the hell, better use it now so that I could stay awake during the long journey from Paranaque to Marikina.

My world crumbled when the barista told me that the certificate was no longer valid.

Exxagerated, yes, but I realized a lot right there and then. I just ordered a tall drink. 125 pesos for coffee. How sad. Hahaha.

Waiting for that one perfect moment cost me my gift certificate.

I sat on that certificate for nearly a year, waiting for the one perfect moment to use it. A lot of opportunities came by, but I chose to hold back and wait for another time, one better than the opportunity I had right then and there.

The ironic thing is that I myself had no idea what "the one perfect moment" was.

It was just something I thought I would know when it came, but everytime I had an opportunity, I always thought that it was not the right time. Always. I waited for perfection.

But nothing is ever perfect.

It's not just with coffee (Oo may lesson dito hahaha). Nothing is perfect. No one is perfect. There is no such thing as perfection. There is no such thing as "the perfect moment".

There is only the here and the now.

Live life, live each moment to the fullest. You never know when that one moment would be your last. You never know when that would be your last chance.

You may be so engrossed with waiting for that impossible perfect moment that you let life pass you by.

It's not that we should live loose and fast. It's not that we should be careless with our lives. It's not that we should not plan for the future. It's all about making each moment, each day, each opportunity count.

Hahaha. All this because of a cup of coffee. But there is more to this tale. I was waiting for my coffee at the counter when the barista asked to see the gift certificate again. She said that she wanted to ask their manager about it. Guess what?
The certificate was still good.

Hahaha. We all had a good laugh over how I had kept it with me for a very very long time. Apparently, the certificate had no expiration date, but they were using a different color for their certificates already - it was that old.

I'll have that Venti White Chocolate Mocha next time I go to Starbucks. Hehehe.

pushing forward

Time travel is a very fascinating idea. Who would not want to go back into the past and see how history was made? Who would not want to go into the future to see how things will be?
Who would not want to have the power to change things by going back or jumping forward?

In computer games there is always some sort of a "save" system. The player can pause the game at any time and "save" his progress. If things go bad, the player can always "load" that save file and start over from that point in the game.
If only life had a save system.

There are many things in the past which I want to witness for myself. As a child, I wanted to go back to the age of the dinosaurs and see with my own eyes my favorite animals. As a teenager, I wanted to go back through human history and watch how wars were fought and won, how civilization evolved and moved forward.

There were times when I wanted to go back in time to correct a mistake, to change an error, or to do things in a different way. With the clear vision of hindsight...

There were also times when I wanted to go back in time to relive a certain moment, to be with a certain someone once again, to be in a special place one more time. Just one more time...

If only I could turn back time...

I don't know exactly what triggered this feeling. Reminiscing. Remembering. Hoping.

Could it have been my experience at the DENR? I spent most of last night tossing and turning in bed, moving in and out of sleep. I actually dreamt of writing that story when I fell asleep. I thought of writing that story when I was awake. Overly grade-conscious, yes, but that doesn't explain why I am what I am today.

Could it have been my time at the Sunken Garden? Staring out at the long green grass, with birds flying all around, and with soft, puffy clouds up in the blue sky... Maybe.

It could have been because I read my old blog posts for the first time in months. I have a feature article to write for Friday, and I looked at my old blog about Palawan to get an idea of what to write for that article.

I soon ended up reading my other old blog posts, reminiscing about times gone by, remembering cherished moments, hoping that I could relive them one more time.

While browsing through YouTube the other day I stumbled upon this little video clip from CNN. This may very well be the closest thing we can have to time travel. Dr. Mallet proposes a "time travel machine" which works by twisting space with lasers, which in effect also twists time thus creating a sort of "loop" through time. The catch, though, is that if we ever get that machine up and running and capable of physically transporting a human instead of just subatomic particles, the farthest we can reach back in the past is only to the time wherein the "time machine" was first turned on.

In the same way, with my blog I can only go back to the time wherein I first wrote in my blog. I only have a personal record of my past -other than the memories locked in my mind- up until my very first blog post.

I can only go back to January 18, 2005. Hahaha. Just a little more than three years. Rereading my old blog really brings back memories. It also allowed me to see how much I've changed over the years.

I want to point out two of my old blog posts. One was about a national issue while the other was about how I thought things should be. Now, three years later, I write about very different things in a very different way.

In a way, I miss how I was able to write about issues and current events. I miss how I was able to articulate a call for change in my blog. Over time, however, I became disillusioned. Nothing was happening anyway, and I realized that I was writing about the same things, the same people, and the same problems over and over again. And I don't want to keep on repeating myself. About the only change I can expect is the change that I can effect as a student, as a future journalist, as an org president, as a future president.

Change. The only thing constant in the universe is change.

A lot of things have changed. Over the years, I have changed.

Time travel is a fascinating idea, yes, but why pine for a way to go back into the past when one can move forward into the future?

I want to see the past as much as anybody. I want to go back and change things if only could. But would I really want to change history?

I am a different person today. My experiences in the past have made me so. The people I met, the people I left, the mistakes I made, the success I enjoyed, the choices, the decisions, the conflicts - everything has contributed to what I am today.

The past will always remain the past. "Past is past", a friend once said. You can reminisce all you want. You can remember all you can. You can hope to change what you've done or to go back to what you were all you want, but the past will always remain the past.

You cannot do anything about the past. You can only keep moving forward into the future.

Learn from the past. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from your success. Keep pushing forward.

I remember now. I watched Meet the Robinsons on the Disney Channel last Sunday. "Keep moving forward".

portfolio 2: surviving the university of pila

**I'll be posting my three best essays in English 1 for the next few days. Since I'm supposed to encode them, why not also post them? Hehehehe. Seriously now, I'll be submitting these essays as a final project so please feel free to point out any mistakes in spelling, grammar, and common sense. Violent reactions and brutal comments will be most appreciated.

Surviving the University of Pila

The enrollment process in UP is really simple. You simply get a Form 5A from your college, verify your subjects, add some more or drop a few if you want, then transfer the information to a Form 5. Have the form checked and assessed, and then all you have left to do is to pay your tuition fee. That simple, at least in theory.

Reality, however, is different from theory. Enrollment in UP, oftentimes referred to as registration, is oftentimes an exercise in frustration. Yes freshies, it's not as easy as you think. You've gone through it once, but we upperclassmen have gone through it lots of times. You still have top priority over us, so this coming semester, enjoy it while you can. Once you enter your sophomore year, you'll find out what I'm talking about. Better for you if you find out now though, so read on.

We UP students are very lucky; we get to choose which classes to attend every semester. We're not forced to follow some rigid schedule, and we can even avoid the so-called terror professors! However, this comes at a high price, and payment is due during the enrollment period. Yes, this is the main problem you will encounter once you become sophomores. The mad scramble for subjects and classes is what makes enrollment in UP so frustrating.

Let's go through all the steps once again. The aforementioned Form 5A is the product of what we call PRE-ENLISTMENT. The Computerized Registration System (CRS) is responsible for getting you the subjects you want. As freshies, you can just collect and select any subject you want, thanks to your "priority" status. Once that's gone, you'll join every other student in what amounts to a lottery; when you pre-enlist in a subject, there is a large chance that you won't get it, especially if it's a GE subject. The CRS will randomly select from the students who pre-enlisted in that subject. So while you get to see filled-up Form 5As, the rest of us end up with nearly blank pieces of paper come ENLISTMENT time.

So we've got our Form 5As. You haven't gone through ENLISTMENT yet, so let me tell you now: be prepared. While PRE-ENLISTMENT is done in front of a computer, ENLISTMENT is the hard leg work. Bring food and water with you. Charge your cellphone and stock up on prepaid credits. Grab a thick paperback book as you leave home. This is where you'll find out why UP is often referred to as the "University of Pila". Woe to the poor schmuck who didn't get his classes through CRS; he now has to line up at various enlistment rooms to get the class he wants - or even worse, needs. Pray that you don't end up like that. But, in case you do, the food and water and book will help greatly. You won't have to leave your line and you won't die of boredom. The cellphone will help you keep connected with your friends who might send you important information, like when new classes have opened up. I can't stress this enough: come enlistment time, the person who is the most well-informed has the best chance of surviving the entire enrollment process with his sanity intact.

Aside from keeping informed, you have to be mobile. This is not the time to bring laptops with you. Limit yourself to a pen and essential documents, plus the other items mentioned above, as you will find yourself running to and from different and often widely separated buildings. You have to memorize the layout of the campus - where the important buildings are, the routes of the jeepneys, even the best shortcuts to take. Remember, you are also competing with thousands of other students, so the faster you get to that newly-opened GE class, the better your chances of getting it.

Once you get all your desired classes, you have to transfer all the information from your Form 5A to a Form 5. Be careful with this! Check that all the information on your Form 5A is correct before you write on your Form 5, as this will save you the trouble of having to rewrite and start from scratch when the people at CHECKING find a mistake.

When you've had Form 5 checked by the registration assistants, your next step will be ASSESSMENT. This is the easy part. You go to a room where accounts look over your Form 5 and tell you how much your tuition fee is going to be. You are then all set for PAYMENT. One last line, and you're all done.

As you can see, the major problem with registration is in the ENLISTMENT part. This will take up most of your time and will be the main source of your frustration. Trust me. I know. To get through the enrollment process, or more precisely the ENLISTMENT process, you have to be prepared, be informed, and be mobile. Those are the keys to surviving enrollment at UP.

Don't worry. You'll only be doing this at least four times during your UP life, unless you opt for summer classes. Once you reach "graduating" status, you'll be a "priority" once again.

waiting is the hardest part

Who knew that I would be spending so much time in Internet cafes this month?

Our interview project is due in an hour and a half, yet I still don't have it in my hands. We will be having a quiz on the Chinese and Japanese press(es?) tomorrow but our handout and the quiz itself is not yet ready.

I do have a lot of time on my hands, but most of it is spent waiting. Yes. Waiting. Waiting for my groupmate to send our interview project to me, waiting for my other groupmates to finish our handouts so I can make my quiz questions, and waiting for the YouTube video I'm watching to kill time to finally load!

I envy the guys on the other computers; they have all the time in the world to play online games. Of course I was just about ready to wring the necks of the damned fools who were screaming out their kills on DotA a while ago, and I have reservations as to the legality of providing computer games so close to an educational institution.

I now believe the horror stories I've heard about PLDT Internet service. The Internet connection here, previously way faster than what we have at home, has been erratic. I guess it's the same at other 'Net cafes here at the Shopping Center.

The timing is just right. I've got an essay to write for English 1, and the topic is on 'addiction'. There are a lot of people here right now, almost all of them lining up to play DotA. What's up with that game ba? Yikes. Conyo side asserting itself. Hehehehe...

I've just about finished downloading the last four parts of our project. Now all we have to do is to have them printed. In color. At 30 pesos a page. With 9 pages. Waiting's over, here comes the pain!

they got him!

FINALLY.

let's end this war

Casualties are mounting in the ongoing military offensive in Basilan. The latest skirmish cost the lives of 15 soldiers, including 5 junior officers. This brings the total count of losses to 57.

57 soldiers have already died fighting the Abu Sayaff. Why continue fighting? Why send more to their deaths? Let's just halt the offensive; stop this war and bring our soldiers home.

Let's heed the call of the bishops, civil society, congressmen and the media. Stop wasting lives and recall the Marines. Call off the airstrikes and silence the artillery.

Withdraw all troops from Basilan and Sulu. Send in humanitarians instead; doctors, teachers, engineers. Send in food and supplies for those displaced by the fighting.

Yes, let's back down from the fight, for peace is the only way.

But wait, aren't we forgetting something?

Something like the 300 or so terrorists calling themselves the Abu Sayaff?

What about them? Should we leave them in peace? Should we leave their group intact, their cause alive? Why did we send 9,000 troops to the South in the first place?

Why the hell did 57 soldiers die?

They died doing their job. They died fighting the enemy. They died protecting our freedom. They died for us.

And yet there are some among us who couldn't care less about the soldiers' sacrifice; those who balk at the mere thought of bloodshed, those who wish to surrender to the terrorists, those who want to coddle and abet terrorism.

These people seem to forget that we are in a war, and in war, people die. This war is no exception. If we want to rid ourselves of the terrorists, we have to crack down on them. Hard. That is the job of the Army, of the Air Force, of the Navy, and of the Marines. A war without casualties to our side would be most welcome, but we must remain open to the idea that some of our soldiers may never come home.

The root cause of terrorism is terrorism, for the radical ideas spawned by terrorist leaders are not born out of poverty and social inequality. Rather, they feed upon and exploit these ills of society, and they actively work to sustain their largest source of manpower and resources regardless of the loss of life and property.

If we don't want this weed to spread and wreck all that we have built and created we have to uproot it from the ground with full force. And once it's out of the ground we have to burn it, incinerate it and scatter the ashes to the wind.

No amount of economic development and humanitarian aid can deter these terrorists from sowing chaos and confusion; we would end up sending unarmed civilians to unsecured areas. The Abu Sayaff won't stop their violent ways unless their goals are attained, and you can be sure that those goals don't include a peaceful and prosperous Mindanao.

If we want a true and lasting peace in the South, we must act now and completely destroy all traces of the Abu Sayaff and Jemaah Islamiyah. Then, and only then, when the islands are secure and combat has ceased, can development and aid flow in to secure an even stronger peace.

So, let's end this war. Withdraw the troops, and give the Abu Sayaff some breathing space. Let's surrender to the terrorists, and watch and wait for more terrorists to arrive at the pushover which was once the Republic of the Philippines. Let's bicker among ourselves instead of wholeheartedly supporting the troops in the South; let them see what they're fighting for, and watch as demoralization sets in.

Or we can continue the offensive. Push hard and never let up on the terrorists. Keep them on the run and maintain the pressure. Hound them to their graves, and pursue the mission to its true end.

Let's end this war, but only when the enemy is completely and utterly destroyed.

The quickest way to end a war is to lose it. --George Orwell

raindrops are falling on my head

This is starting to become a habit.

With Monday having been declared as a 'special holiday', I'm looking at an extremely long weekend. I've been cooped up here at home since Wednesday, thanks to the torrential rains brought by the typhoon.

Of course this 'vacation' will cost us all time and money, not to mention opportunities. Yes, opportunities to learn and do things, to meet other people, to go places. But for me, it's mostly about missing my allowance.

Having to go to school at 10AM everyday has been a blessing. I haven't yet experienced the frustration of learning that classes have been suspended again while being stuck in a flooded street. However, that has not made me any less annoyed at the dolts in the DepEd or CHED or NDCC or the local government or whoever the hell is supposed to suspend classes. You would think that these guys would have learned by now that suspending classes at the last minute is not a very good idea.

The irony just amazes me. The DepEd and CHED should have learned something by now about typhoons and their effect on our overcrowded metropolis.

There's something else I wanted to write about here, but I just can't remember what it was. My short-term memory seems to be going haywire; sometimes I look up from what I was doing and forget what I was doing. This problem manifests itself mostly when I'm doing something on the computer. I open up a new tab and then I forget what page I wanted to open in that new tab. I open up a webpage and once it's up I forget why I opened it up. I plan to do something yet a moment later I forget what it was and end up doing nothing. It's really frustrating.

Maybe it's the stress of having to do so much in such a small amount of time. This little vacation sure as hell won't help matters! Once the rains end the work is going to pour down in a torrent, and time is against me. One and a half months to go ladies and gentlemen. One and a half months to go before my fate is finally sealed.

Nah, September is still a long way off. I'll probably be able to manage, especially with all the success I've experienced in the past weeks. Unless something else really screws everything up.

Haaay... I really love the weather, especially now that my shoes have finally been fixed. What were once battered pieces of leather worn and weathered by two years of unforgiving use are once again 100% capable of charging through mud and flood, keeping my feet safe and warm. Now all I need is a new jacket and a new bag. Attrition is eating everything up, and the meager resources I have on hand are just not enough to keep my things in shape.

So, what else can I write about? The final battle scene from Return of the Jedi is taking quite some time to download, and I have to do SOMETHING to combat the boredom inherent with waiting.

Ah... Waiting. My most annoying pet peeve. I don't like waiting. I can't emphasize this enough. I abhor, despise, loathe waiting. I HATE waiting. I-- well would you look at that, download complete!

I need some coffee.

peace through power

It's all a waste of time. Having "peace talks" with people who have all but declared their burning desire to have you crash and burn is at best a pipe dream. Accommodating those who use the promise of peace as leverage to get what they want yet stab you in the back again and again AND AGAIN is plain stupidity.

When people actively work to bring you down and destroy you, would you try to talk to them? And if you did, could you get them to lay down their arms, shake hands, and let bygones be bygones? You would have to be a saint, a martyr, or absolutely moronic.

You do not talk peace with such people. To do so would be like digging your own grave. Real peace is not just the absence of conflict, it is the presence of justice. Justice, in this case, is best served with overwhelming firepower.

Fourteen brave men died last week. That should have been enough, but no, the powers that be want restraint. They wish to protect a ceasefire agreement which was all but trampled upon in that treacherous ambush in Basilan.

Scores of people have died in the past. That should have been enough, but no, hypocritical ideologues and activists want to turn a blind eye to reality. They wish to repeal a law which, weak though it is, defines and penalizes terrorism.

We have all seen the signs and the evidence. We have all been witnesses before. Should we let such cancers as the Abu Sayyaf, the MILF, the CPP-NPA, and all their ilk continue their reign of terror? Should we accommodate their duplicitous offerings of peace, or should we speak to them in the one language they understand?

Enough talk. Wipe them out. All of them.

deterrence

While checking my email this morning, an article on Yahoo! News caught my eye:

Studies say death penalty deters crime

Hmmm... Interesting.

What the article says is that several studies over the last few years have shown that the death penalty DOES act as a deterrent to murder.

'They count between three and 18 lives that would be saved by the execution of each convicted killer.'

If the analysis and the conclusions of these studies are proven correct, they would make a very compelling reason to cut short the moratorium on executions imposed by President Arroyo here in the Philippines.

I have always been a proponent of the death penalty, more so after I was mugged on the way to school - even more so after hearing news of people being killed in their own homes.

In a supposedly Catholic country like ours such a view would be frowned upon. But how such barbaric acts as murder and rape still happen here escapes me.

There is the argument that crime is created by poverty, and that fixing up the economy rather than executing criminals would eliminate the crime problem. Fine. I agree, to some extent. However, explain to me why congressmen and mayors are in jail for rape and murder. Explain to me why a former President is being tried for plunder and corruption.

The pro-life movement and the Church would rather have death sentences commuted to life imprisonment. With our jails being packed with even more inmates, Amnesty International and other 'rights' groups would complain about the welfare of criminals.

The welfare of criminals.

What about the welfare of their victims?

I believe that convicted criminals should have no rights at all, especially those found guilty of capital crimes. They forfeited their rights the moment they violated the rights of their victims.

Of course everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but once proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt... Well... There you go. I prefer hard labor for lesser criminals, and the electric chair for the bigger ones. A firing squad would do for the more high-profile criminals. (A more detailed entry on my views on this can be found in an earlier Blogger post)

Justice, swift and sure, would do much to prevent more criminal acts in the future. A few 'examples' here and there would probably obviate the need for a death penalty. Yes, take the esteemed congressman-rapist from his luxurious "jail cell" and put him up against the wall. Or strap him to a chair. Just don't use the syringe; it's too humane.

Deterrence worked well in keeping the Cold War from turning into World War Three; having an answer to the other guy's big guns seems to have done the trick.

Deterrence today would make our streets and our homes safe.

great expectations

Apparently, things have a funny way of not going the way I planned. I took two language electives last semester to counterbalance my one economics and two political science courses; a little something to break the monotony of reading endless volumes and to bump up my GWA for the sem. Now, the grades are out, and guess what? I've got ones on my three major subjects and twos on my supposedly life-saving, grade-bumping language electives, turning what should have been a GWA of 1.4 to a 1.7! Granted, an average of 1.7 is a high one, and it's the highest I've ever gotten since starting out in UP, but it is just not good enough for me! (grade conscious ba?) It's a matter of pride, yes, but this latest setback has lessened my chances of getting into CSSP. I guess I now have to consider applying at NCPAG or at CAL, and face another three years of college. Hell, I want to graduate already! Haaay... But that's the way the cookie crumbles folks. I'm going to UP today to try to talk some sense into one of my professors (read: beg) and somehow salvage this debacle. It's a long shot, yes, but it just might save my skin in the long run. Yes, that's it: a desperate operation to try to change a ''2" into at least a "1.5". Hehehe... This is the new me: quibbling over a .5. What the hell. It just might work.

***
This would also be the perfect excuse to get out of the house. Though they haven't manifested themselves yet, boredom and insomnia due to idleness is a clear and present danger to my sanity. I need something to do besides staring at our antiquated CRT monitor for hours on end every single day. Of course a new computer with all the bells and whistles (read: Intel Core 2 Duo + GeForce 8800 + 4GB RAM + 250GB hard drive + Windows Vista) along with a brand new copy of Command and Conquer 3 would do much to quell all my feelings of boredom, but it sure as hell won't do much good for my insomnia I suppose. Back on topic though, the green of the Sunken Garden would do wonders for my mind, and my feet do miss walking around. Oh well, at least I would be doing something else to get my mind off the heat here at home.

***
By the way, congratulations to all those who've graduated!

carpe diem

I have been meaning to update this blog for quite some time now, but it was only today that I was finally in the mood to do some writing. Actually I still don't feel like writing. It's as if there's a dam in my mind keeping the ideas from flowing through my hands into the computer.

So what do you do if something is in your way?

Why, BLOW IT UP of course!

Or RUN OVER IT!

CRUSH the opposition!

SWEEP it away!

SEIZE the initiative and ANNIHILATE the enemy!

Now that's better. I actually feel warm and fuzzy inside.

So what's new? Quite a lot, actually.

My mom has been at the hospital for 5 days now, thanks to a stone (or stones, but I only saw one) in her gall bladder. Her entire gall bladder had to be removed, since the stones had already caused it to be inflamed. In less than a year we've been 'invited' back to the Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital, and she even got my old doctor from my 'midterm vacation' last year. She'll be coming home today; thank God that she got treated in time and nothing else happened. However, this entire episode has had one good side effect: my mom has FINALLY been banned from smoking. And when she comes home I fully intend to ensure that that ban is well and truly implemented.

I actually have a good chance of getting high grades this semester. As I may have written about earlier, the results of my midterm exams were way above expectations. Besides that I've been speaking out in class more than before, which is saying quite a lot since I RARELY spoke out in class before. I don't know why, but I think I've got this 'studying' thing finally all figured out. Hehehehe... Just kidding. Maybe it's just because after FOUR YEARS I don't have a single Math subject. Not one. Not even a teeny-tiny-itsy-bitsy hint of Math. Yes. There's still a month to go before the semester ends and I still have loads of papers and reports and exams to wade through, but hey, at least I've regained the initiative. All I have to do is to sustain the momentum, and then my dream of becoming a university scholar will FINALLY become a reality.

Speaking of speaking out I think I actually spoke out TOO MUCH last Tuesday during my Latin class. It's election season once again, and candidates for the University Student Council and the various college councils have been going room to room to campaign for their respective parties. It so happened that some candidates of the STAND-UP party chose to campaign during my Latin class. After the usual introduction speech and the 'call for mobilization against the TOFI (tuition and other fee increase)' speech there was the usual question and answer portion, which I quite nervously took advantage of. I asked them what their alternatives for the tuition fee hike were, given that they were vehemently opposing said policy and I wanted to know what they wanted to do without it. I forgot exactly what they answered but it was the same old line of fighting the tuition fee increase with more demonstrations and lobbying for a larger budget for UP. And they didn't answer my question. I wanted to know what alternatives they had to solve the funding problems of the university in place of the tuition fee increase. So I asked again. I asked what they planned to do NOW to solve the funding problem. Besides waiting for a budget increase (which by the way is, while idealistic, totally impractical given the current state of affairs in our country) I wanted to know what CONCRETE plans they had for solving the problem. This is where I think I blew up. "LOOK AT THIS CHAIR! LOOK AT THIS ROOM! What do you propose to do about this NOW?" Their answer? "Solicitation." I did not push any further. After that and with some parting words they left, and that was when I noticed the funny looks my classmates were giving me. It turned out that during that short space of time I looked as if I was about to THROW MY CHAIR at the guy who answered my question. I didn't even notice it; I was so lost in the moment. What shocked me more was that my professor COMMENDED me for my (I can't remember the exact words) caring so much about the issues confronting the studentry today. Not bad for my first time ever speaking out publicly on an important issue.

Whew.

I guess I have to take a break here.

But wait, there's more!

Now that I've moved to the new Google-powered Blogger I can finally go back to updating this blog on a more regular basis. Weeeee!

extraneous thoughts

Certain things have been taking up valuable real estate in my already overcrowded mind for the past few weeks. This is a desperate attempt to purge my mind of these extraneous thoughts and at least return some semblance of order to my gray matter.

People are going to kill me after they read this post.

I don't get jaywalkers. Specifically those stupid bastards who cross the street under the damned pedestrian footbridge. Are those people blind, or are they just idiotic morons just asking, begging, to be turned into road kill? Just give me the chance and I would cheerfully and gleefully introduce them to both my car's bumper and the concrete road. Give me the power and I would declare every major road a free fire zone: jaywalkers would be considered as targets. Most targets eliminated bags a cash prize. That ought to drill some freakin' discipline into the unruly masses.

Animal rights. What the hell is up with giving rights to something that is destined to go into my stomach? Ever hear of the friggin' food chain? News flash: we're on top of it! I love pigs, especially if they're cute, pink, and chubby. But I don't care if the pig that provided the juicy tenderloin steak I'm about to eat was treated 'humanely' or like the freakin' Prince of Wales, I only want it medium well on a freakin' platter along with some gravy and mashed potatoes! Ah, but there are those who would rather have us just eat *shudder* vegetables and *shiver* imitation meat made from plants. Yeah. Just wait 'til the plant rights activists come knocking on your doors!

Havianas. Okay. Deep breath. Here we go. Explain to me the merits of buying a pair of rubber slipp-er, flip-flops, for around 600-800 pesos. Wait- never mind, opportunity knocks! I'll just buy some cheap slippers worth 30 pesos from my friendly neighborhood tiangge and pass them off as Havianas! Cha-ching! Damn! I'll make a killing! Woohoo! Money DOES grow on trees- rubber trees, that is. Yeah, that's right. I'll open up a store at the Mall of Asia right across the Flip-flop Store, or whatever the hell they call that little nook packed with people going gaga over something made in the friggin' Philippines ever since rubber replaced wood and the integumentary system as the sole [pun intended] provider of open-air protection for our smelly feet, and "liberate" Ninoy Aquino and the Banaue Rice Terraces from their wallets. Ahhh... Capitalism.

The CPP-NPA. Ah, yes. The 38 year old protector of the poor and the oppressed. Right. Let's call a spade a spade okay? Those purge-happy propaganda-loving revolutionary tax-hungry landmine-laying destabilizing morons with a cowardly leadership hiding blissfully in the Netherlands are terrorists, plain and simple. The Armed Forces can have at them all they want. I would be the happiest man alive if I were given the chance to see Jose Maria Sison or Ka Roger through the scope of a sniper rifle, or if I were in the cockpit of one of our high-tech, propeller-driven, Vietnam-veteran Bronco bombers raining napalm on one of their training camps. Ever watch Munich? I do hope the government grows some backbone and takes the terrorist leadership out of our collective misery. Yes. The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist.

Right. Animal rights activists and Havianas fans may leave their gracious comments below. Jaywalkers, wait for me at the C5 road where I'll introduce you to my little friend Optra. And to any member of the CPP-NPA, please, come back to the light. Communism is a fool's errand. Join me in my capitalist quest to liberate Manuel Roxas, Diosdado Macapagal, Ninoy Aquino, and the Banaue Rice Terraces from the millions of Haviana fans out there. Otherwise, feel free to point your AK-47's on your heads, set the switch to 'automatic', and then gently pull the trigger. Save the AFP the trouble, and by the way, free up some money for the education budget.

Cheerio!

proportional response

It's the rainy season once again, and mosquitoes are once again in the air. I HATE mosquitoes. I hate how they fly around, darting here and there just beyond reach. I hate it when they buzz in my ear. And I most certainly hate the itchy welts that they leave after they suck my blood! But aside from the annoyance, mosquitoes also spread disease; malaria, dengue, and encephalitis are some of the more commonly known mosquito-borne diseases.

I absolutely despise those foul creatures. I don't care if they're only doing what nature and instinct tell them to do, I want to wipe them off the face of the earth!
That is why I am always ready to kill the first mosquito I see. I don't care if my hands get red and sore from all the smacking. I don't care if they get all bloody and grimy from the crushed black carcasses of the unlucky mosquito that wasn't quite fast enough to escape my wrath.
Bottles of Raid or Baygon don't last too long in our house; I ensure that substantial amounts are dumped on known and suspected mosquito hideouts. I don't care if I get an asthma attack, I want all those mosquitoes dead!
But even with all the pesticide I've dumped, even with all the mosquitoes I've killed with my bare hands, with my slippers, with a fly swatter, with a pillow, with a book, with a water gun, with fire, even with the freakin' kitchen sink, they just keep coming and coming. Like the unstoppable tide they come year after year, until we decided to go after the root of the problem.
Mosquitoes, like all animals, don't just appear from nowhere. They first enter the world as babies, those cute little wriggly thingys that infest the pools of stagnant water that collect around our house. Adult mosquitoes may be quick and stealthy enough to evade active pursuit, but their poor little babies are sitting ducks, like fish in a barrel, trapped like rats, and whatever other cliche you can insert here. So we dumped the water in the cans, in the boots, in the flower pots. Anything that had even a drop of water was drained. Countless little mosquito babies perished in one, swift, stroke.
Over time the mosquito problem died down. The buzzing gave way to silence. The welts no longer appeared. The odd mosquito reappears from time to time, but it is quickly and efficiently dispatched. There is no longer any stagnant water in our home, no place for mosquitoes to breed.
In the all-out war I declared against the mosquito pestilence in our home, I had won.

plans

President Arroyo's State of the Nation Address today was full of her plans for the nation. It focused on the division of the country into 'super regions' so as to allow the said regions to concentrate on their competitive advantages. I was impressed by the plans for improved infrastructure, poverty alleviation and for a better economy, but I couldn't help but notice the President's silence on other issues, such as education. Nevertheless, she delivered one hell of a speech, outlining her vision for the nation, even mixing in some humor. She also gave recognition to the efforts and achievements of certain people. I do hope that she follows through on her promises. Her plans looked impressive on the Powerpoint presentation; they would most certainly be more impressive when turned into reality.
***
The opposition must be feeling really stupid right now. For the past few months all they have been doing is planning PGMA's removal from office. All this time they have been promoting divisiveness, when many have decided to take a break from politics. They had better get their act together if they plan on getting elected or reelected come 2007. The smart move would be to cast politics aside and work for the betterment of the nation. The effort and dedication they give working against the President would most probably be of better use when applied to working with the President.

no classes... again...

It's been raining non-stop for the past few hours. Apparently there's another typhoon coming in. I can't wait to see the protesters at tomorrow's State of the Nation address...  Hehehehe... >:D

easier said than done

For the past year a lot of people have been clamoring for change. Some want charter change. Others want a regime change. Many want economic change. We all want to change our current situation, yet no one wants to change themselves. Let's admit it, we all whine about our country's lack of progress. We are quick to criticize everything done by our leaders. We complain about how hard our life is with soaring oil prices and inflation. We throw everything -including the proverbial kitchen sink- at each other, destroying lives and reputations over ideological disputes. We do everything but solve our problems. We talk and talk and bicker and complain but we do nothing to lift our country from the muck of poverty and corruption and conflict. We are quick to point fingers, wasting time on investigations which lead to nowhere while people suffer and die on the streets.
How can we solve our problems? We should first change ourselves. To change a country we must first change the individuals who make up the country.
One thing we desperately need is discipline. "Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan"; so goes the slogan of Marcos' "Bagong Lipunan". Say what you want about the guy, but you have to admit he had some pretty good ideas. Our people today have little or no respect for the law. Simple rules such as "bawal tumawid dito" or "bawal magtapon ng basura dito" are ignored by many. If the simplest of laws are broken with impunity, what about the other laws? If the people don't follow such laws as "no loading/unloading here", what's to stop them from stealing or killing? Our people also enjoy short-circuiting the system -any system- as long as it provides greater convenience. Who hasn't tried to find a friend or relative in a government office when applying for a license? Who hasn't tried to bribe a police officer when caught violating traffic rules? Who hasn't tried to jump a line in the supermarket, or in the bank, or in the school cafeteria? Who hasn't cheated in school, or on their income tax return? Who hasn’t beaten the red light, or held back traffic because he/she wants to be the first to make the u-turn? We cry about graft and corruption, we cry about election fraud, we complain about the traffic, yet we fail to realize that we are doing the same things and everyday, albeit in our own little way. In doing so we contribute to the problems of our nation. Discipline is the answer to these problems. Start with the simple things. Follow traffic rules. Throw your waste at the proper place. Fall in line. Wait for your turn. Don't cheat. Set an example for the future leaders of our country by obeying the law. Our children must see us doing what is right instead of what is simply convenient or expedient. 

who's afraid of "the da vinci code"?

Two years ago a friend recommended to me a little book called The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Soon after, I got a copy from PowerBooks. It turned out to be one hell of a page-turner; I couldn't let go of the book after I had started reading it. I had my nose stuck in that book during my lunch period, in between classes, while commuting home from school, and well into the wee hours of the morning. The story was so engrossing that for a few days I touched neither the keyboard nor the remote control. I was so impressed that I sought out other books by Dan Brown. Within a few months I had finished Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress, and Deception Point.

Imagine my excitement when I found out that The Da Vinci Code was being turned into a movie.

It is only a few days before its worldwide premier, but if certain people and groups get their way, it may never be shown here in the Philippines. Various religious groups and personalities have denounced it as "blasphemy". An anti-pornography group has filed a case against the MTRCB for allowing the importation of the movie here. No less than the Executive Secretary of the President has called for the banning of the film. His words: "I think we should do everything not to allow it to be shown. I don’t see how we as a Catholic nation or as practicing Catholics would tolerate such a plot to be propagated in the name of freedom of expression."

Haaay... It's been a few years since the book came out so I assume that whoever is reading this has at least an inkling of what the book is all about. The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction. Nothing more, nothing less. It did not happen. It is a story, a figment of the author's imagination. The idea that Jesus Christ was married and had a family with Mary Magdalene may have come from historical sources, but The Da Vinci Code only uses that idea to present an engrossing, fictional thriller.

But people say that it presents a danger to Christians, especially those who have "weak faith". According to them, the movie posits a lot of controversial ideas that would cause people to question their faith. To borrow a line from my Socio 10 professor; e ano ngayon? What's wrong with questioning something? Learning begins with questioning. Isn't this a good opportunity to let people learn more about their faith? Isn't this a good opportunity for the Church to educate those whose eyes are opened to new possibilities after watching the film?

People say that certain groups will be offended by the film. E ano ngayon? If they are offended by the film then they shouldn't watch it. Why should they drag those of us who do want to watch the film down with them? I remember an episode of South Park wherein everything about Christmas that was offensive to certain groups was banned. The town was left without a Christmas.

People say that being a Catholic nation the Philippines should not allow the showing of the film. So what about the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, and those who practice other religions? Are they not a part of this nation? Don't they have a say in this issue?

People may say whatever they want about the film. They may call it blasphemous and offensive, "an affront to the Catholic faith" or whatnot, but one thing is for sure, no one can ban it in this country.

Why?

Banning the film on religious grounds violates Article 3, Section 5 of the 1987 Constitution which states that "No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights."

So there. I have set my heart on watching the movie ever since I heard about it last year.

I WANT to watch the movie.

I don't care if it offends anyone; it does not offend ME.

I don't care if someone thinks it is dangerous; it does not threaten ME.

The government CANNOT dictate what the people can or cannot watch.

See you on May 18.