P-Noy: Walk the talkClean slate, clean record, no tarnish whatsoever. These are the bold facts that paved the way for Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" C. Aquino III, or P-Noy as he is now being tagged, into the limelight of Philippine politics.
However, is it enough to have a clean reputation and a "divine" backing of your deceased parent-heroes for you to take the front seat in a country that was once considered second to Japan and is now second to last in Asia?
What does it take for P-Noy to blaze a trail never seen before by the Filipino race so as to alleviate the majority's pain caused by poverty?
Going back to the fundamentals, it really is true that graft and corruption is the number one villain of our starving nation. And I personally think that cleaning the political system down to the grassroots level is the only way to fully release us, as a nation, from the stronghold of graft and corruption.
One cannot just say that he will eliminate graft and corruption and then poof it will be gone. He needs to have the "balls", sorry for the profanity, to walk the talk. And assigning allies that are not that competent and are with close family ties does not really solve the puzzle.
One more thing, aside from the walking the talk, consistency is also important. If you happen to promise to do your best, then do so, not for once but forever. It was good that P-Noy was able to wake up early and arrive way ahead of time in his induction rites. It set the table for higher expectations but voila, just a few days after, he got late for the ceremonial red mass offered to him by the Catholic Church. If he just used the "wang-wang" he would've been able to beat it to the clock but no, he had another excuse for that, brownouts killed his wee time in bed. For an executive of the highest position in the country having the lamest excuse is just way of the marks.
Come July 26, the whole nation will hear the promises that P-Noy will give. Will he be able to walk the talk or will he just be literally a man of many words?
Labels: P-Noy
Boon and Bane of Martial Law from a 1985 kid’s perspective
Having been born at the end of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos’ Martial Law Regime, I have no personal experience with what the Filipino majority would say as the darkest era in the Philippine government’s history. It was at this time where the writ of habeas corpus was suspended which took away the citizen’s right to defend themselves in court. This event allowed the Marcos regime to rein the Philippines in two decades inflicting terror and fear in the hearts and minds of every Filipino.
Though I have no insight about the Martial Law era, its consequences have been bugging not only me but also the Filipino nation.
Some historians say that during Marcos’ term, the Philippines reached its highest in the field of Economy and the Arts. The Peso to Dollar rate was once 2:1 compared to today’s 50:1 which corresponds to a 2500% increase in the exchange rate. The Cultural Center of the Philippines was established to promote Arts in the country. However, these events were like one hit wonders as later in Marcos’ term, the Philippine economy gradually dropped and succumbed to the power of the US dollar. The Philippines had a chance of recovering from economic drought when the World Bank offered then Pres. Cory Aquino a chance of a lifetime but with pride on her way (and possibly a foresight of future glory with her own means) Pres. Aquino declined the offer. (As her daughter Kris would say is it a deal or no deal? Sadly, Cory answered no deal and the rest is history).
Though the Philippines is currently lagging behind the rest of Asia due to the economic misfortunes that arose from the Marcos regime, I must say that the Filipino people have also gained some respect from not only Asia but from the rest of the world as well because of an unarmed movement that forced the tyrant in Marcos to step down and flee. It was a first in many years that the Filipino people have risen and held their arms together to put an end to a dictator’s rule.
These I believe are the significant effects of Martial law in the Philippines. However, it does not mean that it will be good to have another Martial law era now especially that the economy is still trying to recover from several terms of mismanagement (not excluding the current term).
Sex Ed in the City!
Sex is somewhat a foreign and non-conservative term in the Philippines. Its introduction through Sex Education in the Philippine curriculum has gathered thousands of criticisms from all walks of life.
Ultra conservative groups say that it will just open the youth’s mind to immoral acts and thus negating its objective of making the youth aware of the dangers of engaging in such activities. Furthermore, they believe that the youth’s parents are still the most qualified person who can teach everything about sex.
In contrast, some open-minded and more radical groups insist that the Department of Education (DepEd) is right in its stand that the introduction of sex education will be for the betterment of the status of morality of the country. As they say, people tend to get involved in activities such as sex because they are innocent and curious about it. Thus, informing the youth about sex will decrease their involvement in such activities.
To further strengthen the stand of DepEd, Catholic schools have reportedly supported the inclusion of sex education in their curriculum.
Catholic schools, as we all know, have high standards of morality in their educational system. Students from such schools are found to be morally upright and are more conservative than most of the students from non-catholic schools.
Now, if sex education is introduced in their curriculum does it mean that the standard of morality in these schools will go down?
I don’t think so. Instead of a decrease in the morality standard, it will rather increase because the school administration will have a greater responsibility over the students. However, this situation may not apply to non-catholic schools because some schools do not necessarily guard their morality standard but rather they guard those that will go into their pockets.
KALIPI holds blogging workshop
The Kabataang Liberal ng Pilipinas (KALIPI) held its first Advocacy Journalism seminar on media entitled "Advocacy Journalism: Basic Writing and Blogging Seminar", last September 10, at the KALIPI National Headquarters, Sta. Mesa, Manila.
KALIPI National Secretary General Jan Argy Tolentino opened the seminar with an overview of what blogging is all about and its current impact on the national and international markets. He stressed on the significance of the web log, also known as blog, as a new paradigm for people who wants to air their opinions to the readers.
The seminar was divided into two parts: (1) writing seminar, and; (2) blogging seminar. The writing seminar was headed by KALIPI Media Director Robert Ramos, who focused on the differences between a news, feature, editorial, opinion, light news, and special feature articles. He also discussed the differences of Real-Life (RL) media and Web-based media, the latter having more advantage due to its availability and ease to be updated.
Ramos capped-off the writing seminar with a workshop wherein the 14 participants were grouped and assigned to write articles about the seminar and KALIPI under the several article categories.
In the second part of the seminar, Liberal Party Finance and Administrative officer Donna Babadilla, introduce blogging to the participants.
"Blogging is like having an online journal. However, to have a good blog you must have a specific theme, a niche, for your site", Babadilla stressed.
After the brief lecture, Babadilla divided the participants into two batches for the hands-on blogging workshop. Each participant was asked to create their own blog account and link them to the KALIPI site, www.kalipiblog.blogspot.com.
An awarding ceremony headed by KALIPI NCR Area Chair Eric Caliboso marked the end of the whole day seminar that was participated in by representatives from KALIPI-Northern Luzon, KALIPI-PUP, KALIPI-San Sebastian, KALIPI-UDM, KALIPI-UE, KALIPI-UP and KALIPI-Valenzuela.
