Why I will roll out for "The Transformers"

Here are my reasons why I am voting for Richard "Dick" Gordon and Bayani Fernando as president and vice president respectively in the upcoming elections:

1. Both of them made their fortunes and took on their jobs well without the good (and not-so-good) name of relatives to back them up.
2. Gordon's Subic Bay and Olongapo City plus Bayani's Marikina City are all cities built on discipline where people work stable jobs with stable income, follow traffic rules, and enjoy clean surroundings. (I think that Subic Bay's "working girls" earn more in a working day than the girls here at P. Burgos Street in Makati -- where Jejomar Binay is said to part-own 3 girlie bars -- ever will in a week.) And everyone, EVERYONE I know who lives there will attest to their love for their representatives.
3. Dick Gordon is with the Philippine National Red Cross. They were the first large organisation to take concrete action during the twin typhoon disasters of 2009, and not the government. Hell, Gordon's been doing it since Mount Pinatubo erupted waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy back in 1991! 
4. Gordon's WOW Philippines program for the Department of Tourism was one of the most highly-applauded, ever. Hell, it even convinced Mahal to want to move here. ;P It's too bad his successor couldn't maintain the program's momentum.
5. Like some other candidates, Bayani rose from the ranks of poverty. His mum sold fish at the market. He was literally freakin' BORN in the market. The only difference is that unlike other candidates, he tries to come up with concrete solutions to get the poor to have a heightened sense of self-esteem and also improve their lives, all WITHOUT rubbing it in your face. 
6. Bayani Fernando is an engineer by profession. My dad, my aunt and many other friends and relatives of mine are engineers. I have not known a single engineer in my life to lie.
7. The Transformers camp is extremely clean and green. The fact that they don't have budget for ginormous tarpaulins and posters means that they are not contributing to the pollution that is caused by so many other campaigns. 
8. Related to the above, Bayani's work in the Metro Manila Development Authority has improved it significantly while making it a source of humour. There have been less cases of extortion by MMDA personnel reported in the news. And those ridiculously neon pink fences? Well, Bayani likes the expression "in the pink of health" originally coined to show that people with blushes in their faces are physically fit. In that case, wouldn't we want a clean and healthy and financially fit country? Think pink! :P  (I prolly should change my blog colours now because orange and yellow are for other candidates that I'm personally not keen on...) 
9. You may say, "But all of the candidates for the national positions are corrupt anyway, so why vote for Gordon-Bayani?" My answer: Because unlike the other candidates, there are very, VERY FEW issues you can throw at them, and very, VERY MANY achievements of theirs that you simply cannot do anything else but highlight. Do you hear people associate them with drug dealers and girlie bars? Do you hear them say that they offer so-and-so benefit to their constituents and make it sound like it's their own money when really it's money that comes from the dutiful taxpayers? 
10. Gordon and Bayani have seen how Filipinos work and live abroad -- many are law-abiding citizens with stable jobs, stable incomes, stable resources and big dreams which they know they can achieve. It is that kind of mentality and that kind of sensibility that is strangely and sorely lacking here in the Philippines.  

Granted, they are all human with foibles and faults. But to me, their track records -- and I'm just glossing over them here -- far outshine any faults they have, because the good they have done is the kind of good that is needed and can be seen by my country. Dogged discipline and dogged determination are sadly seen by my countrymen as forms of dictatorship, especially with the botched progress that happened during the Marcos era -- but in my many travels, and through what I am learning of the Gordon-Bayani tandem, I have realised that that cannot be further from the truth. What use is it if you have your freedom but you have no money to buy food or a house with? What kind of freedom is it if for every little thing you say, you need to watch your back because either the military or the left will hurt or even kill you? 

I know this will probably not convince a lot of people, but I believe that if you, as a Filipino who has stumbled into my blog reads this and decide to vote for my candidates too, we will all be forever grateful as a nation. ♥

Don't forget kids, vote tomorrow! And if you can, vote for true change, vote for the Transformers! \^0^/

Ligaya's State of The Nation Address regarding the May 10 Philippine national elections

I know this post probably won't matter since I'm not even running for the lowly position of councilor/konsehal, but I have friends from ALL political backgrounds, from all ends of the spectrum. You know who you are and I shouldn't need to tag/shoutout you people (comment na lang kayo). ;P

As is becoming apparent now, the upcoming elections have become an unusually serious make-or-break affair. So, know only this: Please respect my vote, and I'll respect yours. Whether you ask me to share or discuss my vote or not is fine and you'll be getting a straight answer out of me, but I am not going out of my way to ask you to do the same. I will not whine about your choice not to vote if you so decide, so please don't whine if you hate the country because you chose not to exercise your vote. And please, for the love of God and all that is good, don't hurt or kill anyone just because the other person will not vote for your candidate(s)! (For the record I've been quietly supporting the Gordon-Bayani/Transformers tandem since March of this year, but - partly helped by my sister's active moonlighting as Bayani Babe - I've been more vocal about this recently. Say what you want but I hope you follow suit with my example of not openly attacking your candidates with mine.)

But ultimately, please safeguard your country through safeguarding your vote, and do not sell out or allow it to be sold. Huwag maging talunang mamamayan! Huwag bumoto nang hindi kinikilala at kinikilatis ang kandidato! Huwag bumenta at magpabenta ng boto, at huwag hayaang mabenta ang boto! Huwag hayaang may papatay sa iba o sa inyo para lang manalo ang kandidato nila! Again, unless you've been living under a rock, you can tell that these elctions are so important.

That said, I'm part of both PPCRV (by association through BCBP) and NAMFREL (ever since 2007), but NAMFREL in particular needs help, and it's not too late to volunteer! Please call the NAMFREL Secretariat at 632-484-7590, 632-470-4151, 63927-9611524 and 63919-3389344, or email them at secretariat@namfrel.com.ph, or visit their website at http://www.namfrel.com.ph/home/index.htm. For Makati peeps, you may inquire with Janet and Peter of NAMFREL Makati at these numbers: 632-703-0026 and 63916-2322361. For my fellow BCBP members and associates who would like to assist PPCRV, kindly get in touch with your local chapter head, otherwise contact PPCRV at 632-521-5005, 632-524-2855 and parishpcrv@yahoo.com or visit their website at http://www.ppcrv.org/.

Bantayan natin ang boto at ang bayan! Safeguard your country and your vote! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas (long live the Philippines), I thank you.

Conflicted/Word Vomit 3/? [To be transliterated in Tagalog]

There have been many days that I just wish we could write history differently. Or, like in the Choose Your Own Adventure paperbacks that Bantam Publishing put out for mid-teens in the 1980s and 1990s, you could make a more informed choice and arrive at a more definite conclusion. What if we could have known that the Americans of 1898 would betray us by buying our country from Spain for US$2 million (according to the currency exchange rate at the time)? What if we could have just fought the Spanish on our own and persevered in a war of more than a decade, instead of relying on the superior military strength and firepower of the Americans to have cut the war by 2 years? What if the British, instead of staying only four years, won the war versus Spain and took over Las Islas Filipinas - would our have been named differently, like St. George's Islands* or something? How I wonder.



I was in historic Corregidor two weeks ago, touring the tadpole-shaped island. Corregidor (formerly under the province of Bataan, now under the province of Cavite) is one of five in an island group. The Spanish called it "Corregidor" because it was the first entry point by boat into the Manila Bay area, thus being the island where papers were checked and corrected (Corregidor's name comes from the Spanish verb "corregir," or "to correct"). Meanwhile the other islands - or, in reality, islets - were La Monja (the only island that was not fortified), El Fraile, Caballo and Carabao. The Americans, once they bought the Philippines from Spain, changed it into "Fort Mills." Three of the smaller islets were fortified; El Fraile was renamed "Fort Drum," Caballo became "Fort Hughes" and Carabao was "Fort Frank." Even now, veterans from the USA and Japan are said to quickly recognise the American-era names, but not the older Spanish ones.

The island was pivotal in its role during World War II, because it was where the Allied forces - namely the USAFFE and the Philippine Commonwealth - took their last stand against the Japanese forces from late 1941 till 6th May 1942. A monument on Corregidor island, the Pacific War Memorial, was built to honor the Filipino and American servicemen who participated in the Pacific War. The structure is large rotunda in which a circular altar falls directly under the dome's open center through which light falls on the altar during daylight hours; on 6th May of every year, at exactly 12:00 noon, the sunlight falls right at the center to illuminate the entire dome.

If you discuss the Pacific theatre of World War II, you'd be hardpressed not to find my country, the Philippines, front and center in this historical era. However, it took around 55 to 60 years for the Philippine veterans, already long dwindled in number, to receive just compensation. They fought for love of the Philippines and for her freedom, as well as for fealty to the United States of America which was expected to grant the Philippines its freedom. But a quick Google search shows that after too long, Filipinos who fought in the Pacific theatre of World War II receive no more than US$15,000.00 - and that's if they are alive and breathing as US citizens. Filipinos who have retained citizenship get around US$10,000.00 if I am not mistaken, but they are still lucky, because families of deceased veterans on both sides of the Pacific Ocean don't get a single cent. This is, to me, a Pyhrric victory, not unlike the rape of Manila in 1945 towards the end of World War II; Filipinos have won, yes, but at an exceedingly painful cost.

I've seen these veterans, many of them on wheelchairs, feeble with lines drawn taut on their skins due to age. Their minds may be sharp - their eyes flash at the slightest sound to prove this keenness still inside - but their bodies, fatigued by war and years of waiting, no longer follow. They are pretty much the same age as my grandparents, and even now it is my greatest regret that they did not live to gather this pittance. My mother's father in particular would have benefited greatly from this - it would have made his diabetes treatment much easier on everyone's pockets, for starters; but then again it may have been for the best as well, because there was no psychiatric treatment available at the time of his death to veterans like him, who were never the same after having been in the battlefield. But that's another story for another day.

And as for the Spanish government and private firms? Well, except for scant philanthropic projects and cultural affairs, they keep an excessively low profile and just continue to market their wares. It makes me sad because Mango and Zara - both world-renowned Spanish fashion brands - have great collections, and are said to be made here in the country with super-cheap labour. As far as I can tell (and you are more than free to correct me on this one), neither funding nor curatorial connections helped the Corregidor Foundation in restoring the island.

And so I wonder - what could have been done differently? In the dim hope that history could be rewritten, would we as a people choose to take it? But more importantly, even with the chance of a rewrite or a choice, can we guarantee that the currently-known outcome will still not be the same experience of today? Real life truly is stranger than fiction.

*Hypothetical name only. I do know how important St. George is to the English, though.

Tayo na, tayo na!

Partida tayo may nakaalala pa nito. d^_~b



Honestly, while the late Rene Villanueva was a most disagreeable man and a disappointment for youngsters who loved his TV show, everyone from my generation agrees that Batibot was one of the best things ever shown on Philippine television. ♥

'Wag kang kukurap! (Blink and you'll miss it!)

While looking for videos on the late, great former President Cory Aquino on YouTube, I stumbled across this:


ASAP 2009 tribute to Cory Aquino, originally aired on August 2, 2009 live on ABS-CBN 2 and simulcast (or delayed telecast?) on The Filipino Channel (also owned by ABS-CBN Networks). Uploaded by VisayanPinoySBG without intent of infringing copyright laws.

Do NOT miss 3:55 of the footage - the wedding photo, where Ms. Aquino's eyes blink! Whether or not this was a broadcast flicker, or the image happened to be super imposed over a simulcast on-cam footage of a viewer, or it was actually Ms. Aquino being slightly impish but still untiringly watching over her baby, the Filipino people, who knows?

Also, major props for people who noticed:

Read this, PRES. CORY AQUINO died August 1, 2009 at 3:18 in the morning. That's 08/01/2009 3:18 right? now, remove the zero's(0) and put the numbers together... Results to 8129318 Rearrange the numbers... Results to 8/21/1983 That's August 21, 1983. The day Ninoy died. Coincidence? That's the true Love.
- taken from the official Cory Aquino Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yellow-Ribbon-for-President-Cory-Aquino/100738003363)

Nakakakilig nga naman kung iisipin. ♥

Plus, of course, a bit of school pride, courtesy of Mr. Erik De Castro and (Thomson) Reuters:

Students make the sign of the cross as they pay their respects to late former President Corazon Aquino at De La Salle University in Manila August 3, 2009. REUTERS/Erik De Castro


Postscript: This idiot keeps spamming the official Ninoy Aquino thread on Facebook by writing hate messages! Writing it once was enough, but seriously, your devotion to piss people off... are you a die-hard Marcos loyalist (in which case, didn't you get the memo that Bongbong and Imee Marcos were at Tita Cory's wake on Tuesday, August 4th?) or are you a typical uzi (usisero/kibitzer) with too much free time on your hands? :P

Local trapos (traditionally corrupt politicians), we're watching you!

READ THIS (http://vicissitude-decidido.blogspot.com/2008/12/world-is-fucked-up.html) AND PASS.

Related reading:
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/141418/DAR-chiefs-son-5-bodyguards-face-charges-for-alleged-mauling-of-2-golfers
http://digg.com/people/Politician_mauls_56_year_old_and_14_year_old_on_golf_course
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20081227-180232/DAR-chiefs-son-tagged-in-golf-attack
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/12/27/08/dars-pangandaman-complained-mauling-antipolo-city-golfers
http://www.abante-tonite.com/issue/dec2708/news_story1.htm
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=427438&publicationSubCategoryId=68

Those politicians are going down.

Season's Greetings!

Maligayang Pasko sa inyong lahat!

... Normally I'd have some form of artwork, but I'm feeling mighty lazy and I need to go out anyways. X3

EDIT: Haha sa wakas hindi na rin tinamad.

"Pasko" by Alvaro Jimenez, circa 2002, artwork borrowed from the Ayala Museum. "Maligayang" added by myself thanks to Photoshop CS3. XD