Category: Malaya

A seafarer’s suggestion to avoid maritime tragedies

Published by Ellen on December 29, 2009

Sea tragedies have become become common occurrences during the holiday season when city folks go home to the province to spend Christmas with families and relatives.

We never learn our lesson.Every tragedy, we bewail the overloading, the poor vessel maintenance and the questionable capabilities of the crew. But after the stories have ceased to be headline news, we go back to our usual slipshod “bahala na” attitude until the next tragedy.

The past week has seen two sea tragedies that claimed hundred of lives caused miseries to families in this supposedly season of joy.

Christmas away from home

Published by Ellen on December 20, 2009

Christmas is family affair and for Christians, whatever the nationality, we take that to heart.

But on two Christmases in the past, I found myself away from the Philippines, both in colder environments.

My first Christmas outside of the Philippines was in Hanoi, in 1984. In 1991, it was in Versailles, France,

At the end of the conference I and three other Filipinos who attended a conference in Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon) in the third week of December 1984, were asked if we wanted to go to Hanoi.

My other companions, from the academe and labor unions, declined the invitation, as they didn’t want to spend Christmas away from home. It’s seldom that one gets an invitation to communist Hanoi so I readily said “Yes.”

A dangerous, unconstitutional decision

Published by Ellen on December 3, 2009

Just pray that with the retirement of Associate Justice Minita Chico-Nazario today, the voting on the motion for reconsideration that the Commission on Elections would be filing on the deplorable Nachura Dec. 1 decision would change.

The vote on the Supreme Court decision penned by Associate Justice Eduardo Nachura declaring as unconstitutional the provisions in the election laws that consider appointed officials resigned once they filed their certificates of candidacy was 8-6.

Those who concurred with Nachura,were Justices Nazario, Renato Corona, Presbitero Velasco, Teresita de Castro, Arturo Brion, Lucas Bersamin, and Mariano del Castillo,

LP’s difficult balancing act

Published by Ellen on November 19, 2009

The infighting in the Liberal Party which had caused the departure of one of its senatorial candidates, Sergio Osmeña III , stems from hype that the presidential bid of Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III is a battle of “good versus evil.”

Aquino was thrust into the presidential contest after the death of his mother, Cory, which saw a massive outpouring of grief for the most admired housewife –turned –president who inspired the nation to oust a well-entrenched dictator.

The nation’s grief over Cory’s passing was also seen by many as a yearning for decency in government because she had led protests against Gloria Arroyo’s corruption-riddled government.

Since Aquino’s s entry into the presidential race last September, which was made possible by the sliding down of Sen. Mar Roxas, the original LP presidential bet, he has been enjoying remarkable ratings: 44 per cent in Pulse Asia and 60 percent in Social Weather Station.

The battle for Batangas votes

Published by Ellen on November 17, 2009

The Liberal Party thinks it has scored a hit with the defection of Batangas Governor Vilma Santos and husband Ralph Recto, former senator and economic planning secretary of Gloria Arroyo.

Batangas, with an estimated voting population of 1.5 million, is a prime target of any presidential candidate.

Sources said it was Recto who wanted to join the LP having learned from his 2007 senatorial loss due to the Gloria Arroyo stigma.

Although he was also negotiating a slot with the Nacionalista Party headed by his Wednesday Club buddy Manny Villar, Recto knew that he could not shake off the GMA stigma if he were with the NP, which is dubbed in political circles as “Arroyo’s opposition party.”

Remnants of the Dark Ages

Published by Ellen on November 15, 2009

Leila de Lima, chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights said reasons cited by the Commission on Elections in denying the application of Ang Ladlad for accreditation as sectoral party illustrates that gays are objects of ridicule, contempt and violence which renders them marginalized.

It’s good that de Lima has taken up the cudgels for Ang Ladlad, a nationwide organization of lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender persons.

De Lima read to the Comelec commissioners Article 7 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, to which the Philippines is a signatory, that states, “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.”

Preview sa mangyayari kina Arroyo at mga alagad

Published by Ellen on November 11, 2009

Hindi daw maintindihan ni dating Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos kung bakit siya isinama sa pinakakasuhan ng Senado kaugnay sa ma-anomalyang kontrata para sa pagpatayo ng telecommunication network sa Pilipinas (national Broadband Network) na gagawin sana ng ZTE, isang kumpanya sa China.

“Bakit? Nakasuhan na kami. Ano pa ang gusto nila?,” tanong daw ni Abalos. Ini-imagine ko lang na kuntodo paawa effect pa itong si Abalos.

Ano ang gusto ng mga tao? Makulong ka kasama ang iyong mga amo na si Gloria at Mike Arroyo.
Mabuti naman at isinama si Gloria Arroyo sa rekomendasyun ng Blue Ribbon Committee na pinamumunuan ni Sen. Richard Gordon ngayon sa kanilang mga rekomendasyun na kakasuhan at i-impeach.

Mga artista sa pulitika

Published by Ellen on November 9, 2009

Kinukuha pala ng Lakas-Kampi si Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. na bise president para sa kanilang presidential candidate na si Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

Ini-report ng Philippine Star na sabi daw ni Revilla, handa raw siya na maging bise kay Teodoro kung makukuha niya ang ng basbas ng kanyang ama na si dating Senador Ramon Revilla Sr.

Sabi sa Star, “Unang binalak ni Bong na tumakbong bise presidente ngunit nang ma-stroke ang nakatatandang Revilla ay hiniling nito sa anak na muling na lamang kumandidatong senador para sa kanyang ikalawang termino.

Sabi pa ng Star, “Ngunit muling nabuhay ang posibleng pagtakbo muli ni (Bong) Revilla bilang bise presidente nang mawalan ng running mate si Teodoro, napipisil na presidential candidate ng administrasyon.”

Nawalan kasi ng VP si Teodoro nang biglang umatras sa planong pagtakbong pangalawang pangulo si Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno. Naisip yata nina Arroyo na mas makatulong si Puno sa kanyang kandidato kung sa DILG si Puno kasi kontrolado pa rin niya ang local governments.

Mabuting kumbinasyun itong Teodoro-Revilla. Kasi di ba ang campaign slogan ni Teodoro ay “Galing at Talino”. Balanse na ang tiket nila.

Noynoy: caught in-between

Published by Ellen on November 8, 2009

Last week, there were talks that former President Joseph Estrada and the Liberal Party presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino were meeting again.

I’m using the word “again” because the two met last Sept. 28, two days after typhoon “Ondoy” turned many areas in Metro Manila into an ocean and battered thousands of families.

The Sept. 28 meeting, held at the Estrada residence on Polk Street in Greenhills, San Juan, was widely reported. Reports said Aquino was accompanied by his sisters while Sen. Jinggoy Estrada joined in the dinner/meeting.

Reports said they talked about “uniting the opposition” or fielding a common senatorial slate.

But then, three weeks after that meeting Estrada launched his presidential bid for 2010 in Tondo. So much about “unity.”

Last week, ABS-CBN quoted Estrada as saying that it’s the Aquino camp that is asking for a meeting. I asked an insider in the Aquino camp and they denied this quoting Noynoy as saying, “I did not ask for a meeting” with Erap.

A source said even without a second Erap-Noynoy meeting , there are negotiations for the inclusion of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada in the LP ticket.

2010 clean elections for Filipinos, not for America

Published by Ellen on November 8, 2009

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Gloria Arroyo is ready to reassure Hillary Clinton of clean elections in 2010.

There is something wrong here. The press secretary and spokesman of a president of one country assuring a cabinet member of another country that the elections in her country would be clean. In the first place, elections should be clean and credible. Not for the United States or other countries but for the Filipino people.

Elections is the engine that drives democracy. Through elections, the people choose their leaders. In the a presidential system like the Philippines, elections is supposed to be an equalizer because when a voter goes to polls. Rich or poor, young or old, highly-educated or illiterate, his vote is counted as one vote. That what it should be in a clean and credible election.