blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

Dr Jose Rizal died so that people can read books! One of John Steinbeck's less known essays but perhaps the most remarkable is the one entitled "Some Random and Randy Thoughts about Books" which came out in his collection of Americana essays in "America and Americans". The prescient Steinbeck foresaw a day where there would be no reason why there should be books but he bravely predicted that there will still be books. This was the subject of my 2007 blog post on books and libraries being obsolete . Steinbeck who lived through the Depression, World War II and pre and post war totalitarianism as a reporter knew that books are the most subversive but magical thing our species has ever created. In fact he writes that in these oppressed countries, people don't ask for food first (since dictators make sure no one is hungry at first) but books. "A book is somewhat sacred" Steinbeck writes, because they invariably TELL THE TRUTH. People will distrust ...

The Noynoy administration by fiat has called a part of the South China Sea as the West Philippine Sea . All government agencies like PAGASA and the blurbs have followed suit. However I do not agree that the President had to make the name change at this time. It will just inflame the geopolitical situation with China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines having claims overlapping or otherwise in the possibly oil rich area. China has the most powerful military in the region and has warned all countries to desist in conducting oil exploration work. The Philippines has the weakest military in the region with very little capacity for external defence. China has been putting markers to claim its territory so close to Palawan and definitely within the country's EEZ.China bases its claim on historical grounds for the sea was a vital trade artery. It is still today. But if we look at the origin of the sea's name, it was named by European traders first by the Port...

The Patron Saint of RH! Of course, Dr Rizal did not say he was for RH (reproductive health). During the late 19th century, the problem was not overpopulation but people ejected out of their land by the abuses of the friars. The problem was the friar, the over abusive friar!  Rizal's family was a victim  after the Dominicans kicked out the people after they had raised the rents. But if Rizal were alive in the second decade of the 21st century and practising medicine at a clinic/surgery at traffic choked Calamba City, I dare say he would be for RH! He would come to the conclusion that the bedlam that is Calamba City is due to overpopulation coupled with poor city planning. Even the most liberal of Catholic theologians would consider Rizal as "shipwrecked in faith" since he by the time he was writing the Noli , he had denied orthodox Roman Catholic dogma.  The late Father Raul J Bonoan SJ published a study on the Rizal-Pastells correspondence and came out with the un...

The Philippine government provided as his proof of death, Abu Sabaya's fashion statement! The Obama White House doesn't want to release photos showing Osama bin Laden dead . Bin Laden was did in by a team of US Navy SEALS in a northern Pakistani city in a daring and well executed covert raid. The refusal has fueled a lot of conspiracy theories about bin Laden escaping and  that he is still alive. It also fueled a zillion gags. It also infected unsuspecting computer users of the "bin Laden" virus. In a bid to convince the public, the Obama administration has told the public that they identified bin Laden's body via "facial recognition software" and DNA matching. The administration also said that they used tissue from bin Laden's sister to make the DNA match. This gives an interesting insight on how people judge evidence. People still want to see the body. At least for forensic investigations (that is the staple for a lot of cable TV s...

IT WILL KNOCK THE NOGGINS OF THE BISHOPS AND THE CELDRANITES ON  WHY THERE IS A NEED TO THINK ABOUT DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITIONS AND FATES At the rate things are going, Noynoy Aquino cannot afford the accelerating downward trend in his approval ratings so he cannot afford to lose his liberal constituency. Except for the most doctrinaire everyone from the Catholics to the non-believers agree that we need to manage our population. The question is what method to use? The Philippines is probably between the late stages 2 and the very early of 3 of the demographic transition but it appears that this transition is rather slow. The country is not closed to the outside world and exchange of ideas and commodities, so the question is why this is slow? The Roman Catholic Church opposes the use of artificial methods of fertility regulation on moral grounds. The idea of natural law is central to Catholic theological understanding. I will not dwell on this issue but it is testament to the  c...

The 1970s may be what some 40yish-50yish Pinoys would consider as their "Wonder Years". In a Marcosian age, where things were politically hushed up (and there was practically no entertainment whatsoever), Holy Week for us kids meant going to church (more accurately churches) in our sturdy, tank-like Vauxhall (you see we had a Brit car then). This also meant doing the Stations of the Cross.  Our grandparents who remembered the 13 Churches of Old Manila would regale us with tales of how they spent their Holy Week. On Good Friday, we all went to Pasig (which was a town then) and watch the Roman Catholic procession. If it were not proper Roman Catholic catechism from my mom, I would think those Catholic icons were straight out from a Dracula movie! Nonetheless, I always, until now, think parading those giant nails by which Jesus was pinned to the cross is too much for me. But that is Roman Catholic piety! My family is not 100% Catholic since some family members were Anglicans, ...

Japan just had it's cherry blossom ( Sakura ) viewing season or hanami. In the depths of winter the trees are bare but almost suddenly the flowers burst out but only for a while. The flowers are nice to behold but they are just for a week or so, after which they fall and there lies poignant beauty. This year's hanami is even made more meaningful for the Japanese since it happened just a month or so after the tragic Tohoku earthquake. A thing of beauty is always temporary if it is in a material sense. Human beauty fades no matter how much Vicky Belo promotes her wonders via Jinkee Pacquiao! But what lasts is hidden and immaterial. And the cherry blossoms seem to help people reach out to what is hidden, immaterial and can be seen only by the soul at its dead centre, the heart! In tropical Philippines where all is green even during the driest seasons, we don't notice the transience of flowers but we do have the Palawan cherry which burst into bloom at almost the same time th...

A hero is always a genuine hero to his/her fans. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Marcos are heroes. It is a fact that the following people just named were dictators who dreamed that their countries will be the number one of them all. Unfortunately they all became redundant in one way another. Lenin's Soviet state is history and deserves to be in the dustbin. Stalin inspires no one save for the party in North Korea and the Filipino cabal in Utrecht. Mao's portrait still hangs in Tiananmen but presides over a hypercapitalist wonderland. Hitler is fodder for hundreds of best selling books still mostly printed in England, but only the insane would think the English are big fans of der Fuhrer! The English are fascinated by the Nazis because they want to know how their democracy was able to defeat totalitarianism. With the sole of exception of China, all the countries of once led by these dictators are all democracies. Russia is a democracy but is on the way to becoming a functionin...

St Nicholas of Myra (a.k.a. Santa Claus) saves an innocent man from execution On March 30 three Filipinos will be executed in China for drug trafficking offences for which they have been convicted under Chinese law. They were convicted of trafficking more than 50 gms of heroin into China. The Noynoy Aquino government has done the little too late effort of pleading clemency and sent the Vice President Jojo Binay to speak with the Chinese. However he was reminded that under Chinese law, there is no one who can grant executive clemency not even the President of China. The authority to issue death warrants or take them lies only with China's Supreme Court. In most countries, the Head of State has the power to pardon or commute sentences. This power derives from the Divine Right of Kings . While the whole idea of a King being above the law has been largely abandoned, the power to pardon, commute or reprieve penalties is the last remaining vestige of this right in a republic and the P...

I received news of last Friday's 8.9 magnitude earthquake on Manila Bay since I was supposed to go on a boat and check my research sites. The skipper got a tsunami warning and so the boat ride was cancelled. At the office 30 minutes later, I was able to view in real time the arrival of the first tsunamis. In one video feed, I saw one town completely obliterated by the waves. Then came the videos of the unfolding Fukushima nuclear disaster, where the earthquake destroyed the reactors' backup power systems and that exploding nuclear reactor building. The exploding reactor building is now iconic. It permanently nukes the claim that nuclear power is disaster-proof and safe! Japan by destiny gives us reasons to really go No Nukes . The photos of the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 are iconic and so is the mushroom cloud over Fukushima's nuclear reactor. Japan renounced war and nuclear weapons and perhaps Japan may renounce nuclear energy, the first industria...

Latest to be infected with the Twitter and Facebook vectored democracy "virus" is absolutist Saudi Arabia . This Islamic Kingdom supplies the world with much of the oil, earns over 90% of its revenue from oil sales, and over the years had to "walk the talk" with the USA. Thus the Kingdom had to back the USA in its wars and interventions in the region short of sending the Kingdom's army to these trouble spots. The Kingdom also hosts the largest contingent of Filipino workers who have no rights of permanent residency. The USA hosts the biggest group of overseas Filipinos but many have rights of residency or have been granted American citizenship. The Kingdom's monarchs are also the Guardians of the Islamic Holy Places of Medina and Mecca. The state according to its constitution is governed according to the Quran and Islamic law. It is one of two sovereign states where a religious constitution is absolute, the other one is the Vatican. However like in Christi...

Professor Caesar Saloma, Dean of the College of Science has been very recently selected as chancellor of the University of the Philippines Diliman campus by the university Board of Regents (BOR). Prof Saloma is credited for seeing the eventual completion of the National Science Complex (NSC). The complex is near completion as the buildings of all the science institutes are in their final stages of construction. This is no mean achievement given the scale of the project and the funding shortfalls of recent years. Professor Saloma was chosen in what is believed to be a close contest between two other chancellor-nominees, all of whom are capable administrators. Prof Saloma is a renowned physicist and is a Galileo Galilei awardee for optics research. A capable administrator who despite years in Diliman, hasn't completely lost his Boholano accent, Saloma will have to deal with issues that have plagued the Diliman academic community for years. These range from staff benefits, faculty...

If we want to keep the EDSA spirit alive, we have to ensure she is victorious everywhere. Perhaps the President of the Philippines will consent to putting up a copy of this statue on EDSA. She is the real icon of People Power. If the President has enough moral courage, then once the statue is up, the Republic of the Philippines will no longer boycott a Nobel peace prize conferment. Also we will have to stop kowtowing to the political party that destroyed this statue's original.

The University of the Philippines high school department (now known as the UP Integrated School) will be moved from its Katipunan Road site on the periphery of the Diliman campus to near the UP College of Education. The move has been talked about for years. Katipunan Road over the decades has been turned into an extremely busy highway and students have been in real danger of being run over (and indeed some have and a few have been fatal). Just for this reason alone, moving the school nearer to the university academic core is most sensible. However the site has sentimental reasons to generations of old UPIS grads. But a cursory look at the campus would suggest that time has done its work and a new building on a new site is best. But the University of the Philippines had not much the funds to rehabilitate the buildings (the "new" building is 35 years old!) and so any talk of relocation or renovation was just that talk. And here comes Ayala Corporation, just fresh from put...

February 25, 1986, 10 AM Camp Crame. After spending the long night at arms. My dad took this photo of me with Mrs Luz Magsaysay at General Ramos' office The true spirit of EDSA 1986 does not really lie with those who politically benefited from the uprising. It lies with the people who were on the road, at the barricades or with like me with weapons at the ready, ready to fire at any armed group who would want to destroy the revolt . This photo with former first lady Mrs Luz Magsaysay remains memorable since in the morning of Feb 25, my dad at great risk to his safety pulled me out of that armed cadet outfit. An uprising like EDSA even though with noble intentions still is not worth the shedding of young people's blood. I was just 19 years old then. If you look closely at the lapel, I was wearing the badge of the UP ROTC marksmanship unit. The unit I was in were composed of UP ROTC cadets. Mrs Magsaysay I remember was greatly relieved that none of the cadets were shot at. At ...

Here are some reasons why the Philippines under any president be that may be The Great Apo Ferdie, Santa Corazon de Aquino, General "Daimos" Tabako, Asiong "Erap" Salonga,  the Gloria in Excelsis Arroyo and the Noynoy the PNoy, will never be another Singapore as long as we don't get out of our delusions. We have to remind Senator Bongbong Marcos that in Singapore They send people to jail or the gallows if convicted and the appeals process has run out. There is true Rule of Law in Singapore. In Flor Contemplacion's case there was no "consideration for a friend". Walang kai-kaibigan sa Singapore! And that is why Singapore is less corrupt than China! A "pasaway" American teen gets caned for vandalism and so does a Brit! And so Americans respect Singapore laws. If an American GI did a Corporal Smith there, he would have been detained not at the American Embassy but in the new Changi prison. They fine people who deserve to be fined, bubb...

None of the Marcoses have seen the view through the window of a jail cell but can look at the view from the Batasan and Senate office windows! The Cojuangcos still own a hacienda! There are still VALID reasons for Joma Sison to pontificate even after Communism has been thrown into the trash bin everywhere! Media, power and industry oligarchies are back. And they dupe their workers. Workers not getting their due. They also bleed the people in power rates! The 1987 Constitution Gloria Macapagal Arroyo takes the Presidency from Erap at the EDSA Shrine. The 1987 Constitution is thus stabbed fatally. Corrupt generals having "pabaon" while the AFP doesn't have decent air, naval and land forces assets. Congress Vietnam outpacing us economically. Remember they got pounded by the US of A.  Noynoy Aquino was elected on mom and dad's platform. And the government becomes like a badly run student council! BUT WAIT, WE STILL HAVE HOPE.

All set to bravely defend the Republic against its enemies! My father who was with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and retired as a general officer had a son and once he could walk did not put him into a Gucci but into a Philippine Army uniform! The only "pabaon" General Vallejo ever had upon retirement after 30 years of service was a pistol and a high powered automatic rifle (which he was entitled to after serving the Republic in its wars against enemies sworn to destroy it). However after the 1986 EDSA revolution, he donated these weapons to the Philippine Army museum so that young soldiers will have an idea of what it means to defend the Republic. Dad also spent countless hours training me to be a marksman and that began as soon as I first opened my eyes as a baby. By the time I was in high school, I was already trained to shoot and be deadly accurate at it! But I never had that weapons fetish. I never got the wind about using guns as a way to project one...

New UP President Alfredo Pascual last Feb 10 took over the reins of the University of the Philippines in a simple ceremony in Quezon Hall.  Mr Pascual served until Feb 9, 2017.His speech is here . The theme of Mr Pascual's  speech focused on the never ending effort to raise the standards of the university, modernize its infrastructure, turn it into a competitive research university without compromising the university's reputation for teaching excellence. However Mr Pascual, a chemistry graduate but development banker by profession, spilled out the necessary numbers. It is no secret that the salaries of professors are abysmally low and definitely uncompetitive. The same is true for the loyal staff which are even more disadvantaged. The numbers include that to make the salaries really competitive (professors on average should get 100,000 pesos a month from the measly 25,000 or so at present), the UP should have an endowment of at least 8 billion pesos (that is about 181 mill...