blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

The Philippine Navy deployed its fastest and most modern warship the BRP Gregorio del Pilar to interdict Chinese boats allegedly illegally fishing on Scarborough Shoals which is within Philippine territory. Sailors from the warship boarded one of the boats and found a catch of endangered giant clams and sharks. However Chinese civilian surveillance ships prevented the del Pilar to apprehend the Chinese resulting in a tense standoff . China claims the shoal as part of its territory. As of this writing the warship was ordered withdrawn by the naval command and replaced by a civilian coast guard cutter. This proves that the Philippines can project its naval power as a blue water navy even with limited assets. President Noynoy Aquino has put much priority in upgrading the naval and air assets of the armed forces and in decisively standing up to Beijing sent a message that China cannot treat its so called "China Sea" as its own lake . China will have to think twice. Another ...

St Theresa's College in Cebu (STC)  defended its decision to bar five of its girls to attend their graduation for donning swim wear that "amply showed" too much of their bodies. STC is a Catholic school and as such has the right to set standards of modesty for their students. Even the secular University of the Philippines still can set a standard for modesty and no Board of Regents (BOR) over the last 104 years has rescinded this right. This might be surprising for today's students of the national university but UP in the 1920s did have standards of modesty and the State University had a Dean of Men and a Dean of Women to make sure these standards were observed. Then as now UP had a lack of proper dormitories and most students boarded in flophouses in Ermita and Intramuros where they were exposed to vice. A few "dormed" in facilities run by churches. My grandmother who was a nursing student during that time boarded in a dorm run by Protestants. (At least we...

A metal is mined from the ground. For example  Iron was mined and it gave rise to the Iron age when people used iron for making tools rather than bronze. But before that copper was mined first and relatively soft copper allowed people to master metallurgy. It's alloy with tin, bronze was harder and has more uses than copper and it brought forth the Bronze age in human history. The use of iron came much later.  Iron was softer than bronze but required more advanced "smithy" technologies. However it was in more supply and it replaced the bronze technologies in what historians call the Bronze Age collapse. Homer's "The Iliad" describes metaphorically what this collapse involved. The mining of minerals surely caused a technological revolution in the time when humans shifted from neolithic hunter gatherer and incipient agriculture to a more permanent agricultural state. And the need for mineral resources grows unabated as we come up with more technologies. ...

Contrary to what Miriam the Theologian says, even non Christian religions view Hell as a place in this case a  wok! If Miriam Defensor Santiago were Pope. She would have declared as infallible dogma that there isn't any Hell and if there was, then nobody's there! But that's not what the Pope John Paul II inspired Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) says in article  1033 "T he teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."  The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs." The CCC remains the official catechism for the Catholic Church.  I suppose Miriam the Theologian studied this book in the Maryhill School of Theology on E Rodriguez Avenue, Quezon ...

In the wake of the Watergate scandals, a 1970s issue of the American satirical Mad Magazine had a spoof of Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado" lampooning American senators, congressmen and the would have been impeached President Richard Nixon but Nixon resigned soon after thus sending the unelected Gerald Ford to the White House.  The"usual Gang of idiots" did not change an iota of the comic opera script but had hilarious cartoons imagining what possible punishment would fit the crime! My object all sublime I shall achieve in time — To let the punishment fit the crime — The punishment fit the crime; And make each prisoner pent Unwillingly represent A source of innocent merriment! Of innocent merriment! One of the punishments meted was subjecting the Watergate crew to an endless loop of the tapes. Now of course no sane American reader would SERIOUSLY consider subjecting Dick Nixon to an endless loop of the Watergate tapes and the famous "I...

The Roman Catholic Church has found it the hard way on the RH bill. Mass prayer rallies do not work on the Aquino administration! The politcally astute, potential papabile , and de facto Primate of all the Philippines, Archbishop of Manila, the Most Rev Dr Chito Tagle has said that the only option for the most numerous Church is the negotiating table. Tomorrow the Iglesia ni Cristo will find it the hard way too if Rappler.com is right . If Catholic liturgies won't work on Noynoy, neither will Grand Evangelical Missions (GEMs) will. For one thing in some political matters, Aquino is beyond evangelizing! This is a result of the increasing secular nature of Philippine society. Aquino doesn't find any value on debts of gratitude to any religious organization . This means that for the Aquino administration, religion has been largely disestablished.  Aquino doesn't care for de facto religious establishment which the INCs doctrine of command votes tries to secure.  Aquino'...

2012 marks the centennial of citizen's military training in the Philippines which began at the University of the Philippines on 17 March 1912. While Filipinos have throughout history responded to calls to defend their land (Filipinos resisted British occupation in 1762), the Spanish Army having earlier established a militia at the University of Santo Tomas (General Antonio Luna learned his basic military tactics here), it was only in 1912 when the citizen's army was really meant to defend the Philippines and not just the imperialist power which had sovereignty over the islands then. This is the essence of a citizen's armed forces to defend the home and hearth. The idea wasn't new. The British Army established militias in their colonies and it eventually became the nucleus of the revolutionary army that forced the British out of the American Colonies. In other British colonies which had a peaceful transition to independence and sovereignty, the militias became the nu...

In what appears to be a result of excesses of the past administration, some civil servants are up in arms about the revised Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN)  form which they are  required to submit to the Civil Service Commission. They believe it is an invasion of privacy as well as plain silly! Anyway, especially for the benefit of those not in the civil service, I am posting what a typical SALN form of a civil servant really looks like! Enjoy. Judge for yourself. As the Roman adage goes "The more corrupt the Republic the more are the forms..." ooops I meant the laws! STATEMENT OF ASSETS, LIABILITIES AND NET WORTH  AND DISCLOSURE OF BUSINESS INTERESTS, FINANCIAL CONNECTIONS AND RELATIVE/S IN THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE As of December 31, 2011 (Required by R.A. Nos. 3019 and 6713)                ( Note: Husband and Wife who are both public officials or employees may  ...