The Irate Spectator

On Why I Think SOPA is more serious than Chief Justice Corona's Impeachment

2012-01-22T08:55:00.000-08:00

I was in the middle of a "session" with some old friends when one of them mentioned that he was following the Corona impeachment trial but was much more concerned with the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act in the US Congress. In fact, he already had quite a few posts about SOPA but he hasn't posted yet about the impeachment trial on his Facebook.

I quite agree with him, seeing as I have been very passionate about posting about SOPA lately, since I too haven't been giving the Impeachment trial much thought. Now, before I get crucified about caring more about my internet life than about momentous changes in our country, allow me to explain myself.

SOPA, which is a bill sponsored in the US House of Representatives by a (surprise, surprise) Republican Congressman purports to have the protection of intellectual property rights and the prevention of piracy and copyright infringement. Instead, the bill's sweeping provisions sharply curtail websites hosting user content, which by the way is the driving force behind the contemporary internet. Now I have never been a fan of the way corporate interests have used the banner of intellectual property rights to legitimize their drive to build monopolies. This trick is as old as Thomas Edison, who we recognize today as the inventor of the light bulb because he was quick to patent innovations that aren't even his own. In contrast, we have never heard of guys like Hiram Maxim and Nikola Tesla who were able to come up with working light bulbs before Edison did but since they didn't have patents, well, in the eyes of the law they were infringing on Edison's copyrights. If he invented anything, it's this trick. Now we have indigenous people unable to use traditional medicinal herbs because pharmaceutical companies hold the patents. That's copyright for you.

SOPA therefore is not something new. It's a natural outgrowth of the "free" market economy. Driven by profit, our friends in the big corporations are now eyeing the internet and want to make sure that the only stuff that gets posted there are stuff we bought from them. Never mind that it puts an end to an era of global interconnectedness unheard of in human history.

Understandably, SOPA has sparked an intense outcry all over the Web. Wikipedia and Reddit blacked out their sites in protest and sites like Twitter and Facebook released statements condemning the bill. And of course, 9Gag churned out its response from the usual meme based satires to poignant condemnations (e.g. Granpa talking to kids about a now defunct internet). This confrontation is highly significant. One, you have corporate interests, which have pretty much been given free rein in America (and the world since everybody has to follow America or else) because that's how the free market works, suddenly faced by a massive public backlash and two, that public backlash is coming from people all over the world who are sacred stiff about not being able to post videos on Youtube without the friking FBI checking if it's clean.

The backlash against SOPA is not isolated but part of a trend. The Global Financial Recession demolished an already crumbling idea: that we are at the end of history and the free market economy and liberal democracy have triumphed over its titanic struggle with socialism and communism. Almost twenty years after the Berlin Wall fell, capitalism seems to be driving us not toward progress but to ruins. And all over the world, people are noticing. That's why you have the Occupy movement and massive protests in Europe and Latin America.

What about the Impeachment Trial? Here, we watch how two factions of the same reactionary elite fighting amongst themselves for the prize of being the official reactionary elite who gets to control the government and make sure that elite interests still rule while enjoying the perks of official elite-dom. Which is very boring for me considering that I have been watching this from the moment that I began to comprehend politics. That doesn't mean I have rationally abstained from participation in the impeachment trial, my position is squarely in the Impeach Corona team. But after this impeachment there will be changes but ultimately the system in the Philippines and the world will still be the same so even if all this political drama has become monotonous for us it will still play out in front of us because nobody really bothered to change the script.

But the system is cracking. Years ago it would be unthinkable to blame the system for our economic and political troubles. Such criticisms were dismissed as 'ideological' or worse 'uneducated' because they dared to question the free market and liberal democracy that have been vindicated by their "victory' in the Cold War. But now the failure of the system lies bare for everyone to see like a huge Error Message on your monitor. SOPA may have already been squelched but the confrontation between those who benefit from the system and those who are exploited by the system will not only continue but will sharpen.

So it begins, the greatest battle of our age.

On these Anti-Cojuangco Videos all over our Facebook Newsfeeds (And Why I Love Game of Thrones So Much)

2011-11-05T09:26:00.000-07:00

I love Game of Thrones. Best piece of fantasy literature I picked up since Lord of the Rings. Unlike the usual examples from the genre, magic and other fantastical themes are kept in the background. Sure, there are dragons and dark freaky creatures that held the known world under their dark dominion but they've haven't been seen for years and yes, there are sorcerers and warlocks but the maesters of the Citadel sniff at their supposed occult powers as nothing but 'higher mysteries' that would eventually be explained by rational knowledge. What keeps the story going is the cutthroat backstabbing and open warfare by Westeros' noble families in their quest to outwit, outplay and outlast each other and gain the ultimate prize - the privilege to sit on a throne made of still-sharp swords and get to be hailed as King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm. That is a refreshing variation from stereotypical fantasy fiction that makes the plot utterly compelling. I mean look at all these characters, they are so human. So human it feels like you can actually see them in the real world.

And as a matter of fact you can. Imagine all these noble families fighting it out over who's going to get a really badass title but instead of fighting for the Lordship of the Seven Kingdoms they're after the Presidency of Seven Thousand One Hundred Seven Islands and you can see where this is going.

Much has been said about how a few powerful families comfortably occupy the social pyramid that is the Philippines both in academic circles, where they came up with really intellectual sounding names to describe it (elite democracy, oligarchic patrimonialism, bossism, machine politics etc.) and in the not so academic circles (aka barbershops, tsismis centers, tagay joints and the like) with charming words like kurap and trapo. And now a series of videos that have more or less gone viral accuse none other than Benigno of House Aquino The Third of His Name, President of the Seven Thousand One Hundred Seven Islands and his mother's family House Cojuangco of Tarlac of being part and promoter of this oligarchy along with assorted charges such as but not limited to, misleading the good people of the Philippines regarding their family's legacy and role in the Edsa Revolution.

The first one I watched is called "NINOY + PEOPLE POWER: Hidden Truths the Media is not Telling Us". It's less viral (in my Facebook that is, it's got more views on YouTube because it was posted earlier) and more weird. Although the makers of the video begin with a disclaimer stating that they do not intend to "offend, insult or humiliate" Filipinos in general or a particular Filipino, one is not comforted by their promotion of websites like antipinoy.com. And the way the video is made makes them sound like crackpot conspiracy theorists fresh out of a Dan Brown novel. They did get a lot of facts straight, tough. Like Cory being in Cebu when people started to go to Edsa, for example, and the attempted coup by Manong Johnny Enrile and Gringo Honasan who wanted to set up a military junta to replace Marcos and even how Apo Ferdinand couldn't have killed his frat brod Ninoy because he was seriously considering his greatest rival to be his best replacement. The video even has the scholarly rigor to mention its sources, many of which are credible. But in the end the video is guilty of the same sin it condemns: Hiding Truths.

No matter how much they claim that it isn't Marcos propaganda, the portrait they paint of him makes our man Macoy seem like a good guy who built a lot of neat stuff (Like the Coconut Palace), promoted nationalism and basically wanted to make the country into something really great but the Communists in China sent their "radical" student, farmer and worker cadres to throw molotov cocktails at the Presidential Palace and generally making a lot of mess that he was forced to declare Martial Law, and that Marcos was such a benevolent leader because he sentenced Ninoy to death but didn't carry out the sentence and was even so gracious and merciful that he sent the man to the US for medical treatment out of the goodness of his heart. You just gotta love Marcos after watching that part. And it gets even better. Marcos was legitimately elected during the Snap elections but because of the actions of Cardinal Sin, summoned "hakot crowds", "Veteran Professional Communist Protesters" (Note on how the pejorative emphasis on Communist makes the video sound like some Cold War holdover) and curious civilians (which I think can be translated to usisero), he was driven away by People Power. Poor Marcos.

Never mind that the so-called "radical" students, farmers and workers were the embodiments of the popular outrage against the foreign supported-oligarchy (which Marcos didn't abolish btw, he simply replaced it with homies from his own crew). Never mind that our trillion dollar debt came from the Marcos years. Never mind that he and his cronies got lots of juicy kickbacks for all the beautiful stuff they built. Never mind that Ninoy and all the journalists, activists and political opponents of Marcos were denied a trial by an impartial tribunal. Never mind that the Martial Law years silenced an entire generation of Filipinos and warped our political culture and institutions. Never mind that the Snap elections were so fraudulent that there was a stiff movement to boycott the polls and after the election the computer guys from the Comelec walked out of the vote count because the numbers that were displayed didn't match the numbers they were getting. Never mind that he prevented the airing of the last five episodes of Voltes V. This is the part that makes the video, which really had the potential of being an intelligent critique of the Edsa myth, degenerate into a crazy mixture of truth and untruth that the gullible will believe in its entirety.

The other video is more recent and more sober. It's called "AQUINO COJUANGCO: FACTS THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW HD" (side note again: HD here would most probably stand for Hi-Definition, I included it anyway so we get the full title), from the same uploader but less conspiracy theory-ish than the other video. It recounts how the Cojuangcos rose to prominence, allegedly because of Revolution money from Antonio Luna, how they got their hands on the infamous Hacienda Luisita (Hint: having Pres. Magsaysay as a wedding ninong was a big help) and the track record of the two Aquino presidents on the Agrarian problem (Keywords: Mendiola Massacre, Extra-judicial killings, CARP, Stock Distribution Option, Hacienda Luisita Massacre). Much of it has already reached the media, especially during the last election, where PNoy was the darling candidate of the media, though, unsurprisingly, not all media outlets gave it much coverage (*cough* ABS-CBN *cough*). This is a nice place to put in a quote from Michel Foucault about the relationship between power and knowledge but I confess I still haven't gotten the feel of his prose so let's just pretend I put one here and move on. All in all, this video, minus the creepy part starting at 13:00 where it plays Noy's election jingle backward to unravel it's purported subliminal content, really does educate the unaware and hitherto apathetic about the extent to which our society is dominated by a socioeconomic elite to which our duly elected Chief Executive happens to belong.

Okay. So we all hate the Cojuangcos because of the vids. But now what? For every Lannister that makes it to the Iron Throne you have Baratheons, Tyrells, Martells and exiled Targaryens (not to mention a few Littlefingers) eager to take its place as Paramount House. They call their banners and denounce the tyrant/usurper/bastard sitting on the Iron Throne only to replace him with a new bigshot who concerns himself with either wenching or beating the snot out of the other Houses so they don't replace him with someone else. And as the 1% lords bicker among themselves the 99% smallfolk live out their lives in poverty and ignorance, oblivious to but victims of the nobles' total war even as winter draws near and the friggin' Others are trudging their way towards the Wall. What should the 99% do? Perhaps it's time for them to stop being pawns and become real players in the Game of Thrones. If they do, either they win or they die. If they don't they are killed by decades-long winter or the Others will turn them into mindless zombie slaves (i.e. They still die). In short, now is a great time for them to unite because they have nothing to lose but their chains.

On Watching Harry Potter 7 by Myself

2011-08-07T02:00:00.000-07:00

As I type this my family is out watching the last Harry Potter Movie while I get left behind. It's really not as tragic as it seems since I had already watched it, in spite of my own admonitions, by myself earlier this week. I had been repeatedly telling students not to watch movies alone warning that such an activity fosters an unhealthy individualism that would inevitably corrode our already fragile democracy, political science buffs might recognize Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone hypothesis here. But I couldn't find somebody else to go with me as I've been quite busy to look. Still, the desperation to see the friggin' movie was so strong that during my really long MWF free period I headed straight to the Country Mall Cinema (yes, I said the Country Mall Cinema and why not? It's cheap and really near TC. Sure there was that freaky guy who seemed to whisper to himself four seats to my right but it wasn't so bad).

You could understand my desperation (Oh alright... I admit, I was really so desperate that I watched it at the Country Mall) when you realize that I am part of what you might call the Harry Potter generation. I saw the first movie while in elementary, begged my tita living in the US to buy me the fifth book when in high school and watched Part 1 of Deathly Hallows with the ticket I earned when I went overtime at my call center job. I practically grew up with that kid who survived You-Know-Who but almost gets himself killed every school year. And there I was sitting alone in the cinema for the long awaited ending.

However, I have to say that around the time when I started college I actually stopped watching the movies and reading the books. Partly because I got busy doing other things (if I wasn't busy reading Cruz' Political Law or Meyer's International Relations and the Third World I was immersed in Guerreros' Philippine Society and Revolution) and partly because Harry Potter started to look childish to me. It became something that I had to discard and relegate to my baul now that more serious, grown-up concerns preoccupied me. Later on though, I ran into my old friend Harry and found that he too, thanks to Rowling's talent for character development, had matured from a confused orphan from Sorcerer's Stone to the angsty teen in Order of the Phoenix into the Chosen One who accepted the role he had to play and gave up everything, even dropping out of Hogwarts, to put an end to the Dark Lord's comeback. So I picked up where I left off and stayed on till the end.

And what an ending it was. Jeezas! I never realized that Harry Potter could be as epic as Lord of the Rings! I mean, seriously, an army of Death Eaters, giants and werewolves laying siege to Hogwarts!! And the professors did that really cool chain spell thing that shielded the whole damn castle!! I was literally making weird geeking out noises while watching, and I know I can be excused seeing as McGonagall also seemed to be feeling the same when she summoned the Hogwarts statues to join in the defense.

But the epic awesomeness, like all good things, has to come to an end. After good old Longbottom saves them all and the dust of the kickass battle settles, we fast forward to the epilogue 19 years later where we see that our young heroes who took down a full-grown mountain troll in their first year and struggled to get a date for the Yule Ball (well, only for Harry and Ron that is) three years later are now proud parents sending off their children to their first year at Hogwarts. It was amusing how they tried to make everyone look older using makeup, false beards and appropriate wardrobe. But in one of the closing scenes where the entire dramatis personae are shown together for a parting shot I couldn't help feeling emotional. It really is the end.

We too have grown up, so it appears. The people I used to watch the movies with and engaged in many deep discussions on our detailed analysis of the latest books are now either working, married, abroad graduated, have kids of their own or a combination/variation of the above. As for me, I sat there alone because in my preoccupation with my job, my masters and my extra-curricular activities I barely had time for stuff that I used to take for granted. It seems inevitable that we follow this sequence expected by society. We graduate, we find work, we integrate ourselves into the corporate machinery and we live out the rest of our lives selling our labor power happily oblivious about what else is happening around us. But is this really growing up?

In the end, we say the Harry Potter series moved from children's literature to serious fiction when Quidditch matches and Potions class took a back seat to the ultimate conflict between good and evil. Harry himself matured as a character when understood the role he had to play to finally defeat his archnemesis and willingly accepted it. Everyone else in the wizarding world faced a similar choice, to roll over to Voldemort and his Death Eater minions or to stand up for what is right and just. Most would follow Aberforth's advice and just go home and live long lives. But some took the road less traveled and chose to stand by Harry and defied the Dark Lord even when he was brought to them seemingly dead. A lot of them didn't even live to see Voldemort's demise. But when they chose to give up their own personal concerns for something bigger than themselves, that made all the difference. And that marked them as having grown up.

So it is in the wizarding world, so it is also in the Muggle world.

On 2011 and Cebu's Love of Dancing

2011-01-15T05:17:00.000-08:00

The New Year is already two weeks old and it took me this long to say something about it. This says something about my New Year's resolution to discipline myself. I'm even guilty of spending an extra hour or two conquering the Star Wars galaxy on my PC when I'm supposed to be sleeping early. To combat this addiction and to help me in my discipline, I shall strive to post regularly again (hopefully) especially now that I don't have the excuse of not having time.

Speaking of the New Year, the month of January is also pretty big here in Cebu because of the Sinulog and my good friend here is reminding everyone to be extra careful. Once again it's time for the City to dance to one beat in celebration of the Holy Child Jesus. Personally, I'm not much of a Sinulog person. The crowds and the traffic drives me away, but the same can't be said about millions of other people out there.

Now, I practically grew up here in Cebu (though not in the city but in a little island across the Mactan Channel) but it still amazes me every time I see the Sugbuanons near fanatical devotion to Sto. Niño. Of course, they have been known to be very religious but still that doesn't seem to explain it. Come on, I don't think the majority of these people think of going to church when they hear "Pit Senyor!"

Although I do have a theory. It seems to me Cebuanos just love to dance. We have dancing inmates (proudly displayed on YouTube), dancing tax collectors (a fact proudly displayed on a concrete island in Barrio Luz not far from BIR) even a dancing Governor (proudly displayed on whatever propaganda material the Provincial Government gets its hands on).

What is it with Cebu and Dancing?!

I asked this question out loud one day. I really can't remember the answer I got exactly but it went something like "We just like to!" Well, I guess that would be enough of a reason. Let's just hope the rain doesn't mess things up tomorrow.

PIT SEÑOR!!

On Why I did not Proceed to Law this Year

2010-08-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

Every time I run into somebody from college or with somebody who knew i took up Political Science, the conversation inevitably revolves around why I didn't go to law school this year. It comes in a delectable group of flavors like the surprised("Wa diay ka mag-law?"), assuming (Musta man ang law? Ha? Wa diay ka nag-law?) and, my personal favorite, the interrogative (Naganung wa man kuno ka nag-law beh?). Frankly, I don't understand the fuss of it all especially since I already resolved not to proceed to law even before I started my last year in university. Don't get me wrong, I do plan on studying law, I just don't want to do it yet and I have, not just one, but a series of compelling reasons why.

First, I don't have the money. This is quite superficial I'm sure and it's the one I would give when asked, but probably because I sound like I was joking, people just don't believe me (*sigh*). But it's true. It's a fact that Law school is expensive whatever school you pick and I'm not just talking about the tuition, which goes up every year by the way... (EDUCATION NOT FOR SALE!! NO TO TFI!!) but was thinking about the thick hardbound original books, the mountains of photocopied cases and the semi-formal clothes that I have to procure. With my sister starting college this year I'd rather be earning my keep than adding to the family expenses.

Second, it's so darn tiresome. The day I decided not to proceed to law the year after graduation was the day of the midterms for my Obligations and Contracts class. I was staring at the nth article of the Civil Code that I had to jam into my overflowing brain when it dawned on me that in law school I will be doing this everyday for every subject on a brutal difficulty setting. The great Arsenio Tan (may his name be forever revered) said that to become a lawyer you don't really have to be intelligent but you must be diligent. I had used up all my diligence for the law by that midterm day.

Third, I just don't want to proceed this year, that's all. Imagine, spending half of your life in a classroom, eagerly anticipating the day when you get your college diploma and enter the so-called "real world" only to go back to another classroom, classier and heavily airconditioned but nonetheless a classroom. Now that I graduated there's so much to do and so much to see. Law school can wait. On a more serious note, there are around 40,000 lawyers in the Philippines but we don't have justice. Law school can teach you about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights or the Civil Code but not about justice, equity or freedom. You learn that not by reading cases or law books but by going out into society and immersing yourself in the everyday struggles of the common tao. Before I want to learn about the law, I want to learn about justice first.

Let me end this post with a parting shoutout to the all the Polsci majors out there. We are NOT predestined to proceed to law. Just because we took up this major, doesn't mean we are absolutely compelled to start a career in law. We really don't have to if we don't want to. Going to law school is a big investment, you're putting in at the very least four precious years of your life. In that span of you could have gotten married, become a world-famous writer, started a business or whatever. So think things through before taking the plunge. I did, but I'll just be putting it off for a few years.

On Noynoy's Innauguration

2010-06-29T23:55:00.000-07:00

I'm sure everyone who had a TV watched Aquino's swearing in today. Of course, it's not hard to miss seeing as today was declared a holiday in honor of the occasion, that is, if you weren't part of the crazed horde of moviegoers taking advantage of the rest day to watch the latest installment of that hideous vampire franchise. I wasn't really looking forward to the inauguration, not having voted for Noynoy. Actually, I didn't vote because I was too busy working as an election monitor, but I wouldn't have voted for him in any case. Still, with every station preempting their regular programs to broadcast the Inauguration live, I really had nothing else to watch.

As expected, Quirino grandstand was inundated by a sea of humanity, PNP said there were half a million souls there, all jostling to watch Aquino and Binay take their oaths of office. If I had been there, I would undoubtedly be cursing, I would understand that they would want to have a few musical numbers to set the mood but please, they called in so many that it was starting to get boring. I mean, do we really have to listen to an a capella rendition of You Raise Me Up? And Noel Cabangon, a great artist and songwriter, but he really got into my nerves for hogging the mike for too long. I do believe that a Presidential Inauguration is an affair steeped in history. Too much star power and intermission numbers debases the solemnity of it all and distracts from the true highlights of the day - the oath taking and inaugural speech.

Which brings us to the speech. Ever since I heard Aquino's plan to cut his speech short I've been up in arms. Especially after the giggling organizers kept going on and on about his "song number" It would be outrageous for a new president, especially somebody who promised to bring change in a change-hungry nation, to skip the speech and concentrate on the singing. Does this mean we're back to the age of Bread and Circuses? But kudos to Aquino himself who revised the speech nine times to come up with an exhaustive address that took up nearly twenty minutes. In addressing his constituents at least, he proved how serious he was.

Nonetheless, if you take out the "Daang Tuwid" rhetoric that he's been using since the election campaign he sounds quite typical, especially with the part where he lays down the plan for his administration. You find the typical infrastructure-heavy approach to almost any problem from education to agriculture and neoliberal buzzwords like "levelling the playing field" that it almost sounds as if you're listening to GMA's Sona. He never even mentioned Hacianda Luisita or giving land to landless farmers for that matter. Apparently he believes they should have irrigation before they can have title to their lands. He wants to solve the education problem by building more classrooms also probably forgetting that tuition and other fees have skyrocketed. Now that doesn't make sense to me.

Still, Aquino took several positive steps by appointing respected CHR chair Leila De Lima to the DOJ and setting up a Truth Commission headed by ex-CJ Davide. The biggest and most pressing challenge for the Aquino Administration, aside from resolving the Luisita dispute of course, will be making their predecessors account for the accusations leveled against them. By making these designations and vowing to look into Arroyo's midnight appointments, Aquino showed he has every intention of taking up the challenge.

The eminent Cebuano historian Resil Mojares wrote that Philippine politicians rely on manipulating symbols while avoiding the real issues since tinkering with them might disturb the status quo which they seek to preserve. Now we see how the Laban sign and Bayan Ko, both powerful symbols of the anti-Marcos struggle and earlier waves of protest, got de facto copyrighted by the Liberals for use in their election campaign. Now we have a pledge to have "no reconciliation without justice" even as we find a convicted plunderer with a place of honor among VIPs. Now we hear words like "social reform" and "equitable justice" being thrown around while agrarian reform and nationalist development are nowhere to be found. Now we see a leader who promises Pagbabago but sounds just like any other politico.

Fourteen years ago, another sea of humanity washed out a twenty-year dictatorship and ushered in the first Aquino Administration. But after those historic days at Edsa, the pre-Martial Law elites regained their former places after being rudely displaced by Marcos and his cronies. Changing presidents is just the beginning. Genuine change can't be brought about by a single person even if you invest in him all the powers that the Constitution can confer on an individual. It can only come when the people themselves shake off the indifference and passivity that has allowed the privileged few to dominate the oppressed many here in our country. When Arroyo first took her oath of office at the Edsa Shrine she too was surrounded by adoring crowds hailing the return of democracy. Now, as President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III takes office in the midst of so much promise, let us sober up and remember that the hard part is only beginning. It is now time to hold Noynoy accountable for all his campaign pledges. For those who watched Aquino today, we should keep watching.

On Charter Change and Meeting Mar Roxas

2009-06-14T09:00:00.001-07:00

I spent my Independence Day at the Laguna Garden Cafe across Ayala Center Cebu in a Democracy Forum sponsored by the National Institute for Policy Studies (NIPS for short...), the Liberal Party think tank. Besides the free lunch and snacks, I accepted the invitation to hear Sen. Mar Roxas, arguably the most vocal candidate for the presidency in 2010, and maybe ask him a few questions as a critical first-time voter.

By my personal assessment, Roxas, though a scion of the aristocratic Roxas and Araneta families, is one of the more progressive than the other candidates because of his close association with maverick legislators like partymate Rep. Erin Tañada, himself a member of a distinguished clan of nationalist politicians, a former student leader and current Chair of the House Committee on Human Rights. I've met Tañada twice and even then he had been endorsing his fellow Liberal so I figured, if Erin likes him maybe he's got something there.

Unfortunately, Mar didn't stay too long. After an entrance fit for a ead of State, he made a brief speech in his distinctly Ilonggo accent thanking everyone for coming and apologizing that he had to be home by noon as Korina was waiting for him in Manila. But he was still kind enough to stay for some picture taking and autograph signing as everyone in the jam-packed room mobbed him.

The questions were left to NIPS Director Lambert Ramirez who admitted that he wasn't really authoritative on the candidate's views but whose answers i suppose was congruent with the party line. Concerned student that I am, I asked him about their plans on tution fee increase and the commercialization of education. He replied by saying how ticklish the tuition fee issue was and that Sen. Roxas had already consulted with the National Union of Students of the Philippines and was tilting toward socialized tuition fees (which I think is applicaple only to State Universities). Then the forum went back to the LP's networking campaign strategy for 2010.

Let us digress for a while. Once upon a time, freshman year in college to be more specific, I was a staunch advocate of Charter Change aka Cha-Cha. I would argue with anyone who challenged my views, even if it meant it was the whole class. The Philippines was a mess and everyone knew it.Change was something we needed, I reasoned, and change should begin with the Constitution that serves as the framework of our political system. Parliamentary government will reduce deadlocks between legislature and executive, Federalism will free up the supressed energies of local government and Charter Change was, as I pointed out in a term paper, justified by Aristotle's political philosophy.

Fast forward to the present and you see me now as an active member of the No to Con-Ass Facebook group and trashtalking pro-ConAss lawmakers whenever I have the chance. Why the about face? I realized that you need more than just Charter Change to fix this country. No, I'm not into the "It's not the system but it's the people" thing. Our political and economic woes go beyond our Constitution and is deeply rooted in the very structure of our society. We can't get anywhere without dismantling elite rule which has thrived in Philippine politics no matter how many times we changed constitutions. However, middle class thinking, which was initially mu stanpoint, sees things differently. Recognizing the need for change but reluctant to take steps that might drastically alter the status quo, Charter Change is the easy answer.

This is the kind of thinking i see in the LP, as the answers to my questions show. Most of the Liberals' position are cautious middle-of-the-road compromises. They are against Con-Ass but push for Charter Change through Con-Con. They are concerned with agrarian reform but prefer extending and reforming the gradualist CARP instead of the more forceful GARB. Like any mainstream party, they are also quiet on political dynasties.

We keep on hearing how the 2010 polls will bring change. That's a given, but maybe we should also be thinking about how far we ought to go. Perhaps the more progressive presidentiables should be more progressive.

On 2010..

2009-05-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

It has been months since my last post. It's not that my highly sensitive sense of moral outrage has lessened. I'm just either too busy or too lazy. But I digress.

All these cheesy commercials keep reminding us that the bourgeois charade of democracy called the elections are now near enough for the numerous presidential aspirants to obsess themselves with catching the public eye. It seemed only yesterday that candidates tried to outdo each other in projecting the hip pro-youth persona by championing education and the kabataan. Again we find sanctimonious political dinosaurs lecturing young people on how much the country needs them, about how we need to be involved in choosing our leaders, how they are so unselfishly committed to the cause of future generations and how crucial the youth vote will be in 2010.

Please. Tell that to the schoolchildren who trek for five hours to get to their dilapidated schoolhouse and share their textbook with three other classmates, to the families of the murdered student leaders and campus journalists whose killers remain at large. Tell it to the university student who has to quit school because he couldn't affor to pay for his "right to quality education" and tell that to the girl who got pregnant and doesn't know who the father is or the gay kid who can't go inside his school for "cross-dressing". I supose I'm not the only one feeling too busy or too lazy.

Pardon my cynicism but as a Political Science Major and student of Philippine Politics, I have lost the luxury of blissful ignorance. A semester and a pile of reading materials on this subject and I look at the beleaguered Arroyo Administration besieged by Hello Garci and ZTE and I flash back to the 1950s when Elpidio Quirino facing accusations of fraud and violence in the 1949 elections (which by the way is considered the dirtiest Philippine election, that is, until Marcos took dirty to new heights) as well as numerous graft scandals finds an impeachment complaint in the House of Representatives with his name on it. Familiarly, his Congressional lap dogs squashed the complaint when it was put into a vote an omen of things to come. My bottom line, it all happened before and it's all gonna happen again. Even if we keep reshuffling the people we're all doomed unless we change the system.

Of course, like any good Catholic, i give the politicians the benefit of the doubt and to see what they had to say for themselves I stayed up to watch the ANC Leadership Forum last night where rumored presidentiables(actually announcing candidacy would prevent them from prematurely campaigning after all) answered a few queries courtesy of ANC and the Ateneo School of Government. Present were Senators Mar Roxas, Chiz Escudero, Dick Gordon; Governor Ed Panlilio and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro. MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando, Mayor Jejomar Binay and Sen. Ping Lacson were also invited buts sadly couldn't make it.The questions ranged from the personal (What was the last book you read/movie you watched, Which person inspires you?) to the serious political ones (Would you join a coalition with Manny Pacquiao's Party?Do you support an investigation on the Arroyos alleged corruption?).

Ex-priest Among Ed sounded, expectedly enough, like our parish priest. He talked about St. Paul's open minded leadership style and how corruption is not just endemic to government but in the whole of society and requires a regeneration of moral fiber to combat. Gordon appeared dull and boring, perhaps overshadowed by his more charismatic fellow speakers. He kept on droning about Thomas More and Lord Acton while the moderator was calling the time. He did give an emotional account on how his father, the American-born mayor of Olongapo killed by political opponents, inspired him to enter public service, choking up when he quoted Lorenzo Tañada's eulogy for him ("He was born American, but raised a Filipino and died a Filipino"). Mar Roxas, was the one most obviously gunning for the presidency and you could feel the pressure he was in to get the limelight. His answers were insightful but Escudero got more laughs. Well, except for his melodramatic defense that he was marrying Korina Sanchez for love and not political gain. Chiz was the darling of the crowd, drawing chuckles even as he made veiled attacks on the President. Asked the Pacquiao question he bluntly replied he would support the People's Champ, as long as he's not with the one he visited at Malacañang earlier in the day. Asked the movie question and he answered "Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo".

Arroyo herself wasn't there but the shadow of her presidency was ever looming especially for Admin ally Teodoro. "Gibo" Teodoro dutifully took up the cudgels for the President, extolling her many achievements (i.e. the usual fare: infrastructure, 7.3% GDP growth in 2007, peace and order blah, blah, blah...) and expressing his support on a probe on her family but cautioning that if it was only political harassment "I will protect my President." Mr. Palengke Roxas and Gordon focused on their personal relationship with the President, Mr. Palengke admitting she supported him against the cement and pharmaceutical cartels while DTI Secretary and Gordon about how they used to work together in the Senate. Panlilio discoursed about the inherent goodness found in everyone and praised Arroyo for her commitment to the environment through the Solid Waste Management Act and the Alternative Fuels Law. (I suppose Among Ed isn't familiar with the trouble in the Tañon Strait which is nothing but an outgrowth of her neoliberal policies, but i don't take that against him).

My evaluation? Chiz scored with the audience and all the rest were struggling to get a piece of the attention. Teodoro, particularly, passed off as little more than an Administration lackey, which is not good as negative SWS ratings dog his boss. Mar tried to get noticed but, let's just say he can still catch up with the publicity from the upcoming wedding of the century. But all in all, everyone was playing safe. Nothing much about Cha-Cha, Human rights, Extrajudicial kilings, Agrarian reform or any profound critique on the Philippine economy, society or political system. Nobody said anything about the Tuition Moratorium Bill or the Magna Carta for Students, not even about the Reproductive Health Bill. But yes, there was the usual appeal to the delicious chunk of two million first-time voters (which include me by the way) and their youthful compatriots.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not discouraging young people from voting. Your friendly neighborhood cynic is just telling all the young voters to not put their hopes up too high. If you really want change through the ballot, first, pray like hell that the polls will be clean. Next, pray like hell the people who get elected are clean. Then, pray like hell the next elections will be clean. Repeat steps 1 and 2 indefinitely. It's a long shot but, hey, nobody said change through the ballot was quick and introducing profound changes to the system is really messy and not that sexy compared to all the cool star-studded political ads and campaign jingles. As for me, I prefer to put my vote where it won't be wasted like on Kabataan Party-list, our sectoral organization who just recently was awarded a seat in Congress by the Supreme Court after years of litigation (and God knows how many more years of endless struggle before that). In fact, I' m going to get registered, when I'm not either too busy or too lazy.

On the TC Migration

2009-02-03T06:13:00.000-08:00

I never realized that nosing around our Department secretary's desk would be rewarding but I found some interesting finds. One was a memo from the Planning and Development Office. Apparently, Fr. Rod Salazar is wondering aloud whether USC should increase its tuition seeing as other Universities in Cebu are either freezing any increase or, like University of the Visayas and University of Cebu, are actually lowering tuition for the next year. UC's Augustus Go was quite proud of this accomplishment that he ran a full page ad on Sun.Star. Fr. Rod ends his memo with a brief appeal to the Holy Spirit for guidance in this dilemma and the Admin sure is going to need it, torn as they are between the College Faculty Association's call for salary increases and the usually adamant students who don't want a tuition fee hike as well as the looming Financial Crisis that's already starting to creep into Cebu.

But the real jackpot find I got was the memo from the top guy Fr. President Dionisio Miranda, SVD, MA, STD himself. It said that the remaining Departments of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and some Admin offices would be transferred to the Talamban Campus by the summer of 2009. That means the Departments of Political Science, Psychology, Economics, Sociology-Anthropology, Religious Education, History, Philosophy, Languages and Literature and Library Science are going to pack up and transfer to TC along with the Offices of the President, Vice Presidents for Academic Affairs, Administration and Finance, the Registrar, Admissions Human Resources, etc. In short, only Commerce and Law and the Research Offices will be left behind. This is HUGE!!

Understandably, reactions were quite strong. A classmate of mine cannot but help express her sentiments in the most effective manner available: a Friendster Bulletin. Our longtime law professor, the (in)famous Atty. Aresnio Tan went so far as to tell us that next year he would quit teaching as Talamban is too far away for him. Now that's a real bummer as the guy's an institution in the Political Science Department. It's been widely accepted that if you are one of the select few who pass his subjects then, and only then, can you really consider a career in law. Not that I have anything against our lower years but it wouldn't be fair if they didn't go through what we went through!! And then there were the whines of people who didn't want to switch dorms, the outright threat to shift to another course just to stay in the same campus, the calls for a petition against the transfer and there was one query addressed to me if the Student Council was consulted in this matter.

Personally, I'm quite undecided on how to take all of this. I always liked Talamban's laid back atmosphere and its wide open spaces as contrasted to the Main Campus where all the congestion and pollution of the city salute you when you step outside. But I can't deny that Talamban, for all the amazing development it's had in recent years, is still at some distance from civilization, or at least the kind of civilization we Main people gotten ourselves used to. And the traffic, don't get me started on the traffic. Not even the new flyover will soothe the massive hordes of vehicles
after the transfer. Then, the floods, the floods we were fortunate enough to avoid in first year when we had our Biology there in the first semster. We were lucky the weather wasn't rainy that time.

But no doubt I'm gonna miss Main. I'm gonna miss P. del Rosario, Junquera, Sanciangko and Pelaez. Looks like it's goodbye to Bernard Wrocklage, Theodore Buttenbruch, Ernest Hoerdemann and Albert van Gansewinkel and hello to Bunzel, Rigney and company. I'm gonna miss Angel Mae's where I've been having lunch for three years. No more riding the ferry for me too. But as the memo said, migration will be completed by summer of 2009. So it's time to say my goodbyes and accept the change that's in front of me. Wait a second, their leaving the Law Library at the Main?!

On Reunions and Reproductive Health

2009-01-22T06:14:00.000-08:00

I miss my old High School Batchmates. Being immersed in this Hellhole of a college with its mountains of papers to submit and exams to study for (which is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing right now), makes me feel some nostalgia to the carefree days of High School when i could make the Honor's list without passing any projects and all the books we had to read could be retrieved out of my trusty backpack. Nowadays, miss a single paper and your grade plunges to the abyss and you have to spend half a school day wandering around hunting for reading materials you need to have a photocopy of for tomorrow's exam.

Speaking of wandering around, back in High School you had your own room where you could stay for the whole day with your own people to chill with, unlike in college where you spend a full one-fourth of the day just looking for a place to chill. And the people, college people are like boarders in a dormitory(which most of them are really). One minute there here, a second later their off to class or to a watering hole or a mall or God knows where. High School people, on the other hand, you're stuck with them so you might as well make the best of it and join them in their plot to sneak past the unsuspecting security guard to a wonderful place wher you can all play DOTA...

Yes, those were the days. Which is why I always look forward to reunions with my high school buddies although College cruelty truly knows no bounds and keeps me so busy that when a text message tells me to go to this place where my batchmates will be trooping together I can only sigh and grumble about having to finish my case digests so I can't come. Fortunately, I run into them from time to time, while wating for the ferry, at the V-hire terminal, even in school, some of my batchmates go to the same university as me after all. I welcome these chance encounters very much although lately I find these quite unsettling, honestly.

When we get together, conversation inevitably wanders to our other batchmates. Earlier I would hear things like, "Did you hear? So-and-so is a Dean's Lister!" or "Well, So-and-so and his girl are still together." Pretty usual stuff punctuated now and then by a few more out of the blue remarks like "So-and-so and Blah-blah-blah broke up!" and "So-and-so stopped schooling this semester." But the unsettling part is the shocking "SO-AND-SO GOT PREGNANT!!". And its getting more and more frequent.

But of course, by saying I'm not making any judgements in any way. PMS happens with people my age and I'm perfectly aware of that. A lot of mornings, usually the one after Valentine's, I wake up and wonder how many people I know got laid last night for some reason. I can be quite loony sometimes. Anyway, this isn't just speculation i have the statistics to prove that more young people are having sex and people who have sex are getting younger. For Example, the 2002 State of the Philippine Population Report said 16% of young people had sexual encounters before age 15, and that was like six years ago. Plus, the Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study concluded that the mean age of sexual encounters were 17 for males and 18 for females (as a side note it also said pornographic acculturation occurs at a mean age of 15 quite high by my estimates.. ;D).

But I'm boring you with numbers, suffice it to say more young people are having sex and as a consequence, more young people are getting pregnant and I can attest to that personally. This is why we need to do something about this problem and don't talk to me about moral renewal or something. That's the Church's job and frankly, if it did its job there wouldn't have been a problem. We don't need some Manichaean moralizing on the evils of the flesh. What we need is a concrete government policy to address this problem of teenage pregnancy and that's why i have always suported the really controversial, but gradually being forgotten, House Bill 5043 or the (in)famous Reporductive Health Bill. I won't go into the details of this piece of legislation, having done so lots of times before somewhere else, but I will say that it isn't like the old Population Control Bills that preceded it. It focuses, as the title suggests, on Reproductive Health and any population result there would just be a positive externality. One of its provisions also mandate reproductive health and sexuality education for students beginning the Fifth Grade, which is actually already available in some schools - I had reproductive and sexuality topics integrated in some of my subjects way back Grade 4. This is especially aimed at young people who honestly don't know what they're getting into when they "get into it".

That's why let's all urge for the passage of HB 5043. I did my part. The USC-SSC passed a resolution expressing support for the Bill authored by myself and co-sponsored by my colleagues Hon. Rojas and Hon. Kho. I also sent a copy to the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) to show our solidarity with other sectors in pushsing for the passage of the RH Bill. Until then, I'm hoping that the next time I cross paths with a High School friend, we can talk about a batchmate who won a beauty pageant or something.

On Beginning

2009-01-06T15:42:00.000-08:00

And so ends 2008 and so begins 2009. As another year ends, yet another begins to take its place. Change is the only thing constant,as they say, and the changing of the calendar has been constant since human beings invented the things.

An endless cycle of beginning and end that's what this all is. Sounds pretty harmless at first, but once you think about it, it starts to look real scary.

Imagine, being trapped in a never-ending cycle, condemned to keep beginning, then ending and then beginning again, ending that beginning and just repeating that cycle on and on. Just like that guy from Greek mythology who was condemned by the gods to push a boulder up a mountain. When he takes a break, the boulder rolls back down. And yes, he has to push it back up again.

And for what is all of this for? You begin so that someday you will end and you end so that you can begin anew. Ours is an existence with no sense of purpose, no idea why we must go through with all this, absolutely nothing to look forward to and make us feel that we are doing all this for a reason. No, we just trudge on, dragging ourselves to another day, concerning ourselves with the myriad trivialities we find ourselves facing, then dragging ourselves out. Before you know it, we dragged ourselves in and out of three hundred sixty five days and it's time to change the calendar. Just an endless cycle of beginning and ending. Fortunately, our trivial pursuits give us little bite-size servings of purpose that keeps us from asking, "What's the point of all this?"

From attempts to find the answer to this question began religion. Hindus and Buddhists make it their ultimate goal of finding a way out of their endless cycle, birth and rebirth for Hindus, suffering for Buddhists. Hindus try to attain this with their karma, bhakti or jnanani. I won't discuss in detail because it's so complicated I got lost in the middle of attempting to understand. My apologies to my Asian History professor, who is quite a capable teacher really. Buddhism sounds easier, albeit in a slilghtly deceptive manner. All we have to do is find enlightenment. Yeah, like that's easy.

Meanwhile, Christianity makes it all simpler. We don't get reincarnated, we are taught. But our souls will all be restless unless we find rest in Him. We must become one with God and understand His plan for us and live by it. Simple, reasonable, rational and more humanistic. No wonder Christianity spread all over the world. Or was it the frailes gripping the coattails of Imperialism that spread Christianity? Anyway, the Muslims have it even more simple: Follow the five pillars of Islam and maybe wage a little jihad if you have to and you'll do just fine.

Regardless of what creed you follow, everything just goes around and around. The triumphs and achievements of humanity with the follies and perversions it proliferates. The unspeakable beauty and order found in nature and its cataclysmic wrath that claims the lives of ordinary mortals minding their own business. War and peace, life and death, prosperity and poverty, joy and sorrow, and love.

Well, love is something of a special case. It doesn't really alternate with its antithesis of hate the same way with the above, as it does not necessarily follow that where there is no love there is hate. Nonetheless, it is not devoid of a cyclical nature.

Consider, you find love for the first time. Everything is great. Birds sing in the trees. Sunshine illuminates your whole world. Chocolate raindrops fall from the sky. Then it ends. You are plunged in a depression worse than anyhting inflicted by subprime mortgage and speculative capital run amok. Eventually, after splurging or consuming large amounts of alcoholic beverages or whatever is necessary to cheer you up, you get over it and move on. But suddenly one day, it all starts again. The sun pulls its shutters back, the birds go back to their places and a chocolate rain cloud is hastily dispatched to your location. And just as suddenly, it ends.

An endless cycle of beginning and end. That's what this all is. We wake up everyday not because we really want to but because there's just nothing damn better to do. But maybe, just maybe, if we can set aside some time, despite being completely immersed in this sorry excuse for a life that we are in, to looking for something, or even someone, with the potential to make this pathetic existence bearable, then it's almost as if we already found a way to actually make this pathetic existence bearable, even if we just hope.

On this "Twilight" which they speak of

2008-11-27T05:57:00.000-08:00

Last week is notable for the premiere of the movie version of Stephenie Meyer's bestseller 'Twilight' as my giggling classmates are apt to remind me, rather annoyingly I must add. It's no news how every female is raving about Twilight, unless of course one lives hermetically in a cave where he is utterly devoid of human contact. Everyday at school I get that. We even hear raves that Twilight is the next best thing since Harry Potter, which I admit isn't really that far off, or even the Lord of the Rings, which is nothing short of blasphemous as no one and I mean NO ONE can compare to the genius of Tolkien. So much buzz has left me scratching my head, what is it with this Twilight?

Thus I set out to analyze what we shall call the Twilight Phenomenon. As our theoretical background we use postmodern literal-critical theory to read between the lines, so to speak, and deconstruct the meaning behind the novel's, and indirectly the movie's, themes. Also, I'm told that postmodern critiques are undertaken without actually reading the work, so I needn't embarrass myself with procuring a copy after all the scorn I heaped on it. At least that's what postmodern theory's detractors say. Anyhow it works for me.

Let us first examine the plot of the book. Girl meets boy, boy is initially repulsed by girl but lo, girl finds out boy is vampire and is only repulsed at girl because boy doesn't want to drink girl's blood even if it smells so good. Nonetheless, they fall in love but some pesky antagonist wants to harm girl and boy save the day and then they go to the prom. Notice how it was not difficult to summarize the plot in two sentences. Notice further that by stripping off the vampire aspects of the plot, we are left with nothing but the old We-can't-be-together Forbidden Love theme. Understandably, Twilight's appeal would not come from its plot. True, it's a classic and timeless story but it needs something more to stand out from the countless others who utilize the same theme in order to reach the stage where normally non-fanatic teenage girls camp outside bookstores to await its release.

Having discounted it's plot, we proceed now to another aspect of the story which, I hypothesize, is perhaps the single most important, if not the only, factor in Twilight's cult following: Edward Cullen. Who here hasn't heard the sighs of disappointment that this Cullen person is only fictional? Look at how he is described. Meyer, rather straightforwardly, likens him to the Greek Adonis with his angular facial features, bronze hair and muscular body. He's also immortal, with super-strength and speed and a seductive voice and scent, typical vampire. Bram Stoker would have said the same with Dracula. Most importantly, he's, how do you say it, romantic. So he's like a vampiric pretty-boy superman minus the bloodlust who's romantic and, i almost forgot, has a car and plays music. Bingo. Everything is clear to me now.

Taking into account the above, we now come to the conclusion that this Edward character is why people, and I emphasize the young female segment of the population, read Twilight and mob theaters for the screen adaptation. Starting from that point, we can now view this work as a romantic idealization of the male persona. Meyer holds up this paranormal creature as the ideal male whom all specimens of this species should strive to emulate. She taps into the subconscious desires of girls and from those she constructs the man of their dreams. Reading the feminine propaganda machine Cosmopolitan, for instance, is like listening to a verbose plea for hot, sensitive, madly in love men to spring out of holes in the ground. The categorical answer to this plea is this abstinent bloodsucker. Thus the cries from legions of Cullen fans for someone like him to come walking down the street one day.

In the view of postmodern theory therefore, flesh and blood males are indirectly shown in this work as this inferior 'other' who should be more like this fictional but superior 'Edward Cullen'. Unfortunately, speaking in behalf of my gender compatriots, real-life males are not like that. We are beer-drinking, burping, belching, scratching, snoring, never stop to ask for direction guys. We can be insensitive, competitive, arrogant, aggressive, ambitious, egotistical and impulsive. We have trouble expressing ourselves, are threatened by our own kind and have many issues. And our ideal of manhood is more like Arnold Schwarzenegger or FPJ. Cullen here actually looks pretty effeminate from the male point of view. To make the long short, this idealization of the male in Twilight is nothing but a hegemonic imposition of a cultural image on what we males are not but what females think we ought to be. We are thus being indirectly forced to become something we are not, and perhaps never can be, for the pleasure of those of the opposite sex. But putting it with the pleasure for the opposite sex thing and all, I think it wouldn't hurt to try and become this Edward guy. If the returns are good, why not?

My Run-In on the First Week of School

2008-11-15T06:42:00.000-08:00

The extended sem break has finally come to an end and it's back to school for me and my fellow Carolinians. That means back to cramming for exams, penning essays, dragging yourself to class, and most importantly, to the old school uniform securely tucked away in some remote corner of my closet. Of course it will be next week before non-nursing students are required to wear the uniform but I was reminded a few days ago that it doesn't mean I could pretty much wear whatever I want.

Like many private schools, USC both has a Uniform Policy and a Dress Code. While a Uniform tells students what should be worn, a Dress Code lists down the prohibited items of clothing. Tattered pants is one such item and there I was one day trudging my way to the entrance lobby when I was suddenly stopped by the security guard for wearing of the forbidden jeans. I admit I have been quite a critic of the Uniform Policy and the Dress Code for as long as I set foot in the University, in fact I have the honor of helping organize the Student Coalition Against Repressive and Anti-Student Policies (SCRAP) and drafting its position paper against the Uniform, but I've been equally faithful in observing it, going so far as to ALWAYS wear pants whenever I go out in case I have to drop by school. So I was taken aback when the guard pulled me over especially when I'm very sure that tattered pants are not exactly my thing. Okay, my pants were a little ripped along the left pocket but that wasn't exactly tattered and neither was it inappropriate, a little embarassing maybe.

This brings into mind the thorny question of students' freedom of expression which the Uniform Policy and the Dress Code are limiting. As the US Supreme Court puts it in the landmark decision of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." This ruling, however, was against public schools and private schools are quick to raise the defense that students "freely and willingly decide to circumscribe " their personal rights "within the framework of the rules and regualtions of the institution" when they enroll. Nonetheless, if the State limits its omnipotence to protect individual freedoms, how much more private institutions?

No Surprise, Obama Wins

2008-11-05T21:42:00.000-08:00

To nobody's surprise, well at least not to me, the two year drama that was the US Election concludes with the election of the first African-American President of the United States. As if that's not historical enough, Obama's win overturned the more than two decades-long Republican dominance dating from Ronald Reagan's 1980 victory. The GOP triad of strong national defense, family values and neoliberal economic policies had failed them only once before during the brief Clinton Interregnum, whose Third Way politics didn't really depart much from his predecessors. The Obama presidency, coming in the wake of financial crisis and economic recession, is reminiscent the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration whose New Deal put an end to the free-wheeling capitalism that brought on the Great Depression.

What is ironic and at the same time remarkable about Obama's election is that he didn't really play the race card. He won not because of his "black-ness" but because he presented an image of change that went beyond race. Obama's support came not only from African-Americans, whose turnout was unchanged from previous elections, but from Jews, whites, and even the Hispanics won over from the Democrats by Bush. His personal story and charismatic idealism, not the color of his skin, was actually enough to win him the vote and trounce two political heavyweights from both parties. Not bad for someone who was a nobody four years ago.

Meanwhile, McCain played the graceful loser, conceding to Obama and promising his support, like Clinton before him. in hindsight, his campaign was ramshackle at the outset lacking the money, efficiency and celebrity endorsements that Obama wasn't in short supply of. Factor in two hated wars and a financial meltdown everyone blames on the Republicans and you just can't imagine why the heck Obama would lose.

Someone Expresses Her Sentiments

2008-11-02T22:14:00.000-08:00

The ISIS fiasco seems to have spread to Friendster with a new account having, um, a suggestive name serving as an outlet for an exasperated students' frustration at the enrollment process. Here are some of the pictures posted at the account:

Seeing as it's been up for only a week at most but attracted 87 friends and 125 comments as of November 3, 2:38 PM shows something that this is not something isolated.

The embattled Admin may already be feeling the heat but thankfully their prompt response should minimize the fallout.

How commercialized can you get?

2008-10-31T18:30:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that globalization, as it blurs borders and breaks barriers, brings with it its cousin, materialistic capitalism who quickly swoops in to make a profit by looking at something to turn into a commodity. Holidays aren't even an exception. Take what has become known as Halloween. A long time ago the first days of November in the Philippines was Todos los Santos or Undas when the faithful sought the intercessions of All the Saints and praying for the souls of the departed. Families would congregate at the graves of their deceased ancestors and loved ones and pray for their eternal repose.

But apparently, that wasn't so fun going grave visiting and all. Enter Halloween, a pagan festival with no previous connection to Filipino culture whose origins nobody really remembers, much less give a damn about. All it took is a little "tradition" called trick or treat and, presto! A perfect excuse to milk cash out of people's pockets. Of course, you're gonna need costumes to go trick or treating, treats to give out and spooky decorations to put up around your house to announce your participation in the season's celebration. The wonders of the modern market economy means you don't have to produce all those goods yourself since all you have to do is head to your local mall and relieve yourself of a sum of money to obtain these perfectly useful necessities.

I could go on and on about how commercialized holidays have become, Christmas being the ultimate expression of consumerist culture and don't even get me started on Flower-and-Chocolate-buying Day that was once St. Valentine's, but there are kids outside our front door dressed as witches that I have to attend to.

Joc-Joc, Jack and a Flyover

2008-10-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

After years of hiding in the States former Agriculture Undersecretary Joc-Joc Bolante is finally back in Philippine soil promptly arrested by personnel from the Senate who want to make him spill about the Billion-peso fertilizer scam where funds intended for agricultural development were allegedly funneled to GMA's 2004 campaign.

Poor Joc-Joc must have been worried sick with what's waiting for him here. He was literally out of breath and couldn't even stand up on his own when he got off the plane prompting his arresting team to intern him at St. Lukes Medical Center instead of heading to the Senate. Plus his hair grew white after only a few years. Well, that's stress for you. Let's just hope Bolante doesn't get off the hook just because of health problems like a convicted plunderer I know.

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After authorities in Barangay Mabolo cracked down on a gang of young people calling themselves the Independent Human Society (IHS), formed by the Alpha Kappa Rho Fraternity according to barangay officials, for possession of marijuana and alleged group sex, Councilor Jack Jakosalem submitted a proposed ordinance regulating fraternities requiring, among others, parental consent for minors seeking membership and stiff fines for noncompliance.

The Hon. Jakosalem's legislation is certainly enlightened and his intentions are surely motivated by genuine concern for young people and the rest of the community, but what he does risks oversimplification of the problem. The government just can't regulate frats like you can't regulate, say, the Rotarians. The entire membership has to faithfully submit themselves to government scrutiny as the city fathers simply doesn't have the resources to watch every new member's initiation. And another thing, these groups are inherently exclusive with their secret handshakes and such to keep non-members in the dark about them. You wouldn't expect them to willingly throw everything open to outsiders. Should this ordinance be passed we're gonna see a lot of difficulty in enforcing it.

Also, a lot of people think that if we simply do away with frats we won't have juvenile delinquency problems like gang violence or teenage substance abuse. Again an oversimplification. Sure, a lot of drug addicts get into it because of hanging with the wrong crowd, not always frats by the way, but it's a complicated mix of peer pressure, desire for escape, family background and other social factors that drive young people to drugs. I know a lot of people who are frat guys but sure as hell aren't addicts, well at least not addicted to drugs.

On gang violence, Cebu certainly isn't a stranger to Akrho vs. Tau Gamma and Bloods vs. Crips maulings, beatings, and many times killings. But frats are actually different from gangs. Akrho,Tau, Alpha Phi Omega and other Greek letter groups and their offshoots are frats while the Bloods, Crips and many others, especially those with "Gangsta" in their names are gangs. In origins, the frats came from the drinking buddies and dorm mates in American University Campuses. In the Philippines they evolved into big boys' clubs with the older members who attained big shot status either in campus or in politics or business helping the younger members and neophytes like the PMA's mistahs. The Bloods and Crips grew out of African-American street gangs in Los Angeles with the same names transplanted to the Philippines via hip-hop subculture. Originally devoted to community-based social change the gangstas degenerated to crime ranging from drug dealing, extortion and robbery. Here in Cebu cross-membership used to be common, for example Akrhos who are also members of Bloods, but I'm not so sure about that now. We have to keep in mind that many frats have not been even accused of violence, like the Law School frats which are more like study groups for example. Without taking these into account I should say we're not getting to the root of the problem.

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PGMA is set to grace the opening ceremonies of the controversial Banilad-Talamban flyover today. Finally, they finished that piece of construction and hopefully that would ease all the traffic and make life a lot easier for our brother Carolinians in Talamban. Let's just hope the rains we're having won't cause another postponement. Spaeking of GMA, I also wonder how she's taking the Bolante fracas. Maybe she'll say something at the flyover opening. No doubt the media people will be swarming over there today just to make sure.

On the USC Enrollment

2008-10-28T20:09:00.000-07:00

This week Acting President of the University of San Carlos Fr. Felino Javines, SVD released a statement apologizing for the technical problems of the ISIS enrollment system which all but paralyzed enrollment and encoding of grades. As an emergency measure the old ARIS enrollment system is back to accommodate enrollees beginning October 28 and the enrollment period is extended for another week with the start of classes for the Second semester being moved from Nov. 4 to Nov. 10.

In fairness to Fr. Javines, who is also VP for Administration, he couldn't have done much to prevent the breakdown of ISIS having just been appointed to his post at about the time ISIS replaced ARIS which was around June this year. Regardless, the new system already showed its inability to handle the sheer number of enrolling students and was already breaking down even then with a lot of students actually receiving different schedules than the one they had encoded (that included me). Plus, ISIS could only be accessed by 16,000 USC students on a few touchscreens (only two at the Main Campus). Since those problems were already evident then, perhaps the Administration should have been able to do something before the system ultimately crashed.

It's nice to go all hi-tech with the view-my-grades-on-myusc.ph thing but we students didn't really get much out of ISIS other than headaches, long lines and crappy class schedules; and yet we were still the ones who had to foot the bill.

To Proceed or not To Proceed: That is the question...

2008-10-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

The tragedy of Political Science as a discipline is that here in the Philippines, it's nothing more than a preparatory course for Law. PolSci graduates have limited career options other than proceeding to law studies, teaching or joining the ranks of the innumerable call center agents toiling in their cubicles in the most ungodly hours.

Now, the last option is not very attractive for a guy like me who's in bed by 10 pm and that rules that out. And so, as I enter my third year in college and start to ponder what would become of me after graduation the other two choices come under consideration.

That said, I never really wanted to be a lawyer. I can't bear to go back to another four years of academic torture under the Socratic mehtod to be followed through by the Bar Exams. And did I mention that the Bar is only the hardest exam in the whole history of examinations!

A teaching job at the University, on the other hand, sounds much better. Better hours, less stress and only two years of post-grad studies. In no time I'll be like those yuppies flaunting their I-pods and PSPs sipping coffee at Starbuck's.

Of course in the long-term a teaching job won't get me that far. The pay's great if I plan to live alone in a boarding house for the rest of my life but being human I also want to raise a family and buy a my own house and just settle down. Conversely, If I were a lawyer, the short-term may not sound attractive but, hell, I'll be able to afford to put my kids to college and find myself a cozy house with a home entertainment system! Perhaps we should rephrase our question: Short-term or Long Term?

Soemthing I Stumbled On

2008-10-07T19:47:00.000-07:00

I found some quaint Lyric Poetry from twelfth century Europe.. They were usually about unrequited love, I like to call it Medieval Emo.. (har, har)

I die of wounds from blissful blows,
And love’s cruel stings dry out my flesh,
My health is lost, my vigor goes,
And nothing can my soul refresh.
I never knew so sad a plight,
it should not be, it is not right

I’ll never hold her near to me,
My ardent joy she’ll ever spurn,
In her good graces I cannot be,
Nor even hope, but only yearn.
She tells me nothing, false or true,
And neither will she ever do.

-Jaufre Rudel, translated by C. Warren Hollister

I also liked this excerpt from a troubadour’s song:

Alas! I thought I knew so much of love,
And I know so little.
For I can’t help loving a lady
Whom I cannot attain.
She has all my heart
She has me entirely.
She has left me nothing but desire,
And a foolish heart

-Bernard of Ventadour, again translated by Hollister

Just for the hell of it let’s compare the above with the lyrics of Parokya ni Edgar’s "Your Song".

There I was
thought I had everything
figured out
goes to show just how much I know
bout the way life plays out

Chorus:
i take one step away
and I find myself coming back
to you
my one and only
one and only
you..

Coincidence? I think not. It so happens that things like this reach out to you through time… Kinda makes my eyes teary myself…