What a day that was…

(looking at all three papers, I can’t help but think if there may be a cosmic joke within all of this, too)

Idea for Children in Evac Centers

There’s a suggestion  to send toys, books, and board games to evacuation centres. Im not sure if this has been taken up by any of the relief operations (I’m yet to confirm with Tulong Bayan). It’s a pretty good idea for everyone to consider.

Also, the Black Pencil Project is still collecting school supplies for day care centers in Manila.

*Photo of toys from http://www.yourkidmatters.com

It shouldnt just be temporary

The things we do and the help we give now shouldn’t just be for this week. We have got to think about the long term: after we pack the goods and distribute, after we sympathize and console, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO NEXT? And it’s not just the government’s problem. It’s all of OURS.

this is a re-post.

Mabuhay ang Bayanihan nating mga Pilipino! (Info for those who wish to help)

DONATIONS for the victims of Typhoon Ondoy may be dropped off in the following SITES:

1. Team Manila, Petron, and Papemelroti branches
2. Tulong Bayan – White Space
(along Pasong Tamo Extension, nr Glaxo Smith Klein and Silverlens Gallery)
3. Tulong Bayan – Expo Centro, Araneta Center, Cubao
(Volunteers are welcome, 8am-9pm)
4. Ateneo de Manila University, Manny V Pangilinan Building
(Volunteers are welcome starting at 6am)
5. De La Salle University
6. Poveda
7. Habagat @ Promenade Square, Recto (Organized donations are turned over to NDCC and GMA Fdn)

Or go by the nearest public elementary school or barangay hall – you will most likely find them as evacuation centers.

WHAT YOU CAN GIVE:

1. Canned food, noodles, rice, big bottles of water (for packing)
2. Others: Cooking oil, Salt, Sugar, Coffee (for packing)
3. Food, drinks, water, energy drinks (for volunteers)
4. Clothing (let’s pack wearables and kindly not share the unmentionables)
5. Medicine (First aid kit, paracetamol, pain relievers, and meds for diarrhea, colds, and cough); you may also add vitamins
6. Blankets, Pillows, Mats
7. Candles, Matches/Lighter (just in case)
8. Some Evac Centers would appreciate Utensils (steel or plastic) and Plates (plastic or paper). Please note that there are centers that do not have water supply.
9.Trash bags and cleaning materials to evac centers to help site management and health concerns.

ALSO:

1. We are accepting donations for nails, roofs, and wood (house-building materials) for BASECO. Most of the houses there have been flushed by the raging waters. For those particular items, kindly email helpbaseco@gmail.com.

2. The Black Pencil Project is collecting pencils and school supplies for flood-stricken day care centers in Manila. Log on to http://www.blackpencilproject.org for more info.

3. Those based in Cebu may find helpful info here: http://emsdy.blogspot.com/2009/09/cebuanos-you-can-held-ondoy-victims-too.html

4. For financial donations:
Corporate Network for Disaster Response
(a) BDO Galleria Branch
ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center
Savings Account 004640030358

(b) BPI Ayala Paseo Branch
Current Account 0031065402

*Please fax your deposit slip to the fax no. of CNDR (632)687-4208 so that CNDR could acknowledge receipt of your donation and eventually give all the donors “accounting” of the donations.

Maraming salamat, po.

Speech of Senator Mar Roxas Declaring his Vice Presidential Bid

21 September 2009, Club Filipino, San Juan

Maraming maraming salamat po sa inyong lahat. Magandang tanghali po. Happy Holidays to our Muslim brothers.

Salamat, Noynoy, sa tiwalang ipinagkaloob mo sa akin. Salamat sa karangalang maging kasama mo sa paglilingkod sa bayan. Thank you for this opportunity to work with you as we raise the banner of reform. Thank you for the privilege of joining you and all our kababayans in the fight for decency and integrity in public service, and for a government that puts the people’s interest first.

Taos-puso ko pong tinatanggap ang hamon na isulong ang tunay na reporma sa ating bansa.

Taos-puso ko pong tinatanggap ang responsibilidad na maging kabalikat ni Noynoy sa kanyang laban para sa pagbabago.

Taos-puso ko pong tinatanggap ang maging katambal ni Noynoy Aquino.

But this fight is not just about Noynoy and me. It’s bigger than the two of us, it is bigger than the Liberal Party. It is about our collective thirst for change.

It is about our thirst for change finally overcoming those who want to continue the tayu-tayo system, the horse-trading, the greed, the self-interest, the transactional politics that has been the biggest roadblock to progress and prosperity for all.

Tungkol ito sa matuwid laban sa baluktot. Tungkol ito sa tapat laban sa tiwali. Tungkol ito sa tama laban sa mali.

Noy, you have raised the banner. Ito ang bandila ng reporma at pag-asa. Ito ang maglalagay ng pagkain sa mesa, dahil hindi na nanakawin ang pondo ng mga magsasaka. Ito ang magbibigay ng trabaho sa taumbayan, dahil hindi na kokotangan ang mga namumuhunan. Ito ang magpapaabot-kaya sa presyo ng gamot, dahil hindi na makikipagsabwatan sa mga abusadong pharmaceutical companies.

My friends, this is going to be a tough battle. We should not be lulled into complacency. We are up against forces who will fight tooth and nail, fair and unfair, legal and illegal, against us. Sa kanila yata, tuloy ang ligaya; sa atin naman, tuloy ang laban.

Kailangan nating isulong ang bandila ni Noy at ng reporma. Mahirap ang laban na ito, pero nasa kamay natin ang ating kapalaran.

Kung bawat araw, ang bawat isa sa atin ay makahimok ng isa pang kasangga natin, tiyak ang ating tagumpay.

Our opponents will exhaust all avenues in order to win. They have been robbing us for so long, and they want to continue robbing us. Pero hindi tayo papayag na manakaw din nila ang ating pag-asa.

Taglay ni Noynoy ang susi ng pagbabago: matapat na puso, malasakit sa kapwa, at pinakamahalaga, pagmamahal sa bayan. Buong-loob kong isinusulong si Noynoy Aquino. I am honored to join him in this field of battle.

To all of us here in this hall and all across this great nation, who are fighting alongside him, make no mistake about it: We will not back down from this fight, not now, not ever.

The fog of cynicism has already lifted from our hearts. Ngayon, puwede na muling mangarap.

Sama-sama tayo. Hindi namin kayo pababayaan. Lalaban tayo!

Confessions of a Note-taker: from the sidelines, for the nation

[A re-post from Facebook, 3 September 2009]

A broken heart, for anyone, is the hardest to heal. There’s pain, denial, and a deep feeling of hurt, sadness, and aimlessness. What I and my colleagues are going through the past few days is no different.

It feels like there’s a hole, an emptiness, wrought from a battle prematurely ended. A pain that is sympathetic to our leader’s own. Who would have thought that Mar, sacrificing his bid for the presidency, could be this personal?

But IT IS personal.

HE is my personal choice,  for my own reasons and  principles.

Truth be told, I have never  lasted in a job for more that  eight months. With Mar and  his team, I have stayed for  more than a year.

I signed up knowing Mar was someone I could possibly trust – with my future, my family, my friends, and my country. But to put my stake on a man for all of that isn’t an overnight thing. It was a six-month process that led me to  understand who he is, what was needed in the job, and what was necessary to make the vision, a reality.

I also stayed because it’s an amazing experience to be surrounded by strong, brilliant hearts and minds – young and old – all believing in change, all working for change. We believed in Mar. We knew what we got ourselves into, and we were willing to give what was being asked of us.

At some point, there was still a struggle within me until one dark day, a friend and mentor told me: COMMITMENT is FREEDOM.

I started a joke…

I used to joke that I had a fling with Europe but I was committed to the Philippines. Though jokes are half-meant, mine is wholly the truth. My heart belongs to this country. I work and serve for its positive transformation. So now, to make it happen, all I needed was to be completely free. All I need to do was to choose.

Mar has earned his right to be MY President and I would fight for him any day. Through his work and his work ethic, I knew he was someone I would want to be accountable to. He was someone who knew, that as My President, he was also accountable to me. He deserves my sacrifices, as much as I deserve his.

In February during our general staff meeting, I asked him if he was ready and willing to fight with us and for us – tooth and nail – to the very end, just as we were for him. He looked me straight in the eye and broke the silence by solemnly replying, “I am.”

He then joked that it was as if it were a marriage proposal, and with a laugh it was all we needed to know. We were ready.

We weren’t ready though,  for his latest sacrifice. It was  our ultimate test of being his  staff, his supporters. We  shed tears because we knew  he was capable of it, and we  knew how much it hurt. It  was every bit as personal to  him as it was to us.

He was our President. He still is. What he did made him all the more deserving of the position. What he did has shown us the kind of man he is - the kind of man we always knew, and yet the world always failed to see.

Given recent developments, we are at a standstill and yet we move forward. My loyalty to Mar remains as my passion to fight for him has deepened even more. It’s been a long time since I fought this hard for anyone, and it is heartening to find my colleagues (now great friends) in the same journey.

The Dream Team

Over a year ago, a friend and I imagined the rise of a Liberal Party dream team with Mar and Noynoy in the lead. I said it wasn’t possible because, personally, I gathered that Noynoy is not ready.

And yet, here we are. From where I stand, Noynoy is subject to the same process that Mar went through before I lay my stake on his candidacy a hundred per cent. Still, I am here because I want to ensure that my boss’s sacrifice and Noynoy’s potential do not go to waste.

I remain because I believe in Mar’s  decision and in Noynoy’s  opportunity. I believe that it’s  about time we rise above  ourselves, just as Mar did. I believe  in the opportunity for each of us to  pull a Mar Roxas: setting aside  personal plans, personal pain,  personal doubts and ego – and pave the way to ensure that this nation will FINALLY embrace its greatness.

As Noynoy goes through his process of discernment this weekend, so do most of us. And for what it’s worth, I’d like to share a quote I love which a friend lifted from a Jesuit: “Your calling is the intersection of your heart’s greatest desire and the world’s greatest need.”

Some people walk the earth and never know their purpose. I think My President already found his. I hope Noynoy also will.

This was never a tree that fell in the forest*

Many still doubt, many still  wonder – but as a witness to  the journey and the  unfolding of history, it  makes me feel privileged  and honored to know that  such great men (in Mar,  Noynoy, Butch Abad, Chito  Gascon, Jesse Robredo, Jun  Abaya, Jovy Salonga, and  others) still exist. It makes me wonder why so many people continue to doubt and deny that at this day and age, we deserve leaders like them.

During the weekend I was told that Mar said this was no longer about him, but about the country. Wherever we are now, and wherever we take this fight – it is no longer about us individually, but about us as a nation.

I do think that at this time, we Filipinos are being challenged to be politically mature: to vote for platform not person, to vote for a team not an individual, to vote with our rationality and not with our judgments, to vote for our future and not just for our present, and to vote because we love ourselves and we deserve better.

And as far as the so-called Opposition goes – we need to see clearly whether they are more of the same or for real change. As far as I’m concerned, a lot of those who brand themselves as Opposition are just of the same kind as the one they are opposing. The difference is, one is inside a palace while the rest are outside its gates (while one used to be inside, too).

And in the end…

F Sionil Jose, when I was privileged to meet him, said that “someone who has a sense of nation, someone who has some kind of loyalty to this nation – that is someone who will find the best way to be a Filipino.”

I have always believed that  my being as a Filipino is a continuous process. Though I wish it weren’t so necessary, I felt the need to further mature politically this soon. At the heart of this change within me are our bosses – Mar and Butch, their families and mine, my colleagues and friends, the campaign advisers and even the detractors, and my advocacy org, YTRIP. I am grateful of all of them for strengthening my freedom, my commitment.

My broken heart will be    whole again – and for sure,    this is not the end but a  beginning. Thanks to Mar, I  assert that NOW is a great  time to be a Filipino.

It’s a great time to be free.
———————
This is a personal piece and does not in any way represent the views of the organization.
————–
*Sorry, I can’t help it. It’s an internal thing

FROM SURVIVAL TO PERPETUATION—AT ALL COST

Today is the 4th anniversary of the Hyatt 10. Some people agree with them, some dont. Personally, I admire their strength, integrity, and commitment – to their cause, to this country.

———————————–

Statement of Hyatt 10

8 July 2009

                                                     

GMA’S CRIME AGAINST THE NATION:

 FROM SURVIVAL TO PERPETUATION—AT ALL COST

 

When we submitted our collective irrevocable resignation from the Cabinet on 8 July 2005, we were absolutely convinced that the expose on the “Garci tapes” had severely damaged beyond repair the credibility of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. And the “least disruptive and painful option that can swiftly restore normalcy and eventually bring us to prosperity” was for Mrs. Arroyo to voluntarily relinquish her office. Otherwise, the longer she insisted on staying in office—at all cost—under a cloud of doubt and mistrust, the greater the damage to the economy and to our political institutions. In the end, the poor would suffer the most.

It has been exactly four years since our resignation, and the serious concerns we expressed in our resignation statement have come to pass. The truth remains suppressed and the lying continues: the Garci case was never resolved, “executive privilege” became a convenient tool to frustrate truth-seekers, even the President’s health condition has become the subject of subterfuge. Corruption thrived and has continued unabated.  Its many faces—the First Couple and ZTE, Romy Neri,  CyberEd, Joc-Joc Bolante, swine scam, General Garcia, Euro-Generals, DPWH bidding anomalies, and, lately, the noodles scam—have earned for the Arroyo regime the dubious distinction of being among the most corrupt in the world. Even the killings of journalists, activists, and peasant and union leaders, despite stern warnings from international human rights watchdogs, and journalist and law associations, have not stopped and, worse, have persisted with impunity.

Amidst all of these, Mrs. Arroyo seems undeterred. Perhaps to escape all the criticisms for the sad and despicable state of the country, the President—the most peripatetic in history—has taken flight, with her usual coterie of politicians, family members, and hangers-on, wasting precious foreign exchange, while the fiscal deficit threatens to go haywire. As we speak, she may be scaling the pyramids of Egypt!

As the end of Mrs. Arroyo’s term fast approaches, a profound fear of having to account before our people for all the cheating, the lying, the stealing, and the killings, not to mention, the neglect of the basic welfare of our people, especially the most vulnerable, has taken hold of the President, her family, and their cabal. From mere survival, the President is now consumed by schemes, however illegal or unconstitutional, to perpetuate herself in power—indefinitely. 

One track is in play: the subversion of the Constitution, or what constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas calls “constitutional gang-rape,” to enable her to retain her powers under a parliamentary set-up as Prime Minister.  Mrs. Arroyo’s lapdogs in the House have taken the first cha-cha step with the passage of House Resolution 1109, which seeks to convene Congress into a constituent assembly to pass upon amendments to the Constitution, even without the participation of the Senate.  Any time now, we expect the House to convene by its lonesome self and trigger the filing of a “justiciable” case in the Arroyo-appointee dominated Supreme Court. The hope is that a favorable judgment—that legally the House can convene by itself as a constituent assembly for as long as it secures the ¾ votes of all members of Congress—will give  pork-starved members of the House the legal justification to go along with the scheme, no matter how patently illegal.

But should the cha-cha train derail—and by the day, if many of the House members are to be believed, it is becoming an increasing possibility—the Arroyo regime has also put into play a more sinister plan: the declaration of a state-of-emergency.  The signs are dangerously evident: the mysterious bombings in Mindanao and Metro Manila, which seem to follow the same pattern as previous but failed attempts; the militarization of the Cabinet and strategic offices in the bureaucracy; the accelerated promotion of Class ’78 generals—the PMA batch purported to be loyal to the President—in strategic services and positions in the military, at the expense of officers belonging to Class ’76 and ’77; the unprecedented increase in the armed personnel of the PNP’s Metro Manila-based Special Action Force (SAF), which reportedly is now even better equipped than the military, which, because of rumblings and divisions within the ranks, has been rendered an unreliable ally of the regime.

And what about the only desirable option acceptable to our people—the scheduled May 2010 Presidential elections?  While Mrs. Arroyo herself and her minions have repeatedly assured us that there will be elections in 2010, their actions belie their claim. Even the election automation project, which is supposed to ensure an orderly and fast count, is now mired in controversy. Suspicions linger, with talks of intervention by “big people in high places” to manipulate even the automated process, that automation is not yet a certainty.

What now? Lest we find ourselves once again fighting a repressive and kleptocratic authoritarian regime, we must be vigilant. We must expose and fight every move of the Arroyo regime to stay in power against our will and in violation of our Constitution. We call upon all those who truly cherish our democratic way of life, no matter how imperfect it may be, including those in the military and the police, to stand up against those who seek to exploit the instability and confusion in our midst and impose their dictatorial will upon us. Let us all join hands—with urgency and resolve—in ensuring that a clean, peaceful, orderly and automated election does take place in May, 2010.

Finally, to the President and her cohorts, this challenge we throw: Don’t push your luck. You have crossed the line too often enough. With impunity, you have exploited our people’s cynicism and apathy for your own narrow and selfish ends. As with all things,  this too will come to an end.  Of this, we are certain.   

 

With God’s help, the Filipino people will put an end to this despicable Arroyo regime.

 

 

FLORENCIO B. ABAD                                              EMILIA T. BONCODIN
Former Secretary                                                            Former  Secretary
Department of Education                                          Department of Budget and Management

 

TERESITA QUINTOS DELES                                  CESAR PURISIMA
Former Secretary                                                                 Former  Secretary 
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the                    Department of Finance
Peace Process

 

IMELDA M. NICOLAS                              CORAZON JULIANO-SOLIMAN
Former Secretary                                             Former  Secretary
National Anti-Poverty Commission          Department of Social
                                                                                   Welfare and Development

 

ALBERTO D. LINA                                                    GUILLERMO PARAYNO
Former Commissioner                                                Former  Commissioner
Bureau of Customs                                                        Bureau of Internal Revenue

 

JUAN B SANTOS                                                   RENE C. VILLA
Former Secretary                                                     Former Secretary
Department of Trade and Industry                   Department of Agrarian Reform