an eye doctor in a third world country

OTOT! song composed by RommelRat , inspired by Budoy

mangotot ko 2x
gi-sakitan pa jud ko, na ngotot ko sa imong tungod
dako kaayo 2x
ang akong otot, ohhhhh!
mangotot ko 2x, gisakitan pa gyud kooh, ohhhhh!

Goodbyes....

What is good in parting, what is good in being left behind, what is good in waiting for someone to come back, what is good in hoping that you will be remembered.

Old friends, new friends, new found friends, on-line friends, trivial friends, one way or the other, your paths has crossed. Each prose that comes from the keyboard are linkages of your emotions. Some will call it shallow but I call it spiritual. How then can you unravel the connection of minds and thoughts on someone you just read and sometimes feel?

Arianne, we may not have seen each other, but you have touched my soul. Cebu will always be a part of you. I may not be a part of your planeteers but I feel that I am your constant moon, following every revolution that your planet takes. Your everlasting light that follows the tides of your life. Wherever you go, my thoughts will always be with you, as silent as the moon, as strong as the pull of gravity.

Goodbye, my baby Rain. But its really a pseudo-parting, the earth is still round and web is very much expanding.

Hello, again.

she sings in the bathroom, and she rocks!

I have created a lot of blogs inside my head, from my thoughts on food, anecdotes I heard, on funny signs, my bad and nice feelings and some things related with my work.

Pero unsa mang hitabo-a kung, mag-atubang nako sa monitor, mawala man tanan. Is this what we call as blogemesia? (kauban kaha ni sa blogorheaa o opposite?)

God, i wish i could be as poetic as my baby rain or as prolific as the bisdakplaneteers, or as philosophic as paolo, but it will remain a wish as of now.

please GOD, give me the power of the written word.

Hoy! pale face, we speak better english than you!

The Bigman and the Boylets climbs Mt Kanlaon

Whispering Stupidity: a vacation in hell

The long weekend brought us to the island of Negros. The Hubby was climbing the majestic Mt Kanloan with the Boylets and we were sent to the island of Sipaway just off San Carlos City (just 20 mins by pump boat from the port) to wait for his return from the mountains. Upon arriving at the WHISPERING PALMS BEACH RESORT (German owned with 5 wives), we were very much impressed with the clean cottages and well maintained shrubs and greens.

However, we were much disappointed with their services and with the German owner with a myopic view of what a friendly resort should be. He charged us P2,400 (>< 50$) with a family room with no TV, no 24H aircon (only 6pm to 6am, to save on generator fuel, kuno, but isnt that included in the cost ?), only 2 single beds, and he has the nerve to impose a 4 pax only to a room when his brochure clearly stated 6 pax to a family room. There were 4 of us and my son, he wanted us to get another room because ONLY 4 PAX ARE ALLOWED ONLY. How stupid can he be! the 5th person was a 9 year child. Luckily, he saw the light. But, oh my, the food was very much over priced (one order from their menu is equivalent to one meal we have, good for 5 pax with extra rice, ice cream and 2 rounds of drinks at San Carlos City) and WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BRING FOOD AND BEVERAGES. We don't mind paying top money as long as its reasonable, and, hello, this is not our first time to have an out of town vacation nor stayed in a "high end" resort.

We chose to be patient in honor of the feast day of San Carlos Borromeo which happened to be celebrated that weekend. We spend the rest of the day swimming, and there was no pool life guard ! the pool doesn't even have lights during the night ! And on the day we checked out, they was no bellboy to carry our heavy bags.

Whisper it LOUD and CLEAR, stay away from this resort.

Local Ground: the best Cebu Music !

Bahay ni Kuya : maka-lingaw !

battle of no reason

if you know the enemy and know yourself,
you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
if you know yourself but not the enemy,
for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
if you know neither the enemy nor yourself,
you will succumb in every battle

-the art of war, sun tzu

I love this girl, however,

whatever,

wherever,

whenever.

I don't care, regardless,

whoever........

on friday, it will be my only son's 9th birthday. time indeed, flew very fast.
he was just as little as a coca cola bottle, now,
he occupies half of our super king size bed and snore as loud as his daddy.
he's starting to talk about girls!
whew! girls!
the bane of every possessive mother's existence.
please stay away from my son.
im not ready yet to relinquish my supposedly supreme possession over him.
i know i have to but let me cherish the moment.
he has to be his own man
but for now he is mommy's little man.

Little Man JoeHey

Erap and His Three Billion

from Atty Allan Siu's blog (http://siu.i.ph), my favorite online lawyer, friend of our friends

September 14, 2007

Guilty. Joseph Estrada is found guilty of plunder.

This is an important mark in our history – the first time a head of state is tried and convicted of a crime committed while in office. Of course not as cold and uncharitable how we’ve seen people in Korea or Iraq did of their erring leaders. We are, perhaps, a compassionate lot. Look how we allowed Marcos to take a Hawaiian vacation after his ouster. And now, Erap while on trial, is well-rested in the comfort of his Tanay rest house.

The verdict was well, expected – assuming that the Arroyo Administration had a hand in the outcome – now repeatedly muttered as a post-verdict spin by the Erap supporters, that it is nothing but a political decision intended to legitimize GMA’ assumption to power. The logic, of course, is not farfetched. For indeed, following such assumption, if Arroyo allowed a total acquittal – she will be just supplying the noose with which to hang herself, so to speak.

But without painting any political color on the decision and by simply sieving through the reasoning of the Sandiganbayan would perhaps render irrelevant any suspicion of it as being simply a politicial decision. Setting aside pure conjectures, the court should be credited for such an evidently exhaustive and judicious decision.

Consider for example the court’s finding (and Erap’s blunder?) that he is the personal and beneficial owner of the “Jose Velarde” account, part of which was established to be the commissions personally gained by Erap in the purchase of Belle Shares using GSIS and SSS funds. The amount of commission paid: P189,700,000.00.

Here’s a pertinent snippet of the court’s decision:

x x x The Court finds that former President Estrada is the real and beneficial owner of EPCIB combo account C/A No. 0110-25495-4 and S/A No. 0160-62501-5 in the name of Jose Velarde.

The eyewitness account of Prosecution witness Clarissa Ocampo that she saw former Pres. Estrada sign the name Jose Velarde in the various documents presented to him x x x was undisputed by (him) and constitutes direct evidence that former Pres. Estrada signed as Jose Velarde.

Another direct evidence that (he) is Jose Velarde is the admission of former Pres. Estrada that he signed as Jose Velarde in the documents presented to him by Ocampo.

As stated, SSS and GSIS used the funds belonging to its million belonging to millions of members to buy Belle Shares upon instruction of former Pres. Estrada who benefited for his personal gain from the P189,700,000 commission paid in consideration of the purchase of the Belle shares by SSS and GSIS.

The amount of P189,700,000.00 deposited to the Jose Velarde account of former Pres. Estrada are public funds. x x x”

The crime of plunder which Erap is convicted of deserves utmost condemnation. I do not share, nor consent to the view that his being a former president extenuates the gravity of this crime.

On the contrary, the fact that a person of such high government position and entrusted with such immense power is perhaps the aggravating circumstance that impelled the legislators to make plunder a heinous crime in the first place. The respect accorded to the position of the President should be contra-distinguished from a rightful condemnation of the crime. We should learn to put each in its proper place.

Unfortunately, the media has turned this event into circus frenzy. No, I’m sorry, not circus, but a drama frenzy. On TV, we see celebrity friends of Erap interviewed, we see politicians deliver their misplaced sympathies and we see close family members and Erap supporters with their impassioned speeches, as if Erap is the luckless victim of this perceived elaborate contrivance perpetrated by the government against him.

The deluge of human drama and political propaganda the media has, wittingly or unwittingly, so copiously fed the public only served to bury the important underside of this whole event – the evil of plunder. It seems that the evident enormity and flagrancy of the crime has been lamentably blunted by all these. I have yet to see on paper or on TV the extent of the amount involved – hundreds of millions of pesos – displayed in big, bold numbers.

One finding of fact in the Decision which should not escape the minds of the public, particularly Erap’s so-called masa supporters, is the fact that the Jose Velarde account is the repository of such mind-boggling deposits that totaled:

P3,233,104,173.17

It is, I repeat, a finding of fact by the court. While the court did not convict Erap on this ground (sub-par. d of the amended information), as the sources of these funds were not sufficiently established except for the commission that he got from the purchase of the Belle Shares, this cannot erase the verity that he did amass such wealth through that account.

What I am trying to drive at here is the apparent hypocrisy of one who projects himself as man of the masses (people who for years have lived on the throes of poverty) but nevertheless has the effrontery of accumulating such wealth he and his family could not possibly spend in their entire lifetime.

What is plunder then? In the Sandiganbayan Decision, the Court quoted the legislative rationale behind this law, by citing The Explanatory Note of Senate Bill No. 733, quoted in the case of Estrada v. Sandiganbayan (G.R. No. 148965, February 26, 2002, 377 SCRA 538, 555), as follows:

Plunder, a term chosen from other equally apt terminologies like kleptocracy and economic treason, punishes the use of high office for personal enrichment, committed thru a series of acts done not in the public eye but in stealth and secrecy over a period of time, that may involve so many persons, here and abroad, and which touch so many states and territorial units. The acts and/or omissions sought to be penalized do not involve simple cases of malversation of public funds, bribery, extortion, theft and graft but constitute plunder of an entire nation resulting in material damage to the national economy. The above-described crime does not yet exist in Philippine statute books. Thus, the need to come up with a legislation as a safeguard against the possible recurrence of the depravities of the previous regime and as a deterrent to those with similar inclination to succumb to the corrupting influence of power.

The majority opinion in the above-cited case, penned by Honorable Justice Josue N. Bellosillo, further explained the rationale behind the Anti-Plunder Law in this manner:

Our nation has been racked by scandals of corruption and obscene profligacy of officials in high places which have shaken its very foundation. The anatomy of graft and corruption has become more elaborate in the corridors of time as unscrupulous people relentlessly contrive more and more ingenious ways to milk the coffers of the government. Drastic and radical measures are imperative to fight the increasingly sophisticated, extraordinarily methodical and economically catastrophic looting of the national treasury. Such is the Plunder Law, especially designed to disentangle those ghastly tissues of grand-scale corruption which, if left unchecked, will spread like a malignant tumor and ultimately consume the moral and institutional fiber of our nation. The Plunder Law, indeed, is a living testament to the will of the legislature to ultimately eradicate this scourge and thus secure society against the avarice and other venalities in public office.

These are times that try men’s souls. In the checkered history of this nation, few issues of national importance can equal the amount of interest and passion generated by petitioner’s ignominious fall from the highest office, and his eventual prosecution and trial under a virginal statute. This continuing saga has driven a wedge of dissension among our people that may linger for a long time. Only by responding to the clarion call for patriotism, to rise above factionalism and prejudices, shall we emerge triumphant in the midst of ferment. [Emphasis Supplied]

This conviction does not target Erap alone. I cannot subscribe to the view that the present scandals that hound the Arroyo government, while these might eventually be proven to eclipse the enormity of the sins of Erap, should serve to supplant our rightful indignation toward the crime Erap was proven to have committed. If Arroyo and his cohorts have committed similar or even worse crimes against the Filipino people, then by all means, prosecute and convict. And let this recent conviction serve as fair warning to them all.

Maka-pungot sa akong simud:

Gikan sa akong amigong botboton nga nang-damay.

"Dawata kining usa ka sakong putyukan…. bitaw oi, akong isturbohon sila si:

Darlene, Weng, Lory (ang akong crushmate), Palakang Bisaya, Haze, Dr. Tess - The Eye Doctor (maoy nagtuli nako’g usab), Leylander, Ivy, Lollipop, Anne og si Lutchi"

NOAK (bali sa kaon):

ambot lang ning akong simud nga way may balibad basta linuto lang, pwede ra pud gi-hawban, ayaw lang nang mga kinilaw, pero kung kinilaw nga ngabil madada na.

PRUTAS:

dili ko ganahan mukaon sa bisan unsang prutasa basta dili nagsugod sa L ang unang letra sa iyang title, sige, sugod ta sa LATANG SAGING, LATANG KAPAYAS, LATANG MANGGA, LATANG BAYABAS, LATANG SINEGWELAS, LATANG LOMBOY, LATANG SAMBAG, LATANG KAMACHILE, LATANG TAMBIS, LATANG MAKOPA, LATANG STRAWBERRY, LATANG GRAPES, LATANG PEACHES, LATANG APPLE, LATANG APRICOT, LATANG COCONUT, kutob na lang diri kay dili na matabang ang ka-lata sa akong tai.

GULAY:

dili ko ganahan mukaon ug "gulay" (gulay sa imong mata !) pero mukaon ko ug bisan unsang matang sa utan, apilon pa ang wrong spelling (capital O, capital T, capital I, capital indajun)kung bol-anon ka, ka-tubash!

OWAT (bali sa Tawo):

dili ko ganahan sa mga tawng dili eggplant!

EVENT/SITUATION/INCIDENT:

dili ko gusto ug hapsay ug malinawon nga panghitabo. mas nindot ang naay gubot, para naa puy gamay kisaw nga pwede ma-chismis, ma-libak. boring ang life, duka-on ta.

TV SHOWS/MOVIES:

i hate GMA 7 shows! (o, iningles na ha!)

MUSIC:

dili ko gusto ug kanta nga wa gi-tukar sa RJ FM radio, meaning....... oi di pako tiguwang, dili lang ko ganahan ug saba.

HOUSEHOLD CHORES:

mubuhat ko sa tanang trabaho sa balay, ayaw lang ko sugo-a nga mupa-kaon sa iro. bahala na uroyg mag-sige ug paghut, feel jud nako hambaton ko niya.

THINGS AROUND THE WORLD:

aside sa gubat, dili ko gusto anang mga "humanitarian agencies" kuno, nga kusog kaayo mangayo ug hinabang unya pang-ngawarta ra di ay ang tumong ug tinguha.

THINGS ABOUT MYSELF:

sa tinuod lang, ako na lang ning gi-dawat akong pagka-AKO. walang labis, walang kulang. i love myself man jud, ang mo-comment, hampak sa agtang.

Dong, ramses aka botboton, gibuhat na nako imong tahas, maayo unta nga imong nang iluwa ang bato ni darna para ako napoy tulun.