WHY AM I BEING HOUNDED BY THE OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN? [Repost from Stuart Santiago]
Blogger’s Note: Another issue AGAIN! Please Ombudsman, spare our country from your major major idiocy! Geez. This is a repost from stuartsantiago.com.
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From February 2005 to May 2010, I was Vice President for Public Affairs of the University of the Philippines System, serving under UP President Emerlinda R. Roman. Under me were the Information Office, the Office of Alumni Relations of the UP System, and the Gurong Pahinungod.
Because UP was preparing for the celebrations of its Centennial in 2008, our work load—heavy at best—became considerably heavier. A slew of other tasks was added to the regular responsibilities of running three newspapers, maintaining the UP System website, producing regular magazine-sized reports, writing and sending out regular media announcements, providing support for the Office of the President during the annual presentation of the UP Budget to Congress and the campaign in Congress for the approval of the new UP Charter, and providing communications support for the offices of the other Vice Presidents.
Among these additional responsibilities were President Roman’s alumni caravan, which took us around the country to involve UP alumni in the celebration and in the fund-raising campaign; and several special projects—a coffee table book, another book called Kwentong Peyups, a short documentary film, a UP history book project, supplements for the print media, and several Centennial contests (for the Centennial logo, the Centennial literary award, the Centennial song, the Centennial short film, etc.). My Assistant VPs and I worked long hours, including weekends, and out-of-town trips.
Throughout this period, I continued to teach graduate courses–sometimes one, sometimes two, each semester.
On one such weekend in June 2006, Lydia Arcellana (AVP and Director of the Office of Alumni Relations) and I had a lunch meeting with a group of UP alumni at the Dulcinea, a restaurant on Tomas Morato.
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Media Shares a Part of the Blunder Too
Its not only the police response to the hostage crisis that should be examined: the Philippine media has its own share of blunder too.
Is there such thing as absolute press freedom?
No, I don’t think so. Because there is no such thing as absolute freedom. If there is absolute freedom, there will only be anarchy or chaos because everybody will start exercising things according to their will, irregardless if it’s right or wrong.
The Philippine media have forgotten that inside the tourist bus has a TV and a FM/AM radio wherein the hostage taker can tune in for information. And all those blow by blow broadcasts by the media present on that field proved to be a contributing factor to the worsening of the crisis.
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INCOMPETENT PNP: The Quirino Grandstand Carnage
The Philippine National Police (PNP) became the laughing stock of all law enforcements here in the planet, with the way they handled the Quirino Grandstand hostage crisis. Not only that, their so-called prestigious name became synonymous with this word: INCOMPETENT.
True enough, our police force demonstrated their utmost incompetency in dealing with a sensitive situation and their sheer lack of knowledge pertaining to the rules of engagement. As a Filipino taxpayer, I am enraged with the kind of incompetency showed by PNP the last time. In Filipino, their acronym may now stand for ” Patola Na Patola”.
During the incident, I questioned the moves done by the MPD and their so called SWAT team (now, became the dunce all over the internet with proliferating acronyms such as “Sorry, Wala Akong Training” or “Sorry, Wala Akong Tactics”). I am wondering if they are aware that there are certain nook and crannies within the bus where they can gain access – for example, the friggin’ emergency door, the latch underneath the bus or the location of the emergency break glass. Instead, they resorted to a “shoot and ask later” scenario which proved to be more dangerous to the hostages and the other people (including the idiotic usi’s) within the grandstand area.
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Thoughts on PNoy’s SONA
Photo credits: Barrio Siete
The State of the Nation Address of President Benigno Aquino III created a buzz among the people: some people find the SONA to be a blockbuster-tell-all-the-truth scenario, others find it some sort of reminiscing of PGMA’s administration and decry all the anomalies that happened during that term.
In other words, some people may find that the SONA is kinda’ sweet, others can see PNoy’s bitterness.
In my opinion, you can never address problems if you will not be presenting solutions to them. On PNoy’s part, it is quite hard for him to inherit an country filled with political landmines in its governance and in every discovery of the anomaly, its another thorn on his way.
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State of the Nation Address of President Benigno Aquino III
For those who missed the SONA, here’s a transcript. My own review will follow soon. ~Silver
State of the Nation Address
of His Excellency
Benigno S. Aquino III
President of the Philippines
to the Congress of the Philippines
Session Hall of the House of Representatives
July 26, 2010
[Batasan Pambansa Complex, Quezon City]
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte; Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile; Vice President Jejomar Binay; Chief Justice Renato Corona; Former Presidents Fidel Valdez Ramos and Joseph Ejercito Estrada; members of the House of Representatives and the Senate; distinguished members of the diplomatic corps; my fellow workers in government;
Mga minamahal kong kababayan:
Sa bawat sandali po ng pamamahala ay nahaharap tayo sa isang sangandaan.
Sa isang banda po ay ang pagpili para sa ikabubuti ng taumbayan. Ang pagtanaw sa interes ng nakakarami; ang pagkapit sa prinsipyo; at ang pagiging tapat sa sinumpaan nating tungkulin bilang lingkod-bayan. Ito po ang tuwid na daan.
Sa kabilang banda ay ang pag-una sa pansariling interes. Ang pagpapaalipin sa pulitikal na konsiderasyon, at pagsasakripisyo ng kapakanan ng taumbayan. Ito po ang baluktot na daan.
Matagal pong naligaw ang pamahalaan sa daang baluktot. Araw-araw po, lalong lumilinaw sa akin ang lawak ng problemang ating namana. Damang-dama ko ang bigat ng aking responsibilidad.
Sa unang tatlong linggo ng aming panunungkulan, marami po kaming natuklasan. Nais ko pong ipahayag sa inyo ang iilan lamang sa mga namana nating suliranin at ang ginagawa naming hakbang para lutasin ang mga ito.
Sulyap lamang po ito; hindi pa ito ang lahat ng problemang haharapin natin. Inilihim at sadyang iniligaw ang sambayanan sa totoong kalagayan ng ating bansa.
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19 Things You Don’t Know About STAR WARS
I must admit, I AM A STAR WARS fan. I like watching those movies and yes, I grew up watching them. And so, out of curiosity, I spotted this nifty star wars trivia that revealed a lot of things behind the brainchild of George Lucas. Enjoy folks!
[Via: Online PhD]
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Inaugural Speech of President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III
Yes peeps, I know that I have been absent in my blogging chores recently. So happens that my schedule is so jampacked that I could not literally squeeze blogging into my everyday routines. Despite of that, I will not let blogging go away from my life that easy, hence, you will still find me blogging every now and then. Pardon me for not posting regularly in this blog…
Today, we have witnessed a historic moment – the inauguration of President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” C. Aquino. I followed the events in the TV and got my eyes stucked in every moment of it. I must admit that the inauguration was a simple ceremony – a reflection of the Aquino principles of simplicity.
But what I loved the most in that inauguration is his speech. His speech is specific, clear and straight to the point. I love the way he mentioned things over there so I think his speech is worth rereading over and over again.
Here is a copy of his inaugural speech that I have got from Inquirer.net:
Editor’s note: INQUIRER.net is posting in full this copy of the speech from the staff of President Benigno Aquino III.
His Excellency Jose Ramos Horta, Former President Fidel V. Ramos, Former President Joseph Estrada, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and members of the Senate, House Speaker Prospero Nograles and members of the House, justices of the Supreme Court, members of the foreign delegations,Your Excellencies of the diplomatic corps, fellow colleagues in government, aking mga kababayan.
Ang pagtayo ko dito ngayon ay patunay na kayo ang aking tunay na lakas. Hindi ko inakala na darating tayo sa puntong ito, na ako’y manunumpa sa harap ninyo bilang inyong Pangulo. Hindi ko pinangarap maging tagapagtaguyod ng pag-asa at tagapagmana ng mga suliranin ng ating bayan.
Ang layunin ko sa buhay ay simple lang: maging tapat sa aking mga magulang at sa bayan bilang isang marangal na anak, mabait na kuya, at mabuting mamamayan.
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Murder of the FOI
I might be late in updating my blog, but I never miss my dose of news everyday, as I surf the web. Recently, I expressed my OUTMOST DISGUST about the murder of the Freedom of Information Bill, courtesy of the 14th Congress. Here’s my disgusted comment over at Ms. Ellen Tordesillas’ blog:
Murder of the FOI. Bastos yang mga kongresista na hindi umattend ng quorum. 268 sila, hindi makabuo ng quorum. Laking tuwa ko lang pag tinanggalan ng pork ang mga animales na yan. Hindi naman napupunta ang pork sa taong bayan eh, kungdi sa bulsa lang nila.
Walang kwenta ang 14th Congress at si Nograles. Tuta lahat ni Arroyo. Dapat sisantehin ang mga yan, tutal taxes naman natin ang pampasahod sa mga tamad na yan.
A simple measure towards transparency failed to become an act because of the lack of quorum in the session hall. The lack of quorum resulted from the non-appearance of so-called co-authors of the bill, in which, by common sense, should be there in the first place, if they really do expressed interest in the bill. However, as the internet meme FAIL implied, the 14th Congress, aside from being marred by controversies, also failed its promise to deliver the FOI. Instead, they chose the murder option – to kill the supposed bill that could promote transparency in the Philippine government.
The Filipino people have the right to be informed of the transactions that occur within the government and we also have the right to inquire or check if those transactions are legit or not. Since our tax money fuels this government, we do deserve that right. Our tax money serves as their salaries, even pork barrel. Without it, the government will collapse and social services will deter.
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SHOCKING: 2 Year Old Smokes Like an Adult!
Jeezz. I don’t know what’s wrong with the world today or perhaps, the parents of this kiddo why they did allow this young fella to smoke! I was really caught off guard from doing my usual papers, when I saw this SHOCKING video of Ardi Rizal (Demn, is he related to Jose Rizal or what???)
Here’s the shocking video:
Viewed 15145 times by 1263 viewers
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