The President expressed his reservations about reimposing the death penalty because the judicial system isn't perfect. He used to be for it but has changed his mind. The President is right on this issue and here is why.

In People v. Efren Mateo, G.R. Nos. 147678-87, the Supreme Court made a landmark admission that the judicial system isn't perfect and how! Citing cold, hard statistics, the Supreme Court said that:

"Statistics would disclose that within the eleven-year period since the re-imposition of the death penalty law in 1993 until June 2004, the trial courts have imposed capital punishment in approximately 1,493, out of which 907 cases have been passed upon in review by the Court. In the Supreme Court, where these staggering numbers find their way on automatic review, the penalty has been affirmed in only 230 cases comprising but 25.36% of the total number. Significantly, in more than half or 64.61% of the cases, the judgment has been modified through an order of remand for further proceedings, by the application of the Indeterminate Sentence Law or by a reduction of the sentence. Indeed, the reduction by the Court of the death penalty to reclusion perpetua has been made in no less than 483 cases or 53.25% of the total number. The Court has also rendered a judgment of acquittal in sixty-five (65) cases. In sum, the cases where the judgment of death has either been modified or vacated consist of an astounding 71.77% of the total of death penalty cases directly elevated before the Court on automatic review that translates to a total of six hundred fifty-one (651) out of nine hundred seven (907) appellants saved from lethal injection." (underscoring provided, citations omitted)

The death penalty is the most final of all penalties. It cannot and should not exist where the conditions for determining guilt or innocence is so imperfect--- as admitted by no less than the Supreme Court itself.

My heart goes out to the Lozano and Evangelista families and all the others who have lost loved ones in the cycle of senseless violence but more violence is not the solution.

By all means, hunt down those who inflict this senseless violence, arrest them, build up cases against them, charge them, try them and keep them in jail. This must be done for every criminal who kills, who steals, who pillages, who plunders for it is this certainty that one who breaks the law will be held accountable that deters a criminal; it is not the severity of a punishment the criminal is confident of evading because he can get a good lawyer, can intimidate or kill witnesses and occasionally may even buy off judges.

Martin Luther King Jr. said it best and most memorably:

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars."

The death penalty is State-sanctioned murder. The greatest irony and tragedy is that it is carried out in the name of the People.

I raise my voice to join the President's. I OPPOSE THE DEATH PENALTY IN ANY FORM, MANNER, INSTANCE OR CIRCUMSTANCE. DO NOT KILL IN MY NAME.

Mwahugs,
Boyeng <3

Let's first talk about the history surrounding the making of Pagadian as the new regional center of the Zamboanga Peninsula Region, formerly also known as Western Mindanao. It all started with Executive Order No. 429, series of 1990, which reorganized the administrative regions in Mindanao to guarantee the effect delivery of the field services of government agencies by taking into consideration the formation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, where Section 1 of EO 429 reorganized Region IX and designated the Cities of Pagadian, as regional center and Zamboanga City as industrial center.

In 2004, Memorandum Circular 75 was issued directing all regional offices to transfer to Pagadian City as soon as practicable except the DTI, DOLE and the Tourism Department and since 1990, out of the 121 regional offices, only 32 have fully transferred and 6 established satellite offices.

So they say, full transfer and establishment of satellite offices, that in truth and in fact, only satellite offices were here, the regional directors have been holding office in Zamboanga City, except for the Maranao Regional Directors as they find Lanao del Sur and Norte, their homes, nearer in Pagadian than in Zamboanga. One even made a suggestion, why not make all regional directors from the Maranao tribe of Lanao so every director will surely transfer to the city.

What positive effects would being regional center bring to the city? Obviously, more money for the city as more people will come in and transact business with the regional offices, more infrastructure from the different regional line agencies and much more. It would definitely boost the paying capacity of the Pagadian City government of all its loans, the Agora Public Market and the Commercial Center (C3) to name those that take the largest chunks.

Negative impacts would be mostly the displacement of workers from Zamboanga City who are to transfer to Pagadian due to their works. Crime rate will also soar due to the influx of people and prices of commodities tend to increase due to the demand. All of these were felt by many, and now being regional center is becoming an opportunity lost due to various reasons which we shall endeavor to name. Reactions are most welcome, should there be any.

It all started with the complaint from many of the regional offices, the employees starting from the economic downhill they have to suffer due to their displacement and whether we like it or not, is true. The idea of the regional center transfer started with Cory Aquino but was shelved and was reactivated by Ramos but did not also push through, Erap did not bother to take a look at it but Arroyo was different. She was not happy when she lost her Presidential bid in Zamboanga City, Erap got a deafening support, Nino Muhlach also brought her ire when the former child star went to the GMA Headquarters in Zamboanga City and made a scene.

So, when the little lady became President, she insisted on the previous Executive Orders made by her predecessors and pushed for its implementation making Pagadian the regional center of Western Mindanao, now the Zamboanga Peninsula despite of the protests made which all fell on deaf ears.

Now, it is Noy's turn and he did a slow but sure way of returning the center to Zamboanga City. He issued Memorandum Circular 11 placing a moratorium on the transfer, directing all those that have already transferred to stay and those that have not, remain in Zamboanga City. With the issuance of said MC, it is obvious that indeed not all agencies have transferred despite of the previous threats of the mayor of Pagadian of suing them for not heeding the directive of Malacanang. Now, the case is moot and academic.

The MC issued by the Palace provides that "All departments, bureaus and other government agencies are enjoined to suspend the transfer of their offices in Region IX from Zamboanga City to Pagadian City pending the study on the matter and consultations with relevant stakeholders to be jointly conducted by the Presidential Management Staff (PMS), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Civil Service Commission (CSC), National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM)." Again, the PMS, DILG, CSC, NEDA and DBM will conduct a consultation with the stakeholders to study on the effects of the transfer, note that all of these offices have not fully transferred to Pagadian specially the Civil Service Commission who ironically investigates on violators of civil service laws. Talking about good faith and "moral ascendancy". Results of the study and consultations should be submitted within 30 days after the issuance of the memo. The results do not require a debate as it is obvious. It will recommend the scrapping of the dream of the city of Pagadian from being the regional center, and it is what we deserve, said the regional office employees.

Reports had it that before the memo was made, a delegation from Zamboanga City went to the Office of the President appealing for the scrapping of the executive order as it has affected a lot of families in Zamboanga and the business sector. The delegation included their mayor, their congressional representatives, businessmen, the bishop and some nuns. Remember the Carmelite nuns where Noynoy had a retreat before he decided to run for President? They were also the same nuns where Cory also seek refuge during her days. Now, tell me if that delegation is not as strong as typhoon Ondoy. Not to forget, Mar Roxas is VERY close to the officials of the Zamboanga City, right Celso and Beng?

Reports were heard that the transfer should have been in its healing and acceptance stage but the city allegedly never made true its promise, the subsidy for the offices who transferred from the city government was not done fully, the bus provided for the transport of the employees going to and from Zamboanga City on weekends was like a bus for construction workers and athletes going to a regional sports meet, there were no available buildings for the offices to occupy and there were scrupulous resident building owners who ask unreasonable rents for those offices who wish to occupy their buildings, the regional center area which was promised was never done to cater to the needs of the offices and a lot more dalmatians, too many spots that indeed such plans should fail.
Reports from the NEDA also said that there was a download of 200 Million to an LGU, we are not sure though, if it was indeed the Provincial Government that had it, but the NEDA said there was for the needs of the regional center offices. But never have we heard that there were buildings constructed for offices, roads concreted leading to where these offices are constructed, water service facilities improved and answering the birth pains of the new regional center.
In short, all of the offices were left behind, their needs not fully given time and attention, thus, supported by other factors, the center was given this treatment by the Office of the President.

Let's just accept the fact that we are not prepared for the challenge. The local government has its hands on other matters, the C3 and other issues, our crime rate is bad, our local economy is not that open to prospective investors, only to a chosen few, we do not have the infrastructure to boast and house the offices, the DENR occupies a building without water. Other offices have similar and other complaints.

Why should we force the obvious? Our airport do not have daily flights to make good Randy David's theory of periphery that regional offices need constant contact with Imperial Manila thus the need for daily flights. We do not have a working port that caters to the needs of investors and lowly itinerants. We have a lot to aspire for to make good our being host as regional center.

Why do we have to wish for other problems when our locality still has various problems in their hands? We do not even have stable water supply for the residents, our road get flooded when it rains due to poor drainage systems. I suggest we first address our own problems and put in place all what is needed for the transfer which I am certain we will be losing it, before we boast of it. The past years would have been the chance. The local budgets should have been made to address the needs of the offices. The local honchos should have gathered the punong barangays, explained to them that we hold on and would not expect assistance from the LGU in order for the budgets to be earmarked for the basic needs of the regional offices, it may not be a direct benefit to the barangays, indirectly it could. It could have prevented this to happen as the regional offices' concerns who have been at least addressed. But it seems that it may be too late.

Now, the city officials are asking other provinces to help them convince Noy Aquino to reconsider the plan of reverting the center back to Zamboanga City. Other provinces like that where the Jalosjoses are kings? Don't they know the close filial relations of the Jalosjoses to the Lobregats? Dream on. Our source said that instead of us being regional center, we will instead be the industrial center, not bad. But being industrial center, though it would bring jobs to people would require a secure and peaceful business conducive area. The question is, are we?

I personally do not have qualms of the thought of Pagadian being regional center, just make the city prepared and not an embarrassment to the visitors. There is indeed much more to be done, a stroke of a pen should not suffice to fight it out and retain our being the regional center, not even mere lip service.

So, quo vadis Pagadian? ACT NOW BEFORE WE LOSE MORE. Peace!

Japanese eigo desu...

Sometimes I think, why I am trying to put my thoughts to words, to the flutterings of my conflicted heart. You never understood me when you had access to everything I was, when my life and mind was an open book there for your perusal at any time. And now I'm writing thinking you'll understand based on little pieces of me... Based on momentary fleeting descriptions of transient emotion that are as eclipsed and opposing as the Phoenix and the Ash, but not as correlated or as certain. Why would you ever see the fire in me, when there is also ice? You always saw the worst in me even when I was flying before your very eyes.

As a child, I saw fairytale playing out in the expressive eyes of those around me. Their crinkled lines told stories of glory and daring adventures, their sighs held mysteries to be explored and there was treasure and beauty around every corner. Every dream held a mermaid or an angel. Every spare moment held one of these dreams. And every footstep in murky water was filled with endless possibilities like fishes in the sea.

As a child, my heart was soft spoken yet loud, my eyelashes were wishes, my teeth were my income, my fingernails were sacred painting spaces untouched by nerves or fear, my hair a glowing growing thing that would one day be let down for a boy who would save me from the tower and evils I knew nothing about. And my hands… my hands held the world, just as my heart loved it.

And I will shed just two tears tonight;

One for you and your lack of fight,

One for myself, for all my plight.

     #4 Dear Santa, I wish for

     #3 Dear Santa, I wish for

     http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/     

     #2 Dear Santa, I wish for
     

     http://www.apple.com/ipad/

sultry quivers from
secret wishes, hiding
in gardens filled with
blooming flowers; we
lay down on soft grass,
eyes gazing longingly at
our delicious bodies,
coveting hungrily to taste
velvet rich scrumptious
flavors upon juicy lips
dripping sweet nectar of
passionate fruits from
desires; tongues plunging
in luscious tastes of divine
touches where mouths seek
unspeakable things for ripened
tender moans escaping in gasps
rippled sighs of indulgent cries,
no longer eclipsed by muffled
tones behind closed doors, removing
restraints from our greedy erotic fervor.

Lip-tight

     While I am so tempted to splurge these days on shopping spree, I skid myself in every corner trying to walk away from the shops and to defeat with heavy heart those red labels. I always come out from a peek at a store with audibly long deep breaths, exhaling grief over a lost of a good grab that will excite the attention of another shopaholic. At the same time, I can smell relief for the influence it enthralled me at first, but I let go and didn't let the spell enslaved me. Kudos to that!

     Though I won't deny that I do have many "wants" or "would like to have" this Christmas. I am fastening my purse from the lures of high consumerism this yuletide season, instead I have to zip through my millions of dream-plans.

     But in any road, I am still making this fun-wishlist like everyone is having. I am wishing Santa will hear me. Well, the best things in life are for free, especially dreams and wishes. Teehee :p

     Countdown wishlist till Christmas eve...

     #1 Dear Santa, I wish for

     

     

  http://www.apple.com/macbookair/

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

With Shin-kun yesterday at the fellowship. He left the Philippines when he was just two, so barely could he understand nor speak Tagalog. So I tried to chat up with him, because he was all alone eating dinner. And let's not hide the obvious, he's very handsome, that I'd asked him if we could have a picture together. But the sisters wouldn't let the opportunity pass too.

When Patrick weds

Iryn & Patrick Fontanosa from MPW Media Group on Vimeo.

Oh big brother bear just tied the knot. How time flies, we used to skateboard at the neighborhood's block. Hence, we used to call our group the local version of "the new kids on the block".

But I like it when he took the hand of the parents to ask for blessing to wed their daughter. Very traditional. In a conservative way. He's really one family man. Good obeisance, Patricio. I wish you both well.

Oktoberfest

大好き！

She was confused, torn, there was a silence that ached in the air alongside her indecision. He was here. Like she had always wanted him to be. He was here. The thoughts were foreign in her mind. He was here. How could this even be possible? Had her heartfelt wishes that she screamed sometimes in tears and sometimes in anger finally coalesced and formed this perfect vision before her? He was here. He was here. He was here. It became like the song of her heart, as if it was attempting to beat this reality all the way to her mind. He was here.

No matter that she had no idea if this was a good or bad thing. No matter that she barely knew if he was the same man that she fervently loved and who broke her heart, several times. No matter that he had lies painted in his past and shining in his eyes alongside his decision to finally be here. How long would that decision last? But the truth is much more simple than that. He was here. And that was suddenly all that mattered.

And he dimmed the lights. Like a metaphor for their love, illuminated but slowly fading into darkness. But it was not framed that way to her innocent heart. She did not read it like that. Instead she saw the darkness erasing all the doubts and all the shadows of their past, as they melded into the inky blackness surrounding them until there was only love; and hope that this time it would last.

I am out of inspiration;
I am out of things to write.
Every time I pick the pen up,
It’s as if to start a fight.
Between conscious and unconscious;
Between heart and brain and soul.
The mind wishes to expunge.
The heart wishes to control.
And between all these confusions,
Lies a hidden, deeper way.
That has made me numb and frozen.
And left nothing more to say.
I know the old safe patterns.
Writing of memories; pain; and loss.
These stories echo timeless,
And are easy to get across.
But they don’t explore the labyrinth
that is tangled up inside
those are worthwhile masterpieces
though untested and untried
So I linger over paper,
Hoping to write what I now see;
Carve a path of understanding,
into the heart of me.

You and I, we do not see the world through perfect eyes. Our eyes are not virginal to passion, fear, hatred, happiness, seduction nor pain. To insist that we see the world in a perfect light would be only to insist that we have never truly lived. 

As humans who are flawed ourselves, there is a certain amount of respect that is given to the writers who take advantage of the dangerous ability to create characters who share in the same relative flaws that we ourselves are designed with. For this reason, it is imperative that you do not develop characters that are too perfect. It is the beautifully flawed characters that readers love to indulge in. It is the the ability to relate to imperfection that keep them returning for more. 

Essentially, it boils down to the simple fact that perfection is boring. You want your readers to be able to relate to imperfections that are existing in every day life. In reality, there are constant obstacles to overcome, wisdom to be gained and mistakes to be made; it should be no different for your characters. 

The ways in which you can bring your characters to life with imperfections are endless and limited only by your imagination. Portray your character with anger problems, as a hopeless romantic, as a cashier who despises her job, a man who is often taken advantage of because he is too kind or as someone who recently lost a loved one. It doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you do it. Your readers want to see a character who is overcoming his or her own obstacles, learning their own lessons out of life and making the same mistakes that they, too, have made themselves. You can take an entirely different route and create a character who is so deeply flawed that your readers despise him, just so long as they love to hate him. 

In the end, your characters should be real, above anything else. Readers, as well as ourselves as writers, are constantly plagued with situations that we must push through and overcome. Having that opportunity to escape from our own flaws and indulge in the flaws of another is ultimately a source of understanding that can often assist us in gaining insight to our own lives. 

I know it hurts to no longer be loved by the one you love. I know it hurts to no longer be wanted by the one who used to worship the ground you walked upon. I know it hurts to be dumped by the one who used to follow you like a lovesick puppy around town.

But denial will not help you get through this crisis in you life.

It is difficult to accept that you are no longer wanted, that you are no longer thought of, that you are no longer missed. It is easier to fool yourself into thinking that he still thinks of you day and night, that he busies himself daily, devising strategies to bring you back and that only his many pride is stopping him from taking you in his arms.

But please wake up!

Misinterpreting his words and actions, concocting wild theories about why he still hasn't picked up the phone to call you, closing your eyes to the fact that he is already seeing someone else, won't bring him back.

It hurts, I know, but it's time to face the truth: you are no longer loved.

It's over. It was over long before it ended. And you knew it. But you pretend. And so did he. But the time for pretense is long gone past. It's time to face up to the cold hard facts. It's time to start picking up the pieces of your life. It's time to stop lying to yourself.

So stop making ridiculous excuses to pick up the phone to call him. Stop driving by his place in the hope that you may accidentally catch a glimpse of him. Stop fantasizing about having his children. You're only torturing yourself.

And stop saying, "I just want to be his friend."

You don't want to be his friend. You know it. He knows it. And so does everyone else so stop selling this story. No one's buying it.

For if you really wanted to be his friend you would have already been his friend a long time ago, the day you officially parted, in fact. But care to take a guess why he still avoids you like the plague?

Because you are not very convincing. If you wanted to be his friend, you would leave him alone. You would stop monitoring his movements. You would stop tracking him around town. These are not exactly the overtures of a concerned friend, more of a scheming ex-girlfriend plotting a romantic reunification.

You really want to be his friend? As a gesture of good faith, give the guy some breathing space. Stop lurking around his neighborhood. Stop interrogating his friends. Stop offering yourself as a Christmas present. It's over. He's not coming back. Or haven't you realized it yet?

Hope springs eternal, I know, till the day he asks for God's blessing and takes a bride. And it is your prerogative to wait for him, forever if you so desire.

But why do this to yourself?

Why subject yourself to such indignities? Why continue to hanker for a man who couldn't care less if you were dead or alive? Do you think so little of yourself? Why live for morsels of affection thrown your way when you could find love in all its splendor with another man?

There's a whole universe of unattached men out there, who could love you much better than him. Let this one go. You deserve to love and be loved again. But this cannot happen till the day you let go of the past and live in the present.

Fantasy delights, I know. And reality bites.

But it's time to wake up. You've been dreaming too long.

Oh star, why must you shy away? Sneak past the clouds, reveal yourself. Take me away to the infinite. Show me the galaxy. Aid me to the light. Do not shy away anymore.