From one of my all time fave musical...
Fame
And of course, here is Lea Salonga again at the Les Miserables 25th Anniversay.
But this time, she plays as Fantine.
A Star Is Born
Charice Pempengco
Saturday, 16 April 2011
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
"Walk away from the envious and the naysayers." This chant has become a part of my personal daily mantra. In this cruel world, people secretly would like to see you fall off into the mud. It's sad but that's the way it goes. Enough with chasing and fixing. There's nothing you can do about it. Confrontations drive our minds to work and when we get mad, we tend to lose our dignity. We get ourselves into some lowly bloody fights. Would it be easier to just shrug our shoulders and let it go? I guess we are smart enough to acknowledge that it won’t change anything. “You cannot make a virgin out of a slut.” Down the road, we need to let go of these people and find ourselves a breathing room. We certainly don’t need them and the drama they bring. This world is so much better without them. If they want to take a glimpse of our wonderful life, then let them, but don’t get involved. Take control. A hater’s personal insecurity is nobody’s business. And I'm sure, some of you are itching to know who my hater is. It doesn’t matter anymore. I still wish her well. I want the best for her in the world...I believe in good karma.
To my real, unpainted and faithful friends – we may not have the most luxurious life in the world, but we have each other. We will. Always. The relationship we share all through the years graces us with real happiness and great emotional stability. I believe in you and me, and for that, I am eternally grateful.
To my real, unpainted and faithful friends – we may not have the most luxurious life in the world, but we have each other. We will. Always. The relationship we share all through the years graces us with real happiness and great emotional stability. I believe in you and me, and for that, I am eternally grateful.
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Saturday, 5 February 2011
Thursday, 20 January 2011
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.
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
Friday, 14 January 2011
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!
Thursday, 30 December 2010
Saturday, 25 December 2010
Thursday, 9 December 2010
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.
Saturday, 4 December 2010
Friday, 3 December 2010
Thursday, 2 December 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
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
Monday, 29 November 2010
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
Monday, 22 November 2010
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.
Sunday, 17 October 2010
When Patrick weds
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.
