Conundrums

Only three days left and we'll have to say goodbye to this year and welcome the coming year. Only three days but still I had conundrums and I think it will remain unanswered till new year comes.


In Pakistan, former Prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber after a speech in an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi that leads the Pakistanis to stage violence in the city and in the nearby provinces.

The assassin as said by the officials investigating the crime was "very well trained or too close to her" to make those shots that killed her almost instantly. He even blew himself up before the people catch him and killed at least 10 people.

Thousands of supporters mourns to her death. "We've lost a great leader. We hoped she would bring peace to our area but now chances are very slim," uttered by her supporters.

Till this very moment, no one had been captured for her assassination. No one knows who is behind this plot.

In the part of the attacker, is it worth for him to sacrifice his own life just to kill her or is he just also a victim of the terrorist behind this killing?

Every time new year comes, a lot of people make their new year's resolution for they want to change something in them for better but the fact is not all of the resolutions they have listed will be followed religiously.

Everybody wishes for peace on earth, but how can we have peace if we never open ourselves for acceptance. Just like the one's behind Bhutto's assassination, if he only admit that Bhutto can be of great help to the Pakistani people to attain peace, he could have not did this plot.

If we only can realize that in able to achieve world peace, we must start it in ourselves. Words are not enough we must act, talk and think peacefully.

Sometimes we must set aside our personal gains to attain our goals but we must admit that this thing is almost always forgotten.

How brittle our life is....

Being a doctor is not an easy profession. Sometimes, lives of their patients are in their hands. In every hospital, whenever there is a patient in critical condition you will hear the words "please do everything you can doc". But the reality is, no matter how great they are in their chosen fields, they really can't prolong the lives of their patients.

Two weeks later, I saw one of our aluminum installer named Bong leaning on the side of our delivery truck with arms holding each other between his legs and shivering. I ask him why, he said he had a flu. I told him to go home and get rest, he said its better for him not to treat his flu seriously cause if he do so, his flu might get serious, instead he go to work to do his unfinished jobs. But he can't even manage to walk in a normal way for being dizzy. His fellow installer Adonis brought him to the nearest clinic when he saw Bong in bad condition.

There he had his blood examined for he might be carrying a dengue virus as theorize by his attending physician for his "on & off" flu which is one symptoms of having a dengue virus. After
a few hours, the results came out and it says he is negative in carrying a dengue virus. He then brought by Adonis to his apartment to have rest. That night he began having trouble breathing. His relatives were informed by his landlord of his condition and even ask them to come to attend Bong.

His brother decided to bring Bong to their province for them to able to monitor his condition. For Bong's safety, his landlord allow his brother to their decision knowing that Bong will be in good hand with his brother.

But, instead of bringing Bong to the hospital, his brother choose Bong to stay to their home to have a good rest. The following day, the only thing Bong can move is his eyes. He can't even talk nor open his mouth to eat. His brother begin to panic and rushed Bong to the hospital. There he had a series of examination and later found out that he had a sepsis.

Last night I have received a text message from his girlfriend saying DEI MORTUARY SERVICES, 301 Shaw Blvd. Mandaluyong city...... there is where Bong's cadaver given mortuary services.

It really shocked me, I almost can't believe that. It even turn my hair up.

Sometimes this things affects us very seriously, but we all must learn how to turn every negative into positive for us to see the positive side of every bad things that happened to us.


This shows us how brittle our life is. No one knows what will happen next or when or how we will die. Life..... as said by an apostle is as brittle as a spider web.

It may really be hard to admit that sometimes the one's we treasure the most is the one who will leave us.......


and will never come back.......


forever.

Vacacion Grande

3rd of December Two Thousand and Seven, the day when Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo leave the country with more than 30 lawmakers to visit Europe (four of whom are traveling with their spouses). More than 30 lawmakers which should be present in the session for the deliberation of the Cheap Medicine Bill, the bill which somehow will benefit the poor countrymen who cannot afford to buy medicines to cure their illnesses and likewise use alternative medicines like the herbal medicines recommended by some quack doctors or faith healers. But how can Congress pass this bill if a big number of lawmakers are absent in the middle of the deliberation of this bill?

When I heard about this news, a lot questions arise on my mind regarding this move by Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

First, why does the House Speaker allow these lawmakers to go with the President though he know that the Congress is in Session and in the middle of the deliberations of the Cheap Medicine Bill?

Second, is it a must for these lawmakers to join Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to her trip? If so, what important role should they and their spouses play for this trip that will be beneficial to the filipino people?

Third, aren't they needed in the Congress to be a part of the deliberation of the bill they created? Should they are not needed to be there, what are they doing in the Congress?

Fourth, don't they even think of the huge amount of money this delegation should spend just by visiting Europe?

By now, it is Php41 against a dollar. For this entire trip alone they will spend roughly around 17 million pesos for their 9 day vacation to Europe. Huge amount of money isn't it?

Fifth, who funded this trip? The speaker then said that the House did not spend even a single centavo for the lawmakers trip with Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, then who funded them? Is it a part of the alleged bribe handed by a certain member of the House to other lawmakers and local government officials last October 11 in a meeting at the Malacanang Palace? Note that if we divide 17 million by 34 lawmakers, each of them will spend 500,000 pesos, same amount of the alleged bribe they handed out last October. The speaker also said that some of them might be traveling at their own expense(?).

With this move by Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, many filipino people said that instead of spending this huge amount of money for traveling abroad with these "biggest delegation of House junketeers" as said by an oppositional lawmaker, might as well spend it for helping the victims of the past three typhoons that wrath several provinces in the northern part of the archipelago. Some provinces are still craving for shelter, food and clothes, while our lawmakers are there in Europe enjoying the rest of days of their Vacacion Grande.

Economic growth

There was a time I was watching the news on TV and it says that the Philippine economy was rising for the past several months and its getting stronger. They said that one of the reason is the dollar remittances sent by millions of filipino overseas workers around the world to their love ones and the good governance of Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who, as an economist, never stop finding solutions to the economic problem of her native land. Her Excellency did a great job indeed as a fact, she ranked number four as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World by Forbes.com. She untiringly fights terrorism, corruptions and poverty and as a result of her excellent job, she again encouraged more foreign investors to invest in the Philippines that makes the Philippine economy quite stronger than the past administrations.

For the past administrations, none of them (the then Presidents) strengthen the value of Philippine peso against US Dollar, instead during their terms Uncle Sam overpowers Juan Dela Cruz in terms of monetary value coz' they were focused on controlling the price of prime commodities to rise which benefited the Filipino people most likely the poor. But we cannot hide the truth that though they did control the price of prime commodities to rise, they can't manage to control the value of US Dollar against Philippine peso and it even reached to Php56/US Dollar.

For Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's brilliant ideas and dedicated service to the native land, little by little she empowers Juan Dela Cruz over Uncle Sam. She slash down the then Php56/US Dollar to only Php42/US Dollar. It's not an easy task and we all know that. That's why she earns a big respect from the leaders of the neighbor country & the business sectors as well.

But on the other hand, prices of petroleum products continues to increase almost every week which triggers the transport sectors to stage protests against her administration. It was immediately followed by the increase of vegetable prices and other prime commodities.

Non Government Organizations (NGO) were always conducting feeding program for the under-nourished children in metro manila and in some provinces. Their objective is to give kids the right nourishments they need. Statistics shows that the higher percentage of under-nourished kids are in metro manila and still growing in numbers. They were the ones you see in the middle of the streets chasing cars and passenger jeepneys begging for someone to give them something they can use to end their starvation. But the truth is not all of them have the same goal, some of them is begging not to buy food but to buy something that can make them forget the pain they feel for being starved and the cheapest among them is the so-called rugby, they say that when they sniff it, they forget starvation and started getting hyper. You can even see some of the beggars who even uses their babies while begging, they don't even think of their baby's safety or is it because they can't be able to think right because of starvation?

Thanks God there are some NGO's who are somehow concern for the kids, thanks to them for having a big heart to the needy kids which someday might be one of the good leaders given the right nourishments they need.

There was once a documentary I've watched, I just can't remember its title but the documentarist talks about the families living under the bridge in almost every part of metro manila. She documented the risk of living under the bridge and even ask them why do they choose to build their homes under the bridge and they say that for them, it's the safest place to build home. Though risky, there's nothing they can do coz' they can't afford to rent even a room.
For the increasing number of homeless families, the documentarist then ended the story saying "where there's a bridge, there's a family underneath".

As I am writing this blog I've heard the news on the radio that senator-elect Antonio Trillanes IV together with his co-accused Magdalo Group walked out of the court room while on hearing at the Makati Regional Trial Court and march towards The Peninsula Manila which is located in Ayala Avenue. We don't know what will happen next to this incident. Is it another revolt against the administration? Is it their way of expressing their grievances? Will they call for the president to step down to her post? No matter what their goal is, I know that they had a purpose.

Now, can we say that the Philippines now have an economic growth amidst the fact that one of every three Filipino's wanted the president to step down to her post for a change?

Instead, we must admit that no matter how hard we try, as long as personal gain is in the mind of our leaders, corruption follows and if there's corruption, poor people gets poorer and sometimes poverty pushes them to do things that are against the law.

This is the face of a strong republic.