Manny Pacquiao is home. And for a day, a proud, cheering nation welcomed him with warmth and admiration. For a day, political word wars were put to a halt; and for a day, the people forgot all their troubles and worries.
But poor Manny. From the time he disembarked from the Philippine Airlines flight that took him from LA to Manila to the late hours of that Friday night, he was literally tortured, defenselessly taking all the beatings when he was paraded in the streets of Manila and Quezon City and made to appear in before various private audiences, including live television interviews. He might have feigned he enjoyed the limelight because by sundown, in one television show, he was already talking like a broken record – a sure sign that fatigue has set in.
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I just opened my Yahoo! mail today and found, among others, the following press release, which was sent to me by former colleagues in the College Editors Guild of the Philippines.
I am posting it here, not only because I agree with it contents, but because it remains relevant.
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I’ve been reading the posts in Pilipino, particularly the e-mails to renegade Capt. Nicanor Faeldon. I’m impressed by the expressions of support that he (and the other “righteous” soldiers) has been getting from Filipinos all over the world. But what caught my attention was the letter from a “high profile physician” and the statement issued by the Professionals for Genuine Change that he posted.
Although the statement clearly represents the sentiments of the professionals in the country, I believe it also articulates most Filipinos’ (especially the marginalized sector) aspirations for genuine reforms to enable themto have decent, less deprived lives.
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Forgive the pun, but this seems to be the likely immediate reaction of Google on Yahoo!’s announcement that it has given up the battle against Google for market dominance.
What made the once dominant search engine throw in the towel this early is quite surprising. “We don’t think it’s reasonable to assume we’re going to gain a lot of share from Google,” Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. “It’s not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share.”
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Mr. Duncan Riley surprised the blog world last week when he announced the sale of The Blog Herald for $72,000. As a result, he found himself answering several questions from bloggers around the world.
Mr. Riley is one of the most quoted bloggers in the blog world. As he noted in his blog: “I tend to get quoted a fair bit in the press as well (email works for this, plus MSM are happy to quote stuff directly from posts) 2 weeks ago I made the New York Times and the Guardian all in one day.”
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Posted on January 23rd, 2006 by The Radioman |
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No matter how many times sports commentator Joaquin Henson had announced yesterday that ABS-CBN was broadcasting the Pacquiao-Morales fight live, I did not believe him. So did many televiewers who were so frustrated that the fight has not started yet although text messages have been circulating all over the world that Pacquiao had won by TKO in the 10th round.
For reasons known only to them, our cable tv service provider did not air the South African sports channel where we watched live all Pacquiao fights in the past. Maybe ABS-CBN protested so that people will have no choice but to switch to their channel or troop to the widescreens they have set up in malls and other public places in the city.
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The news story in London, where a northern bottle-nosed whale found its way up River Thames, is a familiar one. We have had similar stories before in our own Lingayen Gulf (which opens to the South China Sea), where whales (the latest was the rare dwarf sperm whale) and dolphins would beach, often injured or dying. The unfortunate ones, when found by uncaring individuals are butchered and sold at P50 (about US$1) a kilo.
About six years ago, 11 spinner dolphins beached in a fishing village in Dagupan City. By teh time authorities were informed about it, only two dolphins were alive: one of them was tied to a bamboo pole of a fishpen; the other was swimming aimlessly inside another fishpen; four, including a baby dolphin, were found dead and the rest have been butchered and being sold in the neighborhood.
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I’m posting the following opinion piece published in the Pangasinan Star last year because it continues to be relevant. To date, the city has barely started its waste segregation program: the large bins located in “strategic” places in the city continue to be dumpsites for mixed garbage and the open dumpsite in Tondaligan, just a stone’s throw away from the historic Bonuan Blue Beach, has not been closed yet.
In October 2003, Dagupeños were horrified and outraged at the sight of the uncollected garbage that had literally flooded the City of Dagupan.
No, the city’s garbage collectors did not go on strike then. That day, ironically, was the first day of the city government’s belated implementation of Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, which was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on December 20, 2000 and December 12, 2000, respectively, and approved by President Arroyo on January 26, 2001.
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In a span of ten days, I was interviewed at the US embassy three times. It can be done then because one just had to walk to the embassy grounds, fill out an application form, pay the visa fee and join the long queue to the consul’s window. Today, a visa applicant has to call a call center to set an appointment; and when denied a visa, can only get another appointment in the next two or three months.
In my third interview, I was quite aggressive, almost doing all the talking in front of the consul.
“Look,I have to be in Seattle,” I said. I then proceeded to explain the importance of the trip to me as a journalist. The provincial government was sending a large delegation, including the governor then, to Washington State and the event was a good news material.
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Will the ameneng (hataw, video karera) machines finally go for good? We ask because with the high-profile campaign against these illegal gaming machines, with no less than Gov. Victor Agbayani and Mayor Benjamin Lim ordering the police to confiscate these on sight, we can only imagine its operators running in all directions with their machines in tow, putting an end to a vice that have been luring school-aged children.
As of this writing, Dagupan City police chief Ed Basbas was announcing on television that his operatives have already confiscated 31 such machines from the different barangays of the city. Good catch, so far. But we also heard him say that there may be more machines hidden inside many houses and that they would need search warrants to get them.
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