DST, Fall Back: Yahooo!

Thats me jumping for joy!!!

It’s one of my favorite times of the year! Is it Thanksgiving? No! Is it Halloween? No! Is it Christmas? No!

What time is it? Its time to set our clocks back as daylight is becoming shorter and shorter! I get to sleep one more hour, oh what joy!!! So, don’t forget to set your time back by one hour tonight if you don’t want to be at church too early tomorrow!

Kerry, Bush and Juan Dela Cruz

Source: http://www.newciv.org

I am an undecided voter for the poll for US President to be held this November . There are just a lot of things to consider. In my effort to decide for whom to vote for I have spoken to friends, family and co-workers what they thought and the following are my conclusions.

One of the reasons that I like about Kerry is his anti-war stance. In my opinion the Bush administration should have stopped at Afghanistan. The Bush administration has failed to show that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So how can I in good conscience support the continued war efforts in Iraq?

On the other hand, I am anti abortion and gay marriages. So, I tend to like Bush’s stance regarding abortion and gay marriages. However, God did give us free will. So, even if there are no laws against abortions and gay marriages, it is still up to the individual to decide whether to follow the commandments of God in the Bible.

The most enlightening comment that I heard about whom to vote for recently came from one of my co-workers. He said that it did not matter who wins this election, whoever wins, Americans would fully support their commander in chief. Then I thought about my beloved Philippines (my land of birth), Filipinos react with pessimism and would be hard pressed to be supportive towards the candidate who won the presidency when their candidate do not win; quite a stark contrast between Americans and Filipinos. That realization saddened me, perhaps when Filipinos learn to give his/her loyalty to country first rather than personalities, then the Philippine nation will rise from the ashes.

Look at my Birdie!

Birdie

Look at my birdie. I know, I know the title is a little bit misleading! This birdie is not even mine, its actually wild. This photo was taken in Hawaii two years ago. I love this picture. By the way if you are reading this, feel free to comment on any of my articles.

Re-Instill Fear in the Hearts of Filipinos

Asiong:
Source: www.geocities.com/larryalcala/

Editorial: Re-Instill Fear in the Hearts of Filipinos

Gone are the days when the rule of law governed the lives of Filipinos. Today, more than ever before is the need to re-instill the fear of law in the hearts of Filipinos. Without the rule of law, our nation cannot go anywhere. In this article I would like to discuss the problems in our justice system and potential solutions.

Court cases take too long to conclude:
My family’s business was a victim of a Multinational Corporation 10 years ago, when it reneged on its contractual obligation to us that resulted in damages of millions of pesos in potential revenue. So we took them to court, and after 10 years of litigation and 1 million pesos worth of attorney fees, the court ruled for our case. Good thing we won the case eh? Otherwise we would have had to face a counter suite by the multinational corporation.

The poor is locked out of the justice due to the high price of good representation:
Filipinos that can afford a really good lawyer has a fair chance in the Philippine court system. But how about the poor who are typically most abused and cannot ever dream of affording a good lawyer? This tragic reality has left the rich and powerful’s abuses unchecked, which has contributed to the culture of crime that pervades in government, business and religion. The Justice system is supposed to be the equalizer between the rich and poor, but the perverted justice system in the Philippines is a big joke.

There is much to reform in our court system. We need to instill fear to those entities/individuals (government officials, big corporations, criminals, kidnappers, etc.) who knowingly do harm to others. Look around you; injustice is smattered all over the manila landscape. We cannot sit idly by while you are being raped and violated everyday by our politicians, criminals, big business, etc.?! Don’t you want to re-instill the fear of the law in the hearts of abusive Filipinos?

The solution: Involve everybody in dispensing justice:
Perhaps a trial jury and grand jury within our court system would help restore justice to our people.

Trial Jury: Rather than having a judge decide whether the accused in a trial is guilty, why not have a jury of his/her peers decide. This way, it will be harder to manipulate the outcome of the court case. Also, having a trial jury will help involve Filipinos in dispensing justice and in the process defuse the power to decide from the few (read court judges). However, the selection process of the trial jury will be essential in ensuring the integrity of the outcome.

Grand Jury: Set up a Grand Jury that will secretly investigate government officials. Again a jury composed of common citizens should be given the task of deciding whether these officials have violated mandate of his/her mandate.

Ivolunteer Now!

http://www.ivolunteer.ph/default.asp

Ivolunteer is the first volunteerism portal meant to serve the Philippines. I have just much respect for Deanie Ocampo, the heart and soul of I-vol!

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Here is a little something about I-volunteer:

iVolunteer.ph is the Philippines' First Volunteerism Portal.

iVolunteer.ph seeks to promote volunteerism for social development by harnessing the power and reach of the Internet.

iVolunteer.ph provides web-based facilities for non-stock and non-profit organizations to post volunteer opportunities in a intelligently-searcheable database for FREE!

Interested volunteers can then conveniently browse these volunteer opportunities (vopp) by issue/cause, location, duration, and other parameters -- all at the convenience of their desktops. Online sign-up facilities are provided or volunteers may make arrangements with participating organizations directly.



iVolunteer.ph is a project of Pinoy-rin.net (http://www.pinoy-rin.net) -- a non-profit organization supported by blood, sweat, tears, humor, and kropeck.

Pinoy-rin.net is harnessing the power and reach of the Internet to promote social activism and encourage the formulation of doable proactive plans to address political, social, and economic challenges that our country faces, and to promote multiculturalism as the foundation of nation-building.

Where the Pinoy-rin.net website promotes advocacy via an online periodical and discussion forum; iVolunteer.ph channels the same awareness, enthusiasm, and energy towards volunteerism and involvement in the issues that affect us today.

iVolunteer.ph likewise provides a free, convenient, and transborder alternative for organizations to post volunteer opportunites and reach out to the volunteer in each of us.

It is this three-way link between advocacy (through online publications), discussion (through online forums), and volunteerism that we seek to help educate the Internet crowd and draw support to the various non-government, non-profit organizations that are working on different social, civic, economic, and political issues that affect us today.

Be an iVolunteer! Today.

This site is not an original idea. We were inspired by VolunteerMatch, which unfortunately, is currently limited to US-based organizations and opportunities only. www.ivolunteer.ph was conceived in reaction to providing similar services to Philippine-based organizations and will carry a distinct Pinoy flavor to it's features and functionality.
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Please be a volunteer!

Wedding Reception Picture

Wedding Reception: Its time to show the worl my wedding pictures.

Yummy (this is not my wife's real name) and I got married on December 14, 2002. It has been almost two years ago. Wow, time sure flies. Its almost like life just went on fast forward when I got married. But, I think Yummy and I are finally getting settled down through the Lord's guidance. Thank God!

Coconut in Blue Sky

Hawaii Picture

This picture was taken in November 2002. Frank, Belinda, Charles and I had a chance to explore Oahu right before the wedding of Atsushi and Laura. I guess posting this picture is two years too late, but better late than never! :) My wedding and Atsushi's wedding are actually only a month a part! Cool huh!