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!

==================


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.
==================

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!

A Different Slant

Current Events

A different slant:
By Mell Ditangco

Are the freedoms that we enjoy today in the Philippines worth the anarchy it begets?

I am very well aware that a system is only as good as its constituency and the people that represent them.

Our problem is systemic with one core issue; the populous is enabling the corrupt practices in Philippine society may it be in government, organized religion, academia, etc.. The components of a society such as government, academia, religion, etc. must function with order; this can be done by creating rules and its consistent implementation. In the Philippines today we have the law of the land and religious commandments to give us guidance in implementing order in our society. I don’t think the problem lies in the lack of guidance; rather it’s all about the populous’ lack of compliance and government’s lack of enforcement of the laws of the land. As a result, anarchy has replaced the order that we so need to enact economic progress.

In short, it would seem that the freedoms that we so cherish are the very poison that is plunging this nation more and more into chaos.

Would you rather be ruled by one evil person or a bunch of evil people that keep on fighting against each other to the point of insanity?

Today, many Filipinos believe that there is really nobody capable of leading this nation out of its pitiful state. Let us assume that this is true, so again I ask, would you rather be led by one evil person (my personal choice Bayani Fernando) or a bunch of crazies such as Lacson, Honansan, Reyes, Arroyo, Sotto, De Castro, etc. pulling and tugging at each other, while rogue cops coddle criminals and terrorists, resulting in an unstable environment, which is exacerbated by capital flight.

Let me temper my stance a little bit; perhaps we need an authoritarian government in the interim to restore order and to “re-socialize” the populous ; perhaps we can phase in more freedoms when the Filipinos’ moral fiber has been restored so to make sure that we behave appropriately as constituents and representatives of the people.

All I have now is hope and a longing for our very own Lee Kwan Yew.

Why I started Blogging Again!

Current Events

I love discussing the most pressing issues within the Philippines in various blogs and websites.

Lately though I received encouragement from the Sassy Lawyer ( http://houseonahill.net )to start a blog; though I already had a blog, I decided to revive my poor neglected blog to post my opinions on the political situation in the Philippines.

The article below was originally my comment to one of Sassy Lawyer's articles found in the following link ( http://houseonahill.net/archives/2003/10/000588.html )

Teddy Benigno said it best, "Does it really matter who wins in 2004 and who loses?" (Source: http://www.philstar.com/philstar/print.asp?article=140311 )

Mr. Benigno contends that our form of democracy is dysfunctional and can never serve as a vehicle for progress.

Further he also alluded to the fact that authoritarian forms of governments may be effective vehicles of economic progress as more often than not the most affluent of our neighbors have authoritarian forms of government.

authoritarianism = progress?

Here is what I think.


A case for an Authoritarian form of Government
By Mell Ditangco:

Exhibit 1

Cabinet secretaries that cannot make their lowest ranking personnel come to work on time and stay within office hours. This I do not get, GMA once visited the LTO and she caught LTO employees sleeping on the job and others have already gone home for the day even if it was still office hours. What is the management of LTO doing? A businesses biggest asset are its human resources, and if they are as rotten as these people no wonder our nation is in deep trouble. My question is, even if GMA is corrupt does this give government employees the right not to come in on time or leave before the end of their shift? What's sad is that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Exhibit 2

A populace that is clamoring for a government that is free from corruption on one hand while encouraging it on the other hand. We see the poor more than willing to sell their votes for a mere hundred of pesos; we see big businesses committing tax evasion and get away with it; we see currency speculators (the biggest banks in our nation) getting rich off the vulnerabilities of our beloved Philippine peso; we have respected government officials strongly opposing lifestyle checks because they are so use to the night life that they defend it as if its a religious right to spend insane amounts of money on liquor and GROs doing god knows what.

Exhibit 3

A populace that thinks mob rule is democracy as evidenced by various uprisings such as Edsa 1 and Edsa 2. Democracy was never about mob rule! It’s all about proactive participation in governance. Annoyingly enough, the populace's few active contributions in proactive participation in the governance of our nation are greasing the dysfunctional system that they so loath and sell their votes to the highest bidders.

Conclusion

Its time for a dictatorship in the Philippines! We have seen better times under a dictator in the Philippines than in the so called freedom times of the post Marcos era. Sounds insane? Let’s take the cases of our richer neighbors, China has an authoritarian government and they are doing great strides (a gross understatement) economically. Lee Kwan Yew ruled with an iron hand in Singapore, even banning chewing gum to reduce littering in the streets; yet we see that this nation is very strong economically. Authoritarianism works, and we need not look far to see its wonders as our neighbors in Asia have benefited; here is a shortlist of countries that have mighty economies under authoritarian rule: China, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand; quite an impressive list if I may say so myself. We so envy these nations, its time to follow their lead.

The Philippines is ripe for an authoritarian form of government to stamp out abusive public servants and mob rule. Its time!

Favorite Thread, Favorite Message Board:

This is one of my favorite threads in my favorite forum Tsinoy.com. This thread is all about the 2004 Philipine Presidential Candidates.

Tsinoy.com Forum

Divergent Poles => * <=

http://myweb.i-next.net/~titanium/ivolunteer/images/image

A Lot Has Changed In My Life!

My gosh its been a long time since I last posted a blog! :D

A lot has changed since my last blog. I am no longer part of a firm. I have decided to strike out on my own. I am trying to establish a restaurant with my brother and father. MY brother is an experienced professional chef, so that will be a great help in our efforts. While my dad will provide the much needed capital.

So far, we have completed the business plan and are awaiting the results of our lease application.

Also, I have gotten married to! :D Its been great being married, but challenging as well. But, I love my wife so its ok. :D hahaha