SPREAD THE LIGHT. BANISH THE DARKNESS

An invitation.
SPREAD THE LIGHT. BANISH THE DARKNESS
August 20, 2005 at exactly 6:00 pm.

When an ordinary citizen steals, would an “I am sorry” be enough? When an ordinary citizen lies, would an “I am sorry” be enough? When an ordinary citizen cheats, would an “I am sorry” be enough?

Ask yourself: If you are an employee and your employer catches you cheating, lying and stealing — will an “I am sorry” be sufficient or a “lapse of judgment” be accepted? Or would you stand to lose your job?

What is our country coming to if we hold ordinary Filipinos to higher and stricter standards than we hold the highest official of the land?

This is not to say that the President of the Philippines is guilty of all that she is being accused of. It is only to say two different standards of rules - one for the powerful and one for the powerless — cannot exist if ours is to be a truly democratic and pluralistic society.

This is not the country we want. And so perhaps it is time we do something about it.

If you believe, as we do, that it is time for ordinary Filipinos to stand up and be counted in the fight for TRUTH — as well as for Transparency, for Responsibility, for Unity, for Trust and for Hope — then join us in a simple demonstration of our collective sentiments.

On August 20, Saturday, at exactly 6pm, take a few moments to light a candle in demonstration of our collective effort to take this country back from all who have not been true to it and to all of us ordinary citizens - and to be the first step in bringing about the light that will banish the darkness that hovers over our land!

Spread the light. Banish the darkness. August 20, 2005 at exactly 6:00pm.

CITIZENS FOR TRUTH
Transparency. Responsibility. Unity. Trust. Hope.

a "full" weekend

It's been a relatively relaxing weekend which enabled me to continue on my 'auto woodwork' project last Saturday. Nothing refreshes a man more than some hard manual labor. While my brother-in-law and I were hammering away with my project, my wife decided to go with my mom and sister for some shopping in Market! Market!

Come Sunday my wife and I attended Church in the morning. Lunch time we had steak a la pobre at my mom's house together with my 'Greek' family (no we're not Greeks, but if you've seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding you'll know what I mean). After lunch we head off to the vet for Koko and Sakura's de-worming session (wherein they just gave them a pill... which I can very much do by myself) before returning back to my mom's house to pick up my pumpkin (my term for pamangkin) for a children's birthday party.

My pumpkin Kyle...

Initially we opted not to bring 4-year old Kyle along as he was notoriously 'makulit' but when we were about to leave my mom's house he was sad that everybody's leaving. First he was clinging on his dad's bike to prevent him from leaving but after some lightning (tricky) kung-fu moves his dad got past him, alas he just have to settle with his best bud, Andre (my other pumpkin) - but Andre had to leave as well for a visit his lolo and lola! My mom and sister (Kyle's mom) together with my two aunts were preparing to leave to check out the franchising expo at the WTC. When it was time for me and my wife to go, we heard Kyle say 'naiwan nanaman ako'... our heart sank and we just have to take him with us. So I told him we'll just bring Koko and Sakura to the vet and we'll come back for him so we could go to the party. It took us an hour at the vet and when we got back he was on his party clothes and has already fallen asleep waiting for us. His yaya reported that though he was sleepy he doesn't want to get off of his party clothes and he even called us up at our house but Tina told him we left already, again he muttered 'naiwan nanaman ako'... Haaay... His yaya loaded him up in the car while he was half-asleep and we head on to Mega Mall. As we we're on our way, my wife pulled out the invitation and was shocked to see the party starts at 2pm when all the while she thought it was at 3; it was almost 4pm at that time. As my wife was texting her friends to see if the party isn't over yet, Kyle was looking at the invitation and blurted out a very funny comment that gave my wife and I a good laugh. He asked us what has happened to Suzy Spaghetti's hair! If you have seen Shakeys' mascot Suzy Spaghetti you'll be asking the same question too! Hehehe... When we got to Shakey's, the party was over and the host was just about to leave. Kyle was given 2 loot bags plus a balloon to compensate for the missed party, undeterred he played with his balloon and even grabbed a party hat. He was happy with his loot, but my wife and I was really upset that we were not able to give him the party he deserved. To make it up to him we treated him for some kiddy rides and arcade games. We also bought him some 'kiamoy'-like candies which were his favorites. We had spaghetti, chicken, soup and sandwich at Almon Marina before heading home. All in all Kyle had a great time (except for the giant 'paa' that scared him off in one of the health spa in the mall). Kids are really easy to please...

As Koko mentioned it was an exciting weekend for them too... my in-laws paid us a visit so they could see for themselves how cute and cuddly the little pups are. It's pretty special since my wife prepared a great dinner made out of 'sinaing na tulingan' (the one with pork), rosemary-garlic roast chicken and clam chowder soup. While my mother-in-law brought her very delicious and addicting 'dinuguan'! During dinner my wife told my in-laws about my blog and the episode with mlq3. So after dinner they asked to see the blog and my wife happily obliged them, so you could imagine how much I was blushing and sweating. When they left I asked my wife why she had to tell her family about it... to which she answered 'coz I'm proud of my hubby!'

If Koko had an exciting weekend... I had a "full" one!

words

Yes! Just as Koko has mentioned… Manuel L. Quezon III did mention this space in his blog. Though this is Koko’s blog, the one he mentioned was specifically my entry. So step aside you puppy! Hehehe… just kidding. When we started this blog it was agreed that it’s mainly Koko and my views on politics, so no problem on how we’ll go about this.

Koko is indeed feeling better… I blame it on myself that I increased his pellet diet. Well eventually he should be ready for it, but I guess it’s just not yet time. At least I can say that my intentions were good… and I’m being honest. This one is no case of ‘pero yun nga, yung dagdag, yung dagdag’ meaning I was just protecting my votes!

PCIJ gave a new light to the Garci tapes by discovering the ‘dagdag’ word uttered by GMA, don’t know if Cong. Peter Cayetano and Joel Villanueva got the details from PCIJ but whoever scrutinized it really did a good job. This part was previously reported in the transcripts as unintelligible or garbled. Wow! This really puts more teeth to the Garci tapes since it now shows that GMA did mutter the magical word ‘dagdag’! What struck me is the reaction after this revelation… as inq7 has reported, the staunch supporters of GMA now claims that the enhancement done was not to make the audio quality better but to add something that is not actually there! I went back to my downloaded recordings (which I got way back when all this started) and listened to that specific part… plugged my earphones and turn the volume to the max and voila!!! Indeed there it was… very clear… and very much portraying a Gloria whispering to get her message across. Wow! The funny thing is Congressman Douglas Cagas of Davao del Sur is saying that even if the tapes were authentic there could be different interpretations for what the president meant when she mentioned ‘dagdag’. (Yeah right!) While congressman Pichay is saying that the enhanced recording could be an enhanced fake and even claiming that Cayetano’s action is the highest form of moral dishonesty… where does he get the nerves to say such things. And even going into the realms of what’s moral!?! Mike Defensor is challenging the opposition congressmen to make a wager that if the recordings were to be proven authentic and indeed the president uttered the word ‘dagdag’ the president will resign (like he could make the president do so). Glad congressman Cayetano and group took him up on his wager and immediately drafted an undertaking... though I don’t believe Mike and the president will honor the undertaking. As for Mike… what was he thinking!?! Is he really that stupid? Or is he that optimistic??? The audacity of these men really baffles me at times. Sometimes I wonder how they could sleep at night... gone were the days when men’s honor is determined by their words.

I guess the way our society now uses words reflects how morally bankrupt we have been as a nation. To argue on what ‘dagdag’ means, to argue what ‘will I still lead by 1M’ means, to argue on what ‘yung ginawa naman sa inyong pagpapataas’ means… the need to prove legally of each word’s meaning… just shows what kind of society we have become. Does it really have to be that hard? Aren’t words used to communicate and help us understand each other?

My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the utterance from my heart will give understanding. -- Psalm 49:3

sick

This morning Koko threw up… pretty worried at the moment as he might be sick again. He just had his first vaccination last Sunday; hopefully it has nothing to do with that. Yesterday it was Sakura who threw up; we think it was the liver food we prepared for her so we reverted back to their usual diet. We increased the pellets in their food though… I guess that’s what caused Koko to throw up today. I guess their digestion isn’t that good yet.

On the political “sickness” of things…

Yesterday the opposition had their biggest rally yet. Police estimate the crowd to be 40,000 at its peak; of course the opposition is claiming a bigger number. By the photos I have seen it does look big though I cannot speculate on the numbers. As expected the president just shrugged off the rally and her men gave a press conference (again!) stating that their boss is under control and will not resign – the exact word Mike Defensor used is ‘not ever’.

Everybody’s been saying that half of the crowd in the protest rally was paid. I believe the term they use is ‘PERALIYISTA’… if it’s true, at P100 each that’ll cost P2M for the opposition; a lot of money… but knowing the opposition, it’s possible. Noticeable also is the different reaction of people. Most Makati folks were annoyed as it makes commute harder for them; I even received a letter from someone ranting why the protests have to be in Ayala. I guess for most people life goes on, especially for us working here in Makati. I wouldn’t like to believe that the middle class is being apolitical. As survey shows, 71% of metro folks want the president out. I believe just as mlq3 wrote in his blog, the middle class would never rally with the Estradas and the Marcoses. And without a better choice and with the danger of having these people back in the government they wouldn’t go out in the streets. And without the middle class and the professional class going out to the streets this will be an arduous journey. Really the ending of this crisis is hard to predict.

I watched the program of Bangon Pilipinas prayer rally on Zoe TV yesterday. Particularly interesting is Pastor Ed’s message… though this view is not really that popular I’ll still spill it out here. He claims that it could be that God is punishing the Philippines… sounds like a doomsday prophecy huh!?! Well here are some points he raised:

Point 1: As some surveys are showing, it could be indeed that FPJ won the presidency last election but God took him from us. Effectively rendering us leaderless.

I am no FPJ fan, but come to think of it if FPJ was still alive this crisis might as well be over right now. Just imagine the masses that’ll converge in the street knowing that their idol was cheated. The problem that we have nobody to replace GMA won’t be the question anymore… as much as I wouldn’t want FPJ to be the president… it wouldn’t matter as the masses that loves him so much would have overtaken the events.

Point 2: For so long we have been called the only Christian nation in Asia… but now we’re the 2nd most corrupt nation in the world! Not only the government is at fault for this but all of us as a nation and as a body of believers.

Have we brought glory to God’s name?

Point 3: Nothing can save us now but God’s mercy.

If you have been following the events and just like me trying to make a guess of the next best move… you would come to the conclusion that we are at a stalemate. Most opinions think that we have yet to fathom how this ordeal is to end.

Of course after enumerating such points (more convincingly than I did in this blog), pastor Ed led the people in prayer – a prayer asking for God’s mercy and forgiveness… I too prayed with them (yes, while watching TV… better late than never). It might be conceived that the Bangon members are a bunch of doomsday cult and that I am one of them… sorry to disappoint, but these are sound minded people who have mountains of faith for their God. The same people who voted in the last election not half heartedly for lack of choice or for choosing a lesser evil, these are people who wants change – genuine change, people who is storming the gates of heaven with their prayers calling on the only one who could truly heal our nation. We could really use more of their kind.

When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. -- 2 Chronicles 7:13-15 (NIV)