Quaere Verum

It's time to start the great debate on charter change. The words echoed in my mind when I heard Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's State of the Nation Address last week (read full text of GMA's SONA here ). And while I certainly disagree with a lot of Pres. Arroyo's actions and policies, this is one course of action that for me is long overdue. To amend the Constitution. To change our system of government. As a political science student, and later on in my law studies, I must have participated in countless discussions and debates regarding this topic. It goes deep down into the very core of the Philippines as a state and as a sovereign nation. What IS the best way of governing ourselves? What significance does our system of government have on the nation as a whole? It is of vital importance that we choose a system of government which best suits our values, our beliefs, our character as a people, our way of life. The right system of government can handily speed up our rate...

I guess there's no avoiding it. I'm a trekkie through and through. How do I know? I gave in to the temptation again and bought myself another Star Trek DVD compilation. This time its Star Trek: Voyager . Its one of those "authenticity challenged" compilations. But I guess it can't be helped. Complete original copies of any of the Star Trek series are almost impossible to find here. So what's a trekkie to do? No choice but to look to less than legitimate means, unfortunately. For now this will have to do, at least until Paramount realizes that there are some trekkies in this part of the world who want complete compilations of all the episodes of all the series. Until that time arrives, I have to do with whatever is available just to get my "fix" of Star Trek : Seasons 1-7 of Star Trek: Voyager. These are the other compilations I have: Seasons 1-7 of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Seasons 1-7 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . I can be such a los...

Do you remember pagers? If you were a professional in the early to mid 90s you would probably recall those ubiquitous black devices clipped on belts or bags which receive messages. These messages are phoned in through an operator which takes your message and sends it over the air. If you were lucky (or wealthy) enough to own a cellular phone at the time, in all likelihood a model using analogue technology, you probably just kept it powered off most of the time because of the limited battery life and you just used it to return calls when someone paged you. I was puttering around my room (like I always do), looking for stuff to throw out, when I found a couple of my old pagers. They're still in pretty good condition, and they actually still work. That is, they would work if the service still existed. With the advent of SMS messaging via cellular phone, the technology has been rendered obsolete, forcing the companies which used to provide this service to close shop. In its heyday, t...

My life is rated R. What is your life rated?

Requested by Rain. Unfortunately hardly any servers host video clips from the movie, so here's the next best thing. This apparently is her favorite scene in the entire movie: MICHAEL: Big weddings are so strange. JULIANNE: You keep saying that. MICHAEL: Kim has all this stuff to do, I hardly see her. JULIANNE: Well, you've got the rest of your lives. JULIANNE: Getting your bed made. Every day. JULIANNE: You miss her, huh? MICHAEL: No. I've got you. JULIANNE: That you have. MICHAEL: Don't you throw up on boat? JULIANNE: If you like. MICHAEL: I've been thinking a lot the last couple days. About us, actually. JULIANNE: Have you. JULIANNE: Well. There's a lot of memories to choose from... MICHAEL: It's more than that. MICHAEL: I mean, it's embarrassing to say it this way, but... MICHAEL: You've sort of been... y'know, the woman in my life. JULIANNE: You've been the man in mine. MICHAEL: And I was thinking this could be our last time. Alone. To...

For the last several days, I seem to be feeling a tad under the weather. I'm not really sick, but I just feel somewhat awful. The bout of elevated blood pressure that I had soon after the conclusion of my travels has passed somewhat, but I still feel kinda fatigued and I also have to deal with the nuisance of a cold sore on my upper lip. Its all getting better now, but somehow I can't help but feel a bit grumpy with all of these troublesome aches and pains. The rains aren't helping either. Could it be that all those years of drinking till the wee hours of the morning, smoking, lack of exercise, and stress could be taking its toll? Probably. I'm not getting any younger as well, so I should be taking better care of my health. The fact that I'm a hypochondriac of sorts, and an obsessive-compulsive in general doesn't help matters either. It seems that I was genetically predisposed to just wallow in stress...not something that I enjoy but inevitably seem to gravitat...

A little boy asked his mother, "Why are you crying?" "Because I'm a woman," she told him. "I don't understand," he said. His Mom just hugged him and said, "And you never will." Later the little boy asked his father, "Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?" "All women cry for no reason," was all his dad could say. The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry. Finally he put in a call to God. When God got on the phone, he asked, "God, why do women cry so easily?" God said: "When I made the woman she had to be special. I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world, yet gentle enough to give comfort. I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children. I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without compla...

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence: in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near your slightest look easily will unclose me though i have closed myself as fingers, you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens (touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose or if your wish be to close me, i and my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly, as when the heart of this flower imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending; nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility: whose texture compels me with the colour of its countries, rendering death and forever with each breathing (i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens; only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses) nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands - E.E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings published this poe...

Not so long ago I got to meet a fellow blogger named Aion in a get-together of sorts sponsored by Nao , another fellow blogger. One peek at his blog at you will no doubt arrive at the unmistakeable conclusion that this guy is really into mecha, specifically Gundam . He is such a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Gundam that apparently one of his hobbies is assembling Gundam model kits. Well, while I may not share his devotion, patience or meticulous attention to detail when it comes to assembling Gundam models, I do share his enthusiasm for the genre as well as his fascination with the models. In fact, I have a limited collection myself of Gundam mecha, mostly bought already assembled, as well as smaller-scale action figure type models, which my son really likes to play with. :-) Here are some pictures: My collection of Gundam mecha. The large one is a W-Gundam Zero Custom. This one is a Wing Gundam. Incidentally, I also collect Dragon Ball Z figurines. And 1/32 miniature automobiles. I must...

Video code provided by Music Video Codes On Bended Knee Boyz II Men Darlin' I can't explain Where did we lose our way Girl it's drivin' me insane And I know I just need one more chance To prove my love to you If you come back to me I'll guarantee That I'll never let you go Can we go back to the days our love was strong Can you tell me how a perfect love goes wrong Can somebody tell me how to get things back The way they use to be Oh God give me a reason I'm down on bended knee I'll never walk again until you come back to me I'm down on bended knee So many nights I dream of you Holding my pillow tight I know I don't need to be alone When I open up my eyes To face reality Every moment without you It seems like eternity I'm begging you, begging you come back to me Can we go back to the days our love was strong Can you tell me how a perfect love goes wrong Can somebody tell me how to get things back The way they use to be Oh God give me a reason ...

Received this through email. Of course, I make no claims as to its truth or veracity. It is an interesting read though... Read this guys, don't know how true it is??.. but makes sense, a lot of sense. A friend of mine just heard this scoop about Tom & Katie from someone Who works at Universal. The source said that they (Tom & Katie) have a 5-year contract and he's paying her $8 million. The engagement happened so fast because Rob Thomas' (Matchbox 20) wife caught Rob and Tom in bed Together and they rushed the engagement so that it would overshadow that scandal. Obv., take it with a grain of salt. Read below. This was just published. Independent Sources Bureaucrats? Independent Sources Confirms Existence of Tom Cruise/Rob Thomas rumour Independent Sources announced today that it has uncovered A new, previously undiscovered Tom Cruise rumour: Tom Cruise and Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas are lovers! Independent Sources has hesitated Writing about Tom Cruise/Katie ...

Note: If you're looking for the full text of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's 2006 State of the Nation Address, go here . If you want to read my (brief) reaction to her 2006 SONA, click here . Thank you for dropping by. This is the full text of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's 2005 State of the Nation Address. I reserve my right to comment on it later...:-) Every year, we meet on this day in this great hall to celebrate democracy and take stock of the nation: the country and its condition; the government and its performance; the people and their well-being. Ours is a country divided; the story of our nation is a tale of two Philippines; almost, as it were, two countries under the same name. One is the Philippines whose economy, after long years of cumulative national endeavor, is now poised for take off. The other is the Philippines whose political system, after equally long years of degeneration, has become a hindrance to progress. As a country on the verge of take off, ...

Having the good fortune (or misfortunate, depending on how you look at it) of living within the vicinity of Commonwealth Avenue and the Batasang Pambansa Complex, I had a front row seat of sorts to the anti-Arroyo demonstrations taking place on the occasion of Pres. Arroyo's State of the Nation Address. Estimates put the anti-GMA rallyists at around 50,000 strong, and the Fairview bound lane of Commonwealth Avenue was closed to vehicles in order to make room for the crowds. While the demonstrations where more or less peaceful, those taking up the microphone on the stage minced no words in making it very clear that they wanted Pres. Arroyo out of Malacañang. As they and the rallyists there put it, "isa siyang pekeng Pangulo." And the State of the Nation Address? The anti-GMA rallyists couldn't care less. Three cheers for freedom of speech, of expression, and of peaceable assembly. Here's what my camera lens saw:

Since it is Nao 's birthday, I doubt it if she would mind if I dig up a memory or two of her from the time we were still in college. :-) And besides, I think its about time I got some payback for the time she posted an entry on her blog extolling my "imaginary" virtues . :-) Nao and I used to work together on the official school organ of Arellano University , known as the Arellano University Standard (AUS). I was an Associate Editor at the time, and she was our resident Feature Editor. Even at that time she definitely had a knack for feature writing, and her skill with words is still evident in the elegant simplicity and readability of her blog entries. That was something I was never really good at. I always ended up complicating my writings. :-) At the time I was enrolled at the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in Political Science (a dead end course, in retrospect :-)), she was enrolled in the College of Nursing. She had her share of notoriety at the time, as I...

Birthday greetings to Annie and Naomi who are both celebrating their birthdays today. Many happy returns!

At around 6 in the evening on the 15th of July, a Friday, we boarded our Philippine Airlines flight back to Manila. The flight took about an hour and half. It was at times a bit bumpy because of air pockets brought about by the less than ideal weather conditions. About 15 minutes past the hour of eight in the evening, our plane touched down on the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), where our journey to the south of the Philippines started five days earlier. With me on this flight was one other colleague. The rest of the team decided to stay one more night, and would be flying back the following day. It was a bit difficult trying to get a ride, more so considering the luggage and crates we were hauling. Eventually we did manage to hail a cab and head on out home. And so ended our adventure. For now . It was good to be back. Our ride home. NAIA by night. Waiting for a cab.

It was only an hour or so ago that I just finished watching the TV version of Mitch Albom 's book, The Five People You Meet In Heaven . About five months ago that I read the book (read my blog entry about the book here ), and watching the made-for-TV movie on the Hallmark Channel rekindled my fascination for the book which I rank among of my absolute favorites. But this entry is not about the story of the book, I already wrote about that some time ago. The TV version touched me in about the same way the book did when I first read it, and it got me to thinking again, about the ideas in the book...and about my own...and everyone else's mortality. I'm in my early thirties...and if statistics are to be relied on, I'm almost halfway through the typical life expectancy of an average person. And yet, with virtually half my life gone away, lost forever in the annals of time...I am still here, still struggling, with my unfulfilled dreams, my inadequacies, living a loveless life...

On the 9th floor of The Apo View Hotel is a restaurant aptly named the Top of the Apo . A few hours before we left Davao I went there to capture a panoramic view of the Davao City skyline. Here are the pictures:

Thanks to the generosity of old college bud Nao , a number of fellow bloggers met at Pioneer Grill last night in an event spearheaded by May and Ning . I wasn't really involved in the event, nor a participant in Nao's quiz, but nonetheless it was pleasure to have met some of the faces behind the blogs that I get to visit every so often. I got to meet Yax , Maui , and Aion . It was nice meeting you people. :-) Xtnag was also there. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay long, as I was suffering a mild bout of hypertension at the time (see my previous posts) which started just about the time I got back from Davao. In fact, I was absent from work twice this week, including Thursday, the day before the event. Or perhaps, I wasn't willing to reveal my secret identity just yet. :-) Well, as a result, I didn't get to meet the other bloggers who dropped by. Hope to meet you people soon next time. Hmmm...why not make this a regular thing? :-) While blogging is a hobby that ...

We arrived at Davao at around an hour before noon, on July 13, 2005, or about a week after the Davao trip of my officemate and fellow blogger xtnag . Davao City is situated on the island of Mindanao about 400 km due south of Cebu City (a 30 minute flight), or about 965 km south of Manila. (I pay attention to the navigation screens in the plane. I'm weird that way.) It is the largest city in the Philippines in terms of land area (more than 2,400 sq km) and the regional center of Region XI. The last time I was in Davao was in October 2001, if I'm not mistaken. I went there as a representative of my office's Operations Sector, and as a member of a contingent accompanying our President & CEO. Now, four years later, I'm here again as part of our company's reengineering effort. While four years isn't really a long time, I did see a number of changes, starting with the airport. The Davao International Airport was completed in November 2003, and is built to inte...