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Metro Manila smoking crackdown: another case of sweating the small stuff

May 30, 2011 benign0 10 Comments

So I read that the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is going to “crackdown” on smoking in the metropolis. Interesting. Apparently, the legal basis for this “crackdown” is Republic Act 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003. Note the year: 2003. Makes one wonder what our so-called “law enforcement” officials have been doing for…

Civics, Environment, Government, Society

Philippine ‘Independence’ Day on June 12: a desperate claim to a false achievement

May 29, 2011June 9, 2013 benign0 12 Comments

Guess what’s coming up: “Independence” Day. More precisely, it is the could-have-been day of independence unilaterally declared by General Emilio Aguinaldo back on the 12th of June 1898 that we are celebrating this coming 12th of June. Many who see that day as a day that defines “Filipino nationalism” are right. We are a nation…

Culture, Society

Poaching of Cotabato black coral: Are Filipinos entitled to their outrage?

May 29, 2011May 29, 2011 benign0 8 Comments

What’s all the fuss about the destruction of the coral reef off Cotabato for a couple odd container vans of black coral? It sounds a bit hypocritical of Filipinos to be huffing and puffing about yet another wasteland created under their watch when they’ve overseen decades of wanton destruction and squandering of resources that had…

Environment

Hypocritical respect

May 27, 2011December 2, 2011 Ms. Mike Portes 7 Comments

Is this an honest mistake or a subliminal message from the Office of the President based on PNoy’s warning to China regarding the disputed Spratlys? To quote: “â€œWe may not have the capabilities now, but that might force us to increase our capabilities also,â€? Or is this a message that the PNoy administration is dead…

Philippine Catholic Bishops invent automated excommunication!

May 27, 2011 benign0 5 Comments

The holy officials of the Philippine Roman Catholic Church now step up their drive to implement a standard-speak to be used in the on-going “debate” surrounding Philippine Reproductive Health. Henceforth, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines hereby decrees that “excomminication” be considered to be a dirty word… A Catholic Church official asked advocates of…

Religion, Tech Talk

A Noynoy supporter blames Noynoy’s aide for Noynoy’s lack of substance

May 27, 2011May 27, 2011 Ilda 25 Comments

A friend asked me how I manage to keep my cool when someone is obviously trying to intimidate me online. Indeed, there are many critics in the blogosphere who do not have any qualms about undermining a writerâ€™s credibility just because they can. My experience as a blogger has taught me that there are many…

Government, Media, Politics

World’s hottest flight attendants revealed

May 25, 2011May 25, 2011 benign0 7 Comments

Late last year, Cebu Pacific Air’s dancing flight attendants (FAs) became a sensation after a YouTube video taken of them doing a dance number to Lady Gaga’s Just Dance and Katy Perry’s California Gurls went viral. More recently, a survey of 1,000 British travellers was conducted for the Business Travel & Meetings Show conducted on…

Glitz and Glamour

The key dysfunction of the RH Bill ‘debate’: leaving out the ‘being’ from the ‘human’ equation

May 24, 2011 benign0 59 Comments

A lot of the “debate” around the issue of Reproductive Health in the Philippines revolves around the notion of the “human” life at stake during various stages of pregnancy from the time of conception. According to Fr Joaquin Bernas in his now famous Inquirer.net column, “The Constitution commands that the life of the unborn be…

Development, Religion, Science, Society