Posts published during October, 2009

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October 30, 2009

Legality of shortened voter registration questioned in Supreme Court

As youths and new registrants endure long lines to register for the 2010 polls, Kabataan Party-list Rep. Mong Palatino today questioned the legality of the Commission on Election’s shortening of the period of continuing registration up to tomorrow October 31.

Palatino today filed a Petition for Certiorari and Mandamus with Application for Preliminary Mandatory Injunction before the Supreme Court today. The full text of the petition may be read at http://tinyurl.com/yhyqwov.

Other petitioners were Jade Charmane Rose Valenzuela, Jacqueline Alexis Merced, Ana Katrina Tejero, Kenneth Carlisle Earl Eugenio and Victor Louis Crisostomo, all first-time-voters who tried but failed to register due various reasons; and Alvin Peters, president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), Vijae Alquisola, president of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), Ken Leonard Ramos, chairperson of Anakbayan, and, Ma. Cristina Angela Guevarra, chairperson of the Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP).

The petitioners stated that the Comelec violated the people’s right to register and, thus, right of suffrage, when it issued and implemented Comelec Resolution No. 8585, dated February 12, 2009, fixing the deadline of application of registration of voters on October 31, 2009, more than two months earlier than is prescribed by Republic Act. No. 8189 or The Voters Registration Act of 1996.

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October 29, 2009

Briefly in Batangas then in Pangasinan

My paternal relatives have been taking advantage of every opportunity to get together after my paternal grandfather passed away a few months ago. Lolo used to be the reason why the extended family gets together, usually during hospital visits in Manila. Now that he’s gone, any paternal relative’s birthday is a reason for our family to spend the day in upland Cavite or in Batangas. I hope it stays that way. Last weekend, we went to Nasugbu in Batangas for the birthday of one of my young nieces. We spent the night and the rest of the day-after leisurely at Canyon Cove Resort.

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A day after our trip to Batangas, I took a bus to Pangasinan to join my fraternity batchmates from UP Los Banos in a brief leisure outing.

After a little more than four hours on the road from Manila, I reached the municipal hall of Bugallon, Pangasinan. I had asked for the bus to drop me off at the landmark where my fraternity brothers were to pick me up. They had arrived hours earlier and had gone sight-seeing ahead of my arrival.

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October 18, 2009

The fear of heights did it

One day, some weeks ago, I went to the main office of an airline company in order to facilitate some business deal as part of my minor foray into the travel industry. Walking through hangars, and driving along runways and airplanes made me remember how I really wanted to become a pilot when I was much younger, a dream that I think is common among many young boys. Partly, it was borne out of my early desire to travel and discover places, but largely it was really a fascination with flying. I used to dream of levitation ala Peter Pan, after all. Soon enough, however, I realized I might not be cut out for the profession, as I was, and still am, pretty scared of heights. I think it’s called acrophobia. Sometimes, being defensive, I’d say it’s a qualified case. It’s only open-air heights that I’m scared of (like tall staircases where one can see the ground from the steps), not enclosed spaces like airplanes or top floors of buildings, so I can still make a pilot out of myself, but surely not a Peter Pan. In any case, I thought to myself, I need not be a pilot in order to travel and see the world. Though–the sight of and the prospect of being in the company of flight attendants make me dream about it once in a while.

In other news, if all goes well, I shall be taking an entrance exam in another law school in a month or so. To be honest about it, I’m really enjoying being out of law school right now, but I’m still looking forward to the practice of the legal profession–admittedly not that passionately, but it’s there, somewhere. In any case, I have months to think about it seriously before jumping into law studies once again.

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October 10, 2009

Abusing the people’s tragedy

For a while now, I’ve been at loss as to what to blog. Scenes of devastation and the actual loss of life and property to millions of Filipinos was overwhelming. It didn’t feel right blogging about anything else where almost everything else will pale in gravity. Class guilt perhaps, the very fact that I am able to blog in convenience indicates that, unlike majority of Filipinos who are poor, I am “unaffected.” For a while, blogging in the time of crisis reeked of insensitivity. Some people say blogging and online social media networks played a crucial role in the relief and rescue operations. I agree. But then again, the people who need the relief aren’t online, and prolonged online “involvement” seemed to me like a convenient excuse not to immerse with the people and get dirty with the actual operations. Posting and re-posting relief and rescue operations has to translate into actual relief and rescue operations. Many times, especially during the immediate days after the typhoons, they do, as proven by the thousands who flocked to organized relief operations. With an inept and inutile government, private citizens and civilian organizations needed to fill the vacuum in social services. But for how long? Especially when all those volunteers go back to their schools and to their workplaces?

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October 5, 2009

Balik-Eskwela: Urgent call for donations of school supplies, bags, old uniforms

Balik Eskwela Relief Drive - Kabataan Partylist - Tulong Kabataan

Campus clean-ups, intensified youth volunteer work to mark resumption of classes

Classes resume Monday but students and schools affected by Ondoy may not have the materials and resources to begin again.

Tulong Kabataan, a youth network of volunteers, is calling for urgent donations of school supplies such as notebooks, pencils and ballpens, school bags, old uniforms, and even chalk, paper and blackboard erasers for students and schools devastated by heavy rains and floods.

Textbooks, educational materials and other school paraphernalia are also most welcome. Donations may be brought to the Tulong Kabataan Command Center and/or other drop off points.

For inquiries and information, contact the Tulong Kabataan Hotlines: (02)3944285 or email tulongkabataan@gmail.com or click here.

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October 3, 2009

Kailan talaga birthday ko?

Tisay celebrated her fourth birthday last Monday. We had planned to spend Sunday in a theme park, but since the metro was still reeling from the aftermath of tropical storm Ondoy, we decided to have a simple feast of Chinese food at home. We had a small sansrival cake for Tisay but we even forgot to buy proper birthday cake candles, so we made do with a medium-sized wax candle.

Tisay’s understanding of “birthday” unfortunately, is of a party, so all along up until today she doesn’t believe it was her birthday. She insists that she still has to celebrate her “birthday” distinct from the simple celebration we had last weekend. If the weather permits, we will push through with our trip to the theme park this weekend. I think she even expects to give a blow-out bash to her kindergarten classmates.

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October 2, 2009

A temporary relief for state universities & colleges

Last Wednesday, the sub-committee hearing the budget of state universities and colleges (SUC’s) unanimously committed to restore the budget to its 2009 level. It means to say that the proposed P3 billion budget cut by the President and the Department of Budget & Management is rejected at the sub-committee level, and the budget for the country’s 110 SUC’s would be back to around P24 billion.

Kabataan Rep. Mong Palatino remarked that this is imperative, as the proposed budget has barely any allocation for SUC’s capital outlay. How then can SUC’s affected by the recent calamities rebuild their schools?

A few days earlier, the DBM released a statement defending the budget cut in response to several protests launched by the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP). They claimed that the proposed P21 billion budget is sufficient to sustain the services of SUC’s, as they are anyway allowed to generate their own income. What they didn’t say is that this forced income generating policy is done at the expense of students, through tuition and other fee increases. The statement only proves that our analysis as correct, that budget cuts and tuition increases are state policies that harm the future of the youth and the nation.

The motion to restore the P24 billion budget drew cheers from the attending university officials and employees. One state university president, however, remarked that though he was elated by the motion of the congressmen, he feared that it may be another disappointment. Apparently, congressmen, the politicians that they are, have for the past years committed to similar promises of budget increases, only to disappoint SUC’s once the General Appropriations Act is passed. Hopefully, the attending congressmen stay true to their word and maintain the P24 billion commitment–insufficient as it is, is better than the P21 billion budget proposed by the Executive.

It must be stressed, however, that this relief is temporary, as though the sub-committee approved the increase, the same must also be approved by the Committee on Appropriations and the House of Representatives in plenary session. It also has to get the approval of the Senate. Needless to say, it is too soon to be glad about the development.

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Tulong Kabataan‘s relief effort for the victims of tropical storm Ondoy is still ongoing! You may drop off your donations at any of the donation centers in schools across the Metro. You may also donate via Paypal. Or you may go to our headquarters at 118-B Scout Rallos St., Quezon City for volunteer work. The HQ is near GMA Network’s main offices along Timog Avenue.

With your help, Tulong Kabataan was able to hold soup kitchens in some communities a few days ago. Yesterday, we joined Makabayan’s clean-up effort at Tumana, Marikina. Hand in hand, volunteers helped the residents fill up two garbage trucks of debris. Today, there will be a medical mission in Malate. This weekend, if the weather permits, we will push through with the centralization of all relief goods collected from the donation centers and do repacking and distribution to several affected communities.