Posts published during September, 2010

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September 30, 2010

A favorite scapegoat for poverty in the Philippines

Why are people poor? Because Filipinos, especially the poor, keep making babies. Ang mga mahihirap, anak pa nang anak kaya hindi umaasenso.

Umiinit ang ulo ko pag naririnig ko ‘yan. Such a condescending and illogical sentiment seems to be rampant among many in the middle class, and is willingly reinforced by an inept government. Tuwing nakakakita ng mga pulubi sa kalsada o tuwing dumadaan sa mga “squatters’ area” madalas ‘yang sabihin ng ilan. Kailan pa naging dahilan ng kahirapan ang pagkakaroon ng mga anak? ‘Pag wala bang anak ang isang mahirap na mag-asawa giginhawa ang buhay nila nang ganun-ganon lang?

Some people condemn the Catholic Church’s meddling in the government’s policy on reproductive health but they don’t have a problem when they impose their own judgment on family planning selectively on “the poor,” as if socio-economic conditions dictate one’s right to have sex and reproduce.

I concede that the number of children and dependents has an effect on the economic condition of a family unit, but it is merely incidental. The way the government and some reproductive health advocates invoke family size and overpopulation as a problem, it’s as if giginhawa ang buhay sa Pilipinas ‘pag may population control. It is a favorite scapegoat for the government. A convenient excuse not to address the root causes of poverty in the Philippines.

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September 29, 2010

September 28, 2010

We had a fastfood chain host a kiddie birthday party for Tisay's fifth birthday last Tuesday at her afternoon kindergarten class

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September 26, 2010

In one of the alleys of Dapitan Arcade. Stalls were selling colorful household ornaments and since it's a few months before December, Christmas decors. The alleys were too narrow, and it wasn't even that crowded yet.

Mama asked me to drive her to “Dapitan Arcade” where, supposedly, bargain household ornaments (and other aesthetically-pleasing but otherwise utility-less) items can be had. It was a lazy Sunday and I didn’t want to do my law books that afternoon, so it was fine.

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September 28, 2010

Daily photo stills – September 25, 2010

I realize I find it easier to update this blog by simply taking pictures and posting them, than spending a few hours writing a good blog entry. Both efforts are similarly therapeutic in a sense, but I really don’t have a lot of time to write lengthy recollections. I don’t want to abandon this personal blog altogether, though, so let’s do this, as I’ve attempted to do before. I post some shots from my daily routines and what-nots.

My UST law classmates Eilleen and Joanna talking about bangs and hair in general. I just don't know.

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September 27, 2010

Photos from the walk-out of students in Manila against budget cuts (Part 2)

Members of a student chapter of Gabriela Women's Party also joined the walk-out protest to denounce the budget cuts on education. Here are some of them at the rally program in Plaza Miranda, Manila

A sea of students with their placards and organizations' flags pass through the Quezon Boulevard Underpass on their way to Malacanang Palace from Plaza Miranda

Students from the University of the Philippines in Diliman joined the protest action. The University of the Philippines will get the largest budget cut amounting to P1.9 billion. Proposals to increase tuition to P100,000 a semester has been introduced by UP's administration officials to raise the university's income

Students removed the barbed wire barricades on Mendiola Bridge to be able to get closer to Malacanang Palace. Greatly outnumbered, the police eventually retreated behind the gates and allowed the student demonstrators to hold their program on the historic bridge


Students hold a program at Mendiola to express their collective outrage against the Aquino administration's proposed budget cuts on education and other social services

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September 26, 2010

Photos from the walk-out of students in Manila against budget cuts (Part 1)

Here are some photos from the walk-out protest of thousands of students and out of school youth last Friday, September 24, in Metro Manila in collective rejection of the Aquino administration’s proposed budget cuts on state universities and other social services.

Student protesters held a short program at historic Plaza Miranda to condemn the proposed budget cuts on state universities which would surely result in tuition and other fee increases in campuses nationwide

In a symbolic expression of outrage, student demonstrators burned an effigy of President Noynoy Aquino whom they called Noynoy the Slasher for cutting the budgets of state universities nationwide. It was the first time an effigy of the new President was burned in a protest rally during his term

Kabataan Party-List Rep. Mong Palatino and National Union of Students of the Philippines Secretary General Ipay Bolibol lead the march of the students, along with other student leaders from state universities in Metro Manila

From Plaza Miranda, the thousands of students who joined the protest marched towards Malacanang Palace through Quezon Boulevard

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Youth protest against budget cuts

Thousands of students marched last Friday, September 24, from Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila to Mendiola Bridge at the gates of Malacanang Palace, passing through the Quezon Boulevard Underpass

The past weeks saw pockets of protest in various parts of the country that lead to the massive walk-out of students nationwide to protest against the Aquino administration’s proposed budget cuts on state universities and other social services. The proposed budget for state universities next year is more then P400 million less than this year’s budget. When computed against a constant consumer price index and the increasing number of enrollees in state universities, next year’s state universities’ budget would be the lowest in per-student spending in state universities in more than a decade.

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September 15, 2010

Lowest budget per iskolar ng bayan under Aquino

Libro hindi bala! Edukasyon hindi giyera!

In my preparation of the budget briefer for state universities and colleges (SUC’s), several points have become apparent.

President Noynoy Aquino’s budget proposal for the country’s SUC’s for 2011 is nominally much lower from the budget two years ago by as much as P2 billion. Though nominally it is larger than earlier years, it is possibly the lowest in more than a decade, when computed against a constant consumer price index.

President Aquino’s proposal also reflects the lowest per-student spending on SUC’s, again when computed against a constant consumer price index.

This trend is simply a continuation of a long-standing government policy of reducing state subsidies on social services such as higher education in order to ensure debt servicing on its foreign and local creditors. This follows the neoliberal dictates of multinational financial institutions forcing governments around the world to treat higher education a service commodity that must be left alone, and thus vulnerable, to free market forces. This is the same neoliberal dogma being forced by creditors upon the throats of governments worldwide from Greece to Bangladesh to California. This neoliberal dogma challenges the long-held ideal that higher education is a public good that serves a social purpose, crucial and necessary in the development of a sovereign democratic society.

What does the budget cuts mean? Corollary to budget cuts on state universities are tuition and other fee increases in campuses nationwide. In the context of the Philippines where a third of the population live on less than P100 a day, this neoliberal policy on higher education reinforces the tragic social and economic conditions of many Filipinos by depriving them of their right to higher education.

Protest actions have been set these days leading up to September 24, Friday next week, when thousands of students and out-of-school youth are expected to walk out and march to the gates of Malacanang to demand for greater state subsidy for education. Let us collectively reject the budget cuts on state universities and colleges, and on other social services!

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September 14, 2010

Best Leader

Tisay in her kindergarten uniform, at her school auditorium

I went to her school to accompany her in receiving some kindergarten awards last week, among them “Best Leader”. I wonder what that means in the context of four year-olds.

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My lost cellphone and Bar Ops

Last Saturday, I lost my cellphone on my way to my fraternity’s Bar Operations (Bar Ops) headquarters in Manila. It must have slipped off my pocket while I was in the FX taxi I took from Quezon City. I had wanted to save on gas so I decided against taking the car. I ended up losing more. I didn’t panic that much as I was still expecting it would probably end up in the hands of a good Filipino, to whom I still had much trust. A few hours into the night, I had almost successfully forgotten about it. I sent out a text message to the lost phone appealing to the finder to contact me and return the phone. By midnight, the finder did actually contact me. Ah, I knew it. Kind souls, indeed, still exist.

I eventually got my phone back the next day after meeting up with the kind stranger who got it from the FX taxi after I got down. He refused any reward, which I expected, too. I just gave him a calling card, in case he needed any help with which I can assist.

Notwithstanding the cellphone incident, the second Bar Ops weekend was pretty cool and steady. As a junior and an immediate senior in the fraternity more than a year or two ago, it wasn’t quite like that. Not that it was bad, it was just, not as chill. Everyone was in good vibes, there was lechon, beer, pansit, and the good company of fraternity brothers. In a few years, ako naman ang magba-Bar!

Speaking of fraternity brothers, my batch hosted a “GV (Good Vibes) Friday” fellowship two weeks ago. I rarely drop by Diliman these days since I spent most of my day in Batasan, then I proceed immediately to my evening classes in UST in Manila. Nakaka-miss maging UP student at residente sa frat. We had a great time.