Posts tagged with fraternity

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September 14, 2010

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.

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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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September 8, 2009

Weekend notes 09/07/09

I spent almost the entire day last Sunday sleeping. Due to several unexpected circumstances, I was barely able to sleep the day before.

I started my Saturday early, reading through some materials for a bill I was drafting for Kabataan Partylist. Spent the afternoon at Kabab Korner along Matalino St. with Airah, my co-officer in the legislative staff. It was the first time I spent the afternoon at the place, and it turned out to be a pretty decent experience as there was barely anyone else around and there was free wifi access. I was able to finish the first draft of the bill by the end of the afternoon. The bill, by the way, is a magna carta of sorts for workers in the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) industry, who are mostly call center agents. Hopefully, we will be able to file it within this week, or the next. Read the privilege speech of Rep. Mong Palatino on the plight of call center agents and other BPO workers, for more information.

This weekend also marked the start of the bar exam season. Last Saturday night I went to Manila to pass by the bar operations (bar ops) of my fraternity and of UP Law. I was supposed to leave by midnight, but I ended up doing some legwork the entire night till that morning. Stationed at the Century Park hotel, every hour or so, I was running up and down, in an around the hotel getting tips from sources and slipping copies of the tips under the door of our barristers’ rooms. I didn’t expect myself to be doing this after three years in the frat, but all’s well in frat work. In between, I was able to lounge at one of the rooms we were able to reserve. Also one of my consolations was that I was able to get one of the breakfast buffet stubs which I abused Sunday morning before retiring and going home.

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September 4, 2009

Random notes 09/04/09

BATASAN STUFF
A couple of nights ago, Rep. Mong Palatino took me to the congressmen’s lounge beside session hall, to sample some of the food. It is exclusive to members of the House but I think they’re allowed to bring one or two of their staff or family once in a while. It was free, limitless, hotel-like food for congressmen every session day. Apparently, Mong said he hasn’t seen any same dish served twice for the entire month. No wonder many of the congressmen get fat in Congress, literally, and figuratively too. That night, it was Chinese-themed food. I don’t think Congress has a concept of simple living, which is a shame in a poor country like the Philippines. Iba talaga when one has the “power of the purse.”

Speaking of Congress’ “power of the purse,” I briefly attended the first hearing of Congress for the government’s P 1.541 trillion budget for next year. The hearing was very well-attended by the congressmen, their staff and employees of the Budget and the Finance departments. I could barely find a comfortable place, not even to sit, but to stand. It’s that packed. Iba talaga pag pera na ang pag-uusapan.

TAMBAY SA OSPITAL
A few days ago, some of my fraternity batchmates and I brought another batchmate of ours to the hospital due to his chronic seizures because of his multiple sclerosis. He had five attacks that day, and the UP Health Service urged us to move him to a bigger health facility because all they could provide were valium shots. It was the first time I saw someone having a serious seizure, and it was quite scary. Since his parents were in the province and his relatives couldn’t come as soon as possible, we stayed at the hospital the rest of the afternoon, some of us till later that evening.

MEETING BOY ABUNDA
In between staying at the hospital, I went to a meeting with some ABS-CBN staff together with Boy Abunda, to talk about his new political talk show. I don’t know why I’m part of it. I got a call a few days earlier inviting me to join in, and well, I agreed. Though I’m having second thoughts now. True, I may be opinionated, I write and I blog, but I don’t do a lot of talking, really. Details to follow, as I don’t think I’m at liberty to disclose any more information about it.

CLEARING OUT OF U.P.
I’m currently processing my papers for my honorable dismissal from UP Law. I passed by Malcolm Hall yesterday, after not being there for weeks now. It didn’t feel nice being in a place you were forced to leave all of a sudden. Unfortunately, I’ll have to keep coming back the next few days to finish the process, get a transcript and other papers to be able to take tests in other law schools.

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September 1, 2009

Hopping on LB

A few days ago, I went to UP Los Banos to attend a forum sponsored by a Buklod-UPLB, a student political alliance in campus. I found it odd at first because Buklod, is a “blue” party (which in terms of the spectrum of campus politics, is on the other side of the fence from where I stand), contesting student council seats from our colleagues in the militant Sakbayan. Nevertheless, I told them that appreciated that they invited someone like me, all the way from UP Diliman, to share my views, however different it may be from theirs.

The forum was about the 2010 elections and the youth’s participation in it. I was one of four panelists, others were from the Liberal Party (represented by ex-Congressman Neric Acosta), a media organization (I don’t remember which one exactly), and YouthVote Philippines.

What I said was nothing you wouldn’t have expected me to say. Among others, I said that all the hype about the youth participation in the 2010 elections is well and good. However, I stressed out that the youth’s participation goes well beyond 2010 and the elections. I encouraged everyone to sustain the heightened enthusiasm in participating in the elections and use it as the drive to participate in more democratic exercises in their school, in their communities, with other sectors of society, into the streets or wherever their passion drives them to. We cannot rely on the elections alone as the only means for effecting social change in a country plagued by systemic economic and class exploitation, especially because the elections is largely dominated by those who thrive on that kind of order.

I forget what the other speakers said. I think they all said the same thing, drumming up the same slogan of youth participation in the elections. Which is all well and good, as I’ve said.

Anyway, after the forum, I spent the rest of the day till much later into the night with my fraternity brods and our sorority sisters in Los Banos. It was actually just my third time in UPLB (the other two being just a grade school and a high school field trip to the botanical garden), and my first time to meet met most of my batchmates in Los Banos. This time I also got to go around the campus itself and the different places outside the gates. Needless to say, I had a great time and I’m looking forward to my next visit, hopefully a longer one. Soon.

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August 21, 2009

Ninoy Aquino 26th martyrdom anniversary

Today, the nation marks the 26th year since Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr. was assassinated at the tarmac of the then-Manila International Airport. The 1983 assassination is currently regarded as one of the sparks that ignited the last waves of massive public outrage that eventually lead to the ouster of President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

A few days ago, I appeared (very) briefly in GMA 7′s 24 Oras newscast on a segment about Ninoy Aquino. The segment focused on the relationship between the late senator and the late dictator and strongman Pres. Ferdinand Marcos who both belong to the same fraternity, the Upsilon Sigma Phi. The popular theory, among brods especially, is of course though the rivalry was real, Marcos couldn’t have made a martyr out of his main political rival, and much more so out of his own fraternity brother. Aside form the fact that at that time, Marcos was bedridden and simply too sick to orchestrate and mastermind the assassination, we simply weren’t indoctrinated that way. Marcos also had very little political gain to compensate the great political risk entailed by doing the deed. This may be speculation to some, but for brods who understand the unique personal dynamics existing among fraternity brothers, it is a ‘theory’ worth more than a grain of salt.

Puzzled, the reporter asked me to explain how, in my opinion, the intense political rivalry between Marcos and Aquino, could have existed among two fraternity brothers. I told him (though, all these got cut from the final segment that went on air), it was a natural consequence of putting two ambitious politicians in the same fraternity. I added, that though we were indoctrinated to strive for a prosperous and progressive country, we were free to choose the means to achieve what we believed was for the good of the Filipino people.

Fraternity history recounts how the brods, especially in the late 60′s and 70′s were found in all sides of the political spectrum, from the side of the dictator and his ‘cronies’, who believed in authoritarian leadership to achieve prosperity, to the mainstream political opposition, who believed in the ideals of “liberal” democracy, to the communist left who believed in the Maoist armed rebellion and national democracy with a socialist perspective.

From my experience, I recounted how even in the university today, brods are encouraged to exercise their beliefs and fight for their principles by being active in their own political parties. In UP for example, while most of my brods were leaning towards conservatism and compromise activism, I was allowed to and encouraged to stay in the militant formation I belonged to even before I joined the frat. When I was in the University Student Council, the chairman then was a brod who belonged to a rival party, and a fraternity batchmate of mine belonged to the third party, and we had many principled differences and arguments with regard to various campus issues, but at the end of the day, we treated each other with great respect and still shared many fellowships.


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May 8, 2009

University Student Council Turnover ’09

Last April 20, we had a turnover ceremony for the University Student Council (USC). That pseudo-officially ended our terms as members of the University Student Council. Good luck to incoming USC for 2009!

The turnover ceremony was a joint ceremony. The outgoing and the incoming editorial leadership of the Philippine Collegian also had their part of the program.

It felt a little anticlimactic for me. After all, involvement in campus issues has never really been confined to the USC, for me. And I didn’t feel that anything ended that day. Even engaging colleagues from the other parties in debates, surely, didn’t end that day–even if it was goodbye to the long and harrowing GA’s we regularly had, when we just couldn’t agree on some issues at all. Though, I’d have to say despite all that, we managed to get along somehow in the end, some more than others, politics aside of course.

Simultaneously, UP Administation officials, USC 2008 and Senator Richard Gordon unveiled a bust of Wenceslao Vinzons, which the Senator commissioned to do, in honor of the hero to whom the historic and quintessential hub of university activism and politics was named after. There were also dozens of brods present too–since Vinzons, the Senator, and a handful of members of the incoming and outgoing University Student Council are members of the Upsilon Sigma Phi.

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March 31, 2009

Brief visit to Aquino Museum, Tarlac

A few weeks ago, largely in preparation for the IAMNINOY summit we were helping out in, two of my brods and I went to the Aquino Museum in Hacienda Luisita, Tarlac to get some materials and to accomplish other errands.

It was just a half-day trip. We left Manila before 7 AM, arrived in Tarlac by 10, did our thing and arrived back in Manila before 2 PM.

It was my first visit to the museum, which apparently has been open for a few years already. They have a very interesting collection of Aquino memorabilia, including photos of Ninoy I’d never seen nor imagine would exist before. On display, too, were the clothes that he was wearing and his other accessories when he was gunned down, and a replica of the room where he was detained for years, with the original furniture and other things.

The place is pretty big. The manager graciously accommodated us despite us being the only visitors that time of the day, and they didn’ teven make us pay the entrance fee anymore.

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January 4, 2009

Caroling with Sigma Delta Phi

The brods went caroling with the Sigma Deltans for a few nights last December to raise funds for our projects. We only started practicing a few afternoons beforehand, but I guess we pulled it off. Last year, the brods were caroling by ourselves, so this is a pleasant change. We were able to raise enough funds to kick off our activities this year.

Caroling with Sigma Delta Phi Caroling with Sigma Delta Phi Caroling with Sigma Delta Phi Caroling with Sigma Delta Phi Caroling with Sigma Delta Phi Caroling with Sigma Delta Phi

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December 10, 2008

A heavy Christmas workload

This has got to be my most hectic Christmas season yet. From big campus and national campaigns to extra-curricular functions, and almost none of them related to Christmas.

This week, for example, as part of the Defend the Office of the Student Regent campaign of KASAMA sa UP (Katipunan ng mga Sangguniang Mag-aaral sa UP), we’re going to have a twelve-hour concert this Friday, right after the broad multi-sectoral mobilization in Makati against the Arroyo administration’s attempt at Charter Change.

This week is also the 12th anniversary week of STAND-UP (Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights – UP), where starting last Saturday, we’ve been having daily activities, from an all-day road painting, to an alliance congress to a cultural night tonight to an alumni night this Saturday.

In the University Student Council, we’ve also been having our last activities and assemblies for the year. We’ve just co-launched the Cine Veritas Human Rights Festival and wrapped up Karolfest yesterday, then there’s a big University Convocation tomorrow–and that’s not all, I still have to produce our last newsletter for the year.

For the past weeks up until this coming Friday, we’ve also been having weekly events and functions in Upsilon Sigma Phi for our 90th anniversary. We had our annual car stuffing and food stuffing event last Friday.

I haven’t even mentioned the increasing pile of academic workload for this semester. And speaking of law school, my block organized a forum this Friday, about judicial integrity, then we’re also having the annual Malcolm Madness this Saturday.

Next week, there would still be preparations for the Lantern Parade, then there’d be the KASAMA sa UP NC Meet, and to cap it all off, an All UP Student Councils Assembly which promises to be a stressful and heated assembly of student councils with conflicting ideologies and interests.

So, where’s the Christmas spirit? Where are the Christmas parties? I haven’t had time for any! Masyadong maraming kailangang isipin, gawin at napakaraming problema lang talaga sa UP at sa Pilipinas. I need to cheer up, and well, gear up for another year soon.

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