Testing

After a year of dreaming about buying a new camera, I finally bought one. I wanted to see how long it would take to upload, and what the pictures would look like, so I’m posting some. None of these were altered in any way whatsoever. Pictures taken at Trinoma.

Jocjoc Bolante’s arrival statement

Former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante has arrived in the Philippines, where he was arrested by Senate representatives. He was then brought to St. Luke’s Hospital for a medical checkup. Inside is a statement distributed to the media, through airport authorities, by his lawyer.

Bishops call for “liberators”

 
“Who will pick up the broken, shattered pieces of our country, hurting from poverty and corruption, to make it whole again? Inspite of the seemingly hopeless and negative prognosis, our liberation may yet serendipitously happen. We are dreaming, praying and hoping that our country may yet have the needed liberators. Yes, liberators who will in [...]

The press is more free in Nicaragua, Kosovo, Thailand, and Malaysia

The Philippine media is not Asia’s most free. The Reporters san Frontiers ranks the Philippines 139th in its 2008 report on press freedom, down from its slot of 128th last year. The Philippines is below Malaysia, Thailand, and even Timor-Leste. It is several slots down from Chad and Sudan, where the report said that “the [...]

Human rights lawyer abducted, illegally arrested

On October 23, as the police leadership used the term “due process” to explain why they have so far failed to find out the source of the P6.9 million that a now-retired general was caught with in Russia, a human rights lawyer was abducted and illegally arrested.

Endings and beginnings

The semester is over. Yesterday was our last exam, barring removals. The next semester will begin on November 7. I don’t know how many of my classmates I’ll see in November; I don’t know if they’ll still see me in November, either.

Is there or is there not an Asean regional fund?

There was a “convergence of ideas” said Finance Secretary Margarito Teves in Monday’s presser. That “convergence of ideas,” however, was not enough to establish a regional fund. “I’m painting a scenario,” Teves said, of a regional fund being approved by the leaders. But that scenario, he added, would “have to be validated by the Asean [...]

Goodbye, Joegar

The last time I saw him, he looked almost the same as he did, 10, 15 years ago. From what I knew, Joegar was a good man — he didn’t play around, he wasn’t grumpy (many editors are, when they’re at the desk; there’s something about editing that takes the humor out of a person), [...]

The Pink Kitchen

It was a bad, bad day for me. I had anticipated it, however, and so made plans to go eat out and meet a friend, with the plus points of doing it for a good cause. So on Saturday afternoon I went to the Pink Kitchen, a fundraiser by breast cancer survivors for fellow breast [...]

US waives visa requirement for seven allies — but not for the Philippines

For all that we claim to have a special relationship with the United States, dating back to the time when they bought us from Spain and then proceeded to take over from where the Spaniards had left, they have a much better relationship with Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. These are [...]