Killing people

I can’t go out right now, I have to kill some people.

Typhoon Frank is out there flooding towns and villages, lashing at the farms, whipping up waves at sea. A ferry sank off Romblon province, and hundreds are missing. As a reporter, it is part of my job to find out how many people are dead, missing, and homeless.

We remain ruled, but by our own brothers

In our Criminal Law I class, we discussed Amy Rossabi’s “The Colonial Roots of Criminal Procedure in the Philippines.” Most of our laws were imposed on us by the Spaniards and then by the Americans, Rossabi said. The Americans improved on the justice system imposed by the Spaniards, but they did not introduce into the Philippines the system of jury trial, which would allow people to be tried by an impartial jury of their peers. One reason was that the Americans did not trust the Filipino public to make what, according to their standards, would be the right decisions.

My OFW friend

His name is Bernie. He works in Quezon City and goes home to Bulacan. He used to go home everyday, but for the past three weeks he has been sleeping in the office four days a week.

“Mahal na ang pamasahe,” he said when I asked why. 

“Para ka nang OFW,” I quipped. “At least madali pa ring umuwi pag kailangan talaga,” he answered.