http://ph.news.yahoo.com/star/20091229/tsp-floyd-camp-rejects-arum-final-offer-d685dba.html
Naduduwag ba si Mayweather o may itinatago si Pacquiao?
Lunes, Disyembre 28, 2009
Huwebes, Disyembre 24, 2009
Biyernes, Nobyembre 27, 2009
Huwebes, Nobyembre 26, 2009
On the Crime of November 23rd
I spent a year in Mindanao and even in that short period of time, I fell in love with the land. I had to leave it with grave reluctance for what I thought was a higher goal. If my own situation is different, I would choose it anytime as a place to settle in. Mindanao is not Maguindanao nor the Mindanaoans the perpetrators of this crime. It is a part of the Philippines and its people are Filipinos.
Lunes, Nobyembre 23, 2009
Zip-line!
Eden Nature Park, Davao City. 22nd of November.
This is a heavily edited version of the original footage. Aside from the fact that this is my first zip-line experience, it is also my first project in iMovie. I experimented and played around with the program.
Huwebes, Oktubre 29, 2009
Filipino Optional Requirement
FILIPINO SA UNANG TAON, Paaralang Xavier
Optional na Gawain para sa Unang Taon
PAPEL REKOMENDASYON AT PAGNINILAY (REFLECTION)
Inaasahan ang pagkakaroon ng mahusay na organisasyon ng mga ideya, ang pagkakaroon ng maayos na Panimula, Katawan at Pagwawakas, at ang pagkakaroon ng sariling opinyon na base rin sa
Ganito ang dapat maging ayos ng ipapasang papel:
1-2 pahina
short bond paper
1” margins on all sides
Times New Roman, Book Antiqua o Calibri
Font Size 12
1.5 Spacing
RUBRIC PARA SA PAGMAMARKA
Nilalaman 10 puntos
Kaisahan at Organisasyon 6 puntos
Gamit ng Pandiwa 7 puntos
Gamit ng Pang-uri (Panlaping Makauri, Kaantasan at Pamilang) 7 puntos
Pinakamataas na Marka na Maaaring Makuha (HPS) 30 puntos
Sa itaas ng papel ang pangalan. Halimbawa:
John Paolo So G. Cuepo
H1F – BK 32 Oktubre 23, 2009
Biyernes, Oktubre 23, 2009
8-8
My very first water polo game.
Here the male XS Faculty dueled the Students for Fundtastic, a project of the XS Student Council for the survivors of Typhoon Ondoy.
Thanks, Mr. Gan, for the pictures.
Biyernes, Oktubre 9, 2009
Volleyball Game XS vs MHS: Lousy...
the pictures. Not the players. The day before Ondoy brought havoc to Metro Manila and our lives, the Xavier Faculty Women's Volleyball Team brought me nearer to dying of heart attack with the way they conquered, defeated, and maybe humiliated the fancier team from Loyola Heights.
I was only able to take four pictures of the occasion and they were all taken before the first ball was served. I was too engrossed, too excited, too pumped up to remember pointing, focusing, and clicking the camera after that. The opponents came with a deeper bench, flashier uniforms, and more impressive warm up skills. Ours had one or two players to spare, created on the spot uniforms (my kindergarten coloring skills were made useful), and a defeated, tired looking warm up. But as they say, looks can be deceiving. We had the more tenacious, grittier, and possibly more motivated team that day. Where did the motivation come from? Maybe from the A Day celebrations earlier or the aggressive cheering and support of a number of co-faculty members who came to watch them.
Am I proud of Xavier? You bet!
Martes, Setyembre 29, 2009
Sabado, Setyembre 26, 2009
Reflection brought about by Typhoon Ondoy
Kay laking kabalintunaan
Kay laking kabuktutan
Na sa aking bansang Pilipinas
Lahat ng matataas
Tumatabon sa mahihirap
Biyernes, Setyembre 25, 2009
A Day with 1B
My first Appreciation Day as an adviser. Among the many things I wanted to say about this day, I would just focus on one: the A Day celebration in the classroom.
It made me happy.
When I arrived in the classroom with Ms. Biron and Xiao Lao Shi, nobody greeted us. There was none of the boisterous shouting, whooping, and clapping that greeted the teachers in the other classrooms. I thought I was in for a disappointment. I even had to ask our president to offer the teachers chairs.
Then Joshua led the class in prayer. And it was beautiful for it was sincere in delivery and deep in insight. I felt affirmed in my belief in this boy's potential to achieve great and good things--a potential that I firmly believe is shared by all my students. So as he prayed for us, I prayed for them.
We had games afterwards. They were fun games for all the students and the mentors too gave of themselves to make them successful. Gerard and Nathan, our dependable hosts for the event, did not have to drive themselves hoarse to give instructions and to ask everybody to participate. The members of the class just did. I did not notice time passing by. All of a sudden it was break time.
The games too focused on us four. We were the center of attention as it should be if only for this day.
Let me end by correcting myself therefore. The celebration in the classroom did not only make me happy. It made me proud of my class. Thank you 1B and I look forward to your hosting the A Day not just in the classroom but in the entire school.
Sabado, Agosto 15, 2009
Pres. Cory Aquino's Wake -- August 4, 2009
No photos inside the Cathedral. Well and good. It was improper.
I, together with a group of Xavier faculty and staff, were at the cathedral grounds at around 5 pm but we were only able to view the body at approximately 10 pm since necrological services and a mass afterwards were being held inside the church. We decided to wait first at the Chow King branch in front of the cathedral and then at the coffee shop beside it.
Many of us bought souvenirs of t-shirts, pins, umbrellas, and other stuff to remember this great woman and to while away the time.
Mr. Dee, a son in law of Mrs. Aquino later assisted us to get inside the cathedral through a side entrance.
When I heard of the president's death Saturday, August 1, I texted a Xavier colleague and together we made a resolution to go to the wake. I am happy that despite the rains, the long wait, and the surge of people, we persisted for this woman deserves all the show of affections that we Filipinos can afford to give.
Ako si Ninoy -- A Musical
| Rating: | ★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
The rating of three that I am giving the play is rather deceiving because I actually liked it. Generally, that is. My expectations were not raised that high because I gullibly believed the show's promos which claimed that they are from Balic-balic and that the theater group was unknown. However, it was colorful, well staged, relatively intelligent, and fun. Not in the eyes of modernist aesthetics and high brow art probably but in my eyes as a viewer who just wanted to relax and enjoy theater. Maybe, if I am from a younger set of audience, I would have enjoyed it even more.
I cried in the end, too. Maybe, I have been primed for it because of the recent death of President Aquino, who I now can proudly proclaim, my favorite Philippine president. The show and the existence of the theater group and the foundation which supported it gave me another reason to hope for a better Philippines--that the society that we dream of and which some of our politicians continues to destroy will be achieved within my lifetime. It will be slow but it will be achieved nonetheless. Peacefully, fully, and deeply. I believe for I am Ninoy.
Martes, Agosto 11, 2009
Finally Posted: 1B Recollection
I barely knew the class having handled them a mere two days before a long break but the recollection proved to be successful and laid a positive foundation of camaraderie for the year. Thanks to Miss Biron for substituting as class adviser.
Biyernes, Hulyo 31, 2009
1991 SONA
By her excellency President Corazon Aquino
(from Benny Lim's site--thank you for this.)
Opening of the fifth Regular Session of the Congress of the Philippines July 22, 1991In March 1973, six months after the declaration of martial law, Ninoy Aquino was taken blindfolded from Fort Bonifacio and brought to a place he did not know. He was stripped naked and thrown into a cell. His only human contact was a jailer. The immediate prospect, in such a place, was a midnight execution in front of a grave dug by himself.
The purpose was clear as it was diabolical. It was not to kill him yet, but to break him first – and with him break the compelling proof that men can stand up to a dictatorship.
He came close to giving up, he told me; he slipped in and out of despair. But a power that must have been God held him together. He remembered the words of the epistle, God chose the weak to confound the strong.
On the third anniversary of his incarceration in Laur, the recollection of his pain gave birth to a poem of hope. This is the poem he wrote:
I am the burning candle of my
Life in the dark
With no one to benefit
From the light.
The candle slowly melts away;
Soon its wick will be burned out
And the light is gone.
If someone will only gather
The melted was, re-shape it,
Give it a new wick –
For another fleeting moment
My candle once again
Light the dark,
Be of service
One more time,
And then…goodbye.
This is the anguish of good men: that the good they do will come to nothing. That pains suffered in obscurity or sacrifices made away from the sight of men, amount to shame, and mock the man or woman who bears them.
Mr. Senate President, Mr. Speaker, members of the Congress, distinguished guests, my countrymen:
That is not true. None of the good that we do is ever lost; not even the light in an empty room is wasted.
From Ninoy’s burnt-out candle, and thousands like it in cells throughout the garrison state, we gathered the melted wax and made more candles. To burn – not as long in such loneliness – but much more brightly all together, as to banish the darkness, and light us to a new day.
You might ask: When will the president stop invoking Ninoy’s name? My answer is, When a president stands here other than by Ninoy’s grace. And not while gratitude is nourished by memory. Not while we acknowledge that it was his sacrifice that gave us back our freedom. And restored the freely elected office whose incumbent must stand every year in this place.
Five years have passed. My term is ending. And so is yours. As we came, so should we go. With grateful acknowledgement to the man who made it possible for us to be here. A man who discovered hope in the starkest despair, and has something yet to teach a country facing adversity again.
It would be foolish to ignore what is staring us in the face:
Our march of progress brought us far, but such misfortunes have come upon us to make us feel that we are not much farther from where we started.
The eruption of Mount Pinatubo is the biggest in this century. Abroad, its effect is so far-reaching as to lower the temperature of the earth. At home, it is so devastating it knocked off 80,000 productive hectares from our agriculture, and destroyed the commerce of at least three provinces. Hundreds of thousands were driven from their homes and livelihoods, and thrown on the kindness of relatives and countrymen, and on the solicitude of the state. It was an event so powerful it wiped out the largest military base in the Pacific, and changed the nature of our relationship with an old ally. In the wake of the volcanic eruption, more has been revealed about that relationship than was covered by its ash.
Before Pinatubo, there was the typhoon that cut a wide swathe of destruction across the southern regions. And before that was the Killer Quake that cut off the northern parts of the country, destroying billions of pesos in infrastructure, causing the loss of billions more in foregone economic activities. It leveled the City of Pines and buried children in the rubble of yet another city.
But those natural calamities were preceded by another entirely the work of human hands: the massive December 1989 military revolt that cut short a second economic recovery, after the dislocation caused by the earlier August 1987 coup attempt. That one strangled the powerful rebound of the Philippine economy after the EDSA Revolution.
I mention these calamities not to excuse the perceived shortcomings of my administration nor to brag about my indestructibility. I mention them so that we know where we are, and why we are here, and the exact requirements of the task to build up this country yet again.
I mention them because I will compare them with what we had and lost, and then I will ask, Was it all in vain? And I will answer, it was not; no more than a hero’s life is wasted.
By 1985, the economy has contracted considerably, its rate of growth had been negative for two consecutive years. The country was at a standstill, as if waiting only for the last rites to be performed. By 1986, we had turned the economy around – in less that a year. We improved on that performance the year after.
The rate of unemployment was reduced, the volume of new investments significantly increased. New industrial projects were introduced, hitherto idle industrial capacity was fully utilized. The foundation of new regional industrial zones was laid. Public infrastructure and services strained under the load of expanding economic activity.
I mention this, not to offset the shortcomings of the present with the achievements of the past. I mention it to show what can be done in such a short time, and how much improvement was made from conditions far worse that what we have today – the dictator’s apologists notwithstanding, that the country is worse off now than when he and his wife were stealing the country blind.
This progress was cut off by the August ’87 coup attempt. But the economy quickly rallied, and in two years recovered a great deal of the ground we had lost. We were on the verge of a second take-off when the December 1989 coup broke out. It drained the last drop of confidence in our future from all but the hardiest spirits, and shattered our image abroad.
Still we persevered, achieving gains that, admittedly, continue to fall short of the galloping needs of a fast growing population, but real gains nonetheless:
Improved health care, increased housing, and – one of the proudest achievements we share with the legislature – free secondary education. 660,000 youth immediately availed themselves of it; another 200,000 private school students received scholarship grants under another recent law. 80,000 new classrooms have been built: the first preparation of the nation for the future of economic competition, which will take place in the highly educated minds of the youth.
We have made the first serious effort to arrest environmental degradation – already so far advanced in the previous regime that it set up an agency that did nothing about it, anyway. We have pushed agrarian reform beyond the point of no return, almost completing its coverage of rice and corn. Its extension to other agricultural activities is proceeding at a pace consistent with out resolve to achieve for the farmer the prosperity promised by agrarian reform, and not just its bare legal implementation.
Indeed, we started to make up our losses, and kept on going through the Gulf crisis which doubled the price of energy and introduced the element of a tremendous uncertainty, not only about our economy, but that of the world as well.
You might ask, Having lost so much easily, what was the worth of all that effort?
With such reversals of fortune, is progress for our country a hope in vain?
Paul says that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character hope. The good we do is never lost. Some of it remains, if not in material goods, then in a deeper experience, a more practiced hand, and a spirit made stronger by that which failed to break it – stronger to meet greater challenges ahead.
But in one thing we grew from strength to strength – in the enlargement of our democratic space and the strengthening of our democracy.
Every calamity tested the capacity of democracy to absorb distress, find relief, and meet the absolute necessities of the people without the least curtailment of freedom or compromise of rights.
Against our economic gains that are ever hostages to fortune, stands on steadfast, unalloyed achievement: our democracy. Destined, I believe, to outlive our problems and deck with the graces of liberty the material progress of our future. That achievement is better seen from the disinterested distance of foreign admirers, than from the myopic view of those at home who wish to destroy it. It is an achievement entirely in our power to preserve and enhance.
Visitors from the new Germany asked me what things strengthen democracy. Economic progress, naturally, I said. But the attainment of that depends on external factors more than on the will of a developing country. But there is a way to strengthen democracy that is within any country’s reach. That is through the empowerment of the people. This is obvious to a government like ours that came to power by its means, as well as to a people like the Germans who attained complete freedom in the same way.
But empowering the people means more than just giving them elections of every three years. It means enlarging their contact with government beyond elections to its daily workings – so that the vast resources of one support the initiatives of the other, and the policies of government are refined by the insights of the people. Ngunit ang pagkaloob ng kapangyarihan sa mamamayan ay nangangahulugan hindi lamang ng pagdaraos ng halalan tuwing ikatlong taon. Kailangan pagyamanin ang kanilang pagkakadiit sa pamahalaan – sa araw-araw na gawain ng pamahalaan – upang ang malawak na kayamanan ng isa ay makatulong sa mga pagkukusa ng kabila at ang mga patakaran ng pamahalaan ay paglinangin ng mga mamamayan. By this means the lives of the people shall be constantly improved and the people themselves empowered by the habit of directing their own government. The constant revision of flawed policies and the wider application of good ones are possible only by bringing together the people and the government. People empowerment, through people’s organizations, NGOs, foundations and cooperatives, is the surest means we know to make government mirror the aspirations of the people.
In the past, the idea was to give the people just enough power to elect their mistakes and suffer the consequences until the next elections. Elections were a safety valve. We want elections to be just one of other more effective means to bring the people into government and government to the people, to make it truly a participatory democracy.
This is the only way to end the character of total war that elections have assumed, where the aim is the division of spoils and the victims are not just the losers but those who voted for them, too. Such elections are like Russian roulette where your chances are five to one your life will not improve, and one to five you will blow out your brains.
Participatory democracy will end the practice of punishing provinces and municipalities for the wrong vote in the last poll. It will separate elections, where the people vote for their favorites, from the provision of public service which every Filipino has a right to expect from the government, regardless how he voted.
This administration has made large steps in that direction. To the disappointment of those who marched with me against the Marcos regime, my administration has plowed resources into regions and provinces where I was cheated in the Snap Elections.
The politics of revenge has had its day.
The organized participation of the people in daily government may provide the stabilizing element that government has always lacked. Policies have radically changed with each administration, yet the basic needs of its unchanging constituencies have not been met: less bureaucracy for business, more public services and infrastructure support for agriculture and industry, an economic safety net for the common man. The active participation of the people in government will lend proper direction and continuity to policy.
This is what I wish for most. That after me, the continuity of our work is not broken. So that things well done shall be completed, and the same mistakes avoided by succeeding administrations. In this way, nothing done shall go to waste, and the light of a misplaced candle shall still be valued for the light it sheds on the things to avoid.
I am not asking that all my programs be blindly followed by my successor. God knows, we have made mistakes. But surely, our objective is right – the improvement of our people’s lives. And the new way is much better than those before. To give the people greater power over their lives is the essence of democracy that we must strive to bring out completely.
These ideas, articulated in the Kabisig movement, may not have been well received by this body. It was wrongly projected. I should make it clear that the Kabisig, and the whole movement of people’s organizations that I have tried to encourage, will be campaigning hard for one candidate only – the Filipino people and no one else.
Give the people-power movement another chance, for it will go on regardless. I ask you to consider that we have tried the politics of spoils and patronage for half a century, with no better result than the stagnation of the country in a region where everyone else is racing ahead.
The formula for success is said to be dictatorial government. But we tried that already, with worse results than the most irresponsible democracy can produce. Besides, the spirit of our race will not accept a dictatorship; and memories, fresh as the scars it left, will not let us consider that option again. Democracy is the only way for us. We must therefore find the ways by which the pitfalls that go with its blessings are reduced, while its inherent strengths are brought to the fore. Of those strengths, the most promising is people power, a reserve for nation-building we tapped only once in our history with such marvelous result.
A detailed report of the performance of government is before you; the legislative agenda – principally the Local Government Code, the Civil Service Code, revenue enhancement measures, and electoral reforms – has been communicated to the Senate President and to the Speaker of the House.
This is the last time I shall address you on such an occasion as this. Let us clear the air between us.
I could have made things easier for myself if I had opted for the “popular.”
I could have repudiated the foreign debt, won the passing praise of a greatly relieved people, and the lasting contempt of a devastated country.
I could have opted for outright hostility towards the international banking system and invited its retaliation. But the only result would have been to weaken the present democracy against the conspiracies of the former government with contracted the miserable debt in the first place. I would have taken the chance, if I were the only one at risk, but I had a country to take care of.
I could have called for an elected constitutional convention. Surveys showed that an elected convention was the popular choice to draft a new constitution. But I believed it was more important to draft a constitution and submit it for ratification in the shortest time possible, and hold elections immediately. The people and the army needed a full elected government and a constitution around which to rally in defense of freedom.
I could not afford the luxury of the popular by waiting out the endless deliberations of an elected convention, like the 1971 Constitutional Convention. And besides, what was so great about that experience? After a year of talk and scandal, the final draft was prepared in Malacañang, approved by the frightened Convention, and ratified in a fraudulent plebiscite.
I could have made things easier for myself if I had allowed the Executive to influence the decisions of constitutional commissions. I might have spared myself deep embarrassments by interfering with the judgments of the courts. But I uphold the independence of these bodies. I am convinced it is in all our best interest to respect an independence that may thwart the government’s will from time to time – but is yet our best assurance of justice when we will need justice most.
I firmly believe in the freedom of the press. And I accept the criticisms poured on me, painful as they are, as part and parcel of the hazards of public service, and conducive to its honest performance. True, I have sued for libel, but I did not use the power of the Presidency to advance my cause. And this is shown by the fact that four years later my case continues to drag on. I have not forgotten that what my husband wanted most in prison was for the public to hear the side of freedom, and no newspaper would print it.
I submitted myself to the judicial process as an ordinary citizen, and exposed myself to indignities a president should not endure. But I want to encourage people to seek redress in the law, despite the inconvenience, rather than in vindictiveness, which has no end. I want them to make the cause of justice for one, the cause of justice for all.
I have consoled myself that great men like Gandhi were not spared criticism either, but – regardless of it – he pursued the path he believed was true, mindful only of harmful effects on the people, but not of the consequences to him. He believed that God demands no less of us than that we follow our conscience. God will take care of the rest.
I could have done the popular thing in the last administration, and arranged a nicer retirement for myself. But my instructions to PNB, DBP, GSIS, SSS and Landbank were explicit: no behest loans, and no special favors whether to relative, friend or political supporter. This accounts for their sterling performance, for the unprecedented public faith in their competence and integrity, and for the incalculable contribution, particularly of PNB and the Landbank, to the development of cooperatives and the financing of small and medium enterprises, wherein lies the strongest hope of progress in these times.
We can roll back prices at the drop of a hat and spare ourselves al the aggravation, but we learned that hasty rollbacks exacted a heavier, long-term cost on the economy, and, ultimately, on the people, than they had saved.
I could have done any of the things calculated to win a passing popularity at home. I could have thrown away by so-called popular solutions the goodwill we have built up in financial circles by the strict performance of our obligations. This is the goodwill that accounts for the continued support extended to the Philippine Assistance Program. Anyway, most of the pledges to the PAP are redeemable in the next administration.
I could have said, “Let my successor be presented with the bill for my popularity today.” But it is the people who would pay the price, and I am not made that way.
I did not always adopt the ideal solutions proposed by those who have the luxury of contemplation. Government often had to do what pressing realities compelled it. And if the government sometimes lacked better choices, it never lacked the sincere desire to do good.
I could have promoted only military officers popular with the press, and ignored the experience of a democratic government that has been the principal military objective of the rebel forces and an insurgency that just doesn’t know when to quit. But I chose instead commanders of proven courage, leadership, and fidelity to the Constitution.
I could do the smart thing still, and do the things my opponents unfairly charge me of preparing – rigging the elections in 1992, the way I did not rig the ratification of the Constitution, the national elections, and the local elections. They way they rigged elections from 1969 to 1986. But my instructions to the military and police are explicit. Let them hear it again:
The right of the soldier and the policeman is merely to cast his vote; his greater and solemn obligation is to assure the right of others to cast their votes and get them honestly counted. No soldier has the right to combine with his comrades to campaign for a person or party and deliver to them a block of the military vote. No member of the military shall lend his name, prestige, and the influence of his position to anyone’s campaign. The same holds true for the police.
The military has earned the people’s trust as the spearhead of their liberation and the constant defender of their democracy. To these honors it is my aim to add the distinction of shepherding our democracy through its first political succession, by clean and peaceful elections.
I will not preside as Commander-in-Chief over the kind of military that cheated the opposition in 1978, and me in 1986. That would insult the memory of the man to whom I dedicate this last address to the joint houses of Congress, and stain the proud achievement of this nation in 1986.
I specifically charge AFP Chief of Staff General Lisandro Abadia and PNP Director General Cesar Nazareno with the responsibility to assure clean and honest elections. While they may not fear my displeasure because I will not be president then, they will face the judgement of the disappointed country.
Yes, I could have done all those things that win wide acclaim, exiting as grandly as any president could wish. But while my power as president ends in 1992, my responsibility as a Filipino for the well-being of my country goes beyond it to my grave. A great part of that responsibility is to do the best I can today, according to my best lights, while I have the power to do it.
As President, I have never prayed for anything for myself; only for our people. I have been called an international beggar by the military rebels. Begging does not become me, yet – perhaps – it is what I had to do. I could have kept my pride and held aloof, but that would not have helped our people. And it is for them that I was placed in this office.
Someone who will stand in this place next year, may do better for I believe in the inexhaustible giftedness of the Filipino people. I only hope that he will be someone who will sincerely mean you well.
I hope that history will judge me as favorably as our people still regard me, because, as God is my witness, I honestly did the best I could. No more can be asked of any man.
On June 30, 1992, the traditional ceremony of political succession will unfold at the Luneta. The last time it was done that way was in 1965. I shall be there with you to proudly witness the event. This is the glory of democracy, that its most solemn moment should be the peaceful transfer of power.
Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat at paalam.
Cory Aquino: A Builder of Institutions
She was our country's leader when I was in High School. I witnessed her rise from the shackles of grief and become a symbol of courage, freedom, and national unity from 1983-1986. I rejoiced when our people put her in power and cheered her on from the sidelines during the many attempts to unseat her from power. I never doubted her ability to lead us Filipinos nor her sincerity and felt affirmed in my convictions when she decided to live out the desires of our constitution by not seeking an extension of her term. I felt her charisma firsthand when I first saw her in person in college during a dialogue with priests and religious at the Ateneo. I since then listened and trusted her political inspirations more than any other national figure.
I am grieving now that we lost her at this point of our nation's history but feeling grateful that Filipinos now particularly the youth will be granted a glimpse of how it is to become a true Filipino. Winnie Monsod called her today a "Builder of Institutions" and in my eyes it is a term that could be used when we remember her in the future, when we try to capture everything that she represents when we allot a page or two for her in our history books. We have our constitution, she brought back the congress, the judiciary, the COMELEC, among others. More than this, she carved a standard into our very consciousness to which our presidents and ourselves, as Filipinos and as persons, will forever be measured.
Thank you for the gift of yourself. Thank you for giving me another reason to be proud of my being Filipino.
Lunes, Hulyo 27, 2009
The SONA Transcipt: Now Let Us Talk about the Content and Not Just Impressions
Thank you, Speaker Nograles, Senate President Enrile, Senators, Representatives, Vice President de
Castro, President Ramos, Chief Justice Puno, Ambassadors, friends:
The past twelve months have been a year for the history books. Financial meltdown in the West spread
throughout the world...
Tens of millions lost their jobs; billions across the globe have been hurt—the poor always harder than
the rich. No one was spared....
It has affected us already. But the story of the Philippines in 2008 is that the country weathered a
succession of global crises in fuel, in food, then in finance and finally the economy in a global
recession, never losing focus and with economic fundamentals intact...
A few days ago, Moody’s has just announced the upgrade of our credit rating, citing the resilience of
our economy. The state of our nation is a strong economy. Good news for our people, bad news for
our critics...
I did not become President to be popular. To work, to lead, to protect and preserve our country, our
people, that is why I became President. When my father left the Presidency, we were second to Japan. I
want our Republic to be ready for the first world in 20 years...
Towards that vision, we made key reforms. Our economic plan centers on putting people first. Higit sa
lahat ang layunin ng ating mga patakaran ay tulungan ang masipag na karaniwang Pilipino. New tax
revenues were put in place to help pay for better healthcare, more roads, a strong education system.
Housing policies were designed to lift up our poorest citizens so they can live and raise a family with
dignity. Ang ating mga puhunan sa agrikultura ay naglalayong kilalanin ang ating mga magsasaka
bilang backbone ng ating bansa, at bigyan sila ng mga modernong kagamitan to feed our nation and
feed their own family....
Had we listened to the critics of those policies, had we not braced ourselves for the crisis that came,
had we taken the easy road much preferred by politicians eyeing elections, this country would be flat
on its back. It would take twice the effort just to get it back again on its feet—to where we are now
because we took the responsibility and paid the political price of doing the right thing. For standing
with me and doing the right thing, thank you, Congress...
The strong, bitter and unpopular revenue measures of the past few years have spared our country the
worst of the global financial shocks. They gave us the resources to stimulate the economy. Nabigyan
nila ang pinakamalaking pagtaas ng IRA ng mga LGU na P40 billion itong taon, imparting strength
throughout the country and at every level of government...
Compared to the past, we have built more and better infrastructure, including those started by others
but left unfinished. The Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway is a prime example of building better roads. It
creates wealth as the flagship of the Subic-Clark corridor.
We have built airports of international standard, upgraded domestic airports, built seaports and the
RORO system. I ask Congress for a Philippine Transport Security Authority Law....
Some say that after this SONA, it will be all politics. Sorry, but there’s more work....
Sa telecommunications naman, inatasan ko ang Telecommunications Commission na kumilos na
tungkol sa mga sumbong na dropped calls at mga nawawalang load sa cellphone. We need to amend
the Commonwealth-era Public Service Law. And we need to do it now....
Kung noong nakaraan, lumakas ang electronics, today we are creating wealth by developing the BPO
and tourism sectors as additional engines of growth. Electronics and other manufactured exports rise
and fall in accordance with the state of the world economy. But BPO remains resilient. With earnings
of $6 billion and employment of 600,000, the BPO phenomenon speaks eloquently of our
competitiveness and productivity. Let us have a Department of ICT....
In the last four years tourism almost doubled. It is now a $5 billion industry...
Our reforms gave us the resources to protect our people, our financial system and our economy from
the worst of shocks that the best in the west failed to anticipate....
They gave us the resources to do reforms para palawakin ang suportang panlipunan and enhance
spending power....For helping e raise salaries through joint resolution, thank you Congress.
Cash handouts give the most immediate relief and produce the widest stimulating effect. Nakikinabang
ang 700,000 na pinakamahihirap na pamilya sa programang Pantawid Pamilya.
Our preference is to invest in projects with the same stimulus effects but also with long-term
contributions to national progress....
Sa pagpapamahagi ng milyun-milyong ektaryang lupa, 700,000 na katutubo at mahigit isang milyong
benepisyaryo ng CARP ay taas-noong may-ari na ng sariling lupa. Hinihiling ko sa Kongreso na ipasa
agad ang pagpapalawig ng CARP, at dapat ma-condone ang P42 billion na land reform liabilities dahil
18% lamang ang nabayaran mula 1972. Napapanahon dahil it will unfreeze the rural property market.
Ang mahal kong ama ang nag-emancipate ng mga magsasaka. Ii-mancipate naman natin ngayon ang
titulo....
Nakinabang ang pitong milyong entrepreneurs sa P165 billion na microfinance. Nakinabang ang 1,000
sa economic resiliency plan. Kasama natin ngayon ang isa sa kanila, si Gigi Gabiola. Dating household
service worker sa Dubai, ngayon siya ay nagtatrabaho sa DOLE. Good luck, Gigi...
Nakinabang ang isang milyong pamilya sa programang pabahay at palupa, mula sa PAG-IBIG, NHA,
community mortgage program, certificates of lot awards, at saka yung inyong Loan Condonation and
Restructuring Act....
Our average inflation is the lowest since 1966. Last June, it dropped to 1.5%. Paano nakamit ito?
Proper policies lowered interest rates, which lowered costs to business and consumers.
Dahil sa ating mga reporma, nakaya nating ibenta ang bigas NFA sa P18.25 per kilo kahit tumaas ang
presyo sa labas mula P17.50 hanggang P30 dahil sa kakulangan ng supply sa mundo. Habang, sa unang
pagkakataon, naitaas ang pamimili ng palay sa mga magsasaka, P17 mula sa P11...
Dahil sa ating mga reporma, nakaya nating mamuhunan sa pagkain—anticipating an unexpected global
food crisis. Nakagawa tayo ng libu-libong kilometro ng farm-to-market roads at kasama ng pribadong
sector, natubigan ang dalawang milyong ektarya. Mga Badjao gaya ni Tarnati Dannawi ay tinuruan ng
modernong mariculture. Umabot na sa P180,000 ang kinita niya mula noong nakaraang taon.
Congratulations, Tarnati. We will help more fisherfolk shift to fish farming with a budget of P1
billion...
Dahi dumarami na naman daw ang pamilyang nagugutom, mamumuhunan tayo ng bago sa Hunger
Mitgation program na nakitang mabisa. Tulungan nito ako dito Kongreso...
Mula noong 2001, Nanawagan tayo ng mas murang gamot. Nagbebenta na tayo ng mga gamot na
kalahating presyo sa libu-libong Botika ng Bayan at Botika ng Barangay sa maraming dako ng bansa.
Our efforts prodded the pharmaceutical companies to come up with low-cost generics and brands like
RiteMed. I supported the tough version of the House of the Cheaper Medicine Law. I supported it over
the weak version of my critics. The result: the drug companies volunteered to bring down drug prices,
slashing by half the prices of 16 drugs. Thank you, Congressman Cua, Alvarez, Biron and Locsin....
Pursuant to law, I am placing other drugs under a maximum retail price. To those who want to be
President, this advice: If you want something done, do it hard, do it well. Don’t pussyfoot. Just do it.
Don't say bad words in public.
Sa health insurance, sakop na ang 86% ng ating populasyon...
Sa Rent Control Law ng 2005 hanggang 2008, hanggang sampung porsyento lang maaaring itaas taon-
taon ang upa. Iyong kakapirma nating batas naglagay ng isang taong moratorium, tapos pitong
porsyento lang ang maaaring itaas. Salamat, Kongreso....
Noong isang taon, nabiyayaan ng tig-P500 ang mahigit pitong milyong tahanan bilang Katas ng
Pantawid Koryente para sa mga small electricity users....
Iyong power rates, ang EPIRA natin ang pangmatagalang sagot. EPIRA dismantled monopoly. But
minana natin iyong power purchase agreements under preceding administrations, so hindi pa natin
makuha iyong buong intended effect. Pero happy na rin tayo, dahil isang taon na lamang iyan. The next
generation will benefit from low prices from our EPIRA. Thank you...
Samantala, umabot na sa halos lahat ng barangay ang elektrisidad. We increased indigenous energy
from 48% to 58%. Nakatipid tayo sa dollars tapos malaki pa ang na-reduce pa iyong oil consumption.
The huge reduction in fossil fuel is the biggest proof of energy independence and environmental
responsibility. Further reduction will come with the implementation of the Renewable Energy Act...and
the Biofuels Act....again, thank you.
The next generation will also benefit from our lower public debt to GDP ratio. It declined from 78% in
2000 to 55% in 2008. We cut in half the debt of government corporations from 15% to 7. Likewise
foreign debt from 73% to 32%. Kung meron man tayong malaking kaaway na tinalo, walang iba kundi
ang utang, iyong foreign debt. Past administrations conjured the demon of foreign debt. We exorcised
it....
The market grows economies. A free market, not a free-for-all...
To that end, we improved our banking system to complement its inherent conservatism. The Bangko
Sentral has been prudent. Thank you, Governor Tetangco, for being so effective. The BSP will be even
more effective if Congress will amend its Charter....
We worked on the Special Purpose Vehicle Act, reducing non-performing loans from 18% to 4% and
improving loan-deposit ratios....
Our new Securitization Law did not encourage the recklessness that brought down giant banks and
insurance companies elsewhere and laid their economies to waste. In fact, it monitors and regulates the
new-fangled financial schemes. Thank you, Congress....
We will work to increase tax effort through improved collections and new sin taxes to further our
capacity to reduce poverty and pursue growth. Revenue enhancement must come from the Department
of Finance plugging leaks and catching tax and customs cheats. I call on tax-paying citizens and tax-
paying businesses: help the BIR and Customs spot those cheats…
Taxes should come from alcohol and tobacco and not from books. Tax hazards to lungs and livers, do
not tax minds. Ang kita mula sa buwis sa alak at sigarilyo ay dapat pumunta sa kalusugan at
edukasyon. Sa kalusugan, pondohan ang Philhealth premiums ng pinakamahihirap. Ponhodhan ang
mas maraming classroom at computers.....
Pardon my partiality for the teaching profession. I was a teacher....
Kaya namuhunan tayo ng malaki sa edukasyon at skills training....
Ang magandang edukasyon ay susi sa mas mabuting buhay, the great equalizer that allows every young
Filipino a chance to realize their dreams...
Nagtayo tayo ng 95,000 na silid-aralan, nagdagdag ng 60,000 na guro, naglaan ng P1.5 billion para sa
teacher training, especially for 100,000 English teachers. Isa sa pinakamahirap na Millennium
Development Goals ay iyong Edukasyon para sa Lahat pagdating ng 2015, na nangunguhulugang lahat
ng nasa edad ay nasa grade school. Halos walang bansang nakakatupad nito. Ngunit nagsisikap tayo.
Binaba natin ang gastos ng pagpasok. Nagtayo tayo ng mga eskwela sa higit isang libong barangay na
dati walang eskwelahan, upang makatipid ng gastos ng pasahe ang mga bata. Tinanggal natin ang
miscellaneous fees para sa primary school.
Hindi na kailangan ang uniporme sa mga estudyante sa public schools...
We assist financially half of all students in private high schools....
We have provided 600,000 college and post-graduate scholarships. One of them Mylene Amerol-
Macumbal, finished Accounting at MSU-IIT, went to law school, and placed second in the last bar
exams--the first Muslim woman bar topnotcher. Congratulations...
In technical education and skills training, we have invested three times that of three previous
administrations combined. Narito si Jennifer Silbor, isa sa sampung milyong trainee. Natuto siya ng
medical transcription. Now, as an independent contractor and lecturer for transcriptions in Davao,
kumikita siya ng P18,000 bawat buwan. Good job.
The Presidential Task Force on Education headed by Jesuit educator Father Bienvenido Nebres has
come out with the Main Education Highway towards a Knowledge-Based Economy. It envisions
seamless education from basic to vocational school or college....
It seeks to mainstream early childhood development in basic education. Our children are our most
cherished possession. In their early years we must make sure they get a healthy start in life. They must
receive the right food for a healthy body, the right education for a bright and inquiring mind—and the
equal opportunity for a meaningful job....
For college admission, the Task Force recommends mandatory Scholastic Aptitude Tests. It also
recommends that private higher education institutions and state universities and colleges should be
harmonized. It also recommends that CHED will oversee of local universities and colleges. For
professions seeking international recognition—engineering, architecture, accountancy, pharmacy and
physical therapy—it recommends radical reform: 10 years of basic education, two years of pre-
university, three years of university...
Our educational system should make the Filipino fit not just for whatever jobs happen to be on offer
today, but also for whatever economic challenge life will throw in their way....
Sa hirap at ginhawa, ang ating overseas Filipinos ay pinapatatag ang ating bansa. Iyong padala nilang
$16 billion noong isang taon ay record. Itong taon, mas mataas pa....
I know that this is not a sacrifice joyfully borne. This is work where it can be found—in faraway
places, among strangers with different cultures. It is lonely work, it is very hard work....
Kaya nagsisikap tayong lumikha ng mga trabahong maganda ang bayad dito sa atin so that overseas
work will just be a career choice, not the only option for a hardworking Filipino in search of a better
life...
Meanwhile, we should make their sacrifices worthwhile. Dapat gumawa tayo ng mga mas malakas na
paraan upang proteksyonan at palawak ang halaga ng kanilang pinagsikapang sweldo. That means
stronger consumer protection for OFWs investing in property and products back home. Para sa kanila,
pinapakilos natin ang Investors Protection Task Force....
Hindi ako nag-aatubiling bisitahin ang ating taong bayan at ang kanilang mga hosts sa buong mundo –
mula Hapon...hanggang Brazil, mula Europa at Middle East hanggang sa American Midwest, nakikinig
sa kanilang mga problema at pangangailangan, inaalam kung paano matulungan sila n gating
pamahalaan—-by working out better policies on migrant labor, or by saving lives and restoring
liberty....
Pagpunta ko sa Saudi, pinatawad ni Haring Abdullah ang pitong daang OFW na nasa preso. Pinuno
nila ang isang buong eroplano at umuwi kasama ko....
Mula sa ating State Visit to Spain, it has become our biggest European donor. At si Haring Juan Carlos
ay nakikipag-usap sa ibang mga bansa para sa ating mga namomoblemang OFW. Ganoon di si Sheikh
Khalifa, ang Prime Minister ng Bahrain....
Pagpunta ko sa Kuwait, Emir al-Sabah commuted death sentences. For overseas workers, maraming
salamat.
Our vigorous international engagement has helped bring in foreign investment. Net foreign direct
investments multiplied 15 times during our administration.
Kasama ng ating mga Together with our OFWs, they more than doubled our foreign exchange
reserves. Pinalakas ang ating piso at naiwasan ang lubhang pagtaasng presyo. They upgraded our credit
because our reserves grew by $3 billion while those of our peers have shrunk.....
Our international engagement has also corrected historical injustice. The day we visited Washington,
Senator Daniel Inouye successfully sponsored benefits for our veterans as part of America’s fiscal
stimulus package...
I have accepted the invitation of President Obama to be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet him at
the White House, this week....
That he sought us the Philippines testifies to our strong and deep ties....
High on our agenda will be peace and security issues. Terrorism: how to meet it, how to end it, how to
address its roots in injustice and prejudice—and most and always how to protect lives....
We will also discuss nuclear non-proliferation. The Philippines will chair the review of the nuclear
weapons non-proliferation Treaty in New York in May 2010. The success of the talks will be a major
diplomatic achievement for us....
There is a range of other issues we will discuss, including the global challenge of climate change,
especially the threat to countries with long coastlines. And there is the global recession, its worse
impact on poor people, and the options that can spare them from the worst.
In 2008 up to the first quarter of 2009 we stood among only a few economies in Asia-Pacific that did
not shrink. Compare this in 2001, when some of my current critics were driven out by people power,
Asia was then surging but our country was on the brink of bankruptcy....
Since then, our economy has posted uninterrupted growth for 33 quarters; more than doubled its size
from $76 billion to $186 billion. The average GDP growth from 2001 to the first quarter of 2009 is the
highest in 43 years.
Bumaba ang bilang ng nagsasabing mahihirap sila, mula 59% sa 47%. Kahit na lumaki ang ating
populasyon, nabawasan ng dalawang milyon ang bilang ng mahihirap. GNP per capita rose from a
Third World $967 to $2,051. Lumikha tayo ng walong milyong trabaho, an average of a million per
year, much, much more than at any other time....
In sum:
1. We have a strong economy in a strong fiscal position to withstand political shocks....
2. We built new modern infrastructure and completed unfinished ones.
3. The economy is more fair to the poor than ever before....
4. We are building a sound base for the next generation....
5. International authorities have taken notice that we are safer from environmental degradation and
man-made disasters....
As a country in the path of typhoons and in the Pacific Rim of Fire, we must be as prepared as the
latest technology permits to anticipate natural calamities when that is possible; to extend immediate
and effective relief when it is not….The mapping of flood- and landslide-prone areas is almost
complete. Early warning, forecasting and monitoring systems have been improved, with weather
tracking facilities in Subic, Tagaytay, Mactan, Mindanao, Pampanga....
We have worked on flood control infrastructure like those for Pinatubo, Agno, Laoag, and Abucay,
which will pump the run off waters from Quezon City and Tondo flooding Sampaloc. This will help
relieve hundreds of hectares in this old city of its age-old woe....
Patuloy naman iyong sa Camanava, dagdag sa Pinatubo, Iloilo, Pasig-Marikina, Bicol River Basin, at
mga river basin ng Mindanao....
The victims of typhoon Frank in Panay should receive their long-overdue assistance package. I ask
Congress to pass the SNITS Law....
Namana natin ang pinakamatagal ng rebelyon ng Komunista sa buong mundo.
Si Leah de la Cruz isa sa labindalawang libong rebel returnee. Sixteen pa lang siya nang sumali sa
NPA. Naging kasapi sa regional White Area Committee, napromote sa Leyte Party Committee
Secretary. Nahuli noong 2006. She is now involved in an LGU-supported handicraft livelihood training
of former rebels. We love you, Leah!
There is now a good prospect for peace talks both with both the Communist Party of the Philippines
and the MILF, with whom we are now on ceasefire....
We inherited an age-old conflict in Mindanao, exacerbated by a politically popular but near-sighted
policy of massive retaliation. This only provoked the other side to continue the war....
In these two internal conflicts, ang tanong ay hindi, “Sino ang mananalo?” kundi, bakit ba kailangang
mag-away ang kapwa Pilipino tungkol sa mga isyu na alam ng dalawang panig over issues na
malulutas naman sa paraang demokratiko.
There is nothing more that I would wish for than peace in Mindanao. It will be a blessing for all its
people, Muslim, Christian and lumads. It will show other religiously divided communities that there
can be common ground on which to live together in peace, harmony and cooperation that respects each
other’s religious beliefs....
At sa lahat ng dako ng bansa, kailangan nating protektahan an gating mamamayan kontra sa krimen --
in their homes, in their neighborhoods, in their communities.
How shall crime be fought? Through the five pillars of justice. We call on Congress to fund more
policemen on the streets....
Real government is about looking beyond the vested to the national interest, setting up the necessary
conditions to enable the next, more enabled and more empowered generation to achieve a country as
prosperous, a people as content, as ours deserve to be....
The noisiest critics of constitutional reform tirelessly and shamelessly attempted Cha-Cha when they
thought they could take advantage of a shift in the form of government. Now that they feel they cannot
benefit from it, they oppose it.
As the process of fundamental political reform begins, let us address the highest exercise of
democracy...voting!
In 2001, I said we would finance fully automated elections. We got it, thanks to Congress....
At the end of this speech I shall step down from this stage...but not from the Presidency. My term does
not end until next year. Until then, I will fight for the ordinary Filipino. The nation comes first. There is
much to do as head of state—to the very last day....
A year is a long time. Patuloy ang pamumuhunan sa tinatawag na three E’s ng ekonomiya,
environment at edukasyon. There are many perils that we must still guard against....
A man-made calamity is already upon us, global in scale. As I said earlier, so far we have been spared
its worst effects but we cannot be complacent. We only know that we have generated more resources
on which to draw, and thereby created options we could take. Thank God we did not let our critics stop
us....
As the campaign unfolds and the candidates take to the airwaves, I ask them to talk more about how
they will build up the nation rather than tear down their opponents. Our candidates must understand the
complexities of our government and what it takes to move the country forward. Give the electorate real
choices and not just sweet talk....
Meanwhile, I will keep a steady hand on the tiller, keeping the ship of state away from the shallows
some prefer, and steering it straight on the course I set in 2001....
Ang ating taong bayan ay masipag at maka-Diyos. These qualities are epitomized in someone like
Manny Pacquiao....Manny trained tirelessly, by the book, with iron discipline, with the certain
knowledge that he had to fight himself, his weaknesses first, before he could beat his opponent. That
was the way to clinch his victories and his ultimate title: ang pinakadakilang boksingero sa
kasaysayan..........Mabuhay ka, Manny!
However much a President wishes it, a national problem cannot be knocked out with a single punch. A
President must work with the problem as much as against it, and turn it into a solution if I can…
There isn’t a day I do not work at my job or a waking moment when I do not think through a work-
related problem. Even my critics cannot begrudge the long hours I put in. Our people deserve-a-
government that works just as hard as they do...
A President must be on the job 24/7, ready for any contingency, any crisis, anywhere, anytime....
Everything right can be undone by even a single wrong. Every step forward must be taken in the teeth
of political pressures and economic constraints that could push you two steps back-if-you flinch and
falter.. I have not flinched, I have not faltered. Hindi ako umaatras sa hamon....
And I have never done any of the things that have scared my worst critics so much. They are frightened
by their own shadows....
In the face of attempted coups, I issued emergency proclamations just in case. But I was able to resolve
these military crises with the ordinary powers of my office. My critics call it dictatorship. I call it
determination.... We know it as strong government....
But I never declared martial law, though they are running scared as if I did. In truth, what they are
really afraid of is their weakness in the face of this self-imagined threat....
I say to them: do not tell us what we all know, that democracy can be threatened. Tell us what you will
do when it is attacked....
I know what to do:
I know what to do, as I have shown, I will defend democracy with arms when it is threatened by
violence; with firmness when it is weakened by division; with law and order where it is subverted by
anarchy; and always, I will try to sustain it by wise policies of economic progress, so that a democracy
means not just an empty liberty but a full life for all....
I never expressed the desire to extend myself beyond my term. Many of those who accuse me of it tried
to cling like nails to their posts....
I am accused of misgovernance. Many of those who accuse me of it left me the problem of their
misgovernance to solve. And we did it....
I am falsely accused, without proof, of using my office for personal profit. Many of those who accuse
me of it have lifestyles and spending habits that make them walking proofs of that crime....
We can read their frustrations. They had the chance to serve this good country and they blew it by
serving themselves....
Those who live in glass houses should cast no stones. Those who should be in jail should not threaten
it, especially if they have been there....
Our administration, with the highest average rate of growth, recording multiple increases in
investments, with the largest job creation in history, and which gets a credit upgrade at the height of a
world recession, must be doing something right, even if some of those cocooned in corporate privilege
refuse to recognize it....
Governance, however, is not about looking back and getting even. It is about looking forward and
giving more—to the people who gave us the greatest, hardest gift of all: the care of a country.
From Bonifacio at Balintawak to Cory Aquino at EDSA and up to today, we have struggled to bring
power to the people, and this country to the eminence it deserves....
Today the Philippines is weathering well the storm that is raging around the world. It is growing
stronger with the challenge. When the weather clears, as it will, there is no telling how much farther
forward it can go. Believe in it. I believe...
We can and we must-march-forward-with-hope, optimism and determination.
We must come together, work together and walk together toward the future.
Bagamat malaking hamon ang nasa ating harapan, nasa kamay natin ang malaking kakayahan. Halina’t
pagtulungan nating tiyakin ang karapat-dapat na kinabukasan ng ating Inang Bayan....
And to the people of our good country, for allowing me to serve as your President, maraming salamat.
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas.
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