CHRISTMAS. WARMTH. SHARING. COMPASSION. HOME.

 I remember way back 2006, I was in Leuven, Belgium for the 1st stop of my year-long Erasmus Mundus Master in Bioethics program. It was the first time in my whole life that I went abroad, at was also the first time I was also away from my family for a period longer than 2 weeks. And Christmas was approaching. And as the day of Christmas drew nearer, an unspeakable longing, or maybe even deep sadness was also growing in me. It was only then that I came to fully realize that,  I think I then have an idea of how OFWs felt too during such times. I was just blessed that out of nowhere, a very dear friend, Fr. K. Masong, invited myself and my 2 other Pinoy classmates to a blessing of a Pinay's house in Luxembourg on Christmas eve. Salva vida. Life saver. That indeed saved me from such deep sadness and longing. I've long forgotten her family name now, but the nickname of the owner of the house blest by Fr. K. was Ate Chari. Ate Chari and her family  shared with us their food, but most of all shared with us their warmth and treated us like family. It was just an overnight sojourn, but it provided me enough energy to eventually finish resolutely the remaining 7 more months of my program then. I'm home here now with my family in Davao. Very contented, feeling blest, on Christmas break from my Erasmus Mundus PhD program this time. And as such, it's my deepest and sincerest prayer that lost, longing, sad souls like I was before, will also find the warmth and welcome that people like Fr. K. and Ate Chari extended to me. Mga Kabayan, you may not realize it, but an overnight of kindness will tide our fellows towards an eternity of hopefulness and meaningfulness. I wish and pray everyone warmth, in the midst of possible coldness; sharing, in the midst of possible need; compassion, in the midst of possible sadness; a home, in the midst of strangers. Warmth. Sharing. Compassion. Home. Let us be, specially this Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone! God bless us all!

SELF-LOVE IN TIME OF EBOLA?

If OIC DOH Secretary Garin won't resign, she must at least, if she's a responsible public servant, have herself quarantined, and also those people who were with her (meaning Gen. Pio Catapang too) visiting the troops in Caballo Islands. AND, even those people who were exposed to them AFTER the Caballo visit must also be subjected to the quarantine protocols as prescribed by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM). I don't think it's true that "the troops didn't show any symptoms". Remember, 1 of those soldiers DID SHOW EBOLA-LIKE/FLU-LIKE SYMPTOMS, days before GArin's and Catapang's visit. However, DOH people, giving the situation a twist (aka cavalier attitude) they're simply saying that it MIGHT simply be a case of Malaria. "Might" be, meaning also NOT totally RULING OUT EBOLA for that said soldier (and I sincerely hope that it really isn't the case). And the fact that the other members of the contingent were exposed to the said soldier, thus also make them possible carriers of Ebola infection. 
It's a no-brainer that if countries like the U.S., U.K., etc. are wary, or even leery, of the possibilities of Ebola infection, when they're much more equipped to handle Ebola, so much much more must we. And so much more must one be when she happens to be THE COUNTRY'S NUMBER 1 PUBLIC HEALTH AUTHORITY, the SECRETARY OF HEALTH (albeit, still OIC).
If Gen. Catapang, true to his family name, showed the bravery to own up to his lapse, and is willing to be quarantined, so must OIC DOH Sec. Garin, being herself a PHYSICIAN who must know the REAL DANGERS of EBOLA INFECTION and of the QUARANTINE PROTOCOLS, own up to her lapse, and  at the very least have herself quarantined for at least the next 21 days.
Sec. Garin, in the name of saving the lives of women valiantly stood for the RH Law. Now, not only for the sake of saving lives of women, BUT OF WOMEN, MEN, CHILDREN, EVERYONE, will she be valiant enough to own up to, be responsible for  her faux pas, re EBOLA VIRUS? Would she be willing to step down from her position (SUPPOSEDLY ONE OF PUBLIC TRUST), even just temporarily (for the whole length of quarantine), or maybe better, permanently? ALL FOR THE SAKE OF REAL LIFE-AND-DEATH MATTER of PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY.
Truth is, I sincerely hope and pray that indeed our troops in Caballo, OIC DOH Sec. Garin, Gen. Catapang, and all those others exposed to them will eventually be TOTALLY NEGATIVE of Ebola infection. For their sake, and for the country's sake. BUT, for the meantime, RESPONSIBILITY & ACCOUNTABILITY, and not self-love, must be paramount.

GOT LOST IN PARIS, YET, HAD A GREAT DAY YESTERDAY.

It immediately started as almost a disaster. I left for my meeting with more than an hour of lead time. I leisurely walked to the Metro station thinking to easily take my ride to my school, L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). I ended up taking the wrong train. Luckily I realized it only after a station, and the station was still just near my hotel. So I went back first to my hotel to have a change of clothes and backpack as I was perspiring profusely, due to uncomfortable weight of my backpack's contents. I was laughing to myself, and also consoled myself with the thought that at least I got lost in Paris, and not just in Bankerohan Davao City. ha ha ha ! As my appointment was fast approaching, I decided to take the taxi, as based on Google map, and a paper map, it should only be max 15 minutes from where I was, even given the traffic. So, I took the cab. It was a bit late when I realized that the driver was taking me via a longer route. I immediately felt like I was being driven by some unscrupulous driver in le Manille. But I just kept my peace. Eventually, the driver, whether truly or just contrivingly, turned out not to also actually know where my school is. He eventually advised me to disembark right beside the Bibliotheque Nationale Francois Mitterand, given that it was supposedly the landmark shown to be beside my school in the paper map. I did get off, obligingly, as I was about to lose my patience. So I did some walk first, trying to make sense where I was. And, again, realized that I still am lost, for the second time! Yet, as they say, out of crooked lines, straight lines can emerge. According to some readings I've done about the people of Paris, Parisienes may come out aloof in first glance. BUT I personally found out the OPPOSITE! I approached for help (with my practiced and prepared "Bonjour! Parley-vous Anglais?" greeting), FIVE PEOPLE in all ( some in suits and others apparently in some other work attires). And much to my surprise, EVERYONE I APPROACHED NEVER TURNED ME DOWN, and even REALLY HELPED me figure out my destination with my paper map, AND EVEN WENT FURTHER AS THEY EVEN USED THE MAP THEY HAD ON THEIR PHONES. So, here I was in the city of Sartre, Hugo, Levinas, Foucault, lost, a total stranger, but not so lost and not so total a stranger at all. I ended up literally circling the Bibliotheque Nationale (which was really quite a distance). The last person I approached, in expensive Burberry coat and other clothes, even kindly walked me up to the foyer of L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). MY! Great things didn't end there. Having been informed by the porter, one of my Program's Professors, Prof. Luc Berlivet, even really went down to meet and bring me up to our Secretary's office. Our Secretary, Ms. Zeina Bechar, was also kindness incarnated. My two Program classmates, Maria Cristina Murano and Malgorzata Ryczer were also already in the office, and they were also relieved to see me, and helped guide me through the documentary requirements, as they've went through them earlier. Also, these four people, though they all speak French, obviously decided to speak in English the whole time I was with them so that I don't get excluded. Indeed, these people only showed me all kindness and consideration the whole time we were all together. After doing our administrative stuff and lunch, Prof. Berlivet, without me asking (neither implicitly nor explicitly) even really and literally went out of his way to deliver me to my hotel via the Metro. Thus also teaching me the way in the Metro (which actually was just as simple as taking the MRT/LRT in Manila). After bringing me home, Prof. Berlivet also told me that he'll pick me up again today (because I and my two other classmates are to have another appointment at another office somewhere in Paris). I actually would have wanted to go on my on to today's appointment. However, with all the generosity the kind Professor extended to me, the least I can also do is to also be generous and humble in my accepting his kindness. The day's greatness didn't end there. Due to all the perspiration (leading to electrolyte imbalance) for all that walking, and especially with the 9C temperature to which my body was still adjusting to, I went went through some bouts of painful cramps when I was already in my room. In the past, my immediate and very effective remedy was either a bottle of Gatorade or a packet of electrolyte dissolved in a glass of water. And none was available. Absent such, I decided to opt for a home remedy: ordinary table salt and some sugar mixed with water. So, I called the lady hotel owner over the intercom and requested for salt (as I have some sweets in my room which can sub for sugar) if she had any. AND, she just kindly obliged and even personally brought the salt to my room. WOW! So, to all and sundry, based on my direct and multiple experiences yesterday, the Parisienes aren't cold, nor aloof. They're very warm, kind, even to strangers. Merci beaucoup chers Parisiens! Today, my earlier misfortune simply fortunately led me to see the palpably better, kinder, more responsible (in the Levinasian manner) side of Paris. Indeed, yesterday was a BIG DAY, an IMPORTANT DAY, not only for all the necessary administrative requirements I attended to for my PhD program at EHESS, but most especially for all that responsible touch and gift of kindness and generosity most especially from strangers, who turned out to be no strangers at all. Through their magnanimous actions they showed that underneath the label of nationality, or even skin color, we all indeed are familiar, thus connected and not strangers, to each other, by way of our common humanity. Indeed, I GOT LOST IN PARIS, AND HAD A GREAT DAY YESTERDAY! God bless us all!

PLANNING OF MIGRATING TO NON-APPLE PRODUCTS

Thank you very much APPLE! iPhone6, iPhone6s, and i-Watch HAVE ALREADY COME OUT, YET MY REPLACEMENT UNIT FOR MY HARDWARE DEFECTIVE JURASSIC iPHONE 4 HASN'T YET ARRIVED. AS OF TODAY 10 SEPTEMBER, the unit hasn't even left Singapore, and I made the request WAY BACK 15 AUGUST 2014. I'm not anymore losing sleep over the thought of eventually MIGRATING to NON-Apple products, even if right now I've SEVERAL APPLE PRODUCTS. Bantay lang ka APPLE!

THE MAKATI PARKING BUILDING IS OVERPRICED. PERIOD.

The contractor the Makati Parking Building, HILMARC'S Construction, so as to parry the accusations that the said building is overpriced, cited the cost of other government buildings which cost no less than P61,000/sq.m. But such defense doesn't make the Makati Parking Building still any less OVERPRICED. It simply shows that some government buildings are OVERPRICED, and that includes the Makati Parking Building. That the PRACTICE OF OVERPRICING SEEMED TO BE NORM IN CONSTRUCTION OF GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS, DOESN'T IN ANY WAY MAKE SUCH OVERPRICING LEGALLY, ETHICALLY, POLITICALLY ACCEPTABLE. Thus it simply shows that THERE'S SOMETHING REALLY REALLY WRONG in the pricing of GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS (AND WHO KNOWS EVEN OTHER GOVERNMENT CONSTRUCTIONS). Thus indeed the Senate is right in having this hearing IN AID OF LEGISLATION. LAWS MUST THUS BE CREATED SO AS TO PROHIBIT THE GLARING, REASON-DEFYING OVERPRICING of government constructions. Also, IT'S BUT LOGICAL AND ETHICAL THAT THOSE caught BREAKING THE LAW for such OVERPRICING MUST ALSO BE PROSECUTED, AND EVENTUALLY BE BROUGHT BEFORE AND BEHIND THE BARS OF JUSTICE.

DEPED ERRS IN REMOVING "GOD-LOVING" IN ITS VISION STATEMENT WITHOUT PROPER PUBLIC CONSULTATION

HEEDING THE 99.02% OF THE CITIZENRY SIMPLY WHO BELIEVE IN A SUPREME BEING ISN’T THEOCRACY BUT DEMOCRACY. BELOW IS THE LATEST DATA FROM THE NATIONAL STATISTICS OFFICE ABOUT THE STATUS OF RELIGION IN THE PHILIPPINES. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines#Religion)
Religions in the Philippines
Roman Catholic 80.6%
Islam 5.6%
Protestants 4.35%
Evangelical Christians 2.7%
Iglesia ni Cristo 2.45%
Other Religions 4.29%
Atheists and Agnostics 0.08%
In 2014 Philippines in Figures by the National Statistics Office.

A group calling itself Filipino Freethinkers advocated for the removal of the word "God-loving" in Dep-ed's vision because the said group thinks that such is a "clear violation of the principle of secularism." Is this real democracy, or simply the tyranny of a minority, thus an Aristocracy or Autocracy? True, the Philippines is a secular society. Yet, even if it’s a secular society, it's one where 99.02% of its population still consider themselves to be believers of a Supreme Being. Being a secular state though doesn’t mean that the state must TOTALLY RID ITSELF of EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING RELATED TO RELIGION, and most specially if the citizens of the state are religious believers. Please let me cite a source that shows that where even states which are considered to be heavily secular also give official credence to religion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_state):

Not all legally secular states are completely secular in practice.
• In France for example, many Christian holy days are official holidays for the public administration, and teachers in Catholic schools are salaried by the state.[4] In some European states (Germany, Switzerland, Belgium) where secularism confronts monoculturalist philanthropy some of the main Christian sects and sects of other religions depend on the state for some of the financial resources for their religious charities.[5] It is common in Corporate law and Charity law to prohibit them from using those funds to organize religious worship in a separate place of worship or for conversion; the religious body itself must provide the religious content, educated clergy and lay-persons to exercise its own functions and may choose to afford part of their time to the separate charities. To that effect some of those charities establish secular organizations that manage part of or all of the donations from the main religion(s). Religious and atheist organizations can apply for equivalent funding from the government and receive subsidies either based on assessed social results where there is indirect religious state funding, sometimes that assessment is simply the number of beneficiaries of those organisations.[6] This resembles Charitable choice in the United States. Overt direct state funding of religions is on the whole doubtfully in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights though it would not yet appear to have been decided at supranational level in ECtHR case law stemming from the rights in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which mandates non-discrimination in affording its co-listed basic social rights; specifically, funding certain services would not accord with non-discriminatory state action.[7]

• In India, the government gives a subsidy in airfare for Muslims going on Haj pilgrimage (See Haj subsidy). In 2007, the government had to spend Rs. 47,454 per passenger.[8] After considerable pressure from Muslim groups and the Ministry of Minority Affairs, the Congress government in 2010 decided to begin phasing out the Haj subsidy that had been in operation since 1993. The Central Haj Committee of India will work through the Ministry of External Affairs to restructure the air fares so that the richer Hadjis will pay a premium for the poorer pilgrims. The entire restructuring is expected to take about seven years and be completed by 2017.[9] India is also the only non-Muslim/Christian majority country in the world where Muslims and Christians have separate laws.[10][11]

Many states that nowadays are secular in practice may have legal vestiges of an earlier established religion. Secularism also has various guises which may coincide with some degree of official religiosity. In the United Kingdom, the head of state is still required to take the 1688-enacted Coronation Oath swearing to maintain the Protestant Reformed religion in the United Kingdom and preserve the established Church of England.[12] The United Kingdom also maintains positions in the House of Lords for 26 senior clergymen of the Church of England known as the Lords Spiritual.[13] 

Sec. Armin Luistro must revisit this decision, not because he's a Catholic. But MOST SPECIALLY because 99.02% of the citizens of the Philippines are believers in a Supreme Being, and not non-believers. Heeding 99.02% of the citizenry doesn't violate the separation of church and state, nor makes our state a theocracy. Heeding the 99.02% of the citizenry simply is DEMOCRACY. Democracy demands that at least the majority of the citizens be heeded. Was there a PUBLIC CONSULTATION ABOUT THIS MATTER? Or was the said decision made only giving due consideration to one group, which doesn’t actually represent the MAJORITY of the citizenry? True, it’s quite discomfiting at times for a minority that it doesn’t always get what it wants. But that’s but part  of the process of political democracy. Majority rules. Majority wins. That's political democracy. Allowing a small cohort to IMPOSE ITSELF upon the majority, especially when it’s against the WILL of the MAJORITY, is ACTUALLY AGAINST secular or democratic principles. It’s simply a TYRANNY of a FEW: AUTOCRACY or ARISTOCRACY.

A CAUTIONARY TALE: JOVITO PALPARAN

Retired Major General (AFP) Jovito Palparan was finally caught by a combined team of lawmen after around 3 years of being on the run. I can't help but shake my head when I saw how this person who once wielded the power of life and death over people (and if accusations are the be believed, more of death) looked so nondescript, rail-thin, unkempt, unshaven, miserable. Seemingly, the powers he is said to have used to haunt, hunt, and taunt people have turned on him themselves, turning him into a mere specter of what he once was.

Jovito. The said name comes from "Jove," the abbreviated version of "Jupiter,' the king of the Roman pantheon of deities, the Roman counterpart of the Greek Zeus. Jove, Jupiter is considered the god of thunder, and is symbolized by the eagle. The eagle thus became a powerful symbol among Romans as they showed in their insignias and battle gears. Jove, as combination of thunder and the eagle was thus considered a "sky god". And as a sky god, according to Wikipedia, he was considered "a divine witness to oaths, the sacred trust on which justice and good government depend." Jove, with all his power, used such power as a dispenser of justice and good governance. Jove, is also the word from which "jovial" or "happy" came from. And also where the word "juvenile," meaning "youthful," came from. Thus Jove/Jupiter is also known to be a god of a life of happiness, of life-giving energy.

But that was Jove, the Roman god. Jovito Palparan, based on the cases filed against him, also had power. But, again, based on the cases versus him, he instead used his power to become not a dispenser of justice and good governance, but as judge and executioner, thus "Berdugo" (executioner) they used to call him. Again, based on accusations against him, his justice was summary justice; his good was self-righteous; his governance was one of oppression; his happiness born of sadistic enjoyment; his juvenile energy one of dark delinquency.

But now, he has fallen. Whether contrived or real, what he showed was tameness. BUT, based on interviews he granted, we MUSN'T MISS THE FACT THAT he remained CALMLY REMAINED UNREPENTANT, CALMLY showed NO SIGN OF REMORSE of things he was/is accused of. In his own eyes, he remains innocent, as he "only did what he needed to do." And he actually isn't alone in his stance. Human history is replete with such very dark Joves.

Jovito Palparan has fallen, but he hasn't allowed himself to accept his defeat. And some people think such stance as heroic. Yet, such is but the opposite: tragically myopic. "Hell is when one becomes happy with one's own sadness," said one of the characters in one of the late Robin Williams' films (What Dreams May Come).

And so, for all his former power, influence, and still-persistent unrepentance, yet when one envisages Jovito Palparan's present state of being nondescript, rail-thin, unkempt, unshaven, and miserable, one can simply conclude that hell does exist even here on earth.