everyday, i still get alerts from google about my former boss' internet exposure. i've been a subscriber to this service (which provides links to news, blogs, videos and any other internet content that carries the name of the senator) for almost three years now. even with my resignation from being a member of his staff, i remain loyal to my habit of browsing through stuff about him and the office online. this is how i learned of judy ann santos and ryan agoncillo's surprise wedding. the senator was one of the guests, while his wife stood as the maid of honor.
i usually don't give a hoot about philippine showbiz, but i just remembered a memory of ryan agoncillo and then my encounter with the newly-weds a few summers ago.
i was in college in UP, and me and my friends/dormmates were hanging out at tapika, a bar in katipunan where up-and-coming bands play (m.y.m.p. i believe started their career there, and i think they still play every once in a while). giselle, my then-roommate, suddenly started whispering frantically over our table to say ryan agoncillo entered the bar. ryan was a semi-celebrity then,known for appearing in the funny sprite tv ad, for hosting, and for being an atenista. he's a far cry from his present masa image of soap actor. when ryan entered that bar about six years ago, he was the sterling model of coňo. he was with a leggy, morena date and we had to stop giselle (who used to have a huge crush on him--mental note: contact giselle and rub this memory in) from boring a hole in ryan's direction with her stare. ryan and his date cuddled and whispered in their little corner of the world while we tried to ogle discreetly.
years later, in the thick of the 2007 senatorial campaign, i was assigned to the team that would produce one of my former boss' campaign ads. together with two other unitmates from the political communications group, we travelled south to a posh subdivision in cavite where we were to meet up with the creatives people, and showbiz couple ryan agoncillo and judy ann santos, who have been joining us in our campaign rallies and were there to shoot video endorsements.
i think i've said this before, and ask anyone who's had the same job as mine, being a member of the staff gives you every responsibility imaginable on earth. for this particular outing, it was to be on standby for any and every help the production team needs.
scenario #1. judy ann is inside the house, getting her make-up done while the crew sets up the lights and we wait for the director. i go to her to hand her her script. she gets the bond papers from me, reads the lines, and looks up to me to ask, "do i have to say kiko? can i just say kuya kiko? i'm more comfortable calling him that..."
scenario #2. this is the ultimate secret of my life. but in the spirit of the judy ann-ryan wedding, i'm outing myself. why not! :P the director shoots the video with judy ann. behind her is a man-made lake with a bridge. the director says, i need some movement from behind. he looks at me, to my horror, and to another officemate. the senator's niece volunteers. i give her a virtual hug for getting me out of the ordeal, only to hear the director say, "perfect. you three on the bridge!" i give him a pleading look, he promises us we'll be too distant and blurred to be recognized.
so, friends, behold my first appearance on film...as judy ann's extra. lol (oh, and giselle had a kick watching this. i really do need to remind her of ryan in tapika)
scenario #3. after a few takes, judy ann works her magic and we get dismissed. or so i think. the director readies ryan, for a separate video it turns out. we stay until past midnight, watching him read and reread his lines. cut after cut. he finally gets it right, and the director calls it a wrap.
4.29.2009
4.27.2009
no more war films for this sissy
not yet eligible for employment, i spend my days inside the house, trying my luck in the kitchen and waiting for gary to come home from work. it really is a major change of lifestyle for me, so gary makes it a point to take me out every chance he gets.
a diversion we've both acquired living in sleepy el paso is watching movies. we rent dvds every night (we watch at least 8 movies a week) and go to the theatre every weekend (sometimes even on weekdays). for saturday and sunday, i got the uma thurman comedy 'my super ex-girlfriend' while gary got the soldier movie 'home of the brave' from blockbuster. the husband must've been tampo (bet he wouldn't admit it though) when i snuck out of the room to avoid watching 50 cent, et. al play u.s. army soldiers in iraq. i told gary the previous weekend that i was staying away from war movies after i soaked myself in tears watching 'letters from iwo jima.'
on a lighter note, we also went to the cinema yesterday hoping to catch 'state of play' but were three hours early for the next screening so we decided to have fun watching 'aliens vs. monsters' in 3D. we had to add a little for the 3D glasses (which gary never took off until we were back in the car :) ).
anyway, back to 'letters from iwo jima'. i always had this movie in my mind for some reason, and while we were scouring the aisles of blockbuster one weekend, i stumbled upon it. i didn't know (or maybe forgot) what it was about or who was on it but i didn't hesitate to get a copy. when we got home, i remembered why. the movie stars ken watanabe, who played the chairman in memoirs of a geisha (i was fixated with the book and the movie a few years back) and katsumoto in the last samurai.
letters from iwo jima, directed by clint eastwood, portrays the battle of iwo jima, an island in japan, during world war II. it was presented from the perspective of the japanese soldiers whose letters were found burried inside the tunnels they used during war. it complements eastwood's other movie about the same subject 'flags of our fathers', which depicts the same battle from the american viewpoint. letters from iwo jima is almost entirely in japanese but was made by american production companies.
maybe it's just me--i have a knack for crying when i'm not supposed to, and not crying when i should. maybe the movie really was touching. maybe because my husband is in the army, waiting for orders to get deployed in the middle east. maybe it's all of the above. all i know is, not even half-way through the movie, i was crying my eyes out, blaming gary for 'making' me watch another war movie (see i promised myself i wouldn't see one ever again when i became a captive audience of 'pearl harbor' playing in a bus travelling home to bataan). he gently reminded me i was the hand that picked the film from the shelf. oh well.
now gary has a lot to say about war. world war II. the japanese invasion (i think he's more zealous about the japanese invasion of the philippines than the clash between japan and the states--he wouldn't stop talking about the bataan death march since he learned of it). a soldier's life. human nature. honor and courage.
but for me, what touched me was how it showed that regardless of which side one is on, everyone is so much more alike than different. soldiers are husbands, and sons, and brothers (there were no female fighters in the movie). a mother's caring words to her soldier son are the same whether they were spoken in japan or the united states. love is indeed so universal that it makes us so similar however we'd like to think otherwise.
i do not believe in war--or any method that employs aggression for that matter--in solving problems. this principle makes it harder to accept that gary's remaining one year in the army could be extended if he suddenly gets deployed. everyday, we live a normal life of husband and wife--we wake up, eat breakfast, i see him off to work, we share lunch, he reports back to his job, and comes home for dinner. beyond these mundane activities, we often forget that neither of us could tell where he'd be in a few months. he points this out to me every once in a while, especially when i turn up my s(sumpong) over petty things. i hate to even think that we could be apart again for months and months, and he could be risking his life in a warzone because of his profession. the saddest part is, i can't do anything about it.
so yes, starting now, no more war films for this sissy. for real.
a diversion we've both acquired living in sleepy el paso is watching movies. we rent dvds every night (we watch at least 8 movies a week) and go to the theatre every weekend (sometimes even on weekdays). for saturday and sunday, i got the uma thurman comedy 'my super ex-girlfriend' while gary got the soldier movie 'home of the brave' from blockbuster. the husband must've been tampo (bet he wouldn't admit it though) when i snuck out of the room to avoid watching 50 cent, et. al play u.s. army soldiers in iraq. i told gary the previous weekend that i was staying away from war movies after i soaked myself in tears watching 'letters from iwo jima.'
on a lighter note, we also went to the cinema yesterday hoping to catch 'state of play' but were three hours early for the next screening so we decided to have fun watching 'aliens vs. monsters' in 3D. we had to add a little for the 3D glasses (which gary never took off until we were back in the car :) ).
anyway, back to 'letters from iwo jima'. i always had this movie in my mind for some reason, and while we were scouring the aisles of blockbuster one weekend, i stumbled upon it. i didn't know (or maybe forgot) what it was about or who was on it but i didn't hesitate to get a copy. when we got home, i remembered why. the movie stars ken watanabe, who played the chairman in memoirs of a geisha (i was fixated with the book and the movie a few years back) and katsumoto in the last samurai.
letters from iwo jima, directed by clint eastwood, portrays the battle of iwo jima, an island in japan, during world war II. it was presented from the perspective of the japanese soldiers whose letters were found burried inside the tunnels they used during war. it complements eastwood's other movie about the same subject 'flags of our fathers', which depicts the same battle from the american viewpoint. letters from iwo jima is almost entirely in japanese but was made by american production companies.
maybe it's just me--i have a knack for crying when i'm not supposed to, and not crying when i should. maybe the movie really was touching. maybe because my husband is in the army, waiting for orders to get deployed in the middle east. maybe it's all of the above. all i know is, not even half-way through the movie, i was crying my eyes out, blaming gary for 'making' me watch another war movie (see i promised myself i wouldn't see one ever again when i became a captive audience of 'pearl harbor' playing in a bus travelling home to bataan). he gently reminded me i was the hand that picked the film from the shelf. oh well.
now gary has a lot to say about war. world war II. the japanese invasion (i think he's more zealous about the japanese invasion of the philippines than the clash between japan and the states--he wouldn't stop talking about the bataan death march since he learned of it). a soldier's life. human nature. honor and courage.
but for me, what touched me was how it showed that regardless of which side one is on, everyone is so much more alike than different. soldiers are husbands, and sons, and brothers (there were no female fighters in the movie). a mother's caring words to her soldier son are the same whether they were spoken in japan or the united states. love is indeed so universal that it makes us so similar however we'd like to think otherwise.
i do not believe in war--or any method that employs aggression for that matter--in solving problems. this principle makes it harder to accept that gary's remaining one year in the army could be extended if he suddenly gets deployed. everyday, we live a normal life of husband and wife--we wake up, eat breakfast, i see him off to work, we share lunch, he reports back to his job, and comes home for dinner. beyond these mundane activities, we often forget that neither of us could tell where he'd be in a few months. he points this out to me every once in a while, especially when i turn up my s(sumpong) over petty things. i hate to even think that we could be apart again for months and months, and he could be risking his life in a warzone because of his profession. the saddest part is, i can't do anything about it.
so yes, starting now, no more war films for this sissy. for real.
the canon camera was finally delivered, and it's GREAT! looks even better than i expected, and the shots are clear any way you take them. how come i have it already? gary found out about my wicked idea, told me there was no way i was taking advantage of my mother, and got me my canon powershot via amazon. he cancelled the freebie from citibank, and ordered a sofabed (which is supposed to arrive any minute now as i type--yipee!!!) in exchange. all's well that ends well. haha
4.20.2009
sundays in el paso
gary and i made the most of sunday.
we used to drive uphill to go to this catholic church about 15-30 minutes away from our place. it's the only catholic church gary was familiar with then. the structure is very nice though, homey with low-hanging chandeliers and a huge portrait of the virgin of guadalupe at the altar, so the distance was fairly okay with him and me. except we didn't understand a fraction of the ceremony. because we are situated at the border of texas and mexico, the mass is always in spanish.
until one day, i searched all the catholic churches in el paso online, and voila! the church of the blessed sacrament is just on the other side of our area, 3 minutes away says google map. since then, hearing mass became a lot easier for us. we usually wake up late on weekends, and the english mass schedule of 11am is just right for the lazy couple.
this particular sunday however, we realized that the mass coincided with 12 baptisms and a wedding sponsored by the parish, and the church was so jampacked we couldn't even go past the main entrance. we decided to go to the lady of guadalupe church again. the mass, of course, was half-way through by the time we got there.
once out of church, gary said he remembered a place where he could take me. we were both getting tired of going to the same places in el paso that we often decide to just stay home and watch dvd. this time though, we drove the I-10 to reach this factory outlet that kind of reminded me of serendra back home. stores for brands like puma, tommy hilfiger, liz claiborne, nike, levi's etc. lined up in a surprisingly well-ventilated area. ignoring the high heels i was still wearing, we went around the establishment to kill time. gary earlier asked me if i could walk in my stilettos and i answered "i used to run all day in them," smugly. five hours later i was cursing my black shoes.
i got me a baseball cap. now why a baseball cap? see it serves me two ways. one, during bad hair days (or late nights when you suddenly have to run to the store or grab midight snacks), i can just put it on along with a pair of hoop earrings and i don't have to worry about how i look. two, (although i've yet to prove this) it's gonna help gary save some of his patience waiting for me to get ready.
driving home, we suddenly spotted a sign that said sunland park mall was on the next exit. my hubby and i are on a search for recreation areas where we can bring my mom when she visits. so sort of like an advance work, we headed to the sunland park.
it. was. huge. even bigger than mall of asia, i think. it's like there were 5 or 6 malls put together plus a separate bookstore that is soooo similar with the fully booked branch in bonifacio high street, scattered restaurants, and other specialty stores for beauty, appliances, dogs, automobiles, among others. we didn't even know el paso had such an area(or, well, i read it's technically part of new mexico but you get my point).
we hit the mall first, then gary drove me to my mecca, the barnes and noble bookseller. bookstores smell the same. be it in manila, the states or paris. i just love the scent the union of brewed coffee and print makes. we stayed there until we were both famished.
we ate at the grand chinese buffet, which, for less than $30, was such a treat. i ate EVERYTHING. i got a plate full of just shrimps. i think there were three or four shrimp dishes on it. then another plate filled with cantaloupe, strawberries,green melon and banana bathing in cherry syrup. my baby got me dimsum like i asked, some sweet bread with white cheese inside, mini-siopaos, among others. gary also had chow mein. on my 'real' plate, i ate fried rice and corn and oh i just ate everything! :P
too full and about to throw up with the slightest provocation, we drove again for home--but suddenly decided to watch a movie at carmike theatre, which is about 3 minutes from our place. we were choosing between state of play and 17 again, but after all the activities of the day, we decided to go for something light. 17 again was pretty fun, especially the character of zac efron's best friend. we were sitting beside a couple in their late 70s or early 80s (no kidding!)and i was making gary promise me he'd still take me to the movies when we reach that stage.
we were really on our way home, when we realized we had to buy water from the nearby walgreens. then gary got a call from his brother, and we had to run an errand for him so we turned back and finished the favor. we then decided to rent some movies at blockbuster. by this time my legs were really killing me so i settled for the movie letters from iwo jima (which i'll write about next) and gary got the mystery-thriller fracture, starring anthony hopkins.
we used to drive uphill to go to this catholic church about 15-30 minutes away from our place. it's the only catholic church gary was familiar with then. the structure is very nice though, homey with low-hanging chandeliers and a huge portrait of the virgin of guadalupe at the altar, so the distance was fairly okay with him and me. except we didn't understand a fraction of the ceremony. because we are situated at the border of texas and mexico, the mass is always in spanish.
until one day, i searched all the catholic churches in el paso online, and voila! the church of the blessed sacrament is just on the other side of our area, 3 minutes away says google map. since then, hearing mass became a lot easier for us. we usually wake up late on weekends, and the english mass schedule of 11am is just right for the lazy couple.
this particular sunday however, we realized that the mass coincided with 12 baptisms and a wedding sponsored by the parish, and the church was so jampacked we couldn't even go past the main entrance. we decided to go to the lady of guadalupe church again. the mass, of course, was half-way through by the time we got there.
once out of church, gary said he remembered a place where he could take me. we were both getting tired of going to the same places in el paso that we often decide to just stay home and watch dvd. this time though, we drove the I-10 to reach this factory outlet that kind of reminded me of serendra back home. stores for brands like puma, tommy hilfiger, liz claiborne, nike, levi's etc. lined up in a surprisingly well-ventilated area. ignoring the high heels i was still wearing, we went around the establishment to kill time. gary earlier asked me if i could walk in my stilettos and i answered "i used to run all day in them," smugly. five hours later i was cursing my black shoes.
i got me a baseball cap. now why a baseball cap? see it serves me two ways. one, during bad hair days (or late nights when you suddenly have to run to the store or grab midight snacks), i can just put it on along with a pair of hoop earrings and i don't have to worry about how i look. two, (although i've yet to prove this) it's gonna help gary save some of his patience waiting for me to get ready.
driving home, we suddenly spotted a sign that said sunland park mall was on the next exit. my hubby and i are on a search for recreation areas where we can bring my mom when she visits. so sort of like an advance work, we headed to the sunland park.
it. was. huge. even bigger than mall of asia, i think. it's like there were 5 or 6 malls put together plus a separate bookstore that is soooo similar with the fully booked branch in bonifacio high street, scattered restaurants, and other specialty stores for beauty, appliances, dogs, automobiles, among others. we didn't even know el paso had such an area(or, well, i read it's technically part of new mexico but you get my point).
we hit the mall first, then gary drove me to my mecca, the barnes and noble bookseller. bookstores smell the same. be it in manila, the states or paris. i just love the scent the union of brewed coffee and print makes. we stayed there until we were both famished.
we ate at the grand chinese buffet, which, for less than $30, was such a treat. i ate EVERYTHING. i got a plate full of just shrimps. i think there were three or four shrimp dishes on it. then another plate filled with cantaloupe, strawberries,green melon and banana bathing in cherry syrup. my baby got me dimsum like i asked, some sweet bread with white cheese inside, mini-siopaos, among others. gary also had chow mein. on my 'real' plate, i ate fried rice and corn and oh i just ate everything! :P
too full and about to throw up with the slightest provocation, we drove again for home--but suddenly decided to watch a movie at carmike theatre, which is about 3 minutes from our place. we were choosing between state of play and 17 again, but after all the activities of the day, we decided to go for something light. 17 again was pretty fun, especially the character of zac efron's best friend. we were sitting beside a couple in their late 70s or early 80s (no kidding!)and i was making gary promise me he'd still take me to the movies when we reach that stage.
we were really on our way home, when we realized we had to buy water from the nearby walgreens. then gary got a call from his brother, and we had to run an errand for him so we turned back and finished the favor. we then decided to rent some movies at blockbuster. by this time my legs were really killing me so i settled for the movie letters from iwo jima (which i'll write about next) and gary got the mystery-thriller fracture, starring anthony hopkins.
4.17.2009
scheming technophile
I'm an Aquarian. I've always carried the traits of my birth sign: I find it natural to talk exhaustively to people, I'm a free-spirit, and I'm loyal. I also carry the dark Aquarius side of being uptight, unforgiving and unable to speak out emotions (I can write them though :P ). Another thing I've always known about myself, but never really attributed to my birth sign until very recently, was my love for laptops and ipods and computer softwares and cellular phones. Apparently, according to this lady astrologist who was on TV last Christmas suggesting which gift to give which sign, Aquarius people are technophiles.
So you can imagine how psyched I was to learn that Gary's debit account has accumulated so many rebate points he's never claimed, and that he's letting me use them to get whatever electronic device fits his reward points. I got myself a point and shoot camera, which has yet to get to me.
In comes another one of my Aquarius traits: unpredictability. For some reason, I fell in love with another digital camera along the way: A Canon A1000 IS in brown, my favorite color. And I can't get over it. So what do I do with this nagging techno-lust when I have another free camera that's on the way?
I scheme. My mom's coming here for a visit next month, and I sweet-talked her into buying me the Canon (more expensive, of course)and I'll give her the other camera. "It's like buying me a gift, only I'll give you another gift in return."
I'm shameless :D
2.09.2009
the army wife
i finally arrived here in el paso last saturday. it's as if i've known the place for a long time, as i pictured everything in my head everytime gary would call since he got assigned here in june last year.
i slept on the plane on my way here, and while i took many plane rides before, i was astonished by the sight of giant nimbus clouds beside the plane--something i've never seen before--when i woke up. they were like ice bergs...or giant cotton candy. as the plane descended, everything on the ground was brown--desert brown. google already warned me of this, but i was far more excited to see my husband than to care about the wilting earth below me.
i always hated airports. being in a long distance relationship for two years, airports equaled gary equaled goodbyes equaled drama. but this time, everything seemed to be in reverse. it was him waiting for me as i came out of the arrival area, and instead of goodbye, we were saying hello to our life together as husband and wife.
while living in manila, i also always wondered how it would be like to have gary with me at the grocery store whenever i see couples before me at the supermarket. well, it was...funny. neither of us knew which vegetable went with which dish, and we had an empty apartment to fill with soaps and shampoos and cleaners and what have you, that we just knew we'd end up forgetting something.
and the apartment. gary can sometimes be modest when describing things. while he said he got us a two-bedroom apartment, he didn't say it was a spacious two-bedroom apartment. or maybe because we have no furniture whatsoever to fill up the space. the living room is big; i could practically roll over it all day. the bedrooms have walk-in closets and the restroom is roomy as well. but my favorite part would still be the kitchen. the place is obviously for a family of five, and to have this much space for the two of us, what's a newly-wed couple to do?
buy a guitar and a keyboard, of course! :P i have always questioned my and gary's ability to prioritize, but with me alone in the house during the day, my thoughtful hubby decided to buy me the things that keep me occupied first. so now at the centre of the empty living room are two musical instruments. and no,we're not sorry about our purchases.
as for my housemaking skills...i have to be thankful for ending up with a VERY patient guy. i love to cook. i really do. and sometimes, i do cook good food. but understand that for the past seven years, i've been living on fastfood in manila, and i have the great cooking skills of our dear ate tess whenever i go home to my mom's house in bataan. so last night, i cooked adobo, which gary said tasted good, although i later found out that he prefers his adobo with some sauce, not fried. this morning, we woke up at 4am (he has physical training at 6am)and despite the fact that we bought a lot of meat products, he preferred a light meal. i made a liver spread sandwich (a note to Reno exporters: you don't make your export product the same way you do in the philippines!not fair!) which was bland, and coffee...i've never made coffee in my life, as far as i know. tonight i cooked afritada, or menudo, or kaldereta. now this really escapes me. why would mama sita make a mix that can be all afritada or menudo or kaldereta? are they not supposed to be different dishes that all taste differently? how come nobody told me this culinary business can be so confusing?
everyone back home is asking me how i'm doing. i'm doing great. i have always been the type to be dubious when things are great and i'm happy but i feel a certain sense of fulfillment when i see gary first thing in the morning and last thing in the night, or when he suddenly shows up at the door when he should be at work, or when i send him off in the morning knowing that this time, i don't have to wait months for him to come back.
so yes, i'm doing great. i have to go ask him to take me out to dinner when he gets here though. the whole mama sita red sauce multi-mix thing just isn't working for me. :P
i slept on the plane on my way here, and while i took many plane rides before, i was astonished by the sight of giant nimbus clouds beside the plane--something i've never seen before--when i woke up. they were like ice bergs...or giant cotton candy. as the plane descended, everything on the ground was brown--desert brown. google already warned me of this, but i was far more excited to see my husband than to care about the wilting earth below me.
i always hated airports. being in a long distance relationship for two years, airports equaled gary equaled goodbyes equaled drama. but this time, everything seemed to be in reverse. it was him waiting for me as i came out of the arrival area, and instead of goodbye, we were saying hello to our life together as husband and wife.
while living in manila, i also always wondered how it would be like to have gary with me at the grocery store whenever i see couples before me at the supermarket. well, it was...funny. neither of us knew which vegetable went with which dish, and we had an empty apartment to fill with soaps and shampoos and cleaners and what have you, that we just knew we'd end up forgetting something.
and the apartment. gary can sometimes be modest when describing things. while he said he got us a two-bedroom apartment, he didn't say it was a spacious two-bedroom apartment. or maybe because we have no furniture whatsoever to fill up the space. the living room is big; i could practically roll over it all day. the bedrooms have walk-in closets and the restroom is roomy as well. but my favorite part would still be the kitchen. the place is obviously for a family of five, and to have this much space for the two of us, what's a newly-wed couple to do?
buy a guitar and a keyboard, of course! :P i have always questioned my and gary's ability to prioritize, but with me alone in the house during the day, my thoughtful hubby decided to buy me the things that keep me occupied first. so now at the centre of the empty living room are two musical instruments. and no,we're not sorry about our purchases.
as for my housemaking skills...i have to be thankful for ending up with a VERY patient guy. i love to cook. i really do. and sometimes, i do cook good food. but understand that for the past seven years, i've been living on fastfood in manila, and i have the great cooking skills of our dear ate tess whenever i go home to my mom's house in bataan. so last night, i cooked adobo, which gary said tasted good, although i later found out that he prefers his adobo with some sauce, not fried. this morning, we woke up at 4am (he has physical training at 6am)and despite the fact that we bought a lot of meat products, he preferred a light meal. i made a liver spread sandwich (a note to Reno exporters: you don't make your export product the same way you do in the philippines!not fair!) which was bland, and coffee...i've never made coffee in my life, as far as i know. tonight i cooked afritada, or menudo, or kaldereta. now this really escapes me. why would mama sita make a mix that can be all afritada or menudo or kaldereta? are they not supposed to be different dishes that all taste differently? how come nobody told me this culinary business can be so confusing?
everyone back home is asking me how i'm doing. i'm doing great. i have always been the type to be dubious when things are great and i'm happy but i feel a certain sense of fulfillment when i see gary first thing in the morning and last thing in the night, or when he suddenly shows up at the door when he should be at work, or when i send him off in the morning knowing that this time, i don't have to wait months for him to come back.
so yes, i'm doing great. i have to go ask him to take me out to dinner when he gets here though. the whole mama sita red sauce multi-mix thing just isn't working for me. :P
12.29.2008
12.09.2008
cleaning out my closet
i'm moving out of my apartment of three years. how i'll manage to do that, i still don't know, but to convince myself that i was making a little progress, i started sorting my stuff last night.
needless to say, i was overwhelmed by the junk i accumulated as a struggling young urban professional. i found my old curriculum vitae that says i was a journalism graduate with no work experience. 1x1 photos of my much younger-looking self. bank statements and pay slips, which didn't seem to have much activity all throughout the years.
i found worn out plane tickets from traveling to the visayas and mindanao for sorties. maps and brochures from trips abroad. exorbitant cellphone bills. branding documents for my boss during the campaign. old love letters (yup yup yup :D )...and my dad's death certificate. i didn't even know it was with me--it was an original document. i guess my brother, who used to share the apartment with me, left the certificate when he moved out of the house. the document carries my dad's cause of death, and at the bottom of the page, my eldest brother's scrawled signature. i can imagine how hard it must have been to put his name there.
when i finished, i had a huge shopping bag filled with mementos that i can't take with me anymore. i'm starting with a clean slate, as i should. :)
where have all the boxeadores gone?
and so it happened again. another great mexican fighter forced into retirement by pacman.
i was rooting for de la hoya, not only because of the four-inch height advantage but because of my longtime fascination with mexican fighters which started even before manny pacquiao hit the bigtime.
growing up with a dad who loved boxing and two brothers, some of my fondest childhood memories were earmarked by great boxing fights. and to me, boxing equals all these tough mexican sluggers. so forgive my lack of team spirit.
as for de la hoya, i can only remember thinking one thing when i first saw him fight: what's someone this good-looking doing inside the boxing ring? from his loss against felix trinidad to his dramatic unification bout with rival fernando vargas, the golden boy really brought the game of boxing closer to so many people.
but as de la hoya himself admitted, he no longer has it. i take consolation in the fact that it's somebody carrying our flag who ended this legend's career.
10.17.2008
inanity
after staying at my place for three days, my doctor friend gay and i travelled back to bataan for the weekend. as the bus stopped in front of an elementary school in our hometown, we saw practically every kid running back and forth--to go home, to play, to get into a building.
me: bakit kaya napakanormal sa lahat ng bata na tumakbo?
doc gay: oo nga no. ang matanda, kahit nagmamadali, unless sobrang importante, di pa rin tumatakbo...parang nakakahiya.
me: imagine kung pati matatanda tumatakbo...
we looked at each other and pondered some more.
10.12.2008
behind the scenes
I was suddenly asked to sit in a meeting last week...and I don't know if I should be divulging these details but along with the two members of our legislative unit, I found myself in the same room as former Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban and the Nation's Fiscalizer, former senator Jovito Salonga. It was a party of nine, and I was so starstruck just to be in that exclusive gathering, breathing the same air as two of the country's most outstanding public servants.
Anyway, here's the column of CJ Panganiban, which appeared in the Inquirer. This is basically what the meeting was about.
With Due Respect
Responsibility for selecting justices
By Artemio V. Panganiban
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:33:00 10/12/2008
I AM glad that the members of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) are preparing to face the challenge of nominating only the best and the brightest to the seven Supreme Court vacancies to be created by the retirement of an equal number of justices in 2009. Never in the normal history of the Court has almost one-half of its membership changed within just one year. (I say “normal” to exclude extraordinary events like the judicial cleansing undertaken by the Aquino revolutionary government in 1986.)
Scrutinizing the JBC. The Constitution provides that members of the Supreme Court (and the entire judiciary) shall be appointed by the president from a list of at least three individuals nominated by the JBC for every vacancy. The president’s power to appoint justices is severely limited; the field of choice is restricted only to those nominated by the council. Having been pre-screened by the JBC, judicial appointments are no longer passed upon by the Commission on Appointments.
Clearly then, the primary responsibility for choosing worthy justices falls squarely on the JBC. If the council nominates only the most qualified as it should, and expunges politics and favoritism from its selection, then every appointment made by the president would be unquestionable. However, even if just one undeserving candidate is smuggled into the list, the whole selection process tumbles because the president could then appoint that unworthy one. For this reason, the JBC’s process of searching for, screening and selecting (I call them the “three ‘s’ functions”) nominees cannot afford a single mistake.
Yes, the task of the JBC is not easy. The Constitution specifies three quantifiable requirements for Supreme Court members: natural-born citizen, at least 40 years of age, and practice of law or judgeship in a lower court for at least 15 years. More significantly, the Charter requires all jurists to possess four non-quantifiable qualities: “proven competence, integrity, probity, and independence.” Of these, I believe the most important are independence and integrity. How to find these most elusive but most essential qualities is the JBC’s ultimate task.
The selection process for the first vacancy that will occur when Justice Ruben T. Reyes retires on Jan. 2, 2009 has already begun. The JBC set tomorrow, Oct. 13, as the deadline for the filing of applications. This early deadline is not generally known. I think it should be extended.
Monitoring the JBC. Relevantly, the initiative of Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, the Senate’s representative in the JBC, to convene the “Bantay Korte Suprema” is laudable. He is inviting the legal community, academe, civil society and business groups to organize themselves and participate actively in the selection process and to make sure that the public understands it.
The Pangilinan initiative dovetails with an existing method of checking the background of candidates. Authored by Dean Amado L. Dimayuga, JBC member representing the academe, the system was derived from the Judicial Nominees Evaluation Commission, the JBC’s equivalent in the state of California.
Under this method, the applicant is required to fill up a personal data questionnaire that asks for a list of courts in which he or she has appeared as counsel during the last two years as well as the names of the prosecutors, private attorneys, court personnel and other references in the legal community. If the applicant is an incumbent judge, he or she must list colleagues in the judiciary. Then, survey forms are sent to randomly picked references. From the responses (at least 20 must be received), the JBC makes an evaluation of the candidate. This system has been piloted and has produced some good results.
Judging the JBC. Also praiseworthy is the proposal of J. Conrado P. Castro, JBC member representing the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, that the votes cast by JBC members be recorded and made public. At present, the voting for Supreme Court nominees is done by secret ballot. Hence, there is no way of knowing who voted for whom.
However, the Castro proposal will make the process more transparent and the JBC members more accountable for their actions. When magistrates misbehave and are sanctioned, the natural question is: who were responsible for the appointment of the errant jurist? At present, there is no way to divine who among the eight JBC members voted for the penalized magistrate. The Castro plan will pinpoint responsibility for bad choices.
The votes of individual justices in all Supreme Court decisions, including the most controversial, are made known. Thus, I see no reason why the votes of JBC members should be hidden from similar scrutiny. Transparency translates to accountability that in turn breeds public confidence in our institutions and officials.
Obviously, the JBC is expected to nominate only the best and the brightest from among the most eminent, not from those who barely qualify. To select the finest for the seven vacancies is a monumental task. The JBC members will be praised or condemned by the quality of all their choices. Will they pass the test?
Aside from Pangilinan, Dimayuga and Castro, the other JBC members are Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno (chair), Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, Rep. Matias Defensor Jr., retired Supreme Court Justice Regino Hermosisima Jr., and retired Court of Appeals Justice Aurora S. Lagman.
Anyway, here's the column of CJ Panganiban, which appeared in the Inquirer. This is basically what the meeting was about.
With Due Respect
Responsibility for selecting justices
By Artemio V. Panganiban
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:33:00 10/12/2008
I AM glad that the members of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) are preparing to face the challenge of nominating only the best and the brightest to the seven Supreme Court vacancies to be created by the retirement of an equal number of justices in 2009. Never in the normal history of the Court has almost one-half of its membership changed within just one year. (I say “normal” to exclude extraordinary events like the judicial cleansing undertaken by the Aquino revolutionary government in 1986.)
Scrutinizing the JBC. The Constitution provides that members of the Supreme Court (and the entire judiciary) shall be appointed by the president from a list of at least three individuals nominated by the JBC for every vacancy. The president’s power to appoint justices is severely limited; the field of choice is restricted only to those nominated by the council. Having been pre-screened by the JBC, judicial appointments are no longer passed upon by the Commission on Appointments.
Clearly then, the primary responsibility for choosing worthy justices falls squarely on the JBC. If the council nominates only the most qualified as it should, and expunges politics and favoritism from its selection, then every appointment made by the president would be unquestionable. However, even if just one undeserving candidate is smuggled into the list, the whole selection process tumbles because the president could then appoint that unworthy one. For this reason, the JBC’s process of searching for, screening and selecting (I call them the “three ‘s’ functions”) nominees cannot afford a single mistake.
Yes, the task of the JBC is not easy. The Constitution specifies three quantifiable requirements for Supreme Court members: natural-born citizen, at least 40 years of age, and practice of law or judgeship in a lower court for at least 15 years. More significantly, the Charter requires all jurists to possess four non-quantifiable qualities: “proven competence, integrity, probity, and independence.” Of these, I believe the most important are independence and integrity. How to find these most elusive but most essential qualities is the JBC’s ultimate task.
The selection process for the first vacancy that will occur when Justice Ruben T. Reyes retires on Jan. 2, 2009 has already begun. The JBC set tomorrow, Oct. 13, as the deadline for the filing of applications. This early deadline is not generally known. I think it should be extended.
Monitoring the JBC. Relevantly, the initiative of Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, the Senate’s representative in the JBC, to convene the “Bantay Korte Suprema” is laudable. He is inviting the legal community, academe, civil society and business groups to organize themselves and participate actively in the selection process and to make sure that the public understands it.
The Pangilinan initiative dovetails with an existing method of checking the background of candidates. Authored by Dean Amado L. Dimayuga, JBC member representing the academe, the system was derived from the Judicial Nominees Evaluation Commission, the JBC’s equivalent in the state of California.
Under this method, the applicant is required to fill up a personal data questionnaire that asks for a list of courts in which he or she has appeared as counsel during the last two years as well as the names of the prosecutors, private attorneys, court personnel and other references in the legal community. If the applicant is an incumbent judge, he or she must list colleagues in the judiciary. Then, survey forms are sent to randomly picked references. From the responses (at least 20 must be received), the JBC makes an evaluation of the candidate. This system has been piloted and has produced some good results.
Judging the JBC. Also praiseworthy is the proposal of J. Conrado P. Castro, JBC member representing the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, that the votes cast by JBC members be recorded and made public. At present, the voting for Supreme Court nominees is done by secret ballot. Hence, there is no way of knowing who voted for whom.
However, the Castro proposal will make the process more transparent and the JBC members more accountable for their actions. When magistrates misbehave and are sanctioned, the natural question is: who were responsible for the appointment of the errant jurist? At present, there is no way to divine who among the eight JBC members voted for the penalized magistrate. The Castro plan will pinpoint responsibility for bad choices.
The votes of individual justices in all Supreme Court decisions, including the most controversial, are made known. Thus, I see no reason why the votes of JBC members should be hidden from similar scrutiny. Transparency translates to accountability that in turn breeds public confidence in our institutions and officials.
Obviously, the JBC is expected to nominate only the best and the brightest from among the most eminent, not from those who barely qualify. To select the finest for the seven vacancies is a monumental task. The JBC members will be praised or condemned by the quality of all their choices. Will they pass the test?
Aside from Pangilinan, Dimayuga and Castro, the other JBC members are Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno (chair), Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, Rep. Matias Defensor Jr., retired Supreme Court Justice Regino Hermosisima Jr., and retired Court of Appeals Justice Aurora S. Lagman.
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