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LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 6 January 2008 Issue

What does a new year mean? Is it a time for change, for optimism? Or is it just a matter of tradition, of celebrations, much ado about nothing? 

Here is an interesting insight from the blog entry of James Soriano, the author’s son and a senior high school student who leads his batch student government in Ateneo: 

Is the New Year really a new lease on life?

Because if it isn’t, then it would be totally meaningless to celebrate it, right? New Year is a time for new beginnings! Let’s drive away the demons by making so much noise it will make their ears bleed (although I’m not sure that makes them ‘go away’). That’s what we tell ourselves – and it’s good, because it makes us happy.

Yet when you think about it, the New Year is just another day. Another day that is the start of the same old things, and the same old life, dealing with the same old problems. I sound so disillusioned, but I don’t mean to; I mean, really – what changes, tangibly? Mindset? Yeah, maybe that’s good, but then again I know very few people who live up to their resolutions to begin with. Soon enough, we’re all back into the same mold and the same mindsets.

It’s not easy, after all, to really really start over. Admittedly life’s more complicated now (which means I must be getting older), and it’s not as easy as it was, when you were a kid and you could just make dreams and decide to live them out – no. We live in a world that constrains us to realities – like love, family, and friends – and that means you have to make sacrifices. Which is a pretty pessimistic way of putting the good things in your life. Or what are supposed to be anyway.

So it’s funny, this whole ’starting over’ thing. But that would mean that the reason for celebrating is nothing but a big, romantic joke. In a sense, maybe it’s just really like Kat put it: “the world pressuring you to pretend that your life is worth fixing.”

Which is sad, if it were true. But if it were true, and my life weren’t really worth fixing because it didn’t mean anything to begin with- then I figure the best thing to do is to use it for the good of other people. Whatever the hell that means. But I know it doesn’t have to be something as all-encompassing as living your life as Gandhi or Mother Teresa. But hey, whatever suits your fancy.

Thankfully, I really don’t believe that. I do believe that life has meaning. And in the end, everything, even the sacrifices that I make, they make my life more meaningful. And while good things – like love, family, and friends- aren’t good things through and through, what matters is that you invest in them and believe in them, because anything can really be a ‘good thing’. I know I’m thankful for them, and no matter how sad you are right now, I am of the opinion that you should be, too.

They say that part of celebrating the New Year is starting it off with the right footing – and part of that is being grounded on life’s complications and realities. To me, the new year, taking it face value, seems to be nothing more than another year of prolonged life-fixing. And the truth is, I will never really know for certain whether it all means anything or not. And well, it’s sort of useless to think about it, isn’t it?

But I do believe that it means something, if nothing else but for my own happiness.

And even if it isn’t, then I would be happy if I could make even one person’s life less of an inconvenience.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 27 May 2007 Issue

The aftermath of the May 14, 2007 midterm election is not actually different from previous polls.
 
Name every provision in the country’s statute books on the conduct of a free, honest, and orderly election and chances are they were all violated. Unfortunately, this litany of poll irregularities is committed with impunity. 

The usual electoral scenario leaves an indelible question to poll observers whether there is still hope in Philippine democracy. Is there?

The interim results of the senatorial race shows that the voters are no longer excited about the celebrity status of the candidates. Tito Sotto, Richard Gomez and Victor Wood are losing miserably. The fact that Senator Ralph Recto is the husband of popular actress and now Batangas governor Vilma Santos did not seem to have much impact on his reelection bid.  Actress Sharon Cuneta on Senator Francis Pangilinan is an entirely different matter because people think that he stood for his principles when he ran independent.
 
The big publicity spenders in the senatorial race were also flatly rejected by the people while Oakwood mutineer Antonio Trillanes IV, who is languishing in jail and hardly had any media exposure, is still in contention. While there is no doubt that media can make or unmake a person’s good image, candidates should learn the lesson that there must be truth in advertising. And the Filipino people had just shown their capacity to discern the truth from falsehood or mere propaganda.

The so-called ‘command votes’ of incumbent political leaders, as well as the endorsements of religious groups who claim to have the strength of numbers by voting in block, also did not matter much in the outcome of the senatorial tally.  Somehow, this is indicative that given the opportunity the present generation of Filipinos tends to vote out of conscience, not out of sheer or blind obedience.

Apparently, candidates from the administration who are making it to the senatorial race are those who are known for their independence, like Senator Joker Arroyo, and performance, like Senator Edgardo Angara. Secretary Mike Defensor, a known loyalist of the president and who has been in the news all year round is in the losing circle.

It seems also that the people are starting to get tired of political dynasties. There is still a possibility that top-notch lawyer Aquilino Pimentel would not join his father and Representative Alan Peter Cayetano may not be with his sister in the Senate. If the people do not mind political dynasties they would have easily put both candidates in the sure winner lists.

On the party-list front, it is a source of wonder why the votes garnered by BANAT led by Raul Lambino, who led the so-called people’s initiative petition to amend the constitution last year, is nowhere the vicinity of the 6.3 million voters who he claimed signed the petition.  Even the BANTAY party-list of reitred General Jovito Palparan is still fighting for its life, maybe because of the alleged human rights violations associated with him while still in the military service.

On the local contests, it is true that there is no real big change in political leadership. This may be due to the failure of non-administration parties to put up candidates in many areas. Also, for the local constituency, it is always a case of who can best deliver the goods for them, a case of voting smart so to speak.

But given the option, like in the case of Pampanga, where Catholic priest Eddie Panlilio fought against the almost impenetrable political machinery incumbent Governor Mark Lapid and Board Member Lilia Pineda, the people would not hesitate to express their conscience on their votes.

Representative Darlene Antonino Custodio, who belongs to a political family in General Santos City, routed the most popular Filipino today, boxer Manny Pacquiao. And it was a choice between mere popularity without any real political agenda as against a political dynasty with a proven track record in public service.

All these point to the growing sensitivity of the Filipino people for political change.  Who knows, the world might be in for one big political surprise come 2010.

“Hope is not a plan” – Anderson H. Cooper (CNN anchor and Emmy Award-winning television personality as he was being interviewed by Oprah G. Winfrey on his reaction about hurricane Katrina which I watched in Manila, 26 March 2007. The quote was apparently taken from his recent book “Dispatches from the Edge”.)

As usual and obviously like many other people in this world, I will begin the year 2007 with a renewed hope that it would be a better year than 2006.

For a while I had this strange feeling of uncertainty as I was traversing apace the highway from Castillejos, Zambales all the way to Subic with my wife and my kids to rush my youngest son, Jimbo, to the hospital after having a bad head fall at 3 pm of December 31.  All we could hope was nothing serious would happen to him. I know that his situation was entirely in God’s hands. I even started to prepare myself to spend the midnight of New Year’s Day with him in the hospital.  Except for the occasional talk inside the car to keep Jimbo awake until we reach the hospital, I actually felt the unusual concern and anxiety from my wife Pam and his elder siblings, James and Bea.

Fortunately, the initial findings showed no cause for serious worries. But we were told to keep watch of Jimbo for the danger signs within the next 24 hours.  And this kept me more anxious because after going back to Castillejos, I know, as I was told by SBMA Dr. Asean R. Briones, that the nearest hospital where my son could have a CT-scan in case of an emergency is in Pampanga.  I could not wait for New Year’s day to come to pass without my son experiencing all those unwanted physical manifestations. The ticking of the clock for me was like waiting for a time bomb to break loose.

We had our media noche at 10 p.m. and sensing Jimbo’s improved condition went immediately to the Bay Walk Area of SBMA to watch the New Year’s countdown, the fireworks and the concert of the Flintstones.  As I gazed through the almost 30-minute display of fireworks, I could not help but thank God for the good graces I received in the year 2006.

The past year was not exactly what I expected it to be. There were several professional hitches, personal disappointments, and at least two close members of the family (my father and sister-in-law) went back to our Creator. But I must say that the year ended up as ‘good enough’.  Thanks to people like a client and dear friend, Eduardo R. (’Nonoy’) Lopingco, who put up some year-end surprises for me to catch up with some of my predicament.

Jimbo’s accident and full recovery at the close of the year was the exact representation of what my life had been in 2006. Now more than 24 hours had passed and I am almost certain that everything is alright with my son as he enters the first day of the year. In the same vein, I know that this coming year would definitely be a better year.

If there is one good thing about the New Year, it is the fact that it offers new hope to people who think that they live in a hopeless world.