Ramblings Intérieurs

Philippine Daily Inquirer

100. Philippine Daily Inquirer

Finally, I reached the 100th mark for my list of reasons to be happy and thankful that I am living in this lifetime. Since this is a record, it is only appropriate that the 100th reason would cross all boundaries. And what more could this be but our newspaper for more than 15 years (if I'm not mistaken).

This broadsheet has been a very big help not only to me but to my family as well. The information that this newspaper has giving us for the last 15 years or so has been very, very useful to us. It does not only give us the latest news (very, very credible I must say) but tips on practically every aspect of life - personal, financial, mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. It's an all-in-one paper.

I can give short examples about those as I grew along with PDI.

Personal: I grew up reading the advices of Robbie, Rissa, and Raya Mananquil (now all models and professionals) when they were still teens in the 2BU! section of Inquirer. The advices of Tita Dulce also made perfect sense as I heed her advices and gave her advices to my friends who turn to me for advices (shhh...that's a secret).

Financial: The Business Section of PDI has more that just business news. It has featured and is still writing stories about the inspiring and success stories of the best entrepreneur the country has produced. Of course, on those stories it is clear that the success stories of these CEO's, COO's and taipans were not walk in the park. They encountered a lot of challenges, difficulties, and pains but they continue and succeeded. How? Read the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Mental: The Opinion Section of the Inquirer is another gem. This is where I read the best writers that the country has produced. Conrado de Quiros, Michael Tan, the late Adrian Cristobal are just one of the few many writers that I read in PDI that got me hooked on reading the most widely-read broadsheet in the country.

Emotional: A lot of stories in PDI had made me emotional. The stories of the youth in "Young Blood" and their counterpart, the uhmmm, sixty-something in "High Blood." Not to mention the real stories that appears in it's front page. The not so-good-things about our country and how we and I are not able to do something about it. But what makes this truly special is that because the stories always end up with hope. Hope that we should not abandon despite everything.

Physical:
Of course the Sports Section of the Inquirer is a class of it's own. Almost always on time (sometimes PBA results yesterday would not be included in the next day's issue). But in general, I could rely on PDI regrading results of sports tournament I watch. NBA, US Open, Super Bowl, you name it they got it. They also have the best sportswriter in town, Al S. Mendoza and Recah Trinidad (who came back after a fling with retirement). The Tuesday Section of PDI about Lifestyle and Leisure also gave me tips on how to live a healthy and happy life with articles about the latest exercises and how to have a happy disposition in life through the articles of Cory Quririno.

Spiritual: This is the best part.

PDI has Fr. Jerry Orbos in it's Opinion Section every Sunday. Fr. Orbos column is my must-read column of Inquirer every Sunday with his jokes and anecdotes about life and his practical tips in life on how to live life as a Christian.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer also has what it calls "radical optimism" every Sunday. This means that every Sunday, it's front page only features good news. Yes, only good news. If you read a bad news or headline, you will see the good news inside it. I have another good news. It's not limited to Sundays anymore, as you can see in my previous blog entries.

Now, how's that for news?

Manindigan Para Sa Katotohanan, Katarungan, at Pagbabago

Evil triumphs when people do nothing.

For the very first time, I joined a rally. Yes, I went to Ayala Avenue in Makati last Friday to join the Interfaith Rally asking for the resignation of our "president" Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

I was still too young when EDSA People Power I happened and I don't have any recollection of it or what happened then. When EDSA Dos happened, I was just watching it on the TV at work. Even just by watching, I felt the emotions of the people and I felt the same way they do. They wanted to hear the truth and they wanted something be done about it. I wanted to be there but I couldn't because I was working.

When I heard the news that a rally was to be held in Ayala Avenue on February 29, I said to myself that I have to be there. I wanted to join these kind of rallies but the circumstances however would not allow me. This time, my schedule fell into place. I just resigned from work and I was to visit my friend Melissa in Makati Medical Center which is just a stone's throw away from the place.

When I arrived in Ayala, I was given some pamphlets which I really didn't read because I couldn't make what exactly the pamphlet was saying. I also wanted to go near the stage and experience first-hand what exactly happens in these kinds of rallies. So after some hustling and bustling I was able to go near the stage. Just in time when Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada appeared on stage and delivered his speech that he read. He specifically pointed out that he's asking for change in the government. It's not enough that GMA resigns or step down because if she did, after that, the people will be gone again and corruption would still remain. Very intelligent words from a "probinsyanong Intsik."

Unlike the EDSA Dos that I just watched on TV, somehow I flet the emotions from the people and from me is not there. Sure there were rock bands like The Wuds, The Jerks, etc. singing political songs (I loved their performances by the way). The speaker-guests were fiery with their speeches. The people were angry and they want to hear the truth like I do but I felt something was lacking. Maybe the people is tired of "People Power" already. Maybe I am too. Maybe we have already given up because we know GMA won't step down. I don't know why.

What I know, however, is that I would remain true to theme of the rally. Today, tomorrow, and the days to come. I will stand up for truth, for justice, and change (for the better). I have faith in God that the truth will come out, justice will be served, and change is near.

Jun Lozada

33. Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada Jr.

As a follow-up to Lester's honesty, I am adding another person to my list of 2008 reasons to be happy and thankful that I am living in this life time and that is none other than the courageous Jun Lozada.

I have already posted a blog about his testimony but I noticed that I didn't include him in my 2008 list so here he is.

I was watching Lozada testify at the Senate and tears flowed in my eyes (I have been crying too many times lately like Jun Lozada) after he was grilled and forced to confirm that his friend, former NEDA Director General Romulo Neri, said that the President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is "evil."

Lozada initially didn't want to answer the question not because he was afraid to tell the truth but because of his friendship with Neri. He didn't want to implicate Neri. But the senators wanted to know and after taking a break, Lozada finally said yes and continued to talk about "the meeting that never took place" together with Senators Ping Lacson and Jamby Madrigal.

Lozada went on and said the the context of the meeting was how his friend Neri presented to them how and why corruption exists in Philippine government. I wouldn't go with the specifics but as a summary it said that the government is in connivance with the military and the oligarchs. It also said that the only reason why the economy is afloat is because of the dollar remittances of the Filipino OFW's. The presentation also said that the middle class families don't want to meddle and would just go abroad to work but in the process leave a broken family. That's the summary and I agree with it although not 100 percent. But that's another story.

What I like about and the reason that Lozada is in my list is because of, time and again, is his honesty. A lot of people has been attacking him left and right, the government, the press, the private sector but they can't bring him down because of one thing-he tells and is telling the TRUTH. The Lozada detractors can throw everything to Lozada, including the kitchen sink, but they can't pull him down. I have always believed that you can't put a good man down. Much more an honest one.

I am again raising my hats off this time to Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada Jr.

You are an inspiration.

Jun Lozada's Testimony

The next day after writing a blog about courage, I found one person that exemplifies how one becomes courageous and it's in the person of ZTE-NBN star witness Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada Jr. 

I wasn't watching about it last week because I thought it would just be the same old thing-a little expose here and there, nothing concrete, and a lot of thruths being suppressed for the sake of of each other's interest. I was wrong. My mom, who has been watching it religiously, said that Jun Lozada was intelligent and very honest because he was quick to point out if the senators said something wrong about his testimony.

Since it was my rest day, I decided to watch the hearing yesterday and I was glued to the TV set. My mom was right, Jun was and is really honest-and very, very scared. My heart goes out to him and I can really feel the pain and ordeal that he had to undergo in the "abduction" and with the grilling of the senators (the administration senators, at least).

Conrado de Quiros, in his column in PDI yesterday, wrote that courage is not the absence of fear. It is the presence of fear, often a most crippling one, but a fear that is overcome by a heroic act of will, or by the recognition that one has no choice but to do what is right. And that is what Jun Lozada has done.

That is also what we all need to do when situation calls for it.

The Youth

No, this is not about the old rock band that popularized the song about the ghoulish gay (I just coined that term...haha!) This is about two young girls I read about in Philippine Daily Inquirer that I think would define the youth today.

28. Carla Gisela Ysabel Concepcion

This 21-year-old senior at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, won first prize of this year's BPI-DOST Science Awards over six other finalists. Why did she win? She found a unique and inexpensive way to track the movement of cancer cells in the human body. I won't explain the details about it because you might get lost along the way but I know this is a great discovery. I know something about medicine and stuff. I took up a 6-month caregiver course about a few years ago but unfortunately I wasn't able to apply the things I learned. I can tell that I learned a lot in those 6 months. Wait, I'm going away from the subject. To make it simple researchers have learned a great deal in recent years about how cancer cells develop and what causes them to grow out of control, little is known about metastasis, or the dispersal of late-stage cancer cells to previously unaffected parts of the body. And this is what Carla Gisela Ysabel Concepcion discovered with the help of classmates and research associates Mana Xyza Oro and Kristina delos Reyes. Why is it important? Metastasis is the cause of 90 percent of deaths from cancer.

29. Ladylove Torsiende

My favorite newspaper, Philippine Daily Inquirer, put up a contest of sort wherein readers are asked to write a certain wish and they would grant the wish depending on the wish and the circumstances of the wish and the wisher. It's like "Wish Ko Lang" but not quite. One young girl wished to meet a man that she admires so much. However she didn't want to meet Piolo Pascual, John Llloyd Cruz, or Richard Gutierrez. She wanted to meet-hold your breath-81-year-old business tycoon John L. Gokongwei.

The young lady's name is Ladylove Torsiende. Why did Ladylove wanted to meet John Gokongwei? She idolized him. Gokongwei's journey from humble beginnings in Cebu province to the top echelon of Philippine business has become her source of inspiration. Ladylove thought that Gokongwei came from a rich family but after reading a story in Sunday Inquirer Magazine, she learned that Gokongwei's is also one of the famous rags-to-riches story. And she wanted to be like him.

Ladylove Torsiende is a bright girl from Cotobato City who was forced to drop out of high school because of her family's financial difficulties. But despite the financial difficulties, she was determined to continue her schooling and she was able to finally get back to last year after three years and was able to enroll for a six-month computer vocational course at the Notre Dame University and is set to take the Department of Education's high school equivalency test this month.

Ladylove also dreams big like her idol. She wants to study in Ateneo de Manila University's John Gokongwei School of Management. When Gokongwei told Ladylove, "Ateneo is a tough school to get in..." Ladylove simply replied, "I dream big." This definitely had Gokongwei impressed that he promised to pay for Ladylove's tuition in Ateneo should she pass the entrance exam.

I hope the two girls above would inspire other youths of today just like they inspired me tonight to write about them in this blog.