V. Santos-Recto is Hilarious

Friday, April 13, 2007 | 9:05 AM

Don't you just hate Vilma Santos?

Yesterday on the national primetime news, Mayor Vilma Santos-Recto of Lipa, an actress and candidate for governorship in Batangas, tried to justify EVAT (Extended Value Added Tax – a consumption tax imposed on the sale or importation of goods and services), of which her husband, senatorial candidate Ralph Recto, is one of the authors.

She said that her husband was right in pursuing the implementation of Republic Act 9337 because EVAT was responsible for procuring 80-B pesos for the country's expenses.

She added that Sen. Recto did not just pocket the money, and that they wrote EVAT with the Filipinos’ welfare in mind.

Let us not forget that, according to the latest Political and Economic Risk Consultancy survey, based in Hong Kong, the Philippines is the most corrupt country in Asia. That’s why the Philippines has been getting the least amount of foreign direct investment, and the level of foreign capital flowing to our stock market is low.

Let us not forget that, although Santos-Recto claims that our government spent 80-B pesos for building more schools for the poverty-stricken districts of the Philippines, despite the Philippine Constitution mandating the government to allocate the highest proportion of its budget to education, the Philippines remains to have one of the lowest budget allocations to education among the ASEAN countries.

Let us not forget that in the latest ASEAN summit held in Cebu City, a sum of 27,776,000 pesos was spent for the 124 sets of lampposts alone.

Let us not forget that the 12% EVAT, or VAT for that matter, applied on almost all of the Pinoy's commodities has made so many of our countrymen hungry, thus, resorting to desperate and sometimes illegal ways to survive.

EVAT has killed so many Filipinos, and Mayor Vilma Santos-Recto, Sen. Ralph Recto, and the rest of those officials seating on their comfortable thrones do not see that.

Labels: Don't You Just Hate..., News, Politics, Society

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A Movie Called "Zoo"

Sunday, April 01, 2007 | 5:17 PM

This new Sundance Film Festival qualifier strangely calls itself "Zoo".

Far from strange though, I find the subject repulsive. Bestiality it is, and this film recreates the sensational true-to-life event wherein Kenneth Pinyan - referred to in the film only as Mr. Hands - dies of internal injuries after engaging in a sexual act with a horse. It turns out that "zoo" here points to "zoophile", a person who develops strong affinity to an animal, even reaching a carnal level.

I have to admit, despite its subject being taboo, this film caught my interest. This is also because they recreated the tragedy into a film, not merely a documentary.

Labels: Society

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Media’s Role on Rape, Incest and Pedophilia

Monday, March 26, 2007 | 1:26 PM

Gelo and Ton converse about the media – television/screen, print, etc. – and its power on three of the society’s chief problems: Rape, incest and pedophilia.

Ton: What do you suppose?
Gelo: I think we should eat. There’s this great new recipe at the KIPLog Food Blog that makes me (SLURP) salivate.
Ton: Come on, Gelo.
Gelo: Aha! You’re demanding to engage me into a conversation that we both know you already have things to say about.
Ton: Precisely.
Gelo: Seriously though, I view the media as nothing more than its root - medium - an intervening substance through which signals can travel as a means for communication.

Gelo says: ...I view the media as nothing more than its root - medium...

Ton: You’re saying that media has no influence whatsoever on rape, incest or pedophilia.
Gelo: I believe that it does have an influence, just that it can’t be blamed for why these three issues recur. Again, it’s just a medium, merely a carrier of something.
Ton: Ever see those children dancing ocho-ocho (a dance move here in the Philippines, literally meaning eight-eight, and is purportedly suggesting a sexual theme)?
Gelo: Yes. What are you saying?
Ton: Well, psychology tells us that there’s a subsequent behavior to a stimulus. An advertisement projects images, gives information, and conveys subliminal messages, which serve as stimuli to the human mind. Teenagers today have gone remote from how the teenagers were, say, 50 years ago. They no longer wear long skirts or puffed sleeves or conservative dresses. What do we see on TV and magazines, even in broadsheets? Spaghetti straps, tight-fitting jeans, short skirts.
Gelo: Hmmm.
Ton: Teens are motivated to follow what’s IN, and that motivation, media, causes the obsession, and obsession rarely doesn’t worsen.

Ton Says: ...and that motivation, media, causes the obsession, and obsession rarely doesn’t worsen.

Gelo: But you also have to consider – other than psychology – the laws of physics.
Ton: The what?



Gelo: For example, someone gets electrocuted upon touching water – your medium – that has strong electric current running through it. In this case, you can’t blame water for conducting electricity. When there’s a sexually suggestive theme shown on TV, you can’t hold TV responsible for it. To a certain extent, the blame is put on those on both ends of the tunnel. And for this reason, we have concepts such as censorship or classification.
Ton: Yes. But although a Parental Guidance message is flashed on screen, you would rarely see a parent actually doing something about it. Therefore the effect – children’s minds are filled with garbage. And this sexual trash stays with them until they grow old. Children are less mature individuals, thus less discriminating of external stimulus, as compared to adults, and become more vulnerable.
Gelo: Yes, you’re right. It’s difficult to assess the extent to which media must be blamed for rape, incest and pedophilia, though. I guess you can say it’s just a matter of perspective now.



Ton: Too many external factors interplay but there is no denying that mass media has its own share of culpability. So… how do we end this?
Gelo: It just does. Ahhh. Food for the mind. I’m okay now. (BURP)

Labels: Conversations, Society

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Before Voting This Coming May 2007

Thursday, March 22, 2007 | 9:23 AM

Last February Sixteen, thousands of Filipinos received an email entitled What will make me leave the Philippines... An Open Letter to Every Filipino. I myself got one, and it talks about the reasons that would make Harvey Keh, a youth leader who was cited as one of the 20 Young Leaders of Asia on the 50th anniversary of the Asia Society, leave our country.

This entry is for those who are not yet aware of such an article, and could possibly benefit from reading it.

The email involves such names as people’s champ Manny Pacquiao, senatorial candidates Tessie Aquino-Oreta and Gringo Honasan, and even Commission on Elections (COMELEC) ex-Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. It offers great advice for us registered voters on who to write on our ballots.

The contents of the email are also available on the WWW. Trust me, you HAVE to see it.

The specific article is posted HERE. There's also a related article, Youth leader to leave RP if 7 things happen, on the Inquirer.net.

Moreover, the articles on that blog site are also worth a read, so please spare a few minutes.

Labels: Politics, Society

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Just an Ordinary 8th of March

Friday, March 09, 2007 | 12:00 AM

When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development. That's the International Women's Day. That's what this day is supposed to be, here in the Philippines.

There have been 5,000 Filipina mail order brides entering the United States every year since 1986, a total of 105,000 as of 2007. There are 20,000 Filipina mail order brides in Australia as of 1997.

150,000 Filipina women have been trafficked into prostitution in Japan, according to the Daily Star, July 2, 1998. 150 Filipinas were sold into prostitution to night club operators in African countries, particularly Nigeria. The women were bought for $5,000 each by international syndicates. Four Filipinas were rescued by the Philippine Embassy in Lagos, Nigeria after they sought help from officials. (Manila Chronicle, May 31 1995)

In 1991, Filipinas were often sold to Japan, often to the Yakuza, at $2,400 to $18,000 each.

In 1996, 492 of 3,776 reported cases of child abuse involved pornography, prostitution, paedophilia and trafficking. There were 8,335 cases of child abuse from 1991-1996, 96% of the victims were females. (Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 26 1997)

There are 400,000 women in prostitution in 1998, excluding unregistered, seasonal prostitutes, overseas entertainers and victims of external trafficking. One fourth of them are children and each year 3,266 more children are forced into the sex industry. (GABRIELA, an NGO that seeks to transform women into an organized political force.)

Something is terribly wrong with our country. It's already 2007, and imagine how much that number has grown.

Let me give you an idea of how small 400,000 is.

• António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has described the situation in Sudan and Chad as “the largest and most complex humanitarian problem on the globe.” At least 400,000 people have been killed; the Sudanese government’s regular armed forces and the Janjaweed – largely composed of fighters of Arab nomadic background – have targeted civilian populations and ethnic groups just to remove support from the rebels in their country.


• It took that same number of people to land Apollo 11 to the moon.


• Malta, the most densely populated country in the EU and one of the most densely populated countries in the world, has a population of 400,000 people in 2006.


• Although only 11,000 cases are confirmed, China has an estimated 400,000 people with HIV.

According to an article in April 1998, a Philippine Adventure Tour costs $1,645, including round trip airfare, hotel accommodations and guided tours to the bars where men purchase sex from prostitutes for as little as US $24. Tour owner and operator Allan Gaynor promises that customers "never sleep alone on this tour" and recommends that the customer have sex with a different girl every day, "two if you can handle it." Whether or not by choice, men on sex tours inevitably buy underage girls.

Sharon, a 13-year-old girl was kidnapped and sold as a virgin for US$30. In a brothel, she was raped by 8 to 15 men every night, even when she had her menstrual period or was running a fever, and by the time she escaped with a customer's help in February 1997, she had 'serviced' more than 1,500 men.

And what is the local government doing about it?

Tell me, do you still have enough reason to celebrate this day for?

Labels: Society

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