The weekend drama was not exclusive to Metro Manila. As the nation was gripped by news of an impending coup, rallies, the controversial “state of emergency” and Marines standoff amidst the 20th Anniversary Celebration of EDSA People Power, Baguio City’s Flower Festival 2006 which is also known as Panagbenga was rocked by controversy and division.

Baguio City, touted as the Summer Capital of the Philippines, apparently had two versions of the Pangbenga. The two organizers: The Baguio Flower Festival Association (BFFA), led by businesswoman Nelia Cid, which handled last year's flower fest and supported by Mayor Braulio Yaranon and Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, Inc. (BFFFI) backed by the city councilors and Baguio Rep. Mauricio Domogan. The BFFFI is headed by lawyer Damaso Bangaoet Jr., the acknowledged founder of Panagbenga, who was reportedly eased out of the 2005 flower festival.

The result of the impasse- a compromise agreement between the Baguio Flower Festival Association (BFFA) and the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation (BFFF) for a “one-parade-for-one-day rule”, with the former having its street dancing cavalcade, band exhibition and floral float parade at 8AM on Saturday, February 25, and the latter’s parade on Sunday, February 26.

I got hold of the issue only today when I asked a friend how the Panagbenga was (as I wasn’t able to go this year). He replied, “Pangit boss, makapoy natan. Apaldwa’y too” (It wasn’t good, this year’s celebration was not that nice. The people were divided).

Politics. What’s new?

Now its official. BlogMedia, Inc., a US based corporation, has announced that it acquired The Blog Herald from Duncan Riley.

A month ago, Off-the-Air interviewed Mr. Riley regarding the sale but at that time the buyer/s wanted to be anonymous.

You could read the transcribed interview here. Or listen to the audio (part 1 and part 2).  The interview was set-up by Techie using Bitstop's VOIP facilities and recorded at eradioportal's audio and video streaming site.
You could also visit The BlogHerald for the official announcement. Problogging also posted something about the sale. And of course, so did Duncan Riley.

Lisa: Dad, don't you think you're overreacting?
Homer: Don't you think you're *under*reacting?
Lisa: This conversation is over.
Homer: This conversation is *under*.
Lisa: Goodbye.
Homer: *bad*bye

-From The Simpsons.

What constitutes an overreaction?

Nipping a coup in the bud is not. Declaring a state of emergency is.

Asking GMA to resign is not. Deliberately sabotaging the economy is.

Celebrating EDSA by “the original EDSA personalities” is not. Destroying its spirit by the same people is.

Joining a disguised “EDSA Celebration” ala marching of Orcs in LOTR (as described by another blogger) is not. Leading it is someone who is haunted by the Mendiola Massacre and Hacienda Luisita killings is.

An eye operation timed during the EDSA anniversary is not. Thinking (that guy, think?) you are still president is.

Voicing out through protest albeit ill-timed is not. Throwing stones and injuring others is.

The police doing their job is not. Violent and bloody dispersal is.

Arresting plotters and saboteurs is not. Warrantless arrests of people, even the harshest of critics, is.

Opposition and Opportunists or Administration and Adhesive in one sentence is not. Military and adventurism is. It is also scary and should be denounced.

Reporting as it is no matter what is not. False reportage, misinformation, rumor mongering and exaggeration is.

Complaining of a critical media is not. Suppressing freedom of speech is.

What a preposterous weekend.

*Bad*bye!

As Bart Simpson puts it: Aye Carumba Philippines!

This jolted me back to life (This is my site's rating):

The Silktide.com Sitescore is a free tool which rates how well designed, popular and accessible your website is.

The entire testing process is handled by advanced computer software, which means a test is free and only takes a few seconds. It makes use of the following categories:

Marketing
How well marketed, and popular the website is. Is the website well linked to? Does it feature highly in key search engines, for relevant terms?

Design
How well designed and built the website is. We test for various industry standard practices, and whether they were used correctly on the website (for example: use of frames, style sheets, redirections etc)

Accessibility
How accessible the website is, particularly to those with disabilities. Recent UK and US government legislation makes this a legal requirement in many countries, which we test against.

Experience
How satisfying the website is likely to be. We test various things, such as the speed of your website, the amount of variation between webpages, the number of clicks required to navigate between one page and another.

User
Average user feedback, gathered from people rating the websites in our list. Users are asked to rate how a website looks, on a scale of 1-10. This is the only non-automatic test, and as a result it can take some time for a website to gather enough votes to score here.

Total score
Each one of the above test results are combined for a final score with the following relative weight:

• Marketing: 2
• Design: 1
• Accessibility: 1
• Experience: 1
• User: 1 (if enough results are present, otherwise 0)

Some tests have additional specific modifiers on the final score, for example the use of profanity reduces the overall score substantially.

That's in just a month of posting. Ayos!

I was about to sleep to save myself from what I call a “state of emergency” and protest rallies brouhaha burnout, when I scanned the TV one last time. I ended up watching Arnold Clavio’s Emergency on GMA 7. The program had a segment about Mangosteen juice and Tibetan mushroom. I took particular interest in mangosteen juice because the mangosteen is my wife’s favorite fruit.

Mangosteen Juice is touted as an anti-cancer juice due to its being rich with xanthones. Xanthones are said to remove free radicals that cause sickness and cancer. The mangosteen is more known for being a treatment for diarrhea.
Mangosteen, which is scientifically known as Garcinia mangostana, tastes like an underripe strawberry, with hints of sweet orange. Although difficult to describe, the taste is an instant sensation (as opposed to acquired) for most people and commonly rated as the best of any fruit amongst those who have tried it. It is also known as “Asia’s Queen of Fruits”.

In Arnold Clavio’s show, one man even claimed that the drinking of mangosteen juice remarkably reduced the size of his prostate cancer. Meneses family who have been drinking the juice for quite sometime, said that the juice has been good for their bodies. However, its not all rosy for mangosteen juice as another man complained of increased blood pressure and blurring of eye after drinking the juice.

Well, its up to you to judge the benefits of the juice. For now, I’ll just stick to eating the fruit. And sleep.

Author’s Note: The author is not in any way endorsing the Mangosteen juice or the Tibetan mushroom as a curative food/beverage. It is advised that you consult your doctor first before trying these products.

I’ve been blogging for just a little over a month. I even started on a Friday the 13th (of all days!) As of this post, only 3,254 people (big thanks to all of you) have visited my site. I only have a little less than $4 for this endeavor (not enough to pay for my Internet bills he he). But I am still, will always be, happy and upbeat about this entire blog thing.

1. It rekindled that long lost love for writing.
2. It created a new chain of connective knowledge for me.
3. It helped me wallow away this insomnia.
4. It boosted my self-esteem.
5. I got 5/10 Google PageRank™

What is PageRank™, you may ask?

PageRank™ is a system for ranking web pages developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. And while we have dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect of Google on a daily basis, PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of our web search tools.

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.

Google's complex, automated methods make human tampering with our results extremely difficult. And though we do run relevant ads above and next to our results, Google does not sell placement within the results themselves (i.e., no one can buy a higher PageRank). A Google search is an easy, honest and objective way to find high-quality websites with information relevant to your search.

5/10 only? At least it means this site is relevant and important. I do not aim to be the number one blog or be thousands richer because of it. Ask me after a year. Being relevant and important is enough.

By the way, my site has a good host. And I am thankful.

Happy? You bet I am!

GMA’s brunch: A quashed coup attempt and a declaration of state of emergency.

I just could imagine how many cups of coffee were consumed today. The president, the cabinet and the military have been up since dawn as an impending coup that sought to overthrow her was eventually averted.

Lt Gen Hermogenes Esperon, Philippine Army chief announced on TV that the coup plot was quelled even before it could do damage. The head of the army's elite Scout Rangers regiment, Brig Gen Danilo Lim (the alleged coup plotter), have been brought to the custody of the Army chief of staff Gen Generoso Senga.

In response, President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo just before lunch, declared a state of emergency. The declaration is contained in Proclamation 1017, which she signed after a meeting since dawn with her Cabinet, police and military officials in Malacañang.
She invoked Section 18, Article 7 of the Constitution that allowed the President to call on the armed forces to prevent or suppress rebellion.

Section 18. The President shall be the Commander-in-Chief of all armed forces of the Philippines and whenever it becomes necessary, he may call out such armed forces to prevent or suppress lawless violence, invasion or rebellion. In case of invasion or rebellion, when the public safety requires it, he may, for a period not exceeding sixty days, suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus or place the Philippines or any part thereof under martial law. Within forty-eight hours from the proclamation of martial law or the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, the President shall submit a report in person or in writing to the Congress. The Congress, voting jointly, by a vote of at least a majority of all its Members in regular or special session, may revoke such proclamation or suspension, which revocation shall not be set aside by the President. Upon the initiative of the President, the Congress may, in the same manner, extend such proclamation or suspension for a period to be determined by the Congress, if the invasion or rebellion shall persist and public safety requires it.

The Congress, if not in session, shall, within twenty-four hours following such proclamation or suspension, convene in accordance with its rules without need of a call.

The Supreme Court may review, in an appropriate proceeding filed by any citizen, the sufficiency of the factual basis of the proclamation of martial law or the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus or the extension thereof, and must promulgate its decision thereon within thirty days from its filing.

A state of martial law does not suspend the operation of the Constitution, nor supplant the functioning of the civil courts or legislative assemblies, nor authorize the conferment of jurisdiction on military courts and agencies over civilians where civil courts are able to function, nor automatically suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.

The suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall apply only to persons judicially charged for rebellion or offenses inherent in, or directly connected with, invasion.

During the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, any person thus arrested or detained shall be judicially charged within three days, otherwise he shall be released.

In the meantime, a protest rally (I hope it remains peaceful) along EDSA is being staged.

What a way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of People Power.

Hmm… I wonder what GMA will have for dinner today?

Sources:
Inq.7

BBC.co.uk

On February 25, 2006, the nation will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the EDSA “People Power” (I refuse to call it EDSA One or People Power One –see related post).
PCIJ has put together a multimedia presentation called, Edsa 20/20, consisting of articles (published in the PCIJ magazine, The i Report), a photo exhibit (which can be viewed in Glorietta 1 from February 15 to 26), and a series of podcasts containing our interviews with the Edsa 20 personalities.

Of all the PCIJ podcasts, the one that featured Eggie Apostol had the most impact to me. Eugenia “Eggie” Duran-Apostol founded the publications Mr and Ms, Philippine Daily Inquirer and Pinoy Times.

To quote her: “It’s not just the leadership that must change. The people, too, must change.”

This is perhaps the folly of the Filipino. We have undergone many leadership changes (dictator to lemon to two-faced to gambler-thief to liar)yet we failed to change the most essential- ourselves. Change must come from within. It is not the leader, it is not the system. The people make the leader, the people make the system. We, the Filipino people are in need of a moral revolutionary change!

I would like to join her in another "revolution" which she is pushing (to raise the quality of public school education). Its time for real change- the change that matters- from the roots. The best way I believe is through education. It may take time but the effect will be substantial in the future.

EDSA 20 years after? It is the Filipino’s “ningas cogon” at its best! Stop the mob mentality, stop patronage politics, stop victim mentality (according to Benigno in his PCIJ blog comment), stop bickering, stop self-pity (world class ang Pinoy, maung tayo!). Let us not be spectators but initiators. Act now. We did it in ’86. Why not sustain it?

Not another tragedy!

This was the first reaction I had at the very moment I learnt of the news. Last Friday, Guinsaugon, a village in the town of St. Bernard, Southern Leyte was said to be literally erased from the face of the earth (like the demolition of the “shabu flea market” in Pasig?).

Estimates of about 1,500 people were buried by an enormous landslide which is said to be caused by continuous rainfall.

This is another horrendous landslide-caused (read as wanton denudation of the forest due to logging activities) tragedy that has besieged Leyte for at least the 3rd time in the last two decades. Remember Ormoc in 1991, where at least 6,000 people were buried alive? Or flashback just three years ago, when the town of San Francisco, was also perished by a landslide killing 133 people? 

Read more

It is now 20 years since the Filipino through a "People Power revolution" got united towards the common goal of freeing himself from the bondage of dictatorship and socio-political oppression.

As part of my own commemoration, I have been participating in discussions particularly on the PCIJ blog by submitting some comments.

I wish to share my insights on EDSA: 20 Years After by reposting the comments that I've  submitted.

From Edsa 20/20: Jim Paredes:

blackboard said,

February 13, 2006 @ 11:43 am

There is no such thing as taking a vacation from being a Filipino. We can deny our identity but we can never give it up. A true Filipino never will- inspite of all the miseries. Its all we got- being Filipino. Have we tried everything to effect change? I guess not. What we have regressed to is constant bickering and one-upmanship. Let us try being united with a common goal for Philippines for a change. We have attempted that at EDSA 20 years ago, we just didn’t sustain it.

From Edsa 20/20: Carmen Deunida, a.k.a. Nanay Mameng:

blackboard said,

February 13, 2006 @ 11:33 am

To me, calling the EDSA revolution as EDSA 1 or EDSA revolution is a misnomer. It was never the place, it was the people that made it as it was. It was not the politicians or the military- it was the PEOPLE. Like a movie with sequels, the other EDSAs that followed never measured to the first. The first was out of a need to topple a dictatorship and rise from political and social oppression, the next EDSAs were just a result of political shrewedness, adventurism and opportunism with the people as unwitting participants. And we wonder why EDSA has lost its mystique and potency? We have tainted its spirit. We eventually gave up or are giving up to the “system”. EDSA was about people empowerment and we empowered the wrong people. It is not late to reap the lessons of People Power (sadly after 20 years)- we as a nation can make Philippines better- TOGETHER! Without ulterior motives, without selfish desires. Enough with too much politicism that have gnawed our moral and national fiber. Not because we WANT to make this country better, but because we NEED it.