Zero deaths from typhoons in the Philippines

As the Philippines prepares for another typhoon, can we really say we've done everything we can to prevent another catastrophe? 
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It is the way of life in the Philippines - news of typhoons and flooding hardly bother Filipinos any more what with 8 or 9 tropical cyclones making landfall annually on average. But it seems to me we are like the boiling frog.  Every year another typhoon, another massive flooding, another few thousand men, women and children will die, and a few billion dollars worth of damage our economy will suffer through. It has become our new normal, only we think it has always been our normal...

Philippine Elections 2010 Results (update)

Dear visitors, I have stopped updating the numbers on this blog post. For real time results of the 2010 Philippine Presidential Elections, please head on over to the COMELEC website or the PPCRV Website.

Thank you.

How will you choose your next President?

I am reposting this blog post in preparation for the coming Elections. I am hoping you all have internalized how you will choose your next President.

How to choose the next President...

Different people would have different basis for choosing a President.  Some base it on a candidate's opinions on issues relevant to them, some base it on character, personality or even religion. Some base it on popularity, plain name recall or even looks. Some are in denial about that last one. :p Haha. Then again, c'mon really - who wants an ugly President?

Kidding aside, since I am voting for the very first time in the last decade that I have been qualified to vote, I really want to put a lot of thought in this process of choosing who to vote for. I refuse to vote for a Presidential candidate with nothing but empty promises and motherhood statements. I want at least a hint of a detailed plan - a strategy if you may - of handling this huge undertaking. 

Being President is a tough job no doubt: you have millions of stakeholders who need assistance and support, you are accountable for their lives, their security, their access to health benefits, you are accountable for the economy, and you need to find the money to fund all of your plans. Aside from that you also need to be a shining symbol of hope and prosperity for a country constantly battling poverty.

In an ideal world, the following are my criteria in choosing who should be my next President...

Google Trends on 2010 Philippine Presidentiables - interesting!

Interesting how Google Trends the May 2010 Philippine Presidential candidates in the past 12 months (March 2009 to March 2010). See the actual Google Trend here.

Please take this with a grain of salt. I have no intentions of campaigning for anyone here - I just found it interesting to share. See, Google trends would probably also translate to popularity among a certain demographic - Pinoy Google Users. :p

click the photo to see more clearly

Sen. Manny Villar

Sen. Manny Villar leads the pack by a wide margin - notice how his Google searches surged in January 2010?  It's when he revved up his campaign with "Akala Mo" and his viral theme song that begins... "Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura?" Any marketer's dream haha! In March, his searches dropped off very steeply but remained at the top of the heap.

Sen. Noynoy Aquino

As a relative comparison, giving Manny Villar 1.0, 2nd placer Sen. NoyNoy Aquino gets 0.74. Notice where NoyNoy's Google searches peak (marked by the letter A) - it was in September 2009, when NoyNoy announced his intentions to run for President. The smaller peak before that was in August when his mother, the late President Cory Aquino, died. He remained high in the searches but was not able to catch up to Villar's Google glory.

Postmortem Review for Typhoon Ondoy Flood Rescue and Relief Operations

It's been almost a week since I posted our traumatic Typhoon Ondoy experience, and was at a loss about how to move forward with my blog. Now I know how - this will be my last Typhoon Ondoy post.

When I began writing down my recounting of the events that transpired during Typhoon Ondoy's devastation, one of the Philippines' worst tropical storms, I had only one thing on my mind - I had to release this fear and frustration over everything that I experienced. I did not expect my posts about Typhoon Ondoy to be one of the most read articles on this blog. To everyone who visited, Thank you, and I do hope the compilation of Typhoon Ondoy stories here did help you also to begin your healing.

I have one more thing in mind though. After every big operation or project, an analysis or review is done at the end to assess where improvements can be made. We call this a postmortem review or an after action review (AAR).  I am sure the government will have one about Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng. Here are some of my contributions...

Vice Presidential candidate Mar Roxas' (Royal) Family Tree

He's a former President's grandson, but Vice Presidential candidate Mar Roxas is also an Araneta.

Mar Roxas was born Manuel A. Roxas II, a namesake of his grandfather, former President Manuel Roxas. We all know this obvious connection because of the name, but I think the majority of us do not know that Mar Roxas is an Araneta.

Who is Gilbert Teodoro, Jr. (and why is he running for President)?

Today (Sept 16), the unified Lakas-Kampi-CMD party of the Administration voted to put National Defense Sec. Gilbert "Gibo" Teodoro in the running for the highest position in Philippine government - choosing him over MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando and pitting him against cousin Sen. Noynoy Aquino.

If you are like me who is a bit disconnected from Philippine politics, you would go: "Who is Gilbert Teodoro, Jr.?" And for that matter, why is he running for President?

I had this notion that people who run for President are those famous enough so that you won't have to ask. Then again, I asked the exact same question about NoyNoy Aquino. I didn't know Ninoy had a son in the Senate! Wow! Circumstances have changed a lot in the past couple of months. From obscure to Presidentiable was the path NoyNoy took - at least for me. And it seems Gibo will be much of the same now that he has been thrust into the limelight...

I sang for President Cory Aquino, for the first and the last time

On Saturday, August 1, I woke up to an sms from my co-UP Concert Chorus Alum, Ging, that our dear former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino or Tita Cory, had passed away. Her message was quickly followed by another one, asking if I was willing to come over and sing for the 8pm mass set that evening in La Salle, Greenhills where the late President's body was brought for public viewing. It was going to be the first mass for the wake of Pres. Cory Aquino...

I knew there was going to be a lot of people, tight security because of all the VIPs coming, parking was going to be difficult, not to mention I haven't sung with the UP Concert Chorus in a long time...but there was no hesitation when I replied: Yes, I will go.

After some errands in Makati and a light KFC take-out dinner in the car, Liz and I made our way to La Salle, Greenhills. Along the way, we could already see the yellow ribbons on the vehicles around us, on the branches of trees along Ortigas Ave, even on lamp posts and road blocks, all leading us to where we needed to go.

When we got there, we found La Salle had been closed for entry so we parked across the street and walked to the gymnasium where the mass was going to be held. There was already a long line of people waiting under the rain, hoping to get one last look at the beloved former President.

Inside the gym, the lights were bright but the mood somber and respectful. There were chairs arranged in rows in front of a makeshift stage, and in between was the casket with the remains of Tita Cory. There were 2 cameras on extensions, several more cameramen going around, and there was a row of tables with laptops and other gadgets on them which I assumed were the press people.

I looked around and saw her family: I saw Kris Aquino was being interviewed, I saw Jiggy Aquino-Cruz, one of her grandsons who I happened to read about in a magazine just before going to the wake, Mikee and Chynna Conjuangco were there too.

Mayor Sonny Belmonte was there, VP Noli De Castro, Mayor Alfredo Lim, Sen. Loren Legarda, former President Fidel Ramos and a host of other political figures were present. Media personalities and celebrities were also in attendance: David Celdran, Charo Santos-Concio, Bianca Gonzalez, Tessa Prieto-Valdez. Singers Jose Mari Chan, Jaime Rivera and Gary Valenciano were also present, and later gave tributes and sang after the mass ended.

Being inside the "VIP" area, we did not have to line up from outside to view the remains of the late President. So we took a short queue from inside the barricaded area, Liz and I went together, to see her in person for the first, and for the last time.

Cory looked peaceful, her face bright, her hands clasped and holding a golden rosary. I uttered a short prayer for her, and before we left, I gave her a small bow to show my respect. I would have preferred to have sung for her in a different setting, but I guess it must be this way. Even though I was singing with 20+ other people in the choir, it felt like it was my personal tribute to her. It was an honor to sing for her. I will always remember her as a shining symbol of hope and democracy for the Filipino people and for the world.

Thank you for the inspiration, Cory Aquino.




Here's the only Youtube video I found of the mass with us singing in the background: Click here.


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The politics of Political ads

I've read a lot of posts ranting about the Political ads running on TV like the one above of Manny Villar, and the one on this blog, of Mar Roxas. Bloggers like Adaphobic are lashing out at the audacity of using money for TV ads instead of for helping the poor...

Here's my 2 cents...

It's like Affiliate Marketing

Sure you, and me, and a lot of the bloggers are, as you say, "cringing every time we watch these ads", but let's keep in mind, even though we are part of the voting population, these ads are not meant for us - it is meant more so for the majority of the voting population, i.e. the people with nary a dime but have talking boxes in their 2x2 meter living rooms (which also double as a bedroom at night).

They are the people who will go, "ay, talagang para sa mahirap itong si Manny Villar!" every time they watch these ads.

And THEY have the power to put a President in office.

Now, my intention is not to demean poor people (or even those who claim to represent them), I am no way saying they are ignorant or incapable. My point is, simply, that these politicians are marketing themselves - and their target audience is the voting majority.  They are using the most powerful tools at their disposal to "sell their product", and from a marketing perspective, they are doing quite well.



We could probably guess Manny Villar is NOT the type who goes around (in full make-up) helping people on the streets, or riding pedicabs (ibang candidate yata yun?). But you would probably say, I know he is a good leader, a good man - and so let's do whatever is necessary to help get him to the Palace.

And this is it, my friend. This is it.
Imagine if your were Manny Villar or Mar Roxas' Public Relations agent or Campaign Manager - how far would you go to promote him to the public at large?

And one final disclaimer, I am NOT for Manny Villar nor Mar Roxas nor any other candidate for the moment. I'll reserve my judgment for later.


But what do YOU think?



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How far will you go to put your candidate in office?

The American Elections

I've been trying to follow the US Elections and may I say, it has really been very interesting, thought provoking, and (at the risk of sounding too geeky) really exciting. Haha.

Here's two very different candidates for the US Presidential seat: one old and experienced Caucasian guy called John (you can't get a more common white American name than that!), and the other an African American, black newbie Senator whose name, formerly unknown in the greater US and the rest of the world, but is now one of the most recognizable names in US Presidentiables history: Barack.

So it's John McCain vs Barack Obama. (Osama! ...no relation, just wanted to show how alike their names are, hehe!) I would personally vote for Barack, and apparently, so does majority of Americans (or at least the places where they do their polls). Obama has been leading in almost all the polls, be it online or otherwise. Although someone may argue that McCain's supporters are not exactly the crowd (or the generation?) that goes online and votes on polls. Obviously the younger Americans loves the younger candidate, but it's also Obama's "youth" and inexperience that they take against him.

And then there's the matter of the Vice President. If Obama is a Rockstar, then so Palin. Haha! If they win, she will probably NOT make a good VP in terms of skills and knowhow, but she will definitely capture the attention of the public.

Biden who?

I don't presume to know more than the average American Joe (or John) when I make this shamelessly unqualified prediction, that Barack will win. Despite the immense popularity of Palin, it's just not Palin vs Obama, it's the old guy vs Obama. And with a unique name like that, why wouldn't you vote for him?

Haha!