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We’re invading facebook! It’s awesome that people are changing their profiles for the incoming MAFBEX this Wednesday. \m/

CSB SHRIM students, support your classmates during their competitions! Don’t forget to visit! June 15-19, 2011 at the World Trade Center.

Ticket price is only 50 pesos. See you there! :D

NOTE: Since abortion is an illegal act in the Philippines and other parts of the globe, the person’s identity, location and photograph will not be revealed in this interview. This provides security for the interviewee, the relatives and acquaintances.

10 QUESTIONS FOR AN ABORTIONIST

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion of a fetus or embryo from the uterus, resulting in or caused by its death.

Meet GARY (not his real name), an abortionist.

QUESTION 1: Bakit niyo po naisipang maging isang abortionist? (Why did you decide to become an abortionist?)

GARY: Gipit kami sa buhay. Wala ng iba pang mapapasukan na trabaho. Hindi ako nakapagtapos kahit high school. Hindi na rin ako nakapagaral. Para sa akin, kaya kong kumapit sa patalim para lang mapakain at masuportahan ang pamilya ko. (We are poor. I don’t have a job since I wasn’t able to finish school. I wasn’t able to study too. I am willing to risk anything just for me to be able to provide my family’s needs.)

QUESTION 2: Ano po ang edad ng mga taong lumalapit sa inyo para magpaabort?(What is the average age of people who seek for abortion?)

GARY: Mga 17 o kaya 18. Madalas mga dalagita. Madalas nilang rason, takot sila sa maaring mangyari kapag nalaman ng mga magulang nila. (Around 17 to 18. Their primary reason for abortion is that they’re afraid to let their parents know about their pregnancy.)

QUESTION 3: Medical practitioner lang po ba dapat ang gumagawa ng abortion? (Is the process of abortion only done by medical practitioners?)

GARY: Iyon ay kapag legal pero minsan ginagawa din ng mga duktor iyon kasi may mga kaso para diyan. Depende sa nagbubuntis. Minsan kasi life or death na lang kapag buntis kapag may problema sa pagbubuntis o kaya minsan naman para mailigtas ang nagbubuntis sa anumang sakit na maaring magdulot kapag nanganak siya. (That is the case if it is legal but sometimes doctors do it too. There are many cases for it and these cases depend on the medical situation of the pregnant woman. Sometimes, safe abortion is done in order to save the life of the woman. Moreover, abortion is also done in order to lessen the risk illnesses or diseases that may affect the pregnant woman after delivery.)

QUESTION 4: Mayroon pa po bang ibang uri ng abortion? (Are there any other types of abortion?)

GARY: Miscarriage. Induced abortion ang tawag doon. (Miscarriage. It is often called as induced abortion.)

QUESTION 5: Maari niyo po ba iexplain ang paraan ng abortion ng mga hindi medical practitioner? (Can you explain the process of abortion done by non-medical practitioners?)

GARY: Paggamit ng abortifacient drugs o ang pampalaglag. Minsan may ibang proseso gaya ng paginject. (The use of abortifacient drugs. There are also injectables being used.)

QUESTION 6: Para sa inyo, mali ba o tama ang abortion? (For you, abortion is good or bad?)

GARY: Kung ibabase ko sa paniniwala ko, mali ang abortion. Pumapatay ka kasi ng inosenteng tao. Dapat maging responsable ka sa mga aksyon mo para hindi ka magsisi sa huli. (If I will base my answer on what I believe at, abortion is bad because you kill innocent people. You should be responsible with your actions so that you won’t regret anything.)

QUESTION 7: Maari po bang mamatay ang isang tao kapag nagpaabort siya? (Can a person die if she seeks for abortion?)

GARY: Oo, lalo na kapag hindi tama ang proseso. (Of course especially if the process is unhygienic and unsafe.)

QUESTION 8: Kapag nabigyan po kayo ng magandang trabaho, titigil po ba kayo sa pagiging abortionist? (If you are given a better job, will you stop being an abortionist?)

GARY: Oo siguro. Ayoko pumatay, ayoko talaga pero napipilitan ako dahil sa hirap ng buhay. Minsan napagtatanto ko, bakit ko ba ito ginagawa? Pera lang ba ang kapalit ng buhay? Hindi mangyayari na magiging mas mahalaga ang pera kaysa sa buhay. (Yes. I don’t want to kill but I am forced to since I am poor. Sometimes, I realize why am I doing this? Is money the replacement for the lives I kill? Never it will happen that the value of money will overshadow the value of life.)

QUESTION 9: Para sa iyo, may kasalanan ba ang mga nagpapaabort? (For you, do the people who seek for abortion commit sin?)

GARY: Oo. Kahit gaano man kaganda ang intensyon nila, kung mali naman ang proseso, wala rin. (Yes. No matter how good your intention is, if the process is bad, the whole thing becomes a sin.)

QUESTION 10: Pabor po ba kayo sa RH Bill? (Are you in favor of RH Bill?)

GARY: Hindi. (No.)

the chef

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Galera Boy
Puerto Galera, Philippines 

INDEPENDENCE DAY

June 12, 1898

I’m Proud Pinoy!

Old Manila

Manila, Philippines, 1949

Romel. Xevera, Mabalacat, Pampanga, Philippines. May 2011.

Leaving would be the most heart wrenching part. 

The first time I came back I cried at liftoff and for a week. 

By Peter Jaynul V. Uckung | Philippine Daily Inquirer

(Editor’s Note: The author is a senior history researcher of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.)

The Philippines makes it a point to remember her Independence Day, as shown in the memorials and shrines dotting the landscape, telling tales of battles and extolling the sacrifices of the fighters for freedom.

Indeed, June 12, 1898, the day Philippine independence was proclaimed in Kawit, Cavite, is a hallowed date in our history.

Our Independence Day celebration officially begins on May 28, “Flag Day,” and culminates on June 12. But it was after June 12, 1898, that Filipinos embarked on a more brutal conflict—the war against the United States—in their quest for total independence.

The Philippines has long recognized the fact that the United States waged a war of aggression on Filipinos, and actually commemorates battles, won or lost, against US soldiers, even making heroes of Filipino soldiers hanged as bandits by Americans.

What’s more, the Philippines is now remembering the massacres of Filipino civilians by US soldiers.

In Minnesota

In America, such events are hushed up. There is no shrine or memorial marking the Filipino-American War, although there are memorials on the Spanish-American War.

On the base of these monuments is a bronze plaque with the words “Spanish-American War, 1898-1902, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippine Islands, USA.” There is also an illustration of a native woman with her chains broken, kneeling before the US soldier and sailor who, it appears, liberated her.

In reality, any Filipino woman seeing American soldiers at that time would have fled to the mountains, knowing how capable they were in killing civilians.

There is a large bronze plaque in the Minnesota capitol honoring the 13th Minnesota State Infantry. It details how the unit volunteered to campaign against “insurgent Filipinos under Chief Aguinaldo.”

Although recognizing the conflict in the Philippines, the plaque is full of misinformation. The 13th Minnesota State Infantry never volunteered for the “Philippine insurrection.” They did volunteer to fight the Spaniards, but not the “Niggers” in the Philippines, as one Minnesota soldier revealed.

And there was no Philippine insurrection. The term falsely depicts US sovereignty over the Philippines, against which Filipinos rebelled. It was clearly a war of conquest as the Philippines had declared her independence much earlier.

Calling Emilio Aguinaldo “chief” is another tell-tale blunder, an American attempt to relegate the general and his fighting Filipinos to a minor group or “tribe.”

This is ironic because before the Filipino-American War erupted, the Americans considered Aguinaldo the leader of the Filipinos. They even consulted him and enlisted his help during the Spanish-American War.

In duration, effort and loss of lives, the Filipino-American War far outweighed the Spanish-American War.

Parallels in Vietnam

There was a brief resurgence of memory about the Filipino-American War in the 1960s, when the Americans were deeply mired in the Vietnam War.

The parallels between the wars in the Philippines and in Vietnam are many.

The United States was initially friendly with the colonized people, and then turned on them, reestablishing colonialism. The Filipinos were allies against Spain, while the Vietnamese were allies against the Japanese. The Americans replaced Spain in the Philippines; in Vietnam they replaced the French.

In both conflicts, the US government lied to the American people and employed censorship in news reports.

As Filipino civilians supported the struggle for freedom, the Americans effected a program of reconcentration camps. They did it again in Vietnam, calling the scheme “strategic hamletting.”

The Americans were cruel during the war in the Philippines, “burning the town and killing everyone in sight, and taking no prisoners.” It was worse in Vietnam: Remember Agent Orange, napalm, the My Lai massacre. There must be memorials to ensure that nothing of the sort ever happens again.

Longer war

The Vietnam War is described by Americans as their longest war. But the Filipino-American War arguably lasted longer.

The Minnesota plaque summarized the Filipino-American War: “They served the cause of humanity. They battled to free the oppressed people of the Philippine Islands, who suffered under the despotic rule of Spain.”

This is a big lie. They did not come to help the oppressed; they came to conquer.

In 1998 a group of Filipinos presented accurate information about the Filipino-American War at the Minnesota capitol. Filipinos are truly sensitive of history, as all men and women should be.

On the Olympia

In Philadelphia is moored the USS Olympia, the flagship of George Dewey during the Battle of Manila on May 1, 1898, in which the US Navy destroyed the Spanish fleet at anchor.

Footprints in bronze on the ship’s deck show where Dewey stood when he said, “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley.”

But there is no trace of the place where Dewey stood when he promised Gen. Jose Alejandrino that the United States had no interest in becoming a colonial power.

Dewey hosted Aguinaldo aboard the Olympia and assured him of US recognition of Philippine independence.

Once again, there is neither trace nor mention of this historic meeting on the ship. But there are bayonets, clothing and spears displayed and labelled “Philippine Insurrection II.”

The National Historical Commission of the Philippines really has a lot of work to do to bring out the truth, in and out of the Philippines.

what a beautiful place.

wish i could escape into this world…

So I kinda have to wear my rosary while I’m in the Philippines. -__-

June 12, 2011
Happy Independence Day, Pilipinas! \m/

Boracay, Philippines

submitted by: http://sherdiu.tumblr.com/, thanks!

indiginous swag

Lighthouse \ Bolinao, Pangasinan \ Philippines 2011

Manila, Philippines, 1949