HOME for the HOLIDAYS

Jeric Israel with his father Anib-Israel and brother Junjun with cousin Paolo playing poker at the sala of the Julian home in Isabela.

The Filipino kid who appeared (in an article for his scholastic achievements) in the Asian Journal, a Filipino newspaper of wide circulation in the US Mainland, is home for the holidays with his parents and brother. Welcome home, kid--your grandparents, cousins and other relatives are proud of your academic achievements in the so-called land of "milk and honey." 

"Bongbong" Marcos for President (Updated)

The Museum of Traditional Arts, housed in the the former Tabacalera building in Laoag City, a prize-winning project of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr.,  and the Ilocos Norte Provincial Capitol (below)

EYES WIDE OPEN

  "BONGBONG' MARCOS FOR PRESIDENT? 

     Philippine Catholics and Iglesia ni Cristo installed Joseph Estrada, the womanizer, as president of this country and almost elected him again to power after he was convicted of plunder by the Sandiganbayan in September 2007. 

     Erap has two sons--detained Jinggoy who wants to become vice-president, and JV Ejercito, his bastard with Guia Gomez, current senator.

     If these sons fathered by Erap who stole from us the amount of P198.7-million by investing in stocks with Belle Corporation, using our GSIS and SSS pension funds have high political ambitions, can we deny Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. who wants to become president like his father?

     Incidentally, did Erap share the P3.23-billion and other kickbacks--remember, too, the P130-million tobacco excise tax of Ilocos Sur-- with his sons so they can engage in money politics and nurse ambitions? (Hey, this character is awashed with money while the dirt poor in Metro Manila eat only once a day, their children getting sick and dying of stale bread and other throwaway garbage food.) 

     What's the blogger's beef on the young Marcos? He talks to Ilokanos in Tagalog like his sister Imee, governor of the province, and his mother Imelda. When you are in Kailokuan, you have to respect the culture and language is part of culture. Never  mind. Never mind if his father was the dictator who also stole from the Filipino people. Never mind if his mother Imelda, a Visayan,  dislodged the Ilokano lawyer Mariano Nalupta, Jr. from power in the second congressional district of Ilocos Norte.

     At least, Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, was not convicted by any court of law, had a vision for his country and built MRT and other infrastructures, roads and bridges, from Aparri to Jolo.  One can not say that of perceived robber baroness Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Fidel Ramos, Estrada, even Cory Aquino and his son , who were not supposed to make it hard for the Filipino people after the fall of the Ilokano president. 

     The dictator's son could not be the devil that the blogger would be endorsing when the time comes. 

    The country does not deserve more Estradas with questionable ethical-moral and intellectual orientation. If conscience is the arbiter, their father should return the money he stole from the people. Remember the dissipated Velarde account? (Okey, haha, let's be fair. Ferdinand and his heirs should also return the oodles of money--allegedly at least $10-billion with $4-billion recovered by the government -- kept in Swiss banks and other banks worldwide.)

THE SLAUGHTER OF MINDANAO JOURNALISTS

THE SLAUGHTER of Mindanao Journalists and Other Political Perfidies  

by Andres Miguel Pasion
all rights reserved


inner sanctum could not err 
quote deny not the little woman unquote
and the backhoe was a farmer
plowing bloody seeds into the brown earth
The newspaper version was a pain
thing from Lethe
like the eternal scourge
like the paradoxes of thieves
     in the apex of their content
like the dream echo of a surreal world.

15 December 2012, Oscariz, Ramon, Isabela

Pangasinan Governor as the Richest Local Government Executive?

     It was an open secret in La Union in  the late 1990s and at the turn of the century that "Spine", as he was then called by print and broadcast journalists in Region 1, was the number one beneficiary of the illegal numbers game. The blogger was posted in the area for several years. He should know whereof he speaks--even local government executives received, and continue to be receiving, this kind of money. It was also an open secret that jueteng fair-haired boys, former La Union Police Provincial directors--Diciano, Franco--became rich like "Spine."

     Recently, the grapevine is abuzz that a high-ranking police officer has built a mansion in San Fernando City with his jueteng "pension." Ask a top media man in the city where this mansion is located.
     An Ilocos northern city former executive is staging a comeback. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. A media person from the city alleged that this scion quarreled with his nephew-mayor because of jueteng and shot him in the leg. 
     Senator Panfilo Lacson opened a can of worms. Too late the hero? The worms have become big and destructive and their dirty, slimy "hands" are all over. 

GRAMMATICAL ERRORS

      There is a lot of nitty- gritty of editing and magazine writing. The blogger learned and practiced most of them, not in academe but in the competitive vineyards of journalism and in the rarefied atmosphere of creative writing.
      Maybe the blogger's standard is high. But when you have been in this business for as long as you can remember, you are bound to be critical of sloppy sentences, paragraphs, choice of words-- you have to be excellent in aspects that matter.

Indigenous Ilocos Norte bonzai and the giant dallipaoen along the Pagudpud-Cagayan road.

      The blogger was bringing to them more than 15 years of experience as a no-nonsense writer of the country's most prestigious English daily newspaper. He was bringing his experience as editor of government publications and newsletters in the Ilocos region. 
     You see the symbolism in the pictures? Our mind should not be stunted like the bonsai; it should grow and expand on and on like our native dallipaoen.  
    

ILOKANO WRITERS: THE FREEDOM NOT TO ASK QUESTIONS

SIMSIMPARAT ITI SIROK TI ANONANG

PETER LA. JULIAN


 A fellow mannurat asked about "their house" in Suso, Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur. How much was spent in the construction of the patta that was started in 2002? How much was spent in the purchase of materials? How many workers were employed in the construction?

     The blogger has still in his possession the association's financial reports that they distributed in the 2005 annual Iluko writing conference in Suso. All the figures were written in long hand written by the president who spearheaded the construction. The then auditor, an education official, signed the reports. He swallowed hook, line and sinker JB's figures without requiring him to submit receipts and other relevant documents.

     It was not clear whether they spent P500,000 but that was how the blogger figured it out. Did they really spend more than P200, 000 for the laborers? How many laborers? (Just show us the receipts of purchase of building materials, the plantilla and all this will be over.)

     What happened to the letter given to the executive judge who was president of the  gunglo at that time. The blogger has not heard from PNB whether the attorney answered his letter about this "dugol". Kudos for my kompadre who dared to ask the questions.

    

LORD OF HOSTS, HEAR OUR PRAYERS

Lord of hosts, send your spirit to our sister Lady Fele Mann in Darwin, Australia and cure her of the disease that afflicted her. Make her comfortable today and the rest of her life. Lord of hosts, hear our prayers as we send our collective energies to her.

WINNING IS A SICKNESS?

"When human beings gamble
the spirits like to watch.
From the spirit world they laugh
at the winners because winning is a sickness.
They say only losers feel grief.
Only the losers can go home with nothing
and this is a very holy thing to do."--Jim Cohn, The Grasslands

The Bad Side of Filipinos

     When Manny Pacquiao was winning his boxing titles, he was being lionized as the great Filipino who brings honor and pride to his fellow Filipinos. Now he was down, he was physically down from a knockout punch from Juan Manuel Marquez in that shocking loss in Las Vegas--and his fellow Filipinos are no more than vultures hovering over his helpless body.

     Review the tape of the December 9, 2012 boxing match--he was careless, as he said it, toward the end of round six when he got hit by that punch that came at the nick of time. 

     All things being equal, Manny is still the best in his class. No other Filipino could accomplish his feats for a long time. 

     Anyway, he is still young at 34 compared to Juan Manuel Marquez, 39. He can still vindicate himself and be boxing king again.
      

CANADIAN TO DELIVER LECTURE IN ILOKO ESSAY WRITING

An Ilokano writing seminar in San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte

What happened to writers in Ilokano and their groups in activities like the above?

The blogger notes with misgivings that the lecture in Iloko essay will be delivered by Canadian Firth Echearn during the 2012 Division Schools Press Conference on Dec. 10-12 at the Aringay Central Elementary School in Aringay town. Okey, Firth is capable, but what is the role of the Ilokano writing groups in this case? The province has just passed the La Union Iloko Code, the Ilokano version of which was not translated by the Ilokano writing associations.

ILOKANO DANIW WRITING CONTESTS

 -The prizes may not be as big as those in the prestigious Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature but the prizes could be the biggest in any ethnolinguistic writing contest in the country.

     The Severino and Eufemia Lacar Commemorative Iluko Poetry Award (SELIPA) is being sponsored by the family of the late Severino and Eufemia Lacar through their son Francisco Lacar and their daughter Juanita Lacar-Portman, now residents of Australia.

    The writer is free to chose his or her theme but the poem must be "cut from the landscape of Ilokano culture and tradition. The writer is required to submit three (3) poems consisting of 21 lines each.

     
     The manuscripts should bear the true name of the writer, his or her address and contact number. 

     Prizes are the following: P10,000, first; P7,000, second prize; P5,000, third prize and three (3) consolation prizes at P1,000 each.
          
     Cash prizes and certificates will be given to winners during the Iluko Literary Conference in May 2013 scheduled at the Mariano Marcos State University in Batac, Ilocos Norte.

Young Ilokano writers in a writing seminar in San Nicolas Ilocos Norte

            

From 09228704756

"Who you are is God's gift to you. But who you become is your gift to God."

Hear our prayers, Lord of Hosts, for Lady Fele Mann. Heal her of the disease that has afflicted her.

LORD OF HOSTS, HEAR OUR PRAYERS

Lord of Hosts, hear our prayers for the Smiling Lady From Down Under. Send Lady Fele Mann your spirit that it may kill the cancerous cells inside her body. Make her comfortable today and for the rest of her life. We ask this in the name of our Father Jesus Christ our Lord.