THE BLOGGER'S DILEMMA

       The association's financial records showed they had more than P500,000, representing the donations of writers both from PH, Hawaii and the US mainland. 
   The blogger returned the Pedro Bucaneg Award in protest, among other reasons, over this kind of corruption and the silence of writers who apparently swallowed hook, line and sinker the financial reports submitted by the officers.
    For the young generation of Ilokano writers, and those who have not read our reasons for returning the award, here's a part of the letter sent to the then president of GUMIL Filipinas, Mrs. Elizabeth Madarang-Raquel:

    " 1. Peter La. Julian, Pedro Bucaneg Award insublina a kas simbolo ti pannakipagrikna ken pannakitaktakunaynayna ken ni Apo Aurelio Solver Agcaoili a nangtunton iti justicia iti pannakarabrabngis iti dayawna.
     "2. Peter La. Julian Pedro Bucaneg Award insublina a kas simbolo iti luksawna iti saan a nalawag a pannakadagup iti naur-or a pondo ken pannakagasto iti kuarta iti pannakabangon iti Balay ti GUMIL idiay Suso, Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur. Kanaigna daytoy ti di maawatan nga ulimek dagiti dadduma a mannurat iti isyu agraman ti rikkiar a pinataud ti kangatuan a pammadayaw (PBA)."

     The house was started in 2002 by  then GF president, who submitted financial reports without the accompanying receipts of the purchase of building materials and the plantilla that would reflect the wages of the laborers. (Text message from JB, the architect of the house: "Ammok nga adda ammo ni Rochina ken Eden ta isuda kada p2ng laeng ti makairuar iti banko ti pondo ti GF.")
     

     

LORD OF HOSTS, SEND HER YOUR HEALING SPIRIT

Lord of hosts, hear our prayers: Send her your healing spirit that will burn into ashes the cancerous cells in her body. Amami- a-Mannakabalin-Amin, denggem kad ti kararagmi nga agpaay ken ni Lady Fele Mann even as we send our collective energies to her.

WEAK-WILLED PRESIDENT OF FILIPINOS?

Filipinos as Overseas Contract Workers in Singapore

    The components of meaning of weak-willed include the idea of lacking in intelligence or mental skills or prowess.
   The blogger first heard of a "hint" on the mental capacity of the incumbent President during an interview with Imelda Romualdez Marcos at the Robinson in San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte two years ago. She was in effect saying that her son "Bongbong" Marcos was more intelligent than Noynoy.What was her point? Your guess is as good as mine.
   Comes now Noynoy's inability to cut his smoking habit. Why can't he stop smoking? If Imelda were to answer, she would say: "Did I not tell you that he is weak-willed, that he lacks the mental ability to quit his passion?"
   Researches say that if a person inhales the smoke of one stick of cigarette, more than  400 poisonous chemicals enter his or her body. Maybe Noynoy could not get the hint why he is sick now and then. Maybe, he is too mentally "feeble" to recognize the meaning of poisonous chemicals? If he reads research, of course.
   The Filipinos--now they number more than 80 million warm bodies-- do not deserve a weak-willed and unhealthy President, whose breath is bad because of smoking, and who smells bad even if he puts perfume all over his clothes and body.
 

AS THEY SAY, THE STRONGEST PEOPLE ARE THOSE

people who can still handle things with a smile on their lips, even their eyes want to pour out tears. She is our Lady Fele Mann of Darwin, Australia. Still we beseech you, Lord of Hosts, to burn all those cancerous cells in her body, and make her comfortable today and the rest of her life. Hear us, Amami a Mannakabalin-amin.

LORD OF HOSTS, HEAR OUR PRAYERS

Lord of Hosts, hear our prayers for the Smiling Lady From Down Under. We beseech your to heal our sister, Lady Fele Mann, who has served your faithfully, and whose body bears the cancerous cells. Burn, we pray, these cells, turn them to ashes and scatter them in the wind. We also send our energies to her whose unbounded love for us will remain forever and will remember her for the rest of our separate lives.   

CHINA'S NEIGHBORS ARE ITS STRENGHT

Ilokano fishers boats on the Currimao beach, which is nearer to China than the Scarborough Shoal which is coveted by China. Below, fishermen drying their nets after casting them in the sea.

China's rise to power, economically and militarily, is unprecedented for an Asian country. It is now flexing its might and its neighbors, particularly the Southeast Asian nations as an association, are understandably disturbed. The Philippine President has been very vocal against China's incursions into the Scarborough Shoal near Zambales province. Anyway, the puny ASEAN could give China a run for its money, by what else but a boycott of the giant's economic products. You can not ignore a market of 600 million warm bodies--the combined populations of the emerging nations.

SENDING ENERGIES AND PRAYERS

     Sending prayers to heavens for the Lady from Down Under,who is sick, and sending our collective energies to her. Lord of Hosts, keep her under the shadow of your protection.

     Some stray thoughts in Winchester 
     This is what life should be: No hate, no recriminations, the ability to bounce back from a great loss, caring for one who needs it, to go on no matter what, and squeeze every waking moments for the joy for oneself and the others.

     It's 2:01AM in the ancestral home in Laoag, at the third floor. A celebration in the neighborhood woke me up and could not get back to sleep. Earlier in the night, there were emergency calls to Hawaii and Munoz, Nueva Ecija. Cocoy who was transferred to the Batac Medical Center from the Ablan hospital in Laoag had chills and needed a CT scan, costing P10,000. His tricycle father could not produce the amount. Dr. Boyet promised to give the money, or some money. The blogger will also be giving for the financial needs of the two kids of Marcial, who are attending high school.

     Is it fair, Lord of Hosts, that those who have less in life, need a lot of money to save a sick member and could not raise it at the moment of need?

KADA MANANG PACING, JSPH, JR. KDPY.


Apay ngamin aya daytoy patinayon a suknal?
Awan imeng ti kapanagan ket nadagaang ti parbangon
A saep-saepen saysayengseng ti lamok?

Kas iti estatua ti santo a binigat nga agpadpadaaan
Awan paksuy dagiti mata uray no kurkuridemdemen.

Adu dagiti saludsod a tawataw ti sungbatna.

Iti lugan nga agawid, awan ti arimekmek
A kasla ketdin sangsangalen dagiti sarita iti adu
A saem, bariw-as iti panabirok iti imnas

A maibinsabinsa dagiti nagunegna iti agpatnag
A sallin ti panggep iti sumaruno a panagkikita.