An e-mail from Viet Nam.

I got this e-mail last night: 

My name is Tho. I am from Viet Nam. I agree with your article in The
Korea Times that issue in April.
I would like to share your your opinion about that. Could you please
tell me how Viet Nam should solve the problem?
I look forward replying from you.
This is my Email.
Yours Sincerely,
Tho

The guy was referring to my piece that appeared on The Korea Times. The said article focuses on the two recent Chinese maneuvers in the Spratlys, how it affects the security of both the ASEAN and North East Asia, and what I think is the best way to counter the Chinese.

Honestly, I didn’t really know how to answer him the moment I read his message. I mean, I have a clue on the dynamics of politics and foreign policies of Japan and the Philippines, but not Viet Nam. I don’t even know who their head of state is.

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Pilgrimage to Manaoag.

My grandmom is an avid devotee of the Virgin Mary. The thing with that is, she would always go to a Marian shrine whenever she feels like going. She doesn’t plan about it, she’d just wake up one day having the idea of visiting the Lady.

That would be okay, of course, if the shrine is just next door. But yesterday, she felt like going to Manaoag Church, which is located five hours away by bus from Manila. And she asked me to accompany her.

Not that I have problems with it though. I love seeing churches. I admire their precious art collections. And I love their solemn atmosphere. It makes you want to pray intently. Which is what I did.

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What moral values?

My uncle and grandmom were aghastly discussing the MTRCB’s directive to cut a scene in the local TV series Maligno over dinner the other day. They called it an overkill.

The scene in question was where a bloody and naked demon was raping a woman. This scene is vital to the series’ plot, which revolves on the struggles of the anti-Christ’s mother. But MTRCB sees a problem with the hard pumping and the butt exposures involved.  These, the censors essentially say, should not be shown on prime time TV because they affront Philippine moral values.

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Lie and steal, but stay straight.

One thing I didn’t know about until now on the horrible Vicento Sotto Medical Center scandal is the equally horrible comment made by the spokesman of Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal.

Speaking on the Church-run Radio Veritas, Monsignor Achilles Dakay said that the patient, not the doctors, should be blamed for the incident.

"They seem to forget the whole thing. They are blaming the doctors for what they (did) but I think they should blame the guy for what they did."

The priest was referring to the homosexuality of the patient, who admitted he picked up a male prostitute who then stuck a perfume canister up his rectum when they were having sex.

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Want greater role? Apologize!

Last March 11, the Lower House Committee on Foreign Relations unanimously passed a resolution condemning World War II sexual slavery in the Far East and urging Japan to unambiguously apologize and to compensate the victims. Instead of being submitted to the plenary of the House of Representatives for final approval, however, the said resolution would be returned to the committee for a revote.

The Japan Times reported yesterday that the decision to make a revote on the resolution was done after intense lobbying from the Japanese Embassy in Manila. The Embassy, foreign relations committee chair Rep. Antonio Cuenco said, pointed out that only three congressmen of the 55-member committee voted on the resolution when in fact at least 12 members are required to make a quorum.

Tokyo employed similar lobbying actions to prevent similar resolutions from being passed in the legislative bodies of Canada, the Netherlands, the European Union and the United States. This was the first time, however, that the Japanese successfully scored a feat in delaying a resolution’s passage.

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Unofficial Philippine Debate Rankings for 2007-2008

How was this ranking calculated? (more…)

Philippine pundits unite on collaborative blog; New site up for Philippine debate community.

Filipino Voices, officialy launched today, gathers many of the blogosphere’s most prominent socio-political pundits to provide "a multitude of voices, on multitude of issues facing our nation today." Initiated by Nick of Tingog.com (yeah, that blog which was at the forefront of online protests against the anti-OFW bigotry of Malol Fernandez), the collaborative blog focuses on Philippine political and social commentary.

Aside from Nick, the Filipino Voices Team is currently composed of Schumey of The Philippine Experience, Dean Jorge Bocobo of Philippine Commentary, Manuel Buencamino of Uniffors, Lester Cavestany, Cocoy of the Big Mango Rom,  Patricio Mangubat of The New Philippine Revolution, Arbet of AWB Holdings, Butch of The Warrior Lawyer, Rom S of Smoketalk, The Jester and Exile and myself. I would be contributing articles on Philippine foreign policy issues.

Filipino Voices is also holding The Philippine Issues Writing Project, which encourages all bloggers to write commentaries on Philippine socio-political issues for a chance to win PhP10,000 worth of  books, cash prizes and other items. 

Meanwhile, UP Manila’s Benjamin Espina yesterday launched PhilDebate.com, a domain commited to the proliferation of debating in the Philippines. The site "will serve as a repository of tournament results, delegation updates, speaker tabs and other debate-related contents."

Okay kids, time to update your blogrolls. Cheers. 

A second look at Japan’s human rights record.

Last week, Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama gave his nod to the execution of four death row inmates in the Tokyo Detention Center. So far, ten inmates have been executed in Japan since Minister Hatoyama took his post last year.

Amnesty International and the United Nations Human Rights Council are among the most vocal critics of death penalty in Japan. These two organizations believe that capital punishment should have no place in the industrial world.

I for one am against capital punishment. It has been my firm belief that the goal of prisons in a democratic society should be rehabilitation over mere punishment of erring citizens. This view, of course, is Utopian in nature and has never been practical. And imposing this view on a country, First World or not, is beyond any organization’s right. It must be noted that inside Japan, there isn’t any significant opposition to capital punishment. So Japan pursuing capital punishment is definitely okay.

What’s not okay, however, is the primitive criminal justice system in Japan and the gargantuan power bestowed on the Japanese police. These two things make one ask whether those ten people executed are really guilty of their crimes.

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The PIDC Post.

That’s our team above during the break night party at The Fort’s Prince of Jaipur. 

One reader asked me to do a post on the recently-concluded Philippine Inter-Collegiate Debate Championship. Well, I’ve nothing much to say about it really, but I’ve got bunch of pictures to show. Enjoy.

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Anti-China protests in the London torch relay.

Live feeds from CNN just now show violent protests by pro-Tibetan groups in London almost disrupting the ceremonial relay of the Olympic torch. It was similar to- well worse than, actually- the earlier relay in Greece.

It was expected that protesters would greet the torch relay in London, of course.

But curiously, the route of the torch relay was liberally opened to the protesters. And the number of security officers and men who manned the route was significanlty small that the angry demonstrators were able to get dangerously close to the torch bearer. Close enough that one man was even able to try to snatch the torch from the bearer while another was able to try to douse the torch through a fire extinguisher.

If the torch relay was in Manila, Malacanang would have deployed at least 50,000 troops and a gathering of five anti-China protesters would have been dispersed even before it could grow into a huge crowd. Doing that would be a no-no for the British to do, of course. They value the rights of  protesters there.

But they could have been more tight with the security at least. Heck, I saw only around twenty to thirty men escorting the torch bearer. They could have prevented the protesters from getting close enough to disrupt the relay. But they didn’t.

Which leads me now to ask: Did the British deliberately allow the protesters to almost disrupt the relay in an apparent unofficial support for the Tibetan human rights movement and the Dalai Lama clique? Worth pondering.