Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address.

Here’s the full text of the President’s speech:

Thank you, Speaker Nograles. Senate President Villar. Senators and Representatives. Vice President de Castro, President Ramos, Chief Justice Puno, members of the diplomatic corps, ladies and gentlemen:

I address you today at a crucial moment in world history.

Just a few months ago, we ended 2007 with the strongest economic growth in a generation. Inflation was low, the peso strong and a million new jobs were created. We were all looking to a better, brighter future.

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In Pictures: IDU lecture at PNU.

Yesterday, the Intramuros Debate Union (IDU) delivered a lecture-workshop on basic Asian Parliamentary debating for the students of the Philippine Normal University (PNU) in Manila. 

It was in line with the IDU’s advocacy of promoting debating among the many colleges and universities in the country that have not yet discovered how satisfying that form of intellectual masturbation is. The speakers were Gian Carlo Garcia of San Beda College on the basic structure of Asian Parliamentary debate, Arvin Ramos of Collegio de San Juan de Letran on the speaker roles in Asian Parliamentary, myself (Lyceum of the Philippines) on case building and argumentation and LA Sevilla of Mapua Institute of Technology on adjudication. The PNU Psychological Society organized the event.

And here are the pictures taken through my camera (I’m yet to get the other pics from PNU by e-mail): 

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Boxer Codex and the "Luzon Empire."

Mariko’s coming to Manila last Thursday gave me the perfect reason to visit the renowned Ayala Museum in Makati for the first time. And I could not have enjoyed it more. 

Albeit the obvious anti-Marcos biases of the Philippine historical diorama, the museum was better than I had expected. The 19th century artworks by Filipino painters Damian Domingo, Juan Luna, Felix Resureccion Hidalgo and Fernando Zobel de Ayala, as well as the Spanish-era meztiso silk collection were breathtaking. But what really impressed me was the pre-Hispanic gold collection that showcased the richness of the Barangay Era.

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Wafer denial.

The Catholic bishops are supposeldy learned men. I’m just an average teen. That’s probably why I can’t see the logic behind their intimidation of politicians supporting the Population Bill pending in Congress.

The bishops say the bill, which promotes the choice of women with regards to reproductive health and endorses artificial contraceptives, devalues life and even leads to the promotion of abortion.

Nevermind basic science. I just can’t, for the life of me, see how more choices for women devalue their lives. Or how the use of contraceptives leads to abortion. I mean, duh, if you resort to contraceptive, you prevent pregnancy. If there’s no pregnancy, there’s no abortion.  Is it just me or are these bishops really making an ass of themselves?

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Idiots by the river.

After the Social Weather Station came up with a survey condemning Gloria MacArroyo as the most unpopular president since 1986, the Inquirer quoted the President’s top aides as saying that the people, not the surveys, should be her judge.

Say what? The people, not the surveys? 

Surveys, for sanity’s sake, don’t judge. The respondents, selected through scientific sampling to represent the people, are the ones who do the judging. In other words, the people judge their president through the surveys. So where are these Malacanang aides coming from?

But let’s assume that it wasn’t the people’s voice that spoke in this survey. Why don’t we then let the people judge Arroyo? Let the Palace call for a snap presidential election! Let’s see how the people would judge this bitch of a president.

PHOTO FROM UNIFFORS 

Congrats, Cheenee!

Fellow debater, CIR magna cum laude and good friend Ma. Lourdes Angeli Cengca has just  passed the qualifying tests for the Foreign Service Officer examinations. She’s now just two steps away from taking her oath before the President as an officer of the Philippine Foreign Service.

All I can say is..

Oh..

My..

God.

I’m so proud of her. 

Kalayaan wins.

Kabataan Lakas Alay sa Bayan (Kalayaan) won ten out of twelve seats in the College of International Relations Student Council and eight out of twelve seats in the Lyceum Central Student Government (LYCESGO). It is now the largest political party in the University.

This year’s student election is quite successful. Unlike during the previous school years when students can easily get carried away by grand gestures and entertaining song numbers, the student voters are now critically discerning issues. They now ask relevant questions. I hope this trend is not unique to Lyceum student politics. I hope this is just part of the overall trend towards greater awareness among voters throughout the Philippines.

I joined the Kalayaan campaign this election because their candidate for CIR president is a close friend of mine. But more than that, I joined the campaign because I could see that Kalayaan is the only party that has a vision of instilling nationalism (but not the militant-type) on the students, which I find appealing.

What I resent, however, is how the Kalayaan alumni seem to meddle on important decisions such as the selection of the president of the Central Student Government (who is elected from among the members of the LYCESGO). I guess that’s really the way it is among all organizations: the elders matter. But I believe people should look into this practice and assess whether it is really right for non-students to decide on matters that are important to the students.

Kuya Gelo blogs!

Lee Angelo* has finally decided to share his thought-provoking analyses of different issues confronting the Philippines today. Here’s his new i.ph blog.

At a young age of 23, Kuya Gelo is already a Kagawad in Santa Cruz, Manila and is very passionate in his concern for his country. He’s currently preparing for the Electronics and Communications Engineering licensure examinations. But his real passion lies on Economics– particularly trade and investments.  Increased financial literacy among Filipinos is his advocacy. He’s invested on several Philippine stocks and is still studying the stock market, apparently hoping to make it big time there in the future.

He has done what many an economics teacher failed to do: make me understand the fundamentals of investments, trade and monetary policies. He’s also made me really realize how extremely important it is for Filipinos to buy and support Philippine products. I’m now looking forward to understanding many economic and financial issues through his blog. Do check him out!

*I don’t have permission to disclose his surname.