A different end game

We need a branding campaign to boost the nation's identity, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar declared. Exactly what he meant by "nation's identity," I don't know, and that in itself is a serious concern.

But the truth is, they've been engaged in that campaign for a while now. Rodrigo Duterte clinching the presidency is a result of cunning, if morally questionable, branding. Or propaganda, it's a very thin line.

The Product: Duterte

The Branding Journal (www.thebrandingjournal.com) says, “Broadly, a product is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy a want or need, including physical goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas” (Kotler & Keller, 2015).

The product was a tough guy whose claim to fame or infamy was ridding the streets of Davao City of petty criminals allegedly, or perhaps quite obviously, through extra-judicial means. The product had so many features, and each one could be viewed in more ways than one. For example, the product could be a mayor willing to do whatever it takes to go after criminals, or a thug that has little or no regard for the law.

The product brought peace, order and progress to a city. The product is an offensive, insensitive, tactless, rude, crude, misogynistic sociopath.

The product needed polishing, it needed branding.

The Brand: The Messiah with a clenched fist

“A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers” (American Marketing Association).

Change is coming, the slogan went. The branding campaign went into overdrive in the last few months of 2015. At around that time, while the country wasn't perfect, it was making headlines all over the world for having one of the soundest economic policies in the world, for jailing three senators for plunder, etc. A tough-guy had no place in that current picture, a new picture had to be drawn where the product, a killing machine, could be of use at all. Corruption can't be the main campaign line - politicians, corrupt or otherwise, can fight back. Kidnappers and the criminal activity was so 1999. Guns do not solve poverty... but wait...

Speaking of poor people... 

They've got a product but there was no real need for it. The need has to be created. Drugs... we're a country that's drug-infested. Oh, we're not? But that's because the current administration then was glossing over the problem. The branding can bloat the numbers, one, two three million maybe more Filipinos are drug addicts. Drug addiction equals unthinkably heinous crimes (although the plunder of untold billions of pesos from the nation's coffers remains, in my book, as the most heinous crime ever committed against us). You get rid of the drug addicts, you get rid of crime, just like Davao. Never mind that the peso is at its strongest, jobs are pouring in, more and more Filipinos are enjoying unprecedented opportunities to move forward in life. Everybody hates, or at least looks down on or couldn't care less about drug-addicts. Drug addicts don't like drug addicts. That's a portrait that needed to be painted - not of the Filipino with a brighter future ahead, but of the drug-dependent who steals, murders, rapes.

Who will believe that? Let's see...

Float the idea on social media, using the same formula that made Eat Bulaga and Willy Revillame endure and stay relevant - inanity and vulgarity, but entertaining.

Why not on mass media? Because it remains a mainly one-way communication stream, let's engage the market in a real-time conversation and focus our energy and resources on social media. And just like the salacious Hayden Kho videos, the idea did easily spread all over social media like wild fire, and soon the mainstream media had no other choice but to join the bandwagon. From being Asia's strongest economy, we have become a drug-infested country, and in that picture, the product Duterte, that clenched fist pointed at you, fits perfectly.

And the product has by the latter part of 2015 become relevant.

"Paano kong manalo? - Dolphy"

Is he really running or not? For weeks, nobody knew for sure, but looking back at how things played out the Duterte camp knew. But to further engage the audience, another element was added: suspense. After withdrawing his candidacy for Mayor and eventually submitting his Certificate of Candidacy for president, the questions surrounding his candidacy just added to the tension that gripped his avid supporters. It wasn't final yet, a petition was filed questioning the move and Comelec had yet to validate his candidacy, to which the product said: "I really don't know why I was brought into this crossroad. Whatever decision that Comelec [makes] about my candidacy, I will accept it." That was probably the last time I saw any hint of humility, or respect, in this product.

Comelec upheld its validity. The branding was working it's now time to take it to the next level.

The snowball effect was dizzying, but not totally unexpected. His supporters were intoxicated, much like throngs who line up for massacre and pito-pito movies, by promises of a bloodbath, foul language, misogyny that at one point one would think went way too far when he seemed to have implied that while looking at the cadaver of a woman who was brutally gang-raped, tortured and killed, he rued not being the first to sexually assault her. But just like a drunk emboldened by alcohol in his system or an addict under the influence of drugs, the throngs seemed to have lost their mind, or at least their sense morality, or decency or self-respect, even - that remark by the product earned applause from both men and women, and children, in the live audience and shared and defended on the internet.

Still, I kept an eye out for a glimmer of hope, a hint of a good plan for the country and its people. But he stuck to the script - kill. To other issues, he only had amusing one-liners such as the promise to "ride a jet ski while bringing the Philippine flag" when asked about his stand on our territorial dispute with China. He later dismissed the quip as a joke.

But the remark he made about wishing he was the first in line in the gang rape of Australian lay missioner Jaqueline Hamill? If ever I entertained thoughts of actually voting for this product, after that remark, my mind was made up.

The product's rise was not lost on political opportunists, and soon the dogs, eyes filled with lust, panting with their tongues hanging out, were flocking to his side some got in easily simply by ass-licking, but others, especially those with a bigger agenda, say those who did not relish the idea of carrying a surname that is synonymous with tyranny and corruption, may have had to do and offer more to the altar of Duterte.

Tapos na ang boksing

Even before the official campaign period started, it seemed like it was a done deal, Duterte was the next in line for Malacanang. What started out as a showdown between Roxas and Binay and became a three-way race when Poe jumped in was now becoming a no-contest. Mainstream media seemed to be simply echoing what was going on social media which was flooded with Dutertisms and fake news which worked like a charm for the product. Surveys showed the product pulling away from the rest of the pack.

His running mate, an erstwhile vice presidential hopeful with no president, was Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, although that didn't seem to be case on the campaign trail.

The product didn't see anything wrong with proclaiming his true choice for the vice presidency: Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr., son of the ousted dictator whose name he shares, a senator with a plunder charge hanging over his head and a name that needed re-branding badly. It was appalling to watch Cayetano simply swallowing all that in-your-face humiliation, but even he knew that he had a sure winner as an official running mate that even if there was no way he would win the vice presidency, his political future was assured.

Looking back, the official Duterte-Cayetano ticket worked in favor of Robredo though I think that had Marcos officially run with Duterte, had he been seen hand in hand on stage with the product, he would have edged Robredo. But perhaps running under the party that played a significant role in the ouster of his father would have been too much, or too crass.

Even if Marcos has won as senator in the previous national election, I thought he had no chance at winning the vice presidency. But the main product's popularity and acceptability seemed to have rubbed off on him, and towards the homestretch he was neck and neck with administration candidate Lenny Robredo, who eventually won with a mere two hundred thousand votes or so, which is not the subject of an ongoing electoral protest filed by Marcos.

Up until election day, though, I still had no idea what Duterte's agenda was. FVR envisioned a newly industrialized country with Pilipinas 2000, PNoy a clean, honorable, decent and dignified government with Tuwid na Daan, even Marcos had Bagong Lipunan... so other than dead drug offenders in the streets, what bigger picture of the Philippines was on his mind? Which leads me to think that it's not about the country and serving the people, this product is just about power.

Step 1 - the war on drugs

I think even some of his most avid supporters were shocked by the manner in which this war was launched: just days after being sworn in, the killings started. They fell like flies, mostly poor people, some suspected drug offenders, most accused of resisting arrest and fighting back, others totally innocent people, many of them minors, in cases of mistaken identity or just being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

It felt as if police districts were acting like jeepney drivers eager or even forced to take in as many passengers as possible in order to survive that it didn't matter if they were picking up passengers within prohibited zones, just that in their case, they weren't after passengers, they needed bodies, dead bodies.

The product was not interested in arresting and prosecuting drug offenders, it needed dead bodies - one, to satisfy his supporters' bloodlust, who weren't acting differently from addicts only they have become addicted to images of dead people covered in newspapers with a sign that says they're guilty simply because the one who pulled the trigger said so. And two, to instill fear in the hearts of those who weren't part of the 16 million.

Dead bodies strengthened his hold on his supporters, dead bodies to make everybody else afraid. The stage is set.

Senator Leila De Lima of the Legislature, fierce critic of the product - jailed on questionable charges. Chief Justice Sereno of the Judiciary, Aquino appointee, is now being impeached. They're getting in the way of the product, who wants absolute power.

And Lenny Robredo? She's in the way of the Marcos agenda - re-branding of that name.

I grew up being taught that Ferdinand Marcos was a hero, the guy on posters, calendars, on the covers of textbooks, a huge bust along a mountain highway, etc. And that Martial Law and Bagong Lipunan brought peace and order and progress to this country. Even if the reality of a plundered nation a disenfranchised people and painted a different picture - the textbooks in our school told a different story. And when he was ousted, the changes were swift. By the time summer passed and classes started in the school-year 1986-87, history books talked about the martial law era differently already, and Marcos was re-cast as a villain, along with members of his family.

That's the Marcos agenda - to be able to rewrite history, their family's history in particular. Even without Malcanang, they have made great steps forward in that direction already through social media.

The end game...

The branding was a success - a need that wasn't there before was created and marketed well and the people bought it. But branding is a work in progress, for fads fade, tastes change, and a product needs to be reinvented and repackaged and re-branded all the time to keep the market satisfied.

And this is why Andanar's announcement is alarming. The branding only succeeded in getting the 16 million the buy the product, and I have yet to hear of a non-believer being converted, and out the 16 million, many have shown dissatisfaction with the product. He speaks of our "nation's identity," and that, to me, means the main product needs another to go with it, complement it, make each one indispensable to the other. You've had success selling green mangoes, so before they get tired the sourness, introduce the bagoong. They're about to launch a new product, a new brand.

Marcos's agenda is simple - revision. That's what the family's all about. Never mind that there are other ways to re-brand the Marcos name, they can begin by acknowledging the fact that martial law under Marcos' presidency saw the plunder of our poor nation, the unjustified killing and torture of thousands, and returning all ill-gotten wealth back to the people. They do that, and Marcos' descendants can be given the chance to start from scratch, a clean slate if you will. But no, that's beyond Imelda and her children who grew up believing the lies, and believing that the only way to clear their name is to cover its history with lies.

Duterte's end game is simple - power. That's what he's all about. He will wield it, get drunk in it, hold on to it for as long as he can, for it's his one addiction. Fame and fortune? Secondary, perhaps. He's not there for those. Love of country? Far from it,a Bonifacio or a Rizal he is not and will never be. He's all about power - and every time he gets to exercise that power with impunity - burying a dictator in hallowed grounds, sending a critic to jail, ousting a rival, killing innocents and getting away with it, he gets more and more intoxicated by it, and craves it even more. And anything that shows him that his power is not absolute, that there is in fact a power higher than him horrifies and terrifies him, he fumbles as in the International Criminal Court's investigation of his crimes against humanity.

A true leader would have endeavored to unite a deeply divided nation after gaining power. But the product did not make any attempt to do that - his power was a result of that divisiveness. It doesn't matter that majority of the voters in our country, 60%, did not vote for him, as long as those 60% remain divided and the 40% who did vote for him remain united, his hold on power is solid.

Now, imagine if the 60% united... now that's an interesting product. United to fight tyranny and defend democracy and the rule of law... I like that branding.

Then the end game would be completely different.

The road to ecological hell is paved with good intentions

In a private community, Monterrazas Village in Tuding, Itogon, Benguet, homeowners/residents pay a 25,000-peso annual fee, and among the services provided by homeowners association is the regular collection of garbage twice a week.

Never had the chance to inquire where the collected waste are hauled to, and oddly, even after the municipal LGU announced that collection will be stopped indefinitely because of issues with the dump site, our garbage continued to be collected by the association's maintenance personnel, which just made me wonder even more where they haul the village's garbage to.

I couldn't help but notice though that in the last couple of weeks, we've had to endure the odor of burning plastic coming from neighboring areas. At different times of the day, tell-tale dark smoke could be seen wafting in different areas, and with it, the noxious odor.

Then the source came closer one day - just a few meters from our house, the caretakers of the village's clubhouse have been cleaning and burning tree and plant cuttings, dried leaves and cut grass along with whatever non-organic garbage they found in the area, mostly plastics. This time, thick, noxious smoke would enter our house and because there has been hardly any breeze, it would linger for hours. It got so bad that it was difficult to stay indoors in our own home, it hurt the eyes, the throat, the chest. The odor caused not only difficulty in breathing but dizziness too and we've had to turn on electric fans to clear the air - in vain though since the burning went on all day and sometimes into the night and the fans just couldn't keep up. It actually hurt my feelings, really, for how can one be so callous about the harm they're doing to other people?

So one afternoon, after of hours of trying to just grin and bear it, I walked up to where the burning was being done and talked to a man who was busy gathering even more plastic garbage and throwing them into the fire. I asked him if it was possible to at least not include the plastics. Though he agreed right there and then to put out the fire, a couple of hours later after sunset, the burning resumed.

We slept that night with the lingering smell of burning plastic.

The next day, I walked up to the head caretaker of the clubhouse and brought up my predicament with the plea for them not to burn plastics. I was surprised by his reaction - it seemed that because I and my family have been affected by their actions, have been enduring the noxious smoke for days already, and brought these to his attention, he got offended.

"Ano'ng magagawa ko e walang nagkokolekta ng basura namin?" I asked why doesn't the association collect their garbage, and he said that the conflict between the owners of the clubhouse and the association is none of my business - I didn't even know that the association did not own the clubhouse, much less that there was such a conflict between the two parties.

His stand was simple - he doesn't care if he's inconveniencing, endangering anyone, he will burn his plastic garbage because he has no other choice. Besides, he said, there are other people who do it. I told him that it seemed we've reached an impasse - he insists he has the right to burn plastics, and we can't continue to breathe in toxic smoke - I have no other choice but to bring it to the attention of the authorities, the police in particular, as burning plastic is not only a hazard, it is also illegal.

Go ahead, he said. So I did, and a few minutes later I was back at the clubhouse, three policemen with me this time.

I watched him defend his "right" to burn plastics to policemen, which made me realize: he really believes that there is nothing wrong with burning plastics. When I told him that my son, who was sick the past couple of days, couldn't properly get his much-needed rest because of the toxic fumes inside our house that came from his mound of burning plastic, he (and honestly I almost lost it and wanted to bury his face in his burning pile of plastic when I heard this) reply: "Ba't 'di mo dinala sa hospital anak mo?"

And I couldn't help but notice too how "petty" the policemen believed this issue was, even if essentially a crime was bring committed right in front of them - Section 49, Paragraph B of the law states that "Any person who violates Sec. 48, pars. 2 and 3 (The open burning of solid waste), shall, upon conviction be punished with a fine of not less than Three hundred pesos (P300.00) but not more than One thousand pesos (P1,000.00) or imprisonment of not less than one (1) day but to not more than fifteen (15) days, or both."

There lies the problem with RA 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Law of 2000. If, 18 years after it was enacted, towns, cities and provinces continue to fail to comply with the provisions of the law, and many of us still don't understand the implications of improper waste disposal or care about the harm we cause the environment and the people around us, then something's wrong somewhere.

Is it the law? RA 9003 is "AN ACT PROVIDING FOR AN ECOLOGICAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM, CREATING THE NECESSARY INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS AND INCENTIVES, DECLARING CERTAIN ACTS PROHIBITED AND PROVIDING PENALTIES, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES."

It is supposed to provide "a legal framework for the systematic comprehensive and ecological solid waste management program" for the country, which shall ensure the protection of public health and the environment."

It begs the questions...

Was the law a failure? 

The law clearly had only good intentions, and seemed to have provided ample time for LGUs and the public to comply - three years from the enactment of the law, LGUs must have been able to turn open dumps into controlled dumps, and in five years it must already have an Engineered Sanitary Landfill. It also provided for an education and information campaign enjoining the public and various government institutions to do their share: DECS, TESDA, CHED, DILG and PIA. Within a five-year period from the enactment of the law, RA 9003 said that "people must internalize the value of environmentally sound and sustainable solid waste disposal." But obviously, at least this caretaker couldn't still care less about the value of environmentally sound and sustainable waste disposal. Oh well.

How do you reach into the mind of the caretaker? How can you force, too, a family in an apartment building to start composting their biodegradable waste with no yard space? How does Baguio with hardly any land space available with the continuing residential population growth to build its own Engineered Sanitary Landfill? Sure, we don't need something that big if we implement zero waste efforts in every household, but that's easier said than done.

Or did we fail the law? 

In Baguio, city officials took the law for granted until the deadline for full compliance was up. Nothing significant was done until the LGU had no choice but to close the Irisan dumpsite or risk violating RA 9003 which resulted in mountains of garbage piling up in our streets. Only then did city hall started doing something, too little, too late. The public education and information campaign was a failure, which is the expected result if the ones doing the campaign themselves do not fully understand and appreciate the spirit of the law. Households were asked to segregate their garbage, only to see their segregated garbage dumped altogether in the same truck. If households segregated at all, for coming from simply having to take out all their garbage for collection, segregating them in to 3, 4 or was it 5?, different classifications which was what the LGU wanted them to do at first, wasn't easy.

Out in the streets roads, it's still commonplace to see plastic water bottles and wrappers being thrown out of car windows - cars, both local and from out of town. Pedestrians on their way home with their afternoon snacks don't find anything wrong with dumping their single use plastic cups and bags in the canal right in front of our house.

A lot of people believed then, and still do now, that waste disposal is solely the government's job and that all they need to do is take it out of their homes. And if it's not collected, it's not their problem anymore - they'll continue to dump even more garbage in various collection sites in the city's barangays, or wherever else is even more convenient, or in the case of the Monterrazas Clubhouse caretaker, burn it and the neighbors well-being, health be damned.

To date, no sustainable solution has been forwarded and instead, the city is spending huge sums of money to transport our waste to a far-flung sanitary landfill three provinces away.

More importantly, what do we do now?

While we've always preferred bringing our own bayong when going to market, our family have since doubled our efforts to reduce the waste we generate. We have since included used ice cream containers (for meats and fish and other wet product) and smaller reusable bags (for vegetables and other dry goods) to our "marketing gear" and at one time even launched a social campaign, "Huwag niyo na pong i-plastic." But even with much effort, we are still surprised at the amount of plastic and other residual non-biodegradable waste we end up with. Businesses don't care, once the consumer buys their product, the plastic waste that the product generates isn't their problem any more. The public doesn't care, once they've used the product and thrown out that plastic candy wrapper or detergent bag, it's not their problem anymore.

And as shown by the apparent ignorance (not to mention arrogance) of the Monterrazas Clubhouse caretaker, it seems that we've hardly made any move forward with regards to RA 9003 nearly two decades after it was enacted.

It's not too late and not really wrong to admit that we, all of us - the public, the government - went about this wrongly. Going back to square one is not a bad idea, in fact, I believe it's necessary.

This is a link to the full text of RA 9003.

Let's take this from the top, understanding and appreciating the need for an environment & people-friendly and safe waste management system, if the caretaker gets that, he may just stop arrogantly insisting on his right to burn plastics in his backyard.

Time and tide wait for no man

Slack water, also known as ‘the stand of the tide‘, is a short period in a body of tidal water when the water is completely unstressed, and there is no movement either way in the tidal stream, and which occurs before the direction of the tidal stream reverses. (Wikipedia)

I was looking forward to a breathtaking sunset by the sea, typical in these parts. So I was somewhat disappointed when, as the day’s work was almost over, rain clouds appeared.

A gentle shower began as we drove to where we were to spend the night. I asked for permission for that hour’s cigarette, I got it. That was our agreement – that I would smoke only one cigarette per hour.

Camera and overnight bags on the floor, I took a short nap, woke up and asked – would you like to check the water out?

We walked to the shore, in the rain. The sea was calm, unusual in these parts. There was a breeze, it was cold. We hoped that the water would not be so cold. We stepped in, and it wasn’t… it wasn’t at all. In fact, it was warm – a break, I finally caught one, I thought.

We walked a few paces away from the shore and into the water, which remained just below the knees. We stopped and sat down with the water just above our waists. The shower continued and paired with the breeze, any part of your body outside the water felt really cold. So we sunk ourselves further with just our heads above the water.

And we just stayed there, taking it all in – the warmth of the sea, the cool breeze on our faces, the silence, the stillness.

This afternoon, we were not our usual selves when we’re at the beach, in the water. We used to have a ball, a frisbee, balls of sand flying between us, sandcastles would be built to see which one would withstand a wave that went too far to reach our miniature castles’ moats. I could’ve sworn we did all of that the last time we were at the beach just a few weeks ago. No, the last sandcastle was much longer ago.  

Today, we just sat in the water, silently. I looked over and saw this young man, a goatee taking shape on his chin. No balls of sand, flying disks nor sandcastles, just the two of us, and the silence, and the relative stillness of the water. Earlier, he was with me – while I tried to understand the story of a group of women’s hopes and dreams to make their lives a little better, so I can in turn tell their story to a much wider audience, he set that camera on a tripod, chose the right lens to capture the moment, zoomed in and out, adjusted focus, moved to a different angle.

How much he’s grown, my youngest son.

I broke the silence. Not sure if he was relishing the moment as much as I was, I asked, Ready? Not yet, he said. Just a little while longer. Ahh thank, God, for I too couldn’t think of any reason why this moment should end.

For moments like this, take all the time you need and want. Tides flow and ebb, time flies, no matter what, but me, for you, son… for all of you, my children, I can wait.

Nakaka-insecure ang nuclear power

At ngayo'y nagagalit
Kung bakit ipinipilit
Na maitayo ang plantang nukleyar

A-minor, D-minor, E... These were the chords to the first song I learned to play on the guitar. I was about 10 or 11 and we sang this song, Plantang Nukleyar, at rallies denouncing the then planned operation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. We were young, members of my mother's youth theater group, Workshop for Creative Survival. It was 1984.

I wasn't objectively introduced to nuclear energy. The literature available to me then highlighted the dangers of nuclear plants in general and the BNPP in particular. Images of the dead and the ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still linger in my head. Opposing the planned reopening of the BNPP with just the information I got from that introduction wouldn't be fair. But I've read up on the subject quite a lot more since.

It simply boils down to the pros and cons, and which outweighs the other, and in my opinion, the risks just overwhelmingly outweigh the supposed benefits.

Proponents, among them good friends, in fact, would point to the lower cost (supposedly), relative safety and reliability, environment-friendliness (again, supposedly) of nuclear energy. It's what a struggling economy like ours badly needs, we're being told, if we ever want to get out of this rut.


I have questions....
First let me share this. The check engine light went on in our car a couple of weeks ago, and we couldn't easily identify the cause. Possible causes ranged from simply having a gas cap that's not tightly shut enough, to something way more serious requiring having to take the engine apart. Then, a few days ago, with my wife driving, the car just stalled on a road going downhill. Luckily, just had the hand brakes adjusted and she was able to stop the car from rolling down that road at the end of which was a crowded satellite market. It's a 10-year old car, and the culprit, in the end, was one of the six ignition coils. It needed replacement. Again, the car's 10 years old, and that one part almost caused a major accident.

Gagana pa nga ba 'yan?

Photo by Jiru27 via Wikipedia

I'm apprehensive about restarting a plant that's been mothballed for over three decades. and we're not talking about an old electric fan in the closet here that the worst case scenario if it malfunctions is a short circuit that may fry your outlet. We're talking about a nuclear plant that can compromise the lives of millions of people.

Granted, the nuclear plant will be run not by someone like me whose engineering chops is limited to rewiring old electric fans and changing light bulbs, but by experts. That still does not address my anxiety over the plant's safety, and we'll go back to these so-called experts later and you'll probably understand why.

No Smoking within 50 feet

We see that sign on the back of tanker trucks transporting flammable materials. Can they really guarantee the aging facility's safety when the BNPP is situated next to an active volcano? Add to that the threat of earthquakes in a country that sits right along the Pacific Ring of Fire. The BNPP sits less than 10 kilometers away from a volcano, and within 40 kilometers of three known geologic faults.Would it withstand these geological hazards, this over 30-year old derelict?

Environment friendly?

Compare the emissions of a coal-fired power plant to that of a nuclear plant, and the latter wins the Ms. Envi-congeniality award, hands down. But running a nuclear plant requires mining uranium, and that process has never been known to be an environment-friendly undertaking.

And unlike most non-reusable refuse which can relatively be safely stored in sanitary landfills, nuclear waste disposal is a much more complicated and dangerous issue. Dealing with nuclear waste seems as complicated, if not even more so, than running the plant itself. in a country that continues to struggle with the implementation of its Ecological Solid Waste Management law, are we really capable of safely managing nuclear waste?

And nuclear energy is no renewable energy. You would think that in this age of climate change where renewable energy technology is fast becoming more affordable and reliable, we would be going for safer alternatives. So it's quite a surprise to hear advocates of nuclear power suddenly start demonizing renewable energy sources as unreliable. Maybe not as reliable, but I wouldn't go as far as declaring them unreliable. Sure, you get less power from the sun when it's overcast, you take a break from harnessing its power when it sets at the end of the day. But it's there, always, forever providing energy. Like oil, uranium is not renewable.

They're experts, I'm not

Again, we'll be told that the operation of the plant will be handled by experts. Who? Westinghouse. And according to a Fortune article, "With 71 plants operating in 12 countries, it has never had a major accident." That sure sounds reassuring. But looking back at how Westinghouse got this project, we can't help but doubt the integrity of not only the company but of the plant itself.

Westinghouse won this project under questionable circumstances. In that same Fortune article cited above, it tells us that Westinghouse is no stranger to questionable business practices and have been known and proven to have bribed their way into major projects in different countries. They were given the contract to build the plant with their original bid of $500M, and that figure, without any justification, ballooned to $2B. Many publications point to the Marcos' and their cronies' pockets as the reason.

Can we really trust Westinghouse?

Nakaka-insecure ang nuclear power

Nuclear power is immense, true. That is both its pro and con. In a country that continues to struggle against insurgencies and terrorism, a nuclear power plant is an invitation to a terrorist attack. Uranium and nuclear waste can get lost in transit, and fall into the wrong hands. Exaggeration? Not really considering the fact that our very own armed forces' weapons have been known to end up in rebel hands. We can't even stop laglag-bala in our airports.

Apples, oranges, accountability 

You would think that I would easily bring up Fukushima in making a case against the BNPP. But no, that would be apples and oranges, really. See, a lot of nuclear energy advocates point to the fact that "nobody has died due to exposure to radiation in Fukushima," as if that factoid alone should be sufficient enough to guarantee that nuclear energy is safe. But before we give that thumbs up to nuclear energy, let's not forget that radiation-borne diseases take a long time to take effect. Radiation attacks the body at the DNA level, it's a slow process. The effects of Chernobyl is still around 30 years since the accident.

And the former USSR and Japan are way ahead of us in nuclear technology - we're new to this game, and the fact is, the game is a dangerous one - are we sure we want newbies to start playing it? There are other games out there that are much safer. Part of the reason advocates of nuclear power can downplay the effects the accidents in Chernobyl and Fukushima had on the environment and their people is both nations' technological know-how. We don't have that, and this is not to look down on our very own engineers. But the fact remains - nuclear energy is foreign to us. If we're willing to learn the ropes to be able to revive the BNPP, why don't we just exert the same effort and put in the same amount of resources in exploring much safer energy sources?

But, I admit the pros are there. It may be cheaper (we have yet to see that, actually, since the costs they're presenting to us mostly involves the cost of the projected amount of energy to be generated by the BNPP compared to the cost of energy currently being generated by existing power plants - it doesn't include projected costs relating to nuclear waste management), more reliable, and if they get their way and the BNPP is re-opened and operated and in my lifetime it runs without untoward incidents, remind me to applaud and thank the advocates at my deathbed.

I do want lower electricity costs. Damn, I had to beg the electric company's guy not to cut our electricity when I failed to pay our bill on time just a couple of months ago with a promise to pay up that very same day. We barely managed to beat the deadline that day. But not at the cost of living with the risks posed by the reviving the BNPP.

Right now, I still don't buy it. That song's chorus I mentioned in the beginning ends with...

Hindi plantang nukleyar ang sagot sa kahirapan

There are safer options out there.

Diapause and the allure of a Mexican holiday

Mayflies have a lifespan of 24 hours. It will experience high noon, or the middle of the night just once. Sunrise to sunrise, as the case may be, and one sunset in one's entire lifetime. There would be no other sunsets that it could compare the one it would chance upon with.

Once in a lifetime morning, and if it shines all day that day, it would have no knowledge of rain. Just those 24 hours, the lives of some are over within a few hours.

On certain days, 24 hours would be a video editing session, or maybe a dress rehearsal and fine tuning of the production design in time for the following day's opening night. Other times, that would be two carafes of coffee. a trip to and from the kids' school, three loads of laundry, a lunch of left overs, a trip to the market, another trip to and from the kids' school, a drink, an hour at the kitchen, a dinner, and a night's sleep, then wake up for the... if I were a mayfly, there would be no repeat of those two carafes of coffee.

Koi fish live up to over 200 years. Now I didn't know that. Those colorful fish we throw bread crumbs at at friends' garden ponds, restaurant frontages. That's about five times what I've experienced so far. You can take up medicine ten times and still have a hundred years of medical practice. At what point do they get bored? The first century? The hundred and seventy fifth birthday? It takes me about four to five months to stage a play from the time I come across an existing script that stimulates me to the time the cast takes the last curtain call up here. At twice a year, starting in my 20's. I could have the chance to stage 360 stories on stage.

Monarch butterflies live for just a few weeks month, a little over a month from the egg to the adult stage. They spend most of their lives not as butterflies... that happens only in the latter third or quarter of their life cycle. Now that's interesting.

Yeah, it's never too late.

I read too that monarchs can live up to as much as 10 times their expected lifespan... if they happen to enter diapause and take a winter vacation to Mexico.

Hm.

43, and so far so good. Mexico's too far right now, I'll be fine with a fine sunset, a fine one out of a lot more, I hope.

It's not a Monarch, but a pretty one nonetheless

Erasing Baguio from the map...

...or at least what Baguio is,was, all about.

That's what SM City Baguio, along with others like it who look at Baguio and only see a market, their bottom line. They're out to totally eradicate what's left of the city's former natural beauty, the quality of life that its residents were once privileged to live, its culture, its heritage. SM City Baguio is the ruin of the City of Baguio.

SM City Baguio announced recently that it's all-systems-go for their ill-conceived expansion plan - the Temporary Restraining Order issued by the Supreme Court in 2015 only covered the cutting and earth-balling of trees, they claimed, and not the total eradication of the hill that served as the birthplace of Baguio as a city.

The Manila Standard trumpeted the expansion project's features that will allegedly "help absorb the impact of climate change such as a Sky Park, a state-of-the-art sewerage treatment plant, and an underground rainwater catchment tank having a capacity of 7,432.54 cubic meters of water which could be used in mall operations." A man-made Sky Park in lieu of 182 trees that form one of the last remaining forest covers of the city's central business district that nature nurtured for decades in this age of climate change? I don't think so. Not surprisingly, anymore from this paper and writer, there was no mention of the protesters' justifications for their opposition to the project.

They forward their plan to build a state-of-the-art sewerage treatment plant and a rainwater catchment tank as if we should get on our knees and thank them for their beneficence, when these are among the least they can do when they built one the biggest mall in one of the smallest towns in terms of land area and resources in Northern Luzon. The city's residents still have to contend with rationed water, where did they think they should get their water to supply their over 300 stores. The city is still plagued by a garbage crisis, what exactly are they doing not to add to Baguio's burden?

So the Supreme Court has spoken, they said. Well, we can say this: the movement that has come to be known as Save 182 turned to our legal system to seek justice (a salute to our legal representatives led by Cheryl L. Daytec-Yañgot and Christopher Donaal), while SM City Baguio did all it can to find loopholes in it to perpetuate a crime against a city's, a people's constitutional right, its history, its heritage (thanks to their legal mercenaries at the ACCRA and Fortun law offices).

I've discussed this issue extensively in my previous posts, and after four years of struggling to save what's left of our beautiful city from corporate greed, do we now just raise our hands and accept defeat?

We may be facing a loss in the battle to save Luneta Hill, but the struggle to save Baguio from SM's insatiable greed, along others like it, along a corrupt bureaucracy and political system, must go on.

The future of Baguio depends on this struggle. Our quality of life, our lives, in fact, and those of our children's children, depend on it.

How many innocent lives is ok?

He can never be wrong and anybody who points out a flaw, a misstep, a misdirected, misguided initiative or course of action will be pilloried, threatened, even harmed either by him or his minions. It's only been seven weeks. It's only the beginning.

To the Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International, etc., shut up. To the former US ambassador to the Philippines, "bakla!" for supporting the view of the Australian Ambassador Amanda Gorely that rape must not be trivialized (although I don't believe that being called gay is an insult, but we all know in what context the president said it).


The United Nations is "inutile,"and if it continues to call the world's attention to the supposed drug-related extra-judicial killings that have become this regime's focus.

The latest threat is that the president will pull this country out of the United Nations. The inutile United Nations. The same body that ruled in favor of the Republic of the Philippines in its dispute with the mighty People's Republic Of China, which this regime has been downplaying, almost to the point of totally disregarding the ruling. A quick browse though their website belies the president's branding of the United Nations. The beneficiaries of their various humanitarian projects in the country will probably disagree with the president.

I'm aware that illegal drugs is a concern, a major concern even, but I never believed it was this country's foremost concern. Corruption and poverty rank higher in my book - they cause way more misery, and deaths. In fact, I believe that alleviating poverty and combating corruption will make a much bigger dent in the war against drugs than killing with impunity.

His defenders ask, "why are you so concerned about the so-called human rights of criminals and ignore the rights of their victims?" They want the people to assume, of course, that all of the dead have been proven, beyond reasonable doubt, that they were in fact criminals. Who found them guilty? Only the person who pulled the trigger, emboldened and rendered immune from any responsibility, moral, legal, criminal or otherwise, by no less than the most powerful person in the country.

I'll digress, for there lies the problem - if a person in position sees that position as power instead of a responsibility, then we're in big, big trouble. Being in power means getting away with things, good or bad, and if history taught us anything, it's that it's usually getting away with bad, or murder. A policeman who's got the power, armed with a gun, is dangerous, scary. A policeman who's responsible for the safety of the people, for keeping the peace is very much different from the former.

In the meantime, what do we say about 20 year-old Jefferson Bunuan, the boy who dreamed of one day becoming a crime fighter himself?

Lourd de Veyra asked a good question on his Facebook account: "Nagtataka lang ako: bakit itong mga drug pusher na nanlalaban, may pambili ng shabu at baril... Pero walang pambili ng sapatos? Lahat naka-tsinelas." That's the sad reality about this war: the supposed bigger fish - police generals, mayors, governors, judges, big-time drug lords... they're merely named, and the foot soldiers are the only ones ending up dead.


The war on illegal drugs must continue. I've seen too many lives ruined, lost due to drugs. But not at the expense of the innocent, not at the expense of the rights of the rest of us. Would it be too much to ask our president to at least acknowledge the mistakes, reassess the approach and to be more careful and lessen the collateral damage?


How many innocent lives are we willing to lose before we acknowledge that there's something wrong?

Directing, acting and killing theater

Over coffee, the young filmmaker shared his experience working with student actors on a film project. He held open auditions, and most of those who came were from a local school-based theater group. He found his cast, so he started filming.

"I did not give them scripts, instead I described the scenes to them and asked them to improvise - dialogue, blocking and all. And I was turned off by the over-acting, that excessive flamboyance that usually comes with theater acting. So I had to kill that theater-style acting."

I said, what you needed to correct was bad acting, period. Not theater acting.

I get asked a lot which I preferred, acting or directing. Tough call, and can't say. They're closely related yet vastly different. As a director you tell several stories - the main story, the stories of each element that goes into your frame, or onto your stage. The story of the lighting, the props, the costumes, the scenery, the background, the foreground, etc., and all of these stories do a dance, sometimes in perfect unison other times in a beautifully orchestrated chaos, that tells the main story.

Back at that coffee table. First, my friend, don't expect professional acting from amateur actors. At least not until you did your part in molding them into the actors you want them to be. That's your job as a director particularly to a group of actors who have yet to fully learn and understand the art - and science - of acting. How much preparation did you do before placing them in front of your camera? How many rehearsals did you have to prepare for this or that scene? I asked a few more questions that he didn't have an answer to.

Now, when it comes to being an actor... you tell one story - your character's, and all its complexities. Where does Tonyo's passion come from? Which appealed to Caloy more when he agreed to take part in the heist, the loot or the adventure? What was going through Procopio's mind when he realized that, kneeling alongside his brother Andres, their hands tied behind their backs, rifles pointed at them, that everything could end at any moment, that next blink could be the last. He looks up at the sky, or his brother's face, the soldier's muddy shoes, and it could be the last thing he sees before.... nothing.

I don't try to capture a person's soul, that's just pretty talk. For nobody really understands what the soul is, where it is, why it is, where it is. I try to understand the character's mind, get inside that, be that, think the way he thinks for after all, we think therefore we are. It all springs from there, and everything else follows - the stance, the gait, the stare, the gesture. You think the way the character thinks and you desire the way he desires, aspire the way he aspires, despair the way he despairs, rejoice the way he rejoices. That to me is acting, whether on stage or in front of a camera.

Ahhh, how much I crave a story to tell.

Teka, teka, sandali lang po

Teka, teka
sandali lang po
pwede pong magtanong?
Papaano ko po mapapaalis
yung pangalan ko sa listahan niyo?


Teka, teka
sandali lang po
Sa palagay ko po
ay nagkamali lang po
kung sino man ang napagtanungan niyo


Teka, teka
sandali lang po
Hindi naman po tama yan
bakit po ako aamin
e hindi naman ako drug adik?


Teka, teka
sandali lang po
Hindi rin po, hindi ako tulak
Peks man, talagang hindi po
At wala rin po akong kilalang nagtutulak


Teka, teka
sandali lang po
Pero sabi niyo po, kung walang kasalanan
walang dapat ikatakot
e bakit po tinatakot niyo ko?


Teka, teka
sandali lang po
Ibaba po ninyo ang baril niyo
hindi po ako nanlalaban
wala po akong kalaban-laban


Teka, teka
sandali lang po
Huwag po
parang awa niyo na po
huwag po


Teka, teka
huwag po
sandali lang po
huwag po

Thoughts on Davao, Duterte, the Death Squad and why I'm very, very afraid

I was curious about those smoke stacks spewing black smoke right by a busy city thoroughfare, so I asked the driver what it was. A power generator operated by Aboitiz, he said, adding that the region needed it to address its power shortage problem. I wondered though if that coal-powered plant couldn't be located somewhere else, but wondered too how much farther it would've had to be to affect the citizens of Davao significantly less.

Don't judge a city by its Ayala Mall, that wouldn't be a fair judgment, or a realistic visualization. Just as Binay wanted the rest of the country to have this image in their minds that the whole of Makati looks like Greenbelt - a bustling, highly urbanized district nestled amid trees and green open spaces, there are depressed areas there too... the rest of Baguio isn't like the Technohub, in the same way that the rest of Davao is not all Abreeza Mall. I happen to be visiting the city and staying somewhere near the rather swanky commercial center.

So if the Davao example is what convinced you that Duterte's promise isn't merely ampaw, hold on a sec...

In fairness, Davao's streets look cleaner than those of a lot of other cities', maybe it's the norm in the whole city, but I've learned from the Olongapo example where the main thoroughfares, where us, non-residents normally pass, are spotless but the inner streets show a different picture, that it could all be cosmetics. But let's say it isn't so, and I have no problem believing that.

(Update: looks like it isn't mere cosmetics, as on our way to the airport on our last day there, we passed the inner streets to avoid traffic, and they were clean. Bravo, Davao)

First, I felt afraid, not exactly petrified, but afraid. It's sad that all the good things about Davao are now connected to Duterte's tough guy, I have huge balls pronouncements. The streets are clean because if you litter... damn, I can't get the image of the Davao Death Squad and dead minors, guilty of petty crimes, or perhaps not even, out of my head. I know he will make you eat that cigarette if you happen to take a puff outside of that square, those designated smoking areas.

I made sure I was well inside that square when I smoked a cigarette in Davao because, well, it's the law and also because, well, I don't wanna eat a lit cigarette nor do I want to die.

One of my hosts joked, "it's really a beautiful city. If you're good, life is beautiful in Davao. If you're bad, life ends here in Davao."

Nervous laughter.

The fear was palpable. And I'd rather be inspired to not smoke in public, litter, jaywalk, etc., than to be afraid. I want to look up to our leaders, follow their lead because I respect them, not because I'm afraid of them.

On our way to the airport, I saw some gangster graffiti on the walls of an underpass, not sure if gangs are a serious problem in Davao, but I do believe the graffiti are the handiwork of minors. I wondered if any one of the vandals have fallen victim to the Davao Death Squad.

I read the other day how Duterte planned to eradicate, oh wait, he has since changed that to "suppress," crime in 6 months. The plan revolves around improving the lot of our police force in terms of salaries, equipment and legal protection and giving them marching orders to kill suspects who will resist arrest violently.

I arrive in Manila, turn on the TV and the news: a tricycle driver in Davao was killed by a policeman who thought the former was stealing his motorcycle. The tricycle driver was in fact just helping, lifting his bike that fell.

Correction: now I'm petrified.

Domogan vs. (Molintas vs. Claravall)

That's the way it's going down, the incumbent against two challengers. And at first glance, common sense tells us that the former has the upper hand. Again.

To win against Domogan, one must not only get all the opposition votes, he must also get a substantial number off of the incumbent numbers. In the last election, after several landslide loses, Molintas got to close the gap - from the usual 20,000 vote-margin down to just around 4,000.

In 2013, Mauricio Domogan garnered 49.5% of the total votes cast for Mayor, he almost won by majority vote while Molintas got 44.7%. The rest was split between Jun Labo (3,000+) and perennial contender Hernandez along with Puzon and Mina who got negligible numbers.

49.5 percent. That's a big number, and getting a huge slice of that would be the holy grail for the opposition. It's actually a 4-cornered fight, but given Hernandez's dismal showing in 2013 (666 votes), maybe his candidacy would hardly matter in the end.

My two centavos' worth, based on what I see, hear, feel and their respective performances in the candidates' forum held last month at the Baguio Convention Center :

DOMOGAN, The Incumbent

He's gunning for a third and final(?) term as Mayor. His battle cry is this: continue the good work he's doing. Depends on where one is coming from, the promise may be a pro or a con.

He's been trumpeting the city's increased revenue over the last over two decades with him at the helm in one way or another - from below 500M to 2B. Of course he won't mention that it stayed at half a billion for 15 years or so before making that huge leap to a billion in .ca. 2008. But never mind that, fact is, Baguio's economy is on the up, and for those directly benefiting from the boom, a promise of continuity will be attractive.

But at what cost, that so-called boom? The environment under Domogan's reign hardly got any attention. It seemed like when it came to a choice between commerce and environmental sustainability, his administration seemed to have always favored the former. The direction in which he took this city is dangerously unsustainable. When the Mt. Sto. Tomas issue erupted, I don't recall any strong words from him about the damage that his congressman wreaked on a forest reserve, compromising the water supply of thousands of citizens. Instead, what I remember most is his hands-off remarks, and how sure he was that Aliping will able to explain and defend himself in the "proper forum."

He has shown very little regard for the city's heritage too with the fencing of City Hall and his stubborn stand to turn the Melvin Jones into a concrete parking facility.

Yet, the fact remains, he got 49.5% of the votes the last time, and he will remain as the choice of the apathetic and the shortsighted.

MOLINTAS, closer and closer then...

...Claravall finally threw his hat in the ring. In 2013, if we were to tally all the non-Domogan votes, that would have been 50.5%. Never mind Hernandez's 666, but the rest would have been enough to unseat Domogan. This time. Molintas would have just needed to step up his previous efforts to IP a bit to close the gap, but currently, the opposition votes are now divided between him and 

Claravall.

What's he putting on the table? His track record as a champion of the oppressed, being a human rights lawyer. He is forwarding a platform that balances equitable development and environmental protection. He is knowledgeable about the issues afflicting Baguio today, and his pronouncements during the forum were backed with facts and legal realities.

From where I was sitting, he did very well in that forum, I must admit.

CLARAVALL, the dark horse (or breath of fresh air)

I have been hearing of the former judge's name being floated since the early 2000's, I concede that there was some clamor for him to run. He almost did in 2013, but backed down due to unresolved issues with the Molintas camp - who's right or wrong depends on who you are more inclined to believe.

I have been eagerly waiting for what the former judge will put on the table since he filed his candidacy last year. I must say that I went to that candidates' forum last February specifically to hear his voice, and frankly, I was not satisfied. He kept to making motherhood statements hardly backing up his answers with facts and a clear vision on how to get it done. When asked about certain problems that Baguio is faced with today, his answers mostly focused on why they should be solved and not much on how he intends to solve them.

I said, well, cut him some slack - it was his first salvo in front of a large audience. Perhaps he was nervous, rattled, etc. Although a friend pointed out, and quite rightly so, that for someone who's presided over countless cases in his sala, handing down decisions with a bang of a gavel in front of an audience - public speaking should be a walk in the park.

His battle cry - "Bangon, Baguio, Bangon!" This will definitely strike a chord among the concerned, the citizens who care about the city beyond their fenced and gated homes. But to those who are just happy to be in a secure job or see their businesses grow, those who only see the opportunities that Baguio has to offer today, those who equate condominiums, hotels, overpriced donuts and coffee as a sign of progress, the question may be, "bakit kailangang bumangon kung hindi naman nakatumba ang Baguio?"

But, Claravall seem to come across as a breath of fresh air, that's something Baguio needs right now. Couple that with a more solid platform and game plan, and he's golden.

IN THE END, politics is numbers

Addition, addition, addition, as Rey Bautista Sr. used to emphasize during his son, Peter Rey's campaigns. Everything you do must be aimed at adding to your numbers. Domogan's promise of continuity may not add to his current numbers, but it will keep the contented citizens on his side.

Molintas will most likely lose some of his votes to newcomer Claravall, the key for him is to work hard to keep that loss to a minimum, and hope that Claravall will bite significantly into Domogan's share of the electoral pie.

As for Claravall, he must be able to convince the unsatisfied that he is the right man who can turn things around in Baguio. He needs a big slice off of Molintas' 39,000+ votes and some of Domogan's 44k. As for my one vote, I need more how's because I already know the why's.

If it's going to be a tight race, 34%, or 29,697 is what's needed to bag the Mayoralty race, leaving 66 percent which hopefully will be divided equally among the other two opponents.

Hernandez's 666 votes may matter, after all.

And my 1 vote goes to... hmmm, perhaps I'll wait a while longer.