On Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili Scandal

The Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili scandal is all over the news today. I was flipping on national channels last night and they are actually the current rave. The media seems to ride on the scandal. As a lady, I cannot help but take on the side of Ms. Halili. I hate it when a lady is being put into a shameful situation. Hubby said that it looks like she knows about the filming of the vid, but still she does not know that it will be shown publicly. Even the lawmakers seem to ride on the fame (err, shame) that the vids are making. Why does it have to be that they need individuals from the film industry to come in front and say that their rights were violated before they would react? Matagal ng maraming sex scandal ng mga hindi kilalang tao na binebenta sa kalsada pero dahil hindi sila kilala ayos lang sa mga mambabatas? Oh,I just wish they would open their eyes to the realities of our world. The more they talk about the videos they higher the number the searches over the internet for them are. Even my six year old son is starting to ask about the video. The news are all on primetime and a lot of kids are actually watching the news with their parents. Hence, a lot of kids are actually hearing them talk about this kind of things. Sa inis ko, nilipat ko na lang ang TV sa ibang channel.

And by the way, we should be more worried because our country already have its 1st confirmed AH1N1 patient.

A Day in the Wild

Jian has always been tugging on us to go to the parks. Unlike kids of his age, he seems to enjoy the beauty (and heat!) of nature instead of the comfort being offered by the malls. Lucky for us, because these parks does not actually ask for a lot for entrance fees. It also is a great way of distressing from the daily hustle and bustle thing we called “work”. I thought that last saturday was not going to be different from all the other saturdays that we had. I normally wake up late and asks the same question, “Where are we gonna buy our groceries?”. Nagulat ako, kasi Jian replied “Ano kaya kung magpunta naman tayo sa park, antagal ko na kayang hindi nakakapunta sa park?”. Gusto kong sumagot na walang groceries sa park. I tried to convince him that it was not the right time to go there as the sun is about to shine its brightest and I don’t want us to be toasted and all. But then, pinanigan ng ama, kaya ayun natuloy din kami. . Add to this the fact that Apple, my cousin who stays with us, haven’t been to the Wildlife before. We boarded a public utility jeepney off to the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife at around 10amWe were greeted by the scorching heat of the sun when we arrived in Wildlife at around 11am. Walkathon na syempre ang drama naming lahat. They don’t seem to care about the heat (buti na lang we were able to apply sunblock lotions before we went out!).

Being in this park, makes memories come back.
Hah, this park seems to hold a special place in my heart. It was saddening to see that over the years, deterioration seems to take over the place.
The animals looked malnourished,and a lot of the structure which houses animals are dilapidated. Even the main administration building does not look properly taken cared off.

It is no longer possible to fish on the lagoon, nor to go boating. There was a nice part of the park which remains to be close and no one can answer how commoners can get there. I know that this park is a sanctuary for strayed wild animals but it appears that the whole place needs a lot of finances for make over. This reminds me the reason why even people from Class C & D crowds prefer to go to the mall even if its more costly.

On a lighter note, it is nice to see that the cleanliness of the park was maintained well enough. The flowering plants seems to be happy as shown in the abundance of the buds. Oh and I almost forgot to say, that we were not alone on that day. There are actually a lot of families and groups of young students on the park on that scorching saturday afternoon.

All in all, that day in the Wild was not a bad experience at all. As the pictures implied, we have a nice time under the heat of the sun.

I just wish that our government could do something about the “dying parks” so that the next generation Filipinos could still savor the beauty of the wild without having to pay much.

Pataas ng Pataas ng Pataas

Kanina lang ako nagbyaheng ulit papuntang opisina kasi di pwedeng maghatid si Hubby dahil kailangang mag aral ni Baby para sa test sa eskwela bukas. Nagulat ako sa sobrang taas ng pamasahe sa ngayon. Parang kelan lang, 1.50 ang minimum na pamasahe sa mga jeepneys tapos ngayon 8.50 na pala. Okay, siguro nga ay sobrang tagal na ang panahong sinasabi ko kasi 15 years na nga pala akong nakakagraduate from high school, at high school ako noong 1.50 ang pamasahe sa jeep. Naisip ko lang dati pag may bente pesos ako sa bulsa, malayo na ang mararating ko, may meryenda pa ako. Ngayon kaya magkano na ang baon ng mga high school students? Grade 1 pa lang kasi ang anak ko eh kaya nagkakasya pa sya sa sandwiches and biscuits na pinapabaon namin. At saka mas gusto ko yung ganito na pinababaunan ko sya ng pagkain, alam ko na kung ano ang kinakain nya, di pa sya lumalaki na sanay na may hawak na pera. Ang hirap na talaga ng buhay, wala ng mura ngayon kundi ang mura ng kapitbahay mo na galit na galit dahil sa patuloy na pagtaas ng presyo ng bilihin.

Kung noong mga nakakaraang buwan na ang NFA rice ay nabibiling disiotso pesos isang kilo, madami pa ring magugutom, paano na ngayong tumaas na rin sya at naging bente singko pesos na kada kilo. Dumadami lalo ang batang nasa kalye at naghahanap buhay, dumadami rin ang nasisiraan ng bait dahil sa gutom. Ano na lang kaya ang kahihinatnan nang Pinoy at ng Pilipinas pagkaraan ng sampung taon? Dati, ang bukambibig ko noong nasa kolehiyo ako, di ko iiwan ang 'Pinas kasi alam ko kaya pa nitong tumayo sa lugmok na kinalalagyan nya. Nagsisimula kasi noong ituring tiger economy ang ekonomiya ng bansa na nasa pamamahala ni Tabako. Ngayon, nagsisimula na rin akong mag isip na mangibang bayan para sa kinabukasan ng anak ko, ng pamilya namin. Pabulok na kasi nang pabulok ang sistema sa 'Pinas kahit sa pinakamaliit na sangay ng gobyerno me korupsyong nagaganap, kahit sa kabataang barangay nauso na rin ang bilihan ng boto. Haynaku, pano pinakikialaman na rin ng malalaking pulitiko.

Mag aanim na taon pa lang ang anak ko sa Agosto, at ayokong ito ang maging mukha ng Pilipinas na kalakihan nya. Pero, ano ang magagawa ng isang inang katulad ko kung nag iisa lang ako. Kung sana lang lahat ng ina ay magtutulong tulong alam ko may natitira pang hibla nang buhay ang 'Pinas at nasa palad ito ng kabataang nasa pangangalaga ng kanilang mga magulang.

Building Bridges

I work in one of the contact centers in Makati and daily I go out my way from far-flung Valenzuela City bracing all the traffic and the oddities of a metropolitan traveller. I have been passing the same roads since time in memoriam. We have never lived in any other place so that explains why I have always been "at home" with all the roads that I pass by. Well, some months ago ( if memory serves me right, this was last April) the Tullahan bridge which connects Malabon and Navotas was closed for reconstuction. This was after six years of declaring the bridge as unsafe for motorists. Major traffic rerouting was formulated as part of the project. The problem is commuters (including me) will have to cut their trips from Valenzuela to Monumento. We need to shell out additional amount since the trip is cut into two. The usual fare of 10 pesos shoot up to 14. Kawawa naman mga estudyante! ( or should I say, kawawa ang mga magulang na nagbibigay ng mga allowances nila.) But my biggest fear amongst all these is the fact that the makeshift pedestrian bridge that DPWH made a few months ago was made of coco lumber. Yes, you read it right, COCO lumber. A few weeks ago, the Tullahan bridge was at the top of the news again because of an accident that happened one rainy night. The footbridge collapsed and caused some people to get hurt (one of them was our ninang). DPWH is pointing fingers again regarding this matter. They are saying that the volume of the water plus the trash was the culprit of the accident. After some time, they were able to provide steel footbridge on one side of the construction site. This was the bridge that I crossed over yesterday. This was the first time that I was able to crossed Tullahan on the left side. The other footbridge on the right side was permanently closed since San Miguel Plant was the owner of that small piece of land that serves as the location of the second footbridge. They said it was just "on loan " for public usage. Traffic was congested yesterday ( as usual), the reason why I have also expected the big volume of pedestrian crossers. True to what I was drawing up in mind, sobrang dami ng tao that time. It actually took me five minutes to be able to cross the footbridge. Ang nakakatakot nagswa sway ang bridge habang naglalakad ang maraming tao. Hindi lang yun, you will hear creaking sound as well which will eventually make you think na mukhang magigiba ang bridge na dinadaanan mo. People are panicking as well, mas madami kasing estudyante that time ang nagdadaan. True, the bridge was made up of steel right now, (or should I say steel railings) but what will caught your mind is the flooring that they used. They used the same plywoods from the dilapidated footbridge and what holds the bridge in its middle were just nylon wire which look too small for such big job as holding some 100 people all at the same time.

Hay, sa totoo lang mukhang mas matibay pa ang mga hanging bridges na nasa gubat kesa sa footbridge sa Tullahan.