Wednesday, October 26, 2005 [ 6:25 PM ]

WE DID IT

Although the first semester ended a few weeks ago, I really cannot settle down that much because of that Literary Criticism I have in mind. I believe most of us in our class will agree that it gave us much stress just by thinking on whether we will pass or not in that subject (maybe except ate mitch hehe). But after some time of thinking and praying, I am happy that all of us made it.

Going under the hands of Professor Cynthia Rivera is not that easy, so just by thinking that we passed her dreadful subject is something that could make your feet rise above the ground.
With that kind of success, we, the so-called Knights of the Pink Table decided to celebrate and enjoy for the rest of the day. I really can’t put into words how happy we were yesterday so I will just let this picture explain XD.

As I have said before and as I will always say again and again, we could not have done this without the help our God. We owe Him everything we have, including our own selves. Thanks be to Him. TO GOD BE THE GLORY.

"It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most high:To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound." -Psalms92:1-3
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Thursday, October 20, 2005 [ 10:25 AM ]

RULE OF LAW, NON-VIOLENCE

“The rule of law is the only human order. Its perversion, going by the name ‘law and order’ or ‘national security,’ should fool no one except those willing to be fooled. To think of human rights at all, to be concerned about them, should be to think universally of human rights for all.”

These words were quoted from the speech of former president Corazon Aquino at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, New York on September 21, 1986. The speech of Cory exactly 14-years after her predecessor Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law was to remember and recollect the human right violations Filipinos suffered during the regime.

That time, Marcos had always invoked the rule of law as the reason for all the oppressions and censorships done by his government. Media groups were seized, opposition groups were put to bad light and worst, some of them were killed. Irregular presidential decrees were given, rallies were barred and government criticisms were condemned. Cory was referring to these events in her speech.

This time, the events were seemingly the same and only the characters were different. The same rule of law is being invoked to defend the non-sense executive orders such as EO464. The same rule of law is being invoked to defend the calibrated preemptive response, which uses harsh dispersals of assemblies in replacement of the maximum tolerance policy. The opposition groups were condemned to the point that the press secretary is addressing them as destabilizers and terrorists. The same rule of law was used to defend the killing of the impeachment proceeding that would reveal the things that the people should know, whether in favor of the president or not.

The speech of Cory is not only applicable that time but even this time. The events of oppressions are still tremendously obvious and the rule of law is still being overused. The rule of law, as Cory said should be for the universal rights of all and not only for the selected powerful few. Above all, the rule of law was made for the benefit of public interest and not the for the benefit of the president’s interest. Using the rule of law to defend the violence against the people is basically idiotic. In another speech of Cory at Harvard University on September 22, 1986, she said:

“Non-violence is not the only force that can collect the power of the people and bring it to near overwhelmingly on an object. Religious fanaticism, class hatred and military patriotism can serve as well. But only non-violence can achieve a moral purpose without compromising it, especially if that purpose is peace.”
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Friday, October 14, 2005 [ 5:41 PM ]

HALF-TIME

At long last the semester came to an end. Finally I can breathe a bit from all those paper works and unimaginable reading tasks and have a quite enough sleep. And just for the record, I would like to list down some of the events and accomplishments we have done in the previous months.

I had a chance to interview Congressman Gilbert Remulla and the House Minority Leader himself, Chiz Escudero. The interview was for our broadcast journalism prelim, which came out quite well.

Although I’ve reached the maximum limit of absences allowed in some our subjects, still I managed not to go beyond that and not receive a ‘Failure due to absences’ grade in our Sports Journalism and Thesis classes.

We have had a thesis adviser without any knowledge in thesis making (He/She? admitted it) but nevertheless we still completed our methodology without much difficulties and that is with the fact that we revised the whole thesis itself one week before its submission.

We came up with the third issue of the REALSCORE sports magazine, this time featuring billiards and billiard players. But sad to say, we were not able to have an interview with the magician.

We have made a ‘full blown’ documentary project featuring people who sell their own blood, kidney and sperm to support their financial and vices needs. That documentary caused us to tussle against bad weather, sleepless nights, unknown places and stubborn group mates XD. We encountered technical problems in the last minute but still managed to submit it on time. The other groups were already presenting their works but there we are, doing editing stuff in the library. Mitch, our EP, asked us to make a cover for the cd but Art, Tristan and I don’t know how to use PageMaker efficiently so we decided to make it in MSWord. The result... it was like those pirated cd’s sold in quiapo.

And the most dreadful of all was that I finished the thousand and one readings in our literary criticism class and experienced a six-hour long final exam for that subject. And that six-hour long final exam was just to answer four questions. But although I’m done with that, the question still remains… will pass that subject?

Although they may look simple accomplishments but I know deep within me that I am not capable of doing those little things without the help of my God. Whenever it came to a point that everything seems helpless, the only thing that I do is to kneel, pray and shed a tear. And it doesn’t fail. It is to Him that I owe all these accomplishments. TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!
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