Sunday, August 25, 2013

Eventful August

In my lifetime, there were unforgettable events that impacted me in one way or another. Here is a short list of them:

21 August 1983. Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino was assassinated by alone gunman's bullet on the tarmac of the Manila International Airport (now called the Ninoy Aquino International Airport). Thirty years after the mastermind of the crime is still unknown and could still be alive and walking free amongst us.

28 August 1987. Colonel Gregorio Honasan, former top aide to Enrile, leads rebel soldiers to launch an attack against Malacañang early morning. The siege is repelled within hours but with several military and civilian casualties. Cory’s only son, Noynoy is wounded during the siege.

Honasan leads soldiers seizing portions of Camp Aguinaldo, including Department of National Defense headquarters. Other rebel soldiers seized other parts of the Philippines: parts of Villamor Airbase, military camps in Pampanga and Cebu, Legaspi City airport and three television stations in Manila. However, at the end of the day, government troops are able to recapture most of the rebel-held facilities. (http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/features/07/21/09/timeline-events-life-cory-aquino)

29 August 1987. The previous day’s coup ends leaving 53 people dead and over 200 wounded. Honasan evades capture while Enrile denies involvement in the coup.

26 August 1991. At the height of a tropical storm coupled with monsoon rains, I lay in my hospital bed, giving birth to my second child. This has always been an standing joke in the family, because my other two children had significant holidays on or around the time of their birth. My daughter was born on an Easter Sunday in 1986. My youngest child was born a day before Mother's day in 1993, while my middle child was born during a typhoon.

1 August 2009. President Corazon "Cory" Aquino lost her fight with colon cancer. The housewife of Ninoy Aquino led a country fed up with the atrocities of Martial Law and the declining state of living of the ordinary Filipino. 

23 August 2010. The hostage taking drama at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila. The suspect, Police Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza, dismissed from the service on drug related charges, hijacked a tourist bus and held all 22 Chinese nationals as hostages together with 3 Filipino tour guides. After 10 hours, the drama was all over, leaving the suspect dead. Two other fatalities were reported, while five others suffered injuries.



Fast forward 2013.


19-23 August 2013. Monsoon rains battered the entire island of Luzon. Floods submerged numerous provinces, and caused an economic standstill in the National Capital Region. The monsoon claimed 8 lives, injured hundreds, displacing thousands of families and causing millions of damage to crops. 

25 August 2013. Today, I write about the corruption in my Philippines from the standpoint of a lowly taxpayer. For the past weeks, the pork barrel scam has been the biggest news in my Philippines. P10B of taxpayer money was squandered by people elected into public office, assisted by a certain Janet Napoles. This caused a big stir in the labor force. Workers are trying hard to make ends meet, unable to do anything about at the rising cost of basic commodities and utilities, and then they find out that some privileged few and their cohorts are living in luxury, with money that was supposed to alleviate the suffering of the common Filipino. Enraged at this new blow to an already disgusted workforce, a mass movement to protest the misuse of pork barrel funds will take place tomorrow, August 26. If I could only refuse to pay income taxes, I would! If I had enough power and influence, I would propose that taxes on income be stopped until such time that all the P10B is recovered.


For more information about this plague that is engulfing my Philippines, click on the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Pork_barrel_scam.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/473759/7-napoles-conduits-named-in-nbi-affidavits

25 August 2013 5pm. More than 2000 members of the police force are starting to be mobilized in preparation for the mass rally that will be held tomorrow.

25 August 2013. 9pm. Another restless night for my Philippines. Lets all pray that tomorrow's mass protest will be peaceful.

This is an infograph on the basics of the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam, produced by the Assembly, the Political Science Organization of the Ateneo de Manila UniversityThis file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

3 comments:

  1. ...a well written post as always sisterrette....this ought to go viral...your sharing buttons have disappeared....I hope you put back the social media sharing buttons so many could share your thoughts...haaayyy these days I am getting more frustrated about how our country is being ran...sometimes I just wanna pack my things and board an airplane..but like you, I love this country so much...doing my part to save our nation...love yah! ...smiling at the thought of your kids being born on significant dates...I was born on an All Saint's Day :D

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  2. Masarap daw ang buhay noon. Kulang ang nagugutom. Ang mga magsasaka ay sinusuplayan ng libre ng gobyerno kung may binibili man ay mura. Ang mga magsasaka ay may suplay ng para itanim para maging palay, abono. Nang mapatalsik si Marcos lahat ay binibili na. Nawalan ng price control. Marami ang nagsisisi sa pagpatalsik kay Marcos. Pesteng kalayaan na nakamit. Oo nga may kalayaan na. Kalayaan na pumatay, magnakaw o ano pa. Kulang ang sinusuwelduhan noon na nasa gobyerno sa panahon ni Marcos. Kung totoo man na corrupt siya ay siya lang. Pero ngayon dumami. May pansarili rin palang interes ang mga tao na tumulong para siya mapatalsik. Si Ramos naging pangulo, si Enrile, si Honasan at iba pa....Nasaan ang mga pari at madre noon na tumulong. Maayos ang kalagayan nila. Pero ang hinimok nila na sumama para mapatalsik si Marcos ay ano ang kalagayan ngayon ng buhay.

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    Replies
    1. Oh so true. Pati kabataan ngayon, wala ng pangarap pang magkaroon ng maayos na buhay. Parang naging mga pessimistic at fatalistic nalang. Ang sistema ng edukasyon ay hindi na vocation kundi negosyo. Naging diploma mills ang mga state colleges and universities. Ang saya ng buhay noon, swerte pa din akong ipinanganak sa panahon na masagana ang kabuhayan ng bawat Pilipino.

      Thank you for the comment, Arvin.

      Delete

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