Author Archives:

Gallivanting in Yokohama

Posted on by

34783316912_36a58b2983_z

OK, I just got off work. Finished at 8 pm. I can’t take it anymore. I need to empty my head.

So I browsed through my Japan photos and I was transported back to Yokohama. I covered the conference for four days straight, wrote my stories on the fifth day, all day. I wasn’t able to leave my hotel room (which was really tiny, with a tiny soaking tub), except to eat in the restaurant just across my hotel.

I attempted to go to the mall in the early evening to have dinner but my editor was messaging me furiously on my Skype and I had to jump out of the train going to Minatomirai and back to my hotel in Kannai to fix one of my stories being edited.

34950057834_7c9e2f2dc5_z

So it was only on my sixth day and my last day in Yokohama that I was able to see a bit of the city. I just walked from my hotel and didn’t care where I ended up.

35401891740_83c09d48c3_z

So Yokohama is a port city, the first one to open up to foreign trade. So naturally it had Western-style old buildings like this, which was the old Customs house of Yokohama.

DSCF1163

Which was bursting with flowers…

DSCF1166

I crossed the highway and ended up at the Red Brick warehouses, historical buildings which were the customs warehouses during the late 19th century. They are now shopping malls/event centers.

DSCF1168

And there was an adjacent park where I lingered for a bit. DSCF1177

And walked a bit further…Hey hey hey! There’s the Pacifico convention center. Minatomirai.

DSCF1181

And I just enjoyed the cloudy spring morning. DSCF1183

The flowers. Flowers everywhere. Everytime I come to Japan, there are always flowers everywhere, which I dearly love.

DSCF1195 DSCF1202

DSCF1206 DSCF1216

I spent the rest of the morning taking photos of flowers around Minatomirai. I can’t remember where I had lunch but I remember going into one of the malls in Minatomirai. I left Yokohama at 1 pm-ish to go to Tokyo central, which was about 45 mins away…not bad.

35749758046_49b1bb4765_z

I spent 6 days in Yokohama and didn’t see much. Hahahaha!

A little something to inspire my work week

Posted on by

Yup, my work week starts today. Even though I’m still feeling wobbly from that nasty flu, I think I need to get my butt out there again and start working. I have a conference again to attend.

Anyway, to inspire me, I searched for the Youtube videos of one of my drum heroes, Cobus Potgieter, whom I discovered about seven years ago. When I was pregnant with my girls, I was listening to a lot of Breaking Benjamin and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (I don’t know why), which brought me to the Youtube videos of this amazing drummer from South Africa.

I could not find his videos of his early covers (he did a really good drum cover of Red Jump Apparatus’ Face Down) yesterday. Good thing I had the foresight of downloading his other videos, thinking nothing lasts forever in Youtube. How true I was.

UPDATE: It reappeared on Youtube! See it here:

I fell in love with Cobus when he covered some Breaking Benjamin songs (I don’t know why Flickr doesn’t allow me to upload the entire video).

And solidified his place in my heart after watching his drum cover of 30 Seconds to Mars. If you could see towards the end of the video, he was smiling, like he was really enjoying playing This is War. Plus watch out for the stick flips.

People who are very passionate with what they do inspire me.

UPDATE: Still sick. I just puked my way to the bathroom. No conference for me.

Japan on my mind

Posted on by

DSCF1264

I’ve always been fascinated with the country ever since I was a little kid. I grew up watching Japanese animation, from Voltes V and Daimos to Ranma ni buno ichi (Ranma 1/2). My mom also went to Japan for post-graduate short courses so she brought home toys, clothes and stories from the country that was so alien and yet intriguing.

Then I fell in love with Japanese anime. I binge-watched Fushigi Yuugi, Rurouni Kenshin (all episodes and arcs, including the OAVs), Ghost In the Shell, and a lot more. I am still in love with Studio Ghibli. My favorite movies are still Spirited Away (Chihiro no Sen) and Love Letter (live action) by Shunji Iawai. I picked up a few Nihongo phrases and sentences along the way.

So in 2009, I went with my bestfriend to Kyoto and Nara and stayed there for eight days. Which weren’t enough. I vowed I will come back.

Then I got hooked on Your Name (Kimi No Na Wa) by Makoto Shinkai. I was a goner.

So I came back on 3 May for some work-related stuff (during the Golden Week!!!) but this time alone in Tokyo. I was there for 11 days, which I still find were not enough. I was so bitin. I think I will never get enough of it.

I spent the first 6 days in Yokohama, working like crazy and it was only on my last day I was able to see more of the city on the edge of the Pacific before I headed back to central Tokyo.

So on my first day, after the 1.5 hrs drive from Haneda Airport, I searched for the train station that would take me to the nearest stop to the conference venue. Of course, being me, I got lost. Walked around for 2 hours. I found myself in Yokohama’s Chinatown.

DSCF1145

The street food was yummy, by the way.

And I witnessed a Dragon dance. Which was weird. Dragon Dance during the Golden Week.

DSCF1148

After an hour or so, I finally found the conference center. Hooray. So in the next four days the only scenery I would see is this.

DSCF1149

And this:

DSCF1151

DSCF1157

Travel-weary journalist now sick

Posted on by

I am now fighting off flu that has been threatening to bog me down since the beginning of this month when I arrived in Japan on 3 May.

After 11 days in Japan, I went back home to be with my girls for 7 days and I was off again to Singapore. Just got back yesterday. Now I’m sick. Been working like crazy for weeks.

I will write about Japan in a few days. Let me get these work-related stuff off my desk.

But first off, I’ll give you a preview of what Japan for me is like this time around (my first visit was in 2009, Kansai region).

Hitachi Seaside Park

Pretty, no?

Martial law

Posted on by

My head is aching right now. I could not write a single word for work. I’ve been having a hard time sleeping here in Singapore because martial law has been declared over the southern region back home. And just as I suspected, the president has been wanting to declare it since November. Now he has the perfect excuse to do it.

All I can think of right now is Plaza Miranda.

I don’t think I’ll be sleeping well for quite a while.

Martial law on Duterte’s mind as early as November —Lorenzana 

Published May 24, 2017 6:43pm
By TRISHA MACAS, GMA News

President Rodrigo Duterte has thought of declaring martial law as early as November to combat ISIS, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Wednesday.

“Actually, matagal na iyan pinag-iisipan ni Presidente iyan. Matagal na naming pinag-uusapan iyan,” he told reporters in NAIA after Duterte gave a press briefing.
Lorenzana said they advised the President against it.

“In fact, iyong pumunta kami sa Butig last year, sinabi niya na, ‘You prepare for martial law. Pero saan ba ito? Island by island ba or whole Mindanao or Philippines?’ Sabi namin hindi pa naman dapat. So the thought process niya nangyari na eh long ago pa,” he added.

Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao on Tuesday while he was on an official visit in Russia.

He cut his trip short and arrived in Manila on Wednesday afternoon. —NB, GMA News

 

“You’re just a f*cking employee!”

Posted on by

No, this is not an issue of “hurt” feelings of one journalist. We are made of sterner stuff, so one f*ck you is just the many f*ck yous we will receive in the course of our professional lives.

This is about how a public official sees and treats people around her, how she belittles people who are not within the same social and economic circle. Makes you wonder if her “concern for the poor” is really genuine or her “passion for the environment” is really true or is just a means to glorify herself. I don’t know the answers—these are real questions of an inquisitive mind.

I’m neither pro nor anti-mining (you can see from my background, who my parents are) but if a public official, an environmental crusader, wants genuine change, she should look inward. Then she should go through the legal and right processes so the directive and department orders that she implements are fool-proof or have legal bases so these won’t just get thwarted by technicalities used by the lawyers of the entities she wants penalized. Because long-lasting institutional change cannot be achieved by shortcuts.

Post-script: And this is what I’ve learned in my short stint in UP Pahinungod. Pahinungod = offering; dedication. Not outreach. Outreach means you come from a different place and will still be in that different place. But offering = dedication means you are not separate from the people you serve…you are one of them.

There lies the difference, Madam Lopez.

Quizzed on mining directive, Gina Lopez vents ire on BW reporter: ‘You’re just a f—ing employee’

By: InterAksyon
April 6, 2017 6:08 PM

MANILA – Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Regina Lopez on Wednesday unleashed a tirade on a reporter of BusinessWorld, whose questions about mining she resented, in the process describing the journalist as “bought by the greed and selfishness.”

Sec. Lopez had earlier on made known her impatience in responding to questions from BusinessWorld reporter Janina Lim, calling her out as she started asking: “You know, you’re just a f—ing employee” and then saying that Lim had “no heart for the poor.”

Lim, however, pressed on with her questions, asking the twice-bypassed secretary to elaborate on her new order for miners to set aside more funds apart from what they are required to contribute to a “Rehabilitation Fund” for formerly mined lands.

Lopez said she wants miners to draw from their profits and pay hard-up farmers “out of the rehab zone”.

Lopez told Lim: “All I am asking is to give 2 million pesos to every farmer of a farm that’s out of the Rehab Zone. What’s wrong with that? They’re disadvantaged, it’s out of the rehab zone. Who’s gonna take care of it? Why don’t you have a heart, you know? All I am asking is to put money for a farmer who has been disadvantaged by the mining, what’s wrong with that?”

Told by Lim that miners have appealed to the Office of the President questioning the “additional requirement” and sought for her reaction, Lopez cut her short: “What questioning? They disadvantaged all the farm lands, they should f—ing take care of it. What’s wrong with that? They’re making so much money from the stock pile. Don’t you think, they should take care of the farmers that they disadvantage? You in your heart, don’t you think they should? Who’s gonna take care of the farmers? It’s out of rehab zone. Who’s gonna take care of it? The money that they have for rehab doesn’t take care of the farmers out of the rehab zone. Who’s gonna take care of it?”

Read the rest of the story here.

Gina Lopez recorded telling reporter: You’re just a f—ing employee

Published April 6, 2017 10:07pm
Updated April 7, 2017 1:17am

…Sought for comment, Lopez said it was “tabloidish” for Business World to publish her “private conversation” with the reporter.

– See more at: http://www.gmanetwork.com/…/gina-lopez-recorded-telling..

Sidenote: It was an ambush interview with five reporters that time. It was not a private conversation and she is fully aware that there were recorders.

DENR’s Lopez defends new mining directive as she accuses BW reporter of ‘being bought’

In the process of defending the proposal — which is being questioned by miners — however, Ms. Lopez lost her composure and suggested that reporters covering the matter had been “bought.”

The Environment secretary told BusinessWorld reporter Janina C. Lim: “You’re just a fucking employee,” Ms. Lopez blurted out the line as she was stopped by Ms. Lim and another reporter on the landing of the second floor of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) office in Quezon City.

At that time, Ms. Lopez was taking the stairs on the way up to her office on the fourth floor.

The exchange between the official and the reporter took place minutes after several DENR employees supposedly called off a rally against the secretary that was set for nine that morning. Just a few days before the incident, Ms. Lim filed an exclusive report, saying that the Civil Service Commission rejected the temporary appointment of Mr. Philip G. Camarra, who was appointed by Ms. Lopez as DENR undersecretary.

The incident on Thursday morning began when Ms. Lim, who has been covering the environment and agriculture beats since January last year, asked the secretary whether she was attending a meeting of the Mining Industry Coordinating Council that afternoon at the National Economic and Development Authority office in Pasig City.

Read rest of the story here.

[Statement] No excuse for Sec. Lopez’s treatment of Businessworld reporter

Statement
April 7, 2017

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines condemns Environment Secretary Gina Lopez’s totally unjustified behavior toward Businessworld reporter Janina Lim, who she cursed and maligned Thursday for simply doing her job.

It is doubly unfortunate that Ms. Lopez, the scion of a family intimately involved in media, should justify her boorishness toward Ms. Lim by blaming one of the qualities indispensable to being a journalist – persistence.

A recording of Ms. Lopez’s tirade captured her berating Lim of being “just a f—ing employee” and asking the reporter why she did not have a “heart for the poor.”

Ms. Lim was simply asking Ms. Lopez to elaborate on her order for miners to set aside more funds apart from what they are required to contribute to a “rehabilitation fund” for formerly mined lands but the DENR secretary berated Lim and another colleague, telling them: “You know, you guys should do your work, but why don’t you have a heart for the poor? Where’s your heart?”

When Ms. Lim tried to follow up, Ms. Lopez turned on her and said: “You know you are so young and you’re already bought by the greed and selfishness.”

It was at this point that Ms. Lim finally answered Ms. Lopez squarely, saying: “I was not bought, Ma’am. I was not bought. Thank you. Thank you.”

Ms. Lopez subsequently sent a message to Businessworld attempting to explain her side. If anything, however, she only helped indict herself even more.

She claimed she was late and rushing to a TV interview when accosted by Lim in a stairway and was piqued because she had “often been irritated” by the “line of questioning” of the “young and persistent reporter.”

“She was not the best person to meet while rushing for an appointment. So I lost my cool with her,” Ms. Lopez said in her message to Businessworld.

She also attempted to blame Lim for recording “a repartee that took place in a stairway” that, she claimed, should have been “left in the privacy for which it is meant,” even hinting the whole incident seemed to be “like looking for some kind of hole to punch.”

When does being “irritated” by a “persistent reporter” give a public official or anyone else for that matter the right to verbally abuse them?

If, indeed, Ms. Lim had consistently and persistently shown objectionable or offensive behavior in the course of her work, Ms. Lopez could easily have communicated this with the reporter’s superiors and asked that the situation be rectified.

And no, Ms. Lopez, what happened was not “repartee.” It was a legitimate attempt by a journalist to interview you on an issue related to your work and, thus, of public interest.

If you were, as you claim, in a hurry because you were late for an interview, you could have simply said so or even ignored the question. Instead, you actually took the time to stop and insult Ms. Lim and, worse, belittled her for being “just a f—ing employee,” as if honest toil were something to be ashamed of.

Ms. Lopez, your zeal for the causes close to your heart can never justify your despicable treatment of Ms. Lim. If anything, such a mindset, which brooks no questioning or dissent, is anathema to democracy.

We demand that you apologize to Ms. Lim and pledge to be more open to questioning. This is the least you can do.

Reference:
Ryan Rosauro, chairperson
NUJP Hotline 09175155991