Category Archives: current events

Face to face schooling next year?

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Finally, they will start vaccinating children 12 to 17 year old with comorbidity. My kids aren’t qualified yet since they’re still 10 years old but hopefully they will have the vax before the new school year starts in July 2022. I feel bad for them that they haven’t seen their friends in almost two years. Going to school online for this long really takes a toll.

Meanwhile, individuals who are immunocompromised can receive their booster dose in the coming weeks.

I have gained back the weight I lost during my Covid episode. I think I need to start biking short distances to regain my strength back. Or start walking first around UP campus. I don’t want to end up like a blimp before Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, my househelp will be going home to her province, so there will be no one left to look after the cats. What I will be doing is I will drive the girls to my mom’s place again, come back here in QC and the cats and I will be staring at one another for a couple of weeks then I will bring the girls back before New Year.

That sounds lovely. <3

The surging commodity prices have hit oil-importing countries like the Philippines, pushing up prices of goods and services. Jeepney drivers, already crippled by the limited number of passengers they can carry per trip, are crying for help.

The skyrocketing prices of industrial metals have made thieves and scavengers a lot of money.

A Toyota Prius hybrid reported stolen last month in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture, was later recovered with its catalytic converter cut out.

“I’d never heard of such a case in this prefecture until now,” a source close to the police said.

American and British police would be unlikely to say the same. Emissions-reducing catalytic converters have become a target of choice for thieves worldwide, notably in the U.S. and the U.K., as the precious industrial metals they contain have surged in price.

From Japan to U.S., thieves grab car parts worth more than gold

This sounds like the aftermath of a war, when even faucets containing copper are stolen.

Supply chain issues have also pushed inflation worldwide, with ports closed or operating at a significantly lower capacity due to Covid restrictions.

The pandemic’s lingering effects would be felt for quite a while even though mobility has been eased up a bit.

My colleague in Singapore attended a conference in Marina Bay Sands and sent a photo of her dining alone in one huge table. She said it felt so weird. It sounds so odd now that face to face conferences are being held now even if the number of cases remain worrisome.

We had an editorial meeting this morning with the global managing editor and we were told the parent company may implement a flexi working arrangement from now on, especially for journalists. We don’t have to report to the office that regularly since it would depend on where we would be more productive. This may be used to justify my remote working arrangement in the future if the time comes they would force me to plant myself in Singapore. The cost of education there will kill a single parent like me that’s why it’s best I stay here. As a foreigner, my kids will not be assured of slots in Singapore public schools so they will always be on the waiting list every year. That has been the dilemma of Filipinos living there who don’t have the “expat package” that skilled foreign workers used to enjoy when they are assigned to Singapore. I have one friend who sent his entire family back home to the Philippines so they could enroll the children here after living in Singapore for so long. I don’t want that for my kids.

So let’s see by next year what the people upstairs would say.

Here we go again

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I know that tourism is the lifeblood of some cities, provinces, and countries but until we have everybody inoculated and not take precautions (please, no to crowds!), the virus will continue to mutate. Chinese tour groups are notorious for the lack of crowd control or the volume of people. If the virus mutates again from China, God knows what kind of monster will come out of there again. We should refrain from encouraging this kind of complacency.

Meanwhile, the dolomite beach along Manila Bay is I think politically instigated, to show that stupid project is not a waste of people’s money when funds should have been channeled to pandemic response.

This is really stupid.

What Dr. Mojica says is true. Presidential aspirants who promise to build hospitals do not know what the problem is, therefore, they do not know how to solve a health crisis like Covid. Mojica says that hundreds of hospitals will not solve the pandemic if you do not fix the contact tracing, air circulation in public utility vehicles, offices, schools and public places and not enough vaccines/low vaccination rate. These hundreds of hospitals will still be filled with Covid patients to the brim. He asks, where will you get healthcare workers? “We do not multiply when we get wet,” he said.

As I said in my post on LinkedIn, you are like groping in the dark and Covid will just hit you from out of nowhere because there is no contact tracing, no access to low-cost testing, and no support for quarantined breadwinner from poor families. You can’t just go on cycles of lockdowns that kill livelihoods and spur reckless behaviors, like that of the uncontrolled tourists in the two examples above.

I don’t want to get sick with Covid again. Nope.

Adjusted floor plan. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

So after discussing with my siblings and mom the plan, I was told, no, I cannot eat floor area in the main house so the room that I will be taking from the main house will remain narrow. So I decided to keep the existing walls and just make another wall to extend my room and make a separate office/walk-in closet. The girls’ room will be transferred to the corner of the unit and will be occupying the rest of the eastern wall. There will be just a wee bit of space for hanging out/lounging for my girls and their friends. We don’t really watch TV that much but this will be for the girls’ movie nights with friends, which I regularly had with my friends when we were in high school because our house was so near our school.

It looks tight because I have my dimensions off (this is not to scale) but the general idea is there. The bar stools can be pushed under the counter for more walking space but I think this will not be that small. I have inspected the space yesterday and it’s doable and is more spacious than I thought. I can also have transoms all around the entire east, north and western walls because there are gaps between the support beams and the naked ceiling. There will be sunlight all around.

Then I told my mom that I will just follow the vaulted ceiling and not have a dropped ceiling so that the entire unit will feel more spacious. My house will feel like a church with super high vaulted ceilings. I think I wouldn’t need a/c in the living/kitchen area and just have my window-type inverter a/c units in our rooms because of the number of windows and the vaulted ceiling will keep it well ventilated. Plus my hometown is generally cooler than Metro Manila since it is at the foot of a mountain.

Meanwhile, the girls are having fun with their older cousin and the younger one. They played all day long until it was time for Kuya P to go home at around 8 pm.

The four of them in a group hug. Another kuya in the background. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

We brought their bikes so at least they can bike around the area. They need a lot of exercise and fresh air and more playmates.

I have one week of freedom. And the cats have peace.

Kimchi taking advantage the absence of the girls and my bedsheet-changing day.

Such a terrible idea

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We are inviting another surge. They’re opening everything up without the proper safety measures. Two years on, we still couldn’t get a proper contact tracing system and accessible testing. We are groping blindly in the dark and we just have to pray that our bodies would be healthy enough to withstand Covid. Even if you’re vaccinated, you can get infected again and again. One journo said the president of one of the Philippines’ largest conglomerates got infected thrice. He is still alive though.

And unvaccinated children are the perfect vectors.

By December-January, we will have another surge by the looks of it.

Meanwhile, an internal memo from CNN Philippines got leaked to Vera Files and got published. Well, good for the editorial team at the network for resisting the orders from the owners (or the real owner). But then the family that owns the network (in name only) is known to be a Marcos crony, but the rumored real owner is a beneficiary of the cronyism of the Marcoses. Very, very close associate of the late dictator.

Knowing some of the editors at CNN, I could very well picture in my head how they would have reacted. One of them took over the subject I used to teach in UP after I quit and I gave her some of my teaching materials and syllabus. Her reaction to this memo would have been priceless and I could hear the invectives she would have thrown around the newsroom.

Some founders of Vera Files are also teaching at my college.

However, CNN Philippines’ viewership is very limited because they’re an English-language channel. The people who should be reached by the truth are the C, D, E markets who comprise the bulk of the Philippine electorate.

Because it is in every dictator’s playbook, ABS-CBN–the one with the widest reach in the country and owned by the Lopezes, one of whom was imprisoned by Ferdinand Marcos–was killed on free TV last year. All the Filipinos can see/watch/hear now are the propaganda of the very Marcos-friendly GMA, the executives of which are Marcos allies. I remember writing the news about one case filed by Imee Marcos more than a decade ago before the SEC, claiming that the shares owned by the Duavits (Gilberto Duavit is the COO of GMA) were just “lent” by the Marcoses to them.

As I said, the real fight is not on social media but at the grassroots level. Those who want change must talk to the people on the streets, in the farms, in the far-flung barangays who do not have access to internet or even cellular phone signal.

My cats investigating the Christmas wreath I bought from Shopee two weeks ago. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

The crap that I’ve been buying have been arriving daily. I should stop buying stuff. I really need to get out.

Some of the good purchases I had were the watercolor sets and brushes so the girls would be able to put into practice the stuff they’re learning from Skillshare and Domestika. Twin A today was so busy painting. Good. She is off computer games, unlike her male cousin who has never taken his eyes off his Roblox game.

Twin A’s first watercolor painting exercise today. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I told her if she practices and gets better at this, I will buy her the more expensive gouache paints so she can level up. She initially wanted to start with gouache painting but I told her she should start first with watercolors, learning how to control her brush, the water, and blending colors. I told her to always bring her sketch notebook and smaller watercolor pad with her so she can practice copying scenes around her so she can practice all the time. I told her I always had a notebook and pen with me in my bag while I was growing up so I can write during my idle moments–one way of practicing my craft. That habit has stuck with me until today. I have several notebooks with me all the time in my bag: one for work and another for my random musings when I don’t want to fiddle with my phone while waiting for my car to be washed, for my turn at the grocery store, or whatever.

I always knew from the beginning that her right brain is more dominant. However, she is overcome with insecurity as she is obscured by her twin, who is more of a left-brain child and articulate.

As a parent, I should nurture their talents and interests. If one is more introverted, I let her be. If one is more extroverted, as Twin I is, then I let her be. It’s about training them to be well-rounded people, with emphasis on their interests and talents.

The tricky balance here is how to keep nurturing them while I grow as a person and as a creative as well. Being a single parent is hard because I do not have anybody else to lean on and help me with the nurturing part. Everything is on me. If they fuck up, it’s 100% on me. I usually have to forego my own interests because their welfare is my priority. I salute mothers who have pulled back on their careers and interests for the sake of their children. It’s only when the children have flown out of the nest did these women pick up their lives. The sad thing here is many years have gone by and little time has been left for their own personal/professional/creative growth.

I wish their children have realized that before their moms became Mom, they were individuals who had their own desires, hopes, dreams.

Girl power

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Duterte and his administration are really afraid of women. For all his misogynistic attitude towards women, deep down he is really scared of us. Look at those who rose up against him: VP Leni Robredo, Sen. Leila de Lima (jailed), Hidilyn Diaz (harassed by government), and Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

He loves to harass and belittle female journalists. It is a scary time to be a journalist in this country. We had been a hotspot for journalist killings for years now (we were the most dangerous place for a journalist next to Iraq for quite some time now) but it has heightened during the reign of Duterte. I am glad I no longer have to report national news and suffer through his Q&A, press conferences with Harry Roque, or even monitor Duterte’s late night ramblings.

“Many Philippine presidents have attacked the press, but only Rodrigo Duterte, of all the presidents, have publicly subscribed to the idea that journalists are fair game for murder,” Varona says.

Attacks and harassment: Women journalists in the Philippines on the cost of truth-telling

Because of the dangers we are facing with Duterte’s rise to power, some veterans in the industry like Howie Severino, Glenda Gloria, and Sheila Coronel, called us to a meeting in a secluded restaurant in Quezon City just to talk about forming a guild so that we can protect ourselves and fight back. Sadly, nothing happened after that initial meeting because we were just too damn busy trying to survive our day-to-day work of churning out stories. This was the week I got brutally attacked by government-backed online trolls that even harassed my office in Hong Kong.

I had issues with Maria Ressa and I won’t list them down here and those who had been in the industry long enough know what those are. But I admire her grit and determination to fight this tyrant single-handedly. I had marched alongside them wearing black when they had the march for press freedom in UP.

Since day one of becoming a journalist–since I co-wrote that series on juvenile justice–I knew that every time I publish a story, I have one foot on my grave. I had been threatened with lawsuits before and I had been scared but I pushed on. Being a journalist during the time of Duterte, even if you are not covering him, is a doubly dangerous job. I was told that a powerful government official does not like me because I am vocal about my anti-Duterte stance. And he scolded me and lost his cool on national TV when I was hosting a forum where he was a guest. I was asking a fair question that everyone needed to ask. It was scary but I had to keep my composure. I was told he and other officials boycotted the forum the following year because of me.

I had friends in Reuters publicly lynched by the mob, having their IDs, photos and personal information posted on the Internet, with trolls encouraging the public to inflict physical harm on them and their families. (Upon investigation by some of my other journo friends, my Reuters friends’ personal information was leaked from their records with the National Bureau of Investigation–information that they got whenever we needed clearance to apply for visas or passports). In a country where life is very cheap (you can have somebody killed for only PHP 5,000), those are not empty threats. Their employer had to take them and their families to safehouses until the storm died down. I was so distraught that time that I had to take a break from the Philippines and went to a place where no one spoke English–Taiwan–and took a breather to collect myself for a week. I just didn’t want news from the Philippines and I just had to be away immediately.

But Maria Ressa had to endure conviction, harassment, bankruptcy, and daily mental torture and yet she plodded on. She had to wear bullet-proof vests whenever she goes out. Because it’s no secret Duterte wants her dead.

This administration has demonized us. It’s in every dictator’s playbook–demonize every journalist and create your own propaganda machine and feed your shit to the public that has lost trust on the media. Now you all have this revisionism going on and conspiracy theories that make the maleducated poor believe the lies.

Journalists in South America face drug cartels and the corrupt government officials in cahoots with them, we in Southeast Asia battle despots like Duterte and the Marcoses. Journalists in Russia, China (in HK, that is), and the Philippines face the same thing.

My daughter expressed her interest in becoming a journalist. I told her, anak, you can become whatever you want but I hope you don’t follow my footsteps. You will be penniless and you will get killed.

Mockery

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Duterte’s camp is really making a mockery of the electoral process. They fielded a clown to run for president alongside another clown, Bong Go, as vice president. Because you know what they will do? The last minute, they will do a substitution, with Sara Duterte running as president with her demon of a father as VP. They will make so much drama out of it, and the script would be like “people are clamoring for us to run so we will be making the ultimate sacrifice so we will, for the country.” And all of the DDS would be all applause.

OR

At the last moment, they will make a substitution, Sara Duterte will run alongside Bong-bong Marcos as his VP. If her ego can take it.

They have done it in 2016, they will do it again.

God save our country from idiots.

It has been two months since I last been in UP campus to buy vegetables and milktea for my kids.

In front of Bahay ng Alumni, UP Diliman. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Prices have gone up. I could feel the rising inflation month-on-month and the problem is this is a supply-side issue that cannot be addressed by monetary policy alone. It is structural that requires some fixes in the real economy.

Anyway, after the veggies and the milktea, I went to Sarang Mart because I am running out of shampoo. Even before J came, I had been buying shampoos and side dishes in that Korean grocery store. I had been using either Korean on Japanese shampoos (Japanese Lux or Shisheido) for several years now even if they’re more expensive initially but they do last a long time. I remember in my last trip to Japan, I lugged several shampoo bottles of Lux back home because it was way cheaper compared to anything I saw in Singapore and even in HK. Then I found Lux in SM, which was much more expensive than the Korean Kerastase sold in Sarang Mart but a lot cheaper than Lux in Singapore (which I often bring back home whenever I have to report for work there).

So I had to replenish my stock. Bought Korean curry (which my girls liked), dried seaweed, dried kelp (which I use as kombu in some Japanese dishes), beef strips for hotpot, mandu, side dishes, furikake, ramyun, and I no longer remember what else i chucked in my basket.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com

When I was going back to my car, I lost my balance, sprained my ankle, grazed my foot on the pavement (was wearing slippers), and fell flat on my back. I didn’t realize that I was that exhausted with my short trip to buy foodstuff.

I am NOT yet ok. I’m still sick with Covid symptoms, mainly fatigue, even though I am no longer infectious and I can function somewhat normally. I still easily get tired and right now my head is aching. I woke up this morning coughing and wondered whether this was still Covid or allergy.

I think I will be sleeping my weekend away.

Pink

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#LabanLeni. Art by Karl Michael Domingo via Instagram

Today all my social media accounts turned pink as people, friends and strangers alike, have indicated their support for VP Leni Robredo‘s bid for the presidency. She made her announcement today at 11 am and filed her candidacy documents at 3 pm.

She’s smart; she didn’t adopt the yellow color of the Liberal Party and the color associated with the Aquinos. The color dilaw that the DDS destroyed by equating yellow with something very negative. By adopting an off-tangent color, Leni is showing that she is her own person, not riding on the legacy of the Aquinos and not alienating other people who have anything against the Aquinos. And those who have shifted allegiances from being DDS to opposition.

Even Sandara Park, who grew up here and became super popular here first as a pop idol before going back home to Korea to be part of the girl band 2N1, has posted an irrelevant throwback photo that only Filipinos will understand. She still considers Philippines home. She was nicknamed Krung-krung here because her popularity made people go crazy (“krung-krung”) and she still calls herself that. Look at her Twitter handle.

Artists, musicians, actors and other on- and offline influencers have also shown their support.

Leni does not have the money like the Marcoses. The Dutertes have amassed quite a sizeable amount from their decades of reign in Davao and the five years they have ruled the country. But Leni has the grassroots support. People all over Twitter have been asking for details where they can donate for Leni’s campaign–and I have never heard of such movement like this my entire adult life (i.e. voting age). And this is the only time I will donate to anybody’s political campaign. Ever.

Duterte had been shooting Leni down since Day 1 and Congress had granted her office the smallest budget there is among government agencies but she made it work. During the pandemic, she knew what to do. Her office was the only one that provided free testing for the masses and facilities for healthcare workers. PPEs and equipment to government facilities. She made medical care available to the poor. If those who availed of the free testing turned out to be positive, they received healthcare packs for Covid home care and some relief goods if the patient is the breadwinner. The Office of the Vice President (OVP) will also assist those who needed to get hospital slots and oxygen tanks. These were made possible by donations by private individuals and corporates who do not trust other government agencies.

She tapped into the private sector partnerships for the vaccination of workers like Grab, Angkas, and other third-party logistics providers. This is just during the pandemic. Years prior, the OVP had a lot of programs like natural disaster quick response. The Duterte administration was so slow in deploying help to victims of calamities, so the OVP is the first to be there, like in Cagayan and Isabella during last year’s typhoons that flattened Northern Luzon. She has her shit together.

The OVP was the only one or one of the very few that had star rating from the state auditor.

She is an economics graduate from UP and a lawyer but she used her knowledge to be the lawyer for the poor and human rights. When her husband was the Interior and Local Government Secretary, she just worked on the sidelines with her cause-oriented groups. I had interviewed her husband before and he’s a very kind, hardworking, and trustworthy public servant. When I covered the plane crash that killed Jesse Robredo in 2012, it was one of the most heartbreaking coverage that I did. There was a dark cloud hovering over our newsroom at that time. His body was found 800 meters from the shore when his light plane crashed off the coast of Masbate island.

I need to fix my voter’s registration. I think I had been delisted because I wasn’t able to cast my vote in 2019 and 2016.