A lot of poor people who lined up early morning today are heartbroken. Jervis Manahan has been tweeting his conversations with them. This is truly heartbreaking. I was supposed to be there today to give rice packs but I waited until this got cleared up. The organizer of this community pantry called out the police for red-tagging her and the volunteerism that has been rising all around as people responded to the failures of this government. As you know, red-tagging means you can be shot anytime by the police and the military.
I don’t think I cried to my mother when my marriage was failing. But this morning I called up my mother and cried to her and said this is breaking my heart so much. A lot of hungry people out there who are left empty-handed. I told her this is like Marcos’ martial law all over again, when you can be killed by the government anytime. She said this is worse compared to the 1970s; Marcos was not as brazen as the demon in Malacañang right now…This is coming from a former activist who joined the Kabataang Makabayan in her youth.
This government wants to kill the little people.
It’s all concerned about its propaganda. When the propaganda is ruined, the government goes into offensive. This is the foundation of this government–no governance, all propaganda.
#OustDuterte #DutertePalpak
Scars are souvenirs you never lose The past is never far Did you lose yourself somewhere out there? Did you get to be a star? And don’t it make you sad to know that life Is more than who we are?
When sadness envelopes you, you get overwhelmed by all other things such as the things you try hard to suppress. It comes up, gurgling, then explodes like a geyser.
When the government fails the Filipinos, people power rises. Bayanihan at its finest.
Maginhawa community pantry. Photo from Facebook.
Filipinos are accepting and have big hearts. We do not hesitate helping our brethren, be it our fellow countrymen or foreigners (white Russians, European Jews, and Vietnamese refugees come to mind). A lot went hungry when the government started imposing lockdowns again without enough or no financial support to the most vulnerable. So kind-hearted souls started a community pantry, in Maginhawa St, Quezon City.
The sign says “Give only based on what you can afford. Get only based on what you need.” According to anecdotal reports, no one or only a few abused this honesty system. There may be one or two who brought sacks but most only got what their family needs. The queues were long but everyone was disciplined.
This community pantry concept spread like wildfire nationwide. ❤️ It is so heartwarming. When the government failed, ordinary Filipinos rose up to the occasion to make sure no one goes hungry.
Farmers and fisherfolk donated to the community pantry. Excess produce and catch were given to those in need.
Of course dirty politicians will mess up this pure-hearted endeavor.
What this FB post says is that the barangay captain in Los Baños has been demonizing the founders/organizers of the local community pantry because they refused to play politics. The barangay captain wanted them to move the donations to the barangay hall/office so it would look like it’s his initiative. Or the donated goods will be repacked with his name/seal in it. Because politics.
DDS trolls began red-tagging the efforts, saying this is a communist move to brainwash the people. Of course they will tarnish the movement because this is a slap on the face of the Duterte administration that failed the people. It proved that the demon in Malacañang doesn’t fucking care and is just concerned about image and obsessed with bringing down critics.
As part of my continued support to the less fortunate, I will buy rice packs tomorrow and bring these to various community pantries around me.
Because we can’t let anyone die of hunger while we are privileged to be able to stay at home and live comfortably.
The World Tonight: China’s Coast Guard, missile boats pursue ABS-CBN News Team’s boat in West PH Sea.
I have so many things to be angry about these days, hence, the constant blogging. I do not have anybody to talk to in-person about these things these days and I can’t just constantly vent my anger on social media since I’m trying to avoid social media as it’s been adding to my anxiety.
This bullying by China is one of those things that’s eliciting so much rage inside me, which has attracted a lot of Chinese bots on my Twitter account. I don’t care if the CCP has been monitoring me. I don’t think I’m going back to Hong Kong soon.
‘Infuriating’, ‘heartbreaking’, says Robredo as Chinese ships chase Filipino vessel in West PH Sea
MANILA— Vice President Leni Robredo said Friday she was enraged and heartbroken that a Filipino vessel was driven out by Chinese ships inside the West Philippine Sea.
“When you watch the video, nakakagalit, nakakadurog ng puso na nangyayari ‘yon (it’s infuriating and heartbreaking that it’s happening) within our territory,” she told ANC’s “Headstart”.
The statement of the Armed Forces of the Philippines infuriates me even further, that they issued it on this day 79 years ago when thousands of Filipino and American soldiers died defending that last bastion but eventually Bataan fell. When they were defending the country from the Japanese invaders…take note of the word, INVADERS. Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) commemorates those who were lost during the Bataan Death March but the statement of the today’s soldiers completely annihilates the essence of the word valor. They are allowing Filipinos to be bullied 90 nautical miles off Palawan…IT’S CLEARLY FUCKING WITHIN OUR TERRITORY!
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana was supposed to give a press conference earlier this week but it seemed like he was gagged; he said he is cancelling the briefing because he tested positive for COVID-19 but is asymptomatic. This administration conveniently uses COVID as an excuse whenever they 1) want to gag somebody; or 2) don’t want to face the media and be accountable to what was happening under their watch (I’m looking at you, PNP Chief Debold Siñas!).
We’re so fucked up. We exchanged our sovereignty for vaccines.
If I have a choice, I wouldn’t be taking that vaccine. But it’s Sophie’s choice—it’s between me surviving so my children can grow up with a responsible parent until they become adults or they lose their mother early either to COVID or lasting effects or complications from COVID (if I initially survive hospitalization or a similar set-up).
I remember growing up with so much rage inside me that I usually locked myself up in my room to write in my journal to release my pent-up fury. In elementary, I tinkered with the computer, that big beige box that only had a black screen with green or white texts. I had to boot from DOS using a floppy disk before powering up WordStar to write my journal entries that I saved in 5.25″ floppy disks. I was channeling my inner Doogie Howser.
Then I moved on to creating my notebook journals where I poured my soul. My mom said she was worried about me when I was in high school because I was always in my room and she thought I was turning into a some sort of wacko but she didn’t know that I needed solitude to be able to write. But come to think of it, because of this rage, I became a writer.
I wanted to buy my own typewriter then so I can write my manuscripts the old fashioned way. I was so in-love with the image of a writer, and later on of a journalist, hunched over a typewriter trying to beat the deadline. But I had to content myself with just using the communal computer at home to write my short stories and novellas that I distributed to friends. When I was in high schooI, I started publishing in a literature magazine of national circulation. I received letters from readers, even from abroad, who liked my stories. Then I started publishing my articles on the Philippine Daily Inquirer when I was in college. When I tell friends from PDI that I started as a lifestyle journo for their newspaper, they were surprised that I didn’t continue writing for them. I told them I tried applying for Inquirer Libre, the defunct tabloid that they used to distribute in the MRT, but the interviewers didn’t like me. I remember they laughed at the fact that I was a lifestyle writer and mentioned something unflattering about Tim Yap and his ilk (for the record, I didn’t hang out with them–they don’t even know I existed!). That unfortunate interview was a blessing because I went in a different direction–a much better direction, I should say.
So yeah, it was rage that started me into writing. Developing this craft is a lifetime occupation; it never stops. So when somebody asks me, when did you start writing? I would answer him/her, I started at 10 years old, when I was copying Doogie Howser, which was my favorite TV show when I was a kid. Neil Patrick Harris is still a favorite, 31 years later.
Plague doctor mask. Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com
My Facebook newsfeed has become an obituary page of sorts, with almost everybody posting that they have lost friends and family due to COVID-19. People are so desperate now that they’re willing to ingest veterinary anti-parasitic drugs to cure themselves or loved ones of COVID. The girls’ dad ordered from somewhere Lianhua Qingwen, a Chinese herbal medicine, which he claims to beat COVID, and had sent them to my maids (Because he perfectly knows I refuse to talk to him). I told the maids to tell him that 1) I am not paying for its delivery (because he told the maids I should pay for the delivery, scumbag) and 2) we are not taking that because it has not been approved by the FDA for COVID. It’s just not even an antiviral drug. The DOH also said it cannot be obtained without prescription, therefore, he got it from the black market. Chinese drugs from the black market…Dodgy is an understatement. I’d rather take Tamiflu, which is like PHP 107 per capsule, even if it is not enough to help cure COVID-19, but at least it can bring down the symptoms of influenza A and B that can occur with COVID.
Anyway, a fellow journo also related the story of his friend who tested positive for COVID and was symptomatic. Instead of going home and risk infecting his family or seeking medical help because hospitals now are bursting at the seams, he chose to isolate himself in his SUV and parked it outside his office in Camp Crame. He was found, with water and food provisions, dead inside his car that had its engine still running. When this journo last spoke to his friend over the phone, he said he could hear his friend was having a labored breathing. That’s how bad the situation is now. People are choosing to isolate inside their cars because we no longer have anywhere to go. We are effing trapped and this government just let us die.
Meanwhile…
Duterte is missing. He hasn’t appeared since his lewd birthday video and sham of a birthday picture were posted a few weeks ago. Cabinet officials have been cancelling press briefings. Duterte’s regular rant session has been cancelled several times in the past few days.
In other news: An Australian Royal Flying Doctor Service Hawker 800XP with call sign VH-RIO, a medivac jet, took off Diosdado Macapagal airport at 1051 Saturday, April 3, and landed three hours later at 1409 on Selatar Airport, Singapore.
“After considering the recommendation of the experts and the current situation of high COVID-19 transmission and limited available vaccines, the FDA is allowing the use of Sinovac on senior citizens,” FDA Director General Eric Domingo said in a text message to ABS-CBN News.
I’ve been told by another journo that Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año will no longer be able to get back to work as his COVID infection has become worse. An official of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (central bank) was in bad shape for weeks when he was at the Philippine General Hospital and last week he posted on Facebook (we are FB friends even before government service) that he is now recovering. They are the few privileged ones who have higher chances of survival because they can easily get hospital beds. The rest of us would have to take care of ourselves and we will play the Darwinian game of survival of the fittest.
Which reminds me, I should buy the PPEs and pulse oximeter now online before they run out.
J should get out of the country now before we are overrun by Covid. We are the worst in Asia Pacific right now. We even overtook Indonesia and China in terms of number of cases and deaths. Octa research projects that we will have 1 million cases by end of this month. Hospitals cannot take it anymore and HCWs are thinning out.
On the other side of the world, people are picking up their lives and are already moving on to tackle other issues like #StopAsianHate.
So much for vaccine diplomacy. We should have had the 10 million Pfizer vaccines by now if DOH Sec Duque did not “forget” to sign the papers for their procurement. Some people in my industry say that the “dropping of the ball” happened to favor the China vaccines because no one in the country wanted to be vaccinated with it, based on polls. Now China dangles the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines as part of their vaccine diplomacy in exchange for this:
Chinese vessels, believed to be crewed by Chinese maritime militia personnel, are seen at Whitsun Reef within the Philippine exclusive economic zone on Saturday [Philippine Coast Guard via Reuters]
The Philippine FDA hasn’t even approved the use of the Chinese vaccines for healthcare workers nor senior citizens nor those with co-morbidities and yet we have subjected our healthcare workers to these vaccines when there should have been better alternatives.
Given the blatant disregard for Philippine sovereignty and the evil Philippine president has already sold the country to China, Defense chief Delfin Lorenzana is breaking away from the stance of the Duterte administration and has given hostile statements against China for the second time. Usually whenever Lorenzana issues statements like these in the past, he comes back to recant his statement or divert the issue after probably being scolded from above. This time he can’t take it anymore and continues to be on the offensive.
Meanwhile, I’ve learned from a veteran journo in my FB network, Quezon City has started the vaccination for senior citizens and residents with co-morbidities. I signed up via the Zuellig platform, which handles the database for QC. I learned that asthma is counted as one of the comorbidity, making me and my daughters high-risk residents. I just tried but I’m not counting on it since there are more vulnerable citizens in my area.
Ikaw ba ay kabilang sa A3 Priority Group? Ito ang mga indibidwal na 18-59y/o na may controlled comorbidities (chronic respiratory disease, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, cerebrovascular disease, malignancy, diabetes, obesity, at iba pa) pic.twitter.com/lo71gpXm6R
I hope my hometown is able to procure as well so that my mom, a senior citizen, and my brother (who has hypertension) can be vaccinated soon.
At the home front, I finished the curtains for the girls’ room and are now hanging there:
I’m quite proud of my handiwork. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m now finishing mine so that I can hang it in my room about three days from now. Sushi always accompanies me while I sew. She always sleeps at my feet or at my chair’s headrest.
My cats could not leave me alone. My girls are now protesting, “Mommy, why is that they always stay with you but not with us?!”
MY babies. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Hmmm, I should restain the floorboards with varnish. They get so much wear because of my rolling chair.
We’re back to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) a.k.a strict lockdown where you need quarantine passes or IDs if you are an essential worker i.e. healthcare, food service, and logistics.
And just like last year, this stupid and incompetent government still doesn’t have contingency plans!!! The presidential spokesperson said wait for the details on Monday… WTF!!! why can’t they treat this with urgency?! People need to go to work on Monday and there are no clear rules on transportation, financial support for the most vulnerable…
But unlike last year, we are now logging 10,000 new COVID-19 cases the other day. And these new variants are overwhelming us as the government is bungling our vaccine procurement.
I knew I would be so distressed so good thing I was able to make it to the Fabric Warehouse along C5 before everything shuts down. I bought 18 yards of fabric to make into curtains. By hand. To destress. To relieve me of my anxiety.
I just sewed one panel tonight and finished it at 2 am today. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I have seven panels to finish until Easter Sunday so I guess I will be pretty occupied until April 4.
Since weekdays bleed into weekends and the distinction is getting blurred once more, I am putting more effort in cooking on weekends, just to make it distinguishable from workdays. So every weekend, I barbecue meat on skewers or chunks of chicken in sauce, grill stake, or do Korean barbecue… Just like what we did when J was still here.
Just because he’s no longer here doesn’t mean we can’t have good food regularly. I am getting better at starting the fire and have ember as soon as possible.
On a related note, the girls are now learning to eat spicy food bit by bit. Last week I ordered the spicy Korean fried chicken from Jjangkae along Kalayaan Ave just the other day. Yes, they struggled but at least it’s a vast improvement from before when they simply had refused anything with a hint of spice.
Spicy Korean fried chicken with side dishes. Photo by CallMeCreation.com.
Although this is not really spicy but at least they’re already eating yellow curry (either the Otogi brand or McCormick). It will take a long time before I would be able to serve Thai green curry or red curry. I still have all those Thai and Malaysian curry mixes (rendang!) here stuck in my shelf. Because no one eats them here except me and J.
Ah one of these days I’m going to cook them and send to friends who are stuck in condos with no proper home-cooked meals.
