We have another Marcos as a president.
I want to apply for transfer to our London office. 😞
How to break my heart again
Tag Archives: #MarcosMagnanakaw
How?
This is like 18 Dec 2020 all over again.
How to go on? I can’t see clearly, it’s like walking through a very dark tunnel and no light at the end yet. It’s like there’s no end.
We are going to be Sri Lanka.
It’s really, really painful right now. I kept waking every hour. My head is splitting. I can’t work. I need to escape somewhere and collect myself.
My sister is leaving the country soon. The reality is I can’t. I need to be home to take care of my mom.
I can’t see my future. It’s very dark. My poor children. 😔
Pacific Ocean has gone nuts
Who ever heard of two typhoons/tropical depression during summer??? I mean who could even imagine we would be having typhoons in the middle of what NORMALLY is a dry and hot (summer) season?!
The Pacific Ocean has gone nuts, because of climate change, the waters are getting warmer and we have off-season typhoons. Floods in the summer!!! Gee.
Tropical storm Agaton is staying put in the Visayas area because instead of going westward, it’s being sucked by the bigger typhoon that is supposed to head to Japan. So now Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, and Samar are experiencing floods in the middle of the supposedly hottest month of the year.
Climate change, people. Typhoons should be coming in August, not April!
Cropping seasons have gone haywire now and the poor farmers are now left in such a quandary . It’s either they have to gamble on off-season planting or normal season planting but risk getting destroyed by weird typhoons.
On a selfish note, this could derail our diving plans. Any disturbance like this makes for choppy seas and difficult diving in Sombrero island and Maricaban island. It’s disappointing if it happens…now that my flippers and free diving ring buoy have arrived today.
The girls exclaimed, Mommy, why is it so long? I said so I can propel myself better underwater.
Twin A: But mommy, you don’t really go deep.
Me: I can now, because you’re already grown up and I don’t have to constantly watch over you. Nanay and Tita S are also with us so I can leave you and do my own diving 😂
The official diving color of orange was no longer available, also the neon green. I only have pink, blue, and red to choose from so I have to go with the brightest color to serve as an early warning device as well. Having a diving buoy will save us a lot of oxygen when diving infront of the resort. It’s taxing when battling the waves going to your preferred spot.
And of course I needed a bag to house these extra long fins. It’s hard carrying fins without a bag when going up and down Anilao slopes.
I’m so excited. I missed the sea so much. It used to be that every year we go to the beach at least once, even when the girls were still babies. Thank you, Covid, for delaying us. 😑
Meanwhile, there were unsubstantiated reports about tampered ballots in overseas Filipino voting.
I’ve asked SG-based Filipino friends if they have experienced this and most of them have yet to cast their votes. We’re still looking for Filipinos who have personally experienced this and evidence of tampered ballots as some members of local media are working on the story. The Marcoses are pulling all the stops. They’re getting worried about Leni.
SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines — Within a week, Vice President Leni Robredo managed to stage massive shows of force in her supposed weak spots as a presidential candidate: Davao del Norte, a stronghold of the Dutertes; Pangasinan, a known Marcos bailiwick, and here in Pampanga, Arroyo country.
Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1580787/robredo-completes-show-of-force-vs-rivals-in-pampanga#ixzz7Q80XmMnp
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
#NotoMarcos
I’m supposed to do research and follow leads by reading news and now I’m caught in this fascinating story of Yohji Yamamoto, this avant garde fashion designer whose clothes I couldn’t understand but was considered tres chic. Vogue raved about him all the time. He is favored by a fashion journalist that I followed (Kitty Go). Whenever Commes des Garcons (Rei Kawakubo and eventually Junya Watanabe) are mentioned, not far behind is Yohiji Yamamoto, or vice versa.
I’m supposed to be sending emails now but here I am, buried in his story.
They can’t afford me
“I’ll cross the bridge when I get there. But if ever, teaching will be good. I’m a lawyer. But entering government? No way. They can’t afford me,” she said with a laugh. “I’ll fire all of them.” –Liza Araneta-Marcos
Politics.com.ph
Ahh shades of Imelda Marcos. She’s scary.
And yet they don’t want to pay their taxes.
Tax expert Mon Abrea says simple math would have pushed the bill into the stratosphere. Twenty percent interest is slapped on every year the tax is left unpaid. Justice Carpio says the passage of so much time makes a case against the heirs, especially Marcos Jr., of willful refusal to pay. He says there’s a remedy for that.
NPR.org
God save the Philippines from the Marcoses. I can’t blame friends and millions of Filipinos who want to migrate if this idiot wins.
Bongbong Marcos will move the Philippines closer to China
Beijing stands ready to help Marcos family consolidate power over the long term
Alvin Camba
April 5, 2022 17:00 JSTAlvin Camba is assistant professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a faculty affiliate at the Climate Policy Lab at Tufts University
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is on track to win the May 9 Philippine elections.
As Bongbong has himself said, he will move to maintain a strong relationship with Beijing while not completely abandoning ties with the West. Beijing likely expects Marcos to disregard the 2016 ruling by an arbitration court in The Hague that rejected Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and kowtow to China on crucial international issues.
The makers of The Kingmaker have made their film about the Marcoses free to view for everybody. Unfortunately, Filipinos are stubborn, especially if their core beliefs are challenged–if they’re corrected.
All my plans for today were wiped out as the weather turned weird. It rained non-stop today, like it’s already August.
Well, it’s a good thing that it rained so Lamesa Dam and Angat Dam can be refilled, if not up to the safe level. This assures us that there will be no water shortage in the coming days…or weeks. The temperature cooled up a bit from 30s down to 26 as of this moment. But because of this weather (and lack of sunlight), I did nothing but sleep. And edit three stories. Do some admin work, touch base with a source, and listen a bit to a webinar. I’m giving myself this day to slack off because—I dunno. I don’t feel like it.
This is my day of letting steam off because of my annoyance with company leadership issues. I couldn’t help my colleague with her job requests because of reporting line issues (vague). It’s really annoying me. It’s already April and there’s nothing definite happening. They couldn’t even give me the proper transition timeline. 🙄
To rid myself of annoyance, I temporarily halted my repetitive curtain sewing and returned to my complicated poppy flower drawing. It’s making me cringe. Either I finish this or I move on to drawing humans.
I suddenly remember my lawyer-artist friend who commented about the girl I was cheated on with by my ex-husband; he said she is not a fine artist but she’s more of an illustrator (they have common friends). That’s why she kept on doing squiggles and abstract graphic arts. I trust this friend because he is a really good fine artist and he has been winning competitions left and right but he chose to be a lawyer because…he wants to earn well. So now he shifted to photography and buying expensive equipment and drones has been his pastime.
So now my question is, what do I want to become? I don’t know. I just draw and paint to express myself. I’m not even good. But it forever frustrates me that I am having a hard time drawing faces or humans for that matter. I need to up the ante. Challenge myself.
Let’s start with this:
I’m not yet brave enough to do full frontal. Probably I’ll do pencil first because I’m more decent with pencils.
Atrocious handwriting
My kids have atrocious handwriting that was not corrected in school because they had been at home for 2 years. I was too busy to pay attention to their handwriting and I didn’t know how to help them. My mother and their dad have bad handwriting so I thought it could be just that.
However, it was already Twin I who asked me for help so I had to sit up and pay attention. I remember when I was in third and fourth grade we had handwriting classes where we were taught cursive handwriting. We had writing exercises in which we shadowed the handwriting of our teacher or what was in our exercise book. So I downloaded some exercise sheets for my daughter to practice on. Hopefully this would help.
I had tried to imitate the neat handwriting of some of my artistic classmates but eventually I developed my own form/style. My father had beautiful handwriting, so did my older sister and brother. My brother’s handwriting is similar to my father’s.
I could say my handwriting is ok and oftentimes my notes are neat, even when I’m doing interviews or listening to conferences/seminars/lectures. I remember my high school and college classmates borrowing my notes because 1) they’re comprehensive; and 2) they’re neat. This skill helped me now in my note-taking as a reporter, especially when there are disputes with those complaining about my reportage. My editors in London or HK ask me to send my notes to them for defense. If my notes are unintelligible, I would have a bigger problem. So I have kept all my reporter’s notebooks from 15 years ago as they stand in court, in case someone sues me. That’s the power of good note-taking—and alongside that is good handwriting.
So I need to train my children how to take notes and improve their handwriting.
Meanwhile, my other children…
So far they haven’t destroyed anything this week and last week. But they chewed on Twin I’s school exercise lying around so that’s her fault for being untidy. 🙄
Oh yeah, I have to trim their claws and give them a bath. And shop for supplies again. Ah, the things you do for your pets. 😶
My post about Radiowealth had really gone viral. 7k likes and 5.6k shares. My neighbor sent me a screenshot of my post that has been passed around in Ateneo. One of my sources also sent me a screenshot of it that is being passed around in his Rotary Club.
Of course, the BBM camp is not remiss in their duty in bashing me. So I posted this today, translated in English:
BBM people have been sharing my post about Radiowealth and attacking it, saying the site I shared (blogspot has no SSL certificate etc). The main questions remain, is it true that Marcos grabbed businesses he, his family and his cronies benefited from it? Is it true that we began to sink with the debts we incurred because of his graft and corruption? There was a BBM supporter who sent me a private FB message disputing my statements, that the closure of Radiowealth was not politically motivated but it was about the radioactivity posed by the TVs.
I had watched on our Radiowealth TV for long hours and until now I’m still alive. I haven’t transformed into an X-men. There were so many requesting FB friendship but NO, I don’t care about them. I’ve had so much experience with internet trolls. I just delete and delete friend requests and PMs. For fact-checking purposes here are links:
https://www.philstar.com/other-sections/starweek-magazine/2013/01/27/901409/domingo-guevara-road-industrialization
https://ph.news.yahoo.com/remembering-dmg-self-made-entrepreneur-091445720–finance.html
https://www.elib.gov.ph/details.php?uid=722235afc2209d5ce5dc064e1127bac3&fbclid=IwAR24bXlm6coSvRDSeDj1POyItA8dg-ZpYsxRehYflC3-tl7uu40kWC9xe2E
https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2006068
There was one fact checker from Tsek.ph (group of volunteer Philippine journalists) who messaged me on Twitter and said they went through my post and marked it True. I wanted him and the world to know that I am a journalist and I do my research well. I don’t make claims lightly. Plus, I clearly remember interviewing one lolo who mentioned this to me, it was also discussed in one of my broadcasting classes, plus my father told me about this. <<< well this last one doesn’t count as an empirical evidence but this was the one that prompted me to research about Radiowealth.
As I said before, media literacy must be taught in elementary and high school so people can be taught critical thinking and not just be brainless consumers of mass media information. It’s my advocacy. However, it’s hard now that I’m no longer in the academe. The lectures and media trainings have stopped during the lockdowns and that TV interview I had earlier this month was one of the few I did in the last two years.
I have a feeling I will have my other foot back again in academe soon…🤔
It’s the little things that cheer me up
I added this lamp to illuminate the living area because the overhead light is too bright for the girls who are just confined at their tables and for Ate C when she watches TV.
I had hung that other flower too high; I’ll just adjust it one of these days. I decided to display them to document the difficult journey I had for the month of Feb until this month. This art therapy reminds me of the struggles I’m having to get better, to move on.
It’s like a documentation of the emotions I went through while I was doing my art therapy and rediscovering my love for watercoloring that I abandoned for 25 years.
I’m more of a charcoal/pencil and watercolor girl. I tried oils before but I only produced one oil painting and I was very angry at that time that’s why the resulting painting was very dark. My cousin loved it though. It’s still in my mom’s house and it’s like a foreshadowing of my married life. I gave away my oil paints, linseed oil and thinner, brushes, and knives to my sister who paints more using acrylic. She’s more likely use oil than me who never touched the oil paints for years.
My girls kept on laughing because the kois looked like they were floating. Well yeah, they do float in the sense the real photo captured how clean the ponds of the Himeji Castle Gardens looked like. When I was there, a worker was vacuuming the pond. I also have to learn how to do watercolors of water, glass and reflections.
I’m still relearning how to control the behavior of different brands of watercolors and there’s a big difference between Asian watercolors meant for Asian techniques and western watercolors. For example, this Kuretake Gansai Tambi is mostly opaque so it’s sort of difficult to do washes and wet-in-wet techniques when doing trees and bodies of water. No wonder this brand has so many greens…You cannot just dive in and easily create gradation using wet-in-wet because I find that the colors get muddy if I do that, hence, the weird tree reflections of the sketch above. The colors don’t flow so it’s a bit difficult. I learned that gansai were formulated for Japanese paintings that are usually done on rice paper so they don’t bleed as much like western watercolors do.
I have to explore what this kind of watercolor/gouache-like medium can do and what it’s good for.
My FB post about Radiowealth is now shared 2,400 times and liked 3,100 times. I’ve seen a lot of comments that they didn’t know about this and were shocked to learn that Marcos really hampered the progress of Philippines then. Imagine, Radiowealth could have been the Sony or Samsung of today. The company was also manufacturing Volkswagen cars, turntables, aircons–all things industrial. We had a thriving steel industry then, ahead of Taiwan and South Korea but the companies were taken over by Marcos as well. I have all the books documenting these in my personal library.
Philippine Airlines was Asia’s first commercial airline that was taken over by Marcos and eventually given to one of his cronies, Lucio Tan. San Miguel was once under the Spanish families (Sorianos/Ayalas) that was taken over by Eduardo Cojuangco, another very close Marcos crony, via anomalous transactions involving coconut levies taken from the backs of coconut farmers. It is still owned by him/his estate today. RPN-9 and IBC-13 were taken over by the Benedictos. The Campos family of Unilab and Greenfield (also now Del Monte and Nutri Asia) also benefited from Marcos. This is probably the reason why they don’t really do media interviews, just like the Salims of Indonesia, whose patriarch was a close associate of Suharto.
How easily people have forgotten.