Tag Archives: #NoToBBM

Of mockery and terrifying Twitter threads

Posted on by

First off, I am incensed, even though I already expected this, that the Dutertes are mocking the electoral process. As I mentioned here before, Bong Go and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa are just placeholders for Sara Duterte and her running mate until Nov 15, the deadline for any changes in the certificate of candidacy. It is yet to be revealed who will give way between her and Bong Bong Marcos. There are talks that it was Duterte (or former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the mastermind behind Sara) who floated the tax evasion conviction of Marcos Jr to the public so he would be forced to slide down and give way to Sara Duterte. His conviction makes him ineligible to run for any office.

Whatever. This means the Marcos apologists and DDS would be divided. But then this would be a very dirty election, with China intervening again. They’ve already shown their endorsement of Marcos Jr. Remember the “7-hr glitch” during the 2019 elections? State Grid Corp of China owns 40% of the National Grid Corp of the Philippines (NGCP). The Chinese entry was done during the Macapagal Arroyo Administration. It was also during her rule that the ZTE corruption scandal broke out. See the network of evil here?

Incidentally, NGCP is required under the law to list on PSE for transparency because it a monopoly. And guess what? They refused to do so and found a loophole in the law. It’s the Filipino shareholders who did a reverse takeover of a shell company and is making a follow-on offering, some kind of share swap so it would appear that NGCP would become a listed entity because it now has become a subsidiary of a listed company. After structuring the deal, JP Morgan resigned as one of the joint global coordinators for the deal. The Chinese shareholders would not be exposed at all and there is still no transparency. The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) allowed it. When I was pursuing the story, I asked ERC about the spirit of the law and would they allow this as per EPIRA law? They couldn’t comment, saying they haven’t seen the IPO filing yet at that time.

At the end of thw day, it’s still the Dutertes/Marcoses/Arroyos who are running the show, having this unholy alliance with the Xi Jinping.

I had a terrifying night last night. I read this Twitter thread about cave diving in rivers and the open sea and the tweets and story links made me feel like I was suffocating. One Reddit entry described nitrogen narcosis so succinctly that I felt as if I was the one suffocating.

As a freediver, albeit amateur, some of my worst nightmares are running out of breath, currents that could sweep me away or under, and nitrogen narcosis, if not the bends, when scuba diving.

Nitrogen narcosis is one of the reasons why I didn’t want to go scuba diving even if my sister went for certification. Another reason was the bends. There are only two decompression chambers here in the Philippines as far as I know. One is in Subic and the other is in Cebu. If I would need decompression in Anilao, I would be dead.

I did not finish this video of a reckless Russian-Israeli diver who attempted to go under the arch at the Blue Hole off the coast of Egypt, in the Red Sea. It was horrifying.

https://youtu.be/YhPdB5fxKA0

He was not a technical diver, he was ill-equipped because he was carrying one ordinary tank of breathing gas, plus his gear was too heavy for the compression that he experienced at great depths, which prevented him to ascend. Add to his confusion is his apparent nitrogen narcosis.

Being out in the deep blue sea can disorient you; you don’t know which way is up or down. I felt that when we were in Balicasag in Bohol when I attempted to dive away from the seawall and be suspended in the big blue open sea. It was surreal. It would be more terrifying if you were like 30 m deeper, when the light is already faint.

I was scared for J at that time as he kept on diving along the seawall, deeper and deeper. When he did that, I just hovered above so I can easily pull him up if gets caught in an undercurrent along the seawall or if he blacks out. One of the dangers of freediving, aside from running out of breath, is blacking out from the quick ascent from the deep or when surfacing. Many professional freedivers have died of it.

That’s why I wanted to be certified as a freediver so I would be properly trained in ascents and breathing. I would also know what are the other protocols, such as having a knife with me on my weight belt so I can free myself from entanglement or from predators.

However, after reading the stories of cave divers and underwater sinkholes…

Balicasag island, Bohol. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Pink

Posted on by
#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.