Category: Blog

This morning I opened the door of the walk-in storage closet to keep a pair of shoes and upon closing the door on my way out, my eyes caught a glimpse of my 6-string Ibanez bass guitar in its travelling case. I paused momentarily before slowly shutting the door on my way out to ponder on how much I missed playing music.

In that split of a second moment, a flash of early memories of performing on stage with my bandmates zipped through my mind. The dim sepia lights onstage, the buzz of the amps and shriek of feedback, the smell of cigarettes and beer and sweat came back to me and made me long for it again.

“Daddy, hurry up…”

My daughter’s voice shuttered my split-second flashback and I was standing in front of the closet door while shutting it firmly in its place. At that moment, I focused on leaving the house in haste in order to send my daughter to school early.

It was only a few hours later when I started writing this post, I have recalled my longing for music again.

I feel incomplete.

What the fuck… I am officially fat.

This has been pretty obvious when I started looking at photos of me in it recently. I have grown another chin and it looks like I have lost my chin when I am viewed  sideways. How fugly!

I should do something now. Otherwise I might end up in a box… soon.

It’s been a while again since my last post.

The last post was about my preferred candidate for President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte. I voted for him. He won by a landslide. He assumed office on June 30, 2016 and as of this moment, he is already more than a hundred days in office. A lot has happened then, good and bad. But in my opinion, and of many others, mostly good things. Awesome things.

Truth is, I am overwhelmed by what he has done for the country.

It is quite funny because as I recall, before the elections and before Duterte, I lost faith in ANY politician and always thought that politics is a primitive human activity that we should evolve away from. I always believed in the jokes and rants of good ole George Carlin, and agreed on his ideals of how politicians are just a bunch of assholes.

I still believe in it though. I still have no faith in politicians and politics. I honor the Zeitgeist movement and the Venus project as best future of humanity in this planet. These are dreams I hope will come true.

But the reality is the “now.”

I have to contribute to the “now” of society, especially for my home country. Having a family and looking forward to the near future, I chose to participate in the elections and vote for a man who I believe is an outsider from national politics, a strongman, a leader with political will and sincere determination to fix the country.

Duterte’s methods are a bit extreme for some, but I have known during the campaign season that he would make waves with his unusual style, good and bad. It’s a revolution. Many Filipinos are now waking up to reality and embracing nationalism. The people are growing up.

Some people hate him for what he says and for his method of ensuring peace and order. I find it fair and expected. Discipline was long overdue, and the usual methods will just not work. It has to be drastic and painful for some.

He has six years and I hope he finishes his term.

I expect more provocative statements, more noise and more troubles ahead. But it is how the philosophy of this new president on running the country should go. For Diogenes once said,

“Of what use is a philosopher who doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings?”

The die is cast. Let whatever happens, happen.

It’s been a long while since the last post and I have been quite busy as usual with life and it’s intricate details, that I suppose writing about them would just make this blog too mediocre (than it already is) or filled with more rants. But anyway, something came up that I think would be worthy of a blog post.

The Philippine Elections is finally over. And I (and 15+ million others) voted for a guy who seemed like the only candidate who is strong willed enough to push for radical change in the country. Maybe ‘radical’ is not the correct word, perhaps “necessary” is more appropriate.

Yes, I voted for Davao mayor Rodrigo Duterte for President of the Republic of the Philippines, and he won.

He has more than a 5 million-vote lead over the 2nd runner-up, Mar Roxas, who already conceded, yet it’s quite interesting to know that if we combine the votes of all the other candidates, they outnumber the votes of Duterte. In short, it really is not a majority vote, because the majority voted NOT for Duterte.

But many of us voted for him because we believe that Discipline is needed in our country… and some common sense. Democracy and many forms of freedom are nice to have, but with a growing population, criminality and corruption grows as well, because of too much freedom for people who abuse and take advantage of it. They say addressing poverty and joblessness would alleviate crime and corruption, but it is too late for that, for the problems caused by it are too big and pandemic, that it has already become a part of society. Major reform and restriction of some liberties need to be enforced to make society realize that we need to grow responsibly, just like a spoiled brat being taught a lesson by his parents by grounding him.

With Duterte as president, he will be like a strict father to the people, sometimes with the occasional and “un-presidential” cussing and snide remarks, but his deeds and actions as president will be for the good of the people, whether they like it or not, no matter how big an issue or petty it may seem. Undemocratic? Yes it may be to some extent, but if you are a regular Filipino like me, you will realize by now that democracy has failed us. The Filipino people will never be successful as one nation by being empowered through a democratic system of society, for even before the Spaniards came, we were always a race of diverse cultures and beliefs, some of which cannot reconcile with another, but most of the time, subservient to only those in power.

Duterte’s goal is to shift the country’s system of government to a Federal system, and eventually to a parliamentary form of governance. By this way, there will be a better balance with the democracy we crave for and the discipline from the leaders we elect to govern our society. After all, we cannot just have freedom when basic human nature tempts us to abuse it and become greedy for wealth and hungry for power.

But now as I write this post, Duterte has not even assumed office yet, people who did not vote for him are already being negative and assuming things he has not done yet. Even famed investigative reporters are showing their true colors by making comments that are one-sided and biased.

Yes, blood will be shed… but only bad blood.

When I was in my teens, I was already hearing about drug dealers and criminals being killed by vigilante groups allegedly being backed by Duterte in Davao city. I did not find that troubling, but in a way I can only compare it with killing cockroaches inside the kitchen. We should not tolerate it, for like a disease, it spreads significantly. I firmly believe that the cost of human life is priceless, but I also always believe in sacrificing the few evil-tainted lives to protect the many good lives of the innocent. After all, any vigilante who kills for the good will always give a second chance to those who ask for it, than those who ignore to heed any warning.

Now that “The Punisher” is our next president, people who voted for him are also slowly reforming and disciplining themselves. Facebook posts and accounts of people resorting to good deeds because of the culture of discipline promoted by Duterte are surfacing. Even after Duterte’s final grand sortie in Luneta Park, people picked up the trash and cleaned up the surroundings, embracing the idea that Duterte stands for reformation, and voting for him means accepting his rules and instilling change to oneself. Its like children doing household chores to avoid the punishment imposed to them for being undisciplined.

Hope.

Hope is all we can do for now. Though critics are saying that Duterte’s reforms may meet defiance by the people, and he won’t be able to accomplish many things he has promised, having this mindset will not help either. What the media firms should be doing is to bring hope and encouragement to the people on the incoming president, instead of bringing him down with negative assumptions. For Duterte cannot “du it” alone, he needs the help and cooperation of the Filipino people. With this new sense of hope for “Real Change” we should all be brave and stand by the man in his 6 year term to make our our country great again for the next generation.