First, as a Filipino, I am ashamed for what transpired last Monday. But I am even more ashamed for what transpired after the incident. The time when my fellow Filipinos went to the scene to have their pictures taken as if it is a sight to be celebrated.
My prayers goes out to the families who lost a love one. May you grieve. May you find in your hearts to forgive. I can only pray...
And secondly, I am asking if our local media will own up to their participation in last Monday's shameful and sad events? Will they also take responsibility? Will they apologize? Or will they sit tight in their moral high horse and act as if they know better?
The story that I really want to know about last Monday is how did Media use the power they have last Monday?
Did they use it like the old man dictator by bulldozing their freedom of the press refrain? What about the right to life of those who were held hostage?
Which one takes precedence? A career or a life?
Lord, we still have a long way to go. May we, all Filipinos, know that we are in this thing together. May we not limit our reactions to simply pointing fingers. May we own up. As a nation. As a race.
My prayers...
Wednesday
Monday
order and chaos
Order leads to growth which leads to chaos which leads to a new order which leads to growth which leads to chaos which leads to new order... :)
Chaos is chaos because the observer is unwilling to let go of his notion of order. Chaos is an emergence of a new order and one has to look, see and understand this new order to be effective.
Order and chaos is one and the same.
"... why think like mere men?"
Chaos is chaos because the observer is unwilling to let go of his notion of order. Chaos is an emergence of a new order and one has to look, see and understand this new order to be effective.
Order and chaos is one and the same.
"... why think like mere men?"
Sunday
taxes, national budget, OFW money and an idea :)
Next year, the Philippine government plans to spend PhP 1.645 Trillion.
Where they will spend is documented.
I truly hope they will spend it where they say they will spend it. Philippines could use some infrastructure to harness the 'green gold' it has and its 'blue gold', too :)
But where they will get the money, well that's another thing.
Any government has two sources of funds: the Internal Revenue (BIR in the Philippines) and the Customs.
Now let's put some numbers to make things interesting. By the way, these are rough numbers. Though it may not be precise, it is better than scratch. But to those who know, please correct this simple number push:)
A common taxpayer gives 30% of his gross income. Corporations, some numbers will point to about 40%. Let's level it off. Let's agree on 35% as taxes paid by any economic entity plying his trade in the Philippines.
So to meet the PhP 1.645 Trillion requirement, the net economic activity that has to happen in the Philippines must be at least PhP 5 Trillion in order to get a tax amounting to the proposed budget.
Of course, that's assuming that we paid all the taxes that needs to be paid, that we have collected all that needs to be collected and that no 'under the table' transaction ever happened.
Now, let's go to the OFW money, the greatest and most potent temptation ever presented to the Filipino politicians. Because of this money, politicians, as a whole, do not work anymore to improve the lot of their respective 'tribes', if we are to believe that the Philippines is simply a group of tribes made into a country. The family members of these respective tribes put it upon themselves to go out, gather and hunt farther from home because the current incarnation of the datu in their midst is nothing compared to Lapu Lapu. At least, Lapu Lapu was competitive :)
Back to OFW money:) The Philippine banking system received and processed about $20 Billion of OFW money last year. That's roughly PhP 900 Billion. And that's only the money that went through proper channels. We still have to figure out how much money the OFW actually have on them when they arrived :)
Assuming that this OFW money was spent in the country because this money after all, is used for tuition fees, clothing, food, utilities and text allowances :) the government is supposed to have generated PhP 315 Billion in taxes from these.
So, we roughly need about PhP 1.33 Trillion more :)
Let's now focus our attention to how much business the Philippine Top 1000 corporations created last year and apply the 35% on their income before taxes. And then, one also has to consider that the Philippines gets a VAT on all the raw materials they bought:)
With all those numbers spinning, why we still have a budget deficit? That we borrow funds locally and internationally to finance our PhP 1.57 Trillion budget?
Could the culprit be the assumptions we made? That we paid all the taxes, that we collected all the taxes and no 'under the table' happened?
For the individual taxpayer, the system was designed to ensure that he pays his taxes.
What about The Man on the top? The Man that signs the checks? What goes inside his head? That may make him not pay the taxes he owes the government?
Does he know that the more he does not pay the right taxes, the more the government needs him to sustain the much taunted employment numbers but to the very detriment of his very own Filipino workforce? And because he benefits from this very sick situation, will he ever pay the right taxes?
What if there is a committee, an NGO, a Greenpeace or World Wildlife Foundation of sort, that ranks all Philippine businesses on their love of country by measuring their honesty in paying taxes? And the higher their rank on this list, the more gwapo they look to their future employees? The future employees that truly hate the status quo because they are the ones who suffered most. They are the ones who has to live in a house when one parent was away. They are the ones who felt lonely. Felt alone. They are the ones who turned to drugs and to alcohol to numb the pain of not having a mother or a father at home. They are the ones that really carried the brunt of what the pundits called the social cost of the OFW trend.
The corruption dynamic is perpetuated by making sure that the status quo remains. But when a stakeholder or an unwitting player in this status quo realizes that he has the power to destroy the status quo and comes up with a better one where ALL the stakeholders prosper, then, improvement comes. Progress dawns.
And we still have to talk about the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats :)
"... why think like mere men?"
Where they will spend is documented.
I truly hope they will spend it where they say they will spend it. Philippines could use some infrastructure to harness the 'green gold' it has and its 'blue gold', too :)
But where they will get the money, well that's another thing.
Any government has two sources of funds: the Internal Revenue (BIR in the Philippines) and the Customs.
Now let's put some numbers to make things interesting. By the way, these are rough numbers. Though it may not be precise, it is better than scratch. But to those who know, please correct this simple number push:)
A common taxpayer gives 30% of his gross income. Corporations, some numbers will point to about 40%. Let's level it off. Let's agree on 35% as taxes paid by any economic entity plying his trade in the Philippines.
So to meet the PhP 1.645 Trillion requirement, the net economic activity that has to happen in the Philippines must be at least PhP 5 Trillion in order to get a tax amounting to the proposed budget.
Of course, that's assuming that we paid all the taxes that needs to be paid, that we have collected all that needs to be collected and that no 'under the table' transaction ever happened.
Now, let's go to the OFW money, the greatest and most potent temptation ever presented to the Filipino politicians. Because of this money, politicians, as a whole, do not work anymore to improve the lot of their respective 'tribes', if we are to believe that the Philippines is simply a group of tribes made into a country. The family members of these respective tribes put it upon themselves to go out, gather and hunt farther from home because the current incarnation of the datu in their midst is nothing compared to Lapu Lapu. At least, Lapu Lapu was competitive :)
Back to OFW money:) The Philippine banking system received and processed about $20 Billion of OFW money last year. That's roughly PhP 900 Billion. And that's only the money that went through proper channels. We still have to figure out how much money the OFW actually have on them when they arrived :)
Assuming that this OFW money was spent in the country because this money after all, is used for tuition fees, clothing, food, utilities and text allowances :) the government is supposed to have generated PhP 315 Billion in taxes from these.
So, we roughly need about PhP 1.33 Trillion more :)
Let's now focus our attention to how much business the Philippine Top 1000 corporations created last year and apply the 35% on their income before taxes. And then, one also has to consider that the Philippines gets a VAT on all the raw materials they bought:)
With all those numbers spinning, why we still have a budget deficit? That we borrow funds locally and internationally to finance our PhP 1.57 Trillion budget?
Could the culprit be the assumptions we made? That we paid all the taxes, that we collected all the taxes and no 'under the table' happened?
For the individual taxpayer, the system was designed to ensure that he pays his taxes.
What about The Man on the top? The Man that signs the checks? What goes inside his head? That may make him not pay the taxes he owes the government?
Does he know that the more he does not pay the right taxes, the more the government needs him to sustain the much taunted employment numbers but to the very detriment of his very own Filipino workforce? And because he benefits from this very sick situation, will he ever pay the right taxes?
What if there is a committee, an NGO, a Greenpeace or World Wildlife Foundation of sort, that ranks all Philippine businesses on their love of country by measuring their honesty in paying taxes? And the higher their rank on this list, the more gwapo they look to their future employees? The future employees that truly hate the status quo because they are the ones who suffered most. They are the ones who has to live in a house when one parent was away. They are the ones who felt lonely. Felt alone. They are the ones who turned to drugs and to alcohol to numb the pain of not having a mother or a father at home. They are the ones that really carried the brunt of what the pundits called the social cost of the OFW trend.
The corruption dynamic is perpetuated by making sure that the status quo remains. But when a stakeholder or an unwitting player in this status quo realizes that he has the power to destroy the status quo and comes up with a better one where ALL the stakeholders prosper, then, improvement comes. Progress dawns.
And we still have to talk about the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats :)
"... why think like mere men?"
Saturday
on colonialism
Who would not be angry about being colonized?
I was angry once but I have moved beyond 'that' anger and 'that' hate of 'once upon a time colonizers', like the Spaniards, the Americans and the Japanese, upon realizing that there's hardly a country in the world that was not colonized :)
So, I have stopped blaming 'them' because I have realized that I will be doing my country, the Philippines, a disservice if all I can produce out of the injustice, out of the abuse and out of the suffering brought about by colonization is a measly anger and hate.
A colonized mind is too steep a price to pay if all I can get out of it is anger and hate?
And adding insult to injury is the fact that we do not have 'old-school' colonizers in our midst but the infrastructure and the mindset that they have drilled into our psyche is still upon us. And worse, our current colonizers are already brown skinned. Instead of destroying the structure instituted by the colonizers, all they did was to put their selves into the shoes of the historical colonizers :)
I refuse to contain and limit my reactions to colonialism and to its evil at anger and hate. I think we, the everyday Filipinos, can do something more than anger and hate.
Like, asking and trying to answer why are we, Filipinos, still stuck at this colonial mentality? When almost all those who have been colonized, like we were once and also at the same time like we were, has managed to break free from that bondage, like Malaysia 'Truly Asia'? :)
Why are we still there? Or here? :)
Is this question and the forthcoming answer the very beginning of our liberalization?
I wonder :)
"... why think like mere men?"
I was angry once but I have moved beyond 'that' anger and 'that' hate of 'once upon a time colonizers', like the Spaniards, the Americans and the Japanese, upon realizing that there's hardly a country in the world that was not colonized :)
So, I have stopped blaming 'them' because I have realized that I will be doing my country, the Philippines, a disservice if all I can produce out of the injustice, out of the abuse and out of the suffering brought about by colonization is a measly anger and hate.
A colonized mind is too steep a price to pay if all I can get out of it is anger and hate?
And adding insult to injury is the fact that we do not have 'old-school' colonizers in our midst but the infrastructure and the mindset that they have drilled into our psyche is still upon us. And worse, our current colonizers are already brown skinned. Instead of destroying the structure instituted by the colonizers, all they did was to put their selves into the shoes of the historical colonizers :)
I refuse to contain and limit my reactions to colonialism and to its evil at anger and hate. I think we, the everyday Filipinos, can do something more than anger and hate.
Like, asking and trying to answer why are we, Filipinos, still stuck at this colonial mentality? When almost all those who have been colonized, like we were once and also at the same time like we were, has managed to break free from that bondage, like Malaysia 'Truly Asia'? :)
Why are we still there? Or here? :)
Is this question and the forthcoming answer the very beginning of our liberalization?
I wonder :)
"... why think like mere men?"
Wednesday
Philippine History 101
What happened in March 1521?
The memorized answer is "Magellan discovered the Philippines".
But for the real answer, one has to look. Search.
And the search will lead to this conclusion: In March 1521, the Spaniards invaded our shores.
The Spaniards did not discover us as our elementary education told us. That fact that Magellan apparently "discovered" us is simply the effect of a Euro-centric view of the world that we, Filipinos, have unknowingly and unwittingly embraced.
For one, we were never lost in 1521. Just ask the Chinese businessmen in our shores back then :) So if we were not lost, why are we supposed to be discovered?
Our land had a thriving society and culture when they arrived. They went here not because they want to discover us. They went for something else:)
I am not angry. I just want the records straight. I just want to know the truth. And for the truth to be known by all. And the truth is that we have a sophisticated society when the colonizers arrived. We were not indios.
The memorized answer is "Magellan discovered the Philippines".
But for the real answer, one has to look. Search.
And the search will lead to this conclusion: In March 1521, the Spaniards invaded our shores.
The Spaniards did not discover us as our elementary education told us. That fact that Magellan apparently "discovered" us is simply the effect of a Euro-centric view of the world that we, Filipinos, have unknowingly and unwittingly embraced.
For one, we were never lost in 1521. Just ask the Chinese businessmen in our shores back then :) So if we were not lost, why are we supposed to be discovered?
Our land had a thriving society and culture when they arrived. They went here not because they want to discover us. They went for something else:)
I am not angry. I just want the records straight. I just want to know the truth. And for the truth to be known by all. And the truth is that we have a sophisticated society when the colonizers arrived. We were not indios.
"... ang mamatay ng dahil sa 'yo" ver 2.0
He got it right. Jose Palma.
Amidst the turmoil that brought about the first Philippine republic that song was written. Amidst the confusion that made a Filipino hero, Emilio Aguinaldo, order to kill another Filipino hero, Antonio Luna, that song was written.
Filipinos killing each other and Filipinos selling their countrymen to foreigners are not proof that the Filipinos are weak. In fact it is a proof that the Filipinos are strong for that song was written after almost 400 years of brainwashing of the colonizers. A brainwashing that include calling us as indios. How could love of one's country still exist after all of that? After all that confusion, how can something remain?
"... ang mamatay ng dahil sa 'yo!"
Amidst the turmoil that brought about the first Philippine republic that song was written. Amidst the confusion that made a Filipino hero, Emilio Aguinaldo, order to kill another Filipino hero, Antonio Luna, that song was written.
Filipinos killing each other and Filipinos selling their countrymen to foreigners are not proof that the Filipinos are weak. In fact it is a proof that the Filipinos are strong for that song was written after almost 400 years of brainwashing of the colonizers. A brainwashing that include calling us as indios. How could love of one's country still exist after all of that? After all that confusion, how can something remain?
"... ang mamatay ng dahil sa 'yo!"
Sunday
"... ang mamatay ng dahil sa 'yo!"
From the heart of my heart
For the ones who certainly knows that the best days are still ahead
This could easily be a rumbling. But this rumbling is felt. Honest. True. Pure.
I recently rediscovered how beautiful our nation anthem is.
I know we have memorized it since birth :) We can even unconsciously sing it. But do we ever stop and think how could someone write such lyrics. Seriously. How can one write such beautiful lyrics after almost 400 years of brainwashing from the colonizers if we are indios? How could someone use "hinirang" to describe a land where heartache resides?
What were the thoughts and feelings that Jose Palma embraced when he penned the beautiful poem? What did he see that we do not see anymore? That we are hoping to see again?
"... why think like mere men?"
For the ones who certainly knows that the best days are still ahead
This could easily be a rumbling. But this rumbling is felt. Honest. True. Pure.
I recently rediscovered how beautiful our nation anthem is.
I know we have memorized it since birth :) We can even unconsciously sing it. But do we ever stop and think how could someone write such lyrics. Seriously. How can one write such beautiful lyrics after almost 400 years of brainwashing from the colonizers if we are indios? How could someone use "hinirang" to describe a land where heartache resides?
What were the thoughts and feelings that Jose Palma embraced when he penned the beautiful poem? What did he see that we do not see anymore? That we are hoping to see again?
"... why think like mere men?"
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