tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72649074002803604592024-02-19T07:41:53.868-08:00Telltale SignsRodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.comBlogger176125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-71030444549374662242010-04-28T14:46:00.000-07:002010-04-29T14:48:28.016-07:00Throwing the Kitchen SinkWe are now in the homestretch of a marathon election campaign where the runners have to sprint to the finish line, where it now goes quickly from ugly to really ugly. It’s kitchen sink time when candidates behind in the count start throwing everything at the frontrunner. In the case of Manny Villar, who has invested billions of pesos of his personal fortune into his presidential campaign, this Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-26558861526515469762010-04-21T14:49:00.000-07:002010-04-29T14:51:00.816-07:00People Power 3 or Martial Law 2The blogosphere has been inundated with projections about the probable outcome of the May 10 elections in the Philippines with many bloggers predicting an outright Noynoy Aquino victory based on the strength of polls that show him consistently holding on to 37% or more of the vote. Still others contend that Manny Villar will eke out a win despite falling in the polls from 35% to 22%, just Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-63605625802779661352010-04-14T14:51:00.000-07:002010-04-29T14:52:22.924-07:00Who is Vetellano Acosta?No one ever heard of him before and no one knows anything more about him since but the hitherto unknown Vetellano Acosta is the first name that close to 55 million Filipino voters will see on their ballots in the May 10 elections. Prior to January 15, 2010, the Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) had only approved eight presidential candidates whose names would be listed alphabetically Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-81799286280138416212010-01-28T13:01:00.000-08:002010-01-28T14:06:02.336-08:00Telltale Signs: COMELEC’S INDIFFERENCE TO OVERSEAS FILIPINOSWhen Maritess Salientes Bloom, a dual citizen from Boston, Massachusetts, appeared at a hearing before the members of the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) in Manila on January 14, 2010, she was hopeful that the commissioners would grant her petition to extend the voter registration period for overseas Filipinos. There was, after all, no opposition to her petition and the Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-76113439628875322582010-01-28T13:00:00.000-08:002010-01-28T13:01:08.140-08:00Telltale Signs: PAULI’S DEBUTMy niece, Pauli, was only ten years old when Gene Cajayon’s feature length film, The Debut, was shown in mainstream theatres all over the US in March of 2002. Many years later, when Pauli was in her teens, she saw the movie on DVD about the Filipino American traditional celebration of an 18-year old girl’s debut and it inspired her to celebrate her own debut just the way that her aunts recountedRodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-14797510246300194912010-01-28T12:48:00.000-08:002010-01-28T13:00:13.845-08:00Telltale Signs: WHAT DO AL GORE AND MT. PINATUBO HAVE IN COMMON?The end of 2009 found Mt. Mayon, in the Southern Luzon province of Albay, on the verge of erupting as molten magma flowed half a mile down from its crater and dark plumes of ashes filled the sky causing the evacuation of more than 20,000 residents in and around the 8,070 ft. volcano. But the feared eruption never came and the villagers returned to their homes. Many feared that Mt. Mayon would go Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-7340053883846907642010-01-28T12:37:00.000-08:002010-01-28T12:46:55.442-08:00Telltale Signs/ THE RIZAL BILLFor the past several decades, it had been the practice of the San Francisco Philippine Consulate to celebrate Rizal Day on the occasion of his death anniversary on December 30 with a solemn program usually featuring the recitation of Rizal’s “Mi Ultimo Adios” (My Last Farewell) and speakers extolling the virtues of Philippine National Hero Dr. Jose Rizal. I was a speaker on a number of those Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-56026603662091824842010-01-28T12:34:00.001-08:002010-01-28T12:34:26.256-08:00Telltale Signs/ LOVE IS THE NEXT TRUTHAbout a week ago, I saw my son, Daniel, in his computer viewing a 10-minute video that had been emailed to him by a classmate who had videotaped her friends for a class project. He was in the video, Litany of Love, reciting a rap poem that he had composed and committed to memory. I watched it with him and was impressed with what I saw. I asked my son to email the video to me and when he did, I Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-28337995386467039132010-01-28T12:32:00.000-08:002010-01-28T12:33:30.795-08:00Telltale Signs: SC ASKED TO EXTEND VOTER REGISTRATION TO OVERSEAS PINOYSResponding to a plea to extend the time to register to vote in the May 2010 elections, the Philippine Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision on December 8, 2009 extending the voter registration period to January 9, 2010. Because the decision only covers voters in the Philippines, a petition to the Court to extend its ruling to cover overseas Filipinos will be filed this week. Filipinos in theRodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-65750391531914843922010-01-28T12:22:00.000-08:002010-01-28T12:31:56.106-08:00Telltale Signs/ THE PRESIDENT’S AGUINALDOJust exactly why did Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo file her Certificate of Candidacy to run for a congressional seat in her home province of Pampanga? Her political opponents and press pundits speculate that she did so as a first step to seek and win the post of Speaker of the next Congress, a position from which she can then move to change the constitution to a parliamentary form where she can Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-18578826704836328272010-01-28T12:13:00.000-08:002010-01-28T12:22:30.827-08:00Telltale Signs/THE PHILIPPINE CULTURE OF IMPUNITYIn the weeks following the Ampatuan Massacre, I scoured through hundreds of news articles and opinion columns about the barbaric slaughter of 61 innocent people, including 31 working journalists. I also saw posted on the Internet gruesome close-up photos of the mangled, brutalized bodies of the victims, images which still haunt me. One columnist, Jose Ma. Montelibano, wrote that he was “crushed Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-31226768924573240402010-01-28T12:11:00.000-08:002010-01-28T12:13:33.628-08:00Telltale Signs/ HOPE FOR HOMEOWNERS IN COURT RULINGFor millions of Americans, including many tens of thousands of Filipino-Americans, who are struggling mightily to pay their bank mortgages and stay “above water” to avoid bank foreclosures, a recent decision by a New York judge may offer much-needed relief. On November 19, 2009, New York Judge Jeffrey Arlen Spinner issued a decision canceling the $527,437 mortgage of a Long Island couple whose Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-82495615430637925342009-11-20T11:12:00.000-08:002009-11-20T11:16:54.305-08:00The Pacman ComethIn his prize-winning play, The Iceman Cometh, Eugene O’Neill presents a drama about the human need for hope and illusion as a response to the conditions of despair. If ever the Filipino people needed a distraction from the wearying conditions of despair that surround them, now is the time and Manny “the Pacman” Pacquiao is the man to provide the hope and illusion. He is our Iceman. With his Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-5712885909578524492009-11-20T10:58:00.000-08:002009-11-20T10:58:15.640-08:00Fil-Am History MonthIf you google "Chinese American History Month" or "Japanese American History Month", the search engines will all direct you to "Asian Pacific American Heritage Month" which, you will be informed, was enacted on October 28, 1992 to honor the achievements of Asian/Pacific Americans and to recognize their contributions to the United States. All 30 or so Asian ethnic groups in the US were lumped Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-36139479920591989252009-11-15T10:53:00.000-08:002009-11-20T10:56:53.522-08:00Overpopulation and the Catholic ChurchSenator Noynoy Aquino leads in all the presidential polls that have been taken in the Philippines in the last month, receiving more preferential votes than all his opponents combined.But before his supporters can start planning a yellow-themed celebration in May of 2010, there are still formidable obstacles standing in his way and they are not Manny Villar, Erap Estrada, or Gibo Teodoro.The firstRodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-69142409910186095742009-10-28T10:58:00.000-07:002009-11-20T11:12:07.744-08:00The First Nobel Prez WinnerBarack Obama is not the first nor the youngest US president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. That distinction belongs to Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt who was awarded the honor in 1906 for his role ending the Russo-Japanese War. But “Peace” has never been a word associated with Roosevelt’s policies and world view, especially as they affected the Philippines. Roosevelt was a young author (“The NavalRodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-43405942312425505252009-10-19T11:22:00.000-07:002009-10-19T11:31:47.838-07:00422 Years AgoAlmost a century after Christopher Columbus stumbled upon the Bahamas Islands on October 12, 1492 and claimed for the king of Spain what would later be called “the Americas ”, Spanish Captain Pedro de Unamuno “discovered” California on the other side of the continent. Although Columbus’ discovery is celebrated as a national holiday in the United States, in Spain , and throughout South America, noRodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-70983291007652221642009-10-07T11:16:00.000-07:002009-10-19T11:22:06.879-07:00First Filipinos to Set Foot in CaliforniaAlmost a century after Christopher Columbus stumbled upon the Bahamas Islands on October 12, 1492 and claimed for the king of Spain what would later be called “the Americas ”, Spanish Captain Pedro de Unamuno “discovered” California on the other side of the continent. Although Columbus ’ discovery is celebrated as a national holiday in the United States , in Spain , and throughout South America, Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-62664719967091618812009-09-30T23:15:00.000-07:002009-10-02T23:16:52.880-07:00Beating Ketsana-OndoyIt was billed as Ondoy-Ketsana, which is O-K, only it wasn’t. Ketsana-Ondoy is more appropriate because it was a walloping K-O that this tropical storm unleashed on the Philippines, akin to what Manny Pacquiao inflicted on Ricky Hatton last May. Only much, much worse. The photos of the devastation in the hard-hit areas of Metro Manila were harrowing and heart-wrenching: shanties shattered and Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-35457326938934419562009-09-23T20:38:00.000-07:002009-09-29T20:39:17.610-07:00Estrada's MotiveTwo years ago this month, former Pres. Joseph “Erap” Estrada was found guilty of Plunder by the Philippine Anti-Graft Court (Sandigan Bayan). In a column I wrote about the verdict (“No Tears for Estrada”, September 17, 2007), I expressed my regret that the Sandigan Bayan judges never charged Estrada for his role in the abduction and murders of Salvador "Bubby" Dacer, Emmanuel Corbito and Edgar Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-361983219926464792009-09-16T20:39:00.000-07:002009-09-29T20:40:54.366-07:00EXTEND OVERSEAS VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINELike many procrastinators, I waited until the last day to register to vote for the May 2010 Philippine elections and it almost proved costly. When I got to the Philippine Consulate at 8:30 a.m., I was informed by the security guard that it was closed because August 31 is a national holiday in the Philippines. “National Heroes Day, sir,” the guard explained. “But today is the last day to registerRodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-72228698809747038862009-09-09T11:49:00.000-07:002009-09-14T11:51:19.660-07:00Giving Remitters Their VoiceConsidering that the globe is mired in a major economic crisis which continues to roil its most advanced countries, the Philippines’ economic picture is impressive. Its unemployment rate is hovering around 7% (while the latest US figure is at 9.7%), and its gross national product (GNP) of about $186B recorded a phenomenal 4.5% growth in 2008. Moreover, while the US economy contracted as of the Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-32116146889063856962009-09-01T11:51:00.000-07:002009-09-14T12:00:09.301-07:00Roasting GregMost folks usually associate the word “roast” with cooking either a beast or foul, preferably already dead, with dry heat. But ever since Dean Martin started royally skewering his guests on his TV show in the 1960s, it has also become known as an event where an individual is honored by being affectionately insulted by friends, family and well-wishers.On Sunday, August 23, on the occasion of his Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-91057249191877115182009-08-27T06:54:00.000-07:002009-08-27T06:55:40.490-07:00Jose Rizal and Ninoy Aquino: Cosmic BrothersIf you compare all the Philippine national heroes from Lapu-Lapu to Cory Aquino, it is unlikely that you will find two heroes more uncannily similar, in how they lived and in how they died, than Dr. Jose Rizal and Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr.Both came from similar class backgrounds - their families were below hacendero level landed gentry; both studied at the elite Ateneo school; both traveled Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7264907400280360459.post-83697553996534013362009-08-19T10:34:00.000-07:002009-08-19T10:37:22.536-07:00Who Ordered the Hit on Ninoy Aquino?Many years ago, while I was waiting in line to see the Agatha Christie whodunit, Murder on the Orient Express, a moviegoer who was exiting the theater screamed out “They all did it!” spoiling the suspense. Every year, on the occasion of the anniversary of the assassination of Ninoy Aquino on August 21, people ask: Who ordered the hit? Was it the Dictator Ferdinand Marcos? First Lady Imelda Rodel E. Rodishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16816176911506059289noreply@blogger.com9