Artistic License

Artistic license (also known as dramatic license, historical license, poetic license, narrative license, licentia poetica, or simply license) is a colloquial term, sometimes euphemism, used to denote the distortion of fact, alteration of the conventions of grammar or language, or rewording of pre-existing text made by an artist to improve a piece of art.

- Wikipedia

I guess if someone points out a misspelled word or grammatical error, I should just raise this defense. I'm getting lazy nowadays. 

Cotabato City

I guess it's all in my head.

Last month, I had the chance to tag along with my colleagues for a client presentation in Cotabato City. I wasn't particularly nervous about the trip but I was clearly thinking about what a typical war zone in Mindanao would be.

My imagination demanded that I see potholes of past IED explosions and dozens of checkpoints en route.

To my dismay (and fortune), there was none. In fact, our road trip was very pleasant. The roads were fine and there was no hint of danger all the way. Even as we were passing Pikit, the notorious place where skirmishes between the government army and Muslim rebels have been very frequent, we've only witnessed the normal bustle of a small town.

In Cotabato City, the streets were still busy past seven o'clock in the evening, a far cry from what I heard that the city was a ghost town after six o'clock.

Still, precautions were still followed. We couldn't travel back to Davao in the evening. We had to look for a hotel with a private parking lot for rental cars. We opted to stay inside our hotel for dinner.

I wonder what the other cities in Mindanao look like?

Missing Dog

What a way to start the week.

I just lost Wiggles, one of our dogs, during my Sunday jog this morning. Papa was visibly upset when I told him the news and I spent over an hour tracing my route looking for her.

The dog wasn't on a leash because she would usually just follow me wherever I jog. 

It seems, this time around, that wasn't the case. 

Here's to hoping she's coming back. 

Kilala Mo Si Jun Sabayton?

I've already talked about Lourd De Veyra. But I failed to mention his director, friend, and now fellow news anchor, Rodolfo "Jun" Sabayton, Jr.

Guess who Jun Sabayton is. A picture from his Facebook page

At first, I thought the guy was an extra, just a regular tambay plucked from nowhere for the show Word of the Lourd. However, when his appearances in the show became more frequent, I also became more curious.

Jun has been known for a lot of antics, from his half-naked looks to his nonconformist clothes. But his recent habit of appearing in other networks' shows has upped the ante:

What the heck. Guess I have a new idol now huh? 

Mabuhay ka Jun Sabaton!

Team Luy-A

L-R: Rodel "Yotz" Malagum, Ramy Baltores, Anthony "Tonyo" Salva, Paolo Ray Bataller, Mary Grace "Grasya" Uayan, Henry Awab

This is Team Luy-A. 

The group also includes Sam Porras (the one who took the picture) and Rommel who we haven't seen for quite awhile. Grace is also an honorary member standing as the muse.

Sir Ramy had asked me sometime ago to write a post about the group. Well, here it is.

Davao City's Speed Limit Ordinances

Through Executive Order No. 30, Davao City passed its strictest speed limit ordinance yet. The ordinance was a reaction to a series of motor vehicle accidents purportedly brought about by drivers driving too fast.

It's fair to assume that many residents grumbled at the limits. Most argued that the speeds set didn't optimize cars' performances but instead seriously affected cars' engines. But most citizens readily understood that the limits were necessary for everyone's safety.

This leads us to the fun part. The ordinance does, in fact, suffer from a serious flaw which makes it revocable at any given moment. It only takes one motivated person to file a petition to the Supreme Court to have the ordinance declared void.

This particular case is our precedent. In Primicias vs. The Municipality of Urdaneta (G.R. No. L-26702), the ordinance regulating the municipality's speed limits for vehicles was rendered invalid for contravening the provisions of a relevant statute, R.A. 4136 at that time. R.A. 4136 also regulated the speed limits of vehicles on all roads in the country. 

Thus, when there's a conflict between an ordinance and a statute, the provisions of the statute must prevail.

Unfortunately (lest you celebrate prematurely), the ordinance is more or less a copy of the statute. Any conflict that may arise comes from the minute details such as whether this specific road is subject to this speed limit and so on. 

So what we have here is an ordinance that merely reiterates the speed limits as set by Congress. This in turn makes everything I wrote about revoking the ordinance moot and inconsequential. But still, if ever the statute does get amended, at least you know there's going to be a way to scrap this ordinance.

Have a nice week everyone.

Formula E

Whoa. So there's a racing competition now for electric sports cars?

Formula E, officially the FIA Formula E Championship, is a class of auto racing, sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The "formula", designated in the name, refers to a set of rules with which all participants' cars must comply. Formula E is intended to be the highest class of competition for one-make, single-seat, electrically-powered racing cars.[1] The series was conceived in 2012, with the inaugural championship to be held in 2014–15.

- Wikipedia

The good thing, obviously, for events like these is the impetus granted to car companies to innovate and be more creative in pushing technologies for electric cars. We'll need that if the world is really serious in curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

Camera Cafe

I almost forgot about this show.

Camera Cafe was one of the delights that the young TV station, QTV, had then. It was actually a spin-off of the French-made TV comedy series of the same name:

Caméra Café is a French-born concept of comedy television series exported around the world. A movie spin-off has been made in France under the title of Espace détente. It was originally a French television show created by Bruno Solo, Yvan Le Bolloc'h, and Alain Kappauf and it was broadcast from September 2001 to December 2003 on the M6 channel...

The show revolves around a dysfunctional office. Its originality stems from the fact that, within the fiction, the camera is fixed into the automated coffee machine of the office space.

-Wikipedia

The show featured quite a cast of comedians and the scripts, though possibly borrowed from its French counterpart, still featured situations that were unique jabs at Filipino culture. Unfortunately, I only caught a glimpse of its episodes every now and then. 

Fortunately, there's Youtube.