My Sister Is Engaged

...to a stranger.

To someone I barely know. I mean, the guy never did reveal himself to us.He was simply the 'wallflower': the inanimate object sitting at our sala set with a downloaded movie stored in his flash disk or the guy sitting beside my sister during the mass. Looking back, he never did make us feel comfortable with his presence and, even today, I could not recall any meaningful conversation with the guy I'll later call my brother-in-law.

But then again, I love my sister. And I guess part of loving is trusting that your loved one has a good sense of judgment when it comes to finding a husband.

Jeepney Fare

I don't know why the LTO is obssessed with centavos.

In their fare matrix, they've deliberately placed centavos in their computation knowing full well that the passengers and the jeepney drivers can't comply with this. For one thing, virtually nobody carries around twenty cents or a denomination smaller than one peso when they travel around.

I think the jeep drivers are privately happy about this, though. For instance, the minimum fare for students is P6.40 (I think). So the drivers conveniently take P7.00 from the passenger instead simply because, as mentioned, nobody carries centavos anymore. If we Dabawenyos were less tolerant to perceived injustices like this, the LTO would have been deluged a long time ago by numerous complaints about drivers not following the LTO's matrix.

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Wedding

First time in Santa Maria, a town south of Malalag in Davao del Sur. Attended a wedding by a colleague, Weng. Just writing this post to note some traditions observed during the event.

The newlyweds giving out treats in exchange for money. Check.
The newlyweds dancing in front while various people pin money on them. Check.
Avoiding the bouquet. Check.
Avoiding the garter. Check.
Picking a couple from the audience using the garter and bouquet to, well, hopefully be the next couple. Check.
Sumptuous feast of murdered livestock. Check.
A barricade of godmothers and godfathers. Check.
An even bigger group of friends, family members, and colleagues. Check.

It's good some Pinoy traditions are here to stay.

The RH Bill 2

 Just bringing up this article from the CBCP. Below is an excerpt:

Pangasinan Rep. Kimi Cojuangco, co-sponsor of the bill (House Bill No. 4244, otherwise known as the RH bill), was interpellated by Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros Magsaysay, at times responding with arrogance over points in which she apparently was not well-versed but swiftly making an admission that surprised even her co-RH proponents.

“Is [the RH bill] a population measure?”

“Of course.”

“Of course? It’s a population measure? To curb poverty, do you need to curb population? In your eyes?”

“Definitely.”

“In other words, you are contradicting the position of all your other co-sponsors there who said that this is not a population measure, that this is not a poverty alleviation measure.”

The Pangasinan congresswoman paused for a few seconds before saying, “Well, it’s not a population… ay, it is a population measure but it’s not population control.”

After a few more moments of silence in the hall, Cojuangco insisted, “It’s a population measure but it’s not population control.”

The article also mentions the MCW, or the Magna Carta of Women "which Magsaysay repeatedly pointed out was an existing law that already addresses the concerns Cojuangco mentioned as reasons why an RH law in her opinion was necessary, such as the need for more birthing facilities, maternal health services, to name a few."

Furthermore, the article narrates the debate that ensued between Magsaysay and Cojuangco. While Magsaysay notified the congress that there was an existing law that addressed the concerns of the RH bill, Cojuangco nevertheless insisted that the seemingly ineffective application of the law's provisions is cause enough for congress to pass the RH bill. Magsaysay had the final say though when she argued back that what was needed was a stricter implementation of the MCW by the government, not another law altogether.

In line with Magsaysay's argument, I also believe that the RH bill shouldn't be passed for the simple reason of redundancy. We have an existing law in the form of the MCW which, given enough resources and focus by the local government, is potent enough to promote and improve the reproductive health of our women brethren. By introducing the RH bill, we are setting ourselves up for double failure, with two laws, aimed at solving the same problem, scrounging for the same limited supply of resources. That's a recipe for disaster.

We're smarter than this. Or are we?

It's A Girl

This was so easy. It's my first time to embed a video in a blog post so forgive me for my ignorance.

Self-congratulatory pat-backs aside, I came across this video of an all-too-real reality in some parts of the world. It's a teaser about a documentary film reporting on 'gendercide' or the mass killing of female babies, most especially in China and India.

This is plain wrong. But what's even disturbing is that almost entire societies, save for some stalwart human rights advocates, approve of these silent murders. I'm angry right now. I just can't fathom the depravity inside the persons responsible for the killing of these innocents.