TRAVEL LIGHT

“Sulpicio Lines, Inc. has acquired a quality system which meets the requirements of the International Quality Assurance Management Standard ISO 9002 (1994) and the International Maritime Organization’s ISM Code of “Safe Operation of Ships and Pollution Prevention” on June 18, 1999 and July 17, 1999, respectively. Sulpicio Lines, Inc. is the first domestic shipping company to obtain two international accreditation at the same time.” – from Sulpicio Lines Website

December 20, 1987, the worst “peace time” sea disaster happened in the Philippines. The MV Doña Paz, collided with a Caltex-hired oil tanker, MT Vector, at Tablas Strait dividing Mindoro and Marinduque, an inter-island route wide enough for both vessels to pass. The tragedy left 4,000 people dead and only 26 people rescued. The Owner of the ship is Sulpicio Lines. On Oct. 29, 1988, the Board of Marine Inquiry “absolved” Sulpicio Lines of any responsibility.

Less than a year after this incident, on October 24, 1988, another vessel of Sulpicio Lines, the Doña Marilyn, capsized. The vessel was allowed to sail even a Storm Signal No. 3 for typhoon “Unsang” was already raised. This disaster left at least 250 people dead. The Board of Maritime Inquiry concluded later that it was a force majeure or “an act of God.” According to the Maritime Board, no one is responsible for the death of 250 people.

Ten years later, on September 18, 1998, Sulpicio Line’s largest ship, the MV Princess of the Orient was sanked by yet another typhoon, “Gading.” Once Again, the ship was allowed to sail even when storm signals were already raised. At least 150 were confirmed dead. In September 2000,Department of Justice junked the criminal case against Sulpicio Lines in connection with the sinking of the Princess of the Orient, saying the shipping firm could not be held criminally liable for the death of scores of passengers.

Now, ten years after, on June 22, 2008, another of Sulpicio Line’s ship, MV Princess of the Stars met the same exact fate. It was allowed to sail in the midst of typhoon “Frank” and like ten years before, the ship capsized. The ship’s manifest declared 725 passengers and as of this writing, only 28 of them were already rescued.

Read more…

“RANSOM, n. The purchase of that which neither belongs to the seller, nor can belong to the buyer. The most unprofitable of investments.”

- Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce

The Devil’s Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce, is a satirical book published in 1911, a period when Kidnap for Ransom was still not a thought about crime. In the turn of the century Kidnap for Ransom became one of the most lucrative criminal enterprise, that it has become a criminal cottage industry in most underdeveloped countries like the Philippines.

Kidnap for Ransom (KFR) thrive in societies where there is break down in law and order, gross graft and corruption in government and massive poverty a living reality. Through the years, KFR syndicates had evolved and developed into a more complex organization and acquired sophistication in its operations. An example of a KFR organization and its modus operandi was shown in Denzel Washington’s movie, Man on Fire. The movie showed how a KFR organization operates in different stages and its plan executed by compartmentalized groups. Although the movie does not present itself as a standard police field manual for anti-KFR operations, but it presents facts common and shared by various countries. Most glaring of which is the direct involvement of key Government officials or the Police and Military in KFR groups.

The movie Man on Fire showed four different sub-groups executing one KFR operation. Compartmentalized operation insulates potential spilling of beans in the event that KFR operatives get arrested. It secures the object and ensures success of the KFR operation. As shown in the movie, one group is involved only in gathering intelligence, the other group is tasked to extract the object, the other one for the safekeeping of the object and the last is the group of negotiator/s.

Read more…

I must admit that I am not much of a Jose Rizal fan. Ka Andres Bonifacio gets more points from me, just a bit higher than Rizal. But like any Filipino, I admire Rizal for his dedication to our country’s cause. The life he lived as hero and martyr should be a source of inspiration, if not an emulation for the youth which he proclaimed as the hope of the mother/fatherland. Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio are both heroes and examplars of Filipino Patriotism and they’re both my brother Masons.

According to the Grand Lodge of the Philippines website:

Rizal was made a Master Mason on November 15, 1890 at Logia Solidaridad 53 in Madrid, Spain. He affiliated with a lodge under the jurisdiction of Grand Orient of France on October 14, 1891, and was made honorary Worshipful Master of Nilad Lodge No. 144 in 1892. There he delivered a lecture entitled “La Masoneria”.

Read more…

In the early 70′s when you travel by the rough and rugged highways along rural areas in the Philippines, you can seldom find TV antennas on top of the roof of houses. If there are any, you can count only around three houses with TV antennas attached on its roof. One is the Mayor’s house, the second one is his brother’s house, and the third would be most likely the Chinese who owns the town’s only hardware and who happens to be the Mayor’s cousin. Owning a TV set was a form of luxury before that only the rich can afford. About this time there were no DirecTV yet, but nobody cares as long as they can watch a movie every now and then.

On the following decade, portions of the highway were already cemented, and the buses a bit bigger but still provide the same discomfort to its passengers. The rural landscape also changed with the passing of time. The once forested areas has become bald. On towns where there were only three TV antennas a decade before, you can find an additional five roof having TV antennas of their own. Still there were no DirectTV during this period. What could not be offered by Direct TV then was compensated by the introduction of the Betamax.

The next decade was marked by a massive migration of rural people working abroad. Almost 2/3 of the population in any rural town in the Philippines had a wife, mother, husband, son, daughter, brother or sister working as sea or land based workers overseas. Due this, the rural landscape experienced a sudden face lift overnight. Old, wooden and dilapidated houses were renovated or completely remodeled into modern architectural structures. Videoke bars sprouted like mushroom in town centers. Farmers gave up their traditional farming implements, exchanging their trusty water buffaloes to modern hand tractors. On the roof of houses, new gadgets and peripherals for communications have also sprouted. While almost all roof already had TV antennas, one can now find disks for Sattelite TV and antennas for radio communication.

And if you stop at the town and ask further, the house that has the Sattelite TV disk is owned by the Congressman who is the brother of the former Mayor. The other house with a disk belongs to the former Mayor’s son who is now the incumbent Mayor. And the third is owned by the Chinese cousin of the former Mayor who now not only owns the biggest hardware in town, but also the town’s only Cable TV Company.

In a third world country like the Philippines, the TV has become one indicator of progress. Anyone, especially those in the rural areas, who had moved upward even by one step in the social ladder, will choose to buy a TV set first before any appliances. That is Philippine’s reality TV.

Technically speaking, year 2010 is still less than two years from now. On May 2010, the Philippine National Election is scheduled. On May 2010 we are to elect a new President, Vice President, Senators, Congressmen, and local officials from the Provinces down to the Municipalities. Year 2010 is the D-YEAR for politicians of all shades, shape, size, color, kind and breed.

The Greatest Show on our country is still far two years away, but the circus has already started. From now till the last quarter next year will be a free for all season for political gimmickry. Political signs are now fast transforming our landscape. Since it is not yet election campaign period, most clowns hang their protraits as election signs, under the guise of product endorsement. There is even one animal who brazenly and shamelessly used public funds to uglify Metro Manila by putting up his pink political yard signs at the whole stretch of the Metro Rail Track along EDSA. If you’re a Metro Gago, you’ll love this guy.

The trick for this early campaigning are: first, to gain beachhead in the propaganda war, secondly, to test the waters of public acceptability and lastly as basis for horse-trading or to raise the ante (price) in case a potential opponent negotiates for him/her to join a certain ticket or his withdrawal from the electoral race.

Technically speaking, year 2010 is still less than two years from now. But for the kind of politicians we have, less than two years is just like less than two weeks away.

In our political culture, who would believe that there is a Congressman who will go up the roof of his house to fix a leak or do repairs?

In our mind is fixed an image that every Congressman lives like a King in a Castle, surrounded by bodyguards, servants and other subalterns. To shine his own shoe has become an almost impossible feat by any Congressman, how much more that of fixing a roof.

But alas, there was such a Congressman. He died because he went up the roof of his house to fix a leak and do repairs.

In the jungle called the House of Representatives, there are those who truly live the life of those they represent – the marginalized sector of our Society. Among them was Rep. Crispin Beltran, or Ka Bel, as he was popularly known and called by his comrades and enemies alike. In the records of the House of Representatives, as per declared Statement of Assets and Liaibilities, Ka Bel ranks as among the poorest Congressman. But if wealth and Honor is measured upon the consistency and conviction to one’s belief and principle, Ka Bel would stand as the richest among his Honorable colleagues who would all be the have-nots.

Anakpawis Partylist Representative Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran, was seriously injured after falling from the roof of his house which he was fixing. He died today, May 20, 2008, from cardiac arrest while being operated for his injuries. A death which he most likely detest. For it is known among his comrades that Ka Bel, a fighter that he was, prefered to die in action. To take a bullet from a fight in the people’s struggle for justice and democracy is what he hoped would put an end to his life. But death is a swift thing that comes like a thief in the night.

During my youth activist years, Ka Bel was one of our proletarian idols. I had the opportunity to met him personally, albeit in fleeting moments, in the early 90′s, before the Great Divide of the left happened. We have chosen opposite sides and went separate ways then. I might disagree with Ka Bel’s chosen ideology, but I respect his firm conviction to the worker’s welfare and struggle. I believe that like all militant Labor Leaders before him, Ka Bel’s resolve in the worker’s struggle was drawn not from the intellectualization of their plight, but from their own actual experience as workers themselves.

Ka Bel’s death is a great loss in the Labor Movement. It will take perhaps another decade round of worker’s struggle to produce the likes of, Ka Bert Olalia, Ka Simo Carullo, Ka Bel…

Pagpugay at Paalam Ka Bel! Mabuhay ka tunay na lider Manggagawa!

kung ikaw ay naglingkod sa aping sambayanan, ang kamatayan mo’y sing-bigat ng bukid Apo

*Photo taken from http://kalovski.blog.com/

Our government, when faced with an intense political pressure and crisis would simply cry, uphold the rule of law. As if those who are questioning its corrupt practices are not following the rule of law.

Through this “Uphold the Rule of Law” dictum, MMDA’s Bayani Fernando draws mandate for his URBANIDAD campaign — a campaign of instilling discipline in Metro Manila citizens. As if to help remind people about law and order, Bayani Fernando has used tax-payers money to print and mount his gigantic portraits with a few wordings about law and order, on the columns of MRT covering the long stretch of EDSA. At the bottom of these Bayani Fernando portrait-posters are written, “Government property do not remove. Mere possession of this sign is punishable by law. – MMDA.” So for all of you taxpayers out there, there goes your hard earned money.

Remember people, Uphold the Rule of Law!, those are the marching orders with the whiplash in the background. But wait, what law? And whose Law?

For two days now, the MMDA (again!) had grabbed the Metro news with its new antic—the spray painting of buses they caught to be out of line and had no chips (whatever those are). They lined up the impounded buses and this MMDA honcho named Roberto Esquivel happily led the spray painting spree. The buses were spray painted with the scarlet letters, “Out-of-line, Colorum”—as if it was the poor vehicle’s fault.

Not so long ago, this shame campaign was used by Alfredo Lim in his anti-drug campaign. He used to mark houses of suspected Drug Users and Peddlers with warning signs, without effect but only to put people to shame. Mayor Alfredo Lim did not paint his son’s house. But just recently, his son was busted for narcotics.

This shame campaign has drawn flak because it is in violation of the constitutional rights of due process of law. The Court of Appeals, in a decision issued in 2000, ruled that the shame campaign was ‘invalid.’ That decision was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2003.
Read more…