“I thought it was a brilliant idea, brilliant,” says Mitch Huhem, who is looking to buy a trailer park with his wife, Deborah. “These people need a place to live, and they don’t want to mess around.“They’ve got to live somewhere, so you combine them in a certain place. They don’t go out to hurt people. I think it’s a community service, because if not they will be in your neighbourhood. Now they’re all in one place, you can watch them all in one place. And they pay well and won’t mess things up. I mean, why would you not? I think it’s a brilliant idea.”
via America’s trailer parks: the residents may be poor but the owners are getting rich | Life and style | The Guardian.
Mary Jane Veloso and being on different sides of the elephant
Who did what?
I first found out about Mary Jane’s case in January 2015, long before Filipinos knew who she was. This means I’ve been talking to the Philippine embassy officials about her case even before Migrante and NUPL knew about it.
At the time, they were preparing her first case review. They shared the background and the plans with me – to raise the translator issue – but asked me not to publish anything yet because they didn’t want to prejudice the upcoming case.
This is an indisputable fact: The Philippine government hired Indonesian lawyers to appeal Mary Jane’s case, but they did not publicize what they were doing at the start.
I’ve raised my concern several times about the lack of publicity over Mary Jane’s case, but the embassy insisted they believed the legal route will have a better chance of saving her than publicity, which at the time was backfiring on the Australians.
via Mary Jane Veloso and being on different sides of the elephant.
BINAYARAN WATCH::Makati Home Ville: Where lies the truth?
The article tries to fact check the testimony of the witnesses but instead becomes a he said she said article.
It fails to ask the right questions and instead muddies the issue. Trash journalism.
Let us give a simple example of the enclosed excerpt.
In the article the issue of the housing of relocation is a statement by Binay that :
‘Binigyan na kayo ng lupa, gusto n’yo pa ng bahay?” (He said, “You were already given lands, you still want to be given houses?”).
The article then quotes a resident:
“Hindi totoo ‘yan (That’s not true)!”
“Yung mga may kaya na magtayo nang sarili nila, okay lang na magtayo. Yung di kaya magtayo, lilipat sila sa pabahay, (Those who have the means, they may build their houses. Those who can’t, will be moved to the housing units),”
The issue was how unapologetic nay entitled Binay’s wording was. It was as if a King/Queen was telling his subjects you are alive what more can you ask for.
While the quoted person was addressing not what was said but the options the people in Homeville had.
And the the stupid reported didn’t have the sense to ask. Where does one live for 6 months while the HomeVille housing was being constructed while you are already here in Calauan?
WTF this is probably an overmatched intern or a paid hack.
EntitlementLani claimed, “Ang mga tao, takot lang magsalita. Siyempre, Binay ito. Kung paalisin sila? (The people here are just afraid to talk. Of course, this is Binay’s. What if they get evicted?)”To outsiders, the relocation site is Binay Compound. But to residents, it’s Makati Home Ville, and the 40-hectare property was purchased by the city government of Makati.Before the Senate committee, Edison recalled asking the Vice President about his alleged promise of providing them shelter: “Sabi niya, ‘Binigyan na kayo ng lupa, gusto n’yo pa ng bahay?” (He said, “You were already given lands, you still want to be given houses?”).Lopez outrightly dismissed this: “Hindi totoo ‘yan (That’s not true)!”“Yung mga may kaya na magtayo nang sarili nila, okay lang na magtayo. Yung di kaya magtayo, lilipat sila sa pabahay, (Those who have the means, they may build their houses. Those who can’t, will be moved to the housing units),” Zeny explained.THOSE WHO ARE ABLE. Residents with the means to build their own houses are encouraged to do so. Those who can’t, will move to the housing units.The housing units in Phase 3 were completed in March 2013. But it took 4 years since the first relocatees were moved to Makati Home Ville before the housing units were finished. They weren’t occupied until 6 months later.
via Makati Home Ville: Where lies the truth?.
DILG: A bright future awaits 4Ps graduates | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines
DILG: A bright future awaits 4Ps graduates
Posted on April 9, 2015
From the Department of Interior and Local Government
Thousands of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) high school scholars gathered together with Secretary of the Interior and Local Government Mar Roxas and other cabinet members in the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) on Thursday, to celebrate their graduation.
“Marami ang tumulong, marami ang nagsakripisyo para tayo ay makatuloy sa pag-aaral. Anuman ang marating natin, hindi tayo solo-flight dito,” said Roxas.
According to Roxas, the 4Ps project is an investment to elevate the situation of the students and families living in the poverty line.
Roxas also asked the students and their parents to continue reaching for their dreams, even if it meant sacrifice and hardship.
“Tandaan ninyong hindi kayo nag-iisa. Nariyan ang Maykapal. Anuman ang mangyayari sa inyo, anuman ang mangyayari sa ating bansa ay nasa sainyo,” Roxas said.
Help also continues for beneficiaries in the form of internships, college scholarships and skills training programs from the government.
Secretaries Corazon Soliman (DSWD), Armin Luistro (DepEd), Rosalinda Baldoz (DOLE), Commissioner Jose Sixto ‘Dingdong’ Dantes (NYC), and the supporters of the 4Ps were also present in the program.
More than 4.4 million poor Filipino families receive regular cash grants from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, a poverty reduction strategy that gives Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) to poorest households, provided that they comply with the conditions set by the program.
This program also ranks as the 3rd largest conditional cash transfer program in the world, next to Brazil and Mexico.
dilg.gov.ph
via DILG: A bright future awaits 4Ps graduates | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines.
CCT beneficiary to study civil engineering in UP | Inquirer News
Topnotchers and awardees
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said of the 4,000 graduates feted on Thursday, 95 shone academically and graduated as topnotchers and awardees in various fields.
The CCT program, or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, has been heavily criticized as a “dole’’ by some sectors while others claim that the program’s budget is excessive.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who was one of the guests at the celebration, appealed to the students and their parents to continue reaching for their dreams, even if it meant sacrifice and hardship.
Aside from the high school graduates, the DSWD also presented two former beneficiaries who graduated from college with the help of CHEd and are now licensed teachers.
“These kids only get P500, which is little. But you can see that with the perseverance of the children and their parents, they are now able to finish school,” Soliman said.
via CCT beneficiary to study civil engineering in UP | Inquirer News.
rePost::In defense of knowledge: Philippine victimhood, the sequel | The Society of Honor by Joe America
So much of what we witness in the press, and from our friends, is negative.
And what a vast, needy dedication to ignorance our view of the Philippines becomes. We see conflict and complaint, villains and more villains, failure rather than success.
We fail to see the positives, or push them aside. We fail to see Manila congestion as a good sign of economic health, fail to notice that the shacks along the riverbanks are going away, or that Manila is no longer as flood prone, or that readiness for disasters is a national success story, or that the Philippines is demonstrating a mature, law-based solution to Moro rebellion and Chinese incursions. That there is a real middle class developing, high-rise homes reaching for the sky, an emerging base of good values and fair dealing. That the nation is leading Asia in growth and rising on every global index published, for ease of doing business, competitiveness, freedom, transparency and reduction of corruption. That democracy here is vibrant and working. That the nation is financially sound, collecting taxes better, putting money to better use . . .
Becoming whole.
The orphan of Asia is growing up.
via In defense of knowledge: Philippine victimhood, the sequel | The Society of Honor by Joe America.
Vin Diesel in Furious 7: The actor is not a macho lunkhead, he's so much more.
Diesel is not your standard “tough guy.” He is, first of all, a huge nerd. He’s not just an avid Dungeons & Dragons player; he wrote the foreword to the commemorative tome Thirty Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons. He told Jimmy Fallon that the game inspired him to become an actor. He taught Judi Dench how to play. He’ll occasionally produce a critically-acclaimed, award-winning Xbox game. He made an animated film with the guy who created Aeon Flux. He loves Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. He’s spent most of his career desperately trying to make a movie about Hannibal’s failed conquest of Rome.
via Vin Diesel in Furious 7: The actor is not a macho lunkhead, he’s so much more..
rePost::Protesting changes, Kidlat returns Cinemalaya award | Inquirer Entertainment
Not finger-pointing
“I know what it is like to be a first-timer trying to get your film across the finish line,” he said. “In my day, you had to find a festival that would give you a cold audience. It’s important for filmmakers to find such an audience. It’s easy to fill up an auditorium with your friends—they may like [the film] because they like you. A cold audience gives you perspective; you will be told where the bad spots are.”
This is not a case of finger-pointing, Kidlat said. “I’m not downgrading the achievements of Cinemalaya stalwarts. I appreciate what they have done so far. However, the money mentality seems to [indicate] that it’s more efficient to put together the little leaguers with the big boys. Then you forget your mission.”
Thoughtfully, Kidlat asked, “What was your mission, Cinemalaya?”
via Protesting changes, Kidlat returns Cinemalaya award | Inquirer Entertainment.
rePost:Red Meat Is Not the Enemy – NYTimes.com
Last fall, a meta-analysis of brand-name diet programs was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study compared the results from both the individual diets themselves and three classes, which included low-carbohydrate (like Atkins), moderate macronutrient (Weight Watchers) and low-fat (Ornish). All of the diets led to reduced caloric intake, and all of them led to weight loss at six months and, to a lesser extent, at 12 months. There was no clear winner, nor any clear loser.Where does that leave us? It’s hard to find a take-home message better than this: The best diet is the one that you’re likely to keep. What isn’t helpful is picking a nutritional culprit of bad health and proclaiming that everyone else is eating wrong. There’s remarkably little evidence that that’s true anytime anyone does it.
via Red Meat Is Not the Enemy – NYTimes.com.
BINAYaran Watch::‘Kuli-kuli’, Binay, and his humble beginnings
3 Hits and you are part of the list
🙂
MANILA, Philippines – We all know the story. Orphaned at a young age, Vice President Jejomar Binay lived with an uncle in a seedy area known as Kuli-Kuli in Pio del Pilar, Makati, helping with the household chores and working his way through high school and college, before finally obtaining a law degree at the University of the Philippines.
via ‘Kuli-kuli’, Binay, and his humble beginnings.