At Last

It was in the summer of June 2000 when I was watching Dexter's Lab, when my father, who was probably harassed by the sight of a bizarre-looking wide-eyed amateur scientist who just happened to be a cartoon character, along with his nonchalant relationship with his ever-jolly sister, got the Sony remote control that was landing in my innocent lap, stated: "Di naman maganda yang pinapanood mo, puro lang kalokohan, dapat sports pinapanood mo (That show you're watching is not good, just stupid stuffs, better watch sports)"

Then came my first encounter with a Spalding ball, a bald-headed 7-foot monster, and a No. 8 guy who just caught my "goldfish" attention and suddenly I can't blink. "Bryant" as was in the back of his jersey, was starting at the top of the key, and a certain "Pacers" player was guarding him, and he was just dribbling and dribbling for about 5 seconds. And then came the best play I've ever seen then. It turns out his name was "Kobe", as the game announcer said, and after 5 seconds of dull dribbling, he went to his right and crossed-over his primary defender, only to find himself with another (a help) defender, and he continues the dribble and took two quick steps, from the free-throw line to the front of the ring, and blew by past two defenders using his off-hand to separate himself against the 2nd or help defender and jumped so high enough that his face was paralleled with the face of the ring and just threw down a power-filled monster jam that just shook the whole arena and brought frenzy into what had been a quiet start. And that was just in the first quarter of what was called the "NBA Finals".

I stood up and jumped both in disbelief and amazement at what had just occurred right in front of my eyes, my father calm as a tourist on a sweet vacation in a breezy beach. I got so hooked up with the game that I realized 2 hours had already passed and I haven't eaten my "merienda" yet. I forgot eating because of one out-of-this-world play, it was replayed in slow-mo and there was just perfect artistic beauty watching that kind of move. Kobe. Kobe. Kobe.

This was the best sports I would have put myself into if ever I were to abandon "patintero", "piko", and "sekyu-base".

Then I started watching the Los Angeles Lakers ever since. I've watched them earn 3 straight championships. I've seen Shaq and Kobe fight. Phil with Shaq and Kobe fight. I've seen Shaq going out as a Laker, Bynum coming in, Lamar Odom, Maurice Evans, Brian Cook, Vladimir Radmanovic, Sasha Vujacic, Devean George, Jordan Farmar, Kwame Brown, and Smush Parker, all becoming a big part of the Laker history. After a Shaq-less season, they struggled, and Kobe was bearing such a heavy burden along with such "useless" teammates. Imagine a starting 5 like this: Smush Parker, Kobe Bryant, Luke Walton (young years then), Lamar Odom, and Kwame Brown.
3/5 of the Lakers starting lineup would have been 3rd-string rotation players on another team. Yet Kobe made Smush Parker and Kwame Brown look like superstars out there. And when Smush started bickering out with Kobe, he left the Lakers, played with the Heat for at least 30 games, and was never heard again. The same happened to Kwame. Uh.. wait.. Kwame Brown? Kwame Brown? Who the heck is that?

81 points, the second most points by an individual player in the NBA, probably the best scoring outburst in NBA History.
Then came a time when Kobe averaged 40 points per game in a month, made 50+ points in 4 straight games and many more.

Then came the February of 2008. I've been through this Laker teams with their ups and downs, their Jekyll and Hyde showing in them. It was February 2, and I was awakened by a sudden pour of text messages, all of them with the same word "Pau Gasol was traded to us. Championship trophy here we come". My reply? "Hell yeah!!!!!!" I shouted in my room and was just so energized, thinking, "Here we are again!!!" The parades at 18th and Figueroa , the popping sounds of an opened celebratory champagne. The familiar jersey Lakers at every opponent's arena. "Here we are again"


I've waited for this moment. Where we would be as dominant as ever. Where we would be hoisting championship banners, unlike most of the NBA teams hoisting division and conference banners.

I've longed for this moment. 7 years of waiting. 7 full years of watching this Laker team grow and mature and become solid players.

This is the time I've been waiting for.
Forgive my stories, I don't even know what to type but I just felt like typing and typing and typing.
I'm jumping now and I'm crying.
This is their 4th championship ever since I watched them play, ever since my father took away "Dexter's Lab" into my head and started inserting the "Sports" label into my life.

At last! At last! The sweet-smelling savor of a Larry O'Brien trophy.
The wait is finally over.
Kobe gets his 4th ring and Jackson his 10th (yes, you heard it right, one in every finger).

Olympic Medal. All-Star game MVP. Championship ring. Finals MVP.
Kobe Jellybean Bryant.

The man I adore, the man who made me watch that friggin' NBA.
And now we're on to No. 15 in the rafters!

No. 16 next year!



Adios.
A Lifetime Laker Fan.

Philippines: A Land Worth Living For

There was a child, the seventh of the 11 children of a certain wealthy couple in Calamba, Laguna, whose dreams were made of heart, a heart for his own countrymen. Yes he was dreaming to be a doctor, but fate would not allow such a man destined to be the hero of his country to heal his hurting people. Rather, it placed him in a position to heal his ailing country, whose rulers were huge-bellied, God-condemned priests who believed they could do anything they wanted because they can. In the wake of disillusioned friars came a sickly, little man with a big heart to save this people from the damnation they are receiving, a man who has ignited the way to independence with his uncanny ability to write what he thinks is right, to stand up in the midst of his scared and scarred countrymen, a man who wrote "El Filibusterismo" and "Noli Me Tangere", two books who have sparked the road to Philippine Independence, a man we all know as Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda, the Philippine National Hero.

And as Rizal's heraldic story ended in a sad note, he never lost hope. He never died facing the ground. As Rizal's body swallowed the raging bullets fired by the soldiers, he realized he was falling down to the ground facing down - and he did not want that to happened. Like Elias, Rizal's character in his revolutionary books (what some considered to be Rizal's "other side"), he died with dignity and pride, summoning all his strength to face the sun, a metaphor of a believing hero, one who knew Philippines would soon be free.

"mamamatay akong hindi mamamalas ang pagsikat ng araw sa aking bayan... Kayong mga makakakita sa pagbubukang-liwayway, malugod ninyo siyang tanggapin, at inyong gunitain ang mga nabuwal sa dilim ng gabi!" - Elias

"It is finished" -Jose Rizal

What is finished? His stint?
What he was trying to tell is that the reign of the Spanish friars is done. And the Philippines, the land of 7,107 would taste its sweet-smelling victory of freedom, like a bird doing its finest aerial acrobatics after seeing the cage door blew open.

Oh, history! What fondest memories you serve!

Fast-forward to the year of the corruptors, those whose angel faces shine brightly in a dark alley, the real identity shown in discreet fashion.
Political scandals after another bump their way into our once-heraldic country, now marred by money-hungry maniacs along with their "promises".

But why would we let it hold us back? Why would we let it staunch us from rising to the top?

They are not our enemies.

They are our countrymen, our co-kababayans, our blood brothers.

Our number one enemy is the sin of corruption and greed.
Hate the sin, not the sinner.

There are better things we can do than complain and complain and complain.
Stop the talking. Do the walking.
Act but don't react. Respond.

My co-Filipinos, as we commemorate the most significant day of our Philippine being, let us not fail the past heroes who have spent their whole lives fighting and fighting and fighting for us, for our freedom.
Let not their works be in vain. We may die not being recognized due to our works, but hey, we died as a Filipino, with our eyes meeting the sun as we touch the ground and transport to another life.

It is finished.


Not the freedom this time. But our label as a "corrupt nation". Our life as a "3rd world nation"
And there is no need of bloodshed to do that, rather, it's the active lives of each and every one of us as we rise to the occasion and be "living heroes" of our time.

"The Filipinos are worth dying for". This is over.
How about: The Philippines is worth living for.

Constituent Assembly: How it really affects us... in the right time.

Con-ass. Con-con. Whatever.
"It only lengthens GMA's presidency", "it brings us no good at all", "we don't need charter change, we need government change", etc.

These are the words that are coming out into the mouths of an archetypal Pinoy today.
Ask them what it really means and they will have no answer whatsoever, just referring to the above statements, only varied in word constructions but the same in wayward thoughts.

Why don't we launch into the deep and absorb some, if not all, absolute truths of the Constituent Assembly, whether good or bad?

Adopting the flabbergasting knowledge of Wikipedia verbatim of its Peshat form:

"A constituent assembly (sometimes also known as a constitutional convention) is a body composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution. Unlike forms of constitution-making in which a constitution is unilaterally imposed by a sovereign lawmaker, the constituent assembly creates a constitution through “internally imposed” actions, in that members of the constituent assembly are themselves citizens, but not necessarily the rulers, of the country for which they are creating a constitution."

(So that's why people don't bother to know Con-Ass, too complicated)
For all the internal bleeding you have had already reading the meaning of it, let's try to make it simple: In other words, translating Con-Ass in its Remez (allegoric) form (I would have considered Derash and Sod, the other two forms of the Kabbalah text, but I'm lazy enough): Federalism.

Whew! At last, something we know of!

So, let's consolidate Mr. Wiki again: Federalism is a political philosophy in which a group of members are bound together (Latin: foedus, covenant) with a governing representative head. The term federalism is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political units (like states or provinces). Federalism is a system in which the power to govern is shared between national and central(state) governments, creating what is often called a federation. Proponents are often called federalists.

Now, does that ring a bell? It's the same form of government as France, Belgium, Norway, Russia, German, Lithuania, Ireland, China, Italy, and most importantly, the "one who sneezes before we catch a cold",the United States of America.

The only con about this is that the Legislative and Executive branch of the republic is granted too much power.
So the latter is being scorned because of too much power, the only problem why its constituents hate it.

They don't like Gloria to reign again for another set of years, to see her poker-faced reactions around the once-heraldic and promising country called Las Islas Filipinas.

And maybe if GMA steps down and another face comes sitting in the highest seat of power, maybe if the corrupt government leaders with their "I-Promise-You" antics will be reformed and achieve a new clean life, maybe the Con-Ass will push and no one will stop it from being pushed.

That's why there's this thing called "S.T.O.P." - Sa Tamang Oras at Paraan
After all, aren't we all wanting to live a good luxurious life?

So granted GMA and her minions step down, granted that the good Lord from up above makes it happen, here are the staggering positive-positives of Con-Ass.:

Let's start by defining it's characteristics borrowed from Mr. Jose B. Abueva a UP Prof in PolSci:
1. two orders of government, (Federal and regional), each in direct contact with its citizens;

2. an official, constitutional sharing of legislative and executive powers, and a sharing of revenue sources between the two orders of government, to ensure that each has certain sectors of true autonomy;

3. designated representation of distinct regional opinions (regional interests, rights, welfare) within federal decision-making institutions, usually guaranteed by the specific structure of the federal Second Chamber (Senate);

4. a supreme written constitution that is not unilaterally modifiable but requires the consent of a large proportion of federation members;

5. an arbitration mechanism (in the form of courts or a referendum) to resolve intergovernmental disputes; and

6. procedures and institutions designed to facilitate intergovernmental collaboration in cases of shared domains (jurisdictions)

And like the first-day-of-school-introductions-with-expectations:

With greatly improved governance in a federal parliamentary democracy, gradually we shall be better able to develop greater human and institutional capabilities for good governance: (1) to solve our problems, meet our challenges and achieve our goals as a nation; (2) to effect needed change and reforms faster, and (3) to sustain our development and modernization. In this way we can achieve a just and enduring peace and accelerate nation-building and development for our people’s dignity, security, prosperity and welfare, and to enhance our country’s ability to participate in the global economy and community.

It's a gradual process actually, and because patience plays a big part in this kind of charter change, there must be a sense of cultivation regarding this matter. For us to achieve the said countries had, we must believe in our new government to deliver.

And as we go along, Prof. Abueva and his sagacious understanding of this, we see the advantages, not only financially but also in terms of being "friends" with other religions/ethnics/cultural diversities. A few notes:

The Federal Republic will build a just and enduring framework for peace through unity in our ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity, especially in relation to Bangsa Moro or Muslim Filipinos and our lumad/indigenous peoples.
Responsive Federalism will accommodate their legitimate interests, end the war in Mindanao, and discourage secessionism. Leaders of Moro rebel organizations have said so on various occasions.

For more info on the voice of Mindanao people agreeing that it is the right call, click here.


The Federal Republic will empower our citizens by enabling them to raise their standard of living and enhance their political awareness through their participation and efficacy in elections and the making and carrying out of government decisions at the regional and local levels.
Governance will be improved and corruption will be reduced by the new division of powers and functions between the Federal Government and the States, and by the transparency of governance and its accessibility to the people in the regions, cities, provinces, and municipalities. It will bring a greater part of the government and decision-making closer to the people in the proposed States or regional governments and their cities and municipalities. With more power, authority and resources managed by the leaders in the States and their local governments which will be more visible and accessible to the people all over the country, the people will be more aware of the importance of electing good leaders. Corruption will be easier to detect and expose and punish.

The Federal Republic will improve governance by challenging and energizing State and local leaders, entrepreneurs, and citizens around the country to take hold of their destiny. Federalism will release them from the costly, time-consuming, stifling, and demoralizing effects of excessive central government controls and regulation in our traditional Unitary System.

The Federal Republic will thus stimulate and hasten the country’s political, economic, social, and cultural development.
There will also be inter-State and regional competition in attracting domestic and foreign investments and industries, professionals and skilled workers, good teachers and scholars, artists, and tourists.
A renaissance of regional languages, arts and cultures will enrich the national language and culture, and instill a deeper sense of both regional and national identities.

Gradually, the Federal Republic and its Parliamentary Government will broaden and deepen democracy.
In the long run it should enable the government, the political parties, the private sector, and the organizations and institutions of civil society to deliver on the constitutional promise of human rights, a better life for all, a just and humane society, and responsible and accountable political leadership and governance.


Let's focus on the last paragraph, "will broaden and deepen democracy".
Finally, it's not as bad as we all think is, it will result into what really matter most - us having the rights and power. And because of Federalism, we will practice democracy better than in the old constitution we have had over the past few decades.
It's democracy in its supreme form. Voices are not only heard but heeded, acted upon.

Trust me, I'm one of those who wants a halt in the upcoming charter change. But only because I don't trust the recent hell-bent government. As the theme of the rally says, "Sa Tamang Oras at Paraan". There is an exact time for its Philippine birth, maybe a new era of awakening, but only if those angels with tails get down and the real, passionate nationalists, who will do anything to rise the flag with all hopes, will rule it with pride and integrity.




So after a long discussion, it all boils down to everyone being happy. Everyone getting their share of mud pie. This isn't a bad idea after all.


Well, not until the little girl stops dreaming nonsense.