I am posting this from the ABS-CBN Davao's Production Office. I've been working here since May 10 as an OJT/Intern. It's been good so far, I've met Sen. Francis Pangilinan, Vice-Mayor Sara Duterte, Michelle Robin, Francis Magbanua, Claudette Centeno, Popong Landero, and other national and local characters. Ohh, I've also managed to sneak in an Interview with Congresswoman Darlene Antonino-Custudio and Mayor Pedro Acharon Jr. of Gen. Santos.

Again, I have been too busy to update this blog. (So what else is new?) What have I been up to lately? Well, I'am currently doing my OJTs, and yes OJT"s" I spelled that right, TV, Print and Radio.

Just finished my training with RMN Networks, its a national Radio station. Got to Interview some pretty interesting people and I had the chance to join the KBP Sportsfest, which was a blast by the way. Now, I am with Brigada News Philippines, its a local daily here in Gensan and it has sisters in CDO and DVO. So far I've had the chance to interview Vice Governor Steve Solon of Saranggani, Mayor Enrique Yap of Glan, Chief Senior Inspector Roy Romualdo of Glan, SFC. Larry Aarron of the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines and Angela Ripdos the Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator and etc. I've also had the chance to attend the US Army Medical Mission in Pangyan, The International Training Course on the Investigation and Prosecution of Extrajudicial Killings, Enforced Disapperances and Torture for Public Prosecutors, Human Rights Workers and other Legal Professionals organized by the American Bar Association and the Center for International Law and I attended a small rally organized by a local transport group.

Tomorrow I'll be covering the General Santos City Police Office Basketball Tournament and I'll be Interviewing the ATO Security Manager for Gen. Santos International Airport and I'll will also be doing an interview with the Gensan top cop PSSI.Robert Po.

-Loving my course! hehehe...

There are times when you just can't help but pull the trigger. Times when standing over the abyss and waiting for the surge of wind to blow and topple you over just isn't enough so you end up jumping the gun and biting the bullet. Surprisingly, the bullet feels sweet and nonchalantly sweet, kind of like MnM's, melting in your mouth and not in your mouth.

God Damn!

I've been very busy lately, I am not graduating this march but me and my friends tell people that we are. It saves us a lot of time explaining why we are running around campus trying to do what would normally take five or six people to do. Here's a couple of updates that should explain why I've been busy lately.

March 05, 2009 - We had our very version of Miss Saigon for our MC 8: Theater Productions and we kicked ass. You wouldn't believe the praises that were heaped or way after that production. The teachers and staff wants us to do it again, sadly they're unwilling to fork up the money to stage it. Don't you just love private institutions?

March 11-14 -Our class put up a photo exhibit entitled Tuladan. Tuladan is a Maguindanaon word which means pictures, more or less it was a showcasing of different shots and images of the world as seen through the eyes and lenses of the 3rd year Mass Communication students of NDDU. I served as the Chairman of the said event and again... As expected, was busy because of it. hehehe... Good news though, I won the 1st and 2nd place for the Body and Beauty Category. Pictures are in my Friendster account.

That's it for now and see you in the next post. Whenever that may be.

"Ill be the rain falling on your fire escape
And I may not be the man you want me to
I can be myself, how bout you?

I dont wanna make you mad
I dont wanna meet your dad
I dont wanna be your dream come true

cause I dont know just what Ive found
I dont know my sky from ground
I dont know where Im going to
I dont know about you"
-Fastball

And then there was rain....

Stephen Ambrose once wrote in his book, “D-Day: The Climactic Battle of World War II,� that “Any fortress can be invaded given the proper chance and circumstances.� Eisenhower did just that with Hitler’s Fortress Europa, McArthur did the same with Imperial Japan and the Allies also penetrated the Maginot line using the proper chance and suitable circumstances.

Last night I was sitting at home reading the aforementioned book, when my ears caught the sound of blaring horns and muffled shouts. Then and there my spider sense started tingling and I immediately sprang up and instinctively crouch low and ran to the door. I caught sight of a green, shiny, minty, factory-fresh Ford Explorer making a hurried turn into the parking lot with doors already open and a topless guy sitting behind the wheels, and right behind the Ford our compound guard was running flat out, shotgun at the ready with his uniform unbuttoned and flailing in the wind. I instantly thought to myself, “Oh shit topless guys and running guards are never good signs of things to come.� The topless guy suddenly jumps out of his Ford screams at the guard to hurry up and grabs his orange shirt from the backseat. Right there I thought, “Hey, this might not be so bad, at least Mr. Topless Guy and the guard didn’t shoot each other.� With my spider sense still tingling I ran after the two and I was joined by our compound handyman who by the way was also not wearing a shirt, like me and the obviously shirtless Mr. Topless Guy. We made a beeline to Room E but before we even got to the door, we were greeted by a barefoot, knife wielding girl wearing a conservative light blue executive outfit, a shocked look and wide, empty, dark brown eyes. She was oozing blood from her head and she looked as if she either crawled out of the TV while a Quentin Tarantino flick was on or as if she survived the catastrophic shelling on the beaches of Normandy during Operation Overlord. She was a mess, her coat was soaked with bright carmine blood and she was surrounded by three topless guys wearing shorts and a half-uniformed guard with a cocked shotgun and a serious look, the four of us made quite an obscene and scary bunch.

I suddenly went from unsure bystander to former-nursing-student-with-an-expired-license-as-an-emergency-medical-technician mode. I pried the knife away from her hands, got myself nicked by said knife and asked her what happened, at the same time I was also scouring my brain for whatever knowledge I can retain about first aid, head wounds and EMT training. In mumbles and stutters she told us that she strolled in her room not knowing all the while that a burglar was hiding behind the door, the “black clad� burglar panicked when she came in, hit her in the back of the head with something solid and ran, she then fell over, tried to scream, picked up the knife instead and called Mr. Topless guy who a couple of minutes ago dropped her off. With that the guard and our handyman took off and tried to find the burglar, while Mr. Topless started his Ford up and I assisted Giselle (Ms. Knife Wielding Cutie) up on the SUV and watched them drove off. I then ran to the Land Lord’s house and asked them to call the police because our very own version of Fortress Europe just had its first taste of invasion. Within minutes five guys with guns (Two guards, Mr. Handyman, the Land Lord and his son) was all over the place looking for the burglar/assailant, a couple of minutes later about half dozen policemen and three more guards joined in the search, along with Mr. Topless’s friends three of which are also armed. It seemed as if only me and Ross (another boardmate) were the only guys out there who didn’t carry a piece. We had enough guns there to take over Iraq and Afghanistan. Anyways, to make a long story short, they caught the burglar/assailant who happened to be a clerk at the hardware right beside our compound, they found the gloves that he wore, the black long sleeves, the black shirt that he used as a balaclava to hide his face with, the black shorts and most importantly they found Ross’s Adidas sandals which was stolen the previous night. His roommate also testified that he came knocking at the door right after the commotion and that the previous night he also caught his roommate jumping over the fence to “supposedly� retrieve his Dart pins which “allegedly� made it’s way over the fence. His roommate also added that the “suspect� regularly steals stuff from him and he just can’t confront him because the “suspect� is the nephew of his boss and also because he is too scared, too small and too gay. (I didn’t make up the last part. Hehehe…)

I just hope Giselle wouldn’t leave the compound; she’s a breath of fresh air in this sausage feast that we call L. LLido Cmpd.

PS: Giselle was also robbed about a week ago. Don’t you just love her?

Mom pray's beautifully, she can start and end a prayer in one breathe and whenever she prays, it sounds like poetry. It naturally flows from her no matter if she prays in English, Bisaya or Tagalog.

I think God listens to her when she prays.

I know that nobody would understand or believe me if I said that, there are times when I am alone, I take out all your pictures and just stare at them, stare at them for hours. Every picture has a memory, every memory has its dose of pain and every pain has its meaning and they are all mine. Sometimes your celluloid smiles and the glossy glitters in your eyes torture me but I welcome it. Pathetic as it may sound, I know that that's the only thing thats mine. Everything is gone, even your name escapes me and I am lost, buried, somewhere in the depths of your memory.

In all those pictures, in all those captured moments of forever, in all those heartbeats you are perfect. I can't believe that even when you're breaking my heart, you look so beautiful.

Dark as roses, fine as sand
Feel your healing and your sting again
I hear you laughing and my soul is saved
On forgotten graves you cry

Crawl like ivy up my spine
Through my nerves and into my eyes
Cuts like anguish
Or recollections of better days gone by

But its all right
When youre caught in pain
And you feel the rain come down
Its all right
When you find your way
Then you see it disappear
Its all right
Though your gardens grey
I know all your graces
Someday will flower
In the sweet sunshower

Eyes like oceans so far away
A feather trail to a better way
Worried mornings turn into days
Then into worried nights

But its all right
When youre all in pain
And you feel the rain come down
Oh its all right
When you find your way
Then you see it disappear
Oh its all right
Though your gardens grey
I know all your graces
Someday will flower
Oh in the sweet sunshower
Oh in the sweet sunshower
In the sweet sunshower

I know all your graces
Someday will flower
In the sweet sunshower
And its all right
All youll be you are today
Are today
Its all right
All youll be you are today
Are today.........

I remember when I was about 5 or 6 years old, my brother told me that if a penis would find its way into a woman’s vagina, it would get stuck there… forever! Then I asked him in a slight alarm, “what if the doorbell rings and you’re still stuck with each other? Who would answer it?” He said that it’s the prize we have to pay for sticking our shloongs in places where they don’t belong. Silly me, actually believed him and the next day after my class I went home and shared my newly discovered piece of knowledge to my yaya, the neighbors’ helper, my friend’s mom and some other adults. Everybody looked at me in shock then they exchanged glances before exploding in huge fits of laughter and guffaws. I didn’t mind it but later on that night my mom and dad sat me down in their room and talked to me about sex. My mom taught me the basic parts and function of the human procreation tools, both for men and women, after that my dad taught me about the responsibilities that comes along with doing sex. That was my very first real sex education. I was lucky I had sex education at such an early age. Now I am 22 years old and I have around 15 friends who have sons and daughters or both. Can you imagine that? Some of them were as young as 18, 17 or 16 when they first gave birth. How can you possibly provide for the clothes, health care, education, nourishment and shelter of your kids at such an early age? The concept of parenting is much, much different from the actual application. I personally believe that irresponsible parenthood at this age and time is tantamount to abortion. The difference is that abortion is more like mercy killing and irresponsible parenthood is prolonging of the agony and sharing it with the community.

I also remember back when I was an intern at the Lanao Provincial Hospital DR my group delivered a baby for a 13 year old mother, 2 days later we delivered a baby for another 13 year old mom who wanted to leave the baby with us after her rest in the hospital. The next night we helped deliver a baby for a 15 year old mom. Her son was anencephalic (explain anencephalic) she told us she was kind of glad the baby died because she knows that she’d have no means with which she could support the baby. Those little stories are just a slight peeks on how ignorant Filipino kids are when it comes to sex education. How many more stories like these do we need before we come up with a solution? More than anything else what we need now more than ever is the proper awareness, willingness and the appropriate laws to back up our fight against the irresponsible parenthood, population explosion and our sexual ignorance.

The church our “moral compass” cries foul over the reproductive health bill they even threaten politicians who support it by not giving them communions; the church said that it is immoral and should not be made law. The church is basically saying that we can not legislate “immorality,” but can we legislate “morality?” They’re saying the same country who considers prostitution legal should not pass a bill which would pre-emptively protect its citizens from a plethora of societal problems. What is more immoral? Use a condom and prevent annual pregnancy so that you can provide better for your family, send your kids to school and feed them properly. Or have children every year for the next 10 years, and let them grow up hungry and uneducated?

Remember “Ignorance is not Contraception.”