Sunday, August 30, 2009

How To Find Your Market Niche


Pilita Corrales was in Greenhills when an idea clicked: Why not set up a place to catch the Music Museum crowd? With her husband Carlos Lopez and some partners, she started Kookabar which in February 2006 evolved to what is now Pilita’s, the Planet Hollywood of San Juan, and the “in” resto where patrons are serenaded with A Million Thanks To You by Asia’s Queen of Songs.

Your home is where you belongs and your niche is where is your business should be. 

A niche is your “Corner of the sky,” to quote Basil Valdez, and your “Place in this world,” to quote Michael W. Smith. 

Here are the arrows to find your market based on Secrets To Dominate Your Niche by Thomas Fernandez (who was in Manila recently to promote this book) and Sant Qui.

Understand clearly why you’re doing that thing you do. Floy Quintos and Karla Gutierrez, director of the Phil. Opera Co., staged Giacommo Puccini’s masterpiece La Boheme at the CCP with clear objectives aside from capturing the AB audience: promoting opera to today’s generation and showcasing the world-class talents of Filipino classical artists.

Go for the big time one step at a time. Cora Simpson’s manufacturing firm in Johannesburg is modest compared to her competitor’s in a contest that could make her career, but she’s the one who drew up Zakumi, the leopard with a green Afro – and now the official mascot of the 2010 World Cup in Africa.

Take your passion and make it happen. Richard Merk’s passion for jazz fueled his musical career, and seeing the success of the famed Calesa Bar on Roxas Blvd. during the ’80s inspired him to set up Merk’s Bar & Bistro at the Greenbelt 3, now the premier watering-hole for celebrities and heavy-duty music buffs.

Make sure you’ll make money. Dr. Vicki Belo formed the Belo Medical Group Inc. to meet the growing cosmetic needs of high-end clients, and also with the long-term aim of capturing the wave of the future: the medical tourism market. Her marketing techniques made cosmetic surgery, once taboo, a fashion statement. Used to be, “I like to thank Fanny Serrano for my make-up.” Now, it’s “I like to thank Dr. Vicki for my face.”

That about sums up what we’re talking about. It’s simply finding a need – a niche – and filling it.

(Watch niche marketing on the Internet video. Photo courtesy of PLReBookClub. Your comments are welcome and will be answered. You can link your blog with EasyHyperLinks)





Monday, August 24, 2009

Tar Struck: Why Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous

In the tradition of Rand Corp. and other think-tanks, this special report is the most detailed, comprehensive and up-to-date study on the effects of cigarette smoke. Painstaking research from various websites, medical articles and health journals has produced the definitive resource material for the general public, medical students and future researchers in clear and precise language.

This is also the first time that the spotlight is focused on the effects of carbon monoxide, nicotine, tar, nitrogen oxides and hydrogen cyanide in the respiratory system. It also details less-known chemical such as glycols and cathecols.

Most of all, the report is scientifically objective. It avoids judgments of smokers; it just tells exactly how and why cigarette smoking is hazardous to health.

A girl turns to speak in a stop-smoking support group meeting in a Queen's Road clinic in Hong Kong. “The first time, I lasted a week,” she says. “The second, I made it through 11 days. I started 2 years ago. It seemed so cool. It made me feel sophisticated and grown-up. I really wanted to quit because I know it's bad for my health.

But it's so difficult.”

She's 14 years old.

Warnings about the hazards of smoking appear side-by-side with cigarette advertisements. “The ads are intended for teenagers because that's where the market is,” according to Dr. David Yen, president of the John Tung Foundation in Taiwan. “Study after study has shown that most smokers started as teenagers.” A recent survey from the World Health Organization disclosed that 50% of children aged 7-17 in the Philippines smoke cigarettes – a 150% increase since 1987.

Just how long does it take for cigarettes to cause harm? John A. Yacenda of the Ventura County Health Dept., a smoking withdrawal clinic in California, has a ready answer: “About three seconds.”

A cigarette goes to work the moment one inhales. It increases the heart rate by 15 to 25 beats per minute, raises blood pressure levels by 10 to 20 points, and contaminates the internal organs with carbon monoxide, nicotine, tar, nitrogen oxides, and hydrogen cyanide.

Lethal Gas

Colorless and odorless, carbon monoxide (CO) is a lethal gas, which is “The most harmful component of tobacco smoke,” according to Lars M. Ranström of the National Smoking Association in Sweden. The CO concentration in cigarette smoke has 640 times the safe level in industrial plants It also has 200 times the attraction to hemoglobin (red blood cells) than oxygen, leading to the formation of COHb (carboxyhemoglobin).

This results in to heart and circulatory diseases, emphysema, angina pectoris and chronic bronchitis.

“Carbon monoxide is the causative agent of the increased incidence of atherosclerosis,” disclosed Dr. Poul Astrup of the University of Copenhagen. CO causes edema, which enables LDL cholesterol to clog the arteries. These fatty plaques are the precursors of myocardial infarction. “Both nicotine and carbon monoxide contribute to the significant increase in heart attacks and in sudden death from coronary disease in cigarette smokers,” revealed Dr. Wilbert S. Aronow, professor of medicine at the University of California Irvine.

In addition, “Exposure to carbon monoxide causes substantial impairments to vital brain and nervous system functions,” according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Addictive Alkaloid

Nicotine is an addictive alkaloid that stimulates the adrenal glands to release catecholamine. These are hormones whose primary substance is adrenaline, which pushes the heart rate and blood pressure into overdrive. For people with coronary-artery disease, it can be fatal. Excessive adrenaline also raises the level of free fatty acids that impair platelets, escalating the formation of blood clots – the agents of cerebral vascular episodes (strokes).

A pregnant smoker smokes for two. Nicotine damages blood vessels in the fetus – and the diminished blood and oxygen supply is cut down by carbon monoxide. According to Dr. Judith Makin of Carleton University in Ottawa, the baby in the womb experiences neuro-psychological disorders. Nicotine triples the risk of stillbirths and miscarriages.

Babies of smoking mothers weigh over six ounces less than normal, and usually die within a month. And for those who survived, the WHO has observed that they were either sickly, retarded or deformed.

Viscous Substance

Tar is a viscous substance formed by the billions of microscopic particles from the1, 200 chemicals in cigarette smoke. Thirty of these chemicals are potentially able to produce malignant tumors by themselves. One particular by-product is beta-napththylamine – the specific cause of bladder cancer.

A landmark joint project by the Reader’s Digest and the think-tank Foster D. Snell Inc. revealed that increased gas and tar intake results from deep inhalation of cigarette smoke even from low-tar brands.

Strong Irritants

Nitrogen oxides (NO2) are strong irritants that act on diaphanous lung tissues. Specifically affected are the macrophages, the detoxifying white cells in the fluid lining of the inner lungs. This is turn damages the delicate walls of the air sacs, leading o emphysema. The first study that established this respiratory chain-reaction was conducted by scientists from the University of Pittsburgh.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has found that some low-tar cigarettes, contrary to public knowledge, have actually higher levels of NO2.

Powerful Corrosive

Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is a powerful corrosive that effectively destroys the cilia, the microscopic screening mechanism of the airways. Instead of being expelled from the lungs, HCN coats the bronchial tubes and induce deterioration from within.

A pioneering experiment on the effects of cigarette smoke was conducted by the Arthur D. Little think-yank in Cambridge. Using the still-functioning trachea of a just-slain chicken, it was found out that HCN is the root cause of lung cancer and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).

Carcinogenic Residues

Other carcinogenic residues in cigarette smoke include aldehydes, alipathic hydrocarbon ketones, aromatic hydrocarbons, phenols, hydrocyanic acid, coumarin, nitric oxide, acetone, guaiacol, nitrogen dioxide, ammonia, dodecan-5-olide, nona-4-olide, glycyrrhizic acid, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Certain brands use caramel additives for flavor. But when burned with tobacco, they produce cathecol. Cathecol is “the major known co-carcinogen in tobacco smoke,” according to Dr. Dietrich Hoffman of the American Health Foundation.

The chemicals that act as preservatives for tobacco and cigarettes are called humectants. Two major types are glycerol and glycol. When a cigarette is lighted, glycerol is converted to acrolein, which damages the cilia. This doubles the risk of COPD. Meanwhile, “Glycols are suspected to influence the smoker’s risk of bladder cancer,” according to a U.S. Surgeon General report.

Excessive inhalation of cigarette smoke can cause cancer of the lungs, bladder and pancreas. Using as pipe or filters to avoid inhaling limits the cancer to the lip, tongue, mouth, esophagus and larynx. According to Dr. Gio B. Gori from the Smoking and Health Program of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, “The only safe cigarette is one that has not been smoked.”

(Watch video “How To Quit Cigarette Smoking." Photo courtesy of StopSmokingKit. Your comments are welcome and will be answered. You can link your blog with EasyHyperLinks)

Great Pinoy Sites (Environment)

Just click the logo to visit the site. Photo credits are linked: Bantay Kalikasan, Haribon, Luntiang Pilipinas, WWF, Greenpeace. Your comments are welcome and will be answered. You can link your site with EasyHyperLinks

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Simplifying My Life

I used to believe that a hectic schedule is synonymous with success – not realizing that I inadvertently equated relaxation with mediocrity, or worse, failure.

Which is not the case at all in real life. I now know this firsthand, having adapted most if not all of the timeless tips from simplicity guru Elaine St. James in her bestseller Simplify Your Life

The most fundamental rule in simplifying your life is to reduce clutter in your house and workplace, which is also (another coincidence) the first rule in feng shui. What I did was to maximize space like putting easily-misplaced everyday stuff (nail-cutters, razor, comb, cotton buds etc.) in a plastic box on the dresser top in front of the mirror.

I also brought a blue plastic laundry basket so whenever I get home from work, my room doesn’t look like typhoon Milenyo returned.

Organizing my dresser drawer became one of my priorities. I would imagine some people might think it trivial, but there’s a psychological benefit that you know – unlike Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne in the original Batman movie – where your socks are.

St. James’ Rule Number 7 is “Run your errands in one place.” This is obviously an obvious gem of wisdom – which I’ve always ignored. I have lost count how many times I had to run back and forth to the neighborhood sari-sari store because I forgot to buy vinegar…and cooking oil…and fabric conditioner…and shampoo…

What I do now is to schedule my shopping and to customize my grocery supplies to follow that schedule. So sometimes, in the case of, say, ketchup, I follow Rule Number 5: “Buy in bulk.” Translated for me, it means buying a bigger bottle.

That rule is super-handy for mothers, and is also the overriding practice of restaurant owners.

I have yet to implement Rule Number 59: “Have a fruit or juice fast one day a week,” but I am already practicing Rule Number 60 – “Make water your drink of choice.” Why? Well, not because I don’t like soft drinks or iced tea (which I really do, promise!) but there are short-term and long-term purposes for that.

In the short-term, I can save money, that much is clear. In the long run, drinking water not only helps purify my body of toxins but also minimizes risks of developing diabetes.

My life really changed upon reading and putting into practice Chapter 6 – “Your Personal Life.”

Top of the list is Rule Number 72: “Clean up your relationships.” This, of course, is not simple. Not simple at all. But it’s not all that complicated either.

What do you do to people whose friendships are no longer worth fighting for? I’m talking about people who have stabbed you in the back. The answer is simple: say goodbye and good riddance.

It is a bit more complex regarding friends who unintentionally bring you down, or at least, prevent you from living you life to the fullest. These are people who expect you to be at their beck and call whenever they need you for whatever reason. St. James says that sometimes it is better to just simply fade away from their lives.

Thanks to Rule Number 76 – “Stop trying to change people” – I now achieved a significant measure of peace of mind. You know what I’m talking about: “Why is so-and-so like that?” or “I wish he would stop being such-and-such.” The trick, apparently, is to just let them be.

You can offer advice, and that’s natural in all kinds of all relationships, but obligating people to adapt to your standards is a sure fire way to shower stress into your life.

“Change your expectations,” goes rule Number 88. This not only applies to people but to most things that come my way; like I told a friend of mine when he was applying for different call centers: Bring out your best, but be prepared for the possibility of rejections – and getting up again because the journey is not yet over.

In his column in the Philippine Star a week after I wrote the first daft of this story, leadership guru and my favorite columnist Francis J. Kong sobered my mind by reminding me not to take snobs and rejections personally. I incorporated that in my life and in my pep talk to my friend when he got his second rejection.

The timing is just a coincidence – or maybe not.

At any rate, my friend fell twice, but got up thrice – and is now officially a customer service representative in a call center in Makati.

Come to think of it, simplifying our life is much, much more than a change of lifestyle; it’s more of a change in mindset – and by extension, a change of attitude.

And when you have changed your attitude, you have changed your life.

It is that simple.

(Photo courtesy of King County Library. You comments are welcome and will be answered. You can link your site with EasyHyperLinks – just delete “target” from your customized HTML)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

9 Life Lessons from Ninoy Aquino's Spectacular Senate Victory



The major-impact triumph of Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. in the 1967 elections catapulted him into the greatest adventure of his life, and taught us what it takes to be a real hero – and a true legend.

1) Get a sense of history. Ninoy was supremely tuned to the nuances of the zeitgeist. He can feel the current of destiny tugging at him. Ninoy had correctly foreseen the inevitability of countryside industrialization and the rise of the communist menace.

He also realized that his beloved Tarlac would suffer under the present administration if he continues to be governor. So he sold his Concepcion farm to his loyal farm boys: “Another five hectares I owned, I had already subdivided among the tenants. So, I had no more land. I was really landless.”

2) Defend human rights. Ninoy’s epic battle against Marcos was ignited by the Culatingan Massacre of 1966. A group of PC hitmen posing as Huk bandits sought shelter from some Concepcion farmers – and they killed them. They told Marcos that the farmers were Huk-coddlers, and the President gave them spot promotions – but Ninoy exposed the fraud and lambasted him mercilessly.

3) Defend your honor. Ninoy was being attacked relentlessly. “Boy, this regime is bad; if I run for governor it can crush me but if I run all over the country maybe I could damn it.” He told his fellow LP member Senator Villareal: “I have to be on the Senate ticket. After all, I don’t think we can make more than 3 or 4 of us win. Let me be one of those who’ll lose. I just want the chance to hit back. I’ve been hit so often.”

4) Build a good reputation. Ninoy’s track record speaks for itself. His campaign battlecry was YEH – from the Beatles’ 1967 monster hit “She Loves You Yeh-Yeh-Yeh!”

“Y” is for Youth: Ninoy was the youngest candidate at 34 – also the youngest war correspondent at 18; the youngest mayor at 21, the youngest vice-governor at 25; and the youngest governor at 27 – in Philippine history.

“E” is for Experience: Ninoy was twice awarded the Legion of Honor; the technical assistant to both President Ramon Magsaysay and President Carlos P. Garcia – and the government emissary who brought down Huk founder Luis Taruc from the mountains.

5) Be a visionary. Ninoy was one of the handful of public speakers in world history with the gift of holding an audience spellbound for hours.

“H” is for Hope: Ninoy galvanized millions with his comprehensive platform of governance which emphasizes government accountability and public access to education with his Student Loan Fund, Super Education System – and his flagship Study Now Pay Later projects.

6) Don’t take anything for granted. Ninoy knew he had to be a national figure and a household name to win. His campaign strategy had three phases. Phase 1 was “Who is Aquino?”

His mother Doña Aurora wrote to all her fellow members of the Catholic Women’s League and the Cursillo for Women; “My Deart Sister, I just want to inform you that Ninoy Aquino is my son. He is running for the Senate. Your sister, Aurora.”

His wife Cory went to wet markets and “practically all the factories in the Manila area” everyday from 8 to 4 – “On the quiet. No fanfare. But that thing sewed up the metropolitan vote for me.”

Ninoy switched his already formidable networking skills into high gear: “Everywhere I went, the first thing I did was get to the students. They were my main force, my main support. They made the noise and delivered the votes. I also harnessed my schoolmates, the San Beda and the U.P. alumni. Then I had my coordinator, the Jaycees. I was an Outstanding Jaycees in 1960 and had always attended conferences. When I hit a town I looked for the Jaycees and the provincial correspondents: they kept me informed. So there my troops: students, Jaycees and newsmen.”

7) Reach out to people. Ninoy knew he must get his message across clearly and directly to the people. Phase 2 was “Why vote for Aquino?”

Ninoy was one of the first candidates to see the potential of helicopters. “Arrive from 2000 feet up and people will gather from all over to watch you come down. Right there you have an audience.”

He and Gaudencio Antonino of the administration NP turned these aerial novelties into campaign charms: “Antonino and I exposed ourselves to more people, shook hands with more people. While the average candidate covered only from 200 to 250 towns, Antonino and I reached from 600 to 700 towns.”

Ninoy even won in Marcos’ bailiwick “because so many people there actually saw and heard me; if there had only been free elections I might have been third or fourth in Northern Luzon.”

8) Don’t get intimidated by the opponent. Ninoy was running for the Senate because he knew he was worthy of the office – and he had the guts and the brains to be a very effective legislator and fiscalizer. Phase 3 was “Vote for Aquino!”

Ninoy found himself almost alone in a Leyte plaza because of an LP slip and the impending typhoon Welming. “There I was in Tacloban, holding the fort, in my red jacket with the skulls-and-bones in it, and a Comelec case hanging around my neck, speaking to a crowd of 5 that became 15, then 200, then 300 people.” Ninoy “spoke for an hour and right after my speech the rain came. Jiminy crickets!”

The ’67 race quickly became an electrifying Ninoy vs. Marcos slugfest. Political analysts twit that “Ninoy was baiting Mr. Marcos all the way and the President, alas, kept biting,” wrote Nick Joaquin in The Aquinos of Tarlac -- and “Ninoy became legitimate news in all the media.”

E-Day was November 14. The night before, Ninoy was already in Plaza Miranda. “At two o’clock in the morning I was still hurling bombas, the final bombas of the campaign.”

9) Uphold the rule of law. The legal age in running for senator is 35 but Ninoy would still be 34 if he wins but he’ll be 35 by the time he’s proclaimed. What to do? It was a first in local jurisprudence but Ninoy had a secret weapon: the beautiful mind of Senator Jovito Salonga.

JV Cruz was making okray on national TV: “Well, Ninoy, will you abide by the decision of the Supreme Court, whatever it may be?” Ninoy said: “Gladly, JV. We should never undermine the highest tribunal of the land. I want, if given the chance, to restore the faith of the people in the judiciary.” JV said: “Oh, you mean to say that you don’t have faith in it now?” Just then, a note was passed to Ninoy.
Ninoy read it. He looked at JV and said: “I would like to inform you that I just won the case.”

(Source: “The Aquinos of Tarlac” by Nick Joaquin)

Visit IAmNinoy and tribute site Ninoy Aquino

Photo courtesy of DeviantArt. Your feedback is welcome and will be answered. You can link your site with EasyHyperLinks – just erase “target” from your HTML




Saturday, August 15, 2009

What Motown Means To Me

Would you believe I am influenced by Motown music as a writer? I want what I write to be catchy, bouncy, dynamically innovative. Motown, founded by Berry Gordy, redefined music and gave the world Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and many others. Smokey Robinson’s Shop Around “was the opening salvo in a barrage of smash hits in the 1960s,” writes Marian Smith Holmes in Smithsonian (reprinted in Reader’s Digest May 1996). “Motown combined elements of blues, gospel, swing, jazz, pop with a thumping backbeat for a new, instantly recognizable sound.”

(Watch videos of Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes and Michael Jackson. Photo courtesy of SJE. See Berry Gordy's profile on History-Of-Rock. Visit Motown.com. Your comments are welcome and will be answered. You can link your blog with EasyHyperLinks)

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

14 Leadership Lessons From The Late Great President Manuel L. Quezon

President Manuel L. Quezon is one of the most significant and fascinating world leaders in the 20th century. The lessons from his brilliant life are both timely and timeless.

1) Love your country. On the way home after lobbying for the Tydings-McDuffie Law in the U.S., Quezon taught the Ile de France ship orchestra how to play the Philippine national anthem – by tapping the piano with one finger while legendary pianist Jan Paderewski watched in amazement.

Manuel L. Quezon is a patriot of the first order: “Rightly conceived, felt and practiced, nationalism is a tremendous force for good. It strengthens and solidifies a nation. Community interest is made active. It preserves the best traditions of the past and adds zest to the ambition of enlarging the inheritance of the people.”

But there is no such thing as unconditional love of country: “Let us look at ourselves stripped of the veil and trappings with which in our vanity we cover ourselves.”

2) Lead by example. Although his health was rapidly deteriorating just when the Japanese invasion was at its fiercest, Quezon relentlessly cheered his soldiers on and boosted their morale.

“He risked his own life while on a motor visit of the coast artillery batteries of Corregidor during which he met with the boys,” witnessed his biographer Sol H. Gwekoh. “The trip proved so much for his health that he was given a dose of morphine the next day the relive him of severe coughing, an attack of asthma and a high fever.”

3) Promote health. Quezon built dozens of hospitals, puericulture centers, public dispensaries and free clinics throughout the country. He focused government resources in the battle against TB, leprosy and malaria.

He mandated industrial hygiene with the aim of “correcting unsanitary environment and sanitary deficiencies in commercial, industrial and agricultural establishments.”

4) Promote education. Quezon established free primary schools, collegiate normal schools, and agricultural- and trade schools throughout the country. He created the Office of Adult Education “for the elimination of illiteracy and for the instruction in the fundamentals of citizenship.”

He envisioned the University of the Philippines as the most modern and best-equipped institute of higher learning in the Orient – and released Php 17,500,000 for its new 600-hectare campus in Diliman.

5) Promote self-reliance. Quezon introduced the cooperative systems to farmer-tenants and spearheaded the annual Made-in-the-Philippines Week of the Bureau of Commerce to “meet the immediate necessity of producing in our country all the articles of food and clothing that our people may need.”

He created nine new cities: Cavite, Tagaytay, San Pablo, Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Zamboanga, Dansalan and Davao.

6) Promote growth and progress. Quezon created the National Economic Council to coordinate the “proper relationship between economic activities and national needs, correlate productive energy with labor, capital and credit facilities, and direct the wise utilization of our national resources.”

Producers dealt directly with buyers through the National Produce Exchange. Fish-pond owners got loans and contracts with canneries from the National Food Products Corporation.

7) Promote the rule of law. Quezon expanded the judiciary. The Supreme Court had 7 justices; the Court of Appeals had 15; the courts of first instance had 62 judges; the court of Industrial Relations had 3 judges; and 747 justices-of-the-peace were deployed in the towns.

Government lawyers were assigned in the provinces and were “empowered to prosecute monetary claims for indigent persons, protect their rights against unscrupulous employers, and defend them in court in criminal cases.”

8) Protect worker’s rights. Quezon created the Court of Industrial Relations to “fix minimum wages for laborers and maximum rentals to be paid by tenants and to enforce compulsory arbitration between employers and employees.”

He signed into law the Workmen’s Compensation Act, the Eight-Hour Labor Law and the Woman and Child Labor Law. He also broadened the functions of the Department of Labor to include the continuous employment of job-seekers.

9) Protect human dignity. Quezon issued Commonwealth Act No. 2 to acquire landed estates and grant them to tenant-farmers. He also created the National Land Settlement Administration to appropriate public lands for new homesteads.

10) Be clear. After his election, he gathered his campaign supporters for a thanksgiving dinner: “Gentlemen, let there be no misunderstanding between us. Of course I know, now that I am in office, that you do not anticipate any political favors. You have contributed to my campaign, but surely you do not expect to derive profit from having done so. If you have such an assumption, you would be dishonoring yourselves, by suggesting that you had attempted to bribe the President.”

11) Be decisive. When the war broke out, Quezon said to Gen. Douglas McArthur: “I want your answer to just one question: Are the islands defensible?”

McArthur said “Yes” – and Quezon appointed him as his military adviser on the spot.

12) Be consistent. Time and again Quezon would reiterate his unchanging vision for the country: “This is a government of right. I am ready to fight the world for the right of workers and be on their side when they are right, but I would not stand by them when they are wrong.”

13) Be committed to an ideal. After taking his oath before Chief Justice Ramon Avanceña on Nov. 15, 1935 in Manila, Quezon delivered his first Inaugural: “We shall build a government that will be just, honest efficient and strong, so that the foundations of the coming Republic may be firm and enduring.”

14) Appeal to man’s higher nature. After taking his oath before Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos on Dec. 30 1941 in Corregidor, Quezon delivered his second Inaugural: “We are fighting for human liberty and justice, for those principles of individual freedom which we all cherish and without which, life would not be worth living. Indeed, we are fighting for our independence.”

(See videos “In Memory Of Our Beloved Philippine President” and “Manuel Luis Quezon.” Photo of Quezon’s Inaugural courtesy of Answers.com. This story originally appeared in Philippine Panorama. Your comments are welcome and will be answered. You can link your blog with EasyHyperLinks -- just delete "target" before posting)


Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Why I Don't Trust Gloria Arroyo As President

I belong to the majority of the Filipinos who have lost faith in Gloria Arroyo as President. As a writer, it’s public knowledge that I have disagreed with its various directives – but it is also a matter of public record that I have never used the power of the pen to attack her personally. I do not trust her because she has a solid track record of protecting her allies accused of everything from plunder to electoral fraud. Instead of using her power to find the truth, she blocked all the legal avenues towards accountability in government.

The July 28, 2009 editorial of the Philippine Daily Inquirer says it all: “Moral corruption is taking place because the Arroyo administration has shown that crime pays, that it is good to be bad, that it is all right to lie, cheat and steal as long as one is not caught.”

(See documentary State of Denial. Photo courtesy of FoxNews)

How Cory Aquino Made Me Who I Am

My beloved President Aquino taught me the true meaning of honor and nobility by the life she led – and made it possible for me to embrace sweet freedom. How can I even begin to thank her?

(See Jamie Rivera sing "Heal Our Land." on Cory's Eulogy. Photo courtesy of Jean Pierre Van Gorp. Your comments are welcome and will be answered. You can linkyour blog with EasyHyperLinks)

Monday, August 10, 2009

The Time Of Cory's Life

I am honored, even if we are not related, that President Aquino and I share the name which we both did our best to keep clean. I take an even greater pride, as a writer in print and online who believes and advocates the things she stood for, that I have been consistently on her corner – the side of Good and the angels.

(See Bishop Soc Villegas and Maestro Ryan Cayabyab's "Song for Cory." Photo courtesy of TopNews. Your comments are welcome and will be answered. You can link your blog with EasyHyperLinks)

Sunday, August 09, 2009

What Cory Aquino Means To Me

My deep respect for President Aquino even during her lifetime now obligate me to lead a life that would reflect those sacred ideals she lived and symbolized – Freedom, Integrity, Faith, Transparency, Accountability, Sincerity, Humility, Simplicity. I can do no less, but she has given me much, much more.

(See the documentary Cory Aquino: Democracy's Icon In The Philippines. Photo courtesy of TheMenace. Your comments are welcome and will be answered. You can link your blog with EasyHyperLinks)

Saturday, August 08, 2009

A Moment of Silence for Cory Aquino

I grieve for President Aquino as palpably as one who is not a relative nor who has met her personally has a right to. But life goes on, now cleansed and strengthened by the example of her spotless integrity and unique personal union with God.

(See Kris Aquino's unforgettable eulogy Part 1 and Part 2. Photo courtesy of The U.P Ibalon Bicol. Your comments are welcome and will be answered. You can link your blog with EasyHyperLinks)

Saturday, August 01, 2009

In Memoriam: Cory

"It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then neither can political prisoners turn on the light in the cells of a dictatorship” (Read Time’s Woman of the Year. See more Cory quotes on BrainyQuote. Photo courtesy of CallOfNature. Your comments are welcome and will be answered. You can link your blog with EasyHyperLinks)