La Naval procession....

Posted by Unknown Senin, 09 Oktober 2006 0 komentar

Every second Sunday of the month of October, Catholics from all over the country converge in the streets surrounding the Sto. Domingo Church to participate in a procession honoring Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary.

This year, as suggested by a friend and former colleague, I was there along with my son to observe, pray, and pay our respects.

A couple of pictures:

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The number of participants this year was certainly in the thousands.

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The statue of the La Naval of Manila making its way among the faithful.

Prayer:

La Naval de Manila, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary of the Philippines, Mirror of Justice, help us to pray for the greatest victory, the victory of Your Son's Peace in the Philippines and the entire world. We ask you to help us remember that one of your most blessed titles is Queen of Peace.


Links:

Our Lady of the Rosary of the Philippines: La Naval of Manila


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The Pastor and his Son

Posted by Unknown Kamis, 05 Oktober 2006 0 komentar

Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at the church, the Pastor and his eleven year old son would go out into their town and hand out Gospel Tracts.

This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very cold outside, as well as pouring down rain. The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said, "OK, dad, I'm ready."

His Pastor dad asked, "Ready for what?"

"Dad, it's time we gather our tracts together and go out."

Dad responds, "Son, it's very cold outside and it's pouring down rain."

The boy gives his dad a surprised look, asking, "But Dad, aren't people still going to Hell, even though it's raining?"

Dad answers, "Son, I am not going out in this weather."

Despondently, the boy asks, "Dad, can I go? Please?"

His father hesitated for a moment then said, "Son, you can go. Here are the tracts, be careful son."

"Thanks Dad!"

And with that, he was off and out into the rain. This eleven year old boy walked the streets of the town going door to door and handing everybody he met in the street a Gospel Tract.

After two hours of walking in the rain, he was soaking, bone-chilled wet and down to his VERY LAST TRACT. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract to, but the streets were totally deserted. Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the door bell. He rang the bell, but nobody answered. He rang it again and again, but still no one answered.
He waited but still no answer.

Finally, this eleven year old trooper turned to leave, but something stopped him. Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front porch. He rang again and this time the door slowly opened.

Standing in the doorway was a very sad-looking elderly lady. She softly asked, "What can I do for you, son?"

With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this little boy said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that *JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU* and I came to give you my very last Gospel Tract which will tell you all about JESUS and His great LOVE."

With that, he handed her his last tract and turned to leave. She called to him as he departed. "Thank you, son! And God Bless You!"

Well, the following Sunday morning in church Pastor Dad was in the pulpit. As the service began, he asked, "Does anybody have testimony or want to say anything?"

Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her feet.

As she began to speak, a look of glorious radiance came from her face, "No one in this church knows me. I've never been here before. You see, before last Sunday I was not a Christian. My husband passed on some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday, being a particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart that I came to the end of the line where I no longer had any hope or will to
live.

So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof, then stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. Standing on that chair, so lonely and brokenhearted I was about to leap off, when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I thought, "I'll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away."

I waited and waited, but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent, and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly. I thought to myself again, "Who on earth could this be? Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me." I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the while the bell rang louder and louder.

When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe my eyes, for there on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life. His SMILE, oh, I could never describe it to you! The words that came from his mouth caused my heart that had long been dead, TO LEAP TO LIFE as he exclaimed with a cherub-like voice, "Ma'am, I just came to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU."

Then he gave me this Gospel Tract that I now hold in my hand.

As the little angel disappeared back out into the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this Gospel Tract. Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn't be needing them any more. You see---I am now a Happy Child of the KING. Since the address of your church was on the back of this Gospel Tract, I have come here to personally say THANK YOU to God's little angel who came just in the nick of time and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in hell."

There was not a dry eye in the church. And as shouts of praise and honor to THE KING resounded off the very rafters of the building, Pastor Dad descended from the pulpit to the front pew where the little angel was seated. He took his son in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably.

Probably no church has had a more glorious moment, and probably this universe has never seen a Papa that was more filled with love & honor for his son... Except for One. This Father also allowed His Son to go out into a cold and dark world. He received His Son back with joy unspeakable, and as all of heaven shouted praises and honor to The King, the Father sat His beloved Son on a throne far above all principality and power and every name that is named.

Blessed are your eyes for reading this message. Don't let this message die, read it again and pass it to others. Heaven is for His people!

Remember, God's message CAN make the difference in the life of someone close to you. Do not be too shy to share that wonderful message.


From my inbox.


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Out of sync....

Posted by Unknown Selasa, 03 Oktober 2006 0 komentar

I've been reporting to work for only two days, and yet I can't help but feel somewhat out of place.

I've been gone for more than five months, and it seems that in that time I have lost my ability to relate with the goings on at the office. To put it another way, I've lost touch...out of sync if you will.

Either that, or I just don't care anymore. Or both.

Is that bad?

A lot of things have happened, but deep down the office doesn't seem any different from how I remembered it. Goals and objectives may have changed as far as the office is concerned, but it all boils down to doing the very same things I've been doing since I first got this job. And there's still the gossip, the intrigue, the controversies, the illogicality, the senselessness and thinking that seems out of this world, all the characteristics of your typical Filipino government office.

It's just like in Scott Adams' Dilbert cartoon. Only worse.

And yet, recent developments in the office haven't struck me the way they used to. I'm feeling somewhat underwhelmed, and my attitude is pretty much blasé about anything work-related at this point.

I guess exposure to all the negativity has finally succeeded in transforming my cynicism to just plain old indifference.

Hmmm. I guess I just lost interest. Life is certainly much more than the four corners of you workplace, and the stark contrast I experienced from transitioning from life during my five month study leave to going back to work has left me nonplussed. It's as if I don't belong, as if I'm outside looking in.

Does it bother me that much? Surprisingly, no. It doesn't. In fact I rather enjoy the feeling of detachment that hangs over me. Perhaps it's this enjoyment that I find bothersome. I no longer feel like part of the family, and I really don't care.

Working in government certainly has a way of dulling your mental edge. Just ask any government employee. And after my recent ordeal consisting virtually of nothing but continuous study, it doesn't really feel right to deliberately slow myself down and go back to the mainstream.

It's not as if I have a superiority complex or anything like that. Far from it actually, considering the very humbling experience that I've recently gone through. And it's also not about me insinuating in any way that government service is stupid or meaningless. It's not. In fact it takes a special breed of person to actually want to be a public servant, knowing full well that you have given up the income generating potential of working in the private sector in exchange for an opportunity to make a difference in bridging the gap between the state and its citizenry.

Unfortunately though, government service is flawed in the sense that hardly anyone in the service seemingly puts much effort or thought in the work to be done, due in part to lack of motivation, exacerbated by the protection offered by security of tenure, and the knowledge that office doesn't operate on any particular person's funds, but funds coming from the taxpayers. This atmosphere invariably breeds a culture of complacency and mediocrity.

Needless to say, sucking up this culture can be quite demoralizing at times.

I don't know. I'm probably just making a mountain out of a molehill. But hey, it's only been two days. Maybe in a few days or so I'll go back to thinking like a typical government employee.

And it's probably that which scares me.


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Tara Lets

Posted by Unknown 0 komentar

Another bad case of last song syndrome. For some strange reason I can't seem to get this song's infectious and catchy melody out of my head. And the video's not bad either. :-)

Note:

Turn off the background audio first at the bottom of the page before clicking the play button.

Tara Lets
Imago

Taralets tara tara taralets
'di ka na mabibigo
Taralets tara tara taralets
'di ka na mabibigo

'wag kang mabibigla
Isasama kita
'wag ka magtanong
Basta sumama ka lang
'wag mong unahan
Abonado ang pagasa

Mabilis ang palit
Ng tula ng mundo
Minsan isisigaw
Minsan ibubulong

'wag mong pigilan
Sulitin at sumama

Taralets tara tara taralets
'di ka na mabibigo
Taralets tara tara taralets
'di ka na mabibigo

Kung sigurado ka na
Anong hinihintay mo?
Sumayaw sa tuwa
Pasabugin ang saya

'wag mong pigilan
Abonado ang pag-asa

Itaas ang kamay
Hanapin mo ang tulay
Bitiwan ang duda
Bigla kang sumabay

'wag mong pigilan
Sulitin at sumama

Taralets tara tara taralets
'di ka na mabibigo
Taralets tara tara taralets
'di ka na mabibigo
Taralets tara tara taralets
'di ka na mabibigo
Taralets tara tara taralets
'di ka na mabibigo

Taralets tara tara taralets
Taralets tara tara taralets
Taralets tara tara taralets

Taralets tara tara taralets
'di ka na mabibigo
Taralets tara tara taralets
'di ka na mabibigo
Taralets tara tara taralets
'di ka na mabibigo
Taralets tara tara taralets
'di ka na mabibigo


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Unscrupulous employers....

Posted by Unknown Senin, 02 Oktober 2006 0 komentar

While I was on my way to work, I had a rather lengthy and animated conversation with a cab driver regarding complaints he has for the cab company he's been working in for several years now.

The cab company he works for has its main office in Quezon City, and has more than a hundred units plying Metro Manila's thoroughfares, each one emblazoned with the initials of the supposed owner and operator.

His wife recently gave birth and he wasn't able to claim his PhilHealth benefits since it isn't really clear if his company had remitted the premiums which supposedly form part of the regular boundary payments he makes. He suspects that the premiums hadn't been remitted.

If true, the company, in effect, would be deducting premium contributions from the employee, and pocketing the amounts instead of remitting them to PhilHealth. Needless to say, this would be a gross violation of the implementing rules of the National Health Insurance Law, and the company could be held civilly and criminally liable.

I advised him to visit the PhilHealth office, either the main one in Pasig, or the Service Office in Quezon City, along with documentary proof that PhilHealth premiums are indeed being deducted from him, as well as the details regarding his wife's delivery and subsequent confinement. Hopefully the truth in this matter can be threshed out in the requisite investigation, and with any luck he could still be eligible to receive PhilHealth benefits.

Aside from that, he also narrated how he had been recently suspended from driving a cab for a week for allegedly failing to pay the required daily boundary. Ironically enough, it turns out that he actually paid the boundary, and has in his possession a receipt signed by his company's cashier to prove it. He has brought his case to the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) and a preliminary hearing has already been set.

To add insult to injury, the receipt issued to him is not an official receipt with the name of the company, address, and tax identification number (TIN). The receipt his company customarily issues is but an ordinary mimeographed piece of newsprint with very few details, somewhat similar to an ordinary petty cash voucher. According to the driver, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) license that should be prominently hung in their main office is conspicuously absent as well. Hmmm. So the company may even be liable for tax violations as well.

He also adds that the true owner of the cab company is a Chinese national who currently resides in Hongkong. The local registered owner is currently there too, serving as a driver/bodyguard for the said Chinese national. In other words, the registered owner is nothing but a dummy for the Chinese national who actually owns the business himself. Philippine law requires that local public transport operators be wholly owned by Filipinos, and to circumvent this by setting up a local citizen as a fictitious proprietor on paper is a violation of the Anti-Dummy Law.

While his claims are possibly exaggerated, and I have no way of ascertaining the veracity of his statements, if true, his company would probably one of the most unscrupulous employers I have ever heard of. PhilHealth violations, labor violations, tax violations, anti-dummy violations. He also mentioned something about their Pag-IBIG contributions not being remitted either. Chalk up another possible violation.

I find it a bit difficult to believe that there are actually companies out there who can either be so malicious so as to deliberately refuse compliance with applicable laws, or be so ignorant of the existence and mandatory nature of these laws. Sad to say, I would surmise that there are a lot of companies like this one, preying on the ignorance of innocent workers who are unable to fight for their rights.

Aside from the PhilHealth issue, I really don't know how else to help the driver. I suggested that he and his coworkers form a union in order to protect their interests, and he said that he may very well consider spearheading the creation of a union himself, considering that he's already in the middle of it all, more so since he is presently in the process of litigating with the company in connection with the aforementioned labor case. A union would probably be the best way of defending themselves from all these violations and abuses.

Well, if all his allegations turn out to be the truth, I wish him well in his efforts to battle his company on these matters. Unscrupulous employers have no place in today's society, and workers and employees, especially those with the least economic resources, should be afforded all the protection the law has to offer.

It's just disappointing that even in this day and age, there are still companies who have no qualms over taking advantage of their employees. But hey, it happens. I just hope companies like these get what they deserve.

Curious on what cab company this post is about? I'd rather not say, since I have only heard one side of the issue. Let's give the company the benefit of the doubt, and let it defend itself in the appropriate forum, which ought to be pretty soon. But if you insist on knowing the name, here's a clue. The name can probably be found at the beginning of the phonebook.

Who knows? You may be reading about this in the papers in a few weeks or so. Then again, maybe not.


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