Pala-isip

Andrew Philip message to all the people around the world and to the Filipino people.

Here's an article by Ramon Tulfo that explains quite well why Filipinos are posing and smiling after the hostage crisis last Monday. According to Ramon Tulfo. The reason bloody incidents like the one at Rizal Park and tragedies such as typhoon “Ondoy” keep recurring is that Filipinos take misfortunes like a joke. We make jokes about other people’s miseries and mistakes. One day after the Rizal Park incident, jokes about the bumbling cops involved in the rescue started circulating. The acronym SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) had taken on different meanings: Sorry We Aren’t Trained. Sugod, Wait, Atras, Tago (Attack, Wait, Retreat, Hide) Sana Wag Ako Tamaan (Hope I don’t get hit) Sobrang Wala Akong Training (I’m very much ill-trained) Here’s a wry comment from a friend about the incident: “The Luneta massacre shows that our policemen are trained for HOSTESS-TAKING, not hostage-taking,” an obvious reference to cops who raid sleazy bars and force bar girls to have sex with them. The...

Here's an interesting article from The Huffington Post about the Philippines. This week two noteworthy events involving the Philippines made headlines: the botched rescue of Chinese tourists taken hostage by a disgruntled former policeman, and a botched response to a question by Miss Philippines in the finals for the Miss Universe contest. You might ask, what do these two things have in common? Separately, not much, but taken together, they represent both the peril and promise of the Philippines today. For many years pundits have commented that the Philippines appears to be heading backwards economically and politically, while many parts of Asia barrel toward middle income status and have maturing democracies. Yes, other countries have disputed elections, other countries' leaders do questionable things, and other developing countries struggle to achieve sustainable economic growth. And, yes, there are recent examples of fresh political turmoil and economic hardship not only in ...

I am deeply saddened by what happened on Monday with the hostage crisis. It was a tragic event that did not have to happen. It could have been easily prevented had the people in charged been more careful and did their homework. The Philippines now has a black eye caused by the incident and the international community has pretty much condemned the country for its tragic mistake. It's not just one, but several tragic mistakes. The first one being President Noynoy Aquino being incommunicado during all of this. Hong Kong Administrator Donald Tsang tried to contact President Noynoy Aquino but was unable to reach him. Hong Kong residents and officials are mad because of Manila's failure to update them of the situation as it was happening. Where was the President during all of this? According to reports, he was in the Palace administering the oath of office to the sister of one of his most powerful backers, the sister of Gabby Lopez of ABS-CBN. He only did a pre-dawn press briefing a ...

Etong mga taong eto parang walang pinag-aralan. Show some decency naman. But can you really blame them? It shows how insensitive Filipinos have become. They've gotten so used to all these violence and stupid things that's been happening in the country that tragedies like these have become like tourist attractions to them. I really hope their parents and teachers teaches them to be a little more considerate.

Here's a summary of what went wrong from BBC News . ==================== A security analyst who has worked in counter-terrorism with the British Army and Scotland Yard, Charles Shoebridge, says the officers involved in Manila's bus siege showed great courage - but they were not properly trained or equipped for the task. Here are 10 areas where, in his view, they could have done better. 1. Determination Philippine police end Manila bus hijack The first officers who tried to storm the bus were driven out by gunshots from the hostage taker, former policeman Rolando Mendoza. "They showed great courage to go on board. It's very crowded, just one aisle down the middle of the bus. But once you get on board it's not unexpected you are going to be fired at. Squads like this have to be made up of very special people, specially trained and selected for their characteristics of courage, determination and aggression. In this case they acted as 99% of the population would have, ...

These policemen just have no sense of propriety. Epic Fail! Pano ka nga ba hindi mapipikon sa mga pulis na eto?

This lone police woman has more balls than the whole Philippine SWAT team that tried to rescue the hostages.

I got this e-mail accounting the personal observations of a friend regarding the botched rescue attempt of the hostages in Manila on August 23, 2010. ==================== Personal observations on Mendoza’s hostage taking It is very disturbing to see how inept our police forces have remained in handling hostage situations. To wit: · Failure to control the crowd and media. Media was unwittingly telegraphing the PNP plans and positions over TV and radio. Rolando Mendoza apparently was able to listen to radio broadcasts. · The police was ill-equipped with gas masks and comfortable assault uniforms and not office attires. Can you imagine executing assault moves in office uniforms? · It is very important that the hostage taker be kept calm so he will decide on drastic steps not out of panic but clear thinking. The hostage takers must have panicked hearing over the radio the rough handling of his brother by the police who decided to arrest him for obstruction of justice. ·...

Here is the full entry of the 2010 Manila hostage crisis as posted in Wikipedia . ==================== The 2010 Manila hostage crisis occurred on August 23, 2010, in front of the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park, Manila, Philippines, when a dismissed police officer from the Manila Police District, former senior inspector Rolando Mendoza (10 January 1955 - 23 August 2010),[3] took 25 people hostage[4] aboard a bus. By the evening, the police assaulted the bus after gunshots were heard, eventually leading to the shooting and subsequent death of Mendoza. Eight Chinese nationals from Hong Kong died in the incident. ==================== Read the full entry here .

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer . ==================== MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Foreign Affairs is keeping quiet on the diplomatic blunder that President Benigno Aquino III may have made for being inaccessible to Hong Kong officials at the height of and immediately after the hostage crisis Monday. DFA spokesman Ed Malaya only referred to the DFA statement expressing the country’s and the President’s “deepest condolences to the government and people of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the People’s Republic of China, especially the families and relatives of the eight Hong Kong Chinese nationals who perished during a hostage-taking incident” in Manila. In a press conference Monday night, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang expressed disappointment over the aftermath of the crisis. He also said he had been unable to reach Aquino. Under such circumstances and as part of protocol, the chief executive of the host country takes the initiative to get in touch w...

Amazing fan made film. A Light in the Darkness - Part One from A Light in the Darkness on Vimeo .

Here's the footage of the storming of the bus with hostages in Manila on August 23, 2010. There were 25 hostages and 7 people were killed, 5 were injured and taken to the hospital and 9 were released by the hostage taker Rolando Mendoza. Because of this incident, Hong Kong has issued a travel ban to the Philippines. One of my co-workers who's from Hong Kong said, "My people were killed! How can you live in a country were the peace keepers cannot keep the peace? The police were inept and doesn't even seem to know what they were doing. I wouldn't want to go there." If you look at the footage, you can see that the Philippine SWAT team really looks disorganized. Here's what some of my friends called the SWAT. SWAT = Sorry Wala Akong Training / Sorry We Aren't Trained / Sulong, Wait, Atras, Tago LOL. What a damn shame, goodbye tourism! Here's another video of the hostage crisis from AP. Here are some photos I found online of the situation. Photo copyri...

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer . =================== MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE 6) It’s over. The hostage crisis that gripped the world for at least 10 hours Monday ended with at least three people killed, including the hostage-taker, and 17 survivors, according to reports culled by INQUIRER.net. The body of dismissed Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza was recovered inside the tourist bus that he took over in Manila about 9 a.m. He was taken to Ospital ng Maynila. Also taken to the same hospital were seven of the hostages, five of who are alive and two dead. Five – one in critical condition and one dead – are at the Manila Doctors’ Hospital while one confirmed dead is at San Juan De Dios. Mendoza who was charged with drug-related offenses, took over the bus with 22 Chinese nationals and three Filipinos and demanded his reinstatement into the force. Aside from Mendoza, two of the hostages were also killed although Metro Manila Police Director Leocadio Santiago in an interview with ...

More news about Francis Bryan Ang who stole more than P100M from Citibank Binondo. While the news says he stole around P100M. I heard from the grapevine that he stole somewhere between P600M to P1B as in Billion. This guy has been in the bank a long time and is one of the top producer in the bank when he started. How do I know? You don't become VP if you're not a top producer. I'm just surprised that nobody found out about this until now.

From ABS-CBN News . ==================== MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) - A private banking officer of Citibank's Binondo branch has gone missing after allegedly carting away hundreds of millions of his clients' money. Francis Bryan Ang is the former assistant vice-president of the bank's Citigold Wealth Management group, which is aimed at high-value clients with bank deposits of no less than P4 million. Most of Citigold's customers are wealthy Chinese-Filipinos. A note on the Citibank website states that Citigold clients enjoy various privileges including premium information and assistance from a dedicated wealth management team that will manage their accounts. ABS-CBN News, however, learned that Ang embezzled more than P100 million of his clients' money. One Citigold client lost P10 million from his time deposit after Ang forged his signature. An affidavit signed by Citibank's lawyer showed that Ang changed the client's address so that bank statements would...

Love know no bounds.

Saw these animations on Youtube. They're great to watch!

Must be nice to have some money to throw around for toys.

Mrs. Tanoy is very kuripot. When her husband died, she inquired with the newspaper, asking the price for the obituary. The ad taker replied: P300 pesos for 5 words. She said: Pwede ba 2 words lang? "Tanoy dead" Ad taker: No mam. 5 words is the minimum. After thinking for a while, Mrs. Tanoy said: 'Ok, para sulit, ilagay mo : 'TANOY DEAD, TOYOTA FOR SALE ' --------------------- Boy: Nay may ulam ba? Nanay: Tignan mo na lang dyan sa ref, anak. Boy: Eh nay, wala naman tayong ref, di ba? Nanay: O, e di wala tayong ulam. Konting common sense naman dyan! --------------------- Caloy: Tay, di ba sabi nyo bibigyan nyo ko ng P100 pag pumasa ako sa Math? Tatay: Oo. Bakit, pumasa ka ba? Caloy: Gud news, tay! Di ka na gagastos ng P100. --------------------- Man at 33 quits smoking. Will Power; At 43, quits drinking. Will Power; At 53, quits gambling. Will Power; At 63, quits having sex. Power Failure. --------------------- Kano (trying to speak Tagalog): Meg-kanow isang kilow ...

Notice anything about the Apple iPad commercial? No mention of specs, just what it can do for you. That's what advertising should be.

For those people who complain life is hard, nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it.

Interesting concept, I wonder if it's true.

This is hilarious. The things people buy...

That is just amazing.

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer . ====================== VERY FEW people are aware of it, but we are going to have a new set of peso bills very, very soon. We may be giving our godchildren the new bills as gifts this Christmas. The present set of paper Philippine currency will be phased out. New coins will be issued later. The question is, why is the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) doing this secretly and hastily? The nation is totally unaware of what will happen to their money or how the new money will look like. Malacañang, Congress and the Supreme Court did not know anything about it beforehand. The BSP claims that it is an independent entity and can do anything it wants. In other words, it is the fourth branch of government, a co-equal of the executive, legislative and judicial branches. To get a favorable reaction from President Aquino, the images of his parents, Ninoy and President Cory, will be in the P500 note. But no one, except insiders and a privileged few, have seen th...

Amazing kid.

Cyan Banister interviews Michael Uslan, Executive Producer of the Batman movie series, about his efforts to bring a dark, serious Batman to the big screen Here are some details about Michael Uslan from Wikipedia . "Uslan is best known as a key producer (another being Benjamin Melniker) of all of the modern Batman films to date, starting with Tim Burton's 1989 film, and continuing to 2008's The Dark Knight and also includes various feature-length films based on the Batman: The Animated Series and The Batman. Uslan envisioned a dark Batman, not the sort of Batman that came from the "funny books," as reflected in the 1960s TV series starring Adam West."

From the Philippine Daily Inquirer . ====================== MANILA, Philippines—Willie Revillame wants out. ABS-CBN says, “No way.” The controversial TV host Monday said in a press conference that he was rescinding his contract with the network, on account of the shabby treatment it was giving him. Revillame complained of what he believed were continued violations of the terms of his contract with the Kapamilya station. The TV host is bound by a contract until September 2011 to the Lopez-owned network. ABS-CBN gave Revillame his biggest break through the daily noontime game show, “Wowowee,” which was recently canceled after more than five years. In a statement released shortly after Revillame’s press conference in a Quezon City restaurant, the network insisted that it was the TV host who violated “behavioral provisions” of the contract when he threatened management during the May 4 episode of “Wowowee.” Threat to resign On that show, Revillame demanded the dismissal of another network ...

Got this from an e-mail and just wanted to share it with everyone. ========================= In light of the concluding elections, I would just like to share this inspiring piece --not by a Filipino -- but a Korean: practically an alien in the Philippines. My Short Essay about the Philippines by Jaeyoun Kim Filipinos always complain about the corruption in the Philippines. Do you really think the corruption is the problem of the Philippines? I do not think so. I strongly believe that the problem is the lack of love for the Philippines. Let me first talk about my country, Korea. It might help you understand my point. After the Korean War, Sou...

Cute commercial.

The University of Santo Tomas Choir won the Choir of the World competition in UK as well as 14 other 1st place wins in several other European contest. They last won the contest in 1995 and has the distinction of being thea the only group to have won the contest twice. Here's a sample of one of their performances. You can find more on Youtube.