My Vote.My Turn.

Woke up to Facebook, McDonald's sausage mc muffin with egg and The Inquirer.

I sent in my text to this nice market research.

My Vote. My Turn.
HOW I WILL DECIDE

The Inquirer keeps me informed. The 2010 election is really about ________(hot topic).
Our next president needs to be someone capable of _______(character trait) like
__________(political hero), and not capable of _______(political scandal).

No one knows for sure what will happen. But I will make my vote happen.


SMS: Type 2010 Name/Address/Hot Topic/Character Trait/Political Hero/Political Scandal and send to 0918-898 5566.

Here is what I drafted as my answer.


The 2010 election is really about choosing the best leader who can visualize and steer the nation from poverty and corruption into development and to raising Philippine pride (Pinoy ako!). Our next president needs to be a visionary, leader, someone who can execute his vision and inspire people to work together on this vision, someone honest, noble and simple, like Ninoy and Cory Aquino, and not capable of corruption.
No one knows for sure what will happen. But I will make my vote happen.












Photo credit: P500 peso bill designed by my FB friend Rev Naval.
www.peaceloveandrevolution.com

Salamat, Tita Cory

What else is left I asked myself?

While watching the requiem mass for President Cory Aquino on TV, twittering, facebooking, reading feeds from blogs I follow and texting and crying with my mother on Tita Cory's life of suffering, I finally heard the message of Tita Cory to the Filipino: a message of hope and for me, for all of us, to choose the noblest of them all.

Tama ang sinabi ni Kris, Ma, kaya tayo umiiyak, kaya tayo nalulungkot, ay dahil kay Tita Cory nakikita natin ang sarili nating ina, na naghirap, nagbigay ng sarili nila para sa kanilang anak. I love you Ma, and I thank God for you.

Teddy Locsin Loved Her The Most

Teddy Locsin's Eulogy for Cory Aquino


Throughout thirteen years of martial law, until I laid eyes on her again, I never thought that I would ever see the end of it. Least of all that my father would survive it. I am not much given to prayer or pious reflection but when I could set aside my anger, I prayed my father would see democracy again.

Late one afternoon, in San Francisco, I got a call. It was from Cory Aquino, for whom I had written one speech after her husband’s assassination. She said she had accepted Marcos’s challenge in a Snap Presidential Election. I put down the phone, and packed my bags, and reported to her at the Cojuangco Building.

I knew then she was the answer to my prayers. What I did not notice was that the closer we came to victory, which is to say the farther the prospect receded that the Marcos regime would survive, the less I felt the anger inside me. As each day passed, bringing me closer to the day I could get even, the less I felt the need for it as I spent more time with the woman who alone could make it possible.

I did not notice, but I was no longer looking back in anger, or looking forward even, to victory and vindication. Only now do I see. I had lived with my anger so long, only for the day to come when it no longer mattered to me. The only thing that counted was that I was living every day to the fullest, bringing out the best in me—for someone else. A dream I hadn’t had since I was a boy, feeding on stories of chivalry, had been achieved. I was serving a woman who was every inch a sovereign, all the more for scorning the slightest pretension to the role.

I did not realize it, even when I was already in the Palace, by the side of the President—among all her advisers, I like to think, the one who loved her most.

It never again occurred to me that I had scores to settle. And not until today, that I had passed up every chance to get even.

From the moment I came in from the airport and reported for duty, and she gave me in return the same smile she gave me on her deathbed, I never noticed… Not when I was with her in the campaign when she corrected me for not looking at the people I was waving at… Nor when I was with her in the presidential limousine looking intently, for her benefit, at the crowds at whom I waved… I never noticed anything. Except that I was with the only person that I would ever want to be with.

I certainly never noticed that I had left my anger behind. I don’t know how it happened. Except that Cory Aquino ennobled everyone who came near her. I have tried to say it publicly but never could finish. If you saw me as I felt myself to be, anyone would fall in love with me. I saw myself in that hospital room, a knight at the bedside of his dying sovereign, on the eve of a new Crusade, oblivious to the weight of the armor on his shoulders for the weight of the grief in his heart.

And because she always doubted my ability to be good for very long… Indeed, when my wife told Ballsy that I prayed the rosary at Lourdes for her mother’s recovery, Cory said, “Teddy Boy prayed the rosary? A miracle! I feel better already.” Because she doubted my capacity for self-reformation, she made it effortless for me by being herself. I did not notice that I was doing right by serving a woman who never did wrong. I am not sure how to take this moral self-discovery. It is so unlike myself. But if it will bring me before her again, I am happy.

Prayer for a Happy Death by Corazon Aquino

Prayer for a Happy Death (2004)
By Corazon Aquino

Almighty God, most merciful Father
You alone know the time
You alone know the hour
You alone know the moment
When I shall breathe my last.

So remind me each day, most loving Father
To be the best that I can be
To be humble, to be kind,
To be patient, to be true,
To embrace what is good
To reject what is evil
To adore only You.

When that final moment does come
Let not my loved ones grieve for long
Let them comfort each other
And let them know how much happiness
They brought into my life.
Let them pray for me
As I will continue to pray for them,
Hoping that they will always pray for each other.
Let them know that they made possible
Whatever good I offered to our world
And let them realize that our separation
Is just for a short while
As we prepare for our reunion in eternity.

Our Father in heaven
You alone are my hope
You alone are my salvation
Thank You for Your unconditional love. Amen.

Check Them Out: Park Jun's Beauty Lab

She is Park Jun's creative director, Maiyah, who's as thin as a rail and looks much younger in person. Entering Park Jun's was the same experience I had a year ago when I had my hair cut in Taipei. She touched my hair and was aghast, felt so sorry for my hair which was (1) rebonded (2) very dry (3) lacked nutrients and shine. She asked for my routine, what shampoo do I use, what treatments do I have, how many times do I have my hair rebonded, do I use serum? All these I know were to plus sell me their treatments when all I wanted were bangs. I thought it looked good on her. But I also know I abuse my hair since I blowdry daily and rebond every six months.







What was impressive was she was so hands-on with her clients that she sometimes hovers around the assistant even when shampooing my hair, and she does the blowdrying herself. Her assistant Abby told me, "Ma'am ganyan talaga sila, pulido gumawa." (They really work like that, keen on the details.)

She tells me instead of rebonding, next time I should use volume rebonding which leaves the hair flat on top but with some volume on the side and bangs. My BFF was with me, and she is opting for volume rebond with digital perm on the side, which I thought would look great on her- it would look romantic and would fit her frame beautifully.



Park Jun's is located at Glorietta 3, beside Gloria Jeans in Makati.
Call to reserve an appointment:819-3001



The girls loved my new 'do.




















*******


Lunch at Salcedo Market, and 2 hours at Park Jun's - all these we did on a rainy Saturday morning, after waking up to Tita Cory's passing away, who had less effect on me than Michael Jackson's death. Another friend and I were trying to figure it out, as she is ready to throw in her towel and leave Pinas as well. All these years our country is slowly rotting away with disease and we can't shake it off with some leaders governing the country. I feel the best way to be Pinoy is to be the best I can be, but sometimes that is not enough.

Jessica Zafra sums it up in her blog today:

"She was a lady, a rarity in this day and age and especially in this political system. She tried. We miss her like a limb. In mourning for Tita Cory we’re really mourning for ourselves and what could’ve been."


I remember my mother geared in yellow tshirt in the 80s, joining the first Edsa revolution. After that we had hope for the nation. Now that it is my generation, what do people of our generation do? We are frustrated, we try doing our part, we comment, we write, but at the same time, we try to hear as less noise as possible, to stay sane. For those of us who are left here, as many of my generation are already in the Northern America, or someplace else, and for yet, the others who are thinking of ways of moving on, to become citizens of the world, what else is left?