It's never too late!

Re-published from Mindanao Daily Mirror, Opinion Section, my column dated September 20, 2013 with friendly permission of my publisher Marietta F. Siongco.

I know a lot of pension expatriates living in the Philippines for good. Many of them get a big problem after staying here for only a couple of months: they get bored.

Having a vacation all day, all week, all month and all year long is really not an egg's yellow. I experienced the same in 1999 after moving to Davao City. At that time I justed turned 46.

I remember my last days in an international publishing house in Berlin (with branch offices in New York and Amsterdam. I packed up my things after signing my resignation letter. Of course, I hadn't reach my final pension age yet, but I got a lot of ideas on how to shape and organize my "new" life in the Philippines. I never forgot some office mates smiling at me: "We can't cross such bridges before we come to them!" Of course guys, you have been right!

Anyway, age doesn't matter - you can enjoy the second half of your life residing in the Philippines. As many of you know already: I stayed in many countries worldwide. I could have migrated to the U.S. I didn't. I choosed the Philippines.

Most important thing: Keep yourself busy... .

Sure, there is always a time, when we should rest and really enjoy life. Sure, we brought our savings and many of us enjoy the monthly pension in Euro or Dollar. Several weeks ago, I read a good idea in an U.S. business weekly: "Partner up with entrepreneurs who have long been in the business, or those who have just retired as well!" Worth to think about it!

Getting bored, means also for some to start grumbling and complaining about everything and everybody in the Philippines. I always keep my distance to such negative people. We are not here to change this country and its people. Why? What for? Filipinos are also not planning to change our home countries or us!

I really don't get more stressed than in my home country before. Critics reproach and accused me of living a life as expatriate while wearing pink tinted glasses. Sorry, but my conscience is very clear.

I keep myself busy, too busy sometimes: Teaching, translating, writing, in the radio, and many more things. It's never too late. It's your life! Take your chance and enjoy life in the Philippines. And stay away from grumblers and grousing people... .

Noli me tangere - Ruehr' mich nicht an... - Don't Touch me...

Ich war schon immer fasziniert von Jose Rizal, dem philippinischen Nationalhelden.

1887 erschien in Berlin ein spanisch geschriebenes Buch mit dem lateinischen Titel NOLI ME TANGERE (Ruehr' mich nicht an!). Autor war der junge philippinische Schriftsteller Jose Rizal. Er hatte nach seinem Studium in Madrid und einem Aufenthalt in Paris 1886 Deutschland bereist und in Heidelberg die Niederschrift seines Romans beendet.

Der Erscheinungsort Berlin ist kein Kuriosum. Wie so viele wache und begeisterungsfaehige Koepfe jener Zeit suchte Rizal die Verbindung von wissenschaftlicher Erklaerung und "deutschem Idealismus". Sein Roman, der von der spanischen Kolonialherrschaft der Philippinen als politisch brisant betrachtet werden musste, war "mit Herzblut geschrieben", wie Rizal's oesterreichischer Freund, der Gelehrte F. Blumentritt, schrieb: Er wollte ebenso aufklaererisch wie aufruettelnd wirken.

Die spanische Kolonialmacht erkannte sofort die subversive Kraft des Romans: nicht in den manchmal karikaturartigen Einzelgestalten, sondern darin, dass die Fremdherrschaft eben als FREMDherrschaft ad absurdum gefuehrt wird. Noch im Erscheinungsjahr 1887 wird der Roman verboten. Am 30.12.1986 wird Rizal als geistiger Urheber der nicht laenger zu unterdrueckenden philippinischen Freiheitsbewegung exekutiert. Zwei Jahre spaeter endet die spanische Herrschaft auf den Philippinen, ebenso auf Kuba, wo Jose Marti eine aehnliche revolutionaer-literarische Rolle gespielt hat.

Noch heute teilt sich die leidenschaftlich politisch-ethische Kraft dieses wirkungsreichen  Romans dem Leser unmittelbar mit.

Ich besitze die spanische, englische und deutsche Ausgabe (aus dem philippinisch Spanisch uebersetzt von Annemarie del Cueto-Moerth, 1. Auflage 1987, Insel Verlag, Frankfurt/Main).

More Rain and Landslides in The Philippines

Luzon has been drenched by monsoon rains enhanced by Typhoon Usagi. Photograph: Francis R. Malasig/EPA
 
Torrential monsoon rains have hit the north-west Philippines triggering landslides and killing 20 people in areas already weakened by a powerful typhoon, and raising the death toll to 47 from storms across Asia.

Philippine officials said soldiers and villagers were also searching for at least seven people missing in mountainside villages hit by the landslides on Monday in the province of Zambales.

In China, where typhoon Usagi struck after passing by the Philippines, officials said the storm killed 25 people in the southern province of Guangdong, 13 of them in the city of Shanwei where it struck the coast late on Sunday.

Two people drowned when a passenger boat capsized in north-east Aurora Province in the Philippines.

Jeffrey Khonghun, mayor of Subic, Zambales, said 15 bodies were dug out in two landslide-hit villages in his town. Five people also died in landslides in two other towns in Zambales, according to army officials and police.

Rescuers used their hands, pots and shovels to dig through the muck that buried a cluster of houses, while relatives of two other missing residents waited in the rain in the village of Wawandue.

"This is the first after a long time that we were hit by this kind of deluge," Khonghun told Manila's DZBB radio network. He had to stop the interview when another body was pulled out from the mud near him.

Typhoon Usagi enhanced the torrential monsoon rains that drenched the main northern Philippine region of Luzon over the weekend. The powerful typhoon blew away late on Saturday and a new tropical storm off southern Japan was continuing to intensify the downpours in Luzon, government forecaster Samuel Duran said.

Many low-lying areas of the Philippine capital, Manila, and outlying regions were swamped on Monday, prompting authorities to close schools and offices.
In Hong Kong flight schedules were returning to normal on Monday after major disruptions caused by Usagi, which was the season's strongest storm. At its peak it forced about 250 flight cancellations in Hong Kong, before weakening to a tropical depression over the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

Train and airline services around Guangdong had returned to normal after the storm, China's state broadcaster CCTV said.

China's national weather centre said the storm would continue to weaken as it moves north-west.

Philippine Church "Right" despite Pope Francis Comments

 

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma: Be involved. Photo from http://www.cbcponline.net/

Philippine Catholic leaders are standing firm against contraception, abortion and homosexual marriage despite Pope Francis’ comments urging a change of tone on those issues, the national Church said Tuesday. 

 

About 80 percent of the Philippines’ 100 million population are Catholics, making the country the bastion of the faith in Asia, and Church leaders insisted that its dogma would remain in place.

“He is not saying that what the Church deemed before as wrong is now right. He is merely telling us to be more compassionate,” Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president Jose Palma said in reaction to the recent papal statement.
“He won’t be saying contraceptives, and even abortion, are now okay. No! Do not expect that to happen,” Archbishop Palma said in comments made Monday.
In an interview published last week, the Argentine pontiff urged a break with the Church’s harsh “obsession” with divorce, gays, contraception and abortion.
Philippine Church leaders have led a decade-long campaign against a birth control law that required the state to hand out free condoms and birth control pills, and provide post-abortion medical care.

The Supreme Court suspended the law in March so that judges could hear formal petitions from a range of Church-backed groups arguing that it was unconstitutional.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas, the vice president of the bishops’ group, said: “He (the pope) did not rebuff the strong opposition to contraception, abortion or homosexual marriage. He just set it on proper grounding.”

The transcripts of Palma’s and Villegas’ comments were made available by the bishops’ organisation to AFP on Tuesday.

Edcel Lagman, a former legislator who wrote the birth control law, told AFP the pope’s comments had put the Filipino Church leaders on the defensive, saying they belonged to its “ultra-conservative wing”.

“I think they will have to reconcile their doctrines and make themselves attuned to the liberal thinking of the new pope. There is no way to go but to follow the pope,” he said.

Lagman said the Filipino Church’s conservative activism was rooted in its key role converting locals to Christianity as part of the Asian islands’ 17th-century colonisation by Spain.

“The Church feels it should meddle in the affairs of the State,” he added.

Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/494061/philippine-church-right-despite-pope-francis-comments#ixzz2fnRr9wWZ

Typhoon Usagi Moves Towards Philippines and Taiwan

 
Typhoon Usagi has wind speeds of up to 175 km/h (109 mph).
 

The Philippines and Taiwan are braced for Typhoon Usagi, which meteorologists say could become the most powerful typhoon of 2013.

The typhoon was 560km (350 miles) east-southeast of Taiwan and 360km (225 miles) from the northern Philippines on Friday morning, weather officials said.

Both Taiwan and the Philippines have issued alerts and warned boats to exercise caution.

Typhoon Usagi had wind speeds of up to 175 km/h (110 mph) and gained strength early on Friday, Pagasa, the Philippine government's weather agency, said.

Philippine officials have issued storm warnings for flash flooding, landslides and storm surges for several northern provinces.

Emergency and health personnel in some provinces have also been placed on standby, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau issued a land warning on Friday morning, and forecast heavy rainfall for northern and eastern Taiwan.

China's State Oceanic Administration has issued a class I emergency response for the typhoon, its highest maritime disaster response level, state media report.

China's National Meteorological Centre has also issued a yellow alert in its weather warning system.

In August, at least two people died and thousands lost their homes after Typhoon Utor hit the northern Philippines. 

Davao City - my Second Home

 

More fun in Davao City(Official)

Good Evening Davaoeños!

98 days to go and it's Christmas!

Let's not allow anyone to destroy our beautiful, progressive and peaceful city, but please be safe guys! ...


Davao City - Fun is Here

^Angelknigh†^


(c) Owner of the PhotosSee More

Herzlich Willkommen Dietmar Prinz/Heartily Welcome Dietmar Prinz

Dietmar Prinz aus San Fabian, Pangasinan

Zu meiner Person: Ich bin am 10 .09.1948 geboren,  habe 37 Jahre ein Fliesenfachgeschäft   Verlegung   Beratung  Verkauf in Deutschland gehabt.Ich bin seit 16 Jahren in zweiter Ehe glücklich  verheiratet und habe die beste Frau und kann eigentlich,  und ich bin es auch,  sehr zufrieden sein  mit meinem Leben.

Meine Frau ist eine  Pinay. Ich  liebe  auch meinen grossen  Familienkreis. Klaus, ich kann manchmal nicht alle Kommentare ueber die Pinoys gutheissen. Sie sind nicht besser und  nicht schlechter als  alle anderen Menschen auf der Welt, SIGURO ...etwas anders für uns aus  Europa. Es gibt keine guten  Deutschen und schlechten Moslems. Es gibt überall auf der Welt gute und weniger gute Menschen - unabhänig  von Religion  und /oder Nationalität.  Manchmal fehlt nur ein wenig Verständniss für den anderen.   

Additional Requirements for Foreigners Before Marrying Filipinas?

A lawmaker on Friday urgend the government to impose an additional requirement to male foreign nationals desiring to marry a Filipina before a marriage license can be granted to prevent exploitation of Filipino women.

"We are all aware of incidents that some foreigners who come to the Philippines to marry Filipino women are vagabonds or social or moral derelicts, whose real motive is only to take advantage and exploit our women, "Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia (3rd District, Cebu City) said.

Garcia is author of House Bill 2387 or "An Act amending Article 66 of the Civil Code of the Philippines in order to prescribe additional requirements for male citizens or subjects of a foreign country to marry a Filipino woman."

"Not a few of these male foreigners' real motive for marriage is to exploit our women by making them work and worse, by sending them to prostitution, and other degrading and dehumanizing occupations,"Garcia said.

At present, Garcia said, "when either or both the contracting parties are citizens or subjects of a foreign country, it shall be necessary, before a marriage license can be obtained, to provide themselves with a certificate of legal capacity to contract marriage, to be issued by their respective diplomatic or consular officials."

The bill provides that when one of the contracting parties is a male citizen or subject of a foreign country desiring to marry a female citizen of the Philippines, in addition to this certificate of legal capacity, the foreigner shall provide himself with a certificate of good moral character and a certificate that he has gainful trade, business or employment, to be issued by his diplomatic or consular official, before a marriage license can be obtained.

Garcia said the exploitation of Filipino women, thru the so-called mail-order or penpal, Facebook, website mail, and other internet instigated marriages, has not only caused miseries and sufferings to Filipino momen but also brought dishonor and disgrace to Filipino womanhood.

"The proposed requirements, in addition to the usual certificate of legal capacity, are intended to protect our women from these undesirable foreigners," Garcia said.

The Garcia bill has been referred to the Committee on Revision of Laws chaired by Rep. Marlyn Primicias-Agabas (6th District, Pangasinan).

By: PNA

MNLF Rebels Hold Philippine Forces at Bay

Filipino rebels have held scores of hostages as human shields in a two-day standoff with government forces. Since Monday, fighting has virtually shut down a southern port city. 

Troops have surrounded 200 Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) guerrillas and their roughly 180 hostages in four coastal villages near Zamboanga since the fighting began Monday. The conflict has displaced about 1,500 residents of the mainly Muslim districts near the city, including women and children forced to spend the night sleeping on the floor of crowded gyms after fleeing. At least eight combatants have been killed and 24 wounded.

"The primary mission of the government now is clear: do everything possible to convince the armed MNLF group to free all the captive residents they are using as a 'human shield' against military and police operations," Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said. He added that government forces would now focus on "saving as many lives as possible."

The MNLF's 42-year rebellion has claimed 150,000 lives. The group signed an accord with the government in 1996, but retained its weapons and has accused officials of reneging on promises of an autonomous region for Muslims in the Mindanao region of the largely Catholic nation. Last month, the MNLF issued new threats to secede by establishing its own republic.

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala said government forces discovered in advance a planned attack in Zamboanga - a city of around 800,000 - and positioned themselves offensively to deter that. Navy spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Gregory Fabic said commandos had killed seven rebels as they marched into the city, though the sea battle also led to the death of one soldier.

President Benigno Aquino III said his government would make hostage safety a top priority. He has deployed top Cabinet officials and his military chief of staff to oversee the situation.

MNLF vs. MILF
 
MNLF rebels have felt excluded after the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which split in 1978, successfully engaged the government in talks brokered by Malaysia. Monday's attack came as the government prepared to resume negotiations Tuesday.

"We condemn acts of violence perpetrated by spoilers out to derail the people's journey to a just and lasting peace," said presidential adviser Teresita Deles, who has helped to oversee negotiations with the MILF. "How can you demand to hoist your flag in the name of peace while brazenly bearing arms and hurting innocent civilians?" Deles added.

The MNLF rebels have given no indication as to whether they would engage in talks or what they intend to do next.

"Our forces will stay where they are," MNLF spokesman Emmanuel Fontanilla told DZMM radio "They are on a defensive posture."

The 11,000-strong MILF has made substantial progress toward a new autonomy deal for Muslims in the peace talks with the government. The latest round of those talks resumed Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

mkg/ph (Reuters, AFP, AP)

Audios and videos on the topic

Philippines: Muslim rebels in Zamboanga conflict

By: Deutsche Welle TV, Germany

Protect The Media

Re-published Editorial from Mindanao Daily Mirror, September 6, 2013, with friendly permission of my publisher and editor-in-chief Marietta Songco.

"The attacks on the media in the Philippines continue unabated, with a radio broadcaster getting shot dead in Iligan City last week and two Davao City media executives getting convicted of libel also last week. These two may seem to be very different cases, and in many ways they are: one was a violent crime, while the other was a long drawn-out case. But the net effect is the same: media practitioners know they live under a sword that could fall on their heads any time, in one way or another.

What confounds the media community is how indifferent government has been  to its plights. Almost three decades have passed since the 1986 People Power revolution that supposedly brought democracy back to the country, and yet here we are, a media industry constantly under threat of being killed, arrested, jailed, imprisoned. 

Of the roughly 200 journalists killed since 1986, more than 130 were murdered in the time of their duty. Most of the killers have gone scot-free, and practically all masterminds have never been arrested. Five presidents have taken residence in Malacanang, but none of them have taken concrete steps to protect the media.

As for libel, government has shown no inclination to decriminalize it, making the Philippines one of a very countries where one can go to prison for expressing oneself. Freedom of expression is enshrined in our Constitution, but as long as libel is a criminal offense, we will be merely paying lip services to it. Every single journalist lives with the thought that he or she could go to prison  for something he or she wrote or said on air, and that can have profound effects on how the truth is reported. Under threat of libel, explosive stories can have a way of disappearing from view, neer to be seen to the public.

The Aquino adminstration styles itself as the one that is walking the straight and narrow path, but it has a ling way to go to prove its commitment by way of protecting the media. Without free media, good government is nothing but fiction."