The we prepared 2 sauces, Béchamel and Hollandaise, two sauces that demands continuous whisking, Béchamel being a roux base sauce with milk needs to constant whisking to prevent the milk from curdling and Hollandaise is made of egg and butter mixture must be whisked briskly for the mixture to emulsify.

The session ended around 12NN which gives me enough time to travel and catch up with today’s biggest event in Philippine Politics, the first SoNA of President Noynoy Aquino. A few days ago, the palace hinted that the President’s SoNa will be a bomb that will shock the whole nation. I believe that this has tickled the curiosity of the citizenry and awaited for whatever bomb the president is about to explode.

So I watched the president’s State of the Nation Address speech, which was delivered in Filipino, he started by telling the people on how the previous almost emptied the budget for the fiscal year 2010 and how the calamity fund (for 2010) was diverted to benefit former President (and now Pampanga 2nd District Congresswoman) Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo constituents in Pampanga.

These among other findings of anomalous transactions dominated the first half of the president’s speech, nothing was shocking at least for me, these have been told before, even during GMA’s reign in power. But I would admit that it was a good prelude to what the president wants his speech to be remembered. He’s not like GMA.

In his plans of action, he certified several legislative agenda, (1) the Fiscal Prosperity Bill, (2) the passing of National Land Use Bill, (3) [amending] National Defense Act, (4) enacting the Whistleblower’s Bill, (5) strengthening the Witness Protection Program, and (5) re-codification of the laws to ensure that no law is contradicting with another.

In his speech, the president mentioned about the constructing an expressway from Manila that would pass the provinces of Bulacan, Neva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya and Cagayan Valley, the pushing through with the rehabilitation of the railway system and the building of grain terminals, refrigeration facilities, road networks and post-harvest facilities, all would be under private – public partnership.

The private – public partnership looks vague to me, how is it differs to the BOT (Build Operate and Transfer) scheme that past administrations entered into that made more harm than help, take for example the north and south Luzon toll ways that increased it’s toll fees by more than 300% after being taken over by a private firm.

I’m looking for a concrete plans of action, not the additional 2 years of basic education but making sure that our public school would be a conducive place for our children to learn more even only having 10 years of basic education. That jobs will be created (and not just recycled) in this country to cater our graduates and assure them of their security of tenure. That Filipinos would take overseas job as their last resort and not because it’s the only way for them to support the needs of his/her family.

We don’t only need post-harvest support but more so, the government needs to assure that the land that these farmers are tending to will be their own.

And if the president is serious about his election slogan “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” he could have certified the Freedom of Information Bill as a part of the priority legislation.

It’s quite disappointing, or maybe I was expecting this administration to fulfill the promises that they made during the election.

I woke up Wednesday morning (around 3AM) when my electric fan stopped running (yeah, brown out!) and with the loud whirling sound. That ended my good night sleep.

By 5AM, my cellphone alerted me, it’s time to prepare for another day in school, with no electricity and low water pressure in the faucet, I took bath got ready. The weather was not pleasant, although the wind had mellowed but I can still feel it hitting me hard, as I walked towards the public transport terminal, this scene welcomed me.

I counted at least 10 Acacia trees lying on the ground, even the playground was not spared by the wrath of Basyang.

When I reached the terminal, the shuttle service was suspended and no tricycle was on sight, so there’s no other logical thing to do but to return home. Upon reaching home, I saw my sister’s car backing out of the garage, she needs to report to work early to check the damage caused by the typhoon in their warehouse, so I hitched.

It’s another jeepney ride before I reach the school, on the way, I saw some areas have been flooded, thanks but no thanks to the newly constructed drainage (what a waste of public money!).

While on the jeep, I see people wet and waiting for their ride, it was then that I received a text message from the school admin that, yeah you guess it right, class is suspended! Sucks hard! I’m almost there buddy!

What else can I do but to hit home, but that was easier said than done, buses and jeepneys were full and I’m soaking wet, at least my shoes. It took me another hour to finally get a ride home.

The electricity and water in our subdivision were back Thursday afternoon, I missed my Thursday class since no water available for bathing. The phone (and internet) service came back just before dinner time today, that’s after almost 24 hours of me calling the PLDT customer support.

According the the news report, at least 38 persons died and more than 80 others are missing. The typhoon also caused two oil spills, Petron’s submarine pipeline in Rosario, Cavite was damaged by the oil tanker’s anchor, the oil spill was estimated to have reached at least 1 kilometer of coastline. The second oil spill happened in Bataan, an oil barge submerge causing the spill, several other barges hit the breakwater damaging it and several fishing boats.

I haven’t heard of the estimated damage caused by this recent typhoon, looking at the reports, it looks like that the remaining 600 million (out of 2 billion) pesos calamity fund for this year would not be sufficient. I wonder where the Arroyo government spent the 1.4 billion calamity fund when Basyang was the first typhoon that caused a great amount of devastation this year.

I watched the inaugural from the moment the President Noy left his residence at Times Street in Quezon City up to the last minute of the coverage. I was impressed on how orderly the ceremony was planned and executed, President Noy was punctual, he came about 15 minutes earlier than the planned arrival at the Malacañan Palace despite stopping on all the stop lights.

I listened carefully to President Noy’s inaugural speech as I munch on my lunch, honestly the Wang-wang (siren) part caught my attention, how many times I’ve been pissed by these arrogant drivers sounding their sirens to escape the perils of being caught in heavy traffic. I can’t count how may times I’m tempted to throw stones on those politicians with enormous number of back-up vehicles squeeze their way out of heavy traffic using the power of the blinkers and police sirens.

For me, that was the highlight of President Aquino’s inaugural speech, his disgust not just of the siren but the arrogance behind the act of using it. But I was expecting more than that, for me these wang-wangs are not just an instrument of arrogance but more so, the best way for these arrogant people to flex their muscles.

By sounding the sirens and flashing their blinkers, these people are in a way telling everybody else that they are important and therefore others must give way. The best way to show how powerful they can be.

I was waiting for the new president to show that he’s not favoring these powerful people, not just the wang-wang users but the people who holds the power and the people by controlling the capital. I can’t help but recall one of his campaign TV ad, “kailangan pang mag-college para lang mag-contractual.” I was waiting for Noynoy to tell the people what his concrete program to eliminate the rampant contractualization of labor brought about by DOLE’s issuance of Department Order No. 18-02, I just thought it was part of his political agenda.

Here’s how I see things, if the current administration is serious of leveling the playing fields, he must not just focus in leveling the playing fields for the investor, he must also consider the plight of the million workers. The current minimum wage of PhP404 (for National Capital Region) is the sixth lowest in the whole world, it is also far lower than the family living wage of PhP917 (as forecast by the National Wage and Productivity Commission in 2008).

I believe that a strong and healthy local economy starts with the capacity of the local people to purchase their basic necessities and not for local and foreign investors spending their money outside the country.

With the current set-up, Filipinos reaching the age of 24 will be unemployed, after years of being passed from one contractor to another, they will reach the age of 24, the age limit for “new” employees. What would be their future? Who are there to protect their rights?

Putting a stop to the unauthorized use of sirens and blinker is a welcome move but ending the abuse to the Filipino workers needs to be taken seriously.

Outside, I can see people walking (and cursing), I wasn’t ready to jump off the jeep and walk, not with the burning morning heat. Another 15 minutes have passed and I had enough, I started walking the 3 kilometer (walking) journey towards the school, on the way, I saw that the traffic was not moving. Was it because of an accident or was it due to the ingenious idea of the CTMO (Cavite Traffic Management Office) of again implementing the counterflow traffic? What ever it was, it’s p*ssing me big time!

I reached the school drain with no water left on my system.

Good thing it didn’t affect my interest of doing the task of the day, we did some Italian cuisine, Pan-seared Fish Fillet with Citrus Sauce, Pasta Carbonara (including the preparation of the home-made pasta) and Grilled Stuffed Mussels.

Chef Eva commended our mussels to be the best (among other 4 groups), it was easy for us to prepare the mussels, it was almost the same prep as the previous mussels except for the Parma Ham and instead of baking, today’s mussels were grilled.

I asked my classmate who lived in Parañaque the reason of the traffic and it was confirmed, CTMO stopped all northbound vehicles to give way to the southbound motorists! Thank you CTMO for ruining my day!

As for me & my sister, we have to wait for our turn, COMELEC built some waiting tent for those who opted to wait for their turn but that was not enough for the long lines.

Finally after almost 3 hours of waiting, I was able to vote, it took me just 5 minutes to vote. As always, I voted only those people whom I feel will be helpful to the country. I went around the school to check the status of other voting precinct, I realized that I was far luckier than the others, in the other precinct, an average of 100 voters have completed the process of voting as compared to ours which was 267 (that was after I voted), kudos to the BEI’s in our precinct.

Despite some technical and procedural glitches, I could say that this kind of voting is better that voting and counting manual. Now that we have voted, we must now assure that these people will do what they have promised during the campaign.

The COMELEC dismissed the idea saying that the process would be tedious for the Board of Election Inspectors assigned on election day.

Suspicions of the massive failure of the first automated election in the Philippines grew when the PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scanner) failed to read correctly the votes for the local candidates when it was tested on Monday (May 3rd), a week before the scheduled election. Proponents of the parallel manual count renewed their call for a parallel manual count, it also prompted other candidates to ask the COMELEC to postpone the election for 15 days.

I share the sentiments of this people, but I don’t believe that doing a parallel manual count is feasible.

1. Firstly, let us remember that since it’s an automated election, precinct numbers were cut down, instead of the usual 100 (on the average) registered voters per precinct, a clustered precinct will have 500-600 registered voters. In 1992, I volunteered (yes, no pay) as a watcher for Liberal Party presidential bet Jovito Salonga. It took us 3 hours to complete the counting of almost a hundred ballots, just imagine having to read 500 ballots and please do the math.
2. My second concern is the ballots, unlike the ballots for the manual election where the voters writes the name of their desired candidates, the ballots for this election will be shaded. In my humble opinion, for the purpose of manual counting, it is easier to read the old ballot design. Also, since the new ballot has all the names of the candidates on it and will be shaded, over-voting will likely to occur. Take for example in the senatorial slate where the voter is only allowed to vote for 12 candidates, an over-eager voter might vote for 13 or more, the PCOS machine is program to disregard all of the votes for the position while an tired and overworked (and also underpaid) teacher acting as BEI might not notice the discrepancy.

To allay fears, COMELEC assures the public that defective CF (compact flash) cards that caused the failure will be retrieved and replaced by newly configured CF cards. It will also be tested and sealed before the commencement of the voting, a total of 72,000 CF cards are now being configured and being delivered.

On Monday, the country will embark into a new journey, not only that we will be voting for the person who will lead the country for the next 6 year, but also we will be tapping the help of technology in doing it. It’s a leap of faith, I just hope and pray that technology will not fail us.

Instead of whining about not being out this season, I managed to still find a place where I can shoot. I picked the Good Friday procession in the town of Imus, Cavite, I’ve seen this before when I was still residing in Bacoor, the procession could be (in my own opinion) the longest and displaying images that survived the test of time. Here are some of the shots I’ve taken.

What would it be for me next year? Only God knows…

Today, I was forced to go to Makati because of a very important personal reason, I went to the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia to get some pertinent documents. The last time I was there was almost 4 years ago when I requested for visa extension in 2006, I know where it was located so going there (I thought) will be easy.

I arrived in Bendia, Makati shortly after 11AM, I went straight (walking) towards Jupiter Street (that’s where I knew it was), then I walk west ward and checking every building and I can’t find the building! I knew I was lost when I reached Paseo de Roxas, it’s time to look for human GPS (traffic enforcers) to ask for direction.

It was almost 12NN and I don’t seem to find any enforcer to show me the way, from Paseo de Roxas I walked towards EDSA to look for a cooler place to stay and have my lunch, it was 34°c outside. I dined at the new McDonalds and gathered my senses, no wifi inside McDo to check for directions.

After about 30 minutes inside McDonalds, I went out & took a jeepney, honestly I don’t know where I am going, the best thing I can do is find a traffic enforcer or those what they call as tourist assistance centers that is located in major streets of Makati. It was when I saw the Saudia Airlines office that I went down, I asked the police officer stationed nearby, he was courteous to show me the new location.

Finally I found the place, but also sadly that I can’t get the document from the embassy.

Lessons learned, check Google maps first before embarking into a journey, it proves to be a one important step!

It was really hot yesterday, I went to SM Dasma to pay my bills and do some other errands, the moment I got out of the air-conditioned mall, I felt like being burned alive (OK that’s an exaggeration). But honestly, it was so damn hot that I wanted to go back inside the mall and savor the cool temperature inside.

According to PAGASA, we are yet to see (or feel) the effects of the El Niño phenomenon this year. Watching the news made me feel sorry for what the farmers are going into, crops are dying, bush fires here & there, a lot of fish are dying due to lack of oxygen and water levels in our dams are hitting it’s critical level.

As far as I can remember, this is not the first time that we are being hit by this natural phenomenon and we’re still unprepared to face it. Of all the instances, the farmers are being hit by the effects of the El Niño, billions of pesos of crops were wasted in the past and the sad thing is we will be facing the same scenario.

We are also in danger of having a power shortage, with less water in our dams it simply means that lesser power generating capability. This might force us to maximize the capability of our coal fired and gas fueled power plants to generate enough power to supply the country’s power needs, which is not only bad to our environment but also might result to shutdowns.

How come we never learned? In my lifetime, this is the third time that we faced the situation, but sadly, no concrete plans were drawn to at least minimize the effect of this natural phenomenon. Worst, you have an Energy Secretary saying, “Don’t blame us, blame God.” Sorry Mr. Secretary, I won’t blame God for what is happening to us, the effects of what you are calling as force majeure could have been minimize if only you acted on finding renewable source of power instead of just betting on fossil energy to be the source of our electric energy.

As always, we’re just gonna be accepting the blows, the suffering is just beginning.

Dalawampu’t Apat na taon na ang nakaraan nang maganap ang EDSA Revolution, araw ng pagdiriwang, araw ng paglaya ng sambayanang Filipino sa tanikala ng diktadurya. Panahon na naging proud tayo bilang Filipino, panahon na tiningala tayo ng buong mundo.

Subalit saan ba tayo dinala ng EDSA?

Buwan ng pebrero
Buwan ng pagbabago
Anong klaseng pagbabago
Ano sa palagay mo

Bumaha ng pangako
Lason ay isinubo
Tuloy sa pagkakapako
May utang pati apo

Dalawampu’t Apat na taon ang nakalipas, haharap na muli ang bansa sa panibagong eleksyon, sa eleksyong ito, ang anak ng pangulong iniupo ng sambayanan ay nagnanais na maging pangulo. Ang anak ng dating ‘diktador’ ay naghahangad na sumunod sa hakbang ng ama at ibig maging Senador at ang nakagugulat dito ay ang isa sa maraming naging biktima ng kanyang ama ay kasama n’ya sa tiket.

Dalawampu’t Apat na taon na ang lumipas subalit hinihintay pa rin ng sambayanan ang katuparan ng pangako ng EDSA, bahay, kasiguruhan hanap-buhay, lupa sa magsasaka at katarungang panlipunan.

Tuloy ang ligaya
Sa ibat ibang hacienda
Manggagawat magsasaka
Kumakalam ang sikmura

Sari-saring kaguluhan
Nakawan karahasan
Kalian nyo titigilan
Ang mga mamamayan

Naka-ilang EDSA na ba tayo? Sa bawat pagkakataon, taong bayan ang nagmartsa sa kalye at pulitiko ang nakinabang, kelan tayo makalalaya sa ganitong sirkulo ng buhay?

Panahon na naman ng eleksyon, ano nga bang inaasahan ko? Sa totoo lang wala, kailangan ko pa bang sabihin kung bakit? Siguro naman alam n’yo na rin ang sagot.

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Sayaw sa Bubog © The Jerks