Piercing Pens

Photo from the Office of Press Secretary

“Jueteng lords, gambling lords, sana po, hindi ako ma-impeach!”

Forwarded by Prem Rara at the Gmail Philippines Group:

Did you know that the Philippines’ coconut geotextile ( a.k.a. coconet) for soil erosion control has been chosen as one of the 12 finalists in Newsweek and BBC’s (British Broadcasting Corporation) World’s World Challenge?

Continue reading “Vote For The Coconet”

From a denied World Youth Day delegate’s blog (ederic@cyberspace) :

In an attempt to recover part of the expenses which we will never be able to refund, such as the visa application fee and the interview and joining fees, I decided to post at the auctions site eBay the jacket and other World Youth Day souvenir items.

May it also serve as a way to remember the irony that many young Filipinos–a people close to the heart of the founder of World Youth Day, and people of the country that hosted the “biggest gathering of people of all times” with Pope John Paul II in 1995–were banned from experiencing the pilgrimage in Germany.

I am looking forward to the time when people of other countries will stop looking at the Philippines as a country of people who would grab every opportunity to be illegal immigrants (TNT) in the United States or in Europe. When that happens, there will probably be no more discriminations of against us, Filipinos, and we will probably be allowed to join in as many international gatherings as we wish, whether we are in a big group of 600 or not.

Is this your favorite clothing line?

PCIJ reports that Coca Cola has joined the bandwagon of private entities who are helping the Department of Education (DepEd) in their task to bring the textbooks to students from far-flung areas.

Coke trucks are not only dropping off bottles of their sugary products but are doing the good deed by helping the DepEd improve the textbook-to-student ratio in the country.

One could only hope that this project would push thru and continue even with an impending change in leadership in the department.

British parliamentarian Robin Cook, an ally in our campaign against the US-led war in Iraq, was laid to rest today. He died in a hospital last August 6 after he collapsed while walking on a hill in Scotland.

In 2003, Cook resigned his post as leader of the House of Commons in 2003 to protest Britain’s involvement in the war on Iraq.

AKBAYAN and the Alliance of Progressive Labor picketed the House of Representatives to urge lawmakers to speed up the impeachment process and to dare fence-sitting lawmakers to affix their signatures to the impeachment complaint.

Their first request was apparently not granted as today’s impeachment hearing at the justice committee was suspended due to procedural questions. It is expected to resume next week.

Meanwhile, the natdem block of Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela Women’s Party served “impeachi-pichi”, “impeachapie” and “impeach candies” to the media and people’s organizations at the House as they launched their “Bantay Impeachment” initiative. The party-list solons served the renamed egg pies, pichi-pichi and candies to members of the media and activist leaders who were present.