Life, Day by Day

Today, August 18 is the first death anniversary of Secretary Jesus "Jesse" Manalastas Robredo, one of the Philippines' promising leaders. A few days after that fatal accident last year, I wrote about how the death of a good leader can set a country back, especially when that leader is someone like Jesse. There are only a few good men in politics today, the type that can lead, manage and carry out good governance. We just had elections last May and once again, the results were a big disappointment to people like me who had hoped that there would be new faces in the Senate, Congress and local government who would bring about dynamic changes for the country.

Today is Christmas Day ...a few more hours and it will be a day of the past. I went to hear mass at 11 AM, having overslept after our noche buena celebration which ended at about 2 AM. As I listened to the sermon, the words of the priest struck a note because he talked about something which I needed to hear.

Two years ago in July 2003, I wrote this in my first blog... The unexpected happened over the weekend. Some battle-scarred officers and soldiers decided to launch a mutiny during the early hours of Saturday morning. I was suddenly awakened by my mom at 4 am, ending my restful weekend plans. Let me explain something here. The Philippines is an archipelago made up of many islands...so that whatever happens in Manila does not mean it is happening everywhere else. Of course, the tension isn't any less. I think the government handled it very well. Now all they have to do is to pay attention to the issues and accusations of these soldiers and then maybe we can now go forward in our quest for a stable economy. You'd think that the rebels who call themselves Magdalo would have learned their lesson but no, they did it again. This time by forcing their way into The Manila Peninsula , one of the country's premier hotel last November 29, 2007. That morning, I was on the plane coming