fa_al_c

"It is the nature of ambition to make men liars and cheats, to hide the truth in their breasts, and show, like jugglers, another thing in their mouths. "
-- Sallust

What would a Thai official do so attention will be drawn away from him, like the charges of corruption hounding his administration and the growing unrest in Southern Thailand?  What else?  Accuse the host country of the Southeast Asian Games of cheating!

And more... he airs footages from live telecasts to slow motion replays to support his claim.  Among the examples he cited were the final of the men's 5,000 meters run which was marred by blocking.  But what he did NOT say is that the Filipino runner was disqualified because of the blocking incident and the gold was awarded to the Thai runner.

What this "know-it-all" Thai official who "judges" with impunity even he is not in the actual Games but remotely at his base seems to forget...

1. Judges and referees involved in the events are of different nationality with the athletes partaking in the competition.
2. All the events are officiated in a very transparent manner.
3. Homeground support through cheers extended by the audience cannot be discounted to boost a player's morale and confidence.
4. There is a big pool of players available for the host country.  The reason?  Expense on airfare and accommodation for athletes is no longer an issue since the Games is already being hosted in their own country.

Thailand, a country whose athlete/s has been banned in the Olympics for cheating, would be the next host for the Southeast Asian Games.  Let's see if they do better...  Hmpt!

fa_al_c

"There are three ingredients to the good life; learning, earning, and yearning."
-- Christopher Morley

Been subscribing to my network's downloadable--Bo Sanchez' daily words of wisdom.  At least, inspite of my busy-ness or attempts to feeling busy , a "beep" a day delivers gold nuggets of wisdom...

Here are some "treasures"...

How To Look For A Marriage Partner

Searching for a potential spouse?  Marriage is the art of two incompatible people learning to live compatibly.  "Compatibility" doesn't mean free from rough times.  Don't search for the "compatible" one, search for someone with self-control, good moral strength.  You've got more chances of a successful marriage than the most compatible couple in the world without character.

Feel Your Feelings And Then Let Go

Whenever you feel sad, lonely, don't run away from it.  Brushing off emotions will express themselves in our tense muscles and tumors.  My prescription:  Whenever you feel a negative emotion, be alone in a room, just sit down with it and feel it.  Accompany it--and after a while, the emotion will lose urgency.  God will enter your room and embrace you in your pain.  Then let go.

Don't Stop Trying

Have you met dream stealers?  People who don't believe in you?  In 1905, at the University of Bern, a Ph.D dissertation was rejected as irrelevant and fanciful.  Who wrote it?  A student by the name of Albert Einstein.  Don't stop when people criticize you, when people don't believe in you, when people reject you.  Reject the rejection.  And keep on believing in God's dream for your life.

Don't Waste Your Gift

Are you someone who doesn't finish anything?  Jan Paderwerski was asked why he was such a great pianist.  He said he played 8 hours a day for the past 40 years.  "Everyone is born with determination.  I just used mine."  Look inside you.  If God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing, then it must be there.  Begin something that you'll finish.  God has given you determination.  Use it.

Two Roads To Wealth

A young man wrote to me:  "Dear Bro. Bo, I have reached a good position in my career and get paid fairly well, but like everyone else, I have much debt to pay.  I ask how our janitor lives with the salary he receives."  My answer:  "There are two ways to affluence.  One, to acquire more and more.  The other, to want less and less.  Follow the second path because it works.  Live within your means."

fa_al_c

"All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting."
-- George Orwell

Humor has been a part of Filipino lives, injecting humor instead of a serious discussion... be it the state of the country, poverty, politics, etc.  True, humor has its benefits, like relieving stress, voicing out opinions humorously at the expense of the individual, etc.  But sometimes, I wonder, if in the long run, injecting humor is just a response for our inaction.

Here are some of the jokes being passed from cellphone to cellphone...

Sa dami ng mga batikos, hindi magawang magsalita ng ating presidente.  Bakit?!
Mahirap na. Baka mabosesan!

Latest news update: Iggy Arroyo is now practicing the voice of GMA.

Aba naman, Gloria, napupuno ka ng grasya.
Ang kayamanan ng tao ay sumaiyo na,
Bukod ka pinagpala sa babaeng lahat.
Pinagpala rin ang iyong angkan. Wala nang natira sa
AMEN.

Q: What special feature is added in the cellphones of Mike and Mikey Arroyo?
A: Call Jueteng.

Sigaw ng La Salle Brothers: GMA Resign!
Sigaw ng Ateneo Priests: Rematch!

BREAKING NEWS:  GMA's marriage to Mike Arroyo has been annulled!  Sila pala ay magkapatid.  Ayon kay Susan Roces, "Ang sinungaling ay kapatid ng magnanakaw."

GMA: Lord, you put me here. Please help me.
LORD: Wrong number! This is the good Lord... Try your jueteng lord, druglord, warlord, garcilord, maybe they can help you!

"All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way.  People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome."
-- George Orwell 

Dear Ate Susan,
Si Angara at Sotto ang sisihin mo.  Sila ang bumuyo sa asawa mo para tumakbo.  Tahimik ang buhay nyo noon.
Si Lacson ang lumoko at naghati ng opposition tayo talo.
Si Escudero at Binay naman ang lumasing at pumuyat sa kanya kaya inatake siya.
Pabago-bago ang isip mo, bakit kaya?

fa_al_c

"Our thoughts take the wildest flight; even at the moment when they should arrange themselves in thoughtful order."
-- Lord Byron

What treadmill and stationary bike is to body;
Crosswords and brainteasers is to brain.

Hmmm... shouldn't imagination and a playful mind also belong to crosswords and brainteasers?

Don't know, maybe because it is the "flavor of the month", I did some mind games with this "hot" issue... just to exercise those little brain cells of mine.

Instructions:  Start with one question.  Answer it.  Come up with another question (hopefully, related to the previous question or the previous answer).   Simple! 

Why did Samuel Ong "released" the tapes just now?
It is the right timing wherein the mastermind behind the wiretapping will benefit; if released earlier, somebody else will benefit from it.

Who will be the one to benefit if the tapes were released earlier?
The late Fernando Poe, Jr.

Late?
Yes, he died last year.

Natural cause?
He died of heart attackwhile drinking with his buddies in a party.

Aren't there medicines that can cause heart attack?
Yes, there are.

So, it is possible somebody can slip this medicine in his drink?
Yes, that is possible.

If that's the case, who would benefit if he died?
The same person who masterminded the wiretapping is one of them.

(Hmmm... One interesting theory worth pursuing.)

Who can be this mastermind?
Someone who has the connections, the money and personal agenda he/she wishes to meet at all costs.

What connections?
Like Samuel Ong, who is connected somehow with Sandra Cam.

Who is Sandra Cam?
She is the "witness" for the jueteng scandal.

(Oh, no!  This can go on and on and on...)

By the way, heard from a friend:  As early as March this year, BZ, the campaign manager of a Presidentiable in the previous election whose campaign headquarters is located in a building at dela Rosa Street, Makati City, told this friend that GMA will surely step down before the year ends.  I wonder...

fa_al_c

"Scandal is what one half of the world takes pleasure inventing, and the other half in believing."
-- Paul Chatfield

It's been sometime since I visited my blog because I have been busy lately. Then, I have to write about the scandal hounding our country!!!!

Because of the handiwork of people with their own personal agenda, the country's economy would surely be affected... "Crab mentality" comes to mind.

One can't help but ask... why release it now?  Why not right after the winner was announced?  Is this one well-orchestrated move to destabilize the government?  First, there was the issue on jueteng.  Now, the ISAFP tapes.

Below are articles/documents of interest on the ongoing GMA Tape Scandal:

Anti-Wiretapping Act

FOR the enlightenment of everyone, here’s the full text of the law on wiretapping:

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 4200

AN ACT TO PROHIBIT AND PENALIZE WIRE TAPPING AND OTHER RELATED VIOLATIONS OF THE PRIVACY OF COMMUNICATION, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

SECTION 1. It shall be unlawful for any person, not being authorized by all the parties to any private communication or spoken word, to tap any wire or cable, or by using any other device or arrangement, to secretly overhear, intercept, or record such communication or spoken word by using a device commonly known as a dictaphone or dictagraph or detectaphone or walkie-talkie or tape recorder, or however otherwise described:

It shall also be unlawful for any person, be he a participant or not in the act or acts penalized in the next preceding sentence, to knowingly possess any tape record, wire record, disc record, or any other such record, or copies thereof, of any communication or spoken word secured either before or after the effective date of this Act in the manner prohibited by this law; or to replay the same for any other person or persons; or to communicate the contents thereof, either verbally or in writing, or to furnish transcriptions thereof, whether complete or partial, to any other person: Provided, That the use of such record or any copies thereof as evidence in any civil, criminal investigation or trial of offenses mentioned in Section 3 hereof, shall not be covered by this prohibition.

SECTION 2. Any person who wilfully or knowingly does or who shall aid, permit, or cause to be done any of the acts declared to be unlawful in the preceding section or who violates the provisions of the following section or of any order issued thereunder, or aids, permits, or causes such violation shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by imprisonment for not less than six months or more than six years and with the accessory penalty of perpetual absolute disqualification from public office if the offender be a public official at the time of the commission of the offense, and, if the offender is an alien he shall be subject to deportation proceedings.

SECTION 3. Nothing contained in this Act, however, shall render it unlawful or punishable for any peace officer, who is authorized by a written order of the Court, to execute any of the acts declared to be unlawful in the two preceding sections in cases involving the crimes of treason, espionage, provoking war and disloyalty in case of war, piracy, mutiny in the high seas, rebellion, conspiracy and proposal to commit rebellion, inciting to rebellion, sedition, conspiracy to commit sedition, inciting to sedition, kidnapping as defined by the Revised Penal Code, and violations of Commonwealth Act No. 616, punishing espionage and other offenses against national security: Provided, That such written order shall only be issued or granted upon written application and the examination under oath or affirmation of the applicant and the witnesses he may produce and a showing: (1) that there are reasonable grounds to believe that any of the crimes enumerated hereinabove has been committed or is being committed or is about to be committed: Provided, however, That in cases involving the offenses of rebellion, conspiracy and proposal to commit rebellion, inciting to rebellion, sedition, conspiracy to commit sedition, and inciting to sedition, such authority shall be granted only upon prior proof that a rebellion or acts of sedition, as the case may be, have actually been or are being committed; (2) that there are reasonable grounds to believe that evidence will be obtained essential to the conviction of any person for, or to the solution of, or to the prevention of, any such crimes; and (3) that there are no other means readily available for obtaining such evidence. 

The order granted or issued shall specify: (1) the identity of the person or persons whose communications, conversations, discussions, or spoken words are to be overheard, intercepted, or recorded and, in the case of telegraphic or telephonic communications, the telegraph line or the telephone number involved and its location; (2) the identity of the peace officer authorized to overhear, intercept, or record the communications, conversations, discussions, or spoken words; (3) the offense or offenses committed or sought to be prevented; and (4) the period of the authorization. The authorization shall be effective for the period specified in the order which shall not exceed sixty (60) days from the date of issuance of the order, unless extended or renewed by the court upon being satisfied that such extension or renewal is in the public interest.

All recordings made under court authorization shall, within forty-eight hours after the expiration of the period fixed in the order, be deposited with the court in a sealed envelope or sealed package, and shall be accompanied by an affidavit of the peace officer granted such authority stating the number of recordings made, the dates and times covered by each recording, the number of tapes, discs, or records included in the deposit, and certifying that no duplicates or copies of the whole or any part thereof have been made, or if made, that all such duplicates or copies are included in the envelope or package deposited with the court. The envelope or package so deposited shall not be opened, or the recordings replayed, or used in evidence, or their contents revealed, except upon order of the court, which shall not be granted except upon motion, with due notice and opportunity to be heard to the person or persons whose conversation or communications have been recorded.

The court referred to in this section shall be understood to mean the Court of First Instance within whose territorial jurisdiction the acts for which authority is applied for are to be executed.

SECTION 4. Any communication or spoken word, or the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of the same or any part thereof, or any information therein contained obtained or secured by any person in violation of the preceding sections of this Act shall not be admissible in evidence in any judicial, quasi-judicial, legislative or administrative hearing or investigation.

SECTION 5. All laws inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed or accordingly amended.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 19, 1965

National Telecommunications Commission Press Release after Atty. Samuel Ong pronouncement:

"In view of the unusual situation the country is in today, the National Telecommunications Commission calls for sobriety among the operators and management of all radio and television stations in the country and reminds them, especially all broadcasters, to be careful and circumspect in the handling of news reportage, coverages of current affairs and discussion of public issues, by strictly adhering to the pertinent laws of the country, the current program standards embodied in radio and television codes and the existing circulars of the NTC.

"It has come to the attention of the commission that certain personalities are in possession of alleged taped conversations, which they claim involve the President of the Philippines and a commissioner of the Comelec regarding their supposed violation of election laws. These personalities have admitted that the taped conversations are product of illegal wiretapping operations.

"Considering that these taped conversations have not been duly authenticated nor could it be said at this time that the tapes contain an accurate or truthful representation of what was recorded therein, it is the position of the commission that the continuous airing or broadcast of the said taped conversations by radio and television stations is a continuing violation of the anti-wiretapping law and the conditions of the provisional authority and/or certificate of authority issued to these radio and television stations.

"If it has been subsequently established that the said tapes are false and/or fraudulent after a prosecution or appropriate investigation, the concerned radio and television companies are hereby warned that their broadcast/airing of such false information and/or willful misrepresentation shall be just cause for the suspension, revocation and/or cancellation of the licenses or authorizations issued to the said companies.

"All radio broadcasting and television stations shall, during any broadcast or telecast, cut off from the air the speech, play, act or scene or other matters being broadcast and/or telecast if the tendency thereof is to disseminate false information or such other willful misrepresentation, or inciting, encouraging or assisting in subversive or treasonable acts."

The Transcript (Excerpt):