Oil Spill Drives the Country Crazy

The oil spill that occured on the shores of the Guimaras Islands has left hectars of coastlines covered with sludge that damages marine wildlife and hugely affects the lives of the local community. The oil spill came from a Petron chartered oil tanker named MT Solar 1, that sunk of it's shores last August 11 and has since been leaking almost 200,000 liters of oil, continuously damaging Guimaras' coastline.


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A bird's eye view of the damaged Guimaras coastline, the sludge covers almost 17 miles long of coastline and is about 165 feet wide, the largest oil spill the country ever experienced.

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The sunken MT Solar I was found at the seabed of the Guimaras coast 627.5 meters below. This photo was taken by a remote operated vehicle of the Japanese salvage ship Shinsei Maru.

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A local fishermen observes the damage of the oil spill in Nueva Valencia, Guimaras Island, the village hardest hit by the oil spill.

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Locals of Nueva Valencia, Guimaras Island fill bags of sludge covered debris in an effort to clean the Guimaras coastline of the oil spill damage.

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Residents of the coastal village of Sumirib join efforts in shovelling of the sludge collection of their beaches.

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Oil spill related diseases such as from cough, dizziness, contact dermatitis, asthma, diarrhea, gastro-entiritis and other respiratory problems rose as residents are exposed to contaminated waters.

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Health Secretary Francisco Duque III checks the oil collection on rocks of the coast of Guimaras Islands. Duque calls for residents not to fear the spread of oil spill related illnesses. The Deparment of Health along with other government organizations will deploy 66 health personnel to take care of the health of the affected residents.

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Prisoners from around the country shave their heads to help clean up the Guimaras coastline of sludge. The donated hair shall be used to soak up oil collection for easy pick up.

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Blogs: From a Classical View Point

A talk on the phenomena of blogging as a new form of journalism was conducted at the journalism lab in the University of the Philippines Baguio this Wednesday afternoon, August 30.

The discussion was made by Rolando Fernandez, long-time senior editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer Northern Luzon Bureau, among journalism students currently enrolled in the Online Journalism course by instructor Amer Amor.

The talk aimed to familiarize journalism students to the current trend on the practice of on-line journalism, specifically the media channel of blogging. It is evident that the advent of this new form of disseminating information clearly innovates the profession. "There are more than 1million bloggers in the Philippines, and approximately 4.5million worlwide," Fernandez said.

With regards to the confusion as to whether blogging is to be considered a form of journalism or not, Fernandez expressed that "Definitely it (blogging) is journalism, and it has a bright future ahead."

Being an old-timer in the field of journalism, Fernandez admitted to having fears of the onslaught of new technology. But as time passed, he found an inclination towards the advantages that this new medium has brought to news reporting as a whole. He added that on-line journalism was clearly not a threat but it actually compliments the print and other types of media.

Fernandez added that media practitioners should not feel any way threatened of losing their titles as journalist due the coming of such technology saying that, "journalist is just a name." Emphasizing on the core principles of what a journalist really knows, Fernandez re-assures that with these, news people should be secure of their merit to society.

Fernandez also expressed his thoughts on the role of blogging, or on-line journalism as a whole, to community papers such as the Midland Courier and Sunstar here in the city of Baguio. Fernandez stressed that, "If they (community papers) do not innovate, they might get left behind."

The talk also tackled issues on ethics and laws on libel in the internet, emphasizing on the intelectual property law of individuals.

As the discussion closed, Fernandez shared that the print media is not at all in danger of extinction with the advent of this new media. "Not in my lifetime am I going to see the death of the newspaper media this country."

Shrinking Universe

As i crept in the dark to look for my phone, which just rang cause of a recieved message. I was shocked, or should've been shocked due to my slow reflexes, to find out that it was my sister who messaged me, around 1 in the morning last august25. It turned out that she found out through CNN that a distinguished group of astronomers declared that Pluto was not a planet anymore!

According to these astronomers, led by Jocelyn Bell Burnell an Irish specialist on neutron stars, Pluto was out of it's planetary status due to the new definition they made of what a planet should be. Which is "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."

Because of this Pluto was demoted to being a "dwarf planet", similar to what a "minor planet" was, along with Ceres and UB313 or Xena.

So, this meant that there are only eight major planets in the solar system, namely Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. This was sad for me considering that, when I was a kid, among all the planets in the solar system the only one who intrigued me most was this ninth plenet. Discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 it was the smallest, the farthest and the coldest due to it's distance from the sun.

But what intrigued me about it was it's strength, because considering it's size, Pluto has a very immense gavitational pull. Compared to earth which has only one moon, this small planet has three moons under it's belt!

And just because of the fact that it's so far from us, take this; if Jupiter was to be reduced to the scale of a one peso coin, Pluto would still be found 300Kilometers away from it, pretty far out eh?

I don't know the reason why these top astronomers did what they did, demoting Pluto, but I just don't get it. I mean, for me, I feel like the solar system wouldn't be complete without this mysterious ninth planet. It not only gives more personality to our cosmos but it completes the planets numbers to give it the power of three effect (nine is three times three). I don't know if that matters much, but for me it does, because astronomy also has close to it the discipline of astrology and all other metaphysical beliefs it entails.

What happens here is that what they did is just weaken the whole idea of the solar system instead of keeping it's impact. I guess what they were unconsciously doing was making the universe smaller, displaying what man has come to due to the development of technology. We aren't satisfied by making our world smaller with the use of advanced telecommunications gadgets and thingy-magiggers that we have to extend our reaches to the farthest ends to the universe just to content ourselves and convince one another that we are indeed dominant among all other existence not only here but across the universe as well.

For more information check CNN and Pluto's Demise.

Last Monday afternoon I accidentally woke up from my deep hibernation and I remembered that it was President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's State of the Nation Address. I quickly turned on the tv and flipped it to ABS-CBN. Luckily, the program was just starting as Majority floor leader Jose De Venecia presented the president to the audience in attendance at the Batasan and the rest of the Filipino tuned in all over the country. As the president approached the podium it was very evident that she was in a very good mood, judging from her smile which was beaming from ear to ear. I could tell right away that this was going to be a long speech, literally and figuratively.

She started of her speech with many thanks to her supporters and the million of Filipino's who "stuck" with her through the shaky times of her administration. All the while, I could not help but notice the constant pauses the president made, as if encouraging the crowd to cheer for her. The number of applause the president gets during the SONA is usually a big deal, so I started counting, and counting, and counting. Until I eventually lost track. ABS news says the number was 157 but the Inquirer reported 166. Who knows what the real number is? And frankly, Who cares? I found the applause for the president trivial considering that most of the people present at the Batasan where her "followers."

Another thing I noticed was the people who she included in her speech who seem to stand up on cue and with the cameras ever prepared to take their close-ups. Not to sound like a critic but I could tell that everything was staged for the Filipino people to watch and enjoy.

Another thing that was reiterated by the president was that the government now has the funds to accomplish the tasks it set during her term. That's good news considering that the country is in pretty bad shape and this money will give us more space to move. But then I thought, where are these money that she's talking about? Are we ever going to feel the effects of these funds that she says will go back to the people?

The main jest of the speech was to allocate more attention to the development of other regions outside the NCR. This was done by categorizing the major areas of concern which were natural "super regions" of the Philippines: the North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle, the Metro Luzon Urban Beltway, Central Philippines, Mindanao and the Cyber Corridor, a precursor to the federal system of governance. But, It was more like a geography class if you ask me.

But all in all, the presidents plan for the coming years is pretty descent. But I think what the Filipino people need is for the president to reinforce or prove her legitimacy before she expects the masses to accept what she's proposing. I know I've been pretty antagonistic in criticizing GMA's sixth State of the Nation Address. But from a ordinary critical persons view, what she was doing was merely.. how should I say this?.. lifting her own bench, or in Filipino terms, nagbuhat ng sariling bangko.

What I'm waiting and I feel what the rest of the Filipino's are waiting for is the actual manifestation of these proposed projects. I mean, we all know that the president changes her mind from time to time, an example of this is when she told the country that she will not run for re-election, which she eventually did. If these projects do materialize, then that would be the day when the Philippine Government regained my trust.

There's Still Hope for TV News

ABS-CBN's newest news and current events show Bandila, rocked the nation with it's debut telecast last July 3 with sensational scoops and in depth reporting on controversial events surrounding our country. Anchored by Korina Sanchez, Henry Omaga Diaz and Ces Drilon to complete the trio, Bandila airs every weeknights at 10:30-11pm.

This news program uses a fresh approach on issues which are normally the type of shows that are more informative with the way they project themselves on tv, like the show before it which was the insider, hosted by Dong Puno. Unlike this previous show, Bandila utilizes a more exciting and straight to the point approach. Along with heavy rock music as background for their opening billboard which suggests an attempt to capture the younger audiences by catering to what they are familiar with, a fast paced and exciting tempo without leaving out details of the report.

It is also noticeable that the program aims to center it's reports on news about the Philippines and leaves little room for foreign news. I guess it's the networks attempt to strengthen our nation's consciousness on ourselves rather that looking out to the rest of the world. It's a pretty decent thing to try and encorporate nationalism with the show but i think that during these times it's pretty crucial for people to know what's happening to the rest of the world as globalization is upon us, not just in the realm of economics, but also with regards to news and public affairs.

But all in all, with the thought of preserving the integrity of the broadcast media in general, i think Bandila is doing a great job. It not only captures what the Filipino youth wants, which is action and drama, it also encorparates the old approach to practicing journalism which is to dig deeper and deeper into a subject until theres no more place to go or something really productive is done by institutions concerned. And all of this is done with the people watching and being fed with information that they could use, not just your typical crime and violence reports, which is what we usually get when we watch prime time news.

So, the only question that remains is that will Bandila be able to sustain the energy that it relies on to catch the attention of it's audiences? We'll just have to wait and see.

How to Juice Manny Pacquiao

I've never seen such hype put into one fight in all my years as a sports fan than the recently concluded Pacquiao-Larios fight. It has all the makings of history, a man said to be destined to raise the hopes of a nation and another fighting for his family's pride and wealth along with his countrymen.

On a spectators view point, the fight was a classic because of the long and arduous training by both fighters. But of course one would wonder why for the past couple of months we've been seeing updates on both Larios and Pacquiao's training sessions. My guess is that ABS-CBN, which was the sole network who won the rights to televise the fight, has to build up the drama to capture the attention of the Filipino people. But we all know that for a corporation, every move is an investment. So, they the put up the fight, covered it from every angle (they even made a story about "Larios the family man") and then watched how their investment turned to profit come fight day.

It's only obvious that ABS-CBN was milking the fight coverage through and through. Unfortunatelly for me, I suffered first hand the effects of the networks profit. I went over to a neighbors house here in Baguio (because we don't have a television set at our boarding house) at around 10:30, expecting that the pre-main event fights were almost done, and guess what time the Pacquiao-Larios fight started, 2pm! And to think that the fight was already done around 12nn. It was a field day for Pacquiao commercials and hardware supply ads. Imagine, after every 3 minute-round they'll start showing 7 minutes of commercials. It was such a dragging experience that by the fifth round of their fight, I was honestly bored! I just got up and went home. It sucks!

On the other hand, it"s nice that the broadcast community, particularly ABS-CBN, is getting it's share of income. But what sucks abut the whole thing is that they abused their power, which was at the time being able to televise the Pacquiao fight, and turned their audience into mindless drones, sitting and waiting. It's just not right.

Evolution of TV News

When I began to understand the concept of news reporting on television, which was like 15years ago, what I was experiencing then was the real thing. From economics, current events, government related news, the weather and the occassional showbiz reports, television news then was what it was supposed to be, information dissemination. Not just any other information, useful information that affects the majority of the consumers catered by this medium.

I could still remember Frankie Evangelista anchoring for the ABS-CBN news team, delivering news in a way that makes you want to listen because there's something in it that makes you think that what this person's saying is important.

But far from what it once was, news reporting on television nowadays DOES NOT exude that same aura of professionalism, the feeling you get when you know that this is an occupation worthy of respect. Because of balanced, just and significant news items that they pursue. Those days are over. Now we have Mike Enriquez with that insane intonation in the way he delivers his news, Julius Babao whose personality is surrounded with controversy with regards to the way he practices his profession. News that is flooded with crime and violence, highlighted by showbiz news, it doesn't get crazier than that. I know the term is "tabloidization." But I feel it's worse than that, it's simply turning into a big f*cking circus.