Family is Family

Nobody right now I know told me that his or her life is way better now than 5 years ago. Most of them love more to bring back the time. Must be the poverty or calamity we are experiencing right now not to mention the climate change.

My youngest sister dream is to travel and she is doing it now. She’s a Management major and with two years of Law under her belt. Fluency in French and now learning German and Italian are the languages she’s studying now. Her husband, a multi linguist author of a technical book and a Neurosurgeon in which even one word from his book I cannot understand is the culprit who gave her satisfaction for her dreams.

Everyone will be happy if only with love ones and as of this moment, she is living her dream, two beautiful sons and another son on the way with a loving husband beside her. Though I would say she is happy, still she goes home every holidays or every opportunity she could get. Family is where the heart is anyway and the foundation of all decisions. Judgment and advocacy all starts inside our home. I would blame my parents for this, for bringing and giving us so much love and understanding about life and on how to share the blessings to others.

2011 is different for all of us. All major happenings or events affects everyone, wherever you are, even you doesn’t want to care, at the back of your mind, you know even a little. We still care and if only we could go where the calamity affects more, if only we have the means, we will spend some time because deep inside of this human heart, we still care because we don’t want that to happen too to our family.

A realization too because of this 2011 holiday is that nobody is an island, we cannot live alone and if there will be a choice who we would like to be with, it’s always the family. We are attached with them, no matter what will be the differences because of the experiences and maybe some discussions happened, still Blood is thicker than water. It is easily for us to forgive and to bring back the time when we are still little, especially if the parents keeps on reminding you to love your sisters because they will always and only sisters one will have for the rest of this journey.

For every reunion with family, if one is courageous enough to forgive, if not for thy self but for the betterment of the majority, one will do what is right, to forgive. Family is still a family; we cannot change who we are and the relationship. We can change our friends or new acquaintances but the family remains the family no matter what. So for this season, let us all realize the beauty of life, those people who will not leave us till the end no matter what, our family.

Unity for this season 2011

I would have to say that this Christmas 2011 is the most expensive holiday for me ever. Though I told myself that I will not spend more, but with people who I wanted to give those gifts, love ones of course, and though it’s not about the cost of the gift, the cost in the retail store went up to the maximum.

The rate of Peso to dollar is not the highest but would say not the lowest either. Balikbayans want to enjoy the holidays with their family in the Philippines and the malls are packed. I can’t imagine that with the highest rate of poverty in the Philippines, how do a common Juan and Maria could afford malling.

One of the posh mall I’ve been to is the SM Podium, would love to spend time there because of the fewer customers compare to their other department stores. Though the Restaurants and shops are more expensive, still compare to Alabang Town Center with the same restaurants and shops, the fewer the people, the more relaxing for me. I am already stressed with work and the heavy long queuing of traffic along the way, I don’t need a long line for paying the gifts too.

This time I realized that Christmas is about Family. Happiness is the most important wish that one could give to each and everyone together with peace, prosperity and good health. I miss some of my deceased relatives, I love them so much and regret those times I didn’t spent time with them but this is the reality and so the realization of showing love now must be done and would really need to work it out, it’s not easy especially if some opinions and decisions with them are opposing with yours. That is life anyway, without courage and forgiveness, it will be nothing and useless.

Kids gift request are more techie now than any other time. They are growing fast and I wonder how I became this old in just a glimpse. I still think that I am 22, oh well maybe because everyone is young at heart. Santa Clause took good care of the gifts mostly, thanking him for working hard for a year to afford those nice gifts.

I told to the kids to check their blessings, on how the typhoon destroyed all the assets and life of many people in Mindanao. They are growing fast and could understand now the value of work and a single peso. They know how important now is to help and the value of having a good family around. They are willing to donate their toys for them, they knew that those victims needed more. Life will never be the same again. I am blaming the culprit for this tragedy. The government who gave permits to illegal loggers and miners. The calamity is human induced more than a wrath from the nature.

For this Christmas 2011, I am hoping everything will be the past. The coming new year will give everyone joy, more love, realization to love the environment and a wish for worldwide peace. Everyone is related, what happened to Japan, with 15,000 people died because of the recent calamity affects also the Philippines and the other parts of the world. If only the majority will be heard, if only our voices will become the most powerful tool, it will become only with unity and this time, it is the biggest problem. Still wishing for this new year, harmony and understanding for each and everyone.

Public Disturbance and Police Empowerment

December 4, 2011- Calauan, Laguna for more than 30 minutes of loud continuous banging of roof woke me up. The culprit was a male with more or less 5 feet in height, more or less 120 pounds in weight with mental disability and just a boy, might be 16 years of age to 18.

I saw him standing up in the building 20 meters far from my house and at instant I sent text messages to our dear Mayor and Vice Mayor. I don’t have the numbers of the Police station and the first thing in my mind is for the executives to know what’s happening.

There’s a Police Station just in front of the building where the noise is coming, more or less just 6 meters far from the place and I am thinking that nobody maybe was there because the boy was still continuing to pound the roof of different buildings just in front of my house. I reached for my car keys and went out to check the police and sad to say, there were more or less six of them and just standing up on the other side of the road and looking or maybe waiting for something or someone to stop?

I asked the officers what will be their plan, one of them told me that the gate where to go inside of the buildings is close and that they don’t have a ladder. The gate they were telling me belongs to my father. When I was in college, I could go up and jump alone in that gate without the help of other people and hearing the officer about this alibi is very disappointing. I told to one of the officer that I could jump to that gate and in 10 minutes together with the other officers, they asked the tenant of the other building where to go up. As disappointed as I am, while some of the bystanders are laughing about the situation, I feel so helpless.


From the internet, A public disturbance is a legal offense that involves a person or people engaging in behavior which causes an unreasonable nuisance to others. Public disturbance are typically classified as misdemeanors, and the specific offenses that qualify are usually governed by local laws. Often associated with excessive noise, they can also include some types of inappropriate language, physical behaviors, or the generation of offensive odors.

In this case, the boy is making some people afraid because he might go inside their house and do something with the big wood in his hand. The noise still keeps on going for several minutes and I am telling you, minutes are like hours when nobody is doing anything.

Mayor Felisa Berris arrived then soon after the Calauan Chief of Police. There were two officers on my father’s 3rd floor building now, looking for the boy. The boy went inside the building and started to break two-window glass, now it’s the property that needs to take care of not to mention the roof that in times of rains will obviously have holes now. For some people, a boy with a wood in his hand and pounding the roof is just nothing especially if that’s not their property but to me and for those people in the area, the situation is worst. What if the children are playing? What if it goes inside to our houses? Surely, we cannot let our doors open now.

The boy was capture. He is so thin and half naked with bruises. I don’t have any complaints to the boy if he has a mental disability and for the police, they captured the one who is making a noise and property disturbance though there might be no property loss if they are quick. My question is, what if I didn’t go out and asked the officers to do something?

From my interview last time with the former Calauan Police Chief, the ratio of an officer and Calaueno is 1:1700 which is way beyond the ideal ratio of 1:500 or one police officer per 500 people. The time the officers respond is unbearable to the people involved though they achieved their goal, to capture but only with broken properties involved now.