why pinoys who are single or married need family planning in their relationship

some years ago, a comprehensive research was done on the habits and attitudes of pinoys on family planning.  both qualitative and quantitative researches were done on a nati0nal basis.

first to be conducted were a series of qualitative research, focus group discussions in metro manila, davao and cebu among several groups of women and men with varying age groups. and marital status. the qualitative research was done  to gain possible consumer insights for the development of advertising that will promote family planning use, advocacy work and public relations efforts. equally important, the qualitative researches were conducted to serve as inputs for the design of the quantitative research that was going to be done nationwide.

these charts are only a small portion of the whole research but it is quite telling on where the minds and hearts of pinoys, specially filipina women are in relation to family planning to themselves and their families.

the first part of the FGDs (focus group discussions) was a discussion on values and dreams of the respondents for their families.

an interesting methodology was designed. a drawing of a tree with roots, trunk and leaves were placed on the board. respondents were given post it pads where they were asked to write on them the values they believe  in, those that are important for them or their dreams. they were asked to put the post its on the board, place it anywhere inside or outside the tree. once everyone has done this, their answers were processed and discussed with the moderator.

where the respondents placed the post it in relation to the tree had meaning to them. post its placed outside the tree meant whatever was written there was not very important for them. those placed on the leaves were more important and down to the roots. to the respondents, those they placed on the roots were the most important for them.

these were the findings:

first, everyone in the FGDs said their family is the most important to them. that is true even among singles, specially more for those married or with children,  across all age groups and in both sexes.  in fact most of them even said their family is more important to them than themselves. they are absolutely willing to do anything and everything for their family.

they said that what they are working and living for is to fulfill the dreams of their families as a unit, to secure the future of their children and the family’s  well-being. this is not necessarily just about  money or wealth, in fact those were hardly mentioned.  what was more important to them were the emotional aspect, the joys and happiness that their families felt or aspired for. most of them said it is these priorities that they are presently working for and making such a huge effort for.

after  this  was discussed extensively, the respondents were then asked –  how will you feel when you find out today that you are pregnant? (or for male respondents if their spouses or significant others were pregnant?) the idea was to present to the respondents a simulation of what happens in real life – how an unplanned pregnancy happens to people.

to most of the respondents, pregnancy was something that is planned. for those who were married, they discuss it and plan for it with their spouses. the planning usually is just to agree if they want or do not want to have a child or an additional child at the moment.  for single respondents, it is normally not thought of as it was certain they did not want to have children out of marriage.

while they had these in their minds, the respondents know that getting pregnant was always a possibility as most of them were sexually active, even those who were single. they saw sex as part and parcel of having a relationship with the opposite sex.

to the question how will they feel or what is their reaction if they found out they were pregnant now, these were their answers to that question:

the respondents saw unplanned pregnancy essentially as a major disruption, something that will stop or derail the plans that they have been pursuing and currently working on for their families.  there is nothing else in their lives that had quite the same impact and effect on their lives than an unplanned pregnancy.

all of them considered being pregnant and having a child as a blessing, even among the singles. but they would rather plan it or get pregnant out of a determined, clear and agreed to goal and at the  right timing with their partners. an unplanned pregnancy to them is very unwelcome.

the respondents knew that having a baby at that point in time of their lives mzy not be the best time. they do not take having a baby lightly. they know it is a big responsibility and will involve giving most if not all of  their time and effort for the caring of the baby. that would necessarily take time and effort from their work and the duties and responsibilities they were presently fulfilling. most of them said life at its present state was already difficult, having an unplanned pregnancy will make everything more than doubly difficult.

that was the mindset by which advertising and marketing efforts on family planning will be set on in getting the target audience to use it. this and other researches were conducted to get a good picture of the user mindset.

but over and above the advertising and marketing use, this explains very well the challenges faced by family planning advocates.

~~midscape landmark~~
carlo p arvisu 

“It’s More Fun In The Philippines” – new tourism slogan. pinoys will make the difference

the DOT, secretary mon jimenez in particular is explaining the new slogan for philippine tourism as you read this.  live tweets from reporters in the venue have said this is the new international line : “It’s More Fun In The Philippines”.

we like the line. the power of the line rests on the key  insight that tourists really want to have fun. it is the first and last goal of every tourist.  filipinos too are fun to be with. we  in fact can find humor in almost everything.

another core insight is what sec jimenez said - ”It is the Filipino that completes the Philippine experience”.   that could very well be the secret weapon of this new tourism campaign. the philippines do not have a monopoly of mountains, beaches and other tourists sites, every other country has one. but it is only in the philippines where filipinos are everywhere. it  will be the filipinos themselves who will make a difference  for tourists to enjoy themselves during their vacation.

a country can have the best beaches in the world, but a rude and an unpleasant encounter with the people will delete all that joy.

however, we have not seen the execution of the filipinos as key to the campaign in the ads so far. they are still about tourist spots. jimenez in his speech this morning and in other times have been talking about the importance of the contribution of pinoys to the success of the tourism campaign. we will need to see how this is executed in future ads.

the line is also a competitive line. it does not just say what the philippines is all about, it says the philippines is better than other countries in giving them what they want which is fun.  in advertising terms, that is a powerful slant.

images from here : http://www.rappler.com/business/725-new-tourism-campaign-out-philippines-is-fun?utm_source=RapTwitter&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=SMTrack

but then again “#1forFUN” is included in the local line. this is not an original as it is in the amazon.com website.

first, we are unable to appreciate the need for a local line. this line, though simple is also in english. in twitter, singer and songwriter jim paredes of the APO said the tagalog translation of the international line also works very well – “Mas Masaya Sa Pinas”  we agree with paredes. we think that is a great line for pinoys in the country.

we do not see any value in having two lines for the same thing. besides the line “#1forFUN” is not an original. we do not think it has any place in the slogan we want to use for the ocuntry.

so far pinoys seem to take to the line looking at the number of tweets it was able to get from everyone so much so that it was trending worldwide. practically all the tweets were positive with almost all giving their own example of why it is more fun in the philippines.

this is a far cry from the precious DOT chief who had to junk the line they developed where people were vjust divided plus the fact that there logo design was just too close to the the Poland tourism logo.

we will see how the ad agency will take this further if this line has legs.

the DOT also has a new website - http://www.itsmorefuninthephilippines.com/

~~a mindscape landmark~~

Pro-RH Bill TV Ad – in a strategic move, “pro-chance” renames an old issue

this ad defines the RH Bill squarely on the positioning of helping the poor.

it says the RH Bill will give those born in poverty a chance in life, chance to continuous education, to eat properly, to have ambition and not just dreams, and a chance to get out of poverty and in summary – a chance to life.

after that list, it said “yun lang naman ang hinihingi natin” (those are just the things we are asking for).

poverty alleviation or as we prefer  to put it, to  give the  people the tools to help themselves get out of poverty is what sectors of the pro-RH Bill is promising. we don’t entirely agree with that thinking as we do not think the RH Bill is the lone silver bullet for poverty alleviation, we think the RH Bill as we have said previously is just one of many tools that the government can give the poor ro use in taking themselves out of poverty.

the cause  of poverty in our view is mutli-faceted and its solutions need to be multi-faceted as well. the government, civil society and the poor themselves need to offer multiple solutions, from all sides and levels to solve poverty.

this outright positioning of the RH Bill as poverty alleviation solution while we think it makes sense at a certain level brings it right smack to what anti-RH Bill proponents are saying about their opposition to the RH Bill. one of the things they are saying is that the RH Bill is not the solution to poverty. that there are many other solutions that the government can employ to solve poverty,

we are not however saying the ad is making the wrong argument, we are just saying this jumps directly into the frying pan of debate that anti-RH Bill proponents can have very good arguments for.

we like the ad just the same for the  very idea of redefining the RH debate in favorable terms for the RH Bill. it is a very clever advertising strategy – this ad defines the RH Bill as a pro-chance, adding a new term to the debate and a dig at the traditional debates lodged by the anti-RH Bill proponents in saying the RH-Bill is anti-life,  they are pro-life and that the RH Bill is pro-choice.

actually these terms “pro-choice” and “pro-life”  are being misused in the RH debate in the country. pro-choice in the western countries mean women hace the choice to abortion while pro-life is  anti-abortion and protecting the unborn child.

in the philippines, the anti-RH Bill proponents have demonized it to mean the RH Bill is pro-abortion, which it isn’t and modern methods of contraception as abortifacient, which they are also not.

this ad in a way corrects the misinformation advanced by the anti-RH Bill proponents and very smartly re-defines the debate  by making  the RH Bill to mean pro-chance for the poor to remove themselves from poverty,

it is excellent strategic thinking and excellent copywriting. we applaud PLCPD and the ad agency who developed this ad.

~~a mindscape landmark~~

RHBill.org website – pass the RH Bill now!

visit the site here: http://rhbill.org/

filipinos understand what “heroism” is in 9 out of 10, fails in 1

SWS Survey Results : Mga Tunay Na Pilipinong Bayani (True Filipino Heros)

1 jose rizal

2 andres bonifacio

3 ninoy aquino

4 cory aquino

5 apolinario mabini

6 emilio aguinaldo

7 ferdinand aquino

8 ramon magsaysay

9 manuel quezon

10 lapu lapu

SWS survey

SWS survey detail

8 April 2011

First Quarter 2011 Social Weather Survey:
Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, and Ninoy Aquino
are top three most identified Filipino heroes

Social Weather Stations

Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, and Ninoy Aquino are the top three most mentioned persons considered to be genuine Filipino heroes, according to the First Quarter 2011 Social Weather Survey, conducted from March 4-7, 2011.

The survey question was, “Sino-sino po ang mga taong kinikilala ninyong tunay na bayaning Pilipino? Maaari po kayong magbanggit ng hanggang limang tao.” ["Who are the persons whom you consider a genuine Filipino hero? You can name at up to five persons."]

To that, 75% named Jose Rizal, 34% named Andres Bonifacio, and 20% named Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. [Table 1].

They were followed by Cory Aquino (14%), Apolinario Mabini (14%), Emilio Aguinaldo (11%), Ferdinand Marcos (5.1%), Ramon Magsaysay (4.3%), Manuel L. Quezon (3.8%), and Lapu-Lapu (3.7%).

president noynoy aquino wrong on flaws of SWS (march 2011) hunger survey results

the latest (march 2011) hunger and poverty survey of SWS got a reaction from president n0ynoy aquino –  he said the SWS  was unable to properly capture the efforts they did in visayas and mindanao where he said many of the government poverty alleviation programs were implemented.  from the point of view of statistics, he means the respondent sampling done by SWS was incorrect.

Aquino finds flaw in hunger survey

“I myself can’t reconcile that sometimes,” Mr. Aquino said, referring to the contrasting survey findings and the claimed achievements of the government’s programs to generate employment and reduce poverty.

President Aquino said the bulk of the data in the SWS survey came from Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon.

He said that 400,000 new beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer program, or CCT, were from the Visayas and Mindanao but this was not reflected in the survey.

“It so happened that the statistical sample used didn’t capture the ones helped by the CCT. If it was reversed, the result would have been skewed to show that more people experienced their hunger being alleviated,” Mr. Aquino said.

The President said the CCT was first rolled out in the Visayas and Mindanao because the poverty incidence was more serious in those areas compared with Metro Manila and Luzon.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20110408-330059/Aquino-finds-flaw-in-hunger-survey

aquino is wrong in what he said.

it is not true that the survey failed to capture the government’s poverty alleviation efforts in visayas and mindanao where the government did bulk of their efforts. the hunger ratings in fact in visayas and mindanao went down from previous with 14.7% in march in visayas from previous 18.2% and to 16.7% in mindanao from 21.1% of previous period.

self-claimed “mahirap” or poverty ratings however climbed up in visayas and mindanao. visayas went up to 61% from 53% and mindanao to 49% from 44%.

aquino’s complaint about the sampling skew towards NCR and Luzon is also baseless. bulk of the respondents come from NCR and Luzon for the simple reason that most of the population of the philippines come form these same two areas.  that is how sampling design is supposed to be done – you get more respondents from the areas where most of the population are for the sample size to be truly representative of the country. the sample size is supposed to mirror where the people are in the country.

in other words, there is nothing wrong with the sampling design of the SWS survey as aquino is saying.  there is only something wrong  with aquino’s understanding of what is a good sampling design.

also,  one can expect a difference in results between the SWS survey and aquino’s efforts at poverty alleviation for the simple reason that SWS used random sampling while  the aquino government’s efforts were not random but purposive and specific. given that, it is possible results will be different.

for the aquino government to find out how effective their efforts are , the aquino government should do a purposive sampling of the actual people they helped and see if their economic lives have changed. in simple terms they should do a before and after study on the specific people they reached.

these are the rest of results:

source: http://www.sws.org.ph/

SWS poll (march 2011) – aquino satisfaction rating suffers a significant drop, the good news and the bad news

a 13 point drop in the satisfaction rating of  president aquino is statistically significant. on it’s value it can be a cause of concern for aquino.  malacanang or aquino’s handlers are saying it is a concern.  as a knee jerk reaction to the 13 point drop, feeling concerned is understandable but they need to look at the number within the framework of other factors and data that is available to them.

first of all, a drop in satisfaction ratings is expected. no president, even aquino can sustain a high rating through the lofe of the presidency.  aquino started at a net satisfaction of  +60, then moved up to +64. because it moved up to +64, the most recent +51 took a much larger drop of -13 points. if this was pegged at +60, the +51 would have been just a -9 pts drop only.

previous presidents’ satisfaction ratings also showed drops at different periods of their presidency. that just goes to show it is expected that it is impossible to expect that people will perpetually be happy with the president. the beginning of the term of the president always starts on a high note. the people just elected the president, there will be a halo effect on the satisfaction rating of  any president during months after the election.  it is called the honeymoon period. after the honeymoon, people see the real president with the halo effect from the recently concluded election campaign.

looking at the satisfaction ratings of past presidents,  aquino’s most recent rating of +51 and his highest of +64 may be the lowest compared to the highest ratings of past presidents aquino (+69), ramos (+69) and estrada (+67), these ratings are much higher than the highest rating than what arroyo ever got (+30).  in fact arroyo’s satisfaction rating record is the worst among all the presidents with arroyo getting minus satisfaction ratings for 25 out of 43 ratings. arroyo’s best rating is at +30 . aquino’s latest rating of +51 is a much more impressive than arroyo’s best.

what that means is that aquino’s presidency so far is serving the people much better than his predecessor, arroyo.

Ratings drop for Aquino

PUBLIC SATISFACTION with President Benigno S. C. Aquino III’s performance has fallen and controversies such as his purchase of a luxury car apparently have not helped, a new Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey found.

Most Filipinos still approve of Mr. Aquino but his latest net satisfaction rating is down 13 points to +51 (69% satisfied minus the 18% dissatisfied) from November’s +64 (74% satisfied, 10% dissatisfied), results of a March 4-7 poll made exclusive toBusinessWorld showed.

Interviewed on the issue of the president’s purchase of a Porsche late last year, nearly half or 48% said it was not a good example for the chief executive of a country like the Philippines, notwithstanding details such as the car was not brand new and that Mr. Aquino had used his own money.

A political analyst warned that results pointed to “uneasiness,” while Malacañang said a dip in Mr. Aquino’s numbers had been expected following his overwhelming election win last year.

Scores in all areas but one, socioeconomic classes and gender were down from November last year. In Luzon, urban areas, among the ABC class and among males, Mr. Aquino particularly saw his net ratings dip into “good” territory from “very good.”

read more here: http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?title=Ratings%20drop%20for%20Aquino&id=28754

2M/year added to philippine population, will reach 100M by 2014 – can the country afford it?

with a growth rate of 2.04%, the country adds 2M to the population every year. ithe population is expected to reach 96M this year and at the current rate, it will reach 100M as soon as 2014.

100M in the philippines is very hard to imagine but it will happen sooner than what we want it to be.

source: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=644561&publicationSubCategoryId=63

by rank, the philippines has the 12th largest population in the world. bur the story should not end there. size of population per se is not a bad thing. we need to look at other things to see whether the size makes sense or not.

for sure, population growth rate matters.  growth rates show the number of people we add to the population given a specific cycle. it makes sense to conclude that from a population growth standpoint, the slower, the better. after all, we live in a finite world and that includes the philippines. the country has very defined boundaries, it is a finite space. we just can’t pile each person on top of the other when horizontal space runs out.

we should look at other things – one is nominal GDP.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

This article includes a list of countries of the world sorted by their gross domestic product (GDP), the market value of all final goods and services from a nation in a given year. The GDP dollar estimates presented here are calculated at market or government official exchange rates.

Several economies which are not considered to be countries (world, the EU, Eurozone, and somedependent territories) are included in the list because they appear in the sources. These economies are not ranked in the charts here, but are listed.

The first list includes 2010 data¹ for members of the International Monetary Fund.

The second list shows the World Bank‘s 2009 estimates, and the third list includes mostly 2009 estimates from the CIA World Factbook.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

a country is like a family – a family has a size, a specific number of people and it also has income. the family uses this income to support the family’s needs like food to feed it’s members, clothing,  medicine, rent, education, transportation and leisure plus other needs of the household.

the more income you have with the same family members the better. when the number of people in the family increase, then the amount of income needs to increase as well for the family to be able to maintain the same lifestyle and needs. that can be difficult for many families as it is not easy to increase income – one cannot  easily get a promotion or other members of the family take on new jobs or source of income.

“living  within your means” comes to mind as the smart thing to do.

family income is GDP to a country and population of a country is to family size to families. both have expenses.

common sense tells you and it is the smart thing, that since the philippines has the 12th largest population in the world, the country needs to have GDP or income that ranks also 12th in the world. the 12th most populous should have the 12th largest GDP in the world.

that is not the case.  here is the top 20 GDP ranking in the world.

source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

okay, the philippines is not among the top 20 in the world in GDP, so maybe it is slighly lower, say to 40.  it is not ideal but at least it is close.

well, not true. the philippines GDP size is not even among the top 40.

the fact is in terms of GDP, the philippines ranks among the top 50 in the world, 47th largest to be specific.

the country has the 12th largest population in the world and yet it only has the 47th largest GDP in the world.

your conclusions and thoughts?

reproductive health fact : actual number of children higher than desired number of children

based on research, families are saying their actual number of children exceed the desired number of children which indicates a high incidence of unwanted pregnancy.  this says pinoy families need help not just on spacing of their children but also on the number of children they want to have.

noynoy aquino favors free choice for contraception method, philippine catholic church goes gaga. 71% of catholics support RH Bill

this was inevitable -  noynoy aquino and the catholic church meeting at a crossroad, with one pointing to one direction and the other to another direction.  while in the US, noynoy aquino announced he was for filipinos choosing their own contraception method and that should there be couples who will need help, the government will provide the couples with help on acquiring contraceptives like the pill or condom.

that statement woke up the bishops of the CBCP and lay catholic groups in the middle of the night. the catholic church is promoting only one method of contraception – the traditional method of contraception or the natural method, like the rhythm and calendar methods and does not support the use of modern methods of contraception like condoms, the pill or surgical methods.

the church was very successful at this, as for 9 years, they had the throat of president gloria macapagal arroyo who imposed her own catholic religious beliefs on the whole nation. under the arroyo administration, only the traditional methods pushed by the church was  promoted in public health centers.  you can’t even get any information on modern methods of contraception from the public health centers and hospitals.  in fact  arroyo stopped the free distribution of condoms and pills which where being done through the funding of USAID.

noynoy aquino was very clear on his position on this matter during the election – he was for free and open choice for couples on the method of contraception. it was a matter of time that he would cross paths with the catholic church. that time is now.

catholic lay groups woke up on the second day of the controversy, on the first day, the bishops of the CBCP were wide awake, saying they were “hurt” by the statements of noynoy aquino. they even said the bishops will be supporting protest actions that will be done by catholics on the matter. on cue, the catholic lay groups woke up and said they have already met and are actually planning protest actions.

here some facts that the bishops and catholic lay groups might ant to look into before they actually hold their protest actions:

>> a high 71% of filipino catholics support the reproductive health bill based on a survey by SWS

that can mean the planned protest actions of the catholic lay groups might not be well attended. or that a large part of the silent majority of catholics are disagreeing with them on this issue. it will be difficult to justify this action by the catholic lay groups when a large number of catholics in the country do not support their views and in fact support the RH Bill.

the RH BIll is the lightning rod for modern methods of contraception which has been pending at congress as arroyo and her congressmen from previous years were able to successfully delay the passage or even a debate on the bill.

it appears to us the catholic church on this one has lost its voice among their own flock.

the police should set guidelines for hostage taking coverage, not media

Palace wants media to have own guidelines on hostage crisis coverage

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang wants media to lay down their own guidelines on covering hostage crises instead of having the government impose prior restraint.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma said media should know how to avoid endangering the safety of hostages.

“Our stand is that we should not restrain freedom of expression,” he said.

“We should keep in mind that we fought for freedom for us to express what’s on our minds in this country.”

Coloma said media practitioners should evaluate their coverage during Monday’s hostage crisis at Rizal Park in Manila where eight Hong Kong tourists were killed.

source: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=606530&publicationSubCategoryId=63

‘Media, not gov’t, should set coverage guidelines’

MANILA, Philippines – It is the media, not the government or the police, which should establish the guidelines on coverage of life-threatening incidents such as hostage-taking, an expert has advised.

“You never want to interfere with covering. But when you come up with voluntary guidelines that people agreed to and try honestly to adhere to, it’s much better than having a government say these are the guidelines, this is how you behave, this is what you do–that really becomes quite onerous,” said Bob Dietz, Program Coordinator for Asia of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), told ANC’s Top Story on Thursday.

The hostage drama started when dismissed police officer Rolando Mendoza hijacked a bus full of tourists in Manila in an attempt to get his job back.

Local and foreign journalists flocked to the Quirino Grandstand to cover the incident. Some were criticized for delivering the critical moments of the crisis.

“When we’re in a middle of a news coverage situation, we’re really going for the best that we can get, especially the people on the street–the cameramen, the producers, the soundmen at that level,” Dietz said.

Dietz, however, pointed out that people back in the newsroom should be the one to decide when to call the shots.

“What has to happen is back here, where there are cooler heads in the newsroom, sort of saying ‘that’s too much’, ‘let’s pull this back’, ‘get these people out of that position’,” Dietz said.

http://beta.abs-cbnnews.com/-depth/08/26/10/media-not-govt-should-set-coverage-guidelines

we think it is wrong that the government is asking media to set its own guidelines on media coverage of hostage crisis situations.

a hostage taking  is a matter of security and safety, it is a police and law enforcement matter, why is media being asked to develop the guidelines?  that is the reason why the police or the military is given the responsibility and the power to take over the whole situation for  resolution. among all government agencies, they are also the only group who has the arms, the technical skills and experience in resolving such matters peacefully. in other words, they are the ones who know what is needed and what is not needed to succeed in the resolution of the hostage taking situation.

media does not know anything about  such things, what media knows is how to set up the camera to get the best shot, what to say to the audience during the coverage to sustain interest and viewership to their media channel. what they were trained for is how to get the best camera shot possible for great tv or radio. their work  mostly has nothing to do with safety and security.

it does not make sense that the government is asking  media to develop the guidelines on matter they know nothing about.

the guidelines are meant to make sure the police has free and unhampered reign on the whole situation to be able to satisfactorily resolve the hostage crisis. the guidelines are there for the objective of the police successfully achieving their goal, not for media to do it’s job best. the goals of successfully resolving the hostage crisis and getting the best tv shot are separate and distinct, performed by two very different groups with one, the media  negatively affecting the other if they make a mistake.

the guidelines should come from the police, not the media. the police should develop guidelines just like the way they ask the government for new equipment, tools and training to help them become better at what they do and to succeed at achieving their goals.  the media guidelines is exactly the same thing as the police setting up a perimeter around the area where  the hostage taking is to prevent everyone else from interfering with their work.

one of the top key things the police want is control of the situation and that includes media coverage as that affects the hostage taker, the family and co-conspirators of the hostage taker, copycats and the public.

the thinking behind the malacanang direction is on the wrong places and comes from the wrong perspective. hostage talking guidelines is not about good media relations, it is about life and death.  media’s failure only results to lower tv ratings while the failure of the police results to death. there is no comparison at all.

we think malacanang’s media group, one secretary of whom used to work for abs-cbn,  is being given too much voice on this matter. it is all wrong.

~~mindscape landmark~~
carlo p arvisu

colonel ariel querubin goes home to love and family

we are publishing here an email sent by pong querubin, colonel ariel querubin’s wife to a yahoogroup for parents of ateneo students after the colonel returned home from prison. we are publishing it here to celebrate the joy of one family.

Colonel Ariel Querubin

Thanks so much for your kind words. We really appreciate it.

As a Marine officer, my husband was an absentee father even when he was still in the active service, for most of the time, he was out in the war zones like Basilan and Jolo and other parts of Mindanao. We would see him only 2 to 3 days in one or two months. I was praying so hard then to protect him from danger…

After the Marine Stand off in Feb 2006, when JAQ was 8 years old and was in Grade 2, he told us he was embarrassed in school because his classmates would tease him about his dad being in prison. Until one of his teachers told him that he should be proud of his father because he is a hero and just stood up for his principles. Now he is proud to be his dad’s son.

When my son AJ from 5 Intramuros arrived from school yesterday, he gave me a note from the mother of one of his classmates. The mother related how her son told them over dinner that he was sad and also very happy for his classmate (AJ) re: the imprisonment and the release. And during their prayer time, he offered a prayer for his classmate’s family.

I was so touched, I cant help but cry… how an innocent 11 year old boy would think and remember to say a prayer for somebody else outside their family…

The last four (4) long years were difficult but looking back I believe it was a blessing in disguise. It gave our family quality time every weekend when we visit my husband in the detention center. Seven of us would sleep in one small room close together… there was only enough room for the door to open. Those were the times when my 3 small boys would play and wrestle with their dad… But every time we go home, they would cry because they would want to bring their dad home with them. It broke my heart looking at my kids clinging to their dad but I had to be strong for my children and my husband…. and they would always ask: “Mommy, when is daddy coming home?”

We survived and now he is free! He is finally home. I can not explain my happiness. I know my children are very happy too and finally at peace.

Thank you to the sincere friends and relatives who helped us endure the incarceration. The Medal of Valor of Ariel was a gift from the Lord. One of the benefits of a Medal of Valor Awardee is free education in any private or public school from pre-school to post graduate. That is why we can afford to send our kids to Ateneo.

Thank you very much and may the good Lord continue to bless us all…