I can’t seem to fulfill my plan to isolate myself and become a law school monk. Every once in a while I can’t help but turn the TV on and watch some entertainment or some shows off CNN. I would sigh at how pathetic some news commentators, short of sounding like capitalist paid hacks, spin the news of the global capitalist crisis into something barely positive. Every morsel of positive detail is being used to salvage the perception of capitalism’s inevitable collapse. It’s like everyone’s in denial. This was bound to happen because of this system’s inherent characteristic. France, Iceland, Singapore, Japan, even the USA is on recession. Those who speak of free market policies have suddenly now shut up and allowed state intervention to bail out greedy private financial institutions. What happened?

Okay. So even if I turn the TV off and go back to studying, I still end up losing my focus. Every half an hour or so I would get up from my study table and walk around the house trying to do something else. More often that not, I’d end up just playing with Tisay and watching cartoons with her.

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Tags: academics, capitalism, economic crises, rants, Tisay, UP Law

Allow me to be a monk for the next two weeks. I shall maintain a degree of separation from all those that will just distract me from my purpose. I shall turn off my cell phone for most of the day, unplug the wireless internet router, and just stay at home or at the library to study. My academic disposition is not very good, my midterm averages for some of my subjects are below 3.0, and as such, I have to take major and extra efforts to ace my exams and ultimately pass my subjects. Mastering hundreds of statutes, provisions, case doctrines and jurisprudence and many other rules and procedures, by reading through thousands of pages is daunting.

I’ve never felt so pressured to study for final exams. I never realized how fortunate I was as a high school and even an film student, when a night’s worth of studying, or even relying on stocked knowledge for a final exam would suffice. Ah, those were the days. I never knew how good it was till I stepped into Malcolm Hall.

I know I will laugh at this entry when I’m in my higher years in law school or when I’m about to take the bar, if I pass all the hurdles that is. How pathetic of me to rant like this for my first final exams in law school.

[The picture to your right is of my block's after our final lecture class with Ms. January Sanchez (2004 bar topnotcher), our professor in Legal Method last Saturday morning]

Tags: academics, law blockmates, UP Law

It was Tisay’s third birthday last weekend. My parents decided to bring the family to Manila Ocean Park for the day. It was everyone’s first time at the aquarium, apparently the first and the largest aquarium facility in the country, owned by some Singaporean company.

The only other large-scale aquarium facility in the Philippines, I think, is Ocean Adventure in Subic.

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Tags: aquarium, family, Manila, Tisay

We have proven, time and again, that our democratic rights are not and will never be offered generously on silver platters; rather they are products of our assertions through collective and militant struggle. We have also proven that victories do not happen overnight; they are fought for intensely and tirelessly through sustained campaigns and actions.

In the midst of the heightening clamor for genuine economic reforms amidst the worsening economic crisis felt by the Filipino people, we have been steadfast in pursuing policy changes to ensure that every Filipino student is given the chance to enjoy the quality education of UP and that every UP student is given the opportunity to flourish as a true iskolar ng bayan.

Since the beginning of this semester, the campaign to reclaim students’ democratic rights, spearheaded by the UMAKSYON (Ugnayan ng Mag-aaral Laban sa Komersiyalisasyon) alliance of student councils, organizations, and individuals, has resounded increasingly in the classrooms, corridors and tambayans of our university.

As a product of the series of meetings and other consultations, UMAKSYON came up with a list of 18 student demands, which was then submitted to UP President Emerlinda Roman, through Student Regent Shahana Abdulwahid, in the July 31 Board of Regents (BOR) meeting in UP Manila. The demands included, among others:

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Tags: Board of Regents, campus issues, KASAMA sa UP, University Student Council, UP Administration

Our Constitutional Law 1 professor, who happens to be the Dean of the Ateneo School of Government, made us go to Bantayog ng Mga Bayani and Malacanang Palace last Tuesday, instead of holding our usual late afternoon class in UP to talk about extraordinary powers of the chief executive.

It was a good time to talk about the topic, since incidentally it was also the week of the 36th anniversary of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos’ imposition of Martial Law.

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Tags: law blockmates, Malacanang, Manila, Marcos, Martial Law, UP Law

It pains me when friends and colleagues take it against me when I am unable to spend time with them or do some tasks because I need to spend time to study.

Perhaps only fellow law students really understand. Nagsasawa na akong magpaliwanag. I’m just starting to sound like I’m making excuses all the time.

All of you want me to become a lawyer but you make me feel bad for trying to get it done. I don’t think many of you understand how terribly demanding law school is. I’m tempted to take a picture of my piles of readings, worth thousands of pages, all of which I had to read and will have to re-read through for the final examinations, just to show you how seriously I mean it when I say I need all the time I can to study. I wouldn’t wish such an ordeal on any of you.

I’m trying my best to juggle and handle everything. ‘Pag kaya ko naman ginagawa ko, ‘pag may oras ako nagpapakita naman ako. But this I’ll admit, I’m really just so compelled to give much more time to studying. If I don’t spend as much time or more, I’m really, really going to fail some of my subjects. And if I fail I will never become the lawyer you want me to be, something I really want for myself, too.

Tags: rants

Last September 17, students and progressive groups in UP Diliman held an Anti-War Anti-Cha-Cha Festival in protest against the war in Mindanao, Charter Change, and continued gas hikes.

The whole-day activity was kick-started by anti-war games at the lobby of Palma Hall as a form of protest against the continuing deployment of military and US troops in Mindanao. The main game was “Dodgeball Against GMA” where two-teams–one twenty-strong team composed of students in 70’s attire and another in GMA masks–went head to head for the dodgeball championship. The tournament sought to symbolize the triumph of pro-people policies against the current ones being implemented by President Arroyo.

Part of the festival was a forum in the afternoon by leading UP faculty at the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy Audio-Visual Room. That was a forum regarding the prospects of the continuing war in light of the current peace negotiations.

Tags: charter change, Gloria Arroyo, Mindanao, Palma Hall, STAND UP, war

Kowloon Restaurant’s greasy pancit canton is a actually a favorite of mine but I would now have to hold back to help compel the restaurant’s owners to make amends for the exploitation of their workers.

[Re-posted from Anton Dulce's Multiply site]

Before June of this year, the Kowloon management refused to pay the minimum wage which was mandated by law. In fact, it did not follow the three most-recent wage hikes, amounting to 82 pesos. As a result, while other workers were already receiving at least P382 a day, the workers of Kowloon only got home P300.

To pressure management into giving them something which the law already mandated as theirs yet which management refused to give, the workers wore black ribbons at work in a single day last June. But instead of listening to the workers, management instead reprimanded them, especially the union leaders.

Afterwards, they decided to hold a “picket protest” after their work hours and away from any locations that would result in disruptions in operations. Afterwards, management decided to hold negotiations with the union. But secretly, they filed a case of “illegal strike” against the workers at the NLRC (National Labor Relations Commission). So when management did agree to raise their wages to P377 a day, the workers only enjoyed this wage hike for one pay day. Why? Because the other Saturday, all 73 members of the union were fired.

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Tags: labor, picket, protest, restaurant, strike, workers