President Arroyo ordered yesterday for bigger aid from the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) to help with the disaster facing the people of Myanmar. She declared her gratification for Myanmar’s approval of letting Philippines intervene.

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Following the government’s announcement of their aim to take over Meralco, Philippines’ main electric company, the head of Meralco presented a speech regarding the issue today.

Oscar Lopez reassured the people that the business will survive this tyranny just like it had succeeded over Marcos’ martial law.

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 DAGUNPAN CITY, PANGASINAN - An electric post collapsed down due to the strong wind of Cosme. This picture was taken from here.

Cosme is predicted to hit Okinawa, Japan by this morning.

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May 19, 2008     

        One mythical tale from the Philippines tells of the time when the Deities, or Gods, existed beside ordinary human beings and how the daughter of two of these Deities changed all that. The old Legend of Mariang Makiling has been retold by Gaudencio V. Aquino in his book titled, Philippine Myths and Legends. This tale, the author managed to express clues about the culture of the Philippines. He described that during those times, it was an everyday thing when Deities mingle with ordinary people on Earth. The natives communicated with their Gods face to face, even sitting with them under a tree side by side. It is indeed no surprise that Filipinos are very connected with their religion and treat their Gods as if they are family. One character who was an amiable presence in this legend was Maria, the daughter of the two Deities. She was a fairy, who had the perfect heart and was careful about her appearance. Women back then dressed in silk clothing, decorated with flowers and stripes. Filipino women tend to make themselves look presentable in public as this has always been the custom. In the Philippines, respect has always been one of the traditional values. In the story, young men would bow their heads to women. That is their gesture of reverence and to return that, the women would act shy and modest. This was what happened when Maria met Gat Dula, the ruler of the nearby Kingdom of Bay. Gat Dula soon started to court Maria in order to follow the traditional principle of the Philippines’ main religion, Roman Catholic. However, this sparked up anger from Maria’s parents because Gods and mortals are not supposed to fall in love. This anger of theirs rendered the restriction given to Maria to never enter the mortal world again. This was how Gods and people became separated. There was no dialogue written in this retelling of the legend, but words were depicted deeply with gestures. When Maria and Gat Dula met, the small movements they made were enough to communicate their feelings. Filipinos are typically very jovial, expressive, and dramatic people. It is their habit to use their body, instead of just speaking words directly. Words indeed prove less effective than actions for during those days, wars between neighboring kingdoms are common. This happened when Lakan Bunto, the ruler of a nearby territory, raided Gat Dula’s kingdom. It is true that throughout Philippine history, rivalries between kingdoms and chieftains were always major events. There was no national unity, or nationalism, in the country and this could have caused foreigner colonization of the Philippines by the Spaniards and the Americans. On the other hand, Gat Dula managed to prevent Lakan Bunto from colonizing his territory. However, he fell ill due to his yearning for the absent Maria and eventually die. Maria pleaded the God to give her Gat Dula’s soul and this shows how Filipinos believe that when a person who has lived a life of goodness dies, they can go to heaven. To spread the kindness inside of her, Maria, who inherited everything from her parents when they passed away, provided an abundant of fruits for the natives in the forests. She also granted wild animals such as carabaos; an evidence to prove that this story is from the Philippines since carabaos are the country’s national animal. Her last name Makiling happens to be the namesake of a mountain in the Philippines, called Mt. Makiling. One can then picture mountainous terrains as the setting of this story. Maria gave all necessary provisions to the people and yet, they never thanked her for it. As one of the punishments for their mistreatment towards her, she would make heavy rain fall whenever anyone misbehaves. This heavy rain is now known as the monsoons that the Philippines has annually. The moral of this story is simple. Appreciate people for what they give or else their patience will reach its limit, as in the case of the Legend of Mariang Makiling.

Planning Template

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The MILF was revolved around the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the beginning at the 1960’s, when the group was formed in the south island of the Philippines.

Philippine Dance – Tinikling

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Factbook

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Venn Diagram

Article 3:

Why a rice shortage in the Philippines?

Upi Asia Online

Mong Palatino / April 2, 2008

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Article 4:

Is there a rice shortage?

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Cielito Habito / April 13, 2008

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b) Personal Response

When I first read these two articles on the rice shortage problem in the Philippines, I was taken aback for a while because I didn’t know we have this dilemma right now. Therefore, I thought the government is doing a great job in hiding this fact because it doesn’t feel like we are running out of rice until now that I have encountered there articles. I noticed the major difference between these articles right away because one is arguing the fact that there is a decreased in rice supply in the Philippines and the other maintains that this country is very self-sufficient in rice production. I think the conflicting viewpoints and some of the disagreeing information given by these two articles are based on their origins. The article that shows a negative image of the situation, titled “Why a rice shortage in the Philippines?” is not a local newspaper but a global news site on the internet. The “Is there a rice shortage?” article was extracted from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a major local newspaper in the Philippines. The global news site is not from the Philippines and is free to paint a picture of a situation without thinking about the reaction of the government. Local newspapers, like the Philippine Daily Inquirer, have more pressure to make the government look good and would probably want to steer away from controversies and criticisms from the government. However, there are still similar information given such as the corruption of the rice markets, but I still think the people of the Philippines needs to know the truth. When’s all said and done, it is the government’s responsibility to declare valid facts whether there is a rice shortage problem or not.

c) Questions

1)      Why is the Philippines, one of the top rice producers in the world, importing rice from other countries to feed its people?

2)      How can the traders and government officials’ mistreatments towards the farmers be related to the quantity of their rice output?

3)      Why is the act of increasing the rice production sector in the Philippine economy not helping to improve the national rice shortage problem?

4)      If there is no rice shortage problem, why are the companies increasing the prices for the rice now especially when the population is starting to grow at an overwhelming rate?

5)      What do you think the consequences the farmers, the government, and the public are going to pay due to the dishonesty in the rice markets, where imported rice from other countries are bought in a much lower price than the same rice sold to the Philippines?

6)      Why isn’t the government charging the officials that are creating corruption in the rice markets when that fact is clearly obvious to the public?