Boldstar


Too Many Filipinos?

House Bill 5043, the Reproductive Health bill introduced by Rep. Edcel C. Lagman of Albay, aims to promote choices for family planning and age-appropriate reproductive health education; provide goods, services, and information; and create a nationwide reproductive health program.

By: Atty.Trixie Angeles

The spectacle of Boy Abunda crying his heart out over a supposed slight by Dr. Vicky Belo is making the rounds, and unfortunately, causing guffaws. Hardly the intended reaction, but, as they say, that’s the PR world for you where the slogan seems to be so long as you spell my name right, baby, I don’t care what you say.

Mind you PR and journalism should never go together; it is a mortal sin of reporting.
The controversy stemmed from an interview by Mo Twister of the famed doctor-to-the stars. In a joking mood, Dr. Belo said, “If you want to look like Boy Abunda, go to Manny Calayan, if you want to look like Dingdong Dantes, go to Belo.” She hastily added of course, that it was a joke. Mo repeated her quote in the same joking mood.
While Dr. Belo’s quote was quite funny, it is Boy’s reaction that really makes for hilarity. He goes on air – on HIS show, of course – with good friend Kris Aquino egging him to react. Then launches into a tirade about what good friends he and Vicky used to be, and he lengthily explains that he refrained from commenting on the Hayden controversy, yadda, yadda. Then he says he got a call from his mother – violins, off cam, please! None? Damn, we should up the budget on this show…. He reminds everyone (again!) that he came from nothing, and got to where he is through hard work, sweat, tears (crocodile?).

Then, as the (contrived) drama rises, in choking voice, he says, “You know I did not do anything bad to you to deserve this.”

Addressing his mother – on nationwide television, after he claims he just talked to her on the phone -- “Inay, narating ko ang maliit na espasyo na ito sa industria, ng wala akong inapakan.Wala akong inapakan.” Followed immediately by “Magbabalik kami.”
Like Tim Yap, Boy is a PR PERSON, if nothing else, and he knows that he can squeeze, at best, a ratings coup for his show with this little drama, with him in the center as its “Star!” The Mater Dolorosa of sipag at tiyaga, poor-little-now-rich-boy from Samar is the object of derision of Billionaire-ss Belo. Not quite the Cinderella story, but we get what we pay for.

Let Victorina then be the first to put Mr. Abunda in his place.

His public display of affectation is hokey but misplaced. We KNOW that what he is doing is nothing more than PR work on himself. However, lest the public be misled by his tears and exhortations that he is being made the object of oppression, we take exception to his statement that he has not stepped on anyone’s toes to get to where he is.
It is no secret that Gucci Gang members are his precious clients. He is largely to blame for putting their lifestyle on display as an example of “What’s Hot”. He set these troubled people as role models; people to be envied, aspired for…
Even worse, his hypocrisy would otherwise cause him to be the new object of rage of the blogosphere, were it not for one irrefutable fact: he is laughable. Imagining himself to be beyond reproach and squeaky clean when the PDEA should come after him for making the druggie culture desire-able, never mind the death and destruction it leaves in its wake. Imagining that no one should throw stones at him because he worked oh so hard to get where he is? Bull manure. He put himself out there. He made himself a public figure. He rose above the maddening crowd.

HE made himself a Target.

If he wants his face on billboards, he shouldn’t freak if someone throws rocks at it. While he well admits that he isn’t at all good looking, he also wants the public to forgive his incursions into our TV screen with his pseudo-intellectual vahklese and yes, that face.
He doesn’t want comments on his mug; he should take it off our screens.
Dr. Belo was comparing clientele, and she made a comment.

Was it tactless? Sure.

Libelous? No.

Uncalled for? Hardly.

Boy Abunda has promoted Manny Calayan’s clinic and publicized the fact that he is a patient. He has made no secret of the fact that he worked very hard to be a public figure, and public figures are fair game.

Enough said.

First, let me digress. It must be hard to be a beautiful and accomplished actress Ann Curtis these days. You show up in a fabulous party, dressed up like a goddess, and smile like everyone is there to see you. But they weren't. They were ignoring you. Everyone was looking at BB Gandanghari, dressed in red and black gown. Yep, even those cute Angelos, trying to entertain the crowd, were all eyes at BB. I was in the table next to her, so I knew how people simply swirled around her, ignoring jall those other actors, editors and fashion model.

The party was the Velvet Oscar Night last Friday at the Ayala Museum. They practically invited everyone in the media and entertainment industry. Wines overflowed, much to my delight. And that was the only thing good that night. The rest was boring – pretension at its best. Everyone left hurriedly to the next party, which in our case was the Radio Partners Party where DJ Mojo Jojo was one of the hosts.

That was such a sharp contrast to the Ipanema Giselle Bundchen Collection Bloggers Launch we attended at the Le Souffle the night before. The Victorina Council was invited and we came in full force. Yes, there was food and wine and fashion show and music. But the energy was more real, and the people more attractive.
My friend Noel, a TV Director, declined the invitation to Ipanema saying it was a harried PR night. Well, dude, it was nothing like that. It felt like a gathering of friends.

It was Rodes Fishburne of San Francisco Chronicles who captured the power of blogging very clearly. He said, "The truth is blogs are nothing more than one of our oldest known communication forms: the letter. Think of blogs as personal letters, and letters as conversations, and you've grasped blogs' immediacy and power. Blogs have become so popular so quickly because they are personality driven. We all have access to the same machine now, the Internet, thus advantage is won by using personality, not broadcasting apparatus."

So when someone like, say KC Concepcion, says on national TV that she loves this shampoo. Her message will be taken as what it really is – a commercial endorsement. It is not an expression of her personality. And people nowadays have become so information-driven and tech-savvy that they can smell a fake statement a mile away.

But when a simple blogger, like mugen, writes that he is not a fashion expert but he liked Ipanema because of its environmental advocacy, it has something that brings people to believe – honesty.

The traditional PRINT media is now struggling to survive. They know that sooner or later, they will lose their relevance. Slowly, they will lose their value as society's primary source of information that affects public opinion, and stories that touch people's lives. They have become just one mode of communicating, one among the many.

But the blogs have taken over; and most bloggers know this. They know that companies are now after them, not so much to endorse, but to experience their products.
The US Elections has shown that an online community can create a president and cause in monumental shift in world history.

That is the vast potential that blogging, social networking and twittering can provide. We know what to do.

And the time to do it is now.

by Andro Ramirez

Since youth, it was impressed upon me to ask questions on things I do not understand. And if an answer is given me, to not just accept the response as an absolute truth. I was always challenged to dig deeper and to learn how to discern for myself and relay my findings. I can't say if it was unfortunate for me that I didn't have the benefit of having constant contact with kids my age to interact with during my formative years, except maybe in the Catholic school my parents enrolled me in. I was always with adults 20 to 40 years my senior and I found that I could relay my thoughts with ease with my older relatives and teachers than my classmates. I can't remember how, but an aunt found, and she still insists to this day, that I learned to read even before I learned to speak fluently. She says, my favorite books then were bible stories. My five favorite words were what, why, where, when, and how. Words that have an entirely different meaning during my teenage years when I also learned what "party" means, in a time when I realized what I might have been missing. Well, it was not much, but it was and still is, fun.

Growing up in a military family, it was my constant question to my relatives in the service the morality and justification of having to kill, if need be, for love of God and country. But didn't God say: Thou shalt not kill? Around this time, I learned the bible in itself contained records of atrocities that man committed against man in an era long past. Which lead to more questions and a search for more answers.

For some, religion provides a moral compass. For others, it provides spiritual uplifting. Whatever the reason, religion has, in a way, distorted the perception of what it truly means to live for the glory of a God. This has been going on since time past. Religion per se, have been dividing the people for centuries. In this time of crisis, and because of the blind submission to religion by the majority, I wouldn't be surprised if attendance in services increases while collection boxes dwindle.

Am I Catholic? Well, I was baptized to be one. Do I believe in God? Certainly I do. But the belief I have of God now is not the cookie cutter mold set out by men in flowing robes during my youth. They imposed that I needed to follow certain protocols just to be pleasing in the eyes of my God. How can I not be pleasing in His eyes? Him, the one being that is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent made us, didn't He? Well technically by virtue of having human parents, like their parents before them, and so on and so forth.

Where do these religious fanatics get all these? And who hands it down to them? Oh and please, don't give me that "it's all in the bible" diversion. I've lived with that all my life, and I've read several versions of the bible. I have also read the Koran and several others on Taoism, Buddhism, and the like. Have any of you wondered where the bible came from? Yes that consistent bestselling book favored by many Christians. Why are there several versions? And for those not in the know, the bible we know of today is actually composed of several different books. It has been translated and edited several times over time from the originals where they came from. I don't know with you, but there has to be something lost in translation in the existing versions. And while we are on the subject, please, can some "expert theologian" clarify for me the necessity and significance of Vatican II. In addition, because of the present political, social, economic, and technological changes, will there be a need for a Vatican III?

Faith "IN" religion is the biggest malady present in every religious organization these days. We need only to open our eyes. Accept that the supposed "truth" most of us grew up with, is not absolute. Like processed food, religion has been infused with so much additives and preservatives to make it more appealing and palatable. Forgetting the fact that food is there to sustain life but with so much artificial and synthetic substances added, it has been poisoning us figuratively and literally the more we consume. Religion, in my point of view, has lost its purity of form and genuine intent.

Answer me these: All religions preaches love, peace, charity, etc., etc. Now why do we still have wars? Why do we still have hungry people? If one follows all the edicts of their religious affiliation, does that make them better persons? If you say, yes to the last question, how so? Who set the qualifications, why, and what for? Where will all these lead? Puzzling isn't it? And there are still more questions that one must learn to ask. And one must learn to ask the right ones.

In times of war, assuming both leagues of combatants pray to the same God, which side does He choose? Does He really choose a side or does he decide to decimate both sides. Well, assuredly, the latter is the result. But does He choose it to be so? I say not. How arrogant of us to say or even think for God. What of our prayers then? Are we praying to a non-existing entity and pinning our hopes and faith in a God who doesn't care? After all, based on their teachings, we are all His creations and can be disposed of as He pleases. I'm not deeply religious but I say nay both instances.

What any church is forgetting is that we all, have been bestowed the power of FREE WILL. The right to choose for ourselves. That follows for whatever religion, sect, cult and what have you. We have the power to choose whether we want to be in the side of light or dark. I am not deeply religious like I said before, but tell me who would you rather believe? A gift given to you by a Creator or a set of laws made by men whose covert aim is to control your growth as a human being, if, and only if. Think and search within you, the answer is there.

We all have FREE WILL.

If you choose to be with the light, then be good for all its worth and share it. If you chose to be in the dark. Then do so because you also have the right to it. But please, do not involve good people in your affairs regardless of religion; much more never involve the young to wallow in your enterprise. And please no pretensions. It will seep out like a cracked rotten egg no matter how hard one tries to conceal it. Always remember that once caught, you still have to contend with punitive measures and legal edicts set by man. So why make your life complicated?

Guilt and conscience are two effective tools any organized religion uses to make their devotees fall in line. Which makes one with a clear mind think especially in these uncertain times: Are we really following the edicts of God or that of fallible men? In times of war, the one who incited the conflict shoulders the greatest sin. Case in point, from Lucifer the Light Bringer, to Satan Prince of Darkness. No need to cite examples in modern day terms. They are all around us. From the echelons of society to the halls of government, and even in our places of worship.

Truth does hurt especially for some whose belief structure, indoctrinated in them all their lives, has been allayed. It is therefore hard to accept to be faced with the fact that the truth we know is not absolute. All organized religion has flaws. We must learn to accept that. Saying otherwise would be foolish. It doesn't matter what group you belong to and it definitely doesn't make one a better person just to be associated with one. Well, not unless you choose to be a better person than the rest of the flock. And that goes to your credit as an individual, not to the religious organization you belong to.

But why dwell on religion alone? For the most part, life in itself is already complex, and religion only complicates matters even further. The realization of dealing with our mortal birth, life, and eventual death is already quite an imposing venture. Death however does not discriminate. Religions do.

Let me just clarify that I am referring to RELIGION and not FAITH.

Do not be confused with one for the other. My view is that they are entirely different. And saying that one is synonymous with the other would be highly irregular. One can have religion but not faith, and vice versa. All religions, however, claim that we are the vanguards of the earth. Fine, let's do that. Why not heed this and preserve this planet of ours so that future generations can enjoy living here much as we do now? Whatever is left of it from our daily abuse.

Religion has always been a delicate subject in any discussion. But if one looks at it from a different perspective, we need not concern ourselves with what our religious leaders say and the consequences that comes if we do not heed their words. I say, those are their words. Not the words of your God. The God you should have genuine FAITH in. Assuming of course, you dear reader, believe in the existence of a God.

by: Boldstar

Last year I met a former batch mate from Singapore for coffee on my way to Bangkok Thailand. She has been working in Human Resources for a large company. After 2 lattes of catching up, she mentioned that our degrees should have included forensic analysis and alumni speed dialing because most of her work especially vetting for degree qualified vacancies includes having to contact various institutions particularly from India, China and the Philippines to confirm whether Maria graduated with a degree in engineering or Pedro did indeed acquire a masters degree through coursework rather than through Visa, MasterCard and/or American express.

Because online, I was able to buy a doctorate degree for my son Mr Samson May for $199 dollars. The problem is Dr. May is my cuddly purebred Rottweiler.

So why do people fake their qualification?

According to Singapore's Manpower Ministry, applicants want to have an edge in the competitive job market and so fake their qualifications, and embellish their resume by enhancing their work accomplishments and roles. That's why people are buying diplomas from online degree mills charging between a few dollars to thousands depending on whether an after sale service is required with telephone operators verifying degrees and sending transcripts to prospective employees. Filipinos have it easy, they just go to "Recto University" along Claro M. Recto Avenue in Manila for expediency and prompt service.

After conducting a survey Michael Worthington, co-founder of workplace expert ResumeDoctor.com, stated that "something you put on your resume could haunt you years later." Remember George O'Leary? His name is forever etched on my memory after our university career counsellor constantly warned us not to do an "O'leary" on our resume. George was Notre Dame's football coach for all of five days. Then the lies on his resume caught up with him. He had said he had a master's degree in education from "NYU-Stony Brook University". Well it is a campus that doesn't exist and he only took two courses from NYU and never graduated. Another is Mark Victor Hansen, a motivational speaker, co-creator of the "chicken soup for the soul" book series which is the biggest selling non-fiction franchise in the history of American publishing, and Oprah aficionado. Having been awarded an honorary PHD in 2002, his lies soon caught up with him when it was revealed that his two master's degrees from Southern Illinois University according to the New Yorker were a figment of his imagination.

Our local "celebrities" have also been caught extending their scholastic achievements. So does Wendy Puyat (a publicized high society “celebrity”) have a master's degree in visual communications from the Ecole Supérièure de Design Industrelle-Créapole (ENSCI) and the Sorbonne? Or is it one of those Recto University degrees? Based on my research, it is pie in the sky. Like having Italian "grade" fabric which is very much a creative extension of Italian Made, highly associating her designs with the luxury fabric industry that brought fame and wealth to Venice and many Italian regions since the renaissance period. By the way, the Sorbonne is the prestigious University Paris-Sorbonne founded in 1257 nowadays symbolising the French university system as well as representing the French intellectual prowess. Famous alumni include St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, Victor Hugo, and Pope Benedict XVI - born Joseph Alois Ratzinger, and then Wendy Puyat according to her website.

Talking about creative extensions, I noticed that our very own "ambassadress of beauty", Vicki Belo otherwise known as surgeon to the stars is very thin on experience. Calling yourself surgeon from a one year residency at Makati Med, one year dermatology diploma in Thailand and preceptorship with Dr Jeffrey Klein who never endorses anyone with just 2.5 days of training is quite remarkable. But like anything in Manila, you can get someone else to suck fat out of people.

Hopefully Bong Revilla Jr will not make me call him Doctor.

Why should we care?

First, it is illegal under section 315 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines and secondly it stains the authenticity of our educational system affecting everyone with a degree gained after at least four years of hard work. Filipino workers are now particularly scrutinized specially when an increasing number of OFW's now include doctors, nurses, therapist, oil rig engineers, software developers, hotel executives, not just nannies and go-go dancers as in the past. Our counterfeit industry is so good the Koreans came in droves buying fake "Recto" degrees. Furthermore, it wasn't so long ago that Philippine-trained doctors now based in the US as well as the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) filed protests against Desperate Housewife after a discriminatory remark about doctors graduating from the Philippines, signifying how global the perception and presumption that training is of low quality in this country.

That is why your achievement should speak for itself like Kermit the frog who received an Honorary Doctorate in Amphibious Letters from the authentic Long Island University, as a result of environmental efforts. Fake degrees are the same as passing a fake Louis Vuitton Bag, as the real thing, nakakadiri like the parade of fakes during the movie premiere screening of "for the first time".

by: DJ Mojo JoJo
(note: the author sang for then Pres. Bill Clinton's inaugural ball in Washington)

Although Valentine’s Day has come and gone, the season of love is still in the air! While the Day of Hearts may have been a time of romance, in today’s Mojo:lations, I hope to keep love rolling, this time in a charitable sense. Sharing and spreading of love and hope for children in need here in the Philippines.

Recently, I was invited along with other celebrities and media through my good friend Odette Velarde to the launch of Samsung’s latest philanthropic initiative aimed at bringing communities together to help underprivileged kids. The initiative which is called “Samsung Hope” urges people to open their hearts and give hope to charitable organizations in their communities by taking an active part in raising social awareness on the plight of underprivileged kids, and spur the public to help these kids imagine the future and realize their full potential. Pledging a record US$700,000 in grants to 21 children beneficiaries across Southeast Asia and Oceania, the program empowers the community to actively contribute to causes they believe in through deciding how the grant will be allocated.

In a heartfelt presentation at Greenbelt’s MyCinema, the three Filipino charities chosen for the project were unveiled: Atriev, The Don Bosco Fondation and The Knowledge Channel.

ATRIEV

Atriev’s goal is to make a remarkable difference in the lives of visually-impaired individuals through education, enabling them to obtain mainstream employment and similar opportunities.

ATRIEV (Adaptive Technology for Rehabilitation, Integration and Empowerment of the Visually Impaired) provides post-secondary education for visually-impaired persons through adaptive technology.

ATRIEV’s success comes from its project called Adaptive Technology for Training, Resource and Access Center (ATTRAC). The ATRIEV team provides input and output alternatives for blind users. A screen reader and voice synthesizer give audio feedback that enables the user to execute computer tasks like word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentations, web surfing, E-mail, and programming.

Since the year 2000, ATRIEV students have garnered recognition both in the Philippines and abroad. ATRIEV has been successful in changing the lives of visually-impaired individuals for the better. ATRIEV hopes to conduct a sponsorship program to deserving trainees who qualified for support and passed the eligibility criteria set. An IEC campaign will be mounted as part of ATRIEV’s advocacy campaign. This will help promote the services of the Center as well as develop awareness among youth and other stakeholders how visually impaired youth can obtain post-secondary education, and gain access to regular employment opportunities, though they are disabled.

DON BOSCO FOUNDATION

The Don Bosco Foundation is a Non Profit institution of education of the Salesian Congregation of Don Bosco, composed by Salesian religious (priests, brothers and sisters), lay persons and sympathizers of the Salesian work in the Philippines. It was created to support the education of children and youth in need.
The name, Don Bosco, refers to the founder of the Salesians, Saint John Bosco, the Apostle of the Youth, who opted for the most poor boys and girls of his time (19th century) in Italy.

In 1976, on the occasion of the 25th year of Don Bosco in the Philippines, the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco was founded as a continuation of the educational works of Don Bosco around the world. Currently, the DBF has technical schools, literacy centers, scholarship programs for poor children and food programs for students.

The Vision of Don Bosco Foundation is to be a lead institution in the education and promotion of children and youth from poor backgrounds or at risk due to physical or moral dangers. The children and youth must have a place where they can continue their studies until they are ready to face their own future with a skill and better opportunities of employment. In such context they seek to fight poverty through education.


KNOWLEDGE CHANNEL FOUNDATION INC.

Knowledge channel foundation’s objective is to deliver quality education to every Filipino student, especially those in rural areas, and to build a nation through television.

Founded by its President and Executive Director Rina Lopez Bautista, Knowledge Channel Foundation Inc. (KCFI), formerly known as the SKY Foundation, is a non-stock, non-profit organization that aims to improve the academic performance of students all over the country, particularly in remote areas, through television.
The Foundation helps educate millions of students through instructive programs for English, Math, and Science with the use of audio-visual transmission technology. The programs are created to help advance the comprehension and retention of students. In remote areas, KCFI is not just a learning tool. It also gives hope to the principals, teachers, students, and community, knowing that there are foundations like the KCFI who continuously seek educational programs that help nurture the future generation.

Out of 42,000 public schools in the country, KCFI have only reached 1,709 schools. With your support, KCFI can reach out to more schools, bring quality education to every student, one school at a time. With your donation, you can help foster a child’s intellect, improve his education, and most importantly, shape his future

How you can spread the hope

More information on the beneficiaries mentioned above can be found by logging on to www.samsunghope.org, where everyone can support their favorite beneficiary by pledging to let hope take off. Each beneficiary will receive a base amount with an additional grant to be determined by the number of pledges it receives.

Take an active part in rallying your community in making a difference and sharing your blessings with the Filipino children who will directly benefit from pledging to the charities mentioned above. Love is not just about roses, chocolates and paper hearts… it’s about sharing hope and giving a chance to those in need.

by: amiel aguilar cabanlig

How could we have become so greedy during the Economic Boom times?

Instead of letting the Gucci Gang profit from the poverty of others, hyping their decadence and “acquired prosperity?” Instead, we should have fixed this flawed system from the very beginning.

Tim Yap's laissez fair mantra was taken to heart by the “generation-ME” yuppies while the poor were left to fend for themselves against the twisted economic structures promulgated by the pages of “lifestyle.” Classism, materialism and irresponsible decadence were what we chose to permeate the media instead of more noble subject matter like camaraderie, genuine charity and temperance.

Now, with the global financial crisis in full swing, times have definitely changed.

What we need more than ever is to reevaluate our attitudes in the media and how we express our concern for our fellow men. It is imperative that we ensure that the greedy and unscrupulous no longer exploit those who struggle for without the poor, a crisis such as this would never come to pass. Whether poor in the sense of material things or those lacking proper moral transcendence, today is is clear that we must make up for what society has been lacking all the time. No more people need slip into the cracks of poverty. We can all strive and thrive together in an effort to pull our nation out of its state of shambles.

We must all do our part and fight for equity for all and eradicating the selfishness and self-promoting that was one the fad of the so-called “IN-crowd.”

The U N’s representative in charge of eradicating poverty has said that the avaricious quest of MAMON (gold over goodness) by the so called “ME” generation” has triggered an economic crisis that would definitely delay the anti-poverty targets in the poorest countries like the Philippines. The insatiable thirst for money cannot be better illustrated than through the recent example of Bernard Madoff’s.

Now, some of you may have heard his name but still ask - Who is Bernard Madoff?

A year ago, this name would have raised standing appreciation for any common “tao” (the Ex-chairman of NASDAQ, esteemed member of SEC, founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, a firm which is outperforming market in terms of steady juicy return to investor in this drowning economy).

Well dearies, not any more – his austere reputation has been debunked for the crook that he really is.

A crook of epic proportions!

A master of the PONZI scheme, Madoff never disclosed his investment strategy to the public media nor did he explain his motives in investor reporting. He was illusive to regulators with very minimal disclosure and managed to keep up a spotless reputation.

"The PONZI Scheme" is a fraudulent investment strategy where an existing investor is paid high short term returns with the principals flowing from other new investors. In order to sustain the scheme, there has to have steady flow of investment to the fund, thus more new investors. (This must be ringing bells in this week’s Congressional hearing on retirement plans!)

The damage that Madoff caused stretched around the globe affecting individuals, banks and charities alike, sucking them dry of billions of dollars!

Madoff's stature remained intact for many years and no one was any the wiser to the swindling activities he engaged in since his stream of investors were not mass-market individuals. On the other hand, his victims consisted of an exclusive club of luminaries lured in by Madoff's mesmerizing rapport and personal relations. (Can you sense the similarities of Madoff's schemes to the way VVVIP clubs practice “exclusivity” here in Manila?)

Yes, Madoff cheated people of billions of dollars... but in spite of his history-making debaucle, Bernard Madoff is just another “Gucci Gang-er” but on a much larger scale!

Just this Sunday (February 8), an equally controversial character again came out in Tim Yap’s column in the Philippine Star.

The Yapster really loves dubious characters noh?

Another Gucci Gang “victim,” Jason Lowen, claims: “I will fight to make sure that David Nugent no longer defrauds the Philippines or the citizens of the United States or Asia-Pacific. I can finally prove Nugent was not a citizen from 2001-2003, and that Manuel V. Pangilinan had to know this...”

Jason Lowen has been compared to an Australian blogger Brian Gorrell who also fell victim to the wiles of Manila's “social elite.”

But as David Nugent allegedly pointed out via text message last October 2008: “Yes just recently, the Philippine elite used me for their means and that he was complicit with a certain ABS-CBN executive in helping craft notes, and it is not former ABS-CBN executive Randolph Estrellado, whom told ABS-CBN that they were not allowed to report on the story, as it would make him look like a fool as former Chief Financial Officer for ABS-CBN.”

Apparently MVP never did a basic background check on his top deputy Nugent. According to Lowen: "a simple background check by First Pacific/Metro Pacific/PLDT would have shown that Nugent did not graduate from an American University as claimed in his own corporate biography in PSE documents in 2004 and 2007, was born in 1970 and not 1972, and has a history of never paying his debts, leaving over US$34,000 in defaulted guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Education and other various creditors and collection agencies, not paying Pacific Gas & Electric to not paying his Sprint PCS bill to committing check fraud. "

If that wasn't enough, Nugent is rumored to be a substance abuser, according to certain reports. Nugent is also known to be a friend of Betty Sy of SM Investments who was recently featured in the lifestyle pages of Philippine Star . (Gucci Gang, here we go again!)
Scandals, lies and deception... when will the story end? From the Gucci Gang to Madoff or Nugent to the next generation of swindlers extraordinaire... society as a whole must learn from these terrible mistakes before it's too late!

Mahatma Gandhi summed it up best:

“This is the moment to take a more altruistic world view. The world has enough for people’s needs, but not enough for people’s greed.”

by Andro Ramirez

The U.S. of A. has sworn in their 44^th President and the world watched in awe and hope, I have to admit it was indeed an historic moment. Just a few decades ago, “his” people were fighting for equal rights in the biggest melting pot of races that part of the globe. Now he is the main man. Although not purely a “homie” and of “da hood,” he is still considered a brotha’. But who cares? The man is now President, and the color of his skin is no longer an issue. Focus instead on what he can, will, and must do to salvage what his predecessor has brought not only to America but also upon the world with his G.I. Joe mentality of economics. Like it or not, America can still create an impact and influence on the world. But let’s not get into that. Not just yet. -- With the stellar rise of President Barrack Hussein Obama to power from the grassroots, is it any wonder that “our” seasoned politicians and personalities want to be associated with his rising star? Not looking at how it came about but with eyes on the prize, the presidency.

Should there be no hiccups, the next Presidential, Legislative, and Local Elections is scheduled on May 10, 2010. That is only 15 months away at the time of this writing. As early as last year, feelers have been sent by those with the intent of running for the highest office of the land. To tell you the truth, I am not elated by the unofficial lineup, nor their early product and self-endorsements. Shall I name them now? Wag na lang, because I do not approve of their message which is all bull. They have been doing and saying that for ages, and you know what happens after, NADA! Now they all want to be associated with the name OBAMA. The notion alone makes me feel like regurgitating my meals.

So what now brown cows? After gulping tons of glutathione capsules and ex-deals with their overrated dermatologists to be white, they now want to be black. Fashion and PR pundits may even say “black is back.” Mark this, they will do anything in the coming months just to be associated with the man and his name no matter how putrid their reputations and track records are.

Now isn’t it a wonder not even one, administration and opposition alike, volunteered to slash their lard barrels? They even had the audacity to increase their take by P2 Billion from last year or a total of P9.7 Billion. Hello! BAROK OPAMA’s, in case any of you refused to accept it, we are in a financial crisis, since the time of Marcos. The global crisis is now a reality, but should not be used as an excuse. We ordinary Filipinos have been too overworked and way underpaid long before that, well, that goes for those of us who still have jobs that is. Even our “bayani’s” abroad are already being sent home. And the hapless OFW’s were even used for a photo op. Na-Barok na, Na Korokan pa.

In light of these, let me cite 10 satirical reasons why there can never be a PRESIDENT Barrack Obama of the Philippines:

10. None can claim they have an American mother and a Kenyan father.

9. Heaven forbid if one of them admits using marijuana or “blow” in youth and inhaled.

8. They define hard work as being top in the surveys.

7. I dare one of them leave the church or religion they are affiliated with.

6. Barrack is a two-time Grammy Award winner for audio versions of 2 of his books.

5. Barrack does not like “pork.”

4. He is young but not “Estoopid.”

3. He has to prove he can effect change.

Ours want only affect continuity or maintain the status quo.

2. He is the first human hybrid to rule a world power. And he used to drive a hybrid car.

And the number one satirical reason why there can never be a PRSIDENT Barrack Obama of the Philippines:

1. There might not be a PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION in 2010.

Need I explain further?