A Business Graduate's Random Blog on History and Gossip

Some people on Facebook continually spread the lie, "Parliamentary will never work because the Marcos Sr. years were a parliament!" The idea is incredibly stupid when you realize some old information that they probably ignored. It's a shame that some boomers refuse to surf the Internet to find decades-old information  that would prove it otherwise. Come on, are they even too lazy to order Third World to First written by the late Lee Kuan Yew and only use it to criticize the Marcoses?  With the late Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" A. Aquino Jr., I really must highlight that he actually spilled out much truth in this speech done in Los Angeles in 1981: And so my friends, we started with an American-type constitution, we move to a British-type constitution.  We had a parliamentary form of government without a parliament. Until 1978, we did not have a parliament. And yet, we were supposed to be a parliamentary from of government.  And Mr. Marcos said, “I declared martial law

It's Buwan ng Wika or Month of the Language. One of the songs that's often sung in the Buwan ng Wika program is "Ako'y Isang Pinoy" or "I'm Filipino" in English. I remembered this song was sung in the Filipino language class. I did hate the Filipino language, especially as an ethnic Chinese growing up in the Philippines. Examining the lyrics The lyrics go like this with English translation: I am a Filipino Ako'y isang pinoy In heart and soul Sa puso't diwa Filipino born Pinoy na isinilang In our country Sa ating bansa I am not good at foreign languages Ako'y hindi sanay sa wikang mga banyaga I am a Filipino who has my own language Ako'y pinoy na mayroong sariling wika Gat Jose Rizal then spoke Si Gat Jose Rizal nooy nagwika He preached in our country Sya ay nagpangaral sa ating bansa It is said to not love one's own language Ang 'di raw magmahal sa sariling wika The smell is more than stinky fish Ay higit pa ang amoy sa mabaho

The previous comparison of the CoRRECT Movement was between the late businessman John Gokongwei Jr. and Hilario Davide Jr., a public policy expert. The comparison is pretty much apples and oranges which is why Kishore Mahbubani, founder and former dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) would make more sense. It's not enough to say something. If the source is just merely Merkado CTTO (read here ) then I have every right to doubt it. I tried asking for empirical evidence  they have that the 1973 Constitution of the Philippines was a parliamentary government. The only evidence they have was that there was a prime minister and his name was Cesar Virata. However, further details reveal that Virata was a non-starter and a no leader. From Third World to First , Virata was even considered a candidate to replace the late Ferdinand E. Marcos, a president with powers . A challenge that I want to pose to people who still insist that the Marcos Years were indeed under a parli

I wrote a blog entry where I discussed about trying to find links between Filipino languages and Southeast Asian languages . It wasn't surprising that while I was researching the song "Dayang Dayang", I found out that there was an Indonesian version sung by Virvina Vica in the 1990s. There was also another singer named Hainun Pangilan from Mindanao (where Indonesian and Malaysian influence survived). Bahasa is simply another word for language.  From Mastering Bahasa , here are some words in Tagalog which are borrowed from the Indonesians and Malaysians: 1.[/td] [td]Abo[/td] [td]Abu[/td] [td]Ash 2.[/td] [td]Ako[/td] [td]Aku[/td] [td]I (informal) 3.[/td] [td]Apoy[/td] [td]Api[/td] [td]Fire 4.[/td] [td]Balita[/td] [td]Berita[/td] [td]News 5.[/td] [td]Gulay[/td] [td]Gulai[/td] [td]Vegetables; Curry 6.[/td] [td]Hangin[/td] [td]Angin[/td] [td]Wind 7.[/td] [td]Hari[/td] [td]Hari[/td] [td]King; Day 8.[/td] [td]Kulang[/td] [td]Kurang[/td] [td]Less 9.[/td] [td]Salamat[/td] [td]Sela

Bahay Tsinoy, museum of Chinese life in the Philippines  This textbook was a symbol of my past  trauma, especially during my high school years. I didn't have formal Chinese education and I had to face off with someone who was pretty much like the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago. Sure, that MDS-like teacher taught me a lot of stuff that I learned later in life. I'm still grateful I ran into that MDS-like teacher who still helped me after she flunked me. However, I feel the traditional Chinese textbooks were a really big hurdle to learning how to speak Mandarin. It's no joke that Mandarin has become more and more widely spoken. According to Langoly , this isn't a surprise to me as to why I viewed Mandarin as very important: There are around 1.118 billion speakers of Mandarin Chinese , and it has been spoken in China for more than 3,000 years. Mandarin Chinese is also the official language of Singapore and Taiwan. There are many other languages in China (like Cantonese), but

PhilStar August is often called Buwan ng Wika though I want to call it Month of the Culture instead. Buwan ng Wika is often used to showcase various Filipino dances. With that in mind, I think the cultural month gives me the feeling to explore more of my country's history. I remembered visiting the University of San Carlos' museum when I was nine years old. I studied at USC-Downtown Campus and took my bachelor's degree and master's degree there. The USC museum was a fun memory. However, I think going to a much bigger museum than what USC or Casa Gorordo could offer might be more fun. Here are the guidelines from the Facebook page . Back when I was nine, I remembered we were told not to take photos. I assumed that it was for confidential reasons or because flash photography can deteriorate old artifacts. Here are some rules to follow and what to leave behind in your car. Hopefully, they will have a baggage counter and I'm afraid not bringing an umbrella can be an inc

Knowing the history of the Philippines means tracing back its ancestors. I saw this video on Youtube where I did manage to do some lucky guesses. When I heard of Tealive's Bryan Loo of Loob Holdings, I wasn't surprised that loob in Malaysian still means inside. This video is of a Filipino woman (Tagalog) and a Malaysian man speaking to each other. If anything, to say that the Philippines can't learn from Malaysia or Indonesia is wrong. It's because of the history of the settlers themselves! From the Day Translations Blog , I found 10 interesting facts about the Filipino language . I would like to share one aspect of the Filipino language that I find interesting: 6. The precursor of Filipino, the Tagalog language is not a pure language. It developed from various influences. The early ancestors of the Filipinos were Negritos or Aetas from Asia who came to the Philippines through land bridges. They were small people with wide noses, black skin, thick lips, and slinky hair.