A Business Graduate's Reviewing History Blog

I guess the rainy days really can make me remember the Chiong Sisters' sudden disappearance, right? Right now, Jeepney TV on YouTube hasn't uploaded the Chiong Sisters episode. I watched Give Up Tomorrow where one blatant opponent of constitutional reform, Mrs. Solitas G. Collas-Monsod, was there. I could think about her colorful descriptions that helped the video. Mrs. Monsod did present a lot of valid points such as the late Judge Martin Ocampo's colorful imagination of how Francisco Juan G. Larranaga aka Paco could just hire a plane, land in Cebu, do the dastardly deed, and fly to Manila like nothing happened. I could agree with Mrs. Monsod's statements but I'm still appalled at one thing--she's very anti-reform! The video I'm sharing was most likely not included due to time constraints. However, it's a good thing that Michael Collins uploaded some of those scenes. These scenes included the owner of the house where the rape supposedly happened, the ...

Having grown up in the Philippines, I could remember some discrimination even if I'm a natural-born Filipino. There's the word "huan na" (spelled as 番仔 and known as fān zăi in Mandarin) which Chinese-Filipino call Filipinos to be. However, a deeper meaning of the word huan na may simply mean "foreigner" or "outside the Chinese race. It's very often seen that the Chinese tend to migrate, build communities, and become very exclusive. I wonder what's the point of leaving China (for freedom reasons) and then trying to live as if they're still in China? That's what's often portrayed by Amy Tan of the Joy Luck Club and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by a Chinese-American lawyer, Amy Chua-Rubenfeld who was born to Chinese-Filipino parents. I remembered how often Filipinos of non-Chinese origin are called huan na. Yet, huan na can also mean, "The native of the land where Chinese are immigrants." Filipinos of either Malaysian or ...

I remembered writing some time ago about why the Marcos Sr. Regime couldn't be a parliamentary government . Yet, there are some people (and I assume many of these are boomers who were in their 20s during the martial law era, so they're old men by now like a certain irrelevant dancer) that the Marcos Sr. Years were a parliamentary system. It would be interesting to raise up again the very speech of the late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. himself. January 17, 1984, was what some call the fake uplifting of martial law. It was also on that day Marcos Sr. himself revealed why the Marcos Sr. Years was still presidential even with his parliament taken from The Official Gazette :  The adoption of certain aspects of a parliamentary system in the amended Constitution does not alter its essentially presidential character . Article VII on the Presidency starts with this provision: ‘the President shall be the Head of State and Chief Executive of the Republic of the Philippines.’ Its last section ...

Right now, I feel like revisiting Chinese with a new understanding. Back then, we only memorized without understanding. Teachers, no matter how good he or she was, were forced to conform to a system that only taught how to memorize long sentences but not how to understand them. I felt the approach of reading in both Mandarin and Amoy can be distracting to one thing--learning Mandarin. Talk about not allowing vernacular to be spoken in Tagalog class. However, Amoy is spoken in class (and I got into trouble many times for breaking that rule) to learn Mandarin. I took basic Mandarin at the University of San Carlos (since a foreign language elective is required ), learned pinyin, and later one of my Chinese language teachers spoke to me in Amoy, "Now, you see how important Mandarin is. Good." She used the word 华语 (huá yǔ). Just because I had bad grades back then doesn't mean I'm unable to learn new things, right? We have seven ways to say Chinese? Many times, it's ver...

  As a person born in the 1980s, I would say I saw a significant amount of technology and methods develop, I remembered typing my high school thesis stuck with a very old PC , working on my college group paper with a better PC, and finally had a laptop during my graduate school days. Back then, I remembered when Chinese schools taught Zhuyin (which I really dislike), I didn't pass my Zhuyin subject (good thing, the Chinese language teacher didn't make me take summer since I should be applying for college), and how pinyin was barely taught. It was pretty much like how some older Taiwanese folks had a bad attitude toward pinyin. Barriotic people do exist and I'm afraid that pinyin's potential was never explored back then. It's going to be obvious that names in Chinese will be written in pinyin in the history books. I really thought there was a typographical error when Mao Zedong was spelled as such. I was used to hearing Mao Zedong as Mao Tse Tung. People read the z a...

As today is Rizal Day, I was thinking about how it's easy to mock him for what he did. Some say he should've just left the country and never returned. Some people tell me, "If you want to become a hero, why not get shot?" I always said, "Well, if Rizal didn't get shot then our predecessors will not get their freedom!" The Filipinas Heritage Library shares this information about Rizal: While awaiting trial in 1896, Rizal wrote a manifesto that expressed his disapproval of the armed revolution against Spain . He cleared his name, which he said was being used by some revolutionaries to espouse certain ideals. He said that he has always opposed, fought, and made clear that armed revolution was impossible, absurd, and disastrous. He explained that reforms must “also come from above,” because reforms that “come from below are upheavals both violent and transitory.” He emphasized, however, that like any Filipino, he desired our country’s freedom; and that educ...

Today is Rizal Day and I feel like revisiting a high school lecture. It was all about Noli Me Tangere meaning Touch Me Not . It would be interesting that, while in college, I did notice the parallelism between two books-- Noli Me Tangere and Notre Dame De Paris (Our Lady of Paris)  which is more popularly known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame . My first exposure to the story was the Disney version (in 1996) and later some adaptive versions. The Disney version changed Frollo from a priest to a judge, in contrast to the original novel. Later, we had Noli Me Tangere where   Padre Salvi lusts after Maria Clara, who unknown to him was really Padre Damaso's biological daughter. Both Frollo and Salvi are bound to celibacy by their professions.  The term Kastila in Filipino may come from Castile or Castillian. Castile is a place in Central Spain. I bet a lot of Filipinos of Spanish descent may be of Castillan descent. Above is the song "Hellfire" by Disney in Castillian Spanish. I...

I may be no lawyer or constitutionalist but it's time to use common sense . I'm afraid common sense is hardly taught or even encouraged in schools. Right now, I want to do this provocative entry to ask, "Fact or gossip: Is the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines the best in the world?" Yes, you read that right. Hilario G. Davide Jr. said that last 2018 and I'm still laughing at it. I've decided to write this common-sense post to actually contest the idea that, "The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines is the best in the world."  I'm laughing at some things Davide Jr. had said such as, "It' is the only institution in the world where the public office is a public trust." However, this man is terribly wrong because, around the world, we see the doctrine where public office is a public trust. Thomas Jefferson also said that public office is public trust -- way before Davide Jr. was born into the world! I really laughed at their claim o...

I think one of the most interesting must-reads is Amy Chua-Rubenfeld's book Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother . I bought that book during my MBA days and gave it a read. I remembered seeing the movie The Joy Luck Club  which analyzed four different stories by Amy Tan. The Joy Luck Club explored the plight of Chinese women back then such as how they were often forced to share a husband, how gender inequality was an issue and the mistakes made by Chinese parents. There was the part where the two mothers frequently competed on who was better. "My daughter is a first-class pianist!" "My daughter is a chess prodigy!" Amy Chua, having been born during the Generation X generation, did show her mistakes as a boomer when she wrote Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother with her Jewish-American husband, Atty. Jed Rubenfeld.  Amy Chua was born to Chinese-Filipino parents. I guess the whole Chua surname already speaks volumes. She had already violated the older Chinese rule of never int...

The song "Dayang Dayang" was given a parody cover called "Dayang Daya". Oftentimes, the song "Dayang Dayang" is thought to be Indian. Instead, it's arguably said to be from Muslim Mindanao or was brought in either from Malaysia or Indonesia. Historically, some of the settlers in the Philippines were Malaysians and Indonesians. So, it's probably safe to say that most Filipinos of brown skin descent are mixed Malay and Indonesian. I was even reminded how I mistook a Malaysian woman for a Filipino woman. Back on topic, the parody song has an introduction that says, "Kami Bumbay galing sa India..." (We're Bombay coming from India). I even tend to refer to Indians as Bombay--something I ended up tactlessly saying during my first trip to Singapore. Many times, Filipinos tend to use Bumbay not as a racial slur but to simply refer to an Indian. Some Filipino-Indians don't even mind being called Bumbay for a reason. I guess they got accust...

People can be so delusional into thinking nothing wrong can happen on Christmas. Two years ago, some parts of Visayas were hit by Typhoon Ursula (Phanfone). Last year, there was no Christmas celebration because of the devastation brought by Odette. Yet, I guess not so many have thought that Christmas never made COVID-19 suddenly disappear. Christmas didn't stop the Second World War either. I decided to do a history review lesson. This time, it's about how cheerless Christmas hit the Philippines during the reign of Manuel Luis Quezon. It was during the time of Commonwealth America. We had the Allies and the AXIS forces. Sadly, the AXIS forces, under Japan, took over the Philippines. It was at that time when the Japanese emperor was still believed to be divine. Later on, Emperor Hirohito himself renounced his so-called divinity. Today, the Japanese monarchy is as symbolic as the British monarchy. It's December and Christmas celebrations were prepared. Unfortunately, the Empir...