GOING WHERE THE FLAVOR IS--PECHANGA!

A Sunday in Menifee and Jeric's 21st birthday
Going in a convoy of two cars to the gambling casino to celebrate Jeric's 21st birthday.
Few vacant parking spaces at the parking floors. A great number of gambling aficionados this Sunday
Buffet at Pechanga during Jeric's birthday today, Sunday, July 20, 2014
Present at Dining table:
Anib and Dianne Julian
The blogger and wife Estelita
Daniel, Dianne's father
Anib 11
Philip, Jeric's boardmate at UC Irvine
Whitney, Anib 2's Vietnamese girlfriend
Justin, Anib 2's Filipino friend
Tip for the Mexican waitress: $10
Later, we played the slot machines. The blogger, playing on the 5 cent machine, won $50 but gave $20 to Daniel and $30 to Estelita, who lost it at the $1 machine. Anib, on the $1 machine, lost $500.
We had a great time.

 

The friends of the Julian brothers crowded around a slot machine as Jeric played. We went home towards midnight. The young people left earlier.

EYES WIDE OPEN

PETER LA. JULIAN

THE QUALITIES OF A LEADER

     F. Sionil Jose, the most translated Filipino author, is an Ilokano, who traces his roots to Cabugao town in Ilocos Sur. He attends writers' conferences and seminars for young and old Ilokano mannurat. A fixture in these affairs, he writes in English only and regrets he could'nt write in our language. But he identifies himself with Ilokano writers, saying he is proud to be an Ilokano and describe us as the most industrious ethnolinguistric tribe in the country along with Cebuanos and Batanguenos.  
     In his column in the Philippine Star dated May 5, 2014, Jose challenges the Moros (which include Tausogs--the laziest tribe, he said, along with Warays) to visit the Ilokos. He did not state the reason for the visit. But the blogger understands that if the visitors find economic development in the region this is traced to various causes specifically the kind of leadership wields by the leader.
      In said article, Jose said that the Bangsamoro leader has to work harder to realize the objectives of Bangsamoro now that it has been given the opportunity to rule itself as a independent entity within the Republic.       What are the qualities of a good leader? Jose enumerated some of these qualities when he said thus: 
     "What, really, is a leader? What are his qualities? Integrity is one of them; honesty in his dealings with his fellowmen; but most of all honesty with himself, his capacity to recognize the "objective reality" not just about himself but, most of all about the people he has to lead, to know what's wrong with them, for as a leader, he must be a change agent, capable of convincing his people for the better."

THE COUNTRY'S UNABATED KILLINGS

A CASE OF POLITICAL IMPUNITY?

     The killing of Gonzaga, Cagayan Mayor Carlito Pentecostes appears to be the left's version of the political impunity that the blogger talked about before Ilokano writers during their annual convention at the Cabacungan Inn in month. (Most of the delegates came from Gonzaga, a few towns away to the east from Claveria, a seaside town.)
     Leaflets were left by the killers to "justify" the killing, citing sand-mining in the town as the cause of the summary execution.
     But a spokesperson of the Pentecostes' family said the killing was politically-motivated. He said that there was no longer sand-mining in the town. It was understood that before they kill anybody, the killers believed to be members of the  New People's Army, would usually warn their quarry before they do their thing. They never warned the mayor, according to the spokesperson.

QUICK TRIP

     The blogger and his wife made a quick trip to and from Manila yesterday. We had the final immunization injections and obtained the last of the travel documents. The re-scheduled embassy interview of the wife will be in May. It will be a breeze as it was a breeze yesterday. 
    One sour note: The cab driver that took us from the Victory Terminal in Sampaloc to St. Luke's H extension in Ermita was talkative and did not give the supposed change of P200 the wife gave him--the fare was supposed to be only P80. The cab meter was not even running. Just like the trike driver that charged us weeks ago P120 for a few meters drive to our hotel at UN Avenue. A, the denizens of the dirty city ruled by the convicted economic plunderer Joseph Estrada! 

'NO MERCY' PRESIDENT OF A COUNTRY

     The family of Cadet Aldrin Jeff Cudia, who was ousted from the Philippine Military Academy, went to the Palace to ask for assistance. But the President of this country did not give them mercy. As the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley said it in 1819, there are "Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know/But leech-like to their fainting country cling."/
    Viva la revolucion en las Islas de Los Ladrones!  

The blogger, as a national awardee in English poetry, poses with the late Kerima Polotan-Tuvera, then one of the country's best writers and essaysts. At the Focus mggazine in the Port Area, Manila. 

                                    

A FUTURE MILITARY LEADER

 
   
      He is the valedictorian of the graduating class this year of the country's top military school, the Philippine Military Academy at Fort del Pilar in Baguio City. Cadet First Class Jheorge Llona is said to be the son of a farming family in the Bicol Region.
      Earlier, Cadet First Class Aldrin Jeff Cudia, was dismissed by the academy for allegedly lying about his being late for two minutes in his class. There was a public outcry for this act and an investigation was made by the Human Rights Commision.The CHR recommended that the cadet be allowed to attend the graduation rites and receive whatever honors bestowed on him as class salutatorian.
          Cudia was not allowed to attend the Sunday ceremonies.
          Llona was quoted to have said the following statement regarding the dismissal of Cudia: "The civilians do not understand the honor system very well."
         Such statement raised a howl of protest from civilians, calling him arrogant and dumb for not thinking of the consequences of what he said.
          Some civilians raised the possibility that Llona, several years after joining the Armed Forces of the Philippines, will not be bound by the academy's Honor Code. And he will fall prey to the temptations of corruption as his fellow PMA alumni did and are doing.
         Remember the debilitating military coups led by PMA graduate Honasan, the infamous Kuratong Baleleng rubout instigated allegedly by Lacson and the ransacking of state funds by Garcia and other misdeeds committed by "PMAyers?"
          We civilians do not understand the honor system? Is there a difference between the honor system of civilians and that of PMA?
          We as taxpayers spent P2-million per year for the education of Llona for him to become an "officer and gentleman."
          Now Llona is insulting us, our intelligence, our brains.

THE 9-0 VERDICT AGAINST THE PMA CADET A LIE?

     It appears that the 9-0 verdict against the Philippine Military Academy Cadet Jeff Aldrin Cudia did not reflect what really happened. The cadet who voted for Cudia not to be ousted from the academy has come out: he was pressured to change his vote. Those who applied the Honor Code on cheating are themselves cheaters?
     Apply the case of the Police Officer who led the arrest of Delfin Lee, accused of large-scale estafa. He was sacked as head of Operation Tugis that bagged Lee. Did PNP Chief Alan Purisima, a PMA graduate, sacked him, or did he promote him? Is Purisima lying to a fellow PMA graduate, who earlier protested his ouster?