Should Christmas displays be banned in public places?

Allow me to share my opinion re: Should Christmas displays be banned in public places?"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." This is the first Amendment of US constitution that interpret also the separation of State and the Church and is now same first amendment is being used by the Petitioners (Nativity Committee) to argue for their petition that injunction be granted in their favor, and Judge Audrey B. Collins used same to deny the petition for injunction.

I am a catholic, I believe there is no law that prohibits the exercise of our freedom of religion or our freedom of worship, freedom of speech and I believe too that the government does not favor or against any  specific religion. The issue here is not whether or not tax is being used in the Christmas displays but rather, whether or not the State has the power to regulate the use of public place or space for religious displays. It is my opinion that our constitution guarantees the absolute freedom of our religious belief but not absolute freedom to exercise of that belief, meaning the State can regulate the practice that it should conform and must be in accordance with the other laws. 

Going back to the very question, the government has already allowed 60 long years the display of this Nativity tradition in the same park, the Palisades Park, Santa Monica and the State did not only favor the Catholic or Christians but other religions as well including the Atheist when last year they erected some displays to promote their beliefs. The government have already shown that it can be done or allowed in a limited period of time and within their power to regulate, the park has ample space, and different religions have proven also that they can co-exist with each other.  Why ban the Christmas displays which add attraction to the onlookers in the park.  I don't know of any government subsidy given to specific religion or how a government fund is utilized in this regard. A better deal may be is give equal space allocation to each applicant who wish to put up seasonal displays. Peace to all people of goodwill. Be happy this Christmas. Thanks!

Readers’ feedback: Should Christmas displays be banned in public places?

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The Untold Saga of His Childhood Life, Dreams, and Passions.

By: dodong

Carlos Gomez was born in an Aries zodiac sign, normal and grew up as an aggressive teen age child who lived in rustic area whose parents were farmers, loved fishing in the mountain river, used to play his neighborhood peers, hide and seek, shooting and catching birds. At weekends his father loved to go hunting wild pigs and wild chicken in the forest with him using long rifle cal. 22.

 He said they had a prey with a wild boar; they could not carry together the prey for 50 meters more because it’s too heavy and he was young and helpless in that situation from the middle of the jungle. Realizing the predicaments, his father left the dead wild boar, put some live bullets at the top of the prey, (until now he didn’t understand what does it signify the putting of live bullets on the prey) and accompany him get out the forest and instructed him to inform and fetch his grandpa and his uncles to help his father carry the prey from the middle of the jungle.

He has nine siblings in the family with one brother as the seventh sibling with eight sisters. So he grew up with his sisters at his side as helpers to their parents, make copra and meet some of their daily family chores. Being the only male as aid to the family often left him the burden especially that his father got a lingering and recurring illness for the period of 2 years.  He had to quit schooling for the same period to do the farming.

Further as he told, life of farmers in the place where he was raised had been really that hard. It was very difficult to just depend on the farm produce in the year round. They experienced a situation so mired in poverty with no sufficient food for the family, no budget for health of the family members and practically nothing for their education. At young age he learned to dream a better life and help his family in that dire need to uplift their economic conditions.The hardships that befall upon him when he toiled the farm made him aspire for better education. His father taught him that hardship is overcome by realizing that it is part of the suffering and sacrifices in life, and sacrificing one's personal convenience to attain the personal well-being is the by-product of patience and perseverance, the ingredients of success. It gave him a good perspective in life, the test of deprivation on his teenage life to be present with any activities in school during weekends and some extracurricular outings, as his presence was badly needed by his family made his life tough that pushed him harder to dream and pursue for a bright future, to finish his studies come hell or high water. So when he enrolled in college, three of them siblings find their ways to support themselves as working students. He finished his Bachelor of Science in Commerce, major in Management, at St. Paul University, Surigao City. He completed (WILL) Workers Institute on Labor Law at UP School of Labor And Industrial Relation, Diliman, Quezon City.

He had his teenage crush in high school. He developed inferiority complex when his love crash rejected him and in the process he became shy for a long while and very frustrated. He first composed his love letter inside the church. He wrote and sent more letters, but he just received bunch of unanswered returned letters. In the church, deep inside his heart was crying and he was hurt, the feeling and humiliation that he felt were so mentally painful, heavy and that he even thought his soul was in agony. The perceived failure taught him a lesson not to be serious with women, this was deemed his challenge to study harder and tried to be smart and promised not to be outdone by the women. He struggled, worked hard and successfully overcome his being timid. His passion then with women was a little bit distorted. He had the temerity to court girls who were even friends. Then he found out his classmate friend in high school was charming. He realized he fall in love again. He had an intense feeling of this girl more than the other girls. She inspired him in his studies when they two of them were on steady. But he couldn't give much time with her because he had other commitments. Unfortunately, their decision not to make public their relationship and only pretend they were just friends did not set well for it only did favor him to continue befriending with other girls without inhibition. Their pretenses proved disastrous and not helping on their relationship to prosper. Untimely, nevertheless he learned his mistakes.

In reality, he is religious, a doer more than a talker, merciful, loving and caring one. He loves music though he didn’t have a good quality of voice, he is a musician in his own right. He just mimicked the songs. He loves beautiful women. He said their intelligence makes them beautiful.

One time during college break, his male friends with their girlfriends were having beach outings. He met a lady whom their friends were secretly proposing them to have a blind date. At hindsight, his perception of all  the girls was changed. It finally dawned on him that a person either he or she is capable of loving and ought to be loved and respected. He has totally changed in ways he never imagined. He met his destiny, that lady became the sister of his sister in-law. Next is history.

Bon Voyage!

A Journey in Life

                                    

 By: dodong

     A friend traveler offers his words of wisdom, a tip which could be worth enlightening to you and me who wish to resume our continuing journey in life. 

     As in any sojourn, he said; first know the direction and destination.  Never hesitate to make a first step for “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Assume imperfection in our moves because human frailty comes in times when we do not expect it. A successful life is never an accident, it’s a result of good decisions, sacrifices, guts, risks and allowing God to live and reign in our hearts and minds. Learn and feel contentment in our hearts as we proceed no matter what our status would be, just know how to appreciate the blessings we receive from above. If we stumble, commit unpopular decisions which lead to humiliations displeasing the society, we have to acknowledge our weaknesses and show remorse, the hurt may be less if we start coping the situation and go on with the new life than having a life under the cover of so many pretensions. The important thing, he said, we take responsibility of what we’ve done. The inevitable pain we realized is part of our growing that should not deter our desire to move on.  So we must now translate the hard lessons into wisdom and allow the learning to guide us as we go on into the next step of the journey.

       Reassess where we faltered, and the desired destination must be re-clarified. It is necessary to know the things to be improved and take a new route if needed, and know if we have enough energy to proceed.  It’s a long way for sure there will be perils that line in our path and no matter how astute we are, some events not to our liking it’s going to happen beyond our control.  But we should be ready to face them, knowing that the guidance and wisdom of those who traveled ahead of us remain a faithful beacon in any tumult that our journey shall face.

        For the couple you should be firmed towards the consolidation of your strengths, the refocusing of your collective purpose, and the enhancement of your shared resolve to support the plans of achieving your aspirations. 

        In life many things happen unexpectedly. So we must be prepared, as to where and when our journey ends, it will surely come when we are all out of time, not in harmony with other matters, or simply put it we have no more time. No matter how we plan and arrange our lives in order, it's still God's plan that prevails in the end. Good luck!

The Boulevard of the Untamed Dreams

by: dodong



The sun starts its reign of the day. The dazzling beauty of the rainbow-like colors of the sea, the tiny waves approached the shores when stillness was the mood of the pacific ocean, and the scent of the early morning breeze how could one forget you. It reminds like it just happened yesterday, a vivid recollections, these are but the reminisced memories of the then little boy who used to witness the sunrise at Bacuag sea front while collecting a kind of small clam, the sea shell called “Caraycay.”

The view of the scenic silver sparkling sand of the shores winking as it shined seemingly begs for mercy, the people and the relatives of the fishermen who hardly open their eyes, eagerly waiting the fishermen who went on their fishing adventures the whole night, queuing and waiting to have a glance on their catched were over jealous when finally plenty of sorted fishes caught were being displayed. Undeterred by the heat of the shores as the sun seemed hotter than usual they did endure to be able to select the best fish of their own choice.

Oh summer time here I am as the boy quipped, no classes, unyielding for more playing time, swimming & sun bathing seemed relentless, at the seashores with ample gusty winds conducive to kite flying, these were children’s festivities during the day. While parents were busy in the farms harvesting rice, their kids were also busy making sand castles, casting fish nets and bait fishing. “Aso-os” and “buga-ong” were the common fishes caught.

Unlike the years that had gone by, people at present find it difficult to rely on aqua-marine product for their livelihood. It’s likely our place is already over populated or source of marine resources are very much depleted. The LGU’s timely putting fish sanctuary covering mostly the town’s stretched shores was the best control measures ever done to protect and preserve the newly hatched and fish spawns to ensure the growth of the same to replenish our supply of fishes due for people consumption.

The people of Bacuag have witnessed the construction of seawall in the past years, and our LGU has successfully sponsored the holding of national skim boarding competitions. What we need now is the much improve beach and more presentable seashore to cater our visitor’s good sight. Let’s not be reluctantly mover of progress. We shall help our leaders get rid of eye sores and pollutions at the seafront. Support the realization of the plan to construct the Bacuag Boulevard from the Bitaog River down to Sabang river. This tourism project will not only improve the sight of our town’s beautiful seashore but will surely help us in income generating endeavors and augurs other recreational locations like safe bicycle lanes during night time and a good place for ocean and sunrise spectators and star gazers, expectedly nightlife will be alive because amenities will flourish such as barbecue grills and other food concessions. Be part of the dreams!

The Waterfalls of Little Baguio

The Beauty of ‘Sandayong’...by: dodong

Commune with nature, this is the message of my late father. I remember while I was still young he maintained the mini irrigation dike for our rice farms in Canaya, Sto. Rosario, I could not recall the author but he said something this way, “you could not step twice into the same river, for other waters are ever flowing on to you” unless the water is stagnant. This reminder was still vivid and he instilled into my mind to ensure that water in the dike must be monitored seeing to it with no leak at all times & should not be wasted due to the scarcity of waters in our farm every drop of water from the dike shall be put to use.

Then I realized and found out that rivers are more than just a necessity for man’s survival but also a masterpiece of God’s work. We fetched water using our bamboo container, we took water from the improvised pipe made also of bamboo we called it “Sandayong.” Water in “sandayong” holds a special fascination on me that seem to transcend reality to capture my imagination on waterfalls from a downhill near our farm. Then I had invented a mini waterfall by creating a detour of small rivers “sapa” down to the cliff. At that moment my man-made waterfall exists from mountain stream capturing the seemingly tamed water cascading to our rice farms.

Let me tell you about Jurong Falls. It is the tallest continuously running artificial waterfall in the world, at 30 meters (100 ft) tall. The falls are located within the open access water aviary at the Jurong Park in Singapore. This has captivated millions of tourist there. Water plunges over the top of a touring cliff at a rate of 140 liters per second. The water is circulated through a meandering stream that cascades down over a series of levels, creating an ideal environment for water birds, fishes, plants and other life forms at the aviary.

What differentiate from Jurong Falls is that our waterfall is made by nature. We could develop and enhance the beauty by sensuously sculpting slot, adulating and stunning slick-rock deep locations. We could construct and improve a landscape to make basin-like pool of water where falls drop and where people could swim. We could also conduct reforestation and regulate the area for tourism purposes. Peace and order conditions necessarily must be improved.

Infrastructure projects will follow. Roads and bridges must be built from Barangays Dugsangon and Payapag up to Little Baguio. These infrastructures must be maintained and sustained to enable to support the developments and enhancements of the tourism in Little Baguio. This will not only be limited to benefit tourism industry but also boosts and facilitates the farm to market shipments of agricultural produce made by the southern portion of our people in the municipality. In the end our community can have another sustainable development program in pursuit for a better quality of life for its empowered citizenry.

An Object of Envy

 

Mining of our Natural Resources

Bane or Boon?                                                                                                                                             By: dodong 

Our place is not blessed with natural resources like gold deposits in Placer, Tubod and Claver Municipalities which have been the host for the exploration and the exploitation by big Corporations. Ours is just adjacent to these places of well known site of mines. We are somehow puzzled over why we are bereft of any industrial developments or advancements but even then the minimal benefits derived from employment of these mining companies extended to our community. Our local government is not one of the direct recipients of the tax and fees made by the exploration or exploitation of these mineral resources but although we are not directly affected, generally we are affected when the mother nature is wantonly destroyed, the mountains are totally effaced and put no one to exception to the adverse effects brought in by these mines.

In one of the speeches of Senator Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. entitled “Mining in the Philippines: Bane or Boon”-(to give you an insight-bane is anything destructive or ruinous; and boon is good thing or bestowed blessing) I find it relevant to quote here in one of the very significant remarks he made: “It is so easy to mouth self-serving paeans to the bounty that the industry brings to the people. But it is difficult to believe it when you continue to see thousands of our people working in the mining pits or residing nearby still visibly mired in poverty.” The observation he made and the real situation in the mining site which gave reasons to our apprehensions are but worthy of our attention and close scrutiny.

In any mines for natural resources may it be gold, copper, silver, nickel and the likes, the mining companies acknowledge that their business operations have some form of environmental implications. In the case of gold mines which proliferate like mushrooms in our neighboring localities, let us be concerned by making ourselves vigilant of what had transpired in the mining operations. It would be wise for us if we know the nature of the mining and how mineral processing is done and what are the possible consequences that might result due to the volumes of mining wastes. The chemical characteristics of the waste (particularly mobility of metal constituents) are often of much concern. The crushed rocks may passed through the processing plant to extract the desired product is discharged from the tail end of the plant as the waste tailings, and in many parts of the world forms the greatest volume of mine waste. Tailing dams and embankment dams designed to retain water, have enabled many of the design techniques used with embankment dams to be applied to produce safe tailing dams, but despite great improvements, there has been a reported failure of a tailing dam. The damage caused by these failures is in the form of human casualties, destruction of property, disruption of communications and pollution of the environment. The extent of damages to river systems and farmlands resulting from the discharge of mine tailings, socio-economic dislocation of families and indigenous people in mining areas are enormous.

In Boyongan exploration of Surigao del Norte, the following stakeholder’s issues are noted

1. Since September 1995, when 12 people were buried, when a waste pond operated by a different mining company collapsed in Placer, Surigao del Norte, various exploration works in the province met opposition from local government units and NGOs. Some mining companies have been accused of manipulating community people by employing divide-and-rule tactics and of lacking in transparency.

2. In 1999, an exploration permit was issued to Silangan Mindanao Exploration Company Inc., a joint venture of Philex Gold Philippines Inc., and Anglo-American Exploration Philippines Inc., to conduct exploration works in Tubod, Surigao del Norte.

3. The St. Peter Catholic Parish Priest was working to have exploration permits cancelled. The Priest was concerned about the social effects of mining on the residents and has quoted the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) statement of concern on mining regarding its so called devastating effects. Past mining experiences in the country, including knowledge of past mining practices in the locality, make the priest and the community suspicious and vigilant of the company.

I proceed to disclose this following, not long ago, the provinces of Surigao has been the site of some worst excesses in mining, among them:

1. November 20, 1995 – Coal mine explosion claimed the lives of thirteen workers in Bislig City, Surigao del Sur.

2. April 26, 1999 – Tailing spill from a damaged concrete pipe of a different mining company buried 17 homes and swamped 51 hectares of Riceland in Surigao del Norte.

3. September 2000 – Protests erupted over the impending exploration project of another mining company in the nearby Placer Municipality.


Update of some mining Tailing spills outside the province of Surigao:

1.The biggest reported leakage of waste from a mine owned by the Marcopper, was on 24 March 1996, toxic mine tailings at the rate of 5-10 cubic metres per second were disgorged into the Makulapnit and Boac rivers. Discharge at the rate of 5-10 cubic metres is enough to fill up one dump-truck.The toxic spills immediately caused flash floods which isolated five villages, with a population of 4,400 people, along the far side of the Boac river. One village, Barangay Hinapula, was buried under six feet of muddy floodwater and 400 families had to flee to higher grounds. Their sources of drinking water were contaminated while fish, freshwater shrimp and pigs were killed. Helicopters had to fly in food, water and medical supplies to the isolated villages. Residents of 20 villages out of the 60 villages in the whole province were advised to evacuate their communities.in Boac, Marinduque. 

2.  Philix’s Mining tailings dam spills, report published October 9, 2012.  Despite the 20.6 million metric tons of mine spill reported so far, the destructiveness and the lingering threats of another mine spill have yet to make headlines in the Philippines. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has not released yet a more detailed report on its extent and impact.In a protest action at the Philex’s main office in Ortigas, Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) and various groups demanded accountability from the mining company over what they call as “the worst mining disaster in the past two decades.”Aside from families immediately affected by the surge of mine tailings previously held in Philex’s tailings dam at Itogon, Benguet, the downriver communities would also have to deal with toxic substances in their waters, fish-kill, loss of livelihood and increased potential for flooding.

 
Is there any reason for us to be envious? We are living witness on how these God given mineral deposits were taken or let’s say had disappeared leaving the environments completely ruined and permanently stained the soils with used oils and other poisonous materials to extract the gold from its original forms like mercury.

We don’t only preserve our patrimony by preventing irreversible degradation of the natural environment but more importantly we are preserving our lives as well… Let’s think of another thrust for our town, be a vanguard to take initiative and active involvement for our community!

But how sure are we that our mineral deposits beneath our mountains are not taken by the Mining Companies operating in nearby towns of Tubod, Placer and Alegria?

A Clear Silhouette

To be emphatic let me say that I have nothing to lose but something you to gain in my being up front and honest with you. I will try to do the things for myself and for my family. Life is not always easy, and life is not always fair. But I'm pretty sure know you will never make life more difficult and harder than it has to be. Right now I’m just trying to find my ways in this world as a single person with a family. Sometimes I feel lost in this world. So I try to make things simple, appreciate the things I have, and enjoy life and to the family.

I am not looking for a perfect person much as I wanted you, because I’m not perfect. But I always wanted what your mom wanted you to be. If ever there are things or situation just cropped up beyond us without our slightest expectation, the mode of the day shall be to find ways to possibly undone it if it could be otherwise we look for alternative or remedy to lessen the adversity. 

Cherish your health. If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help!   Every moment has a lesson, and when we learn it, it has already served its purpose. May the lesson learned strengthened and resolve to do better. Be inspired to lead a purpose driven life.  Live fully and be happy. The truth is life is too short. Things in this world are temporary. If events are turning well, be contented and enjoy. If they go wrong, don't worry, it won’t last long and you can still improve it. I maybe a broken record to you to re-stress and over emphasize the good points worth instilling in your mind and soul, but I don’t mind because I have a greater faith in you, that sooner you may come to realize and be guided by your senses. As the dawn of the early morning has started showing its magnificent glitters of sunlight, giving more life to the beautiful sea breeze and silver scenery, a new direction of your life is seen.  The responsibility leaned on your shoulders is now felt and everybody bears witness to it. (P.S. Try to understand between the lines of my blogs if you have the chance.)