Okay na si Lolo: Coca-Cola Agos Program Brings Renewed Hope to War Survivor

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Japanese airplanes were dropping bombs across Pili, Camarines Sur. People in the city fled the plains and went to different areas to save themselves, to save their families. Some ran to the fields, while the others decided to settle and create homes near or at the mountains. However, the safety of one’s life had a price to pay: there was no water.

Barangay Del Pilar is one of the communities that cradled the families who escaped the horrors of those bombings. Located at the upper section of the mountain in Baao, Camarines Sur, it is divided into three zones. As of 2014, it has become home to a total of 75 households, with a population of 384.

Among the residents is Cenederio Lopez. He is 74 years old, lives alone, and has never left Del Pilar since he was born. More than knowing the barangay like the back of an old friend’s hand, he never imagined in his lifetime that water would someday become easily available to them.

“It was really a sacrifice just to fetch water,” Lolo Cenederio shares. He recalls that it was a daily dilemma for most of his life, rooting back to when he was still a child. Whenever his family would run out of water, his father and older brothers would be up before the crack of dawn to fetch water with their containers and a carabao. Years later, it was still a problem, and it became part of the routine that Lolo Cenderio became accustomed to.

Because of his old age, he could no longer hike the way he did when he was younger. What he would do is to buy a water container worth PhP20 from his neighbors, however, this exchange came with a price, he still needed to do an hour’s worth of walking. The situation was simple: he either walked and carried the containers on his shoulders, or there would be no water at all.

An Abusive and Toxic Relationship

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros' statement on VP Robredo's decision to resign as HUDCC Chair

I fully support Vice President Leni Robredo's decision to resign from President Rodrigo Duterte's cabinet. It was an abusive and toxic relationship, after all.

From the start, Vice President Robredo was not given enough support to fully exercise her task as the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Chairperson. As if by design, she was intended to fail. Worse, as a woman, she was disrespected and objectified on many occasions, by no less than the President himself. Her way of dressing was made object of sexist remarks, she was subjected to inappropriate advances and was even reduced to well-rounded knees.

Even the manner on how the Vice President was ordered not to attend future Cabinet meetings was intolerably disrespectful of the position she holds. It was cavalier and reeked of machismo. It was meant to denigrate Vice President Robredo one last time. It was meant to show that she is unworthy of the Chief Executive's time and any serious consideration.

Of course President Duterte has all the right to remove people from his Cabinet whom he thinks are incapable of implementing his brand of governance. The President and Vice President's "irreconcilable differences" are plain enough.

Yet, while others were removed for their inadequacies, Vice President Robredo was barred from future cabinet meetings because she dared oppose the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, extra-judicial killings, reimposition of death penalty, lowering the age of criminal liability, and misogynistic attacks against women. She was punished for doing the right things.

I also worry that a Cabinet where a healthy divergence of opinion is not allowed is just an old boys’ club. This demonstrates once more President Duterte's intolerance for dissent.

I stand with Vice President Robredo in her fight to defend human rights, freedom and democracy. I also join her in safeguarding the will of the people from dark forces that want to steal the Vice Presidency, rewrite history and restore a corrupt and authoritarian past.

I am confident that the public is behind the Vice President too. The people will more than make up for the support President Duterte and his Cabinet failed to give her. Vice President Robredo has fallen from the Cabinet into the arms of the people.

Rara: Art and Tradition of Mat Weaving in the Philippines Book Launch

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Pateros, the little municipality situated in the middle of three big and flourishing cities - Pasig, Taguig and Makati. As what Elmer Nocheseda jokingly said during his talk at his Rara book launch held on November 30, 2016 at Villa Monica in Pateros, we may have a hard time finding certain establishments within the municipality using the Waze app.

The Rara book launch was a celebration not only to announce to the public the availability of the new book, but also to honor and pay tribute to the book author and historian who neatly documented the facts about mat weaving in the country.

The Philippines is so full of creatively talented individuals that has contributed in putting us in the global map - meaning, we have become synonymous to where achievers and leaders mostly originate. It is not only in boxers or beauty queens that has made us famous in the yes of the world, but also with the presence of artists like painters, sculptors, theater actors, writers, and a lot more. The Philippines has a lot more to offer than Pinoy teleseryes or blockbuster mainstream movies with rehashed and repetitive plots.

Elmer Nocheseda, or you may know him as Elmer Gragera-Ibañez Hernandez-Nocheseda on Facebook, is a mat cognoscente and an inveterate researcher. He has recently released his third book entitled Rara: Art and Tradition of Mat Weaving in the Philippines.