When the Truth Hurts

So here’s the picture,  everybody’s  reacting to some of my tweets quoting some of our councilors during their Sangguniang Bayan’s regular session. As  of what I am hearing from our common friends, they say that what I am doing is “paninira sa kapwa”,  which includes tweets on which I quoted a councilor mentioning “styrophone” on his privilege speech. 

It has been somehow a habit to watch the Sangguniang Bayan sessions every Wednesday primarily to check on how our councilors had been doing their job and sometimes, to lobby some issues that they had been so deaf that they we’re not able to hear it from the different sectors of the society. To maximize technology and my friend’s BBM, I log on to twitter every time we watch the SB session. I post updates as to how things are going around the session so that even the ordinary people who have lost interest in participating in the government and has decided to tweet and use facebook all day long, would have had been informed of how the people they elected has been functioning.

Who among you knows that a resolution has already been passed authorizing our Municipal Mayor to enter in to a loan agreement with land bank for the purpose of constructing a new public market?

Who among you knows that the tents we see in front of the public market are temporary and was loaned for Php7.5 Million?

Who among you knows that it has already been broadcast in print adds and radios that our municipality is already implementing an anti-plastic campaign, though according to the committee on environment, it is still under further study?

I too would have not known that if I did not spent time, energy and resources to be able to watch a session.

According to the LGC, sessions are supposed to be publicized and approved resolutions and ordinances must be available to the eyes of the public. In fact, there are areas in the Philippines where  Sangguniang Bayan sessions are aired live on TV. Now I’m starting to get bothered why on earth does these councilors are making a so-big-deal when they are quoted during their ‘public sessions’.

My dear councilors, my point here is that, regardless of how you deliver, whether it be on the right grammar or not, the people has to know the things you’ve been talking about. The thing is that, because the people has to know, they are as well  hoping that you devote extra time to review and analyze things first before standing before them in the podium. We are as much as eager to hear from you the things that you had been doing since in all possible ways, it affect us.

I myself do not have a perfect grammar, but please, when you’re not so sure of what you’re going to say, speak in the language you are comfortable with. The aim here is to let the people understand the things you’d been talking about and not to impress us with the English language.

Again, my sincerest apologies if my tweets, quoting what you’ve said had somehow caused some negative impact to your so-protected and beloved names. I just realized that really, most of the time, the truth hurts.

This "L" Thing We Just Can't Ignore

Men usually set standards for liking. Say, a girl’s got to be hot and sexy, she has to have long hair, sense of humor and the list goes on for us to say that ‘Oh, I like her’.

I too would not spare myself with the fact that I do have classifications. I do think that it is inevitable since for us to like somebody else, we should have seen something distinct and impressive with that person.

Recently, while I was throwing some love advice to a friend, she asked me, “Anong bang alam mo sa pag-ibig?”  BOOM! I was caught off guard. The last time I dated was four years ago and the last time I had been in a relationship was way back in second year high school, which a lot would say, is just puppy love.

Seriously, what do I really know about liking? About love?

As a Psychology major who had been studying people’s behavior for the past years, these questions imposed a challenge.

So let’s start with liking. How does a person get to say ‘I like her’ or how do people get attracted?

Different theories has been formulated by academics trying to explain how people get attracted. Lott (1972) explains through her reinforcement theory that we tend to like  those people who are associated with pleasant events and dislikes those who are connected with unpleasant events. Moreover, a person likes those who bolster their self-esteem as proposed by Giles and Coupland (1991) in their Gain-Loss theory of attraction. Lastly, social psychologists view liking as a development process where two people engage in a deep sense of self-disclosure which deepens over time.

Taking it on an interpersonal level of attraction, theorists believe that there are five aspects that are involved in developing mutual liking: Similarity,  Reciprocity, Familiarity, Proximity and Physical Attractiveness (Baron, Branscombe & Byrne, 2009). With the same concept as ‘birds of the same feather flock together’, people who share same interests tend to like each other especially if these common things they share are reinforced or reciprocated by one another.

Familiarity and Proximity goes along. Those people who are familiar to us since we are always with them give us high tendencies that we may develop a deeper sense of attraction towards them. Lastly, as inevitable as it is, physical attractiveness still has a spot in the process of liking another person.

Bottom line here is that, aside from the physical characteristics we consider, we like someone because there are certain parts of that person that is ‘us’ too and that we grow, we feel good and we feel more confident of ourselves through the other person that we like.

Now let’s go to the next big thing--this “L” thing that we just can’t ignore: LOVE.

As opposed to the mysterious and magical classic definitions and characteristics of love, science has its own way of explaining it.

Fisher (2007) believes that love and attraction are merely just products of chemicals working in our brain. Chemicals responsible for our behavior in love and relationships belong to the class of neurochemicals, which are compounds forming largely in the brain and participating in neural activity.

The first “sparks” in the air followed by falling in love are caused by combination of three neurochemicals: Norepinephrin, Dopamine and Phenylethylamine. Later stages of long relationships are guided by another three: Endorphins, Vasopressin and Oxytocin.

So what each of these chemicals does to us when we fall in love?

Norepinephrine stimulates the production of adrenaline, which makes our heart race, and the palms sweat. High level of norepinephrine in the brain increases the experience of joy and reduces appetite (which explains why some people just can’t eat when they’re in love). Dopamine on the other hand, is getting released by the brain when we feel good. It also makes people more “talkative” and excitable. It affects brain processes that control emotional response, movement, ability to express pleasure, but also pain.

The first attraction causes us to produce more Phenylethylamine (PEA), which results in those dizzying feelings associated with romantic love. Large quantities of PEA increase both physical and emotional energy and at the same time release more Dopamine. So, only when these three chemicals combine together, we feel the real “chemistry” of love. It is due to this combination that new lovers feel euphoric and energized and can talk days and nights long.

As we go along and as we feel our heartbeat speeding up, we don’t need to worry, it’s just our Adrenaline doing its work. It can trick us into thinking that those exciting feelings we are having are related to love, not just danger. That’s probably because excitement, arousal, attraction, and anxiety are all related.

Endorphins are also involved in the longevity of love. Endorphins have the same pain-killing and pleasure-delivering properties as morphine, without the risk of overdose. Also, the high-density distributions of vasopressin receptor (AVPr1a) have been shown to facilitate and coordinate reward circuits during partner preference formation helps us form lasting bonds with a mate. Lastly, Oxytocin helps our brain form a bonding relationship as it is seen released in the later emotional attachment phase of relationships.

These are the things that I know about love--love and attraction is a mix of physiological, social, physical, emotional, psychological and sometimes even spiritual aspect.

Complicated don't you think?

And after writing all these, I now feel so guilty for answering my friend’s question. Contrary to what you might probably thinking now, I still do think that love, with all its complications, need not to be defined— it’s something that we should just feel and something that we just need to allow to get into us.

Spread the love!

What You Do and What We Do

Yesterday, as we watched the Sangguniang Bayan session and as the issue of the passage of the 170 Million loan becomes so pressing, I received comments from the side of the administration who are in favor of the loan, that me and my group (Angat Taytay) are anti-development. They were shouting, ‘Puro kayo tutol! Puro kayo aral!’ pertaining to our position that a feasibility study should be presented first before the council proceed with the loan agreement.

Once and for all, let me remind you of our position:

We are not against the construction of the market. We know and we see that the market vendors and stall owners need a better place to continue and grow their businesses. What we want is for our dear councilors to present to us first a FEASIBILITY study before entering into a loan agreement. We need to know if the 3 storey market they are proposing would be beneficial to the vendors. We need to know if the addition of hundreds, maybe thousands of stalls, would be able to maintain a healthy competition within the market. We need to know how much will be the rent if this new market takes place. Would the ambulant vendors be able to avail it? Would an ordinary vendor be able to pay the rent?

To our legislators whom should be accountable to the people, maybe, you really just need to focus on what the people really need rather than putting all your eyes on the loan. As we speak with the market vendors, we heard them say that they are for the repair of the market, since it would surely be less costly to our municipality. Have you ever consider that idea dear councilors? Does it ever cross your mind that, ‘Oh, maybe they are right’.

These are the vendors who are speaking. These are the people who will be first hand affected into whatever your decisions would be.

The ballooning local debt 

The municipality of Taytay already has at least 342 million worth of loan excluding its interest. Adding the 170 million, that would be around 512 million, placing us on the top spot of the municipalities with the highest local debt in the country.

People from the administration keep on saying that Taytay is a highly developed municipality. I once quoted our municipal mayor in his State of the Municipality Address last 2009 saying, “Dapat nga matuwa tayo na nangungutang tayo. Ibig sabihin nito, kaya nating magbayad sa Land Bank.”

Clearly, this is his concept of development. He did not even thought about the fact that even after he could have been re-elected thrice as mayor, we are still paying this debt— that an innocent child of today would have had to carry the burden of paying for this loan in the next 15 to 20 years.

If we are really thinking of development, we should have just invested on projects that will promote livelihood, projects that will generate income for the municipality or projects that are far more sustainable and agreed upon by the people.

Why loan more?

Look at this picture, the Sangguniang Bayan recently loaned 7.5 Million for the temporary tents in the public market. Surprisingly, in one of the newsletter issued by the municipality, it has been projected that the budget of the mayor’s office alone is 171 million. Why do we have to loan the 7.5 million? Did it really helped in solving the problem?

Do we really have to loan and let the interest alone deduct at least 20-30 million to our annual budget?

Imagine if the (at least) 50 million pesos we pay annually for our debt be used to improve our emergency hospital who could not provide you with any service unless you pay them fifty pesos. Imagine if this 50 million be used to send children to school. How many lives they would have changed?

Personal attacks deserve a personal response

Just when I was about to go to sleep, a dummy account messaged me on facebook. He said, “puro ka daldal!!!”. A poser account on twitter also once asked me, “Puro ka pag kontra! Ano na bang nagawa mo?”. I actually don’t want to post the things me and my group have already done, since it might be a little boastful to some. But for the sake of answering their questions and for the purpose of inviting more people to join our cause, let me tell you:

Our group, though with limited resources has been able to touch lives. Unlike the government, we do not have a regular budget. Most of the time, our own pockets do the job, but still, we managed to make a difference.

We had conducted medical missions that had already reached more than a thousand people in the municipality. We had educated hundreds of mothers with regard to proper parenting and proper health care. We had conducted leadership trainings that had inspired and empowered hundreds of youth inside and outside of the municipality. We had inspired thousands of elementary children by providing them school supplies and life inspirations. We had expressed love to the special children by giving them attention and support. We had been able to lobby laws in the congress that affected the lives not just of the people of the municipality but of the whole country. We had represented the town and the country in many local and international gatherings. We had planted at least a thousand trees with the sincerest heart of reducing our own carbon foot prints. We had restored the life of two rivers by just igniting the spirit of bayanihan among the people around the area. In times of calamities, we had reached hundreds of affected families by simply encouraging others to help and do the same. We have stand against executive orders that will remove the rights of the people in Lupang Arenda and other areas in floodway. We had cleaned at least 20 streets voluntarily. We had helped a number of women and children who were abused to find hope and gain strength. We have changed the lives of 4 elementary students and 6 college students who are our scholars. Most especially, we are slowly but surely changing the culture of indifference, cynicism and apathy among the people by advocating and exemplifying genuine service and ethical and empowering leadership.

We all made these possible without the cross intentions of running for a public post or of impressing the people.

We do it with heart, with passion— with dedication. We do it to bring the message that everyone else should do it as well.

Hope I had been able to show these skeptics that we are not just objecting, why we wanted to study things first and why do we do what we do. We really don’t care if you don’t appreciate us and what we do. At the end of the day, it has never been between you and us. It has always been between us and HIM.

To my beloved Angat Taytay comrades, PADAYON! 

Going Against the Flow

My Flyers Which I Got for Free

“Tobit, sikat ka na, may mga flyers na kumakalat sa munisipyo na naka-print screen ang facebook profile mo.”

Those words were my friends’ morning greeting to me when I entered our office. I actually don’t know what to feel since the scenario was still so vague as it also made  me  think if I had done anything wrong, since my conscience clearly says that there is none. They then explained to me that it was about my facebook post saying “Joric, humanda ka. Nakikita mo ba tong mga papel na to? Para sa’yo to. It’s Payback time” while flashing an angry face and a bunch of papers on my hand. I then started to become conscious of how I looked on that picture more than the thought of ‘what’s the big deal out of that post?’ It is simply because, I know that what I posted was the truth. The ‘bunch of papers’ on my hand is the compilation of all the administrative complaints filed by the people against our municipal mayor and that indeed is really, ‘payback time’.

I apologize if the language I used in that post is in anyway foul or obscene. I was angry then, very much angry. And who would not be?

The Complaints that gained Complaints

Earlier that day, I was tasked to compile all the complaint materials to be filed by our barangay against the municipal mayor. It was a task I’d been wanting to do for so long since what we had experienced from the municipal mayor is something that we should not be quiet about. As I gather them and as I stare at these facts, I began to feel this anger.

Here are the lists of the complaints and I want you to judge as objective as you can, if the actions done by the municipal mayor was morally right or wrong,  politically correct or wrong or simply, just or unjust.

a.) The Taking Over of the Liga ng mga Barangay Office at the Municipal Hall

Having been elected as the Liga president, Barangay Chairperson Joselito Calderon, a known oppositionist, becomes an automatic ex-officio member of the Sangguniang Bayan. Immediately after the election for the said post dated December 7, 2010, Mayor Gacula, through the building administrator Eleno Tolentino, declared that the ABC office would now be used by the Municipal Health Clinic. This became an issue in the Sangguniang Bayan as Vice Mayor Janet Mercado stated in one of her privilege speeches, the unfairness of this act as she also questioned the grounds for this decision. The Sangguniang Barangay also wrote a letter to Mayor Gacula and to Mr. Tolentino to ask for the ABC office’s ownership. The office of the mayor through Mr. Tolentino reiterated their decision of not having the ABC office in the municipal hall.

The Sangguniang Barangay went to the MLGOO-DILG officer, Ms. Myrnalyn Tomas to seek assistance regarding this case. She told us that Mayor Gacula called to inform her that he  will be transferring the DILG office  to the supposedly office of the ABC. She said that she declined the offer, only to find out the following day that they are already transferring their things to the said office.

b.) The Forced Take Over of the Barangay Health Center

A few days after the first incidence, December 23, 2010, Municipal Health Officer Dr. Gerardo Camba together with at least 20 police swat headed by Taytay PNP Chief Col. Arthuro Masungsong went to the barangay to get the supplies, equipments, furniture and medicines without prior notice or even a letter to the barangay that they will be doing such act. The team, headed by Dr. Camba said that it was an order coming from Mayor Gacula and that they have the right to collect those properties since the health center itself belongs to the “municipality”. Concerned citizens of the barangay barricaded the truck that contains the collected properties as a sign of their protest for this action, but due to the police swat that was present, Dr. Camba’s team proceeded with the command to get all these properties (See amateur video documentation of the incident at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSi-gSSFSEc&feature=player_embedded).

To date it has been found out that these properties were transferred after a month, at the vicinity of Benjamin B. Esguerra Memorial National High School. The municipal government said that it is now the location for the new barangay health center, which gained criticisms from the people since the new location is not easily accessible and is not physically conducive for proper health care service. A lot of complaints also arise due to the fact that this new health center was not able to provide vaccination to some children.

To date, the Sangguniang Barangay has been able to provide quality health care services through the outpouring help of volunteer nurses and doctors.

c.) Forceful Take Over of Purok Halls and Barangay Annexes and Issues of Political Harassment

Early January of this year, Mayor Gacula issued certifications in the area of Lupang Arenda of this barangay, stating that certain properties such as the basketball court, day care center and barangay outpost and annexes are owned by the municipal government of Taytay since it was constructed under his administration. This certifications disabled the barangay employees to enter their work places since majority of these offices were padlocked.

Due to this claim, an incident happened on the 25th day of the same month wherein the Secretary of the barangay, Mr. Danilo Paz was forcefully arrested while he was inside the halls of Purok 1, Lupang Arenda. Sec Danny is already 65 years old and he was accused and initially charged with trespassing, resisting arrest and insubordination among others for being inside a hall that the municipal mayor claims to be his.

d.) The Establishment of a Questionable Executive Order: An Abuse of Authority

The Sangguniang Baragay received a letter dated May 25 of this year to inform the barangay of an executive order he had ordered to create the TASK FORCE ALARM (Alliance of Lupang Arenda Reinforcement Movers) and CDPSO (Community Development and Public Safety Office). The EO has been created, according to Mayor Gacula, “to act as the enforcement arm of the municipality’s peace keeping power” in the area, thus duplicating the task of the barangay’s security enforcement in Lupang Arenda as it also becomes disadvantageous to the municipal government since the appointment of their assigned people would require budget for honorariums and other physical structures needed. More importantly, this act has created social boundaries and confusion among the citizens in Lupang Arenda. According to the purok chairpersons assigned at Lupang Arenda, the task force ALARM also enabled Mayor Gacula to assign Purok Chairpersons, by-passing their roles as assigned by the barangay. ALARM appointed Chairperson Avelino De Las Alas also assigned these certain “Coordinators” per purok that duplicates the duties of the purok Chairpersons assigned by the barangay.

In the same letter dated May 25, Mayor Gacula demanded that the barangay should vacate the Arenda extension hall so that it may be used by the Task Force ALARM. He even claimed in the same letter that that barangay extension hall is the property of the “municipality”. The Sangguniang Barangay immediately responded to oppose the demand letter with evidences that the barangay has been paying for the electricity bill of the said extension hall for the past years. To date, the barangay has not yet received any response from the side of the Mayor.

———

For once may I remind you, our dear public officials, that  the municipality you are referring to is not just you— it includes US, the people you are supposed to be serving. The money used to build those government properties were hard earned money of the tax payers and you have no right to claim it and name it after yourselves.

These are just few of the many things Barangay Sta. Ana has been hurdling in its less than a year of service. This is what you get when you go against the flow, when you try so hard to stick with your principle and when you value the truth more than the frills you may have if you dared to live with lies.

A lot of people are telling me to stop doing this— to stop throwing statements against the administration, to stop tweeting against them, to stop telling these things to the people. I actually thought that they do not believe me but it surprised me when they told me that they are just afraid of the possible consequences of stating the truth and so they choose to remain silent about it.

I was not born yet when martial law was imposed in this country but we had been discussing it since grade school. My elementary teachers also told us that “History repeats itself”, I did not understand it then not until now that I see history happening again. This time, I hope that we won’t be needing a Ninoy to offer his life to break the chain, I am simply just hoping, for all good people to come together, to speak out, to be vigilant and to do something for the better good.

 Sawa na akong marinig sa mga tao na, “naiipit ako”, “natatakot akong mawalan ng trabaho”, “wala akong magawa”, “hayaan na lang natin sila” and so on and so forth. If you know what is right, then you shall do your best to do it. No what if’s, No buts.

“For evil to triumph is for the good people to do nothing.”