Magkaisa by Virna Lisa

FVR: ‘Aquino represented past, future of Filipinos’

Former President Fidel V. Ramos on Friday expressed grief over the death of his predecessor, former President Corazon Aquino, saying her demise was a loss not only for Filipinos but for the whole world. In a phone-patch interview with GMA News, Ramos, who took over the presidency when Mrs. Aquino bowed out of office in 1992, paid tribute to the role that the democracy icon had played in shaping the Philippines after coming out of martial rule under strongman Ferdinand Marcos. "Not only the entire Filipino nation grieves, but the whole world. Cory Aquino represented the past and the future of our people and led in the direction of a better future for our people," Ramos said. “Dito sa aming lahat sa aking pamilya ay nakikiramay sa pamilya at sa lahat ng mahal sa buhay ni Cory Aquino," said Ramos, who only learned about Mrs. Aquino’s death on radio.

This page requires a higher version browser Ramos, together with then defense chief Juan Ponce Enrile, led a military uprising in February 1986 that sparked the EDSA “People Power Revolution," toppled the Marcos regime and propelled Mrs. Aquino to power.

One of Mrs. Aquino's first appointees was then Lieutenant General Ramos, then Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) vice chief of staff, whom she named chief of staff and promoted to four-star rank.

As military chief of staff and later secretary of defense, Ramos stood by Mrs. Aquino in the most difficult times of her presidency, helping quell coup attempts mounted mostly by military officers who helped topple Marcos.

During the 1992 presidential elections, Mrs. Aquino threw her support behind Ramos, discarding then House Speaker Ramon Mitra, who was the choice of the ruling Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) - the party formed by her political allies to back her presidency.

Because of Mrs. Aquino's support, Ramos managed to emerge as winner, albeit by a slim margin, in a field of seven candidates that included Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago; businessman Eduardo "Danding Cojuangco, Mrs. Aquino's cousin; then Vice President Salvador Laurel, former Senate President Jovito Salonga and former First Lady Mrs. Imelda Marcos. - GMANews.TV

Corazon Aquino, Philippines president, dead at 76

Former President Corazon Aquino, who swept away a dictator with a "people power" revolt and then sustained democracy by fighting off seven coup attempts in six years, died on Saturday, her son said. She was 76.

The uprising she led in 1986 ended the repressive 20-year regime of Ferdinand Marcos and inspired nonviolent protests across the globe, including those that ended Communist rule in eastern Europe.

But she struggled in office to meet high public expectations. Her land redistribution program fell short of ending economic domination by the landed elite, including her own family. Her leadership, especially in social and economic reform, was often indecisive, leaving many of her closest allies disillusioned by the end of her term.

Still, the bespectacled, smiling woman in her trademark yellow dress remained beloved in the Philippines, where she was affectionately referred to as "Tita (Auntie) Cory."

"She was headstrong and single-minded in one goal, and that was to remove all vestiges of an entrenched dictatorship," Raul C. Pangalangan, former dean of the Law School at the University of the Philippines, said earlier this month. "We all owe her in a big way."

Her son, Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, said his mother died at 3:18 a.m. Saturday (1918 GMT Friday).

Aquino was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer last year and confined to a Manila hospital for more than a month. Her son said the cancer had spread to other organs and she was too weak to continue her chemotherapy.

Supporters have been holding daily prayers for Aquino in churches in Manila and throughout the country for a month. Masses were scheduled for later Saturday, and yellow ribbons were tied on trees around her neighborhood in Quezon city.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is on an official visit to the United States, said in a statement that "the entire nation is mourning" Aquino's demise. Arroyo declared a period of national mourning and announced a state funeral would be held for the late president.

TV stations on Saturday were running footage of Aquino's years together with prayers while her former aides and supporters offered condolences.

"Today our country has lost a mother," said former President Joseph Estrada, calling Aquino "a woman of both strength and graciousness."

Even the exiled Communist Party founder Jose Maria Sison, whom Aquino freed from jail in 1986, paid tribute from the Netherlands.

Aquino's unlikely rise began in 1983 when her husband, opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., was assassinated on the tarmac of Manila's international airport as he returned from exile in the United States to challenge Marcos, his longtime adversary.

The killing enraged many Filipinos and unleashed a broad-based opposition movement that thrust Aquino into the role of national leader.

"I don't know anything about the presidency," she declared in 1985, a year before she agreed to run against Marcos, uniting the fractious opposition, the business community, and later the armed forces to drive the dictator out.

Maria Corazon Cojuangco was born on Jan. 25, 1933, into a wealthy, politically powerful family in Paniqui, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Manila.

She attended private school in Manila and earned a degree in French from the College of Mount St. Vincent in New York. In 1954 she married Ninoy Aquino, the fiercely ambitious scion of another political family. He rose from provincial governor to senator and finally opposition leader.

Marcos, elected president in 1965, declared martial law in 1972 to avoid term limits. He abolished the Congress and jailed Aquino's husband and thousands of opponents, journalists and activists without charges. Aquino became her husband's political stand-in, confidant, message carrier and spokeswoman.

A military tribunal sentenced her husband to death for alleged links to communist rebels but, under pressure from U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Marcos allowed him to leave in May 1980 for heart surgery in the U.S.

It was the start of a three-year exile. With her husband at Harvard University holding court with fellow exiles, academics, journalists and visitors from Manila, Aquino was the quiet homemaker, raising their five children and serving tea. Away from the hurly-burly of Philippine politics, she described the period as the best of their marriage.

The halcyon days ended when her husband decided to return to regroup the opposition. While she and the children remained in Boston, he flew to Manila, where he was shot as he descended the stairs from the plane.

The government blamed a suspected communist rebel, but subsequent investigations pointed to a soldier who was escorting him from the plane on Aug. 21, 1983.

Aquino heard of the assassination in a phone call from a Japanese journalist. She recalled gathering the children and, as a deeply religious woman, praying for strength.

"During Ninoy's incarceration and before my presidency, I used to ask why it had always to be us to make the sacrifice," she said in a 2007 interview with The Philippine Star newspaper. "And then, when Ninoy died, I would say, 'Why does it have to be me now?' It seemed like we were always the sacrificial lamb."

She returned to the Philippines three days later. One week after that, she led the largest funeral procession Manila had seen. Crowd estimates ranged as high as 2 million.

With public opposition mounting against Marcos, he stunned the nation in November 1985 by calling a snap election in a bid to shore up his mandate. The opposition, including then Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jaime L. Sin, urged Aquino to run.

After a fierce campaign, the vote was held on Feb. 7, 1986. The National Assembly declared Marcos the winner, but journalists, foreign observers and church leaders alleged massive fraud.

With the result in dispute, a group of military officers mutinied against Marcos on Feb. 22 and holed up with a small force in a military camp in Manila.

Over the following three days, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos responded to a call by the Roman Catholic Church to jam the broad highway in front of the camp to prevent an attack by Marcos forces.

On the third day, against the advice of her security detail, Aquino appeared at the rally alongside the mutineers, led by Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Lt. Gen. Fidel Ramos, the military vice chief of staff and Marcos' cousin.

From a makeshift platform, she declared: "For the first time in the history of the world, a civilian population has been called to defend the military."

The military chiefs pledged their loyalty to Aquino and charged that Marcos had won the election by fraud.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan, a longtime supporter of Marcos, called on him to resign. "Attempts to prolong the life of the present regime by violence are futile," the White House said. American officials offered to fly Marcos out of the Philippines.

On Feb. 25, Marcos and his family went to the U.S.-run Clark Air Base outside Manila and flew to Hawaii, where he died three years later.

The same day, Aquino was sworn in as the Philippines' first female leader.

Over time, the euphoria fizzled as the public became impatient and Aquino more defensive as she struggled to navigate treacherous political waters and build alliances to push her agenda.

"People used to compare me to the ideal president, but he doesn't exist and never existed. He has never lived," she said in the 2007 Philippine Star interview.

The right attacked her for making overtures to communist rebels and the left, for protecting the interests of wealthy landowners.

Aquino signed an agrarian reform bill that virtually exempted large plantations like her family's sugar plantation from being distributed to landless farmers.

When farmers protested outside the Malacanang Presidential Palace on Jan. 22, 1987, troops opened fire, killing 13 and wounding 100.

The bloodshed scuttled talks with communist rebels, who had galvanized opposition to Marcos but weren't satisfied with Aquino either.

As recently as 2004, at least seven workers were killed in clashes with police and soldiers at the family's plantation, Hacienda Luisita, over its refusal to distribute its land.

Aquino also attempted to negotiate with Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines, but made little progress.

Behind the public image of the frail, vulnerable widow, Aquino was an iron-willed woman who dismissed criticism as the carping of jealous rivals. She knew she had to act tough to earn respect in the Philippines' macho culture.

"When I am just with a few close friends, I tell them, 'OK, you don't like me? Look at the alternatives,' and that shuts them up," she told America's NBC television in a 1987 interview.

Her term was punctuated by repeated coup attempts — most staged by the same clique of officers who had risen up against Marcos and felt they had been denied their fair share of power. The most serious attempt came in December 1989 when only a flyover by U.S. jets prevented mutinous troops from toppling her.

Leery of damaging relations with the United States, Aquino tried in vain to block a historic Senate vote to force the U.S. out of its two major bases in the Philippines.

In the end, the U.S. Air Force pulled out of Clark Air Base in 1991 after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo forced its evacuation and left it heavily damaged. The last American vessel left Subic Bay Naval Base in November 1992.

After stepping down in 1992, Aquino remained active in social and political causes.

Until diagnosed with colon cancer in March 2008, she joined rallies calling for the resignation of President Arroyo over allegations of vote-rigging and corruption.

She kept her distance from another famous widow, flamboyant former first lady Imelda Marcos, who was allowed to return to the Philippines in 1991.

Marcos has called Aquino a usurper and dictator, though she later led prayers for Aquino in July 2009 when the latter was hospitalized. The two never made peace.

50 Ways to love your partner

1. Love yourself first
2. Start each day with hug
3. Serve breakfast in bed
4. Say “I love you” every time you part ways
5. Compliment freely and often
6. Appreciate – and celebrate – your differences
7. Live each day as if it’s your last
8. Write unexpected love letters
9. Plant a seed together and nurture it to maturity
10. Go on a date once every week
11. Send flowers for no reason
12. Accept and love each other’s family and friends
13. Make little signs that say “i love you” and post them all over the house
14. Stop and smell the roses
15. Kiss unexpectedly
16. Seek out beautiful sunset together
17. Apologize sincerely
18. Be forgiving
19. Remember the day you fell in love
20. Hold hands
21. Say “i love you” with your eyes
22. Let her cry in your arms
23. Tell him you understand
24. Drink toasts of love and commitment
25. Do something arousing
26. Let her give you directions when you are lost
27. Laugh at his jokes
28. Appreciate her inner beauty
29. Do the other person’s chores for a day
30. Encourage wonderful dreams
31. Commit a public display of attention
32. Give loving messages with no string attached
33. Start love journal and record your special moments
34. Calm each other’s fears
35. Walk barefoot on the beach together
36. Ask her to marry you again
37. Say yes
38. Respect each other
39. Be your partner’s biggest fan
40. Give the love your partner wants to receive
41. Give the love you want to receive
42. Show interest in the other’s work
43. Work on a project together
44. Build a fort with blankets
45. Swing as high as you can on a swing set by moonlight
46. Have picnic indoors on a rainy day
47. Never go to bed mad
48. Put your partner first in your prayers
49. Kiss each other goodnight
50. Sleep like spoons

By Mark and Chrissy Donnelly
From Chicken soup for the couple’s soul

2 Faced Baby Born in India

A very special girl was born last March in a small suburb of Delhi, India.

She was born with 4 eyes, 2 noses, 2 mouths, 2 ears, and 1 dimple on a shared cheek.

Similar to Lakshmi Tatma, a 2 year-old girl born with four arms and four legs, she is reverred as a reincarnated god by her local villagers, who sing and dance regularly for her.

“I had never seen something like this in my life so naturally I was a little scared when I first saw her,” her father was quoted as saying.

The young girl and her mother are both healthy and the family has no intentions of seeking surgery to correct the deformities.

“The doctor said everything is normal when she was born. So where’s the need to get medical help?” said the child’s father. “She’s fed through one mouth and sucks her thumb with the other. We use whichever mouth is free to feed her.”

The World’s Smallest Whale Shark

I'd like to share with you one article that i read at www.weirdasianews.com

The town of Donsol in the waters off Pilar in the eastern Philippines was the site of a recent remarkable discovery when a local whale shark “interaction officer” representing the international conservation organization, WWF, found the smallest known wild example of the world’s largest fish (15 inches) leashed to a stake in the mud.

The shark was released after photos and measurements were taken.

The fascinating discovery is important to the survival of the species as the birthing grounds of the whale shark remains an enigma to marine science. Such information could serve to protect this already vulnerable species from certain extinction.

“One key to safeguarding the species is finding their birthing grounds, which remain a mystery. This find is very exciting, as it suggests the Donsol area may be such a place,” said marine conservationist, Brad Norman of the National Geographic Society.

Whale sharks are gentle creatures and harmless to humans. They feed mostly on plankton and can grow to be as big as a bus (about 40 feet long).

Oddly, so little is known about them as they travel along the shores of the Philippines annually from December to May, attracting thousands of tourists. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists whale sharks as a vulnerable species.

The shark’s photos and profile are now a part of Brad Norman’s ECOCEAN Whale-Shark Photo-Identification Library, which means that the creature dubbed P-219 can be the subject of study for as long as it may live, which could be anywhere from 60-100 years.

This species may share the enormity of its size with its more terrifying brethren, but the whale shark poses no danger to humans and is often the example cited when educating the public about the popular misconceptions of all sharks as “man-eaters”. They can be very playful with divers who not only swim freely among them but are also said to be able to scrape parasites and other organisms from their torsos as they lie upside down on the surface!

This species of shark can be found in many places in the world ranging from the waters of Bay island in Honduras to Thailand, the Philippines, South Africa, at the Galapagos Islands, Mexico, Seychelles, West Malaysia, Sri Lanka and in Puerto Rico, just to name a few.

The monumental fact remains that this creature is the smallest living whale shark in recorded history.

Michael Jackson's body given to family

LOS ANGELES – The body of Michael Jackson, who died Thursday, has been released by the Los Angeles County coroner's office.

Coroner Investigator Jerry McKibben says Jackson's body was returned to the singer's family Friday night. No funeral plans have been announced.

Jackson, who collapsed at his rented home in Los Angeles, appeared to have suffered a heart attack, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

The coroner's office, which has completed its autopsy, says there are no signs of foul play or trauma, but determining the cause of death will require further tests that will take six to eight weeks.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Jackson insisted that his concert promoter's payroll include his personal physician, a financially troubled cardiologist who was with the entertainer when he collapsed.

Dr. Conrad Murray was hired by AEG Live to accompany the pop star to London for his comeback series of concerts, said AEG Live President and Chief Executive Randy Phillips.

"As a company, we would have preferred not having a physician on staff full-time because it would have been cheaper without the hotels and travel, but Michael was insistent that he be hired," Phillips told The Associated Press. "Michael said he had a rapport with him."

Jackson, who collapsed Thursday at his rented home in Los Angeles, appeared to have suffered a heart attack, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The person, who was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity, said Jackson had a heart attack, which is a blocking of the arteries that deprives the heart of adequate blood.

Jackson's brother Jermaine said Thursday that it was believed the pop singer went into cardiac arrest, an interruption of the normal heartbeat that can be caused by factors other than heart attack. The Los Angeles County coroner's office, which completed its autopsy Friday, said there were no signs of foul play or trauma, but determining the cause of death will require further tests that will take six to eight weeks.

A heart attack could help explain why Jackson was in the care of a cardiologist while he went through vigorous training for an upcoming series of concerts in London: Heart attacks can indicate a long-term problem, such as heart disease. It would not necessarily rule out another factor, such as drug use, however.

Coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey said Jackson was taking some prescription medications, but did not specify what they were.

Police seized Murray's car the night before, saying they believed the car may contain drugs or other evidence, but have insisted that Murray has been cooperative and do not consider him a criminal suspect.

"We do not consider him to be uncooperative at this time," said police Deputy Chief Charlie Beck, noting that detectives spoke with the doctor after Jackson's death. "We think that he will assist us in coming to the truth of the facts in this case."

Records reveal years of financial troubles for Murray, who practices medicine in California, Nevada and Texas. His Nevada medical practice, Global Cardiovascular Associates, was slapped with more than $400,000 in court judgments, and he faces at least two other pending cases and several tax liens.

Beck declined to answer questions about how long the doctor had been with Jackson before paramedics were summoned, or if any drugs had been administered.

Phillips said AEG Live advanced Jackson money to pay for Murray's services as part of the production costs. Phillips said he asked Jackson why he wanted Murray with him full-time.

"He just said, `Look, this whole business revolves around me. I'm a machine and we have to keep the machine well-oiled,' and you don't argue with the King of Pop," Phillips said.

The promoter said that sometime in February Jackson submitted to "five-plus hours of physicals that the insurance underwriter insisted on. We were told he passed with flying colors."

Based on those results and the nature of the comeback shows, all of which were to be held at the same venue from July 13 to March, AEG Live wasn't concerned about Jackson's history of medical issues.

"This wasn't as strenuous as a tour. There was no travel," Phillips said. "He and the kids were going to be living in this beautiful home outside London and shows were spread out over six months. For him, it seemed like the perfect way to come back."

Phillips attended Jackson's rehearsal at Staples Center on Wednesday night, when the entertainer was on stage for about three hours before leaving at 12:30 a.m.

"He was dancing as well or better than the 20-year-old dancers we surrounded him with," the promoter said. "He was riveting. I thought we were home free. I thought this was going to be the greatest live show ever produced. He looked great."

Phillips said AEG Live held multiple insurance policies covering cancellation of the shows.

"We had pretty good coverage, but a lot of it is going to depend on the toxicology results," he said. "We need to know what the cause of death was."

A 911 call released by fire officials Friday shed light on the desperate effort at the mansion to save Jackson's life before paramedics arrived Thursday afternoon. Jackson died later at UCLA Medical Center.

In the recording, an unidentified caller pleads with authorities to send help, offering no clues about why Jackson was stricken. He tells a dispatcher that Jackson's doctor is performing CPR.

"He's pumping his chest," the caller says, "but he's not responding to anything."

Asked by the dispatcher whether anyone saw what happened, the caller answers: "No, just the doctor, sir. The doctor has been the only one there."

Lou Ferrigno, the star of "The Incredible Hulk," said he had been working out with Jackson for the past several months. Still, Jackson's health had been known to be precarious in recent years, and one family friend said Friday that he had warned the entertainer's family about his use of painkillers.

"I said one day we're going to have this experience. And when Anna Nicole Smith passed away, I said we cannot have this kind of thing with Michael Jackson," Brian Oxman, a former Jackson attorney and family friend, told NBC's "Today" show. "The result was I warned everyone, and lo and behold, here we are. I don't know what caused his death. But I feared this day, and here we are."

Oxman claimed Jackson had prescription drugs at his disposal to help with pain suffered when he broke his leg after he fell off a stage and for broken vertebrae in his back.

The worldwide wave of mourning for Jackson continued unabated for the man who revolutionized pop music and moonwalked his way into entertainment legend.

"My heart, my mind are broken," said Elizabeth Taylor, who was one of Jackson's closest friends and married one of her husbands at a lavish wedding at the pop star's Neverland Ranch in 1991. She said she had heard the news as she was preparing to travel to London for Jackson's comeback show, and added, "I can't imagine life without him."

Scores of celebrities who knew or worked with Jackson — or were simply awed by him — issued statements of mourning. Some came through publicists and others through emotional postings on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, where countless everyday fans were sharing memories as well.

His two ex-wives both said they were devastated. One of them, Lisa Marie Presley, posted a long, emotional statement on her MySpace page in which she said her ex-husband had confided to her 14 years ago that he feared dying young and under tragic circumstances, just as her father, Elvis Presley, had.

"I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that," Presley said.

When he was on trial on child molestation charges in 2005, Jackson appeared gaunt and had recurring back problems that he attributed to stress. His trial was interrupted several times by hospital visits, and Jackson once even appeared late to court dressed in his pajamas after an emergency room visit.

After his acquittal, Jackson's prosecutor argued against returning some items that had been seized from Neverland, the Santa Barbara County estate Jackson had converted into a children's playland. Among the items were syringes, the powerful painkiller Demerol and other prescription drugs.

Demerol carries a long list of warnings to users. The government warns that mixing it with certain other drugs can lead to reactions including slowed or stopped breathing, shock and cardiac arrest.

911 call in Michael Jackson death released

LOS ANGELES – A 911 caller seeking help for Michael Jackson told an emergency operator that only a personal physician had seen what happened, and an ambulance was urgently needed because resuscitation efforts weren't working.

The Los Angeles Fire Department on Friday released a redacted audio recording of the call made Thursday by a person who only referred to Jackson as a 50-year-old man. It appeared that a mention of the phone number was deleted from the recording.

"I need an ambulance as soon as possible, sir," the caller said urgently but politely. "We have a gentlemen here that needs help and he's not breathing yet. He's not breathing and we need to — we're trying to pump him, but he's not, he's not."

The caller reported that Jackson was on a bed and the emergency operator began to instruct him to do CPR, but stopped when the caller said that the personal physician was there.

"Oh, OK. We're on our way there. If your guy is doing CPR and you're instructed by a doctor, he's a higher authority than me. And he's on the scene," the 911 operator said.

The operator asked if anyone witnessed what happened.

"No, just the doctor, sir, the doctor was the only one there," the caller said.

"Did he see what happened?" the operator asked.

"Doctor, did you see what happened, sir?" the caller asked someone in the room. Only an urgent mumbling can be heard on the recording.

"We're on our way. It's less than a mile away from Cedars," the operator said, referring to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Paramedics, however, took Jackson to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.

missing the old days....

grabe, super tagal ko na palang di nakakapag-blog! ever since i got transfered at The Podium HUB, naging super busy na ako, i have no more time to browse the net.... :(

last week was a busy week as usual, i was on client call the whole week! grabe!!!! super alok ako ng phone lines, feeling ko tindera ako ng insurance!!!! i never imagined myself doing that!!!! but now that is what im doing....

ok naman ang mag-salescall, you're save from the many ADB subs who are very irate and demanding pro there are times naman that they are nice and understanding. yun nga lang dapat meron kang benta! kung wala tsk!tsk! LAGOT!!!!!!

minsan tuloy i feel so low and ashamed, di ganitong work ang pinasok ko dito sa globe, but i don't have a choice, super hirap maghanap ng work now.... and if ever meron man akong makitang work, eh back to start na ulit ako.....

a sunday with our junior members

this are the photo's from last sunday's bonding moments with our junior members, super picture lang ang ginawa namin because mejo tight on the budget and on the time, the following day, june 1, is the start of the class and most of them will go back to school..... :)