HELLO WOMEN ATTACHED!

Today is the last day of Women's Month in the Philippines, yet how far have we gone in instilling the value of concepts of self-identity and self-achievement among women in media?

Just look at the following names:

Vilma Santos-RECTO

Judy Ann Santos-AGONCILLO

Regine Velasquez-ALCASID

Why the need for hyphenated names? Are they afraid of losing their husbands to other women and so they must put down that territorial title? 

Why the need to attach the names of their husbands? Were they already married when they achieved their popular status in media, in particular films?

Are they not presenting a regressive attitude towards marriage to their fans? 

What about in radio? I think radio female broadcasters are more liberated, as they have sported their own names even if they had gotten married. Or are some sporting their husbands' name instead of their own? We have no data on that as the KBP website is very sparse on particulars of the broadcast industry. 

The fifties and sixties women artists are more liberated I think. Just read these names:

Gloria Romero who retained her name despite being married to Juancho Gutierrez.
 
Susan Roces, known as such though married to equally famous FPJ.


Amalia Fuentes married before to Romeo Vasquez.



Earlier women artists include:

Carmen Rosales with Rogelio de la Rosa (no data with whom she got married) 


Tessie Quintana was married to movie actor Johnny Reyes, the brother of Efren Reyes, Sr. who also used to appear as Tessie’s leading man.

They were all movie queens in their own right and never did they  tamper with their names. 

Now Vilma's husband is in politics and probably wants to earn votes by attaching his name to hers. 


Judy Ann Santos' name is mentioned many times over in an advert for a commercial product. I wonder why they couldn't just say: Judy (speaking): My husband Ryan and I think that...." instead of plainly attaching his family name as if to say that the product being sold should be a family business. 



Now Regine became known as the birit queen and was famous for a time when she decided to hitch with a married man. Now that she has tied the knots to him, does she have to show that he is now hers forever and ever as she is sporting his name?



I think women in media should rise above their personal situations and commit themselves eternally to loving their constituents, their fans who love them because of their talents and not because of their personal attachments. 

Genuine artistry requires full self-identity because of their God-given talents and their sharing them with the world. 

Let women artists be true to themselves. That is their legacy to the many women, and the public, ultimately. 

MONEY AND HUNGER

What makes for an ideal society to live in -- one where a lot of cash can be handled, one where you have a lot of friends you can joke with and share beautiful times together whether singing or playing games, one where you have friends who will be there when the going gets rough or just simply a shelter where you will be safe from all the elements, and you have your family with you and the rest of the world can go hang?

Some people could live with just a Bible in their hands and always feel safe from any kind of harm. Others truly need a lot of cash or else they would go berserk. Still others are happy with available food on their table every meal and that's all. 

In other words, to live in an ideal society, there are only two things we can aspire for: have a material or a spiritual existence. Well maybe a third is that we combine both. 

As I listen to the speakers of the $81M dollar  theft of the Bangladesh central bank, I get dizzy of the travels of the millions of dollars from one hand to another. 

Actually, there was a bank many years ago which showed how many bills there were in P1Million pesos. The bank displayed it for the public to see. The bills occupied about three feet by three feet and a height of about four feet. I could not help but grow my eyes big on them. 

Pero ngayon, milliones pa rin pero dolyares pa. 

So who says that there should be hungry people on earth? There is so much money roving around and they are just in the wrong pockets. 

If only the United Nations could make the affluent divest themselves of AT LEAST ONLY 15% of their earnings every year just to insure that no hungry people would be found on earth I think that that would ease the world terrorism problem a bit. 

Let us fight hunger with all the arms of the world, human arms embracing every open mouth especially of children, not military arms. Let us make food available for everyone a primary goal. Restaurants with unsold food, let us make them open their doors to feed every child who need not bring a stone to knock. Let us carry the infant of the mother to help her have time to eat her dinner. Let us ask the legislators to reduce their budgets for food since they have their salaries which they could use to buy their own meals. Let us ask the National Food Authority to be transparent in their purchases and sales of grains and post tarpaulins in front of their offices to remind them: BRING DOWN THE PRICES OF FOOD. 

Let us make it a crime to convert agricultural lands into golf courses or subdivisions. If it is still possible, let us reconvert the destroyed lands into agricultural sources of food again. 

Let us put up freezers in all the fishing village communities for the fisherfolks to keep their catch fresh. 

Let us give incentives and prizes to inventors who can come up with formulas, gadgets, devices, and other such inventions that would make cooking of food cheap and yet healthful. 

For historical purposes, let us always remind legislators how they look like the first time they stepped on the institution and see themselves five or more years after. Together, let us also photograph their constituents in the same way, when they (the legislators) assumed office
and five years after the tenure. Compare the shots -- who grew healthy?

Give us this day our daily bread. --- Matthew 6:11

HOLINESS EQUATED WITH ROYALTIES?

Way back in the 60's I remember when Lent would come, my older relatives would hush us and make us pray or read the Bible instead of talking or chatting on the phone. It was a very very long period for me and I would grow impatient. Instead I would retreat to the top of my aratiles tree and read books on mythology, that was after I had gone to the Sacred Heart Parish Church in Sta. Mesa and heard mass. 

By the way, I really loved going to that Church because the priests then would swing incense sticks engulfing the whole interior. Then the mass was said in Latin and so, it seemed as if we churchgoiers were in another world enveloping us with the holiness only associated with the Divine. 

I became an agnostic after a time. I told my friends, "I am not an atheist but if you can prove to me that God exists then I would believ you." As a agnostic, I wanted to be convinced of the valid existence of God. 

However, when my mother, Esperanza died, I longed to see the images of her, every morning, reading the Bible at the terrace. In fact, some nights, she would ask me to read passages for her, as if she was readying herself to meet the Great Maker already. 

So since 2008, when she passed away, I would travel from one church to another, born again, Catholic, Protestant, and even Islamic, just to feel the heavenly presence of God, whichever religion could give me that experience. 

Now I have settled down in one in Diliman, where I am also a member of the choir, singing beautiful songs that speak of the holiness and invincibiliyy of God. 

One thing I notice with some songs though is their reference to Jesus Christ as King. I also heard that over DZFE, the only radio station that airs classical music all the time, or majority of the times. A pastor had spoken about the King, and I shudder at the thought of seeing Jesus as a King. 

A Filipino painter has a painting of Christ with the downtrodden and he does not look like a king at all in it. And that really looks very natural to me, Christ having dinner with the poor. 

I really prefer seeing Christ in that manner because He is closest to our lives in this underdeveloped (morally and economically in terms of governance) country. He seems like a very sensitive companion who is not afraid to go all the way to live with us, to share our problems of existence. 

I think composers must stop that idea of equating Jesus' holiness with the royalties. Kings and queens are earthly titles and Christ is God, not an earthly being. So I really find it odd for them to be harping on him as a king. 

I lived in England for almost two years in the eighties and I had seen how difficult it was to have an aristocracy, especially during that time that Princess Diana was having marital problems with her husband supposedly the king-to-be, having a dalliance with another woman. 

Maybe we have a lot of wayward individuals in our midst because our image of Christ is not that clear to them. I will reveal to you that one of the policemen who was involved in the murder of their own officer, used to carry a Bible in his youth and would attend worship services sponsored by my mother at home. So where has his religiosity gone now?

To preserve Christ's image as one of us, as a man of God for everyone, and not for royalties, nor does he carry any qualities of being a member of the royalty, we, artists, musicians, singers, writers and I would say even theologians, could be more guarded about presenting his image to the public. 

*African Christian Art

COMPREHENSIVE VOTERS' EDUCATION

When in critical phases of strengthening our democratic processes, we need to educate our people on how best to exercise their power to vote, to choose our leaders that will sit for three or six years depending on the position. We need to be meticulous on encouraging our people to use their power to vote and not be waylaid by promises of instant wealth or instant position or whatever sweet candies the candidates could think of. 

And that is precisely what is happening at this time in our country, we are deluged with advertisements galore from flyers to tarpaulins to online ads that pull us to look at the face of this and that candidate or to get fully convinced to vote for him or her. Those candidates who enjoy the support of rich parties have greatest edge in capturing the hearts and minds of the people but is that really possible?

Only an educational strategy that will comprehensive look at the situation of the most numerous voting sector in our society, the youth, and considering their preparation to become dutiful citizens will edge out all forms of evil machinations to fool our voters into submission. 

hence, I suggest Folks that you follow the path of this morning's Ted Failon's program and see what we can learn a lot in terms of voter's education. Here are its sections, as I remember them right:

1. Students from various universities were invited to become audience -- rich, middle class and bracket c and d; 
2. Audience participation was encouraged -- both live and through texting;
3. Game section where families tried to guess the best features of a candidate;
4. The host had a panel of experts who had backgrounds in history, philosophy, sociology, and advertising of candidates, among others. These people were able to impart valuable knowledge to the audience as to what constitutes a good political philosophical background in order to become a good voter;
5. History of vote-buying in the country -- starting during the American period;
6. Although there was a deliberate intent to focus on the family, yet the program was able to inculcate that in voting, the family view is just one factor to contend with. In the end the individual has the right to decide the candidate that he or she prefers to put up as official; and

 In the end, the program came up with 79% intelligent voters who know what would be the best criteria if a candidate is worthwhile voting for or not. 

This program I think should be watched by those in the communities and the questions posited in them should also be discussed in order to deepen the people's understanding of the value of that VOTE.

Absent an educational program of the Comelec, this is the best that our country has come up so far. Salud!+

MARSO 8, ARAW NG KABABAIHAN, ISANG MALUNGKOT NA ARAW

The spate of criminal violence against women is shocking. A woman's body was chopped off by his foreign husband. A mother with children was hit in the head with a hammer by a technician who was supposed to tinker with her internet connections. A woman manager of a resort hotel was found to have been killed by suffocation in a room with four of the other visitors inside being hunted down as perpetrators of the crime. 

All these occurring in the administration of an official whose mother was the first woman president of our country. 

Bakit nangyayari ito ngayon sa ating bansa? Ano ang kasalanan ng kababaihan na tayo ay nagiging target ng kamunduhan, ng kriminalidad? Ano ang nagawa natin para sila ay magalit at gamitin ang mga mararahas na paraan para isakatuparan ang kanilang nais?

Computer war games

Anong klaseng edukasyon tungkol sa kababaihan, tungkol sa pagkakapantay-pantay ng mga tao ang kanilang natanggap? Sila ba ay nagko computer games? Kung gayon, anong klaseng mga computer games ang pinapanood nila na siyang naguudyok sa kanila para maging bayolente? Hindi ba ganun ang tinuturo ng mga war games sa computer na puwedeng mapaglaruan ninuman sa kahit na anung internet kiosk dito sa ating bansa, at ni walang restrictions kung sino ang mga maglalaro nito? Higit sa lahat, nabibili kung saan-saan ang mga computer war games na ito. 

Ano ang natura ng mga war games na ito? Sa simula pa lamang may hawak ng baril ang naglalaro at tumutugis ng kaaway. Kung ang isang tao ay maglalaro nito, ng anim na oras, tulad sa isang kiosk na alam ko, kung saan pagdating ng alas dose ng gabi, ay isang tropa na ng kabataan ang naglalaro, hindi kaya sila maengganyo na maghanap ng baril at kung mayron man ay mamaril nang mamaril paglabas ng kiosk? 

Alam natin na ang mga mata natin, kung nakatutok sa isang bagay ay nagbibigay ng ideya sa utak kung anong pagkilos ang gagawin. 

Eskuwelahan

Ano ang itinuturo ng mga guro sa mga estudyante naman upang maging maginoo sa mga babae? Sa mga high school students na nakikita ko sa ngayon, parang pinipilit ng mga batang babae na maging kapantay ng mga lalaki sa paninigarilyo, sa paglalakad kahit na ano pa ang suot nila, sa pagtawa ng malakas kahit na nakakaistorbo na sa loob ng sasakyan, at marami pang iba. 

May isang uri ng pageeksamen kung ang isang tao ay bayolente. Pa drowingin sa isang papel. Ang mga likha ay magpapakita ng kanyang saloobin. Marahil ito ang magandang gawin ng mga guro sa mga kabataan ngayon. 

Sa malaking lipunan, walang solusyon sa pagpigil ng karahasan sa kababaihan. Ang mga local governments at ilang mga simbahan hinahayaan ang mahahalay na pananamit sa loob ng sambahan. Hindi nagtatakda ng dress code at kung meron man, hindi ito naipapatupad. May nakikita akong mga ina, naka short shorts, may hawak na sanggol at akay-akay na isa pang bata. Dumami na ang kanyang pamilya at ang pananamit niya ay nagsisigurong mabubuntis na naman siya sa madaling panahon. 

Parang walang kinokonek ang mga awtoridad sa pananamit at sa mga krimeng nangyayari. Bakit ganun?

Araw-araw may poster akong pinapakita sa daan, sa loob ng jeep at bus: MADALING BUNTISIN ANG MGA NAKASHORT-SHORTS. RAPE, MURDER MAG-INGAT. Pinapaliwanag ko: kung may nakashort shorts, nakakaakit ito ng dalawang klaseng tao: isang mahilig sa sex at isang rapist. Kung rapist, tiyak, papatay ito ng tao upang hindi magkaroon ng sisigaw tungkol sa krimen niya. At kung hindi rereypin ang nakasuot ng short shorts, ay ibang babae naman ay gagawan niya ng karumal-dumal na krimen. 

Gender and Development Units

Bawa't ahensiya ng gubyerno ay mayroong Gender and Development Programs na ang shortcut ay GAD. Hindi ko alam kung ano talaga ang ginagawa nila liban sa pagbibigay ng training workshops sa mga empleyado. Pagkatapos ng training, ano ang ginagawa nila? Kung malakas ang GAD natin, tiyak hindi mangyayari ang mga krimeng nabanggit sa taas. 

Ang komunidad ng murder chopper ay magkakaroon ng posters tungkol sa karapatan ng kababaihan sa loob ng tahanan. 

Ang kompanya ng technician ay magkakaroon ng posters at training tungkol sa pantay na pagtingin sa mga babae at lalaking nagtatrabaho sa workplace nila. 

Ang otel kung saan nangyari ang krimen sa babaeng manager na sinakal ay magkakaroon ng mga pasubali (notices) kung ano ang bawal sa paggamit sa loob ng kuwarto -- tulad ng ecstacy, at iba pang bawal na gamot. Sapagka't ang mga gamot na ito ay nag-aalis ng mga inhibitions ng mga tao at nagiging mala-demonyo ang utak. 

Sa Mata ng Diyos at Tao

Una, ang mga ito sa mata ng Diyos ay mga kasalanang mortal. Dahil ayon sa Ten Commandments, ang pang-anim na utos ng Diyos ay "Thou shalt not kill." Huwag kang papatay.

Pangalawa, ayon sa batas ng tao, ang pagpatay ay isang malaking krimen na kaagad-agad na magiging dahilan sa pagkakakulong ng isang taong pumatay. Sa katunayan kahit na ang State murder sa pamamagitan ng death penalty ay tinanggal na natin sa ating mga batas. 

Kung kaya't sa mga mata ng Diyos at ng tao, ang pagpatay sa ating lipunan ay bawal. Ang mga pulis at militar ang may direktang responsibilidad para magprotekta ng buhay sa ating lipunan. Nararamdaman ba natin ang kanilang paggalaw? Hanggang saan ang kanilang pagkilos para mapigil ang karahasan sa kababaihan?

Isang kolektibong responsibilidad ng lipunan kung may mamamatay na tao. Hindi natin dapat palampasin ito. Kinakailangan ang sama-samang pagkilos na magmumula sa mga awtoridad, katuwang ang lahat ng mga non-governmental organizations. 

Ngayong Marso a-8 araw ng pagdiriwang ng Araw ng Kababaihan sa buong daigdig, 

Ito rin ang araw na pinanganak ko ang aking kaisa-isang anak na lalaki, si Eugene Zigmundo na namatay sa Singapore noong July 28, 2014. Malungkot na rin sa aking ang araw na ito sapagka't napakabata pa niya para mamatay, 42 anyos, at walang buhay siyang natagpuan sa apartment niya sa Singapore. Hanggang ngayon hinahantay ko ang ulat ng mga awtoridad tungkol sa tunay na dahilan ng kanyang pagkamatay. 

ipadama na rin natin ang ating kalungkutan sa mga nangyayari sa ating mga kabaro. 

Magdasal tayo ng taimtim na tumimo na sa isipan ng lahat na mahalaga ang buhay ng kababaihan na nagdadala ng salinlahi, na siyang nagluluwal ng buhay ng bawa;t tao upang ipagpatuloy ang ating lahi. Mag-alay ng kanta, ng mga bulaklak at mga dasal na nawa'y magising na ang lahat sa mga katotohanan.