Autumn in Germany

(I scribbled this piece while waiting at the Dusseldorf airport for my flight back to Manila but had no time to upload it then.)

GERMANY - A visit to this European country has always been on my bucket list -- albeit somewhere on the bottom -- but still there.

So when my editors assigned me to cover a press conference here, I didn't have second thoughts. In a split second, I accepted. I didn't even care what the assignment was. Whatever it was, I knew I could pull off something. Even if I were to search for Hitler's descendants or compete with the journalists around the world to cover the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall, I would without doubt, take the assignment. It would be my ticket to Germany.

And so I left Manila at midnight for the long plane ride to the western part of the world.

Germany, here I come. I was beaming with excitement and not even a temperature of four degrees would dampen my spirits.

After more than 15 hours on an economy flight, I made it here. I rushed out of the Dusseldorf airport to realize the dream I had for a long, long time.

Like most dreams I had, however, there's that momentary rush you feel when you realize it. And then, the exhiliration disappears, blown away with the wind just like the cherry color autumn leaves.

That's the downside...You'd think...ok so it's done...what now? That big constant dream is suddenly demystified. There's nothing more to look forward to. It's crossed out. Over.

There is that yearning to go home soon. Suddenly I missed home like I never did in absolutely every out-of-the-country trip I had since I was 13 years old.

This is not to say I did not enjoy. Sure I did. Germany did not disappoint. It is as European as it can get -- old churches, castles, different dishes, German beer, good wine and cheese, chocolates, interesting people, efficient train system, the breathtaking view of Koblenz along the Rhine Valley from the train, the football stadium and many, many more.













The coverage, too was interesting enough. The usual corporate blah-blahs notwithstanding, I picked up enough interesting points. I was happy talking with fellow journalists from other countries, learned from them, drew inspiration from the older ones and enjoyed the interviews, too.

I even had the energy to extend my stay for several days to go backpacking to other parts of the country with some friends. And I certainly had a good time especially with all the festivities during a very historic period.

So what was missing?

I am waiting here at the airport trying to figure it out. And then a mother with a baby girl in her arms appears from nowhere. The girl, probably two years old, has curly, golden hair. She has freckles on her rosy cheeks. The mother carries her with her right hand and pushes a stroller with the left hand. She doesn't seem to mind the load. They laugh over something. The baby girl claps her hand.

My thoughts drift back home. I can't wait to board the plane.

at the abortion clinic

She doesn't want the life growing inside her. It's too complicated, she thinks. Her boyfriend, a seaman, is faraway. Another man, a computer savvy, got her pregnant.

Ana's (not her real name) story isn't unlike the stories of many women, trying to find love in the most complicated situations.

There were at least six women inside the abortion clinic. For one reason or another, they wanted to end the lives growing in their wombs.

One woman, six-months pregnant, decided to abort because her child's father broke up with her.

The operation took two hours but the pain was too much that it seemed to be more than enough pain one can take in a lifetime.

Too much. Too much, Ana said.

There's no anesthesia, too, she said.

There's just the merciless hands of pseudo doctors performing an operation which unfortunately, owing to the lack of wisdom of the government, Congress and the Church, remains illegal in the Philippines.

typhoon Ondoy

BAGONG SILANGAN EVACUATION CENTER, Quezon City - In the middle of all the dead people, a mother tries to breastfeed her baby. In another corner, a group of kids while the time playing with one another. A grandmother weeps in desperation. She lost eight of her grandchildren. A father stares at his dead son in disbelief. There is a mad scramble for hot lugaw by the door. Bags of clothes are strewn grotesquely around. Candles for the dead are burning. The victims need all the help they can get.

Budget deficit balloons to P210 billion

By Iris C. Gonzales (The Philippine Star) Updated September 19, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - The government’s budget deficit swelled to P210 billion as of end-August, only P40 billion shy of the revised fiscal gap ceiling of P250 billion for the whole year and a sharp 561.5-percent increase from the P31.7-billion deficit registered in the same period last year, the Department of Finance (DOF) reported yesterday.

Poor tax collections and higher government spending caused the deficit to balloon to P210 billion, the DOF said.

A sharp fall in revenues also caused the August fiscal position to swing to a P22- billion deficit compared with a P1.7-billion surplus in the same period last year.

Despite the widening shortfall, fiscal authorities are still maintaining the P250-billion budget deficit ceiling for 2009. “We will try to contain it at P250 billion,” Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran said.

He said the interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) has yet to meet to assess if there is a need to revise the 2009 deficit ceiling of P250 billion which is 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

A widening deficit means that the government is spending more than what it is earning.

For the eight-month period, the government’s total revenues reached P739.1 billion, 6.5 percent below the P790.3 billion generated in the same period in 2008.

One of the culprits for the low tax take was the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the government’s main revenue generating agency. The agency collected only P500.8 billion from January to August, or 5.9 percent below the P532.1 billion it raised in the same period last year.

BIR officials blamed the global economic crunch for poor tax collections, saying that this has affected businesses.

Similarly, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) also performed poorly compared to last year.

The BOC, the government’s second largest revenue agency, collected P147.1 billion during the eight-month period, 12.1 percent below the P167.5 billion it generated in the same period last year.

Revenues generated by other offices including the Bureau of the Treasury – which complete the P739.1 billion total revenues for the eight-month period – amounted to P46.2 billion, slightly higher by 1.3 percent compared to the P45.6 billion recorded a year ago.

Expenditures, on the other hand, rose to P949.1 billion from January to August on account of the government’s pump-priming efforts. This is 15.5 percent above the P822 billion spent in the same period last year.

For the month of August, total revenues declined by 20.1 percent to P95 billion from the P118.9 billion recorded a year ago.

Of the P95 billion, the BIR collected a measly P67.6 billion or 14.4 percent below the P78.9 billion it collected in the same month in 2008.

BOC’s revenues also declined by 28.5 percent to P18.2 billion – mainly due to low import volume – from P25.4 billion it raised in the same period last year.

Revenues of the Treasury also declined to P3.5 billion or 61.1 percent below the P8.9 billion it generated in the same period last year.

Only the revenues generated by other offices – comprising mainly of fees and charges collected by government agencies – registered an increase, hitting P5.8 billion or three percent above the P5.6 billion recorded in the same month last year.

Expenditures in August alone were almost unchanged at P117 billion, 0.2 percent below the P117.2 billion recorded in the same month last year.

Madam Palerma

She stands out from the crowd. One glance and I instantly notice her almond-shaped eyes, the kind that would make you look again. Her high bridge nose is perfect and her cherry red lips smiled the whole time I was talking to her. Strands of her chestnut brown hair fall just right on the forehead, concealing the wrinkles of her 81 years.

"I am Madame Palerma. I was also a journalist like you," she says in perfect English. Her voice is deep, firm and solid and not once did it show her old age. She is just right outside the door of what she calls her home -- a dark, one room shanty.

It is a rainy Sunday afternoon and I am in Valenzuela, Bulacan with photographer Jes Aznar. His task is to shoot, mine is to interview and take a video as he shoots. We reach the interior after two hours of struggling against heavy rains and tormenting traffic. I offered to take the wheel many times as I sensed his frustration but (to my relief) was always turned down.

We are working on a book project and our second assignment is to search for a 52-year old man who lives near a basketball court and a tricycle terminal in a depressed community in Barangay Mapulang Lupa, Valenzuela.

There are at least three basketball courts with a tricycle terminal nearby in Barangay Mapulang Lupa. For a while there, I didn't think we would find him.

We succeed after a few more minutes and after asking bystanders for the nth time where our mystery man could be.

Journalism, after all, is about "finding it." The editors won't really care how you find it but you better damn be able to find it -- your subject, your assignment, your interviewee, the story -- because no amount of excuse would do unless it's a matter of life and death.

That's what Madam Palerma congratulated us for. The former radio announcer, as she introduced herself, said I reminded her of her early days.

"I used to be a radio announcer. I miss the radio booth. I miss being a journalist," she says.

"It's good to see press people here. We're the same. We're the same. Like you, I was also a journalist before and I would go to different places for my assignments," she adds enthusiastically.

"Thank you for being here," she says. "We hope you can come back."

She talks of the old times. That she would go to different places in search for stories. That she laughed many nights away during her shifts at the radio booth. That she met so many people in the course of her work.

I am holding the video camera while talking to her. Jes sends me a signal that it is time go. We are off to Caloocan for another assignment.

I thank Madam Palerma for the chat. She seems so happy to see the two of us working as she used to.

"I hope you can come back and visit my house," she says.

As we drive out of the community, I think of Madam Palerma and her passion for her work.

I don't know if I'll ever see her again but I'm sure I'll never forget her face. It is a picture of a contented and proud journalist who is rich not with material wealth but with stories of her years of experience.

PCP's statement on the violent dispersal of Wednesday's protest action

PROBE, PROSECUTE THOSE BEHIND ASSAULT OF PHOTOGS

The Philippine Center for Photojournalism demands a thorough investigation into the assault on photojournalists and their consequent manhandling during the dispersal of a protest action near the Presidential Palace on Wednesday.

Even as we condemn the attack, we call on the Armed Forces and the National Police to immediately recall elements of the Presidential Security Group who were involved in the incident.

We also urge the Commission on Human Rights and the Justice department to look into the incident, which was a clear violation of freedom of expression and attack on media, for the appropriate filing of charges against those behind the attack.

There is no need for us to explain the brutality of the attack. The photographs, video footage, testimonies of our colleagues and statements of various media groups can attest to that. We can submit all these to the proper body to prove our case.

What we demand is for the government to take swift action by prosecuting those behind the assault, indemnifying the victims and assuring us that indeed there is press freedom in the country, contrary to what we have seen the other day.


We await immediate action.

Joan Bondoc
Chairman - PCP

a must see!

The photos I saw last night took my breath away. I managed to make it to the last leg of the World Press Photo exhibit at the SM Mall of Asia. The stories they tell are simple, stark and moving. It's a must see for everyone with a passion for stories and a love for photojournalism.

Exhibit runs until August 23.