Here are my prepared remarks and presentation for the meeting of the House Committee on Information and Communication Technology, held on May 20, 2015:

Honorable chair and members, good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to attend and speak at this meeting.

All the measures now being heard in this meeting deserve hearing, study, and approval by the committee, by the House and by the whole Congress:

  • House Resolution 186 of Congressman Arnel Ty;
  • House Resolution 630 of Congressman Terry Ridon;
  • House Resolution 1012 of Congressmen Neri Javier Colmenares and Carlos Isagani Zarate;
  • House Bill 2794 of Congressman Anthony Bravo and Cresente Paez; and
  • House Bill 5331 of Congressman Winnie Castelo.

Individually and collectively, these measures tell the sad or anger-inducing or patience-snapping stories of many students, parents, workers, farmers, professionals, entrepreneurs, businessmen, or congressmen. If there’s one thing aside from terrible traffic that we all suffer from together, it is the dismal state of internet and telephony services in the country. No one is spared from these horrors that should be preventable and easy to solve. 

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Pope Francis’ recent visit to the Philippines, long considered the world’s social media capital, “set several Twitter records”, despite orders of the government to take down cellular and mobile data signals everywhere he went.

By the time he arrives in the Vatican, the Pope will see that Filipinos not only gave him the biggest Papal event in history – but also made him the most popular ever on the Philippine side of Twitter as well as making his tweets coinciding with his visit to the country his most popular ever.

His Holiness Pope Francis arrives at the 250th PAW of the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City for the State Visit and Apostolic Journey to the Republic of the Philippines on Thursday afternoon (January 15, 2015). (Photo by Robert Viñas/ Malacañang Photo Bureau)
Pope Francis looks from inside his plane upon touchdown at Manila’s Villamor Airbase last January 15, 2015. (Photo by Robert Viñas/ Malacañang Photo Bureau)

In his Jan. 15-19 state and pastoral visit to the Philippines. Pope Francis spoke to Filipinos on his thoughts about issues and concerns that confront the country and the world. He called for an end to corruption and for fair treatment for the poor, and personally consoled with the survivors of supertyphoon Haiyan.

This post gathers the full transcripts, highlights and videos of the Papal remarks in the Philippines.

At a glance, here are the links to full texts of the pope’s speeches:

The pope also led the people gathered at the Tacloban Airport mass in an impromptu thanksgiving prayer after Communion.

Consumers, rejoice! The Department of Justice (DOJ) released on Dec. 12, 2014 an Advisory Opinion clearly siding with Filipino internet users against the telco practice of imposing data caps and speed throttling through so-called “fair usage” policies (FUP).

The DOJ’s Advisory Opinion practically laid out the legal basis for suing the telcos over the arbitrary “limits” they impose on subscribers who subscribe to their “unlimited” internet offers, and called on the public to file complaints with the telcos themselves and with agencies such as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

In other words, there is no legal basis for data caps and throttling, and there is a legal basis to complain and demand the delivery of promised internet speeds. 

Conventional wisdom today would say that an assembly of bloggers is like cats and dogs put together in one tiny space. We are said to be too feisty and too self-centered to cooperate among ourselves. We value our personal freedoms so much that we cannot be trusted to work together in a common cause.

Such conventional wisdom has been disproven each day and week for the past 5 years and the living reminder of fruitful and important collaboration among bloggers is the continuing project called BlogWatch, which officially turns five today, Nov. 24.

As international NGOs and funding agencies rush to provide more and more temporary and “transitional” shelters across Samar, Leyte and the regional hub Tacloban City, the people are living a life that could be considered as “the new normal”.

Only about a week prior to the first anniversary of Yolanda’s epic devastation, President Aquino approved the rehabilitation plan for typhoon-stricken areas. That’s the first thing about everything in “the new normal” — the people have to patiently wait for the terribly slow pace of official rehabilitation efforts and would have to live longer in tents and in “transitional” shelters of various types.

Day One of the Plan International Philippines (Plan) media tour brought us to Barangays 62 and 62-A in Tacloban City.

By a stroke of luck, both barangays did not sustain casualties even if a storm surge of several meters high submerged the two villages, forcing residents to cling to dear life on rooftops and go to higher ground. A number of residents  whose houses were damaged either totally or partially received aid from Plan and its partner institutions.

Thanks to newfound friends, I was able to visit Tacloban and parts of Samar and Leyte in time for the first anniversary of epic supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan).

By newfound friends, I refer to folks at Plan International Philippines, who organized a media tour mostly for journalists and for this blogger. It gave me a chance to see the pace of recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts a year after the world’s strongest storm devastated our country. By design, the media tour sought to showcase Plan’s work among the good people of Eastern Visayas: The schedules and itineraries were tight, but we all took as much as we could to get a pulse of our kababayans, especially the kids and young people.

So what did I see?

Hocus PCOS? Too many unanswered questions about how the Comelec's preferred way of automating elections actually works. (Photo from Pinoy Weekly/Davao Today)
Hocus PCOS? Too many unanswered questions about how the Comelec’s preferred way of automating elections actually works. (Photo from Pinoy Weekly/Davao Today)

Even as the Comelec embarks on a slow canvassing of results of the senatorial and partylist contests and winning local candidates are being proclaimed one after another, many are trying to make sense of the outcome of the May 13, 2013 midterm elections.

Here are my initial post-mortem notes on the polls, 13 in all