Ninoy: Rebirth of a Rebel

Ninoy Aquino is widely recognized today by Filipinos as a national hero — the most prominent and most dynamic opposition leader of his generation. However, in the years prior to martial law he was regarded by many as a representative of a well-entrenched elite clan. He had his share of detractors and was not known to be immune to ambitions and excesses of the ruling political class.

Neverthless, during his more than seven years of imprisonment as a political prisoner of Marcos, Aquino read the book Born Again by convicted Watergate conspirator Charles Colson and it inspired him to a spiritual awakening.

Ninoy described his spiritual rebirth in his letter to a friend: “In the loneliness of my solitary confinement in Laur (Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija), in the depths of my solitude and desolution, during the long hours of meditations, I found my inner peace. He stood me face to face with myself and forced me to look at my emptiness and nothingness and then, helped me discover Him who has really never left my side, but because pride shielded my eyes and the lust for earthly and temporal power, honor, and joys drugged my mind, and I failed to notice Him.”

As a result, the remainder of Ninoy”s personal and political life had a distinct spiritual fervor. Like Rizal and Gandhi, he emerged as a proponent of the use of non-violence to combat a repressive regime. He renounced his appetite for power and sacrificed his life for the restoration of freedom in the Philippines.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

A Dog at Rizal’s Execution

Isang askal (asong kalye) sa eksena ng execution ni Rizal.

Alam nyo bang may askal (asong kalye) na umeksena sa execution ni Rizal?

Ang aso, immortalized bilang estatwa sa Rizal Park. Ang asong ito ay naisama rin sa isang eksena sa isang pelikula patungkol sa buhay ni Rizal.

When Jose Rizal was executed at Bagumbayan, a small stray dog suddenly appeared and circled the hero’s fallen body.  It was alleged that some Spanish spectators took it as a bad omen of coming misfortune for Spanish rule in the Philippines.

Defining Diokno

Last February 27, 2012 marked the 25th death anniversary of Jose “Pepe” Diokno. He was a Filipino nationalist who served as a senator, Secretary of Justice, and human rights lawyer. Gifted with a brilliant mind, Diokno is the only person to top both the Philippine Bar Examination and the board exam for Certified Public Accountants (CPA).

Diokno graduated as valedictorian of his high school class at De La Salle College, Manila, and went on to study commerce, also at De La Salle University where he graduated summa cum laude at age 17. Diokno took the CPA board examinations—for which he had to secure special permission, since he was too young.

Diokno then enrolled in law at the University of Santo Tomas. However, his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. During the war, Diokno continued his education by reading his father’s law books. When the war was over, he was again granted a special dispensation, this time by the Supreme Court, to take the Philippine Bar Examination despite having never completed a law degree.

I best remember Diokno as a human rights lawyer and activist during the Marcos regime. As a human rights lawyer, he founded the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) which offered legal assistance to martial law victims and defended peasants, tribal groups, and social workers threatened  by exploitation and military atrocities. As an activist, the sight of the old Diokno at the forefront of protest marches, braving the water cannons, in defiance of dictatorship served as an inspiration for the next generation of social activists and nationalists.

Diokno’s nationalism was both ideological and pragmatic. His life was devoted to the promotion of human rights, the defense of Philippine sovereignty, the enactment of pro-Filipino economic legislation, and the struggle against tyranny. I think he was the one who said, “If there is food, there is freedom. If there is job, there is justice.”

The Legacy of Dra. Fe del Mundo

Last August 6, Fe del Mundo passed away leaving a legacy of excellence and service to the country. Her pioneering work in pediatrics in the Philippines in an active medical practice that spanned eight decades won her international recognition. In 1980, she was conferred the rank and title of National Scientist of the Philippines.

It was the death of her older sister that spurred her desire to become a doctor to the poor. Del Mundo was active in the field of public health, with special concerns towards rural communities. She was noted for her pioneering work on infectious diseases in Philippine communities. She was also known for having devised an incubator made out of bamboo, designed for use in rural areas without electricity.

Del Mundo established the Children’s Medical Center (later renamed the “Fe del Mundo Children’s Medical Center Foundation”) as the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines. The hospital expanded by establishing an Institute of Maternal and Child Health which was the first institution of its kind in Asia. Having sold her home to finance the medical center, del Mundo made the second-floor of the hospital her residence. She rose up daily at 5 A.M. and continued to make her daily rounds even though wheelchair-bound at 99 years of age.

Del Mundo was also the first woman admitted as a student at the Harvard Medical School. This is despite the fact that Harvard Medical School began to accept female students only in 1945, nine years after del Mundo was enrolled in the school. How it happended is detailed below:

“After her graduation from U.P., del Mundo was offered a full scholarship to any school in the United States for further training in a medical field of her choice by President Manuel Quezon. She accepted the offer and chose to go to Harvard, arriving at Harvard Medical School in 1936. She was unwittingly enrolled in Harvard Medical School, an institution which did not yet then admit female students.

As recounted in her official Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation biography: ‘[Del Mundo] humorously relates that when she arrived in Boston and went to the dormitory assigned her in a letter from the director of the hospital housing, much to her surprise she found herself in a men’s dorm. Unknowingly the Harvard officials had admitted a female to their all-male student body. But because her record was so strong the head of the pediatrics department saw no reason not to accept her. Thus, upsetting Harvard tradition, she became the first Philippine woman and the only female at the time to be enrolled at the Harvard Medical School.'”

WikiPinoy: Pinoy Trivia from Wikipedia

Rizal Monument with Steel Pylon

Monumento ni Rizal na dinagdagan ng istrakturang bakal.

Alam nyo ba na pansamantalang binago ang monumento ni Rizal? Ito ay nilagyan ng istrakturang bakal kaya ang bantayog ay naging ganito ang  ang hitsura (see picture).

In Rizal’s birth centenary year of 1961, a stainless steel pylon was superimposed over the granite obelisk, increasing the structure’s height from 12.7 meters to 30.5 meters. The remodeling undertaken by the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission (JRNCC) was widely criticized. Many found the gleaming modern steel shaft incompatible with the somber granite base. Moreover, the latter seemed to dwarf the much smaller Rizal figure. Others simply dislike the idea of tampering with a popular and traditional image.

The designer of the remodeling was Juan Nakpil, who later became the country’s first National Artist for Architecture. He quoted former Secretary of Education and JRNCC chair Manuel Lim as envisioning the pylon as a convenient guide for incoming boats, and for the people lost in their way around the city.

The P145,000 shaft was removed two years later under the request of Secretary of Education Alejandro Roces and Director of Public Libraries Carlos Quirino. It was dismantled during Holy Week, reportedly to prevent any court injunction from restraining them as government offices were closed during holidays. The pylon is now located at the median of the Baclaran section of Roxas Boulevard.

WikiPinoy – Pinoy trivia from Wikipedia

People Power Stats

Alam nyo ba kung mga ilang tao ang sumama sa EDSA People Power?

During the height of the revolution, an estimated one to three million people filled EDSA from Ortigas Avenue all the way to Cubao. The photo on the right shows the area at the intersection of EDSA and Boni Serrano Avenue, just between Camp Crame and Camp Aguinaldo.

WikiPinoy – Pinoy trivia from Wikipedia

Leon Chua & Amy Chua

Si Amy Chua, author ng "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" at anak ni Leon Chua. Si Leon Chua naman ang father of nonlinear circuit theory and cellular neural networks at nagmula sa Pilipinas.

Alam nyo ba na si Leon Chua na father of nonlinear circuit theory and cellular neural networks ay nagmula sa Pilipinas at graduate ng Mapua? At ang anak niya ay si Amy Chua, kilala sa controversial na book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. 

 

Leon Chua

Leon Ong Chua (born June 28, 1936) is an IEEE Fellow and a professor in the electrical engineering and computer sciences department at the University of California, Berkeley, which he joined in 1971. Considered to be the “father of nonlinear circuit theory and cellular neural networks”, he is also the inventor and namesake of Chua’s circuit and was the first to conceive the theories behind, and postulate the existence of, the solid state memristor. Thirty-seven years after he predicted its existence, a working solid-state memristor was created by a team led by R. Stanley Williams at Hewlett Packard.

A Chinese American, Chua and his fraternal twin sister grew up as members of the Chinese ethnic minority community in the Philippines. He earned his BSEE degree from Mapúa Institute of Technology in the Philippines in 1959, then emigrated to the United States on a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned an MSEE degree in 1961. He then earned a Ph.D from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1964. His PhD thesis was entitled Nonlinear Network Analysis — The Parametric Approach. Over the ensuing years, he has received eight honorary doctorates.

Chua has four daughters; the eldest, Amy Chua, is a Professor of Law at Yale University. Another daughter, Katrin, is a professor at Stanford University, then two more named Michelle and Cindy.

Amy Chua

Amy L. Chua (born 1962 in Champaign, Illinois) is the John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School. She joined the Yale faculty in 2001 after teaching at Duke Law School. Prior to starting her teaching career, she was a corporate law associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She specializes in the study of international business transactions, law and development, ethnic conflict, and globalization and the law.  Chua graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College in 1984. She obtained her J.D. cum laude in 1987 from Harvard Law School, where she was an Executive Editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Chua has written three books. As of January 2011, she is most noted for her parenting memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Amy Chua’s parents were members of the Chinese ethnic minority in the Philippines before emigrating to the United States.

WikiPinoy – Pinoy trivia from Wikipedia

Bonifacio’s Bones

Alam nyo ba’ng nahukay raw ang mga buto ni Gat Andres Bonifacio?

In 1918, the American-sponsored government of the Philippines mounted a search for Bonifacio’s remains in Maragondon. A group consisting of government officials, former rebels, and a man reputed to be Bonifacio’s servant found bones which they claimed were Bonifacio’s in a sugarcane field on March 17. The bones were placed in an urn and put into the care of the National Library of the Philippines. They were housed in the Legislative Building in Ermita, Manila, together with some of Bonifacio’s papers and personal belongings. The authenticity of the bones was much disputed at the time and has been challenged as late as 2001 by Ambeth Ocampo. When Emilio Aguinaldo ran for President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines in 1935, his opponent Manuel Quezón (the eventual victor) invoked the memory of Bonifacio against him, the bones being the result of Bonifacio’s execution at Aguinaldo’s hands. During World War II, the Philippines was invaded by Japan in 1941. The bones were lost due to the widespread destruction and looting during the Allied capture of Manila in February 1945.

WikiPinoy: Pinoy Trivia from Wikipedia

Pacquaio: Still Pound for Pound King

Contrary to some news, Manny Pacquaio is still the official pound for pound king (see list below). Included also in the top five is fellow Filipino Nonito Donaire (#4), the loudmouthed Floyd Mayweather Jr. (#2), Juan Manuel Marquez (#5), another loudmouth whom Pacquaio recently defeated.

WikiPinoy: Pinoy trivia from Wikipedia

Pacquiao Files

Octuple Champion

In boxing, an octuple champion is a boxer who has won world titles in eight different weight classes.

Manny Pacquiao is the first and only boxer to win world titles in eight different weight divisions. Pacquiao clinched the feat when he defeated Antonio Margarito via unanimous decision and won the WBC Super Welterweight (154 lbs) title on November 13, 2010 at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Six of his world championships came from the “Big Four” (WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO) sanctioning bodies and two were from The Ring, which hands out an official version of the lineal championship. He also won world championship belt from IBO in Light Welterweight division.

Number	Name	Titles	Date	Opponent	Result	Defenses
1	Manny Pacquiao[1]	WBC Flyweight (112)	1998-12-04	Chatchai Sasakul	KO 8/12	1
		IBF Super bantamweight (122)	2001-06-23	Lehlohonolo Ledwaba	TKO 6/12	4
		The Ring Featherweight (126)	2003-11-15	Marco Antonio Barrera	TKO 11/12	2
		WBC Super featherweight (130)	2008-03-15	Juan Manuel Márquez	SD 12/12	0
		The Ring Junior lightweight (130)				0
		WBC Lightweight (135)	2008-06-28	David Díaz	TKO 9/12	0
		The Ring Junior welterweight (140)	2009-05-02	Ricky Hatton	KO 2/12	0
		WBO Welterweight (147)	2009-11-14	Miguel Ángel Cotto	TKO 12/12	1
		WBC Super Welterweight (154)*	2010-11-13	Antonio Margarito	UD 12/12	0

* A catchweight of 150 pounds was established for the fight.

Ref: Wikipedia