G-SPAT

July 18 earthquake what?
GRACE BANDOY

BAGUIO CITY -- The news that shook our countrymen to the bones of a strong earthquake hitting the Philippines on July 18 was well, a lie, a hoax! Millions of pinoys have been duped again by these senseless text messages. The Brazilian asshole who predicted that occurrence should dig himself a grave right now. He should be buried under the rubbles of that very strong earthquake he imagined in his mind. Text messages or sensational news such as those should never ever be given attention to.

It’s a waste of load money spreading those texts to others, you are just scattering unnecessary panic and worries and fears. If you were one of those who texted that stupid prediction to your friends and family, kick yourself in the butt! The advances of today’s science cannot predict the most humongous earthquake. We should all know this by now.

Because if earthquakes and tsunamis can be predicted, we could have saved millions of lives and properties ever since alleged gifted people started predicting them. Thousands could not have died during the 1990 earthquake that happened in our very own city and countless citizens in China could have been saved too with the recent earthquake there.

And we could have evacuated the hundreds of thousands drowned by the tsunami in Asia just some years back. They can never be predicted, these occurrences are acts of nature no one can prevent. And just think really hard of this – what are we going to do if an earthquake is predicted to happen on a certain date? We leave our homes empty and run to safer grounds? Take our properties with us?

What safe place are we going to go that will not be affected by the earthquake? We file our leave of absences from work? Tell our kids not to go to school? If that July 18 earthquake was true, what could you have done? Could you have escaped and saved your lives? Just how the hell? I think that we could not have done anything anyway but just pray. We are at the mercy of our own fate.

We cannot seem to escape from what is meant to be. What we are left to do is to simply call upon all the gods and really, I have no idea whatsoever how we can keep ourselves protected! We go camp out at Burnham Football Field? Because today, there is no one place where we can be truly in safe hands whether we’re saving ourselves from natural disasters, from thieves, murderers, from rumor mongers, the ‘unknown, etc.

We can never be secure wherever we go. We cannot say we’re safe in the corners and walls of our homes because how can you explain the people who get robbed and murdered inside their own homes? Or we are safer when we are in the company of other people, the logic that - it is unlikely that one would be held up or ‘pag tripan patayin’ kung andun siya sa public place na maraming tao.then why all these people who get robbed or held up or murdered in public places and in front of crowds?

Places where they think they’re safe. We can never be out of harm’s way no matter what we do. We just have to wish and pray that we don’t die when we least expect it.

Sure there are ways to postpone our untimely deaths when we think we know it’s coming, like being vigilant and ready to defend ourselves anytime but we can only do so much. If it’s our time, and even if we die fighting for our life, then, it’s really our time and we just have to let it be. We can only wish that we go to heaven after hehehe.

G - SPAT

Bitter about being single?
GRACE BANDOY

My intense promotion and campaign for staying single and making the world a better place to live in is definitely not because I despise being married or that I dread getting married and having a family.

I don't, it's just that maybe my 'calling' is not the married life at all. And I believe there are millions out there too who feel and maybe think the same way. All of us are not meant to be married and have kids, that's the point of it all. I totally respect those who choose to start their own families and spend their lifetime being a 'family man/woman'.

But with all the millions of people out there who desperately need help, support and aid for their survival, there should be more volunteer individuals who would choose to dedicate their life and time in doing the task of humanitarianism.

Single or not, all of us must do our part in whatever way we can. It will make this world better today and tomorrow, so it will benefit your families too - the future of your kids.

I know a lot of people who are single at the moment, many of them are younger than me, very few are the same as my age (I'm middle aged) and even fewer are those who are older than me.

I just significantly noticed that almost of these single people I know are intent on finding the "One" for them, they're still hopeful and praying hard and sticking millions of candles on churches, performing all sorts of witchcraft and buying all the amulets they can afford to attract the opposite sex and finally find the person they will say "I do" to. Will you people just wait? If your someone special comes, then congratulations. If he/she doesn't then what the hell - it's not the end of the world!

I just think it's crazy and stupid waiting like crazy for the 'One' to arrive. Being single should be considered as an opportunity for one to explore all his capabilities and potentials. There's just no end or limit to what we can do and want to do. We are free and can do anything we want, good or bad hehehe.

We should celebrate our singleness and consider it a blessing not a curse. And what better way to spend our time and money than to share it with the needy. Of course we all have our personal whims and should give in to them sometimes.

But sharing and making other people happy (in whatever way we can) gives us a different kind of 'high'. For me, it's just the most satisfying feeling ever and i think is the ultimate of happiness.

I will have my birthday soon and I am sick and tired of people asking me why I'm still single. I just keep telling them that if I weren't a liberated-thinking individual, I would be inside the convent now. And that I want to become like Mother Theresa except for the religious vow and thing, I mean, it's possible right? The “unholy” sister.

So well, for those who think I'm bitter about married people and stuff, I'm not. Definitely not. But for the still-single individuals out there, think twice about getting married. And try to realize all the other stuff you can do out there - like, well helping others.

G-SPAT

The world needs single people
GRACE BANDOY

Ninety eight point five percent of my friends are married, 99% of my workmates are married and 100% of my crushes are married.

The only unmarried people on earth right now are the minors – those who are 11 years old and below (twelve-year-olds are considered adults now because they know more about sex and being liberated than my 40-year-old spinster aunt), widows and widowers, those who are separated/divorced and…the very, very, very few who choose to remain single for holy or unholy reasons.

And let me stress -- when I say ‘married’, it doesn’t necessarily mean ‘happily married’, because I feel that in reality, most of these married people regret they ever did it at all. Well, that’s just what I feel and conceive of them.

I tremendously sense that most of the married people I personally know are not happy at all, others are candid and admit how they wish they just stayed single (how else do you fucking explain the enormous rate of people getting divorces and annulments?!), while some of them deny it.

But of course there are a chosen few who are blissfully married and contented in the truest meaning of the word. In a global scale, I also think that more than 90% of the world’s population are already married, marrying or will marry and have their own families.

When God said “Go forth and multiply,” the world responded hastily, with gusto and never stopped since – they said ‘oh God, you bet we will go and multiply, and we can’t wait, we’re goin’ and multiplyin’ now! And we can do it forever if you wish!!’

I am so like not disrespecting the sanctity of marriage here and I am definitely not justifying my staying single forever because how else should I be writing this if it weren’t for my parents who married but it’s just that, today, people seem to be rushing into marriage like it’s the only thing to do on earth – (lahat ng tao wala ng ibang alam gawin kundi maghanap ng aasawain!) I mean what the hell?!

Just because that “Go forth and multiply” biblical phrase is the most well-esteemed and memorized commandment God has ever given, that all humanity should just literally go have sex and produce a gazillion kids?!

The world today is becoming overly populated with everybody hooking up and having kids. With that, is the inevitable rise of poverty, hunger, wars, environmental degradation, all forms of abuses against humans, crimes.

With the rise of the world’s population comes the inexorable end of humanity itself. Because it is slowly happening that mother earth can no longer supply the demands of the world’s increasing number of humans and their needs.

The end of the world is truly near if you come to think of it, the horrific effect on the environment being the most fundamental cause. We should be thankful there are people out there who are willing to sacrifice themselves to still make this world a better place to live in and dedicate their whole life to aid the underprivileged members of our societies.

Picture the world without the United Nations, the Red Crosses around the world, the Peace Corps volunteers, without the religious and non-religious groups out there who are helping the needy, the protectors of our environment and all the individuals and humanitarian associations who are helping those in need – victims of wars, the hungry, the homeless, the sick…?

Imagine if we’re all committed to support our own families and spend all our time making money and giving them the food, shelter and clothing they need?

Who will take care of the world’s growing number of kids infected with HIV? of Africa’s starving citizens? If we’re all bent on taking care of our own families and would not care about the harsh realities happening around us, this world would not be the same.

Oprah would not have been able to uplift the lives of thousands she assisted if she had five kids of her own, I swear. The world urgently needs single people and well, married people who care about the world and who would care more about the abysmal state of everyone around them.

Although there are married people out there who are doing their part in humanitarianism (most of whom are rich couples like. Bill Gates and wife, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Manny Villar and wife, and unless you can afford to help others other than your family, one can not completely commit himself to the nobility of this purpose.

So with the world’s desperate and pressing need for people who can fully consign themselves to saving our planet and the people living in it, it is quite inherent that one is single -- someone who is willing to sacrifice his or her whole lifetime to save the world and its inhabitants.

There are a billion things out there we can do with our lives other than searching for our soul mates and prince charmings, why don’t we go become heroes instead and make earth a safer place for those generations to come.

But what the hell, married or not married, let’s just all do our part in saving the planet and becoming humane. Earth Day should be everyday and charity to not only begin and end in our homes, but must swell and overflow into the homes of our neighbors near and far.

G-SPAT

Violence in Baguio dangerously high (Part II)
GRACE BANDOY

Baguio has not only become the hub of call centers and universities and English Training Centers for Korean nationals in the past years, but it has significantly become the crime capital of the Philippines too. Robberies, murder, corruption and all sorts of “panloloko” thrive in Baguio today. It’s miserable.

Sometimes you wish you don’t live here anymore. All our streets are crowded with gazillions of people whose origins we don’t know. We have no freaking idea where all these people came from and what in the world they’re doing living here in our city. This population explosion we now have will change Baguio forever and it will change our lives for the worse.

Soon there won’t be enough air for all of us to breathe, not enough space for all us to live in, not enough water – I’m just kidding of course, but this could happen and we should not wait for that time to come.

The surge of crimes in the city is probably the worst consequence of over population in Baguio. I’m predicting that our jailhouse won’t be able to accommodate all the criminals who would be checking in there everyday. It will be a hassle for our police force and additional expenditure for our local government, imagine giving those criminals free food and accommodations everyday at the expense of Baguio’s taxpayers of course.

And for those criminals who have not been apprehended, well, they will continue roaming our streets and communities committing the same crimes against citizens of this city. They will go on robbing our homes, stealing the cell phones and wallets of people walking the streets, holding up men and women and children and robbing them off of their properties and will think of every possible strategy they can think of to take advantage of other people and rob them.

And these criminals will go on entering people’s homes, stealing and killing them at their own whims. These victims of violent crimes could be us tomorrow or any day soon. Rapists will go on raping and abusing women and children, sometimes murdering them if they feel like it. These gruesome crimes are unheard of or were very, very infrequent some ten years ago or more.

Today, you hear it on the news and read about it everyday. Violent crimes are committed every single day in this small city of ours. Sometimes I think all of us will become the victim of some sort of crime somehow, we’re just waiting for our scheduled date to be the unfortunate victim. And I guess this is not really far from happening.

Ask all your friends if they have been the victim of any crime (pickpocketing, hold-ups, etc.) and I’m pretty sure 97 percent of them will say yes. But to become the victim of some violent crime (i.e. rape, murder, robbery at your own home or any attempts on you of these crimes) are a totally different story.

For most of us, it will be life-changing. It will change our ways of life, our thoughts and our actions. It’s just sad that unless a violent criminal is apprehended, all we can do as citizens who are aware of the violence happening in our society is pray and be vigilant and learn to defend ourselves when we become the victims.

We can not fight off all these criminals. They are here to stay whether we hate it or not. There’s really nothing we can do but to be wary and protect our homes and tell our loved ones to be vigilant when they are out there on the streets alone. And be really prepared when and if ever a crime would be committed against us.

At least we should die fighting until the end. And hope that we get to live again even as a ghost and haunt our aggressor until he dies of fear or he lets his conscience take over and he gets to rot in Muntinlupa and in hell for good.

G-SPAT

Violence in Baguio dangerously high(Part I)
Grace Bandoy

My utter apologies for a seemingly long absence from this paper, it’s just that I subjected myself into hibernation after my family suffered a tragedy in August and well, I have been on a personal knotty journey too during the same time.

But hey, we can’t be sad forever. We just have to get out of our rutty shells and be part of the world again so here we are. The tragedy that happened in August to us is very, very profound (for me) and is something you’ll never ever forget for the rest of your life. It has affected me gravely and has changed some of my outlooks in life.

There is an alarming rise of violent crimes in Baguio today. It’s no secret. It’s scary. It worries a lot of us. One never really knows the feeling of being scared from something that is violent unless you experience it personally – when it happens to someone close to you.

I might not be the immediate family of my aunty Mary but she’s my aunty Mary as long as I can remember.

She’s this sweet but sometimes nicely naughty and funny old woman who decided to spend the rest of her life in the Philippines when they came here for a vacation some two years ago from the United States (after staying there for nearly a decade).

She probably thought, “Why the hell should I go back there and work my ass off? I’m staying here by hook or by crook,” so dear ole’ aunty Mary stayed and lived in their family home at Hillside.

For her age of 68, she was strong and very much able. She could take care of herself. She was a super old woman. You know how some old people get – they want to be alone. I guess some of our old folks find some sort of happiness in solitude.

And like your typical senior citizen, she sometimes can be uncanny but most of the time, she’s funny and greets you in the morning when you pass by her house and she can be talkative sometimes when you get into a story with her.

I love old people, (I said it for the nth time already), they’re gentle, harmless, they are the world, they’re way ahead all of us. They know everything already while we’re just beginning to discover the real deal about life. You just want to hug them and wish that they’re always safe and comfortable and happy. Their smiles are just one of the most beautiful things on earth.

I come from a poor family but if I were rich, I’ll put up a shelter and gather all the old people being maltreated out there and cuddle all of them and make them happy. I’m not as affectionate towards the younger generations of our society because c’mon, we and the younger ones have a whole lifetime ahead of us to make our lives better, but these old people have been there and done it and the rest of their days should be spent with no more suffering, only good times and happy times.

They should not be out there begging on the streets and looking for food and a place to sleep in at night. In the afternoon last Aug. 21, my mother found the body of aunty Mary in her home, lifeless and swimming in a pool of blood. (It’s hard to think about it without shedding a tear).

She was robbed of still an undetermined amount of money and was hit in the head 12 times with a more-than-14mm iron steel bar. Twelve deadly blows to the head that even the doctor who conducted the autopsy found gruesome. He said it was one of the most violent acts on a person he had known as an autopsy doctor of the SOCO (Baguio’s CSI) department of the Baguio City Police office.

The fatal wounds to her head were all deep that it cracked open her skull and damaged her brains. No person on earth could have survived those kinds of wounds inflicted on her. She was a 68-year-old woman. She didn’t deserve that. No innocent person on earth deserves that.

It has been a shock to all of us members of her family and to our community at Hillside Barangay.
It had been a sleepless 30 days for me. No suspects, no witnesses. I have not been a fan of dead people (attending dead people’s wakes and burials, going to cemeteries, etc.) ever since my dad died (of sickness) in 2003.

But in the dark, cold morgue of the Funenaria Paz on Aug. 23, while it was freezing and it was raining like hell, I stood in front of the murdered body of my aunty Mary, cried like I never cried before (not even the way I did when my father died) and swore that I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure she would not have died in vain.

Whoever did that will pay. Justice will find a way somehow. It’s hard not to think about it and think of my aunt and miss her. It’s unacceptable and this heavy feeling is still difficult to shrug off. One cannot fully recover from something like that.

It makes me wonder how it all became like this. Sometimes we think we’re invincible, but that murder should be a wake up call for all of us that no one is safe anymore. Not even in the comfort of our own homes. And it could happen to us anytime. Is this what Baguio had become?

The a--hole who did that must not be out there free as a bird for he or she could commit the same crime again!! For any information regarding the incident please call Police Station 4 at 443-9114 or text 0928-672-7418 (All information would be kept confidential).

G-SPAT

Marriage and all its gory: Why we should all remain single
Grace Bandoy

There are a couple of hundred reasons why I’m still single at my not-so-young-nor-old age, and I’m quite sick and tired telling everyone why I am. Really, I don’t want to get married, ever, period.

Marriage at this point, of this century, in this country, doesn’t seem to be as holy and sanctified as it used to be. Married people are breaking up everyday and it’s just making our lawyers richer – those who specialize in annulment cases at least.

These (ex) husbands and wives who obviously married for the wrong reasons, separate like it is one of those normal things that happen in our everyday lives. We should dedicate one whole column to discuss this because I swear to God one issue of this paper is not enough to talk about it. I just want to share this email message forwarded to me that made me laugh outta’ my seat. I hope you readers enjoy it and will get you thinking that there’s a whole lot of truth in it hehehe.

The e-mail goes:
You have two choices in life: You can stay single and be miserable, or get married and wish you were dead.

At a cocktail party, one woman said to another, "Aren't you wearing your wedding ring on the wrong finger?" "Yes, I am. I married the wrong man."

A lady inserted an ad in the classifieds: "Husband Wanted". Next day she received a hundred letters. They all said the same thing: "You can have mine." When a woman steals your husband, there is no better revenge than to let her keep him.

A woman is incomplete until she is married. Then she is finished. A little boy asked his father,
"Daddy, how much does it cost to get married? "Father replied, "I don't know son, I'm still paying."

A young son asked, "Is it true dad that in some parts of Africa a man doesn't know his wife until he marries her?" Dad replied, "That happens in every country, son." Then there was a woman who said, "I never knew what real happiness was until I got married, and by then, it was too late."

Just think, if it weren't for marriage, men would go through life thinking they had no faults at all. First guy says, "My wife's an angel!" Second guy remarks, "You're lucky, mine's still alive."
"A Woman's Prayer: Dear Lord, I pray for: Wisdom, to understand a man, to Love and to forgive him, and for patience, for his moods, because Lord, if I pray for Strength I'll just beat him to death."

And now for the favorite: Husband and wife are waiting at the bus stop with their nine children. A blind man joins them after a few minutes. When the bus arrives, they find it overloaded and only the wife and the nine kids are able to fit onto the bus. So the husband and the blind man decide to walk.

After a while, the husband gets irritated by the ticking of the stick of the blind man as he taps it on the sidewalk, and says to him, "Why don't you put a piece of rubber at the end of your stick? That ticking sound is driving me crazy." The blind man replies, "If you would've put a rubber at the end of your stick, we'd be riding the bus ... so shut the hell up."

G-SPAT

Reeling, seething and post-election blues
Grace Bandoy

It’s almost a month from the May 14 elections and yet I can’t seem to get over my mayor losing over a young, wealthy guy hehehe. I’m still hung over the election results, still disappointed, still mad (really mad), and still filled with disgust.

But hey, I’ll probably get over it soon, I hope. Well as if I’m not pissed enough that the people I rooted for didn’t make the election cuts, what’s really making me boil into explosion right now is the pu+@#*ang usok ng mga smoke belchers in Baguio.

One hundred percent of vehicles in Baguio are smoke belchers, even the so-called luxury fu#*ing cars and shitty new model SUV’s are spewing poisonous smoke causing lung cancer to all of us poor people inhaling them.

And all the pun*#!tang jeep and taxis I ride on are no exceptions. Isn’t it alarming that the cases of lung cancer in non-smoking individuals in our country are soaring? Second hand smoke they say is more fatal than smoke breathed in by the smokers themselves, just imagine the amount of smoke you inhale everyday when you ride a jeepney going to work or school and when you’re walking the streets.

It’s not a wonder anymore that the lifespan of urban dwellers is way, way shorter than those living in more environmentally-friendly areas. City-dwellers die younger than those living in Mount Napulawan.

It’s not only the food we eat, our contaminated water, our materialistic lifestyles, it’s also (I mean it plays a huge part) all these deadly smoke we inhale everyday into our body systems.

The departments of Transportation and Communication, Environment and Health should do something about this. We cannot just stand here and acquire lung cancer involuntarily, against our will and become unhealthy when we can live better.

My father died of too much smoking and I swore off cigarettes and hated the smell of cigarettes ever since. I was even really passionate of putting up an anti-smoking crusade because the DOH dumped their yosi kadiri program already. But when you’re a person earning minimum wage and can hardly support your own material whims, putting up crusades and foundations and doing humanitarian work is shelved until you win the lottery even if as I say you are passionate about it.

But these vehicle smokes I swear to God are really triggering me to do the unthinkable. Like I don’t care if I die trying sending all these smoke belchers running to their mamas crying! We should all be concerned of our health. It’s the one thing we can do something about. Health is wealth so let’s make Baguio people live longer. And let’s make a difference in this world with our minimum wages, having healthy lungs can’t wait. Email: grazerb@yahoo.com, text 0918-926-3382

G-SPAT

Earth Day everyday
Grace Bandoy

The world celebrated Earth Day last month, a once-a-year special event to commemorate the importance of preserving mother earth and all its glory. I think it’s too bad that we only get to think of doing that once in every year. Shouldn’t we all be thinking of protecting our natural environment everyday? We should, especially now that modernization is rapidly taking over our natural lands, air and waters.

How can we not think of protecting the very core of our very own existence? We cannot live without clean water, clean air and without land from which all the other living beings on earth stand on. Nothing on earth can live without these three and yet majority of us totally disregard the importance of them. We are so engrossed with our own selfish material lives that we forget the things that are most important – cliché – but it’s true.

Earth Day should be everyday. And let us not depend on concerned authorities to do the saving of Mother Earth. Let’s celebrate Earth Day each and single day in the smallest ways we can.
Segregate your garbage, if possible do not use a lot of plastics and Styrofoam materials, plant trees and vegetation in your homes, conserve water, teach your kids to love mother nature so they can grow up to be our future environmentalists and allow them to bask outdoors so they can appreciate our natural wonders more, and well, you can try and support the people who are protectors of our environment.

There are things we can do, a lot actually. Let’s recognize that having a clean environment will keep us living for a longer time and it will do good for the generations to come too.
Especially in Baguio where our natural environment is fast disappearing, let us not let them disappear totally. Let’s do something now before it’s too late for our city and for us.
* *
The result of this election is crucial for the re- making or further breaking of Baguio . It is make or break. It’s no secret, I mean it’s here for all of us to see, that Baguio is changing for the worse and definitely not for the better.

If you think that overpopulation, more crimes, gross air pollution, more malls is for the better, then you must be some shitty person and you don’t give shit about Baguio and you don’t love this city at all.

Right now, Baguio is all about preservation and not further development. Just what the hell will it take for us to realize that?! Please wake up Baguio people and save the city now!

G-SPAT

Progress ruined Baguio – no more progress please
by Grace Bandoy

If you are a true blue Baguio baby, you would hate Baguio today. I do - a Baguio girl to the bones and I hate what’s become of our city.

Sure there’s nowhere for Baguio to go but the city it is now. Every place on earth has to become progressive and “citycized.” We cannot be a humble barrio forever. Baguio should be developed and made a hotshot city. Those are all the shitty stuff we were made to believe. And boy did we fall into it all.

Now Baguio is progressive but we are not happy at all. We are sad because the progress we thought was good was the very same thing that ruined our beautiful city. And we can’t bring the same old pretty Baguio back.

It’s really sad, it can even be depressing sometimes. A day doesn’t pass when I walk around our streets and don’t ask how Baguio ever became like this.

Baguio is so small. One can ride around the whole of Baguio in three hours, walk around it in seven hours. Baguio people know almost everybody else. You go to church on Sunday at the Baguio Cathedral and you run into all your friends and relatives and neighbors and crushes.
You walk around Session Road and you bump into all your schoolmates. It was a very friendly city because everybody seemed to be friends or acquaintances. Now you go around Session Road and it would be a miracle if you run into someone you know, even if you walk around there everyday. Strangers dominate our streets, they have outnumbered the original Baguio occupants. They even act like they own Baguio.

I really hate it in here right now. It has become over populated. All our mountains and forests and water reservation areas have been sold to rich a -- holes who have the money to build huge houses on them. All our raw lands are being made into subdivisions with houses and houses everywhere. And to top that are the gazillions of vehicles producing deadly smoke rule our streets.

Baguio’s sidewalks are overflowing with beggars and pickpockets and perverts. There’s no room to breathe in the central business district – what with all the malls and pollution and sidewalk vendors and countless shops and dense inhabitation.

Now, we are fast-becoming like Manila – center of pollution, hang out of beggars and squatters and criminals, hub of city-living-hungry people, mall rats, Muslim communities, punks, etc. – a melting pot of people from everywhere who don’t care whether they’re making Baguio a better place to live in – they just don’t care if Baguio is dilapidating as long as they’re living in here.
We need to preserve the very few natural beauty Baguio is left with. No more malls, no more cutting of trees, no more building of overpasses and flyovers, no more selling of lands and mountains.

We’ve had enough of that shitty thing called progress already. Stop progress now. If you love this city don’t vote for those who want more progress for Baguio – Baguio doesn’t need progress at all, not anymore.