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Keep Cory Aquino’s spirit alive

““If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever.”

cory aquino

Cory would have turned 77 years old today. In a speech that Noynoy Aquino delivered at her birthday mass, he said

Perhaps if we try to keep her spirit alive in our own daily struggles, we would realize that she did not really just leave us. She is in our dreams of having a government that works, that makes justice and a decent life accessible to every citizen. She is an inspiration on so many levels.

For those who have lost loved ones, their lives continue to live on in our hearts, in our memories, through our work and advocacy. This blog is a testament to my love for my son, to my father, my mom and two brothers who have gone before my dad. By being of service, I keep their memories alive.

I looked up to Cory Aquino for having the courage to fight a dictator and restore a democracy. I am forever grateful for that.

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It’s BB Gandanghari not Bebe Gandanghari

Bloggers’ meet with BB Gandanghari is on Saturday, March 14 at Mag-net, Bonifacio High Street, at 3-5 PM. You can Sign Up Here



I am absolutely charmed by BB Gandanghari. “Call me BB” as she hugged me. I found out that it is spelled BB not Bebe. BB is actually derived from her own motto Be all that you can be or be all what you want to be and from her first name, Binibini. The Gandanghari came from a family name of a UST beauty queen which caught her attention and thought it was perfect for her. She is beautiful, much prettier in person than photos shown in newspaper and magazines. With just light powder on her face, lipstick and faint blue eyeshadow on her eyelids, BB looks like a sweet schoolgirl. “I want my skin to breathe”, she says. Simple , classy and bubbly. Her happiness shows in the glow of her face and the smile that escapes her lips. It must be her newfound peace that makes her look and feel beautiful.

Before Dine and I started our interview, BB was more interested in us and started to ask questions about our blogs. You can see the concern in her eyes as she asks about the circumstances on how my son died. It was like talking to an old friend. No awkwardness, no airs.


I took photos of BB as we continued to banter about her new life and before the video interview. How absolutely charming! She flashes a smile now and then, an aura of happiness surrounding her that I can feel the positive vibes. I see nothing pretentious about her. I was with her for over 6 hours. She is BB.
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A Filipina Teacher Hired to Teach in the USA

My Cebu-based 44 year old, sister-in-law is leaving for Louisiana, USA on Thursday as a special education teacher for a suburban public high school. It came as a pleasant surprise to her. The US hiring agency informed her of an opening on July 4. She got interviewed via Skype by a panel of 10 where questions like “How do you apply technology in the classroom?” and others were asked of her. Distracted by the faces floating in the Skype window, she minimized it and focused on the camera to make eye contact with the school staff. She made the cut and from then on, a flurry of documentation fell into place . Her H-1 visa was released last thursday. A total of $3,000 placement fee was all she paid to the US-based agency.

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Mayen’s Story on Alleged Scam

If a Tim Cumper alias Ellumbra or otherwise known as Timothy Ellis Cumper or Grabbadabba via Twitter talks about me and other bloggers in a negative light, this is the story. Tim Cumper believes that he was scammed, fooled by Mayen, Tierra Maria Estates and a group of people since October 2007. It is almost 2 years after and he is in pursuit of bloggers who have written about this.

Read the bloggers entry on Tim Cumper Watch.

What do you get when you fall in love?
A guy with a pin to burst your bubble
That’s what you get for all your trouble.
I’ll Never Fall In Love Again

Mayen Betita paused to sing their love song, “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again”. She giggled and placed her hand on mine as if placating the pain from narrating the harrowing events leading to the breakup with Timothy Ellis Cumper (also known as Ellumbra or Tim Cumper) her ex-boyfriend, a UK national.

mayen and me

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International Women’s Month Celebrates The Filipina

she-ka guestingIt seems FilipinaImages.com is getting more attention these days. Perhaps because March is International Women’s Month. The black “Yan ang Filipina” shirt customized by wikipilipinas refused to fit me. I felt like a “suman”. So I ditched that and wore something that won’t make me look ten pounds heavier on TV. I had to drag my lethargic body at 6:00 AM thinking the She-Ka TV magazine (aired over NBN 4) was at 7:00 AM. At the last minute, the show was pushed to 8:00 AM. It was worth it.

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WikiPilipinas Filipina Stories, A Contest

Awarding of the Winners of the WikiPilipinas Filipina Stories

Date: March 28, 2008
Time: 11-12:00 Noon
Venue: SMX Convention Hall # 3, SMX Convention Center, beside SM Mall of Asia, Manila
Map: Click on thumbnail

smx_map1.jpg

This is our tentative program for the March 28 event, 11-12nn

1. Opening Remarks
2. About Vibal Foundation
3. Empowering Women Through Internet
4. Walkthroughs: Filipiniana.net and Wikipilipinas.org and Filipinaimages.com
5. Raffle iPod Nano
6. Announcement of Winners
7. Closing

Wikipilipinas will host lunch in a restaurant in Mall of Asia after the program.

wikipilipinas.jpgDine, Gus Vibal, founder of WikiPilipinas, his staff and I met up last week to discuss ways to support their first online Encyclopedia of Philippine Women that they started in WikiPilipinas.org. I believe Gus is truly sincere in his WikiPilipinas’ vision to be ““the largest Philippine knowledge database”. I mean, Gus pratically invested a lot on WikiPilipinas. (A few sponsors helped though).

Dine, Lorna, myself and most of you will agree that we all want to raise the profile of the Filipinas, and be part of a larger movement in uplifting the status of Philippine women. I believe that WikiPilipinas is sincere in their mission as we all are. Here is our collaborative project which I hope you will be a part of:

230px-Filstories1.jpgIn line with the principle of honoring the diverse, beautiful, and powerful image of a Filipina, WikiPilipinas will launch a special portal Encyclopedia of Philippine Women inside the site which will compile and detail the achievements and triumphs of Filipinas everywhere. Its sister site Filipiniana.net will also have a Philippine Women Microsite containing documents discussing Filipino women, as well as selected texts from the oeuvres of Filipina writers. Through a combined effort for advocacy, WikiPilipinas partnered with Filipina Images to help promote a more empowering image of the Filipina. By having an online platform to showcase Filipina intelligence and talent, surely the goal will be closer.

To promulgate the advocacy, WikiPilipinas and Filipina Images websites will launch ““Filipina Stories,” a writing contest with the mission of uplifting the image of the Filipina.

Check the prizes and mechanics of this contest.

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