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Filipino Culture

My son’s premonition of death during a Holy Week?

luijoe-cross

The Holy Week holds a special meaning in my heart as it’s during this time that my precious son talked about eternal life. How would I have known that he was preparing himself for his death?

When I die, I will be alive again“,
Luijoe (with excitement), a month before he became an angel.

A month or so before Luijoe went to heaven, he asked me questions about angels, death, heaven and graves. I don’t exactly remember when Luijoe started to ask me those things.

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This is what I wrote two weeks after Luijoe died.

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Captivated by the beauty of Palawan (Travelogue) Part 1 of 3 parts

““The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.” I agree with Helen Keller.

Nothing prepared me for the the beauty of Palawan seascapes, its breathtaking sunsets, the beautiful people and the miracle of the Golden South Sea Pearl. The beauty captivated me so much I felt dazed. Now that I look back at it, I wished time slowed down for me to take it all in.

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Photo by Jayvee Fernandez

This amazing adventure started with an invitation from Jewelmer through Yehey, their digital marketing. As I leafed through the invite I noted the ““passion for life” at the top and to join them in becoming a catalyst of change. That sounds like me. I am passionate about meaningful things in life. The invite to visit Palawan is heaven-sent. I have always wanted to visit the Philippines last frontier. The stories of travel bloggers inspired me to make Palawan a must-experience travel destination . I wanted to witness how the lustrous golden Philippine South Sea Pearl is cultivated. Lastly, I wanted to observe the livelihood projects of the ““Save Palawan Seas Foundation”, that are both sustainable as well as environmentally sound. I was terribly excited. Jayvee, Anna and I are the first set of bloggers to join this Pearl Farm tour, a first for bloggers in the history of Jewelmer.

There is so much to write about this trip that it needs to be shown in three parts: the travelogue, the beauty of the golden South Sea Pearl and the people of Palawan and the livelihood projects of their foundation.
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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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Sex Education & The Reproductive Health Bill 5043

“Doesn’t every woman deserve the right to have a safe pregnancy and a baby that’s born healthy? I believe this is a very basic human right.” Katya Matanovic

They say that it takes just one or two entries to bring hits to your blog. Three years ago, I wrote about Sex Education in the Philippines and to this day, I continue to receive search engine hits not from the keyword “sex education” but from the image keyword “sex”. I often wonder if Google had something to do with it, that they wanted people to read my entry first before jumping on to porn sites.

sex education

My stand on sex education is

We need to teach them responsible parenthood in consonance with the sex education. We don’t need to teach everything but at least give them the basic facts. Along the way, the children can do some more research on their own.

Three years ago, Phillipine Catholic Bishops Oppose Sex-Ed in Schools, Say it Should be Left to Parents. Sure that is true only if parents know how to discuss sex with their children. We can’t assume parents know how to discuss sex openly. Some might be uneducated to understand the anatomy of reproduction and thus fail to grasp natural birth control methods.

The schools together with the parents can bridge the gap of sex education but there seems to be a problem when the parents also have a lack of knowledge on reproductive health.

With the yet to be approved Philippine Reproductive Health Bill 5043 , one of the provisions of the proposed law is mandatory imposition of reproductive health education

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