One of the biggest news that has recently caught our nation’s and the pinoy blogosphere’s attention is about the mauling of a 56-year-old father and his 14-year-old son, over a golfing spat, by a family of what should have been our nation’s “civil servants.”

Bambee Dela Paz tells us her personal account of how her father and brother, Delfin and Bino Dela Paz, respectively, were mauled by the mayor of Masiu, Lanao del Sur, Nasser Pangandaman Jr., his brother, and their bodyguards at the Valley Golf and Country Club golf course in Antipolo. What’s even more disheartening is the fact that the brothers did it in the presence of their father, Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) secretary, and government peace negotiator, Nasser Pangandaman Sr, who failed to stop the incident from escalating into a bloody mauling.

Regardless of who’s at fault, they should have exercised maximum tolerance and restraint befitting their positions as public service officials. True gentlemen never beat up children, let alone gang up on one.

So now, how can the secretary convince us that he can effectively manage our nation’s agrarian reform situation, as the DAR chief, if, as a father, he can’t show us that he can “reform” his own sons? And how can he effectively represent the government as a representative peace negotiator if he can’t even broker peace for a simple golf etiquette misunderstanding? He should have done a “Mayor Alfredo Lim” and come out a bigger man.

It appears that the meaning of the terms PEACE and REFORM might have been misunderstood by some parties.

Golf is supposed to be a gentleman’s game. True to what Bambee has stated, the world has indeed gone crazy.

What do you think?

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Note: For those who would wish to comment, it would be greatly appreciated it if you refrain from using other people’s identities, like mine perhaps. Thanks!

Have you ever played the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game (RPG)? I remember the good old days when my friends and I “partied” differently. We would sometimes go for a couple of days without sleep, playing extended D&D campaigns.

For D&D fans, here’s an interesting “What if” for you – What happens when Obama, McCain and the rest of today’s US election campaign trail politicians go for a different kind of campaign? One with bugbears, goblins and dragons, that is.

Here’s somehedgehog’s funny take on this - Adventuring Party Politics: The Campaign is Getting Ugly

Here’s an excerpt:

GM:  OK, the bugbear attacks you.  What do you do?

OBAMA: I send one of my 672 henchmen after it.

MCCAIN:  OK, seriously.  Why does he have so many henchmen?  I’m a level 72 ranger and he’s only a level 8 paladin.

Note: You won’t get it unless you’ve played D&D before or know who Gary Gygax, or what a Hand of Vecna is.

Cheers and happy reading! *fireball…*

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Link:
Adventuring Party Politics: The Campaign is Getting Ugly

Our country is now in a state of moral and political crisis. But it is appalling that some people have chosen to remain neutral, silent or indifferent with what’s currently going on.

Here are some quotes on neutrality that I hope might spur some people to action.

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” – (Elie Wiesel – Romanian born American Writer. Nobel Prize for Peace in 1986. b.1928)

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality” – (Dante Alighieri – Italian Author and Poet. Considered one of the greatest poets in all literature, 1265-1321)

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” – (Bishop Desmond Tutu – African Spiritual leader and Novelist, b.1931)

“People who demand neutrality in any situation are usually not neutral but in favor of the status quo” – (Max Eastman – American Author, Journalist and Writer, 1883-1969)

And so, come on man, take sides!

I don’t understand why a lot of people have been hitting on the credibility of Mr. Jun Lozada, the ZTE-NBN deal star witness. Some sectors keep on presenting arguments about his checkered past that they simply forget or ignore what the real issue is – our quest for the truth. Come on, the truth is still the truth regardless of the source.

So what if he has a lot of skeletons in his closet? If we go by this argument, then why did we, as a nation, insist on hearing out and believing other star witnesses in the past, like the Chavit Singsons, the Jessica Alfaros, etc., who also had their share of hidden skeletons or were accomplices to a particular crime? Why should credibility be an issue now with Mr. Lozada?

If I recall, Erap’s downfall and GMA’s ascendancy into the presidency was because such a star witness with a questionable past was initially vilified, then listened to, and eventually glorified by most Filipinos.

Let’s burn our brain cells to figure out how to sift through the truth and not how to bring a good (or bad) man down.