Reproductive Health Bill
After a heartfelt loss against the Blue Eagles and going through the week that broke Wall Street, let’s go back to an issue which Rep. Roilo Golez of Parañaque urges his colleagues to set aside and then focus on more pressing matters. So this is not a pressing matter? Short term yes, but in the long run, maybe not.
Yes, it is the Reproductive Health Bill. Many Filipinos don’t give a damn regarding the issue mainly because anyone can easily get contraceptives from your nearest 7-11 or Mercury Drug store.
(This is a response to my previous blog entry about the financial crisis in the US which started a thread on contraceptives.)
So why did Edcel Lagman author this bill? He said, mainly “to promote information on and access to both natural and modern family planning methods, which are medically safe and legally permissible. It assures an enabling environment where women and couples have the freedom of informed choice on the mode of family planning they want to adopt based on their needs, personal convictions and religious beliefs.”
Given this, I would like to divide the use of contraceptives into two categories. One used in marriage and the other outside it.
For married couples, the Catholic Church prohibits the use of contraceptives but allows natural family planning. Some people ask, what’s the difference between the two if both ends are not to bear a child? Why not use artificial methods? If they are indeed the same, then I should ask why not use natural family planning if you are saying that it’s the same? Then what have we learned from our ethics class, the ends do not justify the means.
Some people would respond saying that it’s impossible… improbable… unbearable… It’s far easier and more practical to use artificial means. You can get it whenever and wherever you want. But as HUMAN BEINGS who possess something we call self-control, affection and true love towards the other isn’t only limited to sexual activities and can be expressed through innumerable ways. Does it sound better when someone says, he loves me, therefore he can wait instead of hearing someone say, if you really love me, do it for me?
For non-married couples, the act being done outside the marriage covenant is a sin in itself much more if contraceptives are used. Some guy may say, have sex and make a baby? No way man! That’s the point, sex is a beautiful and sacred act created by God for means of giving birth to a child and to bring a wife and a husband closer together and be as one. If the initial goal of the act is not to bear a child only to gain pleasure, then we are contradicting its true purpose and can be considered simply an act of lust.
Now, I want to ask Rep. Janette Garin and all the Filipino mothers, if you had a daughter (I don’t know if she has one), would she allow her daughter to engage in premarital sex? This is a consequence we are assured of if this bill pushes through. Even without a bill regulating the use of contraceptives, we’re going towards a culture of promiscuity, much more if we have something to regulate it.
According to an article in Philippine Star yesterday, UNICEF has a report stating that “99 percent of all maternal deaths are accounted in developing countries with 84 percent concentrated in Sub-Saharan and South Asia.” UNICEF also said that “4500 Filipino women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth every year.” If the author is saying that the solution is contraceptives in order to avoid women dying unnecessarily then I would argue that preventing them to have a child through investing in massive amounts of contraceptives is not the answer. Instead developing all the facilities needed to bring forth a child safely for both mother and child should be done.
Population is not the problem of the country; it’s mainly the government’s wrong allocation of resources and the resources you wonder where it mysteriously ends up . If Lagman really wants prosperity, then why not solve the corruption problem in the Philippines, knowing that we are leading this very unpopular competition in the east-asia region? Is it because corruption is deeply ingrained in our veins that it has become a culture, then why are we giving a chance for another culture, the culture of promiscuity and culture of death to engulf our country?
For a comprehensive discussion on contraception, you can read this article entitled Contraception: Why Not?
Highfalutin Report by Michael Fajatin
Pasado alas otso nang tahimik na magdisperse ang mga raliyista sa San Sebastian, ngunit, matapos ang ilang negosasyon, ito’y matapos na magdisperse sila, pagkatapos nito, hindi na sila nag-away, nag-away sila sa simula, pagkatapos nito’y, nagkaroon sila ng, pag-aaway na sa simula…
Confirmed Case of INFLUENZA A and CAMPUS CLOSURE
To: Academic Community
From: Br. Armin A. Luistro FSC, President and Chancellor
Re: Confirmed Case of INFLUENZA A and CAMPUS CLOSURE
De La Salle University announces the closure of the campus fro June 4 to 14, 2009 in view of its confirmed case of the Influenza A N1H1 virus. Based on existing Department of Health Guideline on A(H1N1) in schools, DLSU will reopen on June 15.
The case is a female foreign student who arrived in the country on May 12. DOH confirmed today, June 3 that the student contracted the virus.
The student has been admitted in a healthcare facility and is being closely monitored by medical practitioners.
DLSU officials have met with DOH Secretary Dr. Francisco T. Duque III and are closely coordinating with other Department of Health key personnale regarding the case.
Prior to the incident, the University has instituted campaus wide precautionary measures such as information dissemination regarding the INfluenza A H1N1 virus.
During the closing period, the Academic Community is advised to monitor flu-like symptoms, to stay way from crowds and practice good hygiene. If symptoms appear, the person should immediately seek medical attention. They should also inform the University Clinic of their Condition by sending their full name and ID number through email at clinic@dlsu.edu.ph.
The community is also advised to regularly check the DLSU website at www.dlsu.edu.ph/Influenza_bulletin for updates and developments on the issue, and announcements on the rescheduling of University events and activities etc. For inquiries, the Marketing Communication office may be reached at 526-5913 during office hours.
Living Manila
From now on, only personal stuff will go here. Everything else here;
Metropolitan Manila at it’s best (and worst).
Top 10 April 2009 Chemical Engineers
This blog is starting to look like an announcement place for board exam passers. Maybe it’ll be like this until after Mech Eng and CPA results are out. I have few friends who are about to take and some of them are bets of their respective courses to place in the top ten. Like this one, Engr. Dominic Baylas from of course, our school along Taft Ave.
Top 10 April 2009 Chemical Engineer The successful examinees who garnered the top 10 places in the Chemical Engineering Licensure Examination April 2009 are:
1 Edmark Icalina, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology – 83.60%
2 Dominic Baylas, De La Salle University-Manila – 82.90%
3 Prince Elmer Reyes, University of the Philippines-Diliman – 80.80%
4 Roy Aaron Perez, UP-Los Baños – 80.50%
5 Johnson Gamboa, UP-Diliman – 80.20%
6 Romalino Caraig, UP-Los Baños – 80.10% Krisabelle Norella Ricamonte, Mapua Institute of Technology – 80.10%
7 Hernan Barce, UP-Diliman – 80.00%
8 Jornel Lofredo Carlos, UP-Los Baños – 79.80%
9 Joey Ocon, UP-Diliman – 79.00% Glaiza Tanguilan, University of Santo Tomas – 79.00%
10 Precious Leynes, DLSU-Manila – 78.80%
Top Ten Electronics Engineers of 2009
From:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20090402-197586/Top-10-electronics-engineers
Top 10 electronics engineers
MANILA, Philippines—A total of 598 out of 2,472 passed the Professional Electronics Engineer and Electronics Engineer Licensure Examination, the Professional Regulation Commission has announced.
MANILA, Philippines—Following are the top 10 test takers of the Professional Electronics Engineer and Electronics Engineer Licensure Examination:
1. Mary Grace Ann Surnit Cabañas, De La Salle University-Manila–92.00%
2. Rolex Pedrosa Bargayo, Eastern Visayas State University (Lit) Tacloban–90.30%
3. Karel Miko Lim De Guia, De La Salle University-Manila–87.20%
4. Jhoana Guillen Eduardo Bregonia, De La Salle University-Manila — 86.90%
5. Kaiser De Asis Fernandez, De La Salle University-Manila — 86.60% (Owner of this blog.)
6. Gian Carlo Jamodiong Estorba, Xavier University–86.00%
Frank Javier Tua, De La Salle University-Manila–86.00%
7. John Elvin Sy Tan, De La Salle University-Manila–85.90%
8. Reginne Mirelli Frilles Gabito, Mapua Institute of Technology–85.50%
9. Lorenzo Miguel Adriano Javier, De La Salle University-Manila–85.40%
Kevin Joseph Del Socorro Torres, University of San Jose-Recoletos–85.40%
10. Ralph Christian Estabillo Cabello, De La Salle University-Manila–85.20%
Protected: Board Exam DLSU stuff
Do you think life has been unfair to you?
Yeah!
Did you use your fingers to click?
Can you see this image?
Now… Do you think life has been unfair to you?
photo by Lindsay Dela Paz
Freshnip.com
Freshnip.com, the site that lets people discover what’s fresh and hip in the fashion world online.
How to win in Lotto
Not Exactly. I’m not about to give you the winning numbers for tomorrow’s draw. I’ll just lay out some of my observations on the winning numbers of the Philippine Lotto. What inspired me is this system which I beat and it so happened that I thought of a way of how to earn from it. There’s nothing perfect in beating the system. There is still that element of chance and up to now I am able to beat/cheat the system once in every three to four instances.
I then told myself, if this system can be beaten, why not other systems. So I then thought of the color game in the perya where you have 3 dice and 6 colors per dice. All three dice will roll out. If your color shows up in one out of the three dice, you’ll get back your bet, if two out of the three shows your color you’ll get double, if thrice, then thrice your bet. I then computed that there is a 42.13% chance that you can get back your bet every game on the average very close to 50%. Pretty good chance and you have a 6% chance that your color will show up in two dice. So the trick is just start small, bet in every game twice in your previous bet and by the time your color shows up on two dice, quit the game and go home. If my math is correct, you will always go home winning it.
Now let’s go back to lotto. Fortunately the PCSO has a record of all winning numbers on their website. I downloaded all winning numbers and by using excel i plotted the results and found out one peculiar thing PCSO doesn’t tell us. For one instance, that is for one draw, the statistics don’t really matter because any combination can come up. But will you allow yourself to bet 01-02-03-04-05-06 in the regular 6/42 lotto. I bet not because PCSO may say that all combinations (that is 42Combination6 at a time) have a 1/5245786 chance of winning, some combinations have lesser chances of coming up in the draw, based on statistics.
I used Excel in the figure above. It has a total of 343 winning combinations since 8/20/2005 to 12/30/2008 and only 197 total winners. This is only for the regular 6/42 game which is played every Tuesday and Saturday. The first column shows the numbers. The columns shows the order of draw. Column A shows the first ball drawn up to column F which is the last ball drawn. The last column shows the number of times the numbers showed up since 2005. The items highlighted in red are the ones which showed up the most per column.
The trend is very obvious. There is a larger chance that a single digit number will show up in the first ball and a large valued digit will show up in the last ball. and each ball from second to fifth have their own biases on which range of numbers to pick from.
Again, you can use this in your next set of numbers to bet but this stats only show things in the long run and each draw is independent of the one before and after it. But still, how come PCSO didn’t tell us that we have a larger chance of winning if we chose our numbers spreadout from from digits 1 to 42 for Lotto, 1 to 45 for Mega Lotto and 1 to 49 in Super Lotto.
May I ask you again, if you were only allowed to choose between A or B to bet in the next game, which one will you pick?
A) 01-02-03-04-05-06
B) 01-07-14-21-35-42
These are just observations.
2009
My online life suffered for the past month. Or my real life suffered in the previous eleven months? I just observed that more people are logging on facebook and yahoo messenger again. Goodbye holiday season and welcome back normal life. My friend told me of all occasions, what he hates the most is New Year. Because when you wake up tomorrow, everything will be back to normal again. Students go back to school. Workers and Employees go back to work. But people like me, I still have until March to bum around. That is if I want to fail the board exams. But of course I have to push myself to study.
I consider my sked during the holidays to be heavier as compared to normal days (those which require the brain to do a bit more thinking aka studying). It became a little more hectic when I had to help out in a christmas party, in a family reunion with stage productions and all the works, aside from the regular Christmas Season when every relative hosts their own eating party starting December 15 (ehem! Birthday!) up to January 4 (ehem! my brother’s Birthday). As Bob Ong’s illustrator puts it, “LECHON KAWALI! TSITSARONG HAYBLAD! If health is wealth, dukha tayo, pero masaya naman kumain. Ika nga, ok lang di mayaman basta masaya. Bow. Isaw at Balot pah!” Me and my cousins… We have a unique way of having a good time. I buy isaw and chicharong bituka, my cousin buys balot and penoy higupin, we then get coke zero just to compensate for the cholesterol by increasing the risks of having cancer! That’s all.
BTW, I’m a fan of Chicharong Bulaklak –> Chicharong Bulaklak on Facebook
