the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

the greenie patch by Jeneen R. Garcia published March 11, 2006   Last month here at the greenie patch, we talked about how crazy climate changes due to the build-up of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere can cause unusually strong rains like that in Southern Leyte. Climate change can also do the opposite and bring on hotter and longer summers that kill crops and make people sick.   As kids, what can we do to stop these things from happening? Well, let’s look at two greenhouse gases (GGs) now to see where they come from and find out how we can help NOT spread more of them into the atmosphere.   Methane (CH 4 ) comes from waste dumps, coal beds, and gas leaks. We contribute to this the most when we let our garbage rot in the dump. So what do we do?   First, we can cut down on biodegradable waste (garbage that rots) by cutting down on leftovers that end up in the trash. If we have extra food, we can give this to the hungry people on the streets instead of letting it s...

IT for palawan   Apr 7- arrive PPS from CBU, overnight Apr 8 – leave for Taytay, tour, stay overnight Apr 9 – leave for El Nido, overnight Apr 10- whole day tour to big and small lagoons, etc. Apr 11 – leave for PPS, overnight Apr 12 -   leave for Ugong Rock, tour, leave for Sabang Apr 13 – Underground River , overnight Apr 14 – leave for PPS, overnight Apr 15 – leave for CBU   bought the plane tickets today. so far, the ones who have definitely signed up are my father, and officemate vince. don’t ask. strange company, even for me.   unfortunately, the tubbataha schedule still isn’t final =( learned today that there’ll be a trip last week of march and first week of april, but i’m hoping they’ll go again 3 rd week of april so i can hitch a ride. during the wait, there's an option of going to narra and taking a tour of PPS itself (honda bay, iwahig penal colony, butterfly sanctuary, etc.). or coron. hmm....   Update on Batanes   i finished my “getting ...

March 11, 2006. and so, the raketeering for the summer has begun, even though i'm still officially employed. one of my assignments (to be done by end of march, supposedly) is to write an article on cebu's beaches, and find out specifically where tourists can go that's comfy and convenient, but not too expensive. covered around 11 resorts in 11 hours, with stops to check out some public beaches. tagging along was vince, anti-coal campaigner, who volunteered to be my slave for the day (to get away from campaign work, he said). since the car i rented came with a driver, he had to content himself with carrying my bags (cameras and all, since i'm also the phtographer for this assignment), collecting all the brochures we gathered from this first round of research in mactan, running to get things i'd forgotten in various places, and asking the questions for me when i was physically exhausted (--for several reasons, not exactly the ideal day for me to be out in the sun al...

Start:      Mar 18, '06 8:00p Location:      EDSA Shrine Jesuit Music Ministry of Jesuit Communications invites you to The Easter Journey, a free concert featuring HANGAD. This will be held at the Mary, Queen of Peace Shrine (EDSA Shrine, Robinsons Galleria) at EDSA cor. Ortigas Avenue on Saturday, 18 March 2006 at 8:00 pm, immediately following the 7:00 pm anticipated mass. Join Hangad as they sing praises and share their own brand of music, with compositions created especially for the Lenten season all featured in their latest album, The Easter Journey. As an early Easter gift to their many followers, Hangad will be giving away copies of the music scores of selected songs from the album. For inquiries, please call the Jesuit Music Ministry office at 426-1023 or the JesCom office at 426-5971 to 72 or visit Hangad's website at www.hangad.com. Hangad's music albums and videos are available at all Tanging Yaman stores: JesCom office-Sonolux Bldg., Loyola H...

this is an official invitation to a tour of Palawan . based on my computations, the food, transpo, fees, and accommodations will be P12k, but this is based on the lowest airfare from cebu, which is P5k max, roundtrip na (roughly the same for MLA-PUERTO).   departure from cebu will be april 7, around 10am. return flight, pwede april 15 if you need to go, but i plan to extend until april 19 at the earliest . basta the target sites will be taytay and el nido on the east (4 days) and ugong rock and underground river on the west side (3 days). optional are a basic tour around puetro princesa city (iwahig penal colony, butterfly sanctuary, etc.) and a day trip to narra (estrell waterfalls). and i also plan to go tubbataha.   i also plan to go to batanes via la union-vigan-laoag-pagudpud-cagayan, maybe in may, but i'm still researching on the rates.   the ideal tour group size for Palawan is six people to maximixe the boat rental, and there are already two of us (me and my fath...

i'd just arrrived from my zambales trip (as in i was still in the taxi from the airport) when my friend, james, called from manila asking if i could translate one of the songs from HANGAD's The Easter Journey album. james is the first HANGAD member who is not from metro manila/ luzon (i was the second one, but then i left =P so now he's the only one with a "southern heart"), and is in fact from cebu. since i'd just written my first two cebuano poems then, i had a little bit more confidence to say yes. so he sent me a copy of the song and the lyrics, but i was too busy to listen to the cd until last week (about a month after), when i was looking for something to take my mind off the rut i'd gotten into with my work. and when i listened to it, i couldn't help but translate it right away, even though i had so many other things to do. you can listen to the song (and my version of the translated song hehe) in my music page or check out the   HA...

March 3, 2006 - Fuente Osmena, Cebu City. When I was actually marching with them around the circle, with their flags waving, and people shouting all sorts of things, as if they were songs they'd memorized in kindergarted, I realized it was my first time to join a rally, I mean this sort of rally where you're actually in the middle of the street and people are taking turns speaking impromptu into the megaphone, raising their voices dramatically. So when I, too, was asked to speak in behalf of ALG (because I was the only representative there), I said no, I know my limits, it's not the sort of thing I can do on the spot. Next time I'll remember to translate any press statements into Cebuano first before I join these rallies =P I felt more comfortable documenting everything instead.

Lawyers say Arroyo not yet off the hook Article posted March 3, 2006, 3:41 pm Despite the lifting of Proclamation 1017 on Friday, 17 law groups under the coalition Alternative Law Groups Inc (ALG) said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is not yet off the hook. “The lifting of Proclamation 1017 does not erase the violations of constitutional rights that were committed in the short period of its implementation. The repression of civil liberties has been done and could be repeated," said lawyer Marlon Manuel, ALG spokesperson. Manuel said to stop Malacaňang’s monopoly of power, the Supreme Court should set the rule by declaring the proclamation unconstitutional so that civil liberties would be protected and abuses of governmental power disallowed. ALG lawyers said their fight against “repressive policies" has to continue and the people must remain vigilant. “Monopoly of power has no place in a democracy. Allowing power-hungry leaders to revive our past could be every Filipino’s...

Description: My fellow e-Mandirigmas, Last Friday, February 24 � as the nation was preparing to celebrate the freedom we regained at EDSA two decades ago, Ms. Arroyo issued Proclamation 1017 declaring a state of emergency, in response to a military uprising. In the hours and days that followed, it became evident how GMA intended to implement this presidential decree. We saw the excessive use of police power in dispersing the crowds. And even after the military threat was decisively contained, we saw the warrantless arrests of known opposition leaders, the closure of newspapers, and the barefaced intimidation of media owners and practitioners. PD 1017 is eerily similar to PD 1081. And the pattern is unmistakably Marcosian. Crackdown on the reds � the public has no love lost for them, anyway. Control media. And prop up the illusion of a new order after the purging. I�m glad that many, who have been sitting on the fence all this time, saw through the farce and finally came out t...

Due to illegal exercise of Martial Rule 17 Lawyer Groups File Petition at SC to Stop Proclamation 1017   ALTERNATIVE   Law Groups, Inc. (ALG), a coalition of 17 lawyer organizations has filed a petition for certiorari with a prayer for a temporary restraining order at the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of Proclamation 1017 and its application through General Order No. 5.   In the petition, ALG lawyers claim that Proclamation 1017 should be “struck down and declared null and void” because President Arroyo has illegally exercised martial law powers by “resurrecting” the 1973 Martial Law and “mangling” Article II, section 4 of the 1987 Constitution.     ALG lawyers claim that since there has been no declaration of a state of martial law and/or a suspension of the writ of habeas corpus – which could only be granted through an act of Congress within the limits of the Constitution, Proclamation 1017 has not give any extra powers to the President to pr...