Garbage greets the New Year (and what PH destination is on NatGeo's list)

TSK, tsk. Will people ever change? Why is it so difficult for us Filipinos to segregate garbage, or just throw refuse in the proper disposal bins? Leaving garbage strewn about is so 80s!

Magbago na sana tayo...2011 na!

At the Rizal Park, this photo from BusinessWorld:


Caption reads: A family that eats together... doesn’t mind the garbage. Filipinos flocked to Luneta Park in Manila yesterday (Jan. 2, 2010) to enjoy the last day of the New Year break. Photo by JONATHAN L. CELLONA

While in Boracay Island, this photo courtesy of the Boracay Chamber of Commerce and Industry:



This is the stinking garbage of EPIC, a new club in Boracay, sitting on the beach pathway on Jan. 1, 2010, after its New Year's party. The club is located on Station 2, where Hey Jude! used to be, and is owned by the same people who set up the controversy-riddled Embassy at The Fort, and now Republiq at the Resorts World. Why am I not surprised that these guys have bad habits?

This island will continue to die w/ irresponsible entrepreneurs from Manila let loose.

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AND this is probably why, Boracay will probably not make it to any foreign publications' travel list this year. It has become ordinary. Commercially overdeveloped, noisy, and dirty. I used to call the island my second home in the mid-80s to early 2000s. Now, it's just so sad to go there esp. during peak season.

But at least there's still one Philippine destination that made it to National Geographic's 20 Best Trips of 2011. Palawan.

On the main island (also named Palawan) near Sabang, hike the three-mile (five-kilometer) Monkey Trail to Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park's navigable underground river. The five-mile (eight-kilometer) coastal rain forest route is home to long-tailed macaques, blue-naped parrots, and other indigenous wildlife. In the province’s northern Calamianes islands, Coron Island is considered one of the world’s top scuba diving destinations, offering World War II-vintage wreck diving and snorkeling in calm, crystalline waters. (Read the rest here.)

In case you missed it...

(Photo from the club's web site)
...Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director-General Dionisio Santiago testified in the House hearing on the "Alabang Boys" drug-bust/bribery case this afternoon that the gang also supplies drugs to that infamous Embassy Club at The Fort in Taguig. Read the story here

I suppose the club owners would be grateful for this new round of free publicity.

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Btw, Director General Santiago made quite an impression on me, as I watched him shoot off his mouth on what was wrong in the government's anti-drug program. He sounded like a long-suffering civil servant just trying to do right by his job and the public that he serves.

He spoke of how the Philippines' image in the international arena with regards to its fight against drug syndicates has been tarnished by the government's inability to make a drug conviction stick. He said there were many times that DOJ prosecutors dismissed drug charges against certain individuals. He also ranted about how the public has lost faith in the PDEA and other government agencies because of the belief that anyone in government could be bribed. (Read ABS-CBN News online's story on other dismissed high-profile drug cases here.)

(Santiago being sworn in as PDEA head)

This is the first time I've seen DG Santiago on TV so I don't really know much about him. I don't know if my perception of him is correct, because after googling him, I found out that graft charges had been filed against him in 2005, for depositing an P8-million check intended to renovate the AFP pool area. I don't know what happened to the said case. (If you go to the Ombudsman's web site, all you will read are paeans to its chief Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, as well as her speeches. In the interest of good governance and transparency, shouldn't the web site have a search feature where any citizen can log on and find out the status of cases filed at the agency? Then again, we may be asking too much considering the poor performance of Gutierrez and et al.)

According to the literature on the web, Santiago is a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy class of 1970 and as a general, once held the post of AFP chief. I hope my reading of the guy is not wrong, kasi sayang naman, we have very few trustworthy government officials under this administration.

Btw this is the same DG Santiago who not too long ago, spoke about the emergence of narcopolitics in the runup to the 2010 elections.

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Anyhoo, I didn't watch the entire Congressional hearing. I found the congressmen – except for one or two – quite distatesful. Most of them didn't listen to the testimony of those being grilled, while the rest were content on just shoving spoonfuls of food into their mouths and munch away. (Manong, 'di ka pa ba nagsawa sa kainan nung Pasko?) How very undignified. Ick.

While I don't relish watching the Senate hearings on TV either, I noticed that the Upper Chamber's proceedings appear more respectable and organized. And the senators, well, except for one or two as well, appear more decent and sane. (But yes, the Senators too eat while their hearings are ongoing although they appear less conspicuous about it. I recall last year's hearings on the ZTE-NBN controversy and remember that the only one who was annoying was one Senate staff, a chubby girl usually seated at the back of the presiding Senator. She usually chomps away at her lunch in plain view of the TV cameras. Brrr.)