crap. im so sleepy. havent slept properly the past few days because of work. now i remember why i used to hate my current job.

havent had a time to finish any entries of mine. theyre all there. gathering electronic dust. couldnt make any coherent thoughts aside from If-loops and Do-loops.

but then again, ive noticed the same thing with other bloggers. i guess life caught up with us.

if your personal problems havent put your e-life on hold recently, im sure the 40 pesos to the liter gas prices did. no more spare change for that internet access. did i mention that im spending 100 bucks a day for my transportation? and that's by taking the public transports.

if i drove, itll probably cost me 200 bucks a day. oh well, that's 200 x 365 reasons not to take those driving lessons.

i guess my prediction for the gas prices breaching the 40 peso mark came a few months late, but hey, at least i got it right. with that in mind, im predicting im gonna get laid within the week. that way, it'll probably happen by december.

ok. time now for a very long rant.

have you heard yesterday's news about both Houses repealing the death penalty? cause for a celebration dontcha think? so why dont we whoop it up with every anti-death penalty peep out there. yey for the rapists! yey for the cold blooded killers! yey for the hired killers and assassins! im so happy for you guys.

imagine that, you get scott free for ruining not only the lives of your victims, but everyone else around them, not to mention the lives of your family as well. not only that, but you get free board and lodging for the rest of your life. and you also get free meals. tax free! you also get privileges like conjugal visits. no more motel fees! and if you manage to impregnate your wife, no one can blame you for not giving child support.

pretty enticing, non? makes me wanna start on my own career as a serial rapist. ill probably start with the daughters of those politicians.

dont get me wrong. im not really pro-death penalty. it scares the shit out of me. im dreading the time i'd sleep with a crazy girl (crazy, not the mentally handicapped, ok?) and  i'd do something to piss her off. she could shout rape and id be blogging in a cell about getting laid all the time by my male co-prisoners while waiting for my chance to get pricked by another object entirely.

but i dont see imprisonment as an actual punishment as well, especially for the really grave crimes. dont get me wrong. it IS punishing to live in such conditions especially for a soft, privately-schooled, never-done-hard-labor guy like me. but those people who actually commit gruesome crimes thrive in this kind of environment.

the anti-death penalty advocates always reasoned that since its imposition, the death penalty has never deterred the commitment of crime. ergo, there's no need for it. its useless.

well, of course its useless. with a decade since its enactment into law and a thousand convicts waiting in line, only 9 people were actually executed. 

with such a lame-ass excuse for enforcing laws, its no wonder people continue to commit gruesome crimes. i mean, if you try killing someone, if youre good enough at hiding, you could probably hide out for the rest of your natural life. if not, you'll probably get caught after a few years. then, your trial would probably take a decade or so. after getting convicted, you'd queue up with the other thousand convicts ahead of you. and with a going rate of a person per year, you'd get the lethal injection a thousand years later.

so if you wanna live past your 1,001st birthday, you better start acting like a model citizen.

let's try to argue their point. a few months back, a guy was freed from jail after serving 40 years in prison for killing someone. a month later, he killed a neighbor who teased him.

i dont know about them, but if this guy was given the injection, i would think that would have deterred him from killing his neighbor. but that's just me. i'd ask his neighbor, but i dont know where the guy's interred.

how about this particular news last year (or so)? a manager was wondering why one of her people was conspicuously absent when she lived in the condominium just across the street. she asked one of her people to call her home number but no one answered. that's when everyone got worried. she was missing. later, she turned up dead. right after she was sexually abused. imagine that. 5 minutes between the safety of your office place and your home, and you can still get killed nice huh?

and how about that other girl who was riding a jeepney. a guy tried to steal her cellphone, she resisted, so he shot her in the face. point blank. if you just want her phone, why do you have to shoot her in the face?? wouldnt a buller in the leg do??

and i think that guy is still out there. he probably still has a gun. and any one of us, a potential victim. and even if he gets caught, who's to say he isnt going to kill again? you think he'd reform while he's in jail? He's supposed to sober up living in an environment full of stonecold killers?

but then again, who's to say he wont reform? well, the victim for one, being dead and all. and then you'll say, a life has been lost already, why take another one? well, what about the future children of the victim? wont those count? potential lives, lost because of a murderous and delibrate action of a person?

then you'll comment on lives that might be positively affected once he reforms. but what about the ruined lives of the victim's family? does the potential outweigh the actual?

ifs. assumptions. presumptions. all wishful thinking. but one hard fact remains: the killer took more lives than he actually killed.

so i ask: why do we treat them humanely, when they were ghastly in their treatment of their victims? why do we handle them with iron gloves while their victims lie in iron caskets? a jail term for the guilty, and to the family of the victim, only an affirmation, that yes, this person killed your loved one, and he shall linger in a cell as punishment. that is your justice. lame and unfair.

so a desperate person, whose loved one was brutally murdered, would be convinced to kill those responsible and every single relation of theirs because he knows he'll only go to jail for it. revenge for a jail term? ill bite.

i wont deny that half of those sentenced to death are innocent. and it is that fact alone which necessitates the repealing of the death penalty law. none other.

but to use the argument of life being sacred is hypocrisy. held at gunpoint, threatened with death, are you not allowed to kill in defense of self and others? so by killing these people now, arent we defending the lives of future victims?  the value of a life depends on who you ask. is the life of a killer worth more than the life of an innocent? is his life worth 2 innocent lives? 3? 4? more?

people forget that the death penalty law is both a prevention and a cure. it is there to tell everyone that you cannot commit so brutal a crime and expect to get away with it with nothing but a lifetime vacation in a maximum security prison. and if individuals cannot be prevented from committing a heinous crime by its existence as a law, then it should deter them from committing similar acts again and with finality.

the only way this law can be efficient in preventing crime is if we enforce it. and in order for us minimize sending innocents to their deaths is to impose it only for crimes that are truly heinous; crimes that clearly prove that there is no humanity left in the perpetrator and thus  should not be treated humanely.

rape with murder should be chief among them. so are massacres, multiple murders, assassination and unlawful executions. the brutality of an action should also merit a death sentence, such as torturing a victim causing death. the way a brutal act has been made should also be considered, such as shooting a person in the face, which clearly shows that the intent is to kill someone with no chance for survival, burning a victim, mutilation, etc.

these are not ordinary killings. these are real heinous crimes that violate the dignity of the human person and can only be committed by  a truly deranged individual. people who are capable of committing brutal crimes like these should never be considered psychologically fit to exist in a society. by their very actions, they have shown that they do not deserve our compassion and humane treatment and that their guilt is beyond any doubt.

then, we should also re-evaluate our penal system.  how can you call putting a person behind bars a punishment? you ristrict their movement and other rights, but where is the punishment there?

of course i dont condone physically, mentally or emotionally assaulting a person for their crimes. but punishment is consequence for a crime committed and not just for the protection of  the rest of society. thus, it should be of sufficient gravity to prevent repeat offenders.

proper punishment would be hard labor resulting in monetary compensation for the victim or his family. that or other tasks deemed difficult or risky. this will lesting government costs for maintaining penitentiaries.

another issue would be the apparent lack of a process for reform. without a sufficient reformation process in place, we might as well give them a gun on their way out of jail, because im sure, with their criminal record, they wont be able to get a decent job and would surely resort to criminal ways. proper psychological evaluation should be given for parolees and convicts who have finished their jail term to determine if they are fit to rejoin society.

of course, there are other issues i am not adequately trained, experienced or fully informed to deal with. but it doesnt take a sociologist to realize that an ineffective deterrant is better than no deterrant at all. the correct implementation and effective enforcement of an efficient law will always work for the good of any society.

so while a better law guaranteeing the safety and well-being of our citizens is established, we should always consider the positive effects of staying the death penalty law. this law was put in place for dealing with criminals. if you are a law abiding citizen, then there is nothing to worry about.

If youve been keeping in touch with the news recently, then you'd know that the 2006 budget wasnt passed. So we're back to using a re enacted budget.

Too bad. I was wondering what the effect of the Senate giving the PCGG and DAR zero budgets would be. That would mean the President realigning her own disposable funds in order to fund these two agencies. Thus, less monies for her to spend on her bid to remain President and as future PM.

Obviously, Malacañang is aware of that, thus the statement that the President would veto the Senate version of the budget. All or nothing, that's what theyre saying. Now that's the purpose of the Senate, as a check and balance. Otherwise, the President having bought the support of the Lower House could pretty much do anything she wishes. Now that's a scary thought not brought up in the Charter Change train theyre riding.

Anyways, the biggest chunk of the 2006 planned budget goes to paying off debts, around a third of it. Next would be the DepEd.

Now, it's pretty nice that we all agree that Education deserves all we can afford to throw at it. What's so unpleasing, is that despite our expenditures, barely 2 out of 100 public high school students can pass the national exams.

Part of the problem of course, is the quality of education which obviously starts with the teachers.

A lot of teachers nowadays teach subjects they havent majored in, around 40% as i remember. So somewhere out there, you probably have a PE teacher teaching Music or English. Around 80% of Math teachers are actual Math Majors, the rest, I have no idea.

With most of the budget going to building new classrooms, our teachers dont get the chance for trainings. So once out of college, theyre only teaching the things that they have learned and nothing more. No new techniques. No new curriculum. So if your teacher's around 50, whatever you learn is probably around 30 years old already, which is ok if its History.

Another is of course the lack of classrooms. With the ballooning shortage, a single classroom is split into two, with two teachers teaching at the same time around 50 to 75 students each. How you can actually learn anything is an absolute mystery to me. And with each teacher dealing with more than 50 listless kids, they wont be able to focus on the ones that need the most attention. so they just continue teaching and get through the period hoping the kids actually learn something.

Of course, a big part of that problem is the lack of teachers. With meager pay (around 8k-12k even for the most veteran of teachers), you wont see Education graduates eager to fall in line for the thousands of job openings in the public education system.

Thus, when it used to be that teachers need to work during the morning shift or the afternoon classes, theyre now forced to work both shifts. At the same salary. Which theyve been earning for years now.

So while jeepney drivers are able to meet the rising cost of fuel prices, parts and maintenance with fare hikes and fuel discounts, our overworked, severly undercompensated and oftentimes overlooked and unrespected teachers have to make do with the same salaries theyve been earning for years.

and while this government constantly praise the OFW being the new heroes for infusing our economy with much needed remittances, they overlook our teachers who have stayed behind to teach children whose parents are overseas earning 10 times than they do, sacrificing their own families and ignoring their needs.

I dont know about you, but i dont see what's so hard about being away from your family and earning thousands of dollars and providing them a good future as compared to being with them and seeing them go hungry and blaming you for not being able to provide for them.

So what does the government do about the problem our public education system is facing? They allocate more money for it, only it's still not enough. We're still way short with classrooms. We still lack teachers by the tens of thousands. Our teachers are underpaid and overworked, and the quality is deteriotating fast.

The problem here is the apparent short sightedness of the people in power. That they believe the best way to overcome an obstacle is by throwing money at it. Which is ok, for the short term. It's a band aid solution for a gaping wound that's bleeding the country dry.

The real problem isnt a shortage of classrooms, or the lack of quality teachers. Face the facts. We have too much students. We're severly overpopulated. And in the coming years, the trend isnt going to change unless we deal with it.

Politicians consider population control as a sensitive issue because of the influence of religion on the Philippine citizenry. But in truth, its not. All it takes is the political will. Only, we dont have anyone who's willing to risk their political ambitions for it.

We need a population control policy in place. A plan that will tackle the problem head on in the shortest time possible. Otherwise, our unwillingness to deal with our population problem will be the pebble that will cause an avalanche that will bury all of us. In the future, no amount of budget can deal with the education problem, our social services will be non existant, health services will be overwhelmed, unemployment will increase, new graduates will no longer be able to find a job here, we will need to import more basic goods and spend more to subsidize them, poverty will worsen, the crime rate will increase and sooner than later, desperation will trigger civil unrest and dissent. We will be tearing our country apart. Who and what will save us then? Religion?

The right choice isnt always the popular one, but it needs to be made. Soon.

most people would compare life to a road. it has a start and an end, forks signifying decisions, a direction, bumps and pits representing turbulent times, milestones, and so forth.

but for myself, i see life as an ocean, vast and endless, with islands signifying a goal, a state, or the end of your journey. like the ocean, life is overwhelming. while there are clear-cut goals within reach like education, others are further on. we can perceive them in the distance but we dont know if we can reach them or even how to get there.

like life, there is no clear direction to take. we can be paddling our entire lives and still be unable to reach an our goal. Without a God-given sense of direction or help from others pointing the way, we could waste our entire lives out at sea.

and like the ocean, our lives can be turbulent or calm.

for the past two weeks, my ocean was turbulent. chaotic. i felt lost at sea during a storm. i wasnt scared, but i did feel alone. i felt overwhelmed by the overpowering wind and the towering waves.

i did what i usually do best: ride it out. there wasnt any other option, really. things happen and we rarely can do anything else about it than to weather it out. we hope to survive. we hope that we have been prepared enough for the troubles that come our way.

so as the winds died down, the waves flattened a bit, i sighed in relief and took courage, figured out where i am, what i have lost, what has changed and continued on from there.

a few of us are lucky to have friends and family who would be our anchors. a few of us find comfort in a God who will still the angry waters.

to those of us who have them in our lives, no matter how far we've gone in pursuit of our islands and our ends, never let them go. they will never fail us.

No wonder PGMA once said that it's God's plan for her to be President of the republic. The entire clan's so full of it.

And not content to have one saint pulled into their clans, theyre directly moving for more of their ilk to get beatified (no offense to the dead). The Arroyos have managed to take the padrino system to a whole new level.

With their tremendous skill of getting their people into power, they think they can now do the same thing with heaven. Amazing.

I think im gonna pop a vein here. I need to get some rest.