Akbayan Youth to Palace: Remember Mark Chua, Don't Revive ROTC!

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Akbayan Youth today appealed to palace officials not to push through with their plans to revive the compulsory Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) for college students in memory of Mark Chua, the student from University of Santo Tomas who exposed corruption in the ROTC program and whose murder led to the passage of the "National Service Training Program (NSTP) Act of 2001" which rescinded ROTC as a pre-requisite to graduation.

"We hope Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo remembers how many young people fought for the abolition of mandatory ROTC in college, including Mark Chua who bravely exposed the corruption within their ROTC program and ended up giving his life for speaking truth against power," said Rafaela "Paeng" David, Chairperson of Akbayan Youth.

The youth group emphasized that instead of instilling discipline and patriotism, ROTC instead promoted bullying and violence in campuses. "At such a young age, ROTC exposes the youth to grueling and violent hazing practices, from physical to psychological abuse, to instill in them fear and blind obedience. Worse, it is their fellow youth who becomes perpetrators of this cyclical system of abuse. It is not love of country nor discipline that ROTC instills in the youth, but the greed for power and bullying." added David.

David also said that the program will only promote sexism and discrimination among the youth.

"If you are physically weak, feminine or gay, ROTC will force you to 'man up'! With premium on being 'macho', the ROTC openly discriminates against those who are weak or those who stand out of the mold of a standard cadet," David said.

The youth groups lastly urged government to instead bolster democratization within the school, not militarization.

"The colleges and universities must be safe spaces for the youth, where they can learn how to responsibly use their freedoms and learn how to be active citizens. Government thus must promote other citizenship-based education courses and community service programs that instead empowers the youth to act and creatively express their solidarity with their fellow Filipinos, not programs such as the ROTC that seek to silence, disempower and force the youth to conformity." concluded David.

Akbayan Youth has actively pushed for the abolition of the ROTC and has vowed to fight against efforts that seek to backtrack the reforms already achieved in making ROTC non-compulsory for college students.

DOE: Reliable Power Supply Ensures Sustained Economic Growth

Wazzup Pilipinas!

With the current power supply situation, the Department of Energy (DOE) is looking for mechanisms to ensure the adequacy, availability and stability of electricity necessary to sustain the country's economic growth.

The recent spate of Yellow Alert Status declaration by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) prompted the DOE to assess whether there are enough measures or standards for power generation companies to ensure their power plants are always in good condition and are able to meet their obligations to their respective customers. It has been observed that the lack of power supply or thinning power reserves for the past days have been due to the forced outages of various generating plants in Luzon.

Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said “We are keen on improving the power supply situation in the country. We will strengthen the policies and programs and we will work with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to ensure that all standards are enforced to ascertain reliable, stable and reasonably priced electricity, because we cannot let the people suffer from power interruptions.”

Mechanisms that are being studied by the DOE include looking into the provision of replacement power for contracted capacities and the creation of technical audit teams to assess the operations and contracts of generation companies and distribution utilities as well as strengthening the promotion of energy investments to augment the supply of electricity in the country.

Today (04 August), the power supply situation in Luzon was placed again in Yellow Alert Status following the forced/unplanned outage of various plants totaling to 1,297 megawatts (MW), including the 50MW Angat Main Hydropower Plant Unit 4, the 180 MW Kalayaan Hydroelectric Power Plant U1, the Makban Geothermal Power Plant U1 and U10 with a combined capacity of 83 MW, the 60 MW Limay Cogeneration Plant Block 5, the 382 MW Pagbilao Coal-Fired Power Plant U2, the 122 MW South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp. Coal-Fired Power Plant U1, 280 MW Malaya Thermal Power Plant U1 and the 140 MW Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. Coal Fired Power Plant U2.

Meanwhile, the power plants on planned maintenance shutdown are the 180 Kalayaan U2, the 265 MW Sta. Rita U2, the 55 MW Bacman Geothermal Power Plant and the 600 MW Ilijan Natural Gas Power Plant Block B.

Based on the 6:00 a.m. advisory of NGCP, Luzon system capacity stood at 9,805 MW, while the system peak demand is projected to reach 9,128 MW at 11 a.m.leaving reserve capacity at 364 MW. Moreover, Visayas and Mindanao grids are operating on normal condition.

The DOE also reiterates its call to the public to judiciously manage energy consumption as this matter is better resolved with everyone’s cooperation.

#DutertePleaseAppointMe Trends After Appointment of Mocha Uson at BOC

Wazzup Pilipinas!

There's a new hashtag trending in Twitter, and even in Facebook, which apparently started after shocking news about Mocha Uson being appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte as Social Medial Consultant at the Bureau i=of Customs (BOC).

However, as per BOC social media account on Twitter, Comm. Nicanor Faeldon has stated that it will not appoint her as consultant but she can write about BOC on her blog.

The information turned out to be false but it did not stop Twitter users from unleashing humor and some hugot using the hashtag ‪#‎DutertePleaseAppoint‬Me

"I will not defend mocha as she can do it her own damn self, but look at how easy it is to rile up people with nothing so much as the stench of meat. Some bit of gratification in the confirmation of "i was right, he's stupid" without confirming first or even after confirming following up on the news beat. This is why the triggered culture is dangerous. Opting for outbursts of opinion rather than dialogue, digging deep into the the toolbox of the old conservatist movements while supposing to espouse liberal values." -Brylle Latorre

"Binawi na ba talaga ang appointment kay Mocha Uson bilang Social Media Consultant ng Bureau of Customs? Balita ko gagawan talaga ng bagong department with 4 attached bureaus - bu for promoting male sexuality, bu for promoting multiple orgasms for women, bu for overcoming lgbt bias, bu for maintaining sexual virility among thunders"