Another Top Podium Finish for Team Suzuki Pilipinas as the SAC Concludes

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Team Suzuki Pilipinas once again made the country proud as they conclude the Race 2 of the last leg of the Suzuki Asian Challenge (SAC) at the top spot. The Philippine national anthem was played for the first time at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand as Mario Borbon gave the Philippines its very first win in motor sports at the said track. This is also Team Suzuki Pilipinas’ 2nd championship title at the SAC this season. 

Team Suzuki Pilipinas’ performances have improved greatly over the months. With a podium win at every leg of the race, they proved to be a strong force to reckon with. Held last December 2 to 4, 2016, the team showed an overall impressive race. 

30 year-old Mario Borbon proved that his years of experience and perseverance at the race track will one day bring him his 1st top position at the SAC podium finishing with a time of 2:16.781. Coming from behind during the practice race, the Visayas rider showed his improvement during Race 1 as he led the pack in one of the laps of the race. More hopeful on the second and final round, he was able to maintain a good position during the race together with EJ Sobretodo who was also leading during the 5th and 6th lap. However, Sobretodo crashed due to a collision with a Sri Lankan rider during his last turn leaving Borbon to lead the remaining of the race. 

Meanwhile, the very strong Mindanao rider April King Mascardo managed to stay at the 6th Place. Sobretoto, Mascardo and Borbon’s final standing is at 5th, 6th and 7th place respectively. The final round of the SAC ended gloriously for Team Suzuki Pilipinas with a sweet victory for our fellow Filipinos. -

Okay na si Lolo: Coca-Cola Agos Program Brings Renewed Hope to War Survivor

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Japanese airplanes were dropping bombs across Pili, Camarines Sur. People in the city fled the plains and went to different areas to save themselves, to save their families. Some ran to the fields, while the others decided to settle and create homes near or at the mountains. However, the safety of one’s life had a price to pay: there was no water.

Barangay Del Pilar is one of the communities that cradled the families who escaped the horrors of those bombings. Located at the upper section of the mountain in Baao, Camarines Sur, it is divided into three zones. As of 2014, it has become home to a total of 75 households, with a population of 384.

Among the residents is Cenederio Lopez. He is 74 years old, lives alone, and has never left Del Pilar since he was born. More than knowing the barangay like the back of an old friend’s hand, he never imagined in his lifetime that water would someday become easily available to them.

“It was really a sacrifice just to fetch water,” Lolo Cenederio shares. He recalls that it was a daily dilemma for most of his life, rooting back to when he was still a child. Whenever his family would run out of water, his father and older brothers would be up before the crack of dawn to fetch water with their containers and a carabao. Years later, it was still a problem, and it became part of the routine that Lolo Cenderio became accustomed to.

Because of his old age, he could no longer hike the way he did when he was younger. What he would do is to buy a water container worth PhP20 from his neighbors, however, this exchange came with a price, he still needed to do an hour’s worth of walking. The situation was simple: he either walked and carried the containers on his shoulders, or there would be no water at all.

An Abusive and Toxic Relationship

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros' statement on VP Robredo's decision to resign as HUDCC Chair

I fully support Vice President Leni Robredo's decision to resign from President Rodrigo Duterte's cabinet. It was an abusive and toxic relationship, after all.

From the start, Vice President Robredo was not given enough support to fully exercise her task as the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Chairperson. As if by design, she was intended to fail. Worse, as a woman, she was disrespected and objectified on many occasions, by no less than the President himself. Her way of dressing was made object of sexist remarks, she was subjected to inappropriate advances and was even reduced to well-rounded knees.

Even the manner on how the Vice President was ordered not to attend future Cabinet meetings was intolerably disrespectful of the position she holds. It was cavalier and reeked of machismo. It was meant to denigrate Vice President Robredo one last time. It was meant to show that she is unworthy of the Chief Executive's time and any serious consideration.

Of course President Duterte has all the right to remove people from his Cabinet whom he thinks are incapable of implementing his brand of governance. The President and Vice President's "irreconcilable differences" are plain enough.

Yet, while others were removed for their inadequacies, Vice President Robredo was barred from future cabinet meetings because she dared oppose the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, extra-judicial killings, reimposition of death penalty, lowering the age of criminal liability, and misogynistic attacks against women. She was punished for doing the right things.

I also worry that a Cabinet where a healthy divergence of opinion is not allowed is just an old boys’ club. This demonstrates once more President Duterte's intolerance for dissent.

I stand with Vice President Robredo in her fight to defend human rights, freedom and democracy. I also join her in safeguarding the will of the people from dark forces that want to steal the Vice Presidency, rewrite history and restore a corrupt and authoritarian past.

I am confident that the public is behind the Vice President too. The people will more than make up for the support President Duterte and his Cabinet failed to give her. Vice President Robredo has fallen from the Cabinet into the arms of the people.