Mirror Never Lies

The beauty of Wakatobi sea and the Wakatobi Tribe, Bajo recorded and visualized through a drama movie about a little girl named Pakis (12) who tried to find the father who were lost in the Wakatobi ocean. Pakis do Bajo tribe ritual in which they believe by using mirrors, Pakis hope and kept waiting to see the shadow of his father on the mirror. However, what she expects has never been seen. her hope was destroyed by her own mother, Tayung, who tried to cover up the incident from the truth.


Her denial makes Tayung wear white powder on his face, a tradition in the Bajo tribe. While Pakis hope trying to be destroyed by her mother, but her hope still remains. Together with her ​​best friend, Lumo, Pakis continue to seek answers in the Wakatobi Sea. 

Problems and conflicts with her ​​mother's increasingly complicated when tudo, a dolphin researcher came to their lives. These four characters and then interact with each other in everyday life and they also have different interpretation about the sea. However, they agreed that the sea helps them find their identity

Marine biodiversity portrait of Wakatobi and Bajo's local wisdom are captured through a drama of a little girl named Pakis (12) who is striving to search for his father who was lost at the sea. Growing up in a Bajo tribe, who are famous as the great sailors ever, they live and they die in the ocean. Pakis strongly believes that her father is still alive and will come back someday. With a Bajo ritual using mirror, she keeps on waiting to see her father's reflection which remains unseen.


The movie focuses on conflicts at the heart of family life, when Pakis mother, Tayung (32), often shatters her hope to meet the lost father again. Tayung keeps trying to hide the reality from her. Denial appears when she realizes her husband will never come back and starts to cover her whole face with powder.

This hope keeps being tossed here and there. Together with her best friend Lumo (12), Pakis keeps searching for answers from Wakatobi sea.
As the emotional nuance emerges, a dolphin research scientist, Tudo (28), comes into their life. These four characters have their own interpretation about marine life and how they intensively connect to each other. It is the sea that helps them to find the true self reflection. Under the sky, all stories start, and toward the sea, all lives and love lead to...

"It is a lie that the mirror never lies!
It tells us the left and right
it streches from east to west...
everything is upside down with it...

UP LAW : 100 years of Honor, Excellence, and Service.

"The crowning glory of this law school that it has kindled in many hearts an inextinguishable fire. a great law school sets lawyers’ hearts on fire. And not just any fire, but an inextinguishable fire. An unquenchable fire. You become a kind of eternal torch for law and justice, as it were.” thus pronounced Vice President Jejomar Binay.

The country’s premiere law school, the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law,capped  the celebrations of its 100th year with the much-awaited Grand Centennial Homecoming at the PICC Reception Hall on Nov. 11, 2011.  The Class of 1986, this year’s silver jubilarian class, hosted  the event.

prof.labitag

batch 96 with dean raul  pangalangan and prof beth

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gaby concepcion and leni villareal

senators gordon and angara

prof. disini

Atty. Gilbert and Judge Jing Nolasco with Dean Danny Concepcion

Martin Lacdao

Good friend Honey oliveros

Judge Jing Nolasco as muse

Earlier this year, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III declared 2011 as the “University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law Centennial Year.” In line with that, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has released commemorative P100 bills with the UP College of Law’s logo in it.

  The "most frequent" question i received that night was "Anong Batch ka?". My immediate response was "Motion to Clarify: (a) year i took the entrance exam (b) year i entered UPLAW (c) year graduated and took the bar exams. The answer (a) i took the exam in 91 but have to defer due to deficiency Spanish units so my supposed original batch is 95. (b) I entered in 1992 section C  making 1996 as my ideal graduation year but i took  a leave and returned as an "international student" by joining the evening working class (c) 1998 when i officially finished my LLB and took the bar exam.    I  am lucky that I was able to pass the  during my first attempt. And I proved something to myself that I could do something that is really hard to accomplish. I finished law at UP College of Law in Diliman as a working student. I write for TODAY as one of their regular reporter covering a wide range of topics such as environment, human rights, politics, peace process, agriculture, agrarian reform and many more. I was also a correspondent for international news agencies like Reuters, AFP, AP, UPI etc. The income i derived from these news entities i utilized to finance my law studies. Take note: my daily schedule is writing in the morning and the afternoon before going to UP to attend my classes in the evening. Then I go home where I read the assignments for the following day during the almost two hours trip of the bus going to Las Pinas. In between my work and classes, I still go hiking with my friends called the Squakings.

Perhaps what made my stay in UP Law as memorable was when in August23, 1997 i was kidnapped  after our Moot Court. This experience  i wrote in my piece "Face to Face with Crime"  “SIGE, tumakbo ka na ng mabilis at huwag kang lilingon at baka barilin pa kita (Run, Run fast and don’t turn back or I’ll shoot you).” The words could be apart of a movie script, but these were in fact words of my abductors . To me, words of freedom.



The challenge remains on how to keep UP the great law school as it was envisioned in Justice Holme's  immortal words engraved at the institution's Malcolm Hall lobby: 

THE BUSINESS OF A LAW SCHOOL IS NOT SUFFICIENTLY DESCRIBED WHEN YOU MERELY SAY THAT IT IS TO TEACH LAW OR TO MAKE LAWYERS IT IS TO TEACH LAW IN THE GRAND MANNER, AND TO MAKE GREAT LAWYERS.

 The College first conferred the Juris Doctor (J.D.) on its April 2008 graduates, after a change in degree title was approved by the U.P. administration the previous year. Like the majority of law schools in the country, U.P. used to provide the Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), a standard four-year law program covering all subjects in the bar exams, until the change to J.D. was made in order to more accurately reflect the U.P. law program being a "professional as well as a post baccalaureate degree.

The college is noted for having produced the largest number of bar topnotchers and maintaining one of the highest bar passing rates among law schools in the Philippines

Proof of 100 years of excellence: Four Philippine Presidents  ,  four vice presidents, Five senate presidents, five speakers of the House, twelve Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, forty-six (46) bar topnotchers/  In the Philippine Bar's recorded history, the highest grade first recorded was the 92% garnered in 1913 by Manuel A. Roxas of the UP College of Law.

Presidents

VP Jejomar Binay

• Jose P. Laurel, '15, (1943-1945)
• Ferdinand Marcos, '39, (1965-1986)
• Elpidio Quirino, '15, (1948-1953)
• Manuel Roxas, '13, (1945-1948

 

Vice Presidents

• Salvador Laurel, '52, (1986-1992)
• Arturo Tolentino, '34, (1986)
• Jejomar Binay, '67; (2010-present)

Senate Presidents

• Edgardo Angara, '58, (1995)
• Franklin Drilon, '69, (1999-2000, 2004-2006)
• Juan Ponce Enrile, '53, (2008 - present)
• Jovito Salonga, '46, (1987-1992)
• Marcelo Fernan "52", (1998-99) 
• Gil Puyat '28, (1967-72)

Speakers of the House of Representatives

• Arnulfo Fuentebella, '70, (2000-2001); Representative from Camarines Sur
• Jose B. Laurel, Jr., '36, (1953-1957, 1971); Representative from Batangas
• Eugenio Perez, '22, (1946-1953); Representative from Pangasinan
• Daniel Romualdez, '31, (1957-1962); Representative from Leyte
• Nicanor Yñiguez, '39, (1984-1986); M.P. from Leyte

Chief Justices of the Supreme Court

• Ramon Aquino, '39, (1985-1986)
• Cesar Bengzon, '19, (1961-1966)
• Fred Ruiz Castro, '36, (1975-1979)
• Hilario Davide, Jr., '59, (1998 -2005)
• Marcelo Fernan, '52, (1988-1991)
• Enrique Fernando, '38, (1979-1985)
• Querube Makalintal, '33, (1973-1975)
• Felix Makasiar, '39, (1985)
• Ricardo Paras, '13, (1951-1961)
• Reynato Puno, '62, (2006–2010)
• Pedro Yap, '46, (1988)
• Jose Yulo, '14, (1942-1944)

Christine Laman and Tani Acosta

batch 96 Matt David, Anne del Rosario and Grace Navato 

The Greatest Speech - Adolf Hitler in The Dictator

Speech text:
"I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white.

We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness - not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there's room for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls - has barricaded the world with hate - has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man - cries for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say: 'Do not despair.' The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you and enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural!

Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St Luke, it is written the kingdom of God is within man not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power - the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful - to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security.

By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason - a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us unite!"

Sen. Miriam Santiago to shame vain politicians thru ‘anti-epal’ bill

By Christian V. Esguerra Philippine Daily Inquirer

Credit belongs to the taxpayers, so take those billboards with your big smiling face somewhere else.

This, in essence, is the message of Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago in Senate Bill No. 1967, her version of what the man in the street would call an “anti-epal” measure, as it is directed at politicians or bureaucrats who claim credit for projects built with public funds.
“Epal” is slang for “mapapel,” a  Filipino term for attention grabbers, scene stealers, or people who crave a role (papel) in affairs that are not necessarily theirs to handle or decide.
The term originated from the streets to become a buzzword in political circles especially last year, when President Benigno Aquino III initiated a shame campaign against such annoying public officials.
Currently undergoing committee deliberations, Santiago’s “anti-epal” bill is formally titled “An Act Prohibiting Public Officers from Claiming Credit through Signage Announcing a Public Works Project.”
The senator maintained that public officials have no business claiming credit for projects funded by taxpayers’ money.

Prevalent practice
“It is a prevalent practice among public officers, whether elected or appointed, to append their names to public works projects which were either funded or facilitated through their office,” she said in the bill’s explanatory note.
“This is unnecessary and highly unethical” and “promotes a culture of political patronage and corruption,” said Santiago, who is also busy campaigning for a seat as judge in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The bill imposes a jail term of between six months and one year on a public official who would have his or her name or image printed on a “signage announcing a proposed or ongoing public works project.”
The prohibition also applies to existing government projects that are undergoing maintenance or rehabilitation.

Agency name, logo OK
The bill only allows signs that bear the name, image or logo of the local or national government agency handling the project.
Santiago said allowing incumbents or appointees to grab undue credit “diminishes the importance that the public needs to place on supporting government officials, not because of their popularity, but because of their essential role in policy determination, whether on the local or national level.”
“Secondly, it diminishes the concept of continuity in good governance in the mind of the public,” she said.
If the bill gets passed into law, the Department of Public Works and Highways, in coordination with the interior department and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, has three months from the day of the law’s effectivity to remove “all existing signages” that violate its provisions.