Voltes V

Dateline June 4: Voltes V was first  broadcasted in Japan by TV Asahi from June 4, 1977 to March 25, 1978

In the Philippines, since May 5, 1978, an English-language dub of Voltes V was first aired on GMA-7, which was shown every Friday (6:00 pm) and lasted for a year until 1979. In 1979, shortly before the series finale, then-president Ferdinand Marcos issued a directive banning Voltes V and other similarly-themed anime series due to concerns about "excessive violence".The directive also led to speculations at the time that the series was also taken off the air due to its aforementioned revolutionary undertones. In 2012, Marcos' son Bongbong defended his father's decision to ban Voltes V, stating that parents before were worried about the excessive violence in the show, so Marcos pulled the show and other robot-based animated series from television to appease their demand

 Voltes V has embedded itself in Filipino pop culture. The debut album of the Filipino rock band Eraserheads is titled Ultraelectromagneticpop!, a reference to the "Ultraelectromagnetic Top" used in the series. A thirteen-foot sculpture made by Toym Leon Imao called at the time Last, Lost, Lust for Four Episodes was displayed in front of the Palma Hall at the University of the Philippines Diliman from September 20 to 28, 2014, consisting of brass, fiberglass, and galvanized iron. The sculpture was made to represent "the anger [Imao] felt as a 10-year-old when Voltes V and the other robots were summarily removed from television.

Happy Birthday Bob Marley!

Dateline : February 6: Happy Birthday Nesta Robert Marley OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter who achieved international fame through a series of crossover reggae albums. Starting out in 1963 with the group the Wailers, he forged a distinctive songwriting and vocal style that would later resonate with audiences worldwide. The Wailers would go on to release some of the earliest reggae records with producer Lee Scratch Perry.After the Wailers disbanded in 1974,Marley pursued a solo career which culminated in the release of the album Exodus in 1977 which established his worldwide reputation. He was a committed Rastafarian who infused his music with a profound sense of spirituality

Feast of the Ass

Dateline: January 14 : The Feast of the Ass (Latin: Festum Asinorum or asinaria festa, French: Fête de l'âne) was a medieval, Christian feast observed on January 14, celebrating the Flight into Egypt. It was celebrated primarily in France, as a by-product of the Feast of Fools celebrating the donkey-related stories in the Bible, in particular the donkey bearing the Holy Family into Egypt after Jesus's birth

Happy 150th birthday, Supremo..

Kahit di na kita nakikita sa limang pisong papel, maligayang 150th kaarawan, dakilang SUPREMO! "Mga maginoong namiminuno, kasapi at mga kapatid: Sa inyong lahat ipinatutungkol ang pahayag na ito. Totoong kinakailangan na sa lalong madaling panahon ay putulin natin ang walang pangalang pang-lulupig na ginagawa sa mga anak ng bayan, na ngayo’y nagtitiis ng mabibigat na parusa at pahirap sa mga bilangguan. Na sa dahilang ito’y mangyaring ipa-tanto ninyo sa lahat ng mga kapatid na sa araw ng sabado, ika-29 ng kasalukuyan, ay puputok ang panghihimagsik na pinagkasunduan natin, kaya’t kinakailangang sabaysabay na kumilos ang mga bayanbayan at sabaysabay na salakayin ang maynila. Ang sino pa mang humadlang sa banal na adhikang ito ng bayan ay ipalalagay na taksil at kalaban maliban na nga lamang kung may sakit na dinaramdam o ang katawa’y may sama at sila’y paguusigin alinsunod sa palatuntunang ating pinaiiral." — Bundok ng Kalaayan, ika-28 ng Agosto ng 1896, May Pagasa. :

Happy birthday Ninoy - november 27

Happy birthday Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr.(November 27, 1932 – August 21, 1983), - Ninoy was a Filipino Senator and a former Governor of Tarlac. Aquino, together with Gerry Roxas and Jovito Salonga, formed the leadership of the opposition to the government of President Ferdinand Marcos. Shortly after the imposition of Martial Law, he was arrested in 1973 along with other dissidents and incarcerated for seven years. Aquino was permitted to travel to the United States for medical treatment following a heart attack. He was assassinated at the Manila International Airport in 1983 upon returning from his self-imposed exile. His death catapulted his widow, Corazon Aquino, into the political limelight, and prompted her to run for President as member of the UNIDO party in the 1986 snap elections.
Among other public structures, Manila International Airport has since been renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport in his honour, and the anniversary of his death is a national holiday.

November 26, 1942: Casablanca's premiere

 Dateline November 26, 1942: Casablanca premiered at the Hollywood Theater in New York City on November 26, 1942, to coincide with the Allied invasion of North Africa and the capture of Casablanca. It  is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and based on Murray Burnett and Joan Alison's un-produced stage play Everybody Comes to Rick's. The film stars Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid; and features Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in the words of one character, "love and virtue". He must choose between his love for a woman and helping her Czech Resistance leader husband escape the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis.

November 25, 1977: Ninoy guilty by the military court

• Dateline: November 25, 1977 – Former Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. is found guilty by the Philippine Military Commission No. 2 on trumped-up charges of murder, illegal possession of firearms and subversionand is sentenced to death by firing squad.

Darwin's Origin of Species

DATELINE: NOVEMBER 24, 1859. - On the Origin of Species, published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Its full title was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. For the sixth edition of 1872, the short title was changed to The Origin of Species. Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. It presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. Darwin included evidence that he had gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent findings from research, correspondence, and experimentation.

Darwin's theory of evolution is based on key facts and the inferences drawn from them, which biologist Ernst Mayr summarised as follows:^[3]

• Every species is fertile enough that if all offspring survived to reproduce the population would grow (fact).
• Despite periodic fluctuations, populations remain roughly the same size (fact).
• Resources such as food are limited and are relatively stable over time (fact).
• A struggle for survival ensues (inference).
• Individuals in a population vary significantly from one another (fact).
• Much of this variation is inheritable (fact).
• Individuals less suited to the environment are less likely to survive and less likely to reproduce; individuals more suited to the environment are more likely to survive and more likely to reproduce and leave their inheritable traits to future generations, which produces the process of natural selection (inference).
• This slowly effected process results in populations changing to adapt to their environments, and ultimately, these variations accumulate over time to form new species (inference).

Various evolutionary ideas had already been proposed to explain new findings in biology. There was growing support for such ideas among dissident anatomists and the general public, but during the first half of the 19th century the English scientific establishment was closely tied to the Church of England, while science was part of natural theology. Ideas about the transmutation of species were controversial as they conflicted with the beliefs that species were unchanging parts of a designed hierarchy and that humans were unique, unrelated to other animals. The political and theological implications were intensely debated, but transmutation was not accepted by the scientific mainstream.
The book was written for non-specialist readers and attracted widespread interest upon its publication. As Darwin was an eminent scientist, his findings were taken seriously and the evidence he presented generated scientific, philosophical, and religious discussion. The debate over the book contributed to the campaign by T.H. Huxley and his fellow members of the X Club to secularise science by promoting scientific naturalism. Within two decades there was widespread scientific agreement that evolution, with a branching pattern of common descent, had occurred, but scientists were slow to give natural selection the significance that Darwin thought appropriate. During the "eclipse of Darwinism" from the 1880s to the 1930s, various other mechanisms of evolution were given more credit. With the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s, Darwin's concept of evolutionary adaptation through natural selection became central to modern evolutionary theory, now the unifying concept of the life sciences.

September 22, 1892, Juan Luna killed his wife Paz and mother in law Juliana Gorricho Pardo de Tavera

 

 

DATELINE: On September 22, 1892, Juan Luna killed perhaps one of my ascendants, Juliana Gorricho Pardo de Tavera, the mother of Paz Pardo de Tavera (Juan Luna's wife) , Both of them were killed by Juan Luna due to extreme jealousy, a crime of passion they say. I am still doing my research that Gorricho perhaps is a variation of my surname Gorecho. Juliana gave the lamp to Jose Rizal where the paper of "Mi Ultimo Adios" was found.

Juliana Gorricho vda. de Pardo de Tavera (seated at the center with baby Andrés Luna y Pardo de Tavera) with María de la Paz Pardo de Tavera y Gorricho de Luna (standing 2nd from the right) and José Rizal (standing 2nd from the left)

 Juan Luna  was a man of violent temper. He suspected his wife of infidelity, and when his wife and mother-in-law locked themselves in a room to escape his anger, he shot them both and killed them.

He was acquitted of his crime of passion, and the assassination of his brother contributed to his death by heart attack at the age of 42 in Hong Kong on his way to join the Revolution in 1899.

In a “crime of passion”, a person commits a crime against a spouse or loved one, or another person, because of anger or heartbreak. When a person becomes very jealous or disappointed, it can produce such strong emotions that he cannot think... rationally and may act on his impulses without thinking about the consequences.the Philippine justice system considers “having acted upon an impulse so powerful as naturally to have produced passion or obfuscation” a circumstance that mitigates criminal liability. Not only that, but Article 247 of the Revised Penal Code expressly provides that if a person catches his spouse in flagrante delicto with another person and kills one or both of them as a consequence, he shall only suffer the penalty of destierro, or exile, and this only to protect him from the vengeance of the relatives of his victims. This provision, which makes the Philippines one of the few jurisdictions which recognize the “crime of passion” defense, is a holdover from the old Spanish Penal Code, which was in force in the Philippines from 1886 to 1930, a revised form of which became the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines.

Rizal and the three naked men of Samar

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSE RIZAL . Dateline: June 19, 1861. José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was born. He was a Filipino polymath, patriot and the most prominent advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. An interesting photo is this statue in catbalogan, samar of Rizal's bust with his two novels carried by three naked men(similar to the oblation) made by a UP Fine Arts grad Miguel Alcazar. His wife explained: "The three naked men are carrying the books and the bust—it simply shows that ours is a continuing burden to reform the social system, to pave the way for a better life for Filipinos. Naked in the sense that we are all equal,"

FYI. The Oblation is based on the second stanza of Jose Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios.

In fields of battle, deliriously fighting,
Others give you their lives, without doubt, without regret;
Where there’s cypress, laurel or lily,
On a plank or open field, in combat or cruel martyrdom,
If the home or country asks, it's all the same--it matters not.

The Incredible Hulk

Dateline: May 10, 1962. The Hulk  first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962) by Marvel Comics.

He is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962). He is a gigantic, green, irradiated, mutated humanoid monster with incredible strength, and an inability to control his rage (resulting from a failed gamma radiation experiment for the U.S. military). The Hulk is sometimes characterized as naive, kind, and childlike; at other times, hyper-aggressive and brutal; and still others, cunning, brilliant, and scheming. He is often portrayed as an antihero. The Hulk is cast as the emotional, impulsive alter ego of Dr. Bruce Banner, a socially withdrawn and emotionally reserved physicist. Banner first transforms into the Hulk shortly after being accidentally exposed to the blast of a test detonation of a gamma bomb he invented (trying to save the life of Rick Jones, who had unwittingly entered the blast zone right before detonation). Subsequently, Banner will involuntarily transform into the Hulk whenever he gets too angry, or if his life is in danger; the chaotic aftermath of the Hulk's destructive episodes lead to extreme complications in Banner's life

Coca Cola as a patent medicine

Dateline: May 8, 1886 – Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine. Patent medicines are compounds promoted and sold as medical cures that do not work as promoted. "Patent medicine" is a misnomer since in most cases, although products might be trademarked, they are not patented (the patent process requires proof that something new has been discovered. Coca-Cola was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century. Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in every country except Cuba and North Korea.It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke (a registered trademark of The Coca-Cola Company in the United States since March 27, 1944).

St. Francis Xavier in Goa, India

Dateline: May 6, 1542 – St. Francis Xavier reaches Old Goa, the capital of Portuguese India at the time. Here is my photo of his coffin inside the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa. 

Francis Xavier, born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta (7 April 1506 – 3 December 1552) was a Roman Catholic missionary born in Xavier, Kingdom of Navarre (now part of Spain), and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. He was a student of Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits, dedicated at Montmartre in 1534.He led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly in the Portuguese Empire of the time. He was influential in the spreading and upkeep of Catholicism most notably in India, but also ventured into Japan, Borneo, the Moluccas, and other areas which had thus far not been visited by Christian missionaries. In these areas, being a pioneer and struggling to learn the local languages in the face of opposition, he had less success than he had enjoyed in India. It was a goal of Xavier to one day reach China.

May 1: Labor Day in the Philippines

Dateline : May 1. It  is known as Labor Day and is considered a public holiday. Labor unions and organizations hold mass protests in major cities, while schoolchildren have no classes as it is part of the local summer holiday.

On May 1, 1903, the Union Obrera Democratica Filipina (Filipino Democratic Labor Union) held a massive rally in front of the Malacañan Palace demanding workers' economic rights, and the granting Philippine independence. Ten years later, the first official celebration was celebrated on May 1, 1913 when 36 labor unions convened at the Cine Oriente along C.M. Recto street, then known as Azcarraga, in Manila. Around 36 labor unions heeded the call to hold congress and unite under one umbrella, the better to fight for the rights of Filipino workers.  Thus was born the Congreso Obrero de Filipinas (COF) or Congress of Philippine Labor.

Since then, Labor Day in the Philippines has been commemorated not only with parades and celebrations, but also with rallies and demonstrations of the labor sector.

During the Presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the holiday economics policy was followed, where holidays were moved to weekends to give workers a longer vacation. This was applied on Labor Day in 2002, which caused the holiday to be held on April 29; this was protested by labor groups, as they accused the Arroyo administration of belittling the holiday.By 2008, Labor Day was excluded in the holiday economics policy, returning the commemorations every May 1, no matter what day of the week it falls under.


In a 2013 statement, the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU)  said there’s chronic unemployment in the country because the government has refused to develop agriculture and basic industries to serve local needs and has instead relied on foreign investments to generate jobs.
It said that the country’s dependence on foreign investments has failed to generate sufficient jobs in the country and has only resulted in lower wages, contractual employment, and violations of workers’ rights.

Macliing Dulag and the chico river dam struggle

DATELINE: April 24, 1980. the assassination of tribal leader Macliing Dulag.

Macliing Dulag is a Kalinga tribal leader of the Butbut Tribe, who was killed by Philippine Army troops in April 24, 1980 due to his firm opposition against the World Bank-funded Chico River Dam Project during the Marcos Regime. His death anniversary is now commemorated as the Cordillera Day.

 The Chico River Basin Hydroelectric Dam Project was a priority project of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos in the late 1970’s until early 1980’s. The World Bank committed to funding the project and it was to be implemented by the National Power Corporation (NPC). The venture consists of the construction of four mega dams and one smaller diversion dam along the Chico River, a major river system in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) with its headwater from Mt. Data in Benguet passing through Mountain Province to Kalinga. 

 More than 100,000 Kalingas and Bontocs were living along both sides of the Chico River at that time. In addition, the communities rely on the river for domestic purposes and for irrigation of their rice fields. As such, constructing the four mega-dams would submerge several villages and hectares of rice fields and ancestral lands, and displace thousands of people from their homes. In addition, the project was not intended to benefit the small farmers in the Cordillera region. Rather, the venture under the national irrigation program was meant to increase the productivity of lowland corporate plantations, which export majority of what they grow. 

The ethinic Kalinga and Bontoc communities, and lowlanders who sympathized with their cause, argued that national development should never be achieved at such extreme sacrifice.

"You ask if we own the land. You mock us. Where is your title? Where are the documents to prove that you own the land? Title. Documents. Proof. Such arrogance of owning land when you are owned by it. How can you own that which outlives you? Only the people own the land because only the people live forever. To claim a place is the birthright of everyone. The lowly animals claim their place, how much more of human beings. They are born to live," spoke Macliing, when asked about land titles and documents.

Bataan death march

An interesting marker in Bagac, Bataan: the KM 00 which symbolizes the start of the so-called Bataan death March  of Flipino and American Prisoners of war from Mariveles, and Bagac to Camp O” Donnell, Capas, Tarlac April 1942.

Immediately after the fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942, The USFFI forces were evacuated by the Japanese from the field of battle as prisoners of war. The more than 70,000 Filipino and American troops who had survived the battle of Bataan underwent in this evacuation, The ordeal that history now knows as the death March.

The Death March started from two points in Bataan: on April 10 from Mariveles, on April 11 from Bagac. The Filipino and American troops were marched day and night, under blistering sun or cold night sky, staggering through Cabcaben, Limay, Orion, Pilar and Balanga, where they were given a brief rest and some water, From Balanga, The Prisoners  were organized into groups of 100 to 200 and under guard marched on through were segregated from the Filipino Prisoners of war and marched separately, The march continued northward through Hermosa, to Layac junction, Then Eastward into Pampanga through Lubao, Guagua, Where the Prisoners were rested and given a little food at the National Development Company Compound.

Already suffering from Battle fatigue, The Filipino and Americans troops were strained to utter exhaustation by this long march on foot, many were ill, most were feverish, but none high rest, for the enemy was brutal with those who lagged behind. Thousands fell along the way, Townspeople on the roadside risked their lives by slipping food and drink to the Death Marches as they stumbled by.

  In San Fernando, The Death March became a death ride by cargo train when the prisoners were pack so densely into boxcars that many of them perished from suffocation, Those who arrived alive in Capas had still to walk the last and most agonized miles of the Death March: The 6 Kilometers to Camp O" Donnell, Which was become one of the most hellish concentration camps of World War II.

Venus de Milo

Dateline: April 8, 1820 – The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.

Aphrodite of Milos (Greek: Ἀφροδίτη τῆς Μήλου, Aphroditē tēs Mēlou), better known as the Venus de Milo, is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Created sometime between 130 and 100 BC, it is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty (Venus to the Romans). It is a marble sculpture, slightly larger than life size at 203 cm (6 ft 8 in) high. The arms and original plinth were lost following the discovery. From an inscription that was on its plinth, it is thought to be the work of Alexandros of Antioch; earlier, it was mistakenly attributed to the master sculptor Praxiteles. It is currently on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris

Ferdinand Magellan's arrival and death in Cebu

Dateline April 7 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu.

Ferdinand Magellan  was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in a still disputed location in northern Portugal, and served King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the "Spice Islands" (modern Maluku Islands in Indonesia).

 On 17 March Magellan reached the island of Homonhon in the Philippines, with 150 crew left. Members of his expedition became the first Spaniards to reach the Philippine archipelago, but they were not the first Europeans. Magellan was able to communicate with the native tribes because his Malay interpreter, Enrique, could understand their languages. Enrique was indentured by Magellan in 1511 right after the colonization of Malacca and was at his side during the battles in Africa, during Magellan's disgrace at the King's court in Portugal and during Magellan's successful raising of a fleet. They traded gifts with Rajah Siaiu of Mazaua who guided them to Cebu on 7 April.

Rajah Humabon of Cebu was friendly towards Magellan and the Spaniards; both he and his queen Hara Amihan were baptized as Christians. Afterward, Rajah Humabon and his ally Datu Zula convinced Magellan to kill their enemy, Datu Lapu-Lapu, on Mactan. Magellan had wished to convert Lapu-Lapu to Christianity, as he had Humabon, a proposal of which Lapu-Lapu was dismissive. On the morning of 27 April 1521, Magellan sailed to Mactan with a small attack force. During the resulting battle against Lapu-Lapu's troops, Magellan was hit by a bamboo spear and later surrounded and finished off with other weapons

Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health

Dateline April 6, 1970: The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act  was passed as  a United States federal law designed to limit the practice of smoking. It required a stronger health warning on cigarette packages, saying "Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined that Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health". The act also banned cigarette advertisements on American radio and television

The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act was one of the major bills resulting from the 1964 report by the Surgeon General, Luther Leonidas Terry. The report found that lung cancer and chronic bronchitis are causally related to cigarette smoking. Congress previously passed the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act in 1965 requiring that all cigarette packages sold in the United States carry a health warning. But after a recommendation by the Federal Trade Commission, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act amended the 1965 law so that the warnings are made in the name of the Surgeon General

martin luther king, (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)

Dateline April 4, 1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

 Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience. King has become a national icon in the history of American progressivism

 King's main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the U.S. Just days after King's assassination, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968.Title VIII of the Act, commonly known as the Fair Housing Act, prohibited discrimination in housing and housing-related transactions on the basis of race, religion, or national origin (later expanded to include sex, familial status, and disability). This legislation was seen as a tribute to King's struggle in his final years to combat residential discrimination in the U.S.