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VP Sara ‘di na pinarusahan ang viral teacher na nanigaw ng mga estudyante
AYON kay Vice President at Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sara Duterte, hindi niya paparusahan ang guro na nanigaw at nakapagbitaw ng hindi magandang salita sa mga estudyante. “Nakita ko yung explanation niya and then, sinabihan ko ang regional office natin na there will be no penalties for the teacher,” sey ni VP Sara sa.....»»
No sanctions for teacher scolding pupils — VP Sara
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President and Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd) Sara Duterte announced on Thursday that the teacher who was seen in a viral video scolding her class will not face any penalties. According to Duterte, she just wants to remind the teacher that when she is angry, she has to pause.....»»
QC police nab 16 druggies; net P595K worth of shabu
A total of 16 drug addicts were netted by operatives of the Quezon City Police District in separate sting operations over the weekend, in which they also seized P595,000 worth of shabu. P/Lt. Col. Ferdinand Casiano, Station Commander of Anonas Police Station (PS 9) reported the arrest of Teresita Bayle; Noemi Uy; Androl Makabenta; and Tess Bayle at 4:00 a.m., 12 August 2023, at Area Zigzag, Kaingin 2, Brgy. Pansol, Quezon City. Casiano said a concerned citizen tipped off the illegal activities of the suspects which resulted in their immediate arrest. Confiscated from their possessions were 70 grams of shabu valued at P476,000, a cellular phone, one unit of NMAX motorcycle, and the buy-bust money. Also, the Masambong Police Station (PS 2) under P/Lt.Col. Resty Damaso arrested Andrew Victa at 7:10 p.m. in front of No. 17 Ilagan St., Brgy. Paltok, Quezon City. Confiscated from his possession was one gram of shabu valued at P6,800. At 8:00 p.m. at Block 2, Lot 6, Grecio St., Francis Village, Brgy. San Bartolome, Novaliches, Quezon City, the Novaliches Police Station (PS 4) under P/Lt.Col.Jerry Castillo arrested Benjamin Bautista and Dennis Franco. Confiscated from their possessions were five grams of shabu valued at P34,000, a cellular phone, and the buy-bust money. Subsequently, the Fairview Police Station (PS 5) under P/Lt.Col. Elizabeth Jasmin arrested Joseph Antonio; Jerome Layson; and John Mark Arthur Mendoza at 11:40 p.m. along Commonwealth Ave., Brgy. Greater Fairview, Quezon City. Confiscated from their possessions were three grams of shabu valued at P20,400 and the buy-bust money. The Batasan Police Station (PS 6) under P/Lt.Col. Paterno Domondon Jr. arrested Joel Felix Gado; Jeralyn Hoyoa; Crisanti Oreto; and Marry Ann Barbacena at 4:00 PM at No. 45 Laura St., Brgy. Matandang Balara, Quezon City. Confiscated from their possessions were 3.5 grams of shabu valued at Php23,800.00, a cellular phone, and the buy-bust money. While the Payatas Bagong Silangan Police Station (PS 13) under P/Lt.Col. Leonie Ann Dela Cruz arrested Angelo Abellana and Arthuro Lobedese at 12:50 a.m. on 12 August 2023 inside the unnumbered house along Bicol St., Group 3, Lupang Pangako, Brgy. Payatas B, Quezon City. Confiscated from their possessions were five grams of shabu valued at P34,000, a cellular phone, and the buy-bust money. QCPD Director P/Brig. Gen. Nicolas D Torre III said the suspects will be charged for violation of Republic Act No. 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office. “Asahan po ninyo na hindi kami magsasawa at mas lalo pa naming paiigtingin ang aming kampanya kontra iligal na droga at wanted persons,” Torre said while commending the men and women of QCPD. The post QC police nab 16 druggies; net P595K worth of shabu appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Love heals
Seventy-eight-year-old Pete has stage 4 emphysema, the clogging of the lungs due to chain smoking for 20 years. He is short of breath just walking across the room. His lungs are able to absorb only 20 percent of the oxygen he breathes in. The doctor did not tell him how long he had, but when Pete screamed at him to tell him the truth, he finally said he had six to eight months to live. Pete: Nurse, I can’t even get up from bed. Joanne: Let me give you some oxygen. Pete: I want to die. (Arthur arrives) Joanne: You have a visitor. Sir, can you please tell Pete here to stop thinking of dying? (She leaves) Arthur and Pete have been the best of friends since childhood. Arthur: Hey, Pete, you look terrible. Pete: I know. I want to die. Arthur (changing the subject): You remember the time you stole my girlfriend Nancy back in high school? Then, I punched you on the nose. You got her pregnant and you brought her to the abortion clinic? Then her dad mauled you. Boy, was I glad it wasn’t me? (laughter) Pete: You remember the time you were copying from my philosophy exam paper? The teacher noticed our answers were exactly the same, word for word, and he blamed me for copying from you. I punched you in the nose and he sent me out of the room. In the end, you failed the subject. That’s bad karma. Haha. Arthur: But when I took the subject in the summer, I met Louise. That’s good karma. Pete: How many kids did you have with Louise? Six? You worked your ass off to get them through college, but what happened? Two got pregnant at 14 and 15, two were drug addicts. That’s bad karma. Arthur: Shut your dirty mouth. (they laugh) For two hours, they reminisce about the madness of their youth, laughing aloud until they were in tears. Joanne comes in and tells them to zip it because the other patients are complaining. The next day, it is the same. Arthur brings a bottle of red wine, and they become even more boisterous. Joanne: Sir, if you don’t tone it down, I’m calling security. Pete: You treat your patients about to die in six months this way? Arthur: Don’t worry about him, nurse. We’re just having the time of our lives. Perhaps, I can extend it to 12 months, if I come every day with a bottle of red. (all three laugh) Nurse: Actually, it’s not allowed to drink here. Just tone it down and close the door. Hide the bottle so when the doctor comes in he won’t see it. If he catches you, just tell him it’s prune juice for your kidneys. I will deny everything. Better to get drunk than to die, right? Pete: Don’t be so kind, Joanne. I may fall in love with you. Nurse: It’s your funeral. I have five kids and three times divorced. Pete: Love is blind. (all three laugh) The next day, Arthur brings Joanna a gift. Joanna (after opening the gift and seeing an expensive watch): I can’t take this. Pete: Don’t worry about it. He’s filthy rich. He owns two hotels downtown. Joanna: I don’t believe you. (Arthur whips out a business card from his wallet) Okay, I believe you. Arthur visits Pete every day, except on weekends, for 10 whole months, way past the time he was supposed to die. Pete’s depression vanishes completely. Joanna (entering): You know what? Ever since your visits, Pete can now walk to the bathroom without gasping for breath. Arthur: That’s because love heals. Suddenly, Arthur disappears — no more visits. Pete: I miss Arthur. I wonder what happened to him. Joanna: I might as well tell you. He is in the other room. Cancer of the pancreas. He told me not to tell you. He has two months to live. He said he had cancer long before you did and had been doing chemo for three years now. Pete: The bastard, holding out on me. Do me a favor, Joanna, here’s some money. Buy me three bottles of Sauvignon, please. Joanna: He can’t take red wine. Pete: It’s for me, not for him. It was the same as before. Boisterous visits. Red wine. Frenzied talk. Arthur: There is no cure for pancreatic cancer. I can do chemo three times a week, but it is only to delay the end. Pete: Wine is bad for you. Arthur: I know, but what the heck. Die happy. (laughter) Arthur was on chemo for two years before he passed away, despite the red wine. Pete visited him every day. Joanna joined the red wine caper Mondays and Thursdays. The three would laugh to the high heavens. When he was dying, Arthur and Joanna had silent tears, but Pete was all smiles. *** eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com The post Love heals appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
New Zealand to ban disposable vapes
New Zealand announced a ban on disposable vapes Tuesday, tightening the nation's chokehold on smoking as it also phases in a near-total prohibition on tobacco sales. Disposable vapes -- defined as those without removable or replaceable batteries -- will be banned from August, Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said. "Too many young people are vaping, which is why we're making a number of moves to stop that happening," she said in a statement. New vape shops will not be allowed near schools or marae -- Maori meeting places, she said. Names like "cotton candy" and "strawberry jelly donut" will be barred, the minister added, in favor of generic equivalents such as "berry". Vapes will also need a child-safety mechanism, she said. Verrall said the government wanted to strike a balance between preventing young people from starting to use vapes and allowing people to use them as an aid to quitting smoking. Six months ago, New Zealand announced it would make cigarettes permanently unavailable to anyone currently aged under 14 -- effectively raising the smoking age each year until the whole population is covered. The number of adults smoking in New Zealand is already relatively low at just eight percent. But Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the new vape restrictions were needed for the young. "We have heard from parents, teachers and principals concerned that a life-long bad habit is being established for many at a young age," Hipkins said. Nearly one in five school-aged teenagers vape at least once a day in New Zealand, according to a 2021 study by the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation. The crackdown on disposable vapes comes a month after Australia took similar action, accusing tobacco companies of hooking the next "generation of nicotine addicts" by deliberately targeting teenagers. E-cigarettes were introduced in the early 2000s and initially billed as a less-harmful replacement for traditional cigarettes packed with cancer-causing chemicals. But an emerging body of research has shown vapes can also be highly addictive, and often result in young users turning to cigarettes as a way to get their nicotine fix. The post New Zealand to ban disposable vapes appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Valium addict
(Author’s Note. This story is inspired by my stay for a few years in the Netherlands, where I met many Filipino nurses. Names have been changed for privacy, dialogues reconstructed, and the story dramatized.) Juliet was a young Filipino nurse in a cancer hospital in Rotterdam. About 90 percent of the nurses at that hospital were Filipinos. I met Juliet and we became instant friends. She told me about her life as a nurse and poured out her miseries to me. JULIET: A cancer hospital is a strange place. It smells of death. People just die so fast. Sometimes, one or two die on the same day. One or two may die in a week. It is totally depressing. ME: I understand what you mean. JULIET: No, you don’t understand. The rule is — never to get attached to your patients. Don’t love your patients. But I’m not a robot. All Filipino nurses here are the same. We all cannot help but love our patients. I had an elderly cancer patient named Sarah, the wife of a millionaire who owned a candy company. This is how her story went. JULIET: How are you today, Sarah? SARAH: Never better, Juliet. On top of the world. They would both laugh because they knew that it was a big joke. Sarah had stage 3 cancer of the brain. She would get these bouts of pain. Juliet gave her codeine, a prescribed opioid (derived from opium), a mild form of painkiller. The pain would subside instantly. More powerful painkillers were given to stage 4 patients with extremely unbearable pain. When Juliet noticed Sarah squirming in pain, she bent the rule a bit, increasing slightly the dosage and its frequency. After six months, Sarah became an opium addict. Not that it was Juliet’s fault. Most cancer patients taking opioids become addicts eventually. At one time, Sarah fell and got a deep gash on her forehead. Juliet cleaned and bandaged the wound regularly. SARAH: How come when you touch my wound, it is not painful? (Whispering) When Maryke bandages my wound, it is painful. JULIET: Of course not. That’s just your imagination. SARAH: Oh come on, don’t be modest. One time, I asked the doctor to let you bandage my wound instead of Maryke, and he refused, saying that was not his call. Juliet made an informal survey. Other patients she talked to felt the same. Filipino nurses had a gentle touch. JULIET: Perhaps it is cultural. Asians are different from Dutch, not that we are better. Juliet held Sarah dear to her heart. Eventually, Sarah died and Juliet was so sad that she had nightmares. In a year, six of Juliet’s cancer patients died, and she could not stand it. She was getting a nervous breakdown. She developed insomnia and would sleep only one hour a day. This happened for about a month. She would call in sick often. Finally, she resorted to taking Valium just to be able to sleep. Valium is a powerful ‘calmer’ or anti-depressant used to treat protracted anxiety. She would sleep 24 hours during her days off on Valium. She did not realize that she was now taking Valium regularly. The body develops immunity with the regular use of drugs, not just Valium. She had to increase the dosage just to get the same effect. She suddenly realized she was now a Valium addict. She started stealing Valium from the hospital’s medicine cabinet. Nurses had white robes with big pockets to carry a stethoscope. She would simply grab a fistful and bring it home. She could not sleep without it and was now totally dependent on it. ME: How were you able to kick the habit? JULIET: Sheer will power, otherwise I would lose my job. They were becoming suspicious of my lateness and absences. Also, I prayed a lot. Prayer was a big factor. The Lord loves me and takes care of me. I pray the rosary every evening. Mama Mary helped me sleep. eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com The post Valium addict appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Intimations of accountability
Nothing can compensate for the loss of a husband, a father, and in some instances even a wife, a mother, and a child — or for that matter, for the years of want and deprivation inflicted by the sudden demise of a family breadwinner. Mostly unremarked except in studies by such institutions as the University of the Philippines is the humanitarian crisis that afflicts those left behind by the heads of families who, alleged to be either drug addicts or drug pushers, were systematically gunned down on the strength of what the police understood to be the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte to “kill, kill, kill.” The post Intimations of accountability appeared first on Bulatlat......»»
What do you think?
THROUGH UNTRUE Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, O.P. Do you know that the constant flapping of a butterfly’s wings can cause a powerful typhoon elsewhere? According to chaos theory, seemingly insignificant and random happenings can have earthshaking effects. If the theory is correct, then even our most randomly stupid decisions may have caused all the maladies afflicting us and our country today. History has shown that the destiny of individuals and nations was sometimes determined, not by elaborate plans and decisions, but by little acts of stupidity, like Adam and Eve eating a forbidden fruit, Judas selling Christ for 30 pieces of silver, or Mary Antoinette telling her people to eat cake instead of bread. In an age where the Internet reigns supreme, stupidity has risen to the level of an epidemic because of our diminishing desire to think. Millions of people today use the computer to do the thinking for them. If they want to learn about something, they do not retreat into a quiet corner to speculate about it. They Google and, in milliseconds, harvest a bounty of information. But since the computer cannot teach us how to systematize, analyze, and synthesize these data into a meaningful whole, the result of this operation is not knowledge or understanding, but data overload. The pandemic has worsened this situation. Face-to-face teaching has been replaced by online lectures. A teacher transmits lessons from her gadget to that of her student. Ideally, such lessons should pass through the student’s brain before these are saved in the latter’s laptop. But what usually happens is, teachers tend to act like fax machines. They evaluate their students based on the latter’s ability to repeat, word-for-word, everything the teacher says. Instead of encouraging students to think, this system suppresses creativity and logical thought. Television also contributes greatly to the gradual demise of serious thinking. Do you know that less than 5 percent of the adult population read books? A great number derive their knowledge from the Internet, radio, and newspapers, but the rest rely heavily on television, an entertainment medium and a boredom-killing machine. Ask young people how they came to know a particular idea. Their predictable answer is: “I saw it on TV.” Many people believe that television can verify, falsify, justify, or nullify, any notion, rumor, or issue. We are often told: “Keep an open mind,” and we follow the advice literally. Every day we allow news programs to flood our mind with crimes, disasters, and human misery. Instead of helping us think, they push us to worry about problems that are too big for us to handle, generating needless anxiety and anger. The thinking individual is fast disappearing. The world is inhabited by two billion cabled, cellphoned, and earphoned couch potatoes who are mere statistics in the latest TV survey for higher ratings. What separates us from the brutes is our God-given ability to think. Through this human software, we come to know reality, understand its meaning, and arrange its varying aspects according to a well-established hierachy of values. The neglect of thinking leads to irrationality and social chaos. So, wake up, couch potatoes, computer slaves, and cell phone addicts! A truly free person is one who has the freedom to think, not the freedom FROM thinking......»»