Poker Game versus the Game of Life

LIFE’S circumstances pushed me back to come home to this awesome city. The decision was not hard to make, I was looking forward to being reunited with my family and friends. I was not even sure why I left in the first place. Yet since I got back here, I was weighed down with truckloads of work.

Needless to say, I needed a break. As I try to manage my time, all my schedule can afford are leisure times after dinner. This led me to this quite awesome community game called “poker.”

Older people may connote poker as gambling and they are probably right (although it does not necessarily have to involve money). Yet there's a lot of lessons I learned from the game. Let me share with you why I like it so much.

In poker:

1. Everyone is equal the moment you sit down at the table regardless of age, gender and status. At the poker table, the competition is fair. Everyone gets an equal chance. Discrimination doesn't exist, unlike in life.

2. Although the community cards (flop, turn and river) may increase one’s chance of winning, it is still the player who determines his winning/losing through his folds, calls and raise of bet, not like in the real world where roughly everything that one enjoys isn't his doing, with a few exceptions of course.

3. Sometimes, all a player needs is a bluff to win everything. In life, on the other hand, bluffing can only lead us as far.

4. Last (and the best lesson I learned in poker) is that in order to win, one needs to be ruthless.

I like playing poker. It makes me feel invincible. I feel in total control even just for an hour or so. It makes me own my choices. It gives me a sense of power.

But poker is not life. In life, equality hardly exists, fair-play is just an idea, and even our very own choices are greatly determined by circumstances.

Life, unlike poker, is not a game of power and control, rather a game of service and surrender. It is not a game of invincibility, but a game of humility and humiliation.

In life, you don't need to be ruthless to win, you only need to love.

In life, winning does not mean having it all, rather, it means emptying and sharing it all. That is why in as much as I like poker, I only see it as a hobby, a break when I get tired of fighting life's battle, a pause when I get shattered into pieces, a moment of charging so that when I feel better again I’d be on my feet to face the game of life, the game of love.

(Published in the Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro newspaper on July 27, 2012.)

On Sin Tax

LAST Thursday, the Senate started to tackle House Bill 5727 (also known as sin tax bill) which is an act restructuring the excise tax on alcohol and tobacco. This bill aims to increase taxes on alcohol and tobacco products to be used for health care services.

In our country, drinking and smoking have become the opium of the masses. These legal vices have been acceptable ways to socialize and unwind after a week's work or for some after a day's work. Raising taxes on alcohol and tobacco products would surely have a direct effect on their retail prices.


On the onset, it may seem unfair for an ordinary man who smokes and/or drinks. If the said bill is in-acted, it will significantly affect the pockets of people whose forms of recreation are limited to smoking and/or drinking. Pobre na gani ta, mao ra gani ni atong kalipay, hilabtan pa gyud?

Yet there are three main reasons why an increase tax is called for.

First is that alcohol and tobacco are bad for the health, or at least too much of them. The increase in price of such would be an effective deterrent for possible abuse of those substances. Any person will now have second thoughts of buying them thereby curbing the possible development of a vice. It should also be stressed that tobacco and alcohol are luxury products. The scarcity of such does not significantly limit a person's pursuit to happiness. Daghan pa paagi nga maayu para kita maka relax ug malipay.Get into sports.

Second is that alcohol in particular is one of the main causes of premature deaths among young adults. A significant percent of fatal road accidents are caused by at least one party driving under the influence. Not to mention the cost of emergency services of alcohol related accidents, which consumes most of the budget in emergency rooms of government owned hospitals. The increase of excise tax would somehow pay the social cost of alcohol. Barato ra ang pag palit nato sa mga ilimnon, pero mas dako ang gaka gasto sa gobyerno sa ato kung kita gakadisgrasya tungod niini.

Third is that the government really needs to improve its health care services especially in rural areas. For this to happen, it has to create a revenue mechanism to defray the cost of such improvement. What better yet to cover for health care services other than the products that put people's health at risk. Come to think of it, one of the reasons why European countries can provide free health care services to their people is because they put so much tax on alcohol and tobacco. Perhaps, it's about time that we learn from them.

Sin tax is "kill joy." That is pretty obvious. But it's kill joy that really makes sense, provided that its revenue will really translate into better health care services for Filipinos and not just into the pockets of some corrupt politicians for their expensive wines and tobacco.

Published in the Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro newspaper on August 18, 2012.

Squares and Circles

IN LIFE, there are squares and circles, and I am just lucky to be able to blend with both. Let me share to you an experience.

A few months back I was given two tickets to the Bryan Mcknight concert in Cebu as a birthday gift. Initially, I didn’t accept them since I was single and I had no one to watch them with. To my thought, I would probably just be tortured by the sight of lovers get carried away by the songs of the international balladeer.


Anyway, the couple who gave me the tickets hooked me up with a pretty date (a friend of theirs) just so I’d go. So I went. What I thought was just a night of love songs ended up to be an evening of glitz and glamour, and more.

An hour before the concert, we dined at a fine restaurant at the Waterfront Hotel. With everything fancy it felt like we were a royalty.

After the concert, we dropped by at the casino and then had a late snack at another classy bistro. After the meal I received yet another few invitations to party at some posh places, so I decided to hop into four different places where I was welcomed by friends and was treated like a VIP. I’d say it was a night of fun in the luxurious lane.

The following day, I attended a lecture at a state University where I pursue a doctorate degree. It was a totally different crowd, but with equally warm people. After the class, an old professor and friend invited me for lunch. He then led me into the inner most part of the city where the thickest urban poor community dwells. We had to pass through a three-foot wide alley where creeks are open, kids are barefooted, men are shirtless and women looked like they either just woke up or about to go to sleep.

We then went into this little house whose ceiling was just a few inches above my head. Yet I tell you, what they lack in facilities they compensate for warmth. Before I was done with my meal, I already knew everyone’s name and their stories, even the old man who was sleeping at a vacant bench next to our table as well as their drunkard neighbor whom I haven’t met and probably never would. I’d say that was genuine friendship as well, in the narrow lane.

Yes, indeed there are squares and circles in this world. But who’s to say one is better than the other? Who’s to say one is truer or more genuine? Who’s to say one has more quality?

On the surface, one might think that the “haves” are obviously privileged and therefore have a better quality of living and are happier in life. Though that may be true, I also saw that the limitations and deficiencies in life present more opportunities for self-actualization that can somehow lead to a deeper sense of fulfillment, something lacking in a too comfortable life.

That being said, I still think there is a great need to bridge the wide gap between the poor and the rich in our society for the very reason that the gap breeds corruption. It has become the haven of injustice. This is where effective legislation and governance come in. This is the call of our time. This should be the real measure of development.

And while I continue to work with organizations that try to bridge the gap between these two worlds, I just feel so blessed that I am surrounded with circles and squares who treat me as one of theirs -- a family.

(Published in the Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro newspaper on September 24, 2012.)

Bound to become another toothless law

ONE of the buzz these days is RA 10175, also known as the Cyber-crime Prevention Act, which was signed into law last Sept. 12. This law intends to curb cyber bullies by declaring some actions in cyberspace as criminal offenses. These include offenses against the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of computer data and systems, piracy of intellectual property, libel, fraud, child pornography and even cybersex.

While the spirit behind the law seems beneficial and necessary, its feasibility is greatly problematic. It is like a blind man looking for a black cat in a dark room where the cat is not even in there. And while it hopes to hold accountability over cyber users, the government will just end up like a dog chasing its tail. It is practically bound to become yet another toothless law.

For instance, our law only applies to crimes committed inside the Philippines (with only five exceptions as provided by the revised penal code). Cyber world on the other hand is border-less. If a foreigner in his home country defames me through facebook or twitter, can our local courts take jurisdiction of the case?

If the offender hides in the guise of anonymity, who will be charged? Although there are technologies now that can trace at least the device used by the cyber criminal, such process involves a lengthy course and comes with a price. In the end it may still not pinpoint a person with certainty. In this case, the law will only end up being selective.

Since the evidence of the crime can be accessed anywhere in our country, can the lawsuit be filed anywhere as well? Wouldn’t this open the doors for forum shopping?
And since hacking accounts is as easy as opening a can, how can the court prevent anyone from just claiming that his or her account was hacked and that he or she cannot therefore be held responsible on what’s in it. On the other hand, won’t it also be a very easy way to hold a person liable for something he or she did not commit?

I do not know how the government will design its implementing rules and regulation(IRR) , but with the allotted budget of only P50 million, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 is bound to be yet another toothless law.

(published in http://www.goldstardailynews.com.ph/letters/bound-to-become-another-toothless-law.html)

We are on our own in this fight

THE political squabble between Sen. Antonio Trillianes IV and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile which reopened the issue on Scarborough and the rising conflict between China and Japan over some islands are surely making our maritime disputes more critical than ever.

To an extent, Japan’s aggressiveness in its claim of the uninhabited lands in the East China Sea gave China a dose of its own medicine. China even had to invoke UN law in its territorial claim, something they did not consider in our dispute with them over Scarborough island.

While it is the best time to rally our cause, we have to recognize the clear and present danger that we are at the verge of a potentially far-reaching conflict. We therefore have to proceed with great caution because it might just be way above our heads and it might just cost us unnecessary sacrifices of lives and resources.

If there are three things this conflict clearly shows, it would be:

1. Our international political allies such as the UN and Asean are not quite the champions of justice as they claim. In our case, they conveniently cease to be what they are made for in the first place. It would not take an expert to see how near the Scarborough is to our shores and how far it is from China, yet the so called champions of the powerless and the weak seemed to remain silent and took the neutral ground.They are nowhere to be found when we need them the most. Yet when conflicts of richer nations are involved such as those in the Middle East, they are so quick to mobilize our own troops as frontliners.This clearly shows that we are on our own in this fight.

2. We seemed to have a divided take on this issue as a nation. Most of us are even apathetic about it. This could be due to the fact that we don’t know what’s at stake in this conflict. As new generation Filipinos, we have this mentality where if it does not make us rich or if we don’t get anything from it then it’s not worth wasting our time with. If this be true then it’s precisely the best time to reevaluate our position on this matter before it’s too late. If we take a look at how China responded to Japan’s aggression, thousands of Chinese people protested in front of the Japanese embassy in Beijing who even resorted to violence. Some Japanese companies in China had to close for safety reasons. I am not suggesting that we have to be violent, that’s not even the point. I am only implying that perhaps we should have a collective stand on this critical issue and somehow show it. We have to have a unified voice for us to stand a chance. Otherwise let us not awaken a sleeping giant who might bring havoc to our innocent children and women. Remember, we are on our own in this fight.

3. Our president may have the highest trust ratings these days but trust is something I do not have for him in this issue. I’m sure he means well in all his choices and decisions but I’m not sure if he is thinking straight on this matter. First, he intentionally made it clear in his Sona that what is ours is ours, implying that his governance will take any measure to make sure we don’t get robbed of our territory. Such declaration could have easily even be perceived as an invitation to war, and I liked his confidence for that.

At that point, I felt proud I’m a Filipino.Yet when the heat came at the height of the dispute, he could not handle it. He sent a back-channel who he wasn’t even sure if the person shares his agenda.

In any kind of war, a great leader knows how to calculate risks. In fact in the great war stories of history, some battles have to be lost to win the war. I just pray that in this battle we are taking, our president knows what he is putting us through, and it better be greater than the potential lives this dispute is going to cost us. Because it might just be the most expensive price for poor judgment, and that may just truly prove that we are indeed on our own in this fight.


(published in http://www.goldstardailynews.com.ph/opinion/were-on-our-own-in-this-fight.html)

Dream big!

I HAVE always known my old man to be well grounded and well directed, but when it comes to dreaming, he dreams big to the point of exorbitance.

As I was growing up, my father would always tell me “when you dream, dream big!” He even had a way of making sure that I always set my standards high. While I was in my elementary years he bought all my perfect quizzes and exams for a good sum of money and offered me vacation trips if I finished the year as top of my class. Although I never managed to be first, it nevertheless conditioned me to be always competitive and to always aim higher.

When you dream, dream big. What made that statement harder to ignore was that my old man puts his money where his mouth is. With what little we had way back then, he would never hesitate to spend for anything that hones our skills and develop our personalities; from piano lessons, to taekwondo, and even to expensive excursions. He even periodically brings us to his humble beginnings so that we could appreciate what we have as well as see for ourselves how a dream can change a life.

My father is a self-made man. Whatever he has right now came from his dreams. In fact, his success is quite a story. Let me share it with you.

Daddy Dan (as he is fondly called by his grandchildren) was born 7th of eight siblings in a remote place in Antique. He was very poor then as his father was only a carpenter and his mother was a plain housewife. When famine hit the Visayas in the early ’50s, their family had to move to the fertile soil of Cotabato and then to Bukidnon. At a very young age he experienced waking up early to look for something he can cook for breakfast otherwise he’d be hungry all day.

While the rest of his brothers dropped out of school to till their small piece of land, Daddy Dan knew that education was his only way out of poverty. Armed with nothing but his intelligence and a strong spirit, he would walk some five kilometer distance barefoot everyday just to reach the nearest public school (I trekked his route one summer and it took me roughly two hours due to the rugged terrain).

Many times he had to pass opportunities to represent his school in competitions because he’s got no decent clothes and shoes to wear for those events. Despite his confines, he always managed to finish each year as an honor student. He even recalled that during awarding of honors, while the rest are in their Sunday’s best he would be the only student to get his awards in borrowed slippers and tattered clothes.

His experience of poverty fuelled him to dream even bigger. And there was nothing or no one that could stop him. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Forestry at CMU. When he got hired by the CVRP of DENR-IIV, his project got awarded No. 1 in the whole country. This was when the World Bank took notice of his expertise that he was eventually hired as its consultant.

At the peak of his career, one would think that he has had enough. Yet for him, that was not yet it. He further took the brokerage licensure exam and established his own realty (Danrel realty) after his stint with the World Bank.

Starting from scratch, he built his name with real estate developers here in Cagayan de Oro and competed with seasoned realtors. In less than a year his company was recognized as one of the top productive firms in the city.

At age 63 he said he is far from over. Just last week he ventured into yet another dream he always has; a farm to run in his retirement.

If there’s one thing my father has taught me, it is that dreams do come true.

So when you dream, dream big!



(published in http://www.goldstardailynews.com.ph/letters/dream-big.html)

the chaos of change

I always write in codes where meanings unfold differently to the level of whoever reads it knowing that I got diverse readership. This is probably where the art of writing comes in; where an inner stirring gets defused in a calculated manner and in layers to unravel. Well for those who cracked its core, you would have known that lately I am in for a ride of my life. And while I paint the chaos of my surroundings and to my surroundings, my inner pandemonium gets more magnified.

Oh yeah, this is one of those very rare times where I say “it’s not you, it’s me. I am the problem.” There I said it, plainly and clearly; not coded. And now that I got into terms with that, I can change it.

I thought I had bounced back from hitting rock bottom; instead I spent years circling it, fooling myself that I’m fine, clinging to those parts that have long been gone. And when I resisted this transition, I had disabled myself emotionally. I had become a walking time bomb, with maximum toxicity; almost incapable of maintaining harmonious friendships and becoming an emotional infant. I had developed paranoia thinking that people are deliberately creating problems to trip me up coupled with an egotism claiming my right for the world to wait on standby until I’m ready to do my bidding.

I could not accept and embrace my ignominious breakdown. Without such acceptance I could simply not have my leap of faith .Indeed a man’s faith can falter; mine just did.

And so I begged the Good One above for my own Pentecost experience, to have the wisdom to see the better path, to have the courage to face and embrace the chaos of change, to be fearless in the face of death.

I pray for faith.

love and death

While I was looking for a good book to read, I came across a title “Love and Death.” I got struck by it enough for me to try to figure how the phrase hit a chord on me.

Love is the beginning of life, while death is simply the end. The striking contrast of these two words seemed to suggest that each is the opposite of the other. The absence of one necessitates the occurrence of the other. Therefore one can simply say that to love means to be alive and to die means to simply stop loving.
Yet for some reason, such thought just doesn’t hold true for those who are in love or even for those who had loved at some point in their lives. In the real world, when a person loves, he dies; he just has to. The two words are simply entwined.

To love is to die. There are different levels of death when one starts to love, first is the death of self. For when one loves, the self interest ceases to be. The “I” starts to get beyond what would make himself comfortable and begins to consider the well being of the other. Second is the death of pride. When the “I” falls in love, he makes himself vulnerable to the other; he begins to put his guard down and learns to have faith on the other. Pride ceases when the degree of helplessness and reliance increases. Third is the death of self-preservation. For some reason, self-preservation even as an instinct loses power over a person in love. This I just can’t figure why, but such phenomenon is avowed by all the stupid things one does in the name of love. Martyrdom for one are all willingly done in the name of love.

To love, therefore, is to die. In fact, love is perfected by death, and death only finds meaning in love. Christ’s love would not have been as divine if it had not culminated on the cross.

Now, do you want to die? haha

women

I was asked by my newest minion to write about how complicated women are. hmmm... the proposition is interesting. hahaha

In theory, women can do whatever men can. In theory, women are as intellectual as men. The language of women is the very same language that we use as we deal with people everyday. A ‘yes’ means yes and a ‘no’ means no.  

And true enough, when a woman says no she means no provided that... and a yes for her is a yes if and only if, or just to a certain degree (what?! there are varying degrees of yes?!) ... hahaha experience would tell us that there is always this underlying meaning to every word that they say, meaning that is yet to be deciphered otherwise war would be inevitable. Even the smartest and the most straightforward female i have ever met is genetically wired to have this kind of sub-language.  

Just as well, women would always insist that they mean what they say and that their words should be taken as they are. For us who know better, we always proceed with a never-ending clarification and verification in the most subtle way we can just to be sure if we got them right. hahaha  

And take note,. i'm only talking about words being said, there are still things like when they don't reply which could mean a million things, or when they don't show up on a date and expect to be forgiven but when we are late for just a few minutes it's as if we should be subjected to a capital punishment. And here’s the bomb, women's greatest weapon is not really their charm but their silence. Man, if your woman all of a sudden becomes quiet, you better start praying. hahaha

There's also this unwritten rule that by virtue of their gender, they should always win in any fight. If they don't, then it's not yet the end of it. hahaha  

But the greatest mystery of it all, is that by some cosmic force we just love them for that. I personally would not want them any other way.

Empires and kingdoms have risen and fallen just because of a woman's kiss. her smiles had launched and is still launching thousands of ships for battles to death.  

The fate of this world lies on HER. And as for me, i'm just waiting for my woman to come and say the word; and i shall climb the highest mountain and dive the deepest sea.

Teaching is newfound paradise

(my first published article) Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 23:25:00 10/13/2010

I HAVE been told countless of times that it is so stupid to make a career out of teaching. It can never make one rich. The second proposition may be true, but the first one is certainly wrong. I have been a 'stubborn' teacher for eight years now.

Friends tell me, 'Church, you are wasting your talents! You are so promising in the corporate world, we could use you in here'; or 'Reality check, my friend, you are living in the world where money matters.' Just last month, my best friend told me 'Look at our former classmate, he was the dumbest in our class and he made it, how much more if you are in there!'

Friends, thank you for your faith in me. I know you care, but I chose a more fulfilling path. I hope you will be happy for me.

Yes, I'm a teacher, an ordinary high school teacher. My job is not financially rewarding, but my God, I would not trade it for the world! Let me tell you how I ended up in this paradise. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever plan to become a teacher. My father was grooming me to be the best lawyer in the world, I was all set to enter UP to pursue that dream but God?s ways are mysterious. My father was initially so bitter when I didn't take advantage of my UP scholarship slot to the point of even threatening to disown me. But he eventually respected and supported my decision. I stayed with the Missionary Society of St. Columban for five years. There I felt God's hands forming me and preparing me for something great.

When I left the society, I lost my sense of direction. I came to Cebu looking for a job. The easiest job I could think of then was teaching. For some reason I felt I was led to this path by some invisible force. I had no teaching experience, yet I was hired by a school known for excellence and prestige. Teaching was the greater plan God had for me. But I did not realize it at the start. Unlike some of the teachers who started with so much passion and ended up bitter, teaching was just a daily routine, until slowly I saw the paradise I was led into. I thought I was only teaching the insignificant details of how Magellan ended up dead in some shore in Mactan, but I was actually leading my students to wonder and wander. What was so amazing was that I also changed for the better in the process. My students' experiences, their erratic behaviors and mischiefs, their friendships and even their painful life stories taught me lessons in life and living.

Even if others 'look down' on me as an ordinary teacher, I'm not bothered for I believe that whatever little I share with my students help them to become better and more loving people, to be men and women for others.

For whatever it's worth, I'm so grateful to be part of the lives of my students. It is such a privilege to be given the opportunity to influence lives. After all, in my deathbed, it would not really matter anymore what kind of car I was driving or how big my house was.