ITR Filing

Today, April 15, is the last day of filing of your Income Tax Returns for 2007. Make sure you file it accordingly. There are designated official filing booths at various SM malls. If you don’t have any tax dues to pay, you can file it there.

Goodluck on beating the deadline!

Another long weekend!

Yey! It will be another long weekend for all of us here in the Philippines.

Monday, April 7, has been declared as a regular non-working holiday in lieu of April 9 which is the exact date of Araw ng Kagitingan.

So the whole family is off to Baguio today until Monday night. See you on Tuesday everyone!

Happy (long) weekend! Have fun!

Former President Corazon Aquino diagnosed with colon cancer

This is a very sad news. One of the historical figures of our freedom from the hands of a dictator is diagnosed with cancer. Former President Corazon Aquino has been diagnosed with colon cancer, according to her daughter, local celebrity Kris Aquino.

Kris Aquino, fighting tears, read a statement on live television that said her mother had gone in for tests after suffering from high blood pressure and difficulty breathing during the Christmas and New Year holidays, then a persistent cough and weight loss.

“The result showed our mother is suffering from cancer of the colon,” she said.

*A report from CNN.com

Let us all pray that she gets well or that she does not suffer that much.

Erratic Globe network signal

I don’t know if you are also experiencing this but Globe Telecoms’ network signal has been erratic for the past few days now. I thought at first that it might be my mobile phone unit. Hazel plays with my phone when I am not looking and she kinda messed it up. But when I asked my sisters and brother about it, they are also experiencing the same thing.

Smart Comm’s network signal here at home is poor. So everyone here at home is subscribed to Globe.

I wonder if there is something going on with them. Are you experiencing the same poor network coverage? Any ideas why?

He looked like the Big Bully!

Have you watched the Senate hearing today? I was able to watch the portion wherein Senator Jinggoy Estrada was the one in-charge of asking Leo San Miguel and Dante Madriaga. I just noticed something with the way Jinggoy treated both men… he has a smirk the whole time and was quite the big bully!

Maybe he was thinking that ha! Now you know how it feels to be grilled the way we were grilled when my father and I were being charged with so many things!

If you watch the hearing, there is a big difference with the way the senators treat the witnesses. Senator Kiko Pangilinan, Senator Rodolfo Biazon and Senator Allan Cayetano knew how to treat the witnesses. No condemnation in the way they look at these people. Jinggoy on the other hand…

My post’s title says it all.

Bb. Pilipinas winner: Should a beauty queen be a good English speaker?

Ruffa Gutierrez reacted to the winner of the Bb. Pilipinas beauty pageant for NOT being fluent in English. The lady had a hard time in her Q&A portion but still went on to win the title of Bb. Pilipinas-World, a title previously won by Ruffa herself.

Come to think of it, what is wrong if you only know how to speak your native language and nothing else? Does a beauty queen really have to speak the English language fluently?

Let’s just recall a bit here that Dayanara Torres has an interpreter when she won the Miss Universe title a couple of years ago. She spoke in Spanish the whole pageant.

So do you really need to be fluent in English for you to become a beauty queen? Is it a requirement?

This just shows how colonial mentality is affecting us Filipinos. Fluency in English does not necessarily mean you are speaking sensibly when you open your mouth. I can name a lot of people I met in the call center companies I have been with who speak really good English coupled with the American or British accent but with the brains of a child. English fluency does not translate to an intelligent person, people!

Ruffa is wrong in saying that it is embarrassing for a beauty queen to be unable to speak in English. Says who? There is no need to be self-righteous when it comes to English fluency and grammar. We should all be proud of our language. If a beauty queen cannot speak in straight English, then let her speak in Tagalog and get an interpreter! Other countries do that, why can’t we?

My point is this… why lambast a girl for that? Give the girl a break! At tayo namang mga Pilipino, kung di kinakailangang mag-Ingles o kung talagang di natin kaya, eh di mag-Tagalog na lang! Wag masyadong trying hard! Walang masama sa pagsasalita ng Tagalog.