manny pacquiao meets SF Giants star pitcher and half-filipino tim lincecum

Giants bats erupt against Lee; win Game 1 vs. Rangers 11-7

SAN FRANCISCO — It was like seeing Bill Gates standing in the unemployment line or Rush Limbaugh shooting hoops with President Obama.

The San Francisco Giants did the unimaginable Wednesday against the Texas Rangers in Game 1 of the World Series. They knocked the mystique and aura right out of burgeoning postseason legend Cliff Lee, cruising to an 11-7 victory in front of a frenzied crowd of 43,601 at AT&T Park.

BOX SCORE: Giants 11, Rangers 7

GALLERY: Images from the 2010 postseason

BONDS ERA: Aura alive, though hard to find

The winner of Game 1 has taken 11 of the last 13 World Series. With three more victories in this best-of-seven series, the Giants will have their first championship since 1954.

“This give us a lot of confidence,” said second baseman Freddy Sanchez, who led the Giants’ attack with four hits, including three doubles, and three RBI. “We believe in ourselves.”

read here: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2010-10-27-rangers-giants-world-series-game-1_N.htm

Tim Lincecum, half-filipino will start for SF Giants in World Series Game 1

Tim Lincecum, originally from Washington state and whose mother is Filipina, has a popular following among the Filipino-American community, especially in the Bay Area.  He won the CY Young Award (as the National League’s best pitcher) in his first two seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) during the 2008 and 2009 campaigns.

Having signed a two-year, $23 million deal with the Giants earlier this year, Lincecum ranks second to seven-time boxing champion and congressman Manny Pacquiao in terms of earnings among Filipino / Fil-Am athletes.  Pacquiao earned close to $40 million in 2009, according to Forbes.  [ Related: Fil-Am Tim Lincecum second to Pacquiao in earnings ]

Like Pacquiao, Lincecum’s accomplishments are beginning to have historical significance.

source: http://www.examiner.com/international-sports-in-national/fil-am-tim-lincecum-faces-historic-baseball-showdown

 

also read here tim lincecum’s filipino family lineage:

https://wawam.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/half-filipino-tim-lincecum-is-2010-world-series-hero-wins-championship-for-sf-giants/

 

Michelle Ann Juan, ex-Ateneo professor – justice del castillo’s “legal researcher”in SC plagiarism

newsbreak has identified the “legal researcher” who was responsible for according to the SC inadvertently deleted the citations in the supreme court decision written by associate justice mariano del castillo that contained plagiarized portions from other sources – michelle ann juan, an ex-ateneo professor.

(click here to read: http://www.newsbreak.ph/2010/10/27/ex-ateneo-prof-behind-plagiarized-sc-rulings/)

source: http://www.newsbreak.ph

being an ex-professor and at ateneo at that, one od the country’s top schools makes us wonder how juan made the mistake od inadvertently deleting the citations in the SC decision. what makes the error even more amazing is that the deletion occurred 50 times in the document.  we can perhaps accept 1 deletion, but 50 times? getting the deletion done 50 times to us seem clear and conscious intent, not an honest mistake nor an accident.

as an ex-professor of one the best law schools in the country, juan should know that plagiarism is not acceptable. did juan tolerate plagiarism or “unintentional deletion” of citations in the papers her students submitted to her when she was a professor?

we assume that one of the things the ateneo law school teaches its students how to properly write legal documents and that should include making sure citations are included when a document uses work done by someone else. certainly grade school students at the ateneo de manila university are taught that as early as grade 3, if grade schoolers at ateneo know that, why wouldn’t a professor at the ateneo lw school know that.

based on the newsbreak article, juan has a very impressive resume. aside from graduating at one of the top in her class, she also placed 4th at the bar exams, has a master’s degree from New York University and was the editor in chief of the Ateneo Law Journal. we find it hard to believe that someone like juan with such credentials can make simple mistakes as deleting citations and unintentionally commit plagiarism. being an editor-in-chief of her school’s paper alone should prevent her from committing such mistakes and certainly not 50 times.

something is not right in the story the SC wants us to believe on this plagiarism case at the SC.

as posted at the Ateneo Law School website:http://law.ateneo.edu/index.php?p=323

Juan, Michelle Ann U., A.B., J.D.

Michelle Juan is a Professorial Lecturer in the Ateneo de Manila School of Law, teaching Legal Research, Legal Logic, Property, and Private International Law. She earned her B.A. [Philosophy] from the Ateneo in 1997, and her J.D. in 2002. She has also lectured at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (University of the City of Manila) and the FEU-DLSU JD-MBA Program.

Michelle graduated 3^rd in her batch, received a special commendation for her J.D. thesis [on the use of force in international law], and was the recipient of the St. Thomas More Award. Beyond these academic achievements, she was also Editor-in-Chief of the Ateneo Law Journal, and member/oralist of the Ateneo team to the Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition.

Michelle went on to place 4^th in the 2002 National Bar Examinations, and then worked as an Associate with Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & De Los Angeles, one of the leading law firms in the Philippines, specializing in domestic and international arbitration,

theresa torres pleads “not guilty” in ateneo student amiel alcantara death court case

theresa torres

theresa torres, the mother/driver suspect charged in the death of grade 4 student amiel alcantara at the ateneo grade school pleaded not guilty in court on criminal charges lodged by the alcantara family. amiel was killed at the ateneo grade school parking lot when the van driven by torres pinned the grade 4 boy to another car and crushed him to death. amiel’s nanny and sister were also hurt in the same car accident.

the QC Court Branch 106 judge also said that in accordance with court rules, the parties are mandated to elevate the case to mediation. it was the first time we heard of this process.

the idea of going through mediation according to documents we have read is to find a way to unclog the courts of cases. while it might achieve that in some way, we think more than anything, this is just an additional process to the judicial proceeding which to begin with already takes a long time. what this does is it adds one more process to an already very long process.

amiel alcantara was killed in february 24, 2009 and the arraignment of the case was done just a few days ago, after almost one year and a half in the courts. the case has just been started after 18 months. the mediation will add more months to it.

(read about mediation at the courts here: http://www.pmc.org.ph/about-the-philippine-mediation-center.htm)

the parties in court cases are forced to go through it. we think that should be changed where the parties may simply say whether they want to go through it or by-pass it all together to go straight to trial. the courts are clogged with cases not because of a lack of mediation, it is the slow process that judges allow to occur in its proceedings.

the mediation process helps the court in unclogging it but it does not help the parties involved in the case. all it does is it prolongs the court case further.

the mediation process only adds to an already prolonged process and adds misery and pain to the victims and families of the victims.  this additional process does not really decongest the courts, all it does is give the cases one more detour. it postpones or delays the progress of the case, it does not remove them.

the mediation process for the amiel alcantara death case is scheduled for november.

Suspect in Ateneo student’s death pleads not guilty

MANILA, Philippines – A woman accused of running over a Grade 4 student at the Ateneo de Manila University on Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City last year pled not guilty to criminal charges before a local court Thursday.

Maria Theresa Torres, the woman who ran over and killed 10-year-old student Amiel Alcantara last year, was arraigned at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court branch 106.

the supreme court gives a loophole to plagiarism and manny pangilinan’s speechgate

Justice Mariano del Castillo, an associate justice of the  of the Philippine Supreme Court wrote a decision on a case filed in the supreme court that plagiarized portions from other sources, without properly identifying or attributing the quotes from its sources.

lawyers who filed the suit at the supreme court charged del castillo of plagiarism. in an en banc decision, the supreme court cleared del castillo of plagiarism.

 

Last July, Roque and Bagares filed a complaint against Del Castillo, who wrote the decision denying the women’s appeal, accusing the justice of plagiarizing parts of the works of three eminent international legal minds in writing his decision.

The authors and their works that were allegedly plagiarized were: “A Fiduciary Theory of Jus Cogens” by Evan J. Criddle and Evan Fox-Descent; “Breaking the Silence: Rape as an International Crime” by Mark Ellis; and “Enforcing Erga Omnes Obligations” by Christian J. Tams.

(read news article here: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20101016-297971/Footnotes-SC-drops-case-of-plagiarism-against-justice)

in it’s decision, the supreme court seem to be saying, there is no plagiarism when:

• there is no intent to plagiarize
• when you use Microsoft Word which does not tell the writer if something is plagiarized and the software makes it difficult to put footnotes
• when the typist or the staff who actually typed the document cries and apologizes for the mistake that she made in deleting the footnotes that attributes the quotes to the original authors

the last point reminds us of manny pangilinan’s speechgate during the graduation ceremony at the ateneo where manny pagnilinan delivered a commencement speech that contained plagiarized parts from other commencement speches delivered by oprah. obama and conan o’brian. (read here:  https://wawam.wordpress.com/?s=manny+pangilinan)

in manny panigilinan’s speechgate, he admitted later on that indeed portions of the speech he delivered were plagiarized from other speeches. and just like the supreme court justice, pangilinan said the speech he delivered was originally written by his staff who foolishly plagiarized parts of the speech without telling pangilinan about them.

we did not hear of pangilinan’s staff crying and apologizing for his error like the staff of associate justice del castillo did but pangilinan to his credit did the honorable thing by resigning his post from the ateneo as a direct result of the speechgate.

pangilinan resigned his ateneo post despite the board of trustees of the ateneo pre-empted pangilinan’s action by absolving pangilinan of his “sin” of plagiarism. the board of trustees of the ateneo chose to ignore the plagiarism committed by pangilinan and forgave him for his sin even before pangilinan made a final decision on his resignation from the ateneo board of trustees.

in both cases, a staff was involved in the committing the act of plagiarism but there was a difference in action  – manny pangilinan resigned his post at the ateneo, a most honrable action while associate justice del castillo stayed in his post.

the meaning of the word “honor” seem to have been lost to del castillo, the supreme court and the ateneo board of trustees. only many pangilinan understood what it means.

 

 

 

Amiel Alcantara death arraignment set on October 21, 2010

amiel alcantara

theresa torres, mother/driver

amiel alcantara is the grade 4 student at the ateneo de manila university grade school (AGS) who was killed in a traffic accident at the ateneo grade school parking lot in february 24, 2009. we have given extensive coverage on the amiel case in this blog (click to read: https://wawam.wordpress.com/category/amiel-alcantara/).

we received a text message on the on-going court case as follows :

After a slow process 18 months, the Amiel Alcantara case will be finally arraigned on Thursday, 21 October, 8:30 am, QC Branch 106.

Present judicial process requires “arbitration”  between parties after arraignment, aiming for “settlement” of what cannot be undone and transacted, the loss of precious life inside a school where children safely grow.  It’s this time that we see how a judicial process, and creativity of its participants value and respect the life of Amiel, a helpless victim of a grossly dangerous mother/driver.

As our family, friends, and community grieve, we pray for justice, we pray for safety and protection of our precious little ones.

~~Pepe Alcantara & Family

we have not forgotten amiel. we see his marker at the ateneo grade school parking lot almost everyday of the week and we are constantly reminded of how a precious life was taken from a place where we automatically assume to be safe – the school. how much of a future was taken away from amiel and his family we cannot properly imagine but we know it is great and most likely not measurable.  we pray for amiel whenever we see that marker – one for amiel’s soul and another for his family.

we are also reminded of how fragile safety is even in school for our grade school children. and we wonder aloud if ateneo has done enough for safety and to help ensure what happened to amiel is not repeated in the future. we remember the promise of the school that more will be done and also remember none came.

in tomorrow’s arraignment, we hope the ateneo community and the school reflects on these things.

spot at the AGS parking lot where amiel was killed

cebu pacific’s flight attendants – entertainers or safety professionals?

this video as of this writing as gotten 6 million hits at youtube which makes it a viral success.  from a marketing standpoint, that is a good thing. althought cebu pacific had no hand in posting it at youtube, a passenger did, it can still do something in advertising to exploit its success (read more here:  http://the-wawam-file.blogspot.com/2010/10/cebu-pacifics-dancing-flight-stewardess.html).

over and above the marketing opportunity, there are other questions that need to be answered. one question is – what does the dancing do to the profession called flight stewardess?

PAL’s labor union for flight attendants disagrees with this video as they say it evokes the negative stereotypes FAs have. this one according to them is inconsistent with the FAs key role in the flight as the “safety professional”.  after seeing your FA do this dance, will you be able to take the same flight attendant seriously when she asks you to take a seat, brace and prepare for a crash landing?

what the dancing does is that it adds a third  function to the duties of  flight attendants – they are already the safety professional and the waitress, this one adds a third, the entertainer.

to be fair, cebu pacific flight attendants from the very start has done some form of entertainment. when cebu pacific was launched, they were the emcees in the parlor games that they conducted among passengers at the start of the flight.  we have not witnessed it our self but we have heard there was a time when they even had some kind of a karaoke show as well.

it was shocking that the flight attendant conducts these parlor games during the flight.  we really felt embarrassed for the flight attendants. we thought it cheapened the image of the flight attendant. it did not help that the uniforms they wore wore were a far cry from the ones other flight attendants wore.  the uniforms cebu pacific flight attendants wore id look cheap – cotton t-shirt and pants, something you expect ordinary people wore on a daily basis at home. it was the exact opposite of what we expect flight attendants to be – smart, beautiful and aspirational.

this dancing adds a very different element to the image of the cebu pacific flight attendant. we are wondering what is next for cebu flight attendants? will there be a new choreography much like the girls we used to see at wowowee that is supposed to be entertainment?

millions of filipino catholics face excommunication

bishop odchimar

let’s assume the bishop knows what he is talking about and that he is not just bullying noynoy aquino, applying the same logic, based on an SWS survey. a high 71% of pinoy catholics will need to be  excommunicated as well as that represents the number of catholics who support RH Bill 5043.

for more, click here: http://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/71-or-millions-of-pinoy-catholics-face-mass-excommunication-by-cbcp/

ateneo bonfire set on sunday, october 3

the traditional ateneo bonfire post-UAAP basketball games is scheduled on the evening of october 3, this sunday.

carlos celdran “damaso” – protest action with class! bravo!

note to carlos celdran: when you do one more of your protest  action, please let this blog know so that we can arrange good video and photo coverage of  your protest. no charge for you.

from PDI: Holding up a placard with the word Damaso on it, tourist guide Carlos Celdran screams at the clergy to get out of politics during Mass at Manila Cathedral. Damaso, an abusive Spanish friar, is immortalized in Rizal’s “Noli me Tangere.” EDWIN BACASMAS

carlos celdran, one of  the best  tour guides in metro manila, pulled a brilliant stunt to protest the catholic church’s meddling with president aquino’s stance  on providing filipinos with a free choice on contraceptive method. we think celdrn’s stunt was not only brilliant, it was one of the most classy protest we have seen in many years.

it was brilliant as celdran was successful at putting his message across and got full media, tv and print and internet coverage. getting a wide audience is one of the primary measures of a successful protest action.

more than the mileage he was able to get, we give celdran’s protest action 5 stars for being very classy. first – he did his protest action at the cathedral itself. there is no better place than that. then, and this is important, celdran was properly dressed for the part – a suit and hat that mimicked jose rizal’s clothes. and then the stroke of genius – the word “damaso” on the placard he raised at the altar.

his protest action was well thought of, well packaged and the message and medium excellent for the purpose. this was a protest action done by someone who does a lot of very good thinking. aside from the poignant message, it had excellent theater.

we are not surprised with celdran’s action and genius. we have joined celdran in a tour of the cathedral and everyone in our group was in awe with celdran’s tour. celdran in his tour at the cathedral was very well informed and he delivered his spiel in a most engaging, intelligent and even funny way. it was both entertaining and informative. he delivered history in a most fascinating way that got everyone in the tour taking and apreciating his every word, including the theatrics he put into it. we recommend that every filipino should take celdran’s tour.

what celdran did for his protest he does for his tour. never a dull moment but all the right messages delivered very well and with theater. if all protests are done the way celdran does it, we  would like to see more of it and please on a daily basis.

carlos celdran – 5 stars!

5 stars!

who is padre damaso? click here –>http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20101002-295507/IN-THE-KNOW–History-101