Indeed, a MERRY Christmas!!!

Christmas 2007 would, definitely be worth remembering.  But before going to my personal insights to how my celebration of Xmas ‘07 would be, there are a few things worth mentioning and thanking God for.

First of all, a dear friend, Yay, has finally awake from her week-long sleep.  Last week, a news came to me that Yay lost her consciousness, for some reason i don’t know and i didn’t get to know.   I was brought into tears by the news and was terribly worried.  I tried to call some friends asking for updates, but to no avail, I tried calling Yay’s phone, hoping that some family member would pick it up and address my questions.  It was after several days of trial that I was able to get through the line.  Her dad texted me and told me that she had this heart and blood illness for long and that it’s at its critical stage now, that it is a matter of life and death.  She can either wake up and be stronger, or not wake up at all.  I don’t know why I was so concerned with her at that time, noting that she was a close friend but not really my closest peer back then. Last Tuesday, on my way home from school, I texted Yay’s dad again, asking for updates and saying my regards to their family.   No replies that night, but the next morning, I woke up with a message at my phone.  When I read it, it says “Ate ceo, gising na ko…”.  Yay replied herself.  Prayers proved its strength and Yay woke up the other night, after exactly 7 days of sleep.  My prayers were answered.

Next stop, is about my brother.  I am now a tita! At that same night that Yay woke up, my brother’s wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy.  I haven’t seen him personally ’til now since I usually arrive home late because of school and go to office early the next morning.  They’ll come home from the hospital on saturday.  A new member of the family this Christmas is indeed a great blessing.  He’s name is Christian James E. Ocampo.  I’ll post more of him next time…when I have his pics. ^_^

And finally, I have so much to thank about this Christmas as well.  Blessings overflow for me this year, in almost all aspects of my life. For a good career, and a profession awaiting for 2011. I have an understanding and a considerate company that supports my aspirations for a law profession. Great professors and good grades. ^_^ Great family, good health, and last but not the least, a year-round of LOVE (from my beloved).

Add comment December 20th, 2007

Divine Majesty and Human Dignity

O Lord, our Lord,
how awesome is your name through all the earth!
You have set your majesty above the heavens!

Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have drawn a defense against your foes,
to silence enemy and avenger.

When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers
the moon and stars that you set in place –

What are humans that you are mindful of them,
mere mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them little less than a god,
crowned them with glory and honor.

You have given them rule over the works of your hands,
put all things at their feet:

All sheep and oxen,
even the beasts of the field,

The birds of the air, the fist of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord,
how awesome is your name
through all the earth!

- Psalm 8 : 1-10

Add comment December 12th, 2007

Media ‘processing’ - Rightful or a Violation of a Right?

The recent Trillanes coup (attempt) gave rise to but another controversy that the State is now faced with. Right after the surrender of Trillanes and his supporters, the police force proceeded in gathering all the media people involved, or were together with Trillanes’ team, inside the Manila Peninsula Hotel. The policemen explained that it was for a short inquiry or processing, to verify the media people’s identity and/or participation with the coup (attempt).

It must be noted that before the said processing, the media people were forewarned and asked to leave the premises for their safety and to easily facilitate the negotiation and/or arrest of the group of Trillanes. But the media people did not listen and chose to remain inside the Manila Peninsula, for some personal or competitive purposes. In that light, the media people became instruments to obstruct, or at least make it more difficult, for the police force to execute its plans in order to end the nuisance at once.

The press plays a very important role in the society. It shows to the world what is truly happening in a micro and/or macro prospective. It influences the way people think and perceive things. It can even create a certain culture or belief, if it wishes. It can also serve as a cover up for protection by some accused. And the latter is exactly what the policemen wish to avoid in heeding for the media to move out of the premises.

To some people, the media’s act was heroic and shows true dedication in the service of nation in showing what is happening to the world. But to some it is pitiful, in sane, or worse, a conspiracy to protect the accused. As a dear Constitutional Law professor, Dean Andy Bautista, has mentioned, “It is just like in a burning house! We cannot absolutely deprive the owners of the house to go inside and save some belongings, but as a rule of duty, we must do so for their protection. Now if they insist in doing so, they may do so, but not without taking the risk for themselves.” The media people, in insisting to stay inside the Manila Peninisula during the coup (attempt), should bear the hassle of any processing, inquiry, or whatever procedure that the police enforcers may require them to undertake. That is not just for their own safety but more for the nation’s security, knowing that some Magdalo can very well be in a disguise as a media man, simply to effect an escape. I am sure that a true dedicated serviceman wouldn’t want someone (an accused) to use his/her name (service) as a means of escaping liability from the State.

So now we come to the famous question of whether the holding made against the media people constitutes an arbitrary detention or a violation of the freedom of the press and a deprivation of their right w/o due process of law. Due process of law, as well as the equal protection of the law, is provided for in Article III, Section 1 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution:

Section 1: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws”

Due process, as contemplated by the law, can either be ‘Procedural due process’ or ‘Substantive due process’. Procedural due process requires a step-by-step procedure of how a law (or a thing) shall be implemented, and faithful execution according to the prescribed procedure is tantamount to compliance with due process. On the other hand, Substantive due process is the absence of arbitrary laws and questions the very essence or substance of the law itself, as whether it is just or not.

Without a doubt, the policemen has complied with the proper call of procedure in dealing with the media men. The processing is applied to ‘all’ members of the press, without distinction as to who is famous or not (shame to those who were even proud of being able to escape from this process). Now, the last question is whether there was an actual need for the said processing, it is ’substantial’ and just? I personally believe that the police enforcers had a reasonable ground to conduct the said processing. It is paramount to public interest that they assure that they are not setting free the people liable to the distress that just occurred. The main consideration for the act is the general welfare of the community, especially those within the surrounding vicinity. Hence, there is no violation of due process, whether procedural or substantive.

I would like to end this with a call on the press for a balanced judgment. It was obvious from the interviews with Trillanes how their group push and pursued on using the media as a means to get the sympathy of the people and/or as a cover (protection) from the armed forces. For a couple of times, they insisted on the fact that the present administration is willing to sacrifice the media people just to get what it want. By mid of their act, they were firm on their stand that they will not surrender, no matter what. And at the end of the day, they moved on to say that they will surrender since their conscience cannot take it, to put the media peoples’ lives at stake, as compared to what the administration was willing to sacrifice. On the other hand, many believe that the real reason behind the surrender was the fact that no one heeded their call. They received only a minimal support, if not none, that is not sufficient to actually bring their mission to success, and so they surrendered and gave the lame excuse of ‘for the sake of the press’, again to gain sympathy and the side of the press. Whereas, in the first place, they are the ones who put not just the press but the whole nation at stake. They put at stake the slowly growing and recuperating economy back to zero. Investors were threatened, tourists were frightened, citizens were sacrificed. How can one call for a positive change if he himself is the greatest contributor for a nuisance. Clearly, everyone must rethink things out.

Add comment December 2nd, 2007

Slyt is for the GO now…Shih Tzu FOR SALE

One LAST male shih tzu pup left….so if you’re interested …contact me asap ok

1 boy left

Features:
- good champ-line
- tricolor (white, black, gold/dark brown)
- princess type
- with 2 set of 5-in-1 vaccine shot and 2 deworming
- with PCCI papers (now available)

3 comments November 16th, 2007

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish, by Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios)

This is the text of the commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005 at Stanford University. We, the editors at The Smashing Life.com, hope that the following message will always serve as an inspiration to us all when life becomes tough.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?� They said: “Of course.� My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2-billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down — that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.� It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?� And whenever the answer has been “No� for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now. This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept :  No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.� It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Add comment November 15th, 2007

A Fresh New Start…

A big relief came last Friday night…(Nov. 9)…grades were released and thank God I passed my most-feared subject…and it was higher than what i expected, or at least prayed for. It was an assurance that I can still handle work and law school at the same time…and thank God I won’t have to give up any between the two…for the meantime.

We’re now waiting for just two more professors to release the grades, ACA Villches and Dean Roy. I am hoping my grades on their subjects were ok and there must be nothing to worry about. So far…so good…i can proceed to the next enrollment. It is strange that I am praying for payables to come in to me, hehehe… but if greater future comes at stake…who wouldn’t wish to pay more, right!?!

As of this moment, I have an average QPI of 85.36. Dean’s-Lister-wanna-be… hehehe… if I remember it right, 3.35 is DL in Ateneo Loyola…dat’s at least 83.75%. Then i remember a friend telling me that he almost got into DL at the Ateneo Law School (ALS), requiring at least 85.00%. If this is true and in God’s grace…i’m hanging on the limit of being a DL. (haba ng hair ng lola mo…hahahha!)

Back at the Ateneo Loyola..I was also always hanging in the middle…and was even short of 0.03 for a couple of times, until i gave up wishing and hoping. I really hope it works this time…if not…then it’s ok…the fact that i survived is still a great grace, considering the really tough job to do in ALS.

Haiz….it’s a new semester…new professors, new subjects…new challenges…Thank you Lord for this fresh new start!

Add comment November 13th, 2007

Juvenile Justice: Retributive or Restorative?

Juvenile justice is an issue that affects not only children involved in criminal activities but also child victims of poverty, abuse and exploitation. Throughout the world, children who come into conflict with the law are at the greatest risk of having their fundamental rights violated. For this reason, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) established the following as the core guiding principle for the treatment of children in conflict with the law:

State Parties recognize the right of every child alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law to be treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the child’s sense of dignity and worth, which reinforces the child’s respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of others and which takes into account the child’s age and the desirability of promoting the child’s reintegration and the child’s assuming a constructive role in society.â€? ¹

States are therefore required to establish laws, procedures, authorities and institutions specifically applicable to children alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law. It is a legally binding instrument.

It is with this consideration that we seek to present relevant information on the trend of juvenile justice system in various countries, in relation to meeting these obligations. We will assess whether restorative or retributive forms of juvenile justice systems are being implemented in countries around the world. To this end, we will look into national juvenile justice systems, laws and practices based on the CRC and the UN guidelines on juvenile justice; the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (JDLs), the UN Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (Riyadh Guidelines); and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (Beijing Rules). We approached this by looking at the state of juvenile justice in the various regions and individual nations of the world.

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1 Convention on the Rights of the Child. Available online at www.unicef.org.crc. Last Accessed October 23, 2007.

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Add comment November 9th, 2007

The day before the Judgment Day…

haiz, la lng..just want to share…magulo ang araw ko today… maybe it’s because of the sub-conscious feeling of anxiety…i can’t seem to do my thing right…i’ve been trying to read sumthing for the whole day and somehow, i get distracted every now and then…i used to focus well with what I am doing, but today is different. It’s like I want to do so many things at a very little time. I feel like a convict in line to death row…

And yes…tomorrow is the judgment day (release of grades for 1st sem of law school)….and still, i can’t make my student login account work…the heck! I am praying to pass all subjects, and at the same time i don’t want to expect too much and break my heart later on…but i also don’t want to count it in as a failure coz it might come true..hehehe…waaahhh….i am starting to get paranoid for tomorrow. haiz….may God be with all ALS students tomorrow. haiz…haiz…haiz…

Add comment November 8th, 2007

It ain’t over ’til it’s over…

Finals is almost done…except for one paper and defense left for thurs…but ‘exams’ is generally over…but i don’t know what exactly to feel about the recent series of exams…maybe i am still stunned with what happened. Things happened so fast and i don’t know if it was ‘fast good’ or ‘fast bad’. heheh…

I’m slowly getting the hang of law school…the world of uncertainty…im coming to realize that law school is indeed a perfect example of the application of everything in philosophy that Loyola school taught its students.

In philosophy, i learned about ‘MERON’, which means plain existence.
‘Ang pagmemeron ng tao na basta na lamang nandyan…pero ano ang meron? Meron bang wala sa meron? Meron bang wala? O maging ang wala ay meron?’ This is where the first discussion on philosophy classes normally revolve…’ANO ANG MERON?’

At the end of it all, after a very thoughtful and almost crazy thinking, it would turn out that the question is simply wrong…because we cannot quantify nor qualify mere existence with the question ‘what’ or ‘ANO?’. That’s how crazy law school is, as it turns out to me…we are made to think things not just out of the box or the books…but even out of this world…but i guess that is what truly makes a good lawyer…being able to anticipate all kinds of attacks. But im telling you, its no joke! We are made to read a pile of readings reaching to one’s waist…to be asked one question regarding an exact phrase from among all those readings…what the heck right? imagine, from all those readings…teachers expect us to remember one single phrase, ‘verbatim’. Duh! But that’s life of law…we have no choice but to strive harder and try to grab all knowledge we can, hoping that the next question would be covered with up to where our studying managed to cover.

This may seem like an exaggeration but this is exactly what we, or at least I, experienced. One sentiment I have is that it is ok for me to read such pile of readings if the question to be asked is at least within the readings. But the sad part is that, sometimes, even though you were successful in reading all the required documents, the question would still not be found there. Or it still needs processing before you can get to the answer…law school requires not only knowledge, but wisdom and understanding… of ALL the matters required…meaning everything in the world. hahaha!

Learning doesn’t stop inside the classroom or the law school. It is only the beginning and is without end…just like ‘MERON’ in philosophy. One must grab all opportunities to learn something new, may it be about things not necessarily connected with law, since law school is about the study of life and living. How people evolve, how they (must) relate to each other, and everything else related to life or living. At the end of it all, the recent finals is not yet final but just the first among the unending series of tests which a law student must take to become a lawyer and will continue until forever, while we are still sane.

I realize that the path I chose to take is no joke…and I am willing to take up the extra-mile, if God permits me…

Add comment October 25th, 2007

LAWYER STORY OF THE YEAR, DECADE AND PROBABLY THE CENTURY.

Charlotte , North Carolina .

A lawyer purchased a box of very rare and
expensive cigars, then insured them against, among
other things, fire.

Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile
of these great cigars and without yet having made
even his first premium payment on the policy the
lawyer filed a claim against the insurance company.

In his claim, the lawyer stated the cigars were
lost “in a series of small fires.”

The insurance company refused to pay, citing the
obvious reason, that the man had consumed the cigars
in the normal fashion.

The lawyer sued and WON!

(Stay with me.)

Delivering the ruling, the judge agreed with the
insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The
judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyer held a
policy from the company, which it had warranted that
the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would
insure them against fire, without defining what is
considered to be unacceptable “fire” and was
obligated to pay the claim.

Rather than endure lengthy and costly appeal
process, the insurance company accepted the ruling
and paid $15,000 to the lawyer for his loss of the
cigars lost in the “fires”.

NOW FOR THE BEST PART..

After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance
company had him arrested on 24 counts of ARSON!!!

With his own insurance claim and testimony from
the previous case being used against him, the lawyer
was convicted of intentionally burning his insured
property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and
a $24,000 fine.

This is a true story and was the First Place
winner in the recent Criminal Lawyers Award Contest.

Add comment October 24th, 2007