Executive Secretary is finding it hard to understand why the Filipino people do not like Gloria Arroyo despite her working so hard, traveling all over the country doling out crumbs from the billions of pesos that she rakes in from the citizenry.

Following the release of the SWS survey for the period June 27 to 30 where dissatisfaction over how Arroyo runs the country was reflected in an all-time low rating of -38 , Ermita said, “Of course people have to wonder why after the many things that she is doing for the well-being of our citizens that that should still be the perception.”

Ermita is wrong. People do not wonder because they know and they feel it. It’s the economy, stupid.

(The phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid” was used widely during Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign against George H.W. Bush, father of the current U.S. President. Coined by campaign strategist James Carville, the phrase harped on bad shape of the U.S. economy at that time which they blamed on Bush’s mismanagement. )

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Manny Pacquiao will fight David Diaz today in an ambitious feat of the aforementioned become the first Asian to win world titles in four divisions. More to what he has to offer in the name of “Bravo Indio” race, Lorden Leopoldo sees another thing why this fighter from General Santos City should be a national hero.

Published yesterday at SUNSTAR CEBU WEEKEND page 6, this is what Lorden Leopoldo has to say:

A lot of good things happen to the Philippines when Manny Pacquiao has a fight. His upcoming duel against David Diaz this Sunday is no exception. So, let

What’s more to a blog? It’s the blogger behind the digital world. They turn ideas into a digital document with impressive graphic layouts while showing you a speck of their minds. These are the following blogs which surely did catch my attention.

UNSEAL MY LIPS is an exploration of a lady into her thoughts and feelings everyday. Aside from an eye-catching graphic design in her blog, this blog shows more of the writers emotions as she writes. Unseal My Lips further sees the boundaries of the bloggers thought regarding her everyday life.

The legality of the events organized by the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) is now put in question.

It can be recalled that the then contending parties Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) and Philippine Basketball (PB) is both dissolved after both group a signed resolution infront of FIBA the international basketball sanctioning body, and to formalize the creation of the Basketball Association of the Philippines

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No. It’s not another pre-selling spree for a new condominium tower. CONDO is the first film breaking out of the digital box from a new band of filmmakers.

“It was first a working title, the title CONDO that is,” executive producer and director Martin Cabrera shares. “But then as early debates among the producers went on as to what actually will the final title be, we all realized that CONDO nicely wraps everything up for the material in a thematic way. CONDO as a title lends both literal and figurative strokes to the film.

CONDO topbills Coco Martin. Yes, the same Coco Martin who shot to indie fame via Dante Mendoza’s critically acclaimed Masahista. Coco has become a staple to many important independent films to date. If anybody wants to trace his works released in 2007, just check out the following titles: Siquijor, Ataul For Rent, Nars, Tambolista,Batanes, Tirador. Coco Martin was in all of them, in all important roles.

CONDO is produced by a new group of filmmakers who are bound by a collective passion about the craft. Aloy Adlawan leads the crew as writer and producer of their first offering. Martin Cabrera was handed down the job of directing. Jeyow Evangelista brought his camera to the set as Cinematographer, Rona Lean Sales sat down as editor, Raymund Cruz coordinated the Production Management work.

On January 23, CONDO will have its first week-long theatrical run at the Indiesine theater in Robinson’s Galleria. Indiesine is a theater,managed by the Independent Filmmakers Cooperative (IFC) under the auspices of the Robinson’s Movie World management. CONDO kicks off Indiesine’s first quarter with an impressive indie line-up which includes Jade Castro’s 2007 Cinemalaya entry, Endo, Jun Lana’s Roxxxanne, and Ellen Ramos/Paolo Villaluna’s Selda.

CONDO is the story of Benjie (Coco Martin), a security guard assigned to his new post- a condominium. Left on his own with no family to lean on, and his girlfriend jilting him for another man, Benjie requests the building administration to let him stay in the guard’s quarters.

Benjie (Coco Martin) encounters a whole new universe of people in his new post. It is a condominium after all, a small community of neighbors and strangers all under one roof. But to Benjie, everyone’s just faces attached to door numbers, doors which are always closed and are rarely open. No one really cares about him. And Benjie only cares about his job even if it is the same tired routine. The building and the job have become the perfect refuge.

But when a mysterious intruder and a phone call coming from an empty unit begin taunting him, Benjie fears for the perfectly lonely world he’s built around himself. In the end, he discovers that the answer to the mystery lies not very far from his own shadow. Will he embrace it? Or will the mystery be lost on him forever?

For those who missed the trail of the new KAPAMILYA VS. KAPUSO battle on the AGB Neilsen Media survey research panel house breach, this is your chance to take a look at it as it happens. Thanks to the power of the world wide web and video streaming courtesy of www.youtube.com.

1. ABS-CBN filed a case against AGB Neilsen Media Research for a possible data manipulation of the data gathered in Bacolod Area based on some whistle blowers which according to ABS-CBN’s report were hired by GMA 7 . See full report below:

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Globalpinoy Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises believes that a principal reason why the Philippines continues to lag behind its Asian neighbors in economic development is because of the lamentable absence of a wide-spread entrepreneurial orientation and a woeful lack of entrepreneurial skills among Filipinos. Even today, our youth are still brought up on the principle that the key to success is to get a good education preferably with impressive grades to be able to find good employment in big multinational companies. One look at our more successful Asian brothers will easily reveal that their economies were founded on local entrepreneurships, not employment.

There is therefore an urgent need to correct this anomaly that has left our country behind in economic development. This is most crucial as the whole world economy now faces the onslaught of globalization, a trend which cannot be stopped and will not be stopped.

Our country drastically requires the development of a mass-based entrepreneurial class if we are to survive globalization. A country of employees such as ours will always have a government that is beholden to multinational companies. On the other hand, a Philippines with a wide-based entrepreneurial class can exist on its own and could even wield companies hostage in this country.

The Philippine economy must be controlled by Filipinos. “Para umunlad ang ating bayan, kailangan umunlad ang negosyanteng pinoy.” This is the battlecry of the Globalpinoy Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises. With every activity of Globalpinoys, we hope to spread the seeds of Filipino entrepreneurship to the four corners of the archipelago or wherever the Filipinos maybe.

But for the entrepreneurial class to flourish and succeed, we critically also need the cooperation and support of the government. Globalpinoy Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises likewise commits itself to attempt to persuade government to implement laws and incentives conducive to the development and success of home-grown entrepreneurs.

With you, the local entrepreneurs, behind us, we will succeed finally in creating a powerful entrepreneurial class. YOU the local entrepreneurs of this country will be the next heroes of the Philippines!

Bakit kailangan mong mag-negosyo?

Makakatulong ka sa bayan sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng trabaho at serbisyo sa mga taong nangangailangan.

For more information call (632) 926-0860 o celphone +63920 425 9973 or email Globalpinoys@ SerbisyoPilipino .org . You can also visit their office at Globalpinoy Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises, Inc. located at #6 Bayanihan Drive, Project 8, Quezon City, Philippines.

Very rarely in our people’s history do individuals stand out for their great practice of service to their fellow Filipinos, even in the midst of the utmost repression and adversity. It is with honor that the members of BAYAN USA salute the life and work of Monico “Sir Nick” Atienza, a professor of Filipino literature at the University of the Philippines (UP), who quietly passed away last night after being comatose for more than year.

People like Sir Nick live on in the people they inspire to continue with the revolutionary task of arousing, organizing, and mobilizing the Filipino people to struggle for basic social change in the Philippines. In his case, Sir Nick inspired not only scores and scores of his young students at UP, but even his contemporaries as a young student activist with the Kabataang Makabayan (KM) during the tumultuous eve of Martial Law known as the First Quarter Storm (FQS) in the late 1960′s into the 1970′s.

For his work as a student leader and activist, Sir Nick went underground in 1972 upon the declaration of Martial Law. In the underground, he was simply known as Ka Togs. His work and friendship with then-CPP Chairperson Jose Maria Sison placed him in the CPP’s Central Committee.

In 1974, Atienza was arrested and detained by the military. He underwent unspeakable physical and psychological torture, including an overdose of truth serum. After he surfaced back to the above-ground movement, he continued on by helping to found the Partido Ng Bayan (PnB), the first truly progressive partylist of its time and a precursor of Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela Women’s Party today.

In an ambush on PnB leaders by a suspected military death squad in 1987, Atienza was seriously wounded, together with PnB senatorial candidate Bernabe Buscayno who was a leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) during Martial Law. Even a severe injury to the head and leg that never fully healed did not deter Nick from continuing on with his activism.

When asked decades later by one of his students why he did not apply for the compensation offered to victims of torture under the Marcos Regime, he simply replied “No amount of money could ever make up for what they did to me.”

Sir Nick continued on with his activism as a UP Professor and President of the First Quarter Storm Movement (FQSM) till the day of his death. He had suffered a severe heart attack last year as well as a surgical extraction of a mysterious mass found growing in his throat. The impact of both had placed him in a coma for the last year of his life.

We in BAYAN USA, although thousands of miles away from our motherland and from the homefront of our struggle, will learn great lessons from Sir Nick’s selfless example and strive to continue with his legacy of great and humble service to our compatriots.

Jiro Manio was memorable as the title character of Maryo J. delos Reyes’ Magnifico in 2004, having won numerous awards and citations here and abroad, including the Netherlands, Buenos Aires and in Karlovy Vary. He was also seen in Bagong Buwan, Tanging Ina and is part of the cast of Foster Child, as Cherry Pie Picache’s younger son. Now Jiro returns in another film by Mendoza as a victim of circumstance as he follows after the criminal works of his father when he is suddenly orphaned. Tirador (Slingshot) is an intimate glimpse into the lives of criminals who have to deal with police raids and other hardships on the gritty streets of Manila. The film has already been picking up speed in film festivals, including Toronto, Vancouver, Pusan, Dubai and the US. The film also stars Nathan Lopez, Kristoffer King, Coco Martin and veteran stars Julio Diaz and Jaclyn Jose.

Filipino audiences will have their day as TIRADOR premieres at the UP Film Institute on Dec 3, 2007.

See below for a full-trailer of the critically acclaimed movie TIRADOR.

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