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MANILA: The University of the Philippines (UP) is a System of Universities in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. It should have a leader who is an excellent team captain, or a visionary who has his feet firmly planted on the ground. Did UP ever have a President like that? Yes, from the Cow College, UP Los Baños: Bienvenido Maria Gonzales. Incumbent UP President Alfredo Pascual is retiring February next year. Not a Visionary, that one. This time, there are 10 nominees for UP President, and I have read all their "Vision Statements" after downloading in pdf from the URL given ( osu.up.edu.ph ). Here is the official list: (1)      Dr Consolacion R Alaras (2)      Prof Danilo L Concepcion (3)      Prof Gisela P Concepcion (4)      Prof J Prospero E De Vera III (5)      Prof Rowena Cristina L Guevara (6)      Dr Orlando S Mercado (7)      Prof Benito M Pacheco (8)      Dr Roger D Posadas (9)      Prof Caesar A Saloma (10) Prof Michael L Tan The listing is very UP (unlimited pride) i

MANILA: How do you like my room? You are free to associate it with anything you can think of! I have twin monitors, a table lamp, a printer, an electric fan, an air conditioner, and hundreds of books & printouts to the left of where I sit (you can see my seat cushion below). I am based in Manila; my wife Ampy had this little room in our apartment built sometime in January 2008, the cash being part of my professional fee for writing a book for International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), which is based in India; so this much space has been a mute witness to the writing of hundreds upon hundreds of my long essays published online since then, and at least 10 books published on paper, 7 by ICRISAT, an average of 50,000 words each. Unbelievable? Thank God. In the midst of such clutter, how can I be so prolific? That's what I want to tell you about – to encourage you to be creative yourself. Given any clutter. And given any age. Please note I'm a se

MANILA: These are the times that cry for men's souls. These are the times that should bring out the best in each of us. Not the beast. The image above is the world's first accidental twin portrait of a man and another man, and each one looks primitive. Yes, that image I took on 12 July 2016 at 1741 hours is dualistic. One, it portrays Rodrigo Roa Duterte as President of the Philippines: Scary . (I have posterized it here; you can see the original photograph at the end of this essay, and it's even scarier.) Two, it portrays the journalist in the time of Rodrigo Roa Duterte as President of the Philippines: Scared . I refer to the journalist both local and foreign. Such as considering Donald Trump in the United States. That is the most extraordinary photograph I have ever seen, or taken, a twin portrait of the Reporter and the Reported. With it I deserve I believe The Photographer Of The World Award . In truth, I have been haunted by my own photograph of what is not of my own

MANILA: These are the times that dry men's souls, and they feel the burn. Some feel burned out. I'm a Roman Catholic; OUTRAGE is what some Catholic bishops and others have been calling for as the Catholic answer to extrajudicial killings that started even before the beginning of the term of Rodrigo Duterte as President of the Philippines. I wonder how some people can stand looking at the blood on their hands, literally or figuratively. Or can stomach calling for more blood. Isn't the Manila Pieta above enough to chill their hearts? I hope chill, not burn. AP reports (08 August 2016, catholicherald.co.uk ): Archbishop Socrates Villegas, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, issued a statement, read in churches on Sunday in his northern district, expressing deep concerns over the killings of drugs suspects and lamenting a lack of widespread outrage over the deaths. Villegas' "northern district" is actually in Central Luzon, in Pangas

MANILA: You can find your own chance at greatness even when you are a senior. Atty Romulo Macalintal missed that prospect today, Saturday, 24 September 2016, at the campus of the well-known UP Los Baños in Laguna south of Manila within the walls of the 89-year old historic Baker Hall. An honored lawyer himself, Macalintal just missed making history today, at 70 years of age. And sorry, he did not realize it. He could have but he did not find beauty in improving the history of senior citizens in his own country. Opportunity knocked, and he didn't grab it. He was the keynote speaker at the "5th UPLB EDP Anniversary Senior Citizens Summit" held the whole morning. I was invited and when I heard the word "Summit" I thought it would be a great idea to listen to what others were thinking about their senior moments and how to improve further their lives from retirement to kingdom come. I was disappointed. Macalintal talked for far much longer than his allotted time of

MANILA: Are we at the end times for journalism? Yes. I just learned that, in their print editions, Philippine newspapers are a dying breed. Hardly anyone reads the papers anymore. And there are fewer and fewer advertisements. There are the online paper editions, and you get the news faster. And there is the Facebook page. But I believe this is more than just surfing the Web instead of paying for the paper. It has to do with substance, sense & style or, if you like, content, contention & construction . The print edition is always lovely to browse, and browse again, at leisure. But if your news and views are dull, quantity and quality are against you. Journalism. If you fight to wage war, you lose; if you fight to wage peace, you're starting from a winning position. If not even one of your columnists can write a charming piece amidst the churning waters, your journalism is such a pity. Image is important, literally and figuratively. Manila sunset has always been beautiful; t

MANILA: On Wednesday, 21 September 2016, with my Lumix FZ100 camera, we visited Rolly Andres' hybrid rice farm in the village of Cabaritan in San Manuel, Pangasinan and this is what we saw: tillers full of rich green-yellowing rice panicles that we estimated to yield about 10 tonnes/ha. To be harvested 09 October, or 18 days from then. That visit was a little after mid-day, the wrong time to take photographs. I decided to visit the farm again early this morning, Thursday, 22 September, at just past 0600 hours, because I knew the images would be much better. As you can see. It so happened that it rained the night before, so the air was clean and the leaves had drops of water on them, perfect for close-ups. What you're looking at is only 1 of 300 shots I took. Rolly's source of seeds was the Municipal Agriculture Office of San Manuel, via Danielida Sabado, technician; she gave Rolly 15 kg of TH-82, worth P 4,500. Oh dear! That's P 300/kg. Expensive. Yes, but hybrid seeds