Cityhood Laws Upheld Finally?!

Finally!

I am at Coffee days again to wind up and do a little research on my assignment. While browsing through the local dailies, the Sun Star headline struck me, "Court Upholds 16 Cities Again", according to the paper, the Supreme Court, voting 7-6 yesterday ruled with finality that the creation of 16 new cities did not violate the Constitution.

In retrospect, this is the 8th time when the Court made a ruling regarding the matter since 2008. This rouses my interest now only because it is concerns a fundamental doctrine of political law but most of all because my birth place and domicile is one of the subjects. The Supreme Court made flip flopping Decisions, first in favor of and then reversing their ruling and then reversing it again and so on and so forth. Power play at its best, defying the fundamental rules of procedure on the interest of justice, they say. I believe that this is indeed a question worth the application of the exceptions of the Rules because this involves the identity and status of the political subdivisions of the State to which attention must be focused. The well deserved attention is proper because the people should not be deprived of what is due them. The budget allocation of the government must not be left in limbo for it becomes an injustice to those who should rightfully receive them. I have seen what these local government units have spent in preparation for their newly acquired status, I have seen the organizational restructuring to abide by the law, I have seen their people wore pride for their new status, I have seen them disappointed for the reversal of the decision, happy again for the reversal of the reversal and sad again because of another reversal. I hope this should finally be the "final" final to put an end to the identity crisis of these local government units. Mabuhay ang Korte Suprema! Mabuhay ang 16 na Siyudad! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

A Lesson From A Cooking Disaster

it's about the taste not the appearance

Last night I cooked for dinner, actually it was not for a big crowd so three pieces of egg were enough. No matter how I tried I never really had mastered the art of cooking "sunny side up". I have cooked based on intuition and it turned out well but when it comes to this I always fail. :-( The outcome was a disaster because it looked more like scrambled eggs rather than the coveted sunny side up. They said it was because I put in too much oil, the frying pan was not made of teflon and the ladle I used was not the appropriate one. So I felt a little relief, it was not all my fault at all. hehe.. It was so good that the blame was shared but then again, after all these years I am committing the same mistakes. One more thing, I forgot to put on salt while it is still on the frying pan, so I made the garlic salt appear like a garnish but I think it looked great despite the fault.

Last night I learned a lesson, life is just like cooking. No matter how prepared you are, no matter how interested you are, no matter how confident you are, there are really matters that you fail to do well. Things do not come the easy way but they are learned through experiences and repeated mistakes. Through these life lessons we create a cognitive map which we can readily tap when the situation requires. Problems also abound, they are part of our existence but it is on how we face it that makes the difference. Like the disastrous egg, we can put on some condiments to remedy the taste and put on some garnish to enhance its appearance. In that way, attention will be shifted from the disaster to the other positive aspects that it can offer. How your life is depends on how you see yourself, how you see others and how you see the world. Sometimes you will even be surprised to discover unexpected blessings in the tragic situation you are into, you just have to observe keenly, listen deeply and feel compassionately. The egg according to my critics tasted good (I think they were telling the truth)and so we ate together and pondered on this new insight.