The 2009 Bar Exam finally ended on October 4, 2009, the exam was supposed to be held on all four Sundays of September but Typhoon Ondoy (international name: Typhoon Ketsana) dropped around six months worth of rain in just about 8 hours.

I am Bar Exam retaker, I previously took it in September of 2008 but things didn't work out, so I took it again this year. When I received the call that I didn't make it last April 3, 2009 when the results were released, I felt my head crack. I felt sick. But because I am a psychopath, I didn't allow myself to grieve all that much. Besides, grieving resolves nothing, so on April 5th, I made reservations with EGI Taft Tower Dormitory for another 2 months stay for the 2009 Bar Exam. I planned to stay there for the months of August and September.

(6th Floor Corridor. It looks like a hospital, right? It's more like an insane asylum for us.)

Being a retaker (or T2 for some people), some of the pressure is of, but then again, considering that I come from a family of lawyers, some cannot even imagine the pressure I'm under though I just take it in stride. The Supreme Court OBC made some changes with the exam, they introduced the two-examiner rule wherein instead of the usual one examiner per subject, two examiners would be making the questions. Then there was the question on how were we going to answer in the notebook. Since all of this was experimental, I didn't realize that the exam notebook itself would be divided into two parts.

People think that the checking would be quicker this time since each examiner would be checking his part only but I don't think so. What would be most likely would be that each examiner would just divide the total number of notebooks and check all the notebooks between them. None of this so-called cutting the notebook in half. That isn't feasible nor is it practicable, to say the least.

Some first timers were so quick to say that Justice Nachura would be lenient during the checking and that the passing percentage would be high this time. I say: that's a crock of bullshit. Although Justice Nachura would have a say, it is still the Supreme Court En Banc that will decide on the passing percentage! Just take a look at the results for 2008! They said Tinga was lenient yada yada yada and for two years in a row, the passing percentage was extremely low.

The number of takers this year is approximately 5,080. That's almost a thousand less as compared to last year's exam. Actually, it's lesser by about 200+ since around 200 never get to complete all four Sundays. Then there was the news of a coming storm during the 4th week of September, the week before the Remedial Law and Legal Ethics & Practical Exercises exams. The skies around Manila grew dark on thursday and it started to drizzle, not that we mind, considering that DLSU was just our next door neighbor, we can always walk towards the examination site even if it would flood. Taft Avenue usually floods for a couple of hours when it rains but little did we know that the dark skies hid something more terrifying: Typhoon Ondoy.

On September 26, 2009, the rain came down without any let-up from around 9:00 til 4:00pm, Taft Avenue was already flooding, and from the 9th floor looking towards Leon Guinto Street which ran parallel to Taft Avenue, the floodwater was already waist deep. Taft was only around knee deep by noon time. Sometime after lunch while I was in my room, I was bothered by the racket in the corridor, what the fuck was going on outside?! Why the hell was it so noisy?! Then I received a text message, I wasn't able to read it since I received a call from my sister telling me that the Sept. 27, 2009 exam has been postponed and moved to October 4.

(DLSU before Taft Avenue was flooded)

 

I was so happy that they moved it but reality sank in. Shit. I am supposed to be back in Cebu by Sept. 29. Lecheng yawa! I thought that my lease contract would expire on Sept. 30 and I'd have to pay the transient rate of PhP 850.00 per day til Oct. 4. This is not right. A week's extension is not just an added burden, it is torture!

Little did we know that Typhoon Ondoy brought disaster to the Metro.

 

By Maricar Cinco Inquirer Southern Luzon First
Posted 03:34:00 06/19/2009

CALAMBA CITY – The of National Hero Jose Rizal has been getting pained attention since it was painted green last month.

In text messages, e-mails and phone calls, residents based in the city, other provinces and abroad have expressed “shock” and “horror” over the new color of the bahay na bato. “We don’t like it,” declared Linda Lazaro, a school teacher in her 70s and a member of the Rizal Day committee for the past 15 years.

“The house symbolizes Rizal and [the paint job] is an insult to his memory,” she said.

The house, now a shrine, was reconstructed in the 1950s using the 25-centavo contributions of students in a number of schools. It has stood for decades in dirty gray.

The National Historical Institute (NHI) had the house painted in a light shade of green. The interiors were painted yellow and the ceiling blue.

“Even the well in front of the house was painted green,” lamented Lazaro, who claims to be a member of the clan through the wife of Rizal’s brother Paciano.

‘Flimsy’ reason

In his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on June 3, NHI Chair Ambeth Ocampo explained that the reason for painting Rizal’s house green was to “highlight, and inform visitors of, the meaning of his surname.”

The surname Rizal is rooted in the Spanish word “ricial,” which means a green field ready for harvest, Ocampo said.

But a resident of Calamba, who preferred not to be named, said: “It does not follow that your house should be painted according to the meaning of your surname.”

Neither was Lazaro impressed. “It’s a flimsy reason,” she said. “It doesn’t hold water.” She said a running joke had the city residents talking about their surnames and how their houses should be painted.

“If our last name is Guinto, should our house be painted in gold?” she recalled one sarcastic remark she had heard.

To address the violent reactions, the shrine curator has put up a tarpaulin bearing an explanation why the house was painted green.

‘Embarrassing’

The staff of the Rizal shrine welcomes visitors, mostly people on educational trips, especially during weekends. Occasionally, the visitors number about 10 batches in a day.

“That’s all we have here in Calamba, and we’ve lost our symbol,” Lazaro said in expressing worry over losing the city’s main historical and tourist attraction.

She said a British guest recently came to see the house and was “horrified” by its color.

“It’s embarrassing,” she said. “We are having a hard time explaining to [guests] why it is green.”

Lazaro said it was different in the pre-green days: “Children would turn quiet upon entering the house. There was a certain ambiance and romance, it being an old house.”

She said this was contrary to a reaction from another recent guest who referred to the shrine as “a toy house.”

Another resident said Rizal’s house now looked “like a cake.” Lazaro said teachers on a tour of Calamba were “angry that they lost credibility before their students” in showing the national hero’s supposed representation of home.

Doctor Virgilio Lasaga, tourism officer of Calamba, said his office had likewise been receiving negative feedback on the paint job. ‘Disco house’

“We are being blamed [for turning Rizal’s house green],” Lazaro said. She said she had been avoiding the market because people there kept asking her why the shrine was painted that way. According to Lazaro, an old female resident of Calamba even wept over the change, and teenagers have started referring to the shrine as “a disco house with neon colors.”

In a text message, a concerned individual said in Filipino: “I did not expect the painting of the bahay na bato. If we solicit funds for its repainting, I am sure many will be open-handed.” But Lazaro said it would be too late to repaint the house in time for Rizal’s birth anniversary today.

She said the residents were also of two minds over whether there should be a celebration.

 

 

Update from Mr. Jobers Bersales of USC, SOAN Dept.
Words and photos by Mr. Bersales.

Boljoon yielded once more its golden treasures buried beneath the church and convent grounds today, on our 13th day of excavation. So, who says 13 is unlucky?



Four burials with two modern postholes (for volleyball posts) that intruded into them. Two of the burials,Burial # 28 and 29 are nearly complete.


A mid-Ming covered powder box, probably Hong Zhi period (1488-1505) on Burial 29, a female.


A long gold necklace is revealed on the neck area of Burial 29.




The gold necklace, now cleaned and shiny.

The length of the necklace.

On September 16, 1907, the train made the inaugural run from Cebu City to Danao on the railroad operated by the Philippine Railway Company. This extended the rail road service that, at this time, was already operational between Argao in the south and Cebu City.

Many Cebuanos no longer remember that Cebu used to have an Argao-to-Danao railroad, or that in early 1900s there were plans for an electric car service within Cebu City itself.


Cebu's railroad service ended with the destruction of World War II, but it was already dying even before then. While it was boon for big agricultural producers, the railroad was not too popular with the general riding public (which, to begin with, was not that large in the pre-war years).

In the 1930s, there was stiff competition with bus companies. Bus rides did not only cost less, they were more congenial to the habits of local travelers. Slower and more round-about, with frequent stops (discharging and picking passengers who have to answer the call of nature). they were (for travelers of old) more convivial than inconvenient, much like spending a lazy day visiting neighbors.

Info.

Please find time to drop by, to volunteer, or just to enjoy the scenery (or maybe, even donate).

This is the public announcement. Archaeology has been spelled in the British way, this has been corrected already.

I almost forgot to update my entries regarding the Boljoon Church (Patrocinio de Maria, Cebu). Here's an update from Mr. Jobers Bersales of the Sociology and Anthropology Department of the University of San Carlos:

Phase 3 March 24-April 1, 2008 Excavation.

Let me digress a bit from the pressing topic at hand about Oslob and invite you to savor with me the finds we got from our third phase of the Boljoon Archaeological Project. This phase of the project is funded by the Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation and will is currently running from March 24 to April 24 (back-filling of all excavation units will be on April 22).

Everyone is free to visit and make chitchat on site , take photos, doze the afternoon off on our bunkbeds or hammocks or even use brush and trowel and join us for what will probably be the last dig on the grounds of Boljoon Church.

Below are highlights from Week 1 of the 4-week excavation:



The Excavation Site. we dug here because Boy Cairo, the local maintenance man of the church told us he had dug part of a skull the week before we arrived while digging for a post for a volleyball net---see what accidental diggings can do! But we are proud of this heritage awareness: his workers immediately reported the find to him and then they covered the exposed part of the skull with a piece of roof tile and then refilled the hole, knowing that we were coming in a week's time. They then pointed this out to us.



Burial #17, to the right of the burial that was first unearthed by workers (see above). About 60 cm from ground surface. Probably an adult female, this burial had perfect set of filed teeth and was wearing a carnelian bead (orange), most probably imported from China or India, a gold ring (broken) and some parts of a gold decoration on a long decomposed necklace made of fiber. She was also accompanied by a white ware in the form of a covered powder box, with the powder still adhering in parts inside. Below are her "goods":




Carnelian bead worn as part of her long-decomposed necklace.



the covered powder box, glazed white ware, undecorated, with powder adhering inside.



her perfect set of filed teeth


Burial #20, to the west of Burial 17 in the same North-South positioning (head oriented south). About 50 to 60 cm from gound surface. Probably male, owing to position of arms (crossed) and shallow hip hip bones. So far our burial with the "richest" (note quotation marks!) grave goods comprising the following:



Gold earring which can be seen on near the right side of his cranium where the ear would have been.


The gold earring, seen from its rear side.



The gold earring, seen from its front side.

In the book "Ginto: History Wrought in Gold, The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gold Collection", similar versions of this earring can be found on pages 97 and 98.


Earthenware pottery, with soot on the bottom indicating functional value,
this probably contained food for the journey in the afterlife.


Thai jarlet or bottle with inner glazing, found at the foot of
Burial #20.


We also found bronze medallions for house posts in the Spanish and American period as well as a Spanish structure of stones near the convent which contained a bronze crucifix (depth: 80 cm from out datum point).


Members of the Archdiocesan Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church came by to visit Boljoon and look at the excavations last April Fools Day. Among them were Archt. Melva Rodriguez-Java (not in photo), Fr. Brian Brigoli (in green shirt with shades) Mr. and Mrs. Loy Alix, Trizer Mansueto etc. Ricky Jose and Archt. Manalo were with them. They had just come from Oslob to document whatever was left of the tragedy.

Filed under Language, Cebu, Expo