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Life is a journey, a one time passage where there is no turning back. What we make of it is up to us. We trudge our own path; as I walk into mine I’ve come to realize it’s not an easy one. Many are the days of sadness than the days of happiness. How the words in the Bible are true – Ecc 7:4 “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”  I call these dark-hued times “blue traces.” It is a part of life, an ingredient that balances our being helping us to grow and cope with our life’s trudging.  Ecc 7:3  “Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.”

Managing Laundry

As a homemaker, I found out that managing laundry can really be frustrating most especially if it has piled up uncontrollably and your household members won’t just stop tossing those soiled clothes on the hampers daily. Here are a few tips to make washing those soils in a snap:

• Have a separate container for colored and white clothes.
• Sort white and colored into soiled and heavily soiled, have a separate container for each.
• Soak heavily soiled clothing, same as with white clothes, overnight in the washing machine to be washed in the following day.
• Always presoak clothes on the washer before the final wash to avoid engaging yourself into manual wash.

It is always best to ask household members to properly place used clothing to its designated containers to free yourself from the process of segregation and it would be easier to readily load the laundry into the washer.

Using stackable baskets such as shown below which can be found in local markets and department stores are convenient to use. They can be easily stacked when empty to save space. Always pick ones that would hold a week’s laundry. Aside from being cheap the holes on the basket would keep the air circulating and would not contain the odor of the soiled clothing unlike closed-cased laundry baskets.

It is just a matter of organizing your laundry so that while the washing machine is whooshing, you can do some other things at the same time. Happy washing!!!

Where is Justice?

It is a fact in today’s events that prominent people’s cases are given much attention. High profile individuals’ cases are being sensationalized by the media, grabbed upon by the investigators of different agencies to gain glory for themselves. One example is the case of the death of Ted Failon’s wife. I believe the event had been a chaotic one for the family members as they have been forcibly investigated and feasted upon by the media. But if you are an ordinary citizen, even how brutal your death would be, in most cases, no proper investigation will be conducted; lucky for you if you even made it to the media.

My brother committed some mistakes in his life, but tried to make amends on his own and worked for a brighter future. But the world is cruel; those who envy him have tried to pull him down and filed false charges against him. He was put in prison last 30 September 2008 for a crime he did not commit. The arrest was posted on a tabloid and made its way to the internet. For some reasons, the article can no longer be read in full. How is it possible that news about an ordinary citizen suspected of a crime could be posted on the internet without first proving himself innocent? What has happened to our investigative journalism? Isn’t this kind of posting being backed up by someone in authority? Why would one waste time on such petty news if not to ruin one’s reputation? He endured a life in jail for two whole agonizing months. Since the case was unbailable, the family spent a lot of money to hire a personal attorney for the case to be heard. He was finally released on bail early December of 2008 with admonition from his attorney to leave town as there is a threat to his life.

As brave as he already was due to life’s circumstances, he remained in his hometown. On March 24, 2009, past 10:30 pm, barely 4 months after his release from prison, he was attacked and brutally murdered by 5 men. It’s ironic though that the attack took place in front of a hospital, 4-5 meters from the emergency room entrance. The guard of the said hospital did nothing to help instead closed the glass door of the emergency room. He was pulled inside the hospital when the attackers fled. But what good is it? So much blood had been lost aside from the fact that all wounds sustained were fatal. Minutes after, an investigator arrived on the scene. The area was not cordoned, as to my understanding, it should be as per PNP SOP when investigating a murder case. The pool of blood on the floor of the entrance of the emergency room, sign of a struggle and a body being pulled inside, was captured on camera but no blood sample was taken. Two of the weapons used in the attack were recovered but neither finger prints nor a blood sample were taken from it. The suspected place of residence of the culprits was visited by only one investigator assigned in the area. As expected, no one was found in the house. The police did not assign someone to watch for the residence of the suspects even just for 72 hours to readily arrest them since two of them were properly identified. The suspects apparently returned the following day to get their belongings freely. The whole family of the suspects fled.

If the police was only vigilant, they would have been able to apprehend the culprits sparing time for a prolonged justice system. Since 72 hours had lapsed, a warrant must be issued first in order to arrest the murderers. How many months would it take for a warrant of arrest to be issued? By that time all trails that would lead to the whereabouts of the criminals would already be lost which would be harder for them to locate.

If news of an alleged criminal or suspect being arrested could be posted on media, why wouldn’t the death of one not be? There is injustice in here. The brutal death of a suspected criminal not mentioned on even the least of tabloids? Or it is because he really is not the ONE they claim he is. He was just an ordinary citizen with exemplary character that some or someone aims to mar and destroy. I hope the warrant be issued as soon as possible so that the arrest/s can be made. That whosoever was responsible for his death be punished for what he/they did. We seek justice for Ervin D. Jaboli who died at the age of 33 because of someone’s selfish motives. If, however, this was only a case of a simple “trip.” May who did it suffer the same way Ervin did.

Conducting a private investigation would entail a lot of money while to wait on our justice system means no certainty at all. Where do we seek help? That’s the reason why the rich are the only ones who gets justice even though, more often than not, they don’t deserve it. The system sucks… Where do we find justice in our present system?

Where the Brave Dare Not Trod

In this life each and every one of us has his own battle. It comes in different forms but the question is: Are we willing to face it? Of course, always, the best option is to take another route which will put us in a position that would not compromise our comfort zones. When fighting for a cause places an individual in many faces of danger, ridicule and embarrassment, it tests his courage. I have read and seen a lot of people who have chosen to fight, to take what it’s all worth, even given their very lives to fight for a cause. Yet there are those who would simply shy away and pretend not to see. Those who choose to favor the powerful. I am saying this because I have seen how a nation claiming to be “God fearing” put a person in such a very degradable manner collapsing the balance of justice as depicted by a blinded statue.

There is a fight on going, not many people see, most especially the people of my nation, the Philippines. A battle so strong only those given the courage to cross the line will dare trod. I will not elaborate on this but if you dare, just visit this link:

Portrait of the Raped Man For Whom the Interpol Would Mobilize

Warning! This is quite a lengthy profile – history, facts, information, exposé rolled into one. Those with a faint heart may not proceed.

The Hypocrisy Within

A lot of people nowadays are very insensitive of the feeling of others, a lot feel superior causing intimidation just to advance no longer minding good manners our great grandparents possess ages ago. Because of the rise of new technologies and past pace of life, the high standards of living and the hard realities we face causes us to forget to check on our neighbors (not the one living beside our houses but I literally mean the one beside you or our far away friends). We are busy with our own world not realizing we are moving so fast and time is running out. As weekends are exhausted we face the weekdays again and before we know it, its done and it seems we have not accomplished anything.

As I walk my son to school daily in a short distance, I can’t help but cry inside when rights are being violated, rules not followed because of the carelessness of others. Sometimes our assertiveness helps but more often than not it harms us. I see ugliness in a nation claiming to see progress. A child begging for food, a mother robbed of sanity sitting on a church’s porch begging for money, children making a living pushing heavy carts with junks, families living in hunger, religious organization claiming they are of God, a government going awry engrossed in a political battle instead of its people’s need. The hypocrisy of our leaders reflecting on its people.

We have lots of so called social networks yet one is engaged only on updating his/her profile not giving a damn to what is happening to others. Hypocrisy, as I say. I am not an exception to that. A friend once sent me this message:

Just for today, decide to be happy, to live with what is yours. If you can’t have what you want, maybe you can like what you have. Just for today, decide to be kind, be cheerful, be agreeable, be happy. Just for today decide to be understanding, be your best, dress your best, talk softly. Look on the bright side of things. Praise people instead of criticizing them. Just for today. Try it. After all, it’s just for today. Who knows you might like it and do it again tomorrow.

So, let’s do it just for today… and tomorrow as well.

Just Thinking Out Loud

I can’t sleep,

always there is that longing…

of something…

DEEP, STABLE, SOLID, IMMATERIAL…

I drifted for the past weeks

from what my mind conceived

as a place of REST.

We toil day in and out

for our living that seems

never ending

and for what purpose?

I pray that I may be content

in the REST that I’ve found

and no longer drift from it

when my

faculties are tired…

lonesome…

broken.

Deep Felt Loss

Until now I still could not believe that Tatay has passed away. He died October 31, 2007 at about 3 pm of heart attack. During the day I was fidgety and was still up at 2 am trying to force drowsiness to dawn in front of the computer when relatives called and broke the news. I felt neither sadness nor pain. The feeling was more of pity and relief. No tears were shed. I was expecting something more of me but it was as if the event was expected.

All my life he was more a terror to me than not. The whole family has shied away from him by the time we were all able to stand on our own. Life was brief, how I wish he was given an extension for us to be able to know more of each other. It was when I finally got hold of his things a day after his death that I cried. I cried because I was not able to bring him to the faith in God I am now in. I cried because I realized he was very sad and died alone in a place not his own, far from home. He was in medication and almost all I could get out from the bits and pieces of paper in his bag were medicine receipts. I’ve known from his planner that he was financially supporting my youngest brother in a weekly basis despite his own need of financial assistance. I cried because, I was not able to take care of him when he was sick and needed us most. I cried because in his log he rented a room when he has his own place to go home but nobody was there to take care of him. The last entry on his planner was October 31, 2007 stating that he has to take some more medication for two months. After that, empty. I scanned hoping to find more, hoping to know more what he was doing before he died, what he was thinking. But that was it, nothing more.

The person me and my family feared after all was harmless. But there is nothing I could do now. Nothing… I pray and hope that when the time comes he will find mercy and grace in the hands of the One who will judge us all.

I don’t want to see him on his wake,  I want to remember him the way I last saw him, August 21, 2007, seemingly able in good health.  I want to think that he is just away, not gone.

To my father, P/Supt Vincentio Bacarra Jaboli (Ret. PNP)…

Goodbye… sleep well!

Click link to see video:  The Last Farewell