The Honorable Endorsers

I can't believe I will agree with the Hon. Miriam Defensor Santiago.

Earlier this week, Sen. Santiago lashed out at her colleagues who endorse various products. A trip along EDSA would bear her out. There, you would see billboards of the honorable members of the Senate endorsing various products ranging from detergents to beauty products.

A male senator endorses a skin clinic, his smiling face and clear white skin serving as proof of the expertise of the clinic he endorses. He says he sees nothing wrong with what he's endorsing because even men need to take care of their skin too,

Another honorable senator endorses a glutathione pill, which is currently in the middle of a controversy for false claims. Some news anchor alleged that the pill contains less gluta than it purports to contain.

On TV, several advertisements also feature honorable members of the senate. There's one that feature a male senator who earlier announced his desire to become our next president. He is endorsing a detergent powder. His alibi is that he's teaching buyers to save by buying in bulk because it is cheaper!

My favorite features a lady senator who claims that with a new variant of Downy, one needs to rinse her laundry once. Lady senator says what she's doing is public service because she's teaching people to be environmentally friendly since they will save a lot of clean water by using less water.

Imagine the scenario when one of their colleagues endorses a competing brand. Will they bring the debate in the Senate floor? Will one senator say that his skin clinic is better than that of his colleague. Or worse will our lady senator propose a bill to ban detergents and fabric softener that will cause environmental damages and use more water than necessary? That will be the day indeed!

I hope somebody joins Sen. Santiago in denouncing these endorsements by the Senate members. Although she alleges that her colleagues are clandestinely campaigning for their bid in the 2010 presidential campaign, I personally think that this endorsements cheapen the offices of these lawmakers. They should be above these things and remember what they were in Senate for in the first place.

Goodbye Summer 2008

A few days ago, PAGASA, the Philippine weather bureau announced that summer is officially over and the wet season is here. No sooner the office announced it, two strong typhoons came.

The first, code-name Cosme entered the country's northern parts. It caused so much havoc that the effects are still being felt today. Vegetable prices increased since, for us in Manila at least, these normally come from the northern provinces. Just this morning, I saw a news footage of bangus (milkfish) farms in Pangasinan wasted by the typhoon. The other typhoon named Dindo did not do much damage to the country and is now headed for Taiwan.

So far, Manila has not been directly hit by a typhoon but we have torrential rains almost every afternoon. The rains would sometimes cause flooding and traffic jams in the metro sometimes. You could imagine what would happen if the city is directly hit!

PAGASA later announced that we should brace for at least 18 typhoons this year. I hope it doesn't make our lives even more miserable after some natural and man-made disasters we have experienced.

Iron Man

Thanks to Labor Day which is a holiday, I was able to watch "Iron Man" this afternoon with my friends and I must say that I truly enjoyed the movie.

The movie followed the basic story of how Tony Stark became Iron Man. This time he's in Afghanistan, showing off his latest invention, the Jericho Missile. He was kidnapped by the enemy when he was wounded in an ambush. While in captivity, a fellow prisoner made an electromagnetic device to prevent a shrapnel from piercing his heart. Same fellow prisoner helped him create the original armor when he was asked to create a Jericho bomb by his captors. The rest of the story followed the usual good guy against bad guy kind of thing.

The plus for Iron Man is its cast. Robert Downey Jr did a great job as Tony Stark/Iron Man. His acting was never over the top. Ditto with Jeff Bridges who played the villain, Obadiah Stane. Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper is the usual decorative female character in this kind of film.

The special effects is also impressive. I especially love the scenes where Stark was testing the capabilities of his armor suit. There was even humor, in fact lots of it, in these scenes. I like the robot armed with fire extinguisher.

I only wish that there were more action since this is the initial film to what I believe would be a blockbuster franchise.

If you're going to see this film, be sure to stay on until the end credits finish. There's a bonus scene waiting for you.

Enjoy!