2.

Describe the Philippines that you perceive provided that you have the power to mold the Philippine society and its norms by combining pre-Hispanic, Spanish and American influences. Given the power to hone the country, I ll retain the government s traits towards people of the preHispanic times, the culture both from the pre-Hispanic and Spanish influence, the education and government structure of the American, and the liberalism of today. During the pre-Hispanic times, the government officials in the form of the datus and sultans had been serving their tribes well and with heart. They had been honest towards their people, though given also that their lives had been in a luxurious environment along with their families while the rest of the tribesmen and women are in simplicity. Moreover, they were still doing their best as the leaders of their tribes; thus, I think they quite deserve the luxury. The culture of the Philippines from the pre-Hispanic and Spanish era is one thing I would like to keep as well. Spanish era had brought so many things to the Philippines: from clothing, food, practices, literature, religion, even their genes! Nonetheless, it was a fantastic thing that I think do not deserve to be put to waste. On the other hand, Philippines cannot be just an annex of Spain in the Southeast Asia. To put spice to these wonderful influences, it s better we keep some of the culture we had beforehand of the Spanish era like superstitions, food, art forms, sports, and the Filipino s 100% genes. On a macroperspective view in terms of economy and politics, it s the American influence we should be thanking for. The government structure which we hold until today the Republican Democratic is probably the best structure for the country. It is a balance between the leaders and the people to be served. Both will have their voices heard, thus, maintaining peace and order and fairness. Nonetheless, I think Parliamentary Government is a great structure, but the appropriateness of it varies as well, since we Filipinos are known to be expressive of their opinions toward the society. Lastly, I would want to remain the liberalism of today. Unlike from the previous era, no more Maria Clara is present in 20th century. I m happy that the before-social taboos (homosexual, polytheism and atheism, contraceptives, sex, etc) are now can be freely discussed among your friends and family. I didn t say you can wave it to public, but it can now be acceptable at least with the fact that you know about it. Thanks to the Internet, television, radio, movies and other medium, knowing these things have become easier and accessible that Filipinos can never be ignorant anymore. 3. Freely discuss your opinions on: a. K + 12 I don t think K+12 is necessary in the Philippines. For years, we were able to produce competitive and world-class batch of graduates with high quality of education. The problem with education now is, again money. Here in the Philippines, if you want to give education to your children, you should work for it. Unlike education in America, or in United Kingdom, the education for children since kindergarten to high school is free and is by the government thus, giving enough time for their parents to save up for their college or university. Since the poverty rate in the Philippines is relatively high, most families cannot afford to enrol their children to universities with high-standards. Nevertheless, they ended up either enrolling to some cheap and less-quality school with vocational courses or immediately looking for a job. I did not say that those who are in vocational courses have low quality, but since these are just for two years or less, there are a huge number of graduates every year. Thus, making it very crowded and the

number of jobs is not proportion anymore with the unemployed. With this, employers are being very meticulous over choosing their employees and this is by looking over those who have the best transcript of academic records and with the best schools. I think the answer to this is to increase the wage of teachers in state universities, and public schools, to lessen the tuition fee and other matriculation fees, and to inspire those who are willing to learn, and inspire more those who don t even want to learn. b. RH Bill/Reproductive Health Bill I certainly am a pro-RH bill. I think it s about time we stop this insane blowing up of the population. The government cannot even handle the increasing number of unemployed, of graduates of several degrees without jobs, of undergraduates students who wish to be employed instead, of the grade 1 students in a classroom, and the several number of unemployed who turned into doing illegal things for a living. This has to stop. It was never a question of morality or religion, since contraceptives are not and never abortifacients. RH Bill do not also support abortion, but as a government, it is also their responsibility to help those who have done abortion. Abortion may mean that you are not a catholic, but it doesn t mean you are no longer part of the citizen of the Philippines. The work of the church is different from the work of the state, so I think this bill should be approved. I also don t think that the introduction to sex education will lead to more practice of pre-marital sex. I think, in fact, that sex education will help the youth to understand that sex is not practiced for pleasure or for fun, but for a deeper concept. Ignorance and censorship, is not helping the people. It is mainly hiding the reality from the people, thus sparking the curiosity and leading to misconception and malpractice. c. Same-sex marriage I think same-sex marriage should be pushed through. Not in the sense that they should go inside the church and be blessed by the priest, because it would violate the law of Christianity, but in the sense of being legally married in the eye of the law and the state. Again, this is having a hard time being pushed through the senate and the congress because of the church imposing the state about what to do and what not to do. But looking at it closely, these homosexual are part of the state also, and not because they have different sexual orientation suggests that they are not part of the state. They pay tax, they have jobs, and vote. People should have equal rights in the eye of the law of the state. d. Divorce Legalization in the Philippines Divorce Bill, which is proposed about the same time as the RH bill was proposed, is extremely opposed by the church again. I think Divorce is not endorsing to every couple that they should go and have a divorce. Divorce should serve as an option to those who are not happily married. We should face it not all marriages are ending happily. People do make mistakes even in marrying someone. Marrying should never be considered a one way trip with no coming back even though yes, we should take note of that. The point is, we should give everyone a choice to choose whatever satisfies them. e. Euthanasia

Euthanasia or mercy killing should not be endorsed or whatsoever. This should be a personal choice of those who are related to the patient or the victim. And, whatever the decision the relatives make, should never be judged or interfered with other person because we, being the people not related to victim or patient, do not, or would never feel the feeling of having to kill or the end the life of a person you love. This isn t even the issue of morality, or of the state, or whatsoever. This isn t even an issue; it is a matter of doing something hard, something that might hurt, sacrificing, just for the person you love.