The UAAP HOOP WARS

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There is no doubt that the 76th UAAP basketball championship contested by the University of Santo Tomas UST and De La Salle University (DLSU) is one for the sports history books. The 3-game series between the DLSU Green Archers and the UST Growling Tigers displayed the best of Philippine collegiate basketball.

Although I have not personally watched the games being thousand miles away from the MOA Arena, the screaming sports headlines in the Philippine national dailies told it all. With UST winning the first game and DLSU fighting back in the second game, with the third and deciding game was one that was expectedly entertaining and explosive and considered to be  “anybody’s ballgame”. 

After a classic Game 3, only one team remained “standing” though.  After trailing by 15 points in the mid-third quarter of the highly emotional and spectacular game, the DLSU Green Archers captured the much coveted UAAP men’s basketball with a score of 71-69, before more than 23,000 basketball fanatics at the MOA Arena. What was theatrical was the fact that DLSU won the blockbuster final game by only 2 points and this after an overtime play after the regulation period with both teams having identical scores. 

Are Regrets Quantifiable?

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Before I deal with the substance of the subject, it would be appropriate to have a common understanding of the term regret through its definition. As defined by Wikipedia, “regret is a negative conscious and emotional reaction to personal past acts and behaviors. Regret is often expressed by the term "sorry." Regret is often a feeling of sadness, shame, embarrassment, depression, annoyance, or guilt, after one acts in a manner and later wishes not to have done so.

Wikipedia further explains that “regret is distinct from guilt, which is a deeply emotional form of regret; one which may be difficult to comprehend in an objective or conceptual way. It is also distinct from remorse, which is a more direct and emotional form of regret over a past action that is considered by society to be hurtful, shameful, or violent. Unlike regret, it includes a strong element of desire for apology to others rather than an internal reflection on one's actions, and may be expressed (sincerely or not) in order to reduce the punishment one receives.”

“Quo Vadis” Philippines ? - A Frightful Forethought Of The Future

As I finished reading Ricardo Saludo’s  column “The Mounting Pile of Aquinomalies” in the Manila Times issue of  Oct. 3, 2013, I was overwhelmed with ambivalent reactions, that of anxiety and exasperation. 

  

In the initial part of his article Mr Saludo stated; “Believe it or not, the Aquino administration has surpassed its predecessor in corruption. Between pork barrel trebling under President Benigno Aquino III to about P25 billion a year, his unaudited, unlegislated and unprecedented releases under the so-called Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP, P137 billion as of October 1), and smuggling hitting nearly $20 billion or some P860 billion a year, plus undiminished jueteng, these ‘Aquinomalies’ may already swell to over P200 billion a year.”

A Dysfunctional Philippine Government

For the past few weeks, the incessant and appalling anomalies in the Philippine Legislature has reached its apex after the bombshell expose’ of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam popularly known as the “pork barrel” fund. By now, the spiraling effect of the far-reaching and irreparable glitches of the people’s money rip-off had created a dysfunctional Philippine government.

Efficiency and Effectivenes

Having taught for almost 12 years in the Business Graduate School at the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City, the terms efficiency and effectiveness have always generated lively and intriguing discussions in Operations/Production Management and Human Resource Management courses.

The adjectives efficient and effective are very common terms related not only to productivity and work performances of managers and employees but also to work plans, systems and procedures.  However, most of us tend to mix their usages and meanings occasionally, so that maybe writing on this subject would be valuable to most of the readers specifically those who are in the management and labor sectors of both public and private organizations. 

But first thing first, let’s start with the definition of the terms efficient and effective.

MAKING DECISIONS – A Crucial Phase in Life

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An essential part of life is making decisions. We make decisions on a daily occurrence; from the food we choose to eat, the dress that we buy, the friends that we keep and many other daily activities that we do. In many of these cases, decision making is something that we do without much thought, without hesitation, without much concern. However, in important issues we tend to think twice assessing the situation giving us moments of hesitation, doubts and fears on the outcome of a bad decision. Choosing a career, life partner and business ventures are classic example of critical concerns that necessitate careful study and assessment before making decisions. Matters that will significantly affect our lives and our families are subjects that are included in this type.

Bizarre Political Election - Only in the Philippines

The Philippine mid-term election race has finally culminated with the proclamation of the 12 winners for the Senate from among the more than 33 candidates who filed their candidacies for the national posts.  Nonetheless, the election campaign was still dominated by traditional politics where dirty tactics are employed such as character assassination, voter’s intimidation, religious sector intervention, vote buying and fraud.

Obviously, the dispute and junking of party-mates at the provincial and local levels worsened from bad to worse where powerful personalities and political clans dominated the local election. The national alliance of the Liberal and NPC parties is definitely self-serving for the Aquino administration. Consequently, the temporary coalition sowed confusion among the national and local candidates that resulted in the defiance of local LP parties to respect the partnership since most opponents for local positions come from the NPC party.

It is without doubt that the 2013 mid-term election is not only an acid test for the sustainability of the Aquino administration in its economic achievements but most importantly serves as a prelude to the next presidential derby in 2016. The formidable victories of the administration and coalition candidates in the Senate  definitively assures President Benigno Aquino III of a majority in the legislature needed to pass legislation for his programs legacy before he leaves office in 2016.

The domination of both the Senate and House of Representatives by the President’s allies may serve as too strong a temptation for the President to amend the Constitution in lifting the Presidential term limits in order to extend his term of office to access to absolute power. While this is only a food for thought, it is dreadful to even contemplate on the realization of this event which is not impossible.