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A better way of getting justice for SH victims?

Nov 5, 2018. The lecture on Anti-Sexual Harassment was basically a brief rundown of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Code of the University of the Philippines. It would have been boring except for the fact that I learned something really awesome about it, and made me realize that UP is really something. When Ma'am (I can't remember her name) told us about the process of filing a sexual harassment report (SHR), she said there were 2 ways to go about it: you can either file a formal one, or an informal one. The difference that I would like to point out is that in the informal complaint, the victim does not need to rehash all the details of the assault. He/she will only provide details as to the nature and severity of it, unlike the formal one where he/she will have to write an affidavit, I think. I think this is really great, since the victim will not have to go through the trauma of remembering and sharing what happened to him/her. I'm not sure if there are other institutions who thought of having an 'informal' version of a SHR complaint, but I do hope our legal system would adapt this, as this would, in my opinion, make victims more likely to file complaints against their perpetrator.

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Knowing Oneself

Nov 5, 2018. Today's first speaker, Miss Kalayaan Marikit M. Bas, gave the lecture for the Self and Others module. She began her lecture by knowing her audience. That is, she asked the class who was this certain age, who came from which college, etc. Then, Miss Bas gave the importance of getting to know oneself and others. She said it was important since knowing oneself because it is the basis of (or it affects?) how one interacts with others. After this, she gave definitions of some terms like 'personal identity', 'personality', 'nature', etc. Finally, she presented various approaches in analyzing one's personality. These approaches include the Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytical approach, Carl Jung's neopsychoanalytical approach, the Myers-Briggs indicator, Alfred Adler's individual psychology approach, and the life-span approach. Miss Bas made us analyze ourselves in certain parts of the lecture, and we wrote down what we think our personalities were based on the different approaches.

I think this was the most interesting module. It has piqued my interest, so now I wonder if taking Psych 101 would satisfy my curiosity. This lecture made me realize that I still don't fully understand myself yet (or maybe I just don't want to do that yet because I'm scared to realize how messed up I really am) despite having lived for 20 years already. I do agree with her statement that getting to know oneself is important. I think being able to know oneself will make you truly understand what you want out of life, like deciding which college degree to choose. I hope maybe in the future I can allot myself some time to really think about myself and get to know myself so I can figure out what I want in life.

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Gender Sensitivity

Last Monday's lecture on Gender and Development was quite informative. The speaker pointed out the difference between sex and gender, defined terms such as gender identity, cis gender, transgender, etc. At the end she did this fun little activity where she gives us an example of a person, then we have to identify the possible aspects of his sexuality.

Personally, I found that the speaker should at least speak up some more, because she it was a bit difficult to hear her, even with the help of a microphone. Because of said difficulty, a student would not be motivated to listen to her. However, the activity at the end of her lecture saved it from somehow. It was also nice to be told what terms were offensive, like referring to oneself 'straight' if one is heterosexual.

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Drug Education

The speaker for Drug Education module was Atty. Joseph Phillip Vera Cruz (I hope I got his name right). He discussed what drugs were, their effects on the human body, examples of cases of attempted drug smuggling (very interesting), and the laws regarding drugs.

Atty. Vera Cruz was quite objective with his presentation, especially in the drug laws part, where he explained the way it worked based on how the law was written. However, as such, he said that these drug laws are also in need of amendment, as they do indeed need a lot of improvement. I think the speaker is quite open-minded, and given his views, I hope he would help make the needed amendments to the drug law.

(P.S. He was a nice speaker. I should have listened to him better. huhu)

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There were two speakers for the Human Dignity and Rights module. The first speaker, Miss Ash Presto, told us cases of violation against human dignity and rights. Miss Joy Mara-at, the second speaker for the topic, also did the same. In addition to that, she shared that CSOs are making a database of victims of such violations, especially extrajudicial killings (EJKs).

 Now that I think about it, I realize the goal of the speakers that day was to present facts to us their audience. Miss Presto's lecture was eye-opening, and so is that of Miss Mara-at's. I find the efforts of the CSOs to make a database commendable. If I am not mistaken, they list down the names of the EJKs and the details as to how, when, and where they were murdered. This may be too much, but I think this makes their deaths more dignified, since they become more than just a statistic. I wish people, especially those who support Duterte, would take their time to go over this database. Hopefully they’ll realize that those who died for the misbegotten war on drugs are people too.

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Philippine Society

Professor Gerardo Lanuza delivered the lecture for the culture and society module of the NSTP last September 24, 2018. At the start of his lecture, he stated that he was going to use a materialistic approach for his discussion. As such, he then proceeded to discuss what the Philippine society is - semi-colonial and semi-feudal - and the problems that currently plague it. He finished his discussion by putting forth what he thought was the solutions for said problems. These solutions are what follows: develop a revolutionary culture, propagate a scientific culture, and develop a mass character.

His talk was quite eye-opening, especially when he was discussing the haciendas and farms. Also, I quite agree with the last two solutions he proposed. Developing a scientific culture is quite important, as the Philippine masses seem to be quite lacking in this aspect (as evidenced by the Dengvaxia scare). Though, one must admit that this is not any fault of their own, as our educational system has always been severely lacking. I also believe that our country must develop a mass character as most of us has a selfish (it’s not quite the term I’m looking for, but I can’t think of anything else) mentality. This is manifested by how most of the country is apathetic to Duterte’s drug war, which mainly targets the poor.

I think Professor Lanuza should present this lecture to the apathetic masses. If he does, maybe they’ll start to think about their fellow countrymen who are less fortunate than them. I believe the  various institutions of sciences in our university can do something about propagating the scientific culture, especially when our government seems content to not do it. Furthermore, developing a mass character is also important, since being knowledgeable in sciences is quite useless unless we have the drive to do what needs to be done for the greater good.

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Being A Nationalist in PH

Last September 17, 2018, Ma'am Maria Serena I. Diokno delivered a lecture discussing nationalism and citizenship in one of the audio-visual rooms of the Institute of Mathematics, UP Diliman. She started her lecture by asking the definitions of nationalism and citizenship. After agreeing on the definitions, she proceeded to discuss what she thought was the summary of the main constituents of nationalism and citizenship. These constituents are conviction, fidelity of truth, and courage.

It is of my belief that Ma’am Diokno gave a very important talk that day. Instead of giving a generic lecture about nationalism and citizenship, she gave one that is quite relevant to the present. As I understood it, to be a nationalist citizen, one must have the conviction to human rights. Human rights and human lives are not exclusive of one another. I must also point out that having this conviction not only makes one nationalist, but also a human. Thus, those who believe of the mutual exclusivity of human rights and human lives are animals. One must also uphold the truth (fidelity to truth), especially during these times when fake news is on the spread. It is part of being nationalist because the lies that are being spread mostly serves to divide the nation, and we can't have that. We must stay united more than ever to be able to resolve the problems that plague our country. Finally, one must have the courage to be uphold the truth despite the challenges it brings (trolls, or God forbid, death or rape threats). In connection with these, I think people must realize that being nationalist does not mean blindly following the government, but being critical to its faults and being supportive to its good deeds.

To conclude, to be nationalist is to be an honest, critical-thinking citizen. Our government does not need blind followers, but needs those that are critical to it and will hold it its purpose, that is, to work towards the betterment of the country and its people.

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Sept 10, 2018: Disaster Risk Reduction and Management

Last Monday, on the 10th of September 2018, the University of the Philippines held the Katatagan Fair in the Quezon Hall Amphitheatre. The fair's main theme is disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM), and has a speaker, booths, and performances that tackle or are related to DRRM. The guest speaker was Hon. Frederick Mikhail 'Spocky' Farolan delivered a 1-hr lecture about DRRM, where he specifically talked about the role of a university in DRRM, and also on how we can make ourselves, our homes, and our buildings disaster-ready. There were also booths and demonstrations by organizations such as UP Vanguard Unit, the latter of which I was not able to observe.

During the first part of Sir Farolan's lecture where he talked about the role of the university in DRRM, he said something that really stuck with me. He said that the moment we become students of the university, we should find ways to serve our countrymen. I think it was important that he said this to the audience, since some students, if not most, seem to have forgotten that we owe our education to the Filipino people. His statement was a reminder that being a UP scholar is to serve the Filipinos.

On the second part of his lecture, Sir Farolan dished out tips on how to be prepared. The most memorable part of this lecture was when he said this: lack of money is not a reason to not be prepared; and I agree with this. I think we must do whatever we can to ensure our survival in the eventuality of a disaster.

To conclude this reflection, I would say that I have two takeaways from Sir Farolan’s lecture. The first, even though it is unrelated to DRRM, is that I should start thinking of ways of serving the Filipinos even though I’m still only a student. The second is that I should prepare for the eventuality of a disaster with whatever means I have, and I think we should all do too.