The Jacque Bermejo Scandal

Posted in crazy, facebook, filipino, internet, post, scandal, shame, trolls, writing

From hero to zero.

If my earlier Ondoy-related post talked about a hero who saved more than 30 lives in a few hours, this one's about an overseas Filipino worker in Dubai who rose to notoriety when she allegedly made the most insensitive remark on Facebook regarding the calamity.

In a span of approximately 24 hours Jacque Bermejo became an instant Internet celebrity slash hate-puppet all across the world wide thingamajiggy. It all started when in the middle of the crisis brought about by typhoon Ondoy, a rather unsavory comment was found on her Facebook page. It said:

"buti n lng am hir in dubai! Maybe so many sinners bak der!so yeah deserving wat hapend!".

This is a prime example of how fast word can travel over the Internet. In less than a day people have started a hate page that as of this writing now has 10,596 members. One cannot blame a nation, who had just suffered one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history, for being sensitive to comments such as that, right?

Then there are also those who defend Ms. Bermejo, stating that her alleged Facebook and Multiply pages have been riddled with "trolls". They give a rather informative defense, as seen here. I just don't bite it.

Personally though, I really see no point in pursuing the matter further. If Ms. Bermejo was indeed an innocent victim of haters, I'd chalk it up to tough luck. No such thing as bad publicity anyway. She might even get her 15 seconds of fame on TV one day. But seriously, what is there to do about it? I highly doubt that anybody's gonna get a good spanking from mother, much less arrested, over this. If you're worried about clearing your name, think about the Gabby Concepcions and the Maricar Reyes's. Like I said, no such thing as bad publicity.

Now if she really was the culprit, then I hope she's ready to suffer the nation's electronic wrath.

Screenshot from Facebook

update: Jacque Bermejo's official statemen t. Fine, I'll shut up.
another update: Told you she'd get her proverbial 15 seconds of fame.

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Muelmar Magallanes: Real-Life Hero

Posted in filipino, flood, heart, heroes, inspiration, president

I came across a Facebook post about a dude who saved more than 30 people from drowning in floods caused by tropical storm Ondoy (Hurricane Ketsana) before meeting his own demise after rescuing a mother and her infant. The article reads:

Philippine man loses own life after saving dozens from floods
An 18-year-old construction worker braved rampaging floods in the Philippines to save more than 30 people, but ended up sacrificing his life in a last trip to rescue a baby girl and her mother who were being swept away on a styrofoam box.
Family members and people who Muelmar Magallanes saved have hailed the young man a hero, as his body lay in a coffin at a makeshift evacuation centre near their destroyed Manila riverside village.
"I am going to be forever grateful to Muelmar," said Menchie Penalosa, the mother of the six-month-old girl whom he carried to safety before being swept away himself. "He gave his life for my baby. I will never forget his sacrifice."

Mr Magallanes was at home on Saturday with his family when tropical storm Ketsana unleashed the heaviest rains in more than 40 years on the Philippine capital and surrounding areas.

At first the family, long used to heavy rains, paid little attention to the storm.

But Mr Magallanes and his father quickly decided to evacuate the family once they realised the river 800 metres away had burst its banks.

With the help of an older brother, Mr Magallanes tied a string around his waist and attached it one-by-one to his three younger siblings, whom he took to higher ground. Then he came back for his parents.

But Mr Magallanes, a strong swimmer, decided to go back for neighbours trapped on rooftops.

He ended up making many trips, and eventually saved more than 30 people from drowning, witnesses and survivors said.

Tired and shivering, Mr Magallanes was back on higher ground with his family when he heard Ms Penalosa screaming as she and her baby were being swept away on the polystyrene box they were using in an attempt to cross the swift currents.

He dived back in after the mother and daughter, who were already a few metres away and bobbing precariously among the debris floating on the brown water.

"I didn't know that the current was so strong. In an instant, I was under water. We were going to die," said Ms Penalosa, her eyes welling with tears and voice choking with emotion.

"Then this man came from nowhere and grabbed us. He took us to where the other neighbours were, and then he was gone," Ms Penalosa said.

Ms Penalosa and other witnesses said an exhausted Mr Magallanes was simply washed away amid the torrent of water.

Neighbours found his body on Sunday, along with 28 others who perished amid Manila's epic flooding. The official death toll stands at 100 with 32 missing.

Standing next to his coffin, Mr Magallanes' parents paid tribute to their son.

"He always had a good heart," said his father, Samuel.

"We had already been saved. But he decided to go back one last time for the girl."

His mother, Maria Luz, wept as she described her son as incredibly brave.

"He saved so many people, but ended up not being able to save himself."

Maria Luz Magallanes grieves beside the coffin of her son, Muelmar, who saved more than 30 people from rampaging Philippine floods over the weekend

He was just 18 years old. How many 18-year olds out there would do what this guy did? Hearing about stories of bravery like this from one of our countrymen makes me feel so proud to be a Filipino - even though I don't actually look the part.

It's just sad that foreign media beat their local counterpart to this story. I googled up his name and all I got were links to foreign news sites. Shouldn't our local media be the first to know about stories of heroism such as this? In this time of crisis we sure could use some inspiration.

Thank you Muelmar.

sources:

http://www.theage.com
http://www.dailymail.co.uk

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Time Machine

Posted in 2008, back-read, blog, intsik, merger, post, time machine

As some of you might have already noticed, the number of posts on my blog suddenly increased. No, my blog's not on steroids. I decided to merge all my blog posts from the multitude of platforms (exaggeration) I've been hopping on. All them ruddy posts from '05 on Friendster up until the last post I made over at Multiply have been migrated (err, copy-paste) over to The Stories from the Simian Crease. They're still my stories after all, right?

So back-read a while. Let me just ponder about life's purpose for now.

"We can't go back to 2007 Sheldon, we can just read his posts."

sources:
http://intsik.multiply.com/journal
http://vince-intsik.blog.friendster.com/

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Fresh Vegetables and Napalm

Posted in burn, lumpia, napalm, tongue, vegetables

Yes. Napalm.

I swear this had to be one of the wildest gustatory sensations my tongue has ever had in years. I was eating lumpiang ubod (sauteed wrapped vegetables) earlier today when I felt my mouth was on fire. It wasn't the usual spicy chili pepper burn that you get when you eat red pepper, it felt more like gargling acid. The burn was in my mouth. I then realized the lumpia was spiked with loads of chopped raw garlic. Now I usually love garlic, even raw garlic, but not in these combustively volatile amounts. I thought it had burned a hole through my tongue. Talk about a chemical burn. It just had be right up there with military-grade napalm and C4.