Rumors have it that the 2009 Philippines bar exams will be released tonight, Friday March 19, 2010.

According to rumors, initially only about 17 % of the 6,079 bar candidates has passed. However, the Supreme Court has deliberated on the matter and is said to have raised the passing percentage to more than 20 %. This is good news to all 2009 Philippine Bar Exam candidates if indeed this is so.

To all who will pass the 2009 Philippine Bar Exam, congratulations in advance! I will be posting he results here soon. For those who will not be able to make it, don’t give up! If at first you don’t succeed try and try again.

For those preparing for the 2010 bar exams and beyond, you might want to check out the Lex Pareto Notes, a bar exam based, statistical based, codal based reviewer. Click here to go to the Lex Pareto Notes website.

While awaiting the 2009 Philippine Bar Exam results ease the tension by watching this youtube video on Erik Santos singing “This is the moment” because indeed this is the moment all 2009 bar examinees has been waiting for!

If the Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton is the fight of the year in 2009, then the Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey is the definitely the 2010 fight of the year !

Definitely the entire Philippines will come to a stop on the night of the fight (March 13, 2010) (Sunday morning here in the Philippines) as people will be looking at the Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey youtube video and live streaming. (I hope there will no brown outs !)

Manny “The Pacman” Pacquiao will try to add Joshua Clottey as his no. 12^th “victim” in his 11 winning streak. He has proven that he is indeed the best pound for pound in the world as he has demolished legendary fighters such as former WBC lightweight titlist David Diaz, future Hall-of-Famer Oscar De La Hoya, British pride Ricky Hatton and more recently Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto who defeated Clottey by split decision last year.

Pacquiao’s sterling 50-3-2 with 38 KOs needs no further elaboration as the record speaks for itself. His trainer the great Freddie Roach who is awarded trainer of the year for 4 times predicts a knockout win for Pacquiao either in the sixth or seventh rounds.

Pacquiao’s opponent who is considered as an underdog, but should never the less not to be underestimated is the pride of Ghana Africa, who now lives in New York, is none other than, “The Hitter” Joshua Clottey.

Clottey has an impressive 35-3 record. He has won 20 of his fights by knock out and he has never lost via knock out in his entire professional career. A very tough and defensive orthodox fighter whose other nick name is the “Grandmaster” Clottey has size and solid defense and just like Manny Pacquiao has the right combination of speed, stamina, boxing skills and power.

So can the Pacman eat away the Grandmaster’s defenses or will the Grandmaster who is also called “The hitter” overtake the Pacman’s speed, skill and power ? What do you think ? Drop me a comment. (For me Clottey should make sure he gets accurate life insurance rates)

Naturally most people predict that Manny Pacquiao will emerge as the winner. This is mainly due to the fact that Pacquiao has taken on tougher opponents before. There is also logic to the thought that since Pacquiao has easily beaten Cotto, who has won over Clottey, than it is a no brainer to think that Pacquiao would easily beat Clottey.

For those of you who can’t go to the Dallas Cowboys Stadium at Arlington Texas where the “NO HOLDS BARRED” fight between Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey will be held, well you can still watch the fight as if you were really there through the wonders of technology that is of course through the internet or pay per view T.V

Finally here is the real Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey youtube video and live streaming watch Oh by the way our very own Arnel Pineda of Journey will be singing the Philippine National anthem on fight night ! LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE !!!

I certainly hope and pray that this will not be in another week of disaster after disaster. Right now, our eyes are glued on the computer surfing Tsunami watch websites and reading about tsunami warnings.

The incoming tsunami is the effect of the massive 8.5 earthquake that rocked Chile last night. Thank God the damage done to Chile despite the strong quake and several aftershocks is not as worst as that of Haiti. Most experts say it is because of the preparations that Chile has undertaken in terms of infrastructure as compared to Haiti. (Chile has strict regulations with regards to their building code, whereas in Haiti there is even no building code) Nevertheless, we are still saddened by the fact that there were still lives lost in Chile.

Since Chile is located at the outermost part of the Pacific ring of fire, it is projected that such a strong earth quake will generate a strong Tsunami that will hit the coast of countries and islands within the pacific ring of fire.

Just several hours ago a tsunami was reported to have hit Ventura California and Hawaii but thank God it was not that strong. However residents of the area are advised to be still vigilant for the next 2 to 3 hours as bigger and stronger waves could be coming. Experts however say that the U.S has been spared.

Just 34 minutes ago, while I am writing this, a Tsunami has already hit Japan but the initial waves are smaller.

Here in the Philippines, the tsunami is expected to hit between 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. It is already 1:35 in my on board computer clock and there are no reports yet of anything that has happened. (I certainly hoping closing my blinds is enough to keep the waves out) Hopefully the Philippines will be spared as well as we haven’t fully recovered yet from Ondoy, the eruption of Mayon Volcano, the global financial crisis and the deadly effects of corrupt government.

To all of those reading this, be warned: THE NEXT 24 HOURS IS CRITICAL FOR COUNTRIES WITHIN THE PACIFIC RING OF FIRE. The includes all parts of countries that are facing the Pacific ocean and islands within the Pacific ocean  Examples of these are Peru, Chile, part of Mexico, United States West coast, Alaska, parts of Russia, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, New Guinea parts of Australia and New Zealand.  (Google Pacific ring of fire to know if your particular country is affected)

Amidst all of this there is one good news! Jesus is coming soon! As the Bible points out in Mathew 24, 7 and 8 these are just signs of the times to come. “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.” (New Living Translation) It will not get any better; sadly it will even get worst. This is only the first of birth pains. There is more to come. Even so come Lord Jesus! Are you ready for the coming of Jesus? To be prepared you might want to read my post on the true meaning of ash Wednesday and What the Gospel truly is.

Update: THANK GOD NO NO COUNTRY WAS AFFECTED BY THE TSUNAMI !!!

Aside from the Manny Villar song, “Gusto ko happy ka” (I want you to be happy) has become a byword in our house. Everytime somebody asks me not to do something I just tell them “Gusto ko happy ka.” (Just to say something ironic because if I do something and somebody does not like it, it means they are unhappy with me) heheheheh . . .

Manong Johnny or Juan Ponce Enrile is a veteran politician. Indeed one of the most experienced among all senators (And the most senior too) He is also a very capable legislator and a smart lawyer. (Undergraduate degree Ateneo, Law – U.P (Cum Laude) and master’s of law at Harvard) He has authored some very important pieces of legislation and is very active in fighting for constitutional reforms and consumer protection. He was one of the key figures that helped topple the Marcos dictatorship. With all of these accomplishments indeed Manong Johnny deserves another term in the Senate.

With all of Manong Johhny’s accomplishments, it may be said that I am happy with what he has done so far and so is most of our Filipino brethren. Indeed he has been true to his campaign promise of making us happy.

However there are some things I am not happy about Manong Johnny’s stand on certain issues. Because he wants to protect customers, one of his crusades is to slash the rates of what telecom companies charge us. This indeed is a worthy cause considering that we have one of the highest telecommunication charges in the planet, considering also that the Philippines is the “text messaging capital of the world.” Manong Johnny wants us to be happy so he wants to bring down the cost of calls and text messaging. Manong Johnny also opposes taxes on text. This is good for the consumer but bad for the government. If the government looses, then the entire nation looses.

Our government needs to raise taxes very badly otherwise we would suffer as a nation. You don’t have to be an economist to know that the government really needs taxes especially at this time when we are exiting from a world wide financial meltdown.

It is estimated that there are about 70 million mobile phone users in the country. The average person sends about 10 text messages per day. Let’s just slash it down to 5 to have a more conservative approach. If that is P 1.00 per text that means that the telcos are earning P 350 million pesos per day or close to P 127 Billion pesos per year! (Add to it special occasions like Christmas and New year where telcos earn millions per second) Imagine if the government imposes a 30 % tax on such amount, that’s almost P 40 Billion pesos per year for the government! (That’s about the size of the budget of the department of health and twice the budget of DSWD for 2010)

Of course the telecommunications company will pass it to the consumers. In my view a cellphone is not a basic necessity such that you will die with out (as opposed to Food, clothing and shelter) so anybody who owns a cellphone should be taxed for the luxury of owning one.

I know Manong Johnny just wants to make us happy but if individual Filipinos are happy that they have cheaper text cost but however the nation suffers from lower funding from taxes then we will all become unhappy. Happiness should not be the only concern of Filipinos. We should all do our part in helping build the nation especially those who are in the middle and upper class.

Further Manong Johnny is a tax expert. He graduated from Harvard with a Master’s degree in law with specialized training in International Tax Law. I am no tax expert and taxation is the subject I hated most in law school, however I do believe that Manong Johnny should be passing more progressive tax laws instead of trying to over protect consumers. For example Manong Johnny should pass laws imposing higher taxes on luxury items such as  autos, auto insurance quotes, appliances, restaurants, movies, sin items such as liquor, cigarette gambling and a higher tax bracket for those who have higher income at the same time reducing or eliminating taxes on basic necessities and low income individuals.

Nevertheless despite being unhappy with Manong Johnny in some aspects I’m still happy with his commercial because everytime it is shown on T.V, he always makes me smile when he says “Gusto ko happy ka.”

Just to make you smile, here is Manong Johnny’s “Gusto ko happy ka” campaign ad. I’m not campaigning for Manong Johnny but ang gusto ko rin na happy ka. hehehe

I’m a voracious reader and I dream of owning an Amazon kindle. I waited until the international edition is made available. However until now I didn’t purchase one because I still have books that I need to finish. Also I was waiting for any new development in the market that could further bring down the Amazon Kindle International edition price.

And true enough, a new development came. Weeks ago Steve Jobs introduced the Apple iPad, a device that is not only an ebook reader but is one which also lets you do stuff that you could normally do in a laptop in a much cooler way ! The iPad is like an oversized version of an iphone except that you can’t make calls with it.

I’ve never owned any Apple products, although my wife owns an ipod (It was only given to her) Although I acknowledge the superiority of design and engineering of Apple products and the brilliance of Steve Jobs, I’ve never owned any Apple products because they are usually much more expensive compared to other devices that does the same thing.

However the Apple iPad seems to have changed that. Starting at $499 (U.S), it seems that this is probably Apple’s most affordable product considering the bells and whistles that it has to offer. I admit, I have been tempted to ditch my plan to buy a Kindle and get an Apple iPad instead.

But for now I won’t be buying and Apple iPad for the following reasons:

1.) The Apple ipad is a first generation device – I’ve tinkered with gadgets all my life. Experience has taught me never to buy a first generation device. The reason is because most if not all first generation device is fresh out of research and development. Because of this there are always kinks that will soon be discovered. No matter how good the quality control of the company is, there is always an “unseen” defect that is passed on to the buyers of first generation device. Usually it is the second and third generation devices that look much better and have much better features because they build upon the defects of the first generation device. (Remember how ugly the first kindle looked like?) If I am going to buy an ipad, I’ll probably buy the next model.

2.) Possibility of a reduction of price of the Apple ipad – Remember when the Apple iPhone first came out? Two months after that Apple lowered the price. Companies usually do this if the product launching fizzles. Reviews have been mixed so far with regards to the Apple iPad. Some think it is the most brilliant device Apple ever came up with. Others think it’s a total blunder. Others even think that the name sucks! There had been suggestions to slash the price further by $50 to $100. I don’t know if this is ever going happen to the Apple ipad, but it happened to the iPhone so the possibility is not remote.