On the earth-digging results of the Nursing Board exams -- Man, It Really Goes Underground!

FilBok! (Filipino Vocabulary)

Nakakapanghina!-- (expression) it is making me queasy!

Bagsak -- (noun) failed

And so the results of the 2009 Nursing Board Exams was released, and it seems that if there is anything that will need urgent medical attention, or should we say, sent immediately to the operatiing room and sent to ICU, it would be the results. FOr it was revealed that out of the 90,000 or so nursing student who took that exam, only more than 29,000 or so students passed them -- ROUGHLY MORE THAN 26 PERCENT!?!? This is ABSOLUTELY CATASTROPHIC, not only to the nursing students, but also to the nursing and medical schools, the country's Department of Health, and to the entire medical professional field! Nakakapanghina!

The big question that hangs around the unspeakable results of the PRC Nursing Board Exams is this -- What went wrong? Where did it all go wrong?

To the inquiring mind, the problem may be seen in a range of causes. One of them is the type of academic or professional formation of medical students -- this has implications to the type of educational curriculum medical schools are using. Indirectly from this may be the type of educators or professors the nursing students have -- since the professors, the instructors themselves are the ones who carry out the medical education curriculum, from theory to practice, so to speak.

Another cause may be seen in a broader scope -- and this may be expressed in the dying need for a thorough upgrading of the educational sector -- or at least in the tertiary level, so to speak, and for nursing and medical schools in particular. The results of the Nursing Board Exams should give the educational authorities concerned, with the wake-up call to respond, to the urgency for a thorough and long-lasting reforms, if not upgrading,of the educational formation of our medical or nursing students.

And now,medical schools are being given a period of 3 years to upgrade, if not improve their instruction, their educational formation of nursing students, in order to improve their academic and educational backgrounds. Of course (and sorry though if I were to say this, but this IS truth)the exam results will indeed point out as to what kind of school these students hail from.

Why Not Face It All From the Beginning? On Senator Villar and the C-5 Road Extension Project Contraversy

Filbok! (Filipino Vocabulary)
Sorry, but I have to include this complete sentence to help you understand the entire thing that I have posted:

"Kung wala talaga siyang ginagawang kabalbalan, bakit hindi niya harapin ito lahat?" -- (interrogative sentence) translation: "If he really is not doing any monkey business, why does he not face everything?"


This is the very base question that capers into the minds of evry Filipino who, in one way or the other, followed the seemingly ridiculous game of charades played by Senator Manny Villar and the rest of the Senators in that Hall, during the inquest about the C-5 road Extension Contraversy. And to be honest with you, Senator Villar proves to be a rather disagreeable player in this ridiculous game of charades -- or should we say hide and seek -- or he should hide until we all turn blue in the face?

Anyway, what all the people had observed though, for those who had attuned themselves to the course of Senator Villar's case -- is that of all the people who are involving themselves in this investigation, and eventually, the move to censure Senator Villar -- the infamous senator who hails from Tondo is the one conspicuously absent. Not even a hint of his face could be seen in that Senate Hall! Hmmm. Should this be in another situation and should this happen in a court of justice, this kind of boycotting attitude will earn him a "contempt of court".

The question that yabbers in the minds of Filipinos is that of simple thinking, simple logic really -- if Senator Villar is indeed innocent of the cases thrown at him, if he really has not done anything wrong, why does he not show up in the Senate throughout the course of the investigation in order to defend himself?

To me and to many others though, the comportment showed by Senator Villar raises alot of eyebrows, and alot of questions too.

It is quite funny to the point of being ridiculous on his part, that when he suddenly popped up in the Senate Hall and made his privilege speech, he stated that no one born in Tondo (the district in Manila from where he supposedly hails from)is a coward; that he is no coward, so to speak. Well, simple thinking again comes into place -- if he is indeed no coward, why did he not show himself right at the beginning or even at the middle of the inquest of his fellow Solons, to defend himself and his reputation? Why did he immediately stormed out of the Senate Hall after his little speech, without even giving his colleagues the chance to ask him anything?

If he thinks that giving any sense of attention to the cases being filed against him, and to the investigation being made over him, will prove to be a waste of time on his part -- consider then, that his absence during most of the inquest about the C-5 Road Extension project, is an even greater waste of time for the Senators and for the inquiring public -- the people of whom he is sworn into duty, and of which he owes them his answers, not to mention his position as Senator!

So simple thinking comes again here: if he claims that the case filed against him has been founded on naught, why does he not show himself for the inquest in order to defend his good name, now that his name is become a fastly growing household word,now that the Elections are nearing? Especially that he is aspiring to become President, Hmmm? :D

"Tindahan sa Bangketa" -- Selling and Struggling in the Street of Life

Filbok! (Filipino Vocabulary)



"Bangketa" (Bang-ke'-ta: noun) -- sidewalk. This may also be used to describe the sides of any street or pathway. In popular Filipino usage, this word may be used to denote a sidewalk stall or store.



"Tindahan sa bangketa" (compound noun) -- sidewalk stall or store. People who set up sidewalk stores or stalls are usually called sidewalk vendors.



Notes for pronunciation: In the Filipino language, the joined letters "ng" sounds like the "ng" in the word "song". Apostrophies in the syllables denote slightly prolonged pronounciations in those syllables, along with a slight rise in intonation.


July 6, 2009, 11:34 AM. Anyone who would like to explore downtown Manila on foot would have their ears bleed with the continuous roar and bleeps of cars, jeepneys and buses enroute to Quiapo, Lawton, Quezon city or elsewhere, gag, choke and sneeze with noxious clouds of dust and exhaust fumes, and bewildered with the comings and goings of thousands of feet going to and fro in the busy streets. With my Nokia 3230 in hand (ready to shoot photos) and squinting in the bright noonday sun, I took a dust-caked flight of stairs, reached the overpass spanning the ever-busy Quezon Boulevard and shot this busy noon-time scenery of the vicinity of Morayta -- the place of which you'll have to call out to the errant jeepney driver for you to reach Professional Regulations Commisions (PRC), or if your studying at nearby Far Eastern University. This vantage point was just filled with sight and color, alive and throbbing with the energy of downtown Manila One good note for the first time visitor: at a time like this, make sure to have an umbrella in one hand, a handkerchief in another and a chewable candy in your mouth or you'll haplessly pass out in the streets -- noontime to 3:00 PM is not for the queasy minded or faint-hearted. But if you can weather things out, you may eventually enjoy things here.



This is the same pedestrian overpass from which I shot the photo you see above. I have to take the tortuous flight of stairs for me to reach the other side. And you'd see the slogan painted by the city administration promoting urban cleanliness, with the 3 words using the 3 letters that make up the mayor's surname ( L-I-M after Mayor Alfredo Lim, the incumbent mayor of the City of Manila) "Linisin, Ikarangal Maynila" (which means "Clean and Honor Manila"). However, things do not seem as they seem to be! For upon first sight you see a pedestrian overpass -- a resort from the hot sun and lashing rain, and of course, the only recourse to prevent yourself from becoming roadkill. But as soon as you climb up the stairs and reach the top, the bridgeway also serves as a bazaar! The bridgeway turned into a bazaar!

I reached the top and saw that one entire side of the bridgeway was turned by vendors into a long continuous shop for trinkets, headbands, earrings, finger rings and other jewelry and accessories! Vendors had resorted to this for sensible reasons; people crossing the overpass can buy anything that may catch their eye as they pass by-- they can stop by and buy (geddit?!? "by" and "buy" ?!? Another rhyming thingy!!! Naaahh, forget it!!) These shops know their customers well, since this overpass lands right smack in the middle of the University Belt -- a place in Manila peppered with universities and colleges -- and college students may take the time to buy anything that may take their fancy as they pass through this place.

Oh yes, before I forgot, even right before I went through this overpass, I took this scenery of a more simple, more humble setting. Right after exiting PRC, I passed by one of those several small impromptu shops selling candies, biscuits, crackers and cigarrettes -- perfect for anyone who either cannot truly afford to eat at the fastfood chains in this place, or simply just in a hurry to go somewhere -- they can simply buy a candy either for 1peso apiece or 3 pieces for 2 pesos, to kill hunger and time.

In the Philippines, these small shops or stores are simply called "tindahan sa bangketa" or simply "bangketa"-- sidewalk stores or stalls; they are stores distinguished simply by the place on where they are set up -- sidewalks! They open at the crack of dawn and close up at night. Some of them had crafted their sidewalk shops in a way that when closing time comes they simply lock them up along with their goods and furnishings (of course, bringing their earnings with them!) safely under lock and key, or under cord and plastic canvass awning, to prevent thieves from nosing in. Some of them just fix, clean, chain and leave their empty stalls behind. But some vendors do the arduous ritual of bringing everything with them, trudging them home either on foot, on wheels (on small wooden carriages) or carrying them as they ride on other vehicles like jeepneys, buses and the like. -- only to return to the same corner in the morning, setting up shop and arranging their goods just at first light of day, and dealing with the customers amid the roar, the smoke and dust of the city streets -- they do this arduous migration day in day out

I usually take the metro train of Manila, commonly known as LRT (initials for "Light Rail Transit). The south-bound LRT ends at Baclaran, a district in the city of Paranaque. For years on, Baclaran is famous for its venerable Shrine of the Mother of Perpetual Help, this LRT station, and mostly, for this -- a scenery of organized confusion, the melee' of trade happening right under the LRT railways. I shot this photo right before going down the flight of stairs and surfing through shop-filled streets to buy native oranges -- which I bought for 10 pesos apiece (I bought five) -- from where? From a row of "tindahan sa bangketa" devoted to selling fruits! Side-walk stalls can organize themselves into entire zones devoted to selling a particular kind of merchandise. RTW's ( or "Ready To Wear") clothing may be bought at stalls in the middle of the street -- right underneath the support columns of the LRT railways. You may get a sassy piece of dress at lower prices, practically lower than when you purchase something similar in some city mall! Stalls selling foodstuffs may be bought at the stalls at the foreground. These "bangketas " in Baclaran however, are located in the middle of the bazaar that marks Baclaran as one of the biggest bazaars in Metro Manila.

The "tindahan sa bangketa" has become an annoyance to some, especially the city management, who think that sidewalks are simply for pedestrians, not shops. And as you can see, the abundance of these sidewalk stalls and their customers had virtually closed the street from traffic -- much to the annoyance of jeepney drivers and other vehicles destined for Sucat, Las Pinas and Muntinlupa, who try to navigate through this tortuous street. Occasionally, some "conventional" shop owners, pedestrians, and other "concerned individuals" think that these sidewalk vendors are simply too much -- citing reasons that some of them run their businesses without proper city licenses, that they contribute to the hurly-burly disorderliness of the city, others raise concerns that sidewalk vendors sell "fake" goods or smuggled goods and that their stalls invite pickpockets or holdappers who prey on the customers. Due to this, but mainly for the idea of maintaining the "cleanliness and disciplined orderliness" of the city, the MMDA (which stands for Metro Manila Development Authority) occasionally -- and ruthlessly -- root out these "tindahan sa bangketas" from the street, sweeping down on them like a massive broom, demolishing entire stalls, nabbing and confiscating goods, destroying merchandise with unabated cruelty -- amidst the heart-rending screams and sobs of storeowners who have nothing else other that their stores to go about in their daily lives -- all in the name of "maintaining cleanliness and disciplined orderliness" of the city streets.

Why not set up shop in the local flea-market (or in Filipino, "palengke"), or why not set up shop at home? Ask any sidewalk vendor this question and they may give you the same answer -- " . . . because this is where the money flows good", " I earn here and the business is good"-- and they may also reason out, occasionally," If I do not do this, what will we eat tonight?". Practically speaking, just like any store owner who depends on the business, these sidewalk vendors virtually depend on the relatively modest earnings of their shops to go by their daily lives. They may also give you the answer, "I am selling things here so that I can send my children to school", "I'm doing this for us to help my husband with the household income" and of course, "I have to do this, to make ends meet" -- usually the electric and water bills, the house rent, and of course, food and matriculation. They have to ekk out a daily living from their little stores for them to go about their daily lives -- and it is notable to mention that most of them come from the massive social class located just below the poverty line. Their lives and their business at street give us a small but striking picture of their daily struggles in life, all in the name of family.

A note of comment and suggestion to the MMDA and the other people who are legally obliged to maintain the disciplined orderliness of the city streets. The reasons for you to keep the streets of Metro Manila clean and orderly for vehicular and pedestrian traffic may indeed be true -- and you may have indeed done a good job doing so. Some of the ideas that you have and may have been explained you about the sidewalk vendors may indeed be true . BUT IT DOES N'T MEAN THAT YOU HAVE TO DRIVE THEM AWAY LIKE SCOUNDRELS IN THE STREET! They may be stubborn, hard headed, borne out of years of struggling in the street for them to earn their daily bread. BUT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DESTROY THEIR LIVES AND THEIR LIVELIHOOD! Consider this, that at the end of the day, or at least 3 times a day, an MMDA sidewalk clearing employee and a sidewalk vendor eat the same plate of rice to stave off hunger. Instead of destroying their stalls or confiscating their goods, why not relocate them somewhere else, somewhere much more agreeable, for both pedestrian, customer and of course, sidewalk vendor alike? Why not set up a special place for sidewalk vendors to sell in peace instead, to remove them from the streets where there will be no objections raised? Relocate them in a market perhaps, or create a totally new marketplace, easily accessible for commerce to progress, or if not, arrange their stalls in a way that they may not look forlorn but instead may give them a more dignified look? I am suggesting a sort of collaborative bargaining agreement here.

Thus this is story of the sidewalk vendor, they trudge on two feet with every peso they earn on the same street, struggling to keep apace selling in the streets of life.

"Tindahan" -- sells more than any other store

Filbok! (Filipino Vocabulary)


"Tinda" (tin-da: verb) -- sell

"Tindahan" (tin-da-han: noun) -- store

"Paninda" (pa-nin-da: noun) -- store merchandfise

"pabili!" (pa-bi-li: phrase) -- A phrase which means, "I am buying!"

"sari-sari" -- (sa-ri-sa-ri: noun) -- assorted

"Buena Mano" -- (bwe-na ma-no: compound noun, Spanish for "good hand") -- the first person who buys something from a store, believed to bring good earnings to a store for the rest of the day. This may be taken as a human interpretation for the word "lucky stroke"

5:00 AM. Our day begins literally right after rising from our beds with our brains partially dazed from sleep -- and after we recover we light a candle at the altar, flick open the light switch, open the front door and hustle our 2 metal "istantes" (metal display racks for store goods) the large plastic tub filled with vegetables and other merchandise --out into the garage -- and we greet the dawn by opening our little sari-sari store. The picture above shows my mother and aunt preparing the store merchandise, and as you can see, the morning sky outside is pretty well dark.

By 5:30 AM the metal display stands are bedecked with our "paninda" (merchandise) -- though not complete yet since this picture was shot in the morning right before my mother's daily trip to the public market to buy all the goods that the store would need. A clothesline is also used as an impromptu display for other goods, usually snacks. After my mother arrives the tedious arrangement and calculation for curent prices begin. The rest of the day would be the daily romance between storeowner and customer -- provided the latter would really buy something and that he or she would have some money to buy with and never incure a debt, which according to superstitious store owners, is a definite jinx especially when done at the start of the day! Customers would make their presence felt by hollering out "pabili!" (or even rapping their coins at the gate)-- which would send me scurrying for my slippers to open the door, approach the customer and ask what he or she would like to buy.

Then there is the so-called "buena-mano" -- the very first person who buys anything from the store -- if the buena mano is good, then the store will earn good! If his hand in buying is bad -- never mind. But in those cases, just in case -- my mother or my aunt would ask me to take the guy's money and buy something else with it as soon as the guy leaves, lest his jinx lingers on like smoke in the store and drive out all the good luck away.

In the Philippines, the word "tindahan" means "store" -- and the term may be applied to any type of store -- but it is commonly used to denote those little general stores called "sari-sari stores" -- the word "sari-sari" which means assorted. In the US and elsewhere, goods are bought at large general stores, or in larger stores such as shopping malls like Walmart. We have malls and large general stores here in the Philippines, but for the ordinary Juan-de-la-Cruz, sari-sari stores will do, which in turn, had been a very integral part of Filipino life. In fact, it is virtually unthinkable for a neighbourhood to not have one. Sari-sari stores can sell a variety of things -- thats why it s called a "sari-sari" store! Things that may be bought in the local flea market (which in Filipino is called "palengke") may be bought at the store -- assorted vegetables (usually those needed in local cooking) snacks (people would call them junkfood but anyway they sell hot). Softdrinks are also bought here at reasonable prices. And as you can see, there is a stack of soft drink bottle at the back. There are also assorted candies (for children and people who chew or melt away their boredom or weariness) biscuits (to kill hunger) cigarretes (we sell four brands) instant noodles and other "instants" (instant flavoring!) bottles of cooking oil, soap, shampoo and toothpaste and feminine products (napkins).

We sell shampoo and toothpaste, of course who would not need one? In other nations shampoo and toothpaste is commonly sold and bought in squeegie plastic bottles and tubes. We DO buy these things in exactly the same way. But we, if not most of the time, buy them in small budget packs. See? Even shampoo and toothpaste companies have to make do with the prevailing financial attitudes of Filipinos, borne out of the need to scrimp and save to make ends meet! I almost laughed my teeth off when I learned in a commercial that a brand of liquor started selling their hard drink in small one-shot packs! HA! HA! HA!

The picture above shows my mother making a melon flavoured shake, on the table along with the blender are powder flavourings. During the summer and especially during the yearly basketball tournaments in an open court just a stone''s throw away, the shake "industry" was hot business. People would order not only one or two, but up to 6 even 10 orders! And at that time, as long as the sun stays hot, the business stays hot too -- right until the first thunderstorms that herald the rainy season to dampen things out and we would think it fortunate to have at least 10 orders for the whole day -- who'd think of buying something ice-cold when it's raining?

Besides a shake business, we also have a hotdog and hamburger stand. This is my aunt as she is prepping up a hotdog fora customer. We have to do this for the additional income. Just come to think of it. This store had already gone a long way off since it was conceived 6 years ago when my mother thought of setting up shop just to pass time. But now, the store has earned so much and has saved much that it is now the principal means of household income -- it is now primarilly responsible for paying the electric, water, cable, broadband and phone bills! Even the small 2-year old shake business has earned much that after its first season, it has saved enough money to buy a turbo halogen heated roaster and another blender!

I may not be working right now -- I may not be teaching, since I am burning my brains off with my thesis writing. But I am definitely not bumming around! At this point I am an accomplished storekeeper -- and how accomplished am I when in some instances, it seems that I could have wished to have sprouted 8 arms to simultaneously fry 3 hotdogs and churn 7 cold shakes at the same time? And not to mention the kids who pepper me when buying something from the candy stalls! By that time, when people start packing up ( as many as 8 customers in one time) all the three of us -- my mother, my aunt and me -- would be sweating like horses to handle them all -- the happy hours starts at 4:30 PM and ends at around 6:30 PM, right before prime time news and a few minutes to supper time.

Oh yes, before I forget, in a sari-sari store you do not only exchange goods with money, you exchange news! In the United States (correct me if I'm wrong though) people talk and share the latest ideas in diners and barbershops. In the Philippines, sari-sari stores take that role, since people get to meet there are talk about things. Sometimes gossip runs free among those hungry for a little hush-hush about who's-who -- in a store. So besides church, town hall and town plaza, the sari-sari store becomes the natural community meeting place. Just shown above is my mother and aunt, preparing 9 hot-dog orders for the community hall, as being fetched for by the two guys who in turn, are working for the subdivision waterworks. News and other things are exchanged as the oil fizzles and the hotdogs turn. These guys are regular in the store, so they also do the favor of informing us about important things regarding the waterworks -- when they're gonna turn the water valves off to fix some broken street pipe somewhere in the neigbourhood, at what time -- and we on the other hand, get to spread the news to everyone who drops by -- or buy ( get it?!? who drops buy?!? Ahhhh forget it!)

However, funny as our story may seem, at least in our part, things are more serious for other people who own sari-sari stores. To them, the store is really the primary source of income -- something that they direly need to make ends meet everyday. Money earned may be saved to pay for the children's tuition fees, to buy food, pay the electric bills. A sari-sari store may also be set up for the additional income -- so that more money may come into the house if the income of those who are working, is just simply not enough. So even the most meager of earnings becomes very important. In our case, we supplement the store's earnings with the shake and hamburger stands. In other stores besides cooking food, some run video CD rentals, or sell medicine ( like small drug counters in that case. Some even sell newspapers and some even have cell-phone instant loading businesses -- or even an impromptu pay phone in that matter -- all this effort just to earn a little more to make ends meet. If people won't do the extra effort, especially in these difficult times, things will definitely start to fall apart.

The sari-sari store did not just stay here -- it went abroad, even global! For whenever there is a Filipino community in some corner of the planet, there is mostly a Filipino store, selling the same things one would buy in some town in the Philippines. It delights me greatly that a Filipino store in US sells the same spices and condiments as one would see in another store in Laguna, halfway across the globe.

Our day ends as soon as the clock strikes 9:20 PM. By that time, we pack our goods, hustle our display cases into the living room ( just imagine what our house looks like during the night!) lock the gates, lock our doors and flick the lights off -- save for one porchlight. After counting the earnings and listing all the other things to be bought tomorrow, we fix ourselves for bed and offer the evening prayers and finally fall asleep -- only to wake up at 5 AM and begin the entire thing all over again!

(My Compliments to Marites Gimena {the girl who is posing with a cold shake in her hands} and to Kuya Nonoy and Ate Annie's brother { the 2 guys who are sitting on the bench while waiting for those hotdogs to fry} -- for their presences gave the pictures a little more story! I would also like to acknowledge the Faye Lareign Store and the Erlren's Drug Store and General Merchandise)