How To Review For The Bar

Here are excerpts from an email I wrote to some of my friends on how to prepare and review for the bar exam. I edited it to make it into a blogpost.

These are based on a number of Ateneo barops reading materials, the advice of my friends who passed the Bar, and several books, lectures and websites on passing the Bar. I hope these ideas help you as it did me.

Proper Nutrition
My wife says to  make sure you  get proper nutrition during the bar. She used to feed me what she called her brain gain food (nuts, grains and other healthy foods for the brain, you can find it online), and had me drinking vitamins and gingko biloba stuff from healthy options. Expensive but admittedly a big help, even if just for the psychological effect.

Readings and Schedules
I aimed for three readings of my materials and then a preweek reading, which made for a total of four readings. I suggest you aim for more than one reading in any case. In your first reading you are only just getting the ideas in your head. By the 2nd things make sense and by the third that’s when you feel like you know the subject, regardless of whether your third is the preweek reading already for you.

In light of this, the schedule is VERY important. Make sure you have a battleplan-schedule  by the time you graduate from law school, so you know what it is you will do  when you start reviewing. Assess yourself early and try to write down your schedule.

I suggest you get a calendar and write down on each day of the calendar what the subject is you will review for that day and so on. So that in one glance you get an idea what your schedule for the week/month will be etc.

But don’t make that schedule the gospel truth. Adjust it once in a while.

For example, my commercial law 1st reading was originally set for 7 days, but because I had to go to a couples discovery weekend seminar, which ate up two days, I had to adjust and make my commercial law reading only 5 days and a half instead, and then I made my criminal law 4 and a half days rather than the original 5 i had planned.

Just Adjust. You can always make up for it.

Take Breaks
As for breaks, I never had a rest day (i.e. one day where I never studied) but I had what I called slack days. Slack days are those  days when I would only review for like 3-5 hours. This served three purposes: one, I wouldn’t burn out, and two, i wouldn’t psychologically be bothered that i didn’t study that day and feel guilty, and three i wouldn’t lose momentum and become lazy.

My slack days were usually my date days. I set aside one day a week to go out with my dreamgirl (and now wife). We’d catch a movie or just watch dvds at her place.

Btw I don’t suggest alcohol as stress release because by the next day, you may lose time trying to get up and recover from the hangover or whatever. So avoid alcohol for the bar. You will get a chance to get crazy ass drunk on the last Sunday of September when the Bar exams end.

I also took frequent breaks during the day. Just 5-10 minutes to rest my eyes, or have a cup of coffee, etc.

I also would set up schedule and adjust my time to watch a particular TV show once in a while.  I would also try to catch the Fightquest  TV Show on Monday night on the Discovery Channel. Or  the Sopranos on HBO. Whatever rocks your boat.

Just try to unwind a little bit everyday or treat yourself a bit once in a while. Or have phone calls each night before you sleep (i talked to my dreamgirl every night on the phone after reviewing, for example) whatever fits your style. Just so you won’t go nuts from all that studying.

Study Time in a Day
Oh and with regard to time to study in a day, I got a stopwatch like a lot of other guys did (such as Bar topnotcher Atty. Diaz), and timed myself everyday and then recorded it in my calendar-schedule. It’s a good way to check your progress.

So if you did only say, 4 hours today, you know you should push yourself a little harder the next day and try to hit 7 or 8. (Make sure to time ONLY the actual time you hit the books. Not the time you are sitting down and chatting with your co-reviewees etc. )

Try to aim for around 7-8 hours of study in  a day. But in the first few months the normal time you will  be hitting is probably around 4-5 hours only or even less (according to several Atenean Bar Topnotchers, this is very normal). Heck the first week of my review I only did two or three hours a day despite sitting down the whole day. That’s normal. As time goes by, you’ll think nothing of 7-8 hours of review a day. At my peak and panic time around August I was already doing 9-11 hours a day, depending on my focus.

Handwriting and Past Bar Exam Questions
Oh and practice writing in print. My handwriting is horrible. So i would practice a lot by writing and doing mock bars (more on that below).

Furthermore, be sure to get copies of the past bar exams and their answers. Those allowed me to practice how to answer the Bar. So after every reading of each subject, I would try and test myself with a practice exam under similar Bar Exam times or circumstances. So it’s like a mock Bar for me already. This way, your mind will get used to not only taking in info by studying, but also  how to release that info under a test setting or mock Bar.

Review Classes To Attend
As for what review classes to go to [in the Ateneo Bar Review Program], I cant tell you who you should and shouldn’t go to since I don’t know who are the ones giving classes this time, but I can tell you to PICK carefully. Discern which subjects you need a refresher course in.

If you are weak in say criminal, then by all means go to criminal review classes. Just make sure the prof is someone worth going to. I skipped almost all review classes myself since the time it would take me to go to school was too much for me. It takes me about thirty minutes to get ready to go to school (shower, get dressed etc) and then another hour to get to Ateneo just to attend the class. Sometimes all that time spent on just getting to school seemed like a waste to me. I was better off just reading my review materials at home.

But then again, this is a personal preference. A fellow Bar exam passer would study and then take breaks from studying by going to review classes. He said that instead of reading all the time, listening to lectures also allowed him to learn in a different way. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

But what you shouldn’t skip on are the classes on jurisprudence updates. They are very very useful. Attorney Candelaria’s political law updates, for example, discussed the topic of soft law in the Milk Code case. A question connected to soft law came out in my batch’s bar exam.

Take Notes
I also suggest that you have a notebook for each Bar subject. Then while you review, you take notes or write down what you feel are important points on the law, or even significant updates in jurisprudence. Taking notes helps you anchor the concepts in your head. Plus, by the end of your 1st or 2nd reading, you can review by simply reading your notebooks.

In my case, in the hour or two before the Bar Exam proper, I didn’t rely on those miscellaneous tips (bluetips, UP tips, etc.) that school or fraternity bar operations would distribute. Instead I focussed on reading my own notes.

And speaking of tips, try not to obsess over getting copies of those “killer” tips. Killer tips do not mean that you have the answers to the questions and will pass the Bar already. Those tips, such as the Ateneo Bluetips, are simply the educated guesses of Barops and Professors on what will come out in the Bar. Tips will never replace a good review. Just study well and you will pass, tips or no tips.

Have Faith
Also, and if you will allow me this chance to talk about God for a moment, let me tell you that I prayed a lot during review. It helped.

I also read the Bible once in a while, especially when it felt like the task was impossible. I also had a pastor-friend who i could text or talk to and ask that he pray for me. I suggest you do the same, and get someone spiritually mature (like a priest or pastor) to pray for you, or with you.

If you aren’t religious, then I suggest you go with whatever you are comfortable with, like meditation or yoga or whatever. But in my opinion, God is the one who gets us through trials like these. And praying never hurts.

I hope these tips on how to review for the Bar helps you. In my next post, I will list the books and materials I used for Bar Review.

I passed the Bar!!!

After a whole day of gut crunching tension, I finally found out that on Friday night that I was one of the 1,310 examinees   who passed the 2008 Bar examinations. According to the official list released by the Philippine Supreme Court, and published in, among others, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, I am successful examinee number 688.

This means I am going to become a full lawyer soon!!! All those years of hard-work and endless nights of study have finally paid off.

But even as I feel immense happiness and relief for passing the Bar exam, I can’t help but feel sad over the fate of those who did not. Some of my batchmates, one of them quite close to me, didn’t make it to the list of people who passed the Bar. I don’t know how it happened, especially since the friend I am referring to is infinitely smarter than me and has much better grades. But that’s the Bar exam for you. You can, unfortunately, never tell.

I praise God for allowing  me to pass. But I also pray to God that He grant those who did not pass the strength to soldier on and face the exams again.

The Bar is a cruel and painful examination. And I wouldn’t wish failure on my worst enemy. So I honestly can’t imagine how painful it must feel to not make it. Although I have read about how some people I know are already bouncing back from the Bar results. In any case, all I can say now to those who didn’t make it, is that my prayers are with you. God Bless.

ps – A number of people have asked me about Bar Preparations. Although I am no Bar top-notcher, I am willing to share what info and tips I have. Will update with some Bar review tips soon.

Popular Blog Posts

Since I started archiving my written work on this blog, I’ve noticed some of my posts get way more hits than others.

Interestingly enough, it isn’t the political stuff which I am known for writing which gets the most attention. Rather, its law, business and career, love and personal topics which get the most hits.

Funny how things work out sometimes. Anyway, here are those popular posts, especially for new readers to this blog.

• How Your Motto Can Make a Difference – a column piece which talked about personal mottos or slogans which can define yourself, your work and even your company.

• Career v. Love – a post I wrote about whether you should choose between your career or your lovelife. The obvious answer, after what I went through, is love. But then again, only a few short years ago, I didn’t know that.

• So You want to Go to Law School? – A few questions one should ask before plunging into law school.

• A Typical Day in law School – What my normal law school schedule was like back when I was on my final year at the Ateneo Law.

• Law and Leadership – an article I wrote for the Asian Institute of Management Leadership Magazine.

• 8 Things I Learned from the Stock Market- originally written for his Babble On column, parts of this piece was reposted (with permission) by Reflections of a BizDrivenLife. This article recounts some humorous life lessons I picked up from investing in the stock market.

• How To Network Without Really Trying – a post I wrote for Employee Evolution.

• How Paranoia can Actually Make You Successful – I wrote this after a conversation with my then fiancée, where she tried to tell me I was a very paranoid person; always wanting to be sure and triple-checking everything. My way of telling her that paranoia can be an asset rather than a liability.

• My ipod Story: How I Wasted 10k - Now it can be told. The  demise of my beloved ipod nano.

Some Law School Survival Tips That Seem Sooo Obvious in Hindsight

It’s been almost one year since I graduated from law school. At this time, the 2nd semester should be about done. After finishing law school, a couple of tips come to my mind that seem sooo obvious in hindsight. If I had followed my own advice about this earlier in my law school life I would have saved myself a whole lot of grief.

1.) Don’t get Emotional — try not to let your emotions get in the way of the things you have to do in law school, like studying, groupwork or graded recitations.

One of my classmates couldn’t focus on studying properly because she would start crying in despair over the heavy workload, while another classmate almost burst out in tears from the snide comments of one demanding law professor during recitation.

You can’t help your emotions, but it does help if you try to control those emotions. Most lawyers are seen as cold, and sometimes heartless. I guess it’s from controlling your emotions so often. It’s necessary to survive law school.

2.) Don’t do too much — realize that there is only one of you, and a person can only do so much. There are limits to what a person can possibly do. Figure out your limits and try not to do too much.

One classmate of mine was the student council vice president, head of several organizations, and group leaders in nearly all her groupwork. It’s a wonder she managed to get through law school in one piece.

I made the same mistake of trying to do too much. At one point, I was a member of the law journal, a debater and treasurer of the debate society, a columnist for a newspaper and commercial law barops understudy.

This was on top of being a boyfriend to my dreamgirl (now wife) and a law student. That was a very stressful year. If I could do it again, I would have dropped some of the other things on my plate.

3.) Get emotional support – The primary reason I survived law school is that I always had my dreamgirl to turn to when things got too hard. I could vent with her, talk to her, and go out and have some fun before facing the daily grind of law school life.

Aside from my dreamgirl, I have my college buddies, whom I affectionately call “The Boys.” We go out drinking every so often whenever I need an outlet for my law school frustrations.

And then there’s my family. My mom in particular would text or call me to see how I was doing. Their support made all the difference in getting through law school.

4.) Don’t take things too seriously. – try to take things in stride. Don’t let small things or issues become big issues. Often the smallest snub or the slightest remark can lead to conflagrations in law school, whether between fraternities or friends or even student and teachers. That’s what being in a stress-packed environment can do to you and your nerves.

5.) Focus on your studies – you sometimes hear that school is not just academics and that the things you learn in extracurricular activities are just as important as what you learn in the classroom. Unfortunately, I don’t think the same is true for law school.

Upon graduation, the people who get hired immediately were those with high grades, or the honor students, or those with academic awards.

Those who are very active in activities may have a higher profile, but they don’t always get job offers immediately. They still have to look for work and apply. I was lucky. I wasn’t the smartest of students, but I did work hard during my internships and also got a Best Thesis (Silver Medal) award. This definitely helped in getting me a few job invites (whether or not I take those jobs is a different thing entirely of course).

But the general rule remains: academics are what count in law school. Your grades are the measure of whether you will be a good lawyer. Everything else is secondary.

Things I learned From Dealing With Wedding Suppliers

I write this after a series of phone-calls and meetings with wedding suppliers (note: this was written before my wedding, and then edited after the big day).

I was quite happy with the wedding suppliers who handled my wedding, particularly because most of them were very adept at client relations. Here are some thoughts on how and why we were so happy with our suppliers, which can be tips for other people in the wedding business.

1.)    Be Enthusiastic, or at least sound like you are.  – when you meet with a client or if a client calls you, try to be enthusiastic. After all, future brides or husbands to be, don’t like talking to a lifeless lump when discussing their wedding or engagement.

A lifeless conversation with a wedding supplier is more than enough to turn off a client and leave a bad impression. And in the wedding industry where one’s reputation is the gauge by which clients decide on hiring you or not, you do not want to wind up with a bad reputation.

2.)    Don’t treat it as just a job – even if the whole wedding thing is just a job to you, don’t treat it like one. Remember that the wedding for most people is a once in a lifetime event (I for one, do not plan on getting married again after all), and if you treat the wedding like it’s just a job, it makes the clients feel bad or disappointed, which in turn makes it less likely the client will refer you to other prospective clients.  Thankfully most of our wedding suppliers treaded us not as just clients, but as friends, which leads us to our next tip…

3.)    Be Friendly – I once had a conversation with a wedding supplier who wasn’t unfriendly, but was stiff and  a little aloof. The supplier gave me the feeling that they had better things to do with their time, even though they were in the wedding business. The supplier was civil, but I hung up the phone a little apprehensive.

Thankfully the supplier worked out great, but I was worried for a little bit. Contrast this with my wedding coordinator, who was always very friendly with me and my bride. We were always delighted to talk to her, and we even consider her as a friend now.

4.)    Be Reliable – one wedding host/wedding coordinator I know of (NOT OURS thankfully) has earned the reputation of being late to meetings and even on actual weddings he would host. On the wedding day, the last thing a husband or wife to be wants to worry about is whether or not the coordinator or event host will be late. Not unless you want the bride to be to become a bridezilla and go on a rampage.

5.)    Make us feel like VIPS – I know this may be asking a bit too much, but what client doesn’t want to feel like a VIP? Who doesn’t want to feel special? I would hire a wedding supplier that makes me and my dreamgirl feel very special on our most special day, even if they are a little sub-par in terms of quality.

We want to remember our wedding day with fond feelings, with feelings that our wedding was a special one. That for just one moment, we are important and the center of attention. Any wedding supplier that can do that will definitely have tons of clients. Most of our own suppliers made us feel that way, although admittedly, not all did so.

So there you go. Some very simple tips on how to be a great wedding supplier. Just remember, the husband and wife to be want their wedding day to be happy and special, and will greatly recommend anyone who makes them feel that way when they get married. So take the hint.

Make them feel special!

Getting Married and Blogging

Well, as most of my friends now know, I got married to my dreamgirl! We are now Mr. and Mrs. Lee, and we had a most wonderful wedding (thank you friends, family and suppliers!).

My wife, Mrs. Dreamgirl Lee, is still floating on air at how well the wedding went. Frankly, I think she wants to get married again, just to do the whole wedding ceremony and wedding reception bit one more time.

I was particularly touched at how full the church was for the wedding ceremony. Usually, there aren’t that many people who come watch the wedding itself. But for ours, it was a full house. My dreamgirl and I were very touched at the turnout of people.

One thing I realized from planning and executing this wedding though, is that it really takes a lot of time and work. It got so busy during the weeks leading up to the wedding that I had to abandon a lot of other responsibilities, like writing, blogging and even job hunting (although I do have a number of job invitations already, I am trying to keep my options open for now).  Who knew that getting married and blogging don’t mix very well?

Anyway, this post is sort of an apology for the lack of posts.

Even after the wedding, there still wasn’t time to post or write because we soon zoomed off to the 1st part of our honeymoon in Antulang Beach Resort in Dumaguete, Philippines (it was a fantastic and very romantic place), which I will write about in another post.

And when we got home from the honeymoon and started work on our apartment, I realized we had no internet or any other form of communication in it. So I had to find wi-fi hotspots to blog (which is what I am doing now, actually).

In any case, it took a while to get back to the blogging and column-writing groove again. I do have a series of posts lined up in my mind, and should bang those out more regularly over the next few weeks, or at least until we leave for the next part of our honeymoon abroad.

Until then, stay tuned folks.

Lincoln: Obama’s Role Model

(Babble On, for the Sunstar Davao, Friday, Nov. 21, 2008)

President-elect Barack Obama currently looks at Abraham Lincoln as a role model. There are many parallels between the two. Both are skinny and come from the state of Illinois. Both were new to the Washington political scene and became President despite the odds against them. Both also faced wars during their administration, one a civil war, and the other a war on terror. Both faced massive crises which threatened America itself, one on slavery, the other financial.

In a way, Barack Obama is already destined for greatness if he chooses to emulate Lincoln. Lincoln stands as one of the greatest American Presidents the country has ever had. He abolished slavery and kept America united even when separation seemed imminent. He also reached out to his political enemies and made them his Cabinet members and confidants ( a move which Obama may very well follow if rumors are any indication). Lincoln was a great President and a worthy hero to channel and emulate by any standard.

However considering some of the actions Lincoln took as President, President-elect Obama may want to reconsider his choice of Lincoln as a role model.

Remember that Lincoln resorted to what Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams termed “extra-constitutional measures” in order to achieve his goal of abolishing slavery and keeping America united. Lincoln dangerously limited civil liberties by suspending habeas corpus, declaring martial law and authorized military tribunals to try terrorists (do some of these actions sound familiar?)

The fact that Lincoln succeeded in his goal to save America, so to speak, does not necessarily mean he did it in the proper way. Lincoln was a great man, and a great leader, that is true. But his term as President may be the best example of the philosophy of “the ends justify the means.” And at this point, I am not so sure President-elect Obama wants to go down that particular path.

If the President-elect was a superstitious man, he may also want to reconsider channeling Lincoln as his Presidential persona. Lincoln was assassinated and died without finishing his 2nd term. That seems to me a rather bad “omen,” for lack of a better word.

And speaking of omens, the President-elect is the 44th president of America. Under Chinese superstition, 4 is a very unlucky number because its Chinese pronunciation sounds like the Chinese word for death. 44 would then be clearly unlucky. I’ve already heard some older Chinese people mention that Obama may be an unlucky president because he is the 44th. But then again, there seems to be no indication Obama is a superstitious man.

In any case, Lincoln may not be the best role model for President-elect Obama. Maybe he ought to consider picking someone else.

Eulogy for Granny

(Babble On, for Sunstar Davao, Nov. 14, 2008.)

My grandmother Luz Lee passed away on October 3, 2008. It was a difficult time for the family. To honor her memory, I thought I would share the beautiful eulogy that my cousin Arlene L. Wong wrote. It is very touching and brought tears to my eyes.

EULOGY:
Luz Lee, Mama Luz, or Angin, as she is fondly called, came home to the Father only a few days ago, but we have missed her long before then because of her illness. Let me tell you about our grandmother, a woman who enriched her own life and those of others by her GIVING.

Orphaned by their mother at a very young age, Mama Luz, the eldest girl in a brood of nine children, had to juggle the responsibilities of managing a household, looking after her siblings and helping with her father Chiew Ning’s tailoring shop. She was eventually left with no choice but to give up her schooling. Meanwhile, her siblings all went on to complete higher education, made possible by Mama Luz’s selfless dedication to her family. Even without a diploma under her name, grandma strove to educate herself and was soon successful in one of the things she did best – tailoring.

Angin wasn’t the emotional or affectionate type of grandmother that the psychologists of today would surely approve of, but she wasn’t any less of a grandmother because of this. She had been a steady, silent presence in our lives. She doted on us without indulging us, expressing love and concern not so much with words but with small acts of kindness.

The summer before I left to attend university in Manila, she sat me down for a talk. Alarm bells started ringing in my head because my grandma didn’t do pep talks. It must be something I had done. With my heart beating so fast, I made a mental list of my possible offenses during the past week. She would then look at me lovingly and proceed to tell me to be friendly to the people I would meet in Manila. “Who knows? You might just end up marrying a fine young fellow from Manila or Cebu,” she said. It had been a pep talk after all; the first – and last one she ever gave me. Her advice may not have worked, but I appreciated my grandma and her kind words nonetheless.

Toys, tsinelas and candies aside, our Sunday dinners in Toril became more memorable with Grandma’s own dose of tough-loving: As soon as the dishes were put away for washing, she would subject all nine of us grandchildren to an inspection of our bruises and then proceed to press freshly-boiled egg on them. As painful as it was, crying was definitely a no-no. Not so much because she thought it was a sign of weakness, but because our ever-practical grandma thought it pointless to shed tears; it was more important to learn from our mistakes or experiences and unceremoniously move forward from there.

Ever the health buff that she was, she made it a daily habit to walk around the village or the palengke – the whole stretch of Magsaysay Avenue even – as exercise. During meal times, the dining table wouldn’t be complete without a dish or two of fruits and vegetables. Of course, who wouldn’t remember her favorite tagline? “Drink carrot juice to fight cancer!” Why, she even gave some of our cousins P20 just so they would empty one glass of the drink.

During school days, our playtime would be cut short as soon as grandma called us out in her singsong voice, “Mga Tata~~!” She would then take out her folded sheet of yellow paper for it was time to recite the multiplication table out loud to her – one by one, from numbers 2 to 9. Her persistence and patience soon bore fruit: we, her grandchildren, were among the fastest in our classes when it came to tackling multiplication problems.

Mama Luz instilled in all of us the value of hard work as well as hard-earned money. Mom once told me that as kids, grandma required them to bring back a stack of used papers on their way home from school. She, together with her brothers, would pick up newspapers and other materials on the streets, which would eventually be used as packaging for the merchandise in City Model, the family-owned tailoring shop in Toril.  While growing up, my sister and I were also encouraged by grandma to help out in the store – our very own playground as kids.

Angin was a peacemaker. Whenever trouble brewed, she was always there to mediate and patch things up. While her no-nonsense approach to conflict resolution may have offended the sensibilities of one party too many, she cannot be faulted, for she only had everyone’s best interests at heart.

She was also the first to rush to any family member’s side in times of need and difficulty. Her thoughtfulness and generosity had extended to the people under her employ, and as we found out much, much later on, even to strangers. Mama Luz once testified at the baranggay hall in defense of an employee who was wrongly accused of domestic violence. She secretly sent out bags of groceries to friends week after week for several years until she became ill. Strangers have come up to us telling us of how grandma once rushed to the pharmacy to buy them a tube of ointment or a bottle of eye drop upon overhearing them complain of their discomfort. Perhaps some of you here even have your own story to tell of how my grandma touched your life with her generosity.

I take pride in having a grandmother who was always a woman for others… a cheerful giver… a silent worker… a planter of good seeds.

As I looked at my grandma lying peacefully in her bed at the CCU – free at last from the intrusion of tubes and needles – I gave her limp fingers a final squeeze. In my mind’s eye I saw the gentle smile on her lips and the glint in her eyes – much like the one I always saw there whenever she heard the word ‘lechon –’ and I knew that she is in a better place.

You finished the race Granny, and you finished it well. Farewell…until we meet again.

(Kelvin’s cousin, Arlene Wong, was an editorial assistant for Entrepreneur magazine. She studied and worked in Hefei and Shanghai before coming home to Davao city).

Name Change: Kelvin Legal

Name Change: Kelvin Legal

Yes, I changed the blog’s name. Again.

For those who didn’t know, I originally named this blog Babble On, which is the name of my column for a newspaper. Then I changed it to the Bizness Blawg because I thought I would focus on business and law. But after I got an invitation from Filipino Voices to blog for them once in a while on Philippine matters (mostly current events and politics) I realized that I couldn’t focus the blog on just business and law anymore. So the name didn’t fit.

After some thought, I decided to change names again because I didn’t want to make another blog just to put my more political writings. I went with the name Kelvin Legal, since my name is Kelvin Lee, and I have a legal background (Yes, it’s a pun, but hey at least it’s one that fits!).

So there you are. Kelvin Legal. A blog that has everything I will write about. I even changed the about me  (Who is Kelvin Lee?) section.

More posts will be up soon within the week. Feel free to look around or to drop me a line, or even better, subscribe to this blog so you can keep updated. Thanks and God bless folks.

Taking a Long Break & Some Links

I finally managed to graduate from law School. You would think that since we’ve graduated we can relax now,but that isn’t the case. We still have Bar examinations coming up. So in anticipation of these exams, i will be taking a break from writing and blogging as a whole. You should be able to find me posting again by the end of the year or so.

Until then, here are some links to bloggers and websites who write on the same topics as I do:

LAW

• Theobenisms – a blog by a Law Clerk in the Office of the Chief Justice of the Philippines.
• Ateneo Law – contains updates on the legal world.
• Supreme Court – the ultimate source of law in the Philippines (well, aside from Congress anyway).

CAREER/BUSINESS

• The Brazen Careerist – a network of bloggers on millenials and careers.
• Employee Evolution – another blog on millenials and careers with a very strong emphasis on millenials. There is a great sense of community here.
• Penelope Trunk – the Brazen Careerist’s personal blog.
• Reflections of a Bizdrivenlife – a Cebuano technopreneur’s blog on business and life.

TRAVEL/FOOD

• The Unlonely Planet – the blog of my dreamgirl who is incidentally a travel columnist for the Sunstar Davao.
• The Awesome Planet – a blog on food and travel here in the Philippines.
• Rants and Raves - another food blog. Yes I like food.

That’s about it. See you all in a few months time!

How I Knew I Wanted to be a Lawyer

I didn’t.

Don’t get me wrong. When I was in high school I thought I was fit to be a lawyer and was even asked by a number of my classmates caught smoking cigarettes and who were about to be kicked off the basketball team if I could I find a way to get them out of the punishment.

I read through the student manual, and found that there was no such punishment as kicking off the basketball team.

I told them this, and although I thought it was sound advice and was prepared to argue that, they thought that they didn’t want to continue the “appeal” because their parents would get mad.

Although I didn’t quite succeed, I remember that I was thrilled going over the rulebook and manual and finding that particular loophole. It was lawyerly kind of stuff.

And even my high school prediction (there is a program during our prom where we mention the predictions we have for each student), people thought I would be a lawyer.

So in a way it was predestined. And in college I took legal management because I thought I would go on to law school. But by the third year of college I had gotten a bit disillusioned because I went to court a few times and it didn’t work out too well. I had found the system horrible.

So I went into education instead (it was too late to switch majors, I just concentrated all my electives in my third year to teaching) and went to Ateneo Grade School to teach.

I thought that was my true calling in life. And for a few years, as I switched between Beijing, Manila and wherever, teaching all the time, I was happy.

Then some personal stuff happened and my life plan was pretty much ruined at that point. But I remember talking to a friend from Indonesia about the law in the Philippines and saying it was so problematic, and how it doesn’t change. He told me that perhaps the best way to change the law and system is to change it from within. That never left me.

So one day while stuck in Manila and doing nothing (remember my world had seemed to crash at that point) I just took the Ateneo Law entrance exam.

I passed it. Prayed about it. And then realized that perhaps that was why God meant for me to pass the entrance exam. ( I had done NO preparation for it and had taken it on a whim, and didn’t take any other entrance exam). I was meant to be a lawyer. And so I on went to law school.

So in a way it was a confluence of many things that made me go to law school. A feeling of fate and faith. A feeling that God had prepared each moment of my life for this (I would not have survived law school if I had gone on to it straight out of college. No discipline and none of the skills yet like writing etc).

I don’t recommend what I did, because it was very haphazard. Law school is very demanding and is something that one should seriously think about before jumping in. I went into it unsure, but by the first year grew to love the work and the pressure, the feeling of changing the world through the law.

Admittedly that feeling has waned somewhat since I have to split much of my time between law and my dreamgirl, and my dreamgirl obviously winds up winning in the battle for time.

But I cant imagine doing anything else with my life now. Except being a lawyer.

Some Thoughts and Blogs on Entrepreneurship

I like the idea of being self-employed.

One day I hope to be able to run my own business, perhaps even run a law firm (whether as a partner or by starting my own remains to be seen since I am still in law school).

Entrepreneurship has hit the mainstream in a big way. Where once people preferred the protection and stability of a good-paying job, more and more people are now jumping on the entrepreneurship bandwagon or being encouraged to do so.

Of course, running a business isn’t easy. If it was, almost everyone would be doing it. And I guess that’s where the biggest problem is. Fear.

There is a lot of fear involved when one opens up your own business or start your own law firm or even just jump into your own sideline. There is a lot of uncertainty and a large chance of failure.

But that doesn’t stop most people. And it shouldn’t, because the rewards for going into entrepreneurship are amazing. A strong sense of self-control, possibly tons of money (if it succeeds) and an opportunity to do something you like for the rest of your life.

I know one day I’ll jump into the whole business thing myself like my sister did. But for now, I’m just biding my time, studying the law and trying to brainstorm for possible businesses.

Until then, here are a couple of great blogs and websites on entrepreneurship you should check out (in no particular order).

1.) Instigator Blog – the blog of the CEO of Standout jobs, which is a promising internet start-up.

2.) Pinoy Web Startup — a Filipino webstart up I discovered recently. Marie Casas, one of the founders of Pigmata Media, and the author of the Pinoy Web Startup Blog, was even featured in MoneySense magazine.

3.) Open for Business – a new blog by the editor of SME Insight which is published by the Inquirer. New but very promising.

4.) Reflections of a Bizdrivenlife – Wilson Ng is one of the earliest business bloggers I know and runs a successful computer business which distributes to Visayas and Mindanao.

5.) Go Negosyo - the brainchild of Joey Concepcion who is a strong advocate of opening up your own business.

6.) The Brazen Careerist – the ultimate startup for career bloggers and the like. Founded by Penelope Trunk and the Ryans of Employee Evolution, you should check out their blog posts on starting up a business. Really great stuff and offers a different perspective.

(Disclosure: I am a member of the Brazen Careerist Network but I read and enjoyed their blogposts on start-ups BEFORE I was asked to join. So I recommend their posts on a very unbiased basis.)

7.) Guy Kawasaki’s Blog – probably the ultimate web start up guy. He has founded a number of businesses and was even once connected to Apple as one of their tech evangelists. he has also written a number of books on technology and start-ups.

8.) What Would Dad Say – a great blog by G.L Hoffman, an American baby boomer who has successfully founded a number of start-ups. He has a great post on the 100 attributes needed to become a successful entrepreneur.

A Typical Day in Law School

I once had a friend ask me what a typical day in law school is like. Here’s a quick overview of one of my typical days (I picked a Wednesday), back when I was writing a column and juggling law school. The times may vary a bit but more or less this is how it went during the early parts of this semester.

Please note though that I am not the kind of person one would call studious. And I am no genius (oh how I wish I was!),but I do get by in school.

Wednesday
6:30 am — Wake up, get ready to head to school. Grab a quick bite if there is anything in the fridge.

7:30 am — Drive to law school.

8:30 am – Arrive at law school and find a spot to study (usually at the second floor of the Ateneo Professional Schools building).

11:00 am – Lunch with some of my studymates. If it’s a really heavy day I just grab a quick burger and coke and keep studying at my desk and wolf down the food.

11:30 am – back to studying.

1:45 pm – 15 minutes before class starts. This is around the time my classmates and I start panicking. Some of us start praying. Others just say “what will be, will be” and stop studying.

2:00 pm – Class time (Commercial Law Review). 2 hours of demanding recitations and inquisitions from our professor who was a former Bar Examiner.

4:00 pm – Class ends. One hour break before my next class. Sometimes I have meetings for group projects. Other times I have to meet a professor or research something in the library. This one hour can go really fast with all the stuff that has to be done.

5:00 pm – Civil Law Review Class. One hour of fast-paced recitations under a Professor considered an expert on the Civil Code. (He wrote 2 books: one on the Family Code and another on the Law on Obligations and Contracts).

6:00 pm – Class ends. Finally manage to breathe (Presuming I didn’t get called for recitation in any of my subjects.) Start heading home.

7:00 pm- Arrive home. Eat dinner and rest up.

8:00 pm – Reviewing for the next day’s class (Remedial Law).

9:30 pm – Call dreamgirl or receive a call from my dreamgirl. Catch up with each other. Can be anywhere from 30 minute chat to an hour long conversation. 30 minutes is the average.

10:00—11:00 pm – Start researching and looking through the news for a topic to write on for the weekly opinion column (for the Sunstar Davao).

11:00 pm – Write the column. Takes about an hour or so.

Midnight – Email column to Sunstar Davao editors.

Anywhere from 12:30 am to 1 am – Get ready to sleep. Read book, write in journal, or blog. Sometimes I watch tv and just veg out.

Asleep by 1 a.m. or so.

Note: Usually if something else comes up, I skip reviewing for the night or skip writing the column. Nothing fancy. On other days if I don’t wake up on time, I review in the house instead and just get to school right before classes start.

And yes this is a relatively light day. Some of my classmates have much heavier schedules because they have work or kids or are in dozens of clubs or something like that. Others just study all the time, every spare moment.

Each person’s schedule is different, but more or less one thing is the same for all of us. We all study.

Yes I know. Law students live pathetic lives.

Addendum: Blogger Michael Henreckson brought up the fact that I didn’t mention coffee in this post. He has a good point.

I forgot to mention coffee since it seemed like such a normal part of my day already. Nearly all my classmates have a cup a day as well. But yeah, Michael is right, coffee and caffeine is key to getting through a typical law school day.

The Bizness Blawg Banner

The folks at the Brazen Careerist were kind enough to make this Banner for this blog. They plan on using it on the Brazen Careerist site.

Cool huh? If you want to link to this blog using the banner, let me know. I would be more than happy to reciprocate. Happy Holy Week friends!

Successful People Make Time For Love

Many driven careerists work hard all year long in order to achieve and become a success at work. That success in today’s hectic working world often means sacrifice

What is usually sacrificed in order to succeed in one’s career is one’s personal life. Family, friends and most of all significant others must make way for the career. Time for love must give way to time for work. Or at least, that’s the conventional thinking.

The unconventional reality however, is surprising. Many successful people actually made time for love.

In Peter Han’s book, Nobodies to Somebodies: How 100 Leaders in Business, Politics, Arts, Science and Nonprofits Got Started, he wrote that “Leaders made time for love. A strikingly high number of my male interviewees, at least, mentioned their spouses in glowing terms, pointed to them as bedrocks of stability, and generally showed a heavy reliance on them.”

In fact, a lot of success stories seemed to involve successful love stories as well. The author Peter Han goes on to write in his book that “a surprisingly high percentage [of leaders] – certainly higher than the general population – had remained with their original partners, or at least had been in marriages stretching multiple decades.”

Although one usually hears about the many unsuccessful marriages among successful people, the reverse is also true. There are a number of successful marriages among successful people as well. Bill and Melinda Gates stand out as one example.

Bill Gates is arguably one of the richest people in the world, which to some, is an excuse to have a revolving love life (see Donald Trump as an example). But Gates married Melinda French (later Gates) in 1994 and has stayed true all these years, despite a very heavy work schedule as Founder of Microsoft.

They have since founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which works to enhance healthcare and reduce poverty. It is interesting that the Foundation was named after them both. Bill Gates could have named it after himself. Instead, he chose to name the largest charitable organization in the world after himself and his wife.

It’s a clear sign that Bill Gates considers his wife as his equal partner in life. And there is no denying he is a success, and that his marriage is one too, because he made time for love.

Now why is a lovelife, or a significant other, or even a wife, seemingly so important for one’s success? For some, the significant other provides significant support in their work as well.

Anna C. Sobrepena, the wife of Chito Sobrepena, who is Executive Vice President of Metrobank, one of the largest banks in Southeast Asia, is a good example.

In a recent Inquirer article, Anna wrote about how she would “sit in conferences he participated in, attend workshops and meetings when it was allowable, and get a feel of the milieu he was immersed in most of the week.”

She would also make an effort to cultivate conversations and good company during the required dinner events every big corporation would have. This, no doubt, helped Chito do well in his occupation and his climb up the corporate ladder, and most probably encouraged him to make time for the love of his life, who always supported him.

The support of a loving wife or spouse can make all the difference even in politics. Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have one thing in common, for example. They have very successful marriages, even though one of these Presidents has been in some crazy controversies that should have sunk any normal relationship.

Nevertheless, no one would deny that their respective wives have been a great help and support during their years in politics. They all stayed in love, despite the heavy pressures and demands of work. And they stayed together, even despite controversies that plagued them to no end. They all made time for love, otherwise, it is possible that politics could have consumed them all.

So the clear and obvious message is this: being successful doesn’t necessarily mean sacrificing your love life. Making time for love may actually be what drives you to succeed instead.

Make Time For Love.

An Example of How The Youth CAN Run a Country

Age should no longer be a factor in one’s career. Proof positive of this is the country of Georgia, where age didn’t matter when officials were chosen to fill its cabinet.

According to Monocle magazine (the June 2007 issue), Georgia’s Minister of Defense, Davit Kezerashvili is only 29 years old. Its Minister of Finance, Alekshi Aleksishvili is 33. The Minister of the economy, Giorgi Arveladze, is 29. He started working as a government leader (he was then head of the Georgian government’s penitentiary reform program) when he was 22.

There are countless other ministers, deputy ministers and parliamentary leaders in their twenties and early thirties in Georgia. At an age when most “youngsters” would be just thinking of settling down or finally deciding on a career path, this generation of young Georgians are, literally, running the country.

You would think Georgia would be in trouble because of all these young and supposedly inexperienced people running things, but that isn’t the case. According to Monocle, Georgia is ranked as the world’s leading reformer in a 2007 World Bank study. It has also gained much financial and non-financial support from the rest of Europe and the U.S. (Although it must be noted there has been some political turmoil such as mass protests in Georgia in late 2007 due to demands that Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili resign ).

It seems experience may possibly be overrated not only for start-ups, but even for government work and leadership. No matter how young you are, one can still make a difference. This is true even in government work, where seniority and tradition usually means everything.

For those who are twenty-somethings or in their early thirties, it looks like youth is no longer an excuse. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to try and make a difference, maybe even run a country.

The Youth CAN run a country. So let’s get to it.

I’m a Brazen Careerist Blogger!

I just wanted to announce that I am a proud member of the Brazen Careerist network of Bloggers. You can check out my page here.   It is such a thrill to be included in a network which has some of the top career bloggers on the web.  I am an avid reader  and fan of  both Penelope Trunk’s blog and the Employee Evolution blog of Ryan Paugh and Ryan Healy, so to be working with and blogging alongside them (in a sense) is a heady feeling.

But anyway, enough with the gushing. Do check out the Brazen Careerist and the many great bloggers there. There are tons of great posts on various issues (career and non career related). Definitely worth a look and I promise that there are great reads all over the network. That’s how brazen we are.

5 Blogs I Like Which Are Written by Women

After browsing through a number of blogs over the last few weeks, I realized that there were 5 which I always visited which carried one basic theme: they were all written by Women.

Check them out if you have time, I can promise that they are all worth reading.

1.) Penelope Trunk’s The Brazen Careerist. – an unorthodox advice blog on careers. As a bonus, you sometimes get advice on your personal life too. Penelope’s candidness is very refreshing. She even blogs about her coming divorce, which I don’t think many can do.

2.) The Modite – Another career blog but this time from the perspective of a younger lady. It talks about leadership, networking, making a difference and sometimes about life in general. As an aside, the blogger, Rebecca Thorman, is also exceptionally friendly. She was one of the first to welcome me into the blogging world.

3.) Jessica Rules The Universe – the blog of the original twisted columnist, Jessica Zafra. I love how her often crazy thoughts can make the world seem so different and irreverent. I was such a fanboy when I was younger, but back in college there were days she got a little bit too dark and depressing. She has lightened up (a bit) nowadays on her blog.

4.) The Urban Muse – the perspective of a young lady on working as a freelance writer. It has some valuable writing tips which can be useful for any writer, whether young or old, male or female. She even allowed me to submit a guest post here.

5.) The Unlonely Planet – Yes I check out this blog a lot. But mostly because its written by my dreamgirl. I know, I’m playing favorites. I did say blogs I like right? Check it out anyway, it compiles her travel columns from the Sunstar Davao. You can get lost with her as she travels.

Book Contest Held by the Manila Freelancer: How to try and get a copy of Why We Want You to Be Rich.

I recently heard about this contest being held the Manila Freelancer. You can win a Copy of Why We Want You To Be Rich by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. The two authors are entrepreneurs I absolutely love and respect.

Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad in particular showed me how to think differently about the things we buy with our money, and that what we thought of as assets (like houses) may not be assets unless they add to your bottomline and generate income.

From Trump’s books and lifestory, I learned that gratuitous self-promotion may not be a bad thing, and that your brandname, your reputation can often mean all the difference between success and bankruptcy.

I am sure their combined insights will be very useful to those willing to learn.

I do hope I can win this book. I am definitely keeping my fingers crossed!

Oh and if you do want to check out the contest yourself, the url for it is as follows:

http://www.melovillareal.com/2008/02/15/win-a-copy-of-why-we-want-you-to-be-rich-two-men-one-message/

Career v. Friendship: Which Would You Pick?

What comes first for you, your career or your friend? If you had to choose between your friend and your career, who would you pick?

According to a Wall Street Journal article  by Mylene Mangalindan (entitled “Making a bid for eBay’s CEO Job” and dated Jan. 24, 2008), eBay Inc. Chief Executive Meg Whitman invited John Donahoe for an interview in eBay’s California office in 2005.

Donahoe was then a Bain & Co. consultant. He had originally thought it would be a discussion about a business project with the company. It turns out that it was an invitation to join eBay, with the possibility of becoming Whitman’s successor.

Most people would jump at such an offer, but for Mr. Donahoe it was a difficult decision to make. A friend of his, Jeff Jordan, was then President of Paypal, which is eBay’s online payment center. Jordan was widely considered to be in the running to become Whitman’s successor as CEO of eBay.

Now here’s the interesting thing: John Donahoe, instead of immediately saying yes to the great opportunity presented to him, chose to talk to his friend first before making any decisions.

To quote Mr. Jordan in the Wall Street Journal article: “The fact that he put a discussion with one of the most powerful people in business on hold for a while, so he could chase down a friend, is what I considered  to be one of the most significant acts of friendship.”

In the end, John Donahoe joined eBay, but only after talking to his friend Jeff Jordan and making sure he was ok with it.

John Donahoe is now considered the leading candidate (and heir apparent) to replace Ms. Whitman at the helm of eBay. Yet he had been willing to throw it away for the sake of his friend.

I can only hope that my friends would pick friendship before their career, and do the same thing for me.

Would your friends do the same?

Choose friendship.

How Paranoia Can Actually Make You Successful

My dreamgirl often complains about how paranoid I am as a person. For example, I refuse to leave my laptop in my car. I always insist on leaving at least an hour ahead of schedule before any meeting or date, so that I won’t ever be late.

I triple-check to see if the doors are locked in my house before leaving or going to sleep, and often spend sleepless nights wondering if I did or didn’t pull out the plug on my TV whenever I am away on a trip.

So far, I haven’t lost any of my laptops, nor any of my wallets, or been robbed or anything like that. And God willing, nothing like that will ever happen to this paranoid writer.

So it seems like being paranoid isn’t always a bad thing. Liew Mun Leong, The CEO of CapitaLand, Singapore’s biggest property firm, would agree. He considers paranoia as part of his philosophy of success.

His message to young professionals is: “be paranoid! The most untoward event can spring at us, so be prepared.”

Mr. Liew believes strongly in the importance of paranoia. In his book Building People: Sunday Emails From a CEO, he say that “in business you’ve got to plan and be prepared for every eventuality.”

He isn’t the only top business executive to believe in the value of paranoia. Former Intel Chairman Andrew S. Grove even wrote a book entitled Only the Paranoid Survive, and credits the success of Intel (which dominates the computer chip market) to his seeming paranoia.

It is when you are paranoid that you plan. And you plan for the worst situations. It is paranoia that makes one prepare for the worst that life has to offer.

In management, the “worst” that is being referred to is probably best described by Murphy’s Law. Murphy’s Law says that “if something can go wrong, it WILL go wrong.”

The thing is though, if one is paranoid, one is prepared for that wrong that will happen. So paranoia, properly applied, can be the cure for Murphy’s Law.

Just look at the brisk sales of external hard drives on the market. Their main purpose is to backup your files and make sure you don’t lose them in case your computer crashes at the worst moment (in loving obedience to Murphy’s law, of course). They have been quite successful in meeting that need. Many computer users now have one.

So what’s the lesson for the day?

Be paranoid. It may actually be the key to your success.

Be Paranoid.

The End of Midterms: A Time for (Blog) Changes

Finally, midterms madness is over. After almost three weeks of non-stop studying and cramming against nearly impossible odds, I can only say that I am exhausted. I want to say I NEVER want to do that again.

Unfortunately, the life of a law student, especially one finishing up, is not so privileged.

We have to do this again in around 5 weeks, when we take our finals. And then, presuming we pass all our subjects, have to start preparing for the dreaded BAR exams.

I am at that point where I am wondering if I can do it. 4 years of studying law while juggling column-writing and various other activities has worn me down. I’m tired. Or perhaps this is just lack of sleep speaking.

In any case, I have to gird my loins (so to speak) for the next few weeks, and find a way to prepare myself psychologically for the finals and the Bar exams later this year.

But now that midterms are done, at least I can start blogging again on business and law. And yes, I have shifted the focus of this blog.

Aside from taking a leave of absence from column-writing, I have also chosen to focus on business or “bizness” issues (which includes entrepreneurship, career and tech stuff) and law (since I am a law student after all).

Why did I stop writing on politics and current events?

Let me be frank. I’m fed up with politics. In the nearly 5-6 years I have been writing and covering politics in the Philippines I have seen upheaval and instability, crisis and opportunities. It has been VERY interesting.

One thing however, remained clear in all that time. A lack of change.

Politics in the Philippines is one of those areas where “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

The same old style of politics is there. Different faces, sure, but traditional politics remain. Shifting alliances, lack of loyalties, charges of corruption, political fights and non-stop instability for the Philippines.

In the same way I’m getting tired of studying almost non-stop, I am also very tired of politics. Or at the very least, I am tired of writing and covering it.

This is not easy for me to say, considering I once considered, briefly, a foray into local Dabawenyo politics before I was talked out of it by both my dreamgirl and my mother.

I once loved politics and the ability of politicians to make change. It may have been brought about by an addiction to the TV series The West Wing, but that’s what I thought a few years ago.

Sadly,  seeing how things HAVEN’T changed for the Philippines, has made me rethink politics and even writing about it, entirely.

I write in order to try and make a change. To try and facilitate change. To make our country, and perhaps the world a better place. To make a difference. That’s what I said when I was starting out as a writer and columnist. I still believe strongly in that “motto.”

But politics sucks you up, and can leave you dazed and unhappy. And it never seems to change for the better. One only has to look at the recent political controversy surrounding the Philippines to see what I mean. It seems to embody everything that makes one question politics in the country.

So I choose to stay away. And since I had to stop column-writing for a little while for personal reasons, it made sense to shift the focus of my writing as well.

So now you see before you The Bizness Blawg.

Originally called Babble On, after my column, this blog started out as a simple archive of my articles written for the Sunstar Davao (mostly on politics). But with the change in focus, I have also changed names for the blog.

Oh as an aside, if you have linked to me as Babble On, I hope you can find the time to change the name accordingly. Or you could do what Employee Evolution did, and link to me as simply Kelvin Lee.

And in case you are wondering, Blawg is a term used by law bloggers for legal blogs. Blog and LAW equals BLAWG.

So it’s all business and law for me.

But who knows? I may change and shift focus again in the future. But for now, it’s good-bye politics, hello business, a nice howdy to law, and a see you later for my column.

I hope you stick around for the ride.

It’s just business. And Law.

===

Related Posts:

• My Last Babble On Column: Lessons from Column-Writing
• Blogging Your Thoughts
• Why I Now Blog

My Last Babble On Column: Lessons From Column-writing

Farewell (For Now)

(Babble On For the Sunstar Davao, January 25, 2008)

This will be my last column for the Sunstar Davao (for now). I’m taking a break from column-writing (with Sunstar’s permission) in anticipation of some personally significant events coming up this year.

I’ll still write once in a while on my blog and you are welcome to visit it, but 2008 will mostly be a rest year for me when it comes to writing, although I do hope to return to these pages. By then I may focus on a different area of writing instead of the Op-Ed topics I used to specialize in.

Writing an opinion column for the Sunstar Davao has been a life-changing experience, and it has taught me many lessons over the years some of which I would like to share with you:

1.) Not Everyone Will Agree With You. – Writing week after week on the most controversial topics usually means that not everyone will agree with what you have to say. Some people will even strongly disagree with you and go out of their way to insult you.

Writing on politics, in particular, tends to bring out the worst in people. I’ve had people call me names because of something I wrote. In this line of business, one’s opinions can get one into trouble.

But I guess this is normal for writers. Publishing your opinions and opening them to public scrutiny means that those same opinions are fair game and open to criticism, and that you yourself are fair game as well.

2.) Discipline is Key – I once thought writing my opinion about anything meant that it would be a fun job. I realized however that writing something every week is a challenge. Especially if other responsibilities get in the way.

There have been days when I wanted to skip the column. This happened a lot when I entered law school, and its horrible demands began to take over my life. Some days I would arrive at the house and simply want to plop into bed and sleep.

This is where discipline is key.

You have to set aside time for your responsibilities. You have to find the discipline to write, even though you would much rather get some sleep, or perhaps watch tv to relax after a long day of studying.

As I write this for example, I have a paper due for a class, and midterms to cram for. But I am pounding out a column instead, because I somehow found the discipline to do it week after week after week. This isn’t easy. But writing a weekly column is a responsibility which shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Discipline is a good thing, you see. And it can be the key to success.

3.) Attention to Detail is Necessary – Another lesson I picked up while column-writing is that one must pay attention to the smallest detail. I am not the only one who believes attention to detail is important.

Liew Mun Leong, the CEO of CapitaLand, the largest real estate company in Singapore, is such a perfectionist that others have said that he is “very fussy on details.” He credits his success to his perfectionist streak and paying attention to the smallest detail.

Applied to writing, paying attention to the smallest detail can mean the difference between a good column or a bad one, an accurate one or a totally wrong one.

In one column I wrote, one missing letter somehow made it seem like I was insulting a doctor I respected, rather than lauding him for his medical expertise. I apologized immediately of course but that was something that shouldn’t have happened.

One small detail can obviously make all the difference.

So Long
And with that final lesson, allow me to say thank you for your patience all these years. I hope you can join me when I return to writing one day in the future. Until then, you can still read my some of my random thoughts on business, law and life on my blog. You can also subscribe to my feed here.

Until then, farewell (for now).

***

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• Top Ten Emerging Blogs Contest: Why I Deleted My “Old” Posts.

Midterm Examinations & A Leave of Absence

I apologize for the lack of updates. It is currently midterm examination season in law school. So there will be few updates this week and next.

I will, however, upload my last column for Babble On later this week. I am taking a leave of absence from the Sunstar Davao newspaper due to several significant personal matters coming up this year. I’ll blog more on that later on.

For now,  please bear with me, as I continue to juggle law school and writing.

Take care.

8 Things You Didn’t Know About Me

On the Newly Corporate Blog, Melanie Lopez’s Gen Y blog, and even on Sam Davidson’s blog, there is an 8 Random Facts for 2008 meme going on which I found interesting and so I thought I’d give it a try.

So here are 8 random facts you probably didn’t know about me:

1.) I’m engaged! My dreamgirl said yes!

2.) I’ve lived and worked in Beijing – I studied Mandarin Chinese in the Beijing Language and Culture University for a year, and afterwards, I managed to eke out a living for another year.

Somehow, I was “lucky” enough to be there when SARS came. And because of that, I wound up heading back to the Philippines. Good thing I didn’t get infected, but man those were tense times!

3.) I was part of a Revolution – while I was teaching English to elementary kids (back when I had just graduated from University), Philippine President Erap Estrada was embroiled in a controversy over corruption.

The school I was working for sent a contingent of teachers to the rallies of what would become the EDSA II Revolution, the second bloodless revolution. The thing was, I had promised my mother I wouldn’t join the rallies. But I went anyway.

While I was there at the rally site, my cellphone rang, and it was my mom! I had no choice but to answer the phone, and when I did, she asked me point blank where I was. I told her I was at home.

She asked me why it was so noisy. I told her the tv was on real loud and covering the rallies. She then told me that my face had just been shown on television, so she knew I was at the rally. Busted!

4.) I almost moved to Belgium. – Yes. That Belgium. Enough said.

5.) I didn’t notice girls until I was in College – I was a loser in high school. Some people say I still am. Hmm…

6.) I have a fear of sharp objects - I still can’t touch a knife properly. I think this happened because of this incident: when I was a little kid, I had a lot of pet chickens. I gave each of them names. Then one by one, they started disappearing, right around the time we had a lot of fried chicken and chicken soup for our meals.

On the day the last chicken disappeared, I ran into the kitchen looking for my dad, to tell him what happened. When I opened the kitchen door, I saw my dad holding down the last chicken and just as I entered, watched in horror as he chopped off its head with a gigantic cleaver.

I blacked out. And ever since, I could never touch knives, or any sharp object without shivering.

7.) I haven’t zipped the fly of my jeans in over 5 years. – I use button fly jeans.

8.) I once had my middle finger lacerated by an air-conditioner. – I know that sounds weird. My brother and I were trying to put the airconditioner back into its slot, when his grip slipped and the whole aircon slammed into my hand.

I had to have 2 stitches done in the hospital. And while my finger was being stitched up, I almost fainted. Yeah I have a fear of blood too. Why do you think I didn’t go into medicine instead?

And now to wrap up this post — an invitation to continue this meme. If you are reading this, well… consider yourself tagged.

So what else didn’t you know about me?

——-

Related Posts:

• Career v. Love: Which Would You Pick?
• Learning To Love
• Welcome to Babble On

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The Top Ten Emerging Blogs Contest: Why I Deleted My “Old” Posts

I just read about Janette Toral’s contest on nominating the Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs of 2008.

Her rules are simple, just blog about ten blogs you believe are qualified to be cited as a “Top Ten Emerging Influential Blog.” You can start posting a blog entry beginning May 3, 2008 citing those 10 blogs you find to be emerging and influential. Only blogs created from July 2007 can be cited.

Ma’am Janette will post a link where you can submit the link to your blogpost on the topic. Since I wanted to join, and as per her instructions, I decided to delete some of my Babble On articles which I posted when this blog first came to be in September 2007.

Although those articles, columns and blogposts were posted in September 2007, when I first created this blog, they were written around 2002-2004. I had time-stamped them accordingly for my own reference purposes. So it looked like they were posted in 2002, 2004 etc.

Since this may confuse readers and participants of the contest (who may wind up thinking my blog is MUCH older than it really is), and taking Ma’am Janette’s advice, I decided to simply delete those posts and repost them later on.

I hope no one thinks I am trying to cheat here. I already emailed Ma’am Janette on this matter and she knows I am deleting those so called “old” posts so that I can qualify for the contest and avoid any confusion.

Anyway, the contest rules can be found on her site. I’ll be posting the ten blogs I personally find to be emerging and influential as soon as the contest opens. Good luck!

Who’s On Your Top Ten Blog List?

3 Things On My To Do List For 2008

A To Do List for 2008

(Babble On, for the Sunstar Davao, January 11, 2008)

Every new year people make new year’s resolutions. The problem though is that resolutions are always broken.

So I decided to try something new and come up with a To Do List instead. It’s the same basic idea as a new year’s resolution, except that there is an emphasis on it being something that one HAS to do, rather than being something one merely hopes to do.

With the name change, the list is more likely to get done.

I know it’s just semantics, but you would be surprised at how effective a name change can be. Never underestimate the power of words.

So anyway, here’s my 2008 To Do list. Hopefully it will inspire you to include it in your own To Do list for the year.

1.) Learn more about Financial Planning – everybody needs to learn more about personal financial planning. Money doesn’t grow on trees, after all (even though I wish it does!). Unfortunately, financial planning isn’t something you can learn easily. It requires study and discipline.

This year, I plan to read and study different books on financial planning. There are a number of books in the Philippines on the topic already, such as Bo Sanchez’s 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich and Efren Cruz’s Pwede Na: The Complete Filipino Guide to Personal Finance. One recently released book is that of Chinkee Tan, ‘Till Debt Do Us Part.

On the internet, the best place to learn about financial planning and meet like-minded Filipinos would be the forum www.income-tacts.com. This forum includes some prominent businessmen, such as Francis Kong, as members. I just joined that forum myself, and I hope to see you there.

2.) Make a Positive Difference in the Lives of Others – How can I do this? By helping a volunteer organization, such as Pathways to Higher Education which provides college education opportunities to underprivileged high school students.

One can be a Pathways volunteer teacher or a friend-raiser (Pathways defines friend-raisers as someone who spreads the word about what Pathways is doing).

An alternative to simply helping an organization is to create the organization instead. One can partner with the international organization Glocal Key, which is on the lookout for a founding member for a Philippine chapter. I would love to do this myself, but I just don’t have the time nor resources right now. Hopefully, a passionate reader can pick up where I left off.

Glocal Key focuses on connecting the youth in grassroot communities throughout the world. Glocal is basically an amalgam of the words Global and Local. Their motto is this – A Global Network: A Local Impact.

Interested volunteers can contact the founder of Glocal Key, Harum Mukhayer, through the website at www.glocalkey.org.

Another option in making a positive difference is social entrepreneurship and becoming a changemaker. One can do this by joining the changemaker network which is supported by the Ateneo School of Government. You can learn more about social entrepreneurship and hopefully become one yourself.

3.) Find my entrepreneurial passion– after being an employee, student and writer most of my adult life, I believe it’s time to try and look for my own business opportunities.

It won’t happen overnight, especially since I have my Bar examinations coming up soon, but at least by being consciously on the lookout for a business, I am more likely to find a startup to call my own. And I hope it shall be something that I can be passionate about.

One example of someone with entrepreneurial passion is my very own little sister, Keryl Lee. She had a great human resources job with an international bank in Manila. However she left that job to pursue her passion for coffee in Davao city.

She soon opened her own coffee shop named Brew Crew’s Coffee House, near the Ateneo de Davao College Campus. Note that she is still in her early twenties, so this was no easy feat!

She is now doing what she loves, what she is passionate about. And that makes all the difference.

I hope to find my own entrepreneurial passion soon, and perhaps become like my little sister in the future.

So what’s on your to do list?

Related Posts

• Predictions for 2008
  
• Kelvin is (was) in Davao
• Making an Impact
  
• My ipod Story: How I wasted 10k
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New Layout for the Babble On Blog

With the new year, comes new things. And one new thing in my blogging life would be this theme I picked out from the many custom-made designs by WordPress.

I think this one is cleaner and more pleasant to the eye than the old design that this blog used. Of course, it may not be perfect, and I still have to thresh out some bugs, but overall I’m happy with the new layout.

Why the change? Well, I’ve been thinking about a different layout for the blog for a long time now. I found the gray color scheme of the old one to be professional looking, but very depressing and monochromatic.

And in the words of my friend: it was sorta boring.

Thing is, I never did get around to making the change in layout. Change doesn’t come too easy for me, you see. Call it laziness, call it fear. Call it whatever you want. The result was the same. No change in my blog layout.

Then I saw that Ben Yoskovitz redesigned the layout of his Instigator blog for the new year. The redesign was even guest-posted in the Problogger blog. This was a much-needed kick in the pants to make me change my own layout. If someone else can do it, why can’t I?

And so here we are. A new design for the new year. Let me know what you think.

Oh and to Ben Yoskovitz of the Instigator Blog, thanks for the unintended, yet much-needed inspiration. If I hadn’t seen the change in design of your blog, I would never have gotten the courage, nor the grit, to make changes in my own.

The instigator blog instigated this change. And I believe my own blog is now better off (design-wise) because of it.

Instigate Change.

********

Related Posts:

• Why I Now Blog

• Blogging Your Thoughts

Singapore Lawyer Runs off to the Philippines

Singapore Lawyer Runs off to the Philippines

A Singaporean lawyer, Zulkifli Amin who has been missing since November 2007, ran off to the Philippines to escape possible criminal charges. Here’s the kicker – he billed the plane ticket to his law firm.

So he not only got away, he charged someone else to do so too. Talk about adding insult to injury.

According to the Strait Times, Zulkifli is under investigation for $6 million Singaporean dollars that went missing. A lawyer for seven years, Zulkifli is a partner in the Sadique, Marican and ZM Amin law firm. He was in charge of the conveyance and real estate department.

According to K.C. Vijayan, the Law Correspondent of the Strait Times, the runaway lawyer may have taken on “more work than he could handle.” Some of the transactions incurred financial penalties for delays. A number of these penalties were quite severe and allegedly caused Zulkifli to dip into other accounts he handled in order to pay off the surcharges.

This is illegal, and when other penalties started adding up, the whole thing “may
have snowballed,” according to the Times.

The interesting thing about this news report is Zulkifli’s choice of country. I am surprised Zulkifli picked the Philippines. Our country is not exactly the kind of place one would pick as a safe haven for criminals (unless you count the alleged training grounds for terrorists in the South, but even then Mr. Zulkifli isn’t exactly a terrorist).

Granted, the borders of the Philippines are porous; getting in and out of the country has never been particularly hard, and there are a number of Filipino fugitives who remain hidden to this day, such as COMELEC officer Lintang Bedol.

But I would have thought Zulkifli would have run off to some place like the Cayman Islands, or to Switzerland to escape the law, as traditionally seen in movies and novels.

As of this writing, I don’t know if the Singaporean government has contacted the Philippine one to investigate or apprehend Zulkifli. I do hope the Philippines does catch him though, if he is still in the country.

Otherwise, this rogue lawyer may not only give lawyers a bad name, he may also wind up giving our country a new reputation: as a hideout for criminals.

And no Filipino wants that. Ever.

How Taxi Drivers Made Singapore Memorable

I’ve just arrived from Manila by way of Singapore. I spent New Year’s there with my family, after spending Christmas in my hometown of Davao.

I just want to get this out of the way: I loved Singapore!

The people were friendly (especially the taxi drivers), the place amazingly clean and the food superb. For those wondering what we did in Singapore, I have two words for you: We ate.

And man did we ever eat. Singaporean specialties like Bah Kut Teh (bone soup), Hainanese Chicken, Chilli Crab, Satay, the works! I didn’t eat much over the holidays, but I think my binging in Singapore sort of spoiled all that.

But anway, much of my good impression of Singapore can be traced to several taxi drivers there. When we took taxis to get to far-away places, we were treated like friends. Friendly taxi drivers. I know, it sounds almost impossible (and I know this is a rare breed in Manila), but they were very friendly and even gave us tips on what places to go to and eat at (which made my family extraordinarily happy).

Basically we were told to avoid the tourist trap restos and go to places where locals would eat. They even took pains in explaining the directions.

I later learned that friendliness in taxi drivers is encouraged by the Singaporean government. There is supposed to be a campaign aimed at fostering this. It sure worked, in my opinion. Even China is said to be following suit, with English lessons and friendliness campaigns being aimed at taxi drivers.

This makes sense. The people that tourists meet all the time in a foreign country are the taxi drivers. If the taxi drivers are bad, the tourists get a bad impression of the country. If they get good and friendly ones, they get a good impression.

Taxi drivers are among the frontlines of the tourism industry. Perhaps the Philippines by way of the Department of Tourism, can also encourage our own taxi drivers. Dress them up. Make them learn english. And most of all, teach them to be friendly.

Friendliness in the frontlines can go a long long way.

Be friendly.

My Impromptu Stress-Free Vacation From the Internet

My Impromptu Stress- Free Vacation from the Internet

I live a stressful life. Between writing a newspaper column which tend to incite anger and controversy, studying in law school and working on extra-curricular activities, stress is always present.

Usually, the only way to get all my stressful responsibilities done is through the internet. Itis an important tool for nearly any student and writer. I am no exception.

Unfortunately, due to the rather unique nature of my life, I have started to equate the internet with stress. Getting online will let me get things done, but I get stressed out in the process. Yes the internet is efficient. Yes it is undoubtedly useful. But it can breed stress.

And I’ve gotten to that point that stress has become part of my being, without my meaning to.

It’s funny then that since I got back home to Davao City for the holidays, I suddenly got cut off from internet access (I had to find a coffee shop with wi-fi to write this).

It was unsettling in the beginning, as I thought of all the responsibilities I had to deal with, all the email I had to check and all the deadlines I had to meet. It was as if the world was going to crash down on me if I didn’t get online.

But as time passed and nothing catastrophic happened despite my being cut-off from the net, I realized that sometimes, it is good to de-stress and decompress — to get away from your responsibilities for a while.

You see, a lot of my responsibilities could only be met through the internet, such as the filing of columns and the submission of write-ups for the Law School yearbook. Since I had no internet for a few days (specifically Dec. 23, 24 and 25), I found that I was initially panicky over that fact.

Soon however, I realized that it didn’t matter so much. Or at the very least, those responsibilities could wait.

So my work waited.

Career vs Love: Which Would You Pick?

While browsing through Penelope Trunk’s blog, I came across this interesting post on how crazy her life became when she started writing 2 columns, a blog and started publicity for her book.

And boy, could I relate. At the height of my law school “career,” I was a debater with the St. Thomas More Debate Society, a rising editor of the Ateneo Law Journal, a columnist for the Sunstar Davao, and had a then new and budding relationship with the girl of my dreams. This was on top of the already heavy load of being a law student. I had a “career” and the love of my life, all at one time.

Yeah I went a little crazy around then. I started sleeping less, never even bothered to communicate with my family anymore (who all started wondering where I was always disappearing to), always studied at the last minute, ate tons of fast food (because well… they were fast to get and eat. Thank you Jollibee.) and was irritable everyday.

The quality of everything I was doing suffered. Lousy arguments when debating, stupid editing mistakes were made, haphazard studying, missed dates with my dreamgirl, the works.

The worst was when I had to stay overnight in school to do the finishing touches on an issue of the Law Journal. It was Valentine’s Day. I postponed our special date to the next night, only to realize that I had completely forgotten to get her a gift.

Her tears at dinner made me feel guilty for a long long time.

My Favorite Books for 2007

Trllanes Says Sorry

Trillanes Says Sorry

(Babble On for the Sunstar Davao, Dec. 14, 2007)

Like every other Filipino out there, I’m fairly forgiving.

In fact, Filipinos have seemingly developed a reputation for forgiveness. How else can we explain the pardon for former President Erap Estrada and the return to political and social prominence of the Marcos clan?

But even I would draw the line at Senator Trillanes’ apology in the court room of Judge Oscar Pimentel last Tuesday.

According to the Philippine Star, Trillanes and his companions, in a letter to Pimentel, said that: “It was never the intention of (the) accused to cause a commotion, much less a walkout,” and that they “meant no disrespect for the court.”

No disrespect? They walk out of the courtroom in what was clearly a pre-planned event, took over a hotel and called for the people to rise against the government, and they’re saying they “meant no disrespect” and didn’t mean to “cause a commotion?”

A lot of people would disagree, especially the Peninsula hotel’s staff and personnel.

Lunch With A Valedictorian

She smiles at me as I slide into the seat in front of her. She shifts in her seat, adjusts the table and prepares to dig into the rice and beef stew from the cafeteria.

Though she’s dressed in a power suit, one wouldn’t think she was a valedictorian. One wouldn’t have thought there was anything extraordinary about her, except perhaps for that pretty and very friendly smile on her face.

Her name is Patricia Ngo Chua. People call her Tracy. And she is the Class Valedictorian for the Ateneo School of Law, Batch 2007.

Nothing special? Please.

Not only was she class valedictorian, but she also got best thesis, was a member of the Ateneo Law Journal and part of the Jessup Team representing the Philippines in 2005. She also received the St. Thomas More award, which is the highest award given to an Ateneo Law graduate. I’d say she was something special, yes sir.

I ask her about all her achievements, and she shrugs, as if to say it wasn’t much. She seems a bit shy to answer questions about all her accomplishments in law school. She takes another bite of her food, as though trying to change the topic.

Negotiation Lessons

I just had my first  Negotiation Seminar class tonight under Atty. Aguinaldo, and it was an amazing learning experience.

We went through an exercise where classmembers were paired off boy and girl, and then each play-acted a specific role. I had the role of an erring but prominent politician about to run for the Senate. This politician had an affair and gave his wife a venereal disease.

He was now trying to negotiate a quiet settlement with his understandably angry wife who wanted an annulment of their marriage. One goal was to ensure that news of the affair, disease, and annulment wouldn’t leak out. So the politician would be negotiating from a position of great weakness.

Although only a simple initial exercise, today’s negotiation allowed me to realize a few basic points about negotiating in general:

1.) Be polite and use nice words – always be polite. Especially when negotiating from a position of weakness. Because of the words I used (conciliatory but firm, polite but clear on what I could and could not give) I was able to somehow convince my “wife” to reconcile. It’s amazing how far being nice and polite can get you. Unfortunately, since reconciliation wasn’t the point of the exercise, we still had to forge a settlement agreement. But the spirit of reconcilitation was in the air, and it definitely helped smooth the rest of the negotiations.

2.) Get into the other person’s head: Understand their point of view – the parameters of the exercise said that the politician had somehow given the wife a venereal disease from his affair. With that in mind, I tried to empathize with my “wife,” and saw that she wouldn’t be happy with some of the settlement offers I made. I understood that, because in a sense, the annulment was the fault of the politician I was playing. So I had to improve the settlement offers.

I Was Wrong: How Trillanes DIDN’T Affect The Economy

Hmm….

I was pleasantly surprised today. In a post written shortly after the Makati Standoff, I predicted that Trillanes would make our upswinging economy go down, and make our stock market and peso fall. Turns out I was wrong.

Though Trillanes did affect the international perspective of our country, it didn’t slow our economy down. Thank goodness for that. Based on Monday’s stock market performance, everything seemed to be going up up up. Investors are upbeat, and the peso strong. Even the Peninsula is upbeat after last week’s Makati standoff. We’re back, they announced today as that grand hotel reopened.

Perhaps people were impressed at how quickly the government handled the crisis, with no fatalities and little to no extra damage, save for a damaged hotel and a controversial incident where a number of journalists were hauled off to a faraway camp.

But even with those as negatives, government is already making amends to the Press, with no less than the President telling government units not to rile the media. In fact, that controversy with the Media may have a positive effect as well, because now government and the Media are meeting to discuss “rules of engagement” in order to avoid a repeat of that incident.

For the first time in what seems like a long time, things seem to be looking up for the Philippines. Despite everything, we remain strong and hopeful and bullish on the future.

I have never been so glad to be as wrong as I am now.

We still have to make sure to keep Trillanes and company away from five-star hotels though.

An Angry Media: The Arrest of the Peninsula Journalists

An Angry Media: The Arrest of the Peninsula Journalists

A Quick Word on the Arrest of the Makati Standoff Journalists.

If there’s one thing the government may soon be sorry about, it is this: the arrest of the journalists who were in the Peninsula during the Makati Standoff.

That arrest twisted what was an otherwise triumphant moment for the administration into another foolish defeat. The story of the day was no longer just Senator Trillanes’ takeover and subsequent surrender at the Peninsula hotel. It soon focused on the “abuse” of the government and its supposed attack on the freedom of the press.

According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Maria Ressa, the head of the network’s Current Affairs department, said in an official statement that, “We in ABS-CBN News strongly condemn the illegal arrests of our reporters and our colleagues in the media and decry the atrocious treatment [they were] subjected to in the hands of the police.”

Looks like the victory party for the administration is short-lived. The government may now have to contend with an increasingly hostile and pissed-off press.

ABS-CBN is even mulling the filing of charges against the PNP for their treatment of their journalists.

According to a report, the National Press Club also condemned the PNP’s actions. “The police simply went overboard. There was no reason for the arrests to begin with. And there was absolutely no reason to handcuff or tie the hands of journalists with plastic. They were treated like they themselves were suspects in a crime,” the NPC said in a report from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The story is now shifting and changing. It has twisted into something the government didn’t want and didn’t need, and most of all, the government could have avoided, if they had simply acted with a little more discretion. Instead they went overboard. They may soon reap what they have sown at the Peninsula.

The Media is mad. And it looks like they aren’t going to take this sitting down.

Trillanes Evicted From the Peninsula: What He Achieved With His Makati Standoff

Well its more or less over. Trillanes decides to “face it,” and walk out of the hotel with his compatriots General Danilo Lim and others, in order to ensure the safety of the civilians with them and to protect the media people in the hotel covering the event.

Yeah right.

Just admit it sir. You didn’t expect that the government was this serious about taking you down. Just admit that you weren’t prepared to fight it out tooth and nail. Just admit you couldn’t handle the thought of hundreds of soldiers gunning after you, nor the smell of tear gas.

You took a big political gamble and tried to rally the people again. Well you should have figured it out the first time. If the masses didn’t come out for you during the Oakwood mutiny, they aren’t coming out for you during your Peninsula mutiny. If people didn’t support the first movie, they aren’t coming for the sequel.

Trillanes Takes Over The Peninsula

Trillanes Takes Over the Peninsula

Here we go again.

The right honorable Senator Trillanes is showing us how much he respects the rule of law in our country by walking out of the courtroom where his case was being heard by Judge Oscar Pimentel. He is now holed up in the Peninsula Hotel over in Makati.

Pundits are calling this another coup attempt, like the Oakwood Mutiny fiasco a few years ago. Which, by the way, was led and masterminded by the SAME guy. Good old Trillanes. Except back then, he didn’t have the Senator tag on him yet.

I respect our leaders. The people voted for him and made him Senator. I disagreed greatly with him being voted into power because I believed that he had no qualifications to be Senator, aside from being a would-be coup leader. But he won, and that was that.

So far his performance as Senator has been less than exemplary though. Since being voted into power, he has used his position to call for countless hearings against the government, virtually blamed the administration for the explosion at Glorietta as part of some sort of conspiracy (where he cited confidential sources which, to date, he has refused to name), and now he has tried another coup attempt of sorts.

What Do You Want for Christmas?

What Do You Want For Christmas?

(Babble On, for the Sunstar Davao, Nov. 30, 2007)

It’s that time of the year when you have to start shopping for Christmas gifts for your friends and loved ones. And it’s also that time when you receive gifts from all over.

I used to love getting gifts during the holidays. I remember staying up during Christmas eve, all excited about the gift-wrapped presents lying under the Christmas tree, just begging for me to open them.

As kids, I guess we somehow learned to value material things greatly by events like Christmas. I’m sure your family is no exception. We wind up looking at Christmas as a time to get gifts.

But the best memory I had of Christmas wasn’t of the gifts I received as a kid, but of the experience of giving gifts to my loved ones.

I still remember how I scrimped and saved to be able to buy my mother a necklace from a jewelry store in Insular Hotel (now the Waterfront). I remember handing it to her, her opening the present, and then wearing it proudly in front of me. Of course, I never figured out until much later that Mom wasn’t fond of jewelry, and rarely, if ever, wears any.

Meaningful Gifts for Christmas

I received an email from Youth Leader Harvey Keh which gave some Christmas gift suggestions for the holidays. I’m posting the email below just in case some of you may be interested in seeing some unconventional, yet great and meaningful christmas gift ideas.

Advanced happy holidays folks!

FROM HARVEY KEH:

Dear Friends,

Good day to you and an Advanced Merry Christmas!!!

Its less than 40 days to Christmas and most of us are now thinking of what we can give to our family and friends. For those who are having a hard time thinking of what meaningful gifts they can give this Christmas Season, here are some suggestions:

a.) The Gift of HOPE – In the midst of the numerous problems that face our country today, there is still much that we can Hope for and thus, the Ateneo de Manila-School of Government is selling a desktop Calendar of Hope for 2008 which features 12 inspiring Filipino leaders that give Hope to all of us. These Filipino leaders go beyond themselves to serve the most marginalized sectors of our society and to show all of us that indeed the Filipino  Spirit can still rise up in these seemingly hopeless situation. Some of the people featured in this Calendar of Hope include Dr. Nina Yuson of Museo Pambata, Rina Lopez-Bautista of Knowledge Channel and James Auste of the Cancer Warriors Foundation. Each Calendar of Hope is being sold for only P 120.00. To see the designs of the Calendar, you can visit http://ylse.multiply.com/photos/album/1 . For your inquiries and orders, please email Reese Fernandez at reesefernandez@yahoo.com or you can call her at (02) 426-5657.

Personal Updates

A few personal updates.

1.) Am back in Manila and preparing for the last semester of classes before graduation. Finally! It seems like I’ve been in law school so loooonnngggg.

2.) School is starting again. Arrgh.

3.) Am preparing to take the next step in life already.

4.) A very good friend of mine just had a son. A healthy baby boy! Congratulations Jedmeister. Everyone thought it would be a girl, but we knew better eh?

5.) On an even more personal note: All the stress of the last few years have made me realize that the important things in life isn’t always about power, prestige and money. More than anything, what is important is family, friends and loved ones, and the time you spend with them. Law school may have deprived me of precious time with my loved ones, as a whole, but at least it has made me learn how to cherish them and what little time I do get to spend with them. I can only hope that after law school I am able to spend MORE time with them, rather than less.

Explosion at Congress

Explosion at Congress

(Initial Blog Post)

Details are sketchy but our country has now had another explosion. That’s 2 explosions in little less than a month. Anymore explosions and the Philippines may invite comparisons with Pakistan or even Iraq, where explosions happen almost everyday.

This explosion, which seems to have been caused by a bomb, happened in the Batasang Pambansa Complex. It killed Basilan Representative Wahab Akbar and the driver of Gabriella Representative Luz Ilagan and wounded several others.

In this particular case, all indications seem to point to it being a bomb, unlike the Glorietta Explosion, which to date, remains controversial. No less than House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. claims that the explosion was a bomb. The Speaker reportedly told a radio station that “There is a bomb that exploded in the South Wing of the Batasan Complex.”

Let’s pray that no more explosions occur. I, for one, have had enough of those to last me a lifetime. Sadly however, I believe this may not be the last explosion I will see in my own lifetime, nor will it be the last you will see in our country.

Keep Praying.

E-Support for Pampanga Governor Ed Panlilio

Here’s a letter I received from Harvey Keh, former director of Pathways to Higher Education and now a faculty member of the Ateneo School of Government. I’m publishing it in full in the hopes that you may support Among Ed as well.

Dear Fellow Filipinos,

Good day to you!

Last October 13 , Governor Ed Panlilio of Pampanga came out to declare that he was given P 500,000.00 in cash which came from a Palace Staff Member in Malacañang. The money was allegedly given for baranggay projects and to support candidates for the upcoming baranggay elections. Since Gov. Panlilio’s admission, there have been other local officials and congressmen who have admitted to receiving money from Malacañang as well. Up until today we still don’t know where this money really came from.

A Marriage in Cebu

I was in Cebu over the weekend for the wedding of Anthony Luy and Kristy King. Kristy is my cousin, and for the longest time, I looked at her as another little sister whom I should look out for and watch over. It’s hard to believe that she is now married.

I guess its another bit of proof that we are all getting a bit older, and that life is moving on.

I’ll admit that I would love it if things always stayed the way they were, with my friends and family always around me, and my loved ones near and never getting older or moving on to the next stages in life. But if there is one thing that Kristy’s wedding has taught me, is that life must always move on, and that things always change, and you really can’t do anything about it.

It’s funny of course that it took a wedding all the way in Cebu to drive that point home, but lessons are often learned in the most unexpected ways.

Best wishes Kristy. I know you will be happy with Anthony. But that doesn’t mean I won’t miss you, or miss the way things were in the past.

Saguisag in Hospital

One of the best lawyers in the country is once again in the news, and this time it’s not because of his client Joseph Estrada. Estrada counsel and former Senator Rene Saguisag is in the hospital because of a traffic accident  on Osmena Highway (South Super Highway) when a dump truck crashed into his van, killing his wife Dulce and putting him into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Having driven along that same highway myself, I know for a fact how dangerous Osmena Highway can be, with often reckless trucks and buses careening wildly as though they owned the road. The road itself is not well-lit, and pedestrians in that area run around and cross the highway seemingly at will. Then there are the  numerous crimes that occur on that highway, thefts, robberies and even carnappings. There are countless horror stories about Osmena Highway. We now have one more.

I can only imagine how much pain Atty. Saguisag is in right now, both physically and emotionally. Though the doctors have already said he was in stable condition, he still remains under observation as of this writing. I do not think he really knows his wife is dead though, since according to the reports he is still in ICU, but the physical pain must be immeasurable and the emotional pain may even be worse once he realizes what he has lost.

With one accident, he has lost the love of his life and constant companion. He almost lost his own life. This is a fate I do not wish on anyone, not even my worst enemies.

Let us all pray for Atty. Saguisag’s recovery.

In the meantime, we have to do something about Osmena Highway. It’s an accident prone area which is just begging for rehabilitation. More lights would help. More rules and better enforcement would help. ANYTHING, at this point, would help. God knows, it’s  already too late to help Dulce. But it may not be too late for others travelling on Osmena Highway.

Overrated Statements about Employment in China

Overrated Statements About Employment in China

China is, to coin a cliché, the fastest growing economy in the world. It has surpassed even Germany’s economy in the global rankings. But to keep that economy going, to keep the businesses and multinational investments coming, China needs talented people. Unfortunately, for all of China’s size, there is still a large gap in terms of corporate leadership and management. Experienced talent is still, in a sense, a precious commodity.

This is where expatriate employees come in. Many major multinationals for example, bring in expatriate employees, or expats, to handle their China operations. Foreign consultants make a killing as they are in great demand, especially those with strong credentials such as MBAs or other advanced degrees.

But before you suddenly get the urge to go to China to bring your career to the next level, there are a few statements about foreign employment which must be debunked lest you get burned in the process.

10th Achievers and Leaders Seminar

I attended the 9th Achievers and Leaders Seminar earlier this year and was very impressed by the roster of speakers back then. Although generally expensive (at 7 thousand plus pesos per person) , the student discount made it a very worthwhile use of my day off from class. It only cost me a little over 1 thousand pesos for a whole day’s session of inspiring speeches and discussions. I loved Rico Hizon and Bo Sanchez’s talk from my last session, for example.

Anyway, I received an invitation via email for the next Achievers and Leaders Seminar organized by Salt and Light Ventures. I included details from the email in case you are interested.

Welcome Page

Hi folks!

If this is your first time here, please feel free to check out the welcome page to get a better idea of what this blog is about. Before anything else, allow me to say thanks for visiting!

Kelvin is in Davao

Back Home in Davao

I’ll be back home in Davao City for the next couple of days for the “holidays.”

I’ve already had a chance to have a quick cup of coffee with Henrylito Tacio of Sunstar Davao and am making plans to meet with Councilor Peter Lavina if our schedules permit.

If any Dabawenyo blogger would like to meet up while I am here, drop me a line at my email address, and let’s have coffee over at Brew Crew. Take care everyone! I’ll post more when I get back to Manila.

The Estrada Pardon

The Estrada Pardon

It’s official. President Arroyo will pardon former President Estrada. Estrada, who had been convicted by the Sandiganbayan barely a month ago, will soon be a free man with no criminal liabilities attaching to him.

Pardon and executive clemency is a power granted to the President by virtue of the Constitution. She has the discretion to grant it to whomever she believes deserves this form of legal mercy.

The use of such power in a high-profile case is not without precedent. It has happened before in the United States, when President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon after he resigned due to the Watergate scandal. So in a sense, President Arroyo’s actions not only has legal basis, but also historical antecedents as well.

But if we are to look at history, the use of the pardoning power involves controversy rather than mercy. Whatever semblance of merciful anticipation is lost in the overwhelming din of scandal. President Clinton’s last act in office was pardoning Mark Rich, a man largely considered a crook. President Ford’s first “great” act as President was pardoning Nixon, and his presidential career never recovered. He was soon hounded by accusations that he had sold out the American people, that he had made a deal with Nixon in order to become the next president (Ford was Nixon’s then vice-president and next in line). In the next presidential elections where Ford sought his own mandate to lead, he was overwhelmingly trounced by Jimmy Carter.

Arroyo’s pardon will probably have that same negative effect. Even at this early stage there is already opposition to the pardon from various sectors of society. Former President Ramos even believes that pardon may lead to Arroyo’s downfall.

Although the pardon may be needed in order for the Filipino people to move on, I do believe that granting the pardon so soon is a slap in the face of our criminal justice system. The Sandiganbayan and Special Prosecutor Villa-Ignacio spent around 2 years convicting Estrada. And in little less than a month, that conviction is thrown to the winds? The President should have waited, if only out of respect to the law and to the concept of justice.

These are now the questions on everyone’s minds: is the pardon the tipping point for the Arroyo Presidency? Are we seeing a shift in power and the resurgence of the Estrada political factions? Is there a new political alliance in the works? Or is this just the kindness of a merciful President?

In politics, we have just seen that literally anything is possible. For now we must bow to the executive discretion of the President, and wait for what that pardon could herald.

So whether that pardon be good or bad for the country, remains to be seen.

Explosion in Glorietta 2

Explosion in Glorietta 2

Today’s a sad day.

There was an explosion in Glorietta 2 in the Look Yuen restaurant and a lot of people died and were hurt. A friend of mine was in Chowking in the same building where the explosion occured. Nothing happened to them, thank God, but the idea that this can happen in the financial heart of our country sends shivers up my spine. People originally thought it was an LPG tank explosion but reports now indicate that it was a bomb explosion caused by TNT or C4.

Let’s pray for those who have died or were hurt by the explosion.

But let’s also pray about the long term implications of this event. Remember we have the Human Security Act now in effect in the Philippines. Plus there’s a lot of political chaos going on, with accusations of bribery, impeachments complaints, calls for resignation and large scale corruption charges being hurled everywhere. Political alliances are slowly breaking, and the last thing we need is a “terrorist attack,” if it is one, to splinter the remaining stability we have.

Let’s pray, very hard, that nothing more happens, especially another explosion, whether it be political or real.

God Bless everyone and stay safe.

Blog Action Day: A Quick Look at International Environmental Law

Blog Action Day: A Quick Look at International Environmental Law

It is not a coincidence that many of the world’s leaders now worry about the environment. For years, scientists have been trying to tell the world that the environment is in danger. Few have listened. But that has, thankfully, begun to change. You have celebrities like Al Gore promoting his movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” and Leo Dicaprio with his “11th Hour.” You have hybrid cars that attempt to do less damage to the environment. You have groups trying to help save the environment such as Greenpeace, World Wildlife Federation, to name a few.

Even the law has taken notice of the pains of the environment. There has been great interest in environmental laws and the necessary systems to enforce them, both in the international realm and in domestic jurisdictions.

Making an Impact

Making an Impact

(Originally entitled “Impacting People” when it appeared in Babble On, for the Sunstar Davao, October 6, 2006)

There is no end to the impact a person’s actions or words can have on another. Sometimes just one person can have an impact on the world.

Look at the effect the Iranian Prime Minister had when he said that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth. Pope Benedict’s words on jihad caused angry Islamic followers to take to the streets. It took a Bush to invade the Middle East, and an Arroyo to pull out our troops from the same Middle East in order to save the life of an OFW. It took a Lincoln to end slavery, while it took only one man’s madness to end the life of Lincoln with a shot to the head.

It took one teacher’s belief in her students to guide them into the right path. One man’s prejudiced vision caused the massacre of millions of Jews, while another man’s flying skills was nearly all that was needed to crash a plane into the twin towers.

What a teacher or a nation’s leader or a man on the street does today can impact not just your life, but the lives of those around you. A smile here, an encouraging word there, believing in another, these can all make a difference in another person’s life.

My ipod Story: How I Wasted 10k

My ipod Story: How I wasted 10k

(Babble On for the Sunstar Davao, October 5, 2007)

I once had a great ipod nano. It was a 1st generation 4 gigabyte black model. It played music, which is the obvious point of an ipod, and it looked really good. I loved the way it looked, the way it felt in my hand, and the simplicity of use. It was, in my mind, perfect. It was not only cool in itself, it also made me feel cool.

And the best thing about it was that it only cost me around ten thousand pesos. I had gotten a great big discount when I bought it you see, and that fact made me feel even better about it.

Yes, I loved that ipod. But notice the past tense. It’s gone now. It figured in an accident a few weeks back and so it doesn’t even work anymore. I had it for a little over a year and so it’s already past the warranty. I can’t have it repaired because its already phased out and no more parts are available. The best I can get is a ten percent discount on my next ipod purchase.

Man do I feel sad about it. And just a little bit stupid.

Blogging Your Thoughts

Blogging Your Thoughts

(Babble On, for the Sunstar Davao, September 28, 2007)

Blogging seems to be the newest medium of discussion on the internet. Where people once went to newspapers and columns like this one to read up on opinions and ideas on current events, more and more internet users are now turning to blogs. In fact, blogs have become one of the most popular ways to communicate and share one’s thoughts.

One reason for this is how it allows people to communicate on a mass-level in a simple manner. Adam Salamon a personal branding advocate agrees. “Now with the internet and blogs, we all have the ability to communicate on a mass level. We now all have the ability to let the world know what we think and what our unique perspective of things are.”

Blogie Robillo, a prominent Dabawenyo blogger has even taken up the cudgels of being a blog evangelist. In his own blog, he mentions that he was able to inspire a few of his friend start their own blogs. He hopes to inspire more people to get into blogging and share their thoughts to the world.

The Dot TK Experiment

I am trying out this new domain name I got from www.dot.tk. So instead of that long www.kelvinlesterlee.wordpress.com domain, I got this free and much shorter one: www.kelvinlee.tk. I love the fact that it is much shorter and easier to remember, but I hate that annoying ad at the top. I had originally wanted no ads at all for this site. Well I get the www.kelvinlee.tk free for a month. If ever that ad gets to be too annoying, let me know and perhaps I’ll scrap the entire .tk experiment and go back to the plain old wordpress domain.

To those who, out of the goodness of their hearts, plan to make a link to this blog, please do use the long one: www.kelvinlesterlee.wordpress.com, since that one is permanent, while the www.kelvinlee.tk MAY only be temporary. Thanks!

As a quick aside, I am actually surprised that the more popular posts of my past articles so far have been Learning to Love & Of Moose and Men. Considering I usually write about serious stuff like politics, current events, business and law, it is funny that the few forays I made into “warm and fuzzy feelings” writing has turned out to be the ones read the most. Hmm…

LET’S EXPERIMENT!

Why I Now Blog

Some Random Thoughts

I started blogging way back in 2002. Don’t believe me? Check out the very first blog I created over here.

This should make me some kind of blogging pioneer, but around that time, I had also started writing my Babble On Column for the Sunstar Davao. So I decided, instead, to concentrate on the column instead of blogging. I did try and put my columns into an online archive in blogspot, but due to the difficult demands of work and writing for other publications in Beijing, as well as some internet censorship issues which often blocked my access to my blogs while I was living in China, I chose to just give them up. By the time I got back to the Philippines, law school beckoned and kept me insanely busy.

So why am I blogging now? Well, I lost a lot of my old columns when my old computer died on me. I think some are still over at Sunstar online, but I myself don’t have any soft copies anymore. Only a scant few old articles remain. Since I didn’t want that to happen again, I chose to restart my blogging and at the same time, backup my words and thoughts.

Another reason would be blogs like that of Penelope Trunk, Employee Evolution, The Modite and Blogie Robillo. All these writers are blog evangelists and in a sense, I guess I got evangelized. I like the idea of blogging. I like the idea of sharing my random thoughts and ideas to the world at large, and somehow making a difference by doing so. I have been trying to do that with the column for the last 5 years. I now plan on trying that with this blog too.

As time goes on, and as I find more of my old articles, I will slowly upload them here. So this blog will be updated fairly frequently with three things: old columns, new columns (every Friday) and my own random thoughts.

But what’s the goal of this blog? Well, I hope to make a difference, to spark some change or to offer advice or even to just share a different point of view with readers. To rephrase Wong Fu Productions (these guys make great video shorts btw) , “if at the end of the day, my babblings are able to make a difference in your life, no matter how slightly, whether it’s in the way you think, the way you look at something or in making you simply smile and laugh, then I’ve succeeded. “

I hope this blog and the articles it contains, can make a difference in your life in a positive manner, one way or the other.

Let’s Babble On!

8 Things I Learned from the Stock Market

8 Things I learned from the Stock Market

(Babble On, Published in the Sunstar Davao on June 22, 2007)
Yes I succumbed. I jumped into the stock market because I thought I could make a killing. Instead I think the stock market is killing me. Not literally of course. Just mentally, emotionally and a little bit financially. Although, as a personal disclosure, I did make a tiny paper profit in the market. Just a little.

I haven’t entirely been killed by the market yet though. I still got some fairly good investments (and braincells) left. Plus I learned some lessons which I am now sharing with you. So it wasn’t a total loss. You can use these lessons in everyday life too, and you don’t even have to go to the stock market and spend money to try it out.

1. Never Ever Trust Rumors. – rumors and gossip, call it whatever you want. These are basically unverified information. Most of which is not even reliable or true. This is especially applicable to those stock “tips” which are often based on the rumors we are talking about. In business and in life, you have to decide based on good, solid and reliable information. So don’t invest or do anything unless you are sure the news you are basing your actions on is reliable. Otherwise you may just wind up losing your shirt. Literally.

The Passion of Leadership

The Passion of Leadership: Changing the World for the Better

Leadership is considered a myriad concept to many. There are those who prefer to seemingly dismiss leadership as nothing more but a required compulsion whereby those with less authority are required to listen and follow one of a higher authority.

However such a simplistic understanding of leadership would negate the many great leaders who have inspired their organizations, countries and the world at large with their grand visions and passions. None can deny the effect that leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi had as a leader, nor can anyone challenge the greatness of Nelson Mandela as a leader and others of their ilk. Yet neither derived their leadership from any sense of compulsive authority. They led because they had a vision of what they could do to make the world a better place. They led because they had the passion to do so. They led because they were willing to die for their beliefs and to meet their goal, and thus inspired countless thousands to follow them, thereby changing their respective societies.

Being Positive

BEING POSITIVE

Babble On for Friday, September 7, 2007 (Actually published on Sept. 8, 2007)

I attended a seminar last week where Rico Hizon gave a talk on Leading in a Cross-Cultural environment. Mr. Hizon is currently the only Filipino broadcaster in BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). The Asian Business Report, the TV show which he anchors, is considered to be one of the most well-respected and widely watched business news show on Asia. When asked how someone could become as successful as he was, he said “you always have to be happy.” The reason he did so well in BBC, which is a multi-cultural office filled with people from all over the world, was because he always injected a positive aspect into the workplace. He avoided cynics and infected his unit with optimism.

I loved his talk so much I told my girlfriend about it. I was going on and on about how we should have more Filipinos like Mr. Hizon, instead of the millions of depressed and cynical people here, and how the Philippines was such a negative place. I didn’t notice that I had been ranting and complaining about our country for a good 15 minutes or so, until she touched my elbow and quietly told me that I was being negative now.

That floored me.

I had become exactly what I didn’t want to be. A cynic. A whiner and complainer who can’t even seem to say nice things about his own country. I looked through some of my articles in the last few years and it confirmed what I had just figured out. I was a cynic.