Daily writing prompt: Q: What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?
Answer: Morning ritual: Monitor news. Check disinformation. Support sensible resource persons.
Reuters video, West Philippine Sea (exclusive economic zone of the Philippines), shows two China Coast Guard ships make a pincer formation on a lone, small Philippine wooden supply rig and use water cannon bombardment in an attempt to stop the delivery of food supplies for Philippine personnel on Philippine Sierra Madre ship, March 23, 2024 (used here non-commercially for academic purposes)
atm 7am Teleradyo News, Justice Tony Carpio on the West Philippine Sea (WPS) . Good discussion. Thank you.
Yesterday’s resource person (Teleradyo morning show, March 31) used WPS encroachment by China
to campaign for mandatory ROTC for all college students. (palalanguyin natin mga kadete sa WPS?)
(We’ll require cadets to swim in the West Philippine Sea?) Yes, Go, Gorabels!
See previous posts here, on this site, on the WPS: We need bigger boats for re-supply and patrol operations under the command of the Philippines, not foreign boats, in the West Philippine Sea (see previous posts here)
as well as engaging more civilian support and mobilizing systematically to fight disinformation (see December interview on ANC)
On ROTC: Suggestions for reforms for ROTC (which should be voluntary at this time unless you’re expecting war in 2025) to make it more relevant and useful to the defense of the country
starting with curbing and checking corruption, etc., (officials made a fast buck off the cadets; the whistleblower, Mark Welson Chua, ended up being murdered).
maybe in another post.
My suggestion for ROTC organizational reforms will include how to prevent corruption;
curriculum content reforms will include archipelagic doctrine and UNCLOS (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea), among other reforms, marami (many reforms needed) including how to make cadets be proud of their time spent there.
(For a research grant, a revised curriculum or curricular proposals can be submitted)
Photo by Myra Lambino, from the blog archives
