By: Iris P. Concepcion
"We can always start with showing public derision at those who betray their calling, which is to make law serve justice and not thwart it, by making them pariahs in their own country. We can always make the shameless feel truly shameless. That is Public Opinion. That is power."--Conrad de Quiros
This morning, I browsed the three leading broadsheets of the country. They seem to be getting thinner daily. I do not know how much it costs to print on paper nowadays. My newspaper delivery guy said over the curious page : "If I can pose in buff there next time, perhaps, they'd buy it."
He was referring of course to a newspaper that is not my first reading priority in these transformational times.
Instead of the fashion page, I saw an advertisement for chicken instead. Are we moving on to a new dimension of serving print justice?
Perhaps, we are.
I am beginning to realize that the business pages are getting bulkier (good twirl), giving opportunities and investments their own limelight parade (cymbals, drums and bass) in the riotous and wild reading field. I have wished for this during my earlier, nondescript, writing career. I am astonished it is coming into full fruition.
I was a girl who wrote about soap suds for a business space. I have come a long, long way I suppose. Now, I am the girl who owns a corn blog.
Shift in the course of how we receive information is no longer a monopoly of the traditional, adhesive writing band. The world is extending, and so does the multiple access on how we actually view it. I heard a very sane man speak overnight: there is a need to redefine the role of editorship and I personally believe, it is finally breaking in.
Case in point: My revered, favorite columnist above spelled a director's name as Jim Liberan. It is no typo, laughing matter. It is as it should be.
Of course, you occasionally encounter the non-sequiturs of Tagalog obscenities hurled at those who perform well, but that is likewise a moronic privilege, if you ask me.
Who shall define for us this burst of enigmatic entrance onto a wonderful unknown? Why is this breed having the day of their lives while taking on the hardest responsibilities on earth?
What the hell is this exciting, creatively manipulative, bold, daring, conscientious bang onto the medium? Who started it?
And why do the bearers of lightsabers look gorgeous?
Writers like this mammal from Manila Bulletin:
Palace, BSP defend peso printing errors
MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang said on Monday that the Office of the President (OP) had nothing to do with errors found on some new Philippine peso bills and took a swipe at the opposition for trying to pin blame on the Aquino administration.
Probed by reporters regarding some graphical errors on the new bank notes, Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) should be the one to explain the errors.
“The BSP and the Monetary Board were the ones that crafted the new bills, hindi dumaan sa [it was not coursed through the] Office of the President because they’re independent so we have no comment on the matter,” Lacierda said.
“We would like to ask the BSP to explain,” he added, as he stressed that the Office of the President was not involved in the production of the new peso bills, which took three years to develop.
Lacierda said those who had pointed out the errors are the same ones who keep criticizing the Aquino administration.
“They’re nitpicking. It’s very clear, even if it wasn’t the responsibility of the Executive Branch or at least the Office of the President, they’re finding ways and they’re trying to gather all they can to hit on the President even if he’s not totally involved in some of the actions,” Lacierda said.
He also assured that the Aquino administration will just do its job and carry on with reforms towards transparency and accountability, particularly in the coming year.
“They shall wait for us next year. Our promise is to deliver next year,” Lacierda said.
“ The budget has been approved so we can work in which, if they want, we have the budget to do all the things that we need to do for next year – infrastructure-wise and program-wise, we’ll be hitting the ground running next year,” he added.
On Monday, the BSP defended its new peso notes, mocked by critics for featuring error-strewn maps of the country and apparently inventing a new species of parrot.
The BSP started shipping the bills to banks last Friday and they should be publicly available by Christmas, BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Gunigundo said.
He defended the artistic rendition of Philippine maps appearing on the 20-, 50-, 100-, 200-, 500-, and 1,000-peso notes (45 US cents-22.59 dollars), which excluded the Batanes islands near Taiwan and misplaced some of the country's top tourist draws.
“If we want to make the Philippine map that specific and accurate we would have had to draw all 7,000 islands,” Gunigundo said in an interview on DZBB radio.
“What we wanted to do was abstract the general location of all these important parts of the Philippines,” he said.
Map makers, including one of the experts drafted to delineate the boundaries of the Tubbataha Reefs natural park in 1994, have pointed out that the spectacular coral formation was misplaced by hundreds of kilometers.
Gunigundo also defended the rendering of a rare native bird, the blue-naped parrot, on the 500-peso bill, saying it was patterned after the yellow color scheme of the denomination.
The Wild Bird Club of the Philippines, a birdwatchers' organization, has insisted the yellow-beaked parrot on the note does not exist anywhere in the country, since in real life the bluenaped parrot has a red beak.
Launched on Dec. 16, 2010, the new Philippine bank notes have been lauded by President Aquino for its improved security features that would make counterfeiting more difficult.
Aside from its enhanced security features, the new P500-bill showcases the image of the President’s parents: the late former Sen. Benigno Aquino, Jr. and late former Pres. Corazon Aquino with President Benigno S. Aquino III’s signature, which is said to be the first in the world to have both parents and their son to be featured in one bank note.
Or this, from the Philippine Star:
Noy hits critics of new bank notes
By Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) Updated December 21, 2010 12:00 AM Comments (33) 
MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino lashed back yesterday at the critics of the new bank notes, saying they should get a “map or a GPS” if they want to be geographically correct and not nitpick on the bank notes’ design.
“We should ask the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. It’s not a map, it’s not a cartographer’s sketch, there’s a degree of artistic license also,” Aquino told reporters in an ambush interview at the airport where he surprised overseas Filipino workers returning for the holi- days.
“If I want to find out about a particular area I’ll look for a map, or I’ll go to the GPS (Global Positioning System). The currency, there’s finite amount of space on the bill and you’re supposed to include so many things... the history, the sights,” Aquino said.
“We’re inviting tourists to come and visit, our aspirations, and then you put it in what? Two inches by five inches. Itong magagaling, baka (these clever guys, maybe) they want to do it in a particular canvass,” Aquino said.
Aquino said the new bank notes have improved security features and are harder for counterfeiters to copy.
“We want to make it difficult to fake the bill because the (past) designs have been there for a long time now. The advances in technology make it easier to duplicate bills that have been in existence. There are many security features and I think the objective will be achieved,” Aquino said.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said critics were obviously nitpicking as they pointed out the geographical errors in the new bills. They also said the color of the rare parrot’s beak in the P500 was wrong.
“It’s very clear, even if it wasn’t the responsibility of the executive branch or at least the Office of the President, they’re finding ways and they’re trying to gather all they can to hit the President even if he’s not involved in some of the actions. They shall wait for us next year. Our promise is to deliver next year. The budget has been approved so we can work (and)… do all the things that we need to do for next year – infrastructure-wise and program-wise, we’ll be hitting the ground running next year,” Lacierda said.
Lacierda said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Monetary Board and the Numismatic Society were the ones which designed the new bills and that as independent institutions, they didn’t have to seek approval of the Office of the President.
Speaking to ANC, BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said some of the alleged errors are not errors but “abstractions of reality.”
“I don’t think we want to describe them as errors. They are abstractions of reality. Abstractions in the sense that number 1, the map is not really complete in the sense that what we really wanted to show is the general geographical location of the six important World Heritage sites in the Philippines, for example, the Mountain Province which houses the Rice Terraces,” he said in an interview on ANC’s “Headstart.”