CRUSADER (Volume XXII No. 1)

June 2015 - December 2015

Vol. XXII No. I

issuu.com/krusada

Diliman, Quezon City

BE PROUD KRUSIANS Crusaders lift KNLHS anew to Dist. IV’s 5 best schools

By Chet Dominique De Vera and Princess Shirley U. Lacap

Krus Na Ligas High School (KNLHS) is smaller compared to other schools, but bigger in journalism achievements with 17 winners and 20 awards in 13 out of 16 main categories — arguably the most number of winners and awards brought home to the said school from a single contest.

With pens as their scabbards and words, their swords, the Crusaders won the district wars by being named 4th Highest School Pointer to again raise the banner of KNLHS in the District IV Secondary Schools Press Conference (District SSPC) at Immaculate Conception Cathedral School on August 17, 2015.

Crusaders — the moniker of the students journalists of KRUSADA and CRUSADER, the official student publications of KNLHS in Filipino and English, respectively — bested 12 other public and private schools to barge into the overall district rankings for the fourth time

When we work as one. Crusaders show their happiness through smiles and wacky poses after their hardwork and effort earned them the 4th Highest School Pointer award in the District IV, with 17 winners and 20 awards in 13 of 16 categories.

in the publication’s 24-year history or since its first 16 years ago.

The Crusaders barged in District IV’s 5

Highest School Pointers in 2000 and 2005, under former adviser Melita Llacar, and in 2013 and 2015, under Marsha Gatchalian-Gepiga.

Old reliables

Proving their worth to be in the crème-of-the-crop,

section Rizal’s Jireh Jannie Desabelle, Zyra Corrine Cabudoc and Joannah Mae

Manalang flaunted that they were not only Jack-of-alltrades but also master of their own expertise.

Manalang — named last year as District IV’s best writer (Highest Individual Pointer) in Filipino medium and one of the first two Crusaders to be given such — held 2nd and 3rd place in Pagsulat ng Lathalain and Pagsulat ng Editoryal, respectively.

Cabudoc, who won 2nd place in the 2014 regional contest and 1st place in the 2015 National Schools Press Conference, placed on the 9th spot in both Pagsulat ng Balita and Pagwawasto at Pag-uulo ng Balita. Desabelle bagged 4th place in Editorial Writing and 6th place in Feature Writing.

In the 2014 District SSPC, Manalang won 2 nd and 7 th place in Lathalain and Editoryal, whereas Desabelle claimed 6 th and 8 th place in Editorial and Continue to page 15...

Krussians bag awards in House Speaker says KNL’s Values District Meet 2015 Barangay surprises ‘SB’ on birthday

land petition now in Senate

It was supposed to be the citizens of Barangay Krus Na Ligas (KNL), led by the Barangay Council, surprising House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. with festive atmosphere and a cake a day before his 79th birthday, but he also had a gift for his constituents.

The former Quezon The attendees When Belmonte, City mayor informed everyone who rejoiced at the news commonly known as “Sonny” at the Plaza Sta. Ines Covered and who surprised Belmonte or “SB”, arrived, he was Court that the community’s included students, teachers welcomed by the music from land petition — a local version and authorities from KNL the KNLHS Drum and Lyre of China-Philippines’ tug-of- High School (KNLHS) and Corp Royal Knights under the war between University of the Elementary School (KNLES), baton of Oscar Javier Jr. Philippines-Diliman and KNL barangay staffs, Holy Cross Citizens and — is now under study by the Parish and other community- barangay staffs showed Senate. based organizations and groups. their happiness by giving the Speaker warm hugs and shaking hands with him, while 10th graders from Rizal and sixth graders from KNL Elementary School students waved little flags with “I <3 SB”.

Barangay captains and barangay representatives from Area 13 (five barangay) and Area 24 (six, including KNL) were also at the program

By Mary Catherine Angelica U. Lacap to receive Hewlett-Packard Krus Na Ligas High space due to the school’s computer units, emergency School (KNLHS) brought new building named after kits and spine boards an added spice to World its primary benefactor, the The event also had Teachers Day (WTD) 2015 Philippine Amusement an audio-visual presentation by collaborating it with a and Gaming Corporation (AVP) that showed citizens school-wide food festival.

(PAGCOR), the booths were as well as officials of various

In line with the lined along the hallways. political and non-political celebration last October Teachers were groups giving their birthday 5, students from all year then given a chance to taste messages for Belmonte and levels prepared delicacies the prepared cuisines, while thanking him for acting as the according to their assigned assigned judges picked three barangay patron. provinces in the Philippines booths per grade level that The AVP was and other countries. served the best tastes. conceptualized, shot, compiled With the Section Rizal of the and prepared mainly by Michael Araling Panlipunan (AP) 10th grade bagged first place Alvarez, Kristian Lloyd Sagun Department’s collaboration out of the 44 sections that and former KNL Lakambini with the Supreme Student joined from both the morning Chimberly Anne Palacio. The Government (SSG), WTD and afternoon shifts.

AVP creation was headed by pushed through even with After the tasty treats, Kagawad Mau Magalong and the lack of room for other the SSG also held a Zumba Kagawad Romeo Jose. activities for the teachers. lesson and a karaoke booth

Given the small for the teachers.

- Phebe Judith L. Austria

KNLHS celebrates food fest on World Teachers Day

Bringing along knowledge, values and skills, the students of Krus Na Ligas High School (KNLHS) take home bacons in the Values District Meet held at Manuel A. Roxas High School (MARHS) last October 2015.

The said event gave way to seven (7) major categories: four (4) individual cuts, and three (3) cuts by group.

Andrea Suizo claimed victory in the Slogan Making contest, grabbing 1st place, while Nikki Angela Perez seized 3rd in Poster Making.

On the other

By Jireh Jannie T. Desabelle hand, the Tagis Talino group consisting of Zyra Corrine Cabudoc (10-Rizal), Alessandra Formalejo (8-Diamond), Hannah Michaela Butardo and Ena Marion delos Reyes (9-Quisumbing) places 3rd.

Though were not able to invade the three top ranks, the group comprising of Phebe Judith Austria (10-Rizal), Dave Andrew Papa (9-Quisumbing), and Lara Hillary Carbonel (8-Diamond) grasps 5th place in Bible Quiz Bee.

Only 1st placers will continue to combat in the Values Division Meet.

KNLHS was not able to participate in the “Ulirang

Guro”, “Ulirang Mag-aaral” and “Sayawit” for lacking participants and recognition to the existence of the said categories.

Nevertheless, Values teachers such as Marietta Santos for grades 8 and 9, Ersal Linda Jr. for 7th grade, and Rommel Perez, in 10th grade, guided and monitored the student delegates.

Last school year, the Values District Meet was held at KNLHS wherein Krussians also bagged awards through the assistance of Santos being the Chairperson of the Values Department.

HUMAN STORY:

On depression and suicide of Julia Buencamino

On the eve of July 7, 2015, many were shocked and saddened by the suicide and death of 15-year-old child star Julia Louise Buencamino, who played the role as bestfriend of Janella Salvador’s character in the morning youth show Oh My G!

Julia, the youngest among four children of Nonie and Shamaine Buencamino, was found hanging from the ceiling of her bedroom’s bathroom by house helper Elsa Orsales.

Continue to page 17...

Physical signs. Colored sketches made by deceased Julia Buencamino went viral in social media a day after her suicide. Psychologists say that physical signs of one’s true mental and emotional state can be seen through their creative works, like poems, stories and drawings. (Photos from Google)

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NEWS

Andrea Nicole B. Cabiles News Editor

I’d like students to nurture their talents — Quintana Dionio leaves, former FAYHS principal takes over

Brighter future. Dr Emma Quintana, Krus Na Ligas High School’s new principal, strikes a “Pabebe Wave” pose with MAPEH teachers during the 2015 In Set Training (INSET) held from November 26 to 30 at the said school.

(Photo from Quintana’s Facebook account)

Emulating last year’s feats

2 Crusaders won 5th in Division Confab

By Joannah Mae R. Manalang (With reports from Zyra Corrine G. Cabudoc)

Speechless and shocked– that is how Jireh Jannie Desabelle and Mary Catherine Angelica Lacap reacted after finding out that they are chosen as one of the most outstanding campus journalists all over 55 schools in Quezon City, unexpected things with hopeful possibilities as CRUSADERS would call it.

CRUSADERS proved that they are indeed champions after bringing home two wins in the previous Division City Schools Press Conference with the theme “The Role of 21st Campus Journalists in Upholding Good Governance and Transparency”, held at Holy family School of Quezon City (HFSQC) from October 6 to 8, 2015.

Students from X- Jose Rizal, Jireh Jannie Desabelle and Mary

Catherine Angelica Lacap succeeded both in 5th place in Feature Writing and News Writing, respectively.

“That moment when they call me up to the stage, I was like, ‘ako? pangalan ko ba ‘yung tinawag’, ‘man I really won and I’m part of the history now’.

It felt so nice,” Desabelle said in an interview.

Speakers and judges were Quezon City Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Quesada, Division Journalism Supervisor Dr. Ligaya Regis, Aldrin Cuña, Elizabeth Meneses, Moises Tarabal, Manolo Redralves, Zenaida Arao, Eden Concepcion, Rene Aranda, Boy Santos, Newscaster Bam Alegre, Jamie Rubio, Elizabeth Reymundo and Robert Santos.

The preceding wins include DSSPC 2014 wherein Danice Anne Papa from IVAndres Bonifacio won 6th place in Pagwawasto at Pag-uulo ng Balita. While Bon Andrey

Queaño brought home 3rd place in Copyreading and Headline Writing in Division Press Con 1999; and Lyle Edryl Dela Cruz won 2nd place in the same category in Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) 2007.

CRUSADER bagged 4th Highest School Pointer in the last DSSPC 2013 with the combined scores of Former Editor-inChief Zyra Corrine Cabudoc, 10th place in Pagsulat ng Balita; former CRUSADERS Ernest Marc Delos Reyes, 10th place in Pagsulat ng Isports; Iverson Quilal-lan 5th place in Paglalarawang Tudling; Chana Beaquin, 2nd place in Photojournalism; Former Patnugot ng Balita Bless Lorraine Desabelle and Chief Photographer Daniel Matthew Butardo both won 5th place in Pagsulat ng Balita and Photojournalism, respectively.

FLASHBACK:

The gruesome massacre of 34 journalists in 2009

New building. New principal.

Hopefully a better high school life.

With the K-12 curriculum now in full implementation and the barangay gearing up for more education-centered improvements, newly installed Krus Na Ligas High School (KNLHS) Principal Dr. Emma Quintana is expecting challenging but fruitful years to come.

Students may as well expect something else such as more exciting — and many character-building — events and undertakings in the school years to come.

“I’d like the students to join activities that will nurture their talents. I want them to be proud before graduation,” Quintana said.

The former Flora A. Ylagan High School (FAYHS) principal replaced Janet Dionio, who is, as of press time, the Officer-in-Charge of Quezon City Science High School.

press and human rights organizations from the grassroots up to the national as well as international scene was overwhelmed with anguish.

The Massacre was allegedly ordered by the Ampatuan clan, with the blessing of family patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr., and its “private army”.

Journalists assemble

The National Union

of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) condemned the atrocities as “an assault on the Constitution itself and on the freedom of the press and of expression which it enshrines”.

“[N]ever in the history of journalism have the new media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day,” Reporters Without Borders, an international media watchdog, said. The killings were also described by world leaders

Barbaric. Corpses of journalists unearthed from mass graves are covered with banana leaves, while massacre suspect, Andal Ampatuan Jr., blissfully smiles even in handcuffs. The “Ampatuan Massacre” has been named as the deadliest attack against the press in history. (Photos courtesy by asiancorrespondent.com and mtholyoke.edu)

Knowing the new

Quintana said she started being a math teacher in 1973 and only became a principal in 2011, with her first job as school head at San Jose High School followed by FAYHS.

Before that, she was a teacher and, later on, a master teacher at Ismael Mathay Sr. High School.

When asked about the most unforgettable moments she had in her teaching career and as a principal, Quintana

said students who use illegal drugs, especially those caught, wrenches her heart the most.

“Nasasaktan ako kapag ang bata ay lumilipat because meron siyang hindi magandang nagawa... kasi para bang hindi namin (teachers and school officials) nagagawa ang lahat para sa bata,” she explained.

Community college In an interview with Quintana, she said that one of the plans is to have the PAGCOR Building reserved for the use of future 11th and 12th graders in KNLHS, while the other buildings are for the 10th graders and below. “[M]ay scenario that there will be a space somewhere in bukid na tatayuan ng high school para ito[ng school] later will become senior high school,” she clarified.

She added that Dionio told her about Vice Mayor Continue to page 15...

KNL schools, whole community, join NCR quake drill

By Wynona Geralda S. Del Rosario

Simulated chaos. Photo shows Krus Na Ligas Elementary School students practicing evacuation procedure from school going to People’s Park when an earthquake hits. (Photos from Barangay Krus Na Ligas Facebook account)

To prepare both the citizens and the Barangay Risk Reduction and Management Council (BRRMC) of Barangay Krus Na Ligas (KNL) as well as to test disaster preparedness plans of prioritized institutions, the whole community took part in the region-wide earthquake drill last July 30, 2015.

The said activity was done to prepare Metro Manila for “The Big One”, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake which tectonic plate-concerned scientists,

It has been six years since the evil known as the “Ampatuan Massacre” occurred. Fifty-eight people were brutally killed, 34 of whom were journalists. The corpses were secretly buried in an attempt to hide the putrid stench of the rotten crime but later discovered. Six years have passed, yet the families of the victims are still waiting for justice.

The morning of November 23, 2009 was supposed to be a simple filing of the Certificate of Candidacy of Esmael Mangudadatu. But it turned into bloody horror born from political greed, which the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) declared as “the single deadliest attack against journalists in history.”

When the massacre news flooded print, radio and television media, countless

Curiously, both Quintana and Dionio majored in mathematics for their teaching degrees.

Quintana was initially placed as the top school official last September 15 and was formalized on October 16 during the inauguration of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) Building that was graced by House Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr.

and the Unite Nations as “inhumane” and “barbaric”.

At worst, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called the Philippines the most dangerous place in the world for media workers. The country used to be second and Iraq was first.

November 23 is now remembered as the International Day to End Impunity, declared by the International Freedom of Expression Exchange.

In Andrew Marshall’s column section Viewpoint published May 10, 2010 on TIME magazine, he likened many Philippine politicians to monsters.

He started his column by championing the attitude and personality journalists have that even renowned comics artists respect.

Marshall started Continue to page 17...

such as seismologists and volcanologists, say “can happen at any day... [and] is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’.”

With the People’s Park between C.P. Garcia Street and Baluyot Street being meet-up point for everyone, KNL High School (KNLHS) students shielded their heads with only their hands, while KNL Elementary School (KNLES) students had safety hats made of stitched rags as head cover.

Secondary school students walked along V. Francisco Street and the primary school students used Salvador Street. Teachers, school officials, barangay councillors (kagawad) and the Barangay Public Safety Officers (BPSO) directed traffic and communication.

The earthquake simulation started at 10:30 AM, when a loud siren and ringing of bells were sounded as participants

used the duck-cover-and-hold technique. After 45 seconds, everyone evacuated and went to the designated safe zones.

Expectedly, a number of students from KNLHS were rushed to medical staffs due to panic or asthma attacks, hyperventilation, headache and heat fatigue, all real products of the late morning heat and the almost suffocating number of crowd.

According to online news portal Rappler.com, “all 16 cities and [one] municipality [in National Capital Region (NCR) took] part in the drill, with Pasig City holding an additional night drill at 8:00 PM.”

The drill was led by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) in cooperation with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) and National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC).

Bonifacio’s mural to rise in KNL

By Wynona Geralda S. Del Rosario

To develop tourism around the community and a sense of local history, the Barangay Council of Barangay Krus Na Ligas (KNL) and the local government of Quezon City (QC) plan to create a mural of Andres Bonifacio to commemorate KNL’s historical relevance in the Philippine revolution during the Spanish Colonization era in the 1800s.

The said mural, together with the replica of the original archaic-state of Holy Cross Parish Church, will be a part of the development plan conducted by the Council and supported by Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte.

Aside from the mural and replica serving as an attraction for citizens and visitors alike, the two will also reflect the historical mark the

barangay has, which is very distinctive from many other barangay in QC. According to interviews with Kagawad Romeo Jose and Kagawad Mau Magalong, the projects will be of great help for the whole barangay not only in tourism but more importantly for remembering and appreciating the rich culture and history of KNL in freeing the nation.

NEWS

Andrea Nicole B. Cabiles

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News Editor

Publication reveals shady side, dark past Crusaders get ‘Icarus’ tag, talk about past 2 years

“The problem of success is success itself,” a quote from the weekly Catholic fellowship-worship The Feast that Marsha GatchalianGepiga, the student paper adviser of KRUSADA and CRUSADER, shared to the Crusaders on the last day of the Division Secondary Schools Press Conference (Division SSPC) on October 8, 2015.

For three years, CRUSADER and KRUSADA, the official student publications of Krus Na Ligas High school (KNLHS), brought home countless historic recognition for the school from different competitions in all levels, even in the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) Search for the Most Outstanding Campus Journalists and Campus Publications in Quezon City.

With the said contest being the ultimate Rubik’s cube puzzle since fewer Crusaders have won in YMCA compared to Regional SSPC, year 2014 was a revelation after the 24-year-old organization finally placed in YMCA’s 10 Best Campus Publications at 9th overall.

Just when it seemed the YMCA enigma has been figured out and after huge wins in the 2015 District and Division SSPCs, the Crusaders fell from the sky and crashed back to earth along with their wings made of egoistic wax and cancerous pride.

Icarus[aders]

Just like Icarus in the Greek story The Flight of Icarus who ignored the warnings about “complacency” and “hubris” (pride), the Crusaders met a shameful fall.

In the Greek myth, Icarus ignored the advice of his father, Athenian master craftsman Daedalus, which cost Icarus his life. In analogy, the current Crusaders did — and does — not heed the counsel of both the adviser and a number of concerned alumni.

To some younger student journalists and upper-class Crusaders, the main reason on withdrawing from the 2015 YMCA contest was due to “lack of preparation”. Gepiga, though, corrected that what was truly lacking was the “commitment” to prepare and train and the past winners’ “masyadong nakadepende sa galing (too much dependence on skills alone).”

In a forum between Gepiga and some senior Crusaders on October 8, the student journalists admitted their many faults and unhealthy habits on “time [mis]management” and other “personal issues”.

The adviser reminded them that these were “problems” they had since last school year and that these are not justifiable excuses since all the previous batches of students — especially student journalists — have faced and conquered these.

The forum ended with the said student journalists giving their word to Gepiga that they would fix their faults and give their best to finish the student newspapers without causing more problems.

Micro

The current Crusaders have been under the microscope for two years for exerting more time and effort on being overly complacent and ranting too many complaints than on doing tasks and submitting outputs on time.

Many concerned Crusader alumni and some teachers have been vigilant of and vocal about the current group, congratulating them for the height of their achievements but criticizing them for the lows on character and attitude.

Gepiga sadly admitted that there are student journalists who have “attitude problems”, especially those from higher batch of the labelled Star Section, but clarified those are a select few.

However, she confessed that it is “ironic” that the said few are those “na inakala mong maaasahan mo (you thought you could rely on)” and who promised her “na babawi [sa mga pagkukulang] (to redeem from lapses)”.

She added that the said few now act indifferent and “mukhang wala na silang pak[ialam] (they seem not to care anymore)” on finishing the newspapers and keeping their promises.

Terribly disappointing

NAPAKABUSY NIYO PO (sic),” former Chief Photographer and batch 2014 Honorable Mention Daniel Matthew Butardo stated on a Facebook post.

The former Division SSPC 7th placer — one of the 15 QC photojournalists who qualified to the Regional SSPC in 2013 — was referring to the Crusaders who frequently use the excuse of being “busy” and “hindi kami pwede kasi may gagawin kami (we are not available because we’ll do something)” in relation to other academics

Broken family

Knowing the hardships one will encounter as a Crusader, Gepiga — who resides in Caloocan, has a total work-home travel time of almost three hours every day and has a one-year-old firstborn waiting at home — continued the publication tradition of “pamilya”.

She has built a close-knit family atmosphere, with a homey feel and more freedom than a classroom setup, in arguably the busiest but most underappreciated student organization in every high school.

Only one rule is absolute for Gepiga: “okay lang magsaya sa Journ [Room], kahit mag-ta-ta-tumbling pa sila d’yan, pero ‘wag lang nilang kakalimutang gawin ang mga tungkulin nila at ipasa ang mga trabahong dapat ipasa. On time.”

While quarrels are normal in a family, the adviser admitted that this school year, she feels openly disrespected by her Crusaders, stating that “kung umasta sila parang hindi nila ako adviser (they act like I am not their adviser)” and “nanliliit ‘yung pagkatao ko sa ugali nila (my dignity feels belittled because of their attitude).”

EICs Wynona Geralda Del Rosario (English) and Frances Sophia Bandiola (Filipino) share the sentiment along with Gepiga, with all three women pointing out that they are sickened of their staffs’ “pagdadabog” and “pagtawa-tawa lang”, especially on wrongs that their colleagues — friends, even — continue doing without trying to correct.

Like in many families where children start not listening to their parents at some point, Gepiga still believes that the Crusaders, more than a publication, is a family formed from bonds, underappreciated efforts, unknown sufferings and understanding rather than skills and awards.

“Ang pamilya ay pamilya. Pamilya kami sa Journ... pamilya pa rin ang turing ko sa kanila,” Gepiga said.

“... inakala mong maaasahan mo (you thought you could rely on)” and who promised... “na babawi [sa mga pagkukulang] (to redeem from lapses)”

Aside from consistent success in not beating the deadlines they set upon themselves, one of the biggest disappointments about the current Crusaders are some 10th graders’ more consistent and brazen use of other subjects’ requirements as excuse compared to any other previous senior Crusaders.

Some student journalists blatantly refused making articles other than their forte or contest category. On one instance, a non-journalism student but student council executive reported to the Editor-inChief (EIC) that a Crusader mockingly remarked, “Sila ‘yung magaling, eh ‘di sila ‘yung gumawa” when asked why the person did not want to help in making the newspaper.

On another occasion, Gepiga said a father once proudly told her that his daughter was awake late at one night doing articles. The parent did not know that his child refused and did not initiate to make articles for a long period of time, and that she was cramming the time he saw his daughter up during wee hours.

The said EIC also once confronted two of her staff — who happens to also be her classmate and friend — to tell her to do the responsibilities they were intentionally neglecting.

The EIC further reminded them that they might not have grades on their 3rd quarter Report Card if they continue on not submitting articles and intentionally not doing their tasks correctly.

One of the two talked back to the publication’s highest editor and mightily said to the EIC, “Eh ‘di wala”.

Miracle

The publication, for the second straight school year, was put in jeopardy by the Crusaders who did not do their tasks and who did not keep their words to Gepiga.

Because of not submitting the articles, illustrations and photos on time out of complacency and pride, the publication was again in the brink of failing to beat the deadline for the newspaper submission set on December 28, 2015 by the DepEd Regional Office.

Miraculously, the deadline was moved to January 7, 2016.

As of December 21, 2015 — the day when the final layout of the newspapers should be sent to the publisher or printing house to have a slim hope of beating the original deadline on December 28 — the CRUSADER newspaper was still just 45 percent complete, while KRUSADA was at five percent.

In the high school and collegiate newspaper industry, publishers mandate that publications should send the final layout of the publication’s newspaper at most a week before the expected arrival date, and much earlier when it is peak season.

The turtle-rate completion of the newspapers were due to most staffs’, even the editors themselves, mentality that the newspapers could be completed — in highquality without any factual, typographical, punctuation and grammatical error — in a matter of days.

Three editors of high rank in the EB hierarchy optimistically stated that all articles would be finished in just one day, set on December 18. The day ended with only 11 articles checked, none of which were ready for layout.

Another difficulty that hinders the publication is the lack of funds, which was already raised to the former principal Janet Dionio early in the school year but was met with inaction.

- Marsha Gepiga

Talisman of excuse

Gepiga cited the “kapal ng mukha” some students display when refusing orders and when frequently using other subjects as a powerful talisman of excuse.

She noted that whenever there are conflicting schedules, some current student journalists would excuse themselves in a manner of “ipinapaalam lang (informing)” and not “nagpapaalam (asking permission)”.

Some would not even excuse themselves, while others would only excuse themselves the very day of the Crusaders’ adviser-scheduled or Editorial Board (EB)-called work-meeting by saying “may meeting po kasi kami” on another subject and with another group, though the former was first set.

On the flip side, some non-journalism students usually threaten student journalists of “tatanggalin sa grupo (will be removed from the group)” and “wala kayong grade (you won’t have a grade)” if they are late or does not arrive on a grouping.

Gepiga and some alumni spoke against the growing culture of excuses by pointing out that the previous batches fully performed their duties — without displaying “attitude problems” and causing lengthened delays — both as journalists and students.

Even the younger Crusaders have been deeply dismayed on some of their seniors’ inflated egos and for abusing the generosity of the adviser, while other alumni and Gepiga slammed the group for “over-familiarity” with the adviser.

“Mukhang ‘yung mga students NGAYON ay getting worse and worse... HUWAW

Outside forces

Aside from internal issues that grew, other outside forces have also jeopardized the publication in school year 2014-2015 and in past months of this school year.

A number of former and current student journalists have noted that they have been “laging pinapansin (always noticed)” by a couple of teachers even if they are not doing anything wrong. Some Crusaders observed that one of the said teachers seems to have bad blood with the group.

As observed by Crusaders from a particular class, if ever many students are not in the classroom, one particular teacher would frequently seek and pinpoint first the student journalists, then ask “Nasa Journ na naman?” even if most missing students are not journalists.

In school year 2014-2015, a number of teachers even gossiped about the Crusaders to the utmost extent, all while Gepiga was on maternity leave.

Due to an erroneous story that one teacher started in early November, a series of rumors spread and snowballed up until December.

In the first week of November, two Crusaders were even undeservingly scolded, personally insulted and hurled foul words at owing to the said gossip. According to fellow Crusaders, non-journalist classmates and an alumna who has familial ties with one of the students, the two were visibly torn emotionally and later cried.

The said student journalists and some others kept mum to Gepiga and to their parents, expecting that their parents would raise complaints to higher level had they known what was told and what the gossips were about.

Another reason that some Crusaders stayed silent was due to the young journalists wanting to show character and tact to the involved adults. The student journalists were also advised by an alumnus to learn from The Parable of the Weeds (Matthew 13:18-30) from the Bible.

In accordance, Gepiga was only informed by the Crusaders about the incidents and the gossips when she returned to active duty late in December. She dealt with the baseless issues about her “children” in a closed-door meeting with involved teachers.

Other Crusaders from batch 2015 and alumni from earlier batches also said they have received and heard a number of baseless accusations and esteem-deflating comments during their time as student journalists.

— Crusaders Special Reportorial Team

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NEWS

Andrea Nicole B. Cabiles News Editor

Top 5 in 2015: controversies, injustice and hope (News excerpts rounded from different sources)

Binay accuser exposes University of Makati scam

By Patricia Lourdes Biray, The Philippine Star (May 5, 2015) Bondal insisted that Makati did not need to enter a joint venture with STI since the local government allots P2 billion every year for UMak.

Vice President Jejomar Binay is facing another corruption allegation as the Senate Blue Ribbon sub-committee resumed its hearing on Tuesday.

Lawyer Renato Bondal accused Binay of benefiting from the P1.2 billion worth building of the University of Makati (UMak) College of Nursing.

The lawyer questioned the joint venture between UMak and Systems Technology Institute (STI) in December 2003 for the building, adding that there was no public bidding done for the project during the term of Binay as Makati City mayor.

“Ang performance ng mga estudyante ay hindi nagiimprove pero ang kita nila tuloy-tuloy taon-taon,” Bondal told the Senate panel.

The tuition in UMak currently costs P1,000 per year for Makati residents while nonresidents have to pay P23,000 to P37,000.

Bondal claimed that Binay earns from the tax dividends of Philippine Healthcare Educators, Inc. which manages the tuition in UMak College of Nursing.

Iglesia ni Cristo protester Flash floods trigger Metro at Edsa rally: ‘Wala kaming Manila ‘carmageddon’ napala. Nagpagod lang kami’

By Jeannette I. Andrade and Ramon Royandon

By Anthony Q. Esguerra, Philippine Daily Inquirer (August 29, 2015) What do Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) members get for picketing on Edsa?

“Wala kaming napala!”

This was the reaction of Ka Ising, a lady protester who requested anonymity for fear of persecution, on the ongoing rally of INC members on Edsa-Shaw Boulevard intersection.

They were protesting the alleged meddling of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima in the affairs of the Philippine-based church by supposedly “giving special treatment” on the serious illegal detention and grave coercion complaint filed by former INC minister Isaias Samson Jr.

Philippine Daily Inquirer (September 10, 2015)

But not everyone who flocked the Edsa for a protest rally that caused heavy traffic was happy with what they’re doing.

“Sa totoo lang wala kaming napala. Nagpagod lang kami,” Ka Ising, a member of the church’s district from a province in Southern Luzon, told INQUIRER.net.

The 36-year-old Ka Ising said they were asked by their church leaders to join the protest against the “biased” moves by De Lima.

“Sinabihan kami na pupunta kami sa Maynila para mag-rally nga. May sasakyan naman at wala nang pasok kaya pumunta na lang kami,” she said.

Non-section 1, first-time Crusaders lead student pub in MDSSPC

Proving their class and wits, the Crusaders that joined Editorial Writing in Filipino medium lived by the compound word “hakot-award” when all four category representatives won as the student publication had 10 awardees in total — the school’s most in the Mini-District Secondary Schools Press Conference (MDSSPC) since 2012.

Punong Patnugot (Editor-in-Chief or EIC) Frances Sophia Bandiola of KRUSADA, the official student publication of Krus Na Ligas High School (KNLHS), led four Crusaders in owning the Editorial Writing-Filipino (Pagsulat ng PangulongTudling o Editoryal).

Bandiola — the first non-Section 1 EIC of the student publication in history — won 4th place as Joannah Mae Manalang, John Lester Francisco and Sofia Gutierrez got 5th, 6th and 7th spots, respectively. This is the first

time in the MDSSPC that three or more Crusaders won in a single category.

Bandiola is from X-Aquino, Manalang and Francisco are 10th graders from Rizal, while Gutierrez is a ninth grader from Quisumbing. The win was Gutierrez’ first since joining last school year.

The 2015 MDSSPC was held at Dr. Josefa Jara Martinez High School in Barangay Tatalon.

Fan-ches-tic win

Like Bandiola of section Aquino, Francheska

Alleine Galang of IX-Campos also carried the name, aspirations and dignity of the so-called lower sections by winning 1st place in Pagsulat ng Lathalain (Feature Writing in Filipino), besting between 45 and 52 other Lathalain writers from 12 schools in District IV. Not only did she become the second Crusader Lathalain writer in history to win the top spot, Galang also became the first Crusader in 24 years to get the highest award in a category in just her first contest.

The “Revival Era” EIC Maira Baguio was the first Crusader to win 1st place in Lathalain in any level during the 2013 District SSPC. Before Baguio got the elusive 1st-place tag, the Crusaders had at least won once a spot between 2nd and 10th in the MDSSPC, District, Division and Regional SSPCs, and YMCA. For the Wi[y]n

CRUSADER, the official student pub of KNLHS in English, also got Continue to page 17...

World leaders converge in APEC Philippines 2015

Obama hits China, Xi talks of better ties in Asia With the leaders from two of the world’s leading nations in terms of military and economy in attendance, heads turned around to see what would be said and what could be gained in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit hosted by the Philippines from November 17 to 20.

The presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and United States (US) President Barack Obama highlighted the Summit. China and the US have been throwing occasional verbal jabs to each other in relation to the disputed West Philippine Sea.

China, behind its anomalous nine-dash line rule that breaches the United Nation’s Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in which it is a signatory, claims almost the whole West Philippine Sea and neighboring waters.

The Chinese also assert their self-proclaimed territory through aggressive reclamation activities and by building military training camps, bases and runways.

The communist-led country also sends warships to patrol the areas.

In his speech and in line with the APEC theme “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World”, Xi did not open the topic on West Philippine Sea and instead focused on building and strengthening economic ties with fellow Asian countries.

Contrary, Obama reiterated in his speech the strength of the ties between the US and the Philippines. He criticized China for its actions in the disputed areas and said

By Jessa Divine Celeste D. Omamalin launched at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.

Other than Xi and Obama, some of the most famous attendees were Japanese Prime Minister (PM) Shinzo Abe and Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev. Netizens also noticed Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña

that the US will defend its “ally” in the worst scenario.

Along with South Korea, this year the Philippines joined the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), “an agreement that would create a free trade market in the AsiaPacific region that remove tariff duties and barriers for goods and services.”

The TPP is composed of the US, Japan, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Peru and Chile.

China, as Xi emphasized, is trying to persuade neighboring Asian countries to create its own Asiaexclusive continental marketagreement — the Regional Cooperative Economic Agreement (RCEA).

Neighboring Asian countries, though, raise their eyebrows on the sincerity of China, owing to its selfish and aggressive reclamation activities and self-imposed nine-dash line that owns majority of the territorial waters in Southeast and East Asia that violates the UNCLOS. The concluding but biggest program, the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, focused on talks about prioritizing investments on human capital development, improved participation of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Asian and global market, building sustainable and resilient communities, and an enhanced regional economic integration.

Around 7,000 delegates, 2,000 international journalists and 20 world leaders attended the summit that was

Nieto for their looks, and later made the two be trending topic on Twitter.

Founded in 1898, APEC is an influential economic conference in Asia-Pacific that credits half of the worldwide business trade and 57 percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The last time the Philippines hosted the APEC Summit was in 1996.

Traffic nightmare. Motorists and commuters going home get stuck in EDSA traffic early September 2015 after flashfloods cause massive jams amounting to six hours.

One commuter spent the first few hours of his birthday with strangers on a passenger bus, rather than with his loved ones at home, staying on the road from Sept. 8 to Sept. 9.

He was one of the thousands of commuters who spent the first hours of Sept. 9 in cars, taxis and jeepneys and on buses or, worse, on sidewalks waiting for a ride because of the horrendous traffic on Edsa and other major roads of Metro Manila on Tuesday night.

The culprit: heavy flooding due to a sudden thunderstorm and the absence of traffic enforcers.

The “carmageddon” in Metro Manila prompted other tired, hungry and angry commuters to express their frustration and anger on social media.

“I left the office on Sept 8, I arrived home on Sept. 9,” best described the

feeling of netizens.

“7 p.m. umalis ng school tapos 1 a.m. nakauwi.

Nag alay lakad makauwi lang.

Palala na talaga ng palala.

Solusyonan nyo yan! #Edsa #Traffic,” said netizen @ iamprincessle.

Because of the gridlock, Jean Avila later greeted a fellow passenger happy birthday on social media with a mix of Pinoy humor and irony.

“Long live to those who grew roots on Edsa! Long live to those who caught the rays of the sun on East Avenue!

And most importantly, long live to my co-passenger who was stuck on a bus until he celebrated his birthday because of the standstill traffic from Litex to Regalado [both in Quezon City]. Happy birthday to you, stranger! Mabuhay!” Avila said in a Facebook post.

Continue to page 15...

Crusaders lead creation of KNL’s 1st brgy newspaper

Seeing the need for a more informed community and improved press contribution, the Sangguniang Barangay (Barangay Council) of Krus

Na Ligas (KNL) asked the assistance of the Crusaders to create a barangay newspaper — the first in the barangay’s 385 years of documented existence.

Bigkis Balita, the name of the barangay newspaper coined by consultant Mc Kenneth Baluyot, was derived from the idea of creating a newspaper that

Young community leaders. Student journalists, or Crusaders, and the Sangguniang Barangay pose for a photo op while holding the barangay newspaper, Bigkis Balita, during the year-ending Barangay General Assembly last November 7, 2015 at the Plaza Covered Court.

unifies the community through newsworthy items concerning the welfare of the public.

The concept to create a barangay newspaper was first pitched and founded by Kagawad Mau FulgencioMagalong and Kagawad Romeo “Mama Ome” Jose, under the approval of the Sangguniang Barangay.

The student journalists — known as Crusaders — led the creation of the newspaper, with the Malañgen Conference Hall as their press room.

The Crusaders are student journalists from KRUSADA and CRUSADER, the official student publications of KNL High School (KNLHS) in Filipino and English, respectively.

Continue to page 15...

SCIENCE

Jessa Divine Celeste D. Omamalin

5

Science Editor

By June Ace G. Esteban and Jessa Divine Celeste D. Omamalin

“Bio-hacking” — the process sounds like the movie Repo Man, the idea similar to the creation of super-soldiers from The Avengers but the conspiracy, much more like the sci-fi novel and film-adapted The 5th Wave, soon in cinemas and starring Gayle Foreman’s If I Stay female protagonist Chloë Grace Moretz.

It also eerily resembles the dystopian novel Divergent series, its third installment, Allegiant, showing in March 2016 and starring MTV 2015 Trailblazer Award recipient and John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars female lead Shailene Woodley.

For the perfectly religious, this news seems to be the omen of the “Rupture”, “the Second Coming” or the “Armageddon” — all these referring to the start of “the end of days”.

As early as now, Doomsday watchers and netizens already cite the Book of Revelations, specifically Rev. 13:16-17 and 14:9-10.

Soon, the idiom “the chips are down” would be overwritten by the expression “the chips are under the skin”.

‘ The B ea s t ’ s ta rts i n ‘ B e rs ’

SEPTEMBER 3, 2015 (BERLIN) — During a technological conference in Germany , as reported

by Sarah Griffiths on the online version of the British daily the Daily Mail, a number of individuals agreed to undergo bio-hacking.

Bio-hacking, as defined in the same news, is the process wherein “chips [are] implanted into the body to perform tasks typically done using phone or smartwatch.”

Marcus Preuss, Kaspersky’s director of global research team in Europe, said in an interview with Griffiths that “[t]he next logical step is not to stop at wearables such as smartwatches, but go under the skin to enable more functionalities.”

Kaspersky Lab, the global computer software and anti-virus security group, led and organized the said tech conference in Berlin.

The said microchip, which is a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip and cost 152 US dollars or 100 Euro on online retail stores, is “inserted between the thumb and forefinger [and] will move around [inside the hand] for the first week or so”.

‘ E p i cen t er ’ of a l l m i c ro

JANUARY 2015 (SWEDEN) — According to the news written by Rory Cellan-Jones and published on the Internet counterpart of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), www.BBC.com, a “hi-tech office block” is offering tenants to be implanted with the microchip to perform easier functions like opening doors, operating a photocopier and paying in the cafe.

The management of the building called “Epicenter”, which is also its developer, invites tenants to try the microchip, also an RFID. The said material is the “size of a grain of rice, about 12mm long and injected with a syringe”, according to the news dated January 29, 2015.

Patrick Mesterson, chief executive officer of the said developer, was reportedly chipped live on stage during the inauguration of the building.

NOVEMBER 2014 (SWEDEN) — On an earlier profile report from the same news team, Jane

By Jessa Divine Celeste D. Omamalin Not only in love, but even planets now makes you expect something that ends up “lopsided”.

In October 2015, alien-life enthusiasts were thrilled when scientists fail to explain the strange, erratic pattern of a star about 1,480 light years away from the Earth, which intrigued the astronomical community and even the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) institute, an organization that monitors signs of life in other worlds.

Astronomers took a particular interest on the star named KIC 8462852 due to the celestial body’s bizarre, random, fluctuating flux (brightness), something similar to when your love is giving you mixed, mind-bending signals.

Initially, one of the most bizarre but widely believed explanation on the strange phenomenon was that the fluctuations were caused by large galactic solar panels called Dyson sphere.

Enthusiasts believed that the aliens built the said panels to harvest energy from any star or planet, a seemingly less painful but equally terrifying spin-off than extraterrestrial life annihilating mankind with squid-like robots shooting their death rays and a horde of flesheating alien buddies who has long, bony squealing tongues that bite.

According to Wikipedia, Dyson sphere “is a hypothetical megastructure... first described by Olaf Stapledon in his science fiction novel, Star Maker (1937), and later popularized

by Freeman Dyson in his 1960 paper ‘Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation’.”

The hype on a possible alien megastructure — and probably hope of aliens knocking at our doorsteps on Valentine’s Day — skyrocketed as the group Kepler Space Telescope noted KIC 8462852’s weird non-symmetrical light pattern in four years of study starting 2009.

Wakefield had her article published on December 10, 2014 about the “so-called implant party”.

The group, organized by now-Epicenter Chief Disruption Officer Hannes Sjoblad, had its first implant sessions involving several other parties in November 2014. Sjoblad said in the news that he had found “[v]olunteers through social media and hacker communities in Sweden.”

Fo r healt h a n d w e l l n e s s

LATE 2012 (CAMBRIDGE) — In Massachusetts, USA, then-startup MC10 made a digital computing tattoo called BioStamp that collects data “such as temperature, heart rate, brain activity and exposure to ultraviolet radiation” which can be uploaded with other wearables, as Bloomberg Business reported.

The said company started making BioStamp in late 2012 and, according to Tekla Perry’s news published May 29, 2015 on spectrum.ieee.org, “began developing a new generation of the technology in late 2014 [which is now] going to medical researchers for use in clinical trials”.

SEPTEMBER 8, 2015 (TOKYO AND REDWOOD SHORES) — The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved for “substantive review and is considered filed” the Digital Medicine by Japan’s Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Otsuka) and California, USA’s Proteus Digital Health (Proteus), according to a press release by Proteus.

The press release further explained that the Digital Medicine is a merged drug-and-device from “Otsuka’s ABILIFY (aripiprazole) for serious mental illness, embedded with Proteus’ ingestible sensor in a single tablet to digitally record ingestion... [which will] provide an objective measure of medication adherence and physiologic response [to help] tailor treatment to the patient’s needs.”

“[C]reate a new method of birth control that a woman could turn on and off as she likes...”

- Bill Gates

Micro chip c o n t r a c e p t iv e

Year 1990s (MASSACHUSETTS) — Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Robert Langer, lauded as “the most cited engineer in history”, and fellow professors Michael Cima and John Santini “developed a microchip technology that could release controlled amounts of chemicals”, according to an article by David McNamee published July 7, 2015 on www.medicalnewstoday.com.

Year 2012 (MIT LABORATORY) — Microsoft founder Bill Gates inquired with Langer on the possibility “to create a new method of birth control that a woman could turn on and off as she likes and which she can use for many years”.

Through a partnership between MIT and Lexington-based information technology startup MicroCHIPS and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation under its family planning unit, a remote-controlled microchip contraceptive is being developed and is expected to be in the market by 2018.

An article from www.technologyreview.com stated that the said microchip contraceptive measures 20 x 20 x 7 millimeters, is 1.5 centimeters wide, dispenses 30 micrograms of levonorgestrel and has 16 years of contraceptive-function longevity compared to contemporary birth control implants that only last up to five years.

According to Wikipedia and websites of the US National Library of Medicine and Princeton University, levonorgestrel is an “emergency contraception... effective within 120 hours after sex” and is a “manufactured hormone... sold under the brand name Plan B among others [in pill form]” and “is used to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sexual intercourse... [but] should not be used on a regular basis.”

The hormones will be kept inside the microchip by platinum and titanium seals on the hormone reservoirs, according to reports, and “small dose of [levonorgestrel would be diffused] out each day by “passing an electric current through the seal from an internal battery [which] melts [the seal] temporarily”.

Implants of the microchip contraceptive would be under the skin of the buttock, abdomen or upper arm.

However, space blogger Jim Galasyn hypothesized that the strange changes in flux are a result of “the star having a lopsided disc and change on duration because two different-sized planets are obstructing its views.”

The proposition was in the article written by Victoria Woollaston and was published October 26, 2015 on the online version of British national broadsheet Daily Mail.

SETI institute, which had the highest hopes on the Dyson sphere-idea, set up 42 radio telescopes by using the Allen Telescope Array in California to probe the mysterious star on any signs of alien life.

The said radio telescopes would detect two radio-type signals: first, narrow-band signals, in the order of 1Hz, predicting that an alien civilisation would use as a signal that announce their presence and, second, broadband signals which could be caused by beamed forced that drives things forward within the star system.

The two-week observation showed no sign of either type of signal between 1 and 10 GHz frequencies, which kind of felt familiar whenever someone gets seen-zoned.

SETI concluded that “observations will continue but so far no evidence of deliberately produced radio signals has been found in the direction of KIC 8462852.” (Yes, that’s so hopelessly romantic, in an extraterrestrial way.)

And so we are back to being forever alone. Good thing there is Star Wars, though.

SOURCES: earthsky.org, paradoxplaza.com, redeeminggod.com

6

LITERARY I. Dead feelings

ALONE. At night. In my bed. I usually cry.

People see me as outgoing and jolly, like nothing makes me blue, and even if something does, they tell me I quickly shake it off. I like playing LoL and DotA, skateboarding, and watching zombie films. I like club and hip-hop music, but I listen more to songs by Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Jason Mraz, Mayday Parade, and Birdy. I kinda embody today’s generation.

I enjoy reading novels under sci-fi, mystery, romance, and young adult fiction, of which I have peculiar attraction in John Green’s Looking For Alaska (waiting for its film!). Recently, I have read David Levithan’s One Day and Every Day, Stephen King’s Finders Keepers, Rick Yancey’s The Last Star, Neil Gaiman’s The Grave Keeper, Veronica Roth’s Allegiant (see you in March!), Nicholas Sparks’ The Choice (next adapt!), and Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park.

Curiously, I get weird feelings when listening to Kamikaze’s Huling Sayaw and 5 Seconds of Summer’s Amnesia. Pixar’s Inside Out also strangely struck something inside me.

Well, anyway, I sound like the dream girl most boys would drool over, huh? The type of girl who is an intellectual sweetheart and likes chick flicks and who is also fierce and likes blood and gore. The girl who you could watch The Walking Dead with and have an overnight zombie-movie marathon as much as talking about characters from your favorite novels.

Aside from the scar running from the edge of my forehead to my temple (which I don’t remember how it came to be), I do seem perfect, right?

No.

I cry alone in bed late at night. I feel afraid. I feel unhappy.

I am sad and empty.

I feel confused, as confusing as the logical correctness between the phrases half-empty and half-full, like some twisted grammar Nazi psycho decided to Hey, let’s destroy the world starting with grammar.

I feel helpless and hopeless. Both at the same time.

The thing is this: you never know what true pain or sadness is until you curl up in your bed and cry alone to yourself at the shouting silence of the night, having your heart broken slowly from unexplainable reasons. One. Painful. Piece. At a time.

I end up feeling unfeeling. I feel like dying. …

“Help me, please.”

II. Alive

I CRIED to him. Again.

I always seek and cry to him during these moments. He is always the first one who pops into my mind when I feel like crying… when I feel like this.

Just to be clear: he is not my boyfriend. Neither is he courting me.

(Secretly, I may be wishing that he did). But for some strange reason, he is really special to me.

“At times, I feel I am dying. It feels so wrong, like I’m too broken to be okay,” I tell him.

“You’re not dying. You’re going to live and be okay,” he tells me.

“How do you know that?” I ask.

“I don’t.”

“If you don’t, then why do you always say that?”

“Because I’m here,” he stops for a moment, “and I will always be with you, especially during the hard and lonely parts. I won’t let you be broken beyond fixing.”

Perplexed Rainfall

By Ruffa R. Ronquillo (X-Rizal)

It came ---------The bluish sky turns into raging hues of gray Yet here I am, feeling bright, wonderful and gay Extraordinary it always seem to be But that’s how I cherish thy rainfall, can’t you see?

It fell ---------Less than the usual speed, it drops upon my hair A seeker it comes, digging my soul in despair Flowing down, it fondles across my forlorn face Reaching my ghost, and taking away my grimace It stayed --------The raindrops it bestow becomes even better Such attachment makes my frigid being warmer All the agony left in me had been washed away Its admiration drenches; I wish it would stay It goes --------I am frighten when those raindrops starts to shiver Sooner, it’ll go nowhere just like a feather The fervor it bequeaths, makes me fall back in tears “Farewell, my sweet maiden,” it whisper in my ears How I still love thy rainfalls; it comes and goes Or dries then pours, like no one knows.

And, for the first time, I felt that being broken isn’t so bad when you have someone who sees and treats each broken pieces of you in a very special way.

“Don’t say that like it’s a—” “I promise.”

After he said that, the distance separating us gradually disappeared along with my worries and fears. Slow. Careful. Craving. My lips approached his tender lips. Or maybe it was his going to mine slowly, carefully, full of craving.

I closed my eyes and felt his breathe, which smells like spearmint bubble gum and cherry flavored candy. Quite familiar.

The first touch, a peck, was soft, gentle, and caressing. Though it was only less than a second’s taste of his skin, I felt electricity run through my neck, down my spine, to my limbs, until it reached my fingers. I felt my knees shake. My heart was on riot as it was at peace, but I was still very sure it was part of the process of dying.

“Will this last?” I ask him as I come to a sudden stop and move my face away.

He half-smiled, one cheek higher than the other. “Sometimes,” he said, “it matters more to us when what deserves to last doesn’t last.”

I laughed. That came somewhere deep. I touched his left cheek with my right hand and half-pushed, half-slapped his face teasingly.

With the tip of his fingers, he brushed the loose strands of hair from my forehead to the side, soft and full of care like I was the most fragile thing on Earth. But it was not just me being fragile, but more of me being important to him when he did that.

Funny, I wonder, how some other person takes good care of things but not of other people and their feelings.

Has someone you love ever given you negligence, instead of importance? Some people try so hard for their car not to be damaged, their skateboards not to be broken, their phones not to be lost, and their books not to be torn, but they allow the person they tell they love, the person they tell is important in their life, to be damaged, broken, lost, and torn apart.

Why do we take care of replaceable things but dump irreplaceable people? We look at the scratches and brokenness on stuffs we bought and pay big amount to fix them, but we fail to see the wounds on the person who loves us with their best even when they are at their worst, the person whom we pay little attention and time but big amount of blame and neglect.

It’s not every day that you get to be loved so much when you could offer so less. It’s even once-in-alifetime to be loved best when you are at your lowest, I wondered further.

He stared thoughtfully at me, put one hand on my nape, and leaned in. Both of us instinctively closed our eyes. With the moon watching over us, he gave me a kiss on the forehead; the kind of kiss—his kiss—that would make any girl melt into a puddle of sweet pudding and goo.

I knew sadness and pain were still inside me, but I didn’t feel them. He made me not feel them. They were powerless. He loved my mind and its weirdness, he saw beauty in my heart’s tragedy, and he bared my soul naked while my clothes were still on—all of it, all of me, with just that thoughtful stare.

After that giddy moment, he delicately touched his forehead on mine. With our eyes still closed, he confessed in a soft, almost sensual, low voice, “I want you to know and always remember: I love you… for who you are, even the ‘you’ who is really difficult to love. I love you… with all your flaws, with all your imperfections, and with all the other things you don’t even like about yourself. I love you… because I want to, even when it seems unreasonable and crazy. I love you… in spite of everything you are going through.

I didn’t confess my feelings for him. He opened his eyes and I met his gaze.

Continue to page 13...

As you look at me I cannot escape from the reality I still love you I’m still fighting for you

You made me believe that “someday” does exist You said it. There is someday for us And now, here I am, Waiting and taking the risk People told me to just give up They knew you will never come back But you made me believe Someday does exist And now here I am, Trying to hide the pain Believing and hoping There is a chance for us again You keep pushing me away But all I can do is to stay They didn’t know what I’ve been through Just to be with you

Someday

By Eunice B. Santiago (X-Rizal)

Unhappy Ending

By Mikaela C. Sale (X-Rizal)

No matter how much we try it No matter how much we want it Some stories just don’t have A happy ending.

No matter how much we fall for it No matter how much we love it Happy endings just don’t Exist at all.

We’ll live the rest of our lives But not together A little bit of heaven, and A little bit of hell This is the saddest story That we’ve ever told Happy ending will be gone Forevermore...

Neverending

By Jericho O. Pandungan X-Rizal

Love is never ending Woven with infinite feelings Even if your pure hearts stained The power of love still remains Everything will change And nothing is permanent But nothing is meaningless Everything makes sense I may not be a perfect person But I can be perfect for you I’ll make you safe and treat you right Because my love for you is true

Illustration by James Bryan Morgado.

7

LITERARY Fallen

Angels

By Wynona Geralda S. Del Rosario (X-Rizal)

They were young, they were the best, but they were left behind by the rest.

They have fought and they have fallen as the enemies won and their lives were taken.

They died in a combat standing their ground in place where hope was never found, where all that’s heard were gunfire’s sound, enemies surround them, death has dragged them around.

Perhaps we do not know the dignity of their birth but we know and commend the glory of their death; story of their lives will be told with respect as they have served our nation until the last breath.

They were young, they were the best, but they were left behind by the rest.

They have fought and they have fallen, they may rest in peace now with our Father in Heaven.

The Stained Warriors

Forty-four salutes

By Mary Catherine Angelica U. Lacap (X-Rizal) People and feelings, their emotions all fleeting, a whole country shouting “Justice” for these killings.

Did you ever wonder about the families?

Crumbling and mourning, pondering for reasons about an unprepared battle they’ve been pushed to which fell them to a pit and gravestones.

The heroes are them, these 44 soldiers who sacrificed their own, for the good of more souls; their blood which shed the light for our days to capture the convict and end the charade.

A prayer to heaven is what I will send, silent hushes for the warriors I intend.

To give respect as I write with this pen, calling out “Justice” to every countryman.

By Coleen R. Francisco (IX-De Ocampo)

How did we up here

end

Star wars have light sabers.

Nations have life saviours.

The mighty protectors are our country’s soldiers.

A very passionate work to promote peace in the world and to cover the hole of the earthling’s fault.

It is a shame that those soldiers came in a miserable lane where they felt a lot of pain.

Heartless human beings that are like monsters in the ceiling looking down at our defenders with burning eyes like demons.

The

Lament from the Fallen

Abominations We are the ancient, the keepers of lore and peace; guardians of Bathala’s land.

Giant monsters attacked with screeching large fangs that crush and eat the earth.

Otherworldly beings came to hunt us with flutes full of flesh-tearing insects shaped like grain, made of copper.

We pleaded for our lives.

We pleaded for our land.

We still plead.

But we only bleed.

Is Bathala not mad on the death of my many fellow lumad?

Or is even the divine powerless against the abominations that now rule our land?

If even the heavens cannot judge the evil that run amok, who will?

- June Ace G. Esteban

Dear Mother, who bore me in her womb I am your child but I am as well the son of our country.

Dear Wife, when you told “yes” to be united by God I was very happy, but I was married first to the country before to you.

Dear Panganay, sorry that the box you received on your birthday did not have cake inside but your papa’s cold body.

Dear Baby inside my Wife’s womb, Papa is really sorry you will not experience playing swing on my biceps and only in photos you can hug me.

By Jireh Jannie T. Desabelle (X-Rizal)

So many lives taken, more than a hundred natives shaken, in their territories oppressed, patriotism now is under a test.

Lifeless can never be life again.

Hopeless. What more can they feel?

As tribe brethren are killed— by those powerful devils.

No one could stop them from killing and taking.

Well, at least one could— the government.

Only if he cared and would.

Too bad he’s not in mood.

Lumad are our countrymen.

They are our brethren.

They’re never strangers in this nation, the same reason to stop these chaotic motions.

Greed? Power? Fear?

Our own unity we tear.

How did we end up here?

Dear Comrade and Brother-in-combat, I am deeply sorry I failed as your commander to protect you.

So instead, let me fall with you in this massacre field called Mamasapano where our political leaders abandoned us to die.

- June Ace G. Esteban

Illustrations and Literary border by Cee-jhay M. Soriano.

8

EDITORIAL EDITORIAL

Reality Bites: a K-12 Senior’s Life “For every cloud, there is a silver lining.”

Since 2012, the Department of Education (DepEd), with the help of our current highest state leader, President Benigno Simeon “PNoy” Aquino III, signed the enhanced basic education curriculum for a country known globally for being sunk at the bottom in the aspects of education and economic growth.

Being middle in the list of literacy with 93.7 percent of students, citizens rising from poverty, away from being a third-world country to becoming a rising “progressing country”, we are tangled to many loops of priority. So, is it really worth the risk?

It has been three years since we started what we are told to fulfill. Even when the “to do or not to do” thoughts are just around the corner of our minds, there is no turning back anymore. Now there is “WE”, a simple pronoun in substitute for us SENIORS. We, who have and will still experience the light and darkness of K-12. We, who are in the process of making steps in a road where no one has ever stepped on in our nation. We, who await for whatever the future has to offer, to taste the sweetness and bitterness of change. Those are what “WE” stand for.

Having four years of high school is hard enough to accomplish. Statistics show that 10.3 percent of the Philippine youth population become out-of-school per day due to lack of finances, family support and drive to finish such path. What more is six years that we have to finish?

Such agony and burden which not only we but our parents will also suffer.

Honestly, improved education simply means harder lessons, activities and projects. For K-12 is a learnercentered curriculum, it will not be easy as the past education system compared. Teachers will not do spoonfeeding anymore; now it is in the bare hands of the students what to do in order to be part of the flow each day.

In addition, there will be no summer classes for students who will have more than two subjects failed. Unlike before, you have to repeat the level once more automatically, which means repeating all the subjects you have taken in the instance that you fail three subjects.

Subjects like math, English and science will be taught in a higher education like that in college, such as an in-depth study of literature of different countries and poetry of different eras. There will also be algebra, geometry and problem-solving combined in one year plus biology, physics, chemistry, earth and space sciences in the same length of time. Having not enough textbooks and facilities are different kind of twists and these make the real meaning of “stuDYING” crystal clear.

In this kind of setting, there is no time to lose.

The world spins in the nick of time; one wrong move is a complete ripple effect, for repeating simply implies another addition to the added two years. Therefore, sometimes it is not about learning anymore, it is just about merely passing.

Nevertheless, finding a school for senior high school is also an undeniable pain. Only a handful of schools are willing to offer the curriculum and mostly are universities.

Choosing a track which will embody your course in college seems harder than it looks because your decisions at a very young age should all match at the end.

Also, having a voucher provided by the government does not mean you won’t have to spend on studying from your own pockets. The voucher is not enough to sustain one’s need in the whole journey.

But then again, accepting the taste of change is not known to be sweet and having rough times does not mean it will not be easier someday. We just have to face splits and tackles in the road before we reach our ultimate goal: to have four diplomas in hand and prove the world that despite the hardships and challenges, we made through the ribbon at the end.

“If you believe in yourself and you want to achieve, senior high school might be the answer,” motivating words spoken by our beloved Principal Emma Quintana, believing that pain is a part of success. So, chins up seniors and never lose hope. We can all make it to the finish line, breathe and have a glimpse of victory. Let the future behold its gift for striving ones like you.

E

verything is inevitable. Even the longest bridge has an end, the widest ocean has a shore and the sweetest love story has an ending.

Love is not a testimony of endurance—no matter how hard you fought for someone, you will always feel defeat. No matter how long you waited or hard you tried, they still pick the ones they like even if they least deserve it.

Somehow it goes like this; if they want cold water, you are most willing to fan a glass of water until it gets cold but in the end they will go for someone who has ice. It just seems so pointless, so heart breaking and most of all unfair.

“I was there first” – it hurts right? It hurts like hell when the person you love does not even realize it and all they can say is sorry. One word to end it all, and out of the thousands of words from the dictionary, he chose sorry. For what? For breaking your heart? For making you believe in chances? Or for choosing someone he knew would kill the very life in you?

You were there, when no one stayed by his side. You were there, when he needed you and you were there when he chose her instead of you. In the end, it will always be you. The one who loved, sacrificed, and did so much is still the same person being broken when it is over.

Do you remember how it felt? The feeling of being high in love before drowning

A

fter the long long night, a bright light has rise coming from the east. The sun finally showed up and that means that another day has come. There are other things to work on and another 24 hours to spend. A new day is a hope for everyone and everybody seems to be happy and enjoying their life but then, there you are, sitting silently on a chair that is far away from the others. Your headphones are on your ears but you are actually not listening to any music. You just do not want others to talk to you and somehow escape the reality for a moment. No, you are not alone.

You have those you call “friends”.

It is not like you have issues with them that is why you are all by yourself. You just chose to be alone for a while.

“Masyado kang tahimik. Okay ka lang ba? Bakit di ka nagsasalita? Sige ka, baka mapanis yang laway mo”.

This is a famous phrase that perhaps, everyone has already heard from one of their friends or family member.

Probably, you all have that moment when you were on a good mood then suddenly, you began being quiet. Your friends were shocked by the abrupt change on your vibes. They do not know what happened and so they began asking you what is going on and admit it, some are already saying things behind your back. Another thing, somebody asked you a personal

Period

in melancholy? That magical moment when you see his eyes, his lips, the way he talks. It just makes you feel so happy, so contented, and so alive. Your heart just stopped beating and for the first time in your life, you had that feeling. Like the world is moving all around you, all beneath you, all inside you and you are floating in midair while the rest of the world swirls, twirls and falls completely away... Does it sound familiar? Wait, scratch that--- does it feel the same?

Learn by heart that memories are dangerous things.

You turn them over and over, until you know every touch and corner, still you will find an edge that cuts you. Therefore, never keep on looking at things that you cannot change, instead accept the painful truth that everything has changed and it will never be the same again.

As said, everything

is inevitable and so does your pain. You deserve at least to be happy even though you felt like you do not deserve to be loved.

Statistically, there are almost eight billion people in this world and 98 million can be found in the Philippines. Do not ever feel bad to let go of someone who have nothing to do but to hurt you. Does not give the love and worth you deserve.

Someone that causes those tears in your eyes, that someone who caused you pain in a very long time. Do not ever think that it is your loss; you are definitely not a back-plan nor an option.

You are the writer of your own story, it is in your hands whether to put a comma and wait for something that will never happen or rather, finally place a period and accept the ending of this prolonged tragedy. Once upon a time, you loved someone who did not love

Scream within silence

and quiet controversial question but you answered nothing.

Silence-Why do people choose to remain silent with those kinds of situations?

Does that mean they do not care at all or they are not thinking on saying something? The truth is, someone’s quietness does not literally mean he is all noiseless because deep inside, that person’s brain is full of unsaid words and his heart with unexpressed feelings and emotions. Right inside his mind, he is definitely screaming all the things he does want to say. Everything inside him is on war and his mind is torturing itself making it shed blood. Silence is the simplest way and a potent mask to hide everything we want to keep within ourselves.

There are a lot of reasons why we prefer keeping all things seems alright and endure faking ourselves. One is we want to refrain ourselves from hurting the people we love. We want to

avoid misunderstandings and resentments. We do not want them to know if we are in pain for them not to show some pity on us and not to implicate them with our problems. We do not want to ruin any relationship. We do not want to get things messed up and be in trouble, and a lot more reasons.

The power of silence is greatly use in love. When you and the one you admires accidentally met each other eyes, when you smelled his aromatic scent, when he said something that left a big impact to you, when you were sitting beside each other and all those moments that made you blush and resulted a war among your hormones.

Silence is also an effective way to show someone how you feel. Yes it hides your words but it reveals the inner you. It is good to choose not to say something, but the time will come when you have to take out and withdraw everything

you back, the end. Sometimes, the end is only the beginning.

Wounds are meant to be healed by time. So pick up the pieces of your broken heart and mend it yourself then stand up and learn to love someone new again. *****

Yo! Gratitude portion in the house yo! Finally! Haha! The biggest thanks to God! ILYM and I offer these to thee. <3 Special thanks to my family and to my mom! Can’t do this without you. <3 Shout out to mah barkadas ma’ men! WANTZ, S2+M, and Tropang Mm! <3 Ofc Royal Knights Huha!

Esp to Ma’am Marsha!

Thanks for everything and for trusting me to be an EIC. <3 I never had and never will regret my decision in joining the journalism family. Always in my heart, #PUSO forever. :) Kuya Juneys! Won’t be here without you, thank you for always believing in me since then. <3 Crusaders/Krusada peeps! We made it! J I love you guys!

Hey! Mariah, Eunice, Nikki, Joie, Timo, Dana, Danica, Andrea and 10-Rizal batch 2016!

Love you all! <3 And to the guy I loved but didn’t love me back, I hope for your happiness always. I won’t achieve this without you, so thanks for everything. Well, that’s it! High school life complete ayyt!

Want to fix my broken heart? I mean yours? HAHAXD Let’s talk about everything in delrosariowynona@ yahoo.com.

one by one, either through song, articles, etc. for it may help you lighten your heart from the burdens that brought to you by facing and dealing with everything all by yourself. *****

Hey yow. Thank you for reading my article through the end. Woooh! Finally natapos din ang diyaryo. Of course, thank you Ma’am Marsha, Kuya Ace and Ate Ritz for helping and guiding us para matapos itong newspaper. And yeah. Greetings to all my teachers especially sa mga naging advisers ko for Grade 7-10. Ma’am Prieto, Sir Dee, Ma’am Sabandal and Sir Baluyot.

Thank you rin Ma’am Ancheta, our RCY adviser. J Gwen. Marjorie, Kyla, Maison, Rona, Allen, Lester, AngeLibarra Jett, Dudap, Japthy, Katherine A. and syempre Bessie Mary Catherine Angelica Lacap.

XD Hi sainyo! Shout out pala sa 10- Rizal batch 2015-2016!

Shout out din kay Kuya Kenneth Almaden for the help last year sa article infos ko. J Syempre thank you so much sa family ko, kina Papa, Mama and dalawa kong kuya pati na rink ay baby Chico.

Above all, thank You Lord God for making all of these possible.

Without You we can do nothing. :) Okay, for your comments and reactions and kung may reklamo kayo sa article ko, just message me on my account phebe. austria@gmail.com.

Thank you! :) #KRUSADAPUSO

9

EDITORIAL

I

f PUPY LOVE is for elementary, so TRUE LOVE is for highschool?

They say if you fall inlove, or have a crush or something in your opposite gender when youre in elementary, it is just “puppy love”, but in Highschool? I don’t think so. In hihgschool, you will meet different kinds of people like gangsters “wanna be”, cool guys, handsome seniors, newbies, jolly guys, lower section cuties, charming guys with dimples, nerds and bullies. You will also meet differenet kinds of girls such as fashionistas, sassys, nerds, simple types, and the “love birds”.

Of course, highshool will not be complete without love birds in your way.

Sometimes they are in the hallways, in the corridors, in the stairs, and espicially in your own classrooms. You will see them sweetly holding their hands like there is no tommorrow and the worst, sometimes you will see a couple that saying “I love you’s” to each other with their “ endearment” like hon, babe, mahal, baby, love, Yam, moo, bae, munch, and many more.

I may or might sounds bitter, right? Well, that

I

f you think about the word “Fiction” you would think of unicorns and fairies or pixie dusts and giant daisies.

It’s pretty magical, but that’s not the fiction we are looking for. Unless you’re isolated inside a kid’s head think outside of the box instead.

Everyone goes through a lot everyday through exhaustion and sweat drizzling down your face. You noticed that you are one of them and it’s really no surprise. A problem either big or small is still counted as a problem that runs around your brain asking for it to be fixed.

Think of the freedom you will have without the entire ruckus. That’s the kind of fiction we are looking for, freedom and peace of mind.

Not only adults want this, but other kids want it too, not just for themselves but for everyone else. Problems build up, they give you headaches and stress you out. No one wants it to stay that is why they are wishing for it to go away.

Ever imagine about waking up and just breathe in the fresh air and have nothing to worry about like no paper work due the next morning or have to plan your schedule for the following days, sadly that rarely happens.

Let’s just take a break from reality then... since it’s the only thing left to do to survive

Highschool Love

is the fact. So let’s talk about their age, level, and sections.

Some couples are in the sane floor. Well, they were so lucky in that case. There are some cases where the guy is a year older than the girl or vice versa.

Some are in a relationship that the other half is on a grade level that two or more grades away from the other half.

Sounds sad , right? In a day period, they were so lucky if they meet. Some couples are hiding their relationship with their friends, classmates, batchmates, teachers, in their fear that it may spread and known by their parents.

Having acrush or getting in a relationship gives you great determination and motivation to study harder.

Like when you want to impress your boyfriend , you will review for your incoming quizees and periodical tests , and if you wee in the top students in your class,

you want to go to a higher rank to makr your friends, family, espicilally your boyfreind or girlfiend proud of you.

It is difficult to study and to be in a relationship in the same time. Sad to say many girls and boys that are in a relationship are not top students and they are in the lower sections.There will come a time that you will choose between your groupings or takehome group activity or your date with your “baby”. So you — being a silly person — will choose your date than to have a better grades.

Being in a relationship may also affect your closeness between your family. Here will be a situation that you might yell or shout at your mom, dad, or bigger siblings just to let you in a date with your boyfreind in the middle of the night.

One word, BIG meaning. Love? It controls the

Fictional Haven

this horror you call life. It’s quite simple, all you need is something to do to pass time and forget about your worries.

Get a book, sit back and imagine the magical words in the book to be right in front of you or you could listen to your favourite tunes and dance to them to soothe your soul.

RELAX! Make some time for yourself every once in a while... Well, at least if you know that you actually deserve such break. Do not push yourself to do things that you don’t want to do especially when you’re tired because it will just make your condition worse.

We all have to survive this hell hole that we are “Lucky” to live in and call our home planet. There are times that we just have a lot of things to work on and think about for other people to receive and repeat the cycle to another set of people. You have to work hard on things to get what you exactly want and sometimes get even more than what you

actually bargained for.

Not much people know how to move in this world like how some other people don’t even know their place in life. So it really is a pain in the butt to move around and not know what you are doing and don’t even know what it’s for. It’s like they are lost, trying to find the reason on why you even have to stay and keep moving forward.

But have you ever thought about how older people than you have survived this life? It’s because they’ve got to the point where they found the importance of appreciating every little bit of life on how they are not alone and that there are other people who go through the same thing. Think of all the help that you’ve received from people who care for you and believes that you really matter.

You need to stay.

Forget those stupid problems you just have to find your true self and everything will turn out fine. Imagine how happy

world. It controls everything.

Despite of the goodthing it can do to you, it can also do things that can hurt you, that can harm you. It is not bad to fall inlove, to have an inspiration to excel and to strive harder to achive yoor goals, but take note yor priorities. Don’t rush things. Everything happens with a reason. *****

Hi! <3 :) :) :) :) At last the newspaper is done!

Parteeh, Parteeh! XD :) :) :) :) :)

I just want to greet my beloved section, VIISampaguita,my mama, my Daddy, my younger siblings; Gian and Baby Abbie, to my neighbor Sharmaine, to all my bees’;Alex,Nadine,Kyla, and Ate Grace.Ate Grace,Aymishu berimuch! TvT, To Lyka, to Ana Marie, and to all my friends.

I just want to say thank you and sorry to Ma’am Marsha and Kuya Ace for being an irresponsible student and thank you for guiding us and me! :) :) :) If you have questions, feedback, complains or suggestions about this article, just go to andreanicolecabiles@gmail. com and send me a message.

Lovelots, Crusaders!

you’ll be once all your work is done and you can finally be with your loved ones and do anything that you want. Stay strong and it will be okay. *****

First of all I’d like to greet my mom and dad and thank them for allowing me to go to our journ meetings so that I got to finish my part of the newspaper and to help other fellow Crusaders/Krusada’s.

Also, I’d like to greet some friends who helped me get through the stress I went through to write my articles: Felix Gabriel Lapuz III , dude you’ll find someone! , Francheska Galang, you’re always there for me when I needed company. And for the people who helped me brush off my anger: Kim Luna, Coleen Francisco, Sofia Gutierrez, Jacklyn Fernandez, and Kris Cham Demit thanks for having my back.

For those who helped me through my first year in Journalism like Ate Wynona Del Rosario and Ate Sophia Hannah Alburo thanks for being so nice and helpful to your juniors and most of all thanks to our Journalism Adviser Mrs. Marsha G. Gepiga for being there to support us through our ups and downs and kept up with each and every one of us even if we are so stubborn, thank you for being a Great Teacher.

Are you BOBO?

H

ave you ever experienced to be rejected?

Ignored? Forgotten? Misinterpreted? Criticized?

Do not worry. It is not the end of the world yet. It is just the beginning.

There are moments in life when people, whom we less think will hurt us, are the ones who do. There are also times that we feel like we are doing what we think is right and best, but senseless to others. There are also circumstances that we strive hard in order to please others—to the point that we sacrifice a lot, a lot of time—even our self.

Being a daughter of a high school teacher was both an advantage and a disadvantage. When I was a school kid, I felt privileged because it seemed like I was very famous in school. Teachers know me by my popular surname. When they hear our family’s surname, it was then automatic that they were referring to ‘achievers’. Our mom was so proud of us. However, I also used to be bullied by my schoolmates who do not really know me. Every end of the school year, they would usually accuse me of being an honour student because of my teacher-mom. Without them knowing that I never had my mom as my classroom teacher. She did not want to either. She wanted to escape from gossips and misconceptions. Sadly, there were also teachers who looked down on me, on my sisters. When I was younger, I thought all teachers are kind and understanding. It has been a cycle. Discrimination always happened. Maybe, after my sisters and I all graduated in college with honours, no one could ever accuse us of things we are not guilty of. Since childhood, I have had encountered people who belittled me.

Although our experience with these people was terrible, we have always respected them. I told myself that when I become a teacher, I will never be like them.

They say when a person is a teacher; he will gain all the respect people wanted to have. Not in my case. Not all the time. Even though I am blessed with a lot of true friends, I have proven that we cannot really have all we want. Not all people will like what you do. Not all will enjoy your company. Not all will believe in your capabilities. Not all will appreciate you and the things that you do. Often times, people will bring you down. Time and again, instead of helping you achieve more, people will find faults. Instead of celebrating with your successes, people will taunt at your failures. Instead of extending a helping hand, people will hurt you. Instead of accepting you, people will reject you.

The reason why you feel dreadful when someone criticizes you harshly or abscesses you verbally is because you allow his words and actions to enter your heart.

A s I grow older, the true meaning of life and the real world automatically defined itself to me. I have met a lot of difficult people around, but not all. These people are broken people.

Whenever I am unappreciated, I wonder that these people may be desperate or hungry for love, too. As we know, we cannot give what we do not have. When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. The only protection we can give our self from indifferent people is to just simply love them.

This is very important because unless you are free from the power of difficult people, you cannot love them. Every person is a mirror. By asking why such a person is difficult to you, you will discover more about yourself, your past, your weaknesses, your pains, your joys.

As Amelia Earhart said, “No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.” Any fool can criticize and complain but it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving. So, whenever giant monsters come your way, love them. Embrace them. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Although it is hard, there is no better way but to Bring Out the Best in Others. Now, have you reflected?

Are you BOBO? [Are you bringing out the best in others?] ***** Let us Bring Out the Best in each Other at marshagatchalian@yahoo.com. Special thanks to the alumni for helping us finish this so called LAST paper under my supervision, to my students, thanks for teaching me how to be strong. Thanks a million to every Juan who has exerted so much effort to make this paper tangible. #heart :)

10

Audrie January A. Orense Feature Editor

FEATURES

By Wynona Geralda S. Del Rosario

“The greatest love stories always end in tragedies.” — Nicholas Sparks

I guess that’s why Romeo and Juliet died after fighting for their love, or Jamie died due to leukemia in A Walk To Remember, or even Jack sacrificing his life for Rose in Titanic. But why is it always like that? What’s the point of falling in love if you’re going to die in the end? Doesn’t it sound so pointless? It really looks like just a waste of time.

Why does it seem pointless and a waste of time? Simple, because it is hard to believe in the kind of love that is magical and worth it, especially with all the unfortunate ones happening, the ones where we believed in fairy tales and happily ever after. The hopeless romantics, as they call it these days — the people who completely had everything to offer, but no one accepts; especially, tragically, not accepted by the one whom they want to give it to.

Some say there is no such thing as luck, but when you are broken, you will find it really hard to believe that. I mean, really, there was this man on television who won the lottery after trying a few times only, and a couple of guys who found money on the floor, if not a hundred, a thousand. If that’s not luck, what do we call it then?

But the luckiest are the people who ended up being loved without them asking for it, that even though we — we who wanted it more than them — it is still us who is left alone in the end.

It’s all about the zone

It’s just like romantic movies in real life with different kinds of heartbreak, but still the same ending. These days, people use the word “zone” partnered with a word similar to their experience to describe their status in their special someone’s life.

The most well-known zone is the “friendzoned”, where you love someone more than a friend but who doesn’t feel the same thing towards you. But did you know? There are many other kinds of zones in which you can relate to.

First one is the “holdup-zoned”, where the person you love is the criminal and you are the victim. After stealing your heart and getting everything you have, the person still ends up hurting you. Feels familiar, right?

How about the “tissue-zoned”? Being the one who was (is?) always there when they needed you, but after using you, they will just dump you like trash when they are done.

The first day you saw that person, you felt nothing.

But you started noticing that you stare at that person most of the time. It felt so weird wanting to stand up and say “Hi”. When you had the courage to tell that person how you feel, it felt like the weight of the world fell off your shoulders, and you waited for that person to say that they feel the same way about you.

There is also the “shoulder-zoned”, where the person seeks you for comfort and you become that person’s freaking crying shoulder every single time (you become the sorry a-hole who always rushes to the his or her side even late at night or early morning), just to hear the lines, “Thank you for being my friend.” *Ouch* “Panty-zoned”, where you are just their rebound or panakip-butas to be able to move on.

“Wiwi-zoned”, where someone just made you feel the kilig (giddy feelings), that head-over-heels yiiiieeeee moment, and you fell for it (which actually sounds gross, falling into your own urine).

“Brownout-zoned”, where you thought you had that spark, but it’s just not enough... or maybe it was never there. Go pay your bills, dear. Maybe then the electricity will be sufficient for you needs of a spark.

“Seenzoned”, when they know you are there, but they just don’t care. As the saying goes, “Matulog ka muna, para paggising mo may lakas ka ulit umasa.”

“WiFi-zoned”, where your relationship is like your neighbor’s Wi-Fi connection: sometimes strong, and sometimes weak but mostly off. You know the worst part? When it’s password-protected, like with a boyfriend or girlfriend. Or probably strict parents.

“Siopao-zoned”, where they are just making bola-bola and you are asadongasado. Who’s the genius who told “hindi ka mapapakain nang pag-ibig?”

Well you’re wrong, mom.

“Cora-zoned”, when you thought you fell in love with your ideal type, but they were way too far than you expected. Hello, Corazon the Unang Aswang?

“Slave-zoned”, when you have done almost everything for them without thinking of and looking after yourself. Hello, Mr. Gray will see you now.

“Bank-zoned”, where they just keep on withdrawing everything you have because they want this and that but when you’ve gone zero balance, you realize that they don’t have any plans to deposit, except maybe a different kind of deposit.

“Micro-zoned”, when you thought you were the only one, but there are so many of you in his (or her, mostly her) life.

“Nga-Nga zoned”, when you thought everything was going fine, but it ended up as a failure.

“No-zoned”, the most painful one. When you are there but they can’t notice you. You are worse than the air, because people can feel the air but they can’t feel you or your efforts. It’s like you don’t even exist to them.

Continue to page 12...

That person was never really into you. Not even a little. Not even a bit. You also found out that the person was already seeing someone else. Now, it’s obvious that you should stop thinking about that person, because the two of you, it is never — never — going to happen.

It was all just a stupid game. A game. It happens to a lot of people.

But you know the irony? The first day you saw that person, you felt nothing. Now, that person left you like you were nothing; that person left you feeling nothing.

Well, guess what? That person feels the same way.

Now that you feel something between the two of you, and you know that something is pretty special, you would probably want to take things to the next level — texting each other every day and night, not wanting to stop because you know that you will miss the person too much, thinking that both of you are inseparable... for now.

Subtle heart

“Masakit. Sobrang sakit ‘yung feeling na every night naiisip mo ‘yung memories and everything. Ang hirap nu’ng mga gabing ‘yun at araw kasi nasanay ka na sa araw-araw na ginawa ng Diyos na nasa sistema mo siya,” 17-year-old Chana Beaquin said about the earliest times following a breakup.

Suddenly that person just stops talking to you, and you don’t know what to do.

At first you act like it’s nothing, then you got so tired of waiting for that person to ask you how you are doing that you started the conversation instead. You notice that the person takes so long to respond, and when there is a reply, it seems like that person doesn’t even care to tell you why the conversations stopped.

She got used to that person being around and giving her comfort that she thought it would last. Sadly, it ended.

Being ignored for no reason at all was just the first part of this fallout. You have to be ready for everything else ahead.

All your emotions are building up, thinking whether the person is ignoring you or not. You start to wonder if you are just missing that person... or if you are really being ignored.

You wonder why that person ignores you and how easy it’s for that person to do so. Then again, who are you to that person anyway? You are not each other’s property. Right?

Though not hoped for, a relationship ending — no matter how strong it seems or how long partners have been together — is to be expected because of how lovers [1] respond to each other’s individual differences, [2] carry over problems and hinanakit (resentment) like a rule in math, [3] pile up sama ng loob (ill-feelings) like dirty laundry, [4] family and friends literally becoming a relationship Stop-sign, or plainly because of [5] immaturity, flirting, commitment inconsistencies and lack of proper communication as well as [6] one’s pride not to admit a mistake and say sorry.

Take Samantha Reyes for example, whose relationship fallout started in a “misunderstanding” that eventually led to breakup. She and her ex-boyfriend never got back Continue to page 17...

Here comes the truth that you wished never came.

By Audrie January A. Orense Illustrations by Redzma Ajiji.

COMICS

Cee-Jhay M. Soriano

11

Head Cartoonist

Artwork by Bryan John P. Gonzales.

12

Jessa Divine Celeste D. Omamalin Science Editor

W

SCIENCE

hat if we told you that love is not truly love if you don’t have the tiniest, itsy-bitsy sexual desire on the one you love, would you believe us? Can you swallow it?

Whole? The big realization that love always — ALWAYS — starts with and develops from sexual desires, with and from feelings of lust.

Let’s go harder.

What if we told you that our very intelligent human brain processes love in the same area where it processes drug addiction (which ironically explains the metaphor love is the most addictive drug), would that be acceptable?

Now, deeper.

What if studies show that being in love makes us somewhat similar — medically speaking — to ones with mental illnesses, would that be understandable?

This one, especially, you can tell to your parents and friends: according to a 2006 research, we can feel deep physical pain without being physically hurt, especially after a failed relationship. (Well there’s an addition to the list of not-going-to-school excuse) Hey, don’t raise your eyebrows on us. We just wrote about what scientists and doctors have researched and concluded.

Lust before love?

According to biological anthropologist and human behavior researcher Dr. Helen Fisher of New Jersey’s Rutgers University, humans in love go through three stages, scientifically known as “brain systems” or “basic drives”, in order: Stage 1 is Lust (or sex drive), Stage 2 is Attraction (or romantic love) and Stage 3 is Attachment (with a long-term partner).

Fisher’s notions were featured in an article published September 17, 2014 on www.bbc.co.uk titled The Science of Love and most popularized in her 23-minute talk in the 2006 TED (Television, Entertainment, Design) Conference.

She is famous for her researches and talks on gender differences, evolution of human emotions and intricacies of romantic love.

(NOTE: search that 23-minute TED talk of Dr. Helen Fisher. Its title is Why We Cheat, Why We Love. It’s on Google and on Youtube. We promise you, you’ll learn a lot.)

Stage 1 or Lust deals with the lustful feelings or sexual desires that are driven by the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen (or oestrogen). This stage exemplifies the desirability of an individual to another by one’s physical appearance and sexual, erotic attributes.

Stage 2 or Attraction (romantic love), Fisher said, is the “love-struck phase” where the individual is not primarily driven by sex hormones but of three neurotransmitters known specifically as monoamines, namely: dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin.

Losing appetite or not getting hungry, feeling energetic and elated, needing less sleep and instead spends more time daydreaming about your new love even late at night are some signs of the Attraction stage, but may also be similar signs of other conditions.

Stage 3 or Attachment is, the article stated, the “longer lasting commitment and is the bond that keeps couples together when they go on to have children”.

Two hormones known for their role in improving social, spousal and parental attachments are released during the Attachment stage: the oxytocin — known in names such as “cuddle hormone”, “happy hormone”, “love hormone” — and vasopressin.

On another research led by Canada’s Concordia University, neuroscientists analyzed the results of “20 studies that examined brain activity” and found out a correlation between love and sexual desire: that the two “activate separate but related areas of the brain ... [specifically] of the striatum, right inside the forebrain.”

Published June 21, 2012 as news on io9gizmondo.com and authored

by George Dvorsky, it stated that “the Concordia University researchers found a pattern, in which sexual desire progresses into love, IN A LINEAR PROCESS (emphasis added)”, reinforcing Fisher’s notion that love progress from lust.

The research, a collaboration between the United States and Switzerland, had subjects “engaged in such tasks as viewing erotic pictures or looking at photographs of their significant others.”

“Sexual desire lights up the area that’s activated by things that are pleasurable, like sex and food. Love, meanwhile, activates an area that’s involved in the process of conditioning. This is the effect of having feelings paired with reward or pleasure,” Dvorsky wrote on the research findings.

“Consequently, as feelings of sexual desire develop into love, they are processed in a different place in the striatum –- the exact same area that’s associated with drug addiction,” he added.

After researchers discovered love and drug addiction is processed in the same brain region, Dvorsky wrote that they had concluded “that LOVE IS HABIT-FORMING.” (emphasis added) He also noted that researchers took the finding as “a bit of a surprise” but which “made sense”.

Neuroscientists and other psychologists involved in the research clarified, though, that love is not the same as lust and neither is it all about sexual

desires. They explained that “lustful feelings” are the brain’s way of “getting [an individual] primed for something a bit deeper [than lust]”.

Probably the brain’s way of telling the heart to warm-up for Cupid’s arrow.

“While sexual desire has a very specific goal, love is more abstract and complex, so it’s less dependent on physical presence [of] someone else,” neuroscientist Jim Pfaus, part of the research team, was quoted in the article.

The researchers also found out that “some areas in the brain are actually less active when a person feels love than when they experience lust”. (To be discussed further below, under the subhead “Cupid hits brain, not heart”)

Not crazy, just in love

Each monoamine — dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin — produced during the Attraction stage (romantic love) is known for its role in addiction, obsession, anxiety, depression, regulating emotions and balancing moods.

Dopamine is generally known as the “reward chemical” of the body and “is associated with the ‘pleasure system’ of the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate us to do, or continue doing, certain activities,” according to www.psychologistworld.com.

Some contemporaries challenge this belief and tell dopamine is “involved in desire rather than pleasure.”

Only in five instances does dopamine reach dangerously high level in any person’s brain: when you have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), drug addiction, any form of schizophrenia, any kind of psychosis, or when you are... in love.

You can now tell your BFFs that relating love with the words “addiction” and “obsession” is not just a figure of speech because, literally, the dopamine level of someone in love is as high as — sometimes higher than — a drug-dependent, a schizophrenic or a psychotic.

Also, you can say with certainty after reading this that “Love is blind” and tweet Mario Maurer that there is a real “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. Why? Because psychosis and schizophrenia are the only two mental disorders where individuals lose complete contact with reality.

Hence, we technically become schizos and psychos when we are in love. Wow. Abundant during “fight-or-flight” moments, situations we are not used to, norepinephrine (or adrenaline) is a stress hormone released by the sympathetic nervous system. This monoamine neurotransmitter makes a heart beat faster, palms sweaty, cheeks blush, unable to speak and voice pitch higher when your crush is around or when someone you’re attracted to is near you (and there you are trying your best to hide your smile and giddiness or kilig).

You could blame your friends, though, for some of these physiological changes, for teasing you and saying “yiiiiiieeeee”.

Serotonin, in contrast, is the mood-regulating neurotransmitter and affects a person’s appetite and digestion, sleep, memory, sexual desire and function, mood and social behavior.

Being a mood regulator, low levels of serotonin is correlated with depressed moods, higher anxiety and depression (though it is unclear which the cause is and which is the effect). So if your friend is crying buckets of tears, treat her to sweet edibles like ice cream. Sweet foods are proven to up the release and postpone the “reuptake” of serotonin.

So boys (and girls as well), if someone you like is crying about a past love, take the chance to ask her (or him) out, buy her sweets and leave the rest to serotonin. I promise you, she (or he) will remember you. The brain will, too.

Well, it’s easy to remember because serotonin is the reason your new love keeps popping in your mind even at random times (Hey, the brain thinks the person’s sweet).

And the more you think of the person, the more serotonin is released and the longer it takes before it is “reuptaken”.

The cycle just goes on. (Now that’s forever! Science nerds and geeks, there’s your way to her heart. Just thank me later.)

Also, do you ever wonder why you don’t have the appetite when you’re sad or hung up after a breakup? Or why you crave for particular foods and drinks following a stressful moment or a bad day?

No, that’s not stress-eating. That’s either your dopamine or serotonin on the works.

Driven by the brain’s “pleasure system” (desires and gratifications; rewards and reinforcements), dopamine wires you to eat delicious foods after something stressful or tiring, to reward or gratify yourself. It also allows you to counter too much activity of two stress hormones — norepinephrine and cortisol — in your brain.

However, serotonin — of which around 90 percent is produced in the gastrointestinal tract particularly the intestines and the remainder in the brain — when low in level and brain activity, takes away appetite and hunger.

Want to lose chunks of fat to have that dream summer beach body? Have your heart a couple more times broken.

To emphasize, in normal circumstances, dangerously high levels of dopamine are only possible when a person has drug addiction, OCD, schizophrenia or psychosis, while severely low levels of serotonin

Continue to page 13...

Sweet 16: Rea-zones... from page 10

Life in the zone “Just wait and see, in the end it will be you and me,” saying this over and over again

to yourself like a broken CD while believing that one day it will come into reality. Even though it hurts, it is hard to let go of that person because these questions always pop into your mind every time you try to forget.

What if he realizes we can be? What if she learns to love me also? What if I just have to wait longer? And because of these “what ifs”, our chance to forget is being postponed. We choose to postpone, until we become the postponed.

Truly, these feelings can change our previous thinking and beliefs and can make us think of infinite possibilities, like what if Juliet didn’t drink that potion? What if a miracle happened and Jamie lived? Or what if Jack and Rose were both rescued? Will they have had a happy ending?

This is the reason why people in the zones get trapped in the zone — because, as desperate and painful as the situation is, we always make good things out of bad ones.

Now what?

Same old story. Same old feelings. Same old experience. Just different styles.

It is all about loving someone who doesn’t love you back — those are what the zones are all about. It is about a person who made you feel like an option, who broke your heart like

glass until it shattered into million pieces and as fine as sand.

But most of all, never forget that they were — were! — once part of your life. The reason behind your smile, your happiness. The one who made you do things you thought you could never do. The person who taught you how to embrace pain and sacrifice for the sake of that person (That person who was brave and stupid enough to let you go as much as your bravery and stupidity to hold on).

What will you do?

I don’t really know. No one really knows.

The best way is (maybe) moving on, not holding back and not keeping an eye on yesterday. Instead, starting a new life.

With another one.

You fall in love. You get hurt. But you need to trust someone (again). You need to accept that others will leave your heart broken and sometimes breaking long after they are gone, while someone else will come and fix it. Hopefully.

And probably break it again. Haha! Just kidding. (No, not really.)

But remember: everything in life is a process, a cycle.

You just need to choose and decide. And remember that it’s a choice — not a chance — that determines your destiny and your happily ever after. So, never get tired of falling in love over and over again.

If it will be your first, then just love... and let yourself be loved as well.

SCIENCE The Neurobiology of... from page 12

Being in love literally induces a state which is not normal... resembling the hypomanic phase of a bipolar disorder...

— researchers

usually occur when one has major depression, bipolar disorder, seasonal affective disorder and other emotional or anxiety disorders.

T h e only exception of those dangerous neurotransmitter levels? LOVE. When you have romantic feelings for someone, your neurotransmitters (hello, dopamine and serotonin) and other chemical systems go nuts and bananas, reaching dangerous levels inside your

brain to the point of becoming mentally ill.

“Being in love literally induces a state which is not normal... characterized by an altered mental state with mood elation resembling the hypomanic phase of a bipolar disorder and we would suggest that it might be underlied by the same neurochemical abnormalities,” Italy’s University of Pisa researchers D. Marazziti and GB. Cassano wrote in their 1999 research titled The neurobiology of attraction.

But we don’t truly become (at least not in medical terms) mentally ill or crazy. We just become... in love.

We’re just in love.

For lovers and married couples

The hormones in Attachment stage — oxytocin and vasopressin — are known for making couples feel “a sense of cosmic union”, according to Fisher. The two hormones flood during orgasm after having sex and play a role in developing deeper, lasting mutual attachment between lovers.

Coming from the pituitary gland, vasopressin (or antidiuretic hormone), was discovered by researchers as a “prelude to a long-term pair bonding of a male and female” after studying prairie voles, a distant relative of rodents.

With further studies, they concluded that vasopressin is important in the long-term commitment stage, as it biologically helps one to remain faithful with a mate or spouse. It was also revealed it influences social behavior and maternal responses to stress.

F o r long-time and married couples, keeping the fire burning (much more, lasting) is a big challenge.

Work, finance, family, children, getting used to with each other — all these take toll by replacing the once intense romantic love with just the overwhelming feelings of attachment. It’s almost no different with someone who could not move on from a break-up.

Want to rekindle that old fire? Studies suggest: try something new with your spouse. “In one study,” Wall Street Journal (WSJ) writer Tara Parker-Pope wrote, “couples doing new things [they both found new and exciting] showed far more improvement in the quality of their marriage after 10 weeks than couples who did the same things every week.”

“The lesson is that sharing new experiences with your spouse appears to trigger changes in the brain that mimic the early days of being in love,” she added.

“We know that novelty and new experiences engage the dopamine system, and when it’s associated with your partner, it creates a link with the partner,” Parker-Pope quoted Arthur Aron, the one who conducted the study.

“It creates a dramatic increase in the sense of passion and romance,” Aron, a social psychologist at New York’s Stony Brook University, added.

Remember me... from page 6 “And when you feel unloved, when you feel unlovable, remember me.”

I just stared at him, pursing my lips, tears welling in my eyes, blurring my vision, unable to speak. Overwhelmed by a love I think I don’t deserve; a love I will never deserve. And maybe that’s why they call love as God’s grace. I’ve never been a believer of “We only accept the love we think we deserve,” from The Perks of Being a Wallflower. That’s BS.

We can accept the kind of love we think we don’t deserve, because if we keep on doubting if we deserve the love someone is giving us, if we keep on thinking if a person deserves our love, we will almost always get no as the answer. Deserving or not—it’s not even a question that should be asked. What should be asked is the thousand ways we can make the one we love feel happily loved, like the one I’m experiencing now with him. Because of him.

“I missed giving you forehead kisses,” he continued, “I miss you so much.”

Forehead kiss. That’s one way.

I giggled through the tears. “This is just our first.”

He smiled. “Oh, right.”

And he kissed me again and hugged me. I hugged him back.

With my body pressed against his, me wrapped around his lean but caring arms, snuggling and cuddling under the cold December night, and my face buried between his collar and shoulder that smells of sweat, rose, and lavender, Ah, I thought¸ I finally feel alive.

III. Last

I CAN’T BREATHE. My head… my chest… it hurts. It hurts terribly. (Her breathing became uncontrollably unstable. She’s gasping for air.)

Please, help me.

Loving the love hormone

For those alone and without a partner this Valentine’s Day, no worries, here’s the good news: oxytocin is easily released by the hypothalamus whenever there is intimate physical contact, more greatly with someone we value or who makes us feel special.

Most simple oxytocin-trigger? HUGS! Psychologists from various fields claim that due to the oxytocin rush produced from lengthened and repeated hugging, we feel a deep connection, longing and emotional attachment with people we usually hug or who hugs us.

Hugging, as popular culture believes and proven scientifically, does help improve overall health — physical, mental, emotional — and well-being for the long term.

Aside from hugging, smiling warmly while looking at each other’s eyes, holding each other’s hands, kissing, listening to music and dancing are other activities that trigger the release of oxytocin.

In a news written by Steve Connor and published April 16, 2015 on www.Independent.co.uk, researchers found out that the love hormone “permanently alters nerve pathways in the brain controlling certain social behaviors” and “could be used to treat mental health problems”.

For couples and spouses, scientists theorize that the more sex a couple has, the deeper their bond becomes because of the huge amount of oxytocin — the love hormone — released while making love with each other, which the mind subconsciously retains and associates into its own “VIP list” of people who induce high amount of the said feel-good hormone.

Almost exclusively, oxytocin produced due to the presence of and the interaction with a loved one — someone whom the person is romantically in love and deeply attached with — is greater in volume compared to other oxytocin-triggers; thus, greater effects.

Take note as well, mommies! Aside from helping promote any couple’s intimate feelings with each other, oxytocin also helps mothers’ breasts express milk. In addition, it strengthens the bond between mother and child.

Evolutionary psychologists and biological anthropologists also believe that the direct transfer of oxytocin from the mother to her child during breastfeeding creates an almost telepathic connection between the two.

Motherly love — as strengthened by shared oxytocin — is so binding that, according to researches on female mouse and mammals (dogs and humans), mothers could sense the “distress calls” of their child and that the child could sense the physical proximity of its mother.

Does it now make sense why oxytocin is called cuddle hormone, happy hormone and love hormone?

Cupid hits brain, not heart

In 1990, Andreas Bartes and Semir Zeki of the University College London researched brain activity of people deeply in love using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

They found out that four brain regions — associated with risk-taking, anger-control, OCD — are active while one is inactive when people have their love in mind or at sight, such as looking at their love’s face on a photograph.

“The active areas include one responsible for ‘gut feelings’ and [one responsive] to euphoria-inducing drugs... The lights are out in the prefrontal cortex, an area that is overactive in depressed patients,” the 2014 news from bbc.co.uk stated.

I feel like dying. I’m sure of it now.

Someone… please… (Her vision started to blacken from the side.)

I am dying.

Help me… (His face. His smile. She suddenly thinks of him.)

“You’re not going to die. You’re going to live and be okay.”

So the last time was already goodbye? (Everything is turning black…)

“This is just our first.”I still need to tell him…

(She collapsed… with his words, her final thoughts of comfort.)

“I promise.”

IV. Always remember

HE WAS RIGHT: I was “not dying.”

He was the one dying.

The scar I have, it was from a car accident I figured in when I had rushed to him after finding out in October that he had a heart disease and only had a couple of months to live. According to my doctors, the physical trauma from the accident, worsened by the emotional shock (the deep denial I had against the truth), forced my brain to repress memories and deny myself of painful realities that threaten my sense of safety, of purpose, and my view of future and life.

It resulted into a selective-retrograde amnesia.

He is the love of my life… the person my mind forced to forget and have dead feelings with, but whom my heart remembered and kept alive.

Doctors told me denial and repression, as defense mechanisms and though unhealthy, kept most people away from depression and trauma caused by life circumstances and personal problems we avoid facing as well as our emotional coping inabilities and internal conflicts.

Jessa Divine Celeste D. Omamalin

13

Science Editor

Dopamine levels... plummet after a breakup. Although the relationship has ended, we still yearn for, and are conditioned to expect, love from that specific person.

— Nicole Tay

According to Parker-Pope’s article (Is It Love or Mental Illness? They’re Closer Than You Think) published February 13, 2007 on the website of WSJ (www.wsj.com), Bartes and Zeki’s study was mimicked in 2006 on “15 subjects who were deeply in love”.

B o t h the 1990 and 2006 researches involved showing the subjects pictures of their loved one and “neutral” photos (someone they know but with no romantic feelings for).

The two main differences were the use of MRI over fMRI and that the 2006 participants were “nursing broken hearts”, being made to look at the photo of their former lover.

One of the biggest findings in the 2006 research was that dopamine — the neurotransmitter on high level in OCD and drugdependent patients — continues to surge even when looking at their previous lover, the one who broke their heart.

“The subjects dealing with failed relationships showed activity in the dopamine system—suggesting they maintained intense feelings for their loved one,” Parker-Pope wrote, implying the great difficulty of letting go and moving on.

In her article titled Your Love Is My Drug: The Science Of A Broken Heart (February 12, 2015; www.commonhealth.wbur.org), writer Nicole Tay wrote: “Dopamine levels, too, plummet after a break-up.

Although the relationship has ended, we still yearn for, and are conditioned to expect, love from that specific person. I know I did. [I had] sinking mood that became laced with additional anxiety and mild depressive symptoms”.

The other highly relevant discovery in the said 2006 research was that “the [MRI] scans showed activity in one part of the brain linked with PHYSICAL PAIN.” (emphasis added) “You’re feeling intense romantic love, you’re willing to take big risks, you’re in physical pain, obsessively thinking about a person and you’re struggling to control your rage. You’re not operating with your full range of cognitive abilities. It’s possible that part of the rational mind shuts down,” Fisher said, summarizing all the findings.

While all these may be on the negative side of things, when it comes to love, as Nicholas Sparks wrote in the novel The Choice, “Some things were beyond understanding.”

And no matter how much we figure out the neurobiology of love, the chemical rollercoaster inside our bodies, the oxytocin and vasopressin exploding like fireworks after sex and during hugs, even when neurotransmitters take us into a Cinderella symphony with the most romantic dance with our beautiful romance, we can never be purely rational in love — no matter how much we try or how much we make our self seem like we don’t care.

Because, honestly, truthfully, love will always be a beauty we will choose even if it means we become a tragedy.

“Loving someone and having them love you back is the most precious thing in the world. [But sometimes] even when love is right in front of you, you choose to turn away from it,” from Sparks’ novel The Rescue.

If you believe having our rational mind shut down is one of the worst things in life, if you believe losing our mind is really the worst, then that is the greatest mistake, because nothing is crazier than to think one could be rational in love.

Ask yourself this: is there a greater poverty, a much worse calamity than not to love?

-June Ace G. Esteban

They said the sadness, emptiness, headaches, and chest pains I have felt were all manifestations of the repressed memories and emotions trying to re-surface from my unconscious mind. When it could not anymore stop those from re-surfacing, like a dam that exceeded its critical level, I collapsed under a panic attack.

My doctors said that there are primarily four ways the brain deals with conflicting emotions and circumstances: first, through dreams; second is when the mind changes positive emotions into something hostile but easier to show, like from love and other affections into anger and hate; third is when the brain fully ignores and rejects sadness and pain and focuses too heavily on trying to be happy; fourth, when our mind represses and deprives us of feelings and memories, like mine. (Pixar’s Inside Out got it all right.)

Our brain may never be in agreement with our heart in accepting the painful truths when it comes to loving and in losing the one we love, but our heart is honest and does not want to lie to itself.

We may try, but we can never lie to our own heart.

Our heart is not stupid. It urges us to love deeply, honestly, completely… to love even the ones who will hurt us; to love even the ones who couldn’t love us back or whole; to love even the ones we are bound to lose.

Love, I think, was made by God not to keep us safe from pain, sadness, and harm, but to give us strength to live when these things come to break us. Like a bulletproof vest: bulletproof doesn’t mean the bullets won’t hit us; it means we can survive being hit.

I miss him, the warmth of his hug, and his forehead kiss.

I wish I hugged him longer, tighter. I wish I told him my feelings, too.

Wherever you are, if you’re reading this, always remember: “I’m glad I fell in love with you.”

-Written by June Ace G. Esteban

Photo sources: favim.com, Pinterest, shockya.com, thatprecariougait.com, brainwaves.guru.com, comingsoon.net

14

Felix Gabriel A. Lapuz III Sports Editor

SPORTS

The Philippines just finished 7th among the 12 teams in the 1st Asian Under-23 Women’s Volleyball Championship (AVC) and, frankly, there are still many skills, especially the fundamentals, which need improvement.

Sa totoo lang, finishing in the middle is not impressive, numerically speaking. Para ‘yang ‘yung muntik nang maging kayo, pero hindi naging kayo.

Almost there, but didn’t even get there.

But if you have watched the Philippine women’s national volleyball team play in AVC live at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City where all the matches have been held, you would have forgOtten that the team only had three weeks of preparation.

Three weeks with each other and they were playing quite well. Not best. But well enough to compete. Daig pa nila mga three-week-old relationship kung paano nila suportahan ang isa’t isa kapag may pagkukulang.

Had you seen the women in red-and-white courageously fight the highly efficient Japanese team and how they pushed China into panic mode, you would have forgetten that the AVC was the first time in 10 years that the Philippine national contingent competed in a major international competition.

From the players up to the coaching staff, everyone was a first-timer.

At alam naman natin gaano kahirap at nakakakaba ang first time lalo kung wala ka pang experience.

Though at first they were tight, eventually the women slow but steadily improved their motions and fluidity until they finally thrust into victory. On top of that, the volleybelles seemed to enjoy through the difficulties.

What pain?

The Philippine team was in Pool A along with Iran and Kazakhstan. Its first match (May 1, 2015) ended with a loss against Iran, 22-25, 22-25, 25-19, 20-25. The match was highlighted by two events — first was UAAP MVP and Philippine volleyball superstar Alyssa Valdez injuring her right hand (her spiking hand) in the first set.

Second, Valdez scoring a game-high 31 points from 25 kills and six aces, giving the word superstar the spunk and definition it deserves. Should I add the observation that Valdez usually writhed and kneeled down in pain after a spike and after blocking Iran’s attacks (Iran was surely concentrating its attack on her after the injury).

Sakit? Anong sakit-sakit? Mas masakit pa magmahal, Valdez probably thought. So when you think of pain, think of Valdez. She played the whole tournament with a broken hand (at lagi siyang pinupuntirya ng kalaban dahil, well, broken siya).

Her 31-point output was also the most points scored in the tournament by any player in a first match. Iran’s highest scorer, team captain Mahsa Saberi, only had 16.

So how did the Philippines lose against Iran if Valdez was doing all the right things even when she was broken [-handed]? Unforced errors. This was the Philippines’ Kryptonite all tournament long.

The Philippines had 40 unforced errors, while Iran had 27. Goes to show marami talagang nasisira at naipapatalong mga bagay dahil sa paulitulit na pagkakamali.

On May 2, though, the volleybelles advanced to the next round by defeating much taller Kazakhstan, 25-19, 25-11, 28-26. In the second preliminaries, the Roger Gorayeb-coached national squad was bracketed in Pool E with Chinese Taipei and world powerhouse Japan.

minutes? Mas matagal pa ang byahe papunta sa venue kaysa panonood.

More than the scoreline, what made Japan deceivingly menacing was their laser-sharp efficiency and offensive balance — an image of playing perfect volleyball — coming nonetheless from one of the 10 strongest volleyball teams in the world.

Japan had 10 of their 11 “scoring” players (libero is a “non-scoring” player) scored at least a point, where seven players scored more than three markers and five of which had at least six points. The highest scorer for Japan had nine.

For the Philippines, only six players scored. Valdez had 15 points, followed by Jaja Santiago and NCAA MVP Grethcel Soltones with seven and six, respectively.

Showing that taking care of the ball lead to good things, Japan only committed 10 unforced errors while the Philippines had 27. Aside from that, Japan allowed the Philippines to score three straight points only twice in the whole match.

Moral lesson? Since taking really good care of a ball gets you a win, think what you would get when you take really good care of his or her heart and feelings. Tanungin niyo ang Japan.

On May 5, the team suffered a meltdown against Chinese-Taipei, 25-21, 18-25, 12-25, 19-25. Though both teams had nine players who scored, the Taiwanese had three scorers in double digit compared to the Philippines’ one (Valdez, 16 points).

The home team also had 35 unforced errors and only three blocks, while the visitors had 25 and 10.

Us against the world

In the quarterfinals but which felt more like the championship, the Philippines faced none other than the world champion, China.

On May 7, in front of the 4,100 fans, mostly Filipinos, that was at the PhilSports Arena to support the heavy underdog Philippine team versus the towering Chinese tyrants, the Filipinas played their best and, surprising everyone, pushed the world champ to the limit.

Lacking in height and experience but not in heart and diskarte, the team destroyed the mighty Great Wall of China’s net defense in the first set. The Philippines was also the second team to win a set against China, the eventual AVC champion. The first team to do so was third-placer South Korea, which lost to China even when it held a 2-0 set lead.

After that, the Chinese fought tooth-and-nail to suppress every spirited comeback of the Philippine team in a match that took an hour and 46 minutes.

Though the Chinese won, 23-25, 25-14, 25-18, 25-17, forcing them to pull out all their weapons against an unranked, inexperienced, ill-prepared team and winning a set against the defending world champions is a milestone in itself — a promise of the future of Philippine volleyball given more time, proper training, wider exposure and ample support.

Reality check

On May 4, the national team, the 5,500 spectators at PhilSports Arena, the thousands watching from their homes and I with my own blurry vision clearly saw the overwhelming gap in skills, experience and teamwork between the Philippine squad and the Japanese team.

Japan toyed with the Philippines, 25-12, 2515, 25-18. Toyed — as in pinaglaruan. That, dear readers, will remind you of how you got your heart played at, like watching a version of you putting his or her best effort in something that, for the other side, is just an easy game.

And have I said that Japan beat the Philippines in just 65

Photos from cnnphilippines.com, gmanetwork.com, sports.abs-cbn.com, pba-online.net, news.xinhuanet.com and pinoyexchange.com

15 Be proud Krusians... from page 1 Feature, correspondingly, in the said contest.

Along with Cabudoc, the trio joined Sherrilyn Saclauso as Crusaders who have been double awardees twice and in two consecutive years.

Saclauso was a double awardee in the District SSPCs of 1999 and 2000.

Unlikely heroes

It is rare for firsttime student journalists to win, especially to place in the upper half of the awardees, but the Crusaders are a bunch of rare people.

Becoming unlikely heroes that got honors were high school seniors but first-time student journalists from section Aquino, namely: Jessica Sarmiento (8th place, Pagkuha ng Larawan), Rachelle Anne Copina (2nd place, Pagkuha ng Larawan) and Frances Sophia Bandiola (2nd place, Pagsulat ng Editoryal).

S e c t i o n Sampaguita’s Andrea Nicole Cabiles, a newbie, and IX-Quisumbing’s Sofia I’d like students... from page 2 Joy Belmonte’s development plan on making KNLHS a community college through a partnership with India.

It has not been cleared, though, if it will be a joint venture with the Indian government or a private company, a venture capitalist, a non-government organization (NGO), a philanthropic group or an educational institution.

“Sabi niya (Janet Dionio), mag-be-benchmark... [ang KNL ng] community college,” Quintana recalled.

“This (the current school) will be relocated [somewhere else to be] purely junior high and this [vacated area where the school used to be] will be exclusive for [the] community college,” she added.

Gutierrez, a sophomore Crusader, won 6th and 8th place, in order, in Pagsulat ng Balitang Agham.

The only previous Crusader who won in the Science category was batch 2008 salutatorian Lean Alfred Santos (3rd place, Science Writing in English) in the 2007 Division SSPC. Katherine Flor Castillo, who returned to KNLHS after her parents transferred her to Ernesto Rondon HS last school year, of IX-Quisumbing regained her throne as she was crowned 2nd place in Editorial Writing.

She first won a high school journalism award in 2013 — the same rank, category and contest. Castillo was part of the generation of Crusaders known as the “Revival Era” that clinched the 3rd Highest School Pointer award — the highest collective district award in CRUSADER’s history — in the contest.

Next school year, only Castillo along with Jessa Divine Celeste Omamalin and Felix Gabriel Lapuz III will be left carrying the Revival Era’s torch.

Not [ready] for K-12 According to Quintana, since public schools like KNLHS are not ready for senior high, they allow higher educational institutions (HEIs) like colleges and universities to go to the school and promote these HEIs’ K-12 tracks through seminars and tarpaulins.

She added that to be on par with better prepared schools under the enhanced basic education curriculum, the Department of Education (DepEd) already promised that teachers will be provided depending on the needs of each educational institution, particularly of public schools.

Some of those teachers are said to be

“displaced” college professors who will lose their jobs not because of demerit but due to the K-12’s educational restructuring scheme.

Aside from parents and students, the K-12 system has received the brunt of ire from many groups nationwide, mainly from professors of Philippine history, Wikang Filipino, literature and creative writing as well as from a number of lawyers and NGOs. According to these individuals and groups, some of K-12’s provisions are said to be “hindi naaayon sa Konstitusyon (unconstitutional)” and “hindi maka-Pilipino at hindi makabayan (not Filipinoinclined and non-patriotic)”.

The greatest support K-12 has comes from the business sector, private schools and HEIs — all of which are expected to benefit largely through increased revenue from tuition and miscellaneous fees aside from other fees and books to be bought exclusive inside campuses.

It is still vague if there will be books, modules and other supplemental learning materials that will be imposed on the Krusian senior high school population.

The DepEd has not released any statement or circulated any memorandum regarding the matter.

It is also undecided if KNLHS will make a new uniform for the seniors. The school staffs and officials have yet to convene and decide on the query.

Crusaders lead... from page 4

As some would refute that Bigkis Balita is not the first barangay newspaper of KNL, the Crusaders did a research and found out that the alleged “first barangay newspaper” was actually just a newsletter.

The six-page newsletter, bearing the name Ligasette, bore in its folio “Volume I” and was dated “April 13-20, 2004”.

Contrary, the 12page barangay newspaper was released on the eve of November 7, 2015 during the year-ending Barangay General Assembly.

Aside from former

Crusaders’ Editor-in-Chief (EIC) Baluyot as consultant, the inaugural Editorial Board (EB) of Bigkis Balita consisted of Crusaders’ Rachelle Anne Copina and Jessica Sarmiento as photojournalists, Bryan John Gonzales as Head Cartoonist, Felix Gabriel Lapuz III and Audrie January Orense as Associate Editors, and Sophia Hannah Alburo as Managing Editor.

Gonzales is Quezon City’s former champion in cartooning, Copina and Sarmiento are part of District IV’s Top 10 Photojournalists in 2015, and Alburo is crowned as National Capital Region’s Best Sports Writer in 2015.

Cabudoc, Mary Catherine Angelica Lacap — named as District IV’s best writer (Highest Individual Pointer) in English medium in 2013 — and the older sisters of Jireh and Joannah, Bless Lorraine Desabelle and Jonahmicah Manalang, were part of the Revival Era as well.

IX-Quisumbing’s Omamalin won 8th in Sports Writing and X-Rizal’s Lacap placed 4th in News Writing.

Effort pays off Another momentous achievement that had every Crusader celebrating was Sebastian Carl Razon’s 4th place finish in Pagsulat ng Isports. The District SSPC was Razon’s last hurrah before he left Diliman for Legarda to transfer to Arellano University, and he beat the buzzer and left a legacy.

Razon lost all competition since 2014 before this but because of his training attitude and work ethics; he usually received optimistic words from the usually sharptongued June Ace Esteban, a former UAAP correspondent for The Philippine Star and one of the alumni who help

train the new generation of Crusaders.

“Sinasabi niya sa’kin lagi after contest, ‘Kuys, bawi ako next time,’ at sinasabi ko sa kaniya every time, ‘Tiyagain mo lang, Carl, may patutunguhan ding mabuti ‘yang effort mo’,” the 2010 national collegiate champion in Sports Writing added.

The other Crusaders who provided much-needed reinforcements that made the mission successful were VIII-Saphire’s James Bryan Morgado (7th place, Editorial Cartooning), VIII-Onyx’s Cee-jhay Soriano (6th place, Editorial Cartooning), VIIIDiamond’s Veatrice Vicente (4th place, Photojournalism), IX-Campos’ Francheska Alleine Galang (8th place, Pagsulat ng Lathalain) and Rizal’s Sophia Hannah Alburo (7th place, Pagsulat ng Isports).

Morgado, Vicente and Alburo joined the Journalism class — a subject and co-curricular organization — last school year and were first-time winners in an interschool competition.

Top 5 in 2015... from page 4

TIMELINE: Attacks on the Lumad of Mindanao

By Karlos Manlupig, Rappler.com (Sept. 16, 2015)

Rightfully theirs. A lumad group is seen protesting against acts that destroy and desiccate the ancestral homes and acts that constitute violence against their kind.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Kalumaran, a confederation of different indigenous tribes in Mindanao, has expressed alarm over a series of direct attacks, killings, arrests, harassments, zoning, and vilification in Lumad areas where it says there is a strong resistance against environmental plunder.

The attacks are concentrated in the provinces of Bukidnon, Davao del Norte,

and Surigao del Sur, which are hosts to Lumad schools that are privately operated but are regulated by the Department of Education (DepEd).

“It is a form of ethnocide but it is worse because there are specific characteristics of impunity and killings targeting the Lumad.

What is alarming is that it is happening all over Mindanao,” said Kalumaran secretary general Dulphing Ogan.

Pope Francis Honors Filipinos Who Suffered Typhoon’s Devastation

By Deborah Ball and Aaron James Almadro The Wall Street Journal (January 17, 2015)

Before a crowd of hundreds of thousands who waited for hours under heavy rain and wind, the pope spoke of the devastation visited on the Philippines in November 2013 by Typhoon Haiyan, which left about 7,400 dead or missing nationwide.

“When I saw from Rome what had happened, I felt I had to be here,” he said as the wind whipped across the altar built on the apron of the newly reconstructed airport. “I’m a little late, I have to say, but I’m here.”

Through the storm. The harsh rain and violent winds do not stop citizens of Tacloban and surrounding areas in attending the “mass” led by Pope Francis, showing there is no stronger storm than the Filipino soul.

“So many of you have lost everything,” he continued.

“I don’t know what to say to you. Some of you lost part of your families. I can only keep silent…But the Lord knows what to say to you.” Some in the crowd wept while listening.

Editor’s Note: The following written works are not owned and is not being owned by the student publication. This is a compilation of what the organization deems as newsworthy topics.

Hope smiles. Pope Francis, known to Filipinos as Papa Kiko, wears a smile — and a raincoat! — to all Filipinos wherever he goes. His contagious effects of his smile would be popularized as “The Francis Effect”.

Other contributors for the newspaper were Michael “Bhuda” Alvarez and former KNL Lakambini Chimberly Anne Palacio as administrative support staffs, Kristian Lloyd Sagun and Jeremy Corales as photographers, and Zyra Maree Allelee Briones.

Other former and present Crusaders also shared their skills and time, namely: Carlos Emillio Pablo, Andrea Nicole Cabilas, Bryle Desabelle, Zyra Corrine Cabudoc, John Lester Francisco, Phebe Judith Austria, Frances Sophia Bandiola and Wynona Geralda Del Rosario.

June Ace Esteban is the EIC of Bigkis Balita and the

Compassion and redemption. These women are one of the many who sobbed and cried while Pope Francis was speaking, and in one instance said that our God is a God who knows how to cry in our sufferings just like us.

highest executive editor of the Crusaders in school year 20082009. He has also been training Crusaders in all fields, except copyreading and cartooning, since 2012.

While he receives lots of criticisms about his journalism knowledge, capability and background, not many know that he was, in 2011 to 2012, the Sports Editor (SE) of Far Eastern University (FEU) Advocate, the official Universitywide student publication of FEU-Manila.

FEU Advocate chooses its editors through a three-hour written set of exams, measuring journalistic, managerial

and editorial capabilities as well as psychological capacities. Esteban said that the psychological tests are measured, quantified, analyzed and summarized by the head of FEU’s Psychology Department.

The written exam is followed by a three-man panel interview, composed of the publication adviser and two alumni — a former executive editor and a former section editor.

In instances that no one passes the exam and interview, a position is left vacant or an Officer-in-Charge (OIC) is chosen. According to Esteban, he barely got the SE position, coming above his

Roundup. Photos show the five most socially relevant, controversial and inspiring stories and events of 2015.

(Photos from cnn.com, teacherph. com, pinoyexchange.comaprnet.org and Myk Josh Wierzbicki)

counterpart — a magna cum laude — by just “0.3 points”.

In 2010, Esteban was named the best collegiate sports writer in the Philippines after winning In The Huddle: National Sports Writing Competition. He still holds the record for being the only one to have won 1st place in a single year for both Sports Coverage and Sports Feature categories of the said competition.

The 22-year-old former psychology student was previously a sports writer for Summit Media’s college sports magazine, InTheZone.ph and The Philippine Star.

16 Hourglass

S

o out of the ideas that I had in mind this is the one that seemed doable. My column may be like that of our Filipino head cartoonist. Basically my column is

a letter to the girl I love. It may seem poetic from time to time but, hey it is for the girl I spend most of time thinking about. Also this is the second letter I wrote her the first one is located in her sketchpad (it has been a month since I wrote that and you still have not read it, seriously?). I will not mention her name here just for her privacy.

For the girl who always seems happy but I know

has a lot of problems, I love you. Not just for your looks but also your humor, your attitude, your wits and everything else about you.

Personally I would like to thank you still being

friends with me even though you knew that I had a crush on you (even though I myself felt awkward at first). I thought after telling you the feelings I had it would all disappear like all my other feelings do but it did not. And so weeks pass and I still have these feelings not knowing what to do with them I decided to put them somewhere in my mind far from the everyday stuff I think about.

Two months had past and I thought it had dissipated

but to my surprise when you suddenly grabbed my hand as we ran across the street my heart almost stopped and for a moment I had felt genuine happiness again.

Ever since then I have always been trying to make

you feel special but it seemed like does not work. Remember that time you cried during your MAPEH performance? I almost wanted to hug you but I know it would not be right to do so even if we were the best of friends. And all the other times it was just the two of us it felt really special for me I know this may seem weird but I treasure the moments I have with you even if it is just some normal thing. I cannot help but think that maybe you feel the same way too or maybe I am just assuming too much so I decided to stop my feelings for you because I know in the end it would not be you who would get hurt but me (it is always me that gets hurt XD). I know you still might have still feelings for him and that is fine I’m not going force myself unto you (after all you two are mine and Jessa’s OTP).

I tried to not feel anything for you but whenever

I see you it is as if you are the perfect girl. You get my references (most of the time), we have a ton of puns and jokes (mostly insults and terrible ones), we are in the same fandom (Doctor Who is about to end T-T) and you really seem smart even though sometimes your grammar is not right you’re like the girl of my dreams.

And I know that my attempt to make you fall for me

has failed and you might find this letter annoying but still it is my own way of saying how much I love you and how you have affected my life. Up to this point I am still not certain what to do with these feelings but I am most definitely trying to end them so if you do feel the same way please tell me.

Like my friend told me my feelings are like an hourglass, with each word in this story as the sand slowly fading little by little until one day I stop feeling them.

This part is supposed to be the greeting part so

here it goes: first of all I would like greet my Classmates from 9-Eduardo Quisumbing! And mention some persons who asked me to greet them individually: Jessa Divine Celeste Omamalin (my girl bestfriend), Augustine Donnell Mitra (my boy bestfriend), Katherine Flor Castillo J (another one of my bestfriends), Ena Marion Delos Reyes (close friend), Hannah Michaela Butardo (close friend), Sofia Gutierrez (close friend) and to my ZSquad! Ahahahaha (guys here is your request) and to my other squad which a group of League of Legends players and some basketball players. If you have any questions or query please do not hesitate to message my Facebook account I am open 24/7, also if you play LoL feel free to add me IGN: gab3210 (note: not a good player but average).

EDITORIAL

I

was just wondering, did you ever look up the stars and wonder what would happen to your life? Would you die tomorrow or be a billionaire next week? What would tomorrow bring? Did you ever wished you would never wake up because dreams are better than reality?

Did you ever wish that you could rewind pause and fast forward time? Did you ever think of changing the axis of the world, what it would be like if it doesn’t go round?

Did you ever once looked around you and found a lot of reasons why you are lucky but it didn’t last long as days passed by and negativity weighs you down that you could only focused on how crappy your life is; that you wished you’ve never been born at all; wished you were someone else who were wealthier, smarter and more good looking?

Did you went to a relatives funeral sat at the corner of the room, observing people while thinking what it would be like if it’s your funeral, would people come?

Would they feel lonely and empty now that you’re gone?

Would they even cry?

Did you ever thought of sympathizing a crying person not because it would make you look good in front of people but because you want

T

his is a column about a person that I am truly in love with, but I will just keep on being a secret admirer.

I have never been the type of person to say what I feel. So basically, I keep everything inside me and regarding my feelings for you, it was no different. I wanted to tell you, believe me I have tried. But there is a part of me that would not take a chance.

So, I doubt that you will ever know my feelings. It may be fine with you if you will not know my feelings but with me, it is not.

Even though, it is hurting me, I choose not to show it. Secret admirer--that name seems to fit just right, I do not know what I like about you but you are on my mind, day and night. Maybe it is because you look so sexy? I cannot get enough or how you make me feel when you are around? I instantly forget all other stuff. Maybe it is the way you say my name or maybe it is the way you smile? Then it might be just about everything.

Getting to know you seems worth my while, but I guess you will never know my true feelings that I could never reveal to you. I will just admire you from a distance. I am not sure what else I should do.

You Did Didn’t You?

to cheer people up?

Did you ever judged a person by their looks? How you grimaced at how dirty and ugly they are and it made you feel look good and you think they’re some fake when they’re better than you?

Did you ever thought of saying ‘I love you’ to your parents, family or friends because you want them to know that you do but you didn’t because you thought it’s embarrassing?

Did you encounter some beggars on some footbridges ignoring the sun’s scorching heat against their skin looking at you with pleading eyes, sometimes dirty kids coming up the jeep to polish your shoes for some coin or a man with a baby handing out envelopes with messages of help? Does helping them cross your mind but you didn’t because you think they’re just fooling you and that they’re just being used by syndicates?

Did you try to stop

the erupting laughter of a class when one of your classmates is being scolded by your teacher or because they made a mistake in pronouncing a word but you didn’t because you’re one of those who were laughing? Did you ever saw people making fun of a special child and you didn’t suppress it because you’re also entertained by what they’re doing?

Did you ever saw a person got beaten up and you didn’t do anything because you thought you’re too fragile to defend them? Or did you ever saw a man lying on the cold ground exposed to the cool wind of a December night, wearing only tattered clothes and you wished you could put a blanket over him but you didn’t?

Aren’t you tired of not being able to do something and give it a thought for a while but dismissed the idea because you think there’s no way you could?

And some of you are

Loving Behind You

I know we have not known each other for a very long time and there is a bit of an age difference between us, but I really do care about you.

You are a very special girl.

There is so much about you that I know most guys do not see. They are looking at you just because of your body but honey, I am telling you that is not what I am seeing. There is so much more to you than that. I have liked you for a very long time now but I just never had the courage to say it to you. Well, that all changed now and I am going to say it. I really care a lot about you. And I will like to be more than just friends with you.

You mean so much to me, that your special smile when I am having a bad day brightens the day and makes it bearable. Just you giving me a hug me comforts me.

Just to see your smiling face brightens the darkest days.

I continue to be pleasantly surprised as I discover more about you, yet there is still so much that I like to know. I get so excited at the thought of spending more time with you because being together will help me learn more about you. Already, I am learning that we have so much in common. I enjoy our differences, but I am happy that we share so many similar opinions and experiences.

Though, whatever differences that exists can only broaden our horizon and our outlook in life.

I wish I could really express the happiness I have found in spending time with you over the last few weeks getting to know you has brought a new dimension to my life than I never had before. I am not exaggerating when I say that you are the kindest, most animated, and the most amazing person I

probably in the denial stage but come-on, everyone is selfish in some other ways people constantly take things from another to survive, perfection is what we achieve but we had our own regrets, dreams, wishes and hope. There are times when by doing mistakes, we make mistakes because we wanted to fit in, because sometimes we need to and because we are all humans, imperfect and flawed. *****

Greetings for my bestie babes Kat, Alex, Hannah who loves the weirdo me. To my guy best best friend Gaaaaab!!! Thanks sa lahat ng advices and trivias and for enduring the irritating me! ^_^ Sa mga kakulitan ko sa Quiso lalo na sila Donnell, Dave, Carilyn at Romel. Yung sa Banzon din hahaha hello Derich, Jecka, Nico, Japthy... dami nyo.

To Mama and Papa, I love you po! Thank you po sa lahat ng supporta at sakripisyo... I hope one day I could make you proud ...

Journ Family ... I LOVE YOU GUYS! Mam Marsha, Lolo Ace thank you for entrusting me with this responsibility, I hope I didn’t let you down. :) Want to bombard questions back at me? Bring it on at zybelle_celeste@yahoo.com.

have ever met. The more I learn about you, the more I want to know. You are incredible! You have changed the way I see the world in a way. I am a better person now and I want to be even better, just because I know you. I am so glad that your love for humanity matches my own.

You are always in my thoughts. You are always in my dreams and a life without you will be full of tears. It is you that keeps me up all night.

The one getting me through the day and it seems to me that there is only one thing to do. I do not know how to say it to make it sounds so true. So I will just say what I really feel that I am completely in love with you... *****

Hi to all! This is a column for my beloved one.

This girl is so beautiful, fabulous and fantastic. So to all admirers and to those who are hoping to get the sweetest yes of their loved one, thank you for reading my column. Thank you mom and dad! Hi friends! Tropang Kulang sa Calcium (TKC)! Hi to my friends and classmates!

Aldub you KALHY! For more clues just chat me at sorianoceejhay400@ yahoo.com.

17 Elsa and Julia’s brother, Gregorio Martin, rushed her from their home in Corinthian Gardens in Quezon City to Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan but was declared dead on arrival.

Julia’s was confirmed as suicide after a suicide note on one of her social media accounts was found. Julia did not state on her note the reason for taking her life and stated that she is “letting [her] reasons die with [her]”.

But what could make such a young soul, who starred in a Godcentered hit television show focusing on hope and faith, commit suicide in the midst of her flourishing career without anyone noticing the “red flags”?

In an article by Ricky Lo published July 14, 2015, in his regular section Funfare on the The Philippine Star, he wrote his interview with psychologist Randy Dellosa and fashion icon Jeannie Goulbourn — a mother whose daughter also committed suicide.

According to Dellosa, “Teens commit

suicide because they feel extremely lonely, desperate and helpless. Perhaps they had a problem for which they felt there was no solution and that there was no one to help them.”

“Suicidal teens usually suffer from major depression which makes them have a dark and gloomy mindset. Depressed teens usually give warnings about their suicidal thoughts,” Dellosa added. “In the case of Julia, she was probably expressing her depression through the morbid artwork she was posting on Instagram many months prior to the suicide.”

A day after her suicide, artworks of Julia — mostly dark and with splash and splats all over — went viral on social media and gave chills to many.

Psychology professionals, psychoanalysts and students expressed a consensus that the artworks of Julia projected the helplessness and hopelessness the actress was feeling.

Studies show that many individuals, especially creative people and those with high emotional quotient (EQ; also known as emotional intelligence), express, unconsciously or not, their depressed mood through works of art, like painting, sketching, poetry and story-writing.

Non-section 1... from page 4 a huge boost as its top two editors according to hierarchy — referred specifically as Executive Editors — joined the list of rare Crusader double awardees.

EIC Wynona Geralda Del Rosario won 5th place in Feature Writing and 7th in Editorial Writing, while Managing Editor (ME) Phebe Judith Austria placed 5th in News Writing and 10th in Copyreading and Headline Writing.

In 24 years, the two now became the 8th and 9th Crusaders to win two Englishmedium awards — 14th and 15th double awardees overall if including Filipino-medium winners — in a single contest.

Del Rosario is a member of the Drum and Lyre Corp (DLC) Royal Jesters, while Austria is a Red Cross Youth (RYC) volunteer aside from being the Top 2 ]of section Rizal in the previous quarter.

Last school year’s punong patnugot and Pagsulat ng Balita regional awardee Zyra Corrine Cabudoc improved her 2014 MDSSPC rank in Pagsulat ng Isports from 10th place to 1st place.

Cabudoc, the 2014 Regional SSPC 2nd placer

and 2015 national champion, duplicated Christian Santos’ record in the MDSSPC. Santos was named best sports writer in the 2013 MDSSPC and 8th place in the 2013 Regional SSPC, becoming the first Crusader to win in Sports Writing in the said NCR-wide contest.

Also, James Bryan Morgado won 6th place in Paglalarawang-Tudling (Editorial Cartooning in Filipino), whereas Donnell Mitra won 8th in Editorial Cartooning.

It was Morgado’s first victory since joining last school year. Mitra was the 3rd placer in the 2013 MDSSPC and 2nd placer in the 2014 District SSPC.

Mitra and Morgado were trained by an all-star cast of Crusader alumni, namely: Enoch Casaman, Bryan John “BJ” Gonzales and brothers Daryl Ian and Manuel Luis De Jesus.

Casaman was a twotime district-level winner in 2014, Gonzales was Quezon City’s champion in Editorial Cartooning in 2010, Daryl was District IV’s best cartoonist in 2013 and Manuel was one of NCR’s Top 10 best cartoonists in 2008.

On depression and... from page 1

Filipino in world’s... from page 19 who brings out the best in anyone she trains—and she has the background and achievements to prove it.

A former Olympic and World chess champion, Polgar has trained and coached Texas Tech University to back-toback US chess national championships (NC) in 2011 and 2012, and she led the NC supremacy of Webster U in 2013 and 2014.

But just like the Philippine issue where he wanted to break up because, as he had said, he saw no future with the Filipino team, So also cut his ties with his mentor Polgar in November 2014, according to sources.

Polgar revealed So’s decision in her blog in December 2014 but did not specify the reasons of So. The Filipino GM being in the world’s top 10 chess players today surely

brings pride and inspiration to many aspiring Filipino chess masters, BUT with the way he is throwing away people—like the way he sacrifices major chess pieces, even a Queen, to win a match—after helping improve and polish his talents, there seems to be problem of ungratefulness.

Without the mentors, he would not be where he is now, and his talents, success and other future opportunities surely are not his own doing only.

And it makes us ponder: if you get what you wished for and if you become what you dreamed to be, would you forget the people who have been there for you?

Would you throw away those people for further promotion and greater glory?

If respect and dignity is the price of winning and making history, then a far more important battle is lost than the ones on the chessboard.

It has been proven time and again that there is a consistent and significant correlation between creative people, major depression and bipolar disorders, though it is still unclear which the cause is and which is the effect.

Goulbourn noted that the generation today lack “emotional resiliency” — an ability to face and handle frustration, pain, sadness, pressure and failure.

A few months later, Julia’s mother, Shamaine, revealed further details of her daughter’s death in an exclusive feature published

by GMA News on October 23, 2015.

According to the article, Shamaine stated that their family was undergoing “psychological autopsy” sessions where they learned that “Julia has both high IQ (intelligence quotient) and EQ”.

This extreme case of both Quotients being high allowed Julia to hide her sufferings from everyone as well as to fight and endure the “invisible war” — fighting and enduring for three years with the belief that she could do it all on her own.

“She suffered so much but being young, she didn’t want to be perceived as ‘broken’ and she thought

she could cope on her own,” Shamaine posted on her Facebook account. “She saved three of her friends from taking their lives but she couldn’t save herself.”

Shamaine stated that she made her post public “to encourage other people, especially the younger generation who may be undergoing the same thing, to seek help,” the report stated.

According to Wikipedia, EQ (also known as emotional intelligence) is “an individual’s ability to identify, evaluate, control, and express emotions [allowing someone to have a higher] ability to understand, emphatize, and connect with the people around them.”

IQ, on contrary, “is a score derived from one of several standardized [psychological] tests designed to assess an individual’s intelligence,” according from the same source.

It is rare as much as it is not beneficial for someone to have both a high EQ and a high IQ since high levels of both may usually create frequent internal dissonance and, instead of complimenting, both would cancel out each other.

If You [Just]... from page 10

together because, as she said, the guy started dating someone else, and she decided to focus her attention to her friends.

“Move on-move on rin,” was the 18-year-old Reyes’ advice to people who are not anymore together and when the person they love seems to be interested in building a future with someone else. On the bright side, she said she is now “friends” with her ex and they talk every once in a while.

Speaking of dating someone else, ninth grader Sheila Mae Ravis also tried seeing other people to keep herself happy after the doors of her eight-month relationship was shut closed because of jealousy issues.

“Masakit. Sobra,” the section Velasquez student said about how it felt, though she claimed that it took her only a week to get over the damages.

“Mahirap pero masaya. Kahit masakit, kailangan kong maging masaya,” she added about what pushed her to move on. To emphasize that she is okay, she remarked, “Wala na [‘yung sakit]! Okay na akong single!”

Advice for the nice

It really is unfortunate for someone innocent to be played with, but remember this: “Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”

That is about baseball, but the quote connects even with love and heartbreaks. It tells you that even if you keep getting your heart broken by jerks who don’t know what love really is, the heartbreaks should not stop you from finding who will really be there for you, the kind of person who will make time for you no matter how busy they could possibly be.

“Una, mahirap mag-let go kaya masakit bago bitawan ang lahat. Pangalawa, masakit pero kailangan para sa ekonomiya. Joke,” Beaquin laughed off.

“Siyempre may sakit [habang nag-mu-move on] pero in the process unti-unting nawawala... I tell you: hindi madali HABANG nag-mu-move-on (sic),” Beaquin pointed out, referring to the phases one has to go through to move on and heal from a true love’s heartbreak.

But the good part when the smoke and fog of a breakup has cleared, according to her, is this: “Pangatlo, ‘yung totoong move on? Okay sa pakiramdam kasi wala nang kaba ‘pag nakikita siya. You never wish ‘Na sana...’ kung ano man ‘yung iniiisip mo na masama sa kaniya dati na ‘sana mamatay [ka] na’ or what. Wala na.”

In the end, you cannot rush the process of moving on.

The gruesome... from page 2 his column by asking “[w] hich profession has produced more fictional superheroes: journalism or law?” in which he cited enduring superhero favorites Superman (Clark Kent, reporter for the Daily Planet) and Spider-Man (Peter Parker, photojournalist for the Daily Bugle).

The culprits Andal Sr., a former mayor (1988-1998) of the municipality of Ampatuan and provincial governor (19982009) of Maguindanao, was the one pointed as the mastermind of the massacre.

He first came into power by virtue of the late president Cory Aquino’s decision to make him Chief-of-Offices of Magonoy (now Shariff Aguak).

Starting in 2001, the Ampatuan clan has been the dominant force in Maguindanao, with relative Zaldy being the regional governor of Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and son Andal Jr. being pushed to run as provincial governor.

The Ampatuan political dynasty has been

evident as “18 of the mayors in Maguindanao belong to the clan,” according to Wikipedia.

The Ampatuan Massacre was allegedly rooted because Mangudadatu decided to run as a provincial governor counter to Andal Jr. Curiously, both of the Mangudadatu and Amapatuan clans belong to the same party, under former standardbearer ex-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Arroyo won the national election in Maguindanao by garnering 60 percent of the votes in the said province.

On July 17, 2015, Andal Sr. died due to complications from his liver cancer.

The Department of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation are still conducting investigations, inquiries and hearings with 198 suspects.

Although, through the years, state witnesses to the crime were either retracting their statements and participation or were being killed.

- Katherine Flor G. Castillo

The things that are rushed — whether love, letting go or moving on — will not last long, and the things that take time and effort are the ones that are really special and worth keeping.

Final thoughts

Got out from a heart break? Good. Moved on? Well, that’s all up to you. It’s also your choice whether you want to find someone new to fit right into your heart or just be happy and content being single. Either way, you will find, as popularized in John Green’s Looking For Alaska, your own “Great Perhaps”.

“Naniniwala ako na kailangang maging motto ng lahat ng mga mag-mu-move on ang ‘every ending means a new beginning’. Binibigyan mo ‘yung sarili mo ng pagkakataon ulitin ‘yung mga bagay [na tunay na magpapasaya sa’yo] at hopefully matagpuan na ‘yung happy ending,” Christian Santos, 17-year-old college student, said.

Moving on is a daunting phase in one’s life, but it is also one of the phases where most of us learn how to love while we are happy; how to hold on when everything is falling apart; when to let go for your sake; and how to forgive, forget and be happy again.

If you’re not really sure about what is happening and what you are feeling, remember this quote from the novel The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight: “Love is not supposed to make sense. It is completely illogical.”

Just go for it and keep moving forward. That’s the whole point of life.

“Love walks in when you least expect it,” as the cliché goes. You never know, but you might bump head with or get your foot stepped on by your future one great love. Or you may hate that person now but you two will end up together.

And if someone already made those butterflies flutter in your stomach and turned them into some gigantic mutated creatures, you better make that decisive, irreversible move.

Valentine’s Day is next month. Say how — not just what — you really feel. If you love someone then go ahead and tell them. If it works out, then good. If not, you could always tell yourself, “If you just took me seriously...”

Because, if you have not realized it yet, the words “If I just...” is much more painful than “If you just...” And as John Lloyd’s character, Popoy, in the movie One More Chance said, “I want to stop thinking what if. I want to know what is.”

So, if you really think — and feel — that you love that person, do it. Say it. Tell it to that person. Allow yourself to fall; risk being broken. You will be afraid, but as Veronica Roth’s Divergent series teaches, “Be brave.”

18

Felix Gabriel A. Lapuz III Sports Editor

SPORTS

By Christian P. Santos e’ve been here before. A group of 12 men and 40 minutes away from W the title.

We fell short the last time. We fell short again.

Fighting tooth and nail for every win and with only “puso” as its weapon, Gilas Pilipinas finished second in the 28th FIBA Asia Championship held at ChangzaWuhan, China, not good enough for an outright spot in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics.

The artillery

With only two months to prepare and limited players available, newly assigned national team head coach Thomas Anthony “Tab” Baldwin was baptized with fire as he was faced with different challenges and obstacles, not just on the court but off it as well.

National team veterans Andrei Blatche, Ranidel De Ocampo, Matt GanuelasRosser, “The Cebuano Hotshot” Dondon Hontiveros, Gabe Norwood, “Pinoy Sakuragi” Marc Pingris, “The Boss” Sonny Thoss, “The Ageless” Asi Taulava and “The Blur” Jayson Castro-William — who was named Asia’s best point guard for the second straight Championship — were on board on donning the national jersey for another tour of duty.

International play rookies JC Intal, PBA top draftee Moala Tautuua, “The Beast” Calvin Abueva and killer-crossover master Terrence Romeo — the last two dubbed as the “Bash Brothers” — provided the youth and athleticism for Gilas 3.0.

Many of the core members of Gilas 2.0 — which scared the living hell out of higher FIBA-ranked teams France, Croatia, Greece, Puerto Rico, Argentina and all those teams’ NBA players and international-caliber coaches and that battled it out in the previous World Cup in Seville, Spain — were not in Gilas 3.0.

“The Kraken” June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, “Tinyente” LA Tenorio, Jeff Chan and “Angas ng Tondo” Paul Lee begged off or were disallowed by their team management to play for country, while “El Granada” Gary David, “Baby-faced Assassin” Larry Fonacier and former Gilas team captain “The Mighty Mouse” Jimmy Alapag did not make Baldwin’s cut.

The training

Before the war started and the skirmishes began, Gilas underwent three warm-up tournaments to sharpen its cagers’ skills, hone their chemistry and strengthen their “puso” for the main stage of carnage.

The Philippines had a terrible start as it failed to win any game in the 2015 Toyota Four Nations Cup held last August 20 to 23 in Estonia. It featured Iceland, the Netherlands and host Estonia.

The bad kind of sweep ignited the fire of Gilas 3.0 as it made a huge comeback by finishing second place in the 37th William Jones Cup held from August 29 to September 6 in Taiwan. Gilas last joined the invitational tournament in 2013 where it took home the trophy with an upset win against the US, shouldered by Tenorio and his fourth-quarter heroics.

The Philippine men’s national basketball team had one last chance to make final tweaks as the country hosted Master Game Face MVP Cup from September 11 to 13 at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum, where the boys swept Chinese-Taipei, New Zealand’s Wellington Saints and the Talk ‘N’ Text Tropang Texters.

The battles before the war

With confidence and “puso”, Gilas Pilipinas stormed through the first preliminary round, finishing second in Group B, just below Palestine and ahead of Hong Kong and Kuwait.

Gilas 3.0 failed to shake off first-game jitters as they bowed down to lowerranked Palestine, 73-75. The troop completed its next two assignments, beating Hong Kong with a huge 51-point margin, 101-50, and a 46-point shellacking of Kuwait, 11064. Drama continued as tension between the Philippines and Kuwait rose with two non-calls and a flagrant foul from the latter country.

Gilas 3.0 continued its stellar performance as it ended the second preliminary round on top spot, above Iran, Japan, India, Palestine and Hong Kong.

The Philippines followed up their Jones Cup stoppage of Japan with a 73-66 win over its East Asia neighbors in the FIBA-Asia second

Photos from fiba.com, rappler.com, pba-online.net, philstar.com, cnnphilippines.com and spin.ph

preliminaries, and broke Indian hearts with a 34-point massacre, 99-65. But the centerpiece of the second round was the Philippines’ upset win over powerhouse and 2013 FIBA champion Iran, 87-73, a first in the past three years.

The Gilas-Iran match was highlighted by the gutsy, young Abueva’s oneon-one challenge versus veteran Hamed Haddadi. When Gilas was making a rally in the fourth quarter, Abueva stole the ball, run on fastbreak and saw Haddadi protecting the rim. Common sense and logic would tell to wait for teammates, but The Beast is not The Beast if he stepped on the break.

Instead, with the Alaska Aces forward probably thinking it was more Calvin-gasmic and Abueva-rrific to step on the accelerator, The Beast bulldozed straight to the hoop, as if to tell the 7-foot-2 behemoth “Ikaw pala si Haddadi. Ako si Abueva. Anong height mo, bro?”

Abueva did not convert but fished Haddadi’s fourth foul. An irate Haddadi threw the ball, glared at and complained to the referee, who gave the Iranian a technical foul that had him foul out.

The war: so close yet so far

Months of preparation and hardwork was put to the ultimate test as

Gilas Pilipinas entered the knockout quarterfinals, with Lebanon, Japan and China blocking the 2016 Olympic road to Rio.

Gilas Pilipinas cruised through its knockout quarterfinals by crushing boastful Lebanon, 82-70, whose head coach insulted and belittled the Philippines prior to the match by telling the media that he was happy his team was facing Gilas since “it’s just the Philippines (Pilipinas lang ‘yan).”

As the Gilas-Lebanon game was nearing final buzzer, Abueva made sure to rub salt and spit on the wound. He gave the Lebanon head coach a stare-down for about seven seconds while shaking his head and clapping.

In the knockout semis, the Philippines faced a familiar but more respectful foe in Japan, as they met for the third time in just a month and second time in the tournament. Gilas upended the gritty Japanese side, 81-70, behind the clutch threes of Hontiveros. Japan, though, played without any naturalized import.

We’ve been here before. A group of 12 men and 40 minutes away from the title. This time, it’s in the face of one of Asia’s powerhouse, basketball or not. Another David-versus-Goliath story.

Another favorite-andunderdog song. Last time it was Iran. Now, China and its five seven-foot players.

Doing everything and anything in its power to bring down the heavy steel post dressed as China, Gilas Pilipinas’ best efforts proved to be not enough as the Filipinos fell to a loss, 67-78, settling with runner-up’s podium again.

Controversy spread across the venue and the Internet as Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) President Manny V. Pangilinan (MVP) ranted in his Twitter account about the host country’s “shenanigans”. Baldwin said the Chinese’ “cheap tricks” were to be expected as he had experienced it years back when he had coached Jordan against then-host China in the FIBA finals.

MVP said the Gilas team bus — provided by Chinese management — had engine trouble that delayed their arrival to the finals venue. The basketball patron also claimed the organizers had made a very cramped schedule — without considering rest and travel time — where Gilas only had about seven or six hours rest between the end of their match versus Japan and the start of finals (China played first in the semis).

The sudden repair of the net at the Philippine side’s ring also shortened Gilas’ warm-up time. Verbal confrontations and rude actions also occurred inside the arena, leaving a bad, sour Chinese taste on the last day of competition.

As one national broadsheet writer wrote, the Philippines played “in front one of the most hostile crowds a team could ever play in front of.”

The aftermath

Now what?

After losing to China and finishing second in the FIBA Asia Championship, Gilas Pilipinas now have to take the long, hard way to Rio through an Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT).

All second to fourth placers of all FIBA Championship from Asia, Americas, Eurobasket, Africa and Oceania will battle it out for the three wildcard spots in the Olympics. SBP joined the bid to host one of the three OQT, rolling the dice and hoping for a bigger chance of winning by playing in front the boisterous, diehard Filipinos.

Another FIBA Asia Championship. Another Gilas Pilipinas edition. Another silver finish. Progress seemed to be happening. Every “puso” and every hope of basketball-crazy Filipinos were left again unsatisfied.

We all know that we can do it. We did it in Spain. We can do it again in Rio. And maybe, in another FIBA qualifying tourney, another Gilas Pilipinas edition and, finally, a top podium finish.

SPORTS

Felix Gabriel A. Lapuz III

19

Sports Editor

CHAMPION-SWEEP

KNLHS FUSe bags Rillo Cup crown

By Bryle Desabelle It has been nine long years, as Jun “Mang Jani” Ruby recalled, since they last won a championship.

It was nothing short of sweet to win one, especially without losing any game.

Charged up and energized to finally go all the way, Krus Na Ligas High School (KNLHS) Faculty, Utility and Security (FUSe) men’s basketball team swept the dust at its feet along with all of its competitors to bag the crown of the previous Rillo Cup in the wars that occurred between April and August.

Hail the champions. Members of Krus Na Ligas High School (KNLHS) Faculty, Utility and Security (FUSe) team pose after bringing home the championship in the last Rillo Cup, winning all games from eliminations to the Finals.

The tall and lanky Albert Cabras, reminiscent of Rain or Shine’s Raymond Almazan in the PBA, took home the season Most Valuable Player award after

averaging 16.16 points per game, followed by fellow FUSe cagers RJ Calleja (16.16 ppg) and Bodoy Lovina (13 ppg) in the Mythical Five.

In the single roundrobin eliminations, KNLHS FUSe electrified Plaza Elite in its opener, 86-53; escaped a rollercoaster match versus Special Trip, 83-77; breezed past Kyell in its third game, 94-55; won by default against Striker; and made fish fillets of the gym-like bodies of Tau Gamma Phi, 80-59. The records of final scores against the other opponents — Vital Sign and Empi Lights — were already lost, but according to Ruby, they won all their elimination games.

FUSe hit Striker out of title contention and packing for vacation in the semi-finals before delivering

Special Trip on its way to a losing cowboy’s ride in the championship, 66-38, to seize the crown of Rillo Cup. Last season, the team’s highest bragging right was being a mudslinger after having dealt last tournament’s eventual first runner-up its only loss in the double roundrobin eliminations.

Aside from Lucio, Cabras, Calleja and Lovina, other members of the team were Ersal Linda, Jeffrey Gallenera, Joel Riego, Edgar Aribon, Erik Muñoz and Harold Soriano.

The tournament director of Rillo Cup was Eric Esteban. The tournament is being sponsored yearly by Councilor Marvin Rillo and supported by Kagawad Mau Fulgencio-Magalong.

The greatest heartbreak: boastful Mayweather outpoints injured Pacquiao in issue-ridden mega-fight

By Wynona Geralda S. Del Rosario

Never expect and never assume. Just let it be, because if it’s meant to be, it will be.

Millions of Filipinos in hopes for history were left broken-hearted, if not cheated, on May 2, 2015, a day everyone will remember when the mega-fight, dubbed as “Fight of the Century”, between the undefeated fivedivision world champion Floyd Mayweather and eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao finally occurred at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Despite predictions that Pacquiao would bring home the bacon, Mayweather proved the world wrong after 12 rounds to win via unanimous decision, with two judges scoring the fight 116112 and the other, 118-110.

“If he wins tonight, don’t all be shocked ... ‘Cause guess what? I beat (Hatton) when he was undefeated.

Pacquiao beat Oscar, it don’t matter. When you talk about boxing, you talk about Floyd Mayweather,” Mayweather said in a press conference days before the fight.

According to CompuBox, Mayweather landed 67 more punches than Pacquiao did. Only three of the 12 rounds did Pacquiao land double-figure punches,

as the CompuBox stats show.

Pacquiao himself questioned the result at the end of the fight and continues to maintain that he was the real winner.

The Best Ever?

Regardless of the large amount of hype that surrounded it, some critics found it disappointing, relabelling the fight as “Better Never than Late” rather than the “Fight of the Century”.

Critics and boxing analysts cited Mayweather’s too much defensiveness in the ring, clinching and running away instead of engaging whenever The Pambansang Kamao (The National Fist) came within striking distance of Mayweather, who calls himself “TBE” or “The Best Ever”.

Aside from Mayweather’s evade-hit-andrun strategy, boxing analysts and commentators noted during the fight that “Pacman” threw a lower number of combinations as compared to his previous fights, and that whenever he threw flurries, he quickly stopped.

Pacquaio and his trainer Freddie Roach later revealed that the GenSannative injured his left shoulder in training a week before the fight.

According to reports, Pacquiao decided to push through the match because

Punch and run. On one photo, eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao lets “Pretty Boy” Floyd Mayweather Jr. have romance with his gloves. On another, Mayweather clinches to Pacquiao, with punch-run-hug being Mayweather’s strategy in the “Fight of the Century”. Mayweather won via unanimous decision. (Photos courtesy of reddiff.com and robertmanni.com)

there was a high possibility that Mayweather would not wait for him to be fully healed and that many avid boxing fans and aficionados have already spent lots of money for hotel reservations, food, tickets and pay-per-view.

Confirmed: Mayweather used drug In September 2015, another issue surfaced when Mayweather was found to have used, before the megafight, “an intravenous (IV) injection of saline and vitamins that was banned under World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] guidelines”.

The news was

published September 10, 2015 on ESPN.com and written

by ESPN Senior Writer Dan Rafael, who cited an earlier report from SB Nation.

Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) slammed the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) for giving the Mayweather camp an exemption to use IV when USADA do not have such executive powers but only NSAC. Also, NSAC was infuriated that USADA did not release information of what the exemption until after the fight.

The report clarified that saline (250ml) and Vitamin C (500ml) were not banned

by WADA, but the means—

intravenous injection—was not allowed because it hides the presence of other substances in the blood like performanceenhancing drugs (PED).

“WADA rules do not allow intravenous infusions or injections of more than 50milliliters per six hours ‘except for those legitimately received in the course of hospital admissions, surgical procedures, or clinical investigations’,” the ESPN news stated.

USADA has a reputation in the past years as having Mayweather cronies that goes under the table.

Pacquiao was reported to have not been

allowed by the USADA to use a painkiller before the fight.

Though issues still continue to sprout like mushrooms, Pacquiao stated in an interview that he is waiting for a rematch versus Mayweather for a shot at redemption.

Mayweather, however, did not agree on the idea and said that there will be no sequel to the fight as they have negotiated in the contract they both signed in 2013.

One of the provisions of the said contract states that should Mayweather win, there would be no rematch, but if Pacquiao wins, Mayweather is entitled to a second chance.

Filipino in world’s top 10 chess players BUT... there’s a problem

By Wynona Geralda S. Del Rosario

Greatness which starts in a very young age develops into remarkable success in the future.

F i l i p i n o Grandmaster (GM) Wesley So, the former youngest player in history to pass 2600 ELO rating previously held by world number one Magnus Carlsen, is making worldwide news as the representative of the United States.

But why not under the Philippine flag?

As Rappler.com reported on December 18, 2014, So “wrote to NCFP (National Chess Federation

of the Philippines) [in 2013] that he wanted to go to the US because he saw no future if he stayed with the Philippines chess body.”

So, further, refused to play for the Philippines in the 2014 Chess Olympiad in Norway.

Achievements Despite the feud, So started 2015 by bagging the championship in the Bunratty International Chess Festival and joining the elite list of winners in the said contest held in Ireland in February 2015.

In the same month,

So barged to the world’s top 10 chess players and was named 7th best after victories in the Millionaire Chess Open and 2nd-place finish at the 2015 Tata Steel Chess Tournament.

As of December 31, 2015, So holds the position as 10th best woodpusher in the world.

Last November 2015, So was named champion of one of the biggest chess tournaments in the world: the Bilbao Chess Masters Final tournament, known also as the Grand Slam Chess Final.

So made his first Chess Olympiad—the Olympics of woodpushers—

appearance held in Turin in 2006 and joined a great number of tourneys and ASEAN Chess Circuit events.

Former Philippine chess champion International Master (IM) Rodolfo Tan Cardoso eyed So’s playing style as a mix of calculated aggressiveness—even when holding Black—and tactical brilliance, stating “the young lad... would sacrifice a queen or any other pieces in his arsenal to get a winning attack.”

“So far I play aggressively. I would like to play a solid game with a solid opening. This is what I want. I think my style is close to Vishy

Anand, of course on a different level,” So said during the 2008 Chess Olympiad.

So great BUT...

Although, like a bull with iron skin running amok, Cardoso noted that So’s overwhelming natural talent that allows him to excel even against higher-rated, more experienced players is also his own downfall as he fails to listen to the teachings of others.

“He cannot afford decent training given by well known GM-coaches and has to rely on his pure talent,” Cardoso commented.

Since transferring to the US under the athletic scholarship of powerhouse Webster University, So has vastly improved.

As many analysts and social circle see it, So’s rise from just being promising and “an ordinary GM” to being in the world’s 10 best chess players is largely thanks to the skills transfer, trainings and guidance by Webster U coach Women Grandmaster (WGM) Susan Polgar.

Polgar is known arguably as the best drillmaster in the US today Continue to page 17...

20

Veatrice Vicente

Chief Photographer

LIFE THROUGH LENS

Photos by Darrem Dy Bautista, Joellyn P. Aplacador, Jessica Sarmiento, Christell Claire Villanueva, Rachelle Anne E. Copina and Veatrice Vicente.