SAUNA

The House of Representatives was in heat as the president delivered her 8th State of the Nation Address in the 200 million-peso newly renovated Batasan Pambansa. It was as if steam was coming out from everywhere- either from allies whose 104 applauses raised the room's temperature to a hundred degrees or from critics whose every word uttered by the president made them even more in heat of disbelief. It was indeed a sauna out there.

To be fair, the president did admit the country is in crisis in a way... due to global economic woes. But the disturbing part is that, she speaks as if we can't do anything else. It's as if this is the fate of the Philippines and that she as leader cannot do anything to mitigate the said global problems. She also mentioned the Philippines is quite unlucky since we do not have the topography of Thailand and Vietnam, two huge rice-exporting countries.

Again in all fairness, she did have good works credited to her name. Like the creation of some bridges and roads and... Ok, so maybe just a few achievements.

After 8 years, what has changed in the country? And what can she still do in the 2 years that she has left?

Raising the Stars

The Philippine government and the Sulpicio Lines have decided to 'refloat' the sunken MV Princess of the Stars. The say, this would help in retrieving the hundreds of bodies still trapped inside the vessel, as well as easing the retrieval of the toxic cargo inside the ship. Vice President Noli De Castro says, this would probably take a month before the ship is refloated.

This seems an amazing, yet dangerous task. Amazing, because it's probably one of the first in the world for a doomed passenger ship to be refloated again. It would take really big vessels and equipment for this to happen. But there are also risks since no one knows the exact spot where the toxic endosulfan is located.

As of press time, more than 700 passengers and crew are still unaccounted for.