Philippine Genealogy

Most families have their legends, urban or rural. This is so true with Philippine families, no thanks to those Spanish surnames which have led many to believe they're descended from Spanish ancestors. And so, off they go searching for their ancestral houses in Spain.

A common claim would be that their ancestor was a Spanish priest from whom they got the name. That's an urban legend. Trouble with this legend is that a child from a Spanish priest would not get the latter's surname. Illegitimate children just didn't get their father's name. It's possible? I wish somebody would show me how they could go about circumventing this rule.

Did Clavería have any inkling? A year after his 1849 decree, he had asked how the implementation was going on, and the report that came back to him said, among other things, that a result of the decree was that many indios even in the mountains were now bearing the same surnames as the illustrious Spanish houses of Alba, Medinaceli and Osuna. From all indications, these three houses to this day have maintained their illustrious-ness. And from all indications, too, those indios are still up there. But with a rural legend; what else can you call it?

Nursing Care

If nobody else, I can understand Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s decision to order a retake of the 2006 nursing examinations. National cost outweighs benefits, which of course is only spread to some thousands of individuals.

The test leakage had President Arroyo on an unenviable executive spot: Be just to a clear majority of examinees who had passed with nary a whiff of the leak, or risk having everyone of this year’s batch under a shadow--or worse, having the entire nursing licensure system under the shadow--internationally.

Meanwhile, the benefits would have covered Arroyo herself politically, she whose administration, day by day, has to pass scrutiny through a microscope. She chose to be an executive on the side of the long term on this one.

Was that the real cost-benefit equation? That’s where the debate is centered on now. Yes, the long term advantages or disadvantages are not all that clear, as they are all subject to conjecture.

Judgment call, they call it in sports. As it is, this turnaround caught many people by surprise. Nobody looks on this president, decidedly proportionally disadvantaged physically, to be any good at sports. But nobody has ever faulted her with not having a giant heart either.

But still, there’s no two ways about it, the passers (and their families of course) are the ones who suffer.

If there are people who should suffer more, it’d be those who had something to do with the leak. The national investigative bodies have reportedly zeroed in on review centers who got hold of those exams. Understandable enough, those people were the bribe givers.

But an even more powerful message sent across nations would have been to scuttle everyone in the nursing regulations commission. Commissioners, examiners, checkers, everyone on their respective staffs, the commission clerks—everyone. Those people were the bribe takers. They were the ones who had cast the entire nursing licensure system under that awful shadow. They were the custodians of that national resource who… botched the job, to say the least.

Every single one in that department is more guilty than any single board passer.

Either bar every one of the former from ever practicing his or profession, or have them do a retake, too.

We take care of our own nurses, hear?

Usernames: Intemplate

Nobody prepared me for this: Just to choose a username is a tedious experience. I applied for some choices and the program kept telling me, “Sorry, Username is not available.” So I went for cute and tried Username, but Sorry, bla-bla-bla. Would have settled for User, but then the name struck me as having too many uses.

Wait, the message’s been addressing me as Sorry; I can take a hint. So, Sorry it’s gonna be. Guess it must have recognized me because “Sorry, Username is not available.” Umm, knew me but no deal. What’s a novice to do?

I clicked on Help, but it had none that helped. Went for Frequently Asked Questions, but again none for my case. I was getting mighty frustrated and shouted: FAQ2. “Sorry, Username not available.” I noticed there was a button for Templates. I couldn’t even find a name, what do I know of templates? I’m a total zero about templates.

So, I told it I’m zero about templates: Intemplate. And it accepted me. Must have felt sorry for me already.

This is tiring. Who said newspaper deadlines are the pits?