Monday, October 20, 2014

Anthony Villanueva Biography

Leave a Comment
Anthony Villanueva was scouted by businessman and sport enthusiast Eugenio Puyat. He later qualified for the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He faced Soviet boxer Stanislav Stepashkin, in the gold medal match but later loss in a 3-2 controversial decision. 7,000 spectators of the match reportedly booed the decision.

Villanueva became a professional boxer at age 20. His first fight as a professional was with Shigeo Nirasawa of Japan at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City which took place on October 2, 1965 as part of Fiesta Fistiana, a fund raising event organized by the Philippine Sportswriters Association for disable boxers.
Villanueva won the match by a controversial majority decision. The scoring of the judges was criticized and was described as something seen in movies. Judges Alfredo Quiazon and Alex Villacampa choosed Villanueva as the victor with the tight scores 29-28 oand 28-27 respectively. The third judge Jaime Valencia called it a draw with the score 29-all.
Anthony and his father filed a case against Ilang-Ilang Productions of Espiridion Laxa for P45,000 for "exploitation of popularity". The production firm was accused of filming the said match without the consent of the Villanuevas. The results of the case was never announced.

Villanueva was married to his wife Liezel Beldia for seventeen years, and had four children.
In 1976, he went to the United States to earn a living. He worked as a cook in a Mexican restaurant in Massachusetts, then as a security guard in Staten Island and the Philippine Consulate in New York. He also worked as a boxing coach at private gyms. He later returned to the Philippines in 1988 assisted the Philippine national boxing coach team to prepare the team for the 1988 Summer Olympics then later returned the United States after failing in a bid to find a stable job but eventually returned home for good.
Villanueva suffered a mild stroke in 1999. He tried selling his silver medal for 1 million pesoes a year later. He was persuaded to donate the medal to the Philippine Sports Commission instead.
Villanueva died in his sleep on May 13, 2014, in Cabuyao, Laguna. He was 69. Villanueva was bed ridden due to multiple complications including kidney malfunction and severe abnormalities in his heart. He has suffered about five strokes and heart attacks in the past fourteen years before his death. Villanueva won the country's first silver medal at the1964 Summer Olympics, A feat yet to be surpassed except perhaps by Onyok Velasco who later won the country's second silver medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics.
Manny Pacquaio described Villanueva as the “original Filipino boxing icon who should never be forgotten by the nation.”AIBA president Wu Ching-Kuo also said that the death of Villanueva did not only left a void in Philippine boxing but also “in the hearts of all those who knew this hero around the world.”

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Villanueva
Read More...

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Failed Assassination of Imelda Marcos

Leave a Comment
The failed assassination happened during an awarding ceremony for a contest spearheaded by the first lady as part of Imelda’s National Beautification and Cleanliness.

Carlito Dimahilig, the killer, lined up to receive the award from the first lady.  Then, suddenly, without being noticed by the guard, he drew a bolo and stab Imelda Marcos to death which she luckily survived.


Read More...

Monday, September 23, 2013

Rizal's Poem to Filipino Youth

Leave a Comment
 
 

Raise your unruffled brow
On this day, Filipino youth!
Resplendent shines
Your courage rich,
Handsome hope of my motherland!
Fly, grand genius
And infuse them with noble sentiment
That vigorously rushes,
More rapid than the wind,
Its virgin mind to the glorious goal.
Descend to the arena
With the pleasant light of arts and sciences,
And unbind, Youth,
The heavy chain
That fetters your poetic genius.
See that in the bright zone
With pious and learned hand,
Offers the son of this native land
Resplendent crown.
You who ascend
On wings of your rich fantasy,
Seeking from Olympus in the clouds
Tenderest poetry,
Sweeter than nectar and ambrosia;
You of the celestial accent,
Melodious rival of the nightingale,
Who with varied melodies
Dissipate the mortal’s bitter pain
In the night serene;
You who animate the hand rock
With the impulse of your mind,
And with prepotent  hand makes eternal
The pure memory
Of the refulgent genius;
And you, who with magic brushes
Are wont to transfer to simple canvas
The varied enchantment of Phoebus, beloved of
Apollo divine,
And the mantle of nature.
Run! For the sacred flame
Of the genius awaits to be crowned with laurels,
Spreading fame
With trumpet proclaiming
O’er the wide sphere the mortal’s name.
Day, oh happy day,
Philippines genteel, for your soil!
Bless the Almighty,
Who with loving desire
Sends you fortune and consolation.

Read More...

Monday, September 16, 2013

A Filipino snatch America's Pulitzer Prize

Leave a Comment
Filipino Carlos P. Romulo, who became President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1949, was awarded the 1942 Pulitzer Prize for Correspondence (now called International Reporting) while working as a reporter for the Philippines Herald. The selection committee cited the value of "his observations and forecasts of Far Eastern developments during a tour of the trouble centers from Hong Kong to Batavia."





Source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_was_the_first_Asian_to_receive_a_Pulitzer_Prize_in_journalism 
Read More...

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Filipino Inventor: Camera on a Chip

Leave a Comment


"The camera on our cellular phones is already a technological wonder.  Now how about a marble-sized video camera?  This camera is so small it can fit into a wristwatch.  And it is packed with nifty features and can be used for PC videoconferencing and security cameras.
The inventor of this camera-on-a-chip technology is a Filipino who works at Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs in the United States.  For this invention, Marc Loinaz received in 1999 an award given by the Tenth Annual Discover Magazine Awards for Technological Innovation.  His invention edged out the Rio PMP300 MP3 player (a portable player for MO3-encoded digital music) in the personal entertainment category.
Marc joined Bell Labs in 1995 and started working on a one-chip digital video camera in 1996.  His team came up with a demonstration unit in 1997 and introduced it to the public in 1998.
The camera-on-a-chip approach is based on the same CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) technology found in today’s computer chips.  It produced real-time video images that could equal the quality of images produced by camcorders, which rely on a handful of non-CMOS chips.
The camera works by focusing light through a lens on a chip containing 100,000 sensors, each one-fifth the diameter of a human hair.  Hardware on the chip processes the image, adjusts the color, and smoothes out imperfections.
Besides requiring less space, CMOS cameras use less power than traditional CCD (charge-coupled devices) cameras. – Bato Balani"

Read More...

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Ninoy Aquino’s (undelivered) Arrival Speech

Leave a Comment

I have returned on my free will to join the ranks of those struggling to restore our rights and freedoms through nonviolence.
I seek no confrontation. I only pray and will strive for a genuine national reconciliation founded on justice.
I am prepared for the worst, and have decided against the advice of my mother, my spiritual adviser, many of my tested friends and a few of my most valued political mentors.
A death sentence awaits me. Two more subversion charges, both calling for death penalties, have been filed since I left three years ago and are now pending with the courts.
I could have opted to seek political asylum in America, but I feel it is my duty, as it is the duty of every Filipino, to suffer with his people especially in time of crisis.
I never sought nor have I been given assurances or promise of leniency by the regime. I return voluntarily armed only with a clear conscience and fortified in the faith that in the end justice will emerge triumphant.
According to Gandhi, the WILLING sacrifice of the innocent is the most powerful answer to insolent tyranny that has yet been conceived by God and man.
Three years ago when I left for an emergency heart bypass operation, I hoped and prayed that the rights and freedoms of our people would soon be restored, that living conditions would improve and that blood-letting would stop.
Rather than move forward, we have moved backward. The killings have increased, the economy has taken a turn for the worse and the human rights situation has deteriorated.
During the martial law period, the Supreme Court heard petitions for Habeas Corpus. It is most ironic, after martial law has allegedly been lifted, that the Supreme Court last April ruled it can no longer entertain petitions for Habeas Corpus for persons detained under a Presidential Commitment Order, which covers all so-called national security cases and which under present circumstances can cover almost anything.
The country is far advanced in her times of trouble. Economic, social and political problems bedevil the Filipino. These problems may be surmounted if we are united. But we can be united only if all the rights and freedoms enjoyed before September 21, 1972 are fully restored.
The Filipino asks for nothing more, but will surely accept nothing less, than all the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the 1935 Constitution — the most sacred legacies from the Founding Fathers.
Yes, the Filipino is patient, but there is a limit to his patience. Must we wait until that patience snaps?
The nation-wide rebellion is escalating and threatens to explode into a bloody revolution. There is a growing cadre of young Filipinos who have finally come to realize that freedom is never granted, it is taken. Must we relive the agonies and the blood-letting of the past that brought forth our Republic or can we sit down as brothers and sisters and discuss our differences with reason and goodwill?
I have often wondered how many disputes could have been settled easily had the disputants only dared to define their terms.
So as to leave no room for misunderstanding, I shall define my terms:
1. Six years ago, I was sentenced to die before a firing squad by a Military Tribunal whose jurisdiction I steadfastly refused to recognize. It is now time for the regime to decide. Order my IMMEDIATE EXECUTION OR SET ME FREE.
I was sentenced to die for allegedly being the leading communist leader. I am not a communist, never was and never will be.
2. National reconciliation and unity can be achieved but only with justice, including justice for our Muslim and Ifugao brothers. There can be no deal with a Dictator. No compromise with Dictatorship.
3. In a revolution there can really be no victors, only victims. We do not have to destroy in order to build.
4. Subversion stems from economic, social and political causes and will not be solved by purely military solutions; it can be curbed not with ever increasing repression but with a more equitable distribution of wealth, more democracy and more freedom, and
5. For the economy to get going once again, the workingman must be given his just and rightful share of his labor, and to the owners and managers must be restored the hope where there is so much uncertainty if not despair.
On one of the long corridors of Harvard University are carved in granite the words of Archibald Macleish:
“How shall freedom be defended? By arms when it is attacked by arms; by truth when it is attacked by lies; by democratic faith when it is attacked by authoritarian dogma. Always, and in the final act, by determination and faith.”
I return from exile and to an uncertain future with only determination and faith to offer — faith in our people and faith in God.
<end of speech>
Source:
“A Testimony by Ninoy,” a pamphlet published on September 1, 1983 by the Human Development Research and Documentation office of the La Ignaciana Apostolic Center as Human Society No. 21
Read More...