Ten years

Ten years ago to this date, we had the following news:

1. The New Nation (Bangladesh) 26July2003
 "Reports from Faridpur said at least six persons died, 20 others injured in a road accident at Chandipur on Dhaka-Khulna highway on Thursday night (24July). Police and Fire Fighting sources said the driver of the Dhaka-bound night coach lost its control and fell into the ditch leaving six of its passengers dead.
Five of the victims were identified as Jwel (35), a Philippino national, the bus driver Hashem (45), Mianr (32), Nazrul Islam (40), Enamul Haq Munshi (35) and the rest one person is yet to be identified. Kotwali police sources said the Philippino national Jwel was a consultant of a Shrimp farm in Khulna-Satkhira area.
The injured passengers were taken to the Faridpur Medical College Hospital. A case was filed with Kotwali police in this connection."

2. Sify News (Bangladesh) 26 July 2003
"Seven killed in B'desh bus accident
Saturday, 26 July , 2003, 06:03
Dhaka: At least seven people, including a Filipino, were killed and 40 people hurt on Friday when a passenger bus crashed on a highway in southwestern Bangladesh, officials said. The overnight bus was heading to the capital Dhaka from the southwestern city of Khulna when it skidded into a ditch in the Faripur district, said an official of the Sohag Paribahan transport company. He said one of the dead was a Filipino Muslim working in Bangladesh who had given his name as Jewel when he bought his bus ticket in Khulna."

3. Sun Star (Philippines) 26July 2003
"7 killed, including Filipino, in Bangladesh bus accident
DHAKA -- At least seven people, including a Filipino, were killed and 40
people hurt Friday when a passenger bus crashed on a highway in
southwestern Bangladesh, officials said.
The overnight bus was heading to the capital Dhaka from the
southwestern city of Khulna when it skidded into a ditch in the Faripur
district, said an official of the Sohag Paribahan transport company.
He said one of the dead was a Filipino Muslim working in Bangladesh
who had given his name as Jewel when he bought his bus ticket in
Khulna. AFP"

These are all the info we had and many questions still remain unanswered. I should have visited the place ten years ago and gather all the details I need. The reason why I haven't was probably because of time and money constraints back then. I probably have the money now and should be able to do it as soon I have a bit of slack in our work comes next summer. I just hope I won't ran out of time.

Right to bear arms

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

If all men are created equal with the same rights...
... and Americans (A) have the right to bear arms (A=C),
... and since Filipinos (B) are not animals nor plants but belong to the group called "men" (A=B),
then we Filipinos have also the right to bear arms (B=C)!

Simply put, since A=B and A=C, then B=C.

Furthermore, since the Philippine Constitution is based from the American, then whatever right is enshrined in the former must, by logic, be also inherent in the latter.
Otherwise, the premise of equality will not hold, and A will not be equal B.

Agnosticism and secularism

"When I reached intellectual maturity and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist, or a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; Christian or a freethinker; I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer; until, at last, I came to the conclusion that I had neither art nor part with any of these denominations, except the last. The one thing in which most of these good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were quite sure they had attained a certain "gnosis,"–had, more or less successfully, solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure I had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble. And, with Hume and Kant on my side, I could not think myself presumptuous in holding fast by that opinion. [...]. So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of "agnostic." It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the "gnostic" of Church history, who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant. […] To my great satisfaction the term took."
                                                                                                       -  T.H. Huxley (1893) - 
                           ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Huxley's simple definition of the word, I am an agnostic. I am not a Christian (Catholic or Protestant) nor an atheist. Agnostic - just that. 

On the politics, I strongly advocate secularism. All activities and  initiatives of government shall be devoid of any religious consideration. That's why I strongly oppose giving autonomy to Muslims in Mindanao and the creation of ARMM. Every Filipino citizen, Muslim or  Christian, must be governed only by a single uniform legal and judicial system. The Muslims should not be allowed to impose Sharia on anybody (even on Muslims themselves)  just as the Christians are not allowed to impose the Laws of Moses in any Christian in this country.