My Love for traveling

By: Rod Benjamin J. Buñag

Photo by: Rod Benjamin Buñag

Photo by: Rod Benjamin Buñag

    Traveling to me is a very big deal, from the fact that it connects me with my loved ones, when my family and I are at home everyone is just too busy with their own problems and work. I am someone who loves spending time with people and traveling helps me attain that. This trip was very unusual due to that we used to go visit every year during the summer but stopped for more than 5 years ago. It was the trip where I gained 10 pounds while losing all the muscle mass I had gained, in other words very very bad things. This is from skipping out my diet, eating the food they served there, and being without any modes of exercise created this situation.

Photo by: Rod Benjamin Buñag

    My family and I just recently went on a travel last christmas break to California, Los Angeles which was a very fun and happy time for all of us. We all had no worries and just kept a smile on for the most of it. Since we're different individuals we couldn't help but fighting with each other at certain points. Though I believed it helped us create a deeper and more meaningful bond together. We spent the entire trip with another family, whom we have known for longer than 17 years even before I was in this world. Though I've been here countless times, this will be the trip that I'll never forget. That it started my year with a new and reformed bond with my family and I.

Photo by: Rod Benjamin Buñag

Photo by: Rod Benjamin Buñag

Photo by: Rod Benjamin Buñag

    Our trip took us to Carson in Los Angeles which we spent most our time in outlets, malls, sightseeing and restaurants to shop and such. We went to see a beautiful museum of art at Lacma, of a great number of people. All the art they had was breath taking. Then we went to Mountain High at one point, which is a ski resort but we came late so we didn't have any time to ski. Which got me really sad, since I wanted to experience gliding through layers of snow. On the bright side I saw snow for the first time or the first time I would remember, but it wouldn't be the last. Then off we went to the Grand Canyon, which was freezing even though I have this thick coat on the whole time. That is saying something from someones who loves the cold with passion. We then head off to the Hoover Dam the next day, which is a iconic dam that has been featured in many films my favorite one being Transformers. It was breathtaking seeing such a scene of a combination of natural formation and man made structures. This begins the nearing of the conclusion of the story I am telling you. Sin city is next on the itinerary of traveling to, where we spend our New Years. Where I create a promise to myself that this is my year and I'll make sure of it. Though I skimmed through many details of my travel my point is that you have to be the one to add your goal and to attain whether it may on a trip or life.

    We get back from America tired, fat and sweaty since we aren't used to the weather in the Philippines anymore. I believe this is if not the best, then top trips I have been in. Due to the mere fact the we came back a new family, new mindsets and more importantly we came home safe. My reason again for loving traveling with a burning passion is cause I of the memories I create with my family that usually I wouldn't be able to have.

The Controversial Coronation

by Julia Patricia C. Belleza

Almost a week after the Miss Universe beauty pageant, headlines still surface across the globe, whether it's in the news about Steve Harvey's fumble on live television or in social media centering on all the memes made from the event.

Copyrights to Miss Universe Organization

I could talk about Steve Harvey's drinking and roulette playing before the competition, about the hoax of Miss Colombia's suicide in her hotel room hours after the pageant, or about how the other contestants treated Miss Philippines, *ahem* Miss Universe, backstage and through social media; but, I decided to go on a different route and talk about Pia Wurtzbach's answers to the questions asked towards the later part of the pageant.

I'll admit this year was the first time I actually watched the Miss Universe beauty pageant. I was surprised when it wasn't as sexist as I had expected it to be. I always thought beauty pageants were a horrible concept, a contest leveraging its contenders based on popularity and physical appearance. Up until the question and answer portion, it was. The questions for the top 5 startled me. They tackled international issues and controversies other ignorant citizens wouldn't be aware of. All the beauty queens answered their questions with knowledge, class, and finesse. 

Her answer to the final question and answer portion held no doubts for her capabilities in public speaking and for her awareness in who she is, and what she wants to achieve. Though this is the question that had earned her the unanimous votes of the 4 main judges, it isn't the one referred to during nightly news shows or miscellaneous social networking posts. The question and answer sparking up controversy in the Philippines was asked when the contestants were narrowed into the top 5.

Only minutes after the pageant ended, leftist leaders were sparking up rumors of how Pia was "pressured" to say that she was Pro-US bases because she was in front of a predominantly American audience and if she were to say otherwise she wouldn't have a fighting chance at winning the crown. With the 30 seconds given to each beauty queen to process and answer the question given to them, I understand why she said what she did. When Filipinos think of Americans, we think of the western influences that had shaped and molded our country and society into what it is today. They are the dominant root of the advancements and the remittances the Philippines strives on. 

Social activists are implying that the Philippine-American relationship does not do anything but murder numerous countrymen, and maltreat us to show we are a weaker race. I can't deny that all of the above had happened, but I do feel the need to point out that they happened decades ago, when they colonized the country. Whenever relatives from the states come home or an American tourist is seen wandering around the Philippines, they are welcomed with open arms, just as Wurtzbach had said.

The only recent issue being used as evidence to the activists' claims is the homicide of Jennifer Laude, a transgender, killed by Joseph Scott Pemberton, a US marine. This is a problem but it doesn't directly reflect the entire relationship between the countries. There are some bumps in the road but it does not mean an alliance with the USA would result in complete chaos.

What she said on that stage was her own opinion. She wasn't implying that all Filipinos should feel the same, or that she was purposely trying to get the attention of politicians and leftists with her answer. Americans have been a big part of the Philippines culture, whether it be past or present. They do aid the Philippines with whichever way they can. Their donations of military vessels prove it. All she was doing was expressing what she thinks of the issue.

https://www.instagram.com/piawurtzbach/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/piawurtzbach/?hl=en

All controversy aside, nothing was able to overshadow the simple fact that Pia Wurtzbach had earned the crown of Miss Universe. At the age of 26, the maximum age allowed to enter the Miss Universe beauty pageant, and after 4 years of competing in beauty pageants, she finally achieved her childhood dream and will continue to inspire the youth in, not just the Philippines but the whole world.