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‘Di man lahat ay marunong gumamit ng bisikleta, tiyak na alam ng lahat kung ano ito. Ang mga gumamit at gumagamit nito ay siguradong may mga alaalang naikakabit dito. Malamang ay naranasan na nilang sumemplang sa kalsada, makipagkarera kasama ang mga kaibigan, at syempre hindi mawawala ang maflat-an ng gulong at masiraan ng kadena. 

Nitong Marso, inilagay ang bansa sa ilalim ng Community Quarantine dahil sa patuloy na pagtaas ng mga nagpopositibo sa COVID-19. Labis na naapektuhan ang lahat kabilang na ang mga sumasakay sa mga pampublikong transportasyon upang makapagtrabaho at kumita para sa kanilang araw-araw na gastusin. Dagdag pasakit din sa kanila bukod sa mabagal na daloy ng trapiko, ay ang mahigpit na patakaran ukol sa social distancing sa mga terminal ng pampublikong sasakyan. Sa kadahilanang ito, biglang nabaling ang interes ng masa sa paggamit ng mga bisikleta bilang solusyon sa komplikadong sistema ng transportasyon. Liban sa tulong nito bilang isang paraan ng transportasyon, nagdadala rin ito ng mga karagdagang benepisyo.

Sa una talaga’y may kabigatan sa bulsa ang pagbili ng bisikleta. Ngunit kung ito ay aalagaan nang mabuti, tiyak na mas matipid ito kumpara sa araw-araw na gastos sa mga pampublikong sasakyan. Dahil dito, maaari pang ilaan ang naitabing pera para sa pagkain at gastusin sa araw-araw o pwede ring ipang-online shopping upang makabawi rin minsan sa pangarap mong mag-add to cart.

Mapapa-”susmaryosep” ka na lang talaga sa lagay ng trapiko dito sa bansa. Mabagal, matagal, at maingay ang nakasanayan natin. Nakasusulasok na nga ‘di ba? Tapos ngayong pandemya ay umiiral ang social distancing, mas lalo nang naapektuhan ang transportation system kahit una pa lang ay palpak na ito. Sa unang tingin, parang “insult to injury” ang pagpapatupad ng social distancing sa mga pampublikong sasakyan. Pero sa sitwasyon natin ngayon, mas mabuti na ito kaysa tayo’y magkahawahan. Kapag hindi mo naman maiwasang mayamot, uminit ang ulo dahil dito, pwede kang kumalma at magpalamig muna sa pagbibisikleta. Para sa medyo malalayong lugar, kasangga mo ang gulong, kadena at pagbabalanse rito. Madaling makasisingit sa mga masisikip na daan. Mabuti na rin na ika’y umaarangkada’t pumapadyak papuntang trabaho kaysa naghihintay ng himalang makaalis agad sa pila. Maganda pa rito’y ang bike lane ay isa sa mga magiging sandalan mo sa buhay dahil mas mababa ang tiyansang mahagip ka ng mga humaharurot na sasakyan.

Dagdag pa sa pagpapalakas nito ng ating kalamnan sa pamamagitan ng pagpadyak, binabawasan din nito ang stress na ating nararanasan. Matagal nang ginagamit ng marami ang bisikleta bilang kagamitan para sa pag-eehersisyo. Kadalasan, ang quads, glutes, calves, at hamstrings ang “target” ng pagbibisikleta. Pinagaganda rin nito ang ating postura. Bukod sa pisikal na aspeto, nakatutulong din ito sa kalusugang mental ng isang tao. 

Sa pagtuon ng ating pokus sa ating dinaraanan, nababaling ang ating atensyon palayo mula sa mga bagay na nagdudulot ng stress sa atin. Iilan lamang ito sa mga dulot pangkalusugan ng pagbibisikleta na kailangang-kailangan ng karamihan sa ngayon. 

Nakakairita talaga ang usok at busina ng mga sasakyan na pawang mga polusyon sa kapaligiran. Pero kapag gumamit ka ng bike... “Kling-kling!” - satisfying na nga ang tunog ng bell, nakatutulong ka pa sa kalikasan dahil wala itong CO2 emisison na maaring makasama lang sa ating ozone layer.

O, sa mga dahilan pa ba na ‘yan ‘di mo pa susubukang tingnan ang bisikleta bilang esensyal na gamit, lalo na ngayong pandemic? Marami ng benepisyo sa'yo, malaking tulong pa sa paligid mo. Simulan mo nang gamitin ang mga hita at paang ‘yan. Halina’t pumadyak-padyak patungo sa amazing life cycle with bicycle. //ni Gabby Arevalo

What is more fun than an app where students can learn a lot of things for free? Khan Academy offers online and offline lessons and articles that are created by experts. The site also features progress-tracking, practice exercises and materials, teaching tools, and more. 

The application’s highlight is its short lessons in the form of videos. It’s perfect for those who are tired of reading long notes. All you need to do is sign up, choose a course, and start learning.

Khan Academy can also be accessed through their website: https://www.khanacademy.org/

Source: Khan Academy. (2020). [Mobile App]. Google Play Store

Do you want to make sure that your paper is perfectly written? Grammarly is an English language digital writing tool that uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing. This site helps in correcting spelling, grammar, punctuation, word usage, and a lot more. 

You can also customize your paper’s formality, tone, and intent. They have a feature that states if your final output is clear, engaging, grammatically correct, and well-delivered. They also provide synonyms and antonyms of the words you used. Although some features are not free, the rest are still very useful. It can be accessed on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. It can also be used as a Chrome extension or a mobile application. 

Grammarly can be accessed through this website: https://app.grammarly.com/

Some of your notes missing? CK-12 is a site that provides free K-12 educational materials to help students. They offer a library of free online textbooks, videos, exercises, and flashcards. This site can be very useful for reviewing some of the topics from Kindergarten to Grade 12. They cover subjects such as Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Photography. They also answer questions from the users.

Start learning now! Visit this website: https://www.ck12.org

Need a multipurpose application? You can now create your very own system for managing and organizing classes with Notion. This site can be used for a lot--be it taking notes, managing projects, creating shared knowledge, and a lot more. It also supports placing images, creating to-do lists, bookmarks, and offline usage. Now, you’ll never lose track of your reminders, deadlines, and dates to remember. Notion is here to help, with its customizable features! A personal plan is free,so why don’t you start now?

Visit their website at: https://www.notion.so

Source: Notion. (2020). [Mobile App]. Google Play Store

Also, if you’re new, here is a tutorial for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA7si7AmPkY&list=PLzaYMdbJMZW0gYyfNhL0sHheU5WR2YKE1

Although this is not for educational purposes, Sworkit can help you be mentally productive and physically healthy! Sworkit provides workouts, customizable plans, and resources to help you maintain healthy habits for life. In addition to that, custom combinations of strength, cardio, yoga, and stretching workouts can be seen there. Staying at home reduces our body movement, so maintaining a positive mood and active body can boost your productivity. Although other workouts require an active subscription, some contents are still free. Start now and work that body! 

Visit their website for more information: https://sworkit.com Online classes and self-learning are not easy, but having such sites and apps that are user-friendly can be very helpful. I hope that this article helps you with your future needs and I wish you good luck for this school year! //by Danzar Dellomas

A giant social networking site with over 2.7 billion monthly active users, Facebook is a popular website that is used for sharing ideas and communicating with people worldwide. But, according to President Duterte on September 21, Facebook is pushing another agenda by “laying down a policy for the government” and is targeting his supporters by taking down groups, pages, and accounts that support his policies.

Nathaniel Gleicher, head of Facebook Security Policy, said in an online conference on September 22, that they removed two networks of fake accounts. These two networks comprise over 100 Facebook accounts, 43 pages, 9 groups, and 39 Instagram accounts and have over 276,000 followers on Facebook and 55,000 on Instagram overall.

The first one was traced to a group of individuals in China’s Fujian province. They mainly posted about issues in the West Philippine Sea and Beijing’s interests while also being supportive of President Rodrigo Duterte and the possible 2022 presidential bid of his daughter, current Davao Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.

The second network, which was based in the Philippines, was traced and found out to be managed by people affiliated with various police and military agencies. The domestic network, according to Gleicher, posted content primarily in Filipino and English. Local news and events, such as domestic politics, the military’s fight against terrorism, the draft of the pending anti-terrorism bill, and criticisms on communism, youth activists, the opposition, the Communist Party of the Philippines and its military wing the New People’s Army, and the National Democratic Front are the topics. 

Because of this, Duterte lashed out at Facebook by asking if the site served any purpose to the country if they don’t help the government in the “fight of ideas.” He then seemingly threatened the social network site by saying he doesn’t know if there’s “life after Facebook.” He told them that their reasons for taking down the “advocacy” pages were “so convoluted” that he couldn’t even understand them. After the president questioned Facebook about the take down of his “advocacy” accounts, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque explained that the president will not ban the social media site and would only like to have a talk with them.

But is Facebook at fault for taking down these accounts? There are two main points that need to be addressed. First, the main reason behind why the accounts were taken down is most of them were fake and were coordinating with one another. This violated Facebook’s policy against Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior (CIB). CIB is defined as “using deceptive behaviors to conceal the identity of the organization behind a campaign, make the organization or its activity appear more popular or trustworthy than it is, or evade enforcement efforts.” 

This was not the first time that Facebook took down networks that supported the Duterte regime. In fact, there were already two instances prior, but neither were due to political reasons. In 2018, a couple of Facebook pages were removed because all the pages were found to be “sharing links to the same advertising click farms off Facebook,” which violates spam and authenticity policies. Another network of fake accounts, which were managed by President Duterte’s former social media strategist, was removed last year because of “coordinated inauthentic behavior” that misled the public.

They were not taken down because of the content they posted, nor was it because of who posted the content. It was because the owners of these fake accounts were violating Facebook policies. In other words, Facebook does not care for the “fight of ideas,” just as the President suggested, because the only ideas that Facebook is following are its community rules.

The second point to be addressed is that there are foreign organizations meddling with the country’s politics. Now, the question is why are there individuals from China who are trying to influence our political interests? This issue is a possible threat to our sovereignty and status as a democratic nation. Our citizens should be the ones to choose who will lead the country, without the influence of foreigners. We should all be worried, especially when a foreign country as big as China is trying to interfere. 

The ironic thing is that last September, Duterte hit back at some European lawmakers for allegedly meddling in the country’s affairs. Roque also said that the president considers any foreign interference with another country’s sovereign affairs unacceptable. 

Imagine what may happen if these China-handled fake accounts weren’t taken down and continued to influence Filipino citizens, especially given the fact that the Philippines has the fourth highest number of Facebook users in Asia, with around 62 million people. Many people would be seeing the disinformation and propaganda that were shared by these accounts and perceive it as legitimate information. We would have been dancing into the palms of foreign powers without us realizing it.

Facebook was right to take down these networks because they violated community rules and the government was the one at fault for using fake accounts for their propaganda. They also shouldn’t let China interfere in our politics, because it doesn’t have the right to do so. If the president really believes that foreign interference is unacceptable, then he should also include these Chinese fake accounts. //by Simon Delfinado

Ang lifestyle check ay isang gampanin ng mga nasa Office of the Ombudsman kung saan sinusuri nila ang mga Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN). Ito ay isang pampublikong dokumento kung saan nakalista ang mga ari-arian at kabuuang salapi na natatanggap ng isang opisyal ng gobyerno. Kanila itong sinusuri upang matiyak na ang mga pampublikong opisyal ay nakasusunod sa batas.

Ayon sa panayam ni Ombudsman Justice Samuel Marites sa Rappler noong Setyembre 22, ipinatigil na raw niya ang pagsasagawa ng lifestyle check sa simula pa lamang ng kanyang termino noong 2018. Ito ay dahil hindi naman daw mapatutunayan ng lifestyle check kung nangungurakot ba ang isang opisyal o hindi.

“There is a government employee who earns about 50,000 a month who lives in a very small house who eats twice a day or tries to save his money so that he can buy his dream car. So now, nakapag-ipon na itong empleyadong ito, tamang-tama, mayroong sale, either ‘yung BMW na siyang kaniyang pangarap na sasakyan. So nagkaroon ng sale, may promo, zero interest, low down payment. Tamang-tama nakapag-down siya sa BMW, kayang-kaya niyang bilhin o hulugan buwan-buwan. Masasabi ba nating he’s living beyond his means? I don’t think so. Probably he must have distorted values, he must have distorted priorities. So, sino tayo para sabihin na 'bakit ‘yan, ang mga bags ay Louis Vuitton?' So ano ho ang pakielam natin sa buhay ng may buhay kung hindi naman siya nagnanakaw?” Iyan ang pahayag ni Ombudsman Marites na naiulat ng 24 Oras noong Setyembre 22. 

Ang pagsasagawa ng lifestyle check ay isang mahalagang gampanin na hindi dapat itinigil. Mayroon itong malaking papel para sa mga pampublikong opisyal dahil ito ang magiging sukatan kung sila ba ay sumusunod sa batas na makikita sa ating Konstitusyon, sa Artikulo XI, Seksyon 17: 

"SEK. 17. Ang isang pinuno o kawaning pambayan, sa pag-upo niya sa tungkulin at sa limit ng panahong maaaring itadhana ng batas, ay dapat magsumite ng pinanumpaang deklarasyon ng kanyang mga ari-arian, pananagutan at netong kabuuan ng ari-arian. Sa kalagayan ng Pangulo, Pangalawang Pangulo, mga Kagawad ng Gabinete, ng Kongreso, ng Kataas-taasang Hukuman, ng mga Komisyong Konstitusyonal at ng iba pang katungkulang Konstitusyonal, at mga pinuno ng Sandatahang Lakas na may ranggong heneral o pamandila, ang deklarasyon ay dapat isiwalat sa madla sa paraang itinatadhana ng batas."

Bukod pa rito, makikita sa parehong artikulo sa Seksyon 1, ang isa sa mga pangunahing layunin ng SALN. Ito ay ipaaalam sa mga mamamayan kung anong uri ng pamumuhay mayroon ang mga opisyal sapagkat pinagkakatiwalaan natin sila ng ating salapi at ng isang mahalagang gampanin — ang paglingkuran ang bayang pinamumunuan nila. 

"SEKSYON 1. Ang pagtitiwala ng bayan ay angkin ng katungkulang pambayan. Ang mga pinuno at mga kawaning pambayan ay kinakailangang mamalaging nananagutan sa mga taong-bayan, maglingkod sa kanila na taglay ang pinakamataas na pakundangan, dangal, katapatan, at kahusayan, manuparan na taglay ang pagkamakabayan at katarungan, at mamuhay nang buong kapakumbabaan."

Sa artikulo ring ito ng Konstitusyon nag-ugat ang RA 6713 o Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, kung saan nakasaad na ang mga pampublikong opisyal ay dapat mamuhay nang simple lamang. Ito ay ang pag-angkop ng kanilang sinusuweldo sa kanilang ginagastos at hindi dapat magpakalabis sa luho.

Mababalikang sinabi ni Ombudsman Martires na may isang empleyado ng gobyerno na bumili ng BMW na kotse o kaya ay nagmamay-ari ng maraming Louis Vuitton na bag, malayo sa pagiging simple ang ganitong uri ng pamumuhay. Sadyang kilala ang mga produktong ito bilang luho dahil sa presyo ng mga ito. Kung isasaalang-alang pa ang kanilang suweldong Php 50,000.00, hindi ba’t talagang namumuhay sila nang labis sa kanilang makakaya? Dagdag pa rito ang kanyang panayam mula sa Rappler na hindi naman daw mapatutunayan sa lifestyle check kung nangungurakot ba ang isang opisyal o hindi. Kung babalikan ang mga nasa batas, napakalaki nang maitutulong nito upang maiwasan ang pangungurakot. Ang pagsasagawa ng lifestyle check ang titiyak na ang mga opisyal ay namumuhay nang tapat at ganap na naglilingkod sa bayan. 

Karagdagan pa rito, napatunayan na ng SALN ang kapangyarihan nitong magpatanggal ng opisyal sa kaniyang kinalalagyang posisyon. Halimbawa ay ang impeachment ng dating pangulo na si Joseph Estrada. Naging ebidensya laban sa kanya ang mismong SALN niya dahil sa misdeclaration o maling pagpapahayag nito. Ang isa pang halimbawa ay ang impeachment din ng dating Supreme Court Chief Justice na si Renato Corona kung saan hindi natagpuan sa kaniyang SALN ang ilan sa kanyang mga ari-arian.

Malinaw na hindi dapat itinigil ng Ombudsman ang kanilang tungkulin na suriin ang mga SALN. Ang SALN ay makatutulong upang masusing makita ng mga mamamayan kung karapat-dapat at mapagkakatiwalaan ba sa tuwid na pamumuno ang mga nakaupo at ang iboboto natin sa gobyerno.

Sa huli, dapat magpatuloy lamang sa pagsasagawa ng lifestyle check ang Ombudsman, sapagkat una, ang pagtigil nito ay labag sa batas ng ating bansa. Pangalawa, nakatutulong ang SALN sa pagsusuri ng mga nasa gobyerno at ito ay nagsisilbing malakas na ebidensiya sa kanilang pamumuhay. Kung sa kabila ng napatunayang kapangyarihan ng lifestyle check sa panghuhuli ng mga tiwaling opisyal ay ayaw pa rin itong ituloy ni Ombudsman Martires, dapat na siguro nating itanong kung bakit ayaw niya itong gawin. Hindi kailanman mapagtatakpan ang napakalaking gampanin ng lifestyle check sa ating panahon hanggang sa susunod pang mga henerasyon ng mga mamumuno sa ating bansa. //ni Eloisa Dufourt