Research Papers / The Anti-Smoking Campaign in the Philippines [NEW]

(I have to re-post this because I posted in on the wrong category earlier :D)
Hey guys! I need your help about my paper! (Well, it's due tomorrow. But since, our prof wouldn't be returning our papers anytime soon, and I am really curious as to what she'd think about my paper, then I'm asking you guys to mark it! No, not really mark. Maybe, just comment on it, or something, what you think about it, etc. Maybe my errors, and stuffs--and I am sure there are a lot.) Pleeeaase, THANK YOU!

And please forgive me. This is totally crammed :""""(

A few years ago, the government signed the passage of the R.A. 9211, also known as the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003. Some of the goals of this Act are to provide the people a better and healthier environment, to promote good health to be able to produce a strong working force, and to keep the youth from smoking by regulating the use, sale, and advertisements of tobacco products. Unfortunately, the policy didn't quite show the ideal results during the succeeding years after it was implemented. In fact, the government seemed to have started taking actions just a few months ago, and is now a generation behind the anti-smoking policies that have already been in effect in other countries.

On May of this year, the government started becoming stricter about smoking in public places and about minors' access to cigarette products and tobacco. The fines became higher, the punishments worse, and the police became more attentive on the look-out. To assure proper dissemination to the public, they made a month-long information campaign period wherein smokers caught in public will not be immediately arrested, but will only be warned. After the month-long campaign, total enforcement was planned to be carried out. Because of all these, a more significant result was expected.

However, some politicians and even ordinary people still doubt the effectiveness of the campaign. Did the policy really help out on clearing our surroundings of all smokers? Did it really help lower down the number of teen agers who get into smoking? Was the policy good enough? In my opinion, the Anti-Smoking Campaign succeeded in terms of enforcement and on lowering down the number of smokers in most public places in urban areas, but failed on protecting the youth from being initiated to smoking.

The smoking ban had started gaining a lot more attention lately, after almost a decade of the anti-smoking law's implementation. A blogger named RyanB called it "overambitious", and even questions whether such an anti-smoking campaign can actually be enforced all over the country or be bound to fail.

However, the Metro Manila Development Authority (M.M.D.A) has proven how serious they are on planning to make this campaign effective. Nearly one month after the M.M.D.A. started the campaign, nearly three thousand smokers have been apprehended by enforcers smoking in public places. According to the article entitled M.M.D.A.'S Overambitious Anti-Smoking Campaign by a blogger named RyanB, the goal of this campaign is to make Metro Manila a smoke free zone by 2012. To achieve this, a five hundred-peso fine will be collected from first-offenders, while an 8-hour community service will be rendered to those who will not be able to afford. To prevent cases of bribery, the article states that the M.M.D.A. will employ three members to conduct the initial apprehension: one to take the picture of the smoker, one to apprehend and the third to do the ticketing. Furthermore, the M.M.D.A. states that if bribes are accepted, the 3-member team will be sent to jail.

However, most people still wonder how long the M.M.D.A is going to keep up with its enforced rules. Others still doubt the success of this campaign, considering the fact that in the Philippines, what is written on paper and what is being enforced are totally different things (if the fact that it took the government almost a decade to take the Anti-Smoking Law seriously is still not enough).

The M.M.D.A. has proven for just a few months that their heart is on the right place about this matter, but would it not be too soon to judge their accomplishments based on such a short time? In order for us to truly say the success of this campaign in terms of proper enforcement, the M.M.D.A. must be able to continue on their good performance and must not settle on being "here today, gone tomorrow."

Another factor to be considered to see whether the campaign has been successful or not so far is its ability to fulfill its goals. According to the Tobacco Regulation Law, one of the things that it plans on achieving is to provide the people a healthier environment as well as to protect the citizens from the hazards of tobacco smoke. Thus, to do this, one thing that it must fulfill is to lower down the number of smokers in public places. By "public places", the law defines them as "enclosed or confined areas of all hospitals, medical clinics, schools, public transportation terminals and offices, and building such as private and public offices, recreational places, shopping malls, movie houses, hotels, restaurants, and the like". Thus, it is expected that the aforementioned places should be free of smokers.

During the last few months, the M.M.D.A. did show promising results; being able to apprehend over a thousand smokers after merely a month after its enforcement, as mentioned above. The Department of Health Secretary, Enrique Ona, even commended the smoke-free campaign for its goal in improving the country's health.

Despite all the doubts about the smoking bans success, M.M.D.A. chairman Francis Tolentino clarified that "the anti-smoking campaign is in full swing".

"As of September 21, the Agency has apprehended 8,427 violators, 7,878 of which are male, and 549, female," said the Chairman in the M.M.D.A. website. "We never eased up on our anti-smoking efforts," he added.

Another one is about the youth's involvement in smoking. In spite of the law prohibiting cigarette advertisements and regulating the use and sale of cigarettes, the number of teenage smokers has gone up. According to a research conducted in 2005, 4 out of 10 students aged 13-15 years old smoke cigarettes. Moreover, based on a more recent study, one in every three Filipino teenagers aged 13 to 15 are already smokers. Despite the existence of Republic Act 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003, more and more teenagers had gone into smoking, and the numbers still continue to rise as the years go by.

The passage of the Anti-Smoking Policy did not stop the youth from smoking, "indicating that the law has not been effective", Maricar Limpin, executive director of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP), said in an online article by John Chapin entitled Philippines Effort to Cut Smoking Goes up in Smoke. According to a recent global youth tobacco survey, the percentage of smoking among Filipino youth had jumped from 15 percent in 2003 to 21.6 percent in 2007.

"We are losing the battle against smoking," Limpin added.
Among factors influencing smoking, the following are significant: media advertising, exposure to smoke in public places, and one or more parents who smoke [CDC-MMWR, 2005]. "My friends look so cool smoking," Arnold Santos of Mandaluyong City, who took up the habit out of peer pressure, said in John Chapin's article. "Now I smoke 10 cigarettes a day."

Teenage smoking is one of the things the government has been focusing on for the past few years regarding the smoking campaign. However, it is definitely hard to control smoking among youth, especially in our country wherein children as young as 10 are forced to sell cigarettes out on the streets.

Indeed, the M.M.D.A. has finally proven that they are working hard about the success of the Anti-Smoking Campaign. They have ensured proper dissemination and enforcement to the public, and they were able to lower down the number of smokers in public places. However, they were still not able to do much to help out on keeping the youth away from smoking. They may have all the materials needed for the campaign to succeed and have done all the other things to ensure the people's knowledge about it, but even if they failed on just one of its goals, then it is still not a complete success.

Besides, it is still too soon to judge the campaign based on just a few months of its official enforcement. Let us remember that no matter how much the government has achieved now, the campaign would still be a failure if they would not be able to keep this up in the years that will come. (1,348 words)

Book Reports / How Great the Ateneo - La Salle Rivalry is [4]

Okaaaay, well I know it lacks a bit of, what was that again? uhm. . . context. ahahah. so, i'm not really sure if some readers will get it unless they know the whole story (about the Ateneo - La Salle rivalry thing). Oh, well. This is for my English homework.

And oh yeah, I have no idea why I chose this topic. hahaha. XD

Through the years, a lot of people have witnessed the epic rivalry between the top universities in the country. Perhaps among all these, the most popular would be the one between the Ateneo and La Salle. The fight between the Blue Eagles and the Green Archers has ranged from stereotyping, to the so-called 'university jokes', to comparisons and nasty remarks widely seen on the internet. The rivalry is quite intense especially during the UAAP season, wherein the people's spirits tend to become so high with the hopes of their school winning the championship. Having a competition is not that all bad. It could be one way of motivating the students to push through their abilities. It shouldn't be seen as a way of proving our superiority to the other school. School rivalry should be a motivational thing; it's all about inspiring others into bringing out the best in them, not just insulting other schools and pointing out their mistakes.

Having a competition is one way of motivating others not just during the UAAP season, but in other aspects, as well. One important aspect that this might have an effect on is the academics. Because of the intense rivalry between the two, it's no surprise that these two groups plan on ruling not just on the courts, but in academics, as well. La Salle have been known as specializing in business-related courses, in the arts (St. Benilde), technological fields and such; while Ateneo has been known for courses related to law, political science and management, among others. It is important that we shouldn't see our competition as an adversary or an as obstacle in achieving our goals. Rather, we must see this as an opportunity to strengthen ourselves on our way to finishing college, and also to show that we are more than just what other people say about us. This is probably one of the reasons why the Ateneo, along with La Salle, has proven to be one of the premiere universities in the country.

It's also about inspiring others into trying their hardest to be the best they can be. Our rivals aren't just our competitions. If we look at the rivalry in a different perspective, the La Sallians could also be our inspirations. When students from both sides strive on surpassing the other school and being the 'best', it could also be a way for them to improve on their skills, and thus, will help them in their studies and definitely in their future career. They say that competitions drive the best out of people. Though we do not necessarily have to be such, striving to be one will help us in pursuing our own goals and in adapting to the different problems we'll encounter in college, or later on in life. It's not so hard for us Ateneans to see La Sallians us such. We just have to be open to criticisms and we must accept that there are also some things that they could do and we could not. Of course, we specialize on other things, as well.

Another thing is that it's not just all about bashing other schools and insulting them. I've seen so many of it even before I entered Ateneo. Because I wasn't originally from here and I've never really been around them much, I've read most of it on the internet or maybe seen on TV. I don't think I've met a hardcore Atenean or La Sallian before (or someone as proud as that) or even heard these nasty remarks first-hand, but even from the point of view of an outsider, the rivalry is already that intense and evident. I've read about all the comparisons people make about them in web forums, about all the stereotyping, about how much Ateneo is better than La Salle or the other way around, about how money rules in this school or that, and so many other stuffs which some I've already proven wrong. (Though I'm not really that happy with it, it was a fun read, I admit). Because of the things I've already proven correct and wrong, I learned that calling people names or giving out wrong impressions about them does not make us any better than anyone. Doing this destroys one of the essences of school rivalry; that we inspire others and motivate them in doing their best.

For me, the Ateneo - La Salle rivalry isn't entirely pointless anymore. The only pointless thing about it is its way of destroying us and making us the lowly people that we shouldn't be. If you really are better than the other, don't act like the uneducated one and boast off your greatness. We keep our feet on the ground and we do not act like show-offs. That is how a true Atenean should be.

Undergraduate / ACET - significant experiences or accomplishments. [5]

this is the question to be answered:
"Are there any significant experiences you have had, or accomplishments you have realized, that have helped you define you as a person?"

so, this is what i've written. im still deciding on what other things to add or which parts to be modified. can't find anybody else who can help me out with this~ ^^

thanks in advance!

People often say that we strive and struggle in order to survive, and along the way, we gain experiences that mold our own selves and change it, either for the better or for the worse. Because of these, we gain knowledge. We gain insights on how to live life effectively, how the world works, and how everything gets affected by the ripples of our own decisions. We experience how to love, to hate; we win, we lose; we get accepted or get rejected, and other parts in our life that help us become what we are now, and also define us as a person. Because of the knowledge we have gained from these, we learn how to become successful and we achieve accomplishment, and ultimately, we learn how to make our lives better. However, there is one thing in life that most of our experiences would require of us to have first. That is, the courage and the ability to learn how to take risks. We wouldn't be able to achieve something just by waiting for things to happen, and for everything to unfold right before our eyes. Sometimes, we need to initiate the action ourselves. All we need is courage, and faith, of course, to you-know-Who.

I remember myself being a pessimistic kid, who had never really cared or even thought about my goals in the future. Before, I thought that I just didn't care one bit about having experiences or exploring new things. I was given the opportunity to be able to improve myself. I had the talent as well as the strength to do so. All I had to do was to grab the opportunity and use it wisely. But instead, I tended to settle on what I already had. I preferred, or rather, claimed to be contented on what I had. However, as time passes by and I learn more and more, I realized that it wasn't much on not wanting to gain experience. Instead, I realized that I just lacked the courage to take risks and betting on things. Perhaps I was a coward then, though on a different aspect, I guess.

Upon stepping unto high school, there was that small amount of fear within me that I constantly feel. I was afraid that this cowardice of mine; my lack of courage on taking risks; will gradually pull me down and would destroy me in any possible situation, and I knew that this fact would haunt me forever. I was anxious to change this attitude, even betting on things I wasn't even sure about, though with little success in the end.

Because of these, I could say that perhaps I had already experienced most of the ups and downs of being a student. I had experienced the bitterness of defeat; the sweet taste of victory; the wrath of a teacher; the pressure; the burden of being a leader, the responsibilities, etc. Also, due to my inability to take risks, it was inevitable for me to have so many regrets. They were small things, but even so, they made huge effects.

In my pursuit of a change in attitude, I have equal regrets as well. I regretted being not myself on those situations. I regretted pretending to know that I can handle huge responsibilities. I regretted those times when I risk things which I know I shouldn't have, just for the sake of risking.

All of these experiences in my life had made me realize some things: that letting other things happen doesn't mean that I give up. It is simply to know that beyond risking, sometimes things fall perfectly after waiting. And that we don't have to be taking risks to be able to show that we are courageous. We don't obtain courage from anywhere else. It's from within.

and if there are errors or any mistakes in grammar/spellings/sense, etc. (and i know there are a LOT) please please do tell me. comments and suggestions are very much appreciated :)

thanks so much!