Efren Peñaflorida Jr. is a native of Cavite who thought of establishing a group of fellow youth to teach children using a what he calls a pushcart classroom. He has been doing this since he was 16 years old, and his story inspired CNN wherein he is now among the top 10 finalist for CNN hero. If he will win which is through voting online, he will receive a $100,000 cash prize that will surely help his advocacy. Not to mention that he will be the first Filipino CNN hero ever.

I'm proud to be a Filipino because of this kind of people that are selflessly serving our fellow Filipinos who are in need, especially our children. It is now proven that one doesn't need to have lots of money to offer yourself for service. But what bothers me is that this hero is not recognized well enough in the Philippines before CNN did, and it only shows we are less supportive of genuine modern day heroes and the international scene recognized it first. We should change this culture and start within ourselves and ask ourselves what can we do to our community for free, without anything in return.

My dear Pinoys, most of our fellowman would go abroad to find a stable and more high paying job. Some believe that we can't get enough success if we stay in our own country and going abroad is the fulfill your dreams. The only reason why most of our fellowman go outside Philippine territory because the country don't have opportunities to offer its people that's why people went to other place to seek work. They just don't go there to earn big money, its because the main reason to go there is to look for money, even its a small amount or a big amount money is needed to live. Pinoy only think money is easier to earn outside Philippines is because of the money value.

If I only have a stable work on the Philippines i rather stay in my home town rather than pursue a career outside Philippines. Philippines is suck to live if you don't have enough money for a living. Unluck here were i stay for a while, even if you don't have a work you still eat 3 times a day with the support of the government. I have a friend who is a tricycle driver on Philippines. He use to earn 80php a day staying on the road all day. I ask him if he still want to stay Philippines earning a small amount of money not enough to feed everyone of his family or stay here in the place were he earn enough money to live and buy things he can never buy when driving a tricycle.

For me i guess i'll be back to my home country after i earn enough money to live in a poor place and create a business. After i establish my life, i can now say its better to live to PH rather than work outside the country.

What is your say on this?

Vera has been impressive lately after some average at best performances some fights ago. He's pitted against no less than a UFC and mixed martial arts future legend Randy Couture himself in their next bout. A fight against Couture is indeed a great honor for Vera and the Filipinos because of the fact that Couture is one of the best MMA fighters in the world today despite his age. Vera once said in an interview that he wants and aims to be the "Manny Pacquiao of MMA". Well, with his current pace, I think he's got the potential to head that way but it's an uphill climb for him. He's got to deal with the likes of Couture and Lyoto Machida to name a few in his category and to outdo the likes of Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn, Brock Lesnar, and Anderson Silva from other categories/weight divisions. Vera has indeed brought great pride for the Philippines in the realm of mixed martial arts and so far, he's the Filipino bred fighter that has gone the farthest in such sport. If he'll win against Randy Couture in his next bout, Vera can become the next biggest thing in UFC and MMA and could book him for a title shot against Machida.

The country had just faced an awful nightmare that is the typhoon Ondoy. We are at a new low with hundreds of thousands left with nothing but the clothes on their backs, some even lost family members to the unforgiving flood that came with the typhoon. A day after the storm, all you can hear were cries of anguish and despair. It was heartbreaking.

When I got to work my office mates stumbled across a twitter from a lady (I do not know what country she was from) saying it was so funny to see monkeys drowning in their third world island. A cruel reference to those who died during the onslaught of the storm. I, just like the others were almost tempted to post some really nasty hate mails to these poor excuses for human beings but then we thought better. Getting your hands dirty in that kind of game just makes you worse than they are.

But this is not a post for those kinds of people. Barely hours after the storm hit the country, the true nature of Filipinos came out. Pinoys: rich, poor, famous, average joes, men, women were all about helping their fellow Filipinos. Networks no longer hand ratings in mind, their only concern was to get as much support as they can to bring much needed help to people in evacuation centers.

It is times like these that make me so proud to be a Filipino. I am in awe at the resilience of the Filipino spirit and how the worst of times can bring out the best in us. I heard this radio plug saying that while the typhoon rocked us with flood, destruction and even death, we struck back with "BAYANIHAN" and goodness of heart that is so Pinoy in so many ways. The plug said "Ondoy &Pepeng hindi mo kaya ang Pinoy" --- and I agree... I really do...

Looks like we just got hit by this two typhoons and our island got submerged from floods in just a few days of non stop rains. I guess it is a wake up call for everybody that anything can happen when we don't take care of our environment. I think this is just one of the few things that may happen in the future. Recovering is a slow and painful process we have to undergo as even the National Capital Region is having difficulty in establishing normalcy in our daily lives. We are supposed to be the central source of strength of the whole nation but still we lay helpless to many of our countrymen in and outside of NCR. Although help is coming from many different sectors but it seems that there are places that are just too difficult to reach. I pray too that we can recover back to our normal lives. I too was hit by the flash flood but was fortunate to not hit by it badly. I am thankful that despite we got submerge the flood went away as fast as it arrived so damage was not really that bad.

We Filipinos are all witnesses of how tons of relief goods are being given away to the victims of the typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng. I have noticed on TV the tons of plastic bags used in the relief goods. And there are plenty of organizations helping that use lots of these bags. I just hope the people will be responsible enough and look back at some causes of clogged drainage and flooding. They can actually help by giving back to the organizations these bags so it can be reused. And I think those who are giving the relief gods can also give hints about not throwing them anywhere. I know people are hungry and they always think where to find food but there are lull moments in evacuation centers where they just do nothing.

There are thousands of relief good packs being given away everyday. Can you imagine how many plastics are being used? The problem is that still a lot of Filipinos are so careless. These plastic bags are just thrown anywhere. The government is now having some problems on how to clean up these garbages. I'm afraid this will be the next cause of calamity in the country.

One of the best Filipino customs that I want to last would be the respect for elders.. By calling our older sister or brother kuya or ate, by saying PO and OPO.. It's nice to see kids still doing it, and I can't imagine my future children not doing it that way.. When I see my cousins who have lived in other countries for a long time, and they still use ate and kuya, and po and opo. I smile, cause atleast, they brought that with them even if they are already living in another country.

what Filipino customs do you want? Is this advisable in our times?