‘For our jamboree jotting, we add that President Marcos signed last 29 May 2025 Republic Act 12218 declaring January 6 of every year as a special working holiday (Tandang Sora Day) in Quezon City…’
IN 02 June 2025, we witnessed PPSA Director JSSupt. Leonalyn O. Oloan relate the journey of her institution on the Third Philippine Public Safety Academy Anniversary and Dr. Romeo S. Magsalos sing along with the PPSA Cadet Choir the PPSA Hymn (which he penned): “Courage, Integrity and Service we cheer, With pure and sincere hearts, And the noblest of our sacred vows; To keep our people safe and sheltered, We offer our lives as people’s servants.”
04 June 2025: this is the day designated by the United Nations as International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression: “From killing and maiming, abduction and sexual violence, to attacks on education and health facilities, and the denial of the humanitarian assistance that they desperately need, children are being caught in the crosshairs of warring parties at a staggering scale.” [https://www.un.org/en/observances/child-victim-day] For this occasion, Raymond C. Ciriaco (Chairman of the Board of Children International Manila in the Philippines) stated: “Every child deserves a future free from violence, where their dreams can flourish in safety and peace. By standing together, we can break the cycle of poverty and build a world that protects the most vulnerable and ensures that justice prevails over harm. Let us work together and build communities of kindness, resilience and unwavering action to safeguard the innocence of generations to come.” More can be done. For instance, the Ministry of Culture held the International Children’s Museum Forum 22-23 May 2025 in Taipei City where representatives from major children’s museums in America, France, Japan, and the Netherlands exchanged views on Taiwan’s planned children’s museum. [https://taiwantoday.tw/Society/Top-News/270064/Vision-Pavilion-opens-as-preview-of-planned-national-children%25E2%2580%2599s- museum?utm_source=Taiwan+Info+1&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Society+textlink]
05 June 2025: proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in its annual resolution on sustainable fisheries circa 2017 as the “International Day for the Fight Against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing.” Situation: “It is estimated that 1 in every 5 fish caught comes from IUU fishing. When such fish ends up on our plates, we are unwitting accomplices in unsustainable, and often criminal practices, that are damaging for our future well-being and the sustainability of our planet.” [https://www.un.org/en/observances/end-illegal-fishing-day] In the maritime republic of the Philippines, the Fisherfolks themselves through the Fisherfolks Basic Sector Council of the National Anti-Poverty Commission had petitioned the President to declare a National Fisherfolks Day to highlight the fisherfolks sector as one of the major pillars of our society and partners in the national program for food security and eradication of poverty, thus, Joseph Ejercito Estrada had proclaimed every May 31st as National Fisherfolks Day. [Proclamation No. 261, s. 2000] For this year’s observance, fisherfolk alliances, civil society organizations, and coastal communities reasserted their call for the government to uphold climate justice and prioritize people and planet over profit by stopping commercial encroachment in municipal waters. Greenpeace Philippines (which joined the mobilization) said that protecting municipal waters is vital for the livelihoods of fishers and coastal communities and for the nation’s food security, and with the escalating climate crisis, the imperative to secure coastal waters from overfishing, pollution, and habitat destruction is crucial. [James Relativo, Greenpeace Philippines Communications Campaigner]
05 June 2025: this is also the 80th anniversary of the Berlin Declaration (“regarding the defeat of Germany and the assumption of supreme authority with respect to Germany by the Governments of the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom and the Provisional Government of the French Republic”) whose Article 11 stated: “The principal Nazi leaders as specified by the Allied Representatives, and all persons from time to time named or designated by rank, office or employment by the Allied Representatives as being suspected of having committed, ordered or abetted war crimes or analogous offences, will be apprehended and surrendered to the Allied Representatives.” Ironically, fascism has re-emerged in our 21st century.
06 June 2025: Russian Language Day at the United Nations is celebrated on the birthdate of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet as well as the founder of modern Russian literature)…the result of a 2010 initiative by the UN’s Department of Global Communications establishing language days for each of the Organization’s six official languages. The purpose is to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity. [https://www.un.org/en/observances/russian-language-day] On this score, we were a bit ahead of the curve when we requested Dmitrii Gurin to read a paragraph from the Russian translation of Jose Rizal’s El Filibusterismo last 22 April 2025 (Day 2 of UP Manila’s Department of Social Sciences Week). The Consul of the Russian Federation to the Philippines described Rizal as “the Father of the Philippine Renaissance,” a man who stood at the confluence of scientific, industrial, and literary revolutions of his time, and also drew meaningful parallels with the works of Ivan Turgenev and Leo Tolstoy. Gurin: “Literature is like water. It moves freely, shifting between solid traditions, liquid storytelling, and gaseous ideas that rise beyond boundaries.”
This week, in Moscow itself, the Russian memorandum on a future settlement with Kiev (handed over to the Ukrainian delegation at the negotiations in Istanbul) included in the Terms of Settlement for Ukraine to grant Russian the status of an official language in Crimea, Donbass, and Novorossiya (as well as the removal of all restrictions on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, a Ukrainian legislative ban on the glorification of Nazism/neo-Nazism, and the full rights of Russian speakers in the contested regions). [https://tass.com/politics/1967467]
For our jamboree jotting, we add that President Marcos signed last 29 May 2025 Republic Act 12218 declaring January 6 of every year as a special working holiday (Tandang Sora Day) in Quezon City which recognizes the contributions of Melchora Aquino to the country as the “Mother of the Katipunan.” [https://malaya.com.ph/news/national-news/pbbm-signs-law-extending-nha-by-25-years-5-other-statutes/]
