once again wondering why the Philippines can't participate in the World Cup

because our soccer team is not good enough

wouldn't it be great to have a soccer team and beat all of the South Americans and the Spaniards at their own game ? And then South Korea lol

ATM it's easier to beat the Japanese and North Koreans. South Korea is the best chance Asia has of making it to the next round due to form and ease of group (I don't count the Aussies, they're in the Asian confederation, but they're not "Asians").

Realistically, the Philippine team is light years behind even the football crazy Thais and Viets, and they can't even get a sniff of making it to the final phase of the Asian qualifying stage. Many Singaporeans would give their newborn just for their country's qualification, but even with nationalizing all kinds of people, they're nowhere near qualifying.

too bad

ot just read about the Fil-American war - and supposedly it was Winston Churchill who suggested to the USA the construction of concentration camps in the Philippines after the Boer war (where they were used against the Africans & Boer farmers) - until now i only knew it as hear-say

gosh, just hope all americans are shorting BP right now

its cuz Philippines is the only non-american country where soccer isn't popular

from europe to middle east to africa to south america to asia...soccer is king

only the united states and the Philippines is where its not that popular...too bad...Soccer matches like the worldcup is where people show their nationalism and pride for their country

The Philippines were soccer champions before ww2 and the soccer legend of Spain Paulino Alcantara a Filipino and his record was never broken ever since.

Martin, that's an eternity in football. Italy and France reached the finals four years ago, but nobody with an objective mind is going around that those two countries will reach the semis or quaterfinal stage.

It's not that popular in Australia and Ireland where rival football codes enjoy more popularity and support. In France, the people aren't football crazy relative to their neighbors. In some weird way, some of those countries manage to qualify, some with the help of the "Hand of Gaul".

Here in the US, the domestic league is not popular at all, but football (soccer) has a very big following. Whenever teams from some European countries or Mexico go visit, major stadiums are filled (70,000+). The (early AM) ratings of ESPN football broadcasts reveal that there is a substantial and dedicated base of football fans.

It has to be said that the US team has to avoid some cities when playing other teams from the region because a home game will turn to an "away" game due to the overwhelming support coming from fans of the opposing team.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?artic...bCategoryId=109


Where I want my taxes to go
FIGHTING WORDS By Kay Malilong Isberto (The Freeman) Updated May 25, 2010 12:00 AM



Republic Act No. 10066 or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009 was signed into law on 26 March 2010 by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Several heritage groups lauded its passage. It took over a decade for the bill to become law. Versions of it were filed in the 1990s but nothing came out of them.

The complete title of the law is "An Act Providing for the Protection and Conservation of the National Cultural Heritage, Strengthening the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and its Affiliated Cultural Agencies, and for Other Purposes."

Interestingly, Article XII of the law provides for the creation of Sentro Rizal, a subject not covered by the title of the law. Sec. 26, Article VI of the Philippine Constitution states that "Every bill passed by the Congress shall embrace only one subject which shall be expressed in the title thereof." It would seem that there may be issues with respect to the validity of this provision. However, until a citizen files a taxpayer's suit to question it, it is presumed valid.

More than the constitutionality of the provision, I was surprised by the purpose for the creation of the Sentro Rizal: "the promotion of Philippine arts, culture and language throughout the world." Under the same Article creating Sentro Rizal is found Section 47, which appropriates One Hundred Million Pesos "to carry out the provisions of this Act." I hope that this means that the money will not solely be used for the establishment of Sentro Rizal and instead be used to carry out the other purposes of the law, the most important being the training of local government units about cultural heritage.

Section 43 of the law states that "The Sentro Rizal shall have branches or offices in countries where there are children of overseas Filipino workers who need to be educated about their roots, as well as developed countries where there are large Filipino communities."

Sentro Rizal is envisioned as a "repository" of materials on Philippine arts, culture, and language such as books, digital video discs, compact discs, films, magazines, artworks, tourism promotion materials, information materials, and others. Section 45 states that Sentro Rizal "shall offer Filipino language courses for children and adults, as well as exhibits, small concerts, poetry reading, Philippine cuisine lessons in all Sentro Rizal branches." Section 44 states that "The Sentro Rizal shall coordinate and supervise Philippine schools for Filipino children overseas."

The implementing rules and regulations for the cultural heritage law are still being drafted. I hope that it will include provisions specifying the qualifications of those who will be appointed to run Sentro Rizal and requiring the NCCA and the persons appointed to Sentro Rizal to coordinate closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Education. I do not want the Sentro Rizal to be a social-climbing tool for people who want to live in style abroad using Philippine taxpayers' money.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is in charge of Philippine embassies and consulates abroad. I'm sure that those embassies or consulates can provide a nook or a bookshelf to hold materials about the Philippines. They can also provide venues for language lessons, exhibits, poetry-reading and cooking lessons. I do not see a need for the establishment of a separate cultural office abroad. Our taxpayers' money would be better spent elsewhere.

With respect to coordinating and supervising Philippine schools abroad, I think that the Department of Education should do the job. It's already supervising schools in the Philippines. Materials for accreditation can be sent to the Philippines and a specific department or office in the Department of Education can be assigned to keep track of Philippine schools abroad. A qualified Department of Education official can make periodic visits to supervise and check schools abroad. There is no need to station someone abroad permanently solely for Sentro Rizal. To repeat, Philippine taxpayers' money would be better spent elsewhere.

Filipino cultural heritage is a valuable resource. To study it will help us understand just what kind of people we are: Our strengths and weaknesses, our opportunities and threats. If we have a better understanding of our culture, we would discover that there is a lot about ourselves that we should celebrate. Properly implemented, the National Cultural Heritage Act can help us do that. That requires spending Philippine taxpayers' money in the Philippines, not abroad.

I barely try to watch TFC, i dont really hate abs-cbn but im already sooooooooooo tired of bias reporting, defending & endorsing of Noynoy Aquino,

but i guess thats why its KAPAMILYA

just watched the US-UK match, anyone else notice the big Filipino Flag between the English ones, in the American corner during the 2nd half lol

i think you're right.

ahahaha yeah! , i was like... is PI going to play next? but how the heck we qualified for the world cup lol

warning not a flame or troll attempt but something about pan-asianism i experienced

yesterday i was sitting in the cafeteria still typing something and looking very very busy (in fact also checking af chat lol) and there were 5 asian girls a few tables away, three of the Koreans and two Japanese (one japanese was the hottest lol) all exchange students, and they started talking about the World Cup. i wanted to jump into the conversation when they started about how bad the North Korean team was and how good the Japanese were lol... then one of them said: "The Chinese are terrible, but i like my Chinese friends. But the Chinese people are very terrible."

And then one of them gave yours truly a suspicious look LMAO
The Koreans went on talking how bad it would be if the Americans go bankrupt, but one of the Japanese said that the Americans are creating all kinds of traffic accident and crimes in Japan...