Seven Lessons Gathered from the Papal Visit in the Philippines

So the history was written...the five day (January 15-19, 2015) visit in the Philippines of Pope Francis ended today, 19 January 2015.   He left Manila at around 10:00 AM from Villamor Airbase on a direct flight to Rome via Philippine Airlines.  During those five days, millions of Catholic Filipinos took their time to attend the activities from his arrival at the Villamor Airbase to welcome him (Thursday - Jan 15); Official welcome of President Noynoy Aquino in Malacanan (Friday - Jan 16);  First mass at Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (Manila Cathedral) with bishops, priests, and religious men and women;  Meeting with Families at Mall of Asia (MOA - Jan 16); Visit to Tacloban and meeting with Yolanda survivors (Saturday - January 17) where he held mass amidst the storm;  Encounter with the Youth at University of Santo Tomas (UST) and concluding mass at Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park (Sunday - January 18) attended by more than five million people as reported.

I was curious about what he was about to impart to each of us, on what a person can learn from the likes of someone who leads the Vatican.  I cannot deny the fact that mere presence at a meeting with the managers of our company provided me so many lessons in life where I learned and get valuable insights from them.  I anticipated that there are more to learn from a leader like him thus I watched him on TV especially when he delivered his speeches.  

Here are just seven unsullied perspective from his speeches that I cannot just ignore so I  compiled them and consider those as noteworthy lessons that everyone should take by heart.  Whatever faith, country or race you belong, I believe that these teachings can be universally applied for the common good of humankind.


1.  "...it is now, more than ever, necessary that political leaders be outstanding for honesty, integrity and commitment to the common good. In this way they will help preserve the rich human and natural resources with which God has blessed this country."

2.  "...to reject every form of corruption which diverts resources from the poor, and to make concerted efforts to ensure the inclusion of every man and woman and child in the life of the community."

3.  "A fundamental role in the renewal of society is played, of course, by the family and especially by young people."  "...Families have an indispensable mission in society. It is in the family that children are trained in sound values, high ideals and genuine concern for others."

4 "...solidarity in the work of rebuilding teaches us an important lesson. Like a family, every society draws on its deepest resources in order to face new challenges."

5.  "When you lose this capacity to dream, you lose the capacity to love, and this energy to love is lost."

6.  "Rest is so necessary for the health of our minds and bodies, and often so difficult to achieve due to the many demands placed on us. But rest is also essential for our spiritual health, so that we can hear God’s voice and understand what he asks of us."

7.  "When families bring children into the world, train them in faith and sound values, and teach them to contribute to society, they become a blessing in our world."

Get Your Finances on Track with this 2015 Financial Calendar Planner

Good day everyone! Since this is the start of the year, most people nowadays are into planning their home, school or career life.  Whether you are a student, a homemaker, a businessman or a professional, you are most likely into the programming, budgeting and planning stage of your 2015.  How useful it is to have a planner to jot down all those activities that you need to do. If you are a planner-lover who keeps track of almost everything about life, the diary-planner type like the belle-de-jour power planner is an essential tool to use.  However, not all of us are into the habit of documenting our life's journey and even writing down a schedule on a simple calendar planner seem to be too daunting.  If you are that type of person who do not have the patience to write your plans on paper, I devise a simple planner for you.  Well, I made this and intend to give this out to those who wanted to keep track of one of the important aspect of their life plans...the finances.  I also intend to use this to supplement my diary planner so I can have a summary of my important financial record on a one-page piece of paper.  Good thing that the creative side of me kicks in this year to come up with this easy to use financial calendar planner.  You can download this free printable 2015 Financial Calendar Planner and put it wherever most convenient for you.  I made only the first half of the year (January to June) so it will be easier to keep track beginning with the first six months of 2015.  I will publish the next semester (July to December) of the calendar in our next post so check it out. Meanwhile, here is the copy of the 2015 Financial Calendar Planner (January to June) You can get it here in this link for free.

This 2015 Financial Calendar Planner includes tracking of your savings and expenses such as contributions for SSS (Social Security System), PAGIBIG  (or Home Development Mutual Fund - HDMF) and PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance).  If you are an employed member, these are mandatory deductions from your salary so it is easier to track.

However, if you are a voluntary/individually paying/self-employed member, you need to tick the appropriate space to indicate that you have already paid for your contribution so you can track your monthly premium payments.  We also included recording of you weekly money challenge.  The weekly money challenge is much like the 52 week money challenge but with some deviations.  You can keep track of the schedule when you should have already deposited your savings in the bank as provided in the calendar.  Simply highlight or check the date on the provided boxes if you have done so.  At the end of the month, you have the option to record your total monthly savings in the space provided.

There is also a calendar and the non-working holiday schedule so you can keep account of the  correct dates when you should make your transactions in the bank or government offices.

You can put down notes in the Other Reminders part should you wish to put the dates of other important transactions that you need to track such as the following:

1. Renewal of your business permit (mayor's permit,  BIR annual registration)
2. Renewal of licenses (LTO registration/driver's license)
3. Payment for insurance (home, car, etc)
4. Tax (real estate tax, income tax, etc) and other things that have direct impact on your finances.

We have also included tracking payments for your electricity and water bill since non-payment of those utilities usually add up to your expenses if not paid on time.  You simply tick the space provided to indicate payment for the particular month. 

I hope that this helps you keep track of your finances in a simple and easy to use financial calendar planner.  Download the free file here >> Happy planning and budgeting.

Earth Hour 2015 - Use #YourPower to Change Climate Change

It's almost five years since we first joined Earth Hour by the World Wildlife Fund.  Earth Hour is a global movement that started in 2007 with the aim to raise awareness about climate change.  This event is held annually to encourage everyone to take action to "change climate change".  That is right,  for this year, the event's main goal is to "CHANGE CLIMATE CHANGE". 

I still remember those early days when I joined Earth Hour, when the term climate change was usually unheard of in our country and we were clueless what it was all about. Those days when all we could understand was that it was a lights-out event and only a few people knew of the movement.  Now we know better, it has grown worldwide with hundreds of countries including the Philippines taking part in it and showing commitment for this great cause.  We have recently received an email from the Earth Hour Global Team with our Earth Hour 2015 Starter Kit. 

As an advocate for Earth Hour and to once again show our support in this global movement, we wish to share with you and seek your help to spread the word about Earth Hour 2015.  You can use the new Earth Hour 2015 poster for your home, workplace or classroom.  You can freely use the Official Earth Hour logos and web banners for your website or blog.

We have seen and experienced the impact of climate change in our lives.  For 2015, use #YourPower to change Climate Change!

For ways on how you can actively take part in your own way in this global action, you can check our several posts under the environment and earth hour categories.  You can start here >>

Commuters' Guide to New MRT/LRT 2015 Fares

This post has moved to http://moseybutterfly.blogspot.com/2015/01/commuters-guide-to-new-mrtlrt-2015-fares.html

Unsullied Perspective's 2014 Year in Review #2014throwback

Here comes 2015! Anticipating what this new year would bring us. But for now, we could only look back and be thankful for all memorable events and happy occasions that made our 2014.  Some of our thoughts and experiences were shared with you here in our blog Unsullied Perspective that we hope helped you in one way or another.  We only managed to post around 20 articles which is half short of our once a week target or around 54 posts.  We think we have to include in our 2015 resolution to ensure that we keep track our weekly target.  Anyways, to summarize our 2014, here is Unsullied Perspective's Year in Review. 

After three months of absence in 2013, our blog welcomed January 2014 with a post to help SSS members on how to know the correct SSS premium to pay since a new SSS contribution schedule was released. We were back in March by another helpful tip on how to compute the SSS maternity benefit based on SSS regulation that time.  This was also based on our contributor's personal experience when she availed of her maternity benefit. 

February and April were busy months for us that we totally neglected posting anything at all.  But it was in April that Unsullied Perspective had the chance to visit Dumaguete, one of the Philippines most preferred destination of foreign retirees.  You can check our May post about Siaton, Negros Oriental to see some of our snapshots of that place.  With the school opening in June, we had to sort out things and clear our drawers and cabinets to give space to new books and school materials.  Thus, we found some valuable things in there that brought us to nostalgia in one hand and helped us to plan ahead in another hand.  A wave of sweet memories swept us with our post on how a navi-planner shaped our 2012 while our tip on what a coin bank can do gave us an exciting saving and spending plan.  

Our simple spending spree using our coin savings in June carried on until July.  By August, we started our Fun Treat activity to mark the start of our year long gift giving celebration in preparation for our 10th anniversary in August 2015.  

That's correct, we have our twelve months of fun sharing and gift giving celebration so we have our winners every month that started last September 2014.  Who knows, you might score a fun treat to share with your family and friends.  Always check our giveaways page for the updated monthly fun treat and for the list of our winners.

We received numerous comments about maternity benefits so we felt compelled to also share with our readers about the Philhealth maternity and new-born care package that we posted in September.  In October, we scheduled for passport and NBI clearance renewal which we also posted the updated steps here for your reference.  

The mechanics for our monthly Fun Treat for October and November were posted in our blog and shared in our Facebook page.  With this Fun Treat, were able to give away Starbucks card preloaded with P300.00 and SM gift cards worth P500.00 to our lucky blog readers for September, October and November.  This is a continuing fun gift-giving activity so our readers still have a chance to join and win exciting prizes until our 15th year celebration.  Also this December we provided you our guide to updating Comelec registration for the mandatory biometrics capturing in preparation for the 2016 election. We hope you include that in your 2015 plans if your Comelec record is not yet biometrics-ready. 

The last quarter of 2014 marked a milestone for Unsullied Perspective that showed an increase in unique site visits everyday.  We have surpassed the hundred thousand readership with blog readers coming from the Philippines, USA, France, Germany, Poland, India, Singapore, Spain, Ukraine and United Kingdom as our top 10 country visitors among many others.

 We also managed to answer our reader's queries and provide feedback on their comments that in some way afforded us a sense of fulfillment.  We could have reached that milestone in the early years of this blog had we been more active especially in social media such as Facebook and Twitter ;-) .  Anyway, we still have more time to catch up and reach greater rank in terms of our web presence.  We hope to do that with the help of our community and our fellow bloggers.  Cheers to 2015!