Only two days before Election Day. We go to the polls to cast our vote for 12 senators, two representatives (one per legislative district, one party-list), a mayor, a vice mayor, and councilors (6 to 12, depending on the municipality/city).
After more than four months of review, the National Economic and Development Authority has recommended that the national government continue its support of Apeco (Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority) in managing and operating the expanded special economic zone (12,900 hectares) now called the Aurora Pacific Economic and Freeport Zone (APEFZ).
The TV show I host, “Bawal Ang Pasaway,” will have as guests on Monday night Commission on Elections Chair Sixto Brillantes and Philippine Computer Society president Edmundo “Toti” Casiño. We taped the episode yesterday, and I wish the producers luck in distilling a two-hour conversation into a 20-25-minute episode. The guests’ views were polar opposites. But basically, two questions were tackled.
On Dec. 29, 2012, my column, which the editors titled “A (common?) horror story,” described the travails of my daughter Tami as she tried to replace her lost Globe phone, and my travails as I tried to help her. The Reader may recall that I began the column by expressing hope that I would be narrating a horror story with a happy ending—an all’s-well-that-ends-well type. But it did not come to pass, as I lamented, because Globe had once again reneged on its promise that Tami would have her phone by Dec. 27 at 2 p.m. (I wrote and sent the column on the afternoon of Dec. 28).
The results of the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey on leaving the Church (for Catholics) and church attendance (for both Catholics and non-Catholics) seem to have elicited misguided and, for me, dismaying responses from some clergy.
Don’t tangle with mothers, particularly mothers protecting or looking for their young. Those who do will live to regret it—if they live, that is.
My colleague Conrad de Quiros points out, in his March 19 column, that in all that has been written hereabouts regarding the Sabah issue, “You will not find in them a single, solitary, teeny-weeny mention of the Sabah people themselves. Specifically, you will not find in them mention of the fact that the Sabah people struggled to be free, gained self-rule in 1963, and voted to become part of Malaysia.”
The more I read up on the subject and talk to people I consider experts on it, the more I get incensed at the perfidy of Great Britain with respect to Sabah, as illustrated by its treatment of the Sultanate of Sulu, and, much later, its treatment of the fledgling Republic of the Philippines. I consider it the No. 1 villain in the Sabah issue. Tying for second place are the Philippines and Malaysia.
I certainly agree with P-Noy that the standoff in Malaysia must end. (The stand-off ended before noon yesterday after an assault by Malaysian security forces, according to reports quoting the Malaysian ambassador.—ED.) But it must end with all sides holding their heads high, honor and dignity intact (a win-win solution, former President Fidel Ramos would call it). As it is now, unfortunately, it looks like two sides are being made to back off, tail between legs. And that is not acceptable.
The Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo, now headed by Jamalul Kiram III, who can trace his lineage at least 500 years back (the sultanate was founded in 1465)—how many Filipinos can go back that far?—still strikes me as a tragic institution, the victim of greed, opportunism, and indifference particularly during the second half of its history.
As I write this, I have just finished taping an interview with James Jimenez of the Commission on Elections and Juana Change (aka Mae Paner) of the Anti-Epal Movement, which exuded good humor and bonhomie. Which is a rarity, not where Juana, but where the Comelec, is concerned. But for once, the Comelec seems to have done something right; whether or not it has ridden on the coattails of a movement that has captured the public imagination and has made politicians think twice about undertaking their usual campaign shenanigans, it doesn’t matter. And therefore the Comelec is to be congratulated, even as the Anti-Epal Movement, led among others by Vince Lazatin, has demonstrated what people power can do. I sincerely hope that the next target will be political dynasties.
There definitely is a Pontius Pilate flavor in the Catholic Church’s stance on the conviction of Carlos Celdran, who was sentenced to a prison term of two months and 21 days to one year and 11 days for the crime of “offending the (sic) religious feelings” under Article 133 of the Revised Penal Code (circa 1930 or 1932, and to my admittedly limited knowledge, last applied in 1939).
