The ingenuity of robbers now

It takes so little to send Pinoy sports lovers into ecstatic fits. The victory of the Azkals over the team from Tajikistan has sent many of them virtually salivating, and even our sports writers are raving about the team’s good fortune in making it to the semi finals of the AFC Challenge cup. And that’s only the semi-finals, ha. Look out for when they get to the finals – and cross your fingers now.

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The feat of the football team has even blotted out somewhat the fact that two of its members are facing sexual harassment complaints from the daughter of a former president, whose family has come out to support her. We somehow feel that Ms. Cristy Ramos shouldn’t have gone into the boys’ quarters without first asking them if they were decent, but it was their own fault for making comments that she considered sexists. I wonder if they have tried apologizing to her? It could still be that simple, you know.

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Almost to the day of that tragic temblor that had killed almost 20,000 people in Japan, another mighty one struck yesterday, this time in the Hokkaido and Sapporo areas. And it was almost as powerful as the one that hit the Fukushima area, because this one measured 6.8 on the Richter scale. To make matters worse for the frightened residents, a tsunami warning was also issued, so some had to seek higher ground. Fortunately, the alert was soon lifted, since the waves measured only by inches, unlike the previous ones that were said to be as tall as buildings.

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This shows the world, including us in the Philippines, that we have to continue being on guard against earthquakes. Note how many tremors, and aftershocks, have been recorded in our island, Negros, within the past months, with our Oriental side getting the worst of them. This is therefore a cue that we must not take those disaster trainings and seminars for granted. Acquiring the skills and the capability to react could save, not only our own lives, but also those of our loved ones.

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It is truly amazing how enterprising and daring criminals have become these days. We have just seen the bold robbery staged at the CENECO office in Bacolod recently. The other day, a very enterprising one was staged in Alabang, where the culprits dug a tunnel leading to the interior of the Makati Supermarket in the barangay. The wily robbers had crept through a tunnel that was almost a kilometer long, along the town’s drainage system. They then rifled the store, got into its vault and took the cash intended for deposit the next day.

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Police have determined that the ones who staged this innovative and daring heist are also members of the once notorious acetylene gang whose modus operandi involve getting into establishments, mostly pawnshops and jewelry stores, by entering them through their ceilings and getting in by cutting an entrance with the use of acetylene torches. I recall that similar crimes had been recorded in Bacolod – not the tunnel type, I mean – and also in Negros Oriental, so our police must have an idea of how clever they can be. So watch out, they may be on their way.

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The ashes of the late Luisa Medel Howard arrived in Bacolod from New York Tuesday and her friends and fellow members in the Circulo de Bacolod that she had founded, and her former students at La Consolacion College-Bacolod are coordinating in the preparations for the final rites before her interment in her home city, that she had wished for. Masses are now being said every day at 6 p.m. at the Redemptorist Church, where her remains are now in state.

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On Sunday, at 6 p.m. a tribute will be held for her at LCC, her alma mater, and where she had taught speech and drama for several years, and left her mark in the development of her students, that had led to the reputation of LCC students as among the best in the country, as far as speech and dramatics are concerned. That is why, on Sunday, LCC, to perpetuate her memory and honor her contributions to its history, will rename the LCC Little Theatre as the “Luisa Medel Theatre.” Which is very fitting and proper, since it was also during her time that it was established. If you, too, are a product of the former Miss Medel, be there.*

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