P-noy unlikely to give okay

It is very unlikely that President Benigno Aquino III will declare June 18, 2012 as a special non-working holiday for Bacolod City to commemorate the charter signing of the city.

I don't know who had recommended such a step for the Sangguniang Panglunsod. But whoever did it does not know his law (The Bacolod Sangguniang did).

In the first place, there is a law declaring October 19 as the Bacolod Charter Day anniversary. And that was signed into law by former President Fidel V. Ramos.

If the purpose is just to skirt the law by declaring June 18 as a special non-working holiday, the intent is still to defy the law which designates October 19 as the Charter anniversary.

Rep. Anthony Golez is right. Not even the certification by the secretary of the House or any other official can alter the law. It is ridiculous that the House will violate its own law by certifying that the law, Commonwealth Act. 326, was signed into the late President Manuel L. Quezon.

I doff my hat off to Rep. Golez for defending the interest and prestige of the House of Representatives and trying to rescue Bacolod City from embarrassment.

No local executive order can amend the law. Nor abrogate it. That was a harebrained set to have agreed to have it done through an executive order which the author knows beyond doubt that it could not be legally done.

It does not alter the fact that the city mayor of Bacolod was Alfredo Montelibano Sr. That he was recognized as such by MLQ only shows that the former President knew his law.

Well, I just hope that the SP does not push through its scheme and drag Noynoy into an embarrassing predicament.

***

The Bacolod SP should bestow honors to a taxi driver – Oscar Bayot of Riverside Barangay Sum-ag whom Dr. Marden Lacuesta had cited for honesty. The cab driver returned to the Ohio-Based Fil-American doctor, his wallet containing P100,000 last Wednesday, the DAILY STAR reported.

Also to Dr. Lacuesta, a former physician of the Bacolod Doctors' Hospital, who acknowledged that he was not worried that he had lost his wallet irretrievably “because he believes that there are honest drivers in Bacolod City.

Lacuesta of course has rewarded Bayot for his honesty. But for him the more important was that the cab driver had lived up to his confidence in the honesty of Bacolod taxi-drivers.

And to Bayot's children, our congratulations that they have treasured the honesty of their father. They, too expectedly will live up to the noble tradition of their father.

***

The NAIA II fracas between TV journalist Ramon Tulfo and the Santiago couple plus their group would not have occurred had the Cebu Pacific not failed to ship Claudine Barreto's luggage. At least, they should have immediately informed them when they failed to load it on their plane from Kalibo to Manila.

The worst of course is history. And the courts will be the ones to decide who was wrong in the fracas which had gained the attention of the entire nation.

But that does not exculpate Cebu Pacific for its negligence. There have been several incidents in the past where the airline firm had failed to live up to its obligation to its passengers and usually, what happens is that the apology comes late.

***

It is really worrisome -- the latest move by China of suspending tourism agencies from sending tourists to the Philippines.

Although tourism authorities of the Philippines say that the Chinese visitors represent only nine percent of the total visitors to the country, that stil is a sizable number.

Worse, China seems to be flexing its economic clout my stiffening inspecting of Philippines exports to that country. These include bananas, China is the single largest buyer of the Philippine fruits.

The China restriction on tourism agencies comes at the time when DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo had admitted that kidnap for ransom cases in Metro Manila are on the rise.

The problem seems to be that the victims' families have refused to cooperate with authorities. Thus contributing to the crime committed with impunity.

All they do is just pay the ransom demanded.

Robredo should ask why the victims and their families refused to cooperate with authorities. Surely there must strong reasons for that.

That may be exemplified by the incident in Mayon, Quezon City, where the police refused to chase the kidnappers until 24 hours later, when the case shall have qualified to be tagged as happening.

There is no such thing as a crime becoming such only after 24 hours. In some cases it may be true. But when a case is reported and a chase is considered imperative, the police should not hesitate to go after the culprits.

That, I think, is just one proof on why the victims and their families refused to cooperate with the policies. They must suspect that shenanigans are ongoing in their cases. The most celebrated of these was the snatching last will of Aiko Moowe, 27-year-old wife of Edmun Morrre, a 31-year-old American businessman.

The latter was forced to ransom his wife for P6.5 million plus something like P3.5 million worth of watches and jewelry.

How do you think will such incidents impact on foreigners in our country? I hope that Moore and his colleagues will to not pull up and go out of the Philippines after their harrowing experience and their tremendous losses.

Perhaps, it is time for President Aquino to also pay attention to crime incidents in the Philippines. We have daily a lot of assassinations of people including key government officials and even just ordinary cab drivers who are gunned down by trained shooters.

I just wonder whether there is a countrywide murder incorporated now operating in the country.

Perhaps, the President can spare a little time from the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona and focus on the crime situation in the country and the weighty problems confronting the people.*

back to top