Kudos to GMA for the return of English

Now it can be told! Malacañng was indeed wooing Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. to be the standard bearer of Lakas in 2004! As a Cebuano, I wouldn’t even think twice in supporting the Chief Justice. But knowing the Chief Justice through all the years when he was still practicing his profession, I’m very sure that he shuns politics… especially our kind of politics! If there’s anyone who saw the ugliness of politics, it’s the Chief Justice himself who presided over the Impeachment trial of former President Joseph Estrada, where politics actually won the day, when the senators allies with Erap voted not to open the confounded envelope. In the end, it caused the downfall of Erap.

I’m sure, the Chief Justice is flattered that so many people look up to him as the "savior" of this beleaguered nation. But I would like to believe that more than anything else… the biggest problems that this nation is facing today is still our snail’s-paced Justice system, which needs to be overhauled through reforms. This is something, which I strongly believe our beloved Chief Justice should fix and he’s in the best position to do so.

Yes, too many Filipinos get away from being punished for violating petty laws or ordinance, i.e., like the throwing of garbage in certain places or urinating anywhere. Hence, there’s really no effort by the ordinary Filipino to respect our laws. Respect, after all, comes if and when a law or ordinance is implemented to the fullest. Even simple laws for driving or franchise laws are violated with impunity by erring drivers who mistakenly believe that driving is their right, when in truth, this is only a privilege granted by the state!

Clearly, Lakas is showing some kind of desperation and I can only guess that this is due to the fact that they’re too concentrated in finding out who should be the next driver of this nation! If only they fixed the Philippine bus first and properly, it really wouldn’t matter who the next President would be… for as long as we rid ourselves of our highly-centralized form of government. Yes, when we have a federal system of government, whether it be a parliamentary or presidential one, it wouldn’t make a different anymore because the governor in each Federal State would be more important than the President!

But no doubt about it, Cebuanos are elated that their beloved son, who is now at the helm of one of the branches of our government, has been so wooed to be the next president. After all, the one and only Cebuano ever to be president of this country was the late Don Sergio Osmeña Sr. during Commonwealth times. If you think about some missed opportunity, who could have thought that the late Senate President Marcelo "Celing" Fernan could have become President if he and Lito Osmeña supported each other because their combined votes were bigger than those of then Vice President Erap. But then, that’s history! So the big question is; will Chief Justice Davide go for it? I’m betting he won’t!

I can only cheer on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) for being serious about reforms that this country direly needs! I’m referring to that piece of news, which was headlined in The STAR, though it landed (due to the Bush war speech) in page 2, that President Arroyo had ordered the Department of Education (DepEd) to restore English as the medium of instruction in all schools and universities in the country to improve the student’s proficiency in the language and make them more globally competitive!

If you ask me, this is one great reform that should put the Philippines back on the economic track to prosperity! Looking back, this is a departure from the executive order signed by then President Cory Aquino ordering that the medium of instruction in schools and letters of communication should be in Pilipino, which we all know is 99.9 percent Tagalog! That brought about a suit filed by then Cebu Gov. Emilio "Lito" Osmeña against Malacañang.

Indeed, having a National Language based on one ethnic group has only given us a distorted sense of nationalism. The Tagalog think that they are God’s greatest gift to this archipelago, hence everyone should speak their language, even if it is unintelligible to Cebuano, Ilocano or Chavacano. Thus, thanks to politics, Tagalog is being forced upon us… and to many of us Cebuanos, this is nothing but another form of ethnic cleansing, something we found out was also being done in Croatia, Serbia or Bosnia.

Worst of all, forcing our children born with different tongues to learn only Tagalog has only brought down their grades. Thus, Cebuanos and the rest end up feeling inferior to the Tagalog. The best thing to do is get rid of that plan to have a national language and let the Federal states preserve their local languages and culture and we’ll truly be a better nation!

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Maj. Elmer Quiros, commander of the Armed Forces’ 1st Civil Relations Group in Northern Luzon, came up with a report that some 43,000 people have been killed in the 34-year struggle by the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA). Of this number, 10,000 were civilian casualties, killed in the crossfire by the NPA or the military. I just hope that you folk noted that of the 34 years of this violent communist insurgency, Rolly Kintanar was with the NPA in 20 of these years… as its chief.

While I was watching a television news report on Rolly Kintanar’s widow, Ma. Gloria "Joy" Kintanar, demanding justice for her husband with running priest Fr. Robert Reyes behind her, this triggered a question within me, asking… what about justice for the victim who were killed when Ka Rolly Kintanar was NPA chief? Surely, we haven’t forgotten that under Ka Rolly, his NPA cadres and sparrows must have murdered hundreds of soldiers, policemen or civilians whose families are still seeking justice for their dead?

Yes, we demand justice for Ka Rolly. After all, his killing could never be justified. However, we should also seek justice for his victims. As NPA chief, I would like to believe, Ka Rolly killed some people with his own hands. They too, deserve the same justice that Rolly’s widow is now seeking.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected] Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 on SkyCable at 8 p.m.