Why is RP still the sick man of Asia?

For our special presentation on Straight from the Sky, we bring you one of the most successful programs ever done in the Province of Cebu. It is what we call a Private Sector, Government partnership initiative dubbed the Expanded Green and Wholesome Environment that Nurtures or eGWEN Program which the Province of Cebu entered into a partnership with the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI).

This is one program where the participant municipalities and barangays follow very intricate scorecard on the basic services that they give to the community, like health, cleanliness, history, arts and culture. I call this a complimentary program to the Suroy-Suroy sa Sugbo and the Pasigarbo Festival, which have fast become institutions in the Province of Cebu.

To tell us the story of the eGWEN program, we have with us, Hon. Agnes Magpale, Program Manager of eGwen; Hon. Alfredo Arquillano, Vice-Mayor of San Francisco, Camotes, the grand slam winner three times in a row of this program; and Ms. Ruth Rowena Alensonorin, Executive Director Center for Integrated Area Development of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI). So watch this very interesting show that we taped at the Eduardo Aboitiz Studies Center (EADS) in SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00pm.

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It’s been a week since the nation suffered a national humiliation of the botched hostage crisis entered into the national consciousness and caused a national shame. The whole world watched on satellite tv how Filipino policemen now known better as the “Keystone Swats” entertained them in some kind of Reality tv show on how to storm a hostaged tourist bus in one hour flat and have your foreign guests killed in action!

This ugly episode in Philippine history only proves to the world that the Philippines is still the same Sick Man of Asia that we’ve always known to be. Over the weekend, whenever we bump into friends, the topic is still the same. Mostly people ask, why didn’t the snipers shoot Capt. Rolando Mendoza when he showed his face at least four times for the cameras? Indeed, if I was the ground commander in that situation, Capt. Mendoza would have gotten a bullet between his eyes and all this would be over. More importantly, no national shame for our country and people.

But how soon we have forgotten that this is the Philippines where nothing logical is ever done and nothing works right! If the PNP Swat Team did the right thing and shot Mendoza when he showed his smiling face for tv and the photojournalists, undoubtedly that would have ended that hostage crisis. But being a jaded journalist of 24 years, let me tell you that the next day, the photo of a smiling Mendoza would have been splashed on the front pages of our national dailies together with the photo of his head being splattered by a sniper’s bullet.

With a graphic news photo splashed as headlines, there would have been a huge outcry against the snipers demanding why they shot a man who had not injured nor killed any hostages and who was just showing his smiling face. Then the Human Rights Commissioner would have conducted an investigation and this circus would get out of focus of the danger that was done against the Hong Kong tourists.

This is a country that only moves when something terrible really befalls upon us, hence, I submit that this incident has truly jolted the national consciousness. We need a lot of fixing to do and it begins with fixing the Justice system where injustice is still the rule of the day. Then, there should be a lifestyle check on all PNP officers, so we’ll finally know who is on the take and who is not. After all, this is P.Noy’s campaign promise, to rid our country of corruption. So before we let the cops arrest the corrupt, we should ensure that they themselves are not corrupt.

Finally, there’s that report that China was displeased that the remains of Capt. Rolando Mendoza had a Philippine flag draped on top of his coffin. I don’t know what are the rules that describe whether Mendoza was entitled to have the flag draped on his coffin, but delicadeza dictates that he should have been denied this because of the national shame he caused our country.

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It’s about time that we Cebuanos should show our indignation to our Tagalog brethren represented by former Miss Universe Ms. Gloria Diaz for her ethnic slur. She said, “Kasi when you think about a Cebuana can hardly speak English and of course Tagalog. Maybe she should answer in Bisaya.” Perhaps she should be sanctioned not just by the Cebu City Council, but by the Provincial Board of the Province of Cebu and call her persona non grata. Of course, she would surely say that she doesn’t speak for the rest of the Tagalog speaking nation, but it doesn’t give her license to look down on us Cebuanos, because Tagalogs are not a superior race!