Climate of fear

It is good that President Benigno Aquino III immediately held a presscon at Malacañang to inform the Filipino people of the steps he was taking to react to the bombing of a Newman Goldliner bus at Edsa which killed 5 people and wounded 13 others.

As a newspaper editorial put it: rampaging crimes “are striking fear into the hearts of people”.

The last six weeks have witnessed truly a rampaging crime wave which saw 14 policemen involved in different crimes, the bombing of a church inside a police camp, kidnapping of another businessman, Adin Yu in Cotabato City and a resort owner in Basilan, the spate of carjackings/carnappings, motorcycle and bicycle thefts accompanied by the brutal murder and burning of car dealers Venson Evangelista, Emerson Lozano and Ernani Sencil, the hijacking of a Philpost van in San Pedro, Laguna, several taxicab holdups and drivers killed mostly in Quezon City, the killing of an RTC Judge in Ilocos Norte, killings of barangay officials in Valenzuela City, Caloocan City, Davao, La Union, Pangasinan, Zamboanga Sibugay and other provinces, the rampant killings, robberies including extortion by policemen in Angeles City, the frequent holdups of students, the ambush killing of 5 policemen in Rizal, Cagayan, the assassination by a gun for hire killer of broadcaster Dr. Gerardo Ortega in Palawan, and the latest Edsa bus bombing.

As we said in a previous column, more drastic measures must be taken by the government to defeat the gun for hire, kidnapping, carnapping and robbery syndicates. At the moment, they are winning and have established a climate of fear everywhere.

Chinese-Filipino businessmen have left Cotabato City, the kidnappings in Basilan persist. Businessmen are sending their kids abroad to avoid kidnapping and spending so much to hire bodyguards. Parents have to spend time to bring their kids to school and fetch them.

We don’t have to repeat all the recommended measures already written or twitted the government should take. But first, please stop saying that crime statistics show a decline that carnappings are going down, that these are just “isolated” cases.  

That’s adding insult to injury to the families of Leonardo Co, Evangelista, Lozano, Dr. Gerardo Ortega and the 5 persons who died in the Edsa bombing.

Just do something to assure the citizenry that the government is still in charge.

And next time, take foreign travel advisories seriously and start chopping some heads.

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HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATOR . . . The Bureau of Immigration under OIC Ronald Ledesma is guilty of gross violation of human rights by profiling poor women leaving for abroad. 23,000 persons have been off-loaded from their flights at the NAIA the last 6 months after a short, arbitrary investigation by an Immigration officer on their background, their financial capacity, their looks, their dressing, and their intentions for going out of the country. There’s no due process here.

These off-loaded passengers, mostly poor women spent so much to get a passport and visa, buy a ticket and other expenses, sometimes selling or mortgaging family properties. When they are prevented from leaving, they lose their money, their hopes, not to mention their constitutional right to travel.

This unconstitutional practice also provides another opportunity for corrupt Immigration officers to receive money for a passenger to be allowed to leave.

DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima and CHR Chairman Etta Rosales should look into this very serious matter.

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HEALTH TIP. . . Persons with heart problems can now choose a 3rd option to remedy blocked arteries besides coronary bypass surgery or angioplasty.

St. Luke’s Hospital now offers extra corporal shockwave myocardial revascularization or ESMR, a non invasive procedure to improve blood flow in the heart. Perfected in Germany, it was brought to St. Luke’s 2 years ago by a team headed by Dr. Edward Magsumbol. For more info, call Cardiologist, Dr. H.B. Calleja at tel. no. 7244338.

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DISCRIMINATORY. . . Ruben Fernandez, an employee of Puerto Princesa City, complains about the discrimination against retiring government employees. Military and police officers got promoted to the next higher rank and get retirement pay based on the higher position’s pay.

Civilian employees are not promoted to the next higher rank. Worst, their retirement pay is computed on the basis of the salary they received 3 years before retirement. That’s really unfair. Congressmen, take note.

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MORE BAD RATINGS . . . The Philippines dropped 10 notches to 130th place in the 2010 Global Peace Index, an international survey conducted by the Institute for Economics and Peace of the state of peace in 149 countries.

In another survey, the Terrorism Risk Index now ranks the Philippines the 8th most dangerous, rising 2 notches. The top ten high terrorism risk countries are: 1) Somalia 2) Pakistan 3) Iraq 4) Afghanistan 5) Palestine 6) Colombia) 7) Thailand 8) Philippines 9) Yemen 10) Russia. The bus bombing at Edsa now confirms that ranking.

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PAGCOR ANSWER . . . I am glad to note that Pagcor has confirmed 1) That Parana Korea Corporation was granted a license to conduct a casino junket operation; 2) That it was previously disapproved; 3) That a Pagcor entourage headed by Chairman Naguiat visited Korea and 4) That Patrick Puno has resigned as Assistant Vice President on Logistics and General Services. Res ipsa loquitor.

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TIDBITS . . . In his SONA, President Obama devoted a major portion to education and gave lavish praise to teachers. He even said, America must now take steps to produce 100,000 new Math, Science and Engineering teachers. It was a perfect picture of a confident, competent leader who’s in charge with a clear roadmap. . . Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano admitted that the Nacionalista Party does not consider itself in opposition to P-Noy.  

President Aquino used a bullet proof Lexus LX 570 in his visit to St. Luke’s Global City Hospital.