Globe Telecom had a presscon yesterday for its latest program dubbed “Globe NEGOSTAR” which is basically a technology-based business tool that could improve a company’s efficiency, reliability and its quality of service. Mr. Manny Aligada, Corporate Head and SME Segments of Globe Business told us that NEGOSTAR is Globe’s way of helping the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), which comprises 99.6% of all the businesses in the Philippines. Globe will hold a caravan all over the country to show to the SMEs how they can avail of this technology. It’s like GPS tracking on your company cars to ensure that they’re being used for business. These are tools that undoubtedly help in the efficiency and good governance of a company.
* * *
I’m glad that the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) pulled out from their dialogue or consultation with the Senate Technical Working Group that is drafting the Senate version of the Reproductive Health Bill. CBCP Legal counsel Jo Imbong pointed out, “The CBCP cannot lend its voice to a measure that undermines fundamental rights and ideals and aspirations of Filipinos as written in the Constitution.”
This includes the Pro-Life Philippines Foundation that also pulled out of the talks because of the “extreme bias” of Sen. Pia Cayetano, the Committee Chair for the “Anti-life RH groups.” This is what we’ve been saying all along, that the Senate wanted to use this dialogue and later on say that its new versions had the imprimatur of the CBCP. Come on, the supporters of the RH Bill have long lied, cajoled and used every trick in the book to get this bill approved in Congress. Now they even tried to use the CBCP as a deodorant to promote their end?
Just in case you already forgot, we have long fought against the RH Bill in its previous names, titles or numbers. Way back in 1999 this bill was dubbed House Bill no. 4110. In the year 2001 its number changed to HB 8110. Then in 2004 it became HB 3773. Then on the year 2007, it was HB 5043. Then in 2010 it was HB 96 and now in the year 2011 it’s HB4244. This is a case of having the same dog with different collars and the reason for that is, Divine Intervention. God somehow kept Congress so busy with so many other matters, by the time they were pushing for the RH bill, they simply ran out of time and couldn’t muster enough votes.
With that walkout, the CBCP issued a pastoral letter calling on the public to oppose the RH Bill, which is a form of “Moral Corruption.” A couple of weeks ago, Cebuanos trooped to Fuente Osmeña in what was dubbed as the largest rally in Fuente since the rally in support for then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. Incidentally, the last time I met with the former Chief Justice at a restaurant in Banilad early this year, I asked him to be the front-man within the Aquino administration to advise the President on the wrong path he is taking in support of the RH Bill. He told me he’d do the best he can. I’m sure P.Noy would listen to him.
Today, Malacañang is even calling it the Planned Parenthood Bill. We already know why P.Noy is supporting the RH Bill in whatever form, number or title it carries and it is because the United States government “pressured” him to accept that US$450 million dollar Millennium Fund. He was still in the US when he got this money from the US government. He so eagerly announced his support of the RH bill while he was still in US soil.
I have a hunch that US officials got in touch with P.Noy on this issue early in the election campaign because he already declared his support for the RH Bill so early in the Presidential campaign. For a guy like me who supported his mother, Tita Cory, 25 years ago against the Marcos Dictatorship, it would have been natural for me to support Noynoy. Now, even those who have professed themselves as Pro-Life, yet supported Pres. Aquino have been dismayed that he never changed his mind on this.
At this point, we cannot help but see the hypocrisy of the Aquino administration in many issues today. A case in point is their trying to show that they care for Filipinos who are imprisoned abroad. The unborn and innocent babies that would die inside their mother’s womb are also Filipinos. Contrast this to the trip of Vice-President Jejomar Binay who went to China to talk to the Chinese leadership for a stay of execution of some 75 Filipinos in death row. Binay was able stop three Filipinos from being executed.
But Sen. Tito Sotto, a Anti-Drug Crusader bewailed that the P.Noy administration did this for those Filipinos who were not really Overseas Foreign Workers (OFW). They were really “mules” who flew to China to bring illegal drugs into their country. In short, those 75 Filipinos in death row took the risk in order to earn quick money. These people aren’t innocent. They knew that if they were caught, the consequences would be a jail term or worse, a death sentence. This is the truth!
* * *
Email: vsbobita@mozcom.com