Sabah standoff

In my last column (Mar. 1/13) POE in the second to the last line in the second para should have been FOE. The fun, er, pun was lost.

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The Philippine Star reports that over 20,000 Pinoys have signed up in the Phl's search for the first Filipino astronaut.

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I am reminded of the first Filipino newsman to apply for a job to cover the first trip to the moon by a US astronaut. He was my friend Clod “Boy” Bajenting, Cebu correspondent of a Manila broadsheet.

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Clod did not get the job but he landed on the newspapers worldwide through a story written and circulated by the Associated Press. The AP called him an “obscure” journalist but he was not that anymore after the story about him came out.

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“The standoff in Sabah wouldn't have happened had the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo acted mightily before North Borneo became what is now known as Sabah,” said Prof. Serafin Deles, a scholar of Asian history. He said under the British rule there was no development or progress in North Borneo, massive development came only after the territory became part of Malaysia.

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Did you know that Cebuano-Visayan is widely spoken in North Borneo or Sabah? In fact there is one area in Sabah where Cebuano is almost the lingua franca, according to Prof. Deles, who claims to be Visayan by virtue of his having been married to a woman from Negros Oriental.

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There's a police precinct chief in Metro Manila who because of lust may lose his retirement benefits amounting to P2.8 million. He is now 55 and ready to retire. But he could not wait to satisfy his lust and reportedly raped, so reports said, a 15-year-old girl. Here's a story of sex costing P2.8 million.

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It's good to know that something is being done to help the Badjaos in Cebu have a better deal. They're being given decent homes, although some of them still prefer to live out of the decent homes built for them. I heard it said that habits die hard.

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When you make the Sign of the Cross, where does your finger stop to say “Amen”? A Mexican catechist says it must stop at your lips where the foot of the Cross is supposed to be. “The prayer must not stop, it must continue, until we say 'Amen' on our lips,” he explained. “The Sign of the Cross is a prayer,” he also stressed.

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OVERHEARD. Two wives, neighbors both in Labangon, were reading the news about 20,000 Pinoys wanting to be astronauts. Wife No.1 said: “Asa man ta mo-apply pagka-astronaut?” Wife No. 2: “Gusto ka mag-astronaut?” Wife No. 2: “Dili oy. Akong bana gusto kong pa-astronoton aron di na makabalik sa yuta kay pagkabadlongon.”