Let’s not divide ourselves! Stay in Fuente O!

For our special presentation on Straight from the Sky tonight, we take a good look at the tourist transport industry. I’m referring to those tourist buses and taxicabs that need accreditation from the Department of Tourism (DOT), not just the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB). With tour buses getting so expensive, where a new one costs more than P5 million, our government regulators only want to accredit brand new buses giving no room for second hand buses that many investors already bought.

A good friend of mine who is in this business just went to Europe and learned that in Scandinavia, even if tourism is their biggest resource, they only have one government regulator to handle all public transportation. Of course they have very stringent rules which everyone needs to follow, from clean seats to fuel-efficient engines. When they pass this, there is no need for anymore accreditation from their Tourism Ministry. Here we have a bureaucracy. 

This only shows that our government regulators don’t care if those already in the business can no longer afford to bring in slightly used buses because only brand new ones are given accreditation. I gathered that one of the biggest bus companies operating in the Visayas and Mindanao wants a piece of the action because they are so big, they can even assembly their own buses. If and when it happens then we shall be seeing a monopoly in this industry.

To give us a better understanding of what’s going on in the tourist bus business today, we have with us Engr. Alan P. Salmero, owner of Alamo Transport and president of the Tourist Transportation Group. So watch this very interesting show on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00pm with replays on MyTV Channel 30 on M-W-F.

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I really don’t know when the Philippine government changed the date of our celebration of National Heroes Day from December 30th to August 26th. If we truly show our respect to our fallen heroes, we should not be changing this holiday. But then, that’s the Philippines for you,  too many holidays, which is the principal reason why foreign direct investors (FDA) go to other Asean countries because we rank lowest in terms of productivity.

Anyway, today, we expect hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of indignant Cebuanos to troop to Fuente Osmeña in order to show to the Aquino Regime our displeasure and our anger on the way that the political elite have misused their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) a.k.a. Pork Barrel, which is the so-called P10-billion scam that blew out of proportion when Janet Lim Napoles was exposed as to creating fake NGO’s to funnel the PDAF of the senators and congressmen into their pockets.

What has angered the people all the more was when Jeane Napoles, daughter of Janet Napoles, was seen in her Facebook accounts literally painting Europe red, buying the most expensive bags, cars, clothes and holding expensive parties all at the expense of the poor Filipino. For 27 years since the EDSA Revolt, the Philippine economy has finally started to rise, but somehow it never trickled down to our poor people because monies that could have gone to build schools or classrooms or to pay for the food of school kids were siphoned off the national government coffers and into the pockets of Janet Napoles and her cohorts, the senators and congressmen.

Today we shall see the extent of the anger of the Filipino people in a massive indignation rally that is supposed to be leaderless. Yet so many groups have already indicated that they would join the mass action, including many Catholic lay organizations, civic clubs and ordinary citizens dissatisfied with the Aquino Regime.

Last Friday, hoping to appease an angry nation, Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III called an unexpected presscon to show that he has changed his mind on this issue said, “It is time to abolish the PDAF.” But when we checked out his speech, the President really meant the PDAF of the legislative branch of the government, which from my own understanding was the job of Congress and the Senate. If Pres. PNoy was man enough, he should simply have signed an executive order banishing to oblivion the PDAF. But as it is, if the PDAF is abolished, only Pres. PNoy will have a PDAF and all our senators and congressmen would kowtow to him.

This is why today we are going to Fuente Osmeña and staying in Fuente Osmeña. As I pointed out, there are groups trying to hijack this mass action and bring them to Plaza Independencia and so I asked: who are these groups? This mass action is supposed to be leaderless so why should we follow them? As I pointed out earlier pro-Aquino supporters here are planning to divide the crowd in order to confuse the issue. I dare say we stay at the Fuente Osmeña only where photographers see how big is the rally from the tall buildings surrounding Fuente Osmeña, so let’s see each other at the Fuente Osmeña. Let’s not divide ourselves by staying in Fuente Osmeña.

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