Aquino: No to Cha-cha

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. announced he will push his Charter change (Cha-cha) proposal in 2014. It will be a “legislated” Cha-cha focusing on the economic provisions of the Constitution. Senate President Frank Drilon said the Senate is open to the idea.

President Aquino reiterated his stand that a constitutional change is not necessary; that foreign investors have been coming in even without Cha-cha.

The President announced that it will take at least four years to finish the ‘Yolanda’ rehabilitation program. That will be past his term in 2016, two and half years from now.

Expect Aquino allies to push for extension of his term — to enable him to finish the rehab program. This will test President Aquino’s sincerity in his repeated statement that he will step down in June 2016.

There are so many pending bills in Congress. Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. admitted that the 16th Congress has not been productive.

Putting the Cha-cha on the agenda will take up so much time. It will disrupt the legislative agenda.

Uncontrollable criminals

Mayor Ukol Talumpa of Labangan, Zamboanga del Sur, his wife Leah, and two others were shot dead at the arrival area of NAIA Terminal 3, in the presence of hundreds of people and airport police. Four other persons were wounded. Nobody is safe anywhere.

Mrs. Carol Fortun, wife of Atty. Raymund Fortun, was shot and seriously wounded as she was getting off her car, in front of her house in BF Homes, Almanza, Las Piñas. She is now in stable condition, after the bullet went through her neck and exited in the cheek. Atty. Raymund Fortun said he was the target. Many judges, prosecutors and lawyers have been killed the last three years. Gun for hire syndicates are operating freely.

Kidnapping happened again in the Zamboanga City as armed men aboard two motorized bancas, abducting Cathy Casipong, a public elementary school teacher in a remote barangay of Zamboanga City. Casipong is the third kidnap victim within one week’s time in the Zamboanga Peninsula.

Meanwhile, two tricycle drivers were shot dead in Bulacan.

Show of force

They are not only in the mountains, they are in the city. Five hundred members of the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF) in bonnets and masks paraded through Rizal Avenue in Manila on Thursday, carrying anti-government placards.

This is a clear challenge to the Armed Forces of the Philippines/Philippine National Police (AFP/PNP). Something is terribly wrong here.

These last few weeks, the NPAs raided police stations in Don Victoriano, Misamis Occidental; Kibawi, Bukidnon; and San Agustin, Surigao del Sur.

Continuing accidents

One person died, while several were wounded in another bus accident, this time at the NLEx in Angeles City.

Buses usually are speeding at North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) and South Luzon Expressway (SLEx). There should be more police enforcement against speeding.

A cement mixer truck and a motorcycle were involved in an accident in Pasig.

Lack of health personnel

One of the sad effects of typhoon Yolanda is the fact that medical and hospital services were overwhelmed. There was a lack of personnel, supplies, and medicines to take care of 27,432 wounded survivors.

Fortunately, Unites States, United Kingdom, French, Israeli, Belgian, Japanese, German, and South Korean medical teams came to the rescue with their medical personnel and supplies. Field hospitals in tents were set up complete with operating rooms.

In preparation for typhoons, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) stocks up on relief supplies. Department of Health should also stock up on supplies and medicines at its regional hospitals and regional offices.

In the Bohol earthquake, 26 children died in evacuation centers; the same also happened to Zamboanga. This whole area of post-disaster medical and hospital services must be reviewed.

Emergency Response Teams (ERTs) in government hospitals, outside the disaster area, must be on standby, ready to fly after a calamity. It is not a correct policy to lay off doctors and nurses from the Department of Education. They should send them to Eastern Visayas now to supplement the overworked doctors.

Typhoon Pablo postscript

Noli de Castro visited Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley on the occasion of the first anniversary of typhoon Pablo.

He reported the slow pace of rehabilitation in the towns of Cateel, Baganga, Boston in Davao Oriental and New Bataan in Compostela Valley. The schools have not been rebuilt; roads are still blocked; and shelter houses have not been completed and delivered.

Typhoon Yolanda was ten times more deadly than “Pablo. At the rate the government is moving, it will take more than four years to complete the reconstruction.

Tidbits: China donated 10,000 blankets and 3,000 tents to the DSWD. The Chinese Embassy is asking where they had gone.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) helped a lot in airlifting medical volunteers and relief goods to Tacloban and Cebu.

Tina Palma of ABS-CBN Foundation also did a heroic job of sending volunteers and relief to Yolanda-damaged areas. Ted Failon went back and forth to Tacloban to organize relief efforts for school children.

Three hundred fifty UP Tacloban students are now cross-enrolled in UP Diliman.

The official death toll from typhoon ‘Yolanda’ is now at 6,092.

The Palana family led by Vicki Palana Rollins, a professional nurse in Los Angeles and his associate, William Nelson led in relief operations for their hometown of Tolosa, Leyte.

The Philippine Navy commissioned three new Italian-made helicopters, which cost P1.3 billion. How about buying three new C-130s cargo planes?

Canada’s Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) has completed its job in Roxas City, Capiz, and Aklan. Canada donated $25 million to the Philippines

Mayor Joseph Estrada is set to visit former President Gloria Macapal Arroyo on Sunday.

Merry Christmas greetings to Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, Joey Santos, William Gatchalian, Marita Huang, Josie Rufino, Cio Lim, Pancho Villaraza, Nene Henson, Bong Ignacio, Yoly Bautista, Johnny Sy, and Jaime De Chavez. Thank you for remembering us.