In last Tuesday’s 888 News Weekly Forum at the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel, we had as our guests Vice Governor Agnes Magpale and Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Fortunato dela Peña, and since science for me means research, I asked the DOST secretary if his department would embark on a scientific study of the feeding patterns of the whale sharks a.k.a. butanding here. I asked this because the feeding patterns of the whale sharks might have been altered because the boatmen in Oslob have resorted in feeding them so they would stay in the town’s waters.
The DOST secretary noted my question and said that they would do so if there is any request from any group to make such a study. So there you go, those belonging to environmental groups may now approach the DOST if they so wish to conduct such a study. I’m sure that this is a job for marine biologists.
Meanwhile, this reminds me of what I learned about the tourist trade in Oslob when Vice Governor Magpale was our guest at the 888 News Forum in Marco Polo Plaza Hotel a couple of weeks ago. She revealed to us that the boatmen working in the tourism industry in Oslob were earning around P1 to P2 million per month. Of this money, 69 percent goes to the boatmen, while 30 percent goes to Barangay Tan-awan. Indeed, this is what the whale sharks have done to the economy in this part of Cebu. But what about the interest of the whale sharks? They are God’s gentle creatures and deserve to be given the proper natural environment that they live by and not being feed as if they were locked in a zoo.
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Finally, it was a vindication for former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo when the Supreme Court (SC) a few days ago affirmed in a vote of 11-4 to junk with finality its earlier decision to dismiss the plunder case with the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office that was filed against her allegedly for the misuse of P366 million in intelligence funds during the time of president Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III for “insufficiency of evidence.”
We have always believed that PGMA was innocent of the charges filed against her and that the evidence was very weak and that she did not deserve to be incarcerated at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) for nearly four years, courtesy of then Department of Justice (DoJ) secretary Leila de Lima. This is why when people talk about the plight of Senator de Lima, the majority say that she has tasted “karma.”
I have always believed that the Aquino regime (led by PNoy, Secretary de Lima and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales) conspired to have PGMA incarcerated at the VMMC despite their weak evidence. What they did to PGMA is proof of the vindictiveness of PNoy Aquino. Now that the SC has cleared PGMA, she should demand from the former president Aquino who was also a former student of PGMA to apologize for her nearly four-year incarceration, which to many people was a grave injustice done to a former president.
Naturally, we cannot expect Aquino to issue this apology simply because he doesn’t know what an apology means. Mind you, he did not even apologize for the untimely deaths of eight Hong Kong tourists who were killed by a deranged police officer on August 23, 2010 and caused a diplomatic row with China. Then there was the Mamasapano massacre.
But I know Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo well enough to know that she doesn’t have a vindictive heart and for sure, she won’t file any charges against Aquino for the injustice done against her. I just wish that our justice system would come up with a program to indemnify victims of injustice. That the highest officialdom of the Aquino presidency conspired to have PGMA kept imprisoned in VMMC is a clear act of abuse of authority, which is a grave injustice. So we rely on the reliable “karma” which has now fallen upon de Lima. Soon, it will be Aquino’s turn to get his “karma” for the things that happened during his reign as the most incompetent president.