US upgrading RP on anti-piracy: A big letdown!

Another sad natural tragedy has struck Southern Leyte in Barangay Ginsaugon in the town of St. Bernard at 10:30 last Friday morning when a mudslide caused by erosion due to incessant rains and a mild earthquake with 2.6 magnitude on the Richter Scale buried some 300 homes of an estimated 3,000 people, nearly the entire population of Barangay Ginsaugon. We can only hope that more survivors would be found. As of press time, only 20 bodies have been recovered and a handful of survivors found buried in the mud.

Just when we have come from the national tragedy that the Wowowee stampede caused the nation… now we have another disaster in our hands. At this point, we can only ask our readers to open their hearts and wallets and give kindly and generously to the rescue and relief efforts.

I don’t know why deadly natural disasters always hit the island of Leyte. We cannot forget the Ormoc tragedy in the early 90s and the landslide that struck Barangay San Ricardo on the island of Panaon a couple of years ago. Perhaps government scientists or geophysicists should give the Leyte island’s geological stability special attention in order to prevent future tragedies like thes

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I’m very disappointed with the news that the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has downgraded the Philippines from its priority watch list to the regular watch list under the Special 301 Review, which examines the adequacy and effectiveness of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. This only goes to show that even in the Philippines, the Americans are sorely lacking in their intelligence gathering.

If you would recall, it was only after the Americans had completed their invasion of Iraq when we were told that they invaded that country based on faulty intelligence! I would like to believe that their downgrading the Philippines from the priority watch list was based on faulty information. Perhaps they were elated over the publicity that Edu Manzano of the Optical Media Board (OMB) was getting from the national dailies.

If you ask me, that is not the reality on the ground. I challenge you folks that in Cebu City, you can still get the latest Hollywood movies like Brokeback Mountain from our nearest friendly neighborhood video pirate… who doesn’t make pains to hide his pirated stuff! We know where they are openly sold here and if you go to other places like Dumaguete City, you can still get those pirated videos as easily as buying chewing gum.

Please don’t get me wrong… I would love to see the Philippines taken off this watch list, but only if we’re satisfied that video piracy and other IPR violations are no longer openly and rampantly displayed. While President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) was elated by this report, I don’t want to douse cold water on her elation, but someone ought to tell her the real story about the rampant video piracy in Cebu. President Arroyo comes so often to Cebu, perhaps she ought to see things for herself… after all, the video pirates are practically her neighbors at the Malacañang of the South.

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I’ve been a private sector representative (PSR) of the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) for many years and we knew that we also had our RDC-PSR counterparts in the other regions, but we just never had the chance to meet them. Well, last Thursday, we had that chance and had a whole day with the Calabarzon RDC-PSR Study Mission to Region VII, led by its chairman, Richard Albert Osmond, who brought along 14 other PSRs from Region IV-A. They were met by their Cebu counterparts, led by RDC-VII co-chairman Robert Go, Tessie Fernandez and Manny de los Santos Rabacal and other PSRs from Bohol, Siquijor and Negros Oriental.

It was, indeed, refreshing to meet the folks from the Calabarzon area so we could exchange notes with each other. As Chairman Osmond told us, it was an unforgettably amazing sight to see the launching of a huge 20,000 DWT bulk carrier from the Tsuneishi shipyard in Balamban along the western coast of Cebu. It was also good for Cebuano businessmen to learn what’s happening in the factories in the Calabarzon area, which contributes 54 percent of the nation’s exports. I’m sure their visit to Cebu was equally as exhilarating for them.

One highlight of our meeting was when Atty. Apolinario Macalintal, president of the Batangas Tourism Council, batted for ecotourism in order to save our environment. He recited a Tagalog poem that he made entitled Tinig ng Batang Scout about our children’s cry to save our environment. Unfortunately due to lack of space, we shall be printing his poem in our next column. One thing that we all agreed upon is to bat for an annual congress of PSRs, which we hope would be adopted this year.

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Last Friday evening, my wife and I went to the fabulous Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort & Spa for their "Ciao Ciao Paparazzi" in a Rock ‘n Roll celebration to mark the renovation of their Ocean Wing and Paparazzi Italian Ristorante. Well, the executives of Shangri-La led by General Manager Tim Wright, marketing and sales director Maggi Garcia, communications director Sharon Samarista, and F&B director Stephen Kapek have outdone themselves again, out-partying their last great party (the one that I attended) marking the opening of Tides and the Chi Spa and what a great party that was!

When we got to the Paparazzi Restaurant, we thought everything was a joke because it was practically being demolished with construction signs warning "caution" placed in strategic places. It turned out that we were in the right place after all. It was the first-ever "Demolition Party" we had ever attended! It was something of a go-away party for the Paparazzi Restaurant and the 188-room Ocean Wing, which is going to be renovated pronto! Shangri-La just didn’t want these icons of theirs to go without a bang and that was exactly what we had Friday night!

We basically had the Shang’s one-of-a-kind Demolition menu of hors d’oeuvres… Basil Pesto, Anchovies, Bell Pepper in Black Olive Tapenade, Parma Ham, Mozzarella, Bocconcini in Italian Parsley Salad and their heavenly dish, White Brie Cheese and Peppered Smoke Salmon. Now that was just what the Shang served us for demolishing their restaurant… just think what great food they would be serving us when they finish this renovation come July 31 and reopen the Ocean Wing!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.