FVR’s reaction to our article on federalism

A few days ago, I got a brown envelope with a bunch of papers from the office of former President Fidel V. Ramos, a.k.a. FVR, and I was quite surprised because I haven’t communicated much with him since his retirement from politics, except for a round of golf we played three years ago. We often meet though at the Cebu Country Club. One thing with FVR, he always makes comments on my articles whenever I get to mention him.

FVR apparently didn’t like what I wrote about him in my March 10 column entitled, "We need to Cha-Cha toward a federal system," where I stated… "As we said last time, Speaker Jose de Venecia and former President Fidel V. Ramos have been selling a parliamentary form of government because they believe that this is a better system to remove the gridlock that’s happening today between the Legislative and Executive branches of the government. But these gentlemen are virtually insulting our intelligence as if we in the Visayas and Mindanao cannot see what a parliamentary system would do… that they would be creating a Super Imperial Manila."

In response to this article, FVR photocopied my column and wrote, in his usual style, a marginal note (he did a lot of this to my columns when he was still President) on a blank space on top of the article. Here’s what FVR wrote to me:

"To my dear golf buddy, ‘Tiger’ Bobit… First of all, I hope you will continue to score more pars and birdies than double bogies and triples. But this one is O.B. as far as I am concerned. Please do not ‘twin’ me automatically with our friend J de V as he and I are in different directions on many issues these days. Kindly give some space — multi — article if you wish. For me, parliamentary is much better — see attached, written last 31 July 2005. As for Germany — read the enclosed two pieces on that great country. Remember the Germans started as separate states. Federalism — yes — but from an evolutionary process in the Philippines. Mabuhay/Best Wishes for a better Philippines-Cebu. Be sure to read all the enclosed homework. FVRamos"

Like what I’ve said, FVR gave me a bunch of papers for my homework, including Tony Lopez’s weekly BizNews Asia, which I would have to devour as soon as I can. But let me apologize to FVR if I "twined" him with JDV… that wasn’t really my intention. I would like to say it here that I consider FVR as one of the best Presidents this country ever had… and no sir, I would never make him equal to a JDV, who belongs to a different league.

While I still have to write the articles FVR wrote about, let me just say that while we both agree on a parliamentary form of government, including a shift to a federal system, we in Cebu (and I can speak for many friends from elsewhere in the Visayas and Mindanao) want this to be part and parcel of a federal form of government. FVR would have to do a lot of convincing to us why a federal system should pass through an "evolutionary" process. In short, if we cannot have a federal system in place, then we would rather stick to this present, albeit rotten system… it’s safer that way!

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Last weekend was a blessed one for my family because of my two daughters’ achievements. First, my eldest daughter, Fara Avila-Tequillo, took her oath last Saturday evening as a Doctor of Medicine before the Professional Regulations Commission at the Waterfront Hotel, together with 102 other newly licensed physicians from the various medical schools not just in Cebu but in Mindanao as well. The Mediterranean Room was filled with proud parents like me and my wife, Jessica. After all, the field of medicine is one of the toughest courses your child can take.

Dr. Jose Ramirez, a member of the Board of Medicine, had a short message to the new doctors, virtually a call to arms for them to help fight the grave crisis our country is facing… the serious lack of doctors, especially in the far-flung or rural areas. He pleaded with them: "Please don’t leave the country!" For a while, I thought he would ask the new doctors not to shift to nursing because that’s what many doctors are doing today! Dr. Ricardo Fulgencio administered the Oath of Hippocrates, while the keynote speaker was Edgardo R. Fernando, chairman of the Board of Medicine.

At least, the parents of the new doctors know that their sons and daughters aren’t headed out of the country soon… after all, doctors are not much in demand in places like the USA where most Filipinos want to go to. So you can say that at least in Cebu, we’re blessed with new doctors, who would be filling up many hospitals here or somewhere in the country, rendered vacant by doctors who took up nursing and have left for abroad.

My other blessing comes from my second daughter, Katrina Charmaine Avila, who last Friday morning received her Nurse’s Pin at the Redemptorist Church, together with the 288 other new nurses from the Lambda Class of the Cebu Doctor’s University (CDU). They are the first batch of graduates to carry the name of their Alma Mater as a university. Before it was only known as Cebu Doctor’s College. Pinning is an important event for nurses as they proudly wear the pin of their Alma Mater even if they are already working abroad. Katrina’s graduation exercises took place last Sunday at the Grand Convention Center, together with all the other graduates of the CDU.

Last Friday morning, while waiting for the pinning ceremonies to begin, I met a lot of friends like proud parents and resort owners Mr. and Mrs. Francisco Unchuan, whose daughter Marian is now a nurse. Another proud parents are my golf crony, cardiologist Dr. Generoso Matig-a, and his wife, whose daughter Abby was a classmate of my daughter. I went around, greeting friends, asking them what to expect from their daughters and the standard answer was, they’re going out of the country! Indeed, finding a proud father and mother who would insist in letting their sons and daughters stay in the Philippines is akin to finding that proverbial needle in a huge haystack!

Until and unless the Philippine economy improves, where salaries of professionals are brought up to world standards, only then will we be churning out graduates who would opt to stay home. But an air of hope permeated the Redemptorist Church that the graduates can work abroad and have a better life than what our own country can offer them. It just makes me wonder… what hope is there for the parents of the other college graduates who took up AB or Commerce… whose only choice is to find jobs in a highly competitive job market. That means if my only son JV goes to college, chances are, if he doesn’t take up nursing, he would have to go to flying school!

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Incidentally, my talkshow, Straight from the Sky, is celebrating its seventh anniversary. We’ve had 315 interviews in this weekly talkshow, the longest running in Cebu.

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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. His weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," is shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.