The 15th International Philippine Balloon Fiesta!

I’m off to Clark in Pampanga for the 15th International Philippine Balloon Fiesta that kicks off tomorrow, Feb.11-14. I’m the personal guest of Capt. Joy Roa who has a weekly TV show, “Asian Air Safari”, which is my favorite TV show in ABS-CBN because I’ve always been an aviation enthusiast since I was a little boy. I have always been amazed that we had this international balloon festival for many years now and I have always wanted to see this event. Call me lucky that I got to meet Capt. Roa during the 1st Aviation Summit of the Philippine Aviation Society last July 2009 and he invited me to Clark for the Balloon Fiesta.

The Balloon Fiesta is now known as the most famous Aviation Adventure activities in Asia and I submit that riding a hot air balloon is one in my bucket list. This three-day event features many other events like light airplane balloon bursting events (they don’t burst the big ones), skydiving, and flying exhibitions, just to name a few and the cream of all events is the Balloon Fiesta which features a lot of international balloonists. Riding a balloon always fascinated me since I saw that old 1956 adventure movie, Around the World in 80 Days starring David Niven and Cantinflas. So cheers to the organizers of the Balloon Fiesta. I’m looking forward to join the fiesta!

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I do get a lot of emails, especially from the PR folks of the Presidentiables and Vice-Presidentiables, mostly giving out information about their candidate on what he stands for. But if you ask me, the Vice-Presidential candidate who truly reflects what his Presidential candidate believes is our good friend Edu Manzano, who unfortunately is tagged as merely another “movie/TV celebrity” seeking higher office. But in truth, Edu Manzano has a lot of good ideas that should be seriously looked into by our electorate.

Here are just a few examples of what he believes that I also believe should be changed in this country! Regarding the Senate Leadership which up to this time continues to be hounded in controversy, we already wrote that this is one major fault of the Cory Constitution, which makes the Vice-President nothing but a spare tire to be used only when the President dies.

Edu Manzano says, “The Vice-President should be like what they have in the United States where he automatically serves as the Senate President. This way, the post of Senate President does not become the source of endless infighting among Senate members.” This is exactly what we wrote a long time ago that was the problem with the Philippine Senate which from time to time has changed leadership and caused only frustration and indignation from the Filipino people, especially what happened to the C-5 controversy.

Edu, the former national president of the Vice-Mayor’s League continued, At present, the country actually has only 23 effective Senators, not 24 because the senator who serves as Senate President is deprived of a vote. He or she may only vote if the Senate is equally divided. But with an odd number of 23 Senators left to vote, deadlocks are rare.” Again how do we remedy this problem? Only via a Constitutional Convention (con-con), which only the Gibo-Manzano tandem is promoting, which in my book is the best change that this country could ever have so we can finally leap forward to a better tomorrow.

Another Edu Manzano communiqué is for the next Congress to impose stiffer fines or penalties on road safety violations, especially against drunken driving. “Road violence in the country, particularly in Metro Manila, has become a grave public-safety issue. And studies show that some 90 percent of all road accident-related admissions to our hospitals are alcohol-induced. Homicide as a consequence of drunk driving is one of the most frequently committed violent crimes in the country today. Our laws must be reinforced right away to address the problem.”

I’m sure those people who drink and drive and get to read this column would certainly not vote for Edu Manzano. Surely, most Congressmen make their annual or bi-annual pilgrimage to the US to visit their relatives and they know too well how stiff are the penalties for drunken driving. Thanks that that advocacy group dubbed, “Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD)” that cause the enactment of stiffer laws against drunk drivers.

Here in sick old Philippines, even the traffic police seem to justify innocent deaths by drunk drivers with a simple phrase…”Because the driver was drunk!” In Japan and most western nations, they do not even have a first offense against drunk drivers. First violation is instant revocation of license and a jail term… no ifs or buts! This is what is called DUI or Driving under the Influence! I fully concur with the observations of Edu and I dare say that voters should give him a second look, after all, he is not just a celebrity; he has a lot of brains between his ears! Best of all, Edu has no political baggage!

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