Travel itch

In the past, nosy investigative reporters always managed to come up with a list of senators and congressmen who went on foreign travels during the congressional break. Lately, for the past several years, none of the major newspapers has published a roster of the elected officials who, instead of spending the Lenten season here, traveled to foreign destinations, purportedly to attend international conventions or official legislative conferences. Thus, the taxpaying public does not have an inkling at all of who among the senators and congressmen went on junkets at taxpayers’ expense.

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It is not too late for investigative reporters to come up with a listing of the distinguished congressional travelers. The list will be entertaining and interesting reading for the general public, especially if the list includes the number of days spent abroad, the budget allocated for the trip, and the non-congressmen who joined the trips, also at people’s expense.

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There are reports that the number of travelers is very big. In fact, if the travelers were to gather in one place, they could constitute a quorum for a Senate or House meeting. Now, where are the investigative reporters?

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The Ombudsman has spoken with finality on the various charges against DOTC Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez. It has dismissed all the charges against him and other officials of DOTC, MIAA and PIATCO in connection with the controversial NAIA Terminal 3 project. Concerned people hope that it would be the last word on the actual involvement of Bebot Alvarez in the controversial DOTC-PIATCO concession agreement to build the NAIA Terminal 3.

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The anti-graft body ruled that Alvarez had nothing to do with the preparation of the contract and its award to PIATCO because he assumed his DOTC post four years after the contract was signed. The Ombudsman also dismissed the plunder charge against Alvarez for allegedly overbilling the government of P76 million as a result of the earthworks done by Wintrack Builders, where his wife had some shares, for PIATCO.

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Secretary Alvarez deserves the apologies of those who denigrated his character and reputation. The Commission on Appointments also owes him an explanation for the long delay in his confirmation process. The members of the CA have a lot to contemplate on regarding this development.

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Here are some interesting data that all Filipinos should know and make them proud to be Filipinos:

* In the Philippines, Filipinos were introduced to the English language in 1762 by British invaders, not Americans.

* The USA bought the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam from Spain in 1898.

* The Filipino-American Independence War from 1898 to 1902 ensued, killing 4,234 Americans and killing how many Filipinos? 16,000 were killed in action and 200,000 died from famine and pestilence. (The Philippines lost and was colonized until 1946.)

* Los Angeles, California was co-founded in 1781 by a Filipino named Antonio Miranda Rodriguez, along with 43 Latinos from Mexico sent by the Spanish government.

* What antibiotic did Filipino doctor Abelardo Aguilar co-discover? Hint:  Brand is Ilosone, named after Iloilo. Erythromycin.

* The one-chip video camera was first made by Marc Loinaz, a Filipino inventor from New Jersey.

* This son of two Filipino physicians scored over 700 on the verbal portion of the Standardized Achievement Test (SAT) before age 13 – Kiwi Danao Camara of Punahou School, Hawaii... Edward Sanchez, a MENSA member, bagged the grand prize in the first Philippine Search for Product Excellence in Information Technology.

* Who was the Filipino-American dancer who scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT? Joyce Monteverde of California.

* Who invented the fluorescent lamp? Thomas Edison discovered the electric light bulb and the fluorescent lighting was thought up by Nikola Tesla.  But the fluorescent lamp we use today was invented by Agapito Flores (a Cebu man named Benigno Flores of Bantayan Island, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer), a Filipino scientist. Americans helped then-Philippine leader Ramon Magsaysay to develop it for worldwide commerce.

* Many foreigners have noted that the Filipino population has Asia’s highest rates of inventors and international beauty queens). Two Filipina beauties, Gloria Diaz and Margie Moran, chosen as Miss Universe in 1969 and 1973.

* Pure- or part-Filipino celebrities in American showbiz include Von Flores, Tia Carrere, Paolo Montalban, Lea Salonga, Ernie Reyes Jr., Nia  Neeples, Julio Iglesias Jr.,  Enrique Iglesias,  Lou Diamond Phillips,  Phoebe Cates and Rob Schneider.

* The first Filipino act to land a top hit on the US Billboard Hot100 chart in the 1960s was the group Rocky Fellers of Manila.

* Sugar Pie deSanto (father was from the Philippines), the artist formerly known as Prince (according to the October 1984 article "Prince in Exile" by Scott Isler in the magazine Musician), Jaya, Foxy Brown and Enrique Iglesias followed.

* Pure Filipinos who made success in minor charts were Jocelyn Enriquez a.k.a. Oriental Madonna, Buffy, Pinay and (Ella May) Saison.

* Latina-American pop star Christina Aguilera lost to Filipina vocalist Josephine Roberto a.k.a. Banig during the International Star Search years ago. In a mid-1999 MTV chat, she said that competing against someone of Banig’s age was "not fair."

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Thoughts For Today:

Think positively about ourselves.
Keep our thoughts and actions clean.
Ask God who made us
to keep on remaking us.

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As we travel through life,
pastures are not always green
nor the waters still.
Yet when the storms beat the loudest,
God lovingly draws near and whispers,
"I am here!"

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My e-mail addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]