A centralized parliamentary system is worse!

It's not every day that we get good news, but no matter how small, we should acknowledge it. Aboitiz Jebsen (Abojeb) a joint venture between the Aboitiz Group of the Philippines and the Jebsen's Group of Norway, a European Shipping industry player that offers the Aboitiz Jebsen Manpower Solutions, a recruitment agency providing land-based workers to companies worldwide. Jebsens Maritime, Inc. (JMI) is a crewing arm of arm of Abojeb supplying ship crews to its clients worldwide with a remarkable crew retention rate of 90%, which is sheer proof of customer satisfaction.

Last Friday, June 16th, Abojeb, with the Aboitiz Group Foundation, Inc. (AGFI) formally awarded scholarship grants to ten students to take the Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering (BsMarE), covering tuition fees, school uniforms and other expenses. These scholarships were given by Abojeb Vice-President for Crewing Arleen Asuncion, Senior Recruitment and Crewing Manager Artemio Serafico Jr. and AGFI's Managing Trustee Sonny Carpio and University of Cebu (UC) Campus Academic Administrator Dr. Isabelita Conales.

What makes this scholarship remarkable is when you look into the background of the ten scholars and see for yourself that they all belong to the poor families of Cebu. When they finish school, you can be sure that they would certainly land in well-paying jobs in foreign vessels giving truth to the reality that the Philippines is amongst the best seafarers in the world. Thanks to the effort of AGFI in directly helping the poor get out of that vicious cycle of poverty through good education.

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The Freeman headline last Monday about the Office of the Ombudsman terminating from service two Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Revenue officer, Dina Neri and Revenue Examiner Romeo "Jimmy" Napoles for acts of graft and corruption is a very welcome move that many people have for so long wished would come true. Neri was found guilty for failing to remit tax payment to the BIR, while Napoles was found guilty of extorting P10,000 from a landowner. No doubt these people got what they deserved for using the power of their office for personal gain and profit!

These two have been dismissed from government service but I would like to know if the Ombudsman has filed criminal charges against these people. Firing them from government service is a mere consequence of their actions, which in my book is a criminal offense.

It is hoped that other BIR people who have read about this case would go to the confessional and embrace the sacrament of reconciliation and return what they stole from many people. Mind you, this story is only about two corrupt BIR personnel, but we know in our hearts that there are more out there who are equally or even more corrupt than these two! At this point, we can only offer them our prayers, that they would mend their ways and give the Filipino taxpayer the proper and honorable way of collecting taxes.

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I really don't know what's all this fuss about the so-called "Mega-Regions" concocted during the League of Provinces in Panglao Island, Bohol where all 23 members voted to give this plan its support, even though the details will be given at the President's State of the Nation Address (SONA).

From what we've read so far, the 13 regions of this country would be broken up into four major regions, namely North Luzon, Metro Luzon, Central Philippines and Mindanao. It's still premature for us to support or criticize this move because we still don't know the details of this plan; however, we can already start questioning why they won't simply make these four Mega-Regions into autonomous Federal States.

Let me point out that for as long as our centralized system of governance is still intact, we can expect no further growth or development. We are seeing a shift to a Parliamentary system of government, but let me warn you that for as long as we do not Federalize, a centralized Parliamentary system would be worse than the present system we have today, so watch out!

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Our heartfelt condolences to the family of Hilario "Undo" Davide Sr. who passed from this life to life eternal at the age of 101, just a day before Father's Day. He is the father of former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Hilario Davide Jr. one of our nation's most respected citizens. No doubt, Undo Davide lived a full life and saw the greatest blessing that the Lord gave to him by having a good son in the person of the former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. May we request the pious reader to please pray for the repose of his soul.

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