Why we need to stop using plastic bags ASAP!

Our special presentation on Straight from the Sky tonight, we bring you the company that brings you all those great hit shows on satellite television. We’re talking about having SkyCable for the first time on our show as we celebrate our 500th episode on Straight from the Sky. It is only fitting that in celebrating this milestone in Cebu television that we bring in the top officials of SkyCable as our special guest, more so that SkyCable is officially launching its newest product, Sky Broadband that gives you mind boggling speeds for your internet service. I tried it in You Tube and it was amazing!

So with us tonight is Mr. Ronnie Pacio, Area Director of SkyCable and Ms. Glynda Descuatan, Regional Manager for Airtime to tells us the history of SkyCable and why there used to be so many smaller cable companies and why they eventually sold out to SkyCable, making it look like the cable industry in Cebu is a monopoly. So watch our 500th episode with our partners in SkyCable on Channel 15 at 8:00 pm tonight and get to know more about the company that brings you all those hits on cable tv.

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From the way we’ve been hearing the reports from Luzon, it seems that Metro Manila has been spared the wrath of Super Typhoon “Pepeng” except for some rains that obviously aggravated areas that are still waterlogged. That Super Typhoon “Pepeng” shifted its course a little bit was due to the nation’s prayers.

Even Pope Benedict XVI prayed for the Philippines and said, “I am confident that the faith of the Filipino people which gives them the resilience to face any hardships or difficulty, will arouse in them a desire to participate ever more fervently in the worldwide task of building a civilization of love, the seed of which God has implanted in every people and every culture.” Let me tell you that when the Pope prays, millions of Catholics elsewhere also pray!

This time around, the Arroyo government was better prepared to handle the effects of this latest weather problem that came from the heels of that destructive Tropical Storm “Ondoy”. However, the opportunists were having a field day, with robbers picking on unguarded empty homes stealing what’s left.

Others, especially those belonging to the opposition have strongly denounced the Arroyo Government for not being able to handle the problems wrought by T.S. Ondoy. There are even people who issued false text warnings that the Patabangan Dam was bursting! Everyone is taking advantage of the bad situation. If those opportunists were in power, they’d probably fare much worse because they don’t have any idea of the magnitude of the problems that this record-breaking storm brought to our country.

Indeed, it is easy to pin the blame on the government for their lack of foresight or ineptitude. But the first line of defense when disaster occurs, be it a robbery or a storm is your own preparedness. This is something we learned when we were cadets of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). If we’ve been advocating for the return of the ROTC back into our schools curriculum, it is not that we want all our youths to become solders, but better citizens that can be tapped to help the community when disaster strikes.

The latest bulletin that the Arroyo government issued is her placing the entire country under a state of calamity. She did this even when the calamity was only in the island of Luzon to ensure that the prices of basic goods and commodities be put on hold or frozen. With so many people from all over the country helping out with the various calls for relief goods, naturally the law of supply and demand would in effect force and increase in prices. So, placing the entire nation under a state of calamity has helped put some calm in our prices.

Looking at the video footages of the clean-up efforts in Metro Manila, you can’t help but notice that the tons of garbage has one of the principal causes of the clogging of the canals, esteros and rivers. If at all we should learn a lesson from this disaster, it is that the time has come for Filipinos to stop using plastic bags when they go to the market place. Plastic is non-biodegradable; it doesn’t rot so we need to stop it now!

Now is the time to come up with laws banning the use of plastic bags in this country. We can always use a buri bag for our marketing use. Even the video footages being shown inside relief centers shows that the repacked relief goods are still using plastic bags. So when the typhoon victims get into their small ration of food, just think what do they do with the plastic bag? Throw it to the garbage dump of course and this will only aggravate the already aggravated situation. What is important to Filipinos is never to repeat the mistakes that allowed Metro Manila to sink!