Honky-tonk bars still alive in Angeles City!

For tonight’s special presentation we take a brief respite from our hectic schedule for our very special anniversary year, which is fast approaching next month. So we bring you The Maribago Bluewater Resort and Spa and the Sumilon Bluewater Resort: Cebu’s Own Piece of Paradise! To give us a short tour of what’s up with the Maribago Bluewater tonight, we have with us Mr. Rhyz O. Buac who tells us how the Alegrado family conceptualized the Maribago Bluewater from its humble beginnings and how it has grown and expanded into one of Cebu’s famous resorts and spa. So watch this very interesting show tonight on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00pm and see this small part of Cebu’s tourism boom that continues to develop and grow.

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I first visited the Clark Development Zone a year ago for a board meeting, but thanks to the 15th Philippine International Balloon Fiesta, I got to stay in Clark for three full days. Although all the events were done within the airport premises, riding the hot air balloon gave me a bird’s eye view of this part of Angeles City. Just looking at the double runways of Clark airfield gives me the impression that the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) is woefully underused.

Parallel runways are the norm for major capital cities in the Western world, yet the Philippine government continues to use the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), which still has a single runway. Actually NAIA has two runways, but it’s a cross type, which was the norm in the old days of the propeller planes where all wind directions are covered. But with the advent of jet aircraft, this has become obsolete. Traveling the one and a half hour trip from Manila to the DMIA is about the same distance as Narita and downtown Tokyo or from Chep Lap Kok to downtown Hong Kong.

In one dinner we had outside the Clark Development Zone, I couldn’t help but notice the honky-tonk bars that line up the perimeter fence surrounding the old US Airbase. That reminded me of the old debate in the Senate that the continued American presence in Clark mean more Filipino women would be doomed into a life of prostitution. So when the US left Clark, thanks to the Senate that no longer allowed US military presence in our land, we thought that prostitution in Angeles City would fade away as those anti-American leftists made us believe.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s been decades since the American military left Philippine soil, but apparently the prostitution has continued. I’m sure that the prostitutes during the days of the Americans have already become grandmothers, but younger ones have apparently carried on this oldest of professions. Worse, a lot of those American servicemen (who left in a huff when Mt. Pinatubo erupted) who have retired from military service have returned to Clark to relive those old days. Call this one of the uncovered lies of the leftist!

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I arrived at the DMIA last Wednesday evening and as I was waiting in the baggage claim, there was a commotion inside the airport. I passed an obviously high-ranking official whose face was quite familiar who smiled at me who had a lot of bodyguards with him. It turned out that it was Department of Justice (DoJ) Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor, the supervising official for the Bureau of Immigration (BI) who personally went to DMIA to remove some 15 offending Immigration officials suspected of being involved in human trafficking operations. All this was in the newspapers the next day.

When you replace 15 Immigration officials with another 15 officials from the Manila office, you can bet that it could create a tense moment. Since I got to see this for myself, I asked certain local people whether those stories or rumors of human trafficking had any basis. Most people there apparently believe that this was true and praised DoJ’s actions. Time will tell if human trafficking would cease in Clark with the replacement of the 15 immigration people.

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By now you already know that Gov. Ed “Among Ed” Panlilio who supposedly won the 2007 gubernatorial elections in this politically divided Province has been unseated by the Comelec’s Second Division that declared his rival, Lilia “Baby” Pineda as the elected Governor of Pampanga. One would have expected the Pinedas to troop to the Pampanga Capitol, but the winner, Lilia Pineda chose not to force herself into the Provincial Capitol and wait for the final decision either of the Comelec or the Supreme Court. From Bogo, Cebu to Bulacan and Pampanga. We can only hope that the Comelec’s automated elections would finally put and end to this nonsense called slow ballot counting!