It's the parents' right to discipline their kids

No corporal punishment for children? What is happening to this city? For many decades, we survived "corporal punishment" by our parents when we go out of line or worse… we disobey them. My father used the belt when my brothers and I misbehaved and when the belt gets off my fathers pants… it is actually a final warning to shape up or get the belt. In most cases, before my Dad gets to use the belt, we already obey him. It is when we still disobey when the belt is used as an extreme measure to get us back on line. Those were the old days and I too used the belt on my children when they disobeyed but it doesn't mean that I loved them any less.

 We got off this parental kind of punishment without having any psychological damage. This is why I'm totally against this measure that the Cebu City Council has approved because I believe that they have gotten out of line. The City of Cebu should never come up with a law to punish parents in doing the parental role of disciplining their children. What the City Council has adopted is not Filipino culture, but an American culture.

 I have seen many Filipino families who migrated to America and I get totally surprised when their own children call their fathers and their mothers by their first names or their nicknames. Is this what the Cebu City Council wants us Cebuanos to become? I dare say no sir! We may have adopted many American ways like eating hamburger but parental discipline is strictly the purview of parents and it should never be in any way punishable by law. I suggest that Mayor Michael Rama veto this measure pronto!

 Today, we have a very restless youth, thanks to the so many irresponsible parents who allow their children to grow up without punishing them when they go out of line. Mind you, discipline starts at a very young age. Early in its formative years, a child should learn that he or she just cannot do anything they want… that parents who want to rear their children to face this tough world would teach them what real discipline is all about.

 Remember the old slogan of the Marcos dictatorship when Martial Law was just being implemented? It went like this in Tagalog, "Ang Ikaunlad ng Bayan, Disiplina ang Kailangan" or "For the nation to progress, discipline is the key." Alas, this slogan was only for the Filipino people to follow but the masters of Martial Law were exempted from it. Hence corruption, human rights violation became synonymous to Martial Law and the Filipino people rejected it at the EDSA Revolt in 1986.

 But the Martial Law slogan was right, discipline is the key to the progress of a nation. Look at Japan after World War II, they wouldn't have risen from the ashes of war, including two nuclear bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki if the Japanese did not have any discipline. In 1997 during the Asian Financial Crisis, South Korea was badly hit by this. Yet the South Koreans went out of their way to help their financially strapped nation, giving away their gold earrings or necklaces to help alleviate a financial disaster and South Korea proudly survived this crisis and is stronger today.

 Perhaps Councilor Leah Ouano-Japson should rethink this, even though the Cebu City Council has already approved this measure. I will support her law if it punishes severe corporal punishment, like hanging the kid up in a tree or letting the kid kneel in salt… like what irresponsible parents used to do during our time. But spanking is part of disciplining a kid and there should be no laws enacted to punish parents for doing what is expected of them to discipline their children. I hope Mayor Mike Rama shares my thoughts on this and veto this measure when it reaches his desk.

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 Last Wednesday, we attended the press briefing for the Vitro Data Center of PLDT in Mabolo. This is the first purposely built Tier 3.5 Internet Data Center (IDC) in the country, which provides IT clients a robust and scalable telecommunications infrastructure and provides redundant and high-capacity connectivity around the globe. This of course is very alien to the ordinary Filipino. But to those in the Information Technology (IT) industry, it is a great business opportunity, more so that Cebu is in the world map in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).

 Incidentally, the latest news in Europe is that a cyber raid struck 60 banks where US$75 million was stolen. According to PLDT's Executive Vice-President and head of Enterprise and International Business Eric Alberto and PLDT Alpha's Jovy Hernandez, this would never happen if clients used PLDT's Vitro Data Center. Because it is akin to a "safety deposit box" in the bank… where clients get to use it… but the banks cannot access it. Call it great news for IT clients that PLDT'S Vitro Data Center is now here.

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