Pray that the storm will not hit us

Tonight’s special presentation on Straight from the Sky, we bring you another Italian travelogue; this time we give you a tour of Tuscany: Florence (Firenze), Pisa, San Gimiliano and Sienna. These Italian cities became famous during the Renaissance Period where Florence even fought a war against Sienna. Florence won that war because of the help of the Pope. These walled cities (except for Pisa which is not a walled city) are truly tourist destinations by themselves. While most tourists know about Pisa because of its famous leaning tower, I say that San Gimiliano and Sienna are also”must-see” destinations.

Call us lucky that after covering the canonization of San Pedro Calungsod, the International Marketing Group (IMG) led by Mr. Bart and Cathy Borja gave us a breather for a tour of Tuscany. Of course, I get the opportunity to interview Mr. Borja about what the business of IMG in the Piazza Duomo in Florence, which will be our next show. So watch this very interesting travelogue of Tuscany on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00pm with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and replays on MyTV Channel 28th on M-W-F.

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I arrived last Friday afternoon from Manila too late to make it to the South Road Properties (SRP). So instead of staying at the end of the huge crowd that went early, I decided to stay home and watch the Thanksgiving Mass live on TV. The reason I was in Manila is I had to play “ninong” to the wedding of Chris and Ann Graham, a close family friend whom we met at the St. John’s Community in Banawa Hills. When I accepted the invitation, I didn’t realize that the wedding would be at the Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati. So I had to be out of Cebu for the wedding.

Well, it had to happen… after all, we did go to Rome to cover the canonization of San Pedro Calungsod, while most of our devotees only had to contend themselves in watching the event on live TV. So you can say that the tables were turned on me… it was my turn to watch TV for the Calungsod Thanksgiving Mass…. A historic opportunity lost.

Of course, I expected a million people would be there at the SRP for this Thanksgiving Mass and I’m glad that finally, the leaders of the Philippine government led by Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III and Vice-Pres. Jejomar Binay came with the Cabinet in tow. I was especially delighted when Pres. PNoy came up to make his speech, which he did in English. Perhaps someone finally told him that if he insisted in speaking in Tagalog, only a few people would understand him… after all, the majority of the people who went to the SRP came from many parts of the Visayas.

Even more surprising for me is that, it was the first time we heard a speech from Pres. PNoy that was totally spiritual… that he urged Filipinos to adopt the ideals of San Pedro Calungsod… in leaving his family and friends to catechize the Chamorros of Guam. Above all that San Pedro showed his bravery in defending his priest Fr. San Vitores and getting killed in the process. To be honest, I actually applauded when Pres. PNoy finished his speech.

Now that Pres. PNoy has spoken before a mammoth crowd of devotees, it saddens me that he still continues to pursue the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill. According to news reports, Pres. PNoy will be meeting with Congressmen today to finally decide and vote for the RH bill.

While he said that party affiliation would not be a basis for the RH vote; that he would allow LP members to vote on their conscience. If this is true, I know that there are two LP members who would vote against the RH bill, that’s Rep. Cutie del Mar and Rep. Luigi Quisumbing. Of course, we know that the majority of Cebuano Congressmen are against the RH bill.

Surely, Pres. PNoy felt the electricity of that mammoth Catholic crowd who would never embrace the RH bill for the simple reason that it is a population control measure foisted upon the Philippine government by the United Nations Population Development Program. Hasn’t anyone of his cabinet secretaries told Pres. PNoy what is happening in Singapore or why the Japanese economy has stagflated? This is a word economist’s use for a stagnant inflation. That’s because Japan’s population is aging.

Call it coincidental that when Pres. PNoy made that announcement that he would meet with the Congressmen today, suddenly, we got the report that a super typhoon code name “Bopha” that packed a whooping speed of 238 kph with gusts up to 275 kph was heading towards the Philippines. What is worrisome is that… this super typhoon is headed towards… Cebu! Or the Central Philippines.

Of course, what is left for us in the pro-life community is our strong faith that God would take care of us. My faith tells me that we Cebuanos must now pray and plead to the Sto. Niño and ask the intercession of San Pedro Calungsod and the Blessed Virgin Mary that this super typhoon will not hit us… but will veer away from Cebu.

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