Beating that dead horse called BBL

For our special presentation on our talk show “Straight from the Sky,” we present the Ambassador of the Czech Republic his Excellency Jaroslav Olsa, Jr. who came to Cebu to grace the showing of a Czech Film entitled “Christmas in Prague”, whose director and producer I also interviewed separately. I haven’t been to Prague, but from the photos and the travel videos that I’ve seen, this is on my bucket list for places to visit.

The Czech Republic was once called Czechoslovakia and their story is something that I wanted for us Cebuanos to know in the hope that someday we would take that great leap forward and separate ourselves from the clutches of Imperial Manila. Czechoslovakia was once under the Austro-Hungarian Empire when Adolf Hitler swallowed it in 1938.

After World War II Czechoslovakia became part of the Iron Curtain and when the Soviet Union collapsed, they had their peaceful “Velvet Revolution” which paved the way for their independence. But three years later in 1993 they agreed to have a political divorce and they became the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovakia. It’s my dream, but someday we too can do this.

So watch this interesting interview with Czech Ambassador Olsa, Jr. on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00PM with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9:00 tonight and at 7:00AM and 9:00PM on Wednesday and Friday.

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A month ago the headlines of our national dailies screamed, “BBL is Dead!” That’s because the House of Representatives no longer had material time to do on debates on the Bangsamoro Basic Law. But lo and behold! Did you know that Philippine government chief negotiator Miriam Coronel Ferrer and her counterpart from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front Mohagher Iqbal (he insists that this name is still an alias…when everyone one already knows who he is) are in Cebu today to sell once more the idea of establishing the BBL.

That these two are still trying to beat that dead horse called BBL only tell us that someone must have paid them to continue their quixotic crusade to fool the Filipino people about the BBL. We have shied from the BBL because of MILF soldiers killed 44 Special Action Force troopers in Mamasapano, Maguindanao and until now, the MILF has not surrendered the killers of the fallen SAF 44. Let us not be fooled by these traitors. Surrender the MILF killers or No to BBL!

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It had to take a Typhoon “Lando” (International code name Koppu) to get the political stories out of the headlines. Maybe it was a God send that this typhoon came at this time when (instead of dabbling in this political circus) the Filipino people should face their harsh realities of everyday living and the reality that we live in this part of this world where typhoons, earthquakes and other similar natural disasters are very common.

Yet someone hasn’t learned to make the Philippines typhoon proof or earthquake proof! Perhaps in the coming elections, we should be prepare and make ourselves politics proof! In Cebu, we have former GSIS general manager Winston Garcia challenging incumbent Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III. What I would like to hear from both their camps is their respective plans to typhoon proof Cebu.

This is the same thing that we should be asking incumbent Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and challenger Tomas Osmeña, what are their plans to finally solve the flooding in Cebu City? The problem with the supporters of Team Rama and the Bando-Osmeña Pundok-Kauswagan  is that they are like rats blindly following their own Pied Piper to the road to perdition!

These people from BOPK or Team Rama should dare ask themselves whether their own idols or leaders have such plans to improve their lives. I submit that the BOPK has been in power and ruling Cebu City for over 20 years and yet we still get flooded in Colon St. and SM City every time it rains. Now even the South Road Properties get flooded. So whoever comes up with a credible and doable action plan to solve the constant flooding in Cebu City gets my vote. Mind you, this means dredging the mouth of the Subangdaku River

Then there’s the traffic situation in Cebu. I still want to know from both camps how they intend to decongest Escario St. When I was still CITOM chairman, I already had a plan to construct a parallel road to Escario St. but when I left CITOM, the DPWH shot it down and now Cebu City residents suffer through the daily grind in Escario St. The political party that adopts that solution (because there is no other solution) gets my vote.

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