UN knows about the tanim-bala
I just stayed home yesterday after a slight fever and did all my work in bed. But what a treat I got when TCM on SkyCable came up with one of my favorite movies of my childhood, entitled "Giant" a Warner Brothers film released in 1956 by George Stevens with Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean. It was apparently the last film of the legendary James Dean as he was killed before the movie was released. This was one movie that I never bothered to get a DvD copy. So it was truly a treat I had yesterday.
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It's been two-weeks since the so-called "Tanim Bala" incident has been exposed to the public eye and apparently the Aquino Regime doesn't seem to be looking for ways to solve this problem or end it. Sensing that Pres. Aquino isn't about to sack his cousin, Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) general manager Jose Angel Honrado over this embarrassing incident, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano together with the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption founding chairman Dante Jimenez and Robert Lim Joseph representing the groups Network of Independent Travel Agents, Tourism Educators and Movers of the Philippines, and League of Tourism Students of the Philippines did the only thing to do… file criminal and administrative charges against Department of Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and NAIA general manager Honrado.
Also included in that charge sheet are Office of Transportation Security Administrator Rolando Recomono and Philippine National Police (PNP) Aviation Security Group Director Chief Supt. Pablo Francisco Balagtas where he asked the Office of the Ombudsman to order their preventive suspension. Well, let's see if the Office of the Ombudsman would order this preventive suspension immediately. However I'm not really that confident that the Ombudsman would do this simply because of what happened recently when the Ombudsman issued a preventive suspension against Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza for that 2002 Girls scout scam.
Meanwhile this incident has gotten worse in the sense that people in the Aquino Cabinet, like Department of Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez announced that the "Tanim-Bala" incident will not affect the tourism industry. If you ask me, Sec. Jimenez should have just kept his trap shut because whether he likes it or not, potential tourists coming to the Philippines would not like to take the risk of landing in jail because of this incident.
Meanwhile, to add more woes to our Tourism Industry, the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) issued a warning to all UN Staff members against the "Tanim-Bala" or bullet-planting incident in the country in order to extort money from innocent passengers at the NAIA. The UN even went to the point of suggesting that their staff members wrap their bags in plastic as a necessary security measure.
All this is happening to our country while Malacañang Palace continues to brush aside all calls for the resignation of NAIA officials. Meanwhile the Liberal Party's presidential bet Manuel "Mar" Roxas says that the "Tanim-Bala" incident was done in order to discredit the Aquino Administration. This mindset only tells you how delusional are the people close to Pres. Aquino. Instead of getting into the bottom of this mess, they are looking for ways to pin the blame on other people.
Meanwhile one solution to this problem was written in the Facebook page of former Rep. Roilo Golez when he said that the solution to this problem is for airport security to simply confiscate any bullets found in luggages. I totally agree! What good are bullets if there's no gun in the baggage? In fact a knife is even more dangerous than a bullet. So let's stop this nonsense right now and release anyone with bullets in their bags. But then even such a simple solution escapes the mind of Pres. Aquino?
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What's this issue about utility companies failing in its promise to get rid of those ugly spaghetti wires, which is the subject of yesterday's editorial in The Freeman? Apparently Mayor Mike Rama got pissed that those spaghetti wires are still around supposedly despite the promise by utility companies to get rid of these ugly things.
But like it or not, cleaning up this mess isn't going to be done on short notice… not to mention that it would be a very expensive proposition. This is why I fully concur with the editorial when it said, "Who cares really for ugliness up there when there is so much ugliness everywhere. There are the mounting piles of garbage, which are uglier. There are the potholes and badly made or haphazardly repaired streets that constantly remind us of just how inefficient government really is." Mayor Rama should look at the potholes in our streets!
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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.
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