For the nth time we need to enact an NTSB

When will we Filipinos learn to fix our country? A few days ago, 15 students from Bestlink College in Quezon City died when their tourist bus lost its brakes and struck a power post, destroying the bus in Tanay, Rizal. This incident has triggered calls for a Senate investigation on this incident, while the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) ordered to stop field trips in all schools. Come now, do I hear calls for a Senate investigation on this transportation incident?

In another transportation related incident, last Saturday at the Port of Cebu, the fastcraft, M/V St. Braquiel carrying 90 passengers slammed into a San Miguel Brewery (SMC) Barge No. 8 at 10:30 in the evening where a total of 58 passengers were reportedly injured with 25 confined to various hospitals in Cebu City. This incident triggered calls for a maritime investigation. But since Cebu City is far from Manila, we do not hear calls for a Senate investigation.

Since I’ve been writing columns for nearly 30 years now, we’ve always written articles asking Congress to create the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Western nations have their own versions of this investigating body. But since Congress refused to listen to our pleas, we end up hearing reports coming from our Senators to investigate the bus incident in Tanay, Rizal. If only Congress created our own version of the NTSB, we could spare the Senate from investigating such transport incidents. Again, I would like to reiterate my call for Congress to enact a law creating the NTSB for the Philippines.

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How credible is the “turn-around” testimony of SPO3 Arthur Lascañas? Last Monday when he revealed that indeed the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS) exists, he openly admitted that then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte paid them P100,000 per kill and the Mayor paid P4 million to have radio commentator Jun Pala killed. Come on and ask yourself, if you were Mayor Duterte and you had the DDS on your payroll, why do you need to pay your killers a 100,000 per kill?

Mind you, thanks to our snail’s paced justice system, most protagonists having cases in court usually resort to having their opponents killed by “guns-for-hire.” This is why extra judicial killings (EJK) have been with us long before Mayor Duterte became President of the Philippines. These assassins usually use motorcycles or riding in tandem to kill their prey. It is a fact that the “rates” of these assassins range from P5,000 to a high of P20,000. Just ask the man on the street and he knows how much those assassins are being paid! So when Lascañas said that Mayor Duterte paid them P100,000 per kill, that rate was just too incredible.

If there is anything new in the testimony of SPO3 Lascañas, it is his admission that he had his two brothers killed because they were into illegal drugs. Of course Edgar Matobato was ecstatic that Lascañas retracted his testimony because it gives him some kind of credibility. But it doesn’t change the fact that the figures Lascañas gave in his retraction were just too incredible for us to believe.

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Over the weekend, the nation once more commemorates the 31st anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution, which at this time, the Duterte administration wanted a quiet celebration for this historic event. This is why Vice President Leni Robredo issued a statement last Tuesday that the 31st EDSA People Power Revolt deserves “a more dignified treatment than a quiet celebration.” I really don’t know what she means by having a more “dignified treatment” for the EDSA Revolt.

Where was VP Leni Robredo during the six-year term of P-Noy when only a few thousand yellow supporters of the Aquino family trooped to celebrate the EDSA Revolt? As I pointed out, the Aquino regime even celebrated the EDSA Revolt three years ago at the steps of the Cebu Provincial Capitol. Clearly the people from Malacañang who came to Cebu to prepare for the 28th EDSA anniversary did not know that we Cebuanos had our own version of the EDSA Revolt ahead of EDSA at the Fuente Osmeña circle, where then presidential bet Cory Aquino and her vice presidential candidate Salvador “Doy” Laurel were on stage.

For people like me who also fought the Marcos Dictatorship, the EDSA Revolt only shifted political power from the Marcos family to the Aquino family. Worse, the yellow supporters of the Aquinos created a “cult-like” status for the Aquinos, some of them even suggested that Cory Aquino be canonized a saint! As the late Sir Max Soliven would say, “Sanamagan!”

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