What can we expect from a new Senate prexy?

I gathered that the City of Davao would soon be filing charges against the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) for preventing their ambulances to enter the Davao International Airport during last Sunday’s crash landing of a Cebu Pacific Airbus, which luckily had no casualties. While CAAP may have all the authority to prevent outsiders to go into restricted areas, they must also admit that they have a problem with their lack of facilities like the number of ambulances they have in the airport.While Davao City has a lot of them that they could use.

Rather than go to court and waste precious time because courts do take a lot of time, I suggest that the officials of the City of Davao instead bring this issue to the attention of PNoy during a Cabinet meeting so that some kind of coordination can be done to ensure smooth operation if a similar incident would occur again.

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So Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile (JPE) resigned as Senate President. Knowing him as a wily character, he probably saw the proverbial writing on the wall… that if he didn’t resign, he’d be fired, ousted or removed from office. At least by resigning, he has maintained his dignity. No doubt, JPE is already old and the time for him to go to pasture is finally here.

Of course, we can expect Sen. Franklin Drilon, whose eyes have always been focused on the Senate Presidency, to be the next Senate President for the simple reason that Sen. Drilon has always (at least during the last three years) been at the side of Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III. But we know him enough to know that Sen. Drilon is one lucky political butterfly, in the league of Sen. Loren Legarda. With the Senate presidency firmly in the hands of Sen. Drilon, what can we expect from the Senate?

I don’t want to judge Sen. Drilon, maybe we will have a better Senate with him at the helm. But with so many neophyte Senators like Grace Poe, Cynthia Villar or Nancy Binay, it means we have Senators who will be on what we call “On-the-job-Training”. So we cannot expect much from these newbies. That means we can expect any debates within the old guard in the Senate, if there would be debates at all.

For sure, Sen. Drilon’s main role is to ensure that this Senate would not impeach PNoy because like it or not, especially in this age of political butterflies, impeachment is already a real possibility. So with the right “friends” at the helm of the Legislature, PNoy can sit back and relax that he can finish his presidency all the way to 2016.

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With the Philippines and Japan getting heated encounters in the sea of Japan or in Scarborough Shoal because of the claims of sovereignty by China and our recent encounter with Taiwan, you can expect these flashpoints to someday explode into a major conflagration unless someone goes in to become a referee. Enter the United States of America (USA) who announced in Kuala Lumpur that the US would block moves by any nation who would seize control of any of the disputed islands.

Does this mean that America would also block the Philippines if we try to take control of Scarborough Shoal? Perhaps the bigger question is, can America be a true and independent “referee” in these disputed areas? Honestly I don’t think they can. America has always been considered an enemy of China, so it cannot be neutral when it comes to disputed islands where its allies are at odds with China.

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Call it a lucky time for me that when I went to Manila last Wednesday, the Resorts World’s Newport Theater featured a one-day only Best of Opera which featured excerpts from the World’s Greatest Operas from the famous La Traviata by Verdi, Madame Butterfly by Puccini, Carmen by George Bizet, including our own Filipino Opera entitled “Noli mi Tangere”. It was indeed a huge four-hour entertaining evening with Gerard Salonga at the baton of the ABS-CBN Philharmonic.

This is the huge difference between Manila and Cebu today. While we already have the shopping malls that they have in Manila, what Cebu doesn’t have or what we lack is cultural activities. Sure, we do have Wilson Ng’s Lakwatsa Lounge, which is a good start. But we need such shows to fill up many of our empty theaters like the recently finished UP Cultural Center in Lahug or even the Fernan Center in Ecotech.

Gone were the days when we had great musicals that the Colegio dela Inmaculada Concepcion used to have supervised by the late Sor. Paz Buenaventura with Ms. Monte Alino who held plays King and I, Camelot, Jesus Christ Superstar and Midsummer Night’s Dream. If at all, I submit that I got myself cultured by CIC. But will we get such shows in Cebu? I doubt it.

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