Are we seeing war clouds in the offing?

Our  heartfelt congratulations to Mrs. Tess Chan for becoming the first ever Lady President of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Inc. (CCCI) in all its 111 illustrious years as the organization of business leaders in Cebu. I submit that we are still very much a male dominated society, and women business leaders are not often given more responsibilities to lead our economy into prosperity.

If at all, the challenge of Mrs. Tess Chan is to lead Cebu business leaders in finding ways to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. While this is the role that we often leave to our political leaders, in these times when our political leadership has failed our people, perhaps we can turn to the business leaders at the Cebu Chamber. More power to you Tess!

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We are in deep trouble with China today on our territorial dispute in Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal or in the Spratlys Islands, especially that China has now escalated this territorial dispute into an incident where last Jan. 27, some 20 Filipino fishing boats and their fishermen were bombarded with water cannons. Today it may just be water, but tomorrow it could be bullets or worse, cannon fire. So the big question is, are we in the Philippines ready to meet this external threat against China? I doubt it!

I'm sure that your answer to this question is just as good as mine that we could never hope to equal China in a might-for-might military contest. We should never even dare send any military assets into the wolf's lair for fear that they would just be blown out of the water by China's superior Navy. It is for this reason why the Aquino regime is openly siding with the United States of America because of our Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT).

What we should have done decades ago was follow the footsteps of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) making use of the Filipino ingenuity to become self-sufficient in terms of military capability. We have been making guns in Danao City for decades, but instead of tapping this expertise, the Philippine government would rather look at the criminal liabilities of these talented gunsmiths.

Today, thanks to the shipyards in Balamban, I have no doubt that Filipinos of this generation can now be tapped to build our own Philippine Navy, even if we just build small catamarans and turn them into lethal fast craft akin to the PT-Boats of World War II. But no one in the Philippine military cared to exploit this advantage and was merely contended to get hand-me-downs from the US like the Hamilton Class Coast Guard vessels or used combat jet aircraft from South Korea. At the end of the day, we are totally dependent upon the US military for our defense.

But look at the reality which happened last week when the Chinese Coastguard fired water cannons against our fishermen, the Philippine Navy wasn't even around to protect our own people. Why was the Philippine Navy not in the area that we consider our territory? In my book, the Philippine Navy should have doused the Chinas with water cannons.

Over the weekend, I watched the movie Captain Philips, which was a true-to-life story of the Maersk Alabama hijacked off the Somali coastline. That movie gives us an idea of the extent of how the US Navy would go just in order to free an American hostage. Of course, the US Navy's objective was to disarm poorly trained and desperate Somali kidnappers. So it was literally chicken feed for the US Navy Seals to neutralize those hostage takers. But with China, it's a totally different ballgame.

Now if you have been watching the major breaking news on CNN or BBC in the past week, after Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich was ousted by a People Power revolt and fled to Russia, you will note that the crisis in Ukraine has now escalated into a world crisis when Russian President Vladimir Putin got Parliamentary approval to send Russian troops to the Crimea, which is part of Ukraine. Now the Ukrainian military has been put on the defensive with the Ukraine government admitting that they could never fight Russia in an all-out war. Are these war clouds in the offing?

The United Nations (UN) sends warning signals to Russia that it violates international law in invading Ukraine. The only good thing happening is that shooting has not yet begun. At this point, I reckon that Putin correctly judged the reaction of the Western nations, when it did nothing to stop the Civil War in Syria.

So for the first time since the Soviet Union collapsed, the world could be in a brink of a nuclear war. So are we seeing the predictions in Fatima that Russia would continue to spread her errors unless she is consecrated into the Immaculate Heart of Mary? I suggest that we watch these events unfold for we just might be watching history unfold before our eyes. But it can be stopped if the Pope consecrated Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But will he?

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