For our special presentation on our talk show “Straight from the Sky”, we help celebrate the 36th National Disability Week with a discussion on Independent Living Movement of Persons with Severe Disabilities. We’ve already had Persons with Disabilities on this show so many times already, I forgot to count. But this is the first time ever for me to interview persons with severe disabilities and this is one of my most emotionally charged interviews.
So tonight we will have with us Ms. Tess Chua,chairperson of Independent Living Movement and Mr. Nelbert Lasquites Persons with Disabilities Affairs of the Office Talisay City. Both guests were able-bodied persons before until Tess had an ailment that crippled her severely while Nelbert was driving along in the South Road Properties and met an accident and broke his spine and left him crippled. Their stories are truly remarkable and a great lesson to those who believe they are invincible and that nothing would ever happen to them.
This interesting interview with Persons with severe disabilities is our way of celebrating the 38th National Disability Week on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00PM with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. Replays also on MyTV’s channel 30 Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7:00AM and 9:00PM respectively.
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It was late Thursday evening when big breaking news came out of CNN that reported that a Malaysian Airlines Flight no. 17 was missing off Ukrainian air space. I found that report quite chilling because it was only four months ago on March 8,2014 when Malaysian Airlines Flt. No. 370 disappeared off the radar on its flight from Malaysia to Beijing. There were 227 passengers and 12 Malaysian crewmembers and that Boeing 777 200ER is still missing as of this time despite a massive air and sea search.
By Friday morning, CNN already reported that the Malaysian Airlines Flight no. 17 just didn’t crash… it was shot down by a ground to air missile possibly by Pro-Russian Separatists and the wreckage was found strewn in a six-kilometer radius near the Ukraine-Russian border. There were 298 men and women, including infants on board the doomed plane. The biggest problem is… the crash site is a no-man’s land. It may be a part of Ukraine, but pro-Russian separatists allied with Moscow control the area.
At first there was speculation that a mechanical failure may have caused the crash. But CNN got a report that a few days earlier, a Ukrainian An-26 cargo plane was shot down by Pro-Russian separatists, then a helicopter was also shot down, including a Ukrainian fighter jet. CNN also confirmed that they had a recording of a radio communication on the ground by Pro-Russian separatists admitting that they shot down a civilian jet liner, which they believed was Ukrainian. So MH-17 was shot by mistake? If you ask me… this is a big crime! Three Filipinos were on board that aircraft.
So the world watched on live TV the United Nations Security Council getting official reports on this incident by the Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN. So who should pay for this crime? For sure, those Pro-Russian separatists were manning the high-tech SA-11 BUK Russian made ground to air missile system mounted on a tracked vehicle.
Thanks to cameras on cellphones, there are many photos shown over the internet of a BUK missile launcher with camouflage netting on standby near a town in Ukraine right on the flight path of the Malaysian airliner. Then a video camera recorded a BUK missile launcher missing two missiles moving towards Russia. Pundits are saying…that tracked missile launcher was probably recalled back to Russia.
So back to the question… who should pay for this heinous crime? For sure, Russian President Vladimir Putin has blood in his hands. He may not have squeezed the trigger but those pro-Russian separatists are in Ukraine to do the bidding of Mr. Putin. Furthermore, those pro-Russian separatists could not get hold of a BUK missile launcher without Russian support and above all, Russian training. Those ground-to-air missiles are not ordinary rocket propelled launchers that anyone can learn to shoot within minutes.
The problem as of press time is that the bodies of the passengers of the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 are now rotting on the ground. Some of them still strapped in their seats. That’s because the pro-Russian separatists guarding the crash site have no idea on how to handle the dead passengers.
Worse of all, there were reports that the pro-Russian separatists probably found the blackbox, which was now considered missing and possibly in the hands of the Russians by now. How ironic, Malaysian Airlines MH 370 is still missing after four months, while Malaysian Airlines M-17 has been found; yet no one can even collect the bodies strewn in the crash site in Ukraine’s no-man’s land. Putin must answer for this tragedy!