Celebrating Philippine-Japanese friendship
For our special presentation on our talk show, “Straight from the Sky,” we will discuss a very vital issue regarding the health of our school children because of an incident that happened in Zamboanga del Norte where hundreds of school children were hospitalized for taking oral or chewable tablets for deworming given by the Department of Health (DOH).
This incident sent alarm signals to many of our friends, who are wary that since former congresswoman Janette Garin, the most vocal advocate for Reproductive Health and population control, was given the top post of the DOH by President Aquino, which got many parents scared that there could be some kind of a sinister plot by DOH officials to give vaccines to children that could result in their sterilization years or even decades after the vaccines are given.
Perhaps the problem lies upon the fact that the DOH is not transparent. Right now an investigation is underway as to why hundreds of school children got sick after taking those deworming tablets. Perhaps the DOH did not warn parents of any potential side effects if they take that tablet? Just a week before this incident happened, I got an email from a parent living in Leyte who was worried that the vaccines that are given by DOH in their schools could cause harmful, but long term effects. I wrote about that in my Star column.
So tonight we have with us Dr. Rene Bullecer of Human Life International and lawyer Makilito Mahinay of Task Force for Family & Life (TFFL) who will give us a serious discussion on what parents can legally do if they don’t want to allow their children to take vaccines from the DOH if they do not give information to the parents as to the ingredients of those vaccines. This is why we have lawyer Mahinay on this show. Dr. Bullecer would give us the dangers of vaccines that the DOH is giving if they do not show transparency and inform the parents on what could be the side effects on those vaccines.
So watch this very interesting show on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00 tonight with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9:00 tonight and at 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m., respectively on Wednesday and Friday.
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Last Saturday, thanks to the rains, my golf buddy Dr. Edwin Medalle and I decided to stop playing golf after 9 holes and that meant I had a few hours free before the 6:00 p.m. Mass, so that gave me time to drop by the 2nd Bon Odori Festival, which was held at the Family Park in Talamban. But at 3:00 p.m., traffic was super snarled. It turned out that the Alpha Kappa Rho (AKRO) was having a huge parade for its 42nd anniversary. Thousands of members clogged the Banilad-Talamban Road. Seeing this, my thoughts drifted to the need to return the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) so the energy of the youth can be tapped for use for our country.
Arriving 40 minutes later at the Family Park, I was super impressed that this festival was held here in Cebu. I never saw so many Japanese people living in Cebu. Many of them were wearing the Japanese traditional garb or Kimono, mingling with Cebuanos some of whom were also wearing the traditional Japanese dress. It was, for me, a great cultural exchange that I had never seen in Cebu. I gathered that the first Bon Odori Festival was held last year at the Aboitiz Football Field, but I didn’t know about it.
In my book, this is a true testament to Philippine-Japanese friendship where despite the fact that 70 years ago, the three-year Japanese occupation of Cebu ended, thanks to our Christian faith; we feel no animosity nor hatred towards the Japanese people. After all, the war was started by the Japanese militarists who took control of the Japanese government and their people. But I don’t think the Japanese can have a Bon Odori Festival in China where memories seem to never fade away.
At the Cebu Country Club, we’ve held our annual Tomodachi Friendship Golf Tournament for 15 years now. It is an annual tournament hosted by our Japanese members and it is the most awaited golf tournament amongst all the tournaments we hold not because of the trophies, but because of the sumptuous Japanese food that they serve the members during the awarding ceremonies, where huge bottles of sake is placed on each table.
I wanted to know more about the Bon Odori Festival and from Google I learned that it is a Japanese custom to honor the spirits of one’s ancestors. It’s a day when the Japanese people visit the graves of their loved ones and clean them. Hmmm, in effect, it is almost akin to our All Saints’ or All Souls’ Day where people visit the graves of their loved ones who’ve gone to the great beyond and the day becomes a reunion for family members. The Bon Odori includes a dance (I missed it) and has been celebrated in Japan for 500 years. The Bon Odori dance is an old folk dance to welcome the spirits of the dead ancestors who are supposed to revisit their household altars. So we eagerly await next year’s Bon Odori Festival.
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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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