For our special presentation in our talk show “Straight from the Sky,” we bring you a famous person who came to Cebu to honor our invitation to be our guest in our TV show. He is no other than former senator and current national chairman of the Red Cross Richard “Dick” Gordon. If I’m not mistaken, this is the second time I will have Dick Gordon on my talk show. The first time was when he was the Secretary of Tourism under then Pres. Fidel V. Ramos.
Let me say it here that when Dick Gordon was Secretary of Tourism, he gave us the best slogan for Philippine Tourism with his Wow! Philippines! Wow stood for things such as “Wealth of Wonders, Warm over Winter for tourists to come during the winter months, Where are Wares or Watch our Weddings. These are just a few examples of how to match our Wow! Philippines slogan with what the tourists are looking for. Alas, like most good things that happen in this country, as soon as there is a new kid on the block, they change these slogans so we ended up copying what the other tourism agencies are doing. This is something that Dick Gordon can be proud about!
While he was a good senator, Dick Gordon’s selfless work as chairman of the Red Cross here in the Philippines has put him in the national scene, especially when the Red Cross came up with 60,000 homes for victims of super typhoon “Yolanda,” something that the Aquino Regime has yet to accomplish, not to mention that some P15 billion in aid money is just languishing in banks waiting to be spent or given to typhoon victims.
So watch this very interesting show with former Senator Richard “Dick” Gordon on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00 tonight with replays on Wednesday and Saturday. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9:00 tonight and at 7:00AM and 9:00PM on Wednesday and Friday.
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I woke up early Saturday morning to a Cable Network News breaking news that a terror attack has hit Paris, France where three explosions struck the Stade de France in Saint-Dennis outside Paris which French authorities believe was a suicide bombing. French Prime Minister Francois Hollande was watching the soccer match when the terrorist bombs were detonated. He was immediately evacuated to a secure location.
This is one terror attack that was given the same alert magnitude as the attack on the World Trade Center Towers in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. Right now, the borders of France have been shut down where no one can leave and no one can enter. Subway lines have been stopped to prevent any further attacks. Then a hostage situation spread at the Bataclan Concert Hall in Paris where some 8 hostages were taken and 115 were killed inside the theater. To think it’s not even a year since the Charlie Hebdo killings.
Already a total of 129 people have been killed in the bombings and French Pres. Hollande has addressed the nation and declared “a state of emergency.” French police have advised all residents in Paris to stay indoors unless there is a necessity to leave the house. A day later, ISIS issued an official declaration that it was behind the terrorist attacks and CNN reports that ISIS supporters applauded the terror incident in the social media networks. With this attacks no one is safe against terrorists!
US President Barrack Obama also issued a strong statement of support to France saying, “This is an attack not just on Paris, not just on the people of France, but an attack on all humanity and the universal values we share. This is an outrageous attempt to terrorize innocent civilians.” CNN reports show that US Intelligence authorities did not learn of any credible threat at this time, which only tells you that these terror groups struck under the radar screen of US or European intelligence networks.
This is the first time that France has closed or shut down its borders. They did not do this during World War I, not even during World War II. French authorities are now beginning to investigate. While suspicion may focus on the Syrian refugees that also entered France, however France only took in 20,000 refugees and therefore France did not get the bulk of the Syrian refugees that fled war-torn Syria.
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These days, it is not good to be in Manila because of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit where bad traffic has turned to worse. Luckily I’m off to Osaka, Japan at this time and spared all that hassle. But last Friday night, I did get a taste of that humongous traffic when from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport 3 (NAIA-3), it took us only two hours just to cross to the other side to the Marriott Hotel’s Grand Ballroom where we attended the 15th Grand Wine Experience hosted by the Philippine Wine Merchants (PWM) of Bobby & Ralph Joseph, which was a stunning success with 1,700 guests in attendance.
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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.