Impulses
Gloomy days ahead, literally
Bomb explodes in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat yesterday.
Initial reports said a male bystander allegedly left a gift-wrapped package near the public market before the explosion.
Authorities are still looking for leads as of press time. But the message is clear. Terrorism still exists in Mindanao.
* * *
Nicole, the Subic rape victim, has not been home in Mindanao for almost a year since that fateful night in Subic, when she was allegedly raped by a US Marine while his colleagues cheered on.
Now, her long term plans include immigrating to another country. "I just want to go some place where I won't be recognized," says the 23-year-old business graduate in a newspaper interview.
And the accused? There they are: Smiling, whining like filthy proud white-skinned crocodiles on the loose.
Life is indeed unfair.
* * *
Now here's something that is very difficult to swallow.
The Philippines can expect "rotating brownouts" in 2008 because generating capacity would be severely insufficient by that time and the expected repair of existing power plants would not have been completed.
From studies, it appears that the Philippines needs an additional generating capacity of 4,438 megawatts (MW) over the next five years to avoid a power crisis.
If this needed capacity is not put into place, the Philippines can experience rotating brownouts during peak loads.
Scary.
* * *
At present, the only additional capacity being built is the 30-megawatt wind plant of the Philippine National Oil Co Energy Development Corp.
The Korean Electric Power Corp. is also expected to build a 200MW coal plant in Cebu but construction has not yet started and the plant will take at least three years to be in operation.
The insufficient generating capacity is expected to be aggravated by the unexpected need to do maintenance work on several power plants whose maintenance has been falling behind schedule. When a plant undergoes maintenance it has to shut down temporarily.
Super scary!
***
Three undersea earthquakes, one of them measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale, were recorded along the sea border between the Philippines and Taiwan, the US Geological Service said yesterday.
The quakes were recorded over a 14-hour period between Monday and Tuesday, the USGS said.
The latest registered 5.1 on the Richter scale at 8 am with the epicenter some 212 kilometers (132 miles) west of Basco, Batanes.
Hours after, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology confirmed the quakes and said they were probably caused by a movement of the undersea Manila Trench.
***
After Japan, Taiwan is now restricting the entry of Filipino workers.
DOLE says Taipei has imposed stricter regulations to control the entry of returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
It's not a ban but a mild freeze on the hiring of Filipino workers. This might be a matter of semantics but it will surely affect our OFWs.
***
If this cannot be resolved, the local recruitment industry warned of a drop in the deployment of Filipino workers to Taiwan, as well as in the dollar remittances of these OFWs.
There are about 90,000 Filipino workers employed in Taiwan. Majority of these OFWs are factory workers earning some P30,000 a month.
What an opportunity loss.
***
Another Aglipayan priest was killed in Surigao del Sur Sunday, less than a week after the murder of Aglipayan bishop Rev. Alberto Ramento.
This is a pattern that I don't want to speculate on for it can paint a gloomy situation with Martial Law linings.
***
The attack by communist rebels on the Bacolod Airport in Silay City, Negros Occidental before dawn Sunday is, beyond doubt, is an act of terrorism!
It is an act against progress. It is not only a direct assault against the people who will benefit from the project, but also against the very fiber of communism.
Personally, I will never accept this act as justified or simply part of revolutionary collateral damage. No person with progressive mind will accept this notion.
***
Dulmatin and fellow fugitive Umar Patek are wanted for their part in the 2002 bombing on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed over 200 people, mostly Australian tourists.
He will fight to the last, according to JI leader's wife , Istiada Oemar H. Sovie.
I am not surprised.
That's what you call unbridled loyalty. Extreme love to a cause, without the benefit of logic nor ethics.
****
The release of the findings on the leakage of the 2006 Nursing Licensure Board Examination is yet to be released by the NBI.
The delay may continue until it reaches Friday because new witnesses have come out claiming the leakage had reached Visayas and Mindanao. So they still have to collate all the data available to make a very good case.
Many witnesses are still coming to us offering information. And surely no one can ignore them.
Now I am beginning to believe that there should be a retake, once and for all!
***
Long live the Philippines for abolishing death penalty!
Death penalty "is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
It violates the right to life.
It is irrevocable and can be inflicted on the innocent.
It has never been shown to deter crime more effectively than other punishments.
***
However, sad to say, this kind of persuasion is not yet acceptable in many Asian countries.
In fact, according to Amnesty International, some 94 percent of executions every year take place in only four countries.
In 2005, these were China with at least 1,770 executions, followed by Iran with 94 including eight minors, Saudi Arabia with 88 including foreigners who did not have interpreters present at their trials, and the United States, with 60 executions, including a number of people with mental illness.
***
Amnesty International says that last year in the 68 countries still retaining the death penalty at least 20,000 condemned prisoners "await execution in execrable detention conditions."
Amnesty says that in 2005 at least 2,148 people were actually executed and a further 5,186 were sentenced to death often after what it said were forced confessions under torture or without access to legal defense.
So sad.
***
I truly believe that the degree of civilization that a country has may be assessed by the degree of respect it has for human life.
Death penalty is an act of barbarism that no civilized world or society must embrace. Period.
***
The UN nuclear watchdog, IAEA, hard pressed to keep pace with developments in countries such as Iran and North Korea, needs state-of-the-art technology to fulfill its task of preventing nuclear proliferation.
They must for high technology crime such as nuclear or ballistic manufacture needs high-technology counter checkers.
It's just like being a teacher. One can't give what it hasn't. One can't check what it can't.
***
Iloilo City cop czar Senior Supt. Norlito Bautista has cried for "unfairness" on the accusation that city police is sleeping on its job.
He is fed up, he said.
Well, statistics can't lie. It appears that City Councilor Baronda is right, more than three-fourths of the robbery, rumble, snatching, and fighting cases are not yet solved and some were even done in broad daylight.
Also, let's take a closer look with our traffic problems. The corruption in the streets is in everybody-knows-it proportions!
For Sir Bautista, I believe that he, personally, wants to inject good changes for the city. But How good will it be if some of his trusted lieutenants are not even one with him. Some are even part of the problem.
(Engr. Herman Lagon may be reached through h_lagon@yahoo.com.)