HAVE you noticed invitations to weddings these days? They carry the note that “while we appreciate wedding gifts, it would please us more if you can just send cash gifts in envelopes to begin our journey to life.”
Santa Banana, this is like saying, “you are being invited, so better bring cash or check!”
There are versions of this kind of extortion. It comes in the form of a money dance where those invited are supposed to pin peso bills on the gown of the bride.
I also do not like how they show videos of the groom and the bride, their first meeting, their courtship, engagement and wedding preparations. I don’t mind so much videos showing their wedding ceremonies.
What I hate most of all is when you are invited to a one o’clock wedding at a church and the reception is far off. If you factor in the traffic situation in Metro Manila, a five o’clock reception becomes seven o’clock because that’s only when guests start arriving.
Santa Banana, that’s almost a whole-day affair.
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I don’t know how BS Aquino III can get out of the hole of his own making. The Senate will reopen the investigation into “Oplan Exodus” which resulted in the slaughter of 44 police commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. Minority leader Juan Ponce Enrile will ask question because he say he has inside information which were not brought to fore when the Senate probe started last year.
President Aquino may have owned “ultimate accountability and responsibility” for the massacre, but there are lingering questions he must answer. After all, he is President, chief executive, top cop of the PNP and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Enrile was in detention at Camp Crame when the Senate public order committee under presidential candidate Mrs. Mary Grace Natividad Kelly Poe Llamanzares started the probe.
The senator wants to know why there was an ominous silence from the President on the day of the massacre, and even a few days after it.
Santa Banana, what really happened during those three days beginning Jan. 25 when the botched police operation, headed by BS Aquino III’s best friend, then suspended PNP Chief Alan Purisima, resulted in the deaths of the SAF 44?
As President, BS Aquino III must have monitored “Oplan Exodus,” aimed at neutralizing a Malaysian and a Filipino terrorist. US President Barack Obama did so during the operation against Osama Bin Laden, and the Americans were later privy to it.
So what was the President really doing in Zamboanga?
But there was complete silence on “Oplan Exodus” for three days. Yes, BS Aquino went to Zamboanga on the day “Oplan Exodus” was launched, but it was not in connection with the police operation. He went there supposedly to find out what happened when a bomb killed one person and to find out why. This was during the birthday of his late mother, former President Cory.
That simply didn’t make sense. There were efforts on the part of the butchered police commandos to the army battalion nearby to call for assistance. The help never came.
According to information, the peace panel (which was also monitoring the operation) didn’t want the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front put in jeopardy. Jeopardy, my foot, when the police commandos were already being butchered. Help came only about noon that day.
As Commander-in-Chief of the AFP, BS Aquino III should be held accountable and liable. There are other consideration that came with the operation fiasco since the heads of the terrorists came with $5 million and $1 million, respectively.
What is difficult to understand is why General Getulio Napeñas, chief of the PNP Special Action Force, was sacked while the generals of the AFP who failed to assist the “Fallen 44” were not even given a slap on the wrist. In Japan, for instance, if this Mamasapano fiasco happened there would have been a lot of Aquino people committing “hara kiri.” But, Santa Banana, not under BS Aquino III. There was clearly an attempt at coverup.
To add insult to injury, BS Aquino III never apologized for the fiasco. And he did not even give the grieving relatives the courtesy of his presence when the remains of the butchered 44 commandos arrived at Villamor Air Base. Instead, he chose to attend the inauguration of his Japanese friends at Mitsubishi Motors.
That’s BS Aquino III for you—lacking in empathy, compassion and sensitivity.
We have only five months before BS Aquino III steps down. But he still has a lot to answer for. Just a few words for him: what goes around will come around.
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The backlash of BS Aquino III’s action of vetoing the proposed law raising the Social Security System pensioner by P2,000 across the board, and increase the minimum monthly pension from P1,200 to P3,200 on the administration’s candidates, especially Liberal Party candidate Mar Roxas, and even the administration’s senatorial ticket is now being felt nationwide.
There are reports that LP splinter groups are now joining the Grace Poe-Chiz Escudero group of independents. That is, if Mrs. Mary Grace Natividad Kelly Poe Llamanzares will not be disqualified by the Supreme Court soon enough.
People just can’t buy BS Aquino III’s copout or excuse that if he allowed the proposed law to be signed, some 31 million members of the SSS will seriously be compromised for the benefit of only 2.1 million of SSS pensioners. Thirteen years from now, he said, the funds will be depleted.
Santa Banana, BS Aquino III is comparing apples with oranges. The 2.1 million pensioners are the elderlies and the sick who need most the P2,000 added to their pensions monthly not only to buy medicines and get hospitalized but, to many, to keep body and soul together.
Now, in the wake of the backlash against the administration’s candidates, Malacañang is talking about compromises, like giving the pensioners an additional P500 a month, which is rubbing salt to an injury. Even an additional P1,000 would be a miserable sum given the cost of living these days.
What the people cannot understand is why SSS executives and directors are getting fat bonuses. For efficient work, my foot?
The System could have increased the premium of its members. Besides, my gulay, there are so many SSS members that have not totally contributed. I know since I’m also an SSS pensioner with a monthly pension of a little over P3,000. My gulay, this amount when I have been a journalist for over 65 years. My employers must have failed to contribute their share.
The fear of BS Aquino III about the System going bankrupt is not entirely correct. There are many ways to augment the pension increase. He simply is heartless!
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I’ve said that the senatorial race for the newcomers will be very tight. And poll surveys are validating my statement. Name recall is the name of the game in the race. Just look at the poll surveys and see that re-electionists and returning senators are leading the race—xcept boxing icon Manny Pacquiao and former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima who are in the “Magic 12.”
Pacquiao is in the Top 12 is also due to name recall. De Lima, when she was still a member of the Cabinet, was visible to the media.
What I’d like to be included within the Magic 12 are Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez who is certainly more qualified than Pacquiao, and former Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Francis Tolentino, who I believe was one of the most competent members of the Aquino Cabinet.
