America's worst mass shooting incident

The big breaking news in the USA is the shooting rampage by 64-year-old Stephen Paddock who, as reported by Sheriff Joseph of Clark Country, Nevada, killed 59 people and injured 527 during a country music concert by singer Jason Aldean, after he indiscriminately fired his weapons from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort Hotel Las Vegas. The gunman had a variety of weapon of various calibers. He was dead by apparent suicide when Las Vegas Police entered his hotel room.

This was to be the worst ever shooting rampage to happen in the United States. US President Donald Trump ordered all American flags flown at half-staff and called for unity and prayers for all the victims calling the attack as "an act of pure evil." As a consolation for Americans, at least this act of terror was not ISIS-inspired, unless they find evidence to the contrary.

How could a person bring 17 firearms inside a hotel? Unlike here in the Philippines, everyone going inside a hotel gets to be searched. But during the last time I was in Las Vegas, you could go in and out of any hotel in the Vegas Strip and no security officer would check you. At this point, we shouldn't blame the guns, but the deranged gunman for the killing spree.

***

If there is something happening in the world that we Cebuanos and the rest of the Philippines ought to be interested in, it is the referendum in Catalonia, Barcelona, held last October 1, which the Central Government in Madrid vehemently tried to stop. We were in Barcelona just three weeks ago and my friends who showed us around told us how passionate the Catalans are about this referendum, which the Madrid government is afraid that it would lead to an Independent State for Catalonia.

I wasn't surprised to read in the news that the police tried to stop the referendum, by trying to stop people from entering the polling places and even stealing the ballot boxes because the Madrid government insists that this referendum was illegal. The Regional Government of Catalonia first called for this referendum last June 2017 and it was approved as a law by the Catalan Parliament. Opposition parties refused to participate, saying that this is illegal because according to Catalan Law, such a vote for a change of status for Catalonia requires twothirds majority of the Catalan Parliament. The Spanish Constitution also deemed this referendum as illegal.

Why should we Cebuanos show interest in this Spanish controversy? First of all, because way back on May 20, 2015 the House of Representatives proposed the Bangsamoro Basic Law with a 50-17 vote, which would have given what used to be the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao a Federal State. We were against the BBL simply because if ARMM was to become a Federal State, the whole country should shift from its present unitary form of government and into a Federal Philippines. Fortunately, the Mamasapano massacre stopped the BBL in its tracks.

It is for this reason why I fully supported the candidacy of then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte because early in his presidential bid he already expressed his desire to promote this shift to Federalism. But while we have not even started this move to federalize the Philippines, Pres. Duterte's government is clearly under fire by the yellow cult who are using the Office of the Ombudsman under Conchita Carpio Morales to discredit the president by insisting that he is corrupt using false evidence. Now the president has offered to resign for as long as the Ombudsman and Supreme Court Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno resign with him.

Come now, should Pres. Duterte make this offer to resign? Let me quote the Facebook page of my cousin, Babbitt Ybañez who wrote, "Why should he resign? We voted for him and our will is to have him as president, while the other two are mere political appointees. Why not just have them impeached? Also, criminal charges should be filed against Carandang for violation of bank secrecy law and the anti-money laundering law!" I fully agree with this observation that Pres. Duterte should immediately file an impeachment case against those yellow sleeper agents that are now committed to destroy him. We should never allow them to do this!

***

For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.