A historic meeting in The FREEMAN
Yesterday was a historic occasion for The FREEMAN as our top bosses, Sir Dodong Gullas and Sir Miguel Belmonte asked all columnists to visit Sir Dodong in his office at the University of the Visayas. It was good to see Sir Dodong in the pink of health although he told me that he had some medical issues just like me. It was also great to see Sir Miguel Belmonte as I've not been visiting The Philippine STAR offices since my kidney transplant and it was truly satisfying to see the columnists of our newspaper seated together for the first time in a very long time.
Sir Dodong wanted to emphasize to everyone that come February 22, 2019 will be the centennial year of The FREEMAN. How many newspapers in the Philippines can proudly say that they have reached a hundred years? So far, we only know of the Manila Bulletin and the Manila Times. In short The FREEMAN is the only newspaper outside Manila that will soon be celebrating its centennial year. It was founded in 1919!
So expect our columnists to be writing about things that happened in The FREEMAN for the coming year. After all, in this age of millennials and social networking, a healthy newspaper that doesn't publish fake news is a sight for sore eyes, especially with an internet that is full of mind-blowing articles written from all directions. What this city needs is a newspaper that brings only the truth that counts. That is The FREEMAN! Newspapers come and go, but The FREEMAN continues to serve Cebu after a hundred years! Expect more articles about The FREEMAN from our other columnists and I asked Sir Miguel that perhaps we should find the oldest copy of The FREEMAN newspaper from somewhere and we would offer a reward for this discovery!
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When martial law is mentioned, most of the people from Luzon express opposition to it, even if the martial law is in Mindanao. Proof of the pudding is in the eating when Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero expressed his opposition to President Rodrigo Duterte's request to prolong the implementation of martial law in Mindanao, saying the military rule cannot be normalized in the entire region.
Escudero, who is not an opposition senator, argued that martial law “cannot be the new normal” for Mindanao. He said that economic growth and maintenance of peace and order in Mindanao was achieved not because of martial law but by the attention and resources poured into the region by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. Again, let me emphasize that if you are in Luzon, you can drive your car from Metro Manila to anywhere in Luzon even in the dead of night. But I dare you to do so in many areas in Mindanao.
I question what Escudero said about Mindanao when he said: “Mindanao achieved economic growth. Mindanao achieved unprecedented maintenance of peace and order in their area and it can do so even without martial law.” With 2019 approaching and there is a midterm election, all the more should martial law be extended in Mindanao. Elections, after all, are life-threatening in Mindanao, if you recall the infamous Maguindanao massacre. So let the people of Luzon keep their mouths shut when it comes to martial law in Mindanao and let the people living there decide their own fate.
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Yesterday, one of the things that a few columnists asked me was to write about the quality of work that we get from driving school instructors. Come to think of it, to be a teacher you must have a Bachelor of Science in Education but it is different when you are teach people how to drive because we do not know where you come from. This is a good question; who accredits driving schools? When a student supposedly passes the exams, does he get some kind of certificate to inform people that he has successfully passed that particular school?
These days it is common to see cars with a huge sign on the back declaring “New Lady Driver, please have patience!” Does this tell us that she didn't pass her written exams and passed only the driving exams? With traffic getting worse, the least we need are drivers that require the patience of other drivers!
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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@ gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www. philstar.com.