Finally, the Anti-Terror Bill is approved
Last March, Straight from the Sky celebrated its 20th year as the longest talk show in the Visayas and Mindanao, although it was a subdued celebration as we just began our lockdown for COVID-19. But in the last three months, we’ve always continued to bring you our special guest to talk about mostly what they are doing in this ECQ environment. Technology today has really gone high-tech to the point that many companies hold regular board meetings using Zoom. So I guess that after 20 years of TV production, it was time for me to try this new technology called Zoom.
So I called up my good friend, Consul Bobby Joseph who has been a regular guest on Straight from the Sky since the early 1990s. He comes to Cebu almost three times a week to also monitor the 888 News Forum, which he heads. Unfortunately since the lockdown, he has been staying home in his house in Alabang for nearly four months now. But he has been meeting with the Rotary Club of Manila, as he is the 101st president inducted only a week ago. So I asked him to join me in my historic Zoom interview and he agreed.
So watch this very interesting and historic interview with Bobby Joseph tonight via Zoom on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.
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First off, allow me to help announce that Pope Francis through the Secretary of State, his Eminence Pietro Cardinal Parolin, has appointed Rev. Fr. Jan Thomas Limchua as the official of the Section for the Relations with States of the Secretary of State of the Holy See. He will be serving directly under Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary for the Relations with States of the Holy See. Limchua is currently serving as first secretary at the Apostolic Nunciature in Egypt since 2016.
I have always known Fr. Limchua, not only because I am friends with his father, the brother of Tatay Dodong Limchua, but also as friends in Facebook, I got to know what he was doing. Now I’m happy with his new appointment as it sends him off Egypt which, as you know, is not really a pro-Christian State. This office is actually the foreign office of the Vatican and rightly happens to Fr. Limchua as we are approaching the 500th year of Christianity in the Philippines next year.
*** Congratulations to the Cebu COVID-19 Citizens Initiatives for launching last Friday with Cebu Archdiocese Archbishop Jose S. Palma who participated in a Zoom conference with the Cebu media together as well as COVID-19 survivors who shared their views and experiences. Palma called on Cebuanos to unite, stop blaming, and to follow the health protocols. I dare say it’s about time!
The CCC-Initiatives said, “We are calling on our Fellow Cebuanos to please take this pandemic, this crisis, really seriously. The COVID-19 virus only needs warm bodies to thrive. In two weeks, it will die if it touches none. Let us hang on. But we ask you, mga kaigsu-onang Sugbo-anon, let us do this, truly in unity. We ask you to stand in solidarity as a community to defeat the virus once and for all.” I certainly hope that this initiative is appreciated by our fellow Cebuanos.
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Finally last week, Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte signed the Anti-Terror Bill just six days before it would have automatically lapsed into law. Yes, if he did not sign it, it would have been approved anyway. But he signed it to show to the Filipino people that he was for it. Well, I’m for it simply because the Communist Party of the Philippines, through the National Democratic Front, have a very active friends in the Philippine media who help their subversion in attacking the Armed Forces of the Philippines with their propaganda.
A case in point was on Feb. 6, 2010 when 43 people disguised as health workers in a resort in Morong, Rizal Province, were caught with firearms and explosives. They were being taught how to make bombs and hide them. Of these 43 people, 26 were women. But then president PNoy Aquino freed them and they continued with their subversive activities. With the Anti-Terror Bill, they can’t be released!