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Friday, March 29, 2024

A breakdown of morals

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The recent holiday season gave me an opportunity to bond with some friends and relatives and exchange stories about what is happening to our families.

A common lament is that their children have separated from their spouses. Those who have gone abroad have obtained a divorce.

I once asked a priest about this trend. He said: “These are modern times, and the environment they live in.”

Separation or having extramarital affairs, used to be a big scandal. People who split up or had mistresses were talked about by family and friends. But now it seems like it is in vogue. What is happening to our country, supposedly predominantly Catholic?

It seems to me that our children have become victims of mass communication and peer pressure.

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Not to denigrate anybody, my gulay, we vote into office people who live with their common-law wives. We also vote into office gambling lords and drug lords just because they spread around their ill-gotten money like Robin Hood.

To me, there is a breakdown of morality in our country and loss of the old Filipino traditions we used to live by.

I am not here to preach. I am also a sinner. All I am pointing out is that the Filipino values that our parents taught us are being eroded.

This is the tragedy of our times.

* * * 

On charter change, one of the provisions in the 1987 Constitution that President Duterte wants abolished is the one on party-list representation. I say it’s about time. The party-list system is one of the biggest anomalies of our time.

Records in the 1987 Constitutional Convention, whose delegates were chosen by the late President Corazon Aquino, will show that many delegates voted for party-list representation, but under a parliamentary system of government.

Actually, if you examine the party-list provision in the charter, it’s a copy of the constitution of Germany. However, the parliamentarians in the Constitutional Convention lost by one vote—I repeat, one vote.

But since the Aquinos have friends among the communist insurgents, then-President Cory allowed it to happen.

Now with so many party-list representatives known to be allies of the communist insurgency movement, there are questions about where the pork barrel funds are going, and who they are representing. We all know that most party-list representatives are not from the marginalized sector. A new Constitution should just delete them from existence. It’s a waste of people’s money!

* * * 

I like what is happening in connection with the efforts to have the Naia rebuilt. There would be more runways instead of the one that it has now. We also need more terminals to accommodate the millions of passengers it expects to have in recent years.

The competition between the seven Philippine consortia—Aboitiz, Ayala, Alliance Global Filinvest, JG Summit and Metro Pacific and that of Megawide with the Social Security System is, to me, healthy.

In fact, the mega-consortium eyes Changi Singapore as a partner, while the Megawide-SSS venture will have its Bangalore-based partner, GMR.

Along this line, I also believe that the National Economic and Development Authority has already given the San Miguel Consortium to put up an international gateway in Bulacan.

Ramon S. Ang is already building the infrastructure to connect the airport in Bulacan to the old Naia and the Makati Central Business District. Ang has the 24-kilometer Magallanes to Balintawak connector road which will be operational in 2019.

One of things that gives RSA an edge is that his airport will have no subsidy from government and no loan guarantee which operators of Build-Operate-Transfer projects usually get. He also has the 88.85-kilometer Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway. The plan of Ang is not only to build four runways, but to handle 100 million passengers a year.

Let us also not forget the partnership between Henry Sy and the Japan International Cooperation Agency for an alternate airport in Sangley Point in Cavite.

The future looks great!

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