‘The President deserved the two-minute applause. We pray the measure will not only be passed but promptly implemented as well.’
AFTER three ambush attempts on his life, living as a fugitive due to constant death threats and harassment, and 72 cyber libel cases filed against him that ruined his medical career, Dr. Chao Tiao Yumol decided to take the law into his own hands.
The shooting incident that cost the lives of former Lamitan, Basilan mayor Rose Furigay, her executive assistant and an Ateneo security guard, also exposed what Yumol claimed as the dismaying attitude of Greco Belgica, chairman of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC).
According to Yumol and several residents of Lamitan, Belgica had repeatedly turned a deaf ear to the doctor’s numerous complaints against the Furigays. Yumol had accused the Furigays as allegedly being drug lords in Basilan and also filed a complaint before the Ombudsman in January 2021 against Furigay for grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interests of the public
Zenaida Hadloc, a medical assistant of Yumol, recounted in a vlog, quite emotionally, that Belgica gave Yumol the runaround. She claimed that many others, including an engineer at the Subic Bay Freeport, had also suffered due to the alleged inaction of Belgica.
It was not hard to see why Yumol suddenly snapped.
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The first standing ovation for President Marcos Jr. during his first SONA came on his highly commendable move for our miserably wearied and heavily burdened farmers. He wants Congress to pass a law condoning the loans of agrarian reform beneficiaries as a major step towards the success of the food security program of his administration.
The planned measure will write off the beneficiaries’ unpaid compensation and interest payments. The President said this will cover P58.135 billion benefitting around 654,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries and involving a total of 1.18 million hectares of awarded lands.
The President deserved the two-minute applause. We pray the measure will not only be passed but promptly implemented as well.
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Prayers in public schools and public places may yet be restored by a breakthrough ruling of the US Supreme Court favoring a football coach who led a prayer in a football game. From the Washington Post on July 26, 2022: “ A month has passed since the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Washington state football coach who knelt at midfield to pray and was joined by student-athletes. The court wrote, in a 6-3 decision, that Brementon High School assistant coach Joseph Kennedy’s prayers were protected by the Constitutional guarantees of free speech and religious exercise and that the district was wrong to discipline him for what the majority saw as a private act.
“In response, families, teachers and activists are preparing to push religious worship into public schools nationwide – working to blur the dividing line and pedagogy, and promising emotional, spiritual and educational benefits for students. Some school officials are listening: in at least three states, Illinois, Alabama and Oregon, school personnel have said they are reviewing their policies on employee welfare.”
