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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Come now...is Joma really returning to Phl?

SHOOTING STRAIGHT
Come now...is Joma really returning to Phl?
By Bobit S. Avila

No doubt the article we wrote last Tuesday about Cebu looking for “other options” jolted many Cebuanos to realize that we are indeed second class citizens in our own country, which is just too Manila centric for its own good. President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III has been in power for a year and a half already and there is not a single infrastructure project that was conceptualized by his administration, funded and implemented. Worse, a very vital road project, the widening of the North Road in Tayud, Liloan has practically ground to a halt as there is no funding for this project. So don’t blame Cebuanos if we are sore at Imperial Manila for not giving us any importance.

A case in point is what happened a couple of weeks ago, when Tandang Sora was given a hero’s honor, while the Philippine Navy gave great importance to Katipunero Gregorio del Pilar naming the latest Navy cutter after him. Yet if you asked our historians, what great battle have these people won for the Katipunan?

Few Filipinos know that on April 3, 1898, Pantaleon Villegas who was known by his nom de guerre as “Leon Kilat” (he originally came from Negros Oriental) fought the Spanish troops along the corner of what is now known as Tres de Abril and V. Rama Ave. in Cebu City and routed them. The Spaniards retreated to the safety of Ft. San Pedro and holed out there for four long days, while Leon Kilat’s revolutionaries had full control of Cebu City. Pray tell me, who among the Katipuneros could claim such a great victory against the Spaniards? Do I have to remind you of the exploits of Lapu-Lapu who killed Ferdinand Magellan? I think you know that story by heart.

No sir, the story of Leon Kilat is not even written in our Tagalog-centric history books. Aside from the street named after him in Cebu City, the Philippines didn’t give Leon Kilat any such importance. In my book, he was among the greatest Katipuneros because he captured the City of Cebu and no other Katipunero could make an equal claim. We can only second guess that the reason why Leon Kilat was never recognized is simply that we Cebuanos do not belong to the Tagalog Republic because we don’t speak this language. Yet Leon Kilat was a true blue Katipunero!

Incidentally, during the time of then Tourism Sec. Richard Gordon, he ordered the statue of Lapu-Lapu to be erected in the Agrifina Circle to the howl of many nationalists who claimed that the Luneta was “hallowed ground” and Lapu-Lapu should not be allowed there. It was only by our continued articles attacking the pro-Tagalog nationalism that they relented and with a heavy heart… allowed Lapu-Lapu to be enshrined in Luneta.

Since the EDSA Revolt, I have been batting for a shift to a Federal form of government, which many people in the South fully agree. However Sen. Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, Jr. who also wanted a Federal system of government succumbed to a watered down Local Government Autonomy law, which eventually came up with the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the Cordillera. But for as long as it has no fiscal autonomy, it still has an umbilical cord to Imperial Manila, hence local autonomy is a total and complete failure. Just look how the Ampatuans lorded it in ARMM.

So we are at the crossroads of history and I suggest that the Aquino Regime should open its eyes and mind to charter changes at this time so we can already debate the need for changing our system of government to one that would share political power to the different states in this archipelago.

Speaking of sharing political power… for the past two weeks I’ve been getting a lot of text messages that Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison is expected to return to the Philippines and will be welcomed by Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III. I didn’t give those texts any importance, that’s why I didn’t write that story.

But on page 14 of the STAR last Thursday, this story was already given some kind of importance.This report apparently came from Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) Party-list Rep. Pastor Alcover, Jr. who by the way is one of the three Congressmen who openly declared his Statements of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) thus making him more respectable than the rest of the members of Congress. So now whether this story has some kind of truth in it… we still have to find out.

But we know well enough that Pres. PNoy’s mother Tita Cory Aquino released Joma without any conditions, despite the fact that he is the principal accused in the infamous Plaza Miranda Bombing on Aug.21, 1971. Rep. Alcover even dared to say that Joma would be part of a power-sharing arrangement with the Aquino Regime. I just hope that what we are hearing is pure fantasy. I would like to believe that Pres. PNoy is not crazy enough to do such a thing. Coalescing with the Commies will doom our democracy!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mo-pzcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.


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