Last Saturday morning I was glued to the Cable News Network (CNN) following the breaking news about the missing Malaysian Airlines jetliner that left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing, China but disappeared from the radar two hours after takeoff.
The plane carried at least 239 people of 13 nationalities, mostly Chinese. The last communication was made about two hours after it took off.
As of this writing no one is certain what happened. No communication, human or electronic, was received to indicate the location of the plane or an emergency.
Richard Quest of CNN said that for the plane to suddenly disappear may mean that an incident that is instantaneous and catastrophic happened to the plane.
Latest reports revealed that the passports of two supposed passengers were found to have been lost and were used not by its owners but by others who were in the plane.
The angle of terrorism has not been discounted as a possible cause of the plane’s disappearance. Search and rescue efforts have been mounted but the teams have not yet seen any trace of the plane or signs that it crashed except for some sketchy reports from the Vietnamese that an oil slick has been found in the shores somewhere near Malaysia and Thailand.
It has been more than 24 hours since the plane went missing. Something catastrophic must have happened.
This is one mystery that will take years to unravel. I hope we learn important lessons here, especially on the aspect of airport and passenger security.
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In our dream for basketball glory, our country is seriously considering providing naturalization status to a National Basketball Association (NBA) player to make him part of the Philippine team in the world basketball tournament to be held in Spain this year.
The player would boost the team’s chances of advancing to the later rounds in Spain especially since opponents are from Europe and South America who have an average height of about 6 feet and 5 inches.
But some sectors are against the plan to grant naturalization status to an NBA player because they say that citizenship is sacred. Secondly, the reason they are to be granted naturalization is not because they are part Filipino but because we want to increase our chances in a tournament.
Let us accept the fact that basketball is a sport in which we can never expect to excel as of this time because we are not a naturally tall race. It is important that we consider concentrating our efforts in sports where we have better chances of winning like boxing, tennis, judo, and others. Let us not waste our effort, time and money on a game that by its very nature we have very slim chances of becoming a champion.
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Apparently the insurance policy of the demolished Cebu City Medical Center covers only fire as the cause of damage and not an earthquake. With this development it becomes imperative that the city government find innovative ways to raise fundsto build a new city hospital.
Mayor Michael Rama and city officials including some city councilors are doing their best.
I have still to hear that our honorable members of the House of Representatives like Congressmen Raul del Mar and Rodrigo Abellanosa will do their share to help raise funds. I hope they will since the project is not for the mayor but for the people of the city, whom they represent.
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