About the US presidential debate
While I'm writing this piece, my TV is tuned at the first of the US presidential debates between former first lady and State Secretary Hillary Clinton the Democratic Presidential nominee and Mr. Donald Trump, the Republican nominee which is seen over the Cable Network News (CNN), BBC, Fox News and Al Jazeera TV worldwide. A difference which can immediately noticed between the two candidates with Clinton always presenting a smile despite the heat of the debate, while Trump never smiled.
Clearly you can see the stark difference between a non-politician and a hard-nosed politician in the two. My take on this issue is simple,Donald Trump doesn't make any pretensions by smiling for the cameras because he believes that politics is serious business, while Clinton presents the smile of all politicians seeking the vote of the nation. In a way, Trump is very much like our Mayor Rodrigo Duterte during the presidential campaign seeking votes for change, while Hillary wants to keep the status quo very much in the lines of former DILG secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas II.
This is what makes America great, that after nearly a year of slugging it out with the presidential hopefuls within their own political parties via open and public debates, which we all saw on satellite TV. Now finally it is down the wire between Trump and Clinton. Who wins the debate depends largely on whom you are supporting.
However, one very vital piece of information that came up from the mouth of Trump, which Clinton did not refute, was that in Chicago alone, there were 3,000 murders from January this year. Now isn't Chicago the place where President Barrack Obama comes from? In New York City, they had 2,500 murders this year. Now this is happening in the two cities in the United States of America where the ordinary Filipino's lifelong dream is to secure a green card or a US visa. The USA is a dangerous place!
Just imagine when we go on a deeper research and collate the murder statistics from all the other cities in America. I'm sure the numbers would be staggering. Yet, when Obama came out publicly to question our war against illegal drugs and the extra judicial killings in the country, I dare say that he should first look and solve the murders happening in the inner cities in America, especially his beloved Chicago, before accusing us of EJK which is miniscule to say the least.
At the end of this presidential debate, they did not even discuss the Clinton Foundation, which for Americans is a major campaign issue. Nor did Trump exploit the case of the missing 33,000 emails that Clinton kept from the American public. Well, I guess they are saving these for the next presidential debate. So has this debate become an advantage to either candidate? I think the American voters will wait for the next debate.
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Just when you thought that President Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte wanted the US military to get out of Mindanao, I just got this communiqué from the US Embassy which reported that upon the invitation of the Philippine government, the US Air Force has deployed two C-130 Hercules heavy lift aircraft with a complement of a hundred airmen from the 374th Air Wing out of Yokota Air Base in Japan and the 36th Contingency Response Group from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. They are now temporarily based in Benito Ebuen Air Base in Mactan.
This is the first time since the mid-60s that the Americans are now using Mactan for bilateral training missions to improve operational capabilities between the US Air Force and Philippine Air Force.
A few days ago as I was bringing my daughter to the airport, I did notice a C-130 making a low pass over the runway in Mactan. Now whether this is good or bad news for us depends upon how people think. The anti-Americans will never look at this as a good thing, but for me housing a hundred American airmen is a plus factor for businesses around the Mactan Airbase.
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Things may have quiet down in the proverbial Western Front now that the Filipino nation has been given a front row seat on the political ramblings of a has-been justice secretary turned senator Leila De Lima who earlier presided on a Senate investigation on the so-called extra judicial killings. She presented Edgar Matobato whom she kept in the Witness Protection Program for many years yet she couldn't not pin any evidence on then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte then, how much more now that he is the president of the land? In short, Matobato had nothing new to say but they had to coach him to say all the things that he did.
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