The silent majority can now be heard via text!

I was taken by surprise to read the column of our publisher, the eminent Mr. Juanito Jabat last Sunday about the inspirational messages we send daily to our close friends and I must say that we didn't look for these text messages from the Bible or copied it in some booklets about inspirational messages. It comes from text messages which friends send to friends and in the end, it becomes like a prayer to those who read it. If by the text messages we send our friends makes them pray, that's enough to make our day!

Apparently in the case of our publisher, our text messages do not only make him pray, it gives him hope that being in the hospital is a temporary situation in our lives… and the realization that being here on earth is just as temporary, for it is only where our flesh resides. But our ultimate goal is for all of us to be with our eternal Father, because that's our real calling as we wrote last Sunday reading John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life." Let's pray for the quick recovery of Mr. Jabat.

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Still on the subject of texting. My neighbor, multi-awarded, Print, Radio and Television journalist Leo Lastimosa of ABS-CBN's DyAB 1512 khz in his great Binisaya column recognized our role in promoting Short Message Services (SMS) a.k.a. Text Messaging into the mainstream print media. Indeed, we did this in The Freeman five years ago when no one took texting seriously. I thought that it was a great way to interact with our readers. We also made this suggestion to the Philippine Star, hence they gave it a shot and today, most mainstream newspapers have separate columns just for text messages… the perfect instant reaction to print media.

Leo Lastimosa too came up with the idea of creating the Association of Concerned Texters (ACT) who every now and then bombard their reactions to his very popular radio commentaries. And last Nov.25th, they also celebrated their 5th year as a potent "straight from the horses" mouth comments direct from the very people we all serve.

Indeed, thanks to text messaging, the silent majority is no longer silent… members of ACT can simply text Leo Lastimosa and their thoughts are broadcast into the airwaves for all to hear. Their text messages travel further when the Philippine Star or The Freeman prints them and these texts are also broadcast in other radio stations in the other places in this country. I submit that I'm a techno freako and whenever we find technology that is useful in our profession, we will pass it on to everyone.

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Since we didn't have a column last Saturday, we couldn't make comments on the controversy between the Visayan Electric Company (VECO) and the Cebu Private Power Corporation (CPPC) which apparently ended very well in the sense that a deal was struck all in deference to the economic stability of Cebu. For this alone, we must congratulate the officers of VECO and CPPC for not dragging Cebu into darkness.

But this early allow me to say that the deal between CPPC and VECO is again a band aid solution to a potentially volatile problem of lack of power supply and our economy's constant thirst for more power. That tells you that we are indeed growing economically and somehow the government must address this issue once and for all and not paint a rosy picture that we are already out of the woods! We need more power for Cebu and that's the reality!

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THE BLACKBOX:

Kudos to my cousin, Alfonso "Ponsoy" Cañizares who joined the 1st Casino Filipino Texas Hold 'em Poker Tournament in Tagaytay last Saturday and garnered 5th placer in a gathering of more than 60 Poker players. Pagcor's Dennis Dacanay texted me that the 1st placer was Mr. Robert Karian who flew all the way from Germany just to be in the tournament; 2nd placer was Dr. Ronald Javier from St. Ana, Manila, while 3rd place went to Mr. Pat Mendoza from Tagaytay. Dennis failed to mention the 4th placer, while Ponsoy Cañizares bagged 5th place. The top ten placers won prizes.

The 1st Casino Filipino Texas Hold 'em Poker Tournament is proof of the tremendous popularity of this game… where instead of a sporting equipment, you use money to win against your opponents and most often, the one with the greatest skill or wit but with the lesser money wins. The Cebu Series of Poker Club has been holding poker tournaments since August this year. But for now, my cousin Ponsoy holds the distinction of being Cebu's Best Poker Player.

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