I have not signed any petition

It was kind of a certain Alain Pascua, Kaakbay Co-convenor to text and let me know that he saw my name in a petition online calling for the resignation of President GMA and Vice-President Noli de Castro and to call for special elections. I have done no such thing and I have my reasons.

Here is the complete text which came from no (63)9186042654).gud pm mam carmen pedrosa we saw ur name in d petition online calling for d  resignation of gma n noli n calling for special snap elections. cn u pls confirm if ur d one who signed in d online petition? If not, we will be removing d name der as samwan might have just put ur name der for reasons not consistent wid d petitions. tnx â€â€ËÅ“ alain pascua/ kaakbay co-convenor. I have since texted back: I have not signed any petition whatsoever. The texter replied, ok mam. tnks wel remov ur name from it tnx.

There are many ways to interpret the text. One, someone signed my name fraudulently. I have not seen the petition with my name. It is also quite possible that there was a Pedrosa in the petition and Pascua (very unlikely) has mistaken it for me. The cryptic message could also have been provoked by my column Charter change and the prerogative to pardon Erap.  It is the prerogative of President GMA to pardon the convicted ex-president. But I took issue with a letter said to have been written and signed by Cardinal Vidal, Senate President Manuel Villar and Speaker Jose de Venecia urging the President to do so because ‘despite the humiliation Erap suffered after his downfall and arrest, he remains as popular as ever.’ Again, I am not against their sending a letter. This is a free country. But I am against the message it carries which implies that if he continues to be popular, then he deserves the pardon.

That is wrong and I am surprised that a churchman should say that popularity is the basis for the pardon. That would negate the very basis for Charter change I have advocated that seeks to end our politics of celebrity and money. Alas the text attempts something more clever that samwan might have just put ur name der for reasons not consistent wid d petitions . Get it? If I disagree with the letter’s message, then I disagree with the pardon, then I agree with the petition. By the way I have since done a little bit of research and Alain Pascua is indeed a real person, that Kaakbay networks with Black and White Movement and its more prominent members support “Ping Lacson as the man of the hour’. Now that is ominous. I have never been comfortable with those who push for black and white thinking, an intellectual absolutism that harbingers political totalitarianism. Not surprisingly, for those who follow this kind of thinking Senator Lacson is the awaited messiah, the man on horseback. But as someone who has known him from way back told me it is this messianic streak that is most dangerous and frightening. Nothing but nothing, moral or otherwise, should get in the way of a self-appointed messiah. Heaven help us all.

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With the galloping price of oil, there are more important things to think of. So far our government policies have been concentrating on developing alternative fuels as the response. We may have alternative sources of energy but in time if we do not change our lifestyles we will be back to square one when we will have exhausted the alternative fuels as well.

What about slowly changing our lifestyle? We will need government to come up with programs and policies to slowly wean us away from a lifestyle so dependent on energy. That is absolutely essential and yet we are taking our sweet time. Changing our lifestyle must begin now as other countries are already doing now, otherwise we tempt a chaotic even bloody transition to life without oil if it comes in too abruptly. We should kick the habit by developing a way of life without oil little by little. We are too slow to respond and the problems are already upon us.

Take the simple proposal of marking bicycle lanes in our streets so that people can use this alternative travel safely. With efficient planning and will, this should not be unrealistic or costly. In Paris, bicycles are returning with a vengeance. It is not just being used for small neighborhood errands. Bicycling is being encouraged by providing rent a bicycle to the public as an alternative mode of transport. That despite the excellent metro system they have.

Even visitors according to a recent article in the International Herald Tribune are beginning to get a hang of it. Whereas they used to think immediately of taxis on arriving at Charles de Gaulle, there is now the availability of bicycles for anyone whether they are tourists or locals. How about that? Going to Paris after a 12-hour flight and then bicycling along Boulevard Saint-Germain shortly.

Instead of taxi stands, Parisians look now for bicycle kiosks where you can drop a few francs and get a bike and pedal across town. These bikes for hire are called a velib and fashionable Parisians have taken to it like ducks in water. They love it. Imagine the health benefit of the exercise and the exhilarating feeling of freedom that comes with it. To the French it’s liberating, as in “liberté,” so the “Vélib” was born.

The article reports that since July 15, thousands of bicycles have become available in Paris at hundreds of self-service docking stations installed around the city by J. C. Decaux, an outdoor advertising company. “Anyone, even fresh-off-the-plane Americans, can stroll over, swipe a credit card and ride away on a sturdy, well-maintained three-speed bike, a “vélo” in French. The bikes are available 24 hours a day.

Yaah. What about others, I included, who would not be able to bike. Well, you take the taxi. But at least it is good to know that Paris, the city famous for its horrible traffic and reckless drivers, has now resurrected bicycles as a response both to climate change and skyrocketing oil prices. Surely this is something we can emulate and begin looking into. Let us all petition our congressmen/women for bicycles and bicycle lanes instead of wasting our time in futile oust GMA petitions.

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