Vizconde case solved in 6 months? Hahaha!

It is the week of Christmas and it has been a tradition on our TV show Straight from the Sky not to come up with a talk show, but rather serenade our viewers with Christmas carols and songs. But I got a request to feature a story on the relic of St. John Bosco, a saint that I know very little of simply because I never got to study in any of the Don Bosco Centers.

So tonight we have with us Fr. Fidel Orendain who heads all the Don Bosco Centers in the Visayas and Mindanao. He answers my question on the relevance of St. John Bosco to Christmas and he quickly informs me that St. John Bosco is considered the father and teacher of the youth and when you talk about children…Christmas is not far away because the Nativity is the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into this world as a human being… and as a child.

Reading all the material that Fr. Orendain gave me about St. John Bosco, I was truly impressed that this saint from so far away in Europe founded the Salesian Order and established so many Don Bosco Centers in the Visayas and Mindanao (and all throughout the world for that matter) catering to the educational needs of poor children. It is for this reason why I broke our Christmas tradition in Straight from the Sky and will give you instead the story of St. John Bosco whose lifetime work continues even after his death and, more importantly, the story of the Salesians who help educate many Cebuano children.

I consider it then a great honor and privilege to feature St. John Bosco through Fr. Fidel Orendain especially that the saint’s relic is still within our midst. It is quite expensive for us Catholics to do a pilgrimage to a saint in Europe, but with the grace of God, St. John Bosco instead comes to us in Cebu. So watch this very interesting show about the life and times of St. John Bosco in SkyCable’s Channel 15th at 8pm and if you can, try to find out where his relic is at this time because inside the wax body of the saint is his blessing arm, which I was told is very miraculous.

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How we wish that our government was all so powerful they can issue an order and things would happen instantly! I guess this is the mindset of our government officials under the Aquino government, notably Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Jr. who starred in the headline news of The Philippine Star last Saturday which blared, “Solve Vizconde Case in 6 Months—Palace” because he issued a memorandum last December 16 directing the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to solve the Vizconde case in six months.

Such an order from the hallowed halls of Malacañang should pressure all these investigative agencies into action and voila! In six months, you can consider the Vizconde massacre case closed! I just hope that the executive secretary was drunk when he issued that memorandum so at least he can have that as an excuse when, six months later, the killers of the Vizconde family are still not brought to justice and all the agencies he directed in that memorandum would give him all sorts of excuses why they all failed!

If you ask me, Sec. Ochoa ought to have a reality check. How can we expect the resolution of a 19-year old case in just six months when all the evidence collected in those years were either removed or stolen, which is why Parañaque policeman Gerardo Biong was jailed for tampering or destroying all those evidences? If you ask me, this memo makes us laugh! Hahahaha!

But I’m willing to give the executive secretary the benefit of the doubt that he just might pull a fast one. After all, his boss, Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III, needs some kind of success stories, especially for 2011. Right now, even if Pulse Asia (which is owned by PNoy’s uncle) says that most Pinoys still have confidence in Pres. Aquino, the fact remains that since they took over Malacañang in July, we only got bad news after bad news from the Aquino government.

Today, our gasoline pump prices are the highest in two years… and yes, even the price of bread has gone up at a time when people are supposed to experience Yuletide cheer. Surely, the Filipino people are not blind about the high prices of basic goods and over here, I can hear a lot of grumbling. Sure, the majority of Filipinos are hopeful for the year 2011 simply because they didn’t get much this year.

Perhaps now is the time for the Aquino administration to have a reality check. I know that the Aquino Presidency was brought about by a well-orchestrated media support, which still supports him until now despite all the bungled incidents happening in his government. Remember Aesop’s Fable on the Emperor with no clothes? If they don’t watch out, it could happen to PNoy! But then it might just be too late for him to change course!

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