The whole world mourns Kobe Bryant’s death

The whole world’s attention was focused on the quick spread of the coronavirus from Wuhan, China, when a bigger news clouded that world report as last Sunday in the US (Monday in the Philippines) the world-famous basketball star Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, together with her 13-year-old teammates Alyssa Altobelli and Payton Chester, and their parents Keri and John Altobelli (head baseball coach at Orange Coast College) and Sarah Chester, as well as basketball assistant coach Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan flew on a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter from John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, heading to the Mamba Sports Academy in Newbury Park.

It was unfortunately very foggy at the time. Suddenly, the helicopter flew to a high altitude before spiraling into a steep dive, then crashing and catching fire in Calabasas, California, near the intersection of Las Virgenes Road and Willow Glen Street. All nine passengers died. This was the first time in a long time that 90% of my Facebook page was a tribute given to Kobe Bryant. Soon afterwards, even CNN news, which always focuses their news reports on the Trump impeachment trial, now featured the crash that killed Kobe Bryant.

One thing that we learned about Kobe Bryant that EWTN featured was that he was a staunch Catholic and raised his family attending the Catholic Church. In fact, he attended a Holy Mass with his daughter before going to the sports academy. At this point, we request our pious readers to please pray for the repose of his soul. A famous basketball icon has passed into eternal life.

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Meanwhile, the dreaded coronavirus from Wuhan, China, has already taken 56 lives. To think that only last Saturday only 17 were confirmed dead. This means that this spreading virus has not yet been contained. I gathered from reports in China that the Shanghai Disneyland has been closed as well as the Hong Kong Disneyland that my family only visited at the end of December 2019. With this closure of major tourist destinations in China, I’m certain that this virus will certainly affect the economic growth of China where even its airline industry has been severely affected.

Here in the Philippines, we are no longer issuing visas to the Chinese in order to prevent them from spreading the virus here. Meanwhile, in Cebu, that first suspected case of the virus, that five-year-old body, has already recovered, but there are two or three more admitted to the hospital. We certainly hope that these people did not infect anyone here in Cebu because as of today we are still coronavirus free.

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Another news of equal importance is the issue of the possible termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement between the United States and the Philippines. No less than Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte said that he will cancel the VFA due to the fact that the US government cancelled the visa of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa as the principal person that had Sen. Leila de Lima imprisoned allegedly on trumped-up charges, as accused by two Republican senators.

While I’m very pro-American and I’m not ashamed of it. However the officials of the US government must learn to realize that the Philippines has become a sovereign nation since July 4, 1946 as approved by the US government. So why are they cancelling the US visa of a Philippines senator when he has not been convicted of anything? If you ask me, this is nothing but unwarranted interference in Philippine internal matters.

Mind you, I also learned that the Justice department is conducting a “preliminary impact assessment” of the possible termination of the VFA between the US and the Philippines. In fact Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., said last week that the process to terminate the agreement is already underway. But this was after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to end the VFA if the US will not “correct” the cancellation of Dela Rosa's visa.

The Americans must realize that we are already friends with Russia and China and the Philippines is strategically located in this part of Southeast Asia. In the interest of global political strategies, America’s mutual defense treaty with the Philippines is of very grave importance to Filipinos!

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