Freedom of expression is paramount

We all saw what happened during the annual Black Nazarene procession done in the City of Manila. The Philippine National Police estimated that the crowd was lower than the expected five million that the Quiapo Church officials earlier estimated. As the reports pointed out, there were some four million devotees that joined the annual procession.

The Black Nazarene’s journey from the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park to its home church lasted for 21 hours. The procession -locally called “traslacion”- started a little past 5 a.m. on Wednesday and ended past 2 a.m. on Thursday. No doubt this procession is bigger than our Sinulog Festival, which is going to happen in Cebu City next week.

Again, I would like to reiterate my call that it is totally unnecessary for the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to shut down all cellsites of Globe and Smart simply because it puts everyone at a huge disadvantage when it comes to communicating with others, especially for family members.

Robbers may enter your home and since you cannot use your cellphones, then you have become a victim of injustice done by the police. I dare say that snatchers, thieves, and robbers who already know that the PNP has exhorted the NTC to cut our communications would resort to other means, like using a portable radio.

In short, even with this in place, it would be totally impossible for the PNP to guarantee our safety just because they urged the NTC to cut our means of communication. Hence, I urge the NTC to reconsider their decision. As I pointed out, the Black Nazarene procession had more than 4 million devotees and the cellsites that were turned off were only focused on the traslacion route.

So why can’t they do this in Cebu, rather than turn off the entire Cebu Province and parts of Bohol? Again, I would like to point out clearly that this is a violation of our freedom of speech and the PNP and the NTC are totally violating this provision constitutionally guaranteed in the 1987 Constitution! Freedom of expression is paramount!

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First came the surveys of the Social Weather Station and, not surprisingly, Pulse Asia, that Senator Grace Poe is keeping her lead over other senatorial candidates in the May 2019 elections. Accordingly, Poe’s reelection to the Senate was supported by 75.6 percent of registered voters, according to the poll taken from December 14 to 21.

Second was Senator Cynthia Villar with an overall voter preference of 66.6 percent.

Senator Sonny Angara and Taguig City Representative Pia Cayetano shared third and fourth slots with voter preferences of 58.5 and 55.4 percent, respectively.

In fifth to seventh places were former senator Lito Lapid with 49.8 percent voter preference, Senator Nancy Binay with 46.7 percent, and Senator Aquilino Pimentel III with 45.5 percent. Former senator Serge Osmeña obtained a voter preference of 38.8 percent and was ranked eighth to thirteenth places.

Osmeña is followed by former senator Ramon Revilla Jr., who placed eighth to fourteenth with 37.6 percent of respondents voting for him. The Sandiganbayan recently acquitted Revilla of plunder before the survey was conducted. Sharing eighth to fifteenth places were Ilocos Norte Governor Aimee Marcos (36.7 percent), former senator Jinggoy Estrada (36.3 percent), former Bureau of Corrections chief Ronald dela Rosa (35.7 percent), and former senator Mar Roxas (35 percent). At least, Roxas is the solitary member of the Liberal Party to enter the magic 12.

Again, I would like to reiterate that it is already 2019 and it is high time for Filipino voters to be more responsible in the way they vote. There is no doubt that there will be candidates who will be buying their votes, but it is time for them to bite the reality to accept the bribe or dole out, but vote for the right candidates. Mind you, many of the corruption that was headlined in our national and local newspapers involved many politicians, both national and local.

I dare say that it is time to change and realize that voting for the same crooked candidates/politicians make you an accomplice in their corruption. So don’t ever complain that this politician is corrupt if you voted for him or her because the voters are their favorite accomplices!

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