Friday the 13th defused?

The President will officiate at the presentation of the GO NEGOSYO awards in Bacolod today. Somebody asked if GO stands for Genuine Opposition but quickly added, "Joke Only".

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Today is Friday the 13th. The superstitious would say that the bad luck has been defused already with the events of the past two days. On Tuesday, bandits from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front killed 14 Philippine Marines and mutilated their bodies near the town of Tipo-Tipo in Basilan. Six of the soldiers were also reportedly beheaded. How could some members of the human race be so inhuman to their fellows? The poor soldiers were only searching for the Italian priest who had been abducted, they were not storming enemy fronts.

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The savagery of the killings was made more deplorable by the fact that the Marines were on a humanitarian mission that was also intended to redeem the reputation of our country as the lair of kidnappers and ransom-seekers, victimizing foreigners. Just think of 14 young men, of the Marines, considered as the cream of the crop as far as our military is concerned. Well, at least the people of Italy, who have been lamenting the pace of the efforts to rescue Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, will now be convinced that we are working on it very seriously. The search has claimed the lives of 14 people and caused injuries to nine more, with others still missing.

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Another tragedy was the sinking of a seabound vessel yesterday, where, so far, ten passengers have been determined dead. The vessel was believed to have sank because of extremely bad weather. A storm that developed into a typhoon called Bebeng had been lashing at some parts of the country up to yesterday, but, thank God, was reported to have gone out and heading for Okinawa and Japan already. I hope the people there are prepared for the calamity. By the way, the international name of the typhoon is "Man-Yi."

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Friday the 13th may also have different effects on two candidates who will face the Supreme Court today for their arguments on the results of the senatorial candidates with regards to the 12th position. The Commission on Election was about to proclaim Miguel Zubiri as the winner after the votes from Maguindanao were considered, but Koko Pimentel and his lawyers are not convinced that they have lost. So we will know, also today, that is, if the hearing is concluded, for whom this day is lucky, or unlucky. May the true winner be the one.

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What's in a name? You'd know there is a lot to it if you were that little boy in Melbourne, Australia who would not be accepted by a school because his family name is "Hell". Five-year-old Max Hell was about to enter pre-school, but officials hesitated about enrolling him because of what his name could make him undergo from his schoolmates. Later, the officials relented and agreed to take him, but his father, Alex Hell, no longer wanted him to go there, saying his child was already traumatized by the rejection. He didn't tell them to go to hell, even if the school was named after St. Peter the Apostle.

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Good news for our nurses. Manila has been selected as the new international site for the National Council Licensure Examination, more familiarly known as the NCLEX. This means our nurses can take the test that would qualify them for employment in any of the states of the U.S. The announcement does not specify if the local nurses will have to take the national examinations, but it states that examinees who apply have to pay a fee of $200, or a little less than P10,000 at current exchange rates.

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The battle for speakership of the House of Representatives is getting more intense with both contenders trying to show that he has more supporters than the other. Yesterday, Rep. Pablo Garcia of Cebu called on his rival, incumbent speaker Jose de Venecia, to withdraw from the race. De Venecia, who has been flaunting his list of alleged 164 sure voters, has not yet been reported to tell Garcia, "Ano ka, sineswerte?"*

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