Sickening solons

Honorable congressmen and senators of the Commission on Appointments (CA) who have mining interests: Please don’t pass judgment on Environment Secretary Gina Lopez.

It’s sickening that lawmakers whose families own mining firms or who are friends of miners are withholding the confirmation of Lopez as a member of President Digong’s Cabinet.

We know who these congressmen and senators are.

Mahiya-hiya naman kayo (You should be ashamed of yourself)!

You should inhibit yourself from the CA’s deliberations on Gina’s appointment.

During a flight from Davao City to my hometown in Manay, Davao Oriental, aboard a helicopter lent to me by then Mayor Digong, the pilot pointed out to me a mountaintop between Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley.

The mountaintop, as well as the road leading to it, was made bald by a mining site.

Instead of trees, all we could see was a bare patch of earth on the site and a long, winding road with all the trees gone.

The mining site belonged to somebody who is now a senator.

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Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s proposal to tax all earnings of religious institutions which are not connected with religious activities is very sound.

There are many religious groups, including the Catholic Church, which run schools and other businesses like banks.

Most Catholic-run schools and hospitals are not for the common people.

They’re very expensive and yet they’re not paying taxes.

Why should these schools and hospitals be tax-exempt when they’re not doing religious work?

Alvarez should not be considered an atheist just because he would want to tax businesses belonging to religious groups; he is a Catholic and a graduate of the Jesuit-run Ateneo.

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Kudos to the National Bureau of Investigation for intercepting giant pearls from Palawan which would have been sold at P97 million.

Those pearls are a national treasure belonging to the state.

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Sen. Tito Sotto is right: There is anarchy in the streets because five out of 10 drivers are stupid.

But which government agency allowed those stupid drivers to get their license?

The Land Transportation Office (LTO), of course.

If there is no corrupt LTO, there are no stupid drivers.

And if law enforcers impose traffic rules to the letter, there will be no chaos in the streets.

Do you know why the task of enforcing traffic rules has been taken away from the police and given to civilians?

Because traffic policemen extorted bribes from erring motorists and public utility drivers.

Those cops would have enhanced police presence in the streets, but they were mostly corrupt.

But you know what? Those civilian enforcers are more corrupt than their police predecessors.