About Time to Privatize MRT

Business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan has made an offer to the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to invest between PhP 4.5 billion to PhP 8 billion for the purchase of brand-new trains and rehabilitate the facilities of the EDSA-based Metro Rail Transit (MRT).

It is about time that the public transport system gets the support to overhaul the depreciating capacity of the MRT. It was estimated that the daily capacity of the MRT line is about 360,000 passengers but it is currently serving a ridership of 488,000 passengers a day.

Horrific Punishment for Child-Killers Needed

The third week of November 2011 will not be remembered by the residents of Laguna and Batangas as the week that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was charged in court for election sabotage nor a week when the beneficiary farmers of Hacienda Luisita will finally get the land that they hungered for years.

The third week of November 2011 will be remembered as the week when three innocent children were hacked to death by still unknown assailants in two separate cases. The mothers of those children were also brutally murdered in a clear case of robbery.

Dubious Cargo Forwarders

Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) can already smell the "Spirit of Christmas" this early and many will feel homesick just by thinking about how Filipinos celebrate the Holiday season. And even if it is hard to earn money abroad, OFW will still continue to entertain request for gifts from their families back home.

However, sending precious gifts using their hard-earned money will not be as smooth a process as OFW would like it to be. There are several reports about an increasing number of delinquent sea freight forwarding companies responsible in causing delivery delay and non-delivery of Balikbayan boxes and pilferage, over-charging, and loss and damaged cargoes.

First Woman General in AFP

To cap last month's women's celebration, this blog would like to introduce the first female general in the Philippine Army's 114-year history.

Promoted from colonel to brigadier general, Ramona Go, 54, took her oath last March 2011 along with dozens of other promoted senior military officers upon the recommendation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Board of Generals.

Justice for Ellah Joy

Ellah Joy Pique, a Grade 1 pupil of Calajoan Elementary School, was found dead at the foot of a cliff in Barili on 9 February 2011, the day after she was kidnapped. Her naked body was wrapped in a bed sheet tied to a rock. A seven-inch wound was found in the head, indicating impact from a hard object.

She was last seen with a Filipino woman who picked her up from school purportedly on the request of the girl's mother. The two boarded a Mitsubishi Pajero driven by a male Caucasian.