allies’

Philippines, Santa Banana, how can a tourist love a country when tourists upon arrival at NAIA airport see our airport as a far cry from other international airports in Southeast Asia?

We have an international airport chronically called the “worst” airport in the world and, sadly enough, all main international gateways in Southeast Asia are referred to as the best.

I used to travel a lot in my younger days as a journalist and when I pass through the main gateways to countries around us, my heart truly breaks when I compare NAIA with airports like Hong Kong, Narita in Japan , and Seoul, Korea.

The international airports of Jakarta far excel NAIA.

There’s also the problem of infrastructure.

Yes, there are many things to love in the Philippines but can tourists just go there safely and easily?

And yes, Filipinos are known for their hospitality, but if tourist flights are delayed and canceled, my gulay, the stories that they would tell people when they go back home are about all the delays and inconveniences.

These would definitely erase whatever they love about the Philippines when they get back home to their country. Yes, Santa Banana, there are many things a tourist can love about the Philippines.

But what first impression will a tourist have about our country when they go through NAIA and flights are delayed or canceled or they have a difficult time going to the places they want to go to?

First year of BBM

When a President like Marcos Jr. ends his first year, he is usually rated as a success or a failure.

In fairness to BBM, while others may claim he did not do well during his first year, I will not rate him since he assumed office after the May 2022 elections at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was still ongoing and when oil prices soared due to multiple reasons like the RussiaUkraine war that had a domino effect on prices of almost everything in the country, especially on consumer goods and transport fares without any fault to BBM.

Moreover, what BBM wants to do for the country and its people is rather incomplete.

There is also the problem when productivity and services were diminished because of the pandemic, causing the surge of inflation sky high that reached as high as 8.1 percent, like many countries, and inflation causing prices of consumer goods to rise which necessitates Bangko Sentral to raise interest to tighten borrowings, due mostly to excess of money supply more than productivity and services, as economists would say.

All this necessitates President Marcos Jr. to assume the secretaryship of the agriculture department to ensure food security and affordability, knowing full well that food security is basic and essential to the people.

It was indeed necessary and essential for the President to assume the position as Secretary of Agriculture because of the need to control smuggling of food, like sugar , rice and other vital consumer goods in the wake of hoarding and manipulation of prices, like what I said of vital food.

There are many other things that President Marcos Jr. had to do during his first year in office.

Santa Banana, there was the need to import sugar and other consumer goods that only a President was in a position to do.

It is for these reasons it would be unfair to rate the President whether or not he did good or bad.

But, to be honest I would say that as President he did well. He knew what was vital and essential for the common good.

Thus, I would say for those who rated him bad for the first year in office, they fail to realize we cannot rate a President during his first year knowing full well what he must and had to do for the common good. As I said, BBM still has five years to go to get any rating. But,as far as I am concerned, he did pretty well.

The most essential and important thing is that BBM knows what he must do.

THE Philippines and the United States celebrate today their Friendship Day, an erstwhile official holiday titled Independence Day.

It commemorates the Treaty of Manila, signed in 1946 liberating the Philippines from American rule—that time the Philippine tricolors was pulled up as the Stars and Stripes was lowered at the bayside Quirino Grandstand.

It marked the end of more than 48 years of American rule lasting from 1898 to 1946.

In 1955, then President Ramon Magsaysay established the observance of Philippine American Day.

In 1984, under President Ferdinand Marcos, July 4 was designated as a non-working holiday to celebrate Filipino-American Friendship Day – which shows the first official celebration of Filipino-American Friendship Day under the name it is known began that year.

The celebration of Filipino-American Friendship Day follows more than 100 years of shared history between the two nations, which fought alongside each other during the second world war in the 1940s.

Many say the beginning of a good relationship between the two countries could be said to have started in 1946 when the Philippines regained complete independence from the United States.

To show appreciation for the assistance offered to them when Japan attacked, the Philippine government designated July 4 as Independence Day and also Filipino-American Friendship Day.

It was also on July 4, 1946, following Japan’s defeat in World War ll, that the United States restored independence to the Philippines, a US possession since 1898.

Today, the 4th of July is observed in the Philippines as a day that pays tribute to the long partnership between the two countries, and particularly at a time of rising tensions in the South China Sea, home to hundreds of islands, atolls and coral reefs, plus abundant reserves of oil and natural gas, fisheries and some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

For decades, neighboring countries have had