HERE IS this forwarding company that claims to have a system where shippers and consignees of cargoes can monitor the whereabouts of the shipment in real time.
The family of our sister-in-law, now based in Greensboro, Alabama, sent us two boxes intended for members of her family in Davao City. The boxes were loaded last July 2025. Our sister-in-law and her husband were hoping that it would reach the consignee family shortly before Christmas.
When we checked with the forwarding firm’s office as to the location of the cargo towards the end of the first week of December last year, we were told that it was already loaded in an inter-island boat and on the way to Davao City. No shipment arrived. So we checked again towards the end of the week before Christmas, and we got the same answer: The boat carrying the boxes was on its way to Davao City.
Christmas came, and still no boxes were delivered to the house. So we tracked the cargo again, and we got the same answer – the boxes were on board an interisland boat on the way to Davao City.
A day before the New Year, the husband of our sister-in-law called the house to find out. When we told him the boxes were still not delivered, we clearly saw his face on our mobile phone’s screen, a picture of disgust.
A day after that video call, we received a message through Messenger that our sister-in-law’s husband died of a heart attack. Of course, we are not saying that his death was caused by the non-arrival of his family’s gifts to the immediate members of his family’s wife in Davao City.
All we mean is that our brother-in-law died too close to both Christmas and New Year that he will no longer be able to hear or read the recipients’ profuse thank you messages when the cargo finally arrives and gets into the recipients’ hands.
It is our take, though, that the said forwarding firm should better stop boasting about their tracking mechanism and instead concentrate on responding accordingly to the expectations of their shippers and consignees.
So, when the company’s people talk about their firm “moving” their clients’ cargo, it really moves according to expectation.
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We commiserate with the owners of residential houses and establishments that were burned during the closing of 2025 and the onset of the year 2026.
Yes, it was unfortunate for Davao City that fires occurred while the residents were agog with the usual activities to welcome the New Year. We are, however, happy because while it was a “fiery” year-end, it was far from deadly.
We are nonetheless sad because the fires that hit houses and buildings that host big business establishments were very costly. Imagine the fire that gutted a section of a Buhangin-based mall, resulting in P48 million damage!
Indeed, instead of enjoying what could be a profitable week leading to the New Year from the brisk business experienced by malls starting from the coming of the Christmas season, a devastating loss instead opened the year for the affected business establishments.
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We do not know if the officials and members of the activist Makabayan group were joking or serious about their call to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
We mean their challenge hurled to the ICC to have United States President Donald Trump arrested because of his bombing of the Venezuelan Capital Caracas, and the subsequent arrest of the country’s President, Nicholas Maduro, by US agents.
Actually, President Trump’s action was preceded by the attack of Venezuelan fighter planes on a US warship some weeks back.
While Trump issued a warning to Venezuela that he may authorize retaliation, no one believes the US President will go that far. Yes, the bombings were too dangerous to civilian lives as well as the possible compromising of global peace.
But the attack right on the Venezuelan capital, Trump indeed ordered. Then it was capped with his mandate to arrest President Maduro.
Quick to react, the Makabayan group called on the ICC to arrest Trump. But can the ICC afford to respond to such a call knowing that the US is not a signatory to the Rome Statute? Moreover, the ICC does not have some kind of a world policeman to effect the arrest of Trump.
So, the most is for the International Criminal Court to tap the agents of the International Police Organization (InterPol), the majority of whom are from the US.
Indeed, the activist group may find later that if what they say is a joke, they may never know that the joke could end up on them.
