Have a black cat, will get the opportunity to have a day to celebrate.
Levity aside, we were amazed with the knowledge that black cats long associated with bad luck, or often considered omen of unwanted things to come, are in fact, among the very few animals accorded a day in a year as “Black Cat Day.”
Whoever thought of the idea, we suspect, that instead of bad luck, a black cat may bring to a person the biggest gift of his or her life.
Yes, yesterday the Black Cat Day was officially recognized in honor of the feline or what? But really we have no idea.
So, starting today we will be giving our only black cat in the house more food than the eight others. How would we know, luck may still knock on our doors during the last quarter of our basketball game that is life.
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After the confiscation of a multi-million pesos worth of smuggled cigarettes somewhere in Dumoy early this week by law enforcement agents, this time another illegal substance – shabu – worth almost four hundred thousand pesos was confiscated by the police authorities.
Again we have reiterated in our previous columns that with the apparent frequency of confiscations of smuggled merchandise, specifically cigarettes, and the prohibited addictive shabu, many Davaoenos were stating to believe that Davao City has become a haven for smugglers and drug dealers.
There was a time – and that was for several years – that smugglers and drug dealers – hardly set foot in the city. But lately, these people are somewhat getting bolder in bringing their merchandise right in the heart of the city.
While it appears that the lawmen are on top of the situation because the smugglers and drug traders are arrested and their merchandise are getting into the hands of the police authorities, the brazenness of the smugglers and illegal drug merchants are showing their seeming dominance of the situation in the city.
From whom are these smugglers and drug traders getting assurance that they can do whatever they want in Davao City.
These people are openly mocking the local police authorities by making them appear inutile with their failure to prevent the entry of illegally brought in cigarettes and mind-destroying substance called shabu.
The market in the city must have expanded over the past few years that despite the arrest and confiscation of the smugglers’ and drug dealers’ merchandise they still persist in bringing their items in Davao City.
We can only hope that we are wrong with what we have in mind. That is, the smugglers and illegal drug traders have found influential friends in the city who is willing to use his or her clout in providing refuge and shield to those who are expanding their illegal business in Davao City.
We wish too, that the “godfathers” of the present smugglers and illegal drug merchants are not the same people or the scions of those who were lording over the same businesses and smuggling activities in the past decades.
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If it is measured by the number of attendees, the Davao Archdiocesan Penitential Walk held last Saturday morning to condemn corruption in government clearly, was a huge success.
The number of participant faithful estimated at 20 thousand braved rainy weather and assembled in the vicinity of the San Pedro Cathedral to show their disgust of the massive corruption now prevailing in many, if not all, agencies and offices was enough message to instill fear among the corrupt officials and their conspitators.
In calling the Faithful to join in the efforts to stomp corruption Archbishop Romulo Valles urged them to make corruption “contemptible again.”
We are just intrigued at the call of the Monsignor to make corruption “contemptible again.” Was there a period when this crime against the people of the Philippines considered as “not contemptible”? When was that, and when was the time when corruption in the government was “contemptible?” During the Presidency of who?
And when was the era when corruption was “not contemptible” or shall we say “tolerable”? who were the Presidents during those times?
Frankly, we believe there was no time in the history of the country that corruption did not characterize any of the administrations. But it is only during this administration that the Filipinos, specifically the civilians, became courageous enough to openly chastise the wrongdoers in government, especially the corrupt, despite the absence of the expressed support of the supposed protectors of the people – the Filipino soldiers.
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