People talk about...
DEATH OF ‘HEALING PRIEST.’ The death of Fr. Fernando Suarez who collapsed and died of heart attack Tuesday, February 4, while playing a game of tennis at the Alabang Country Club shook some people’s belief in (a) priests who heal (“priest, heal thyself”) and (b) sports as means to stave off death. But even skeptics concede there’s no guarantee about results from healing or physical exercise.
Fr. Suarez would have turned 53 on Friday, February 7. He was particularly prominent in Cebu as he had conducted several healing masses in the city, the latest of which was held Saturday, February 1, at the Parish of Alliance of Two Hearts in Banawa, Guadalupe, three weeks after he was cleared by Vatican of sexual abuse charges and three days before his death.
TRUMP-PELOSI EXCHANGE OF SNUBS. US President Trump refused to shake House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s outstretched hand and she omitted the ceremonial introduction and tore her copy of the speech – in full view of media cameras and cell-phones, in effect the world that watched the state-of-the-union (SOU) address Tuesday night (Wednesday morning, PH time, February 5) at the House of Representatives in Capitol Hill, Washington D.C.
The two top officials had not met since last October when Pelosi abruptly left a House meeting after she lectured Trump.
News reports say Trump stepped up to the rostrum to deliver a copy of her speech and Pelosi rose to accept the copy and extended her hand to shake his. Trump turned his back and the speaker quickly withdrew her hand and shrugged.
In return for the slight, Pelosi didn’t say it was her “distinct honor and privilege” to present the president. Instead, she said simply, “Members of Congress, the president of the United States.” What grabbed public attention was when Pelosi, at the end of Trump’s delivery, pointedly picked up her copy of the speech, ripping it in half and throwing the pieces on the table in front of her.
Which was worse public decorum: the handshake snub or the speech-ripping?
Pelosi, Time magazine reported, was asked why she did it. “Because it was the courteous thing to do, considering the alternative.”
Now speculate on what the alternative would have been.
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LABOR UNREST AT VECO. Wednesday morning (Feb. 5), speculations were rife over the result of a scheduled meeting on that day between union leaders and management representatives to discuss a proposed new collective bargaining agreement.
Topping the concern among Veco consumers was how a work stoppage would affect the power company’s service.
Given the record in labor-management relations at Veco though, the concern could be put to rest at the end of the discussion. Check out the news.
If laborers are “restive,” is there a “labor unrest”? Or until the CBA is signed, aren’t the Veco workers just “restless”? Media reports don’t make a distinction between terms.
CHOICE OF QUARANTINE SITE. What’s this we hear that the Mandaue City mayor reacted “unfavorably” to the choice of Eversley Childs Sanitarium in Jagobiao as site for the quarantine of people suspected of being infected by coronavirus?
If he did, it was not raised to the level of a public and official reaction.
Eversley is a government facility. Local officials cannot be stingy on the use of a government site for protective action on the threat to public health.
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