JUSTICE Secretary Leila de Lima and Gabriela’s Liza Masa agree on banning Ashley Madison (www.ashleymdison.com), the controversial infidelity website recently launched in the Philippines.
The site invites married folks to commit adultery without getting caught. The 12-year-old site which was founded in Canada is reportedly going strong in Catholic countries abroad. With the success of such teleseryes like “The Legal Wife” and “Two Wives,” the people behind Ashley Madison expect the Philippines to become one of their top five markets.
For de Lima, the website is a platform for committing adultery, a crime in the Philippines. Masa, meanwhile, hits the website as “commercialization of adultery.” We still have to hear from our religious leaders.
While authorities have shown success in going after local small-time cybersex operations, I am not that optimistic in the government’s ability to prohibit the use of a website with its servers located abroad.
On the other hand, I don’t think Filipinos are comfortable paying for online services. While we are learning to buy things and tickets online, those who cater to cybersex services are mostly foreigners.
Besides, what would consistently appear in one’s credit card statement? Or would Ashley Madison prefer cash? I don’t think an adultery site would be appealing to Filipino married folks. Of course, locals looking for their “Afam” would consider the Ashley Madison option.
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If there are Filipinos illegally staying abroad, there are also foreigners who are illegally staying here in the country. The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has embarked on a project that seeks to place these illegal aliens within the radar of the Philippine government.
Overstaying foreigners now have the opportunity to set their records straight with the Alien Registration Project (ARP) of the BI. Aliens staying in Bantayan Island learned this over the weekend when BI personnel conducted an information and registration drive in Sta. Fe town.
The project requires all foreign nationals in the country to present themselves before the bureau for biometrics capturing and issuance of a Special Security Registration Number ((SSRN) starting last Oct. 1, 2014 until Sept. 30, 2015. However, top bureau officials have decided to go where the foreigners are staying in carrying out the project.
“We will also go to other areas in Cebu,” said Alien Control Officer Jun Madarang when I visited him recently at the BI office inside the J Center Mall in Mandaue City.
Madarang assured that overstaying aliens will not be deported if they cooperate with ARP. Note, however, that those without a SSRN September 2015 will be easy to spot and considered an illegal.
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As the huge establishments at the South Road Properties near completion, fears of monstrous traffic jams will become reality. Today, a vehicle with a flat tire already results in congestion. One can merely reflect on the South Coastal Road-Laray junction where there is a small mall. Motorists now suffer nightly traffic jams that stretch for kilometers. Just imagine what would happen when that giant mall opens at the South Coastal Road- Mambaling Access Road junction.
Are our authorities doing something about this, aside from preparing for 2016? Or are they just waiting for the problem to materialize so they can play hero with ineffective remedial measures?
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Where was Andres Bonifacio born on Nov. 30, 1863? The National Historical Commission and several historians say he was born in a Tondo nipa hut across what is now the Tutuban Train Station. However, the first Bonifacio biography in 1911 said he was born in a house on Calle Alvarado in the Binondo district.
Many might consider this mere trivia. But for some, it would be interesting to note where the Philippine revolution’s plebeian leader was born. Was he born poor? Or was he born in a house in affluent Binondo?
This could go further. Was the split in the Katipunan between Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo factions, for instance, a struggle between a proletarian leadership and the ilustrados? Or was it a factional struggle within the ilustrado-led revolutionaries?
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The start of the Senate hearings on the alleged misuse of the Malampaya funds and the Senate’s raising of the pork funds embedded in the 2015 budget are welcome developments. The anti-pork movement has praised Sen. Miriam Santiago for her expose.
But, this should not mean that we have forgotten the many anomalies allegedly committed by Vice President Jojo Binay. He has yet to show proof against the damning evidences against him.
(Follow @anol_cebu in Twitter)