Retraining for Ubial needed?

Batas Mauricio

IF Health Secretary Paulyn Jean B. Rosell Ubial really wanted to address sexual promiscuity that often leads to early marriages or unwanted teen pregnancies, she must re-focus her energies towards inculcating good manners and right conduct among Filipino children, with a deep emphasis on spirituality.

That way, she would be able to truly introduce change the mindset of the youth today, which is now steeped in disrespect for and contempt of parents and any and all forms of authority, permissiveness anchored on lack of moral values, and absence of fear and love of God that are often the breeding ground for crime and corruption.

Ubial should be told that handing out condoms to the young, blocking porn sites in the Internet, and distributing print materials showing photos of people afflicted with sexually transmitted diseases will not deter sexual promiscuity nor early marriages or unwanted teen pregnancies.

In fact, I will even suggest to Ubial to consult motivation and spiritual speakers in the likes of Francis Kong, Pastor Ed Lapiz and even Brother Jurem Ramos (who is from Davao City like her) to learn from them what ails the Philippine society in general, and the Filipino youth in particular, and then carry whatever they may prescribe as cure for misbehavior and recreant attitudes among the young.

I am sure Kong, Lapiz, and Ramos will tell Ubial that young children can now engage in sexual adventurism even at a very young age, precisely because they are no longer being taught good manners and right conduct and, more importantly, spiritual values that are necessary to mold them into good individuals and, later on, responsible citizens of the Republic.

If Ubial does not seem to consider the teaching of good manners and right conduct and spiritual values as important in molding the character of the youth and in bringing about a citizenry that is productive and progressive, somebody should tell her to undergo an urgent re-orientation and a re-training so she could focus on what is truly important in making a citizen a good person.

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Former reporter Joel Sy Egco is making history in Philippine media with his appointment as executive director of the Philippine Task Force on Media Security, an agency attached to the Office of the President whose principal task is to undertake measures to unearth evidence against all those who conspired and killed media persons in the past.

As of Jan. 18, Joel’s task force managed to issue the “Operational Guidelines of Administrative Order No. 01”, detailing the duties, responsibilities, and courses of action he and his colleagues will pursue to look into who were behind media killings from 2001 up to the present and, if the evidence warrants, to prosecute and have them punished.

Administrative Order No. 01 (AO 1), signed by President Duterte last October, created the task force, in response to many calls for more punitive action against those who plotted and carried out the murder of media personalities, for one reason or another. The secretaries of justice, communications, local government, national defense, and the chiefs of the AFP and the national police, were made members of the task force.

In his Facebook account, Joel made clear that: “My instructions are 1) to produce results, not excuses and 2) to treat cases of threats, intimidation and/or killing as if I was the victim. These guidelines are the result of several consultations and discussions with various stakeholders from government, and media partners.

“The salient features of the guidelines include the following: 1) creation of local PTFoMS (Presidential Task Force on Media Security) councils in all 81 provinces; 2) requirement to provide us with their respective strategic plans pursuant to AO 1 mandates.

“3) Designation of local police chiefs as point-persons; 4) a one-strike policy against malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance etc.; and 5) red-flagging and watch listing of persons of interests who may be behind threats versus media workers.

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com