Poor internet service

Batas Mauricio .

REALLY, the Duterte government must do something truly remarkable now about the sorry state of Internet service in the country, more than two years after it was given the power to lead the Philippines in 2016 by Filipinos who have been gravely suffering from poor yet exorbitantly priced telco service.

This sorry state of the Philippines’ Internet service grabbed my attention the other day when one photo of an Internet provider’s failure to give its promised free Internet service kept appearing several times in my phone while I was at the Puerto Princesa International Airport. No matter how I tried, the Internet provider simply failed to provide any service, as the photo indicated.

I am urgently praying that President Duterte can really do something at this point to bring about true change in this country, as promised by him with a lot of bravado while he campaigned for the presidency two years ago, at least in the telco-Internet industry.

For the sake of those who believed in him but who are starting to doubt whether he, indeed, was the promised one who would deliver the country from gross suffering under previous presidencies, Duterte must be able to produce tangible results now in the Internet industry, or face the danger of being deserted by his original supporters because of disillusionment.

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If I were to be asked whether martial law in Mindanao should be extended beyond Dec. 31, 2018 or not, I would be pushing for its extension for another year or even longer. My own experience in Iligan City, when I went there to attend the wedding of my nephew Justin and the love of his life, Angelie Deolan Mauricio, from Oct. 6 to 7, 2018, showed me that relative peace and calm has descended in the region because of martial law.

Sure, there were a lot of policemen and soldiers on Oct. 7, 2018 to commemorate a festival for a saint, but it was only because people came out in droves to attend the festivities, knowing they would be safe and sound on account of the presence of law enforcement authorities.

What the Duterte government should be extra-careful about however is the abuse of martial law by the police and the military, and its transformation as an instrument of political repression and personal aggrandisement and economic advancement.

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Just what kind of a woman was the one that nonchalantly left her new-born baby inside a church in Dagupan City in Pangasinan on Oct. 20, 2018? First, I am sure she is one who doesn’t have a husband. If she did, the man–or the father of the unfortunate baby–would not have agreed that their child would be left all by itself just anywhere.

Second, it would also be certain that the woman’s family wasn’t pleased with her pregnancy, prompting her to a most morbid decision: leaving the fruit of her obviously sinful indulging in the pleasures of the flesh to die by itself. Third, it is way too clear, too, that the woman was far worse than the lowest species of animals, considering that animals who give birth to their own babies by instinct fiercely fight to protect their offspring.

What could have prompted this woman to commit the most unforgivable sin of leaving her baby to die by itself? It is a cinch that she grew up in a family where love is unknown among its members, and where respect and concern for family members are not practiced.

She must have grown up rude and shameless, without fear and love of God and of her own parents. She must have gone through life without any respect for herself, so that even the flesh of her flesh and the blood of her blood, her baby, did not matter to her in any way.

But, just a minute, fellow believers in the majesty of the law. Isn’t this the kind of an environment, or family life, that many Filipino children are undergoing or have undergone? Isn’t it a fact that many Filipino kids now come from parents who have separated from one another, or from homes that have been torn asunder, whatever the reason may have been for their separation or the break-up of their families?

Indeed, if the same family background haunted most Filipino children nowadays, can it happen that there would arise more women who would have no qualms throwing off their new-born babies to the mercy of the elements? Would not separation and broken homes also come to these children when they become adults embarking on their own families?

I have been saying this a lot of time in this column: whenever fathers and mothers fail, deliberately or otherwise, to properly discharge their duties and responsibilities as loving and protective parents, or when they decide to cut off their marital and family ties with their erstwhile spouses, the same curses of separation and broken homes would befall their children.

How can these curses of separation and broken homes be stopped? This is a very complicated question which is made more complex by what the Book of the Law is saying: the sins of the parents are visited upon their children to the third and fourth generations.

Come to think of it, the implications of this command is earthshaking: there is no stopping the curses of separation and broken homes among the descendants of parents who go on separate ways because these curses would afflict all succeeding generations of the sinning parents. Fortunately, however, there is a cure. And this cure could be found only when the erring parents and their children would learn to sincerely go back to God.

How can anyone truly go back to God? They need to repent and renounce sin, and then to have themselves baptized in the Name of Jesus, our God and Savior who is God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

After that, they should embark on learning the Word of God, the Bible, and commit God’s commands in their minds and in their hearts. If this is what they will do, the Holy Spirit of God will descend upon them once again, and destroy the curses of separation and broken homes in their families.

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I was asked, “Atty. Batas, can I already marry another since my spouse and I have been separated for seven years already?” The answer, according to the Lawyers Instruted on Godliness, Humility, and Truth: No, this marriage is not allowed by law, even if the spouses have been separated from one another for seven years (or even more). Their marital relations remain valid and existing. They have to seek the annulment of that first marriage beforehand.

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com