SO IT SEEMS
Florencio Ranido
Less than two weeks after taking his oath as the 45th Presi-dent of the Unites States, Do-nald Trump issued an order barring refugees and visitors from seven Muslim countries, specially those from war-ravaged Syria. From entering the USA.
Filipinos heaved a sigh of relief upon learning that the Philippines is not included in the ban. The US is top destination of Filipinos looking for employment opportunities or in sight-seeing tour. A conservative estimate puts the number of Pinoys and Pinays in “the land of the free and home of the brave” to be more or less 15 million Filipino immigrant or visitors are usually found in California or in the southern states of the Union like Florida, Texas and Louisiana, to name a few, because the weather in those areas is almost like that of the Philippines even during the winter season.
The latest report has it that even green card holders require additional screening before they can return to the US. An official of the Department of Homeland Security said people holding green cards making them permanent legal residents are inclu-ded in Trump’s executive action.
A White House official clarified the situation by saying that green card holders who had left the US and wanted to return would have to visit a US embassy or consulate to undergo additional screening.
Green cards are issued to foreign nationals granted permanent resi-dency or whose applica-tion as immigrants has been approved by the Immigration and Citizen-ship Service. The color of these cards are actually pink, not green. Most probably the original color of immigration cards was green, hence the reference in color. .
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Government efforts to save the lives of Filipinos on death row in other countries are inconsistent with the move in some quarters to restore death penalty on people convic-ted of murder, kidnapping for ransom and bank robbery, to name a few.
After the hanging of a Filipina maid named Jakita Pawa for murder in Kuwait, the Department of Labor and Employment is now moving to avert the possible execution of Elpidio Lano who was convicted of killing a fellow Filipino worker in the same Middle East country.
In Indonesia, a Filipina caught smuggling high-value illegal drugs is on death row and awaiting execution. In Asia, most countries, including China, continue to hang people convicted of high crimes. Among the 10 member countries of the Asso-ciation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), only the Philippines has abo-lished capital punishment. For so long until 1994 when death penalty was done away within our statute books, convicted heinous criminals were executed by electric chair, later by lethal injection.
The advocates for abolition of capital punishment reasoned out that death penalty did not deter some people from committing heinous crimes. Now, the question is: has the commission of high crimes been reduced with the abolition of capital pu-nishment? The answer is a big NO.
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She was almost there, within an arm’s length away from the 2016 Miss Universe crown, so to speak, yet the inclusion of the Philippine bet, 26-year-old Maxine Medina, among the six semi-finalists was good enough for the country. No country has won a back-to-back crown in the Miss Universe compe-tition since the founding of the world’s original and most prestigious beauty contest 65 years ago or in 1952.
Not even the United States, the winningest country in the Miss Universe beauty contest with eight crowns won nor Venezuela, at second place, with seven crowns.
But the Philippines almost made history in the Miss Universe pageant when its contestant joined the six finalists, even among the13 semi-finalists.
In a way Gloria Diaz, the nation’s first Miss Universe was correct in expressing the belief that Maxine Medina had a slim chance of bagging a back-to-back Miss Universe crown because if the judges would pick her as successor to reigning Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach the public, especially people in other country would suspect it was a hometown decision.
However, we don’t believe that was the thinking of the judges because if it were so the jurors would not have included Maxine Medina in the 13 semi-finalists, much less in the six finalists.
Worth taking note is that less Europeans have been crowned Miss Universe. Majority of Miss U crown holders are from Latin America, particu-larly Venezuela and Colombia. Of course, the first Miss Universe was Armi Kuusela who is from Finland. Miss France, Iris Mittenaere who captured the 2016 Miss Universe crown is the second from that eastern European nation to be chosen as the most beautiful woman in the whole universe this year.
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