Junket of useless politicians

 

“There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses.”

—Andrew Jackson

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

THE recent junket of several senators to France led by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri was unnecessary.

The money they used during the foreign trip could have been set aside to help victims of killer typhoon Paeng that recently lashed at the entire archipelago and destroyed millions of farmlands and houses.

Some of the reported missing during the flash floods and landslides have not been found by their relatives and rescuers have ruled they may have also died. Their bodies could not be located as of this writing.

Yet, Zubiri and his ilk—Nancy Binay, Bong Go, Grace Poe, Joel Villanueva, Lito Lapid, JV Ejercito, and Loren Legarda couldn’t control their itch for wanderlust. 

The Senate delegation was reportedly invited to visit France from October 24 to 26 “as part of interparliamentary exchanges and to mark the 75th anniversary of Philippine-French diplomatic relations.” Whatever. 

Still, the trip was unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers money because it has no value whatsoever in terms of direct benefit to the hoi polloi, let alone the displaced typhoon victims who need immediate financial assistance and otherwise from the government.

When they were campaigning during the election, these useless politicians promised to help the economic well-being of the poor.

Now that they have been elected, they’re the first to take advantage and abuse their privileges as “public servants” by using the taxpayers money for their pleasure abroad. Mga wala huya.

 

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IN my opinion, two of the best translations of “Iliad” were written by Caroline Alexander and Stanley Lombardo.

But the translation by Richard Lattimore with copyright in 1951 by the University of Chicago was probably one of the most outstanding, easier to understand, very interesting and arguably the best collector’s item about the subject matter.

I was lucky to obtain this book, a rare copy and seldom displayed in major bookstores anywhere in the United States and in the Philippines.

William Arrowsmith of the Hudson Review calls Lattimore’s book as “the finest translation of Homer ever made into the English language.”

“The best modern Iliad is that of Richard Lattimore…Lattimore is as much a scholar as a poet,”writes Hugh Llyod-Jones.

“Certainly the best modern verse translation,” confirms Gilbert Highet.

Many books have been written about the Iliad and Odyssey. 

Many translations from Homer’s original script have been submitted by different authors in antiquity and in the modern times.

In fact, many of us have already wrestled with this best of all the greatest ancient Greek epic poems ever written in history when we were in high school and college.

 

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The ''Iliad'' is a 15,000-line work that began as an oral composition in a preliterate culture and amplified and revised by the various bards who performed it over the centuries.

The poem was probably set down in writing sometime during the eighth century B.C. and achieved its present form in Athens about two centuries later. 

Traces of its oral origins and multiple authorship remain, presenting the translator with particularly thorny problems. 

The frequently repeated stock lines and epithets—''rosy-fingered dawn,'' for example—which allowed the ancient composer-performer to fill in the metrical blanks while thinking ahead to his next line, are pointless in a written text. 

And there are syntactical anomalies and narrative inconsistencies that suggest unresolved competition between two or more earlier oral versions.

In her version, which came out on November 24, 2015, Alexander wanted to bring the epic down to earth.

Alexander said she wanted to break down that assumption for readers, as she translated the work.

“I felt it was so the opposite of that, and that there was a need to sort of give people, average readers with no classical background, the poem on its own terms,” she said. 

“I feel that the Iliad has been so appropriated by academia, that it has been made into this very different text that’s a sort of embodiment of high culture—the Everest of literature.”

She said, as a classic text, “The Iliad” has its “own charisma,” which has drawn readers for hundreds of years. 

Part of its appeal is that it deals with themes that are timeless -- namely, war and mortality, she said. 

“It is actually saying something true about a dimension of our life that will always matter, and that dimension is mortality, and particularly mortality as it is most exposed, which is in times of war.”

 

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Lombardo, a classicist at the University of Kansas, makes no attempt to curate Homer, either by replicating his sinewy hexameter lines or by mimicking his craggily archaic diction, as Richmond Lattimore did in his 1951 translation (long popular among classicists, perhaps because it practically is Greek); nor does he try to reproduce the amplitude and momentum of the original, wonderfully captured in Robert Fagles's excellent 1990 translation. 

New York writer Daniel Mendelsohn, lecturer in classics at Princeton University, pointe out that there are probably too many departures from the Greek text here, and too many blatantly ''contemporary'' resonances, for this to become the standard Homer of university classrooms. 

“But in a way,” he explained, “those departures, those ruptures with philological exactitude, may make this ‘Iliad’ an ideal vehicle for teaching the poetic tradition that we owe to its creator—the oldest, deadest, whitest European male.

 

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UPDATE on the State of the 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Governor’s Races: Democrats and Republicans are heading into the final stretch of more than a dozen competitive contests for governor. Some battleground races could also determine who controls the Senate.

Biden’s Agenda at Risk: If Republicans capture one or both chambers of Congress, the president’s opportunities on several issues will shrink. Here are some major areas where the two sides would clash.

Ohio Senate Race: Polls show Representative Tim Ryan competing within the margin of error against his G.O.P. opponent, J.D. Vance. Mr. Ryan said the race would be “the upset of the night,” but there is still a cold reality tilting against Democrats. (Source: Daniel Victor of the New York Times)

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

 

 

 

Mommy Grabato speaks for son on NJ indictment

“The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”

—Honore de Balzac

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

NOW that Mommy Lydia Grabato, the mayor of Mina, Iloilo had spoken regarding the case of her 43-year-old son, Rey II (namesake of the mayor’s husband), charged together with several others in an alleged $650 million Ponzi scheme in New Jersey, USA, the public should give the beleaguered family the benefit of the doubt.

Mother and father—and, perhaps, the entire Grabato family—believe their son, who had seizures several times this year, according to his mother, is innocent.

Surprisingly, the lady mayor didn’t allow her son to speak on the controversy, which has rapidly spread through the Internet news. 

In her statement as reported by the Daily Guardian and Panay News over the weekend, her son, who is home in Mina, Iloilo couldn’t comment on the issue as “it is being investigated.”

She didn’t explain though why she was free to speak about the case that “is still being investigated” while her son, who is the one involved, couldn’t.

The act of baby-sitting a son in the gigantic scandal maybe the best option for a worried and loving mother, but public opinion will always have a different version.

 

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Anyway, the Grabatos ostensibly believe in the rule of law as the lady mayor agreed to let her son face the case once they have received the documents from the US court.

An 18-count indictment has been filed against the son Grabato and his alleged accomplice, Thomas Nicholas Salzano, 64, who was already arrested, it was reported. 

Both Grabato and Salzano were top officials of the National Realty Investment Advisors, a high-profile company based in Secaucus, New Jersey.

The Ponzi-like scheme ran by the company since 2006 allegedly defrauded roughly 2,000 investors as well as dodged $26 million in IRS taxes.

The mother Grabato had insisted during the interview with the Daily Guardian and Panay News her son is considered “resigned” or was no longer connected with the company even before he underwent a head surgery after a car accident in the US also early this year.

We don’t know if the court will allow or consider any act of leniency and compassion on the case of the Grabato son, who was injured in the traffic mishap and needed to be taken away by her parents from New Jersey to Mina, Iloilo, to be given the much-needed attention from his family.   

 

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WITH barely three days before the All Souls Day, killer typhoon “Paeng” (tropical storm Nalgae) was able to snatch away 45 lives in the Philippines and destroyed millions worth of agriculture products as of this writing.

That means an additional 45 or more families will go to the cemetery for the 45 or more dead on All Souls Day this year. 

Some of the dead may not even be buried on All Souls Day; there are missing bodies that may not be located in the next two to three weeks or beyond. 

The number of casualties could go up when the disaster coordinating councils nationwide have finalized their reports.

The recent typhoon was one of a kind because it lambasted not only one, two or three regions, but the entire archipelago and flooded many areas in Western Visayas for the very first time like what happened in Antique.

Times have changed and the weathers anywhere all over the world continue to deteriorate in alarming scale as a result of the climate change. Even typhoons—strong or minimal—are now being attached on the pesky climate change. 

Aside from climate change, we also have the global warming or the long-term heating of Earth’s surface observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere. 

This term is not interchangeable with the term "climate change."

 

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JOURNALISTS murdered outside Imperial Manila weren’t accorded the same treatment of police investigation now being done in the case of murdered Manila tough-talking broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa.

Because the crime, which happened on October 3 in Las Pinas City, has become an international sensation in as far as the issue of press freedom is concerned, all government agencies are chipping in the effort to solve the senseless killing, or to identify the mastermind or masterminds now that the triggerman, his cohorts and the middlemen have been reportedly known.

Even the embattled Justice Secretary Boying Remulla has found the issue a perfect opportunity to divert the public attention from the case of his 37-year-old son recently arrested and charged for importation of marijuana. 

The reason is simple: Manila journalists have always been known as “national figures” thus the attention given them is different from the “promdi” journalists harassed or killed in as far as investigation is concerned.

Most of the murdered journalists in the Philippines were from the provinces or cities in the Visayas and Mindanao and, in many cases, the investigations were in snail pace thus only a few cases had been solved.

In the case of Mabasa, 63, apparently only a few stones need to be turned and the masterminds will be unmasked and, possibly, charged in court.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

 

 

 

No reason to be ashamed

“Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.” 

—Bertrand Russell

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

OUR sexual behavior is often judged by clergymen whose qualifications include their solemn renunciation of sexual intercourse.

“Tragically,” protests Dr. David Reuben in Beyond the Birds and Trees, “those who undertake to control our sexual destinies are often sexually sick themselves. The decency league dedicated to abridging sexual behavior—except on their terms—are simply trying to deprive others of the reasonable use of their sexual orgasms.”

Reuben adds: “Every one of us has made that seven-inch journey through the penis into the vagina to meet the other half of our future protoplasm, and has then settled in the uterus for the 280-day wait. There is no reason now to be ashamed of how we traveled and where we grew—there is no more suitable place.”

In Any Woman Can, Reuben, 89, a psychiatrist and sex expert who now lives in California, says sex started with the crocodile.

“This scaly cold-blooded distant relative of man was the first animal to develop a penis. Before then, life was much simpler. All the earth’s inhabitants had about the same type of sexual equipment and used it about the same way.”

This was how Reuben explained further:

The male and female simply backed up to each other, wiggled their sexual equipment into contact, and oozed primitive sperm into contact with primitive eggs.

There wasn’t much to see, hardly anything to feel, and in many species if a couple turned on like this once a year, it was sufficient. Twice a year was oversexed and many animals copulated only once in a lifetime.

 

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For one thing penis was visible. Secondly, it revolutionized sex by fitting inside the female body. In those days there was no such thing as a vagina. The female sexual equipment was a cloaca consisting of a common channel for urine, feces, and semi-annual eggs. (Things have improved a lot for women since then.)

Obviously, the crocodile penis too has undergone major design modifications as it was handed down over the years to homo sapiens. From the evolutionary point of view the modern American male sports the latest in phallic equipment. But problem still remained.

Men equipped with this wonderful organ quickly developed a lively interest in the female sexual apparatus, by then improved and expanded into a closely-coupled vagina, labia, and clitoris.

Like the crocodiles before them men and women discovered that combining their sexual resources resulted in immense pleasure for both contributors.

For the next 50,000 years all went well. Sex was a normal psychological function as routine as swimming had been to the crocodile and as essential and enjoyable as eating was to early man. Then came the Dark Ages.

About 400 A.D. Western civilization abruptly lurched in a different direction. Suddenly sex was out and guilt was in.

As some long-forgotten genius in the field of medieval motivational psychology discovered, men and women are unbelievably responsive to the liking up of sex and guilt.

From that moment on, the fate of society (and most of its members) was sealed. The most efficient means of controlling human behavior had been put into effect: focus on an activity which everybody must engage in—sex; select its most joyable aspect—copulation; finally provide the threat of severe and relentless punishment for its enjoyment.

As the machinery of sexual repression creaked into action, the power and influence of those in control grew enormously. There were, to be sure, a few hitches at first but all resistance finally yielded to the crushing force of sexual repression.

 

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One of the major early problems was that the moralists actually underestimated the potential of their new weapon to change the destiny of the Western world.

Apparently the original idea was to make sex only a minor transgression. However all levels of society almost immediately succumbed to the irresistible urge to feel guilty about perfectly normal sexual feelings. In effect this was the “new morality,” Dark Ages version.

In some ways a most frightening form. Sex rapidly became an emotional commodity to be consumed under the strictest prohibitions, if at all.

Like the famous insurance policy that pays off is the insured is killed by a cable car on the Fourth of July while carrying an Easter bunny, sexual relations came to be allowed only under the most rigid restrictions.

According to these forerunners of our modern moral guardians, sex was to be limited to married couples in bed, in the dark, fully clothed, ideally involving an important man and a frigid woman with just enough sperm dripping onto the lady’s private parts to bring on a joyless impregnation.

That was another challenge for the moral reformers. Since it sets a liberal tone toward sex, a major hatchet job was in order.

The Good Book was extensively distorted and misinterpreted to make it appear to endorse sexual repression.

Genesis was reinterpreted to make Adam and Eve seem like sinners who were evicted from the Garden of Eden for daring to engage in sexual intercourse.

 

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Later versions were further sanitized and Adam’s penis was replaced by the ever-present serpent hovering greedily around Eve’s pubic fig leaf.

The sexual purifiers smugly ignored reality: if God had not intended His first man and woman to copulate He would simply have molded their mortal clay a bit differently and left them nothing to work with.

Some of the changes were downright silly. In the Revised Version of the Bible of 1881, the word “whore” was changed to “harlot” and the term, “whoremonger” was replaced by “fornicator.” No exact figures are available to the number of souls saved by these semantic gymnastics.

The Bible was only the beginning. After emasculating this once lusty and vital Scripture, every other possible work of man, artistic and literary, were purged and distorted to eliminate any mention of rational human sexuality.

Fifteen hundred years ago the single most enduring principle of Western society was forged: SEX IS BAD.

From that moment to the present, hundreds of millions of innocent people have been brainwashed into believing a silly bit nonsense: sex is synonymous with sin.

Regrettably, no force on earth has been able to turn back the emotional calendar and the misconception goes on, constantly reinforced.

For more than a dozen centuries every persuasive force available has been harnessed to desexualize the most highly-sexed animal this planet has ever known—the human being. Their message is always the same and always untrue: sex, except under nearly impossible circumstances, is wicked.

One of the real tragedies of recent times is the attempted corruption of the human body. A small group of moral crusaders, working with that fevered devotion seen only in the mentally deranged, has been trying to convince everyone that the perfectly synchronized beautifully designed, elegantly planned mechanisms of their bodies are nasty, filthy, and horrid.

That psychological masterpiece which makes human reproduction unique has been distorted by those who should know better into a curse and a sickness.

 

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In reality menstruation signifies perfect health. The ounce or two of blood that is passed each month is the banner of a normal reproductive system. If blood is unclean, imagine what the moral crusaders can make of a nosebleed.

When it comes to sexual intercourse, the guerrilla fighters for purity bring on their big guns. Their favorite word is “dirty”—and they are wrong again.

By every test, sexual intercourse is probably the purest and daintiest activity that a man and woman can engage in, aside from being the most enjoyable.

The genitals themselves are normally free of harmful bacteria, the secretions are perfectly sterile, and the penis and vagina were obviously designed to be brought together in their own inimitable style.

By contrast, the throat of every person, including the anti-sex orators, is crammed with a dozen varieties of lethal bacteria.

These include the bugs that cause diphtheria, gonorrhea, strep throat, and rheumatic fever. If they want to start a crusade, it should probably begin in their own noses and mouths.

Actually the sexual reformers are on the wrong track. If they really hope to make men and women afraid of themselves, they might devote their attention to other organ systems.

Breathing offers a good opportunity. We take in good clean air and pervert it into bad breath! Only a few cynical mouthwash salesmen have jumped on that one, but there is plenty of room for moral education about how the body ruins God-given oxygen.

Sweating is another good area. Fifty thousand years ago human beings used their noses as much as their eyes. They could identify a stranger by his smell and could distinguish approaching animals and men by their specific odors.

The need for that talent has diminished somewhat but the human aroma still clings to man. It is now known as “body odor” and must be eliminated at all costs.

A human who smells like a human is headed for social and occupational disaster. In order to be accepted by the rest of his race, his breath must reek of carbolic acid, his armpits give off the scent of gardenias, and his skin exude hexachlorophene.

A few years ago chlorophyll tablets were developed to expunge once and for all every trace of human smells. (As a tribute to man’s sanity, they were tried and quickly discarded by all except fugitives wishing to avoid the bloodhounds.)

 

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Perhaps the last frontier for those reformers who want to protect us against ourselves is the digestive system. If they really concentrated they might be able to spoil the pleasure of eating for a hundred million or so fellow citizens. All they would need to do would be to explain, “When you take that beautiful food, provided for you by Heaven’s bounty, and put it into your body, it is attacked by filthy chemicals and changed into a green stinking mass. Do you know what that food finally becomes? Do you know what it is turned into?”

The lecture would have to stop at this point because the devoted moralists couldn’t say the word.

Every organ, every secretion, every cell of the human body was put there by nature, by the Creator, for a purpose.

The respiratory system, the digestive system, the sweat glands, all have a vital function in the preservation of the body. The sexual organs are no exception. For the past few hundred years, not more than a fleeting moment in the history of mankind, a strange collection of misguided do-gooders and moralizing misfits have tried to make us forget how we all arrived in this world. They miss the point. Ever since the beginning of the human race, sexual intercourse has been the most noble and wholesome of all man’s activities.

In spite of the shrill protests of those self-appointed moral guardians, nothing is going to change that. 

Every woman, married or not, deserves the freedom to enjoy the ultimate expression of her sexual potential. With knowledge and determination and courage, that achievement is within her grasp.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

Secret of our health

“He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all.”

—William Osler

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

THE Theory of the Four Humours was introduced by the father of medicine, Hippocrates, thousands of years ago–even before Christianity, Judaism, and Islam became dominant monotheistic religions.

The Greek doctor, best remembered for his so-called “Hippocratic Oath”, believed that the secret of health lay in the proper mixture of four body fluids, blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. 

If the wrong mixture was present, disease resulted.

That during the Middle Ages, disease was attributed to devils which were supposed to have entered the body and which could be forced to leave by spells and incantations.

Earlier, in 100 B.C., immunity from disease was already being practiced. 

King Mithridates tried to protect his body against certain poisons by taking increasing doses of them over a period of time. 

In China and India, children were clothed in the shirts, or slept in the bed, of smallpox sufferers. 

Although dangerous, this often produced very mild attacks of the disease and prevented future occurrence of more severe cases.

In the 14th century, more than 25 million people died of bubonic plague in Europe. 

In the 18th century, smallpox killed 60 million people throughout the world. Statistics reveals that even today over 100 million people a year have malaria in India and that about one million die of it annually.

 

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Just as physical hygiene attempts to promote physical health, so does the newer science of mental hygiene attempt to promote mental health.

Here’s for those who carry the world on their shoulders; Atlas Shrugged, in the book of Ayn Rand. 

Most authorities agree that among the chief causes of mental disease are worry, fear, unhappiness, and envy (Facebook and other social media network users, take note).

They point out that all of us are subject to these emotions, but that some people are so sensitive to one or more of these that their entire outlook on life is thrown out of focus.

Therefore the most effective way of preventing mental illness is to remove causes of worry and tension, to explain the effects of such emotions to people who suffer from them, and to educate people in general to accept themselves and their lives as they are.

Mental disease often shows itself as an unreasoning fear of certain situations, or an involuntary “compulsion” to perform certain acts. (Phobia, neurosis, and psychosis are some of the terms used to name these conditions, according to Alexander A. Fried of the Department of Biological Sciences, Christopher Columbus High School in New York).

These abnormal reactions may be so mild as to cause very little inconvenience to the individual, or may be so violent as to make the person dangerous to himself or others and require commitment to an institution for special care.

 

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Mysterious relationships exist between the mind and the body, according to some medical experts. 

It is now known that mental illness can produce symptoms of physical disease in many organs of the body, when actually the organ affected is healthy and sound.

Headaches, upset stomachs, fever, vague pains, rashes, etc., may be signs of a known disease, or may be the effect of mental upset, doctors say. 

They add that in the second case, where the symptoms are brought about by the mind, it is called a psychosomatic illness.

Many phobias and neurotic conditions have been traced to forgotten incidents in childhood, which continue to influence behavior even though the sufferer has no recollection of the event.

Methods of treatment aim at finding these causes in the patient’s “subconscious” and revealing them to him; usually the condition disappears once the patient understands its cause. 

Various types of psychiatric treatment (analysis) have been proposed and used by different psychiatrists; these different methods have the same general goal of finding and removing the cause from the patient’s mind.

 

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The following rules are useful in keeping mentally healthy, according to Fried:

1. Get plenty of rest, relaxation, fresh air, and good food.

2. Avoid worrying excessively. Most things that people worry about seldom happen.

3. Face your problems squarely, realistically. Be ready to make changes and adjustments in your plans to meet new situations that arise.

4. Use up some of your excess energy and strength in interesting hobbies, sports, and other types of recreation.

5. Do not magnify unimportant happenings into major events. Example: The fact that your friend didn’t smile and wave at you when he passed by was probably because he didn’t see you, not because he was angry at you.

6. Seek satisfaction from those things you do well, and from those natural advantages which you possess (we all have some). Do not yearn for things that are possible only in daydreams. Do not envy others who seem to have more than you; they are probably envying you from “their side of the fence.”

7. Set yourself a goal–certainly! But make sure that it is a realistic one–one that is within the reach of your abilities.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

Coincidences

“Ambition can creep as well as soar.”

—Edmund Burke

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WAS it a mere coincidence that when President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was reportedly scheduled to appoint the new secretaries of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Health (DoH) anytime next month, Iloilo first district Rep. Janette Loreto-Garin’s press statements also started to flood in the media as of this writing?

So many astute politicians angling to be appointed in key cabinet portfolios make a lot of noise in order to be noticed—especially when the field is swamped with proteges of heavyweight political clans.

Some of them believe the more they are heard and seen in the media the more chances they will be included in the game of the musical chairs—and even clinch the coveted chair right away if one of them is luckier.

We aren’t saying, of course, that Loreto-Garin, who had a roller coaster ride as DoH boss during the term of the late former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, is doing this; we aren’t saying she is among those astute politicians. 

When the president distributes the appointment goodies, the lucky ones can’t be faulted if they are the apples of the president’s eye. 

 

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Clever Loreto-Garin is actually in the best position to try her luck anew since her family had really supported President Marcos in the last election. 

Earlier, sister-in-law, former party-list Rep. Sharon Garin, was appointed as undersecretary of the Department of Energy (DOE).  Other political clans and dynasties queueing for cabinet jobs might envy the Garins if they will right away corner two slots—assuming that Loreto-Garin is salivating for any cabinet post.

One Garin in the cabinet for a political “payback” is enough. Two Garins are too much? If they are qualified and President Marcos really wants them, why not?

Aside from their qualifications first and foremost, most of those who get juicy cabinet positions and their families really went all out to support the president in the election.  

It’s a case of “we’d scratched your back, now it’s your turn to scratch ours.”

To accept the job is one thing. To be ashamed out of delicadeza is another thing.

It was only probably a coincidence that before President Marcos appointed Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire as DoH officer in charge on July 14, a “press statement” from Loreto-Garin had circulated in both the local and national media where she “urged” the use of Dengvaxia in the light of the increase in dengue cases. 

As a doctor, Loreto-Garin was indeed in the best position to talk about what’s best for dengue cases; in fact, her vigilance and kindness deserved a kudos. 

But, again, the cruel coincidence.

 

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Meanwhile, just as President Marcos was about to pick the regular DA top post he concurrently holds and Vergeire’s possible successor in the DoH, Loreto-Garin, once again, surfaced in another “press statement”, this time calling the DA to promote “kamote” or sweet potato as alternative to rice.

"It is high time that the DA extensively promotes sweet potato as an alternative. One way of doing this is to increase production and make the necessary investment in root crops in terms of agricultural research, food technology, or marketing," Garin said in a statement.

"The nutritious content of rice cannot compare to that of kamote since rice transforms into sugar in the body, making one susceptible to diabetes, while kamoteis high in fiber and is one of the best foods that one can eat to prevent cancer.”

She added: “Our love for rice has given birth to the famous ‘extra rice’ and ‘unli rice’ cultures. Unlike the popular expression ‘rice is life,’ we encourage restaurants to try using kamote in place of rice and even as French fries. What we need today are innovations in the kitchen.”

"It’s high time we changed our attitude towards both rice and root crops. Kamotecan bring back health and keep some health problems at bay. As medical studies have shown, kamote lowers hypertension, bad cholesterol, and even blood sugar when taken as a substitute for rice.”

Wow. Was the latest coincidence too good to be true?

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

 

 

  

Scandal hit Iloilo political family like a hurricane

 
“Sometimes the scandal is not what law was broken, but what the law allows.”

—Edward Snowden

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

THE scandal that walloped the Grabato political family in Mina, Iloilo was like a hurricane.

All of a sudden, they became the talk of the town; their enemies could be ecstatic after news spread around the globe (that’s the power of the Internet media) that 43-year-old Rey Grabato II, son of couple Rey and Lydia, both prominent political leaders in the third district of Iloilo, was indicted in New Jersey for alleged involvement in a $650 million Ponzi scheme and conspiring to evade $26 million in US federal tax liabilities.

Lydia Grabato is the incumbent mayor of Mina, Iloilo, while husband Rey used to occupy his wife’s position. They were scheduled to talk to the Iloilo press on October 25 “to clear matters.”

The accused son was reported in the United States where the cases were filed to be “still at large”, while his alleged accomplice, Thomas Nicholas Salzano, 64, of Secaucus, in New Jersey, was already arrested.

The son Grabato, who isn’t a US citizen, is believed to have fled to the Philippines and may be hiding in Iloilo, reports said.

It wasn’t immediately known if the Grabato couple would present their son or defend him in absentia.

It was not also known if the parents would convince the son to surrender if they hadn’t seen or contacted him.

 

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The Grabatos aren’t only known as political leaders and allies of Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. and former governor Arthur Defensor Sr., but also as a “wealthy” family that owns several businesses in Iloilo province. 

No one has openly linked their wealth to the son’s alleged fraudulent activities in the United States that resulted in 18 counts of criminal cases.

The parents have not been linked to graft and corruption and illegal activities and were known to be “outstanding” public servants.

But there were reportedly ugly whispers and speculations both from their friends and enemies that may not be good to the ears of the family.

Some people say “it is better to be charged in court and go to jail for murder than to be involved in a grand thievery, get arrested and thrown behind bars.”

The son Grabato, who hasn’t issued a public statement since the scandal erupted, is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

 

-o0o-

 

Like all the previous presidents, not all appointments handed by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. can be considered excellent.

Some are good, some are horrendous, to say the least. Even presidents aren’t perfect, or can’t pick the right man and woman for the right cabinet job right away.

Others get cabinet positions not because of their merits and talent, but because of political considerations or payback for helping the president in the previous election. 

That’s the wisdom behind the creation and existence of the Commission on Appointments (CA), where both the Lower and Upper Houses have representatives and with the power to confirm or reject the presidential appointees.

If the appointees are deemed unqualified (due to derogatory and other appalling records) and/or incompetent, they are rejected in the CA. 

Once rejected, they need to be reappointed again and be grilled once more in the CA.

Sometimes, the president does not reappoint those who have been rejected. He uses the CA rebuff as “justification” to get rid of the rejected appointee without fear of being accused of “walang utang na loob” (no debt of gratitude) by the rejected appointee who wanted to cling to the post despite being spurned by the CA. 

By the way, Camilo Cascolan, a retired PNP chief, who was appointed as health undersecretary, is one of the reasons why the faith of some taxpayers to our government has been eroded.

He wasn’t only an underperforming PNP chief during his term, he also was reported to be an operator of online sabung (cockfighting).

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)