"Never give up, and be confident in what you do. There may be tough times, but the difficulties which you face will make you more determined to achieve your objectives and to win against all the odds."
--Marta
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- The right time to compel Panay Electric Company (PECO) to seriously address the major concerns and problems the Ilonggo consumers have been grappling everyday, is now.
It's now or never, in fact.
If PECO can get away with murder and manages to secure another 25 years of extension of its franchise without being obliged to fulfill its duties and obligations, the more than 50,000 power consumers in Iloilo City will have to agonize for another 25 years.
PECO apparently did not satisfy most of the metropolis' electric consumers as manifested by their strong stand against its application for renewal of franchise.
If they fought tooth and nail to oppose PECO's canticle, the city council, led by Vice Mayor Jeffrey Ganzon, probably wholeheartedly believed in the sentiments of the consumers.
After all, most of them are consumers themselves.
The city aldermen must have realized that PECO has reneged on its promise to do its best and serve the consumers better if its application for extension of franchise in 1993 was approved.
-o0o-
It turned out that the same problems that cropped up during the public hearings for PECO's extension of franchise in 1993 in the Sangguniang Panlungsod, were almost the same after 25 years.
PECO's franchise will expire in 2019, thus it is asking congress to renew it for another 25 years.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod, however, had passed a resolution "vehemently opposing" the application.
The local legislature wanted the public hearing set on November 22 in the House of Representatives to be held in Iloilo City so that more stakeholders can be given the chance to attend and air their suggestions and grievances.
But even if the city council had already made a "solid" stand on the issue, Mayor Jose Espinosa III is adamant to support it.
He raised serious concerns of services vaccum, among other possible "interruptions" should PECO fails to get another chance to serve the consumers in the next 25 years.
If the house is divided, it can't stand on solid ground.
It appears that the city council did not have the last say on this very passionate and urgent subject matter.
There is still the city mayor and, perhaps, Rep. Jerry Trenas, who might give PECO a standing eight count, or eleventh hour miracle, whatever it may be, when push comes to shove.
Both Espinosa and Trenas have expressed sentiments that they would respect the city council's stand, but most Ilonggos can now read between the lines: both the city mayor and the congressman don't share the same boat with the city councilors in as far as the PECO imbroglio is concerned.
Showing posts with label #Iloilo City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Iloilo City. Show all posts
Sunday, November 19, 2017
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Most abused mayor in the world
"Democracy must be built through open societies that share information. When there is information, there is enlightenment. When there is debate, there are solutions. When there is no sharing of power, no rule of law, no accountability, there is abuse, corruption, subjugation and indignation."
--Atifete Jahjaga
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- With the way he is being persecuted by the Duterte administration, Dr. Jed Patrick Mabilog could go down in history as the most abused city mayor not only in the Philippines, but also all over the world.
The abuse is not only verbal, but mental and emotional.
To be tagged as coddler of drug traffickers repeatedly by no less than the President (when in truth and in fact, he is not), is already the worst abuse any incumbent local chief executive could get.
The shame, embarrassment, humiliation, and indignity of being ranked alongside with the dregs of society without any morsel of truth, is already a mental and emotional torture.
To add insult, a police with the rank of chief inspector had joined the fray and reportedly dared Mabilog "to surrender" as if the city mayor was a convicted criminal in hiding.
If he really said that, this is the first time we heard a police officer with a lower rank boldy haranguing an elected civilian chief of a highly urbanized city without any regard to the mayor's authority and seniority in civil service.
NAPOLCOM
If this is not conduct unbecoming and unprofessionalism, we don't know what it is. The National Police Commissiom (Napolcom) should investigate this overexcited cop who has been reassigned in Iloilo City. Is this the way you orient your cops, Gen. Bato?
Whatever the reason why President Duterte has stubbornly continued to link the well-mannered and clean-living Mabilog to illegal drugs when he couldn't even substantiate it (the accuations were reportedly based on hearsays and "tips" from Mabilog's vindictive and jealous political detractors), he alone knows.
It, of course, boggles the minds of the Ilonggos who know Mabilog pretty well.
All the allegations against Mabilog have not been proven and contrary to reports of agencies concerned like the Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency (PDEA), which has repeatedly cleared Mabilog.
Only the angels in heaven have not descended on earth to tell the president that he is wrong to condemn an innocent man.
Even the pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales will swear to God that Mabilog is not engaged in narco-politics as the President had alleged.
PERSONALITY
Soft-spoken Mabilog doesn't have a gung-ho personality despite the dirty brickbats thrown his way. He doesn't fire back using foul words at critics. Quality of a true, highly-educated and religious leader.
In fact, some supporters have ribbed him for being too soft and kind even to his most trenchant political enemies.
Detractors called him names and a coddler of drug syndicates, Mabilog offered them prayers.
They're lucky Mabilog is not the late Mayor Roding Ganzon who called his persecutors "bastos" (uncivilized) and who fought tongs and hammer with his tormentors, including the late former President Cory Aquino.
He never gave the Mabilog family any shame and scandal and was never involved in any crime when he was younger. Instead, he elevated the pride of his family, the pride of the Ilonggos when he was chosen as the No. 5 city mayor in the world two years ago. He gave all Ilonggos reason to be proud of Iloilo City with all the success the "City of Love" is reaping in terms of infrastructure, economic and tourism development.
The more they pummeled Mabilog with abusive words, the more he lowered his head in submission like a true biblical Christian; the more he gets sympathies from people from all walks of life in the Philippines and abroad who monitor his predicament from Malacanang.
And the world is watching.
--Atifete Jahjaga
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- With the way he is being persecuted by the Duterte administration, Dr. Jed Patrick Mabilog could go down in history as the most abused city mayor not only in the Philippines, but also all over the world.
The abuse is not only verbal, but mental and emotional.
To be tagged as coddler of drug traffickers repeatedly by no less than the President (when in truth and in fact, he is not), is already the worst abuse any incumbent local chief executive could get.
The shame, embarrassment, humiliation, and indignity of being ranked alongside with the dregs of society without any morsel of truth, is already a mental and emotional torture.
To add insult, a police with the rank of chief inspector had joined the fray and reportedly dared Mabilog "to surrender" as if the city mayor was a convicted criminal in hiding.
If he really said that, this is the first time we heard a police officer with a lower rank boldy haranguing an elected civilian chief of a highly urbanized city without any regard to the mayor's authority and seniority in civil service.
NAPOLCOM
If this is not conduct unbecoming and unprofessionalism, we don't know what it is. The National Police Commissiom (Napolcom) should investigate this overexcited cop who has been reassigned in Iloilo City. Is this the way you orient your cops, Gen. Bato?
Whatever the reason why President Duterte has stubbornly continued to link the well-mannered and clean-living Mabilog to illegal drugs when he couldn't even substantiate it (the accuations were reportedly based on hearsays and "tips" from Mabilog's vindictive and jealous political detractors), he alone knows.
It, of course, boggles the minds of the Ilonggos who know Mabilog pretty well.
All the allegations against Mabilog have not been proven and contrary to reports of agencies concerned like the Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency (PDEA), which has repeatedly cleared Mabilog.
Only the angels in heaven have not descended on earth to tell the president that he is wrong to condemn an innocent man.
Even the pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales will swear to God that Mabilog is not engaged in narco-politics as the President had alleged.
PERSONALITY
Soft-spoken Mabilog doesn't have a gung-ho personality despite the dirty brickbats thrown his way. He doesn't fire back using foul words at critics. Quality of a true, highly-educated and religious leader.
In fact, some supporters have ribbed him for being too soft and kind even to his most trenchant political enemies.
Detractors called him names and a coddler of drug syndicates, Mabilog offered them prayers.
They're lucky Mabilog is not the late Mayor Roding Ganzon who called his persecutors "bastos" (uncivilized) and who fought tongs and hammer with his tormentors, including the late former President Cory Aquino.
He never gave the Mabilog family any shame and scandal and was never involved in any crime when he was younger. Instead, he elevated the pride of his family, the pride of the Ilonggos when he was chosen as the No. 5 city mayor in the world two years ago. He gave all Ilonggos reason to be proud of Iloilo City with all the success the "City of Love" is reaping in terms of infrastructure, economic and tourism development.
The more they pummeled Mabilog with abusive words, the more he lowered his head in submission like a true biblical Christian; the more he gets sympathies from people from all walks of life in the Philippines and abroad who monitor his predicament from Malacanang.
And the world is watching.
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
'The mayor is user, not trafficker'
"Vote for the man who promises least; he'll be the least disappointing."
--Bernard Baruch
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Among the present members of the Iloilo City Council in the Philippines, Eduardo "Ed" Penaredondo is the most senior, having been elected for a record eight terms in the May 2016 elections.
He has been alderman since the time of the late Mayor Rodolfo T. Ganzon in 1989.
The other two are Vice Mayor Joe III Espinosa and Joshua Alim, both lawyers like Penaredondo.
While supporters of both Espinosa and Alim have been jockeying for their election to replace Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog who will "graduate" in 2019, Penaredondo's supporters and brods in the Sigma Rho fraternity think the veteran ex-cop with roots from Duenas, Iloilo should be the next in line after Mabilog.
To avoid a collision course, Alim, one of the most qualified for the post, might shoot for a congressional seat. Espinosa, rumored to be the personal choice of Rep. Jerry Trenas, still enjoys the edge in the party selection process though.
"It's long overdue. He should have run for mayor a long time ago. We are always ready in case he decides to run in 2019," said a moneyed Sigma Rho member who manages a copier machine business.
The Sigma Rho member said Penaredondo is not only respected by his peers in the council, "he also is not at odds with most politicians in the local and national levels."
"Meaning," the Sigma Rho member added, "he can deal with any David and Goliath in government and this is good for Iloilo City."
-o0o-
A mayor in the fifth district of Iloilo was not included in the list of narco-politicians lambasted repeatedly by President Duterte because he is only a user, not a trafficker, said a former town councilor who once worked in the Hall of Justice in Iloilo City.
The mayor became a drug addict when he was teenager, the source said. One time, he reportedly told then President and now Manila Mayor Erap Estrada that "my (late) father was stupid for giving away hundreds of hectares of our farm lands to people who did not vote for me (the mayor)."
The former town councilor claimed that even when they were playing basketball, the mayor was always "high" of marijuana. "Everyone was afraid to foul him because he was so aggressive and sensitive," he said.
"Under the Duterte administration, the anti-drugs slogan is now kill the trafficker, spare the user," the former town councilor said in jest.
-o0o-
It's not fair to speculate that some of the former promising Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) young officers involved in the Oakwood mutiny in 2003 and hired by replaced Bureau of Customs (Boc) commissioner Nicanor Faeldon "benefitted" from corruption that was never nipped in the bud since the new administration took over.
Faeldon was reportedly axed for "command responsibility" when some P5-billion worth of shabu managed to enter the country via BoC before being seized in a Valenzuela City warehouse recently.
Faeldon's former cohorts in the Oakwood brouhaha who became BoC bigwigs reportedly "failed to properly check" the shipment's documents that came from China.
Sources claimed corruption like "lagayan system" is still rampant in the BoC.
--Bernard Baruch
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Among the present members of the Iloilo City Council in the Philippines, Eduardo "Ed" Penaredondo is the most senior, having been elected for a record eight terms in the May 2016 elections.
He has been alderman since the time of the late Mayor Rodolfo T. Ganzon in 1989.
The other two are Vice Mayor Joe III Espinosa and Joshua Alim, both lawyers like Penaredondo.
While supporters of both Espinosa and Alim have been jockeying for their election to replace Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog who will "graduate" in 2019, Penaredondo's supporters and brods in the Sigma Rho fraternity think the veteran ex-cop with roots from Duenas, Iloilo should be the next in line after Mabilog.
To avoid a collision course, Alim, one of the most qualified for the post, might shoot for a congressional seat. Espinosa, rumored to be the personal choice of Rep. Jerry Trenas, still enjoys the edge in the party selection process though.
"It's long overdue. He should have run for mayor a long time ago. We are always ready in case he decides to run in 2019," said a moneyed Sigma Rho member who manages a copier machine business.
The Sigma Rho member said Penaredondo is not only respected by his peers in the council, "he also is not at odds with most politicians in the local and national levels."
"Meaning," the Sigma Rho member added, "he can deal with any David and Goliath in government and this is good for Iloilo City."
-o0o-
A mayor in the fifth district of Iloilo was not included in the list of narco-politicians lambasted repeatedly by President Duterte because he is only a user, not a trafficker, said a former town councilor who once worked in the Hall of Justice in Iloilo City.
The mayor became a drug addict when he was teenager, the source said. One time, he reportedly told then President and now Manila Mayor Erap Estrada that "my (late) father was stupid for giving away hundreds of hectares of our farm lands to people who did not vote for me (the mayor)."
The former town councilor claimed that even when they were playing basketball, the mayor was always "high" of marijuana. "Everyone was afraid to foul him because he was so aggressive and sensitive," he said.
"Under the Duterte administration, the anti-drugs slogan is now kill the trafficker, spare the user," the former town councilor said in jest.
-o0o-
It's not fair to speculate that some of the former promising Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) young officers involved in the Oakwood mutiny in 2003 and hired by replaced Bureau of Customs (Boc) commissioner Nicanor Faeldon "benefitted" from corruption that was never nipped in the bud since the new administration took over.
Faeldon was reportedly axed for "command responsibility" when some P5-billion worth of shabu managed to enter the country via BoC before being seized in a Valenzuela City warehouse recently.
Faeldon's former cohorts in the Oakwood brouhaha who became BoC bigwigs reportedly "failed to properly check" the shipment's documents that came from China.
Sources claimed corruption like "lagayan system" is still rampant in the BoC.
Friday, August 11, 2017
Ilonggos in Guam unfazed by Nokor threat
"America must be a light to the world, not just a missile."
--Nancy Pelosi
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Families of Ilonggos living in Guam have expressed serious concern after it was reported that North Korea has threatened to launch missles in that US territory located roughly 2,500 kilometers from Manila, Philippines.
"I worry a lot for my uncles, my sisters and their families," remarked Lourdes Saloma-Buck of Bridgeport, Connecticut. "Where will they seek refuge just in case North Korea attacks Guam?"
Saloma-Buck, 57, grew up in Iloilo City, Philippines. She has relatives in Guam's major cities of Dededo, Agana Heights, Talofofo, Yona, and Agat.
She said some of them also fear for their safety but are adamant to leave Guam, with a population of a little more than 162,000 "unless extremely necessary."
She has been in constant contact with relatives ever since news broke out that Pyongyang has threatened to attack Guam, a Pacific island, as it is at loggerheads with the US over Nokor's nuclear missile programs.
Cynthia Jaen of Brooklyn said her relatives in Santa Rita, Guam are unfazed.
CONFIDENT
Jaen, who grew up in Buntatala, Leganes, Iloilo and had also stayed for several years in Guam, said "Ilonggos in Santa Rita are confident President Donald Trump won't allow any untoward incident to occur in Guam where the president has large followers."
"It's normal to fear for their safety but they aren't panicky," Jaen explained. "They continue to monitor the developments on TV and internet and are confident Washington will be able to handle the situation properly."
Ilonggos from Iloilo City in the Philippines comprise the largest community in Guam, according to lawyer Pascual "Junie" Espinosa, Jr.
Espinosa's late father, Rep. Pascual "Pat" Sr., was chiefly responsible for bringing the first batches of Ilonggo workers to Guam, destined to become the largest US military base west of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii after World War II.
A years after V-J Day, a number of significant changes occurred to the war-torn.
The highest priority was to reconstruct Guam as a strategic forward base to monitor Asian decolonization. In February 1946, the Construction Contracts Marianas, a military office designated to construct all military facilities in the Marianas, was created as a joint venture with civilian construction companies, according Guampedia's "Filipino Migration to Guam 1945--1975".
BREAKWATER
It added: "In addition to constructing the Apra Harbor breakwater, their task was reportedly to provide engineering services for basic infrastructure needs (water, power, road systems, and healthcare) and to rebuild the island’s capital.
"To resolve what the military believed to be a chronic shortage of labor, the US Embassy in Manila and the newly independent government of the Republic of the Philippines in May 1947 negotiated an agreement for “the recruitment and employment of Philippine citizens by the US military forces and its contractors in the Pacific, including Guam.”
"Following the 1947 agreement, Brown-Pacific-Maxon Construction Company (BPM) and Luzon Stevedoring Corporation (Luzdelco) were authorized to import Filipino labor from Manila and its surrounding provinces to provide support construction services for Andersen Air Force Base in northern Guam.
"The Guam Naval Supply Depot permitted the Marianas Stevedoring and Development Company (Masdelco) to contract employment from Iloilo and other Visayan islands of the central Philippines.
"Masdelco was a subsidiary of Luzdelco and based in the Agat-Santa Rita area of southern Guam. The initial bulk of Filipino laborers were recruited from Iloilo.
"All had to undergo rigorous clearance and background checks by the US Navy and Federal Bureau of Investigation before being admitted to Guam on a one-year labor contract subject to renewal for up to three years."
--Nancy Pelosi
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Families of Ilonggos living in Guam have expressed serious concern after it was reported that North Korea has threatened to launch missles in that US territory located roughly 2,500 kilometers from Manila, Philippines.
"I worry a lot for my uncles, my sisters and their families," remarked Lourdes Saloma-Buck of Bridgeport, Connecticut. "Where will they seek refuge just in case North Korea attacks Guam?"
Saloma-Buck, 57, grew up in Iloilo City, Philippines. She has relatives in Guam's major cities of Dededo, Agana Heights, Talofofo, Yona, and Agat.
She said some of them also fear for their safety but are adamant to leave Guam, with a population of a little more than 162,000 "unless extremely necessary."
She has been in constant contact with relatives ever since news broke out that Pyongyang has threatened to attack Guam, a Pacific island, as it is at loggerheads with the US over Nokor's nuclear missile programs.
Cynthia Jaen of Brooklyn said her relatives in Santa Rita, Guam are unfazed.
CONFIDENT
Jaen, who grew up in Buntatala, Leganes, Iloilo and had also stayed for several years in Guam, said "Ilonggos in Santa Rita are confident President Donald Trump won't allow any untoward incident to occur in Guam where the president has large followers."
"It's normal to fear for their safety but they aren't panicky," Jaen explained. "They continue to monitor the developments on TV and internet and are confident Washington will be able to handle the situation properly."
Ilonggos from Iloilo City in the Philippines comprise the largest community in Guam, according to lawyer Pascual "Junie" Espinosa, Jr.
Espinosa's late father, Rep. Pascual "Pat" Sr., was chiefly responsible for bringing the first batches of Ilonggo workers to Guam, destined to become the largest US military base west of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii after World War II.
A years after V-J Day, a number of significant changes occurred to the war-torn.
The highest priority was to reconstruct Guam as a strategic forward base to monitor Asian decolonization. In February 1946, the Construction Contracts Marianas, a military office designated to construct all military facilities in the Marianas, was created as a joint venture with civilian construction companies, according Guampedia's "Filipino Migration to Guam 1945--1975".
BREAKWATER
It added: "In addition to constructing the Apra Harbor breakwater, their task was reportedly to provide engineering services for basic infrastructure needs (water, power, road systems, and healthcare) and to rebuild the island’s capital.
"To resolve what the military believed to be a chronic shortage of labor, the US Embassy in Manila and the newly independent government of the Republic of the Philippines in May 1947 negotiated an agreement for “the recruitment and employment of Philippine citizens by the US military forces and its contractors in the Pacific, including Guam.”
"Following the 1947 agreement, Brown-Pacific-Maxon Construction Company (BPM) and Luzon Stevedoring Corporation (Luzdelco) were authorized to import Filipino labor from Manila and its surrounding provinces to provide support construction services for Andersen Air Force Base in northern Guam.
"The Guam Naval Supply Depot permitted the Marianas Stevedoring and Development Company (Masdelco) to contract employment from Iloilo and other Visayan islands of the central Philippines.
"Masdelco was a subsidiary of Luzdelco and based in the Agat-Santa Rita area of southern Guam. The initial bulk of Filipino laborers were recruited from Iloilo.
"All had to undergo rigorous clearance and background checks by the US Navy and Federal Bureau of Investigation before being admitted to Guam on a one-year labor contract subject to renewal for up to three years."
Saturday, August 5, 2017
Angry at attempt to destroy Iloilo City, elected officials
"If you know something is morally reprehensible, then it is your moral obligation to stop it as soon as possible."
--Jane Velez-Mitchell
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- As a true-blooded Ilonggo and community journalist, I will never allow merchants of lies, canards, and chaos to destroy the good name of Iloilo City in the Philippines built by our forefathers.
I will never sit down and act like hackneyed kibitzer while my city and our leaders are being sledge-hammered by purveyors of half-truth, intrigues, and political vendetta.
The most "shabulized" city in the Philippines? Look first at Ozamis, war-torn Marawi, and other big metropolis in Metro Manila where shabu warehouses have yielded billions of worth of illegal substances.
Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog engaged in narco-politics? The cheapest Goebbels-inspired obloquy and hyperbole ever floated with no basis at all in truth, in fact, and in reality! Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
Like any other Ilonggos, I have a moral obligation to defend my city and its leaders--regardless of their political and religious affiliations--from external moronic and destructive yet unfounded accusations and innuendos, which, if left unchallenged and uncorrected, would harm the Ilonggos' moral fiber and create irreparable mayhem on their culture and psyche as peace-loving citizens.
In hours of great moral crisis, we are not supposed to play deaf, blind and mute. The hottest place in hell, according to Dante, is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.
NECESSARY
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, exhorted Edmund Burke, is for good men to do nothing.
Ilonggos are decent, educated, religious, intrepid, generous, and humble. They have produced great leaders and contributed abundantly in the political, economic, religious, and cultural evolution of the Filipino race.
If our family, community, culture, morality, values and honor are under attack by a horde of cantankerous and homicidal maniacs, we can't afford to remain neutral.
When we do nothing and think nothing while our reputations are being torn to shreds by voodoo practitioners, pagans, nincompoops, backdoor players, con artists, darkroom operators, spin doctors, dicey crime-busters, rumormongers, and pseudo-moral crusaders, we allow evil to win.
Silence and apathy become our imminent Waterloo.
I love Iloilo City, the "City of Love", the Athens of the Philippines and cradle of heroism and common sense. And I am proud of our folklore and heritage.
I love and support our elected leaders even if I criticize their faults and imperfections. (Some of the public figures who tasted "terror" from my mighty pen were bosom friends if not kumare and kumpare. In journalism, friendship is one thing; commitment to uphold the truth and decency and serve the public through the mass media is another thing.)
HEALTHY
Constructive criticism is healthy in a democratic state. When we criticize our public officials, we don't destroy them. It's not something akin to bullying.
We help locate and discover their errors and shortcomings so they won't repeat the same mistakes again. Criticism helps strengthen our public officials' character and efficiency; and if they are not immature and uncultured, we end up as partners in nation building.
It is no longer constructive when we wish--and even sharply "pray"--for our public officials' destruction through violent death or assassination over imagined crimes and litany of sins only the ruffians and dolts in the Alfred Hitchcock films are capable of committing.
We have evolved by leaps and bounds since the time when hatred and intrigues were used as basis to execute heads of states and prominent monarchy damsels, queens and kings like Marie Antoinette, falsely accused of uttering "Let them eat cake" when the French people had no more bread to eat.
SOLID
We impeach characters based on remarkable and solid facts, not innuendos and hearsays. We observe due process and acknowledge that after presenting both sides of the coin, only then can we ascertain the chaffs from the grains.
When we are frustrated and not satisfied with our leaders' performance, we don't shoot from the hips and injure bystanders.
Manchester Guardian reminds us that "Comment is free, but facts are sacred."
Even in faraway United States, I continue to chronicle events in our locality from time to time; I have never abandoned my crusade and advocacy for a peaceful community and graft-free government.
As a blogger, columnist and correspondent, I consider myself as an active participant in the modern Agora, which has expanded in the social media since the Oracle of Delphi decreed that Socrates was the wisest person in Athens for helping reform the society as a social, political, and cultural gadfly.
SHIELD
My moral obligation to shield Iloilo City and its leaders from imminent political havoc and moral decay brought by the current dyzzing zarzuela on anti-dope war includes an unflinching committment to shatter the myth of absolutism that pervades the national leadership.
Any overt or covert police raid in any establishment and residential area--owned by a public official or ordinary Juan de la Cruz-- not covered by lawful order or without any legal basis should be considered null and void ab initio.
No amount of hoary justification can supersede the rule of law.
Appeal to the rapscallions in the Philippine National Police and their over-excited minions in the ruling political party: don't do in Iloilo City what you did in Albuera, Leyte and Ozamis City. History will be unkind.
--Jane Velez-Mitchell
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- As a true-blooded Ilonggo and community journalist, I will never allow merchants of lies, canards, and chaos to destroy the good name of Iloilo City in the Philippines built by our forefathers.
I will never sit down and act like hackneyed kibitzer while my city and our leaders are being sledge-hammered by purveyors of half-truth, intrigues, and political vendetta.
The most "shabulized" city in the Philippines? Look first at Ozamis, war-torn Marawi, and other big metropolis in Metro Manila where shabu warehouses have yielded billions of worth of illegal substances.
Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog engaged in narco-politics? The cheapest Goebbels-inspired obloquy and hyperbole ever floated with no basis at all in truth, in fact, and in reality! Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?
Like any other Ilonggos, I have a moral obligation to defend my city and its leaders--regardless of their political and religious affiliations--from external moronic and destructive yet unfounded accusations and innuendos, which, if left unchallenged and uncorrected, would harm the Ilonggos' moral fiber and create irreparable mayhem on their culture and psyche as peace-loving citizens.
In hours of great moral crisis, we are not supposed to play deaf, blind and mute. The hottest place in hell, according to Dante, is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.
NECESSARY
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, exhorted Edmund Burke, is for good men to do nothing.
Ilonggos are decent, educated, religious, intrepid, generous, and humble. They have produced great leaders and contributed abundantly in the political, economic, religious, and cultural evolution of the Filipino race.
If our family, community, culture, morality, values and honor are under attack by a horde of cantankerous and homicidal maniacs, we can't afford to remain neutral.
When we do nothing and think nothing while our reputations are being torn to shreds by voodoo practitioners, pagans, nincompoops, backdoor players, con artists, darkroom operators, spin doctors, dicey crime-busters, rumormongers, and pseudo-moral crusaders, we allow evil to win.
Silence and apathy become our imminent Waterloo.
I love Iloilo City, the "City of Love", the Athens of the Philippines and cradle of heroism and common sense. And I am proud of our folklore and heritage.
I love and support our elected leaders even if I criticize their faults and imperfections. (Some of the public figures who tasted "terror" from my mighty pen were bosom friends if not kumare and kumpare. In journalism, friendship is one thing; commitment to uphold the truth and decency and serve the public through the mass media is another thing.)
HEALTHY
Constructive criticism is healthy in a democratic state. When we criticize our public officials, we don't destroy them. It's not something akin to bullying.
We help locate and discover their errors and shortcomings so they won't repeat the same mistakes again. Criticism helps strengthen our public officials' character and efficiency; and if they are not immature and uncultured, we end up as partners in nation building.
It is no longer constructive when we wish--and even sharply "pray"--for our public officials' destruction through violent death or assassination over imagined crimes and litany of sins only the ruffians and dolts in the Alfred Hitchcock films are capable of committing.
We have evolved by leaps and bounds since the time when hatred and intrigues were used as basis to execute heads of states and prominent monarchy damsels, queens and kings like Marie Antoinette, falsely accused of uttering "Let them eat cake" when the French people had no more bread to eat.
SOLID
We impeach characters based on remarkable and solid facts, not innuendos and hearsays. We observe due process and acknowledge that after presenting both sides of the coin, only then can we ascertain the chaffs from the grains.
When we are frustrated and not satisfied with our leaders' performance, we don't shoot from the hips and injure bystanders.
Manchester Guardian reminds us that "Comment is free, but facts are sacred."
Even in faraway United States, I continue to chronicle events in our locality from time to time; I have never abandoned my crusade and advocacy for a peaceful community and graft-free government.
As a blogger, columnist and correspondent, I consider myself as an active participant in the modern Agora, which has expanded in the social media since the Oracle of Delphi decreed that Socrates was the wisest person in Athens for helping reform the society as a social, political, and cultural gadfly.
SHIELD
My moral obligation to shield Iloilo City and its leaders from imminent political havoc and moral decay brought by the current dyzzing zarzuela on anti-dope war includes an unflinching committment to shatter the myth of absolutism that pervades the national leadership.
Any overt or covert police raid in any establishment and residential area--owned by a public official or ordinary Juan de la Cruz-- not covered by lawful order or without any legal basis should be considered null and void ab initio.
No amount of hoary justification can supersede the rule of law.
Appeal to the rapscallions in the Philippine National Police and their over-excited minions in the ruling political party: don't do in Iloilo City what you did in Albuera, Leyte and Ozamis City. History will be unkind.
Friday, August 4, 2017
Don't compare Mabilog to Parojinog
"I'm not afraid of death, but I resent it. I think it's unfair and irritating. Every time I see something beautiful, I not only want to return to it, but it makes me want to see other beautiful things. I know I'm not going to get to all the places I want to go."
-- Viggo Mortensen
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- As an Ilonggo (I was born and raised in Iloilo City in the Philippines), I find it revolting to hear some people compare Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog to the slain Ozamis City Mayor Reynaldo “Aldong” Parojinog, Sr.
I find it even more vexing when detractors excitedly parroted that Mabilog would be "the next in line" after Parojinog, who was killed together with his wife, Susan, and 13 others in a dawn raids conducted by the Philippine National Police in the mayor's residence on July 30.
No one can tell exactly why and how Parojinog and his ilk were peppered with bullets except for media reports that they allegedly reacted violently when police raiders tried to issue the search warrants at several of Parojinog's properties in Barangays Baybay San Roque and Baybay Santa Cruz around 2:30 a.m.
Before Parojinog's brutal slaughter, his family was already known nationwide to have been involved allegedly not only in distribution of illegal drugs, but also in other heinous crimes.
MENTIONED
Both Mabilog and Parojinog may have been mentioned by President Rodrigo R. Duterte as among the local chief executives in the Philippines to be allegedly involved in narco politics, but they definitely were not in the same class.
In terms of family background, education, intellect, accomplishments in public service, and values, Mabilog and Parojinog may be oceans apart.
The other difference is it has been established that Duterte had wrongly identified Mabilog as "the cousin of (suspected drug lord Melvin "Boyet) Odicta" while Parojinog belonged to a clan that ostensibly had criminal records (they were allegedly the remnants of the notorious "Kuratong Baleleng" that terrorized Metro Manila with kidnapping for ransom activities in the 90s).
Mabilog is the second cousin of opposition Senator Franklin Drilon, not Odicta.
If Duterte's tipsters could not establish this fundamental information, they have no business to tarnish the reputation of any Tom, Dick and Harry.
FAILURE
A failure in intelligence means these bungling field agents could become a liability instead of assets in the president's campaign against illegal drugs.
There are mayors and even governors in the Philippines who are more blatant and with irrefutable criminal involvement and inclinations, but were never placed in the spotlight or threatened with violent death.
Mabilog has been more deeply involved in civic and religious activities, and was never implicated in any crime even before he became a public servant.
Mabilog's enemies used his "friendship" with another suspected drug lord Jingjing Espinosa (who is now in jail for frustrated murder) as the basis to link him in narco-politics.
Mabilog comes from a decent and respected religious family in Molo district. He had or still has a foundation that helps the poor, the youth, and the senior citizens.
IMPLICATE
To implicate him in illegal drugs is like implicating Desdemona in Lago's plot to kill Emilia in Othello.
Mabilog's aggressive campaign against illegal drugs belies all the innuendos that he is into narco politics. Their lies defy the logic.
The vicious issue or issues being levelled against Mabilog were unheard of when he was first elected as city councilor, vice mayor, and now city mayor on his last term. It was politics or his links with the opposition, especially to Drilon, that gave him the albatross.
After Parojinog's assassination, some of Mabilog's detractors were so excited to push him in line of Duterte's death list.
Do these characters really want Mabilog dead because they are convinced he is evil?
Or they only want to reaffirm and marshal their hatred and bitterness toward the man because of his stunning political success, and use the precarious situation he is in today to satisfy and fulfill their whims and caprices?
-- Viggo Mortensen
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- As an Ilonggo (I was born and raised in Iloilo City in the Philippines), I find it revolting to hear some people compare Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog to the slain Ozamis City Mayor Reynaldo “Aldong” Parojinog, Sr.
I find it even more vexing when detractors excitedly parroted that Mabilog would be "the next in line" after Parojinog, who was killed together with his wife, Susan, and 13 others in a dawn raids conducted by the Philippine National Police in the mayor's residence on July 30.
No one can tell exactly why and how Parojinog and his ilk were peppered with bullets except for media reports that they allegedly reacted violently when police raiders tried to issue the search warrants at several of Parojinog's properties in Barangays Baybay San Roque and Baybay Santa Cruz around 2:30 a.m.
Before Parojinog's brutal slaughter, his family was already known nationwide to have been involved allegedly not only in distribution of illegal drugs, but also in other heinous crimes.
MENTIONED
Both Mabilog and Parojinog may have been mentioned by President Rodrigo R. Duterte as among the local chief executives in the Philippines to be allegedly involved in narco politics, but they definitely were not in the same class.
In terms of family background, education, intellect, accomplishments in public service, and values, Mabilog and Parojinog may be oceans apart.
The other difference is it has been established that Duterte had wrongly identified Mabilog as "the cousin of (suspected drug lord Melvin "Boyet) Odicta" while Parojinog belonged to a clan that ostensibly had criminal records (they were allegedly the remnants of the notorious "Kuratong Baleleng" that terrorized Metro Manila with kidnapping for ransom activities in the 90s).
Mabilog is the second cousin of opposition Senator Franklin Drilon, not Odicta.
If Duterte's tipsters could not establish this fundamental information, they have no business to tarnish the reputation of any Tom, Dick and Harry.
FAILURE
A failure in intelligence means these bungling field agents could become a liability instead of assets in the president's campaign against illegal drugs.
There are mayors and even governors in the Philippines who are more blatant and with irrefutable criminal involvement and inclinations, but were never placed in the spotlight or threatened with violent death.
Mabilog has been more deeply involved in civic and religious activities, and was never implicated in any crime even before he became a public servant.
Mabilog's enemies used his "friendship" with another suspected drug lord Jingjing Espinosa (who is now in jail for frustrated murder) as the basis to link him in narco-politics.
Mabilog comes from a decent and respected religious family in Molo district. He had or still has a foundation that helps the poor, the youth, and the senior citizens.
IMPLICATE
To implicate him in illegal drugs is like implicating Desdemona in Lago's plot to kill Emilia in Othello.
Mabilog's aggressive campaign against illegal drugs belies all the innuendos that he is into narco politics. Their lies defy the logic.
The vicious issue or issues being levelled against Mabilog were unheard of when he was first elected as city councilor, vice mayor, and now city mayor on his last term. It was politics or his links with the opposition, especially to Drilon, that gave him the albatross.
After Parojinog's assassination, some of Mabilog's detractors were so excited to push him in line of Duterte's death list.
Do these characters really want Mabilog dead because they are convinced he is evil?
Or they only want to reaffirm and marshal their hatred and bitterness toward the man because of his stunning political success, and use the precarious situation he is in today to satisfy and fulfill their whims and caprices?
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
My seatmate Jerome
"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends."
-- Maya Angelou
.By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- On our way to a four-hour trip to Mashantucket, Connecticut on July 28, I met Jerome.
A Chinese mestizo-looking, Jerome Yap Ramos was my seatmate in a crowded bus. He sat near the window; I was in the aisle.
It was not until he decided to strike a light conversation with me when the bus arrived in Norwalk, the sixth populous city in the United States, that I learned he was a Filipino who arrived in the US in April 1973 and never to return again.
A flurry of smorgasbord discussions ensued.
"Are you a Filipino?" volunteered Jerome, his gassy eyes are reminiscent of Genghis Khan, the Great Khan of Temujin and founder of the Mongol Empire.
"Yes, I am," I quickly retorted.
"And you come from a place where the dialect isn't Tagalog?" he mused.
"You got it right," I shot back. "I'm from Iloilo City in the Visayas.
ILONGGO
"I came from Hinoba-an and we spoke Ilonggo there," Jerome continued. "I mean I used to speak Ilonggo but I can no longer speak it now although I can understand when I hear the dailect."
"Hinoba-an is in Negros Occidental and people there also speak Hiligaynon just like us in Iloilo City," I answered.
"We don't speak Hiligaynon, only Ilonggo," Jerome sighed.
I wanted to tell Jerome that Ilonggo is a person or someone who lives in Iloilo and parts of Negros, while Hiligaynon is the Ilonggo's dialect.
Hinoba-an, with a population of 54,624, is a first class municipality in the province of Negros Occidental, Philippines. It is the southernmost town of the province.
Jerome left the Philippines together with his brother chaperoned by his uncle and aunt. His parents, already in the US, had difficulty bringing them to the US. The Philippines was under Martial Law.
He did not believe that the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos gave the Philippines a bad reputation. "In fact," he enthused, "he made the Philippines proud."
Jerome asked why the 1978 world chess championship match between champion Anatoly Karpov and Russian defector Victor Korchnoi was held in Baguio City and why Magnus Carlsen, the current FIDE world chess king, is being compared to the late American genius Bobby Fischer.
Jerome, 54, wanted to reconnect with old friends and former classmates in the Philippines. He doesn't have any social media page but is planning to create a Facebook account so he could "upload" the poem he made for Vicky, a "special" woman he met in a Chinese restaurant in Flushing, New York.
VICKY
The poem, entitled "Vicky", reminded me of Peter Abelard's love letters to his student, Heloise, thousands of years ago.
Jerome's four-paged poem dedicated to Vicky lives in a time of broad antiromanticism when teenagers, according to The Times Magazine, have given up on relationships altogether and adults write to the editor to salute their wisdom. "Romance?" scoffed one correspondent. It's just "an excuse . . . to work off sexual energy."
"I wanted Vicky to read the poem I made for her. I wanted the poem to be published in a newspaper. If I have a Facebook account, is it possible for Vicky to read it? I have no contact with Vicky now. She was no longer connected in the restaurant where she used to work," explained Jerome.
Our conversation was interupted when an ovebearing male black passenger sitting in front scolded us an hour before the bus arrived in Mashantucket: "Hey, you have been talking a lot since we left (New York). Can you stop now...(inaudible)?"
Jerome approached my left ear and averred in a lowered voice, "Never mind him. We were not loud."
We stopped talking. After a few minutes, Jerome's body reclined forward. He fell asleep.
In my brief conversation with Jerome. I found him to be very interesting, compassionate, generous, and oozing with emotional intelligence.
Vicky could become this generation's Heloise after reading Jerome's poem.
-- Maya Angelou
.By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- On our way to a four-hour trip to Mashantucket, Connecticut on July 28, I met Jerome.
A Chinese mestizo-looking, Jerome Yap Ramos was my seatmate in a crowded bus. He sat near the window; I was in the aisle.
It was not until he decided to strike a light conversation with me when the bus arrived in Norwalk, the sixth populous city in the United States, that I learned he was a Filipino who arrived in the US in April 1973 and never to return again.
A flurry of smorgasbord discussions ensued.
"Yes, I am," I quickly retorted.
"And you come from a place where the dialect isn't Tagalog?" he mused.
"You got it right," I shot back. "I'm from Iloilo City in the Visayas.
ILONGGO
"I came from Hinoba-an and we spoke Ilonggo there," Jerome continued. "I mean I used to speak Ilonggo but I can no longer speak it now although I can understand when I hear the dailect."
"Hinoba-an is in Negros Occidental and people there also speak Hiligaynon just like us in Iloilo City," I answered.
"We don't speak Hiligaynon, only Ilonggo," Jerome sighed.
I wanted to tell Jerome that Ilonggo is a person or someone who lives in Iloilo and parts of Negros, while Hiligaynon is the Ilonggo's dialect.
Hinoba-an, with a population of 54,624, is a first class municipality in the province of Negros Occidental, Philippines. It is the southernmost town of the province.
Jerome left the Philippines together with his brother chaperoned by his uncle and aunt. His parents, already in the US, had difficulty bringing them to the US. The Philippines was under Martial Law.
He did not believe that the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos gave the Philippines a bad reputation. "In fact," he enthused, "he made the Philippines proud."
Jerome asked why the 1978 world chess championship match between champion Anatoly Karpov and Russian defector Victor Korchnoi was held in Baguio City and why Magnus Carlsen, the current FIDE world chess king, is being compared to the late American genius Bobby Fischer.
VICKY
The poem, entitled "Vicky", reminded me of Peter Abelard's love letters to his student, Heloise, thousands of years ago.
Jerome's four-paged poem dedicated to Vicky lives in a time of broad antiromanticism when teenagers, according to The Times Magazine, have given up on relationships altogether and adults write to the editor to salute their wisdom. "Romance?" scoffed one correspondent. It's just "an excuse . . . to work off sexual energy."
"I wanted Vicky to read the poem I made for her. I wanted the poem to be published in a newspaper. If I have a Facebook account, is it possible for Vicky to read it? I have no contact with Vicky now. She was no longer connected in the restaurant where she used to work," explained Jerome.
Our conversation was interupted when an ovebearing male black passenger sitting in front scolded us an hour before the bus arrived in Mashantucket: "Hey, you have been talking a lot since we left (New York). Can you stop now...(inaudible)?"
Jerome approached my left ear and averred in a lowered voice, "Never mind him. We were not loud."
We stopped talking. After a few minutes, Jerome's body reclined forward. He fell asleep.
In my brief conversation with Jerome. I found him to be very interesting, compassionate, generous, and oozing with emotional intelligence.
Vicky could become this generation's Heloise after reading Jerome's poem.
Thursday, May 18, 2017
'God ended Tongtong's sufferings'
"Farewell, dearest friend, never to see one another any more till at the right hand of Christ."
--Donald Cargill
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- "I cried while seeing him in that very sad state."
Thus was the lamentation made by Block 22 NHA, Mandurriao village chief Ray Rico when he visited childhood friend and former classmate, Dr. Erwin "Tongtong" Plagata, in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Iloilo Mission Hospital in Iloilo City, Philippines May 14.
Dr. Elmer Pedregosa, hospital administrator, confirmed that Plagata, 61, a former city councilor, died of heart attack at around two o'clock in the afternoon on May 17.
"Tongtong was a fighter. He tried to hold on but God ended his pain and sufferings," sobbed Rico, who graduated with Plagata in the Central Philippine University (CPU) high school batch 1973.
He described Plagata as "my childhood buddy" since kindergarten and elementary.
Rico said Plagata's wife, Franzine, and son, Toto Ach-Ach, "lost a loving husband and father."
WHISPER
Rico said the last message he whispered to Plagata was "you can make it, but rest if you must."
The ailing physician extended his right hand for a shake with Rico as their usual gesture, but he had a shortness of breath, recalled the village chief.
"Tongtong nodded. I then asked for his permission to go because I couldn't stand seeing him in that state. Tears were starting to roll down from my eyes," Rico narrated.
Plagata last held the position of senior executive secretary to Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog.
He died without clearing his name after he was one of the two former Iloilo city councilors named by President Rodrigo Duterte as alleged protectors of illegal drugs. The other was lawyer Antonio Pesina.
Plagata's shining moments were in the late 90's when he was first elected as city councilor. Aside from being the son of the late charismatic former PNP Colonel Achiles, who himself was a former city councilor, Plagata gave young boys free circumcision in the barangays.
He earned the monicker as "Dr. Paltak". Paltak is Hiligaynon of circumcision.
HEADLINES
Plagata hogged newspaper headlines in 1996 when he accidentally hit with a stray bullet Philippine News Agency (PNA) Iloilo employee Virgilio Orquiola on the leg in a night club imbroglio.
He was then Mayor Mansueto Malabor's chief of the task force on anti-drugs, prostitution, and pornography, and was "inspecting " the Anata Night Club on Ledesma-Quezon Sts., City Proper.
Plagata bedgrudged the headline story in our newspaper (Sun.Star Iloilo) where we named him as the "triggerman". He berated our Super Balita reporter Nelson Robles after he was lampooned as "Tong-tong-tong-tong Pakitong-kitong" in a blind item.
He raised his voice when he saw me one morning (I was the editor of Sun Star Iloilo) in the office of the late councilor and then city hall executive assistant German Gonzales.
Plagata also threatened to confiscate copies of Super Balita, Sun Star's sister publication, branding the tabloid as "pornographic."
RELATIONSHIP
After years of a turbulent relationship with Plagata, his real person came out sometime in 1998 during the campaign period in the national elections, where he was again a candidate for a local position.
Plagata was guest in a morning candidates debate show aired "live" on ABS-CBN Iloilo where I was one of the moderators.
He gamely accepted the challenge, agreed to participate in the debate, and never cast doubts on my impartiality as a moderator.
After the debate, he volunteered to bring me to my destination in the Atrium. I joined him in his car and we exchanged pleasantries.
On that day, we buried whatever hatchet we had and decided to let bygones be bygones.
Plagata, after all, was human imbued with passion to make friends with former adversaries, and to embrace humility and generosity when no one was watching.
Mary Worthley Montagu once said, "While conscience is our friend, all is at peace; however once it is offended, farewell to a tranquil mind."
Rest in peace, Dr. Paltak. 'Till we meet again.
--Donald Cargill
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- "I cried while seeing him in that very sad state."
Thus was the lamentation made by Block 22 NHA, Mandurriao village chief Ray Rico when he visited childhood friend and former classmate, Dr. Erwin "Tongtong" Plagata, in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Iloilo Mission Hospital in Iloilo City, Philippines May 14.
Dr. Elmer Pedregosa, hospital administrator, confirmed that Plagata, 61, a former city councilor, died of heart attack at around two o'clock in the afternoon on May 17.
"Tongtong was a fighter. He tried to hold on but God ended his pain and sufferings," sobbed Rico, who graduated with Plagata in the Central Philippine University (CPU) high school batch 1973.
He described Plagata as "my childhood buddy" since kindergarten and elementary.
Rico said Plagata's wife, Franzine, and son, Toto Ach-Ach, "lost a loving husband and father."
WHISPER
Rico said the last message he whispered to Plagata was "you can make it, but rest if you must."
The ailing physician extended his right hand for a shake with Rico as their usual gesture, but he had a shortness of breath, recalled the village chief.
"Tongtong nodded. I then asked for his permission to go because I couldn't stand seeing him in that state. Tears were starting to roll down from my eyes," Rico narrated.
Plagata last held the position of senior executive secretary to Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog.
He died without clearing his name after he was one of the two former Iloilo city councilors named by President Rodrigo Duterte as alleged protectors of illegal drugs. The other was lawyer Antonio Pesina.
Plagata's shining moments were in the late 90's when he was first elected as city councilor. Aside from being the son of the late charismatic former PNP Colonel Achiles, who himself was a former city councilor, Plagata gave young boys free circumcision in the barangays.
He earned the monicker as "Dr. Paltak". Paltak is Hiligaynon of circumcision.
HEADLINES
Plagata hogged newspaper headlines in 1996 when he accidentally hit with a stray bullet Philippine News Agency (PNA) Iloilo employee Virgilio Orquiola on the leg in a night club imbroglio.
He was then Mayor Mansueto Malabor's chief of the task force on anti-drugs, prostitution, and pornography, and was "inspecting " the Anata Night Club on Ledesma-Quezon Sts., City Proper.
Plagata bedgrudged the headline story in our newspaper (Sun.Star Iloilo) where we named him as the "triggerman". He berated our Super Balita reporter Nelson Robles after he was lampooned as "Tong-tong-tong-tong Pakitong-kitong" in a blind item.
He raised his voice when he saw me one morning (I was the editor of Sun Star Iloilo) in the office of the late councilor and then city hall executive assistant German Gonzales.
Plagata also threatened to confiscate copies of Super Balita, Sun Star's sister publication, branding the tabloid as "pornographic."
RELATIONSHIP
After years of a turbulent relationship with Plagata, his real person came out sometime in 1998 during the campaign period in the national elections, where he was again a candidate for a local position.
Plagata was guest in a morning candidates debate show aired "live" on ABS-CBN Iloilo where I was one of the moderators.
He gamely accepted the challenge, agreed to participate in the debate, and never cast doubts on my impartiality as a moderator.
After the debate, he volunteered to bring me to my destination in the Atrium. I joined him in his car and we exchanged pleasantries.
On that day, we buried whatever hatchet we had and decided to let bygones be bygones.
Plagata, after all, was human imbued with passion to make friends with former adversaries, and to embrace humility and generosity when no one was watching.
Mary Worthley Montagu once said, "While conscience is our friend, all is at peace; however once it is offended, farewell to a tranquil mind."
Rest in peace, Dr. Paltak. 'Till we meet again.
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Like shabu, cyber-sex dens are hard to stop
"He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it."
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- The Archimedes of the Philippines' law enforcement has not yet found the leverage to yell "Eureka" in the solution of their campaign not only against illegal drugs, but also against another criminal operation, the cyber-sex den.
Shabu and cyber-sex dens have victimized minors and exploited our women.
Ten months after the Philippine government launched an "all-out" drive versus narcotics, police authorities continued to raid hideouts of notorious drug pushers and seize kilos of shabu.
Those who "engaged lawmen in a shootout" continued to be riddled with bullets and killed on the spot.
"Oplan Tokhang" has not sent shivers down the spine of drug traffickers. Kilos of illegal substance hidden in secret laboratories have not been located and continued to be distributed clandestinely.
Ditto in the crackdown against cyber-sex dens.
Even before President Rodrigo Duterte came, authorities were already arresting cyber-sex den operators in various cities nationwide.
FOREIGNERS
Most arrested cyber-sex den operators were foreigners who are either engaged to local women or staying in the Philippines as temporary visitors.
They usually connived with local partners and have chosen far-flung cities and provinces as their burrows to avoid detection from lawmen.
The case of a 62-year-old Lee David Colglazier, American tourist arrested in Brgy. Taculing, Bacolod City recently after being caught uploading videos of him having sex with different partners, is an example that cyber-sex activities are still very much rampant despite continuous police operations to curve them.
In recent months, another foreigner was nabbed together with his Filipino female live-in partner in Boracay for molesting and torturing minor girls and uploading their videos for their foreign-based clients.
Every now and then, discovery of cyber-sex dens has been dominating the news alternately with raids on lairs of durg traffickers and other minor crimes.
Now that we have a law like the Republic Act 9995, or the Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009 that deals with cyber-sex criminals, authorities must continue crack the whip on cyber-sex criminals anywhere in the Philippines.
-o0o-
We were shocked to hear the alleged complaints from some RMN radio netizens that Iloilo City Councilor Joshua Alim "abused his authority" in a recent traffic fracas involving a cabbie in Jaro district.
The unidentified cabbie reportedly nearly hit Alim's car prompting the city alderman to call the cabbie's attention.
Instead of acknowledging his mistake, the cabbie reportedly hollered at Alim.
It was only in the police station where the cabbie was able to know who was the person he had reportedly abused verbally.
Alim reportedly forgave the cabbie and didn't press any complaint. The two settled the row amicably, it was reported.
I don't believe that Alim, a lawyer, would use his authority to put the cabbie in bad light.
I know the city official since way back in the 90's when we were together in media, and he is not the type of person in authority who will throw his weight around.
Alim is one of the coolest public officials who won't even hurt a fly even if he has been insulted. The netizens who lambasted him without basis were wrong.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- The Archimedes of the Philippines' law enforcement has not yet found the leverage to yell "Eureka" in the solution of their campaign not only against illegal drugs, but also against another criminal operation, the cyber-sex den.
Shabu and cyber-sex dens have victimized minors and exploited our women.
Ten months after the Philippine government launched an "all-out" drive versus narcotics, police authorities continued to raid hideouts of notorious drug pushers and seize kilos of shabu.
Those who "engaged lawmen in a shootout" continued to be riddled with bullets and killed on the spot.
"Oplan Tokhang" has not sent shivers down the spine of drug traffickers. Kilos of illegal substance hidden in secret laboratories have not been located and continued to be distributed clandestinely.
Ditto in the crackdown against cyber-sex dens.
Even before President Rodrigo Duterte came, authorities were already arresting cyber-sex den operators in various cities nationwide.
FOREIGNERS
Most arrested cyber-sex den operators were foreigners who are either engaged to local women or staying in the Philippines as temporary visitors.
They usually connived with local partners and have chosen far-flung cities and provinces as their burrows to avoid detection from lawmen.
The case of a 62-year-old Lee David Colglazier, American tourist arrested in Brgy. Taculing, Bacolod City recently after being caught uploading videos of him having sex with different partners, is an example that cyber-sex activities are still very much rampant despite continuous police operations to curve them.
In recent months, another foreigner was nabbed together with his Filipino female live-in partner in Boracay for molesting and torturing minor girls and uploading their videos for their foreign-based clients.
Every now and then, discovery of cyber-sex dens has been dominating the news alternately with raids on lairs of durg traffickers and other minor crimes.
Now that we have a law like the Republic Act 9995, or the Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009 that deals with cyber-sex criminals, authorities must continue crack the whip on cyber-sex criminals anywhere in the Philippines.
-o0o-
We were shocked to hear the alleged complaints from some RMN radio netizens that Iloilo City Councilor Joshua Alim "abused his authority" in a recent traffic fracas involving a cabbie in Jaro district.
The unidentified cabbie reportedly nearly hit Alim's car prompting the city alderman to call the cabbie's attention.
Instead of acknowledging his mistake, the cabbie reportedly hollered at Alim.
It was only in the police station where the cabbie was able to know who was the person he had reportedly abused verbally.
Alim reportedly forgave the cabbie and didn't press any complaint. The two settled the row amicably, it was reported.
I don't believe that Alim, a lawyer, would use his authority to put the cabbie in bad light.
I know the city official since way back in the 90's when we were together in media, and he is not the type of person in authority who will throw his weight around.
Alim is one of the coolest public officials who won't even hurt a fly even if he has been insulted. The netizens who lambasted him without basis were wrong.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Overacting city police chief
"There is no overacting, only untrue acting."
--STELLAN SKASGARD
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Wonder why until now news in the Philippines is still being dominated by alleged EJKs (extra-judicial killings) amid the brutal campaign initiated by the Duterte administration against the narcotics?
Even if there will be killings everyday, shabu dealers nationwide won't totally close shop.
By hook or by crook they have to "push" their illegal substance even if via guerilla tactic. They can't throw away to the dustbin or flush in the toilets kilos of shabu already in their possessions.
If they can't remit the money, their suppliers will kill them. They are actually caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
They have no choice but to engage law enforcers in a cat-and- mouse-type game and risk their lives, otherwise, they will lose their main livelihood. Otherwise, they will be killed by their own partners in crime gangland style.
-o0o-
One thing more, many street-level shabu dealers are unemployed and selling illegal drugs is their only way out of poverty.
They are aware that many of them have already been executed like animals ever since Pres. Duterte declared an all-out war against illegal drugs; but they are unfazed.
They fear poverty more and their ruthless suppliers than bullets from the raiding police teams.
In shabu business, everybody is involved down in the barangay level--housewives, husbands, their children (used as whistle-blowers for police raids if not couriers), and some village officials.
The lives of many drug addicts have already been destroyed long before they were mowed down by bullets--via EJK or otherwise.
The problem on illegal drugs can't be halted even if dead bodies will continue to stockpile in the dumpsites and public plazas when we wake up in the next day.
-o0o-
MANY Ilonggos believed that Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) Director Remus Zacharias Canieso "over reacted" when he "summoned" to the ICPO the manager and service crew of a hardware inside a big mall in Iloilo City on April 7 after he was accidentally hit by a pushcart while inside the hardware earlier.
Inside the ICPO, Canieso, who was supposed to be transferred to Aklan if the Iloilo City Council did not ask PNP Chief Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa to retain him in his present post, reportedly lectured the manager and service crew to be cautious if they are inside the hardware as they might hurt not only adults like him but children, as well.
Canieso, who did not suffer any major injury, could have talked to the manager and the service crew right there inside the hardware after the incident.
Or smile and forget about the minor episode, which occured every now and then in other shopping centers and crowded places. Canieso would have earned praises, especially if the hardware management found out who he is.
If it happened to an ordinary civilian laborer, the incident would have been shrugged off and forgotten.
But because he is a city police chief, Canieso had to use his power and authority to inconvenience the hardware employees into "reporting" to his office like they were his subordinates.
He was sending a curt message.
--STELLAN SKASGARD
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Wonder why until now news in the Philippines is still being dominated by alleged EJKs (extra-judicial killings) amid the brutal campaign initiated by the Duterte administration against the narcotics?
Even if there will be killings everyday, shabu dealers nationwide won't totally close shop.
By hook or by crook they have to "push" their illegal substance even if via guerilla tactic. They can't throw away to the dustbin or flush in the toilets kilos of shabu already in their possessions.
If they can't remit the money, their suppliers will kill them. They are actually caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
They have no choice but to engage law enforcers in a cat-and- mouse-type game and risk their lives, otherwise, they will lose their main livelihood. Otherwise, they will be killed by their own partners in crime gangland style.
-o0o-
One thing more, many street-level shabu dealers are unemployed and selling illegal drugs is their only way out of poverty.
They are aware that many of them have already been executed like animals ever since Pres. Duterte declared an all-out war against illegal drugs; but they are unfazed.
They fear poverty more and their ruthless suppliers than bullets from the raiding police teams.
In shabu business, everybody is involved down in the barangay level--housewives, husbands, their children (used as whistle-blowers for police raids if not couriers), and some village officials.
The lives of many drug addicts have already been destroyed long before they were mowed down by bullets--via EJK or otherwise.
The problem on illegal drugs can't be halted even if dead bodies will continue to stockpile in the dumpsites and public plazas when we wake up in the next day.
-o0o-
MANY Ilonggos believed that Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) Director Remus Zacharias Canieso "over reacted" when he "summoned" to the ICPO the manager and service crew of a hardware inside a big mall in Iloilo City on April 7 after he was accidentally hit by a pushcart while inside the hardware earlier.
Inside the ICPO, Canieso, who was supposed to be transferred to Aklan if the Iloilo City Council did not ask PNP Chief Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa to retain him in his present post, reportedly lectured the manager and service crew to be cautious if they are inside the hardware as they might hurt not only adults like him but children, as well.
Canieso, who did not suffer any major injury, could have talked to the manager and the service crew right there inside the hardware after the incident.
Or smile and forget about the minor episode, which occured every now and then in other shopping centers and crowded places. Canieso would have earned praises, especially if the hardware management found out who he is.
If it happened to an ordinary civilian laborer, the incident would have been shrugged off and forgotten.
But because he is a city police chief, Canieso had to use his power and authority to inconvenience the hardware employees into "reporting" to his office like they were his subordinates.
He was sending a curt message.
Friday, April 7, 2017
Don't fear the 'point man' yet
"To me, there is no greater way to achieve clarity than to run alone, or share miles with a trusted friend."
-- Kristin Armstrong
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Ilonggos will have to take at face value the claim of Iloilo City Councilor Jeffrey Ganzon that he has been designated as President Duterte's "point man" in Iloilo City.
Now that Ganzon has disclosed he visited Davao City to meet the President on March 27 where he was reportedly invited to join the PDP-Laban, many Ilonggos will start to speculate that he might run for city mayor in 2019, even if Ganzon has nixed the idea.
Assuming that Ganzon will change his mind and run for city mayor under PDP-Laban; and assuming that Rep. Jerry Trenas will also run for the same post, Ganzon's biggest stumbling block would be the principle of the "equity of the incumbent"--assuming the party will honor that rule--asTrenas has been a PDP-Laban stalwart since the start of the Duterte administration.
It will be another story, however, if Trenas will pave the way for Vice Mayor Jose "Joe III" Espinosa as Liberal Party's official standard bearer for the mayoralty race.
-o0o-
In a political context, "point man" means a person at the forefront of an activity or endeavor.
In other words, a "point man" could mean "organizer" or "coordinator". A point man doesn't have any official portfolio other than his being affiliated with the administration party.
Since Ganzon is an elected official and has not relinquished his position, his designation as "point man" may be assumed as liaison in nature.
It could also mean being tapped as the President's eyes and ears in Iloilo. The most important for Ganzon is he now presumably has the trust and confidence of the President.
Ganzon's potential rivals should have no reason to worry yet since the alderman from Molo has not been officially sworn in as new PDP-Laban member.
Trenas and other PDP-Laban members may start to cross the bridge once Ganzon has become a full-fledged member of the ruling party.
-o0o-
WE will be watching the three Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) musketeers who cast aspersions on the reputation of dismissed Secretary Mike Sueno when they poisoned President Duterte's mind.
We hope they can exorcise the ghost that bedeviled them in their widely known fracas versus the grand old man of South Cotabato.
Sueno, a well-loved and much-admired former South Cotabato governor, has insisted he never pocketed a single centavo from the 76 firetrucks worth P20-million each in Austria since no public funds have been paid yet to the supplier, which will be done on a government to government basis.
It's not a joke to be fired because of allegations of corruption especially if your guilt has not been proven.
In his age, Sueno must be hurting so much. If he were Japanese, he would have committed suicide because of the degree of shame he received from the unforgiving President Duterte.
-- Kristin Armstrong
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Ilonggos will have to take at face value the claim of Iloilo City Councilor Jeffrey Ganzon that he has been designated as President Duterte's "point man" in Iloilo City.
Now that Ganzon has disclosed he visited Davao City to meet the President on March 27 where he was reportedly invited to join the PDP-Laban, many Ilonggos will start to speculate that he might run for city mayor in 2019, even if Ganzon has nixed the idea.
Assuming that Ganzon will change his mind and run for city mayor under PDP-Laban; and assuming that Rep. Jerry Trenas will also run for the same post, Ganzon's biggest stumbling block would be the principle of the "equity of the incumbent"--assuming the party will honor that rule--asTrenas has been a PDP-Laban stalwart since the start of the Duterte administration.
It will be another story, however, if Trenas will pave the way for Vice Mayor Jose "Joe III" Espinosa as Liberal Party's official standard bearer for the mayoralty race.
-o0o-
In a political context, "point man" means a person at the forefront of an activity or endeavor.
In other words, a "point man" could mean "organizer" or "coordinator". A point man doesn't have any official portfolio other than his being affiliated with the administration party.
Since Ganzon is an elected official and has not relinquished his position, his designation as "point man" may be assumed as liaison in nature.
It could also mean being tapped as the President's eyes and ears in Iloilo. The most important for Ganzon is he now presumably has the trust and confidence of the President.
Ganzon's potential rivals should have no reason to worry yet since the alderman from Molo has not been officially sworn in as new PDP-Laban member.
Trenas and other PDP-Laban members may start to cross the bridge once Ganzon has become a full-fledged member of the ruling party.
-o0o-
WE will be watching the three Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) musketeers who cast aspersions on the reputation of dismissed Secretary Mike Sueno when they poisoned President Duterte's mind.
We hope they can exorcise the ghost that bedeviled them in their widely known fracas versus the grand old man of South Cotabato.
Sueno, a well-loved and much-admired former South Cotabato governor, has insisted he never pocketed a single centavo from the 76 firetrucks worth P20-million each in Austria since no public funds have been paid yet to the supplier, which will be done on a government to government basis.
It's not a joke to be fired because of allegations of corruption especially if your guilt has not been proven.
In his age, Sueno must be hurting so much. If he were Japanese, he would have committed suicide because of the degree of shame he received from the unforgiving President Duterte.
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
HIV test for inmates
"HIV infection and AIDS is growing - but so too is public apathy. We have already lost too many friends and colleagues."
--David Geffen
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- HIV cases are reportedly on the rise once again especially in Philippine jails and rehabilitation centers.
Chito, a "floor manager" in a night club on J.M. Basa St., Iloilo City in the Philippines, once confirmed he was infected with sexually transmitted disease (STD) after a brief stint in a Pavia town district jail.
"I was a victim of sexual abuse by my fellow inmates," confessed Chito, who was nabbed for illegal possession of shabu together with a female friend, a former capitol employee, in Molo district.
Chito confirmed that gay inmates like him "are always in the receiving end when abusive sexual predators strike inside the jail."
From STD, the likes of Chito could be infected with HIV if not immediately given proper medical attention while behind bars, said the late Dr. Rodolfo Jara-Mesa, an STD specialist.
FULL-BLOWN
Chito's case crossed my mind after it was reported recently that a Quezon City inmate died of full-blown Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
The victim was reportedly one of the three inmates infected with the deadly virus. The other one had been released from jail, while the third had been transferred to an undisclosed detention cell.
The identities of other HIV-positive inmates have always been kept confidential and even the mayores or cell leaders did not know them.
Because of the incident, jail authorities have distributed condoms to Quezon City inmates. With the help of the Department of Health, other jails are expected to follow suit to curb the spread of the virus among sexually active inmates.
We call on the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to make HIV testing mandatory for inmates in congested detention cells aside from the distribution of condoms.
PREVENTION
Condoms may be considered as "an ounce of prevention", but mandatory HIV-testing could be the most effective means to save the patients before everything will be too late.
Data obtained by the Philippine Information Agency-Iloilo (PIA-Iloilo) from the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (RESU) of DOH-6, meanwhile, showed that Western Visayas is ranked sixth among all the regions in the country in terms of newly diagnosed cases per region.
Reports quoted DOH-6 Regional Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Nurse Coordinator Christine Mosqueda as saying that "Region 6 registered three percent of the HIV cases in the country."
Mosqueda pointed to a data in Western Visayas in December 2016, where every 19 hours a person was reportedly diagnosed with HIV.
CASES
The report added: "Majority of these cases are males with 432, while the remaining 19 are females. A total of 226 cases belong to the age group 25 to 34 years old; 134 cases are under the 15 to 24 years old age range and one case is a child below 15 years old. In the nationwide scale, a total of 9,264 cases were recorded for the period December to January 2016. Of the figure, 1,113 are full blown AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) cases while 8,151 are asymptomatic."
Meanwhile, we laud the National Youth Commission (NYC) for holding a free HIV testing for all youngsters in its central office in Quezon City, Philippines on March 20 as confirmed by Commissioner for Visayas Rhea Penaflor.
--David Geffen
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- HIV cases are reportedly on the rise once again especially in Philippine jails and rehabilitation centers.
Chito, a "floor manager" in a night club on J.M. Basa St., Iloilo City in the Philippines, once confirmed he was infected with sexually transmitted disease (STD) after a brief stint in a Pavia town district jail.
"I was a victim of sexual abuse by my fellow inmates," confessed Chito, who was nabbed for illegal possession of shabu together with a female friend, a former capitol employee, in Molo district.
Chito confirmed that gay inmates like him "are always in the receiving end when abusive sexual predators strike inside the jail."
From STD, the likes of Chito could be infected with HIV if not immediately given proper medical attention while behind bars, said the late Dr. Rodolfo Jara-Mesa, an STD specialist.
FULL-BLOWN
Chito's case crossed my mind after it was reported recently that a Quezon City inmate died of full-blown Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
The victim was reportedly one of the three inmates infected with the deadly virus. The other one had been released from jail, while the third had been transferred to an undisclosed detention cell.
The identities of other HIV-positive inmates have always been kept confidential and even the mayores or cell leaders did not know them.
Because of the incident, jail authorities have distributed condoms to Quezon City inmates. With the help of the Department of Health, other jails are expected to follow suit to curb the spread of the virus among sexually active inmates.
We call on the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to make HIV testing mandatory for inmates in congested detention cells aside from the distribution of condoms.
PREVENTION
Condoms may be considered as "an ounce of prevention", but mandatory HIV-testing could be the most effective means to save the patients before everything will be too late.
Data obtained by the Philippine Information Agency-Iloilo (PIA-Iloilo) from the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (RESU) of DOH-6, meanwhile, showed that Western Visayas is ranked sixth among all the regions in the country in terms of newly diagnosed cases per region.
Reports quoted DOH-6 Regional Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Nurse Coordinator Christine Mosqueda as saying that "Region 6 registered three percent of the HIV cases in the country."
Mosqueda pointed to a data in Western Visayas in December 2016, where every 19 hours a person was reportedly diagnosed with HIV.
CASES
The report added: "Majority of these cases are males with 432, while the remaining 19 are females. A total of 226 cases belong to the age group 25 to 34 years old; 134 cases are under the 15 to 24 years old age range and one case is a child below 15 years old. In the nationwide scale, a total of 9,264 cases were recorded for the period December to January 2016. Of the figure, 1,113 are full blown AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) cases while 8,151 are asymptomatic."
Meanwhile, we laud the National Youth Commission (NYC) for holding a free HIV testing for all youngsters in its central office in Quezon City, Philippines on March 20 as confirmed by Commissioner for Visayas Rhea Penaflor.
Monday, March 20, 2017
Ilonggo solons not (yet) rubber stamps
"Enjoy your time in public service. It may well be one of the most interesting and challenging times of your life."
--Donald Rumsfeld
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Even members of the Iloilo City Council are getting annoyed and embarrassed that Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog has become the most favorite punching bag of President Rodrigo Duterte each time the president unleashed his irascible wrath against some Liberal Party (LP) bigwigs.
So alarmed and disturbed were the city aldermen and women that they are now willing to help Mabilog collate the city government's programs and/or accomplishments against illegal drugs and make a common stand.
They, too, must be hurting while seeing Mabilog reeling from absurd allegations that the city mayor, ranked No. 5 in the World Mayor two years ago, is a protector of merchants of prohibited substance.
Guided by an impermeable moral compass, the city councilors, led by Vice Mayor Jose III Espinosa, must have felt they could no longer afford to sit down and act like kibitzers while Mabilog was being pounded from pillar to post by a heavy bone-crusher.
-o0o-
We still have faith with our representatives from Western Visayas in the Philippines even if their independence was recently subjected into a microscopic sleuthing by some impatient constituents who thought their unanimous yes votes for death penalty was a tell tale sign of their implied subservience to the Duterte administration.
As if their acid test was not enough, our congressmen and women will again be tested in at least two major issues that will soon be tackled in congress: the impeachment cases versus President Rodrigo Duterte (already filed) and Vice President Leni Robredo (still being floated).
If they reject both impeachment cases (granting that an impeachment case will be officially filed against Robredo), their constituents will never badger them. Life must go on.
Ilonggos are known to always decry any attempt to destabilize the incumbent administration. If any of the two--Duterte and Robredo--will be removed from office, a power vacuum can't guarantee a sustained or immediate political and economic stability.
NORMAL
If government is on wobbly legs, life for Filipinos will not be normal.
Nobody would want to have this kind of environment especially if our priority is to provide our children with three square meals a day and send them to school.
If our solons will reject one impeachment and support another, their constituents will suspect that they are playing political favorites and are not taking their mandates seriously.
The Ilonggo constituents will be watching you, Reps. Sharon Garin (Ang Asosasyon Sang Manguguma Nga Bisaya-OWA Mangunguma Inc.); Atty. Jerry Trenas (Iloilo City); Richard Garin (Iloilo, 1st District); Arcadio Gorriceta (Iloilo, 2nd District); Atty. Arthur Defensor Jr. (Iloilo, 3rd District); Dr. Ferjenel Biron (Iloilo, 4th District); Raul Tupas (Iloilo, 5th District); and Maria Lucille Nava (Guimaras).
--Donald Rumsfeld
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Even members of the Iloilo City Council are getting annoyed and embarrassed that Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog has become the most favorite punching bag of President Rodrigo Duterte each time the president unleashed his irascible wrath against some Liberal Party (LP) bigwigs.
So alarmed and disturbed were the city aldermen and women that they are now willing to help Mabilog collate the city government's programs and/or accomplishments against illegal drugs and make a common stand.
They, too, must be hurting while seeing Mabilog reeling from absurd allegations that the city mayor, ranked No. 5 in the World Mayor two years ago, is a protector of merchants of prohibited substance.
Guided by an impermeable moral compass, the city councilors, led by Vice Mayor Jose III Espinosa, must have felt they could no longer afford to sit down and act like kibitzers while Mabilog was being pounded from pillar to post by a heavy bone-crusher.
-o0o-
We still have faith with our representatives from Western Visayas in the Philippines even if their independence was recently subjected into a microscopic sleuthing by some impatient constituents who thought their unanimous yes votes for death penalty was a tell tale sign of their implied subservience to the Duterte administration.
As if their acid test was not enough, our congressmen and women will again be tested in at least two major issues that will soon be tackled in congress: the impeachment cases versus President Rodrigo Duterte (already filed) and Vice President Leni Robredo (still being floated).
If they reject both impeachment cases (granting that an impeachment case will be officially filed against Robredo), their constituents will never badger them. Life must go on.
Ilonggos are known to always decry any attempt to destabilize the incumbent administration. If any of the two--Duterte and Robredo--will be removed from office, a power vacuum can't guarantee a sustained or immediate political and economic stability.
NORMAL
If government is on wobbly legs, life for Filipinos will not be normal.
Nobody would want to have this kind of environment especially if our priority is to provide our children with three square meals a day and send them to school.
If our solons will reject one impeachment and support another, their constituents will suspect that they are playing political favorites and are not taking their mandates seriously.
The Ilonggo constituents will be watching you, Reps. Sharon Garin (Ang Asosasyon Sang Manguguma Nga Bisaya-OWA Mangunguma Inc.); Atty. Jerry Trenas (Iloilo City); Richard Garin (Iloilo, 1st District); Arcadio Gorriceta (Iloilo, 2nd District); Atty. Arthur Defensor Jr. (Iloilo, 3rd District); Dr. Ferjenel Biron (Iloilo, 4th District); Raul Tupas (Iloilo, 5th District); and Maria Lucille Nava (Guimaras).
Thursday, March 16, 2017
Duterte wants to hurt Drilon, not Mabilog
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend."
--Thomas Jefferson
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- It is becoming obvious that in repeatedly tormenting Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog with unfounded accusations that the Ilonggo mayor is engaged in narco-politics, President Rodrigo Duterte's real target is Senator Franklin Drilon.
For the nth time, the president, without any solid proof, mentioned Mabilog's alleged involvement in illegal drugs--out of the blue.
The president also reportedly erroneously referred to Mabilog anew as the "cousin" of slain drug lord Melvin "Boyet" Odicta Sr.
He was actually aware that Mabilog is Drilon's second cousin.
President Duterte must have read Law 46 of Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power that states: "Never appear too perfect!---Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity."
But in making Mabilog as veritable punching bag, the president unwittingly "violates" the book's Law 19 which exhorts that "Know who you are dealing with---do not offend the wrong person."
ALLY
Aside from having been marked as the chief ally of defeated Liberal Party (LP) presidential bet Mar Roxas, President Duterte considers Drilon as a colossal obstacle in the measures and programs that he intends to introduce in the senate.
As one of the most senior members of the minority bloc and a former senate boss to boot, Drilon still has the respect of his peers and wields influence on many of those in the majority bloc.
In the soon-to-be-debated death penalty bill, for instance, Drilon is expected to fight tooth and nail, along with fellow LP and some "independent" senators to oppose it.
The president must be jittery that Drilon, et al could derail or even steamroll his pet bills and other programs once they reach in the upper chamber.
Mr. Duterte appears to have succeeded in transforming the House of Representatives into his toy soldiers courtesy of the iron-grip tactics employed by Speaker Pantaleon "Bebot" Alvarez.
JUDICIARY
He is also poised, God forbid, to possibly get a ballroom dance with the judiciary with the recent appointments of Supreme Court Associate Justices Samuel Martires and Noel Tijam.
We are not saying though that the president could now solidly hold the courts in the scrotum, but it looks like only the senate has become the Last of the Mohicans.
Aside from Sen. Drilon, Senators Antonio Trillanes IV, Bam Aquino, Francis Pangilinan, Panfilo Lacson, Riza Hontiveros, and detained Leila de Lima could still give the president a potential migraine.
The same senators did not join the dinner party with the president held in Malacañang on March 14.
A dream grand slam or political coup de grace may be impossible to attain if Drilon, et al are not neutralized.
--Thomas Jefferson
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- It is becoming obvious that in repeatedly tormenting Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog with unfounded accusations that the Ilonggo mayor is engaged in narco-politics, President Rodrigo Duterte's real target is Senator Franklin Drilon.
For the nth time, the president, without any solid proof, mentioned Mabilog's alleged involvement in illegal drugs--out of the blue.
The president also reportedly erroneously referred to Mabilog anew as the "cousin" of slain drug lord Melvin "Boyet" Odicta Sr.
He was actually aware that Mabilog is Drilon's second cousin.
President Duterte must have read Law 46 of Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power that states: "Never appear too perfect!---Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity."
But in making Mabilog as veritable punching bag, the president unwittingly "violates" the book's Law 19 which exhorts that "Know who you are dealing with---do not offend the wrong person."
ALLY
Aside from having been marked as the chief ally of defeated Liberal Party (LP) presidential bet Mar Roxas, President Duterte considers Drilon as a colossal obstacle in the measures and programs that he intends to introduce in the senate.
As one of the most senior members of the minority bloc and a former senate boss to boot, Drilon still has the respect of his peers and wields influence on many of those in the majority bloc.
In the soon-to-be-debated death penalty bill, for instance, Drilon is expected to fight tooth and nail, along with fellow LP and some "independent" senators to oppose it.
The president must be jittery that Drilon, et al could derail or even steamroll his pet bills and other programs once they reach in the upper chamber.
Mr. Duterte appears to have succeeded in transforming the House of Representatives into his toy soldiers courtesy of the iron-grip tactics employed by Speaker Pantaleon "Bebot" Alvarez.
JUDICIARY
He is also poised, God forbid, to possibly get a ballroom dance with the judiciary with the recent appointments of Supreme Court Associate Justices Samuel Martires and Noel Tijam.
We are not saying though that the president could now solidly hold the courts in the scrotum, but it looks like only the senate has become the Last of the Mohicans.
Aside from Sen. Drilon, Senators Antonio Trillanes IV, Bam Aquino, Francis Pangilinan, Panfilo Lacson, Riza Hontiveros, and detained Leila de Lima could still give the president a potential migraine.
The same senators did not join the dinner party with the president held in Malacañang on March 14.
A dream grand slam or political coup de grace may be impossible to attain if Drilon, et al are not neutralized.
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Jeepney operators acting like spoiled brats
"People want to see big, escapist fare. They don't want to be challenged to think."
--Harvey Weinstein
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Because of rapid developments in the countryside, international conclaves like the ASEAN Summit and APEC Ministerial Meet could now be jointly held in thriving Visayas and Mindanao cities like Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Dumaguete, Palawan, Cagayan De Oro, and Davao.
Imperial Manila could no longer claim exclusive domain to host some of the gigantic international events now that infrastructure, traffic and tourism have improved by leaps and bounds outside Luzon.
Some of the world's top hotel conglomerates have also expanded in the countryside, generating employment opportunities for local folks, and helping spruce up the local economy.
In as far as investment and toursim are concerned, this is some sort of renaissance for the hitherto "promdi" territories, which have been perpetually neglected and underestimated by past administrations after the EDSA Revolution.
-o0o-
JEEPNEY operators in Iloilo City should stop acting like spoiled brats and consider the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board's (LTFRB) recommendation of a P.50 jeepney fare hike.
The increase is for the first five kilometers in Western Visayas and Negros Occidental. Another P1.50 will be included for every succeeding kilometer.
The current fare of P6.50 will become P7 if the 50-centavo increase is approved by the LTFRB central office.
But the Iloilo City Loop Alliance of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (ICLAJODA) and Pinag-isang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (PISTON-Panay chapter) are not satisfied.
They want another 50 centavos or P1.
They expressed their stand during the public hearing March 13 at the LTFRB-6 office in Barangay Tabuc Suba, Jaro district.
INSPIRE
They were probably inspired by LTFRB's recent decision to approve a P1 increase on minimum fares in Metro Manila and in Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog.
They must be slabbering for a "uniform" increase.
But Iloilo City is not Metro Manila. It is neither Central Luzon nor Southern Tagalog.
The LTFRB, after probably studying the increase's impact on local economy and the capacity of commuters, dangled only a P.50 hike.
Jeepney operators should remember that most of them are also parents.
They are aware that LTFRB's 50-centavo fare increase will result only in P7 fare for regular passengers of public utility jeepneys (PUJs) and P5.50 for students, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and senior citizens.
Their demand, on the other hand, would mean regular commuters will have to fork out a minimum fare of P7.50 and P6.50 for students, PWDs and elderly citizens.
A 50-centavo difference is still 50 centavos.
--Harvey Weinstein
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Because of rapid developments in the countryside, international conclaves like the ASEAN Summit and APEC Ministerial Meet could now be jointly held in thriving Visayas and Mindanao cities like Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Dumaguete, Palawan, Cagayan De Oro, and Davao.
Imperial Manila could no longer claim exclusive domain to host some of the gigantic international events now that infrastructure, traffic and tourism have improved by leaps and bounds outside Luzon.
Some of the world's top hotel conglomerates have also expanded in the countryside, generating employment opportunities for local folks, and helping spruce up the local economy.
In as far as investment and toursim are concerned, this is some sort of renaissance for the hitherto "promdi" territories, which have been perpetually neglected and underestimated by past administrations after the EDSA Revolution.
-o0o-
JEEPNEY operators in Iloilo City should stop acting like spoiled brats and consider the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board's (LTFRB) recommendation of a P.50 jeepney fare hike.
The increase is for the first five kilometers in Western Visayas and Negros Occidental. Another P1.50 will be included for every succeeding kilometer.
The current fare of P6.50 will become P7 if the 50-centavo increase is approved by the LTFRB central office.
But the Iloilo City Loop Alliance of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (ICLAJODA) and Pinag-isang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (PISTON-Panay chapter) are not satisfied.
They want another 50 centavos or P1.
They expressed their stand during the public hearing March 13 at the LTFRB-6 office in Barangay Tabuc Suba, Jaro district.
INSPIRE
They were probably inspired by LTFRB's recent decision to approve a P1 increase on minimum fares in Metro Manila and in Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog.
They must be slabbering for a "uniform" increase.
But Iloilo City is not Metro Manila. It is neither Central Luzon nor Southern Tagalog.
The LTFRB, after probably studying the increase's impact on local economy and the capacity of commuters, dangled only a P.50 hike.
Jeepney operators should remember that most of them are also parents.
They are aware that LTFRB's 50-centavo fare increase will result only in P7 fare for regular passengers of public utility jeepneys (PUJs) and P5.50 for students, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and senior citizens.
Their demand, on the other hand, would mean regular commuters will have to fork out a minimum fare of P7.50 and P6.50 for students, PWDs and elderly citizens.
A 50-centavo difference is still 50 centavos.
Monday, March 13, 2017
Duterte appoints new Iloilo, Negros judges
"I love judges, and I love courts. They are my ideals, that typify on earth what we shall meet hereafter in heaven under a just God."
--William Howard Taft
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- If I were House Speaker Pantaleon "Bebot" Alvarez, I would refrain from further humiliating detained Senator Leila De Lima.
In his most recent media conference, the former cabinet official of then President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo lambasted De Lima calling her as the "No. 1 drug lord in the Philippines."
True or not, in our culture we don't kick somebody who is already down.
Especially a woman.
We never heard the same level of vitriol and angry words from past speakers like Nicanor Yñiguez, Ramon Mitra Jr., Jose De Venecia, Arnulfo Fuentebella, and Feliciano Belmonte Jr.
.-o0o-
President Duterte has appointed the following judges for the islands of Panay and Negros:
-Daniel Antonio Gerardo S. Amular (RTC Branch 35, Iloilo City);
-Oscar Leo S. Billena (RTC Branch 70 Barotac Viejo, Iloilo);
-Jose E. Mauricio E. Gomez (RTC Branch 71 Barotac Viejo, Iloilo);
-Nelita Jesusa Arboleda-Bacaling (RTC Branch 72 Guimbal, Iloilo);
-Gemalyn Faunillo-Tarol (RTC Branch 76, Janiuay, Iloilo);
-Ernesto L. Abijay, Jr. (RTC Branch 10 San Jose, Antique);
-Josefina Fulo-Muego (RTC Branch 13 Culasi, Antique);
-Phoebe A. Gargantiel-Balbin (RTC Branch 45 Bacolod City, Negros Occidental);
-Edwin B. Gomez (RTC Branch 77 Sipalay City, Negros Occidental);
-Gwendolyn I. Jimenea-Tiu (RTC Branch 60 Cadiz City, Negros Occidental);
-Reginald M. Fuentebella (RTC Branch 73 Sagay City, Negros Occidental);
-Mila D. Yap-Camiso (RTC Branch 74 La Carlota City, Negros Occidental);
-Gertrude Belgica Jiro (MTC Dumangas, Iloilo);
-Kathryn Rose A. Hitalia-Baliatan (MTC Miag-ao, Iloilo);
-Meliza Joan Berano Robite (MTCC Branch 2 Iloilo City);
-Larnie Fleur B. Palma-Kim (MTCC Branch 6, Iloilo City);
-Mark Anthony D.R. Polonan (MTCC Branch 8, Iloilo City);
-Rysty Ann C. Espinosa-Borja (MTCC Branch 9, Iloilo City);
-Joan Marie B. Bargas-Betita (3rd MCTC Malinao-Lezo-Numancia, Aklan);
-Maria Fe Macabales-Taal (3rd MCTC Patnongon-Bugasong-Valderrama, Antique);
-Joevy Paclibar Velnzuela (5th MCTC Sigma-Sapian-Jamindan, Capiz);
-Kathleen Gigante Delantar (MTCC Branch 2 Roxas City, Capiz);
-Jeeli Panaguiton Espinosa (2nd MCTC Buenavista-San Lorenzo, Guimaras);
-Bienvenido B. Llanes Jr. (MTC Pontevedra, Negros Occidental);
-Jose Meno C. Ruiz (MTCC Escalante City, Negros Occidental);
-Jose Manuel A. Lopez (MTCC Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental); and
-Maria Concepcion Elumba Rivera (MTCC, La Carlota City, Negros Occidental).
-o0o-
WE can't blame Mayor Alex Centena of Calinog, Iloilo if his presence has been sorely missed in important gatherings like the League of Municipalities.
Ever since President Duterte mentioned Centena's name as among those allegedly included in narco-politics, the dashing former chair of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) during the Marcos years has reportedly refused to join in various social and political events in Iloilo.
"He has become security conscious," noticed a former broadcaster from Cabatuan, Iloilo, who is familiar with Centena's activities during the halcyon years.
"The mayor stays in his safe house most of the time and his whereabouts can't be ascertained even by some of his municipal staff in regular days and during weekend."
WEIGHT
He became reclusive and lost weight, the former broadcaster added.
Centena have reportedly cancelled all his out-of-town commitments and refused interviews with reporters who come to Calinog.
Duterte has threatened to kill those involved in trafficking and manufacturing of illegal drugs, including some local government executives.
More than 7,000 have been killed nationwide since the Duterte administration launched the "Oplan Tokhang" against known drug pushers and users.
Centena has repeatedly denied links to any drug lord, but admitted slain Iloilo City-based drug lord Melvin "Boyet" Odicta Sr. once visited his house where he maintains a mini-zoo.
--William Howard Taft
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- If I were House Speaker Pantaleon "Bebot" Alvarez, I would refrain from further humiliating detained Senator Leila De Lima.
In his most recent media conference, the former cabinet official of then President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo lambasted De Lima calling her as the "No. 1 drug lord in the Philippines."
True or not, in our culture we don't kick somebody who is already down.
Especially a woman.
We never heard the same level of vitriol and angry words from past speakers like Nicanor Yñiguez, Ramon Mitra Jr., Jose De Venecia, Arnulfo Fuentebella, and Feliciano Belmonte Jr.
.-o0o-
President Duterte has appointed the following judges for the islands of Panay and Negros:
-Daniel Antonio Gerardo S. Amular (RTC Branch 35, Iloilo City);
-Oscar Leo S. Billena (RTC Branch 70 Barotac Viejo, Iloilo);
-Jose E. Mauricio E. Gomez (RTC Branch 71 Barotac Viejo, Iloilo);
-Nelita Jesusa Arboleda-Bacaling (RTC Branch 72 Guimbal, Iloilo);
-Gemalyn Faunillo-Tarol (RTC Branch 76, Janiuay, Iloilo);
-Ernesto L. Abijay, Jr. (RTC Branch 10 San Jose, Antique);
-Josefina Fulo-Muego (RTC Branch 13 Culasi, Antique);
-Phoebe A. Gargantiel-Balbin (RTC Branch 45 Bacolod City, Negros Occidental);
-Edwin B. Gomez (RTC Branch 77 Sipalay City, Negros Occidental);
-Gwendolyn I. Jimenea-Tiu (RTC Branch 60 Cadiz City, Negros Occidental);
-Reginald M. Fuentebella (RTC Branch 73 Sagay City, Negros Occidental);
-Mila D. Yap-Camiso (RTC Branch 74 La Carlota City, Negros Occidental);
-Gertrude Belgica Jiro (MTC Dumangas, Iloilo);
-Kathryn Rose A. Hitalia-Baliatan (MTC Miag-ao, Iloilo);
-Meliza Joan Berano Robite (MTCC Branch 2 Iloilo City);
-Larnie Fleur B. Palma-Kim (MTCC Branch 6, Iloilo City);
-Mark Anthony D.R. Polonan (MTCC Branch 8, Iloilo City);
-Rysty Ann C. Espinosa-Borja (MTCC Branch 9, Iloilo City);
-Joan Marie B. Bargas-Betita (3rd MCTC Malinao-Lezo-Numancia, Aklan);
-Maria Fe Macabales-Taal (3rd MCTC Patnongon-Bugasong-Valderrama, Antique);
-Joevy Paclibar Velnzuela (5th MCTC Sigma-Sapian-Jamindan, Capiz);
-Kathleen Gigante Delantar (MTCC Branch 2 Roxas City, Capiz);
-Jeeli Panaguiton Espinosa (2nd MCTC Buenavista-San Lorenzo, Guimaras);
-Bienvenido B. Llanes Jr. (MTC Pontevedra, Negros Occidental);
-Jose Meno C. Ruiz (MTCC Escalante City, Negros Occidental);
-Jose Manuel A. Lopez (MTCC Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental); and
-Maria Concepcion Elumba Rivera (MTCC, La Carlota City, Negros Occidental).
-o0o-
WE can't blame Mayor Alex Centena of Calinog, Iloilo if his presence has been sorely missed in important gatherings like the League of Municipalities.
Ever since President Duterte mentioned Centena's name as among those allegedly included in narco-politics, the dashing former chair of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) during the Marcos years has reportedly refused to join in various social and political events in Iloilo.
"He has become security conscious," noticed a former broadcaster from Cabatuan, Iloilo, who is familiar with Centena's activities during the halcyon years.
"The mayor stays in his safe house most of the time and his whereabouts can't be ascertained even by some of his municipal staff in regular days and during weekend."
WEIGHT
He became reclusive and lost weight, the former broadcaster added.
Centena have reportedly cancelled all his out-of-town commitments and refused interviews with reporters who come to Calinog.
Duterte has threatened to kill those involved in trafficking and manufacturing of illegal drugs, including some local government executives.
More than 7,000 have been killed nationwide since the Duterte administration launched the "Oplan Tokhang" against known drug pushers and users.
Centena has repeatedly denied links to any drug lord, but admitted slain Iloilo City-based drug lord Melvin "Boyet" Odicta Sr. once visited his house where he maintains a mini-zoo.
Card reading system will eliminate overcharging
"When a company owns one precise thought in the consumer's mind, it sets the context for everything and there should be no distinction between brand, product, service and experience."
--Maurice Saatchi
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Back in May 1993 when the Panay Electric Company (PECO) was applying for a 25-year extension of franchise in the Iloilo City Council, among the demands of the committee on public services, environmental protection and committee on ecology, transportation, energy and public utilities from the power utility's top echelons during the public hearings was to put up an accurate meter reading system.
Among the central issues raised against PECO was the "astronomical" distribution and generations fees, and, of course, the "lack of proper meter reading system" that irked so many consumers, including then prominent businessman William Bayani, who filed a case against PECO.
For several weeks, PECO underwent intense grilling from Councilors German Gonzalez, Achilles Plagata, Rolando Dabao, Eduardo Laczi, and Perla Zulueta.
It was agreed that the meter reading system was necessary in order to provide the correct and accurate reading of the power consumed by the consumers and avoid overcharging.
APPROVE
The City Council approved PECO's application for extension of franchise. Under the law, it must get Congress' imprimtur after sailing through the local legislature.
Before PECO got endorsement from the City Council, it was bombarded with multitudes of complaints from various consumers groups in a series of public hearings.
A proposal to turn it into a people's cooperative had been torpedoed.
After 24 years, Councilor Joshua Alim, through a formal resolution, asked PECO to establish a “meter reading card system.”
Alim wanted to avoid confusion and complaints over the consumers' power consumption.
Alim wants PECO to post a meter reading card system to each consumer’s house where the monthly consumption is reflected and recorded.
CONSUMPTION
The system will help consumers to easily appraise his monthly consumption, make a comparison, and even file the necessary complaint if there are discrepancies before the issuance of a billing receipt.
Alim's ordinance has been referred to the city council’s committee on public utilities chaired by Councilor R Leonie Gerochi after hurdling the first reading, it was reported.
While the issue was being tackled in the City Council, PECO reportedly disclosed that it was actually trying to improve its metering system using the modern Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI).
“All readings are programmed to go directly to the computers of PECO without any actual meter readers needed on the field. This eliminates the human factor in meter reading and customers can fully rely on the accuracy of the billing,” said Mikel C. Afzelius, PECO’s corporate communications officer.
The first 1,000 “smart meters” will be installed this April 2017.
PECO is expected to again seek another extension of its franchise in 2017 and might again knock on the door of the City Council.
--Maurice Saatchi
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- Back in May 1993 when the Panay Electric Company (PECO) was applying for a 25-year extension of franchise in the Iloilo City Council, among the demands of the committee on public services, environmental protection and committee on ecology, transportation, energy and public utilities from the power utility's top echelons during the public hearings was to put up an accurate meter reading system.
Among the central issues raised against PECO was the "astronomical" distribution and generations fees, and, of course, the "lack of proper meter reading system" that irked so many consumers, including then prominent businessman William Bayani, who filed a case against PECO.
For several weeks, PECO underwent intense grilling from Councilors German Gonzalez, Achilles Plagata, Rolando Dabao, Eduardo Laczi, and Perla Zulueta.
It was agreed that the meter reading system was necessary in order to provide the correct and accurate reading of the power consumed by the consumers and avoid overcharging.
APPROVE
The City Council approved PECO's application for extension of franchise. Under the law, it must get Congress' imprimtur after sailing through the local legislature.
Before PECO got endorsement from the City Council, it was bombarded with multitudes of complaints from various consumers groups in a series of public hearings.
A proposal to turn it into a people's cooperative had been torpedoed.
After 24 years, Councilor Joshua Alim, through a formal resolution, asked PECO to establish a “meter reading card system.”
Alim wanted to avoid confusion and complaints over the consumers' power consumption.
Alim wants PECO to post a meter reading card system to each consumer’s house where the monthly consumption is reflected and recorded.
CONSUMPTION
The system will help consumers to easily appraise his monthly consumption, make a comparison, and even file the necessary complaint if there are discrepancies before the issuance of a billing receipt.
Alim's ordinance has been referred to the city council’s committee on public utilities chaired by Councilor R Leonie Gerochi after hurdling the first reading, it was reported.
While the issue was being tackled in the City Council, PECO reportedly disclosed that it was actually trying to improve its metering system using the modern Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI).
“All readings are programmed to go directly to the computers of PECO without any actual meter readers needed on the field. This eliminates the human factor in meter reading and customers can fully rely on the accuracy of the billing,” said Mikel C. Afzelius, PECO’s corporate communications officer.
The first 1,000 “smart meters” will be installed this April 2017.
PECO is expected to again seek another extension of its franchise in 2017 and might again knock on the door of the City Council.
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Did the Ilonggo solons vote yes by heart?
"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped."
--Tony Robbins
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- It's a landslide.
All congressmen and woman from Iloilo and Guimaras voted yes for the restoration of death penalty.
No one wanted to be an island.
No one was willing to be a lonely voice in the wilderness.
There were no Benjamins, Dracoses, and Lycurguses.
Roman poet Juvenal onced asked: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" or "Who will guard the guards?"
The Ilonggo solons are: Atty. Jerry Trenas (Iloilo City); Richard Garin (Iloilo, 1st District); Arcadio Gorriceta (Iloilo, 2nd District); Atty. Arthur Defensor Jr. (Iloilo, 3rd District); Dr. Ferjenel Biron (Iloilo, 4th District); Raul Tupas (Iloilo, 5th District); and Maria Lucille Nava (Guimaras).
DECIDE
We hope that when they decided to vote yes, they did so because that was what their respective constituents wanted them to vote; and the affirmative vote came from the innermost chamber of their hearts.
We hope they could sustain their yes votes in Plaza Miranda, and explain to their children and grandchildren why some criminals must die after being convicted.
If they voted yes because of "peer pressure" (let's call it Speaker Alvarez's Sword of Damocles) or because they succumbed to Malacanang's alleged "carrot and stick" tactics, history would be unkind to them.
We doubt, however, if anyone of them held a consultation meeting with their constituents before they cast their votes.
If they did, we believe many of these Iloilo and Guimaras solons would be hard-pressed to carry out the yes vote because many Ilonggos are totally against the death penalty.
TANGO
Because everything is now water under the bridge in as far as the Lower House is concerned, we will wait for the Upper Chamber or the Senate whether it will complete the tango or split the legislative stand on the measure being passionately pushed and pursued by President Duterte.
A total of 217 lawmakers voted in favor of House Bill Number 4727, while 54 voted against it and one abstained.
A total of 257 out of 293 congressmen were present in the voting during the final reading on March 7, 2017.
The bill seeks to allow judges to punish perpetrators of certain drug-related crimes with either life imprisonment or death. The bill allows the execution to be done either through hanging, firing squad, or lethal injection.
--Tony Robbins
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- It's a landslide.
All congressmen and woman from Iloilo and Guimaras voted yes for the restoration of death penalty.
No one wanted to be an island.
No one was willing to be a lonely voice in the wilderness.
There were no Benjamins, Dracoses, and Lycurguses.
Roman poet Juvenal onced asked: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" or "Who will guard the guards?"
The Ilonggo solons are: Atty. Jerry Trenas (Iloilo City); Richard Garin (Iloilo, 1st District); Arcadio Gorriceta (Iloilo, 2nd District); Atty. Arthur Defensor Jr. (Iloilo, 3rd District); Dr. Ferjenel Biron (Iloilo, 4th District); Raul Tupas (Iloilo, 5th District); and Maria Lucille Nava (Guimaras).
DECIDE
We hope that when they decided to vote yes, they did so because that was what their respective constituents wanted them to vote; and the affirmative vote came from the innermost chamber of their hearts.
We hope they could sustain their yes votes in Plaza Miranda, and explain to their children and grandchildren why some criminals must die after being convicted.
If they voted yes because of "peer pressure" (let's call it Speaker Alvarez's Sword of Damocles) or because they succumbed to Malacanang's alleged "carrot and stick" tactics, history would be unkind to them.
We doubt, however, if anyone of them held a consultation meeting with their constituents before they cast their votes.
If they did, we believe many of these Iloilo and Guimaras solons would be hard-pressed to carry out the yes vote because many Ilonggos are totally against the death penalty.
TANGO
Because everything is now water under the bridge in as far as the Lower House is concerned, we will wait for the Upper Chamber or the Senate whether it will complete the tango or split the legislative stand on the measure being passionately pushed and pursued by President Duterte.
A total of 217 lawmakers voted in favor of House Bill Number 4727, while 54 voted against it and one abstained.
A total of 257 out of 293 congressmen were present in the voting during the final reading on March 7, 2017.
The bill seeks to allow judges to punish perpetrators of certain drug-related crimes with either life imprisonment or death. The bill allows the execution to be done either through hanging, firing squad, or lethal injection.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Thank God for giving us Jhett Tolentino
"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see."
--Arthur Schopenhauer
.
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- A Fil-Am doctor from Texas once told a group of sportswriters, including this writer, in Las Vegas that "it will take another 100 years before the Philippines can produce another Manny Pacquiao in boxing."
In musical theater, let me say that 100 years are not enough for Iloilo City to produce another Jhett Tolentino.
Let me say further: thank God for giving Iloilo City and the Philippines Jhett Tolentino.
He is one of a kind. Unassuming and soft-spoken, Tolentino is one of the most intelligent Fil-Ams making waves in American entertainment world today.
If Michael Jordan is considered as the genius of basketball, Jhett Tolentino is the genius of musical theater.
Tolentino is God's gift to the Philippines, now notorious for alleged state-directed EJKs (extra-judicial killings) involving drug pushers and addicts.
ISSUES
While Iloilo City is being battered by negative issues like "the most shabulized city in the Philippines" and "hometown of (the slain) drug lord Melvin "Boyet" Odicta Sr.", New York City-based producer Tolentino restored the Ilonggo pride by clinching a Grammy award for Best Musical Theater for “The Color Purple” album in Hollywood on February 12, 2017.
The Iloilo-born artist shared the award with fellow producers Stephen Bray, Van Dean, Frank Filipetti, Roy Furman, Joan Raffe, and Scott Sanders; composers Brenda Russel and Allee Willis; and principal soloists Cynthia Erivo, Danielle Brooks, and Jennifer Hudson.
Tolentino's victory was a titanic accomplishment by any producer born and raised in the Philippines.
No other Filipino producer in recent memory has achieved such international honor.
TONY'S
In fact, Tolentino became only the second Filipino to win a Tony's award in Broadway next to Lea Salonga when he captured three trophies: the first in 2013 for "Vanya and Sonia and Marsha and Spike" which starred Sigourney Weaver; and the two in 2014 as one of the producers of “A Raisin in the Sun” and “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.”
A Raisin in the Sun,” which stars Denzel Washington, and “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” respectively won Best Revival of a Play and Best Musical at the 68th Antoinette Perry (Tony) Awards held at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City on June 8, 2014.
Because of Tolentino's extra-ordinary achievements in the global stage, he has become bigger than life that his name is now synonymous to world class.
--Arthur Schopenhauer
.
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- A Fil-Am doctor from Texas once told a group of sportswriters, including this writer, in Las Vegas that "it will take another 100 years before the Philippines can produce another Manny Pacquiao in boxing."
In musical theater, let me say that 100 years are not enough for Iloilo City to produce another Jhett Tolentino.
 |
| The talented JHETT TOLENTINO |
He is one of a kind. Unassuming and soft-spoken, Tolentino is one of the most intelligent Fil-Ams making waves in American entertainment world today.
If Michael Jordan is considered as the genius of basketball, Jhett Tolentino is the genius of musical theater.
Tolentino is God's gift to the Philippines, now notorious for alleged state-directed EJKs (extra-judicial killings) involving drug pushers and addicts.
ISSUES
While Iloilo City is being battered by negative issues like "the most shabulized city in the Philippines" and "hometown of (the slain) drug lord Melvin "Boyet" Odicta Sr.", New York City-based producer Tolentino restored the Ilonggo pride by clinching a Grammy award for Best Musical Theater for “The Color Purple” album in Hollywood on February 12, 2017.
The Iloilo-born artist shared the award with fellow producers Stephen Bray, Van Dean, Frank Filipetti, Roy Furman, Joan Raffe, and Scott Sanders; composers Brenda Russel and Allee Willis; and principal soloists Cynthia Erivo, Danielle Brooks, and Jennifer Hudson.
Tolentino's victory was a titanic accomplishment by any producer born and raised in the Philippines.
No other Filipino producer in recent memory has achieved such international honor.
TONY'S
In fact, Tolentino became only the second Filipino to win a Tony's award in Broadway next to Lea Salonga when he captured three trophies: the first in 2013 for "Vanya and Sonia and Marsha and Spike" which starred Sigourney Weaver; and the two in 2014 as one of the producers of “A Raisin in the Sun” and “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.”
A Raisin in the Sun,” which stars Denzel Washington, and “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” respectively won Best Revival of a Play and Best Musical at the 68th Antoinette Perry (Tony) Awards held at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City on June 8, 2014.
Because of Tolentino's extra-ordinary achievements in the global stage, he has become bigger than life that his name is now synonymous to world class.
Amazing Iloilo City, ASEAN Summit host
"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."
--Henry Ford
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- The decision to hold the ASEAN Summit in Iloilo City, Philippines from March 6-16, 2017, aside from Boracay Island and Bacolod City, is laudable.
Summit delegates and other visitors attending the conclave will surely enjoy the warmth and hospitality of the Ilonggos.
Force and Resources for ASEAN 2017 in Visayas Region in Iloilo City composed of highly competent men and women of Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Army (PA), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Office of Civil Defense (OCD), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), and Philippine Navy (PN) has been on top of the situation and doing a yeoman's task to ensure the success of the event.
Unknown to some people outside the country, Iloilo City, otherwise known as the "City of Love", is one of the most modern and safest cities in the Philippines.
It is blessed with a high literacy rate and among the progressive cities in the country with lowest rate in peace and order, according to the PNP. The Department of Tourism (DOT) rates Iloilo City as one of the top tourist destinations.
Rich culturally and religiously, Iloilo City is an ideal venue for any international gathering that requires field trips and visits to tourist spots.
WORLD-CLASS
Infrastructures from the Iloilo International Airport to government edifices, hotels and convention centers are hi-tech and world-class.
When it comes to economic, political, and social progress and development, Iloilo City can definitely compete with other modern cities in Asia.
The city's economic climate has been the subject of positive remarks from industrialists and investors planning to put up additional businesses.
Delegates and guests would also be privileged to set foot in the city considered as the "Athens of the Philippines" owing to the presence of highly-established state and private universities and colleges that have attracted foreign enrollees from different continents.
Iloilo City is the only metropolis in the country surrounded by an octagon-shaped river, a state-of-the-art international pier, and a sea accessible to nearby island-provinces and regions.
VISIT
A crew of the Royal London Circus (RLC) that visited Iloilo City in June 1993 once told us in a press conference at the Sarabia Manor Convention Center that "if you visited the Philippines and you didn't visit Iloilo City, you did not visit the Philippines."
He was impressed with Iloilo City that he decided to marry a local woman who resided near the circus venue and brought her to Europe.
Iloilo City has developed by leaps and bounds since 1993.
Traffic equipment and facilities, widened roads, lighted avenues, decorated mini-parks, expanded sidewalks, improved lampposts, extended highways and overpasses have spruced up and helped ease movement of local economy and increase the productivity of human resources.
The grassy area where RLC stunt men and women, mostly coming from Europe and America, held their shows for two weeks in the former Iloilo Diversion Road (now Benigno Aquino Avenue), is now a sprawling commercial fulcrum.
Amazing Iloilo City is indeed now truly a big thing.
--Henry Ford
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- The decision to hold the ASEAN Summit in Iloilo City, Philippines from March 6-16, 2017, aside from Boracay Island and Bacolod City, is laudable.
Summit delegates and other visitors attending the conclave will surely enjoy the warmth and hospitality of the Ilonggos.
Force and Resources for ASEAN 2017 in Visayas Region in Iloilo City composed of highly competent men and women of Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Army (PA), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Office of Civil Defense (OCD), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), and Philippine Navy (PN) has been on top of the situation and doing a yeoman's task to ensure the success of the event.
Unknown to some people outside the country, Iloilo City, otherwise known as the "City of Love", is one of the most modern and safest cities in the Philippines.
It is blessed with a high literacy rate and among the progressive cities in the country with lowest rate in peace and order, according to the PNP. The Department of Tourism (DOT) rates Iloilo City as one of the top tourist destinations.
Rich culturally and religiously, Iloilo City is an ideal venue for any international gathering that requires field trips and visits to tourist spots.
WORLD-CLASS
Infrastructures from the Iloilo International Airport to government edifices, hotels and convention centers are hi-tech and world-class.
When it comes to economic, political, and social progress and development, Iloilo City can definitely compete with other modern cities in Asia.
The city's economic climate has been the subject of positive remarks from industrialists and investors planning to put up additional businesses.
Delegates and guests would also be privileged to set foot in the city considered as the "Athens of the Philippines" owing to the presence of highly-established state and private universities and colleges that have attracted foreign enrollees from different continents.
Iloilo City is the only metropolis in the country surrounded by an octagon-shaped river, a state-of-the-art international pier, and a sea accessible to nearby island-provinces and regions.
VISIT
A crew of the Royal London Circus (RLC) that visited Iloilo City in June 1993 once told us in a press conference at the Sarabia Manor Convention Center that "if you visited the Philippines and you didn't visit Iloilo City, you did not visit the Philippines."
He was impressed with Iloilo City that he decided to marry a local woman who resided near the circus venue and brought her to Europe.
Iloilo City has developed by leaps and bounds since 1993.
Traffic equipment and facilities, widened roads, lighted avenues, decorated mini-parks, expanded sidewalks, improved lampposts, extended highways and overpasses have spruced up and helped ease movement of local economy and increase the productivity of human resources.
The grassy area where RLC stunt men and women, mostly coming from Europe and America, held their shows for two weeks in the former Iloilo Diversion Road (now Benigno Aquino Avenue), is now a sprawling commercial fulcrum.
Amazing Iloilo City is indeed now truly a big thing.
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