City dads hail Joshua Alim as ‘man of many talents’

“This is how memories are made... by going with the flow.” —Amanda Bynes

 

By Alex P. Vidal 

 

JOSHUA Alim, Danny Fajardo, Rommel Ynion, Restituto “Agent Kurantay” Jotis, Jr., Rene Monteclaro, Leo Dumagat, Armand Parcon, Marcos Villalon, Teddy Sumaray, Eddie Laczi, Tony Laniog, Bob Bacaling, Ernie Dayot, Fernando “Kapid” Gabio, Danny Baby Foz, Lydia Pendon, Ben Palma, Lito Jimena, Bert Montilla, Rey Alcalde, Ely Suyom, Jigger Latoza, Bert Mamora (I hope I didn’t miss anyone). 

They were some my fellow Ilonggo colleagues in the print and broadcast media who were alive and kicking when I was in Iloilo, except for Laczi, who signed off on October 27, 2013 in Connecticut, and Dumagat, who died on April 17, 2021 and was cremated in New York.

Aside from being my colleagues or former colleagues, most of them were also my good friends for so many years. 

Sadly, I didn’t have the opportunity to pay my last respects to them because of my distance, except for Dumagat, who had resided a few blocks away from my apartment in Queens.

There were times when I thought they weren’t yet dead; that we could still, once again, interact face to face and sit down for a cup of coffee in Iloilo to reminisce the past. 

But they are now gone for good. My wishful thinking.

 

-o0o-

 

Back in the late 80s and early 90s as a newsman in Iloilo City, I almost memorized the faces if not the full names of my media colleagues in TV, print and broadcast, especially those from different media outlets I worked with in many beat assignments and unforgettable events inside and outside Western Visayas.

That’s how they became so important to me, once in my life.

I was familiar with their talents, styles, weaknesses, strengths, characters, background and, to some extent, political plans—some of them did make waves in the political arena when they became elected officials. 

Many of those with me in all those boisterous but fun-filled press corps activities and slam-bang out-of-town coverages, became my personal friends and extended family. 

When I suddenly learn they are gone, it feels like a big chunk of my exciting memories in community journalism is suddenly swept away.

Joseph B. Wirthlin once said, “Some memories are unforgettable, remaining ever vivid and heartwarming!”

 

-o0o-

 

I SALUTE the Iloilo City Council led by Councilor Ely Estante, proponent of the resolution that mourned the “untimely demise of former colleague Joshua Alim.”

Indeed, Pare Joshua was a multi-talented human being. He had a special gift and he could touch the life of even ordinary people by his sympathetic words for those who are in dire straits and his charisma. 

Estante is one of the only five former DYFM Bombo Radyo Iloilo reporters who made it in the Iloilo City Council.

The four others were: the late former councilor Armand Parcon, the late Restituto “Agent Kurantay” Jotis Jr., the late Atty. Joshua Alim, and Rodel Agado.

I am sharing the press release recently sent to us by our esteemed senior colleague Limuel Celebria entitled, “Estante, SP mourn departed colleague”.

In its first order of business today, the Iloilo City Council, through a resolution proposed by Councilor Ely Estante Jr., mourned the untimely demise of former colleague Joshua Alim.

Alim, who served the city council for a total six terms from 1998 - 2019, recently died of cardiac arrest. He was 57.

Estante described Alim as man of many talents: he was a lawyer and law professor, a broadcaster, realtor, Dangal ng Bayan awardee, and President of the CPU Alumni Association.

Estante further described Alim as a "leader of men with a big heart and helping hand for the poor and under privileged.

The Estante resolution also expressed the SP's heartfelt condolences to Alim's family. He left behind a wife and two daughters.

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

Pare Joshua literally ‘pulls me out’ of jail

“Don't be dismayed by good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.”

—Richard Bach

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

SOMETIME in June 1993 noontime, I landed in the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) Police Precinct 1 jail after I was involved, believe it or not, in a fistfight. 

Then PP1 commander, Chief Inspector Dionisio Duco, didn’t order his men to bring me inside the jail, but I volunteered to enter a vacant cell adjacent to a packed cell after the booking.

The police didn’t padlock the empty jail but it remained closed while I was inside.

After about 30 minutes, Atty. Joshua Alim, my former media colleague and kumpare, arrived at past 1 o’clock in the afternoon.

“Gaano ka dira p’re man? (What are you doing there, buddy?),” Alim, clad in Barong Tagalog, gushed.

“OK lang p’re. Wala ako reklamo ma stay lang ako diri (It’s okay, buddy. I have no complaint and I’ll just stay here),” I replied.

“Batian ko sa radyo ang natabu. Gua dira p’re a. Indi ka dira ‘ya angayan (I heard what happened on radio. Get out of that place. You don’t belong there),” he insisted.

Pare Joshua’s gesture showed his true character, how he valued a friend in distress, and how he cared. 

 

-o0o-

 

Chief Inspector Duco didn’t press charges against me. I was allowed to go but only after “posting” a bail in the Hall of Justice.

Pare Joshua, who served as Iloilo City councilor for 18 years, and I knew each other since 1989 when he was reporter of DYFM Bombo Radyo Iloilo while I was reporter of News Express.

In 1990, Bombo Radyo Philippines became the first network to mandate a Barong Tagalog uniform for all field reporters, thus we always addressed Pare Joshua as “attorney” when we attended the press conferences at Camp Martin Delgado, among other beats.

He took the bar exams in 1990. 

One morning in April-May 1991 in Pagsanjan, Laguna, our other kumpare Nereo Lujan (Panay News) broke the news to the three other Iloilo delegates in the Graciano Lopez-Jaena Community Journalism Fellowship hosted by University of the Philippines (UP)-Los Banos: Runji Jamolo (Radyo Ng Bayan), James Cabag (Philippine Information Agency), and me that Pare Joshua had passed the 1990 bar exams.

Back in Iloilo, Pare Joshua’s “victory” inspired his media colleagues.

In 1992, or a year before he “pulled me out” of the city jail, balikbayan Pet Melliza (now Atty. Teopisto Melliza) and I became Pare Joshua’s first media clients in a labor case when he was associate of the Bedona Law Office. 

 

-o0o-

 

He initially wanted to withdraw when he learned that the legal counsel for the defendant was his law professor in the Central Philippine University (CPU), now Judge Neri Duremdes.

But Pare Joshua changed his mind and won his first case against his law professor.

Even before he became a city councilor, Atty Alim joined forces when the late Councilor German “Kuya Germs” Gonzalez and Atty. Romeo Gerochi fought the Panay Electric Company (PECO) with tongs and hammer.

He also picked up the cudgels for the urban poor and became a household name in Iloilo, aside from his media background, which was instrumental in his impressive election victories.

Pare Joshua never missed some major events in the media, including press club activities even if his presence wasn’t mandatory owing to his schedule and activities while “on the other side of the fence.”

When he became a full-pledged politician, we rarely mingled and would meet only in the coffeeshops. 

When I relocated to the United States, social media became our most convenient meeting place. 

 

-o0o-

 

Pare Joshua was aware of my reputation as a media practitioner who never maintained close friendships with some politicians. 

There were times he was tempted to doubt if my being a “hard-hitting” journalist and his “vulnerability” as a public servant would threaten the sacredness of our friendship.  

Even if he knew I was among his few former media colleagues not afraid to lose a politician as a friend especially if the politician is corrupt, abusive and evil, he was somebody I can’t afford to lose because he wasn’t corrupt, abusive and evil.

Hours after his demise was made known, the social media burst with sorrow and emotional pain like Iloilo lost a great son and leader.

As a colleague, Pare Joshua was trustworthy who never took advantage of any media practitioner. He wanted to be a friend of all the rank-and-file and the bigwigs in the industry that first gave him a name. 

As a public servant he had the charisma of the late Mayor Mansing Malabor, populist but down to earth and sincere. As a friend, he was the type who would leave last when the captain called for abandonment of the ship.  

Even in death, he continued to amaze and make us proud of him.

Farewell, Pare Joshua. Let’s resume our coffee session in the Kingdom of God.  

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

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Admin cases? Shrug them off

"Life is about having a good time, and it was a good time. We did some things well and some things poorly, but that was always the case."
--Norman Lear

By Alex P. Vidal

PARENTS of children who live in the cities and provinces in Western Visayas with high percentage of dengue fever cases, based on the statistics of the Department of Health (DoH), are still restless and getting paranoid.
They fear that even a simple insect bite on their kids' skin will land them in the hospital.
Most of these worried parents, who can hardly make both ends meet, think they will face a terrible financial meltdown once their kids undergo medical proceedings for a mere insect bite.
Even if a red mark on their children's skin was caused only by a bite of an ant or any insect that doesn't carry a life-threatening virus, the parents panicked and feared for the worst.
This explains why government district hospitals in Iloilo have been inundated with patients mostly children with high fever and other signs of dengue infection.
Unless the dengue scare has been nipped in the bud, hospitals would continue to swell; this would justify the declaration of the state of calamity by the local governments.

-o0o-

Much has been written on how to prevent or fight dengue fever, but the ones suggested by Dr. Janice Litza, a Board Certified Family Medicine Physician based in Wisconsin, on May 12, 2019, are probably the most practical and logical. Dr. Litza suggested the following:
1. Stay indoors or under a mosquito net during peak mosquito times. The dengue mosquito has two peak periods of biting activity: in the morning for several hours after daybreak and in the late afternoon for several hours before dark. Nevertheless, the mosquito may feed at any time during the day, especially indoors, in shady areas, or when it is overcast.
2. Use insect repellent when outdoors. It is important to protect yourself from mosquito bites when you will be spending time outdoors in mosquito infested areas. Apply insect repellent to all exposed areas of your skin before heading outside
3. Cover your skin. You can reduce your chances of being bitten if you cover up as much of your skin as possible. Wear loose, long-sleeved shirts, socks, and long pants when you will be traveling to mosquito infested areas
4. Get rid of standing water in your area. Mosquitoes breed in standing water. Mosquito breeding sites include artificial water containers such as discarded tires, uncovered water storage barrels, buckets, flower vases or pots, cans, and cisterns. Help to reduce the mosquito population in your area by getting rid of any standing water that has collected around your house or campsite

-o0o-

ALLIES of Mayor Geronimo "Jerry" Treñas in the Iloilo City Council should not worry about the administrative cases for dereliction of duty as public officials filed against them by their former colleagues, lawyers Joshua Alim and Plaridel Nava.
Better still, they shouldn't overreact.
In fact, they should expect more cases in the future (if they misbehave) now that the two firebrands are "outside the kulambo," so to speak.
Administrative cases are normal for government officials. The least they can get if found guilty is a rap in the knuckles.
No one will go to jail. No one will lose a "lucrative" committee chairmanship. No one will be subjected to humiliation like in a criminal case where an accused public official can lose both his reputation and position if convicted for stealing the people's money.
Cases like the ones these Treñas allies are facing is an indication that democracy is alive and kicking in Iloilo City.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Joshua Alim, a modern day Julius Caesar

“Cowards die many times before their actual deaths.”
--Julius Caesar

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- “I have crossed the Rubicon…it’s congressman for 2019. Ilonggos, I will fight for you.”
Thus was the Caesarean declaration made by Councilor Joshua Alim in his Facebook account on October 8, 2018.
By using Rubicon, a shallow river in northeastern Italy south of Ravenna, as the focal point of his battle cry, Alim has imitated Julius Caesar’s crossing of the stream in 49 B.C. which was tantamount to a declaration of war against Rome as represented by Pompey and the Senate.
The historic importance of this event gave rise to the phrase "crossing the Rubicon" for a step which definitely commits a person to a given course of action.
Now that Alim, a lawyer and law instructor, has “crossed” the river, he must decisively defeat Pompey to complete the heroic saga.
Alim will tangle against his former colleagues in the city council, Dr. Perla Zulueta and Julienne “Jam-Jam” Baronda, in the shootout for Iloilo City’s lone congressional district in May 2019.
Two “Pompeys” backed by two powerhouse establishments: the Treñas Cavalry and the Joe III Squadron.
Alim’s incursion is buttressed by the combined Gonzalez and Ynion Armada.

-o0o-

The real Caesar and real Pompey fought to the bitter end at Pharsalus on August 9, 48 B.C.
Pompey had 48,000 infantry, 7,000 horses; Caesar had 22,000 and 1,000.
“Some few of the noblest Romans,” says Plutarch, “standing as spectators outside the battle…could not but reflect to what a pass private ambition had brought the Empire…The whole flower and strength of the same city, meeting here in collision with itself, offered plain proof how blind and mad a thing human nature is when passion is aroused.”
In Caesar and Christ: The Story of Civilization, Will Durant narrated: “Near relatives, even brothers, fought in the opposite armies. Caesar bade his men spare all Romans who should surrender; as to the young aristocrat Marcus Brutus, he said, they were to capture him without injuring him, or, if this proved impossible, they were to let him escape.”
The Pompeians were overwhelmed by superior leadership, training, and morale: 15,000 of them were killed or wounded, 20,000 surrendered, the remainder fled.
Pompey tore the insignia of command from his clothing and took flight like the rest.
Cesar tells us that he lost but 200 men--which cast doubt upon all his books.

-o0o-

Caesar’s army was amused to see the tents of the defeated so elegantly adorned, and their tables laden with the feast that was to celebrate their victory.
Caesar ate Pompey’s supper in Pompey’s tent.
Pompey rode all night to Larissa, thence to the sea, and took ship to Alexandria.
At Mytilene, where his wife joined him, the citizens wished him to stay; he refused courteously, and advised them to submit to the conqueror without fear, for, he said, “Caesar was a man of great goodness and clemency.”
Brutus also escaped to Larissa, but there he dallied and wrote to Caesar.
The victor expressed joy on hearing that he was safe, readily forgave him, and at his request forgave Cassius.

-o0o-

To the nations of the East, which--controlled by the upper classes--had supported Pompey, he was likewise lenient.
He distributed Pompey’s hoards of grain among the starving population of Greece, and to the Athenians asking pardon he replied with a smile of reproof: “How often will the glory of your ancestors save you from self-destruction?”
When Pompey hoped to resume the battle versus Caesar (with the news army and resources of Egypt, and the forces that Cato, Labienus, and Metellus Scipio were organizing at Utica), he was murdered while his wife looked on in helpless terror from the ship in which they had come, by servants of Pothinus, eunich vizer of Ptolemy XII, as he reached Alexanderia, in expectation of reward from Caesar.
When Caesar arrived, Pothinus’ men presented him with Pompey’s severed head.
Caesar turned away and wept.
By riding on the epic of the “crossing in the Rubicon” which bears a striking semblance of his struggle in Iloilo City politics, will Atty. Joshua Alim weep like Julius Caesar and loudly declare “Veni, vidi, vici. (I came, I saw, I conquered)” after the May 2019 elections?

Joshua Alim might steal the show

“With but few exceptions, it is always the underdog who wins through sheer willpower.”
--Johnny Weissmuller

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- With 12 months to go before the 2019 congressional elections in the Philippines, Iloilo City Mayor Jose “Joe III” Espinosa III and brother-in-law, Iloilo City Rep. Jerry P. Treñas, are still adamant to disclose their complete line-up.
Their alleged “quarrel” has already bordered on soap opera.
Others swallow the “feud” hook, line and sinker; but some astute analysts think they’re just rerouting the procession which will eventually end up in the church anyway.
Aside from confirming that “I am definitely running in 2019”, Mayor Joe III has continued to keep his followers and critics in suspended terror; the mayor and the congressman have continued to cultivate an air of unpredictability (Law 17 of the 48 Laws of Power).
Although mayoralty aspirant Treñas has revealed his running mate would be Vice Mayor Jeffrey Ganzon, he hasn’t announced his candidate for congressman, a crux that has raised some eyebrows.
Egged by some confused supporters to “stay put” and run for city mayor versus Treñas, Mayor Joe III himself has refused to reveal his political cards for 2019, thus deepening the mystery further.
The million dollar question for Joe III is still: to run for mayor or to run for congressman alongside Treñas and Ganzon?
Their supporters in Iloilo City and abroad want to know.
Impatient and excited Ilonggos are hankering for an honest-to-goodness answer; they want it now, and they want it quick.
But even if we can bring the horses to water, still we can’t force them to drink.

-o0o-

This will give trail horse Councilor Joshua Alim, the most senior among the incumbent oppositions in the city council, the opportunity to woo the Ilonggos and unveil his intention to run for the position to be vacated by Treñas.
Now that Alim has secured the support of businessman and former mayoral candidate Rommel Ynion and probably the Gonzalez political clan, led by matriarch Dr. Pacita Trinidad Gonzalez, he can be a sentimental favorite if he announces his bid soon.
While the Joe III-Treñas-Ganzon camp dilly-dallies on the disclosure of its ticket in the major positions, Alim may start barnstorming the metropolis’ 180 barangays where some of the newly elected officials are fresh faces and incorruptible.
In terms of political upset, Alim may use 1992 political neophyte Rafael “Paeng” Lopez-Vito as a model and rallying point.
Even before then semi-retired former senator Rodolfo “Roding” Ganzon announced his intention to run for congressman in the city’s lone district, Lopez-Vito, a lawyer and a political nobody, was already literally painting the town red, announcing to all and sundry he was running for congressman even months before the start of election season.
Nobody gave the “elite” Lopez-Vito a slim chance to bring down the vastly mighty Ganzon, but the shocking defeat of formerly one of the country’s much-heralded lawmakers in the class of Ferdinand Marcos, Jovito Salonga and Ninoy Aquino to a “wet-behind-the-ears” Lopez-Vito became a hot and serious topic in political science classes for more than two decades.

-o0o-

Alim, 53, is one of the only few Iloilo City officials--past and incumbent--who is consistent in his crusade against Panay Electric Company’s (PECO) alleged inefficiency, overcharging, among other “abuses.”
Even before he became a city councilor, Alim was already in the forefront of the battle against PECO’s “astronomical” distribution and generation fees along with feisty lawyer Romeo Gerochi, father of Councilor R Leone "Boots" Gerochi, and the late former city councilor German T. Gonzales in early 1990s.
Although some “ingrate” Ilonggo consumers did not go all out for Alim in his losing bid for city mayor against Treñas in 2004, the pride of Koronadal, South Cotabato continued to score high in public approval ratings these past years.
Former media colleague Florence Hibionada described Alim as “a very sincere public servant who visits a vigil for the dead even without the elections.”
He has friends and admirers in all sectors, especially the urban poor, the youth and the senior citizens.

-o0o-

Alim, my former media colleague and kumpare (we are godfathers to the twins, Raymond and Rainier, sons of Iloilo community affairs chief Nereo Lujan), has carved a niche in public service during his days as a Bombo Radyo Iloilo reporter in the late 80’s until he passed the bar in 1991.
As a newly minted lawyer, he agreed to face his former law professor in the Central Philippine University (CPU), now Judge Nery Duremdes, in a media labor case, the first controversial case he handled as associate of Bedona and Bedona Law Offices in 1992, and won.
When I volunteered to enter the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) jail (I was ordered by then ICPO chief Dionisio Duco) for “fighting” in 1993, then Atty. Alim, clad in Barong Tagalog, arrived and chided me, “Pre, naga ano ka da sa sulod man? Indi ka da angayan gua da (Buddy, what are you doing inside? You don’t belong there. Get out!).”
If the mayoral contest will be crowded, Alim, who has never been tainted as a public servant, may be ripe to shoot for the congressional seat.
Some of his peers in the law profession in Mindanao and other parts of the country may be waiting for him in Congress.