Mushrooms and my Caucasian customer

"Addiction is a tough illness, and recovery from it is a hard but noble path. Men and women who walk that path deserve our support, encouragement, and admiration."
--Sheldon Whitehouse

By Alex P. VIDAL

I remember while serving in a restaurant for several weeks in Brgy. Manok-Manok in Boracay Island in the mid-80s, two regular Caucasian customers would always request me to put mushrooms in their dishes.
One of them, a Danish musician, confessed to me that in Europe where he lived, he would always eat Lion’s mane mushrooms.
He was "addicted" to it, he admitted.
It is known as the bearded tooth, hedgehog or pom pom mushroom, the distinctive Hericium erinaceus that can be found growing on hardwood trees in late summer and fall.
Its distinctive shape, which resembles the mane of a male lion or a pom pom, is unlike any other mushroom. Its taste is reportedly unique and often compared to seafood.
I remembered this Caucasian customer after reading the story written by Jennifer P. Rendon on November 19, 2019 about the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-6 regional office saying it has yet to receive reports of wild mushrooms being used by youngsters who want to get “high” sans risking arrest.

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The Department of Education (DepEd), according to Rendon's report, "recently raised alarm on reports that some high schools used wild mushrooms or psychedelic mushrooms because of its hallucinogenic properties."
There were also reports claiming that some students were hospitalized after consuming wild mushrooms, the report said.
The report also added that PDEA-6 regional director Alex Tablate admitted their office has yet to release a confirmed scientific study on the narcotic effects of wild mushrooms.
Meanwhile, two of the deadliest mushrooms in the world are the "destroying angels" and "death caps", according to the Mother Nature Network (MNN).
Mushrooms in the genera Amanita are among the deadliest in the world, added the MNN. Here are some ways to recognize two of these.
Death caps is a highly toxic mushroom (Amanita phalloides) blamed for the most mushroom poisonings in the world. While native to Europe, death caps reportedly occur on the U.S. East and West Coasts.
Death caps have a 6-inch-wide cap, often sticky to the touch, that can be yellowish, brownish, whitish or greenish in color. The cap has white gills and grows on a stalk about 5 inches tall with a white cup at its base.
It can be confused with: Young death caps can resemble puffballs, which encompass the genera Calvatia, Calbovista and Lycoperdon.
It can be seen in the months of September to November and its habitat is under pines, oaks, dogwoods and other trees.
There is no immediate symptoms but the person will reportedly experience vomiting, diarrhea and cramps. After several days, these symptoms will go away and we think we are OK. However, we are not.
During this time, internal organs reportedly are being severely damaged, sometimes irreparably. Death can occur six to 18 days after ingestion.

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Destroying angels, on the other hand, get their name from their pure white stalks and caps. Like the death caps, they belong to the genus Amanita, with several species occurring in different regions of the country. All, however, have a similar white fruiting body.
It's an attractive white cap, stalk and gills and can be confused with: In their button stage, destroying angels can be confused with button mushrooms, meadow mushrooms, horse mushrooms and puffballs.
It is seen during the summer and fall and its habitat is: All Amanita species form relationships with roots of certain trees. Destroying angels can be found in or near woodlands or near shrubs and trees in suburban lawns or meadows.
Its symptoms are siarrhea, nausea and abdominal pain generally occur five to 12 hours after ingestion. As with death caps, the symptoms will typically go away and the victim might think they don’t need to see a doctor. However, a day or two later the symptoms will return and get worse.
By then, it will probably be too late because the person will likely suffer liver and kidney failure and enter a hepatic coma that ends in death. If they survive, treatment is severe: a liver transplant.

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

Stop the shame vs ‘narco’ village execs

“Slander is worse than cannibalism.” --John Chrysostom

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Now that they have been elected or reelected, the so-called “narco” village officials in the Philippines should be spared from further insult and humiliation from authorities, especially from the Police Regional Office-6 (PRO-6) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
Having secured a fresh mandate means they have the full trust and confidence from their constituents; the shame season is over.
PDEA and other law enforcement agencies should now leave them alone and give them a space while they perform their duties and obligations to their constituents.
Authorities may continue to monitor the activities of barangay officials they suspect of engaging in illegal drugs directly (actual trafficking) or indirectly (like protection racket), but they can’t stop or interrupt them now from enforcing their jobs as punong barangay or council members.
They can now fight back under the mantle of being “honorable” public officials, especially if their accusers can’t present a corpus delicti other than slanderous allegations.

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PDEA’s golden moments against them were before the May 14, 2018 elections--years or months away, not weeks.
Those moments have melted away like the iceberg.
Walang forever.
The atmosphere before and after the elections is totally different.
If PDEA and other law enforcement agencies didn’t want these “narco” village officials elected and reelected, they should have doggedly pursued the cases against them and/or file appropriate charges in proper forum to disqualify them.
After the elections, it’s now water under the bridge.
As duly elected officials, they are back or now holding titles as “persons in authority” and may not just be easily harassed by any civilian or police authority.
These “narco” village officials may look like devils to our police authorities, but for their constituents they are heroes and “role models”; and they now possess awesome power and authority under the forceful local government code.

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When a person is from Iloilo he is called an “Ilonggo” and he speaks “Hiligaynon”, the dialect of Ilonggos.
Some people from other regions, especially from Metro Manila, were always confused and would misuse the word Hiligaynon, the dialect, and the word Ilonggo, the person or resident of Iloilo and other Ilonggo-speaking cities and provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Even the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) got confused when it nearly included the ballot boxes from Iloilo City in the ballot boxes from Iloilo Province, which were part of those covered by the electoral protest of Bongbong Marcos against Vice President Leni Robredo.
In Marcos’ electoral protest, only the ballot boxes from Iloilo Province were under protest, not the ballot boxes from Iloilo City, which the Robredo camp insisted to be “separate and independent from the province of Iloilo.”

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TREATING EMOTIONAL PAIN. Let us think of physical and emotional pain as two sides of the same coin. "MRI scans reveal that the brain regions that light up when you stub your toe are the same ones activated when you feel socially rejected," says Nathan DeWall, Ph.D., who conducted a study on treating emotional pain…NO HEALTH RISK in full-body scans at the airport. It would take 100 scans over the course of a year for us to receive what's considered a "negligible individual dose," the American College of Radiology reports. In fact, we're exposed to more naturally occurring radiation when flying cross-country, thanks to our proximity to outer space.

PDEA is not blameless

“If you support the war on drugs in its present form, then you're only paying lip-service to the defense of freedom, and you don't really grasp the concept of the sovereign individual human being.”
--Neal Boortz

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-6) is reportedly not happy that some of those linked in illegal drugs in Western Visayas won either as councilors or punong barangay (village chief) in the May 14, 2018 Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) and barangay elections.
PDEA-6 Regional Director Wardley Getalla, in fact, called the victory of narco-barangay officials as an “insult” to their agency saying they didn’t deserve to be elected in public office.
Getalla is correct that these narco-barangay officials are not supposed to hold an elective position.
They should be in jail, not in the barangay halls funded by the taxpayers.
But PDEA is not blameless.
PDEA and other agencies tasked to neutralize the spread of illegal drugs slept on their job, to say the least.
They had ample time to prevent evil with an ounce; they will now have to deal evil with a pound of cure.
Some of those narco-village rulers would not have participated in the elections if the the agency, tasked to implement or cause the efficient and effective implementation of the national drug control strategy formulated by the Dangerous Drugs Board, did its job.

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If PDEA was able to identify them as narcotics personalities months or years back, it should have filed cases against them before or even without the elections.
PDEA only disclosed their names (not all of the 200 names were really engaged in illegal drugs) on April 30, 2018, or two weeks before the elections.
By that time, most people have already made up their minds.
In fact, PDEA’s so-called “witch hunting” did not scare some people.
It even benefited some of the those on PDEA’s shame list as they ended up as underdogs; some of them managed to use the controversy to gain sympathy and appeal to people’s emotion claiming they were victims of black propaganda and persecution.
Thus many of those on PDEA’s pre-election anti-illegal drugs radar won handily, which is tantamount to a slap on the faces of our authorities, especially the PDEA.
PDEA failed to beat to the draw these newly-elected narc-village officials, who should have been apprehended as well as searched, as provided by law, for being law violators and the proceeds or effects of their crimes be seized.

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SURFING THE WEB ISN'T A WASTE OF TIME, AFTER ALL. According to new research from the University of California, Los Angeles, people who searched the Internet for an hour a day experienced a jump in brain activity. "The act of clicking through links and new information may build neutral connections and gray matter," says study author Gary Small, M.D. "Over time that might help protect against dementia."…GARLIC GOODNESS. Adding garlic to our next meal may protect our health. The more of the pungent herb that we consume, the lower the amount of a carcinogen in our bodies, research shows. Garlic appears to block nitrates, found in foods like processed meats, from turning toxic. Source: Analytical Biochemistry…RISE IN THE NAME OF GOOD HEALTH. Every hour women spend sitting during the day increases the likelihood of metabolic syndrome, which is a series of risk factors including hypertension, high cholesterol and abdominal obesity, reports the British Journal of Sports Medicine…FATS AS ASSETS. Fats in the hips, thighs and butt can be an asset, according to a new review of studies. "Unlike belly fat, which is linked to chronic disease, fat in your lover body appears to absorb excess fatty acids, preventing them from traveling to organs, such as the liver, where they could put you at risk for diabetes," says Konstantinos Manolopoulos, M.D.

Clear Malones first before clearing Maasin

"Whoever blushes is already guilty; true innocence is ashamed of nothing."
--Jean-Jacques Rousseau

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- It was Mayor Mariano Malones of Maasin, Iloilo in the Philippines, who was falsely accused of being involved in narco-politics.
Malones, his family and political supporters, have endured humiliation for several months now from the wrong accusation.
If there is someone who should be cleared first, it is the mayor.
Maasin, known for its world-class bamboo products, was never considered as hotbed of illegal drugs.
Even residents of Maasin will never believe that cases of illegal drugs in the town's 50 villages are at alarming stage.
It is but proper that the Oversight Committee of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-6) and the Police Regional Office (PRO-6 should first settle the issue on Malones.
The League of the Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP-Iloilo) has been fighting for Malones' innocence after President Rodrigo R. Duterte tagged Malones, along with Calinog Mayor Alex Centena, Carles Mayor Salagunting Betita, and Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog as allegedly involved in protection racket of illegal drugs.
The scheduled declaration of Maasin as "drug-free" in a ceremony on July 14 is good, but it's like pushing the cart ahead of the horse.

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Instead of agreeing to fight WBO 147-lb champion Jeff Horn in a rematch, we suggest that Sen. Manny Pacquiao should retire and give other promising boxers the chance to fight for the world crown.
It will be a good match if Horn will face Amir Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) in his first title defense.
Both Horn and Khan have almost the same hieght and style.
Horn and Khan fight like Marcos Maidana and Victor Ortiz. They move forward like roller coasters and they aren't afraid to slug it out against the aging Pacquiao, who is arguably one of the most destructive prizefighters to ever walk on this planet but who is already past his prime.
Horn shouldn't push his luck by asking for a Floyd Mayweather Jr. duel.
Mayweather, who will fight UFC phenom Conor McGregor on August 26 in Las Vegas, will eat the Aussie alive.

Double standard in war vs illegal drugs

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” 
― Voltaire

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Here's another case of "double standard" when it comes to dealing with characters involved in illegal drug trafficking in the Philippines.
If the suspect is a street-level drug peddler or drug addict, he is killed in a "shootout" with lawmen "after resisting arrest."
If the suspect is a drug lord, he is accorded a "special treatment" by allowing him to face the media and destroy the reputations of authorities allegedly receiving protection money from the syndicate.
To add insult, the drug lord could escape prosecution if his revelations on the payola scandal would be proven based on the reports below.
Reports from Negros Occidental in the Philippines referred to one Ricky Serenio, 34, of Barangay Singcang-Airport, Bacolod City as "a drug lord under the target list of Negros Island Police Regional Office (PRO)."
Serenio, who has been placed under PRO's witness protection program after he named several members of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), court employees, and media personalities as among those who received regular "payola" from the "boss" he refused to name.

DISMISS

Being placed under the program could reportedly help dismiss the cases against Serenio, "if he can prove that his revelations are true."
Chief Superintendent Renato Gumban, PRO acting regional director, said Serenio, who is under the custody of the Regional Special Operations Task Group, is facing charges for illegal possession of firearms and explosives after police recovered from him a .45 caliber pistol with magazine containing five live ammunition and a fragmentation grenade when he was served with an arrest warrant for grave coercion at Rizal Street, Barangay Zone 9 in Talisay City on January 8, 2017.
Why place Serenio under the witness protection program if the evidence is sufficient to convict him in a fair trial? 
If the cases filed against him will eventually be dismissed only because his revelations were proven, the public trust and confidence on our law enforcers will definitely be eroded.
When small fries are trampled like grasses and the big fishes get away with murder, it will defeat the "all-out war" campaign of President Duterte against illegal drug trafficking.