Ilonggos always quick to extend help

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”

—William Shakespeare

By Alex P. Vidal

WHEN Iloilo was hit by calamities like the super typhoons “Yolanda” and recently “Ursula”, assistance came pouring in from other regions and provinces in the Philippines.

Because the world was watching, foreign assistance followed suit. 

Although the damages on agriculture and infrastructure were sometimes grotesque, the LGUs and the sectors directly affected could quickly bounce back to normal life because of the concern and empathy of those Good Samaritans—institutions and individuals.

Ilonggos have been both blessed and resilient that they were able to survive some of the worst calamities in recent memory.

And when it is their time to help, their countrymen can always count on them; Ilonggos know how to reciprocate a kindness and benevolence.

Thus it’s not a surprise why the Ilonggos were among the first and quickest to respond when Taal volcano spewed lava and plumes of ash since Sunday.  

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In Iloilo City, Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas has vowed to send financial assistance and other aid necessary for the people of Batangas affected by the volcanic eruption.

Once details of the assistance have been finalized by the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC) soon, the assistance will be sent “hopefully before the Dinagyang Festival highlights (January 25-26),” the city mayor was quoted as saying by the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

It was reported as of January 16 that more than 50,000 people have fled Taal volcano’s potential “explosive eruption.”  

An eruption could rain rocks and magma and set off a tsunami from the lake in which the volcano sits, volcanologists have warned.

Thick ashfall from the volcano has reportedly cloaked many towns in the Batangas province causing millions of dollars worth of damage to crops. 

Also clouds of ash were blown 62 miles to Manila, forcing hundreds of flights to be cancelled.

Cracks were reported to be emerging around the Taal volcano raising the likelihood of an imminent major eruption, according to scientists.

 Experts at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology  (Phivolcs), which said the threat level from the Taal volcano south of Manila remained at level 4 on Tuesday (January 14)– one short of an active eruption. 

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Let’s hope the police will not taint the week-long Dinagyang Festival with the blood of suspected drug pushers and users now that the crackdown against the suspects has been tightened these past days as reported in the Western Visayas media.

A tough police official, Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido, deputy director for operations of the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), who was assigned in Bacolod City on purpose of “wiping out” the remnants of drug syndicates there, was in the news most recently warning the traffickers that “they have only one month” saying “everything has an end.”

Any violent crackdown against any criminal element in the region will always have a spillover in Iloilo City since both the cities of Bacolod and Iloilo are inter-connected in many aspects.

While we laud Espenido’s no non-sense anti-illegal drugs campaign, it would be best if his timing wasn’t bad.

Why not eliminate all those dregs of society when there was no forthcoming important event that attracts visitors from other countries?

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

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.