Miag-ao mayor to ambulant vendors: police your ranks

By Alex P. Vidal

THE first-ever protest rally in front of the municipal hall of Miag-ao, Iloilo on March 9 ended three hours after ambulant fish vendors, aided by General Assembly Binding Women for Reform Integrity Equality Leadership and Action (Gabriela)-Panay, agreed to the suggestion of Mayor Macario Napulan during a dialogue that they “police your own group” and to form an organization.

The rally started at past one o’clock in the afternoon spearheaded by Lucy Francisco, Gabriela regional coordinator.

“We came from Antique province and we are here to help the ambulant vendors (in Miag-ao) because we are celebrating the International Women’s Month and we don’t want their rights to be violated,” Francisco said.

Some15 minutes after the rally started, Senior Inspector Cyril Octavio, Miag-ao police chief, approached Francisco and Ma. Leonora Egarde, leader of ambulant fish vendors, and invited them to the municipal hall.

Municipal administrator Joselito Eiman, municipal legal officer Ramil Naciongayo and Councilor Ma. Teresa Jambre faced them in a dialogue in the conference hall.

ARREST

Egarde protested the arrest of their three members and the seizure of their fishes saying the municipal government violated the verbal agreement they entered with Napulan allowing them to sell inside the public market from 5:30 in the afternoon up.

Egarde said Napulan issued them a business permit after paying a fee of P495 on January 20, 2015.

The permit, issued in the name of Rosine Montalvo and approved by licensing unit chief Stephen Intal, is good until December 31, 2015.

“If we will be arrested and our fishes are confiscated, we will lose our livelihood and we will go hungry,” Egarde sobbed.

But the municipal officials chided Egarde’s group for its failure to honor a previous agreement to sell only in designated areas.

Some of Egarde’s fellow ambulant vendors sell their fishes outside the public market and even before five o’clock in the afternoon in violation of the municipal ordinance, Naciongayo disclosed.

Jambre said she herself caught several ambulant vendors selling beyond what was contained in the agreement.

ABUSE

Napulan, who came late in the two-hour dialogue, rapped the ambulant fish vendors for “abusing the privileges” he extended them.

“They abused our agreement. I myself saw some of them selling in the gates of the public market as early as six o’clock in the morning,” the mayor said.

Napulan said he also discovered that some ambulant vendors allowed themselves to be used in a hocus pocus committed by some registered or authorized vendors inside the public market.

“Some ambulant vendors are relatives of registered vendors. Sometimes three vendors are using one permit,” Napulan said.

To resolve the problem, Napulan urged ambulant fish vendors to form an organization and “police your own group” by doing the following:

-get a certification from the barangay that they are bonafide residents of Miag-ao; and

-produce identification cards showing that they are indigents.

Napulan said through regulation they can protect and prioritize Miag-ao-based ambulant fish vendors as transient ambulant vendors from other municipalities come in from time to time.

ENCOURAGE

He also encouraged them to sell fishes taken from the shores of Miag-ao.

“Our own fishermen are at the mercy of wholesale buyers who sell the fishes taken from the Miag-ao shores to the Iloilo fishing port (in Iloilo City). The ones that are brought back here are sold to us in a higher price,” Napulan stressed.

“We are developing the Baybay Norte and Baybay South and we will give priority to those who catch the fishes here in the shores of Miaga-ao and sell them direct to the local residents.”

Jambre suggested that ambulant vendors should indicate if the fishes they are selling are from Miag-ao beach so they can be given priority.

Eiman said there is a need to regulate the ambulant fish vendors “because we are looking for the revenues.”

Out of 60 registered vendors inside the public market, only 10 were able to renew their business permits this year, Eiman said.

‘Dreams were made possible in Kilometraje 40’

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” Harriet Tubman

By Alex P. Vidal

IT started as a ragtag group of young men who didn’t care about their lives.

When Justice Ramon B. Britanico (mayor of Miag-ao, Iloilo from 1968-1971) spotted them in the public plaza sometime in 1971, the mayor exhorted them to do something about their lives.

“That’s when (Vicente) Bugoy (Molejona) gathered them and named the group as Kilometraje 40,” disclosed Rene Monteclaro, station manager of Radyo Ng Bayan Iloilo.

Moncteclaro, who also hails from Miag-ao, Iloilo, some 40 kilometers southwest of Iloilo City, said the name “Kilometraje 40” was taken from the landmark of “KM 40 SJ 14” near the historic Miag-ao Church where the group gathered regularly.

KM 40 means the distance from the municipality to Iloilo City while SJ 14 is the distance from the municipality to San Joaquin, the last Iloilo municipality going to Antique province.

There are many many disputed etymologies for Miag-ao. One of the most popular, and probably the most widely accepted version is that the name of the town was derived from a plant named Miagos or Osmoxylon lineare, a flowering plant from the family Araliaceae that used to grow abundantly in the area when the Spaniards came.

REST

Molejona, who was laid to rest at the Miag-ao Catholic Cemetery on March 9, was Kilometraje 40’s founding president.

“Among the group’s original members was Jomar, my older brother. From a small group, Kilometraje 40 rose to become a serious organization,” narrated Monteclaro, 57, who became the group’s president in 1978.

Monteclaro, an ex-seminarian like Molejona, said the group later on welcomed women as members. The males are called the “pinasahi” (rare) while the females are the “pinasulabi” (priority)

They launched the “Kauswagan”, a cultural show and became actively involved in organizing socio-civic cultural activities.

Kilometraje 40 produced “The Legend of Maya and Gao”, a cultural presentation and dance drama.

They also launched the “Mutya kang Miag-ao” beauty contest that became an institution in 1978.

“Our group was non-sectarian, non-political and non-profit,” explained Monteclaro. “We were independent. We raised our own funds. We didn’t realy on others, and we have our own constitution and by-laws.”

Monteclaro said the members considered Molejona, a retired director of the Population Commission (Popcom) before his death on February 22, as “a mentor and a source of our inspiration.”

“Bugoy was a role model. In Kilometraje 40, so many dreams and projects were made possible. We engaged in interaction. In fact, I learned my master’s degree in management from Kilometraje 40,” Monctelaro said.

VALUES

Monctelaro added: “We learned so many values from Bugoy. He taught us how to become responsible; how to lead an organization; not to give up.”

During difficulties, Monteclaro said “Bugoy never said harsh words to his people. When his friends approached him and apologized for a wrongdoing, Bugoy would tell them they committed no wrong to him but to the organization. And he was always smiling.”

Monteclaro continued: “Because of Bugoy, we didn’t afraid to accept responsibilities. He simply had a knack of simplifying things. He would always tell us, ‘kaya natin yan’ (we can do it).”

Former president Bernard Montealto said the group became inactive for awhile and regrouped when Molejona died.

Around 70 members joined Molejona’s funeral on Monday.

What we remember is Bugoy’s smiling face

“Let my soul smile through my heart and my heart smile through my eyes, that I may scatter rich smiles in sad hearts.” 

Paramahansa Yogananda

By Alex P. Vidal

ILOILO lost one of its most brilliant and truly outstanding leaders with the demise of Vicente “Bugoy” Molejona last February 22.

The pride of Miag-ao, Iloilo had been struggling against small cell lung carcinoma with solitary brain metastasis for almost three years before his death.

In November 2013, I was privileged to be invited by Molejona to do the official confirmation in public through an article that he was stricken by a cancer “in order to end the guessing game.”

Molejona reached me through the social media and other means of communication available.

He wanted also to see his kumpare journalist, Limuel Celebria, and former student, Rhod Tecson of RMN Iloilo.

I arrived in his residence in Miag-ao, some 43 kilometers away from Iloilo City, in the dead of night.

His wife, Ma. Dulce, and eldest son, Jose Angelo, a Miag-ao municipal councilor, guided me to Molejona’s room where the retired Population Commission (Popcom) regional director embraced me amid tears.

The other details of my visit will be narrated in a separate article.

I am always proud to tell friends and relatives that I placed Molejona on top of my list of public servants who really deserved my admiration.

It’s impossible not to admire Molejona. 

He was a smiling face personified. He could afford to flash a smile even when he was not feeling well. 

He smiled a lot that even his detractors were ashamed to hate him.

People who worked with him and under him can spend hours talking about the greatness of the man.

In all his life as a public servant starting as a provincial board member in 1988, he was never implicated in graft and corruption. Then presidential candidate and now Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was so impressed with his credentials and immaculate record that she picked him as the official vice gubernatorial bet of the People's Reform Party (PRP) in 1992.

I became enamored with Molejona, who also sat one time as OIC governor, when I covered the Iloilo capitol beat from 1989 to 1992.

He was honest, down-to-earth, and hard-working. He was very unassuming and approachable, a friend of the highest-ranking executives and the lowest-ranking utility personnel.

As administrator of the Iloilo Sports Complex and one of the sports executives, Molejona appointed me as editor-in-chief of Palaro Journal, official newsletter of the 1991 Palarong Pambansa hosted by Iloilo province.

According to Molejona, the late former Vice Governor Ramon Duremdes “was the true unsung hero of Iloilo sports.”

He wanted me write a separate story about Duremdes, one of the well-loved Iloilo leaders in this generation.

We can never forget Molejona. All we can remember always is his smiling face.

-o0o-

IN our society, the most powerful have become those who are carrying the tag of “lords” – the drug lords and the gambling lords.

If the “lord” is into drug trafficking and illegal gambling to boot, it’s not remote that he will also become a warlord.

Warlords have the guns, goons and gold.

They have the resources and capability of sowing terror and killing people.

Especially those who pose as obstacles in their illegal activities. Journalists and cops included.

But there is another way to “silence” the law enforcers and the media watchdogs.

Bribe them.

Once there is money involved, it’s easy to divide and rule—and conquer.

When a journalist attacks a fellow journalist that exposes the evil of illegal drugs and illegal gambling, it’s a telltale sign that someone has become a scoundrel and transformed into a mercenary.

It’s not only grossly unethical to hit a fellow media practitioner for doing his job, it’s also alarming and scandalous, to say the least.

When a policeman murders a fellow policeman who investigates and apprehends illegal gambling operators and drug traffickers, it’s a red flag that a uniformed officer has been transformed into a hooligan by the power of money and gold.

It’s a disaster for the campaign against lawlessness and evil.

SPATE

The recent spate of killings involving crusading cops in Negros will bolster our hypothesis.

The most recent murder Senior Police Officer 2 Edcel Villanueva of the Calatrava police station was traced to his job as anti-drugs crusader.

Villanueva was shot around 7:50 p.m. on February 23 on Gustilo Street, Barangay 5, San Carlos City while on his way home.

The murder came a week after Senior Police Officer 4 Roger Cañete of Silay City police station, an anti-illegal drugs investigator, was gunned down on his way home to EB Magalona.

Last January 27, Police Officer 2 Jan Gallenero Jr. of the La Carlota police office was peppered with bullets.

In those murders, the suspected assailants were fellow policemen and their civilian cohorts, except in the case of Villanueva whose perpetrators were not yet identified as of press time.

No less than Negros Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer and Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. have expressed alarm over the successive killings of crusading cops.

It seems that some law enforcers have become not only lawbreakers, but also henchmen and mercenaries of drug lords and gambling lords.