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.  

Rosalie’s hell begins

"All men are rapists and that's all they are. They rape us with their eyes, their laws, and their codes." Marilyn French

By Alex P. Vidal

Now that 66-year-old Himamaylan City Councilor Harry C. Sian has been formally charged in the city prosecutor’s office for violation of Republic Act 7610 or Anti Child Abuse Act, life will never be the same again for Rosalie (not her real name) and her family.

Rosalie, 16, a housemaid, accused Sian, a rich and prominent haciendero in Negros Occidental, of raping her on several occasions for two years.

The alleged rapes happened sometimes inside the car, in the suspect’s house, and in motels. A sex slave?

Rosalie and her mother did not immediately report the matter to the police for fear of reprisal and eviction because they used to stay in the suspect’s hacienda, it was learned.

Even before Sian was charged, there were fears that Rosalie’s decision to come out in the open and pinpoint Sian as her alleged rapist would be an exercise in futility because she is fighting a Goliath.

Rosalie and her family must have evaluated and anticipated the possible consequences they would face once Sian’s name has been mentioned in the media.

CAST

Now that the die is cast, there should be no retreat and no surrender.

As expected, Sian would deny Rosalie’s allegations. As expected, Sian’s camp would mount a counter accusation to impeach the girl’s credibility.

The first volley came from Sian’s lawyer, Pietro Villarin, who claimed that the girl “only wanted money.”

Sian, the lawyer said, was the girl’s “third victim” whatever that means. Villarin did not elaborate.

We have heard this line before in other rape cases involving children who come from poor families.

The message is loud and clear. 

Sian’s camp is crying extortion.

The best defense is offense, as the saying goes.

Sensational cases involving poor victims against rich and powerful personalities usually prosper when there are no settlements; when witnesses cooperate from start to finish and refuse to be intimidated and bribed; and when the cases are closely monitored by the media.

If the case goes into trial, Sian’s goose is cooked politically speaking.

Guilty or not, public opinion would be cruel against his favor.

CULTURE

In our culture, we sympathize with the poor, the powerless and defenseless children like Rosalie.

Each time cases like Rosalie’s surface in mass media, we remember the Tagalog telenovela Flordeluna; we remember the abused and exploited women and children working in the haciendas of tart-tongued mestiza and mestizo colonial landlords and landladies.

We remember inhuman treatment by the mighty and privileged against the destitute and downtrodden.

If she is telling the truth, Rosalie deserves all the support from all sectors of society, especially the women and human rights associations in Himamaylan City.

In numerous cases involving rapes, physical and mental abuse, and all forms of violence against women and children committed by moneyed and powerful characters, we seldom see a Rosalie coming out bravely to seek for justice.

In most cases, the victims would opt to keep quite and forget their nightmares rather than risk being pilloried and made to endure a long litigation they can't afford to sustain financially.

JUSTICE

In our society where justice can be bought and truth can be twisted by the glitters of money and gold, the sight of a poor Rosalie fighting against odds is already a whiff of fresh air for those who pursue justice against conventional wisdom that you can’t topple the powerful, well-connected and well-oiled litigant in a protracted legal battle.

Sian deserves to be given his day in court. He will always be presumed innocent until proven otherwise. 

With his power and wealth, he is still considered to be in the advantage position.

The Bible tells us not to judge our fellowmen. He who has not sinned should cast the first stone.

When we judge others, we will be judged according to the barometer we used in judging others.  

For Rosalie, win or lose, hell has just begun.

Who is the rapist city councilor?

“People out there must be told about the self-loathing that follows rape and how it's the greatest breakage in divine law to mutilate themselves, as I have done.”  Tori Amos

By Alex P. Vidal

OF the 12 members of the Himamaylan city council in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental, nine are males and three are females.

Their presiding officer is a woman, Vice Mayor Carminia G. Bascon.

One of the nine male city councilors has been accused of rape by Rosalie (not her real name), a 16-year-old housemaid.

He will be formally charged on September 1, according to Himamaylan city police chief, 

Superintendent Antonieto Cañete.

The city councilor was not immediately named in the news “pending the formal filing of case against him” thus there was a guessing game that followed when the report spread in mass media.

He reportedly owns the hacienda where Rosalie and her mother and sister used to live.

The repeated rapes allegedly happened for almost two years when the victim and her family were still staying in the suspect’s hacienda.

MOTHER

Rosalie had informed her mother about the sexual molestation but they were afraid to tell the police for fear of eviction, if not reprisal.

They were powerless and paupers. They had no one to turn to.

Rosalie’s father died years ago and only her mother was looking after her.

The suspect allegedly sexually molested Rosalie on several occasions in separate places –in the motel, inside his car, inside his house.

People in Himamaylan City already know who the suspect is. The problem, our sources said, is nobody is gutsy enough to mention his name in the media.

Once he will be formally charged, his name will finally surface—whether he likes it or not.

Once formal charges have been filed against the city councilor, he would be forced to defend himself in media or “in the proper forum” and that is the court.

We hope there would be no whitewash in the investigation.

We hope the family will pursue the case and won’t backtrack when push comes to shove.

INVOLVED

Once a complaint has been officially filed and the involved characters are prominent personalities, media attention has always been full and constant.

We have heard of similar cases in the past where the complaints only ended up being thrown in the waste basket because the suspects and the victims’ families “amicably” settled the cases in the prosecutor’s office.

Sometimes the cases did not reach the first base as they were “settled” in the police station with the lawyers from both parties, some cops, witnesses, middle men, atbp. ending up with fat wallets and smiling from ear to ear.

Since Rosalie is a minor, she would need the support of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The suspect, except if he was not framed up or a victim of political harassment (in this case it’s impossible for a 16-year-old girl to allow herself to be used as a tool to harass a politician at the expense of her and her family’s reputation), will never take the case lightly.

He can’t afford to let the case prosper and suffer the consequences in his personal life and political career.

A rape accused, especially if he is a celebrity or well-known in his place, can never win in public opinion.

ODDS

The odds are always stacked against him especially if the victim is a poor girl and does not have power and connections.

He will always move heaven and earth to resolve the case or settle the complaint in whatever means.

Rape is punishable by reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment, and is no peanuts once it reaches the trial court.

Once the case has been blown up in proportions in the media, the suspect will never be the same again.

It will be the start of his political career’s gradual demise if he will not end up behind bars.

Who among these male city councilors is the suspect in the rape case?

Aly B. Tongson, Jr., Gerardo G. Gamposilao, Harry C. Sian, Larry C. Badajos, Martin Florencio R. Villafranca, Raymuundo S. Lozada, Ricky T. Genova, Rolando V. Da-anoy, Timothy Augustine G. Yulo.

Or none of the above?