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.  

Gallar a pawn in STL saga?

“I can't speak on behalf of the show. I'm not a creator; I'm just a pawn.”  Randy Harrison

By Alex P. Vidal

THE main reason why small town lottery (STL) was not legalized in the province of Iloilo is because then Gov. Neil D. Tupas Sr. was against illegal gambling per se.

Under Tupas, STL was never a serious topic. 

It's a taboo.

Tupas would pay attention to anyone who visited his office and even his house in Hechanova, Jaro district, Iloilo City but would sneer at those who would convince him to support gambling operation in the province.

Although the provincial board had passed a resolution interposing no objection to the operation of STL in the province, it met a major snag due to Tupas’ lackadaisical attitude.

No one could fathom why Tupas, who reigned from 2001 until 2010, was so allergic to gambling.

On several occasions, Tupas gave cold shoulder treatment to liaisons of gambling operators lobbying for the STL in the province.

Reports that Tupas “nixed a monthly payola” from illegal gambling operators were confirmed by the most diligent factotum of Bogart, one of Iloilo’s most powerful and most influential illegal gambling operators.

“Sakit sa ulo na si gob (Tupas). Ka tig a gid. (It’s hard to convince Governor Tupas. He is really hard),” the diligent factotum grumbled.

The grapevine was so loud at that time that as long as Tupas was the governor, there’s no way for STL or any gambling activity to prosper, much less be legalized in the province.

LIGHT

Under the administration of Gov. Arthur “Art” Defensor Sr., gambling or STL found light at the end of the tunnel, finally.

In fact, Defensor is himself pushing to allow STL in the province in order to solve the problems brought by its clandestine operations.

The governor’s ally in the provincial board, Manny Gallar, has started the ball rolling.

In the recent regular session of the provincial board, Gallar sponsored a resolution pushing for legalization of STL.

Gallar’s move came in the heels of former Iloilo first district congressman Oscar “Oca” Garin’s Sr. saber-rattling that some municipal mayors and police chiefs in his district were receiving protection racket from illegal gambling operators.

Interestingly, Garin’s only son, Rep. Oscar “Richard” Garin Jr., acting as chair of the committee as a whole, introduced the board resolution in 2010 when the latter was still the vice governor.

Garin Jr’s committee in 2010 held public consultations and concluded that “the operation of STL in the province will not contribute in cultivating a culture of immoral gambling among the Ilonggos; the societal value of STL as a tool to eradicate jueteng, an illegal numbers game, may be enhanced by allowing its operations, and from the standpoint of government as the primary agency charged with addressing the needs of its people, it can be prudently argued that the funds generated from STL appear to promise available resources for a more responsive and effective delivery of basis services to its constituents.”

CHARITY

STL charity fund sharing scheme suggested that the host city or municipality gets the biggest slice of the STL revenue share at 10 percent. 

Capitol and the PNP will get five percent apiece.

Each of the five districts of Iloilo will earn 2.5 percent.

With Defensor’s imprimatur, Gallar’s resolution is expected to have a smooth sailing.

Gambling proponents think now is the right time to step up the campaign to legalize STL because of the apparent harmonious relationship between Defensor and the provincial legislature.

No feud means no opposition. 

No check and balance?

When he was still anchorman of Bombo Radyo Iloilo, Gallar lambasted illegal gambling operations in the city and province in his early morning radio program.

He was fearless and consistent in his anti-illegal gambling commentaries.

As a provincial board member, Gallar now advocates for STL’s legalization.

A 360-degree turn for the diminutive politician from Cabatuan, Iloilo.

He must only be a pawn in this saga.

  

Probing cops is like probing Dracula for his love of blood

“It's kind of fun to do the impossible.” Walt Disney

By Alex P. Vidal

WE know that Dracula loves to drink blood, thus we shouldn’t be shocked anymore why he wants to be employed in the blood bank.

We will only investigate, of course, if he was hired as security guard in the blood bank even if he didn’t conceal in his bio-data that he was Dracula, the bloodsucker.

Only hypocrites will claim they don’t know that gambling and other illegal activities exist.

The worst hypocrites are those who argue that no cop, public official and even media practitioner is in the payola of operators of illegal activities.

While we understand the knee-jerk reaction of Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) director, Senior Superintendent Cornelio Salinas, on the sweeping allegations made by former Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) administrator Oscar “Oca” Garin Sr. against some police chiefs and municipal mayors in the first district of Iloilo, we can’t help but quip, “Hello. You don’t know really, sir?”

Salinas wants to investigate Garin’s claims that some of the police chiefs in that district have been getting a regular payola or protection racket from illegal gambling operators.

“Worried” Salinas wants an immediate housecleaning so he can separate the chaffs from the grains under his command.

SUPERIORS

We support him. We believe in his sincerity.

But Salinas should first ask to investigate his superiors in Camp Delgado, Iloilo City and even those in Camp Crame, Quezon City or all the way up to the PNP hierarchy.

The first personnel in these headquarters who will claim they are unaware there are cops who receive payola from illegal gambling operators, should be sent to Mindanao to avenge the massacre recently of 44 PNP-Special Action Force troopers by Muslim separatists.

“Pa-imbestigahan naton ang ginhambal ni congressman (Oscar) Garin. I-find out naton kon paano naton ma-substantiate,” said Salinas.

He said police chiefs should come up with an operational review of what they have done in the illegal gambling campaign of the PNP.

Let’s call spade a spade.

Without police protection, gambling, as well as other illegal activities, won’t prosper.

RACKET

Protection racket means some cops pretend they see nothing, hear nothing, know nothing about gambling activities taking place in their areas in exchange for regular or monthly payola.

Offers from gambling operators are too tempting to be ignored.

Sources say a provincial police director in Luzon gets a monthly payola of P500,000.

To be honest, we have no idea how much these illegal gambling operators dangle for regional police directors and the city and municipal police directors in the Visayas and Mindanao.

But a corrupt police officer assigned in a municipal and district sub-station will consider it peanuts to get only P10,000 a month.

We believe there are still honest police chiefs and rank-and-file cops; and they are still in the majority.

We also believe that Salinas is among those honest PNP officials, based on the words from our beat reporters when we were still with the other community newspapers in the 90’s.

INCREDIBLE

We also find it incredible if all municipal mayors and even members of the municipal council will claim they are clean like Caesar’s wife in as far as illegal gambling is concerned.

We have the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the League of Municipalities to discipline local officials who are “on the take” and to police their ranks.

With or without Garin’s “expose”, it’s the duty and obligation of lawmen, local chief executives and members of media to stop and expose evil in society.

And illegal gambling activity is one of those evils because it further impoverishes the people and teaches them to be lazy.

It’s not anymore a question whether the problem exists.

The question is what have we done to expose it, solve and fight it, and nip it in the bud?

Garin’s nitpicking: No names, no glory

“We can't have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves.” Thomas Aquinas

By Alex P. Vidal

THE so-called “bombshell” uncorked by former Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) administrator Oscar “Oca” Garin Sr. against several unnamed municipal mayors and police chiefs in the first district of Iloilo who supposedly “received” a regular payola or protection money from illegal gambling operators, was a dud.

Because Garin didn’t name names and failed to show the Provincial Board even a tiny piece of paper or document that contains his evidence, he only succeeded in besmirching the reputations of the municipal mayors and the police chiefs in that district.

Such a sweeping statement was uncalled for and wasn’t expected from someone of Garin’s stature.

What Garin said during the Provincial Board’s out-of-town session in Guimbal, Iloilo on January 27 can be considered as hearsay or unverified, unofficial information gained or acquired from another and not part of one's direct knowledge.

It can be dismissed as a saber-rattling by a powerful political personality with agenda he alone knows.  

It was the kind of “information” we all regularly hear from the gossip mills.

It was the kind of gossip we regularly hear from the kapehan and barber shops.

Nothing was new.

KNOWLEDGE

It’s public knowledge that gambling and other illegal activities exist.

It’s common knowledge that some cops (not just their superior officers), public officials (not just municipal mayors), and even some media personalities (bogus and active) are “on the take.”

But because we lack the evidence or we don’t have sufficient information to back it up, we don’t say it in formal sessions; we can’t just slander anyone and get away with it.

Laura is a known prostituted woman because she accommodates male clients for sex for livelihood.

That’s a common knowledge in the neighborhood.

But nobody saw Laura having sex and receiving money from the male clients.

No client made a sworn statement that he went to bed with Laura.

If we announce in public that Laura is a prostitute, we’ll end up in jail if Laura files a slander or oral defamation case.

According to some lawyers, “truth is not a defense in a libel case.”

Going back to Garin, a former congressman who is the acknowledged patriarch of politics in the first district of Iloilo, his allegations were bereft of merits if presented in a formal court.

COURT

In the court of public opinion where politicians bring their cases attended usually by pomposity and blunderbuss, “crusader” Garin is a hero.

When we fight the devil, we don't need to convince the public of our casus belli or case for war.

Municipal mayors and police chiefs who felt alluded to in the “expose” and who think they were unjustly crucified, can always run after Garin in a formal complaint (granting they have the guts to collide with this political demigod).

But still, Garin can easily wiggle out from any legal trouble because, in the first place, he didn’t name names.

No one can coerce him to confess his sources and specify his facts–unless he is being tried by the Catholic Inquisition.

A witty and grizzled politician for 30 years, Garin can easily attract media attention even if he will claim that a stray dog has bitten him.

Never mind if it was not him who bit the stray dog.

In the court of justice, Garin’s nitpicking will collapse.