Sec. Raul Gonzalez Sr. and Iloilo media

“Don't be dismayed by good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.” Richard Bach

By Alex P. Vidal

When the late former Iloilo City lone district congressman and justice secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. was in power, he had a stormy relationship with the mainstream press in Iloilo.

He filed cases against almost all bombastic radio commentators, editors and newspaper columnists who called him “Sir Raul.”

Gonzalez fired back by hauling them off to court and threatening that he would “make life difficult for you,” his trademark slogan.  

In 1997, I was the editor of Sun Star Iloilo, a daily newspaper in Western Visayas, when Gonzalez, then a congressman, stormed our office and demanded to see Lolo Beloy Jr., one of our hard-hitting columnists, who had earlier lambasted him for the “anomalous” asphalt overlay projects in the city.

Editors and reporters gathered news in the field in the morning and reported in the afternoon.

OFFICE

The solon and his bodyguards went to our office on Rizal St., City Proper in the morning, thus they only met Nelson Robles, columnist of Super Balita, Sun Star’s sister publication.

One thing led to another and the chance encounter with Robles, now 64, ended in a not-so-pleasant exchange of harsh words. Robles became a recipient of Gonzalez’s suit for “unjust vexation”.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP)-Iloilo, headed then by Limuel Celebria, castigated Gonzalez for trespassing in the office of a media outlet and viewed the unannounced visit as an act of harassment.

Among his fiercest critics were Panay News publisher Daniel Fajardo, Daily Informer publisher Bernie Miaque, then Philippine Daily Inquirer correspondent Nereo Lujan, then Bombo Radyo anchormen Novie Guazo and Rhod Tecson (now with RMN-Iloilo), columnist/radio commentator and later Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel “Boy M” Mejorada.

Gonzalez’s feuds with Fajardo and Miaque lasted for decades.

They even had near-violent scuffles in the airplanes that started with dagger looks.

COLUMNIST

Ironically, Gonzalez, who had served as Tanodbayan justice during the term of the late President Cory Aquino, started to reintroduce himself to the memories of the Ilonggos in the early 90s as a columnist of Fajardo’s newspaper.

Mejorada nearly missed his plane to Germany when Gonzalez, then the justice secretary under the Arroyo administration, placed his name under the immigration hold departure order.

Radio blocktime commentators loyal to Gonzalez “ate alive” Guazo, Tecson, Lujan, and other critics.

It was chaos when Gonzalez’s loyal bodyguards, media sympathizers and village chiefs figured the media critics in ugly verbal skirmishes.

Others ended in brawl.

Most village chiefs and councilors, local leaders, lawyers and some personalities in the broadcast and print media regarded Gonzalez as a hero and savior.

ARRIVED

Whenever he arrived from Manila, they elbowed each other to get a front seat view in his district office in Muelly Loney near the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand.

Gonzalez would engage them in a protracted tete-a-tete, swapping of jokes and laughter; and they all ended up “satisfied” and smiling from ear-to-ear as they raced toward the exit door.

Gonzalez’s benevolence and generosity was an urban legend.

Gonzalez, a bigwig in the Lakas-Kampi-CMD, was instrumental in making his son, Raul Jr. as congressman when he vacated the post in congress in 2004.

He dreamt of becoming a city mayor when he left the Department of Justice in 2009 but was upset by Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog in the 2010 mayoral contest.

May he rest in peace.

Boys sent to do a man’s job in Seville

“You don't play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball.” Bobby Knight

By Alex P. Vidal

TEAM Gilas Pilipinas has nothing to be ashamed of.

In the first place, nobody expected them to literally grab the Spanish bulls by the horns, slay them, and bring home the bacon.

We love basketball, but basketball can’t reciprocate that emotional attachment.

Our heights are not meant for the sport. 

We can win a world crown in boxing where height is not really a major factor, but never in the sport of Michael Jordan.

To be qualified in the 2014 FIBA World Cup was already a victory for the team that wrapped up the bronze medal in the recent 2014 Asia FIBA Cup in China.

Our basketball players were like a group of boys sent to do a man’s job in Seville, Spain but made their highly-rated counterparts look like fools, as admitted by Argentina coach Julio Lamas, whose team was nearly steamrolled by the determined Filipinos before escaping with a gut-wrenching, 85-81 win.

Despite losing exciting matches against highly-touted teams, our boys didn’t lose the battle. They were ousted in the medal column but weren’t defeated.

They can go home with heads unbowed and deserve a red carpet welcome.

AGAIN

But when can we ever see again a Philippine basketball team competing in the World Cup where all its cagers are pure Filipinos?

While we are happy for team Gilas Pilipinas, we really didn’t expect the 2014 FIBA Asia Cup third placer to score major upsets against the superpowers of world basketball in the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Seville, Spain.

Thus the hair-line defeats to Argentina, Croatia and Puerto Rico were not really bad. At least we beat Senegal.

The stage was different, of course, when the all-Filipino RP basketball team competed in the 1954 FIBA World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and won the bronze medal.

In the 1954 FIBA World Cup (known at that time as the 2^nd World Basketball Championship), the RP team did not have an Andray Blatche, center-forward of the Brooklyn Nets, recruited abroad to reinforce the Gilas Pilipinas.

We sent to Rio our best home-grown basketball players and we did not have to scout for naturalized reinforcements from the United States and Europe.

PROUD

And we were so proud to see the brown cagers demolish Formosa (48-38), Israel (90-56), Canada (83-76), and Uruguay (67-63) through the heroics of Carlos “The Big Difference” M. Loyzaga.

We lost only to the eventual champion United States (43-56) and second placer Brazil (41-57) but it was our greatest moment in world basketball championship.

Loyzaga, who turned 84 last August 29, is widely regarded as the greatest Pinoy cager of his era, being the most dominant basketball star from the 1950s to the early 1960s.

A two-time Olympian (1952, 1956), Loyzaga helped the country become one of the best in the world at the time, winning four consecutive Asian Games gold medals (1951, 1954, 1958, 1962) and two consecutive FIBA Asia Championships (1960, 1963).

The country’s third place was the best finish by an Asian country and the Philippines have remained the only Asian medalist in the tournament until today.

PRESTIGE

To add prestige to our 1954 FIBA World Cup campaign, Loyzaga wound up as one of the tournament’s leading scorers with average of 16.4 points-per-game.

The Filipino player was named in the tournament's All-Star selection.

Nowadays it’s hard to duplicate Loyzaga’s achievements. We can produce a lot of promising cage stars from colleges and universities all over the country inspired by the performance of Gilas Pilipinas. But we can’t probably produce another Loyzaga in the next 50 years.

Truly, what happened in Rio did not happen in Seville. With basketball in other European, North and Central America improving by leaps and bounds, it will probably never happen again.

Did Pericles, Julius Caesar also maintain ‘ghost employees’?

“When I saw corruption, I was forced to find truth on my own. I couldn't swallow the hypocrisy.” Barry White

By Alex P. Vidal

IF prostitution is the oldest profession, the issue of “ghost employees” could be the oldest form of graft and corruption among government officials.

Before Jesus Christ was born, history tells us there were already prostituted women and men. 

There were whores of antiquity providing sexual favors in exchange of money, goods and even food.

Before Christianity flourished, corruption was already prevalent in the Roman Empire.

Predecessors of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) already rolled down their curtains on the Romans. 

"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" Matthew (22:21).

Imperial taxes were probably stolen by a one-man dictator in a regime that did not have the media to conduct the check and balance.

The hiring of “ghost employees” probably began even before civil service became an official edict in government.

Was the practice of hiring “ghost employees” by corrupt government officials already rampant during the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome?

Did Athene's Pericles and the emperors of Rome hire "ghost employees" like their modern counterparts?

TURMOIL

In every graft and corruption turmoil or swapping of graft and corruption charges, the hiring of “ghost employees” would almost always surface.

Rhoderick Paulete, among other comedians and showbiz characters who joined the government, was indicted for allegedly pocketing at least P100,000 a month representing the salaries of his “ghost employees” during his term as councilor of Quezon City.

City hall and capitol are the favorite employment centers of “ghosts” or non-existing workers.

Corrupt mayors, vice mayors, governors, vice governors and members of the city and provincial legislatures make a pile from this nefarious scheme, aside from their kickbacks in various projects.

There is a saying that if you want to make a quick money in government hire “ghost employees.”

In this method, everybody is reportedly happy. As long as nobody will rat against the group, and as long as everyone’s lips are sealed.    

When government officials wash their dirty linens in public, they swap charges ranging from receiving regular payola from illegal activities, anomalies in overtime and cash advances, and hiring “ghost employees.”

 -o0o-

POLITICS has destroyed relationships.

Your friends today are your enemies tomorrow and vice versa.

Board Member Manny Gallar and Maasin Mayor Mariano Malones used to be political allies.

Both were loyal supporters of Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. except in the 2013 elections when Malones turned his back from Defensor to support former Iloilo fourth district Rep. Ferjenel Biron who lost to Defensor.

Like a father to a prodigal son, Defensor “reunited” with Malones after the elections.

Gallar, who was vanquished by Malones in the previous elections for board member in the third district of Iloilo, avenged the setback last year by edging Malones’ son.

Since then, their relationship has developed from bad to worse.

Malones rapped Gallar for allegedly maintaining “ghost employees” and questioned his other sources of income.

SALARY

Malones, a prominent figure in the local printing industry, believed that Gallar could not have bought a house and lot, a car and sent his children to private schools on a salary of P40,000 a month.

Their word war was actually the offshoot of the administrative complaints for oppression, misconduct in office, dishonesty and abuse of authority, among others, that Malones faces in the Provincial Board for dismissing Elsa Maternal as the town’s assistant human resource management officer in 2002.

Malones suspected that Gallar was trying to influence his peers to decide against the mayor’s favor.

The board member from Cabatuan, Iloilo denied Malones’ charges and did not wish to further engage the mayor in a verbal shootout related to the issue of “ghost employees.”

On September 9, the Iloilo Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Board) will render a verdict whether to suspend Malones.

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?

‘I can forgive but I can’t forget’

“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” Bruce Lee

By Alex P. Vidal

What happened to Virgilio Orquiola early morning on August 31, 1996 or 18 years ago will forever be etched in his memory.

“I have forgiven my shooter but I can’t forget (that incident), of course,” sighed Orquiola, now 64 and network comptroller of the Philippine News Agency (PNA)-Iloilo.

On his way to buy coffee at around 3:15 o’clock in the morning, Orquiola left his boarding house and walked going to Iloilo Terminal Market popularly known as “super” in Iloilo City.

While passing by a popular nightclub on Quezon St., City Proper, he heard a gunshot from an unknown caliber.

Minutes later, he was grimacing in pain. Orquiola, a resident of Brgy. Mansilingan, Bacolod City, was hit on the right foot.

Another civilian, Ricardo Cang, who happened to be in the area, was slightly wounded.

“I only realized that I was hit when I felt pain and when I saw blood on my wound,” recalled Orquiola, father of eight-year-old girl, Daniela Cathy.

BULLET

The bullet came from the gun fired by a prominent Iloilo City politician who chaired a city hall task force against lewd shows, prostitution, and drug addiction.

The team was patrolling at that time and was reportedly doing “inspections” inside the nightclub when the commotion erupted.

The politician reportedly got enraged and fired his gun when he was unable to find a female entertainer working in that club.

Orquiola was rushed to the St. Paul Hospital.

When the story spread in media, the politician refused to comment and did not make himself available to reporters.

Due to pressures from media, Mayor Mansueto Malabor persuaded the politician, one of his most trusted allies then, to help Orquiola settle his hospital bills through an emissary.

Orquiola’s boss then, PNA-Iloilo chief Neonita Gobuyan, and some members of the city hall press corps, sought the mayor’s help.

The mayor did not fire the politician who held on to his post while at the same time serving his term as an elected member of the city council.

Orquiola positively identified the politician but did not anymore file a case against him.

INTENTION

“I know it was not his intention to hurt me,” Orquiola said. “I just happened to pass by in the area when the commotion ensued. He did not know me personally, so he had no reason to shoot me. I heard he has also done many good things for his constituents.”

Orquiola said he never saw the politician again since the incident. Because of what happened to him, Orquiola became an instant sensation in media.

News about the shooting and the follow up reports landed on front pages. Because of the personalities involved, it became the talk of the town—especially why the politician fired his gun and who was that female entertainer.

Eighteen years after the incident, Orquiola said he would only smile each time he recalled what happened.

“It’s good I was only hit on the leg. God still loves me,” he said in jest.

SCAR

Orquiola showed the scar of his wound and confirmed the bullet was still inside his foot.

“I feel pain during cold weather,” he disclosed. “Doctors did not remove the bullet.”

Orquiola said he did not attribute the pain he experiences from time to time caused by his diabetes and high blood pressure to what happened 18 years ago saying “it is probably related to my age.”

He was recently hospitalized for seven months due to tuberculosis. Orquiola said he is satisfied and happy working under a new boss, PNA-Iloilo chief Annabel Java-Petinglay, and is only waiting for the mandatory age of retirement at 65.

“I’m happy with my life and my achievement, and I considered that experience as a bad dream,” Orquiola stressed. “I have no rancor in my heart against my shooter whatsoever, and I have long forgiven him. But I can never forget.”

Don’t nominate, we’ll just donate

“In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference.” Rachel Carson   

By Alex P. Vidal

PLEASE don’t nominate us for the ice bucket challenge.

We will just donate.

If we feel like participating in the promotion of awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and encourage donations to research, all we need to do is donate cash.

No public announcement.

No ice dropping demonstration.

No self-congratulatory video gimmick that focuses primarily on fun while others are watching, giggling and cheering for all the world to witness.

We find the challenge as a clear example of substituting a trivial activity for more genuine involvement in charitable activities.

We may sound like killjoy to excited ice bucket enthusiasts, but if our intention is golden, just donate.

Don’t procrastinate. Don’t celebrate!

Let's go straight to the point. We don’t need to dump cold water on our heads if our intention is purely to raise money for charity. 

The challenge may have adverse health effects on participants, especially adults like Justice Secretary Leila De Lima (Et tu, Leila?).

FEVER

What if we have typhoid fever and other respiratory ailments that prohibit us from getting wet?

Instead of helping solve the problem on ALS, we could end up the ones shaking and trembling in the emergency room.

And find ourselves the recipients of cash donations from friends instead of the ALS research.

Experts have already warned of the potentially inducing vagal response which might, for example, lead to unconsciousness in people taking blood pressure medications.

In many places where the challenge was recently practiced, a number of participants have sustained injuries but were not all reported in media.

Sources said at least one death has been linked to the challenge, with another thought to be from a variation on the challenge, jumping feet first into water.

WASTE

We can’t waste water only for this instant pop culture phenomenon and brief videoed spectacle.

Ilonggos are saddled by water crisis owing to the recent furor involving the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) and the FLO Water Resources, Inc. headed by Bombo Radyo tycoon Rogelio Florete Jr.

It’s an insult to MIWD consumers to waste water in the challenge when there is no drop of liquid in the buckets and others can’t take a bath and drink potable water on time.  

We can’t afford to be insensitive during the crisis.

When water utilities and their bulk water providers are at loggerheads, water becomes a premium.

And we need to save every drop of water specifically for the household use. Not for celluloid gimmicks.

The problem is we are easily smitten by almost all the myopic activities that emanate from the Western world.

COPY

And we are good in copying them—for fun first; and, perhaps, for charity second.

We are always guilty of gaya-gaya or sunod-sunod or copycat. We lack the originality. Many of us have become poor trying hard copycats.

And we also drag our senior citizens in this slapdash challenge without any regard to their safety and health.

We have enough of such water-related gimmickry in the Philippines.

In our barangay (village) in Iloilo City where we celebrate the Feast of St. John The Baptist every 24^th of June, we splash water on friends and passersby, and participate in different games.

We line up on every street and alley with water guns in hand early in the morning and “shoot” the first “victims” spotted walking or passing by.

We do it with fun and excitement since time immemorial, but for purposes of religious celebration and festivity as part of our culture and tradition, not to raise funds for charity or research.