Ilonggo cab driver who returned P2.4 Million deserves more rewards

“Honesty is the fastest way to prevent a mistake from turning into a failure.”

—James Altucher

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

HONEST taxi driver Anthony Barredo Aguerre of Pavia, Iloilo should get more than P50,000 cash rewards from the government, private donors, civic organizations, and other Good Samaritans.

We are waiting for the Iloilo Provincial Government, in particular, and the Department of Tourism (DoT) to also chip in and acknowledge Aguerre’s amazing rectitude.

For bringing the backpack left by a passenger containing P2.4 million to the Police Station 8 in Iloilo City on Jan. 18, the 52-year-old cabbie raised the bar of the entire Ilonggos to the highest plinth and proved to the world once again that we have adopted honesty as a matter of pride, tradition and identity since time immemorial.

In other cities and provinces, businessmen, impressed by this rare act of honesty from ordinary workers, donated not only cash but scholarships for children and other non-cash rewards without much ado.

It is not in the amount of cash that the likes of Aguerre will bring home as reward that will encourage more people like him to emulate the decency and pureness of heart and mind.  

It’s how we value and recognize virtuousness and uprightness of nameless individuals at times when the virtue of honesty is almost ignored, forgotten, and scoffed at given the depressing economic reality.

 

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Ilonggos have been known to be honest people ever since Datu Paiburong’s dominion of Irong-Irong when Panay Island was ruled under the Code of Kalantiao, where peace and prosperity reigned for 300 years until disrupted by the Spanish colonizers.

The honesty of Ilonggos has a storied past. According to many historians, when the Spaniards arrived in Irong-Irong and left their belongings ashore for several nights, they were astonished to find out that not a single item was missing.

It’s not surprising that every now and when, we hear stories about acts of honesty committed mostly by ordinary Ilonggos.

We laud the efforts of of the Iloilo City Government led by Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Trenas who signed an executive order declaring the good taxi driver as “adopted son of Iloilo City” and awarding him P20,000 cash.

Also, we doff our hats off Iloilo 2nd district Rep. Michael Gorriceta for responding with another P30,000 cash rewards.

Even without the financial windfall, we believe more Anthony Barredo Aguerres will surface in the future to showcase their own breathtaking acts of heroism and honesty.

 

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LET’S PUSH AWAY PESTS. The smell of camomile deters most small flies. Let's make our own pesticide by infusing camomile flowers in hot water for 10 minutes. Let's spray on plants to prevent pests alighting.

GOOD NIGHT, POUNDS. We don’t have to dream about weight loss. One way to make it a reality: Relax for 20 minutes before bed, suggests Dr. Dawn Jackson Blatner, author of The Flexitarian Diet. Winding down before hitting the pillows helps keep us out of the kitchen (and away from tempting leftovers). Let’s try mellowing out to soft music or soaking in a warm bath.

"SUPPORT OUR TROOPS" paraphernalia; however, gov't-issued brochures and videos featured a slightly different slogan during the WWII era--"Don't forget-- Put it on before you put it in." During the Second World War, many soldiers returned home with venereal diseases, costing the gov't millions of dollars in medical expenses.

HELP PREVENT EATING DISORDERS. Adolescent girls who eat five or more meals a week with their families are about one-third less likely to develop dangerous eating patterns (like self-induced vomiting and using laxatives or diet pills) than those who dine with their folks less often, reports a recent study from the University of Minnesota.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

Will America deport 350,000 ‘overstaying’ Pinoys?

 “The word nobody wants to use, but you see if you are here illegally, that's the punishment, deportation.”

—Tom Tancredo

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WHEN President Donald Trump returns to the White House on January 20, 2025, most of the estimated 350,000 “overstaying” Filipino nationals all over the United States may have not left, virtually ignoring the call of Philippine Ambassador to the U.S., Jose Manuel Romualdez, to leave voluntarily before removal begins.

The ambassador had warned undocumented Filipinos to do so of their own accord rather than be forced out “…because once you’re deported, you can never come back.”

Romualdez’s appeal seemed quixotic if not implausible.

It is not also technically correct.

Any alien removed from the U.S. can’t be banned for life. Removal normally results in an extended ban on re-entry, but not a lifetime ban.

And besides, in four years of the second Trump administration, it’s impossible for the U.S. Government to round up and deport all the 350,000 “illegal” Pinoys who mostly don’t have criminal records other than their woes with the immigration laws.

Instead of trying to help appease the worried Filipino community, Romualdez has added fire to a conflagration by his seemingly untruthful assertion about would-be Filipino deportees facing a lifetime ban.

 

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“If I’ll be deported, so be it. I actually missed the Philippines,” groaned 65-year-old Rustico, a former make up artist of a showbiz “mega star” from Guadalupe Nuevo, Makati City in the Philippines.

Rustico decided to stay in San Diego, California and never left the US after the “mega star’s” concert in Reno, Nevada sometime in November 1994.

Rustico used a fictitious name when he first entered the San Francisco International Airport in the company of several “Rotarians” who visited Santa Clarita Valley in California.

 “That’s the biggest mistake that I continue to regret until this day,” exclaimed Rustico, who now stays in Asbury Park, New Jersey. “I could have been a US citizen a long time ago.  

Rustico and thousands of other Pinoys who have overstayed the limit of their tourist visas actually aren’t exempted from the threat of Mr. Trump’s incoming boarder czar Tom Homan that there would be a possible “collateral damage” when immigration raids begin immediately after Mr. Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

What Homan probably meant was even those without criminal records could be arrested and deported if they were caught violating the immigration laws.

Michael McManus, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) director of research, the Philippine government was prepared to help facilitate its nationals to leave the U.S.

He quoted a statement on website, the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) which stated, “The DMW is prepared to assist our OFWs (overseas Filipino workers), whether they are documented or undocumented OFWs. Under the directives of our President, a whole-of-government team is here to provide support to possible deportees.”

 

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According to McManus, the government of the Philippines realizes that the incoming U.S. administration intends to carry out large-scale removals to counterbalance the disaster of open-borders policies and reaffirm the rule of law.

“Rather than have its nationals caught up in the new administration’s deportation efforts, and potentially banned from the U.S. for years, the Philippine government is telling those illegally present to return to their homeland,” wrote McManus.

“Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data show that over 150,000 Philippine nationals have been encountered at America’s borders since Fiscal Year 2021. Media reports in Asia estimate over 350,000 Philippine nationals are currently in the U.S. without authorization.”

 

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PISTACHIOS LOWER CHOLESTEROL.  A daily 1.5-ounce serving (74 nuts) can drop LDL 9 percent, significantly cutting our risk of heart attack disease. The nuts’ phytosterols appear to help stop theabsorption of cholesterol from other foods we eat. That amount equals 240 calories, but it’s the same as 1.5 ounces (48) of not-so-healthy corn chips. Source: Pennsylvania State University.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

Taxpayers lose P132-M only because of five men

 “If taxpayer money were limitless, we wouldn't need a budget at all.”

—Betsy DeVos

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

ONLY in the Philippines where the people’s money could disappear like popcorns in the movie house, and no one was held accountable among government officials concerned.

If the people’s money is not stolen and wasted in junkets, graft and corruption, rigged biddings, incompetence (like the P1-B Ungka flyover project), unaccounted intelligence funds, bribery, among other acts of dishonesty and rapaciousness committed by rascals in government, it goes down the drain in one fell swoop without any justice.

Over the week, taxpayers lost a whopping P132 million when the Commission on Elections (Comelec) stopped the printing of ballots for the May 12, 2025 elections and discarded the six million ballots it had already printed.

The Comelec’s move was in compliance with the Supreme Court decision to include in the ballot five candidates whom the poll body earlier disqualified.

Just like that. Because of the five “disqualified” candidates the poll body had erroneously classified as “nuisance.” And it was worth P132 million!

 

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If the Supreme Court decision was delayed for another week, the amount of money wasted would have ballooned and probably doubled.

But the law is law. The Supreme Court decision must be upheld whoever gets inconvenienced and bilked—including the taxpayers who are always in the losing end.

To compound the matter, taxpayers money went up in flames only because of five candidates who, with due respect, might not even win.

If no one among the five candidates responsible for all this hullaballoo (they secured a temporary restraining order or TRO from the highest court) will make it, then what’s the logic of throwing away P132 million (at P22 per ballot already printed) in printing costs to begin with?

For sure, nobody from the Comelec had anticipated that a TRO would “sabotage” the printing of the ballots which had to be expedited now that the election is four months away.

Interestingly, some disqualified candidates in past elections were able to secure a TRO from the Supreme Court while the ballots were already being printed, but the poll body did not stop the process and the candidates’ names were still not included, according to Comelec Chair George Garcia.

Indeed, the throwing away of six millions printed ballots for reprinting of the final copies was unprecedented and so costly.

 

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MIDLIFE SUICIDE MORE COMMON. Rates are increasing among men and women ages 40 to 64. The current economic malaise could be a contributing factor. Warning signs: Acting highly pessimistic, hopeless or angry, increasing alcohol or drug use, making impulsive, out-of-character decisions, getting rid of previously prized possessions, talking about wanting to die, withdrawing from friends, family and society, mood changes.

BREAST-FEEDING LOWERS BREAST CANCER RISK before menopause for women with a family history of the disease. The duration of breast-feeding does not seem to matter. The lower risk applies only to breast cancer before menopause and only to women with a first-degree relative with breast cancer, says Dr. Alison M. Stuebe of the University of North Carolina.

MAGIC CHOCOLATE. The same chemical responsible for the ecstatic highs of love and sexual attraction, phenylethylamine, is also found in chocolate.

BURNING. During the Middle Ages, if you were guilty of bestiality, you would be burned at the stake along with the other party to your crime.

LAWS ON SEXUAL BEHAVIOR. The United States has more laws governing sexual behavior than all of the European nations combined. The only legally sanctioned sexual act in the U.S. is private, heterosexual intercourse between married adults.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are involved in Iloilo’s Dinagyang as Catholics

“With my Roman Catholic upbringing, I have a set of principles that serve me well in good times and bad.” 

—Steve Garvey

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

FILIPINO Catholics outside the Philippines are also involved in the celebration of Senor Santo Niño or Holy Child Jesus in the third Sunday of January, in one way or the other.

Raised by a Roman Catholic family in the Philippines, we were also educated in a Roman Catholic institution in Iloilo City. Therefore, we belong.

While Iloilo City’s annual celebration of Holy Child Jesus is synonymous with the Dinagyang Festival, we must not digress from the festivity’s true religious meaning; we must focus on its spiritual impetus and always remember it’s a symbol of the birth of Catholicism in the Philippines more than 500 years ago.

Our devotion to the Santo Niño as Filipinos—wherever we live around the world—is connected to historical accounts which showed that Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived on the shores of Cebu on March 16, 1521.

 

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Magellan presented the image (a wooden statue about 12 inches tall that bears a golden crown and imperial regalia) of the Child Jesus to Queen Juana, the wife of Rajah Humabon as a baptismal gift, when she, together with other rulers and natives, converted to the Catholic Faith.

In his “Magellan” song, the late Cebuano comedian and singer Yoyoy Villame belted, “When Magellan landed in Cebu City Rajah Humabon met him, they were very happy. All people were baptized and built the church of Christ. And that's the beginning of our Catholic life.”

Being a Roman Catholic though is not enough. We must know first why we are Roman Catholics and how we became Roman Catholics even before baptism in a Catholic church.

If we don't know how to practice the religion that brings us to the teachings of Jesus Christ, we must at least know its history and where it came from; how it evolved and why it became one of the most dominant religions in the world.

Roman Catholicism is the product of 20 centuries of history.

To understand it, we must try to understand this history.

Not only it is the product of history, but it involves a distinctive attitude toward history.

 

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A Roman Catholic looks upon the history of the church as an organic whole; he is proud "that catholicism cannot be identified simply and wholly with primitive Christianity, nor even with the gospel of Christ, in the same way that the great oak cannot be identified with the tiny acorn."

And yet he must insist that the church is the institution of Christ, that Peter was the first pope, and that the seven sacraments all go back to the Lord himself.

 This attitude toward history makes it essential that we examine the historical evolution of Roman Catholicism.

How did Christianity become Catholic?

How did it happen that from a simple message and unpretentious life of Jesus of Nazareth, as we find this described in the gospels, there came an international organization, fully equipped with priests and bishops and patriarchs, with rites and sacraments and pomp, with the power of discipline for this world and the control over grace for the next?

“Surely the contrast is a striking one, even for a person who believes that it was Jesus’ intention to establish catholic Christianity,” intones the late Jaroslav Pelikan in The Riddle of Roman Catholicism.

Catholic Christianity should mean identity plus universality.

Pelikan explains further: “By ‘identity’ I mean that which distinguishes the church from the world—its message, its uniqueness, its particularity. By ‘universality,’ on the other hand, I mean that which impels the church to embrace nothing less than all mankind in its vision and in its appeal.”

He clarifies that “’identity plus universality’ is not a logical definition, and it is not intended as one.”

 

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“Indeed, catholic Christianity is probably as incapable of logical definition as is the taste of cheddar cheese or the music in the closing scene of Don Giovanni. One famous definition finds the essence of Catholicism in this, ‘that it does not distinguish between the church in the religious sense of the word (the church of Christ) and the church in the legal (or institutional) sense of the word.’”

 Russian theologian, Aleksieri Khomiakov has a better description:

“The church is called one, holy, universal (or catholic), and apostolic because she is one and holy; because she belongs to the whole world, and not to one particular locality; because through her all humanity and all the earth are hallowed, not one particular nation or one particular country; because her being consists in the agreement and unity of spirit and life of all her members on the whole earth, who acknowledge her; because, finally, the whole of her faith, her hope, and her love is contained in the writings and the teachings of the apostles.”

Throughout its life, then, catholic Christianity means identity plus universality.

The combination appears in catholic piety, churchmanship, theology, and liturgy; and the narrative of how the combination came into existence is the history of the rise of the catholic Christianity, according to Pelikan.

In the words of a liberal Protestant historian, “Catholicism is…as old as the Church if we include its rudimentary form; there is hardly a single one of its elements which was not present” in the first century.

Where these elements appear together, be it East or West, there is catholic Christianity, concludes Pelikan.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)