Logic and common sense vs ABS-CBN bashers

“Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.”

—Lewis Carroll

By Alex P. Vidal

LOGIC and common sense will demolish the arguments of those who continue to cling to an absurd assertion that no violation of press freedom was involved in the harassment incurred by the ABS-CBN from the vindictive Duterte administration.

ABS-CBN is a media institution, not an ice cream or a rubber shoes manufacturing company. 

A media institution is a vital cog of democracy; it’s a flesh and blood of the Fourth Estate every democratic government in the world holds dearly.

Logic and common sense will be the main obstacles in their ridiculous stand as they continue to agitate for the gigantic media network’s permanent closure after it was forced to sign off on May 5 by virtue of the “cease and desist” order of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

It’s actually a battle between facts and data combined and emotions and politics combined.

Interestingly, those who loudly and viciously demanded for ABS-CBN’s permanent closure were mostly characters who loathed any criticism leveled against their “emperor”, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

They were the “fanatics” who immediately would run berserk if Mr. Duterte was criticized.

For them, Mr. Duterte is a perfect leader who can’t commit a mistake. They will eat alive those who dare cross the president’s path.

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They attacked the ABS-CBN not because ABS-CBN is wicked; not because they were convinced beyond reasonable doubt that ABS-CBN’s existence was inimical to the interest of the public, but because Mr. Duterte was at loggerheads with the leading network.

It would have been another story if they made the same stand and were already spewing venomous expletives against the ABS-CBN with the same intensity even before Mr. Duterte’s conflict with the network became known worldwide.

Such irrational enmity toward ABS-CBN can’t reconcile with common sense and sound judgement. Basta nalang nainis sa ABS-CBN only because the president was inis na inis sa ABS-CBN?

In other words, if Mr. Duterte had praised and made friends with the ABS-CBN, they would also sing hallelujah to the ABS-CBN and would never lambast the network?

That’s why I’m worried if some people have become fanatics which is synonymous to irrationality.

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Below are some of the main claims and allegations of the viral video on the spread of virus that linked prominent personalities in the U.S. taken down by Youtube, Facebook and other social and mainstream media platforms for its inaccuracies and unproven allegations, along with the facts presented by Science.

Video Interview: Dr. Judy Mikovits has been called one of the most accomplished scientists of her generation.

Mikovits had authored 40 scientific papers and wasn’t widely known in the scientific community before she published the 2009 Science paper claiming a link between a new retrovirus and CFS. The paper was later proven erroneous and retracted.

Video: Her 1991 doctoral thesis revolutionized the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Mikovits’s Ph.D. thesis, “Negative Regulation of HIV Expression in Monocytes,” had no discernible impact on the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Video Interview : At the height of her career, Dr. Mikovits published a blockbuster article in the journal Science. The controversial article sent shock waves through the scientific community, as it revealed that the common use of animal and human fetal tissues was unleashing devastating plagues of chronic diseases.

The paper revealed nothing of the sort; it only claimed to show a link between one condition, CFS, and a mouse retrovirus.

Mikovits: I was held in jail, with no charges.

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The district attorney in Washoe county, Nevada, filed a criminal complaint against Mikovits that charged her with illegally taking computer data and related property from WPI. The charges were dropped, in part because of legal troubles faced by her former employer.

Mikovits: Heads of our entire HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) colluded and destroyed my reputation and the Department of Justice and the (Federal Bureau of Investigation) sat on it, and kept that case under seal.

Mikovits has presented no direct evidence that HHS heads colluded against her.

Mikovits: (Fauci) directed the cover-up. And in fact, everybody else was paid off, and paid off big time, millions of dollars in funding from Tony Fauci and … the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. These investigators that committed the fraud, continue to this day to be paid big time by the NIAID.

It’s not clear which fraud and what cover-up Mikovits is talking about exactly. There is no evidence that Fauci was involved in a cover-up or that anyone was paid off with funding from him or his institute. No one has been charged with fraud in relation to Mikovits’s allegations.

Mikovits: It started really when I was 25 years old, and I was part of the team that isolated HIV from the saliva and blood of the patients from France where (virologist Luc) Montagnier had originally isolated the virus. … Fauci holds up the publication of the paper for several months while Robert Gallo writes his own paper and takes all the credit, and of course patents are involved. This delay of the confirmation, you know, literally led to spreading the virus around, you know, killing millions.

At the time of HIV’s discovery, Mikovits was a lab technician in Francis Ruscetti’s lab at NCI and had yet to receive her Ph.D. There is no evidence that she was part of the team that first isolated the virus. Her first published paper, co-authored with Ruscetti, was on HIV and published in May 1986, 2 years after Science published four landmark papers that linked HIV (then called HTLV-III by Gallo’s lab) to AIDS. Ruscetti’s first paper on HIV appeared in August 1985. There is no evidence that Fauci held up either paper or that this led to the death of millions.

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Video Interview: If we activate mandatory vaccines globally, I imagine these people stand to make hundreds of billions of dollars that own the vaccines.

Mikovits: And they’ll kill millions, as they already have with their vaccines. There is no vaccine currently on the schedule for any RNA virus that works.

Vaccines have not killed millions; they have saved millions of lives. Many vaccines that work against RNA viruses are on the market, including for influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, rabies, yellow fever, and Ebola.

Video Interview: So, I have to ask you, are you antivaccine?

Mikovits: Oh, absolutely not. In fact vaccine is immune therapy, just like interferon alpha is immune therapy, so I’m not antivaccine. My job is to develop immune therapies. That’s what vaccines are.

In another recent video, Mikovits is wearing a hat that says VAXXED II, which is a sequel to a film that links the mumps, measles, and rubella vaccine to autism, a debunked theory. She also repeats several claims made by people who are leading the antivaccine movement. In the PowerPoint presentation she sent to Science, she calls for an “immediate moratorium” on all vaccines. (To be continued)

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Dangerous and inaccurate

“God as my witness, may He strike me down if this allegation is true.”

—Paul Crouch

By Alex P. Vidal

I HAVE been besieged by queries from friends, mostly based in the Philippines, about the viral conspiracy video recently removed by the Youtube and Facebook because of its inaccuracies and apparent lack of credible material and testimonial support.

I told them not to easily believe it hook, line, and sinker and they should make their own independent research and gather more facts about the serious allegations made by the controversial virologist and the people around her, including their motives now that the world is being bombarded by #COVID-19.

Of all the articles written in response to the shocking “revelation” of the discredited lady virologist linking the head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates to the spread of virus, the one in Science was the more telling, direct to the point, and enlightening.

The article, “Fact-checking Judy Mikovits, the controversial virologist attacking Anthony Fauci in a viral conspiracy video,” was written by Martin Enserink and Jon Cohen on May. 8, 2020.

Dr. Judy Mikovits, the virologist who was once jailed for a felony offense, insisted in the video that has exploded on social media in the past few days, the new coronavirus was “being wrongly blamed for many deaths” 

Mikovits, 62, known for her anti-vaccination activism made head-scratching assertions about the virus—for instance, that it is “activated” by face masks.

She claimed that Fauci, also a prominent member of the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force, was responsible for the deaths of millions during the early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. 

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Mikovits was part of the team that discovered HIV, revolutionized HIV treatment, and was jailed without charges for her scientific positions, the video claimed.

According to Science’s fact-checked of the video, “None of these claims are true.” 

The video is reportedly an excerpt from a forthcoming movie Plandemic, which promises to “expose the scientific and political elite who run the scam that is our global health system.” YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms have taken down the video because of inaccuracies. It keeps resurfacing, including on the Plandemic website, which, in “an effort to bypass the gatekeepers of free speech,” invites people to download the video and repost it.

Science said Mikovits started her career as a lab technician at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1988. She became a scientist and obtained a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from George Washington University in 1991. 

By 2009, she was research director at the Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI), a private research center in Reno, Nevada, but she remained largely unknown to the scientific community. That year, however, she co-authored a paper in Science that suggested an obscure agent named xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) caused chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

“The cause of CFS, also called myalgic encephalomyelitis, had long remained elusive, and the disease had been neglected by science. The study created hope that CFS might become treatable with antivirals. Some patients even began to take antiretroviral drugs used by HIV-infected people. But the paper also created worries that XMRV might spread via the blood supply,” reported Science.

Science added: “Other researchers soon questioned the findings, and over the next 2 years, the paper’s claims fell apart. Researchers showed that XMRV was created accidentally in the lab during mouse experiments; it may never have infected any humans. The authors first retracted two figures and a table from the paper in October 2011. 

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Around the same time, a study by several labs, including WPI itself, showed the findings couldn’t be replicated.”

Two months later, the entire Science paper was retracted. Mikovits refused to sign the retraction notice, but she took part in another major replication effort. 

That $2.3 million study, led by Ian Lipkin of Columbia University and funded by the National Institutes of Health, was “the definitive answer,” Mikovits said at a September 2012 press conference where the results were announced. The rigorous study looked for XMRV in blinded blood samples from nearly 300 people, half of whom had the disease, and none had the virus. “There is no evidence that XMRV is a human pathogen,” Mikovits conceded.

Science’s news department, which works independently from its editorial side, followed the saga closely and published a detailed reconstruction of the fiasco in September 2011. (The story won a Communications Award from the American Society for Microbiology.)

Around the same time, Mikovits had an explosive breakup with WPI. The institute filed suit against her in November 2011 for allegedly removing laboratory notebooks and keeping other proprietary information on her laptop, on flash drives, and in a personal email account. 

She was arrested in California on felony charges that she was a fugitive from justice and jailed for several days. Prosecutors in Washoe county, Nevada, eventually dropped criminal charges against her in June 2012.

Science said Mikovits has not published anything in the scientific literature since 2012. But she soon began to promote the XMRV hypothesis again, and attack the Lipkin study that she agreed had put the issue to rest. 

She has weighed in on the autism debate with controversial theories about causes and treatments. Her discredited work and her legal travails have made her a martyr in the eyes of some.

Now comes a new book she co-authored, Plague of Corruption: Restoring Faith in the Promise of Science—billed as “a behind the scenes look at the issues and egos which will determine the future health of humanity”—and the viral video, which is an extended interview with Mikovits.

When Science asked Mikovits for an interview, she reportedly responded by sending an empty email with, as attachments, a copy of her new book and a PowerPoint of a 2019 presentation titled “Persecution and Coverup.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Why are they so mad?

“Get mad, then get over it.”

—Colin Powell

By Alex P. Vidal

THE criticism being aggressively unleashed against the embattled ABS-CBN by some people who claim to be “die-hard” supporters of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte increased in the social media immediately after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a “cease and decease” order against the leading national TV and radio network which was compelled to sign off on May 5, 2020 after their 25-year broadcast franchise expired the previous day.

In others, out of the blue, naki sabay (they joined the fray).

Although they based their attacks against the powerful media company on the latter’s failure to secure a renewal of their franchise and corrosively dismissed the angle on violation of press freedom, their motives and aggressiveness were suspect.

We’ve noticed their bad blood against the ABS-CBN didn’t emanate from any personal experience or spat against the giant network.

In other words, their hatred came from nowhere.

Their saber rattling was an afterthought or based on the stimulus of the president’s rage.

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When President Duterte didn’t yet step up his attack against the ABS-CBN early last year, most of these die hard supporters never thought of lashing at the network.

It’s only when Mr. Duterte used profanity and threatened to block ABS-CBN’s renewal of franchise later last year that the die hard supporters also started lambasting the network that employs 11,000 workers nationwide.

Which means that most of them anchored their hatred toward the ABS-CBN on the mood or reaction of the president, not because they had a previous ax to grind against the network. 

Immediately after it became known that Mr. Duterte was terribly mad at the ABS-CBN, some of these die hard supporters discussed and analyzed the network’s supposed litany of “sins” against the law like they were in the trial court, and personally against Duterte, who had been openly protesting that his campaign ads were not aired during the 2016 elections despite making an advance payment.

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The ABS-CBN critics invoked the argument used by Solicitor General Jose Calida—and which most of us already know—that broadcasting networks require a congressional franchise to operate television and radio stations under Philippine law. 

Operating since the mid-1960s, ABS-CBN had last been granted a 25-year franchise extension on March 30, 1995 by virtue of Republic Act No. 7966 (March 30, 1995). 

The franchise expired on May 4, 2020 as upheld by the Department of Justice (DoJ).

The question is, what if President Duterte did not declare an Armageddon against the ABS-CBN?

What if, instead of threatening to block the station’s renewal of franchise, the president extended an olive branch and heaped praises for the largest entertainment and media conglomerate in the country in terms of revenue, operating income, net income, assets, equity, market capitalization, and number of employees for its catchy “In the service of the Pilipino” slogan?

Would those die hard supporters, most of whom have been tagged as “fanatics” and motivated by a canine loyalty to the hard-hitting leader from Davao City, also parrot the same soliloquy?

Your answer is as good as mine.

-o0o-

I am developing a story that a financial group based in the state of Georgia, which has been facing several lawsuits for allegedly running a pyramid scam, allegedly continues to operate and is “actively” recruiting a lot of gullible Filipino immigrants in San Francisco, California and other parts of the United States.

“The operators of this scam are using the social media to recruit and promise their potential victims a financial windfall and other emoluments,” said a source who refused to be named.

“The sad part is that they are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to lure investors, especially those who have the capacity to invest and those who have received a stimulus from the federal government.”

We will know if these allegations are true.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Stop crying! ABS-CBN isn’t dead

“A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.”

—Albert Camus

By Alex P. Vidal

I COME neither to bury Caesar nor to praise him. 

In the first place, Caesar, in my humble opinion, isn’t dead yet.

Before we mount a manhunt against the modern Cassius, Brutus, and their murderous subalterns in the senate, and before Mark Antony and Cleopatra form a triumvirate with Octavian, I implore thee to hold your horses and stop crying.

As a long-time media practitioner, I commiserate with the ABS-CBN when it was compelled to sign off starting May 5 midnight in the Philippines in compliance with the “cease and desist” order from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

Like many of my colleagues in the mass media today, I also denounce the gung ho approach in dealing a mortal blow against a critical media outfit in an apparent retaliatory act from an onion-skinned and vindictive president, Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

Through his minion and “attack dog”, Jose Calida, whose scandal-ridden stint in the Office of the Solicitor General has practically weighed down whatever gain this administration has scored in the Supreme Court, President Duterte got what he wished: bring down the TV station on its knees.  

But, wait a minute. 

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My revulsion centers most particularly on the issue of press freedom, the cornerstone of democracy and something I hold dear for more than 30 years as a community journalist.  

A closure of any media outlet—small or big newspaper, TV and radio stations, and all the alphabet communication soups—will always leave a bad taste in the mouth for any government locked in a tight disagreement with the mass media and the nature of their work.

I will not cry—literally and figuratively, at least not yet.

By “signing off” didn’t mean the behemoth media station has been cremated or buried in the Bronx’s Hart Island like the #COVID-19 dead.

Signing off is like a temporary hiatus, or merely “putting to rest” the tired and weary faculties; it’s one way of saying “I’ll  take two steps backward today, and take three steps forward tomorrow.”

Like Lazarus, ABS-CBN will certainly bounce back to life; not now, at least, but that’s for SURE. 

Its physical assets won’t be sold in a public auction or crushed by a bulldozer and an excavator like imported cars in the Bureau of Customs.

Mr. Duterte and ass-licker Calida aren’t married to their present positions. They can’t outlive the people’s strong desire to gain access to news and entertainment, and to be aware and updated of what’s going on around them.

In a democratic state, media institutions will always survive any tremor, tsunami, pandemic, war, and man’s hateful fulmination.

Media institutions fight and live; dictators oppress and/but are ousted. Newspapers, broadcast and TV networks stay; despotic rulers perish and are remembered in history in the most irremissible and lurid description.    

“Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”

No enemy of press freedom or dictator in history has won a permanent battle against the Fourth Estate.

-o0o-

No strongman and woman in history has outmuscled the power of ideas.

Some smart alecks have tried but failed to put away the media: Elpidio Quirino (Golden Arinola Scandal), Spiro Agnew (Vietnam War), Ferdinand Marcos (Martial Law), Benito Mussolini (“Fascism and Militant Journalism”), Richard Nixon (Watergate), Woodrow Wilson (“Wilson, That’s All”), Theodore Roosevelt (The Jungle), Bill Clinton (Monica Lewinsky cover-up), Cory Aquino (Soliven-Beltran Libel Case), Erap Estrada (Philippine Daily Inquirer advertisement boycott), Ramon Cua Locsin (Sun.Star Iloilo Libel Cases), Melvin “Dragon” Odicta (Aksyon Radyo Iloilo Raid), to cite only a few controversies vis-à-vis the press.

Thomas Jefferson: “I prefer to have a newspaper without a government than to have a government without a newspaper.”

Napoleon Bonaparte: “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”

Alexis de Tocqueville: “Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic.”

It has been said that press freedom is the first casualty when a leader who wants to become a dictator runs berserk.

Christopher Dodd had warned that “When the public's right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered.”

But we aren’t giving up.

By the way, wake me up, when ABS-CBN is back on air—soon!

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

  

  

Treñas could ‘TikTok’ Garin’s brilliancy on OFWs

“Welcome those big, sticky, complicated problems. In them are your most powerful opportunities.”

—Ralph Marston

By Alex P. Vidal

TO wiggle out from the mess created by the recent controversial arrival of the seafarers from Manila, Iloilo City Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas should have “TikToked” Guimbal Mayor Oscar “Oca” Garin’s brilliant move in welcoming the arriving OFWs in their municipality.

Before everything else turns topsy turvy, Garin informed Iloilo Governor Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. in a letter dated May 2, 2020 they have identified the Guimbal National High School as their Community Quarantine Area for the returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).

“The LGU has also established our Community Quarantine Committee to oversee and monitor the area and the status of the OFWs,” Garin wrote Defensor.

“Furthermore, LGU Guimbal will strictly adhere to the protocols relative to the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine for stronger protection against COVID-19.”

One thing can be sure now: when the OFWs arrive in Guimbal, they will be treated like returning sports heroes with amenities in their temporary shelter fit for vacationers.

Despite their notoriety in other areas of politics, the Garins have been known for their dyed-in-the-wool compassion, generosity and genuine “malasakit” (deep concern) for their own people.

It’s not the OFWs’ fault, wherever they came from prior to the #COVID-19 pandemic, if their leaders have soft hearts for the OFWs and the working class in general.

-o0o-

      

If Treñas didn’t like Iloilo City lone district Rep. Julienne “Jamjam” Baronda “intervention” in the job of the regional task force in the transfer of the 175 (35 were from Iloilo City) stranded seafarers from Manila to Iloilo, he could have tapped the Iloilo City National High School or the Iloilo City La Paz High School, two of the biggest temporary shelters for any batch of returning OFWs for the temporary quarantine area and, thus, avoided lashing out at the lady solon.

Like what Garin did in Guimbal.

The repatriated seafarers are now staying in a hotel in Iloilo City and Treñas has admitted the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration's (OWWA), which helped facilitate the OFWs’ transfer from Manila to Iloilo on April 29, weren’t sure which agency will pay for the hotel.

The hotel bills would have been waved if they were brought directly to any of the aforementioned national high schools.

But in spite of his efforts to attend to the needs of at least 100 quarantined seafarers, Treñas still recently got an earful from President Rodrigo R. Duterte who probably was fed with a wrong information that the city mayor had refused to welcome the returning OFWs amid the #COVID-19-induced lockdown.

-o0o-

"I heard the news na sa city of Iloilo, hindi ninyo tinanggap ang mga OFW. Mayor, nakikiusap ako sa inyo na sundin lang ninyo 'yung guidelines. Sumunod kayo sa magandang paraan or pipilitin ko na sumunod kayo,” the President reportedly bewailed.

It turned out Treñas ordered the sending of food packs and hygiene kits to the seafarers May 1 after the OFWs had complained they didn’t have enough water and food supplies in the hotel where they were brought upon arrival for quarantine. 

"Together with the city government, we will take care of their meals. Our Uswag Kitchen Patrol headed by my wife (Rosalie) will be making their meals daily. Since they don’t have toiletries and groceries, we are providing them as well," Treñas vowed earlier.

In fairness, Treñas didn’t deserve the presidential admonition. 

It’s not in the nature of his character to reject, much less abandon the Ilonggo OFWs whose only “fault” was to come home in the time of coronavirus.  

Those who whispered a wrong information to Duterte owe Treñas an explanation and apology.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Jeck Conlu’s relationship with the press

“The world for our law enforcement community has changed dramatically: everything from filling out paperwork to relationships with the community and how they think the narrative is in the media.”

—Rahm Emanuel

By Alex P. Vidal

ONE of the only few government officials who has maintained a good public relations with the press is Jeck Conlu, currently the chief of the Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO) in Iloilo City.

Conlu has been in the news even before the May 13, 2019 Philippine general election because of his active role in ensuring the smooth flow of traffic in the local and national roads, and in preventing the mushrooming of illegal squatting and illegal structures in the metropolis.

Because he was always mentioned in the print, broadcast, TV, and Internet media, there were speculations Conlu would be running for city councilor in 2019.

To the relief of those who see him as a potential threat, Conlu did not seek any elective public office and remained in the PSTMO after the local election.

Because he chose to be apolitical during the campaign period, Conlu never earned the ire of feuding politicians and, thus, earned the trust and confidence of Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas.

-o0o-

His position is supposed to be a “hot seat” or the hot bed of complaints from public transportation drivers, pedestrians, vendors, and other people affected by PSTMO’s task to put order in public.

But we have not heard of any Tom, Dick, and Harry from within his office sharpening their knives against Conlu’s management style; or drivers, pedestrians, and vendors protesting against the way he implemented the mandate of his office.

In other words, Conlu is the Real McCoy in as far as quality public service is concerned.

Why I am writing about this very unassuming city hall appointed official? 

Conlu was the only public servant to remember and greet members of the Fourth Estate during the World Press Freedom Day on May 3. 

In his Facebook account, he tagged 33 Facebook friends, including this writer, and greeted them: “My utmost praise and respect to our brave vanguards of free speech, truth and justice. I would like to personally thank our journalists, broadcasters, writers, reporters and all the people behind the camera, newspapers, and radio waves. Happy World Press Freedom Day! From Jeck Conlu and the Iloilo City PSTMO Family.”

-o0o-

The 33 recipients of Conlu’s greeting may represent all the reporters and media workers who struggle everyday to keep our democracy alive and continue the torch of press freedom burning in the time of #COVID-19 pandemic. 

World Press Freedom Day is the special day for all members of the working press. The day was very meaningful for those who belong in the Fourth Estate.

It was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993, following the recommendation of UNESCO's General Conference. Since then, the 3^rd of May, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, is celebrated worldwide as World Press Freedom Day.

The day also acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom; it’s also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. 

It is an opportunity to: celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; assess the state of press freedom throughout the world; defend the media from attacks on their independence; and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

For a low key public figure like Conlu to remember and greet a sector, considered as the public servants’ partner in the nation building, during the sector’s special occasion speaks of a positive prognostication in the relationship between the government officials and the adversarial press.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Mortuary assistant

“If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.”

—Mark Twain

By Alex P. Vidal

I RECEIVED an offer to work as a mortuary assistant in a New York City hospital on April 22, 2020. 

The offer came amid reports that morgues have been overflowing with dead #COVID-19 patients especially in the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Manhattan, and Long Island (299 patients have been added to the growing number of dead between May 1 and May 2 in New York).

Being out of work since the lockdown began in March, I nearly accepted the offer. 

The agency representative was actually hesitant to mention the job description, but when I pressed him to repeat the offer, he really confirmed it’s a job for a “mortuary assistant.”

“Have you heard about (inaudible)?” he inquired over the phone.

“Sorry, I didn’t understand it (name of the representative). Can you repeat it again please?” I appealed.

“Mhor-thuwa-ree assistant,” the agency representative averred. “You’ll assist while the (dead) bodies are being cleaned. Can you do that?”

“Yes, I’ve heard about it (job) but no, I’m sorry, I have no experience in that job,” I demurred emphatically.

“Okay, alright. It’s fine, Alex,” the representative retorted. “I’ll call you back just in case there are some changes.”

After the phone conversation, I realized “I needed to work soon” but only if the job is essential (most non-essential jobs in the Big Apple have been totally shut down since Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered the enhanced social distancing guidelines second week of March as the coronavirus pandemic marshaled its deadly juggernaut in the United States. The lockdown has been extended until May 15 in New York).

-o0o-

My thoughts immediately brought me back in June last year when I nearly quit my part-time job in Brooklyn due to conflict of schedule in my other job, among other reasons.

One morning when I reported in that part-time job, I was greeted by a grim face by my Jewish-Hungarian female employer: “Alex, we need to talk. It’s very important.”

“I don’t know how you will respond to this, but it’s important that I bring out this matter to you,” she enthused.

“I had a long conversation with my daughter last night and she asked me to get more information about you, so I Googled you (search in the Internet using the Google app). I found out that you’re a drug lord aside from being a journalist. Your photo appeared together with the words ‘drug lord’ when I typed your name.”

More amused than peeved, I muttered, “Can you show to me that Google information?”

She showed to me her Samsung tablet containing the Google search about me. Eureka, it’s an article in the alexpvidal.blogspot.com I wrote in 2016 about slain Iloilo “drug lord” Melvin “Boyet” Odicta Sr.

“Yes, it’s my photo in one of my blogs Google had shown to you, and the ‘drug lord’ is part of the title in the story I wrote in that blog,” I told her.

“Oh, I see. I’m sorry, Alex. I’m really sorry,” she hissed, her eyes turned pale. “I didn’t know it was an article.”

“Actually,” I interrupted. “I want to tell you something today. I plan to quit starting next week because I’m planning to work as an embalmer.”

“I beg your pardon?” she snapped back while removing her reading glasses. “An embalmer? For the dead?”

“Yes,” I confirmed. “I plan take a special course first about embalming and I plan to work in the funeral parlor.”

I told her the truth: “I checked the requirements and learned that mortuary employers require at least a two-year associates degree in Mortuary Science. I also learned that the tuition is from $10,000 to $12,000 which I can’t afford.”

-o0o-

My little “obsession” about embalming dates back when I was a little boy where I witnessed an elderly man commit suicide in our neighborhood in San Jose, Antique at past 2 o’clock in the afternoon.

While he was being embalmed inside their house that night, I was also there and observed the entire procedure.

I can take that job; I need it now after two months of being in a stay-at-home lockdown, there’s no doubt about it. But I can’t shortcut my way to any mortuary whether I like it or don’t.

I further learned (after our conversation) that mortuary science degrees are not typically available through distance learning programs, but students can complete certification requirements in some states such as South Carolina through distance learning programs.

Those who plan to become a funeral director or mortician will need a four-year degree in Mortuary Science. 

Approximately there are 58 institutions in the United States offering Mortuary Science degrees, and many of these institutions also offer the requisite two-year degree for Mortuary Assistants, according to writer Cynthia Lopez Olson.

Olson said many of these schools are community colleges, which offer very affordable programs and flexible hours so you can attend school while working.

Mortuary assistants perform a variety of tasks, Olson said, depending on where they are employed. In a hospital, city or county morgue, they may assist the pathologist during an autopsy, handing him instruments, preparing and sealing samples, and recording details. 

“Mortuary assistants are usually the ones moving bodies from storage units to autopsy tables, and transferring bodies from the morgue to the funeral home. At funeral homes, mortuary assistants may perform light housekeeping duties as well as assist the funeral director during embalming and preparation of the body,” explained Olson.

The conversation with my Jewish-Hungarian employer occurred 10 months ago prior to the job offer on April 22, 2020.

Even if I said yes to the agency representative, I still probably couldn’t be qualified for the position as a mortuary assistant as I don’t have an associate degree for Mortuary Science as a requirement.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)