I made eye-to-eye contact with ‘scion’ of Gen. Villa, the result was nearly fatal

“Violence has always been unfortunately embedded in masculinity, this alpha thing.”

—Sebastian Stan

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

A MAN who is reportedly the “great grandson” of Pancho Villa was apparently picking at random people he wanted to hurt with a steely chain whip when he chanced upon me in the gate on my way outside the apartment at past seven o’clock in the evening recently in Queens.

The muscular man, identified later as “Francisco Arango”, was either drunk, high on illegal substance, or a plain yahoo. Or both.

As he approached me, he couldn’t walk straight and was violently murmuring something in Spanish.

Because his feet could not sustain his unruly deportment, I feared the medium-built “Incredible Hulk” could be knocked down with a strong push by any heavier adversary.

Arango was holding with both his hands a heavy chain whip, “preparing” to smash it into my head without any apparent provocation when our eyesight accidentally collided. Nobody blinked.

“Hello, good evening,” I told the amok nicely while preparing my legs to make a dash like Usain Bolt, just in case.

The wacko stopped talking and cancelled his homicidal attempt.

The violent man allowed me to walk away. Thank God.

Back in my apartment room on second floor at past 11 o’clock in the evening, I heard a commotion downstairs.

 

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When I checked in the terrace, I saw the mad man chasing with the same deadly weapon a tall but sober person while engaging him in a shouting match. They both spoke in Spanish. Drugs and alcohol were probably still very much in control and Arango was wild, woolly and dangerous.

The victim managed to elude the attack using his own tantrums and quick feet.

I went back to sleep.

At around past three o’clock in the morning, a more intense and boisterous commotion erupted anew. I was roused from sleep. I dashed to the terrace and saw Arango exchanging blows with another unidentified man (I have been a professional boxing referee and the action I saw downstairs was peanuts-- except it did not have the rules).

The chain whip wasn’t there anymore thus the slugfest was even.

At one moment, Lou Ferrigno-look alike Arango, who could still be under the influence of alcohol and drugs, overpowered his foe.

But to his misfortune, another man joined the fray with intention to rescue Arango’s opponent.

Fighting against four fists and four kicking legs, Arango was battered black and blue despite his superior built.

A final kick delivered by the second person hit Arango’s chin and knocked him out cold like a sack of rambutans.

There were no police; no ambulance; no passersby; no witnesses other than myself.

It was like an elevated ringside view in a WWF bout.

I went back to sleep.

 

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I had no idea what happened to Arango, but I figured the punishment he absorbed that dawn was enough to land him in the emergency room.

Did he suffer from major injuries? Did the physical assault paralyze his body? Did he die from head injuries? No one knew.

I haven’t seen him for several weeks after that fatal fisticuff.

To my surprise, Arango was alive and kicking. While I was on my way outside the apartment one morning days later, he was sitting outside; he saw me and opened the gate for me voluntarily.

Meek and ashen-looking, this time he avoided an eye-to-eye contact.

The erstwhile Eurasian wild boar has become a shy kitten.

I learned that Arango is from Durango, Mexico and is the “great grandson” of Pancho Villa, born Doroteo Arango.

Pancho Villa was a Mexican revolutionary hero, a man of bold action with an uncanny sense of destiny whose exploits--whether actual or mythical, inherently good or evil--have become the stuff of legend.

 

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As a general, Villa staged bold cavalry charges that overwhelmed his opponents even at great risk to his own life. He was very popular with the ladies (purportedly marrying 26 times) and loved to dance.

With the start of Mexican Revolution, Villa came down from the mountains to form an army in support of the populist platform espoused by Francisco Madero.

He was assassinated by unknown persons while visiting the village of Parral in 1923.

When Filipino boxer Francisco Guilledo made a debut in the United States in the same year, his handlers named him as “Pancho Villa.”

Boxer Pancho Villa was an Ilonggo from Ilog (now Kabankalan), Negros Occidental who won the world flyweight title by knocking out Jimmy Wilde in the 7th round on June 18, 1923, at the Polo Grounds in New York City.

He died on July 14, 1925 at 23 in San Francisco, California of tooth infection.

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

 

Iloilo can’t fight China

“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

EACH day, tension between the Philippines and China is escalating because of the never-ending naval skirmishes in the disputed South China Sea that prompted Southeast Asian allies and the United States to issue solid statements rallying behind the Filipinos.

But while the Philippine Government is openly expressing abhorrence toward China’s bullying, little animus can be felt among Ilonggos in Iloilo City and even the people in the neighboring cities and provinces.

Despite the standoff in the sea and fears of a widespread conflict, the strong ties between the Ilonggos and Filipino-Chinese traders have remained intact. 

Filipino-Chinese businessmen almost control the Iloilo City economy in the same manner that the Jewish community controls the U.S. economy. 

There is a symbiotic relationship between Filipinos and China in that part of the Hiligaynon-speaking region; Calle Real in downtown Iloilo City Proper has been dominated by generations of Tsinoy (slang for Filipino-Chinese) entrepreneurs that dates back centuries ago.

Prominent Tsinoy leaders in the country have strong roots in Iloilo City and most of them maintain businesses that employ Ilonggos or utilize local manpower and resources. 

 

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Many parts and images of Iloilo are Chinese. Trade and industry, education, labor, sports, cultural activities, media, community and health services, are Chinese. 

One will think Iloilo City is part of China when a sea of red and yellow buntings and lanterns mushroom during the Chinese New Year Celebrations. Local leaders warmly welcome and embrace Tsinoy big shots like long-lost family members.   

In the event the Philippines will fight China (God forbid) beyond the diplomatic table and swapping of press statements and propaganda, Iloilo won’t and can’t go to the barracks. 

Easier said than done but for most Ilonggos, self preservation or economic survival and long-established friendship and camaraderie are more important than geopolitics and waging a counterproductive war against the descendants of Kublai Khan and Emperor Zhao.

Aside from the regular horror our vessels have been experiencing, the Spratly Islands dispute is also an ongoing territorial dispute between Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam concerning "ownership" of the Spratly Islands, a group of islands and associated "maritime features" (reefs, banks, and cays etc.) located in the South China Sea.

 

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U.S. FOR RP IN PRC ROW. The United States has issued a statement “standing with our ally the Philippines following the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) provocative actions against lawful Philippine maritime operations in the South China Sea on March 5.”  

The statement, issued by the US Department of State, thus declared: PRC ships employed dangerous maneuvers and water cannons against Philippine vessels carrying provisions to Filipino service members stationed at the BRP Sierra Madre, causing multiple collisions, damaging at least one Philippine vessel, injuring Filipino service members, and jeopardizing the safety of the Filipino crew.  We condemn the PRC’s repeated obstruction of Philippine vessels’ exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and its disruption of supply lines to this longstanding outpost. 

The PRC’s actions again show disregard for the safety and livelihoods of Filipinos and international law.  According to an international tribunal’s legally binding decision issued in July 2016, the PRC has no lawful maritime claims to the waters around Second Thomas Shoal, and Second Thomas Shoal is a low tide feature clearly within the Philippines exclusive economic zone.  As provided under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, the 2016 arbitral decision is final and legally binding on the PRC and the Philippines, and the United States calls upon the PRC to abide by the ruling and desist from its dangerous and destabilizing conduct. 

The United States reaffirms that Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty extends to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft – including those of its Coast Guard – anywhere in the South China Sea.

 

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THE 24-CARAT GOLD. Pure gold is known, in the jewelry trade, as 24-carat gold. This is too soft a metal for ordinary wear and tear, so a harder metal, generally copper, is alloyed with gold. If the alloy has 18 parts of gold and 6 parts of another metal, we call it 18-carat gold; if it has 14 parts of gold and 10 of another metal, we call it 14-carat gold, and so on.

LET'S HIRE A CARPENTER. Instead of spending lots of money on a new desk for our office, let us invest in some salvaged wood and paying a carpenter to make us one to measure--it will have the added advantage of fitting the space exactly.

THE USE OF HAVING TWO EYES. If we look at our room with one eye only, we will find that it looks much flatter than it does with two eyes. With two eyes we can see that the chair is n front of the desk, that the wastebasket is round and that the closet looks deep. Our eyes are set from about two to two and a half inches from each other--measuring from center to center.

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

 

 

 

Nerve-tingling Iloilo news I can’t forget

“Good news is rare these days, and every glittering ounce of it should be cherished and hoarded and worshipped and fondled like a priceless diamond.”

—Hunter S. Thompson

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

ONE of the biggest and most unforgettable news we covered in Iloilo in the late 80s and early 90s was the spraying of water using a firetruck hose by the late Iloilo City mayor Rodolfo “Bagyo Roding” Ganzon of the combative city councilors, transforming into public bathroom the left portion (facing the Eagle Building) of the old Iloilo Freedom Grandstand in 1989.

The councilors, led by Rolando Dabao, Dan Dalido, German Gonzales, Larry Ong and Eduardo Peñaredondo and other bystanders, ended up literally drenched, their bravery had no match to Bagyo Roding’s fury.

As Bagyo Roding singlehandedly held the firetruck hose with both hands and aimed it at the plucky aldermen, reporters, who gathered on Mapa St., watched with bated breath. 

“Indi ya man ina pag papiswitan a. Pahugon ya lang na sila (No, he won’t pull the hose’s trigger. He only wants to threaten them),” the late Antonio “Tony” Laniog, reporting for the defunct dyBQ Radyo Budyong, quipped.     

“Ano nga indi man. Ara gina uyatan ya na ho (I bet he will really hit them because the water hose is now in his grip),” remarked the late dyFM Bombo Radyo Iloilo reporter and future city councilor Armand Parcon.

“Standby lang ta ara na sila gapalapit na (Let’s standby and watch as the group moves in),” the late Rene Porras of the defunct dyRP Radyo Tagring told driver-anchorman Tawtaw Cervantes.

 

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Laniog was wrong; Parcon was right. As the city councilors approached the famed grandstand, Bagyo Roding frenziedly pulled the trigger and barked, “Hijo deputa, wala kamo respeto sa rule of law (Sanobabitch, you don’t have respect for the rule of law).”   

As the small delegation scampered into different directions, Gonzales, a former Martial Law inmate in the 70s, bemoaned, “Ipaylan ka namon kaso. Ma kakas ka gid (We will file a case and you’ll be removed from office).”

“Atras! Atras ta anay. Ga salig siya nga may dala siya bombero (Let’s retreat. He is being backed by a firetruck),” Ong, the source of all the trouble, appealed. 

The feud between Bagyo Roding and the “rebels” started when the mayor confiscated Ong’s office key in the Sangguniang Panglunsod. Ong, who supported Bagyo Roding’s rival, Engr. Timoteo “Nene” Consing, Jr., for mayor in the previous election, decided to hold office at Plaza Libertad. 

Together with fully armed security men, Bagyo Roding forcefully drove Ong, et al away from Plaza Libertad, thus the defiant Ong decided to hold office at the Freedom Grandstand.

However, before the group could reach the area, the determined Bagyo Roding ambushed them.

They filed charges of abuse of authority, intimidation, oppression, grave misconduct, disgraceful and immoral conduct, and culpable violation of the Constitution against Bagyo Roding.

On May 3, 1990, then Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Luis T. Santos issued a preventive suspension against Bagyo Roding for another 60 days, the third time in 20 months, and designating Vice Mayor Mansueto “Mansing” Malabor as acting mayor.

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INCOGNITO. The ancient Greeks and Romans knew that there were times when you didn't want to be recognized. For example, according to Merriam-Webster, a myth tells how Zeus and Hermes visited a village incognito and asked for lodging. The apparently penniless travelers were turned away from every household except that of a poor elderly couple named Baucis and Philemon, who provided a room and a feast despite their own poverty. The Romans had a word that described someone or something unknown (like the gods in the tale): incognitus, a term that is the ancestor of our modern incognito. Cognitus is the past participle of the Latin verb cognoscere, which means "to know" and which also gives us recognize, among other words.

MARITES STORY FROM DAILY NEWS. Up until recently, Miley Cyrus “had no idea” about the wrecking ball effect her mother’s recent marriage to her younger sister’s ex-lover had on the once tight-knit clan. In August, Tish Cyrus, 56, married 54-year-old actor Dominic Purcell, who reportedly previously dated her 24-year-old daughter Noah Cyrus.

“Noah and Dominic were seeing each other in a friend with benefits way, off and on,” an unidentified source told People. The hunky “Prison Break” star and Noah Cyrus reportedly stopped seeing each other before her mother, whom the insider said was aware of the relationship, pursued Purcell.

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

Trapped!

 

“The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling.” 

-Lucretius

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WE wouldn’t venture to speculate what exactly happened pre-dawn on August 15, 2018 at Barangay Atabay, San Jose, Antique in the Philippines when members of the Antique Provincial Mobile Force, 301st Brigade, San Jose PNP, 61st Infantry Battalion swooped down on an abandoned church and killed seven suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA).

The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) claimed the seven: Jayson Talibu, Jason Sanchez, Karen Ceralvo, Ildefenso Labinghisa, Peter Mecenas, Liezl Bandiola and Felix Salditos engaged the joint PNP-AFP teams in a firefight while they were serving a warrant of arrest.

In this version, the seven were killed in an encounter.

 

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Since no one among the bodies lined up and presented to media hours after the “encounter” had survived and no other “rebels” were captured alive, nobody can dispute the PNP-AFP version of a firefight.

Dead men tell no tales.

On the other hand, nobody can tell or corroborate if the government forces had also suffered casualties.

An encounter or firefight means both sides fired gunshots to and from various directions.

A thirty-minute (that’s the police version in their report) gun battle would have been messy, bloody and confusing.

There would have been stray bullets hitting the houses nearby or civilians caught in the middle of the deadly violence which happened when everyone in that village was already sleeping.

Police and military officials neither confirmed nor denied some of their men were also hit and wounded.

Media were just informed an “encounter” happened and the enemies were unlucky as shown by the body count.

 

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Since human rights groups and families of the dead, now known as “Antique 7”, are claiming otherwise and have moved to file a complaint before the International Criminal Court (ICC) through the National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL), some people were getting curious and confused.

They wanted a clearer picture of what exactly happened.

Families and supporters of “Antique 7” insisted their loved ones were victims of a massacre.

They threw away to the dustbin the PNP-AFP version of encounter.

Ruth Salditos, Felix’s wife, claimed the victims suffered almost the same “fatal” gunshot wounds on the head, neck and stomach and appeared to be “sleeping” when attacked.

The National Democratic Front (NDF), which admitted the “Antique 7” were their members, claimed the seven were unarmed and were “cultural and educational warriors and non-combatants.”

 

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The PNP, particularly the Regional Police Office-6 (PRO-6) led then by Director John Bulalacao, accused the seven of engaging in extortion activities.

Some of the items seized in the vicinity after the “encounter” were reportedly extortion letters and several high-powered firearms, ammunition, grenades and cash.

Human rights group Karapatan-Panay and families of slain communist rebels and Bulalacao swapped heated accusations in media.

The word war was expected to escalate as the families and other cause-oriented groups demanded justice for the killing of the “Antique 7” while the PNP and the AFP stood by their claim of a “legitimate encounter” and appeared unperturbed.

Massacre or encounter, we have one description of what happened to the “Antique 7”: trapped.

 

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KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. There is a certain amount of salt in all our food, and one of the properties of salt is to draw water from the tissues toward the kidneys where the waste liquid is filtered.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. How hot is the sun? The temperature of the surface of the sun is estimated at about 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun's interior may be 40,000,000 degrees. At these temperatures, molecules of matter can not "hang together."

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. The skin of our faces has a certain amount of color of its own, but the main part of the color of the face--at any rate, among people with light-colored skins--is the color of the blood shining through the skin. It is the heart that drives the blood through the skin of the face.

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

My lifetime commitment to community journalism

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

―Douglas Adams

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

THIS month of March is my 36^th year since I started as community journalist in Iloilo City, Philippines.

Before I obtained my permanent residency status in the United States in 2019, a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officer asked why I put the word “community” in my profession as journalist. “What’s the difference?”

My answer was direct to the point: I have been practicing my profession in the community; it’s in the community where I became a dyed-in-the-wool journalist. 

The real essence of journalism is community service—writing reports and shaping opinions for the interest of people in the community; and helping make them safe, well-informed, educated, thrive economically, and aware of their fundamental rights.  

Awareness of the community’s primordial infirmities and willingness to commit and help address the gaping hole that separates the people from government.  

It’s in the community where the basic and real social, economic, and political issues emanate; it’s in the community where the rudiments of democracy are embedded and traced; and its strength and vulnerability are best tested.

 

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Community journalists work face-to-face with news and reality—where the actual actions unfold; where real pain, anger, frustrations caused by government neglect, abuse, and inaction explode before our eyes.     

Mary Pilon says, “Journalism isn't about how smart you are. It's not about where you're from. It's not about who you know or how clever your questions are. And thank God for that. It's about your ability to embrace change and uncertainty. It's about being fearless personally and professionally.”

What we report and the opinions we shape and cultivate as community media workers have direct impact and influence on the community, as well as the authorities concerned.

If not for community journalism I wouldn’t be what and where I am today.

Bruised by a litany of (temporary) setbacks and victories in glorious battles for economic and existential survival over the years, thankfully I have managed to transform weaknesses into strengths, doubts into buoyancy, and cynicism into opportunities.   

Horace Greeley warns that “Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you're at it.”

London-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has reported that over the past decade, a journalist has been killed every four days on average. Each year since 2016, more journalists have been killed outside of conflict zones than in countries currently experiencing armed conflict. A total of eighty-six killings of journalists worldwide have been reported between 2020 and the end of June 2021. 

 

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“Impunity for crimes against journalists continues to prevail, with nine of ten killings remaining unpunished. The year 2020 saw a slight improvement, however, with thirteen per cent of cases worldwide reported as resolved, compared to twelve per cent in 2019, and eleven per cent in 2018. In many cases, impunity results from bottlenecks within the justice system itself,” according to UNESCO.

Senior colleague Herbert Vego, 74, who has been writing for more than 50 years, admitted journalism—or community journalism for that matter—hasn’t given him material wealth. But he is still there: writing and kicking!

He hasn’t captured—or has refused to be captured by—the radar of retirement. Basically, it’s his love and passion for writing that has kept him standing up at least 10 feet tall despite all odds—primarily economic and health.

The beauty of it all is that as long as we’re still being bitten by journalism bugs, we can write our own struggles and survival wherever our adrenalin and enthusiasm will push us, while chronicling what ails the society at the same time.

As Toni Morrison emphasizes, “If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”

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

Are we ashamed of Ben ‘running here and there’ inside airport?

“Ben, you're always running here and there. You feel you're not wanted anywhere. If you ever look behind and don't like what you find. There's something you should know. You've got a place to go.”

—Michael Jackson in “Ben”

 

By Alex P. Vidal 

 

DON’T be ashamed as Filipinos that a rat was recently seen in a viral video roaming near Gate 2 inside the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 in Pasay City.

A single rodent that can get in through open cellar windows, gaps or cracks in foundations, or even through vent or chimney openings, will destroy the image of the Philippines? No way. No deal. 

Don’t jump into conclusion that we have the “dirtiest” airport in the world because of that short clip posted by a passenger on X (formerly Twitter).

The presence of that lonely and unwanted visitor with a tail and unique mustache in the NAIA Terminal 3, or in any airport for that matter, is not a Guinness Book of Records or Ripley’s Believe It Or Not episode. 

Especially in the enclave of a tropical and densely populated Asian city. 

In Asia, brown and house rats exploit human food resources, eating and contaminating stored grains and killing poultry. 

Let’s be realistic. Rodents—or their existence and presence in public—are part of our heritage, whether we like it or not. “Charity”, er, rat colony, begins at home.

As for the bedbugs and cockroaches, well, we aren’t alone. Ask the people of Thailand, France (host of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games), China, Vietnam, Jamaica, Tanzania, among other intercontinental territories.

 

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Illegal or unauthorized entries by wildlife, insects, lizards, vermin, mammalians or warm-blooded vertebrate animals are normal in highly urbanized metropolis and even financial districts, conference auditoriums, stadiums, convention centers, museums, railways stations, skyscrapers, including international airports. 

Some airports in the world are disgustingly dirtier, more unsafe, filthier, and unhygienic than the Philippine airport or airports for that matter.

Haven’t we heard of news in other countries about peacocks, dogs, goats, reptiles, snakes, bulls, and even pigs breaching the airport security and immigration lines and sometimes marching on their way straight to the airplanes?

Haven’t we heard of news about a raccoon spotted running through baggage claim area in a Philadelphia airport? Or an alligator crossing the Southwest Florida International Airport? And a Tutu-wearing pig that caused a furor at the San Francisco International Airport? 

Haven’t we heard of stories about scorpions, bees, hornets, ants, fleas, and even mosquitoes tormenting departing passengers in many international airports around the world?

And we are enraged and ashamed to the max only because of a Filipino Ben’s viral video in NAIA Terminal 3?

In Ben, Michael Jackson concluded, “I'm sure they'd think again. If they had a friend like Ben.”

 

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HEADLINE permi sa balita ang pagbulaganay sang mga hubin ukon bataon pa nga mga artista sa Pilipnas. Bisan pa nga wala sang redeeming values ang mga showbiz news nga ini, gina hatagan gid prominent spaces sa TV, radyo, kag newspaper ang ini nga mga Marites stories. 

Isa lang ang buot silingon sini tanan: Patok kag popular ang ini nga mga balita sa masa or sa so-called bakya crowd. 

Ang pag hibi-hibi, break-up, pa-cute, pa senti-senti, padamol make-up, kag iban pa nga kadramahan sa pangubuhi sang mga artista kag celebrities sa entertainment industry kag pelikula ang gina lagas kag gina hatagan daku nga atensiyon compared sa economeya, politika, sports, edukasyon, world affairs, climate change, health. 

Amo ini ang rason ngaa kon mag eleksyon gani ang mga naga dalaog amo ang mga artista, coup plotter, boxer, comedyante, babaero, kag mga tampuhaw nga naga pakuno-kuno nga statesmen and patriots.

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

 

   

 

 

We and their Baroque