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 24th of June, we splash water on friends and passer-bys, and participate in different games.

We line up on every street and alleys 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.

 

SC verdict on ‘hulbot-hulbot’ ban a big win for Defensor

“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.”
Henry David Thoreau

By Alex P. Vidal

We are glad that Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. also mentioned, albeit briefly, in his State of the Province Address (Sopa) the recent Supreme Court decision that affirmed the ban on hulbot-hulbot not only in Iloilo, but also off the coasts all over the archipelago.
In a move to protect the country’s natural marine resources, Defensor pledged for the total ban of hulbot-hulbot early in 2013.
“Recently, our Supreme Court affirmed the validity of Fishery Administrative Order 246 banning the operation of the super hulbots or the modified Danish seine. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources issued this upon our prodding,” Defensor declared in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Board) Session Hall August 26.
“Our Bantay Dagat has relentlessly campaigned against this destructive fishing method. I have already called a coordination meeting among enforcement agencies like the BFAR, the Philippine Coast Guard and the Maritime Command to work together and enforce FAO 246 to the letter.”

UNKNOWN

Unknown to most people all over the country, it was Defensor who goaded Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Proceso Alcala to issue an order banning hulbot-bulbot or Danish seine fishing in the Philippine waters.
Alcala thus signed Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) 246, series of 2013, banning Danish seine and modified Danish seine on September 12, 2013.
Danish seine fishing involves throwing a large rock tied to a net into the sea and dragging it underwater.
The method destroys the country’s marine resources, warned the Iloilo governor, who was regularly briefed by Provincial Administrator Raul Banas, a former mayor of Concepcion, a coastal town in northern Iloilo where illegal fishing has been rampant.
Section 2 of the FAO 246 provides that “it shall be unlawful for any person to operate municipal and commercial fishing boats using Danish seine and Modified Danish seine in catching fish in Philippine waters.”
Persons, associations, cooperatives, partnerships or corporation engaged in Danish seine have six months from the effectively of the order to restructure or convert the same to other legitimate fishing gears.
Violation of the order will face imprisonment from two to ten years and a fine not less than P100,000 to P500,000 or both fine and imprisonment. The boat and gear will also be confiscated.

ALLOWED

Before the issuance of FAO 246, the Bureau in Fisheries Administrative Order No. 222, series of 2003, allowed the operation of modified Danish seine in waters beyond 15 kilometers from the shoreline of any municipality.
However, it was learned that it shall not use tom weights or any method or accessories that can destroy coral reefs, sea grass beds and other marine habitats.
The minimum mesh size of the net shall not also be less than three centimeters, it was learned further.
This fishing gear, also known as palisot, pasangko, bira-bira, hulahoop, is a fishing device which consistis of a conical shaped net with a pair of wings, the ends of which are connected to two ropes with buri, plastic strips or any similar material to serve as scaring/herding device with hauling ropes passing through a metallic ring permanently attached to a tom weight (linggote) when hauled into a fishing boat.
Hulbot-hulbot is now officially banned off the Philippines coasts and our coral reefs and sea grass beds will not be spared from its mayhem.
For this, we doff our hats off to Secretary Alcala, Governor Defensor, the Supreme Court, the BFAD, our law enforcers at sea and all those who risked their lives and livelihood to nip hulbot-hulbot in the bud.

 

We tolerate corrupt leaders

“Money and corruption are ruining the land, crooked politicians betray the working man, pocketing the profits and treating us like sheep, and we’re tired of hearing promises that we know they’ll never keep.” Ray Davies

By Alex P. Vidal

No Ilonggo politician has been jailed for graft and corruption.
But many politicians from Western Visayas have pending cases in the Office of the Ombudsman.
Some of them have already retired or still active in public service, while some have already died.
There has been no conviction in the P125-million Pavia Housing scam in Pavia, Iloilo committed by prominent characters in Iloilo city government more than 10 years ago, but some of the accused are already dead if not retired.
Most of those facing graft charges normally belong to the opposition and their cases are the ones being expedited if the administration considers them as threats in the next elections.
While cases against the opposition are prioritized and tackled like a speed of light, cases filed against politicians allied with the administration gather cobwebs and may never even be remembered until the changing of the guards in the Office of the Ombudsman, when the next president takes over the helm of the Malacanang.

BELIEVE

That’s why we don’t believe that Senate President Franklin Drilon of Molo, Iloilo City will be jailed for graft and corruption.
We don’t believe that the graft cases filed against him by his former Twitter account handler, Manuel “Boy M” Mejorada for the alleged overpricing of Iloilo Esplanade, etecetera; and former TESDA chief Augusto “Buboy” Syjuco for alleged overpricing of the Iloilo Hall of Justice, etcetera will ever reach first base.
Drilon is one of the most powerful personalities in the administration of President Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino III today; the most influential honco in the kingdom of the Liberal Party.
As the third highest official of the country, Drilon enjoys the protection of no less than the President and his cabal which are also die-hard LP stalwarts.
He is even one of their rumored candidates for vice president in the 2016 elections.
The Office of the Ombudsman, as a quasi-judicial body, can never claim independence from Malacanang if it allows itself to be used as a tool by the Malacanang to persecute those identified with the opposition, but is lenient to those identified with the administration.

TOLERATE

The Philippines is probably one of the countries in Asia, if not the world, that tolerates and even elects into office corrupt politicians.
Even if many of the rumored aspirants for the highest positions in the country are tainted in the imbroglio related to misuse of pork barrel funds and other graft and corruption scandals, Filipinos are still willing to give them mandates in 2016.
Even if the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee will establish the guilt of the Binays in the multi-billion Makati parking space scandal, Vice President Jejomar Binay will remain as the leading aspirant for the presidency of the country two years from now.
Binay is extremely popular in Western Visayas, including in Capiz, the bailiwick of DILG Secretary Mar Roxas.
So many politicians in Iloilo, Negros, Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Guimaras have shifted allegiance to Binay. And their numbers are growing by leaps and bounds.

DIMINISH

For these local politicians, graft and corruption issue will never diminish the vice president’s chances in 2016.
We continue to tolerate and elect into office even the worst politicians. That’s why we deteriorate as a nation. Corruption eats up the very foundation of our socio-political sphere.
The practical difficulty surrounding the effort to get rid of corruption is enormous. It comes from all sides. The biggest is the obstacles arising from a corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy, warned Syed Hussein Alatas, in his book, “Corruption and the Destiny of Asia.”
Any effort to correct injustice and reduce the suffering of the victims should be attempted however limited its success may be. The experience itself is valuable and revealing, explained Alatas.

 

Motel crimes could be poverty-related

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
Frederick Douglass

By Alex P. Vidal

Poverty remains to be the number one source of depression among the Filipinos.
Even the Ilonggos in Western Visayas face the grim task of how to arrest and, perhaps, reverse the trend now that the National Statistics Coordinating Board (NSCB) has confirmed that Western Visayas economy has slowed down in 2013 due to a substantial slump in the agriculture hunting and forestry and fishing (AHFF) industry.
If economic analysts will go beyond air-conditioned rooms, they can see the gnawing reality; many sectors in society are still very much saddled by financial woes.
A big chunk of the hoi polloi still can’t prepare a decent meal on the table for their families.
Violent domestic spats, health problems and gradual deterioration of the quality of life can be traced to this social malaise.
When there is nothing to eat during meal time, moods change, blood pressures increase, tempers flare up.
Crime and violence become the order of the day.

OPPORTUNITIES

Unemployment and lack of opportunities to wiggle out from dire straits are among the biggest stumbling blocks in a Filipino’s quest to live a normal life and maintain a peace of mind.
As a philosophical theory, existentialism is supposedly an approach that emphasizes our existence as a free and responsible agent determining our own development through acts of the will.
Many major cities and provinces are still infested with crime elements engaged in nefarious activities—all related to poverty.
The case of a despondent mother who recently hanged herself after killing her three-year-old child in a Bacolod City motel may be dismissed as a mental health issue on the part of the mother, but poverty may have driven her to commit the twin macabre crimes.
Some of the reasons why humans kill each other–especially their own relatives–are: 1. Either they are mentally disturbed; 2. Property dispute; 3. Crime of passion motivated jealousy; 4. War among kingdoms, territories, countries; 5. Extreme hopelessness due to poverty.

-o0o-

The letter addressed to Capiz Gov. Victor A. Tanco and Vice Gov. Esteban Evan B. Contreras and signed by two leaders of the Christian fellowships in Capiz and Iloilo regarding the P500 Million Yolanda Rehabilitation Fund, is an evidence that not everything is well in as far as the distribution or non-distribution of calamity funds for the super typhoon that ravaged parts of the provinces of Capiz and Iloilo is concerned.
That politics, as usual, reared its ugly head once more even if it involved the welfare of the people.
“Our warmest greetings to you all and the hardworking women and men of the Capiz Provincial Government.
“It is with the highest esteem that we reach out to you in this moment of confusion, sadness and disappointment. All these, as we have since supported your beliefs that a public office is a public trust.
“Mr. Governor, Vice Governor and our honorable board members, we are however deeply moved, even embarrassed, on the latest media report to hit our province. And this is in reference to the news about the P500 Million Yolanda Rehabilitation Fund for the damaged school buildings here.
Like the rest of our Christian-faithful, we ask, what is going on with the implementation of these relief programs of the National Government?
“Why is this happening to our province when we know that your administration is committed to delivering much-needed rehabilitation works? How can this happen to the detriment of our thousands of schoolchildren who up to today suffer from undelivered promises? How true that all these happened because of intervention of our beloved Congressman Tony Del Rosario? How true that all these were known by the hierarchy of the Department of Education particularly by Undersecretary Valera?
“We implore from your good office to please heed our call for action and corresponding investigation. We need to have the people behind this be held accountable.
“We implore from your good office to please make public the reasons why this delay even happened. We entirely depend on both your Executive Office and our Legislative Branch—our Capiz Provincial Board to shed light on this matter.
Yours in pursuit of genuine service to the people.
Suplicio P. Morales Jr., Capiz Baptist Minister Association, Province of Capiz; Rev. Ramon E. Plaza, Evangelical Minister Fellowship of Iloilo City, Iloilo City. Signed August 20, 2014.”

 

Sex workers can’t change career overnight

“I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy.” Steve Martin

By Alex P. Vidal

Sex workers are not supposed to beg for customers openly in public like beggars and street children.
It’s the job of their pimps to look for clients so they can negotiate for higher pay and be protected from abusive patrons.
The pimps do the selling and talking, while the sex workers or prostituted men and women do both the soft and hard labor.
And this should be done secretly or in places not frequented by minors.
Aside from being illegal, prostitution also scandalizes the women. It assaults the woman’s moral fabric and degrades her person.
But this was not the case in Iloilo City.
Since last year, we’ve noticed that sex workers, some of them minors, have scattered right there in the vicinity of the historic Calle Real in downtown, City Proper from 9 o’clock in the evening up.
They personally approached males who passed by the dark sidewalks in the intersections of Ledesma and Valeria Sts., Ledesma and Quezon Sts., and in alleys within the Plazoleta Gay rotunda.
The more aggressive of those “pink ladies” acted as pimps for themselves, blocking male pedestrians and proposing to perform sexual services for a certain amount.

HOMOSEXUALS

Sex workers in this area included homosexuals disguised as women.
They have virtually transformed Calle Real into a large prostitution market.
Some taxi, jeepney, tricycle and pedicab drivers, as well as sidewalk vendors, also sometimes dabbled as their pimps.
They scattered and disappeared temporarily when patrol cars passed by. And back again. Even barangay officials in these areas did nothing to stop them.
These transient commercial workers have become the eye sores in Calle Real. Sexual acts were sometimes performed in “standing position” nearby for a quickie. Fees ranged from P200 to P600 for “instant action.” The amount increased if the client took the sex worker to the motel.
Efforts to round them up last year and prevent them from selling their bodies openly by teaching them skills and livelihood training proved futile.
The Task Force on Moral Values Formation (TFMVF) trained them to make soap, household and personal products, and how to process fish, meat and other food they could sell.
Lack of funds failed to sustain the training as they did not get a small capital to start a livelihood as promised by the city hall.

ORDINANCE

Now that the city council has approved an ordinance which prohibits public solicitation for sex, authorities will now have the reason to lower the boom on them.
The ordinance was approved during the regular session of the city council August 19. The ordinance also covers the pimps or handler or anyone who offers sex for money in public.
It prohibits any person “to transact, engage, perform, portray and display any lascivious conduct before the public.”
Penalties for violation are: First Offense – a fine of P1,000 or imprisonment of 15 days at minimum to 30 days at maximum, or both fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court, and undergo moral counselling by a competent government agency like DSWD;
Second Offense – a fine of P2,000 or imprisonment of one month and one day to six months, or both fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court, and undergo moral counseling by a competent government agency like DSWD; and
Third and subsequent offense – a fine of P3,000 or imprisonment of six months and one day to one year, or both fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court, and undergo moral counseling by a competent government agency like DSWD.
We expect sex workers and their pimps to feel the heat and embrace a more decent livelihood that will not endanger public health and morals.

 

Salaries of city hall big cats

“Salary stories are intrusive. Do you ask your neighbour what they earn for their job?”
Nicole Kidman

By Alex P. Vidal

We were surprised to learn from the piece of paper recently posted by lawyer-journalist Pet Melliza on his blog that some of Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog’s most active and deserving executive assistants are receiving only paltry salaries, while some of those who can’t be considered as assets in his administration are getting huge monthly pays.
We don’t question the amount that these subalterns receive since they are supposedly inherently specified in the plantilla duly authorized under the law.
The paper did not have the signature of any authorized city hall official, but we presumed its contents were correct since it was presented to public by a very credible lawyer and journalist, my colleague in media for more than 20 years.
Jeffrey Celiz (executive assistant on political affairs) and Fernando Jose “Boyet” Rico (executive assistant on barangay affairs) are two of the most diligent, vocal and active members of city hall’s executive branch, yet their salaries are not even half of those being enjoyed by some of their peers.
The big cats swallow the lion’s share of the total salaries appropriated for all executive assistants, Mabilog’s appointed officials who hold co-terminus positions.

RISK

Celiz, who risked his life and limbs as Mabilog’s spokesperson and “shock absorber” especially during elections, gets only P23,044 a month, far cry from the P58,028 monthly pay of city administrator Norlito Bautista, who is not as gutsy and as tough as Celiz when it comes to “biting the bullets” and “eating the punches” of Mabilog’s political and media adversaries.
No one among Mabilog’s executive assistants–not even Bautista–is as intrepid and as passionate compared to Celiz when it comes to doing his assigned tasks.
In fact, among the soldiers of Mabilog, Celiz tops the list as the most harassed, the most ridiculed, the most maligned, and the most dedicated.
No one among the members of Mabilog’s political family has incurred voluminous scars inflicted on Celiz in his many no-holds-barred skirmishes with Mabilog’s political enemies.
If Julius Caesar had Mark Antony, Mabilog has Celiz.
And Celiz knows who are the potential Brutuses and Cassiuses in his boss’ backyard.
With all his talent, dedication and sacrifices, Celiz should get more than P23,044 a month.
Boyet Rico suffers the most—when it comes to “unequal distribution of wealth”, so to speak.

CHIEF

The former village chief of Housing, Mandurriao, who is Mabilog’s confidante and liaison to all barangay officials—chiefs and councilors—is receiving only, would you believe, P15,081 a month.
Almost less than half of what Engr. Romeo “Boy” Paloma III (executive assistant on barangay projects) receives at P37,376 a month.
Rico, who comes from the city’s illustrious political clan whose members have carved a niche in public service since the post-war era, is also the most maligned like Celiz.
His salary obviously isn’t commensurate with the scope of his responsibility which covers the city’s 180 barangays.
Among all of Mabilog’s executive assistants, Rico is the most active especially in promoting barangay-level programs and projects implemented by the city government in the social media.
While other co-terminus officials are either too shy or too lazy to post some of Mabilog’s community outreach programs, barangay symposia and other related activities in social media, Rico almost always overloads his Facebook account with these events.
Rico, who was recently bruised by an ugly canard that emanated from city hall’s inner chamber, deserves more than what he gets like Celiz.

INTERNET

With the advent of technology and internet, political propaganda has shifted from the mainstream to the social media.
We’ve seen how Mabilog feverishly struggled to promote his programs, activities and projects and patiently answered critics in his interactions with both foes and allies in the Facebook.
Where were the overfed co-terminus knights while the king was single-handedly thwarting attackers of the castle in this new battlefield?
Ilonggos will know who are those who deserve gargantuan pays and those who don’t according to their performances and tasks.
Atty. Daniel Dinopol (city legal officer), P58,028/month; Jess Sio (assistant department head), P49,750/month; Dr. Perla Zulueta (executive assistant on finance), P42,652/month; Victor Facultad (building administrator), P42,652/month; Ely Estante (executive assistant on markets), P42,652/month; Erwin Plagata (executive assistant on medical services), P42,652/month; Dominador Coo (executive assistant on tourism), P36,567/month; Norma Jimenea (social services), P29,025/month; Ariel Castaneda (political affairs), P29,025/month; Jay Victor Mabilog (executive assistant), P29,028; Dr. Guillermo de la Llana (mentally-ill), P25,161/month; Patrick Alan Sy (dengue concerns), P23,044/month; Felix Muchada Sr. (security), P23,044; Melchor Tan (barangay special), P23,044/month; Mitch Antiquena (water system); P23,044; and Hector Alejano (environment concerns), P16,292.

 

Can Floyd and Pacman play together in PBA?

By Alex P. Vidal

Can the two feuding members of the Supreme Court work together harmoniously?
Can Floyd Mayweather Jr. be an effective basketball player if he is allowed to play in the PBA with Manny Pacquiao as his coach in the team?
This is the dilemma our higher court is facing today now that Ilonggo lawyer Francis H. Jardeleza has been appointed by President Benigno S. Aquino III as associate justice of the Supreme Court.
Jardeleza’s ascension to the higher court had to pass through the proverbial hole of the needle after his nomination was earlier blocked by no less than Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, who chaired the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).
JBC recommends to the President the final names in the shortlist.
Jardeleza’s name had been scratched out earlier due to the opposition of Sereno, a fellow former faculty member of the University of the Philippines College of Law.
The Ilonggo jurist had to fight tooth and nail before he was given the appointment paper by President Aquino last August 19, shortly after winning his case in the Supreme Court that compelled the JBC to reinstate his name again.

****

It’s always difficult to convict an accused in a criminal case because the prosecutor has to establish his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
If there is doubt, you acquit, is the standard legal maxim of court judges.
This seemed to be what happened in the case of murdered rebel returnee, Romeo “Ka Romy” Capalla of Oton, Iloilo.
The case police filed against suspect Julie Cabino and four other John Does, was recently dismissed by the provincial prosecutor’s office for lack of evidence.
“From all indications, it would show that respondent Cabino was not the same person who acted as back-up in the killing of Capalla. The identity of the perpetrator is a must to secure criminal conviction,” ruled Prosecutor Bernabe Dusaban.

REAL MCCOYS

If Gabino, et al were not the real McCoys, who killed Ka Romy?
It’s disturbing that a high-profile personality like Ka Romy can’t get justice after being murdered like an animal.
If this can happen to a former top-ranked rebel who has returned to the fold of the law, what are the chances of other lowly rebel returnees who are also facing a similar danger in their lives?
Ka Romy, 65, was shot to death by two gunmen on March 15, 2014 in front of the Oton public market.
The assailants were reportedly backed up by three motorcycle-riding cohorts. The five fled going to Tigbauan town, witnesses said.
Ka Romy died from two gunshot wounds on the head.
He was a commander of the Corazon Chiva “Waling-Waling” Command of the New People’s Army’s (NPA) Komiteng Rehiyon Panay in the late 1970s to the early 1980s.

ARREST

Ka Romy was arrested by authorities in August 2005 for his alleged involvement in the setting on fire a construction firm’s facility in Guimbal, Iloilo in 2004.
After spending 32 days in detention, he was released when the court ruled there was no sufficient evidence to pin him down.
Ka Romy was the brother of retired Archbishop Fernando and was the director of the Panay Fair Trade Center (PFTC), a private firm that helps small farmers in Panay Island, at the time of his murder.
PFTC buys agricultural products such as banana chips, muscovado (brown) sugar and ginger tea, and exports these to Europe and the United States.

 

Iloilo’s Jardeleza checkmates Sereno

“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.” Mahatma Gandhi

By Alex P. Vidal

A checkmate. And a big slap on the face of Supreme Court Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno!
That’s how many fellow Ilonggos viewed the sudden turn of events in the nomination of Atty. Francis H. Jardeleza for the position of Supreme Court associate justice.
You don’t put a good man down. So goes the popular dictum for victims of slanderous attacks.
Only hours after Jardeleza won his battle in the Supreme Court when the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) disqualified him for the position of Supreme Court associate justice, President Benigno S. Aquino III pulled a rabbit in his hat by appointing Jardeleza, 64, to the position vacated by Associate Justice Roberto Abad, who retired last May 22.
Jardeleza’s appointment came a week after Malacanang ordered the JBC to reinstate his nomination after being ousted on opposition of Sereno, one of the six JBC members, who challenged his integrity as a nominee during JBC’s last voting on June 30.
Many observers believed Sereno’s opposition was more of an act of personal vengeance.
She and Jardeleza, both former professors in the University of the Philippines-Diliman College of Law, reportedly had a past spat.
As JBC chair, Sereno probably found the golden chance to bamboozle the top-notch jurist from Jaro, Iloilo City.
But Jardeleza’s redemption came on August 19.
The Supreme Court, voting 7-4, elected to grant Jardeleza’s petition for certiori and mandamus against the JBC, Sereno, the JBC chair and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa.

PETITION

The petition sought to put on hold Mr. Aquino’s selection of the 15th high court justice until Jardeleza is on the short list.
The JBC earlier disqualified Jardeleza after Sereno invoked Rule 10, Section 2, of the JBC rules with a provision that “when the integrity of an applicant who is not otherwise disqualified for nomination is raised or challenged, the affirmative vote of all the members of the Council must be obtained for the favorable consideration of his nomination.”
We repeatedly described Sereno’s tactic as “an equivalent to a knockout punch in boxing” in our two previous articles.
Sereno was apparently hell-bent to block Jardeleza’s entry in the higher court as manifested by her strong stand when she doubted the Ilonggo jurist’s integrity.
When everything seemed hopeless after Jardeleza’s disqualification, President Aquino halted the guessing game.
It became apparent that Jardeleza was the apple of the president’s eyes.
In the end, the king outsmarted the queen. President Aquino castled on the side of the outstanding Ilonggo aspirant, leaving Jardeleza’s tormentor-turned-chamber boss Sereno counting the stars!
Fighting on wobbly legs in the opening game, Jardeleza was rescued by President Aquino in the middle game in a “queen’s gambit” attack.
The brilliant Iloilo lawyer checkmated Sereno in the end game.

APPOINTMENT

On the day the report came out that Jardeleza was against removed from the shortlist of the final four nominees, President Aquino released Jardeleza’s appointment, to wit:
“Pursuant to the provisions of existing laws, you are hereby appointed ASSOCIATE JUSTICE of the SUPREME COURT (vice Hon. Roberto A. Abad). By virtue hereof, you may qualify or enter upon the performance of the duties of the office, furnishing this Office and the Civil Service Commission with copies of your oath of office.”
Mr. Aquino signed the document August 19, 2014.
Jardeleza was deputy ombudsman for Luzon before Mr. Aquino appointed him solicitor general last February 2012.
Jardeleza’s appointment to the Supreme Court is a poetic justice.
It also served as the biggest embarrassment on the part of Sereno, who will now share the same chamber with the man she never wanted to be an officemate.

 

Chikungunya? Help!

“It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has.” William Osler

By Alex P. Vidal

If indeed it is true that there was a suspected outbreak of Chikungunya disease in five Iloilo towns, then there is reason for us to press the panic button.
By all means, we need help! No more beating around the bush.
Help should come from the Department of Health (DOH) and the World Health Organization (WHO) which originally coined the viral disease (genus Alphavirus) transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes–including Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus.
The almost 300 suspected cases of chikungunya were all detected in the five Iloilo towns, according to Iloilo Provincial Health Office (PHO) assistant head, Dr. Ma. Socorro Colmenares-Quiñon, who monitored several patients in the towns of Guimbal, Oton, Carles, Tigbauan and Igbaras.
She said the patients manifested symptoms of chikungunya.
“Most of them were reported to have headache and joint pains which are the symptoms of chikungunya. It was followed by two days of fever and rashes,” Quiñon said as quoted by reporter Louine Hope Conserva.

FATAL

How deadly is chikungunya? Is it as fatal as the SARS and HIV?
The WHO explained that the name chikungunya originates from a verb in the Kimakonde language, meaning “to become contorted”. This refers to the “stooped” appearance of those suffering with joint pain.
Symptoms reportedly appear between four and seven days after the patient has been bitten by the infected mosquito and these include: High fever (40°C/ 104°F), joint pain (lower back, ankle, knees, wrists or phalanges), joint swelling, rash, headache, muscle pain, nausea, and fatigue.
Chikungunya is rarely fatal, confirmed the WHO. Symptoms are generally self-limiting and last for two to three days.
The virus remains in the human system for five to seven days and mosquitoes feeding on an infected person during this period can also become infected, according to the WHO.
Chikungunya shares some clinical signs with dengue and can be misdiagnosed in areas where dengue is common, it adds.
Chikungunya can reportedly be detected using serological tests. Recovery from an infection will confer life-long immunity.
Chikungunya has been identified in nearly 40 countries. Countries having documented, endemic, or epidemic chikungunya are:
Asia: Human chikungunya virus infection has been documented in Cambodia, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Réunion, Seychelles, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Africa: Chikungunya occurs in Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mayotte, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Europe and the Americas: Aside from minor incidence rates caused by imported cases from travelers, Italy is the only European country which has had an outbreak. The Americas have not had any major outbreaks so far.

IDENTIFIED

The WHO confirmed that chikungunya was first identified in Tanzania in the early 1952 and has caused periodic outbreaks in Asia and Africa since the 1960s.
Outbreaks are reportedly often separated by periods of more than 10 years. Between 2001 and 2011, a number of countries reported on chikungunya outbreaks.
2005-2006: More than 272 000 people were infected during an outbreak of Chikungunya in the Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mauritius where Ae. albopictus was the presumed vector.
2006: Outbreak in India, more than 1 500 000 cases of chikungunya were reported with Ae. aegypti implicated as the vector.
2007: Migration of infected people introduced the infection in a coastal village in Italy. This outbreak (197 cases) confirmed that mosquito-borne outbreaks by Ae. albopictus are plausible in Europe.

AREAS

The WHO said in areas where the vector of chikungunya is Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus, vector prevention and control can be combined with dengue control efforts.
Conserva quoted Quiñon as saying, “Most of them were reported to have headache and joint pains which are the symptoms of chikungunya. It was followed by two days of fever and rashes.”
Carles reportedly recorded 102 cases, Oton has 20 cases, Tigbauan with 43 and Ibaras with 118.
Conserva reported further that Quiñon has advised residents in affected areas to practice the 4S Kontra Dengue (Search and Destroy, Seek early consultation, Self-protective measures and Say no to indiscriminate fogging) to combat chikungunya or submit themselves to isolation if they believe they contracted German measles.
A collective effort is needed to fight the disease. Let’s always make it a top priority to clean our surroundings. After all, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.

 

Iloilo’s ‘butcher’ was himself butchered

“The healthy man does not torture others-generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers.”
Carl Jung

By Alex P. Vidal

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan was luckier because it was the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that captured him in Sta. Mesa, Manila last August 12.
He was presented to media with his faculties intact and was never harmed.
Unlike other notorious military and police officials who were captured by “the enemies”, tried in the Kangaroo Court and executed.
Some of them were waylaid in ambushes and “given the dose of their own medicine” like the case of one Iloilo police constable who suffered a brutal death from his former victims in a bloody ambush in Maasin, Iloilo many years back.
Palparan was tagged as the “butcher” for being a ruthless former commander of the Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Division, where he allegedly murdered more than 70 members of militant organizations that included university students, peasants and church ministers.
Most of his alleged victims disappeared without a trace and believed to have been summarily executed.

NOTORIOUS

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, we heard about the notoriety of one Philippine Constabulary (PC) official in Iloilo who was also known as the “butcher.”
The late Boy Longno was known not only for his alleged involvement in extra-judicial killings of suspected members of the New People’s Army (NPA) at the height of the insurgency problem in the country, but also for allegedly molesting some captured women rebels during the martial law period.
Longno, a former drinking buddy of the murdered ex-army constables Jimmy Punzalan and Abner Banico of the defunct Task Force Hiligaynon and cable host/columnist Peter Jimenea, was himself butchered.
“The butcher butchered,” the late self-styled dyBQ Radyo Budyong broadcaster Delbe Deanala trumpeted in his program.
Deanala, a pro-Marcos and anti-communist radio commentator, condemned the way Longno was killed.
Among the three former PC and army constables, only Banico died a natural death, according to Jimenea.
Punzalan, who had been cleared of involvement in the assassination of pre-EDSA Revolution hero, ex-Antique Governor Evelio Javier, was murdered on August 7, 2013 by hired killers while resting inside his restaurant in Brgy. Bolilao, Mandurriao district, Iloilo City.

AMBUSH

Longno and several other PC elements perished in one of the bloodiest ambushes staged by the communist rebels in this part of the country somewhere in Maasin, Iloilo in 1981.
The ambush happened several months before the late former President Ferdinand Marcos lifted martial law because of the scheduled visit of the late Pope John Paul II in Manila.
Of all the casualties in the Maasin carnage, it was Longno who reportedly suffered most. When their bodies were found, Longno’s ears had been cut off.
Worse, his penis was found stuffed inside his mouth. He was reportedly tortured.
One of the names that surfaced as Longno’s possible killers during the investigation was that of Maria Luisa Posa-Dominado, known in the movement then as “Kumander Posa”.
“The manner Boy was killed was so brutal. We can conclude that his murderers had a personal grudge against him,” the late former Iloilo City Councilor Achille Plagata once told city hall reporters.
Plagata had served as police colonel and commander of the Metropolitan District Command (Metrodiscom) after PC was incorporated with the Philippine National Police (PNP) during the term of the late President Corazon Aquino.

DETAINEE

Kumander Posa, then in her 20s and the look-alike of actress Beth Bautista, was a former rebel detainee at the Camp Martin Delgado in Fort San Pedro, Iloilo City.
She was captured during the martial law but escaped one night by disguising as a civilian visitor when soldiers guarding her reportedly fell asleep or left their post.
Kumander Posa was among the women detainees who allegedly suffered from torture and sexual abuses from Longno and his fellow PC soldiers during her detention.
Kumander Posa, regional spokesperson of Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto, and Nilo Arado, chair of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan for Panay Island and leader of the farmers organization Pamanggas, were forcibly taken by armed men along the national highway in Barangay Cabanbanan in Oton town, about 7 kilometers from Iloilo City on April 12, 2007.
They have not been seen until today.