Burn the house, kill the rats, or transfer?

“I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.”

–Jack Kerouac

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY — The sudden appearance of placard-bearing “pro-Panay Electric Company (PECO)” rallysts at the Plaza Libertad in Iloilo City in the Philippines showing support for the PECO and opposing the entry of PECO’s rival, More Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power), on November 26, 2018, has raised so many eyebrows.
Who wouldn’t be surprised?
It’s like seeing the remnants of holocaust victims petitioning the Vatican to declare Hitler as a saint.
Who were these Plaza Libertad pro-PECO protesters?
Where did they come from?
Who organized them?
We didn’t know there were Ilonggo power consumers willing to risk their lives, limbs, and reputations for the much-maligned PECO.
We didn’t know–until those placard-toting ragtag individuals displayed their fangs and sought to influence the authorities–that the PECO has a fan club.

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Do they have social activities other than showing canine loyalty to the PECO?
Do they hold a regular meeting?
When was the “fan club” founded?
Just curious.
PECO, which is asking Congress to renew its franchise set to expire on January 19, 2019, became so unpopular because of its alleged poor services, its being insensitive to their plight, negligence, astronomical bills, dilapidated meters and lamp posts, among other serious shortcomings.
For nearly 100 years, PECO has served Iloilo City consumers, but its litany of sins to the vexed and impatient consumers is also as old as its age and apathy.
When one walks in a village in Iloilo City today, seldom can you find a resident, a power consumer, who won’t spew a vitriol against the PECO, much less refuse to say derogatory words against the PECO if asked whether he is satisfied with the power firm’s services.

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For most Ilonggos, PECO is now like Mary Magdalene, cursed and condemned; and about to be stoned.
PECO needs a Christ to protect it from stone throwers, and it is hoping Congress will act as the miracle man who will admonish PECO’s tormentors.
PECO also needs that miracle man to help it obtain a 25-year franchise extension now slumbering in the House committee level.
Thus it’s inconceivable that a faction of consumers was defending PECO and holding a rally just as MORE Power was wooing the city aldermen who were holding a regular session in the adjacent Sangguniang Panlungsod.
Where were those angry (that MORE power will enter and operate in Iloilo City) rallysts when thousands of (their fellow) Ilonggo consumers were crying for justice against PECO’s alleged injustices to other anti-PECO faction?
We find it bizarre that they didn’t hold a similar rally or noise to compel PECO to honor its obligation to the paying public, stop making life difficult for the consumers, provide them with adequate and better services, and modernize.

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Since the pro-PECO rallysts were also power consumers, weren’t they affected by PECO’s purported abysmal services like what the majority of the consumers have been enduring?
There are two schools of thoughts in the pro-PECO rallysts’ petition to block another power firm that promises to provide better services, manpower and equipment to the benighted Ilonggos consumers for fear that the company “has zero experience in the power distribution industry” and might only “plunge Iloilo City into darkness.”
One, they would rather want the rat-infested house to remain standing and hope that the authorities will kill the rats even if the owner won’t initiate the killing spree.
Second, they are willing to live with the rats, for the time being, as long as the authorities won’t burn the entire house and wait for authorities to lower the boom on the owner even if he is doing nothing and, in fact, allowing the rats to reign supreme.
For a regular Ilonggo consumer fed up with what’s going on, he doesn’t give a hoot whether the rats are killed or the house is totally burned.
He only wants to transfer his residence.

 

Justice for 32 journalists massacred in Maguindanao

STATEMENT ALTERMIDYA–PEOPLE’S ALTERNATIVE MEDIA NETWORK

Reference: Prof. Luis V. Teodoro, National Chairperson

NINE YEARS: WE REFUSE TO FORGET

NINE YEARS. Three administrations. Yet justice has remained elusive for all the victims of the bloody Ampatuan massacre where 58 people, 32 of whom were journalists, were killed in Ampatuan, Maguindanao province in what is considered as the worst election-related massacre in Philippine history.
Branch 22 of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) has concluded the trial of the primary suspects and is expected to release by early next year its verdict on the multiple murder cases against Andal “Datu Unsay” Ampatuan Jr. and other members of the Ampatuan clan.

This is indeed a development that many have been waiting for. But it also reminds us all how glacial the pace of the so-called justice system has been: after almost a decade, what was once thought to be the trial of the century is only now being partly concluded, while the trial of more than a hundred other accused is still ongoing.
Past developments insult the memory of those killed in the Massacre, among which certainly belongs the court’s allowing one of the prime suspects, former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Zaldy Ampatuan, to attend his daughter’s wedding last August, and Datu Sajid Islam Ampatuan’s being out on bail together with ten others accused of involvement in the crime.

Nine years–and the perpetrators think we will forget. They all think that the damage and violence they wrought would now be a fading memory.

That the blood on their hands will somewhat be cleansed by the passage of time.

No, we refuse to submit to the reign of impunity by forgetting that justice has not been served to colleagues who have been killed in the line of duty —in the Ampatuan massacre and beyond.
Three administrations have passed, yet instead of dissipating, the killings and attacks against journalists have further intensified.

The current administration has more than aided and abetted those that seek to harm vanguards of the truth. Under the Duterte administration, at least 99 cases of attacks and threats, both online and offline, have been made against members of the Philippine media.

Twelve were killed, seven of whom were Mindanao journalists. In general, the killings have surged – doctors, church people, innocent civilians all killed under a worsening climate of impunity.
Impunity—the exemption from punishment of wealthy, powerful and well-connected wrong-doers – is in fact what it is all about.

And we fear that like Imelda Marcos, who is likely to escape imprisonment despite her conviction on seven counts of graft, those accused of planning and implementing the Ampatuan Massacre will also go scot-free.
Almost a decade after the bloodbath in Maguindanao, the reign of impunity continues to deny its victims the justice they deserve.

The day of reckoning will surely dawn, and justice will finally be served.

Until then, we enjoin the Filipino people to never forget–and to combat all attempts to curtail the freedom the Constitution guarantees the press as a potential instrument of change and liberation.

Until that day comes, our call will always reverberate: we will never forget.

-o0o-

They are not numbers, nor faceless, nor nameless. The roll of the 32 media victims of the Ampatuan massacre (courtesy of Nonoy Espina):
1. Adolfo, Benjie – Gold Star Daily, Koronadal City
2. Araneta, Henry – Radio DZRH, General Santos City
3. Arriola, Mark Gilbert “Mac-Mac” – UNTV, General Santos City
4. Bataluna, Rubello – Gold Star Daily, Koronadal City
5. Betia, Arturo – Periodico Ini, General Santos City
6. Cabillo, Romeo Jimmy – Midland Review, Tacurong City
7. Cablitas, Marites – News Focus, General Santos City
8. Cachuela, Hannibal – Punto News, Koronadal City
9. Cadagdagon, Jepon – Saksi News. General Santos City.
10. Caniban, John – Periodico Ini, General Santos City
11. Dalmacio, Lea – Socsargen News, General Santos City
12. Decena, Noel – Periodico Ini, General Santos City
13. Dela Cruz, Gina – Saksi News, General Santos City
14. Duhay, Jhoy – Gold Star Daily, Tacurong City
15. Evardo, Jolito – UNTV, General Santos City
16. Gatchalian, Santos – DXGO, Davao City
17. Legarte, Bienvenido, Jr. – Prontiera News, Koronadal City
18. Lupogan, Lindo – Mindanao Daily Gazette, Davao City
19. Maravilla, Ernesto “Bart” – Bombo Radyo, Koronadal City
20. Merisco, Rey – Periodico Ini, Koronadal City
21. Momay, Reynaldo “Bebot” – Midland Review, Tacurong City (still missing)
22. Montaño, Marife “Neneng” – Saksi News, General Santos City
23. Morales, Rosell – News Focus, General Santos City
24. Nuñez, Victor – UNTV, General Santos City
25. Perante, Ronnie – Gold Star Daily correspondent, Koronadal City
26. Parcon, Joel – Prontiera News, Koronadal City
27. Razon, Fernando “Rani” – Periodico Ini, General Santos City
28. Reblando, Alejandro “Bong” – Manila Bulletin, General Santos City
29. Salaysay, Napoleon – Mindanao Gazette, Cotabato City
30. Subang, Ian – Socsargen Today, General Santos City
31. Teodoro, Andres “Andy” – Central Mindanao Inquirer, Tacurong City
32. Tiamson, Daniel – UNTV, General Santos City

 

Frozen in Manhattan

“Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.”

–Amy Grant

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY — Excitement and fear of a chilly 27 degrees weather.
This was how I felt when I made it to the Herald Square Park in midtown Manhattan before nine o’clock in the morning on Thursday, the Thanksgiving Day, before the start of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
From the Herald Square Park subway train station where I disembarked from train Q, I hesitated to go out and wanted to cancel the “coverage” because of the chilly weather; but the NYC cops closed all the subway entrances as part of security protocol.
Since it was New York City’s coldest Thanksgiving since 1901, when the temperature only got as high as 26 degrees (-3.3 Celsius), those lining up in the streets, adults and children, “went to war with a full battle gear”: they had thick scarfs, fleece hoods, gloves, boots, coats.
I had a coat and a hood but did not have gloves. The guts.
The coldest on record was in 1871, when the warmest it got was 22 degrees (-5.5 Celsius).
I chose the Avenue of Americas (Sixth Street) area where I had a good view of the coming balloons, floats, marching bands, clowns, and ballonicles.

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After 30 minutes, the frigid air that was hitting the five boroughs, was taking its toll on my body.
It came on a jet stream pattern that went from Siberia, over the North Pole, and down into our area.
The chilly Thanksgiving Day had been expected days earlier although temperatures were originally in the 40s earlier Wednesday, with wind chills in the 30s.
The arctic air brought New Yorkers a brief coating of snow as well.
After more than one hour and the parade was only halfway, my spirit was still willing to sustain the “coverage”, but the body could not.
I was frozen in Manhattan.
I quit, walked to the Bryant Park, and took a subway train 7 in the Grand Central Station going to the Queens.
Projected Thanksgiving high temperatures were 39 degrees in Chicago and 35 in Washington D.C., but some who had decided to head to Boston was expecting 22-degree temperatures. Highs in Los Angeles and Atlanta were in the 60s.

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I didn’t give up actually until I was done waiting for 18 of the 26 much-ballyhooed giant balloons to pass.
They were: Goku, Gleck, Bjorn, Jojo and Hugg, Little Cloud, Sunny the Snow Pal, Americana Spheres, Arrtie the Pirate, Blue and White Macy’s Stars, Charlie Brown, Dino, Greg Heffley, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series, Illumination Presents Dr. Seuss’ the Grench, Jett by Super Wings, Olaf, Paw Patrol, Pikachu, Pillsbury Doughboy, Red Believe Stars, Red and Gold Macy’s Starflakes, Red Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Ronald McDonald, Songebob Squarepants, The Elf on the Shelf, Toothless From How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Trolls, Universal Nutcracker, and Yellow Macy’s Star.
These iconic characters that soared between Manhattan skyscrapers weren’t grounded as announced days before when sustained winds did not exceed 23 mph and gusts did not exceed 34 mph, based on city rules implemented after wind blew a “Cat in the Hat” balloon into a lamp post in 1997 near the Central Park, critically injuring a woman.
The parade, which featured about 8,000 marchers, including high school bands from across the country, and two-dozen floats culminating with the arrival of Santa Claus, negotiated 46 blocks from the Central Park’s west side to Macy’s flagship store in midtown Manhattan (Herald Square Park).

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The balloon attractions debuted in 1927, inspired by a balloon float. Even then, they were massive–one was a 60-foot dinosaur–and, in those days, they had more to deal with than just high winds and crazy weather: Until 1938, an elevated train ran down Sixth Avenue, according to Mental Floss.
Well-known characters have been part of the parade since that 1927 outing.
Felix the Cat was there from the beginning, and Mickey Mouse joined in 1934, the same year that featured a balloon based on popular entertainer Eddie Cantor.
“Peanuts” characters, especially Snoopy–who made his first appearance in 1968–are regular visitors.
One tradition didn’t last long.
The balloons were originally allowed to float away, and those who found them got a gift certificate from Macy’s.

 

Turf war? Tell it to the marines

“Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?” — ANONYMOUS

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY — I personally don’t buy the theory being put forward by Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) investigators in the Philippines that the murder of retired cop Ronaldo “Apple” Alag, 57, could be the result of a “turf war” among drug syndicates.
At least this is one of the angles the police are reportedly trying to crack.
Only two big groups engaged in illegal drugs were known to have widely operated in Iloilo City since the early 90’s until recently: the Odicta Drug Group and the Prevendido Drug Group.
All other satellite or smaller groups were either linked to the above-mentioned groups or “colorum” teams with no abundant wherewithal.
Both the leaders of the Odicta Drug Group and Prevendido Drug Group have been “neutralized” with the killing of Melvin “Boyet” Odicta Sr. on August 29, 2016 in Caticlan, Aklan and of Richard “Buang” Prevendido on September 1, 2017 in Balabago, Jaro District, Iloilo City.

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Buang’s sister, Remia Prevendido-Gregori, the village chief of Barangay Bakhaw in Mandurriao District, Iloilo City, was also killed on June 24, 2018 at the family-owned resort in Barangay Igcadlum in San Joaquin town.
Because both groups were making a lot of money and some of their couriers and associates were known to each other, the Odicta and Prevendido Drug Groups weren’t at war against each other.
They could not.
They should not.
Engaging in a Mafia-like “elimination process” to corner or polish off the cookies would defeat their purpose; they weren’t that sophisticated and glamorous to act as Godfather bioflick copycats.
The Odicta Drug Group was “too big” to wage a bloody rivalry against the “smaller” Prevendido Drug Group, which was “too inferior” to mount a trouble against the former.
The groups were believed to have operated not only in Iloilo City, but in the entire Western Visayas that included the provinces of Iloilo, Guimaras, Aklan, Capiz, Antique, and Negros, making the angle of territorial disputes seems implausible.

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The Regional Police Office 6 (RPO-6) has admitted there are remnants of these groups or even “new players” trying to revive the syndicates’ old glory, but because of the aggressive campaign being waged by the RPO-6 and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), their tentacles couldn’t easily mushroom.
The police’s swashbuckling operations supervised by tough RPO-6 director, Chief Supt. John Bulalacao, these past months have trounced them before they could blast off and spread their legs.
It was believed that with the fall of Odicta and Prevendido, even their much-vaunted war chest and armed machinery (killing apparatuses) have been subdued if not crippled.
Thus it’s inconceivable that any “active” drug group can have the guts and capability to violently exterminate the likes of Apple Alag and Odicta’s lawyer Edeljulio “Judel” Romero using professional killers “with military precision” and in broad daylight.
Turf war?
Or another case of extra-judicial killing (EJK)?

 

Apple Alag was PNP’s ‘small but terrible’

“Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.”

–Hannah Arendt

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY — Retired SPO2 Ronald “Apple” Alag, 57, was one of the three rookie cops known in Iloilo City in the Philippines as “small but terrible” during the heyday of the late former Metrodistrict Police Command (Metrodiscom) chief, Col. Achilles Plagata, in the mid-80’s.
“Si Apple (Alag) masaligan ko gid ina. Maboot ina nga pulis (I have trust in Apple. He is a good cop),” Plagata told us, members of the Iloilo City Hall Press Corps, when “Tay Achil” was city councilor in the 90’s.
Plagata’s reaction came after Apple hogged headlines in the local media when a fellow cop, Douglas Demonteverde, nearly shot Apple with an armalite rifle inside the Arevelo Police Precinct in Villa, Arevalo district sometime in 1996.
This was how Apple’s name first became controversial.

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Apple, then the Arevalo police desk sergeant, confronted Demonteverde for his tardiness, among other infractions.
Demonteverde, who didn’t like the admonition, aimed the firearm at Apple and yelled in local dialect, “So what if you are an Alag? I am not afraid to shoot you right now.”
Cooler heads pacified them.
“This is now my second life,” Apple told reporters who responded in the station.
He didn’t fight back “because I was armed only with a .38 caliber.”
Aside from Apple, fellow rookie cops Ricky Thornton and Nathaniel Ore were also known as “small but terrible” because of their frame and effectiveness in hunting down snatchers, thieves, and other criminals.
They could be mistaken for civilians and teenagers, thus they were able to easily round up some of the most notorious criminals in the metropolis.
Apple, Thornton, Ore, Ashley Agustin, Danilo Tan were five of the finest and the best cops under Plagata’s wing who did excellent intelligent works for the Metrodiscom (now the Iloilo City Police Office).
Because of their sharpness and impressive abilities, criminals in Iloilo City fell one after the other and peace and order was at its lowest in those years.
Alag became known as “Apple” because of “he was the apple of the eyes” of his family, colleagues, some reporters and even criminals.

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I first heard of Apple in 1996 when his name surfaced as one of the two cops linked to the late controversial Supt. Mosa “Batman” Amiyong, who was gunned down on November 22, 2013 on Quirino Bridge in Iloilo City.
Apple and colleague Rex Egpuara, a former bodyguard of the slain Bombo Radyo anchorman Rino Arcones, reportedly “worked” for Amiyong, who was then suspected of “facilitating” the entry of illegal drugs from Mindanao to Iloilo.
There was no evidence that directly linked Apple and Egpuara to Amiyong’s alleged illegal activities.
Before the late suspected drug lord Melvin “Boyet” Odicta Sr. ruled the illegal drug trade in Western Visayas, then Metrodiscom chief, Col. Vicente Neptuno, using a K9 dog, nabbed suspected drug dealer, Bolane Daquiado, nephew of the late Agusan del Norte Mayor Nilo “Taklong” Soliva, in a raid in Jereos Extension, La Paz district.

-o0o-

Writing for Sun.Star Iloilo, I again heard of Apple’s name but there was no evidence to link him to Bolane’s group.
Reporters covering the police beat, fellow cops and family members described Apple as “maboot, maalwan, maamigohon kag mapisan (a good-natured person, generous, friendly, diligent).”
When he retired from the PNP in 2005, Apple’s “only mistake” was he became known as Odicta’s “bodyguard”.
Apple reportedly “sidelined” as security guard in Odicta’s pawnshop in Maria Clara, City Proper but was actually “actively involved in Odicta’s illegal drug trade” as “protector.”
There was no evidence that Apple personally sold illegal drugs after Odicta and his wife, Meriam, were murdered in Caticlan, Aklan two years ago, but the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) confirmed he was in the watch list of personalities engaged in illegal drugs.

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Apple’s murder by two riding-in-tandem assailants (one had served as the shooter and the other as the driver) in the morning on November 19, 2018 in Brgy. Villa Anita, Iloilo City Proper was brazen because it happened in broad daylight (at around 8 o’clock in the morning) in his own territory, the place where he grew up.
Apple was driving his white van when the unidentified gunman, a back rider, shot him on his left side. He died of multiple gunshot wounds in the hospital.
The crime was captured on CCTV.
The attackers were so determined to finish him off that they weren’t afraid to attack Apple in the village where the incumbent punong barangay is his brother, Ondoy, a former firefighter.
Of the three Alags who served as law enforcers, Apple was considered as “the most well-loved and admired” by his friends and neighbors.
Apple’s two other older brothers are now retired former Philippine Constabulary (PC) members Alfonso and Celoy, who were known as “astigs” (toughies) who “didn’t have mercy for the criminals.”
Some inmates in the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) reportedly “liked” Apple “because he didn’t harm them physically and (he) even shared some of his ‘blessings’ to them.”

 

It’s wrong to admire Freddie Mercury’s promiscuous life

“You know, women are as promiscuous as men and yet, of course, people are inhibited from having an affair or a relationship because the real-world consequences are a drag.”

–Lee Child

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY — Fans of the Queen and its late lead vocalist Freddie Mercury can count on this writer when it comes to admiring their songs, mostly recorded in the 70’s and early 80’s when I was starting to fall in love with music.
But when it comes to how Mercury lived his life and the messages it imparted to those who lionized him all over the world, I am one of those who don’t agree that the great rock star was a role model.
Most of Mercury’s music were great, there’s no doubt about it; but he didn’t live an exemplary life, or a lifestyle that’s something for the youth to emulate and use as inspiration.
The height of veneration heaped upon Mercury by fans, including Filipinos, was no excuse to parade his promiscuous life in public, much less “justify” its exoticism to the degree that it almost smeared our discernment on what is right and wrong, and slurred the line of decency and indecency.

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A culturally determined concept, promiscuity is formally defined, according to Webster, as including not only frequent but “indiscriminate” sexual behavior.
When Mercury died of AIDS in London on November 24, 1991, The Sun reported the following day: “He lavished expensive gifts on his lovers–diamonds, Mercedes cars and money.”
Mercury’s former personal manager Paul Prenter, who died from AIDS two months before Mercury’s death, revealed his one-time boss slept with hundreds of men, partly because he was terrified of sleeping alone.
The Sun quoted Prenter: “It was more likely that I would see him walk on water than go with a woman. Freddie told me his first homosexual relationship happened when he was at boarding school in India when he was 14. While we were touring there would be a different man every night, He would probably go to bed by 6am or 7am–but rarely alone.”
“He has a fear of sleeping alone, or even being alone for long stretches.” Prenter said Freddie phoned him after airline steward John Murphy, a one-night-stand died of AIDS in 1987 and admitted. “I’m afraid I could die of AIDS.

-o0o-

The manager claimed AIDS also killed another one of Mercury’s lovers– courier Tony Bastin.
Despite his hundreds of male lovers, Mercury was expected to leave his fortune to a woman–his one time girlfriend Mary Austin.
He once said: “The only friend I’ve had is Mary. She will inherit the bulk of my fortune. No one else will get a penny, except for my cats Oscar and Tiffany.”
Mercury and Mary lived together for seven years until 1980 when the relationship broke up due to his increasing gay urges and the pressure of his fame.
But he kept in touch with her because she was the only person he really trusted.
He said: “I don’t want anybody else. Over the years I have become bitter and I don’t trust anybody else because I have been let down so many times.”
Mercury showered gifts on Mary including a £600,000 house just around the corner from his own.
When she gave birth to a son in February 1990 he was the automatic choice as godfather.
Mercury said: “Our love affair ended in tears. My life is extremely volatile and someone like Mary couldn’t cope with it. Success has brought me millions and world idolization, but not the thing we all need–a loving relationship.

-o0o-

That’s why I am alarmed by the growing reverence of some members of today’s young generation on Mercury starting when the film, Bohemian Rhapsody, was released in the US on November 2, 2018.
Many Filipino fans have already watched the film, a foot-stomping celebration of Queen, their music and Mercury’s extraordinary talent.
The film traces the meteoric rise of the band through their iconic songs and revolutionary sound.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” was originally written by Mercury for the British rock band’s 1975 album A Night at the Opera.
A six-minute suite, consisting of several sections without a chorus: an intro, a ballad segment, an operatic passage, a hard rock part and a reflective coda, it is called “Bohemian Rhapsody” because it depicts the life of a ‘bohemian’, whose original meaning is ‘artist’ while ‘Rhapsody’ is a fantasy (literally, it could play in his head) or a vision; within this song Mercury foresaw his life in a symbolic way.
(According to Dr. Stephen A. Diamond of Psychology Today, “Preference for frequent sexual contacts is not necessarily the same as being sexually indiscriminating. The latter, in women, indicates a possible compulsive, and therefore, pathological quality to the excessive sexual behavior, referred to traditionally as nymphomania. (In men, it is called satyriasis.) Such indiscriminating or sometimes even random sexual behaviors can be commonly seen in various mental disorders such as psychosis, manic episodes, substance abuse and dependence, dissociative identity disorder, as well as borderline, narcissistic and antisocial personalities, and can, in fact, often be partially diagnostic of such pathological conditions.”)

 

I ‘worked’ with Salvador Panelo for Mrs. Marcos

“Time moves in one direction, memory in another.”

–William Gibson

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY — I was privileged to be one of the few journalists from outside Metro Manila allowed to enter the Westin-Philippine Plaza hotel where former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos was billeted several days after arriving on November 4, 1991 from a six-year exile in Hawaii.
It was Sol Vanzi, Mrs. Marcos’ former press aide, who welcomed and brought us to a room where we interviewed the late Dean Antonio Coronel, Mrs. Marcos’ mercurial lawyer.
Claiming she was “penniless”, Mrs. Marcos refused to pay her hotel bills (a $2,000-a-day suite) forcing the hotel management to evict the once most powerful woman in the Philippines.
She moved into a two-story, three-bedroom modest house in suburban Pasay city at the time when the Cory government filed the last of 80 criminal charges against her.
The following year when Mrs. Marcos ran for president in 1992, Vanzi helped arrange for our meeting with Mrs. Marcos at Hotel del Rio in Iloilo City.
Mrs. Marcos introduced us to some of her senatorial candidates under the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) who were present, namely: Chiquito, Amay Bisaya, Rod Navarro, Salvador Panelo, Johnny Wilson, Rommel Corro, Vicente Piccio, Rafael Recto.

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When KBL barnstormed Antique, Capiz, Aklan, Sol Vanzi requested us to cover the event.
In Antique, I was with Atty. Panelo, now spokesman of President Rodrigo Duterte, when our service vehicle was stranded and left behind somewhere in the mountainous area with no electricity in Brgy. Hamtic at past 8 o’clock in the evening.
I told Atty. Panelo we were near the area where the late Iloilo provincial police commander, Col. Teodolfo Lao, and his men were killed in an ambush staged by the New People’s Army (NPA) in 1989.
Also in our team was a “Susan Herrera”, manager of ChinaBank Iloilo. There were about eight of us in the group.
Panelo asked me to negotiate with those living in the area to facilitate our return to Iloilo City because it was getting late at night and was very dark.
We approached a male resident, who was hesitant to help.
I talked to him in Kinaray-a, the dialect in Antique. He didn’t respond.
Then I heard Atty. Panelo tell the unidentified male resident in English, “My name is Atty. Salvador Panelo. We are stranded. Please help us. Invest with me.”
“Invest with me” was the line that refused to leave my memory for 26 years now.
The male resident did “invest” with Atty. Panelo who gave the man his business card.
To make the long story short, the man who “invested” with Atty. Panelo helped secure a passenger jeep for the group and we made it back to Iloilo City before midnight.

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Without offense meant, of the 164 senatorial candidates, Panelo wound up 125th.
He was ahead, however, of the 11 other KBL bets.
Former Iloilo fourth district Rep. Narciso Monfort, running under LDP party, beat Chiquito, a comedian who ran as Augusto Pangan, for the 39th spot.
Monfort garnered 2,483,459 votes while Chiquito, who landed 40th, got 2,408,185 votes.
Actor Tito Sotto, now the Senate president, topped the senatorial contest with 11,792,121 votes. He was followed by another action star Ramon Revilla Sr. with 8,321,278 votes.
Twenty four fresh senators were elected in that year. They were: Sotto, Revilla Sr., Edgardo Angara, Ernesto Herrera, Alberto Romulo, Ernesto Maceda, Orly Mercado, Neptali Gonzales, Leticia Ramos-Shahani, Heherson Alvarez, Blas Ople, Freddie Webb, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Teofisto Guingona Jr., Nina Rasul, Joey Lina, Nikki Coseteng, Arturo Tolentino, Raul Roco, Rodolfo Biazon, Wigberto Tañada, Francisco Tatad, John Henry Osmeña, Agapito Aquino.

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Mrs. Marcos, who is now in the news worldwide after being convicted for graft and corruption by the Sandiganbayan at age 89, finished in the 1992 presidential elections fifth behind Fidel Ramos, who edged the late Miriam Defensor Santiago; Danding Cojuangco, and Ramon Mitra Jr.
Mrs. Marcos, now representative of Ilocos Norte, garnered more votes than the late illustrious former Senate President Jovito Salonga and former Vice President Doy Laurel.
Every time I remember that roller coaster 1992 presidential campaign, I remember Rep. Imelda R. Marcos and Spokesman Salvador Panelo.

 

I worry on attempts to intimidate critical journalists

“Never do today what you can do tomorrow. Something may occur to make you regret your premature action.”
–Aaron Burr

Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY — It’s too early for opponents of Panay Electric Company (PECO) to celebrate even if the Senate Committee on Public Services chaired by Senator Grace Poe has already given the MORE Power and Electric Company the green signal to be the new power distributor in Iloilo City.
PECO isn’t dead yet.
It is only fighting for its life in the surgery room surrounded by the best doctors who can still revive and prolong the life, or even save it from permanent disability and restore its main faculties.
PECO is still hoping to get a favorable ruling in the Lower House, where its application for renewal of its franchise is pending, before the expiration of its franchise on January 19, 2019.
While it has a myriad of available options and resources to wage a protracted legislative and legal battle to protect its interest and survival, PECO isn’t yet in the mood to raise the white flag.

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This could be the reason why PECO has refused to participate in the technical working group (TWG) meeting that would have commenced the transition works between MORE Power and Electric Company and PECO on November 8, 2018.
PECO has already made a stand not to sell its assets to a competitor.
It remains to be seen if MORE Power and Electric Company can efficiently serve the thousands of Ilonggo consumers without sufficient and time-tested ground technical resources and manpower in the territory that has been steamrolled and dominated by PECO for several eras.
The impasse is expected to prolong especially that PECO has disclosed its willingness to slug it out with the MORE Power and Electric Company all the way to the Supreme Court.
Ilonggo power consumers will be spared from inconvenience and stray bullets if Congress will expedite its verdict on PECO’s application for extension of its franchise and if the court will act with dispatch and alacrity once the imbroglio has been tossed there for litigation.

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As a Filipino journalist, I worry a lot that potential tax evasion charges are being readied and might be used to intimidate Philippine government critic Maria Ressa as well as other critics of the Duterte administration.
The threat against the lady journalist has prompted an outpouring of support on social media.
Colleagues from around the world have praised the founder and editor of investigative news site Rappler, voicing our fears about the state of press freedom in the Southeast Asian nation.
Philippines prosecutors have revealed that “they have grounds to indict Ressa and Rappler for failing to pay taxes on 2015 bond sales.”
The penalties, under the Philippine law, could include a fine and a 10-year imprisonment.
Ressa is a vocal critic of President Rodrigo Duterte. She has rejected the “ridiculous charges” as a thinly veiled attempt to silence critical coverage saying such indictments are meant to “intimidate and harass” journalists.
We fear other enemies of the press might take advantage of the government’s aggressive reactions against critical reporters.
I have also written critically and voiced my opinion heavily against some of the Philippine Government’s bad policies especially against the extra-judicial killings (EJK) which has killed thousands of suspected drug addicts and traffickers not yet convicted in any court.
The media landscape in the Philippines, which ranks 133rd on the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, has come under extreme pressure since Duterte rose to power in 2016.
Founded in 2012 by Ressa and three other journalists, Rappler has cast a spotlight on Duterte’s brutal war on illegal drugs and street crimes.
Rappler has faced a barrage of online trolls and a series of government-backed lawsuits aimed at shutting the site as a result.
Let’s hope that harassment and intimidation against crusading journalists will not end up in assassinations just like what happened to hundreds of our colleagues since democracy was restored in the 1986 EDSA People Power. God forbid.

 

Democracy is pro-God

“You need a strong family because at the end, they will love you and support you unconditionally. Luckily, I have my dad, mom and sister.”
— Esha Gupta

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY — The state should be at war only against external forces that threaten to undermine or subvert its sovereignty and hurt the political and economic well-being of its people.
Democracy is pro-God, pro-people, pro-freedom, pro-unity and progress.
The purpose of government is to serve, preserve, and protect the people and their primordial interests, not to trample on their basic rights, freedom and dignity.
The purpose of the armed forces and police is to ensure peace and order, safety and protection of the citizens regardless of geographical locations, civic, political and spiritual affiliations.
If government resources, authority and power are marshaled to suppress and silence individuals with dissenting and radical opinions, it’s not a government of the people; it’s not a government for the people.
That “government” is the enemy of the people.

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Now that there is an imminent threat against the interest of thousands of power consumers in Iloilo City in the Philippines in the ongoing power play between the Panay Electric Company (PECO) and the MORE Power and Electric Company, the government should prepare the precautionary measures to ensure that the consumers will not be in the losing end.
PECO has threatened to halt operations starting January 19, 2019, according to reports, apparently in “protest” of the “hasty” imprimatur by the Senate Committee on Public Services chaired by Senator Grace Poe allowing More Power and Electric Company to be the new power distributor in Iloilo City even if PECO’s application for renewal of its franchise is still pending in the Lower House.

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When PECO “snubbed” the meeting of a technical working group (TWG) that will handle the transition works between PECO and MORE Power on November 8, 2018, it should be treated as a portent of things to come.
And now that PECO lawyer Inocencio Ferrer has let the cat out of the bag by saying in media interviews that the local power company will stop its operations on the day its franchise will expire (January 19, 2019), the Department of Energy (DoE) and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) should now be ahead of time and are expected to be on top of the situation.
The bottom line here is, the power consumers shouldn’t be caught flat-footed; they should be spared from the corporate wars and must not be involved whether there is a “blackmail” or an ultimatum whatsoever.

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The decision of the Garin family to allow former Health Secretary Janette-Loreto Garin to “substitute” for her husband, Rep. Oscar “Richard” Garin, Jr. in the next congressional term in Iloilo’s first district (granting that their rival, Gerardo Flores, will lose anew), is understandable.
Among the Garin clan members, it’s Dr. Loreto-Garin who is a facing a thunderstorm in public life.
If the Dengvaxia cases filed against her will prosper in court and she is back in Congress, she will have at least something to lean on as a matter of “defense and survival” when the war of attrition versus the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) and other anti-Garin forces lingers.
It’s been tested and proven that in the Philippines, a public office could be an ideal “asylum” for those who are in dire straits legally; not to wiggle out from the trouble permanently, but, at least, for a temporary relief.
In crisis and in happiness, the Garins don’t abandon each other; they cling to each other for moral support and otherwise.
Everything will change, of course, if Flores, who has never won an electoral battle versus the Garins, will pull an upset in the May 2019 elections.

 

Was Supt. Rapiz ‘silenced?’

“If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well.”

–HELEN PREJEAN

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY — For every lawyer murdered in the Philippines and the killers managed to slip away, justice bleeds.
If justice is denied, democracy wobbles.
More injustices, or more deadly attacks on unarmed civilians and officers of the court and the cases are unsolved, means imminent collapse of democracy.
If democracy is dead, lawlessness, abuses by those in power, and authoritarian rule reign.
If a crusading lawyer like Benjamin Tarug Ramos Jr. can be muzzled violently and no justice is given, what are the chances of ordinary laborers, farm workers, and the poor if they, too, will be eviscerated when they seek redress for their legitimate grievances?
As a defender of the oppressed and the voiceless in society, the state should have ensured the protection of Ramos and his ilk who are vulnerable to brutal attacks and violence.
And now that Ramos is dead, the state should utilize all its corpulent resources to hunt down the killers.
It’s chilling effects will be felt not only by Ramos’ colleagues in Negros, but also by all members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) all over the country.

-o0o-Motorcycle-riding men gunned down Ramos, of Brgy. Biniculi, Kabankalan City around 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 6, 2018 at Rojas Street, Brgy. 5.
The 56-year-old Ramos, secretary-general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)-Negros Chapter, was taking a break after some paper works for his pro bono clients when shot.
Report said he suffered three gunshot wounds at the right backside and left upper chest of his body and was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
The lawyer was “maliciously and irresponsibly tagged in a public poster by the Philippine police as among the so-called personalities of the underground armed movement,” according to NUPL.
NUPL said Ramos was the 34th lawyer killed under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. Excluding judges and prosecutors, he was the 24th member of the profession killed and 8th in the Visayas.
Violence should not be the answer if an establishment or a powerful and well-connected group is annoyed by the advocacy of crusading lawyers.
The use of force and treachery is the handiwork of cowards and psychos.
That’s how we best describe both the killers and the mastermind or masterminds of Ramos’ murder.
The recent wave of lawlessness that snuffed out the life of a brave lawyer should be condemned not because Ramos was a lawyer, but also because murder is a crime.

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I have declared this several times and I am declaring it again here: there will be no construction of the much-ballyhooed Panay-Guimaras-Negros bridge this year.
As long as politicians in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and other government agencies are the ones doing all the talking, no project will ever romp off.
Only the technical people, experts, and non-political personalities, especially in the business, private, and diplomatic sectors have the credibility when it comes to giving projections on certain multi-billion infrastructure projects like airports, domes, damns, highways, and bridges.
Politicians have zero credibility when it comes to implementation of mammoth projects.

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It’s mind-boggling that Police Superintendent Santiago Ylanan Rapiz, a trained and quick-witted police official, will trade shots with fellow cops who came to arrest him allegedly in a buy-bust operation in Dipolog City on Monday night, November 5.
Rapiz, assigned at the Logistics Branch of the Zamboanga del Norte Police Provincial Office, was killed in an anti-drug operation of the Philippine National Police-Counter-Intelligence Task Force (CITF) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in front of Andres Bonifacio College Gymnasium, in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte.
Even a rookie cop knows that his chances of survival are nil if he opts to shoot it out when he is already cornered and overpowered.