Pet Melliza

The Beekeeper BY PET MELLIZA It's not the ideal time to get sick and be hospitalized nowadays with private and public medical facilities filled beyond capacity. The district hospital at Guimbal, Iloilo had to erect a tent; even its corridors can't accommodate additional patients. So far, the accumulated figure of dengue cases since january in Iloilo Province alone, excluding Iloilo City, went above 2,500 with 13 deaths, which is still better than 1996 when the death toll shot above 50, mostly children. This year, the Philippine Science High School at Jaro, Iloilo City, shut down for a week for fogging operation after a dozen of its students were infected by dengue. We don't know how successful the procedur was. The Department of Health scorns fogging because it does more harm than good; while it may help eliminate a generation of mosquitos, it does not the eggs which will hatch and spread the terror anew. Fogging contains chemicals toxic not only to Aege...

The Beekeeper BY PET MELLIZA Virginia Palanca-Santiago’s exercise of raw power (19) Lawyer Roming Gerochi has one word for the Office of the Ombudsman – “Monalisa”, an old ditty popularized by Matt Monroe and Frank Sinatra. He said that in one episode of “Kape kag Isyu”, a cable TV talks show aired live on Sky Cable every Saturday at 9 – 10 am. Many dreams have been brought to the doorstep of Monalisa but “they just lie there and they die there.” Virginia Palanca-Santiago, assistant ombudsman for the Visayas and chief of its W. Visayas regional office based in Iloilo City, is now in town preaching public accountability on elective local officials. Many cases have also been brought to the doorsteps of Virginia Palanca-Santiago and they, too, just lie and die there. The moral pygmy whose sense of right and wrong is as revolting as her looks being tasked to promote public accountability? That sounds like Pangulong Erap pontificating on marital fidelity. Gerochi threatened to sling mandamu...

The Beekeeper By Pet Melliza Defy the church IF Fray Butod — the quintessential symbol of the patriarchal, despotic, conservative, reactionary and backward sector of religion usurping the title “The Church” – ordered me to go forth and multiply and reject birth control practices, shall I say amen? If Fray Butod threatened me with eternal damnation in hell or excommunication in life shall I cringe? Before answering those queries, let’s journey back to the past. One conclusion we can glean from it is that humanity gained giant strides in all spheres of knowledge that translate to unprecedented progress. Today, by tapping the keyboard or mouse of your PC, in matter of seconds we can communicate to people in different parts of the world, we can access information at such speed and efficiency never before imagined. Humanity progressed not because of the conservative, patriarchal and reactionary faction of religion, most often its hierarchy and having the temerity to dub itself “The ...

The Beekeeper BY PET MELLIZA Hostage drama culture of arrogance We grieve with the families killed and wounded in the botched rescue attempt of the PNP. I may be dumb but at least I am not as stupid as idiots in PNP SWAT uniform, “Manila’s Finest” who mishandled the hostage-drama at Quirino Grandstand, Luneta last August 23. This is one maxim we can coin at the manner the supposed rescuers led the victims to their tragic end, eight dead and seven injured, all Chinese nationals, when the smoke of the rescue settled down. We were watching the drama unfold at Tibsrock resto, at Mandurriao and felt like smashing a beer bottle on to the empty head of whoever ordered the arrest of SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza, brother of hostage taker, Rolando Mendoza, a former police senior inspector. The arresting officers simply roughed him up in full view of viewers of the live coverage worldwide, including the hostage-taker himself. We are baffled how the non-commissioned police officer was arrested sa...

The Beekeeper By Pet Melliza Defy the church IF Fray Butod — the quintessential symbol of the patriarchal, despotic, conservative, reactionary and backward sector of religion usurping the title “The Church” – ordered me to go forth and multiply and reject birth control practices, shall I say amen? If Fray Butod threatened me with eternal damnation in hell or excommunication in life shall I cringe? Before answering those queries, let’s journey back to the past. One conclusion we can glean from it is that humanity gained giant strides in all spheres of knowledge that translate to unprecedented progress. Today, by tapping the keyboard or mouse of your PC, in matter of seconds we can communicate to people in different parts of the world, we can access information at such speed and efficiency never before imagined. Humanity progressed not because of the conservative, patriarchal and reactionary faction of religion, most often its hierarchy and havi...