Pet Melliza

BY PET MELLIZA, The Beekeeper In deference to the good Gov. Arthur D. Defensor, Sr., yours truly is suspending write ups on Team Pagbag-o, the caboodle charting the path towards “pagbag-o” for the province and its 1.7 million constituents, and is composed of, namely: the Four Sirens of the Apocalypse, Dr. Jekyl & Hyde, and Madam Laptop. The first major achievement of Team Pagbag-o is to bully and bump off the functioning, effective and incumbent information officer Mary Lao and install in her stead Mr. Hyde, the man kicked out from a major Manila daily for, of all things, plagiarism, the fact known throughout the local media community. But I will resume after completing the processing of my retirement papers. That’s a promise. *** I have been a distant participant in the media world for nearly a decade since I dipped my hands into lawyering. The call of the media world for members to carry the torch to light the way and inform people has become irresistible especially nowaday

Provincial legislators, from L to R: Licurgo Tirador, Suzette Alquisada and Jett Rojas ILOILO CITY, Philippines – The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is infusing P3.5 million grant to IloiloProvince to expand the latter’s inland fish hatchery, making the Central Philippine province the second to host a “fresh water multi-species hatchery”, officials announced. The first province to have that is Aklan. From L to R: Provincial Agriculturist Ildefonso Toledo, Alma Moreno, BFAR assistant reg'l director Juliet Demo-os, and BFAR Director Edna Janeo BFAR officials say the grant will help Iloilo Province set up ponds at its 15-hectare property at Brgy. Nanga, Pototan 35 kilometers north of here which hosts the Iloilo Rehabilitation Center (IRC). Gov. Arthur D. Defensor, Sr. is handing over the IRC to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) February 1 but is reserving 10 hectares for agricultural and fishery research. Provincial agriculturist Ildefonso

(The following was read out before the "Hinun-anon", a dinner- forum of sort but actually more of party fun, at the Smallville Hotel, Iloilo City tendered by a line-up of candidates in the coming election of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines - Iloilo Chapter. The piece is an exerpt from the feature written for the Philippine Star by Rosalinda P. Orosa. The Kabayaos performed two all-violin numbers before the lawyers. It was originally titled "The Kabayao Family Quintet". Since one member, the youngest child, a son, has migrated to the US for work, the group may be rightly called now as "Quartet") The Kabayaos have rightly earned the unofficial title "Musical Ambassadors of the Philippines" with their highly acclaimed concert performances in the Philippines and in other countries for more than twenty years, thereby promoting the artistic excellence and integrity of the Filipinos in general, and of the Ilonggo artists in particular. The quint

These images are taken not from a junkshop. These are funtioning pieces of equipment employees at the Iloilo Provincial Prosecutor's Office, Iloilo City, are making do with due to low budget.

Something uncanny is unfolding at the Iloilo Provincial Capitol. A cabal of "experts" are out to re-engineer its personnel and offices. The cabal comprises the Four Sirens of the Apocalypse namely, Famine, Draught, Pestilence and Pandemic, Dr. Jekyl & Hyde, and Madame Laptop. Dr. Jekyl and the four Sirens of the Apocalypse are succeeding in creating a super-office by merging three divisions without legislative enactment. They created a position sans ordinance and promoted Mr. Hyde to its top post sans the process called PSB, which stands for "personnel selection board" that the law requires. The procedure de facto demotes provincial information officer Mary Lao which contravenes Civil Service Rules and the Local Government Code that creates the position of PIO. Mary Lao's descent is not even de facto: Dr. Jekyl and Hyde, in fact, continue to badger her to scram because Mr. Hyde is now the new PIO, according to them. All that happened because the Four

BY PET MELLIZA THE BEEKEEPER The cabal pushing to corner the P4,000 clothing allowance of each employee of the Iloilo provincial government (IPG) may have taken a retreat since this space unmasked their sinister plot with commentaries in the web and in The News Today , a daily in Iloilo City. But employees must not let down their guard. Vigilance is the word. Superwoman, the mastermind who pushed for a single-contractor scheme, lied low a bit and confined herself in an infirmary after Gov. Arthur Defensor shot down her plot to hand the job over to her favourite contractor in Manila who promised to use imported fabrics for the uniforms. I have been watching events by the wayside the past months but this time around, I can no longer stomach what I see. I have to speak my piece this time if I were to be true to my calling as public servant and as member of the press. Raul Banias, provincial administrator and her co-conspirator, has his own scheme which is to put the clothing al

Pistong Melliza (21)

By Pet Melliza The culture of impunity is still at work under the Aquino administration who vowed to end it by running after Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her minions who were responsible for nurturing a regime of shameless arrogance of power with over 1,000 persons extrajudicially killed and more than 200 others forcibly disappeared from 2001 through June 2010. Arroyo and her gang act as if they still can get away with their crimes under the present dispensation with fire walls she erected prior to her departure from the Malacañang. One such is the Office of the Ombudsman and, another, majority of the Supreme Court justices who are Arroyo appointees who glaringly shield her and her minions from the probe of the "truth commission" and impeachment with orders and resolutions even law students can readily sense as erroneous, if not stupid. Another media person was murdered in the Philippines, making it to 142 the number of journalists slain in the Philippines since formal d

One recurring theme, myth to be more precise, that crops up time and again in the presentations of competing "tribes" at the Kasadyahan portion of the Dinagyang Festival, January 22, 2011, is the shame, disdain even, for indigenous religion or beliefs. Maasin town's "Tultugan" troupe is impressive with the choreography of performers executed to the cadence of an all-bamboo ensemble of percussion and wind instruments, highlighting the town's major source of income, the bamboo industry. However, the performance falls into the trap of fawning over what the foreign colonizer has imposed on the native with the use of the sword. An epidemic strikes at a community; many fall ill and die. The native seeks refuge to indigenous healers who in turn plead supplication to the spirits, and failed. The epidemic worsens until the Spanish friar, the Sto. Niño in tow, appears from nowhere, and voila, the sick and the dying are healed in an instant. The colonizer is t

Cabatauan town's entry in the Kasadyahan, the Saturday edition of the Dinagyang Festival in Iloilo City in Central Philippines was impressive for one which joined the competition for the first time. The town features the "tinuum", a dish of Visayan chicken, actually, a broth of ranged or native chicken locked in a pouch of multi-layered banana leaves, flavored by lemon grass, tomato, pepper, onions, garlic and ginger, and steamed preferably inside earthen pot. One observation though is that the presentation, done on January 22, 2011, carries a historical hang-up; the creator of the cultural and perhaps, most of its performers, are still much the "indio" of the Spanish period who looks down and with disdain on its very soul and adulates what its colonizer and oppressor imposes. In one segment of the show, a disease strikes at a community, many fall ill and some die. The indio prays to its native diety and seeks the help of healers who hold rituals but fai

ILOILO CITY, Philippines (January 24, 2011) -- Be wise, if you are not prepared for pregnancy, abstain from sex. If not, then use condom. That was what Iloilo Province Gov. Arthur D. Defensor, Sr., told provincial employees here gathered for their Monday morning flag ceremony. Only the Pope so far of the thousands of predominantly conservative Catholic bishops worldwide, gave endorses condom that majority of local clerics consider as "sinful" to use. The Archdiocse of Jaro that covers Iloilo Province and City and Guimaras island, is against the use of condom although none so far openly oppose it after Pope Benedict XVI declared he favored its use but only against the dreaded AIDS-HIV "You, young employees who are still single, be sure to have sex only during your infertile period," Defensor said. "If not, then use condom." The governor delivered the piece after the turn-over to the province of P400,000 check by Vicente Molejona, Western Vis

B y Pet Melliza, THE BEEKEEPER At the conference of the Organization of American States (OAS) in 2008, US Pres. George W. Bush ranted on the “axis of evil” naming Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, among it. The next day, it was the Latin American leader’s turn to rile back. “The devil,” noted Chavez, “stood here yesterday; this podium still reeks of sulphur”. We can no longer say the same today of the Ombudsman regional office at the ground floor of CAP Building, Luna St., Iloilo City. It no longer smells of sulphur. Since this space has run a series on her, Virginia Palanca-Santiago, W. Visayas regional director and concurrently, assistant ombudsman for the Visayas, made her presence scarce in Iloilo. Her office is bare and we fear that she would be slipping silently into retirement. We have written throughout, and this is already the 22nd of the series, that Virginia Palanca-Santiago should not be given that privilege. She should be investigated for corruption for brazenly rigging

Iloilo Provincial Capitol By Pet melliza THE BEEKEEPER One simmering controversy that excites Iloilo provincial employees is their uniform that is still inchoate. The furore broke after they sensed that they had nothing else to do but accept a fait accompli : the P4,000 clothing allowance for each of them was already gone, to be deducted from the payroll sans their consent to pay for materials and labor supplied by a single contractor in Manila. Multiply P4,000 to more than 2,000 provincial employees equals P8 million plus, enough to send employees raising their hackles at the mastermind, Superwoman whose unsavoury reputation as a racketeer precedes her wherever she goes. Superwoman ratiocinates she is doing that, not for kickbacks or similar consideration, but for pure altruism, gratis et amore, for the love of the provincial government and employees. From her own admission, she has already put the cart ahead of the horse and all that remains is the seal of imprimatur fr

By Pet Melliza Mr. Hole of Justice, aka Peter Jimenea, has reason to rage against the darkness blanketing Iloilo. He has the right to crucify Mayor Jedd Patrick Mabilog for scheming to privatize the Metro Iloilo Water District under the moniker “private-public partnership” or PPP. The ploy of Mabilog and his gang at the MIWD board of directors is to make the public utility inflict injury on itself so to justify the takeover by a private group whom columnist Peter tags as “Cinco Cantos” led by a lawmaker who is notoriously a “good-weather-ally”. If we noticed in the past, the directors scrimped on MIWD’s budget for maintenance and rehabilitation of old facilities, especially, in the aftermath of typhoon “Frank” in June 2008. The decision is deliberate: meant to sabotage the MIWD and spark public outrage in order to justify the clamor for PPP. Among those who see portents of darkness is Peter Jimenea. He sees not only racketeers pulling off a broad daylight robbery at MIWD. He sees

Pet Melliza, The Beekeeper: Fight corruption

I don't know this girl. I haven't even seen her face. I had no idea she was even at the Catholic cemetery at Igbaras, Iloilo, Central Philippines during the All Saints' Day, November 1, 2010. She is not a ghost but her image haunts me; and am not alone in that. Others who were tagged in the photo at Facebook by amateur photographer Sioc Melliza and viewed the photo got stunned by the combined sadness and serenity it evoked. The image is more poignant and mysterious than Mona Lisa. Here is a complete stranger, a child with her back to the camera serenely sitting by a grave, her family too poor to erect a concrete tomb for its beloved departed who neither the photographer nor this writer knows. Five years from the new, the lease for the dugout expires, the remains are to be excavated and disposed of, and another body will take over.

I understand Dr. Michael Tan's disappointment at the good habit of the Philippine government of going all out for imported western drugs when the country has abundant materials to develope a home-grown pharmaceutical industry. He rues in his column at the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the country is blessed with natural bounties, vast flora and fauna that have immense medicinal potentials but still remain untapped because the government (then led by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) has that nice policy of splurging rare foreign reserves importing medicines and ingredients instead of utilizing indigenous sources. Herbal medicines, to paraphrase him, have become a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide and the trade continues to grow as more and more people find their effectiveness. The Philippines could have done the same but lags behind in this field because its government scrimps on research of the medical potentials of its natural bounties. Try surfing the net and you will fi

I couldn't sleep my siesta this afternoon, January 15, 2011 but I am in a great mood to retreat back to memory lane by reviewing the shots I have done, and having gone a short distance, chanced upon the picture above with lawyer Elias Guiloriza shaking hands with a colleague from Nepal at the 5th Conference of Lawyers in Asia Pacific (COLAP 5) held in Manila September 2010. Standing behind is lawyer Janne Baterna, also from Iloilo. I could only wish the compañero from Nepal and his compatriot seated beside him, would tag themselves here. The Nepalese delegation presented a unique dance number during the solidarity night, characterized by the males raising their hats high above their heads alternatively with their left and right hands while rotating their hands.

There's a rustic ambience at Tib's Rock resto that attracts visitors. It's not a classy watering hole in fact; its nipa roof and bamboo walls need repair. The two clumps of bamboo at the entrance and the tweaking of its poles and the rustling of its leaves, and the surrounding trees make one feels the serenity of the countryside in this outskirt of Iloilo City that urbanization is fast gobbling up. Serendipity could be the more apt word. Photo shows (left) Peter Jimenea, an opinion writer and host of the TV show "Kape kag Isyu" and resto owner Tibo Jardaleza (in white shirt).

Iloilo City, a Central Philippine city, boasts of its unique moniker to have the world's costliest power rate, at P14 per kilowatt-hour. Contrast that to the three electric cooperatives, the Iloilo Electric Cooperative (ILECO) I, II and III, that charge P3 to 4 lower despite their lesser incomes and bigger area to maintain. Patay Power has only 8,000 hectares to cover, which is the area of Iloilo City. An ILECO utility maintains a coverage area more than 10 times bigger. At the Kape kag Isyu (Coffee & Issues), a talk show in its January 15, 2011 edition, two resource persons denounce private big business for squeezing blood from consumers. Ted Alvin Ong, chair of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) - Panay Chapter and its legal counsel, Atty. Romeo Gerochi, note that nothing can prevent the power distributor Panay Electric Company (PECO) from jacking up prices at will in cahoots with giants supplying it with power, namely Panay Power Corporation and its sweetheart Panay El

By Pet Melliza,The Beekeeper There is no end to power outages in this never, never land of Irong-Irong, a Central Philippine City. Blackouts hit it daily or nightly catching people by surprise and jacking up their blood pressure when they disrupt events or activities like live sports telecasts or hot-breaking news. In that case, you just feel helpless you can do nothing other than curse the Patay Electric Company and its sweetheart Patay Power – Patay Electric Development Corporation combine. You can't even contact them on phone to complain because Patay Electric has that nice habit of hanging up its phones in situations like that. We had been tricked into believing that with the coal-fired power plant in place, power outages would be a thing of the past. Power outages still do happen today, daily or nightly even, and for long durations, even multiple times in a single day. Patay Electric proffers inexhaustible excuses for the inconvenience. So does Patay Power whose coal-fired pla