Pet Melliza

By Pet Melliza/ The Beekeeper Agriculture, joked then agriculture secretary Salvador Escudero III before   Iloilo agriculturists, covered vast areas: “everything on land except marijuana;   everything in water except piranha”. But bureaucracy in the Department of Agriculture (DA) and its counterparts in   local government units (LGU’s) don’t see it that way. In most regions,   agriculture is narrowed down to rice and corn, and fruits like mangoes, melons   and coconuts. A sector of crops has been skirted in the program to raise income of farmers:   medicinal plants. The herbal medicine, “nutriceuticals”, is now a multi-billion   dollar industry worldwide. Google for medicinal plants, say, balunggay (Moringa   oleifera), and the net navigates you to sites advertising balunggay products in   tablets, capsules, suspension and extracts bearing foreign brands. Balunggay thrives anywhere in the neighbourhood but government is not keen   teaching people to grow it commercially, not ju

By Pet Melliza/ The Beekeeper Mr.  Hole of Justice  aka Peter Jimenea was warming himself over bottles of beer last Friday when he nearly fell off the bench as the evening TV flashed live coverage of the 40,000-strong rally at the Luneta Park against the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. I could not understand why they call themselves “pro-life” and the RH Bill “pro-abortion”. Even their Sanhedrin haven’t laid their hands, much less, eyes on the measure that merely echoes the country’s commitment to the international community in the “millennium development goal” (MDG) of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Peter is dismayed P-Noy seems to balk from the noises of the hierarchy that arrogates upon itself the title “The Church”. “P-Noy is caving in and that’s expected; he owes it to the bishops’ for the rise to power by his mother (Cory Aquino in 1986) and for himself in the May 2010,” he explains. Rep. Janette Loreto Garin (Lakas, 1 st   District, Iloilo) author of the bil

SIMPLY BUSINESS: DO DAY AGAINST DENGUE : "Before Dengue has reached epidemic levels in Iloilo Province, Governor Arthur Defensor, Sr. has launched another Do Day Against Dengue and e..."

Hole of Justice: Grand Plan in the Kingdom by the River (18) : "By Peter Jimenea/ Hole of Justice The dust swirled by the rampaging Hydrocephallus is settling down after Kingdom Information Officer ..."

By Pet Melliza/ The Beekeeper The government enlisted religion in the anti-dengue campaign which kicks off today (March 24) with bells pealing in all churches of Iloilo province and city. Well, bells and prayers can’t drive away dengue hemorrhagic fever and its carrier the Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegyptii mosquitoes or any pest or disease for that matter. The campaign to keep Iloilo’s children safe from the ailment misses one key element: it fails to enlist mother nature. I borrowed the phrase from colleague Larry Locara who comments in his web page that the “four o’clock habit” campaign of the government is only a short term fix that nary touches the heart of the problem. The “four o-clock habit” mobilizes communities to clean up surroundings every 4 pm to deprive mosquitoes of breeding grounds and hiding places. It includes draining stagnant pools, turning upside down receptacles and burning dried leaves to drive away mosquitoes. However, Locara notes that it leaves out the

By Pet Melliza/The Beekeeper I was in Guimbal, Iloilo attending a wedding at the Catholic church afternoon of Saturday,  March 19, when somebody relayed the news that the United Nations imposed a no-fly-zone in Libya. The guy was excited, foreseeing the end of the Ghadaffy “dictatorship". The next day, TV footages broadcast rapid flashes of light in series that turned out to be missiles from NATO and US forces hurtling into Libya for “violations” of the UN sanction. I join the voices world wide denouncing the NATO and the US-led war of aggression on Libya. Protecting Libyans is the least of their concern. It is the natural bounties of their victims that they are coveting. Ghadaffy is being punished for summoning the might of the country’s armed forces to defend the state against armed combatants. There might be unarmed civilians staging peaceful rallies in Libya but, unlike in Tunisia and Egypt which toppled early this year from “people power”, the Libyan imbroglio involved ar

Hole of Justice: Grand Plan at the Kingdom by the River 17 : "When disaster strikes the Kingdom by the River and parliament subsequently places the kingdom under a state of calamity, King Tura will be h..."

Ripe papaya fruits for sale at the entrance of the farm By Pet Melliza After the groundbreaking for the Iloilo Press Club subdivision at Brgy. San Jose, San Miguel, Iloilo last March 14, columnist Larry Locara invited me to repair to the Red Lady Papaya Farm at Brgy. Jibao-an, Pavia town which was just along  the way back to Iloilo City. The three-hectare papaya plantation yields five tons of mature fruits weekly which are sold in the local market. A stall at the entrance displays and sells the ripening fruits. At P25 per kilo farmgate price, the weekly harvest more or less yields P125,000. The farm, owned by Gerard Camiña, Western Visayas director of the Land Transportation Office (LTO), was established last year in the midst of a long and severe dry spell. Farm manager Nelson Velez with this writer Nelson Velez, the manager, designed a windmill that pumped water into two lines of fiberglass barrels on an eight-foot high platform.  With that, he irrigates the farm, a for

Hole of Justice: Grand Plan in the Kingdom by the River 16 : "By Peter G. Jimenea/Hole of Justice I always make it a point that my webpages <petergjimenea.blogspot.com> and <peterjimenea.blogsp..."

From L - R: Passi Mayor Jesry Palmares, Rommel Ynion, Gov. Arthur Defensor, Iloilo Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, Iloilo City Rep. Jerry Treñas and lawyer Leonardo Jiz.  ILOILO CITY, Philippines - Members of the Iloilo Press Club (IPC) break the ground for the IPC Subdivision for press people. "This is one of the best things in life and this is  not for free," Iloilo Gov. Arthur D. Defensor, Sr., reminds press people. The groundbreaking, held March 14, at the site, Brgy. San Jose, San Miguel, was followed by an inaugural ceremony at the Hotel Del Rio. San Miguel town is 15 kilometers northwest of this central Philippine City.  IPC interim president Rommel Ynion donated a hectare to the IPC where he will erect uniform housing structures that in turn will be turned over to beneficiaries, only those who have no houses of their own. Laying down the time capsule for the IPC Subdivision. Photo below shows Pavia Vice Mayor Guillermo Hisancha, an architect. Defens

By Pet Melliza The Beekeeper Pensioner Neonita Gobuyan has nothing but only curses for the Government Service  Insurance System (GSIS). The meager pension she gets as retired regional bureau  chief of the Philippine News Agency (PNA) reached her not only rarely and far in  between. GSIS still imposes on her burdens tantamount to crossing seven seas and  seven mountains before she gets her own benefits. Last Tuesday, March 15, at the canteen of the Iloilo Provincial Capitol, while she was  waiting for media colleagues to go to Hotel Del Rio, assembly point for Iloilo  journalists on their way to inaugurate the Iloilo Press Club Subdivision at San  Jose, San Miguel, Iloilo, she handed me a photo-copy of the editorial of the  Philippines Daily Inquirer. And she was very, very mad at all the members of the GSIS directorate including Raymundo Lapating, superintendent of the Iloilo DepEd division who happens to be one of them. “ Kami diri iya nga mga pensioner naga-igud-igud pero ang

Hole of Justice: Monalisa lied! : "Peter G. Jimenea, Hole of Justice In one of the fora called-for by members of the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Omb..."

By Pet Melliza/ The Beekeeper The national road along Brgys. Nanga and Tuguisan, both in Guimbal, Iloilo may not last long before the sea eats it up. In the ‘70s, you needed a slingshot to hit the shore; today, standing on the road that has become an embankment, you only have to spit and you hit the shore right under. A buffer of sand dotted with coconuts, mangoes, talisay and kamunsil trees used to separate the sea from the road. Now, the government needs to erect concrete barriers and dikes as last defence to the encroaching sea to protect the road that links Iloilo and Antique provinces. A similar trend occurs off northern Iloilo, in Ajuy town. The sea is getting closer to the line of houses along the road. In the mid-90s, Gov. Arthur Defensor embarked on a mangrove planting program along the shores of Ajuy. His successor, Gov. Niel Tupas added to that, particularly at Brgy. Culasi which was closest to the danger zone. The pagatpat and   bakhaw species that Defensor planted are

SIMPLY BUSINESS: HOG FINISHING TIPS FROM THE INTEGRATED FARMER : " Decide on which segment of the industry you will enter into, like finishing or piglet production. Allan chose finishing hogs becaus..."

SIMPLY BUSINESS: CATFISH GROWING TIPS FROM THE INTEGRATED FARMER : "Buy your fingerlings from a reliable source. Be sure that the sizes are uniform so that you will minimize shooters or the fast growers wh..."

SIMPLY BUSINESS: AGRI TECHNICIAN MAKES GOOD AS FULLTIME INTEGRATED ... : "This Agricultural Technician employed by the LGU of Cabatuan, Iloilo finally made a decision on August 1, 2010, that his peers thought he ..."

Hole of Justice: Grand Plan at the Kingdom by the River 15 : "By Peter G. JimeneaHole of Justice The internet enabled me to overcome the self-censorship of local papers which used to publish my columns...."

BY Pet Melliza/ The Beekeeper Nearby towns may now laugh at Iloilo City for their superior abattoirs. The city’s facility is not “double “A”  or “AA”, one allowed to process cattle or beef. That disgraceful fact disqualifies it from sporting the moniker “premier city”. Former Iloilo City mayor, now Rep. Jerry P. Treñas had another city in mind when he cried in the 2001 elections to make Iloilo “Queen City of the South once more”. He finished his third and last term leaving the city as wretched as before. Iloilo City’s “tourist attraction” Iloilo River is still the country’s biggest septic tank next to Pasig because Jerry P. Treñas throughout his reign failed to compel establishments dotting along the embankments to install septic tanks and bar them from emptying their wastes into the arm of the sea that Iloilo River is. Treñas moved up to the House of Representatives after the May 10, 2010 elections with Iloilo City too far from becoming premier city. How can it become one when i