Pet Melliza

BY PET MELLIZA/ The Beekeeper The most notorious kidnap-for-ransom group Abu Sayyaf  is no match to this modern-day pirate. The former must live the life of fugitives, sweat it out, and risk life and limb of its members to make a living with a few million pesos at the maximum. The latter, however, can breeze through good life in the comfort of air-conditioned  offices and  even be awarded “most outstanding taxpayer” for making multi-million bucks, no sweat. I am referring to Panay Electric Company (PECO) or Patay Electric that your Beekeeper often prefers to call it. PECO charges consumers P1 per kilowatt/hour (kwh). It appears small but multiply  that to its annual input of 400 million kwh, and that translates to P400 million. Now, it is applying to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for a .2681 per kwh increase for next year. That’s a small amount but that is P26.681 million per year,  which  is  about the  same cost  of  the  Iloilo City  College building that Injap Founda

BY PET MELLIZA/ The Beekeeper Stalls selling lampirong or capiz shell (placuna placenta) cooked or raw now dot the national road from Oton to Guimbal towns in southern Iloilo. You cannot find the same scene in northern Iloilo. The phenomenon started about two to three years ago. The current price is P20 per kilo of the ready-to-eat kind but you can haggle to the sort of a promo of 5 k + 1 k for P100, meaning your P100 would fetch six kilos instead of five. The mother-of-pearl shell had disappeared in the ‘70s from massive extraction to supply cottage industries fabricating and exporting lamps, chandeliers, plate and cup holders, and other designs for interior decorations made from its shiny, semi-transparent, pearlescent shells. In the mid-90s, the South East Asian Fishery Research Development Center (SEAFDEC), a consortium of Pacific Rim countries, experimented on reseeding southern Iloilo from Oton down to Miag-ao, and succeeded. The juvenile lampirong were spawned

BY PET MELLIZA/ The Beekeeper Stalls selling lampirong or capiz shell ( placuna placenta ) cooked or raw now dot the national road from Oton to Guimbal towns in southern Iloilo. You cannot find the same scene in northern Iloilo. The phenomenon started about two to three years ago. The current price is P20 per kilo of the ready-to-eat kind but you can haggle to the sort of a promo of 5 k + 1 k for P100, meaning your P100 would fetch six kilos instead of five. The mother-of-pearl shell had disappeared in the ‘70s from massive extraction to supply cottage industries fabricating and exporting lamps, chandeliers, plate and cup holders, and other designs for interior decorations made from its shiny, semi-transparent, pearlescent shells. In the mid-90s, the South East Asian Fishery Research Development Center (SEAFDEC), a consortium of Pacific Rim countries, experimented on reseeding southern Iloilo from Oton down to Miag-ao, and succeeded. The juvenile lampirong were spawned and hatched

BY PET MELLIZA, The Beekeeper Virginia Palanca-Santiago, assistant ombudsman for the Visayas and concurrently, head of its regional office in Western Visayas, recycled an administrative and criminal complaint against Rep. Niel "Jun-jun" C. Tupas, Jr. (LP, 5th district, Iloilo) who had hounded her former boss Merceditas Gutierrez, the latter lately learned. She ordered the solon, who had led the move to kick-out Gutierrez via impeachment, to answer in ten days the complaint filed by a relative of the lawmaker. Gutierrrez resigned on April 30, from public pressure and disgrace that catapulted to fame her chief tormentor, Rep. Tupas. The complaint was lodged on Jun-jun Tupas in 2008 yet. Notwithstanding his reelection to the Lower House in May 2010, that warranted the dismissal of the administrative action  motu proprio,  Palanca-Santiago’s order still implies as if the administrative aspect of the complaint still holds on. Worse, in ordering Tupas to file an answer, Palanc

BY PET MELLIZA/ The Beekeeper The threat of using the ultimate weapon of the Dark Age, the thing called “ex-communication”, is being raised anew against infidels and heretics who want the Philippine government put more teeth to the United Nations Food Fund’s “millennium development goal” (MDG) to enhance mother’s and child’s survival and reduce maternal and infant’s death. The Philippines is among the countries’ with dismal record in complying with the international protocol. The good news though is that it now attempts to stand up to its commitment to ratify it by enacting the Reproductive Health Bill (RHB) that has been in the pipeline of Congress in the ‘90s yet. The Holy of Holies opposes the RHB calling it “abortion bill”. The Holy of Holies is on the warpath against something it has not read nor is willing to understand. The Holy of Holies is trying to mobilize an army of ignoramuses, misnamed Pro-Life Advocates, to wage war against the RHB. It now pushes its

BY PET MELLIZA/ The Beekeeper The criminal charges lodged by militant groups against disgraced former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez tell us: impunity must end. That’s similar to the flurry of criminal charges they lodged against retired Army General Jovito Palparan who murdered, maimed and kidnapped people and still got away with it. It is not enough that Gutierrez resigned in shame. She has to answer for her crimes, particularly, for coddling big time crooks. It is not enough that Palparan retired. He has to answer for his crimes like the enforced disappearance of Jonas Burgos, an agriculturist for a non-government organization that taught farmers appropriate technology. It is not enough that Merceditas Gutierrez resigned. Her minions who have made the Office of the Ombudsman a bastion of corruption must also be ferreted out and brought to justice. I am referring to Virginia Palanca-Santiago, Assistant Ombudsman for the Visayas and concurrently the regional director of the same

Hole of Justice: Grand Plan in the Kingdom by the River (25) : "By Peter G. Jimenea/ HOLE OF JUSTICE King Tura declared he would plant a million trees in the Kingdom by the River this year. His subject..."

BY PET MELLIZA/ THE BEEKEEPER Iloilo Gov. Arthur D. Defensor, Sr. hesitates to clap his hands when asked for comment on the “open skies” policy adopted by the P-Noy administration. His counterpart in the fake Queen City of the South, Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, however, crows all over, clapping his hands and feet at the prospect. With open skies, the airport at Cabatuan-Sta.Barbara, Iloilo will be used for international flights, goes the cute phantasy of Mabilog. Open skies unlocks the floodgate to the deluge of foreign tourists, muses Mabilog. In short, open skies paves the way for foreign routes and with that, the rush of economic, particularly, tourism activities. And viola, prosperity and progress! Defensor indirectly dismisses Mabilog’s line as simplistic no matter how cute. “Open skies does not necessarily mean international flights at the Iloilo Airport.” The New Iloilo Airport, 26 kilometers northwest of Iloilo City, has the capacity to accommodate big planes used for inter

Hole of Justice: Grand Plan at the Kingdom by the River (24) : "By Peter G. Jimenea/ Hole of Justice I tried to zero, in my past columns, only on Hydrocephallus who did everything fair and foul to expand..."

Hole of Justice: Grand Plan at the Kingdom by the River (24) : "By Peter G. Jimenea/ Hole of Justice I tried to zero, in my past columns, only on Hydrocephallus who did everything fair and foul to expand..."

N anay (Josefina Suficiencia Melliza)  was strong yesterday. She braved the rains to send off manong Rudy Hingco yesterday to his final resting place. Before that, she walked her way to the church for the burial mass.   Nong Rudy is the son of Nanay Coro Hingco, nanay's elder sister. He died at 81 while watching TV. Nanay was joking with her relatives from sta. barbara yesterday at lunch after the burial. Tiki had driven her to the cemetery for the burial; nanay walked her way inside to see tatay's tomb before returning to tiki's car outside. Nanay ate heartily and drank pepsi after the burial yesterday and still joked with her kins from Sta. Barbara. Tiki could not believe it. She drove me this morning to Moleta-Gasapo at Miag-ao, Iloilo. Nanay's remains will be brought home tomorrow late afternoon. For the meantime, the house in Igbaras is being prepared for her wake. Photo taken in 2005 after the mass in Igbaras, Iloilo, at her 80th birthday she was all smile the