Pet Melliza

BY PET MELLIZA/ THE BEEKEEPER Who foots the bill to pay the salaries and back wages of reinstated employees earlier ordered dismissed by the Ombudsman? To be more precise, who pays the current and back wages of two employees of Igbaras, Iloilo now that the Omdudsman trashed the memorandum of dismissal recommended by a subordinate? Reinstated employees later found innocent by the Ombudsman are entitled to receive all their back wages and benefits. The duty to pay is not on the lap of the reckless officer now retired assistant ombudsman for the Visayas,  Virginia Palanca-Santiago who rigged her evaluation of facts and the law. She and investigator Roderick Blazo who misinvestigated the two and Igbaras mayor Jaime Esmeralda, are not liable to pay their victims’ unpaid emoluments. That responsibility falls on government, in this case, the municipality of Igbaras. And there is hardly any way to recover from Palanca-Santiago who already retired last July 17, with all b...

BY PET MELLIZA/ THE BEEKEEPER Whenever yours truly comes across the tarpaulin screaming “My City My Pride” with someone’s face grinning from ear to ear beside it, I can’t help but exclaim: “What?” My City My Pride has the most fetid abattoir in all of Iloilo. It churns unsanitary pork that city residents consume unaware that the animals are slaughtered in unhygienic condition, their carcasses strewn on the floor mixing up with slime and sludge while being “cleaned”. Oton, Pavia, San Miguel and Leganes towns, all adjacent to Iloilo City, enjoy the boom because of the wretchedness of the city slaughterhouse as consumers prefer to buy pork and beef processed by their respective abattoirs. If you ate dinuguan from pork processed by the Iloilo slaughterhouse, better think twice. The blood and entrails are likely adulterated by hog wastes and human sweat. The city abattoir in neighboring Pavia town, not Jaro, Iloilo City as we are made to believe, doesn’t have...

By Pet Melliza/ The Beekeeper That’s an apt kinaray-a term for Virginia Palanca-Santiago, who before she retired last July, was "assistant ombudsman" for the Visayas, a non-existing post in the Ombudsman Act.  It means “reckless” or “thoughtless" act. In cebuano it is pataka or pasagad . The term applies as well to her sidekick, Roderick Blazo, titled “graft investigator” but should better be called “quack investigator”. That virtue though is not the monopoly of Quack Investigator and Nuestra Senora de Patarasak, with apologies to columnist Peter Jimenea who coined and lodged the term for an official in Iloilo City. The modifier aptly fits as well to a pack of charlatans masquerading as graftbusters led by a perpetual bar flunker and a cleric whose looks reminds us of our simian past. Rev. Simian, Mr. Barflunker, Bik Agila et al. haled to the ombudsman in February 2005  Igbaras mayor Jaime Esmeralda, municipal treasurer Cynthia Cabanero and priva...

By Pet Melliza/ The Beekeeper The political dusts still swirl after  a gust swept the Liberal Party (LP) landscape in Iloilo. The LP hierarchy has unleashed a shakedown, defying in effect expectations from the ground by letting in a band of strangers to take over the helms of the LP from local members effective September 27. The gamble has predictable outcome: several key LP loyalists drastically bolting over to the other fence. Iloilo SP Gerry Flores, erstwhile LP 1st district chair, did not have second thought after learning that the LP hierarchy dumped former Gov. Niel D. Tupas, Sr., a party member for 47 years in favor of incumbent Gov. Arthur D. Defensor, Sr.  Holding the reign of the district now is Oscar Garin who has  earned the reputation over the years of crashing into the gates of whatever parties in power for convenience and personal survival.  Flores tagged along with him the LP di...

ILOILO CITY – The Office of the Ombudsman reversed the resolution of the Ombudsman – Visayas by dismissing the administrative charges against two municipal employees. In a nine-page resolution received by the respondents October 4,  the Ombudsman concludes:  "Wherefore…the memorandum dated 15 February 2007 be reconsidered and set aside. The motion for reconsideration dated 08 January 2009 is hereby granted. Accordingly, the administrative complaint against respondents Cynthia M. Cabañero and Pio E. Elumba is dismissed.” To recall, a shadowy group People's Graftwatch of Iloilo charged Cabañero, municipal treasurer of Igbaras, Iloilo, Elumba, private secretary to the mayor, and Igbaras mayor Jaime Esmeralda for “ghost” implementation of a road rehabilitation project involving P1 million. Esmeralda, then mayor of the mountain town, 40 kilometers south of Iloilo City, implemented the project April 2004. The graft charges were filed against him and his two subo...

Kapehan (Atty. Yoyong Mamon and RTC Judge Rene Hortillo) Extention habitues BY PET  MELLIZA/THE BEEKEEPER If you want to know some gossips, as the saying goes, go to coffee shops. The cafe has already dislodged the barber shop: the latter in yonder years was watering hole of the community; people, including the important spinner of yarns – the “cochero” (kutsero) congregated there to while time and increase their wisdom. A steaming cup of coffee can inspire exchanges of stories or even prompt an ordinary man into a flash of genius dishing out ideas on how to save, not just a small community, but the whole world even. You want to find that out? Go to one nook at De Paul’s, a former college but now serving as temporary shelter for the bulk of displaced courts and personnel of regional trial courts (RTCs) and municipal trial courts (MTCs) from judges down to messengers. It’s in the kapehan there where De Paul’s earned its moniker “De Paul Hall of Justice”, a ...

All-star cast: Sen. Jinggoy Estrada (2nd from left), Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile (seated beside him) and Vice President Jejomar Binay (third from right) caption BY PET MELLIZA/ The Beekeeper At the flag raising ceremony October 1, Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. told provincial employees he and Tupas already united “that ends bickering among you”, acknowledging the pro-Tupas and –Defensor factions among provincial workers. Defensor to employees: stop our bickerings. Gov. Tupas and I are united now.   “We are now one…stop your heated partisanship,” he told employees. “It’s over now, you don’t have to wager on the outcome anymore”, referring to the knack of some employees to bet on who between Tupas and Defensor was to be anointed Liberal Party standard bearer for Iloilo province. October 26, the LP through Sen. Franklin Drilon declared Defensor provincial standard bearer, dashing hopes of local LP members on the candidacy of former governor, Niel Tu...