Rommel must probe abattoir

By Pet Melliza/ The Beekeeper

 

Leganes mayor, Ike Rojas, a person of foresight, is about to pull off a surprise that can make bureaucrats of Iloilo City jump to their feet.

 

Leganes and a private group are joining hands to operate a “double A” or “AA” abattoir that puts to shame that of Iloilo City.

 

Leganes town, 12 kilometers north of Iloilo City, runs an abattoir originally erected in 2005 by the Iloilo Hog Raisers’ Cooperative from the grant of P30 million of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA’s) agricultural competitiveness fund (ACF).

 

The cooperative, unwelcomed at the DA’s Iloilo Fishing Port Complex (IFPC) in Iloilo City, got a home when mayor Rojas offered the municipality’s land where it now stands.

 

The cooperative though was riddled by corruption that substandard materials, especially, equipment, were used to erect the facility. The trusses of its roof, for one, were salvaged materials from a piggery owned a member.

 

The coop dissolved after much internal intramurals. Rojas was constrained to take over and rehabilitate it using local funds.

 

With the private group offering its expertise and trained crew to run it, the Leganes “AA” abattoir is back to its original form of processing at least 300 head of hogs per night meeting the health standards of the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS).

 

Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog boasts that its abattoir at Tacas, Pavia (not Iloilo City as often announced), was upgraded to “AA” and now on its way to “AAA”, so-called because, on top of its hygienic and efficient meat processing, it will have a blast storage that freezes meat in seconds.

 

Yours truly doubts that. The Iloilo City abattoir remains as fetid as ever. Animal carcasses are strewn to the concrete floor alongside slime and grime from dung. Neighbors are grumbling because its solid and liquid wastes spill over to the roadside canals emitting repulsive odors.

 

Pig dung and urine are actually wealth disguised as garbage as the saying goes. They can be decomposed in septic tanks to produce methane for fuel and organic fertilizer.

 

If Rommel Ynion had his way in the mayoral match this May, may I offer this unsolicited advice that he probes the mismanagement of the Iloilo City abattoir.

 

Passi City built one “AA” abattoir in 2006 for P45 million. It now processes trucks of hogs and cattle daily for Monterey, one of the Philippines’ biggest meat suppliers.

 

Iloilo City has to explain why its abattoir that already ate up P100 million plus remains in sordid condition.

 

Passi City’s abattoir is making money. What about Iloilo City’s?

 

Rommel Ynion indeed must investigate, my unsolicited advice.

 

xxx

 

I bought a SIM pack of Smart Buddy to cut costs by half reaching friends subscribing to the same telecom service provider.

 

However, after a second mishap of losing loads mysteriously, I decided to maintain my old prepaid telecom service.

 

I loaded a P300 card in my Smart Buddy line December 19. I only used it in few instances sending short message. I never used it for a single call and internet.

 

Smart’s services were down mostly from December 19 through 29. Eve of Christmas and two days after that, it’s hard to get through because the network clogged up.

 

When I checked my load 10 days after, that is, December 29, I found out only P10 was left.

 

It must have been the unsolicited advertisements that Smart sent, messages not worth answering especially the ones offering internet services. I didn’t answer them; I deleted them as soon as they got to my cellphone.

 

These unsolicited advertisements regardless of who sent them get to your nerve. You are in a thick of work or in the midst of sleep, nothing is more vexatious than being jolted by message alerts that contain nothing other than self-promotion gimmicks of telecom companies.

 

It’s Smart that gets into my nerve more seriously. It still has the nerve of billing you afterwards. In the first place, subscribers don’t ask for those advertisements.

 

In that case, Smart irritates its subscribers with unsolicited advertisements. It charges them fees for its singular acts of annoying them. Beat that?

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