Pet Melliza

ILOILO CITY - We wish to be like Sen. Franklin Drilon ecstatically crowing on the proposed mega-dam in central Iloilo, his “gift” to Ilonggos that promises jobs, brisker agriculture activities, prosperity and what not. Whenever we hear of mega dams, we are reminded of   disasters like Drilon’s earlier “gift” to Iloilo, the P120 million building called Iloilo Hall of Justice, built in 1992 and the only building thereabouts to be condemned and abandoned in the wake of the 5.5 magnitude quake of February 6, 2012. Deduro batting for alternatives to the mega dam: small dams to benefit small farmers, and rehabilitation of existing dams/ Other buildings, much older ones erected in pre-war time yet, withstood the tremblor. Only the HOJ that Drilon now hisses whenever he hears grumblings against it, sustained cracks that disjoined beams from pillars, and sunk the walls, indicative of structural flaws. The HOJ is a monument of corruption. Its materials used are subs

BY PET MELLIZA/ THE BEEKEEPER The heat from 10 a.m. through 4 p.m. these days reminds us of one substance we need to avoid dehydration and heat stroke – water. Have it ready by your side. Drink it when thirsty. The noontime or mid-afternoon sun burns like the heat wave from the kitchen fire to a cook. Potable water, rather, the lack of it, kills. The online news  InterAksyon.com , quoting the United Nations International Children Educational Fund (UNICEF) reports that 2,000 children under five die daily from diarrheal diseases, some 1,800 of that caused by ailments linked to contaminated water, lack of sanitation and poor hygiene. That figure appears unnoticed or simply taken as matter-of-course perhaps for being "not alarming". That magnitude is like the daily horror of a fire gutting the Iloilo National High School, killing half its student population. The only difference though is that all the burnt bodies are those of pre-schoolers or below five years old.

BY PET MELLIZA Schools are again jacking up matriculation fees next academic year. We are not qualifying the word whether “private” or “public” because both are raising their fees. The latter though is self-contradictory because public schools are supposedly free but the gods of Malacanang and Congress purvey public schools to mean everything but free. The Philippine government consistently cuts the budget for education and licenses state-owned universities and colleges to sources additional funds elsewhere, particularly, by imposing fees and raising existing ones. Along with that is the implication that public schools can do everything to enforce collections even to the point of forcing students to go on leave for failure to pay the fees on time. That happened to Kristel Tejada, a first year behavioral psychology student at the University of the Philippines – Manila. She already took the finals and passed them with flying colors but just because she did not pay her tu

BY PET MELLIZA/ THE BEEKEEPER Rituals I used to call “religious” no longer excite me now but there is at least one that still fires me up and that is reunions of alumni of the seminary where I studied. One of these is the “family day” every May 1 where we gather at a nunnery in Pavia, Iloilo with families of seminary students of the congregation where I once aspired to join. This will be my fourth year attendance to the reunion but I already have a glimpse of what’s going to transpire. Tony Tantoco, vocation director of the CICM and another confrere would arrive to join the seminary students and their families. The alumni or the “ex-seminarians” or simply “ex” would arrive. The gathering starts with a mass with Tony and one or two priests concelebrating, followed by lunch, then the plenary sessions. The nuns would again be very accommodating hosts and vowing to be ever loyal vocation scouts, untiring in looking for young men to enrol at the seminary. And as usual

BY PET MELLIZA/THE BEEKEEPER Ang taong nagigipit sa patalim kumakapit,  goes a Tagalog adage of desperate people don’t minding grabbing at anything including knives to survive. The maxim resonates here as:  Ang taong nagigipit, sa Bombay kumakapit.  People in want are willing to  contract loan sharks. That’s the situation now of entrepreneurs at public markets of Iloilo City – Mandurriao Public Market, Super Market, Central Market, Jaro Small Market, Jaro Big Market, and La Paz Market. Go there and stall holders will tell you business is not brisk nowadays. Go to any of those public markets just to observe, without interviewing any vendor. The whole day of the market, you will see the ubiquitous  Bombay  or its  Pinoy  agents hopping from one kiosk or table to another with their pocket notebooks serving as  listahan  of debtors and their balances, to collect. The usurers are wise enough not to expose their line beyond P5,000 per borrower though they may part more

BY  PET MELLIZA/ THE BEEKEEPER Igbaras, Iloilo Mayor Vicente Escorpion defies the Ombudsman, thus, should be held liable. He first refused to implement the Ombudsman’s order absolving two municipal employees, treasurer Cynthia Cabanero and accounting clerk Pio Elumba of any administrative liability. Next, he defied the same law by refusing to pay the two back wages and other benefits denied them while they were serving the sentence of dismissal. Escorpion received the Ombudsman’s order October 4, 2012. October 20, 2012, he received a communication from the Ombudsman “directing” him to execute, that is, restore the duo to their positions.  As lawyer, he knows the effects of the dismissal of complaints; but he feigns ignorance by writing “clarificatory questions” whether the Ombudsman’s communication is “mandatory” or “directory”. Be that as it may, he grudgingly reinstated Cabanero December 29, 2012 and Elumba January 2, 2013. The two still grovel to collect b

BY PET MELLIZA/ THE BEEKEEPER Coca Cola may be a reliable source of information but you may only get a biased, if not polluted, one if you relied solely on it to know about Pepsi, and vice versa. The reason is obvious: both are rivals in soft drink trade which, as a matter of course, requires that whatever tidbits one dishes about the other must be scrutinized or counter-checked. That reminds me of a political caucus, by “Team TME” afternoon of March 5, at South San Jose, Molo, Iloilo City. The name that hugged its center stage was Rommel Ynion but not by  his choice. TME stands for the administration bigwigs of Iloilo City – Rep. Jerry Trenas, Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, and Vice Mayor Joe Espinosa III, all running for reelection under the ruling LP umbrella. Ynion, a political neophyte, might not imagine mud being slung at him by the  dramatis personae  of the caucus who took turns lambasting him for “defrauding people.” Trenas, Mabilog and their host Kap Ising

BY PET MELLIZA/ THE     BEEKEEPER Justice secretary Leila de Lima is ready to run extra miles in the name of public service. She entertains; she spices her legal genius as she dishes out the criminal charges awaiting Sultan Jamilul Kiram III and his 200-strong Royal Army that landed in Sabah, Malaysia. The Royal Army, former guerillas of the Moro National Liberation Front, landed on Semporna, Sabah and held their ground as they announced their intent to take  the north Bornean state of Malaysia back to the Sultanate of Sulu. On surface, she condemns Kiram and his Royal Army. On second look though, De Lima merely reaffirms Kiram’s claim that Sabah belongs to the Sultanate, hence, a Philippine territory. The British, former colonial rulers of Malaysia, leased Sabah from the Sultanate in the 18 th  century. If we were to go for De Lima, Kiram and his armed followers are criminally liable for rebellion, inciting to war, illegal possession of firearms, illegal assembly and