Pet Melliza

BY PET MELLIZA/ THE BEEKEEPER When Atty. Sonnette Daquita assumed as OIC-director of the Ombudsman office in Iloilo City, yours truly offered through this corner my services to train investigators of her office as some of them were non-lawyers and struggling with written English like Roderick Blazo, who I tag in this space “quack investigator”. Quack Investigator and Virginia Palanca-Santiago, the latter sporting the fictitious title “assistant ombudsman” prior to her retirement last year, rigged their decision in “People’s Graft Watch of Iloilo, Inc. vs Jaime Esmeralda, et al.” The latter were public officials of Igbaras, Iloilo.  Esmeralda then was mayor when the complaint was filed in February 2005. I have written 46-series of pieces on the pair hoping to raise public consciousness as well as within the office of the Ombudsman, that it should wield the vast power in its hands judiciously and not capriciously the way the moral pygmy and embalmed version of Mommy Dionisia did on...

BY PET MELLIZA/THE BEEKEEPER PNoy  has lots to do to rid the Ombudsman’s office of ruffians and quack investigators despite the forced resignation of Omb. Merceditas Gutierrez April 2011, and the retirement of Virginia Palanca-Santiago who sported the unreal post of “assistant ombudsman” July 17, 2012. Much is yet to be done in his quest for “tuwid na landas”. Section 8 of RA 6770, empowers the President to remove the Ombudsman’s deputies and special prosecutors. That follows that PNoy is empowered as well to boot out their juniors. The Constitutions bills the Ombudsman “protector of the people”, that is, it shields them from official shenanigan. It safeguards taxpayers’ money and ENSURES that public officials perform rightly. However, what we have shows otherwise. The Office of the Ombudsman still remains a bastion of corruption and misfits, good only for bullying lowly functionaries committing minor infractions but too timid in running after big time crooks. ...

By Pet Melliza/ The Beekeeper In the aftermath of Typhoon Quinta (December 25-27), flotsams like plastics stuck on to tree branches and power lines, about six meters high in Banate, Iloilo. They are indicators of the height the floodwater reached. Quinta drenched Iloilo starting December 25 afternoon until 27 th   morning, though it still drizzled until evening.   On the 26 th , the radio reported one person in San Miguel town and another in Pototan drowned, while another was missing. The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) opened the gates of the Moroboro Dam, Dingle afternoon of 26 th   that turned things uglier. Radio updates kept people on their toes. People on the path were alerted of the opening of the floodgate but did not expect its magniture. Floods swept farm lands and roads cutting off Dingle town, Duenas and Passi City from one another. The river in Passi rose to the level of the bridge.  The torrents washed out earthen shoulders of concr...

BY PET MELLIZA/ THE BEEKEEPER   Indo Paluay, number one councilor of Pototan, Iloilo and running for reelection in that town, built a rest house last year from his commission in the sale of heavy equipment to a mining company.   Through his connection with the principal supplier, he was able to deliver six units of bulldozers, pay-loaders and backhoes to a mining company. He narrated that information when we last met because the representative of the firm, an engineer surnamed Franco, happened to be my co-alumnus at a high school seminary, and he was extending his regards to me.   Indo was happy because he was able to strike P18 million worth of transaction “gid”.   Gid? That’s peanuts compared to the prank pulled off in Iloilo City, 36 kilometers south of Indo’s house in Pototan.  The six pieces of heavy equipment, all made by Volvo, and for P18 million was a rare find for the mining firm. It was a good buy.   Iloilo City, shortly after Jed Pat...

By Pet Melliza/The Beekeeper Pres. Corazon Aquino (RIP) in 1990 regretted having restored our freedoms, particularly, the press which did nothing but fault-finding. If she was referring to the upheaval that toppled the dictator Marcos and the subsequent widening of the democratic space for Filipinos, she missed it badly. First off, freedom, democracy in general, is not a thing that pops up overnight and from nowhere. It is not conferred upon by any diety. It is a process, the result of an arduous struggle, a conscious, collective upheaval. During the dark years of the Marcos military rule, freedom continued to flicker in men and women who braved State terror through street protests and armed resistance. It was their selfless struggle which spread the contagion and the hope that tyrants won’t last a day before a united people. While the elite opposition, including Cory Aquino’s circle, opted for silence or exile in the onset of the Marcos dictatorship, young Filipinos in their hundred...

BY Pet Melliza/ The Beekeeper The world is in crisis because North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un “declared war” on South Korea and the United States, America and its corporate media say. But reporter  Scott Creighton  ( 4th Media and Willyloman.wordpress.com ) writes that corporate media merely put poorly translated words into Kim’s mouth. The statement is not a declaration of war at all by Kim but simply a “statement of support” from “the government, political parties and organizations of the DPRK” to Kim Jun Un “for whatever decision he has to make.” “(The statement) claims they will declare themselves in a state of war only WHEN their leader makes that decision  showing they are completely behind him . It is a statement of support from the people and perhaps a warning to the South that the North will not fold under their attack,” Creighton adds. After putting words to his mouth, corporate media “quoted” Kim Jon Un ordering the People’s Army to train ...

By Pet Melliza/ The Beekeeper When we saw the pictures posted by Peter Jimenea on a social medium evening of April 5, we thought he was only doing his duty as journalist reminding authorities to install warning signs on mounds of aggregates along the road. We didn’t realize that Peter took those pictures more as victim than opinion writer. He was limping on slippers when we met the next day; the toes of his right foot were swelling. He was cruising on his motor buke along the road at Molo district that evening when the headlights of an approaching car alerted him from sudden collision. He quickly swerved right to avoid the speeding vehicle. He did not realize he was heading to a mound and it was too late for him to avoid it. He lost his balance. Luckily, he sustained only a minor injury. We can only wish the swollen right foot belonged to the smart guys at the Iloilo City Engineer’s Office if only to remind them of their duty to ensure that all roads in Iloilo City we...

My Easter prayer: Sus, Ginu-o, save us from the company of Iloilo City mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog who commits idolatry by singing hallelujahs to Sen. Franklin Drilon trumpeting the mega-dam in central Iloilo his “gift” to Ilonggos.     Whenever we hear of mega dams, we are reminded of  disasters like Drilon’s earlier “gift” to Iloilo, the P120 million Iloilo Hall of Justice, built in 1992 and the only building thereabouts to be condemned in the wake of the 5.5 magnitude quake of February 6, 2012.     Other buildings, much older ones erected in pre-war time are unscathed. 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 are substandard and it violates the specifications of the architect who designed it.  Now, the honorable senator brags that his present...