Pet Melliza

[After the “million people marching” against corruption (P10 B pork scam), we repaired to one nook for coffee to draft a statement condemning the PNP raid on Aksyon Radyo station. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) with its president Nestor Burgos (PDI) and Iloilo Press Club (IPC) president Francis Allan Angelo, agreed to sign the joint statement.] IPC's Angelo and NUJP's Burgos: PNP used excessive force How do you feel when a squad of SWAT men in full combat gear, with bullet-proof vests and Kevlar helmets train their assault rifles that they did to personnel of Aksyon Radyo and a security guard of another tenant of one commercial building in Iloilo City early dawn of August 25, 2013? With NUJP-Iloilo past president Limuel Celebria. The civilians were unarmed and have already yielded to PNP authority, why further subject them to physical and mental torment? I am not alone in feeling that rage. Members of the Iloilo press share that sent...

rally and exorcism The protest did not kick off with the usual opening prayer, but with an “exorcism”, presided the Ecumenical Forum on Church Response (PCPR), an alliance of male and female religious from the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, Catholic and protestant churches to include the Salvation Army.   To the demons of corruption: "the power of Christ compels you!" One of them holds a caricature of a pig symbolizing the controversial pork barrel and one smokes it with incense, and the rest uttering prayer periodically punctuated by “the power of Christ compels you!” to drive out demons of corruption from Philippine society. After the rally at the Iloilo Provincial Capitol ground against corruption triggered by the P10 B pork barrel scandal, protesters led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan further took to the streets and converged at Plazoleta Gay for a mini-rally.  Of course, who has any illusion? The demons of corruption also go to church, quo...

Flores: running again? I chanced upon Atty. Gerry Flores at the MCLE Seminar at Hotel Marut August 22-23, 2013. He smiled as he informed me he had a pending protest fled with the Comelec against his rival in the last elections. "I shall run again," he says. "I am keeping in touch with our group to cheer them up. My lost is just a tempory setback. Three years is too short a rest period." With retired judge Marciana Deguma Flores joined politics after retirement from the Philippine National Police (PNP), his last post being chief of it. He first ran in 1995 for Congress against Oscar Garin Sr. In 1998, he ran for mayor and won in Miagao town, 40 km south of Iloilo City. After his third and last term as mayor, he ran for, and won, a seat at the Iloilo provincial legislature. He vied for the mayoralty of Miagao in May 2013 but lost to Dr. Nap Napulan, his former colleague at the provincial sanggunian, the second automated elections whose controvers...

The real info officer of the Kingdom by the River, Mary Lao, thought she was blessed after King Arthur ordered a gripe session where she poured her heart out against Boy Angsot the pretender. The occasion gave Mary Lao and another aggrieved denizen, Dyukalping, opportunity to update King Tura of the shenanigans of Boy Angsot and his highhanded manner. Boy Angsot emerged from King Tura’s chamber humbled who promised (pex man, mother die) not to repeat his stupid acts like peeing on the room of Mary Lao which he did twice, inserting a metal paper fastener on Mary Lao’s door knob to prevent her from unlocking her office, and pestering her no more with uncalled for remarks. Background. Mary Lao who holds a real MA degree, was dismayed when Boy Angsot blocked her to finish her job of evaluating LGUs on their best practices in good governance. The outstanding ones will be cited and given recognition during the Kingdom anniversary fete. Boy Angsot  boasts of an MA ( which ...

What’s Iloilo city hall is really after: decongest traffic or provide livelihood to drivers? City hall continues to peddle the superstition that provincial jeepneys are the culprits for road congestion. That parochial view insists that Iloilo City must be for Iloilo City residents. Beyond its borders are foreign lands peopled by aliens and barbarians who cause daily misery to its residents. For the information of Honorable Plaridel Nava,  provincial public transport renders invaluable contribution to Iloilo City: they ferry people and goods to and fro, spurring businesses and economic exchanges between Iloilo City, financial hub of Western Visayas with the rest of the Philippines. This is gleaned from the “population” of Iloilo which in night time isonly 400,000 but on daytime reaches up to 500,000 plus. The addition comprises warm bodies who transact business and render manual and mental labor which in turn fuels growth of businesses. From his pronouncements, Nava...

Bogus transport leaders, racketeers behind Comprehensive Perimeter Ordinance One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to smell rat in the upcoming Comprehensive Perimeter Boundary Ordinance which seeks to ban all provincial PUJs from unloading passengers and cargoes at the Super Market or Terminal Market which is not even at the center of downtown Iloilo City. Bagong Alyansang Makabayan members at city hall rallying against the CPBO. The CPBO, having gone through first reading and is currently subject of public hearings, doesn't intend to decongest the roads because it starts off from the superstition that the culprit for road logjams are provincial PUJs refusing to admit well documented facts that the daily bottlenecks occur on roads where provincial PUJs don't pass. At any time in Iloilo City, private vehicles outnumber PUJs 7:1, which means, private vehicles which carry smaller number of passengers than PUJs, are the culprits. What about the racket d...

ILOILO CITY - Iloilo Gov. Arthur D. Defensor, Sr. is not entirely smiling after his ward clinched the presidency of the Philippine Councilors’ League  (PCL) – Iloilo Chapter August 13 at a sea-side restaurant here. Defensor: stabbed in the back? (file photo, with the national (junior and little) girls teams off  to compete in Seattle for the Softball World Series, August 15 - 20, 2013. The two teams are from Iloilo). He sounds like having been stabbed in the back by one who has broken a pact after the May 2013 polls where the victorious provincial LP members agreed on who picks the head of the PCL, Sangguniang Kabataan (SK), Liga ng Barangay and League of Municipalities. “I am not commenting any further but what transpired showed it's money politics again at work here,” gripes the governor. Accordingly, the prerogative to pick the PCL president goes to Defensor, the SK to 2nd district Rep. Arcadio Gorriceta, the Liga to Vice Gov. Raul Tupas (5th dist...

PBO additional burden to poor Ilonggos, protester say. In 2007, Region 6 director of the Land Transportation and Franchise Regulatory Board (LTFRB), Porferio Clavel declared that local legislatures had no power to amend or abolish the franchises issued by his office. The LTFRB functions as administrative tribunal granting franchises to jeepneys, buses, and taxis. Applicants for franchise have to follow quasi-judicial procedures: file a petition, pay docket fees and publications. The franchise is issued after the hearing in the form of a “certificate of public convenience” signed by the LTFRB regional director. In Iloilo, the CPC indicates the route, example, from the town of origin to the Super Market, Iloilo City. Also known as Terminal Market, the “Super” served as “bagsakan” and terminal for all PUJs from Iloilo Province’s 42 towns and one component city of Passi. It then boasted of the cheapest fruits, vegetables, and live native chickens. The Perimeter Bou...