Pet Melliza

August 30, 2014 Kape kag isyu (CableTV talk show) Mayor Peter Paul Lopez, today’s resource person, wants to put a stop to the destructive technology involved in corn production in hi s town San Dionisio, Iloilo saying only a “handful benefit from it.” San Dionisio mayor Peter Paul Lopez (2nd from right) His town has been hailed for high yellow corn output but he is unhappy. “I am not an agriculturist, I am asking the Department of Agriculture to help my town to shift to other crops,” he says. “The corn farmer remains poor and indebted while only the usurers rake profits,” he adds. Some 3 - 4,000 hectares in his town are planted to yellow corn, mostly, Monsanto BT corn, a GMO banned in Europe and Japan for the risks it exposes humans to. “I am not an agriculturist but in my humble observation, our farmers harvest the average 4 to 5 metric tons per hectare, even less, far lower than what Monsanto promises,” Lopez adds. Corn farmers spend (mostly on usurious loans) P30...

If there is anybody worthy of recognition as DRRMO and info officer  rolled into one in the  aftermath of Yolanda,  nobody else  in this part of the country  fits that qualification other than Dyeri Boy. Dyeri Boy: unsung hero DRRMO stands for "disaster risk reduction and management officer", in the case of Dyeri Boy, "KDRRMO, the "K" being the  initial of "Kingdom by the River" where he is employed. At the opening of the Rescue Olympics August 22, 1014. "Yolanda is the supertyphoon, the fiercest in the world's   known  history packing the fury of 350 kilometers per hour that hit the central  islands  of Las Islas de Magellan on November 8, 2013 killing more than  100 persons  and destroying partially or totally, some 42,000 plus homes in the  Kingdom  by the River, let alone the 6,000 + deaths in the islands of  Waray-Waray where  counting stopped by edict of a presidential ...

Iloilo city August 25, 2014 Rep. Zarate (Bayan Muna) rallying support for two campaigns, one, the people's initiative to enact a law banning pork barrel in the national budget and, two, for the impeachment of Pres. Benigno Simon Aquino III> Ilonggo activists join their voice with counterparts all over the Philippines for a people's initiative to ban pork barrel in the national budget. They signed the petition to the Comelec for people's initiative to abolish the pork barrel and capped their forum by marching from the venue to Plazoleta Gay in downtown Iloilo City. The pork barrel system is a major cause for underdevelopment of the Philippines which has no money for basic social services like health, education and water but has plenty of it when it comes to corruption, debt repayment, and even infusion to the Bangko Sentral, a bank which does not need taxpayers' infusion, but has been given P30 billion in 2013, for what? Those are some of the nuggets of thoughts t...

(At the forum on people's initiative, Iloilo City, August 25, 2014.) Congressman Carlos Isagani "Kaloy" Zarate (Bayan Muna), goes my introduction of  him: "is the voice of the youth..." (Photo by Leeboy Garachico) "...thirty years ago, around 1984, the  youngest in our group when he was then a campus writer, a teener expanding his reach beyond the confines of the school." "He did it in those dark days of the Marcos dictatorship when most in the media were muzzled, threatened, paid, scared, silenced,  jailed and even tortured and killed. "Today he continues to brave all odds  and be that voice not only of the youth but of all marginalized, deprived, exploited and oppressed Filipinos. "And he does that not only as journalist, but also as lawyer and member of Congress where he continues to ventilate the people's grievances. "Amo ina nga sa 2...

"The Office of the Ombudsman also exercise selective approach to prosecution. Look at the picture and say whose wrongdoings are more aggravating compared to Enrile The Napoles husband and wife and the big-man and wife. The very influential man in the senate who claims not knowing Janet Lim Napoles." -- Peter G. Jimenea, columnist. Wow! I thought Franklin Drilon was telling a fact when he insisted "I don't know her" or words to that effect. His factotum, Atty. Rene Villa in fact is legal counsel of Janet Napoles, the jailed "pork barrel queen".

No wonder, Iloilo City is bankrupt. Its chief executive has stacked up its payroll with unnecessary and redundant positions, actually casuals sporting elegant titles like "executive assistant on barangay affairs", another executive assistant on "barangay special concerns" and still another executive assistant on "barangay projects" all three of these are overlapping with the functions of the Liga ng mga Barangay president who is at the same time ex-officio member of the city council. The offfices of executive assistants on "dengue" and "medical services" also replicate the functions of the city health officer. Below is a partial list of executive assistants and their fat salaries.  Gino-o ko! My City My Pride! I am Iloilo! Ma World Mayor Gid Takon! (Photo credit for Aksyon Radyo)

I was going down to the ground floor until I saw my mentor in UI-Law, Judge (retired) Severino  Aguilar and Tommy Que supervising the unloading  of relief goods for Quinta victims donated by the Free Masons. (As I took a retreat in my files, I stumbled on the four sets of notes cum photo albums on typhoon Quinta, the tragedy that spiked after NIA opened the floodgates of Moroboro Dam in Dingle submerging 22 towns in Iloilo including Dingle.) Relief continues for Quinta victims 07 Jan 13 Bagyo Quinta swept Panay afternoon of December 25, 2012 with moderate winds but continuous rains which continued the whole day and night of December 26, and subsided the morning of Dec. 27. Flood water though continued to rise despite receding rainfall. By the evening of December 27, more people evacuated as floodwater submerged wider areas following the release of excess water from Moroboro Dam in Dingle, Iloilo. Iloilo suffered 11 dead, one missing, and 30,000 f...