Pet Melliza

Bantayog ng Mga Bayani QC, Philippines Nov. 30, 2015 NAP LORCA Among the 15 names inscribed in the walls of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani this afternoon are those of the brothers -- Napoleon Porras Lorca and Rolando Porras Lorca. "Nap" Lorca was born February 2, 1946 in Pasay City but after the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in 1971, went to Iloilo. A member of the Kabataang Makabayan (KM), he worked with the Federation of Ilonggo Students (FIST) which led student demonstrations in Iloilo. From the ranks of FIST rose the leaders of the KM and the Samahan ng mga Demokratikong Kabataan (SDK). Nap and fellow studentis moved to the foothills of the Madyaas Mountains when they sensed that Marcos was preparing the ground for the declaration of martial law. He is remembered for organizing the indigenousTumandok of Central Panay. He and his group's integration with indigenous people taught the latter ways to improve farm production like constructing village w...

Sept. 25, 2015 Iloilo City I was heading to the Iloilo City Police Office 1 last night to interview protesters arrested by the Guardia Civil for "diobedience to lawful authority" and "illegal assembly". Let's set aside the nitwits who contrived those charges against unarmed citizens exercising their constitutional rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly but my attention as I was walking to the police station was caught by heavy presence of traffic enforcers and motorized police officers l ining along the road. The lane fronting the University of San Agustin leading toward the Iloilo Provincial Capitol, was full of vehicles and at a standstill. The supposed counterflow, or the lane heading south to Molo was empty. Then the sirens and whistles from traffic enforcers began wailing: a column of vehicles led by motorbike borne cops descended down the overpass along the counter-flow that was purposedly blocked of other vehicles so ...

Iloilo City September 2, 2015 What is the worst disaster ever befallen the country? Answer: Pres. BS Aquino III and his administration. And how do you solve that? Answer: the people's struggle. The people shall solve that through their struggle to establish a responsive, industrialized and democratic Philippines. That's one lesson shared and learned by participants to the two-day workshop here that also led to the formation of a "people's network" for disaster preparedness and response in Panay and Guimaras. The gathering is also billed by organizers as "people's alternative forum" to the two-day discussion at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference on a similar topic now in progress in the country, in Iloilo City particularly.. The APEC version of disaster response skirts main causes of natural disasters and blames the very victims of calamities like pointing to farmers as cause of denudation for their "kaingin"...

Maasin, Iloilo September 19, 2015 The pictures here  were taken on September 12, 2015 at the dam, Brgy. Daja, Maasin, Iloilo, at the 16th Pista sa Kakahuyan, a ceremonial tree planting. The pictures of Tigum River, especially of bamboo poles tied together into a raft navigating downstream until the "auction area" where they are stockpiled and sold to buyers for transport to Iloilo City. In 1994, when Iloilo Governor Arthur D. Defensor, Sr. accepted the challenge from a lobby group formed by then Army Col. Victor Corpus that Maasin Watershed was in critical shape and may not soon deliver water. If denudation continued, Corpus warned, the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) could no longer deliver water to taps of residents of Iloilo City by 2000. That same year, the Iloilo Provincial Government started the first ceremonial tree planting to spread public awareness while the actual planting would be done by job hires from saplings supplied by nurseries of the provin...

Iloilo City Sept. 11, 2015 I was waiting for ride this morning at Luna Street when a caravan of vehicles, mostly ambulances from government and private hospitals, streamed awailing, on their hoods were streamers announcing the celebration of "International Day for Suicide Prevention". Yesterday, TV reports had one young man found hanging at the toilet. His mother said he had been depressed after his girlfriend jilted him. This morning, over at Aksyon Radyo, a father was also found hanging by a nylon cord in his room by his kids. Police investigators were inclined to conclude both cases were suicide. The mother of the second suicide victim was quoted as saying that her son had a fit of tantrum the night before scaring his kids as he slammed anything he could lay his hand on. He runs a vulcanizing shop at his house in Sara, Iloilo but still asked his mother, a peasant, for money "to buy food." The old woman stopped giving him money after discovering he used...

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BDO clients must bear standing for eternity as punishment for patronizing the bank of contractualization king Henry Sy. The Banco de Oro (BDO), SM Delgado branch, Iloilo City, abuses the patience of its clients. Its services is lackadaisical: it punishes its clients by making them fall in line and wait for eternity. BDO clients must bear standing for  eternity as punishment for patronizing the bank of contractualization king Henry Sy. BDO clients must bear standing foreternity   as punishment forpatronizing the bank ofcontractualization kingHenry Sy. It offers no seat for waiting clients, not even for senior citizens, PWDs and the pregnant to whom laws accord special rights - 20% discount in public rides, medicines, hospitals, restos, priority in transactions (like special lanes for them), etc. BDO just don't care for its clients, its source of profits that makes its owner, Henry Sy, contractualization king, richest man in the Philippines and...

Concha confers with counsel Janne Baterna of the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) inside her detention cell, actually a portion of the office of the warden. KALIBO, AKLAN August 30, 2015 This is one of the rare incidents where both the State and accused joined together at the hearing here August 28 (2015) in opposing a third party motion to transfer the detention of Panay Red leader Concha Araneta-Bocala. Atty. Dogelio, warden of the Aklan BJMP jail in this town, have moved for the transfer of Araneta to the Iloilo Provincial Integrated Jail, a facility under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. He told the court, “we could no longer guarantee her safety”. Concha flanked by two female guards at her arraignment At the pre-marking of exhibits at the chamber. Defense and State panels facing each other. Tension at the court already subsided and the parties are now trading humor. His facility has only 28-strong personnel incl...

ILOILO CITY August 22, 2015 Somebody should advise the person concerned to tear down tarp streamers congratulating himself as “most outstanding local chief executive” in the “highly urbanized city” category because it is misleading as it is ridiculuous. These streamers are all over Yrong-Yrong and these are embarrassing -- as embarrassing as the acceptance by retired Gen. Douglas MacArthur of the title "Field Marshall" of Filipino troops in 1935. (Pres. Manuel L. Quezon, according R. Constantino, offered the title to the retiree to spite him and expose him as a nutcase. A field marshall commands over 200,000 troops. The Philippine Scouts, the country's standing army then, was only 10,000-strong.) First off, the field of contest is only Region 6 which recently has shrunk to only Panay and Guimaras Islands, after Negros Occidental across the strait moved out to join Negros Oriental and form the Negros Island Region (NIR). There used to be two “highly urbanized ...

 Is it proper to kick out a female student or faculty member from school because she got pregnant outside wedlock? It is not proper but it still happens today sadly. Four college scholars of the Iloilo Provincial Government met that fate. For educators of the schools, state-owned at that, the four hapless girls deserve that for committing that shameful and immoral act of premarital sex. The secretariat of the provincial school board, from the human resource office of Iloilo Province, appealed to the schools in behalf of the teenagers to reconsider but to no avail. I got wind of those cases by accident though: that fine day, the provincial legal office had no representative to the forum on Gender and Development (GAD) organized by Capitol for its own employees and those of the component city and towns. I was picked to attend it by chance, which turned out to be enlightening. Every school year, Iloilo Province selects 25 graduates from public high schools, five per c...

Kape kag Isyu RTD Wendam Iloilo City July 11, 2015 Resource persons: 1. Dr. Joyce Wendam, regional technical director for research and regulatory services, DA-6 2. Juvy Gaton, chief info officer, DA-6 3. Earl James Ogates, info officer, DA-6 ______________________ Melliza Our discussion today with resource persons from the Department of Agriculture (DA) Region 6, invites us to take a second look at Passi City, the only component city of Iloilo Province, which incidentally puts the older, bigger and richer Iloilo City to shame. Ogates All talks about Iloilo City as "most liveable city in the Philippines," and cheers of regaining the title "Queen City of the South" from Cebu and slogans "I am Yrong-Yrong!" and "Proud to be Yronggo!" are nothing but a sham. They should be taken out of city halls propaganda lexicon for being deceitful. These are poor substitutes for reality. What about the grand title ...

Bayan Muna's Rep. Neri Colmenares lashes the Social Security System (SSS) for bleeding members by raising monthly contributions instead of their monthly pensions. It still wastes pensioners' funds by giving its officials fat bonuses and letting go delinquent employers. Colmenares announces that in a forum in Iloilo July 3, which also kicks off a signature campaign among pensioners to prod the Senate to pass a bill raising pensioners' monthly takes. SSS is scheming to increase members' contribution by 21 times yet pegs the minimum monthly pension at P1,200, notes Colmenares. "There are 135,000 employers who failed to remit contributions to SSS: the employees were deducted SSS contributions but their employers did not remit them to the SSS." decries the Bayan Muna representative. SSS should have initiated criminal complaints against erring employers but puts that burden on their victims. "Ano klase nga patakaran: 'di bala kun nego...