Pet Melliza

BY PET MELLIZA/ The Beekeeper In May 1998, the Iloilo Hog Farmers Cooperative, Inc. broke ground for its “AAA” abattoir at the Iloilo Fishing Port Complex, Molo, Iloilo City. The groundbreaking followed the protracted lobby by local swine raisers with the  Department of Agriculture and the Philippine Fishing Port Authority, for a piece of land on which to erect an abattoir. Two of the grounds raised by them for a triple “A” abattoir were: it would “add value” to Iloilo’s produce, to be “exported” to other regions in “frozen choice cuts” that would end the costlier practice of shipping live animals. Iloilo was (and still is) the biggest source of live hogs, at least 190,000 heads annually, for Manila and Cebu. But it had not even a double “A” facility. Live animals risked losing weight and meeting accidents or illnesses while in transit and shippers incurred more costs paying hired hands to bring the animals to their destinations. One come-on they ...

Hole of Justice: Grand Plan at the Kingdom by the River (23) : "By Peter G. Jimenea/ The Beekeeper Our summer is hot but brief. Easter Sunday evening, April 24, it rained and as usual, our whip-dog, Pana..."

Hole of Justice: Grand Plan at the Kingdom by the River (23) : "By Peter G. Jimenea/ The Beekeeper Our summer is hot but brief. Easter Sunday evening, April 24, it rained and as usual, our whip-dog, Pana..."

BY PET MELLIZA/ The Beekeeper Merceditas Gutierrez’s resignation on April 29  did not spur public jubilation but it prodded cynics like yours truly to disbelieve her. She was stepping down May 6 to spare the country the agony of a full-fledged public trial at the Senate. What she does not say is that will also spare the country an opportunity to see her being further unmasked as a crook who might not have been part of the broad daylight robbery but is as guilty nonetheless for undermining investigations on monumental cases of thievery in public office. Rep. Niel C. Tupas, Jr. (LP, 5th district, Iloilo), chair of the committee on justice, said Merci  bowed out after discovering that some subordinates had lined up as witnesses against her. Tupas’s job is not yet done with Merci packing up. The Office of the Ombudsman, notwithstanding her departure and the resignation of its top apparatchnik, Mark Jalandoni, Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon, needs to be further...

Hole of Justice: Jerry and Me : "Hole of Justice by Peter G. Jimenea I don’t like him either! Cong. Jerry Trenas is said he doesn’t like me for my expose of corruption ..."

By Pet Melliza/ The Beekeeper At P792 million, the new Iloilo City Hall holds the record of being the costliest in the metropolis with tab hitting past P50,000 per square meter that is, to be multiplied by its estimated floor area of 14,000 square meters. The city earmarked P350 million to erect it during the first term of one named Buenaventura Geronimo a.k.a.”Jerry”, surnamed Treñas. He finished his 2001-2004 term as mayor and not a slab of hollow block was laid for the seven-storey edifice despite available funds and the authority given by the local legislature. For his second term, 2004-2007, construction never took off;  the money earmarked for that rose from the P350 million to P450 million that creditor Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) approved. The United Architects of the Philippines – Iloilo cried against the huge estimate and volunteered  gratis et amore to erect a city hall at P350 million plus another floor to boot, making it to eight. For some reasons, Bue...

Hole of Justice: Grand Plan at the Kingdom by the River (22) : "By Peter G. Jimenea/ Hole of Justice If you have a FaceBook account and get “invited” by a certain King Tura to be “friend”, reject it. It ..."