Waging war

“WAR IS nothing but the continuation of political intercourse with a mixture of other means.”
The Pampanga mayors should well take this dictum of the other master of war – besides Sun Tzu – the Prussian general Carl Von Clausewitz in his classic Vom Kriege, with their declaration of war on Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio last June 26 in a Quezon City restaurant.
For a casus belli, the charge of incompetence or misgovernance on Panlilio’s part is too broad to stir the emotions and incite the people to arms, so to speak. It has to be broken to specifics – to gut issues, each substantiated with more than mere allegations. The cause here gains among the people, first some “graspability,” and then – infused with their own specific, concrete experiences of being misgoverned – empathy, and ultimately solidarity.
Here, the moral ground is laid. The nobility of the cause established.
So the mayors – and hopefully, backed up by their constituencies – have a cause for war? Now, what is their end?
It can only be the ouster of Panlilio from the governorship, if not soon, then in 2010. And if this war is one of attrition, the total banishment of Panlilio from politics thereafter.
Now, how will the mayors wage their war?
Strategy – that which Clausewitz called “the employment of battle as the means towards the attainment of the object of the war” – comes naturally into play.
There are a number of existing battlefronts that needed only some intensification.
One, the electoral protest of former Board Member Lilia Pineda. Intervention from allies of the mayors in the administration can renew hostilities at the Comelec front.
Two, the Ombudsman case against Panlilio arising from his non-implementation of Ordinance 176 on the equitable sharing of the quarry income.
Three, the criminal complaint for perjury based on “concealed or undeclared political contribution” filed with the Comelec against Panlilio by Elly Velez “Spikes” Pamatong with the substantial contribution of Mrs. Lolita Hizon as “incontrovertible” evidence.
In number three lies the possibility of perpetual disqualification from public office, if proven guilty.
Then, the much-rumored recall proceedings can now come into being. With all the forces of the local government units marshaled against the governor, the institution of recall will certainly be a battle already won. And in a consequent election, Panlilio looms as almost certain to lose. To any one candidate of note. Even with no consideration of the results of a recent survey. Why, every Pepe and Pilar, Juan and Juana, Milio and Milia in Pampanga could see that Panlilio has lost a substantial number of his supporters – Mrs. Hizon, businessman Rene Romero, lawyer Junior Canlas, environmentalist Sonny Dobles, to name but a very few – even as he has not gained any new ones.
The greater battle though has to be opened and waged – relentlessly until victory – in the sitios, the barrios and the poblaciones. More than winning territorial grounds, war is about winning – and holding – the minds and hearts of the people. It is there that the real battle is waged.
Aha! The mayors would be quick, with smugness, to declare that the people are theirs, being their constituencies.
It will serve them well to remember that in 2007, they promised their towns – like feudal lords promising their fiefs – to the cause of Nanay Baby.
It will serve them well to remember one of the first rules in battle: Never underestimate your enemy. Better yet, take heed of Sun Tzu’s admonition “By perceiving the enemy and perceiving ourselves, there will be no unforeseen risk in any battle. By not perceiving the enemy yet perceiving ourselves, there will be partial victory and partial loss. By not perceiving the enemy and not perceiving ourselves, every battle will be an unforeseen risk.”
Okay, that considered, engage in battle the mayors must now?
Timing is of the essence in war. I very well suppose that the mayors have gone through a lot of introspection and preparation leading to their June 26 declaration of war.
Else, it’s all acoustics . And that’s no war.

The Gordon mystique

DISASTER RESPONSE takes the face of the erudite Senator Richard J. Gordon. With him as the most active do-everything hands-on persona in the continuing human tragedy that is the Princess of the Stars, Dick Gordon’s value as crisis manager is proven again; his worth as a true national leader, affirmed anew.
To us who have known, and worked with him, even for but a short time, leadership is inborn in Dick. Here’s a piece I wrote in the June 1984 issue of Live! Magazine published by now-CDC Director Max Sangil.
The Gordon mystique
IN THE guise of protecting the people’s interests but in fact advancing their own, and motivated by nothing nobler than personal hatred, mud-slinging detractors have consistently assaulted his person with the twin-battering rams of verbal abuse and legal loopholes.
Indeed, there is nary an activity he initiated that did not come under siege from self-anointed but can’t-do vigilantes. A man of a lesser mettle would have crumbled under the pressure subjected by these people to his office.
Yet, despite all these and more, Olongapo City Mayor Richard Gordon has emerged triumphant. Proving to one and all that he is of the mold rare leaders are made from. Consequential to his personal victory is the uplift of his city. Rather, as he himself would put it, his personal success is only incidental to the development of the city.
As the city progresses and the name Gordon is deeply etched in the psyche of the city residents, the nay-surrender critics are dumbfounded in consternation over their continuing failure to cut the Gordian Knot, to find the Achilles heel that would make Young Gordon vulnerable to their assaults. They have done almost everything to discredit Gordon to no avail.
They have thrown the books at him when he started the unarguably phenomenal Mardi Gras. While their case turned to a crop of deficiency, the city found itself with an International Youth Center, and then a P1.2 million People’s Pool.
They made the dubious allegation that Gordon collected P2.50 per cigarette and candy vendor per day. This stirred a hornet’s nest – they at the receiving end of a protest demonstration by an angry group of vendors.
The proverbial Glums (of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travel) that they are, they said that nothing could be done with the anarchic state of traffic in the city. Today, Metro Manila is green with envy of the color code in keepney and traffic routing that has become a model component in urban planning.
Even such a thorny issue as scavenging at the Subic Base has met a successful resolution with the formation of a cooperative of sort among scavengers, complete with a trust fund to draw money from in cases of emergency.
The list of developments in the city is too long to be contained in just one piece of an article. It may even end with the apotheosis of Dick Gordon which this writer has no intention of making.
Suffice it to sum up that the Olongapo that Gordon inherited from his predecessor is nothing more than an American fief of filth, moral decay and stink – so different from that envisioned by the Old Gordon when he valantly fought for the city charter; a nightmare of a contradiction to the planned urban center the Mother Gordon worked for.
Today with Dick Gordon all those visions have started coming to full realization.
Unlike his detractors and critics, we have found the key to the Gordon mystique. It is so simple in its complexity.
Talent, genius, determination,persistence and ambition are inherent traits in Gordon. These too are innate in many leaders but they have amounted to nothing, that is true. As a matter of fact, local leaders who also have such but could not hold their candle to Gordon have become so envious of him that they have done even the most irrational things in some of their fora just to discredit him.
The more important thing that has become a way for Gordon, but still an elusive bird to others, is to couple those characteristics with a definitive direction. That of aligning these innate gifts toward the attainment of the people’s liberation from what they and the leader perceive as evils. A singular direction that is above all else, even political expediency and party interests.
It is that and nothing more that serves as Dick Gordon’s Holy Grail and sacred shield against all envious political pretenders.
Would one still wonder why Dick Gordon still prevails while all others have failed?
xxxxx
FROM OLONGAPO City mayor, Gordon went on to become Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority chair, Department of Tourism secretary and now Senator of the Republic – earning the respect and esteem of the people with his brand of service and leadership.

Accidental tourists

LATE AFTERNOON Sunday the daughter texted she was just through a fantastic reef survey dive around Palaui Island off Cagayan with her gang of UP-Diliman profs.
7:00 P.M. She texted her group was just finishing dinner and soon would be off on a 12-hour drive back to Manila.
Past midnight, it was her boyfriend that texted the daughter was confined at the De Vera Medical Center in Santiago, Isabela for tummy ache and fever which doctors feared was symptomatic of appendicitis.
Little sleep was had by the wife – and me – after that. Thinking of dear daughter in some strange place and resolved to fly to her side soon as we could.
Early morning Monday, the boyfriend texted daughter was doing fine but would be undergoing some tests.
With a pack of clothes – for a week, and toiletries, the wife and I hit the road 10:30 A.M. in a full-tanked Toyota Avanza.
From the City of San Fernando through Mexico, Sta. Ana, Arayat, Cabiao, San Isidro, the ride was ho-hum ordinary, the ubiquitous tricycles hogging the lanes, jeepneys loading and off-loading passengers right in the middle of the streets oblivious of the traffic inconvenience they create. Gapan City was a horrendous traffic mess even on a day when classes were suspended owing to Typhoon Frank.
Past 12:00 noon we stopped at Max’s in Cabanatuan City for a quick lunch, which turned out to be even quicker than passing through the Maharlika Highway stretch of the city choked by unruly tricycles and raging jeepneys.
Midway into Talavera, we stopped for personal comfort at a gas station. The Avanza’s fuel gauge still registered 3/4 full but I had it on full tank again. I never take chances with my gas on long treks.
At the approach to the Science City of Munoz, the trip took on a totally different dimension. A canopy of green, thicker though lower than that we arduously try to protect from the DPWH’s chainsaw in Balite, ushers the traveler in through the area of the Philippine Rice Research Institute, the Central Luzon State University and the Philippine Carabao Center.
While San Jose City brought back some moderate traffic, it did not have the road anarchy of the other urban centers. Out of the city, the Caraballo and Cordillera mountains merged and loomed taking in the traveler into their hold.
There started the picturesque San Jose-Sta. Fe Road, with its winding esses, gentle ascents and gentler descents, its forest parks and green peaks.
In 1991, I first traveled this route – on a Dangwa Transit bus – and resolved never to take it again. What passed off then as cemented portions, short and narrow as they were, were even cracked and pockmarked. It was mostly rutted earth and little gravel. Whatever view there was was no relief for the bumps and grinds and the body aches after.
It was all a smooth ride this time, the road mainly concrete, partly asphalted. Barriers too were erected: on the mountainsides to check landslides, at the edge of the road for the safety of the travelers. And yes, there were DPWH maintenance crew and grasscutters spread throughout the area.
At each approach to a peak, the pearly white Avanza assumed some celestial aura, literally riding the clouds. One could not help but feel the nearness of God. Which we took advantage of by praying for the health of our daughter.
And then we peaked at Balite Pass and came down to Sta. Fe. Disappointed again at the cracked road, obviously caused by overloaded cargo trucks and the water that drained through it. Good though there were some drainage construction on-going. The Total gas station there was well worth the rest-stop we had. Immaculately clean rest rooms with a view of the mountain ranges and a creek. Its adjacent Mrs. Gaddi’s restaurant serving possibly the best steaks in Nueva Vizcaya.
We breezed through the towns of Aritao, Bambang and Solano. Now, hear this: those towns had the most disciplined jeepney and tricycle drivers in the country perhaps. They took to the road shoulders to pick up or unload passengers. They gave way to faster vehicles. Ain’t that swell?
The town of Bagabag, Cordon and Diadi had their share of zigzags and forest areas. The road constructions that restricted traffic to one-way in some sections and the uneven asphalting of other portions did not make the route as enjoyable as San Jose-Sta. Fe.
By 5:30 P.M. we were in Santiago, Isabela. Relieved that clinical tests on our daughter were all okay. And feeling refreshed(!) in our seven-hour journey.
Did we stay? At 8:00 P.M., we checked the daughter out of the hospital and went back, the boyfriend alternated with me at the wheel. Back at the Total gas station, the fuel gauge registered less than half so I had a full tank anew.
The journey in the dark took some excitement with one trying to move past cargo trucks and passenger buses on the zigzags. While on the flatlands the thinness of late-night traffic in the urban centers allowed us to cruise at 70-80 kph. Gapan to San Fernando took all of 30 minutes, would you believe? Arrival home was 1:30 Tuesday morning. Tired but still exhilarated from our nearly 600-kilometer accidental tour. And yes, the Avanza fuel gauge read 3/4 full.

Accidental tour

LATE AFTERNOON Sunday the daughter texted she was just through a fantastic reef survey dive around Palaui Island off Cagayan with her gang of UP-Diliman profs.
7:00 P.M. She texted her group was just finishing dinner and soon would be off on a 12-hour drive back to Manila.
Past midnight, it was her boyfriend that texted the daughter was confined at the De Vera Medical Center in Santiago, Isabela for tummy ache and fever which doctors feared was symptomatic of appendicitis.
Little sleep was had by the wife – and me – after that. Thinking of dear daughter in some strange place and resolved to fly to her side soon as we could.
Early morning Monday, the boyfriend texted daughter was doing fine but would be undergoing some tests.
With a pack of clothes – for a week, and toiletries, the wife and I hit the road 10:30 A.M. in a full-tanked Toyota Avanza.
From the City of San Fernando through Mexico, Sta. Ana, Arayat, Cabiao, San Isidro, the ride was ho-hum ordinary, the ubiquitous tricycles hogging the lanes, jeepneys loading and off-loading passengers right in the middle of the streets oblivious of the traffic inconvenience they create. Gapan City was a horrendous traffic mess even on a day when classes were suspended owing to Typhoon Frank.
Past 12:00 noon we stopped at Max’s in Cabanatuan City for a quick lunch, which turned out to be even quicker than passing through the Maharlika Highway stretch of the city choked by unruly tricycles and raging jeepneys.
Midway into Talavera, we stopped for personal comfort at a gas station. The Avanza’s fuel gauge still registered 3/4 full but I had it on full tank again. I never take chances with my gas on long treks.
At the approach to the Science City of Munoz, the trip took on a totally different dimension. A canopy of green, thicker though lower than that we arduously try to protect from the DPWH’s chainsaw in Balite, ushers the traveler in through the area of the Philippine Rice Research Institute, the Central Luzon State University and the Philippine Carabao Center.
While San Jose City brought back some moderate traffic, it did not have the road anarchy of the other urban centers. Out of the city, the Caraballo and Cordillera mountains merged and loomed taking in the traveler into their hold.
There started the picturesque San Jose-Sta. Fe Road, with its winding esses, gentle ascents and gentler descents, its forest parks and green peaks.
In 1991, I first traveled this route – on a Dangwa Transit bus – and resolved never to take it again. What passed off then as cemented portions, short and narrow as they were, were even cracked and pockmarked. It was mostly rutted earth and little gravel. Whatever view there was was no relief for the bumps and grinds and the body aches after.
It was all a smooth ride this time, the road mainly concrete, partly asphalted. Barriers too were erected: on the mountainsides to check landslides, at the edge of the road for the safety of the travelers. And yes, there were DPWH maintenance crew and grasscutters spread throughout the area.
At each approach to a peak, the pearly white Avanza assumed some celestial aura, literally riding the clouds. One could not help but feel the nearness of God. Which we took advantage of by praying for the health of our daughter.
And then we peaked at Balite Pass and came down to Sta. Fe. Disappointed again at the cracked road, obviously caused by overloaded cargo trucks and the water that drained through it. Good though there were some drainage construction on-going. The Total gas station there was well worth the rest-stop we had. Immaculately clean rest rooms with a view of the mountain ranges and a creek. Its adjacent Mrs. Gaddi’s restaurant serving possibly the best steaks in Nueva Vizcaya.
We breezed through the towns of Aritao, Bambang and Solano. Now, hear this: those towns had the most disciplined jeepney and tricycle drivers in the country perhaps. They took to the road shoulders to pick up or unload passengers. They gave way to faster vehicles. Ain’t that swell?
The town of Bagabag, Cordon and Diadi had their share of zigzags and forest areas. The road constructions that restricted traffic to one-way in some sections and the uneven asphalting of other portions did not make the route as enjoyable as San Jose-Sta. Fe.
By 5:30 P.M. we were in Santiago, Isabela. Relieved that clinical tests on our daughter were all okay. And feeling refreshed(!) in our seven-hour journey.
Did we stay? At 8:00 P.M., we checked the daughter out of the hospital and went back, the boyfriend alternated with me at the wheel. Back at the Total gas station, the fuel gauge registered less than half so I had a full tank anew.
The journey in the dark took some excitement with one trying to move past cargo trucks and passenger buses on the zigzags. While on the flatlands the thinness of late-night traffic in the urban centers allowed us to cruise at 70-80 kph. Gapan to San Fernando took all of 30 minutes, would you believe? Arrival home was 1:30 Tuesday morning. Tired but still exhilarated from our nearly 600-kilometer accidental tour. And yes, the Avanza fuel gauge read 3/4 full.

Remembering Kapitan Gigil

TEN YEARS ago today, June 24, I wrote in pain. In grief. In rage.
The man I dearly loved as a second father was killed. Executed in gangland fashion. In a most dastardly act.
Ricardo Velasquez Serrano, regional executive director of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources in Central Luzon was shot through the heart while his car was caught in an early morning traffic jam along Congressional Avenue in Quezon City.
Kapitan Gigil to us close to him, Serrano as director of the then Department of Public Information initiated the professionalization and strengthening of the ranks of mediapersons, siring – along with me as co-proponent – the Central Luzon Media Association in 1978, being godfather to the Pampanga Press Club and the Angeles City Press and Radio Club, and esteemed adviser to all other provincial press groups in the region.
With the media, KG embarked on an “anti” campaign against the perceived scourges of Central Luzon, notching one accomplishment after another.
Like blasting more than 300 illegal fishpond dikes in 1978-1979, preceding by 20 years the Oplan Bilis Daloy of the Philippine National Police that also cleared the region’s rivers by blasting dikes.
Like the operations against jueteng in Pampanga in partnership with the then Presidential Task Force Against Illegal Gambling that resulted in the total overhaul of the whole police hierarchy in the region sometime in 1979.
Like closing down polluting firms – Pasudeco in Pampanga, United Pulp and Paper in Bulacan, and the Bataan Pulp and Paper Mills.
Like campaigning vigorously against illegal logging in Nueva Ecija and Zambales, naming names that were sacred in those days: Marcos and Romualdez.
For that last one, he was banished to Southern Philippines.
In 1995, he returned to Central Luzon this time as DENR director.
And it was rather uncanny that he was again fighting the same demons he fought before his unceremonious exile from the region.
Serrano was in the thick of a relentless campaign against illegal logging in Nueva Ecija as well as pollution in Pampanga and Bulacan caused by tanneries and alcohol plants when he was killed.
Shortly before his ambush, Serrano had worked for the closure of the Central Luzon Fermentation and Industrial Corp. in Apalit, Pampanga which had been blamed for the pollution of rivers in Pampanga and Bulacan.
At the time of the serving of the closure order, Philippine Star’s Ding Cervantes was hit by pellets when a security guard’s shotgun “accidentally went off.” The alcohol plant was finally shut down a year after Serrano’s killing.
I spoke in pain. In grief. In rage. At a memorial service of Pampanga newsmen for Serrano in 2000. “It is hard to accept that the government to which Serrano dedicated his outstanding career as government executive could just sweep his murder into the dustbin.
The Voice publisher-editor Ody Fabian, now also dead, talked then of how Serrano “impacted in us the highest standards of principled journalism, the values of good governance, and love for Mother Earth which we, in turn, should nurture among the next generation not only of journalists but of Kapampangans.”
“That the death of Serrano, a dedicated and committed government servant has remained unsolved to this day is a mockery of our justice system,” so said Fabian then.
Today, I write in pain. In grief. In rage. Ten years after the crime, Serrano’s murder has remained unsolved.

Newsline to a resignation

WHAT MY walking buddy told me the other day of Punto! having to do with the resignation of Levy Laus from the Clark Development Corp. really got me – as he himself suggested – rummaging through my files of the paper.
Perhaps, there is indeed some truth to what he accused Punto! of, a sort of a timeline, nay, make that newsline to Levy’s resignation manifest in this paper’s headlines.
Jan. 28, 2008 – PGKM calls for Laus’ ouster as CDC prexy
That was the first time that a call for either resignation or, in this case, ouster was ever sounded. PGKM is of course the Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement chaired by industrialist and golfer Pert Cruz.
The issues against Levy ranged from alleged mispriorities in the development of Clark to his alleged insistence on the controversial central business district that GMA herself thumbed down. The call though was preceded by simmering events at the Mimosa golf course.
Nov. 23, 2007 – Golf war looms at Mimosa
Senior golfers led by Vic Roque complained of discrimination against them by the management of Mimosa with the cancellation of the internationally-observed 90-degree rule whereby old and infirm golfers can take their carts to the greens to do their drives.
A “stubborn” response from management led the seniors to the PGKM and the investigation of perceived anomalies at the golf course, among which was what one Mimosa council member said was “Levy’s concern for the course that moved him to extend P50 million for its development.”
Dec. 7, 2007 – Golfers seek probe of P50-M CDC fund
Where was that fund used? Asked the seniors.
Dec. 11, 2007 – Golf funds properly accounted
In a lot of improvements and upkeep, including new golf carts, said the Mimosa state manager but the amount was not P50 million.
Dec. 17, 2007 – Sen. Lapid joins Mimosa golf war
The Bida took up the cudgel for the senior golfers and denounced the management of Mimosa. He too was subjected to some high-handedness, it was reported, when he was refused his request for management not to suspend his caddy whose infraction was that she was not able to prevent him from taking his cart to the greens.
Jan. 7, 2008 – Contractual Mimosa employee gets over P1-M perks
Sleuthing work from Mimosa sources revealed the highest paid contractual employee in the whole Philippine government was the putative Mimosa manager by the name of Duya whose salaries and perks, including free use of a villa, service vehicle, gas allowances and signing privileges amounted to some P1 million.
Jan. 14, 2008 – Mimosa employees cry foul on labor violations
The privilege accorded the manager raised the tempers of the ordinary workers whose rights are allegedly arbitrarily disregarded if not openly violated – from low salaries to indiscriminate disciplinary actions including un-called for suspensions.
Then, came on Jan. 28, 2008 – PGKM calls for Laus’ ouster as CDC prexy
This was followed up by the PGKM with a position on the issue of the proposed ingress-egress of the SCTEx right at the proposed – and discredited – CBD site in Clark.
Feb. 4, 2008 – All the President’s Men asked: Save the Queen
GMA “will face bold criticisms as soon as SCTEx opens… because Clark Freeport has no direct access to the expressway due to Laus’ alleged opposition to the Clark North Interchange in Dolores (Mabalacat),” the PGKM said.
Feb. 6, 2008 – GMA men slam Laus for ‘credit grabbing’
“Say CDC president out of Palace graces” noted the sub-head, allegedly caused by Laus’ “belligerent attitude” and “penchant for claiming credits” for any positive developments within Clark, even those he allegedly had nothing to do about like the entry of Texas Instruments, attributed to Laus predecessor Tony Ng and a high-profile team composed of Trade Secretary Peter Favila, SCADC Secretary Ed Pamintuan, CIAC’s Chichos Luciano, CDC Chair Roy Navarro, PEZA’s Lilia de Lima and Energy Secretary Raphael Lottila.
Feb. 11, 2008 – Laus’ billboard draws flak
“Propaganda covering up for non-performance” said the sub-head over which was the giant picture of the enlarged face of Laus and the smaller faces of some other unknown personalities with an even smaller “Welcome to Clark.”
“An exercise in extreme ego massage paid for with the people’s money.” So it was said of Laus’ giant billboard.
Feb. 12, 2008 – GMA berates Laus for ignoring orders
“CDC does not think of my priority” so goes the kicker of GMA allegedly “exasperated with Laus’ apparent failure to support and push her oft-repeated development vision for Clark in tandem with Subic Freeport as the ‘best logistics and services center in the Asia Pacific region.’”
Feb. 27, 2008 – Lazatin lambastes Laus
CDC’s ‘reversed racism’ favors Koreans. So charged 1st District Cong. Tarzan Lazatin on the issue of the True North bidding that was reportedly handed to a Korean firm to the prejudice of some other Filipino bidders and one claimant.
Feb. 28, 2008 – CDC workers call for Laus ouster
A number of Clark workers called for the resignation or firing of Laus in the wake of the issue of salary increases as mandated in their CBA. The CDC information office was quick to deny that the workers’ union ACCES ever called for Laus’ ouster. A stupid denial considering it was clear in the Punto! story that Clark workers – not the union – wanted Laus out.
In the same issue was House probes CDC on ‘dubious’ deals with Lazatin spearheading the committee hearings .
Mar. 3, 2008 – Clark locators want Laus out
Foreign and local locators joined the clamor for Laus’ ouster due to what they called “loss of confidence and lack of transparency.” Again, the CDC information office proffered a denial by the Clark Investors and Locators Association. Again a very stupid denial given the fact that Punto! referred to three locators in the story and never even implied CILA as the source.
Then came the barrage from Congressman Lazatin
Mar. 5, 2008 – Tarzan calls Laus ‘credit grabber’
Mar. 13, 2008 – For neglecting Aetas: Tarzan assails Laus (Page 3)
Mar. 17, 2008 – Lazatin slams CDC: For making Aetas squatters in own land (Page 3)
Apr. 2, 2008 – Tarzan says: Laus good at selling cars
The congressman reacted to the CDC providing Aeta tribal leaders of Bamban with Mitsubishi L-300 FB vans. No, the vehicles did not come from Laus’ Car-World, a top Mitsubishi dealer.
May 16, 2008 – Firms file raps vs. Laus, Fontana and 3 others
A claimant lodged a complaint against CDC for allegedly awarding 330 hectares of Clark land for $0.014337 per square meter per month for 50 years
May 7, 2008 – CDC-Aeta pact: Tarzan seeks probe…Laus welcomes investigation
Side-by-side story on the joint memorandum of agreement between the CDC and the Aeta communities over the operations of some 10,000 hectares of ancestral lands on an 80-for-CDC-20-for-Aetas sharing scheme that Tarzan called “grossly disadvantageous to the Aetas.”
Jun. 4, 2008 – Farmers ask Tarzan’s help in CDC lands
Farmers reportedly driven out of their lands at Clark sought Tarzan’s help for compensation.
Jun. 16, 2008 – Tarzan: Laus has quit CDC
It was Punto! that broke the news of Laus’ resignation from CDC having learned of it from reliable sources in Malacanang. It was however Cong. Lazatin that made the confirmation of the reports.
Jun. 17, 2008 – Laus confirms letter to GMA
Even as ex-PNP chief Oscar Calderon said he welcomed the CDC presidency, Laus confirmed that he did, in May yet, submit a letter to GMA “expressing my desire to hand over my CDC position effective July 31, 2008.”
Jun. 18, 2008 – GMA regrets Laus resignation from CDC
CDC press release said GMA “has expressed regrets over the resignation” of Laus, recognizing him as – per quote of PMS Chief Cerge Remonde – “not only as valuable and irreplaceable ally but a close personal friend.”
The End.
So have we in Punto! been unfair to Sir Levy Laus?
Considering the volume of stories on the developments at Clark; on the twice no-holds-barred, unabridged Question-and-Answer interviews with Sir Levy for which we provided all the space to the point of sacrificing other stories; to the equal play-up of the CDC sides to and denials of controversial issues, I think we were fair and just. As any paper should be.
Here’s wishing Sir Levy godspeed.
Uncanny this feeling I am getting thinking of the resigned Sir Levy, and being reminded of Richard Nixon’s parting shot to the press after he lost the governorship of California in the 60s: “Think how much you’d be missing. You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.”
Vanish the thought. Sir Levy is too esteemed to be kicked around.

The 'pros' keep coming

IMA FOUNDATION’S report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Kapampangans being smuggled out of the DMIA and forced into prostitution in Malaysia got me into an instant-recall mode.
Here is an account I filed with the Pampanga Times in its August 18-24, 1986 issue as a part of a special report of my five-month sojourn in Kuala Lumpur on a scholarship grant from the Malaysian government.

I WAS still very new in KL, one week I think, when I nearly had a brawl with a taxi driver. No, not because of the fare. Nor was it a case of miscommunication.
I was nearing my destination – a shopping complex – when the driver talked to me in bahasa Malaysia. I answered him with one of the first phrases I learned, “tidak Melayu” -- I am not Malay. I told him in English where I came from. He sneered then gave me the finger, spitting out “Filipina ladies easy fuck!”
I felt blood rushed to my face. I unbuckled my seat belt, collared him and dared him to repeat what he said. He lost his nerve, bigger as I was than him. Soon as I got off the cab, he sped away but not before I delivered a kick at his taxi. In his fright, he even forgot all about my fare. Luckily for me there was no policeman around.
There was a business boom (there still is, I presume) for Filipina prostitutes in Malaysia. I did not just hear about this. I met and talked with (no actual deals for me though) not a few of these “pros” from Manila mainly.
There was Carmela, aka Tessie, Bessie, Carmi from Pasay. She stayed for 14 days in KL hopping from one hotel to another. Her net income for a fortnight: 10,000 ringgits (P75,000) cash, designer clothes and matching bags, shoes and watches.
Mary Jane or Grace spoke very fluent English, had impeccable tastes in clothes and jewelry. She could be mistaken for a Makati account executive just vacationing in KL. She actually came from Ermita. To maintain her figure and freshness, she said she had a limit of two trysts per day. Nonetheless, her income got to 10,000 ringgits too in only 10 days.
“Quality more than makes up for quantity when it comes to customers,” she said. Grace would not go out with anyone driving a car lesser in status than a Benz 380.
Even the misfortune that befell some of those I met did not lessen the rosy impact of the flesh trade in KL.
Gigi and Annie came to KL with their Filipina mama-san. After a week of “work”, the mama-san left them, taking along their passports, return tickets and all their earnings. They came to the embassy (where I worked part-time) for travel documents then asked that they be allowed to raise money for their tickets. In six days they were able to buy their tickets, at 650 ringgits (P4,875) each and had between them 6,000 ringgits (P45,000) more.
The police crackdown in this Muslim nation, no matter how intensive has never really blunted the flesh trade. Filipinas and Thais being deported after raids in hotels have become a regular fare in newspapers. Still, they keep coming back.
Much as the authorities would like to hide the problem, prostitution exists in the country. And I mean not just that involving transient call girls. There are local pick-up girls and a well-hidden prostitution center – much like Angeles City’s “Area” – right in the heart of the old city of KL.
Taxi drivers know the place well. And they too have a price list of transients: Filipinas on top at 200 ringgits (P1,500) per hour, excluding tips; Thais at 75 ringgit (P562); Chinese locals at 65 (P487); and Indian locals at 15 (P112).
These flesh peddlers from Manila have done a lot of damage to the image of the Filipina in Malaysia. The problem is that there appears to be nothing that can be done about it. Curbing the trade, I mean.
Manila authorities cannot contain them. Any Filipina with a passport, a round-trip ticket, and $500 show money can enter Malaysia and stay for 14 days as a tourist.
The Philippine embassy cannot likewise do anything other than escort prostitutes being deported or take them out of jail and into its custody. Very few Filipinos go to the embassy. And only when they have problems with immigration.
And the Pinays in the sex trade are not a bit complaining. Even after experiencing Pudu Jail, where they are stripped to their undergarments and sleep on cold cement floors. They just look at it as part of the hazards of the trade. Deported ones keep coming back with new passports and new names.
Being called “easy lays” matters not to them. The job after all is really easy and much rewarding. What could be easier indeed than seeing KL, going to bed, then going home, tens of thousands richer?

Profile of Devastation

NO CATASTROPHE in recent memory is as devastating, as thorough, as expansive and as lasting – its effects to continue to hound and haunt the victims for years to come – as the eruption of the century.
Death and Dislocation
The swath of destruction cuts through five provinces – Pampanga, Zambales, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Bataan; two highly urbanized cities – Angeles and Olongapo; 45 municipalities and 241 barangays, a number of which have been effectively erased from the map.
Going into the end of October 1991, a total of 806 people have died, 184 injured and 23 missing, and presumed dead. Of the fatalities, 281 were killed in the eruptions; 29 were swept by lahar; and a staggering 496 felled by sickness and destitution in evacuation camps. Epidemics of H-fever and measles have also struck in tent cities and beyond, to the contiguous communities.
Despite government efforts, the death toll continues. At a disturbing rate of 2.27 percent per 1,000 evacuees.
Affected families in the five provinces number 276,748. This roughly translates to 1,358,296 persons.
The mass exodus to evacuation centers was wrought initially by the heavy ashfalls, and later, by rampaging lahar and the scouring of riverbanks that caused the destruction of 41,629 houses and partial damage to 71,104 others.
Displacement of Labor; Loss of Capital
Nearing the first half of 1991, Pampanga ranked Number 1 – way ahead of Cebu – in terms of new investments, so confirmed the Department of Trade and Industry of the claim of Gov. Bren Z. Guiao of the premier spot his province held among all provinces in the country.
His gung-ho optimism – E co magmalun. Mibangun ya ing Pampanga (Do not despair. Pampanga will rise again) – notwithstanding, Guiao has long been jolted to the bitter reality of Pampanga, post-Pinatubo, sliding – and still falling fast – to the 21st rung in the spiral of investments among the provinces.
Of all the affected provinces and cities, Pampanga suffered the most in damages to exporters, manufacturers and BOI-listed firms to the tune of P267.14 million or 63 percent of the total of P426.87 million.
Pampanga’s top draw in export – furniture manufacturing centered in Angeles City, Bacolor and Guagua – felt the most telling blows with losses and damages amounting to P156.7 million.
With damage to and destruction of manufacturing firms naturally came the displacement of workers – 651,000 of them, not counting those put out of job by the abandonment of Clark Air Base by the Americans.
Desertification
The heavy ashfalls that covered 41 towns destroyed agricultural acreage and crops in an area of 86,869 hectares, put at an estimated value loss of P868.9 million. No less than 56,550 farmers were affected.
The inundation of the farmlands by lahar caused an additional P220.1 million loss to 10,543 farmers.
The once fertile rice, vegetable and sugar lands of Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales are now virtual desert wastelands that would take years before being restored to their highly productive state.
It is no different in the lahar-covered fishponds and fishing areas.
Forestry projects – 302 contract reforestation and 50 social forestry projects with an aggregate coverage of 20,332.2 hectares and valued at P125.442 million – were irretrievably lost.
Damage to Infrastructure
A staggering P3.8 billion sums up the estimated cost of destroyed and damaged infra facilities, among which are 591 roads and bridges, 659 school buildings and 381 flood control and drainage projects. The cost of reviving the heavily-silted rivers is as yet to be computed.
Of the 101 health facilities devastated, none can probably approximate the fate of the Angeles City General Hospital. Collapsed under tons of volcanic debris at Pinatubo’s initial eruption, the hospital, along with the very lot upon which it stood and crumbled, was later claimed by lahar that scoured the banks of the Abacan River.
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THUS IT was at the end of October 1991, four months after Mount Pinatubo erupted in a special report I was commissioned to write by an international NGO. The statistics came from factsheets from the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council, the Presidential Pinatubo Rehab Task Force, and the DTI.
This, in remembrance of the 17th year of the eruptions.

The Big Bang

ANXIOUS, APPREHENSIVE anticipation of an expected unknown gripped the people of Pampanga in the weeks leading to June 12, 1991.
Like the prophet of old – or the doomsayer, as a number who questioned his wisdom, if not his authority, were wont to deride him – Director Raymundo S. Punongbayan of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology had raised the alarm of the impending eruption. The signs and sounds upland and on the plains were foreboding.
Like the beating of distant drums that precede a conflict, the incessant rumbling sounds from the bowels of Mount Pinatubo rang the certainty of a coming catastrophe.
On June 10, all the roads out of Angeles City were jammed by hundreds of vehicles in the exodus of American servicemen and their dependents from Clark Air Base to Subic where US warships awaited them for their final journey home.
Up in the Zambales mountain ranges, Aetas, like frightened creatures sensing danger, had heard the initial rumbling and felt the unsettling tremors of mighty Pinatubo since April.
Several months back, the Philippine National Oil Company-Energy Development Corp. had drilled three giant exploratory pipes into the area around the slopes of the volcano in a bid to tap geothermal energy deposits.
The mountain tribesmen of Pampanga resented the exploration as an act of sacrilege and warned of rousing the wrath of the volcano’s mythical deity, Apu Namalyari. Thereafter, the tribesmen reported of animals scalded by searing sediments and vents billowing hissing sulfuric fumes.
Pampanga residents proximate to the volcano did not sense imminent danger up to the second week of June 1991, but held their uneasy peace with the tumultuous fear of the Aetas’ belief about their disturbed god.
On June 10, ominous dark clouds enveloped Mount Pinatubo, casting an eerie darkening shroud over Clark Air Base.
The following day, tremors started shaking a wide swath of western Pampanga. There was a flurry of movement in personnel, aircraft, and transport units inside Clark. Save for a security contingent, the US Forces had completely abandoned the biggest American military installation outside continental USA.
June 12, 1991. Philippine Independence Day. There was no nationalistic sentiment in the speech of Angeles City Mayor Antonio Abad Santos that followed the flag raising ritual. He underscored the dependence of the city on the American forces, their abandonment of Clark he lamented as “overacting.” Whatever parade scheduled for the day was rained down – not by cold water, but by hot ash and pumice stones.
At 8:51 A.M., a series of thundering explosions shooting a giant plume of ash rising to some 20 kilometers high broke the 600-year slumber of Mount Pinatubo.
Bursting from the volcano’s crater was a gargantuan gray-greenish cauliflower cloud – not unlike the atomic blast in Hiroshima – that blotted out the morning sun. Volcanologists though recorded the first eruption at 3:00 A.M. and reported an avalanche of pyroclastic materials – searing gas with a temperature upwards to 1,000 degrees Celsius, how ash and molten rocks – that blanketed the mountain’s lush green slopes in a dark grey shroud…
…With Angeles and Olongapo bearing the first full brunt of the eruptions, the deeply religious discerned the wrath of God in Pinatubo: the rightful destruction of the host cities to the US military bases for the same sins as Sodom and Gomorrah’s.
But the devastation would not remain contained there; even holy sites as churches and chapels were not spared.
Punongbayan described the June 12 blasts as major eruptions but warned that Pinatubo still held plenty of built-up magma capable of more severe eruptions.
“This could only be the beginning,” he said, prophetically.
(Excerpted from Chapter 2 of Pinatubo: Triumph of the Kapampangan Spirit edited by this columnist and currently in the process of printing with the San Fernando Heritage Foundation as publisher.)

The meaning of the day

IF WE are to draw out the deepest meaning of what we celebrate today, it will not be enough to merely recall all the glorious epochs in our history: of the unfurling of the Philippine flag at the Aguinaldo Mansion in Kawit, Cavite; of Tirad Pass and Zapote Bridge, and earlier on of Bagumbayan and Pugadlawin; and even much, much earlier, of the various revolts of Dagohoy and Maniago, of Sumuroy and Hermano Pule, Diego and Gabriela Silang, down history line to Soliman of Tondo and Lapu-Lapu of Mactan.
Nor should we be content to merely pay tribute to Rizal and Bonifacio, Mabini and Jacinto, Jaena, the Lunas and del Pilars, Sakay, onto Abad Santos and Aquino, and all those who consecrated their lives to this nation, not excluding Edgar Jopson and Lean Alejandro.
To take the full measure of our celebration today, it is not enough that we commemorate what our heroes did. It is a requisite that we imbibe their spirit. It is a must that we match their deeds with our own.
No, I do not mean we should all die like them. As a smart-aleck once said: “There is one thing about heroes that I don’t aspire to be – that is their being dead.”
Heroism has become the subject of humor, even the object of derision, in these unheroic times. As that common caution to the heroic goes: “Huwag ka nang magpakabayani. Binabaril yan sa Luneta.”
We don’t have to die, if only to emulate our heroes. They have done the fighting and the dying for our country. Our task is to live for our country. The song of our heroes for the Motherland is “ang mamatay nang dahil sa iyo.” Our song for her is “ang mabuhay para sa iyo.”
Dying for the country is the stuff of heroism. Living for the country is the essence of civic responsibility . Living for the country is our sacred call to duty.
Yes, Ninoy Aquino was right: “The Filipino is worth dying for.”
So are we equally correct: “The Filipino is worth living for.”
So how well have we responded to that call? How well have we served, and still serve our people?
For those in government, that call to duty assumes an even greater magnitude.
It is not uncommon to find in government people who value themselves as privileged by virtue of a padrino’s influence imposed on their behalf. Consequently, they feel no obligation to serve the public, or if they do so, they seek additional consideration as an entitlement.
It is not uncommon among government people to see a government post as a sinecure, an office that requires no work but pays off most handsomely.
It is not uncommon for government leaders to value themselves as Providentially-appointed and thus bequeathed with divine rights to wrong their constituencies.
With such misgiven commonalities in government, what service can still be rendered to the public?
For the public at large, the so-called civil society most specially, living-for-the-country goes beyond the perfunctory relief-giving in times of calamities, way beyond the routinary round-table discussions of issues besetting the people, way beyond the television soundbytes of commitment to the poor and the marginalized. Living-for-the-people is pure will found manifest in the act of tangibilities: of real service.
No, we are not called upon to render the supreme act of heroism. We are called to be true and faithful to our civic responsibility.
With the flag as our witness, today requires of us to re-dedicate ourselves to our country, to give our own contribution, no matter how humble, to the mission of re-building this nation.
The fulfillment of any mission requires the unity of mind, the solidarity of purpose, and the collectivity of efforts of all those concerned. Unity is paramount. As it has long been said: “Never forget that unity is the distinct instinct of people who want to accomplish something.”
Unity then is our call. As rebuilding our nation is our goal. I find this the meaning of our Independence Day celebrations today.

Excellence defines Cato

KAPAMPANGAN DIPLOMAT and former journalist Elmer G. Cato has been elected vice chairman of the Fourth Committee of the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
A signal accomplishment not only for the Kapampangan race but the Filipino nation as well. It does not take just any diplomat to get elected to a committee of the UN General Assembly, and one with concerns on the issues of decolonization, peacekeeping, information, outer space and Palestine at that! Really, really heavy stuff there. Palestine alone is one helluva concern.
Every Kapampangan should find some pride in Cato’s election. But proud and happy as I am, I was not the least surprised about this event.
Why? It was really bound to happen sooner than later.
Excellence has always defined Elmer G. Cato.
From his days at the Chevalier School where he found his nursery in journalism and where, as a delegate to a regional secondary schools press conference he came under my and Ding Cervantes’ tutelage, albeit very shortly, being lecturers-evaluators, to his De La Salle University days editing the school papers, excellence already found an expression in Cato.
That such a pa-burgis an institution as DLSU had social unrest in the pages of its official publication could only be attributed to the spunk that Cato brought to his craft.
Into the vortex of provincial newspapering Cato found himself after college, covering Pampanga for Malaya and the Manila Chronicle while at the same time stringing for a number of wire agencies, Kyodo News among them.
It was in the reportage of the communist insurgency that Cato sank his teeth most, and as was the usual, he excelled most. He had the closest and most credible link to the insurgents, earned through forays in their mountain lairs and urban nests be it for plenums, anniversaries, or simple press conferences.
This of course did not endear Cato to the military and its right-wing vigilante groups. He was – in 1988 – one of three Pampanga newsmen (mis)identified by the vigilantes as “propagandists of the CPP-NPA and card-bearing members of the NDF” and promptly marked for “neutralization.”
Think what the country would have lost if the standing order for Cato’s execution was ever carried out!
It was also in this period that Cato put up the intrepid Angeles SUN weekly that readily grabbed the premiership among local publications.
From provincial newspapering, Cato moved on to the national stage with editorial stints in the Daily Globe and Today; and beyond the national borders, to the Middle East via section editorship in the Saudi Gazette and later in an Indonesian newspaper.
Journalism’s loss was the foreign service’s gain when Cato passed with excellence the foreign service examinations and joined the DFA in 1998.
Even as a junior foreign service officer, Cato already showed his streak of excellence, serving as special assistant to Foreign Secretaries Domingo L. Siazon and Teofisto L. Guingona Jr.
It was Cato too that effected the transfer of the regional consular office from the flood-prone Paskuhan Village in San Fernando to its current site at the Clark Freeport when he served as consular officer there.
As officer-in-charge of the Presidential Commission on the Visitng Forces Agreement, Cato stood toe-to-toe with a ranking US Embassy official when the question of Filipino rights in one of the joint military exercises was raised, never blinking once even when that American ranted and raved with SOBs and jackasses generously thrown in Cato’s direction.
As a diplomat with the Philippine Mission at the United Nations, Cato first gained notice when he served as Alternate Representative to the Security Council during the Philippine membership to that body from 2004-2005.
Excellence has always defined Elmer G. Cato. This has given the Kapampangan one more source of pride and joy. It is truly a wonder why the Kapampangan has not returned the favor. Like making Cato a Most Outstanding Kapampangan Awardee.

De-Lapidation

“DILAPIDATED PAMPANGA has been so successfully de-Lapidated and now they are given an opportunity to dilapidate the nation.”
Furious were two civil society members over the reported appointment by the President of former Gov. Mark Lapid as head of the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA). The two are the last of their kind that have maintained cordial links with me despite my potshots – howitzers, they claimed – at their revered icon, the Reverend Governor Eddie T. Panlilio.
So, over cups of espresso at Fiorgelato’s in SM Pampanga, they took turns sniping at the Lapids with me as a sort of a foil.
GMA is sending the worst message to the Filipino people and inflicting the worst insult on the Capampangan, said Medes, named – by me, after the goddess Medea – for his wisdom.
How is that so?
The Lapids have been thoroughly rejected by the Capampangan in the most spectacular way that was the miracle of Among Ed’s election. Now, GMA is inflicting the Capampangan’s vomit on the Filipino people.
Well, trash to one is treasure to another, as it is often said by garbage collectors.
You don’t get the point. By appointing Lapid, GMA has condoned all the corruption that choked Pampanga during the father-son reign at the capitol. That is tantamount to telling the Filipinos that crime pays and the bigger the crime, the bigger the pay. The appointment of Lapid is a total negation of GMA’s very own policy of good governance and transparency.
Careful now, Bro – I call him so because he’s an ex-seminarian like me – but the least semblance of some wrongdoings the Lapids could be latched to are those cobwebbed cases with the Ombudsman and the archived congressional inquiry on the quarry operations, which were all Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao’s initiatives.
Bro, it needs no court of law to determine the crimes of the Lapid against the people of Pampanga. The court of public opinion has decided on that based on the incontrovertible proof provided by the quarry collections under Among Ed. With the same givens of number of trucks, volumes of sand hauled, P150 quarry tax and P150 administrative fee, the P1 million daily take today ranged against the P20,000-plus daily average at the time of Mark Lapid amounts to voluminous evidence of graft and corruption. The amount involved is many times over that set for the crime of plunder.
Didn’t you make a point of this yourself in a recent column when you compared the recent six-month share of Porac town from the quarry earnings, P16 million as over P5 million more than the entire provincial collection for 2004? Butted in Sandy, once part of the quarry study group. Instead of an appointment to a government post, Lapid deserved a day in court.
So why not tell your Reverend Governor to file a case against his predecessor? He has a moral obligation to do so, if only to show the people that he has his heart where his mouth is. It is not enough to raise the quarry collections to their actual levels. It is imperative that justice be served on those deprived of the benefits of the actual collections, to show that crime does not pay. That is good governance.
That is never far from the mind of Among Ed. It’s just too bad that the legal mind he respected most suddenly resigned her post.
You mean the governor had the most respect for Atty. Maria Elissa Velez? More than what he invests in the mind of Atty. Vivian Dabu?
Now, you’re into your game of sowing intrigues again.
So what do you think is the reason for GMA to appoint Lapid at PTA?
It’s not really so much a payback for the Lapid support she enjoys as a spite to Among Ed for all his perceived actuations against the President, from the P500,000 bundles of money to his allowing Running Priest Robert Reyes to rant against GMA right on the provincial capitol of her home province.
GMA is spiteful?
They gave me that we-are-with-stupid look.

Weighted options

LAST MONTH the Villa Leoncia Bridge along the Circumferential Road in Angeles City groaned and bended to the heavy volume of traffic that crossed it.
Quickly – and so correctly – pinpointed as the culprit were those overloaded quarry trucks coming from the laharlandia of Porac and going through MacArthur Highway to Metro Manila.
In September 2007, the Advocacy for the Development of Central Luzon (ADCL) wrote a letter to Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio raising concern over the accelerating degradation of Pampanga’s roads and bridges caused by overloaded cargo vehicles, principally quarry trucks.
In January 2008, the ADCL renewed its calls for the governor to do something about the overloaded quarry trucks.
In March 2008, rightfully distressed over a clear and present danger not only to infrastructures but moreso to the socio-economic ramifications arising from the state of roads and bridges in the province, the ADCL raised the alarm with a third letter to the governor.
In obvious exasperation over the apparent indifference and inaction of Panlilio, the face of ADCL – Rene Romero, who is also chair of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry – went to the press and advocated for a total ban on quarrying in Pampanga.
I, for one, thought Mister Rene went off his rockers with such a seemingly stupid proposition. But come to think of it, he was saner than many of us.
What the province gets from quarrying – still P1 million a day, Governor? – may not even compensate for the destruction these overloaded quarry trucks impact not only on our infrastructure but also in the province’s political well-being, so Mister Rene reasoned, citing the quarry issue as the root cause of the enmity between the governor on one hand and all the rest of the local government officials – save for the City of San Fernando’s Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez – on the other.
Still, no action from the governor.
I have this uncanny feeling that Panlilio looks at Mister Rene as the boy who cried wolf ever since their falling out over the development agenda Romero proposed which – if we believe the moles and cockroaches at the capitol – the governor quickly promised to put into action but as swiftly consigned to the bottom of the thick, thick files of broken promises.
It should be remembered that Mister Rene was among the first five persons who initially broached the then un-thought of idea of Panlilio running for governor. Why, Mister Rene himself was in the short list of probable gubernatorial candidates put up by the so-called civil society prior to the surfacing of Panlilio’s name.
Of course that is all murky water under the bridge now.
Now, could it be possible that the Villa Leoncia Bridge could not have been so damaged to uselessness had Panlilio heeded the concerns of the ADCL in their letters of September 2007, of January and March 2008?
Of course, that is even murkier water under the Villa Leoncia Bridge now – made operable with a Mabey Bridge atop it rushed by the Department of Public Works and Highways and quickly plastered with “Mabuhay and Maraming Salamat” tarpaulins of Mayor Blueboy Nepomuceno.
A most pressing matter now is for the governor – along with Nepomuceno – the DPWH, the Land Transportation Office and the police too to learn from the lessons of Leoncia Bridge and strictly implement the weight limits on those quarry and cargo trucks plying the roads of Pampanga.
For starters, portable weighbridges can be installed near the quarry sites to check at the very source the very root of the problem. The trucks disallowed and prevented from taking on the road if found overweight.
That splendid idea was broached by DPWH Region 3 Director Alfredo Tolentino in Monday’s infra committee hearing at the sangguniang panlalawigan. Tolentino said there was one available portable weighbridge that can be immediately installed.
With the income from quarry, the provincial government can very well procure more weighbridges to install in all major quarry sites. The law of recompense – The benefits derived paying for the harm done – in full observance here.
So, will the governor act on this proposal this time?
Lest the governor see the boy crying wolf again, I won’t say that the initial idea of a weighbridge at the quarry sites came from Mister Rene’s ADCL too. Ooops, me and my big mouth.

Thou shall not cut those trees

A BLAST from the past with an impact in the present is this piece titled Trees that appeared in my Zona Libre column in the March 11-17, 2001 issue of The Voice.
POOR Apung Feleng Lazatin! One of his more lasting legacies to the Kapampangan has been grabbed by this upstart senator Loren Legarda-Leviste.
Traversing that canopy of green along the Baliti stretch of the MacArthur Highway, I was pleasantly surprised to see installments of Joyce Kilmer’s Tree on mini-billboards interspersed with the fully-grown acacia trees. That pleasant surprise turned to bitterness at the last billboard proclaiming the site as a Luntiang Paraiso with the Hon. Loren Legarda-Leviste as chairperson. Giving the impression that the trees there are part of a Leviste project. Such gall!
I have no quarrel with Leviste. I only wished she had the grace, the humility and the honesty to give credit where credit is due. It would not take much – at the most one more mini-billboard – to cite the planter and nurturer of those trees, the grand old man of Pampanga politics himself, Don Rafael Lazatin, once governor of Pampanga, mayor of Angeles City, member of the Batasang Pambansa. (Father to former Angeles City Mayor and now returned Congressman Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin of the 1st District, if I may now add.)
Come to think of it, but for the few who can still remember, not many really know who planted those acacia trees along MacArthur Highway.
It was in the early ‘70s, I still recall, that Apung Feleng planted those acacia seedlings. The tree-planting frenzy in government was yet to germinate as a Marcosian idea. It was a most pleasant sight to behold the grand old man hosing those young plants from a water tank in late afternoon, day after day after day. Until they turned to saplings and matured as mighty trees providing a cool oasis of fresh air to the weary traveler.
The City of San Fernando can perhaps declare that pocket of green as a living memorial to Apung Feleng in recognition of his contribution to the greening of this land. As well as to prevent Legarda and other credit grabbers from arrogating unto themselves the deed of others.
Some green foliage in the new seal of the City of San Fernando caught my attention. The city council resolution explaining the new seal cited this as a commitment to the care of the environment.
Looking at the continuing destruction of trees where buildings are being built, I think what ought to have been included in the city seal – to be truthful – is a tree stump. The city government is plainly indifferent when it comes to the caring of trees.
Of course, money does not grow on trees. It comes out of infrastructure projects. It isn’t hard to understand that, Mayor Doctor Rey Aquino.
Elections are a bane to trees. It does not take too much intelligence to know that nailing billboards, posters or placards on trees inflicts damage to the plant tissues. This is altogether similar to puncturing human skin, damaging tissues and exposing them to infection.
Of course, the idiots who continue to nail election – and even commercial – materials on trees do not have the minutest intelligence. Thus continuing to afflict all sorts of damages on trees.
There ought to be a law against this practice. But then, who make the laws but those whose election materials are pinned on the trees. Real idiots.
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POOR Apung Feleng Lazatin, all the more today. His legacy of green is being threatened to obliteration by the Department of Public Works and Highways with a road-widening project.
Such gall for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to issue a permit to cut those over-30-year-old trees numbering to a hundred 100 or so!
Such gall for the Regional Development Council 3 to lend its name to such environmental despoilation!
Such gall – and hypocrisy – for the business people to push for the degradation of nature even as they profess their advocacy for the environment and the development of the region!
Shame on all of them. As I cannot hope for a tree to fall on them just to die – the tree, that is – so I could only wish that they be cursed by nature’s gods.