Upping the VM bar

IT HAS ceased to be a joke. Nobody’s laughing anymore. Au contraire, everybody’s taking very serious note of the purported run of Councilor Jesus “Jay” Sangil for the Angeles City vice mayorship in 2013.

No laughing matter, indeed, is Sangil’s distribution of trike patrols to the barangays – 22 so far, 11 more to go. Why, only the governor of Pampanga, everyone’s Beloved Nanay, has upped Sangil in this regard, 505 trikes for each of the province’s barangays.

And like her, Sangil did not spend a cent from the public coffers for this activity.

Again, like her too, Sangil’s distribution did not distinguish any shade of partisanship: “Dapat tuluy-tuloy at walang barikada ang pagseserbisyo sa ating mga kababayan. No political color, mapa yellow, green, red, orange o blue, wala tayong pinipili.”

Yes, can any city barangay chair bluer than Cutcut’s Cecille Nepomuceno, sister-in-law of former Mayor Blueboy, loser to and prospective 2013 rival of Mayor Ed Pamintuan who is Sangil’s political patron?

Ah, how Madame Cecille beamed for the cameras on board the trike with Sangil at the driver’s seat!

Yes, it mattered little to Sangil too that Balibago chair Tony Mamac is VM 2013 pretender. Sangil himself delivered the trike to Mamac, smiling at the latter’s offer for him to be Assistant Vice Mayor. Now, that’s a most laughable joke.  

The impact of Sangil’s “Trike para sa Payapa at Tahimik na Barangay” is easily quantifiable in terms of the happy reception it got from the beneficiaries –  “Tamang-tama ang tricycle sa aming mga pangangailangan. Maliliit kasi ang mga daan sa mga barangay kaya makakapasok ang mga patrol units na ito sa mga eskinita. Malaking tipid din ito sa konsumo sa gasolina.”

On the political Richter scale, that registers an immeasurable magnitude.

On one hand, Sangil has given the barangays one means to address emergencies and peace and order concerns.

On the other, Sangil raised the humble tricycle, and by extension, the lowly tricycle boy, to a catalyst of community development. Pride of profession, no matter how low in social status, dignity of labor all emblazoned there.

How right is that Punto! editorial some weeks back:

“Unintentionally or not, Sangil may have found in the lowly tricycle the right vehicle to take him to that elevated chair at the city council.

Yeah, so how many tricycles are there in Angeles City, and how many passengers do they ferry 24/7?

Go TODA. Go Sangil.”

And that’s but one facet of Sangil’s masa-centered advocacy.

Sangil’s own humble beginnings have inured in him the sensitivity, the malasakit to the least, the last and the lost – to use the good Apu Ceto’s mantra – of his constituents.        

More than sheer lip service – as is the wont of the seasoned politicians, vice mayors here and there not excluded – Sangil walks his talk.

Last Labor Day itself, Sangil paid honor to the workingman with his successful arbitration of a dispute between Jumbo Jenra and its 34 dismissed workers in what could be one of the speediest resolution of a labor dispute ever recorded – 42 hours.

“Huwag kalimutan yung pinagsamahan, respeto sa bawat isa. Kung may nangyari man na hindi maganda somewhere along the way, the most important thing is at the end of the day, maayos ang lahat.” So Sangil reminded the contending parties and effected a “win-win solution that was not disadvantageous to the workers and at the same time did not push the employers to the wall.”

For the record: Jumbo Jenra signed an agreement to grant the workers’ compensation -- separation, 13^th month, holiday, overtime, last pay; issue clearance forms and certificates of employment; and open other Jenra branches for their re-hiring.  

On record too: Sangil played key role in the resolution of a labor dispute between Golbon factory at EPZA Pulung Cacutud and its 700 workers, with the factory settling its obligations of some P42 million. 

Sangil has proven himself well as a mediator, an arbitrator, indeed, a bridge of understanding between labor and capital. 

His beloved masa never far from his mind, ever lodged in his heart, Sangil’s needed family vacations are yet an opportunity to serve.

From his last sojourn to the United States in March, Sangil  brought home a box of dialyzers and needles for use at the renal care unit at the Rafael Lazatin Medical Center (RLMC).

Sangil’s source, the Da Vita Clinic, Elk Grove and other dialysis clinics have promised to send the city hospital 24 dialysis chairs, more dialyzers and other medical equipment.

Inviting his colleagues to do more for the health of the Angelenos, Sangil said: “There are still a lot of hospitals and clinics in the US and other countries more than willing to send in medical supplies and equipment, we just have to find them.”

And finding them, is one talent Sangil has over other pretenders to the city vice mayorship. So have you heard of any vice mayor having done anything near Sangil’s doing?

Why, just this week past, Sangil disclosed yet another pro-poor project at the RLMC – a computerized axial tomography (CT) scan center. This, he developed from a visit to CT scan center at the Clark Freeport from where he crafted a city council resolution beneficial to indigent patients and residents which was approved last Tuesday by the city council.

Never one to arrogate any credit unto himself, Sangil was more than content to take his work as no more than complementary to the good job of hizzoner: “With Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan at the helm, all the equipment needed by the hospital are being brought in and set up one after the other. I go out of my way to make other projects in support of the pro-poor programs of the mayor.”

Spoken like the true vice mayor he can very well be, happily conceding the limelight to his mayor.

Simply by upping the 2013 VM bar, Sangil has already topped the race.

And nobody is any mood to laugh.

 

        

Unread

“MORE KAPAMPANGANS discover joy in reading.”

So was slugged, okay, titled, a recent press release from the Capitol, that went thus:

The Pampanga Provincial Library (PPL) noted that more Kapampangans have apparently discovered joy in reading books, magazines and other materials as it reported an increase in the number of general public which availed themselves of the library’s collections for the first three months of the year.

Provincial Librarian Bessie Makabali reported that a total of 1,333 readers made use of the library’s various collections in January; another 1,208 in February and 1,420 last March.

Makabali attributed this growing interest in reading to the continuous advocacy on the benefits of reading as well as the rich collections of reference and fiction books, newspapers and magazines, government publications and non-book materials in the provincial government’s library which is located at the Capitol compound.

As of March this year, the library boasts of 21,572 grand collections which were purchased from local funds, while some were part of the allocation from the National Library of the Philippines (NLP). Some so-called “Friends of the Library”, both based in the province and foreign countries, also regularly donate books, mostly fiction and general reference…

Honestly, I am more saddened than gladdened by that piece of news.

Considering Pampanga’s over two million population, it is of little consolation to note a three-month aggregate of only 3,961 readers at the provincial library.

Indicted here is the reading deficiency of the Kapampangan. Manifest here is the decreasing literacy rate of our race.    

For one inured in classical studies – thanks to my formative years in the seminary – it is not at all effete snobbery to feel some disdain, at the same time some remorse, over the opportunities – to learn, to know, to be enriched – lost to a mind deprived of reading.

Aye, to character formation itself, where reading is elemental. As Francis Bacon monumentalized in his Of Studies:  

"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And, therefore, if a man writes little, he had needed have a great memory; if he confers little, he had need of a ready wit; and if he read little, he had need of much cunning to seem to know that he knoweth not"

For one in the writing profession, reading is a requirement: even a sine qua non, as a matter of course. Reading for a writer covers not only newspapers, magazines and periodicals, but moreso books – of all kinds, in all subjects. If only to broaden his horizon, if only to expand his mind, if only to increase his vocabulary.

Again, Bacon: “Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.”

Yes, light reading – novels, literary anthologies – for the senses; high-brow reading – philosophies, histories, sciences – for the intellect.

Aye, in this age of Kindle, Nook eReader, Cybook and Pepper Pad, I still go for the old hard- and soft-covers. There’s nothing more intellectually stimulating to me than the smell of pulp only a book has. It makes understanding of what I am reading deeper, retention in memory more permanent, the imagination more expansive.  

E-books or good old books-in-ink-and-paper though, reading is on sheer joy. There is life in books. There is life to books. Inhering in human life itself.  

Read John Milton in Areopagitica: “Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.

Unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye.

A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.”

Read. It is food for the intellect, nutrient for the soul. 

  

Courage defined

“TO FIGHT for the right, without question or pause ... 

To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause ...”

The song of the Man from La Mancha gives the full measure of courage.

The name of the councilor from Porac proves no misnomer in his courageous stand for his constituents.

Mike Tapang makes an opposition of one at a Porac municipal council rubberstamping for the local executive in the hurried quest for a campus of the Don Honorio Ventura Technological State University (DHVTSU) in the town.

For that he has been all-too-hastily demonized as the force of resistance to the development of the town, the stumbling block to the bright future being opened to the youth of Porac.

“This is a beautiful project for the sake of the people. We appeal to the councilor not to derail it.”
So quoted this paper yesterday of Vice Mayor Dexter David urging Tapang to help fulfil the “ardent wish and supreme mission” to establish the DHVTSU campus in Porac.

In many a forum, David and the otherwise quiet Mayor Condralito de la Cruz have amplified DHVTSU-Porac as the “springboard of the people to jump over poverty.” 
And then lowered the boom on Tapang: that he opposed DHVTSU-Porac in retaliation for the rejection of his proposal to put up a P250-million public market and mall.

While he initially agreed with Tapang on the belief that the market proposal was under a build-operate-transfer scheme, Dela Cruz said he had to subsequently reject it after Tapang asked him to contract a loan for the proposed market-mall.
“Porac will be under debt for over 25 years amounting to more than P400 million. This is not a good proposition.” So was De la Cruz quoted as rationalizing his rejection of Tapang’s market wish.

Ah, how selfishly vicious of Tapang to now exact his vengeance, not at the town council and the mayor, but upon the innocent youth – they that shall be deprived of an otherwise promising future DHVTSU-Porac guarantees. So the town council and their mayor would like all of us to believe.

So do we believe? Not until we hear Tapang first.

The P250-million market proposal, Tapang vehemently denied, saying the project proponents were “directly communicating with the mayor and not me.” Saying he is all by his lonesome at the city council, “how can I work for the huge loan?” And so enjoined his peers to “stick to the issue and not bring up other issues.”  

“I am not against the establishment of DHVTSU in Porac. What I question is the memorandum of agreement entered into by the Porac government and DHVTSU which I believe is disadvantageous to our people,” says Tapang. “Its provisions only cover benefits for DHTSU and none for the local government.”

At a committee hearing of the sangguniang panlalawigan on May 3, Tapang raised  “salient points” of the MOA under question, to wit: the Porac LGU will: a) provide the land and the requisite funding for the construction of academic buildings and support infrastructure including instructional and laboratory facilities of the campus; b) shoulder capital expenditures for equipment, tools, supplies, books, fixtures, etc.; c) allocate an annual subsidy of P3 million to DHVTSU to cover its incidental expenses for a period of 25 years; and) turn over all the properties – land, buildings, facilities – to DHTSU after five years.

A totally lopsided arrangement in favour of DHVTSU, Tapang says. “Imagine we will shell out P3 million yearly for 25 years without the assurance that most of those who will benefit are from Porac.” Why, there is not even a provision in the MOA giving enrolment priority to Porac residents as well as scholarship grants, he added.

In yesterday’s Punto!, David said that the “points and amendments” raised by Tapang before the sangguniang panlalawigan had been addressed in their recent meetings.
“It’s on record via minutes of the meetings that concerns raised by Councilor Tapang had been addressed. Why mention them again? It derails the project,” said David.

The vice mayor noted that the law on the establishment of a state university provides at least 135 scholarship grants be given to residents of the host town or city.  
David expressed supreme confidence that the DHVTSU could operate on its own steam after the three-year observatory period, even as the Porac local government can very well sustain n its needs given the quarry revenues of the acclaimed “sand capital” of the country.

“In the Dela Cruz administration alone in 2011, our quarry revenues were at P29,613,240 with Capitol shares at P17,091,000. Compare that to 2010 quarry incomes of P22,526,370 and the provincial’s share of P15,826,000. Aren’t we capable of subsidizing a state university campus? Of course, it is better than running a community college because of complexities. DHVTSU is DHVTSU wherever you go and the P3-million subsidy can be stopped after favorable reviews in three years because we are certain DHVTSU is capable of operating in (sic) itself. By then, we could use the P3 million for other services and provide for more scholarships.” So David acclaimed in news reports.

Off tangent, says Tapang: “If my concerns have truly been addressed, why aren’t they incorporated, if only as addenda, to the MOA?”

Indeed, for after all, the mere words of the vice mayor and the mayor, even the minutes of meetings will never be as binding as a MOA. 

Tapang is defined here not only as courage. But prudence too.

Aye, those white billboards in Porac are right: Kailangan, Tapang.

Flawless de Mayo

BLASPHEMOUS DISGRACE – an extreme, supremely extreme, double redundancy there for effect – was the collective howl heaped upon that woman in skimpy shorts who mounted the cross at the makeshift Calvary in Barangay Pampang, Angeles City last Good Friday.

Ah, to what (im)moral depths has this generation descended, we – their elders – wailed.

“This is an instance of that which is called secularism, the rejection of God in the life of man, the utter disrespect for God. What is adored is modernism, absolutely displacing the Gospel values of pureness of heart, prudence and respect for the spiritual.” So lamented Fr. Anton Pascual, president of Catholic church-run Radio Veritas.

“Our problem is… that which Pope Benedict XVI defined as the problem of relativism in the world today. The absence of standards, of moral standards, as though everything depended on the subjective interpretation of the individual.” So furthered the good padre.

Indeed, to what depths of secularism have we descended where our folk religion rites are concerned.

In the Mary Month of May is the Flores de Mayo – a tradition dating back to 1865 with young girls doing daily floral offering to the Virgin for the whole month.

The other Maytime festivity is the Santacruzan – a dramatization of the search of the Empress Helena of the Cross with her son Constantine. It usually serves as the culmination of the Flores de Mayo with a grand edition – Santacruzan caragulan, in Kapampangan ­– on the last day of May. 

Like other religious rites, both festivities – Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iniguez implores the Catholics faithful – must be taken as “an opportunity to deepen their faith and reflect on the meaning of the cross in their life.”

Sadly, so sadly, Bishop Iniguez laments, the religious significance has steadily diminished over the years and has become “commercialized.”

The Santacruzan has so turned into “beauty pageants and occasions for people to see movie and television personalities clad in pompous regalia,” that there is a need for the Church “to do everything it could to catechize and inform the faithful of the event’s significance.”

As the Santacruzan, so is the Flores de Mayo – in effect “deVirginized,”  secularized to a competition of fashion and a contest of beauty. Morally degenerating into Flawless de Mayo, in the context of glutathione and Dra. Vicky Belo.   

Indeed, no spirituality but sheer sexuality can only obtain from a procession of beauty queens and comely lasses showing the most skin and the least faith,    

And as if this were not enough a desecration of the Christian essence of the Flores de Mayo and the Santacruzan – the gay community has taken over the whole package, in all their gay apparel in the roles of the characters – from the Banderada to Reynas Sabah, Justicia, Mora, Sentenciada, etcetera to the Emperatriz and Reyna Elena.

“Hindi angkop na sila ay sumagala dahil hindi angkop na pagpapakita ng debosyon na ang lalaki ay nagwawaring babae. Kahit ano pa, ika nga sa Tagalog, mabababoy yan. Ang pagiging mukhang babae ng mga bading ay hindi mapo-focus sa mahal na birhen (It is not proper that they join the parade because it is not a proper show of devotion for men to appear as women. In any case, as they say in Tagalog, it will be profane. Having gays appear as women will shift the focus from the beloved virgin).” So Bishop Ted Bacani, of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ Episcopal Commission on the Doctrine of the Faith, said in an interview over Radio Veritas.

“Gawin natin na maayos na tayo ay makakapagbibigay talaga ng puri sa Diyos at sa ating mahal na birhen (Let's just do this properly to give praise to God and our beloved virgin),” the good bishop added.

The gay community has long issued a stand on their right to join the Flores de Mayo and the Santacruzan.

A few years back, Danton Remoto, chairman of the gay group Ladlad, said it was not the intention of the gay participants of Santacruzan to insult the Catholic Church: “Ang mga baklang sumasali sa ganyan, wala silang intensiyon na mang-insulto o manlibak sa Simbahan (Those gays who joined the Santacruzan have no  intention to insult the Church).”

Still, as Bishop Iniguez says: “Gayunman, kung malaking palabas lamang ang pagsali ng third sex sa sagala, ito’y hindi nararapat dahil ang Santacruzan ay hindi fashion show kung hindi isang sagradong pagdiriwang ng Simbahang Katoliko (However, if gays joining the parade is all for show, this is not appropriate because the Santacruzan is not a fashion show, but a sacred celebration of the Catholic Church).”

Neither homophobe nor homophile I am, but a line’s got to be drawn between the unrestrained expression of rights and the disparagement of faith.

Keep the tradition sacred.

Clark conspiracy

WISH YOU may, wish you might, but you won’t have the wish you have for Clark.

So spake a CIA – civilian in Angeles – of the CIA – the Clark International Airport. Some cloak-and-dagger credential did indeed obtain in the CIA, having worked in and retired from naval intelligence. So indulging in his take of the CIA – the airport, is no waste of intelligence or time.

The CIA as the premier international gateway of the Philippines will never fly. So he says, with the conviction of Thomas having touched the pierced side of the Risen Christ.

How so?

America will not allow it. Else it would be deprived of its best military training facility. You think good old USA will just let go of its investment in the space shuttle-ready runway at Clark, of the incomparable Crow Valley for bombing and strafing runs of its warbirds? Nothing comes close to Clark for the American eagle to sharpen its talons, so to speak.

And, as it was then so it is moreso now with Chinese belligerence in the Scarborough, er, Panatag Shoal, America’s wish is the Philippine government’s command.

Opening copy of Punto:  Your editorial last Wednesday said it all, if I may: “For the Philippines to be minimally relied upon as a US regional partner... it therefore behooves us to resort to all possible means to build at the very least a most minimal credible defense posture.”
So appealed Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto del Rosario del Rosario before his American counterpart in Washington recently.
“We are submitting a list of hardware that the US can help us out with. This would be in terms of patrol vessels, patrol aircraft, radar systems, coast watch stations,” del Rosario furthered.
The Philippines’ wish list included “up to four squadrons (48) of upgraded Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets, more well-armed frigates and corvette-size, fast to surface combatant vessels and minesweepers and four to six mini submarines, possibly obtained from Russia.” This according to the Center for a New American Security.
Del Rosario pointed out that while awaiting the new hardware, it is important for the Philippines and the United States to continue to conduct military exercises “in a better way, in more locations, in a more frequent manner.”
VFA all the way! The comeback of the US military bases can’t be far away.”

Actually, there’s no need for the US to re-base its forces here. Notwithstanding the closure of its base in Okinawa. All that matters – in the American interest – is   unrestricted access to Clark. Thus, the imperative that it should remain at most a limited-service airport, as it is now, with a few domestic flights and some budget carriers. 

As told by a spook, the “real plot” of the CIA story – the ex-operative’s and the airport’s – can never get any spookier than that.

In all appearances there indeed is some sabotage going on at the CIA, to prevent it from being the international gateway it is destined to be.

The idiotic scheme of only-two-slots open at the immigration counter no matter the volume of passengers at the CIA terminal can only be designed as to make anyone damn the airport to kingdom come, and never, ever, to set foot upon it again.

And as though the resultant delays of flights from that immigration retardation were not enough to dissuade other airlines to come to Clark, there is the “terminal illness” afflicting the CIA.

But the cube that served the US Air Force well in its incarnation as the MAC Terminal of the US Air Force is now and anachronism to commercial air travel, no matter its refurbishing and renaming to Diosdado Macapagal.

Since 2006, the Clark International Airport Corp. has bandied different entities it said were serious – read: moneyed – to develop the CIA, starting with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. in partnership with the Manila International Airport Authority and the Bureau of Immigration pitching in P3 billion for the project.

Then came for the longest time ALMAL, a subsidiary of the Kuwait mega-developer M.A. Kharafi, reportedly proffering $1.2 billion.

Thereafter followed Malaysia’s Bristeel Overseas Ventures Inc. with a reported offer of $150 million to undertake the immediate expansion of the CIA terminal.

Filipino firm Philco Aero, and a Korean consortium which name I cannot now recall were also announced by CIAC.

The last I heard of the bidders for the CIA was the Metro Pacific Group of mogul Manny V. Pangilinan which had as component to airport development the establishment of a frail system using the median or center of the North Luzon Expressway which Pangilinan also operates.   

After all is said of these million-billion dollar proposals, nothing, absolutely nada, is done at the terminal. Which really gives cause to the conspiracy theory believed to be strangling the CIA.

That, compounded further by reports of the government keen on the development of Poro Point in San Fernando, La Union as “world class international gateway.”

In the words of Bases Conversion and Development Authority chair Felicito Payumo: “Something similar to Changi Airport in Singapore which is a combination of a commercial shopping mall and an international airport.”

Changi for Poro Point. Tsugi for Clark.

Enough to make anyone a conspiracy theorist.

The way to St. Augustine

WHY LUBAO?
     Of all settlements in the backwaters, plains and hinterlands of Pampanga, what made the trailblazing Augustinian friars in 1572 to choose Lubao to be the nexus of the Catholic faith not only in the province but up and across the expanse of the central and northern regions of Luzon?
     Asked the Most Rev. Pablo Virgilio S. David, auxiliary bishop of San Fernando, in his homily in the High Mass celebrating the 440th year founding of the St. Augustine parish last May 5.
     Low-lying and thus prone to flooding, notwithstanding –its very name taken from bajo, Spanish for low – there was something in Lubao that the Augustinians found of great significance: the people, mostly farmers and fisherfolk, of humble birth and bearings, comprising a balayan ning kababan, locus of humility, the good bishop said. Where most manifest one core value of the Faith.
     “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” The second of the Eight Beatitudes, Matthew 5:5. Reflected I, listening to Among Ambo.
     Thus by its lowliness, less geographic than anthropologic, Lubao rightfully took its place as the fountainhead of Catholicism for the Kapampangan race.
     Delving on the gospel for that day, Matthew 16:18-19 – “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven – the good bishop continued with the celebrated place of the lowly in the City of God, to use the word of St. Augustine.
     With Peter as perfect example, in transcending his human frailties and imperfections with his innate humility.
     And but of course, Lubao’s patron saint himself, St. Augustine of Hippo whose mother St. Monica – as tradition holds – cried buckets of tears for the conversion of her sinful son.
     “But I wretched, most wretched, in the very commencement of my early youth, had begged chastity of Thee, and said, ‘Give me chastity and continency, only not yet.’” Thus, St. Augustine in his Confessions.
     The bishop’s sermon and personal reflection intertwining, and with the once near-photographic memory faded with age, retained now are but snatches of the homily, the opening and concluding part coming full circle though. (How I wish I had the full text of Bishop Ambo’s homily and simply reprinted it here. No word by me can ever approximate even but a fraction of the brilliance, of the eloquence of my once underclassman at the Mother of Good Counsel Seminary. And to think that he delivered his homily from a mere outline!)
     For over a thousand years now, the El Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) in Spain has drawn from all over Europe thousands of pilgrims on foot, on horseback, on bicycles – never on motorized vehicles, converging on the magnificent Santiago de Compostela Cathedral where St. James is buried.
     Why do they do it?
     The pilgrimage is a return to their roots, the burial site of St. James serving as the fountainhead of Christianity in Europe.
     Finding parallelism there, the good bishop broached the idea of an El Camino a Lubao (The Way to Lubao) or an El Camino de San Agustin (The Way of St. Augustine) to afford every Kapampangan a return to the very roots of his/her Faith. From the wetlands of Candaba and Masantol, from the highlands of Porac and Floridablanca, from the urban centers of Mabalacat and Angeles City the Kapampangan faithful, whether in penitence and supplication, or in thanksgiving and veneration, walking the highways and byways to the St. Augustine Parish Church in Lubao.
    The grace of a pilgrimage, a refreshing renewal in one’s Faith if only once in one’s own lifetime makes a truly blessed experience.
     Ah, I can almost hear St. Augustine beckoning: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
     The way of St. Augustine. The path to conversion. The road to salvation. O, that we may all be blessed to take it.

Facebooked city

ANGELES CITY: I Like.
The city’s new brand was launched some days back with the express objective of creating a positive image for the city. Slanted on fun and food galore.
Like.
City tourism officer Christine Nunag readily admits the Facebookishness of the slogan, essentially drawing the inspiration from “the phenomenon of 500 million users who click three billion Facebook ‘Likes’ a day.” Which is “a way to give positive feedback.”
Like.
Nunag elaborates thus: “‘Like’ is to connect with things you care about. Most importantly, ‘I Like’ is a first aid treatment, a ‘modern’ or digital tool to counter the unlikeable image of Angeles City as seen in top pages of internet search engines.” Yes, even at infamous Fields Avenue, there’s more, much more than sleaze.
Like.
A video on the things that one can “like” about Angeles City comprised the initial collateral for the new brand. It is, Nunag says, but the first of a series of audio-visual presentations that will target different market profiles in the coming months, together with print and social media promotions.
Like.
Nunag says the new brand seeks to raise awareness of and deepen appreciation for what the city has to offer and to encourage local pride: “When we are proud of our city, it is easier to sell it as a tourism destination.” Like.
Toward that direction, the city will “embark on a landmark project to culturally map the 33 barangays.” This will entail research and documentation of the stories and memories of Angeles City and “uncover tangible, intangible, natural and built resources.”
Like.
The cultural mapping will be undertaken with the help of the University of Sto. Tomas Center for Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment.
Unlike.
So why does the city have to “import” from UST? Cannot the Center for Kapampangan Studies of Holy Angel University handle the cultural mapping of its own city?
Tag Robby Tantingco, CKS director. Tag Fray Francis Musni, CKS archivist. Tag Marco Nepomuceno, Carmen Mactavish, Jiji Paras and the rest of the city culturati.
Like. Comment. Share.

Keeping 'Pisay'

THE CLARK Development Corp. ought to burn if only for this:
“Our contract with CDC ends 2013. Apparently, we could not see hope of renewal despite their continuing promises. Our students meet under the trees and sleep under mosquito nets… We have our budget for the infrastructure needed, but the site, as CDC promised a long time ago, is wishful thinking.”
Thus, before Gov. Lilia G. Pineda lamented Lilia Habacon, director of the Central Luzon campus of the Philippine Science High School.
“We are the Central Luzon campus of more than 540 scholars in the country, the best of the best, which honestly our Quezon City campus could no longer contain. We prefer to stay in Pampanga since it’s the best strategic point in Luzon,” said Habacon. “That is why we decided to seek the governor’s help in our situation.”
Even as the provincial governments of Bulacan, Bataan and Zambales had shown interest to host PSHS, Habacon said Pampanga’s being at the very heart of the region and the governor’s storied education advocacy made the province as “most preferred choice” for PSHS site.
The PSHS, it must be noted, is not under the Department of Education but is an attached agency of the Department of Science and Technology.
Signed in 2009, the PSHS contract with the CDC will terminate in 2013 with – according to Habacon – “no positive signs of being renewed as the campus sits on an ancestral domain site.”
It has been a year, Habacon said, since CDC promised to provide the PSHS a permanent site but nothing has come out of it.
Where the CDC is found most wanting, Governor Pineda is most fulfilling: “Certainly, we will keep and support (PSHS) in Pampanga. We will muster all our resources for programs on education. Ganito kahalaga ang edukasyon sa amin.” said the governor.
Pineda said the Capitol is “most willing” to support PSHS’s infrastructure and other needs. As the school has funds for buildings, the provincial government can focus on campus roads, library, and water supply system.
She identified the Pampanga Agricultural College in Magalang town as “the most ideal site” for the PSHS. Which struck a most positive chord in Dr. Herminio Soriano Jr., PAC president: “We will be so happy to accommodate them at PAC. The 10 hectares they need is there. Much more, we could complement each other in science and technology. A PSHS campus at PAC is a most welcome development.”
A PSHS at PAC actually follows some sort of a template established with the PSHS main campus at Agham Road in Quezon City and the University of the Philippines in Diliman. The latter serving as a natural catch basin for the former’s graduates, thereby assuring a continuing link of the science-technology specialization. . A case in point of the PSHS-UP synergy is my son Jonathan Elliot. He was among the some 3,000 graduating elementary students throughout the country who took the two-tiered PSHS entrance exams in 1998, and fortunately made it among the 200 selected.
For hard-luck parents sending one other kid in high school and three in college all at the same time then, Jonathan’s DOST full-scholarship – free schooling, free on-campus board and lodging, book and uniform allowance – was a boon. Graduating from PSHS in 2002, Jonathan passed the UPCAT with flying colors and took his DOST scholarship there, along with a university scholarship at one time or the other, in his four-year stay, earning his sablay with a BS Mathematics degree in 2006.
My son has since taken a series of examinations – at twice-a-year interval – in actuarial science and a separate set of examinations too to be a chartered financial analyst. He will have his eighth test in the former this June and finished his third in the latter last year.
Jonathan is currently based in Hong Kong – “on loan” from ManuLife Philippines for three years – working as actuaries specialist of ManuLife H.K. It is not just some parental bragging that is being impacted to the reader here. My son’s successful professional career – he is only 25 years old and single – he owes to the strong foundation the PSHS and the UP systems build for their students.
What my son and hundreds of others like him were blessed with, the Kapampangan youth should not be deprived of.
That is why we are pissed at CDC for its snooty indifference at the plight of the PSHS in its domain.
That is why we are most grateful to Governor Pineda for her immediate and definitive action to find a site – and help all-out – for the PSHS campus at PAC. Thank then Nanay for keeping Pisay.

CDC's flawed economics

“IN 2011, the CDC earned a staggering $3.912 billion in exports - a historical 161 percent increase from the state-owned firm’s US$1.453 billion record in 2010 due to impressive performances of its locators and investors.”
So crowed the Clark Development Corp. of its self-proclaimed crowning achievement in celebration of its 19th anniversary last April 13.
“The entry of Texas Instruments (TI) in 2010 made a remarkable contribution to the export industry of this bustling Freeport with the $1.53 billion it posted last year.”
So hailed the CDC in its praise release of April 16 that went on to virtually sing hallelujahs too to the other outstanding performers among the Clark locators and investors, to wit:
a) Nanox Philippines, Inc., $791,064,999.14;
b) Phoenix Semiconductor Philippines Corp., $566,091,472.48;
c) Yokohama Tire Philippines, Inc. (YTPI), $298,059,468.72;
d) L&T International Group Philippines, Inc., $145,104,643.34; and
e) SMK Electronics (Phils) Corp., $98,493,605.67.
By sector, the breakdown goes:
a) electronics, $3,103,885,248.18;
b) tires, $298,059,468.72;
c) garments, $226,884,390.58;
d) other manufacturing, $131,355,636.92;
e) aviation-related, $13,246,818.88; and
f) other sectors, $139,335,526.76 .
“Clark’s export performance is equivalent to around 8.1% of the estimated total Philippine exports of 48.5 billion in 2011.”
So the CDC proudly proclaimed in self-congratulation on the occasion of its 19th anniversary last April 13. Our repetition to underscore the significance of the occasion.
In fact, and in effect, the CDC merely repeated what it praise-released just last January as “staggering $3.912 billion volume of exports for 2011” comprising a “historical 161 percent increase.” Note that the superlatively, if not outright hyperbolic, laudatory phrases were a constant in the CDC press releases, though three months issued in-between. The only difference is in the attribution of the report – specifically to CDC President-CEO Felipe Antonio Remollo then; to the generic CDC now. Brought about, no doubt, by the unceremonious firing of Remollo.
So then as now we take issue with CDC’s (sub)standard of performance for Clark as a Freeport. And thereby raise anew what we pointed out in our editorial of January 31, to wit:
"We have no doctorate in economics, but any student of Economics 101 would know that exports are not the sole factors in the profit equation. There are the imports to consider too. Thus, the full process, be it of production or of profit computation equationed in: E – I = P or L. That is exports minus imports equals profit or loss. 
So the Clark Freeport posted $1.53 billion in exports for 2011. So how much did the Clark Freeport spend in imports for 2011? Half the picture won’t tell the whole story.”
No matter CDC’s propensity for redundancy. Which now impugns upon this government corporation either some intellectual dishonesty or functional illiteracy.
Whichever hews not with the express vision of the P-Noy presidency. So sad.