Tarzan swings

TARZAN LAZATIN is running for mayor of Angeles City.

The report sent shivers down the spines of die-hard cadres and partisans of Mayor Ed Pamintuan. They who have harboured thoughts – for lack of a credible candidate against the 2012 World Mayor Prize finalist – that May 2013 would be no election but mere coronation for EdPam.

Tarzan Lazatin is not seeking re-election as congressman of Pampanga’s first district.

The report sent true-blue supporters of Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao and dyed-in-the-wool followers of Blue Boy Nepomuceno into convulsions of ecstasy. They who have been breaking their heads to untie the Gordian knot binding the first congressional district to Tarzan.

Tarzan moves and the whole of Angeles City, Mabalacat and Magalang become some fault line hit by Magnitude 8 tremors in the political Richter scale.

Why the sudden swing – from re-election to the House to a city hall comeback – for Tarzan?

Sans any pronouncement – as of 10:31 a.m., June 26 as this is being written – straight from the Jungle Base, I can only go about maybes and perhapses. 

Maybe the congressional post has become so tediously ordinary that it has lost any attraction to Tarzan.

Bills, bills and more bills. Too many to still care for billing. Yeah, “Most Outstanding Congressman” three years in a row, while no mean feat to others, may have become more of the usual for Tarzan. There’s ennui too rising out of overabundance.       

Rejuvenated perhaps with his reported stem-cell procedure, Tarzan seeks some greater challenges posed by a more formidable opponent in the city mayorship than the perceived palookas primping for the first district congressional contest. And I don’t mean my perennial favourite, the genius Chito Bacani, here.

Rather than a simple mood swing, Tarzan may be in some mind shift to try and test his restored, if not remade, stem-celled self.

A re-election to Congress, is no sweat, leisurely walk through the woods for Tarzan. Barely worth a pop of a pill, blue or whatever, even for the pre-stem celled septuagenarian. .   

Au contraire, contesting the Angeles City mayorship – from a well-ensconced, publicly-acclaimed performer – is a veritable war, demanding the best of Tarzan, physically, mentally, spiritually, and by no means the least, financially.

There is the greater challenge. So there Tarzan the darer goeth.

No maybe here but methinks that, rejuvenated and all, Tarzan’s rightful place is still the House rather than city hall.  

Tarzan’s wisdom of age and wealth of experience translate to statesmanship, which, in the scheme of things political, is essentially congressional not mayoral. 

Of course, it’s just me. And methinking is nowhere near any worth to Tarzan.

Still, it’s worth writing down here.

No maybes now but Tarzan versus EdPam makes one battle royale. Indeed, the only battle in Pampanga next year really worth our whiles.             

     

Finding God

“SOUL-LESS.”

That will become of the Philippines, with religious rites and images banned from public premises, including the offices of government. 

“Crazy.”

That is House Bill No. 6330 or the Freedom of Religion in Government Office filed by Kabataan party-list Representative Raymond Palatino.

So spake Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, vice president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

“There’s separation of church and state but there’s no separation of God and man…(The bill) is crazy because if you separate the body from the soul, what do you create? A dead man. If you separate the soul of the nation from the nation, what do you have? A dead nation.”

So Villegas sermoned, stressing that losing our soul as a nation would be “the real downfall.”

Sharing Villegas’ pulpit, Pro-Life Philippines called Palatino’s bill unconstitutional and warned that it would “take God out of the government and in the public sphere.”

HB 6330 -- “An Act empowering heads of offices and departments to strictly implement the constitutional provisions on religious freedom in government offices” – prohibits the conduct of religious ceremonies such as prayers, Masses and other liturgical celebrations as well as the display of religious symbols and images within the premises and perimeter of offices, departments and bureaus, including publicly-owned spaces and corridors within such places.

“There should be no religious icons, symbols and ceremonies in government offices. We recognize that we have more than one religion in the Philippines. Those Filipinos who go to government offices are not there to affirm their spiritual beliefs but to transact with government,” so said Palatino, himself a Catholic, in a television interview.

To which, Pro-Life president Eric Manalang retorted: “Take away prayers, crosses, religious signs and symbols and portraits, and take away all that remind people of God. How does that make our government officials and employees better public servants?”

So, should God be banned in religious offices? As one headline in some web page put it.

Less a debate on religion than a matter of faith is – to me – the issue here.

To paraphrase Manalang’s position three paragraphs above: With all the prayers, crosses, religious signs and symbols and portraits splashed all around government offices reminding people of God, how has that made of our government officials and employees?

The Philippines consistently topping the corruption index in Asia, breaking the impunity index in all the world – I don’t see people in government ever reminded of God there.    

More than reminders of God and all that He stands for, the religious rites have virtually assumed nothing more than break-times, the images and symbols reduced to decorative pieces or charms to make the offices more pleasant than prayerful. Thus, the sayable becomes most applicable here: Familiarity breeds, not necessarily contempt but indifference.

Maybe, just maybe, taking all the religious rites and symbols out of government offices will work the opposite of the fears expressed by the Catholic clergy and laity.

HB 6330 may even spark renascent spirituality among government people. On the principle, ay, the maxim: Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

As it happened to me. Apostate upon my departure from the seminary, quickly turning agnostic in the swirl of the social ferment of Philippine society in the dusk and the darkest of the Martial Law years.

All the shibboleths of religion taken out of the physical self – rosary, scapular, estampitas, Bible, Sunday Mass, daily devotionals and novenas. All the spiritual formation, debriefed in disbelief. New un-faith in T-shirt arrogantly proclaimed: “God is dead!” Aye, the storied zealousness of the new convert outzealed, so to speak, by the new un-convert, steeped in Nietzsche and Hegel, in Marx and Engels. .

Heady spin in the vortex of materialism – dialectical and historical, cerebral and visceral – all too abruptly snapped by a sudden spiritual longing, epiphany coming: My God, what has become of me?        

New belief in T-shirt encapsulized thus: “Nietzsche is dead.”    

God lives. God loves. Some spirituality, deeper, greater than religion, imbued in me.  

Maybe, just maybe, by taking away the prayers, crosses, religious signs and symbols and portraits from government premises, the people may find God.

And this nation will walk His way, embrace His truth, live His life.    

The Doc is back

TODAY WE begin our journey as we take the road that will take us back to the city hall of our beloved City of San Fernando.

We have decided to take the new challenge as we seek to lead and serve our cabalen Fernandinos anew and complete our original vision to build a great city for all of us.

Sa araw pong ito, muli ko pong iniaalay ang aking sarili upang pamunuan at panglingkuran ang Siyudad ng San Fernando sa darating na mga taon.

Nais ko pong ipagpatuloy ang naudlot na mga programa ng pag-unlad at pagbabago sa ating lungsod na aking sinimulan may siyam na taon na ngayon.

Ako po ay naging alkalde ng San Fernando mula noong 1995 hanggang 2004. Naging bise-alkalde po ako noong 1992, at congressman ng ika-3 distrito noong 2004 hanggang 2007.

It was during my term (as mayor) when this capital town was converted into a component city.

It was during my time when this local government unit reaped many awards in various aspects of governance, chief among them is the Gawad Galing Pook Award.

It was during my time when business investments rose to levels unheard of before, (notably) SM, Robinsons, Pampanga’s Best manufacturing plant, and many others.

It was during my watch when government and the private sector joined hands to save this place from lahar devastation.

I know there is a lot to do to make the City of San Fernando a better city, a better community, and a better place for governance.

Ngayong araw na ito, muli ko pong iniaalay ang aking sarili upang muling pamunuan at paglingkuran ang ating mga kababayang Fernandino tungo sa layuning ito na ibayong pag-unlad at patuloy na pagbabago sa ating siyudad.

Napatunayan na po ang aking kakayahan at katapatan sa bagay na ito. Lalo ko pa pong papatunayan ang aking magagawa para sa siyudad.

Nasubukan na po ako ng ating nga kababayan. At alam ko na muli nila akong susubukan sa hamon ng panahon.

Naniniwala po ako na lubos pa rin ang pagtitiwala ng ating mga kababayan upang sila ay aking pamunuan at paglingkuran.

Today, I have accepted the challenge of my fellow Fernandinos and I have responded to their call to serve and lead (them) once again to a better, brighter future for the City of San Fernando.  

xxxxxxx

AND SO, last Tuesday, what every Fernandino already knew got officially confirmed: Dr. Rey Aquino, thrice mayor and congressman once, declared his intent – no, make that desire – to serve anew as mayor of the City of San Fernando.

Subok na si Doc Rey Aquino! So scream tarpaulins mushrooming all around the city. Harping on Aquino’s supposed accomplishments as city mayor.

Whatever accomplishments diminished, if not altogether obliterated, by claims of the succeeding administration of Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez that Aquino left the city government veritably bankrupt.

Why, it was even highlighted in the media, backed by account statements – if ageing memory serves right – that all that remained in the funds for supplies were  P30 or so, not even enough to buy a decent sign pen. Enough cause for the Rodriguez administration to consider taking Aquino to the Ombudsman, which was again played up in the media. Whether any complaint was ever filed against Aquino or any of his city hall subordinates, I cannot recall now.

Anyways, it was the city assessor Joey de Leon, who also served as Aquino’s city administrator, that bore the brunt of tedious legal and administrative procedures initiated by the Rodriguez administration. Whence De Leon subsequently triumphed, the Civil Service Commission – or is it the courts? – reinstating him chief of the city assessor’s office only a year or two ago.

Aquino’s non-accomplishments, if not outright questionable misdeeds, as city mayor, as played to the hilt by the Rodriguez administration sank the then-congressman’s bid to retake the mayorship.

It was Aquino’s taking Rodriguez to court for the latter’s contracting a multi-million loan for the construction of school buildings in all the city barangays that damned Aquino to electoral perdition. Indeed, what teacher would not want a new school building to teach in? What parent would not want a new school building for his/her children to study in?  

So it came to pass in 2007 that Aquino’s braggadocious “pamaksi ke y Oca” –  I will make a sour dish of Oca, literally – led to a slew of paksi jokes from Rodriguez lieutenant Fer Caylao after the re-electing Rodriguez buried the comebacking Aquino in a landslide of over 15,000 votes.

Fast forward now to the present.

Less the 2007 loser than the immediate past president/CEO of Philhealth, Aquino makes a formidable candidate for city mayor. Maybe, even the man to beat, at this so early stage of the game.

Mindful of this mayhaps, Rodriguez – it has been observed in many a public occasion; it has been whispered in many a private event – hard-sells his chosen  successor: Edwin Santiago, “or you (the Fernandino) will be sorry.”

Rodriguez has all the reasons to stop Aquino from re-taking city hall. An Aquino victory is a repudiation of all that the Rodriguez administration proudly stood for, and gloriously stood on: All that profession of good governance, all that profusion of awards, grand but empty illusions.      

Immunity index

CULTURE OF impunity. The phrase so oft applied in unsolved media killings, extra judicial executions, abductions and disappearances, that it assumed exclusivity for human rights violations.

Culturization though starts small, petty things, which often repeated, graduate to big things. Like the culture of the lie attributed to Goebbels: If a lie is repeated often enough, it becomes the truth.

Hence, if a wrong is done often enough, it becomes not necessarily right, but altogether tolerated, aye accepted as a no-wrong.

Thence – to my simple mind – rises the culture of impunity. Impunity, if I remember my seminary Latin right, rooted in im – without, and punitas – punishment.

So even as I continue to join my media comrades raise clenched fists every 23^rd of the month to remember the Ampatuan Massacre of November 23, 2009, and shout for an end to the culture of impunity, I keep my own impunity index on the petty side of things unright, if not illegal.

Like the passenger jeepney drivers dropping and picking up commuters in No Loading/No Unloading Zones right under the very noses of traffic enforcers.

Like the passenger jeepney drivers – again! – taking the outermost lanes and zooming through red lights right on plain sight of traffic enforcers.

Like the passenger jeepney drivers – again, again! – keeping their vehicles’ headlights off in the dark of night. That’s no simple driving with reckless imprudence, that’s wanting – not waiting for – an accident to happen. So where’s the LTO?

Then there are the tricycles traversing stretches of the national highways in direct violation of the law, being confined only to crossing them.

There too are the whole families of three, four, five, once I saw even six, on board single motorcycles, where but tandem riding is decreed.

And helmetless motorcycle riders or those who wear them on their elbows not on their heads.

And what do you make of the padyak-sikels who lord it all over city streets – making terminals atop bridges, counterflowing traffic at will, do pick-and-drop passengers wherever?

They all flout the law with nothing more than their stupid grins to flaunt, but nobody dares apprehend them. Not even reprimand them. And these are but the “small folk” far below the ladder of power and influence in local society.

If, in their “lowness” they can get away with these small violations, so can the high and the mighty get away with bigger violations, murdering newsmen not exempted.

Ending the culture of impunity in this country is ever invoked at each unsolved  high profile killing, abduction, disappearance.

Ending the culture of impunity in this country should be invoked at each unpunished illegality, no matter how seemingly trivial.

Ending the culture of impunity in this country demands the draconian exercise of political will. By all persons in authority. With full respect to the rights of the people, but of course. 

Will. Will not. A whale of a difference in the nut.

      

   

Kuala Lumpur in three days

JUNE 9: short, crisp, inspiring remarks – by Clark International Airport Corp. top honcho Victor Jose Luciano and Philippines’ AirAsia CEO Maan Hontiveros – delivered, with some shirt-flashing – CRK-KL-2X, and flag-waving crew providing festive flair, Flight PQ7455 departed – at exactly 3:15 p.m. from the Clark International Airport to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Complementing Malaysia AirAsia’s morning flights along the same route since 2005, the new daily flights seek, according to Ms. Hontiveros, to “enable our guests especially Filipinos to have access to Malaysia’s awesome tourist destinations but more important, we want to draw tourists from Malaysia to our amazing beaches and natural wonders in Puerto Princesa, Kalibo, Davao and here in Central Luzon.”

Enabled with this maiden flight, this writer, along with a dozen others, had only thoughts of accessing Malaysia’s awesome destination, if only in the capital KL.

“This is your captain speaking, we have just landed at the Kuala Lumpur low cost carrier terminal, 20 minutes ahead of schedule.” Much applause there. 

Yes, Philippines’ AirAsia yet affirmed its ahead-of-schedule promptness, established in its flights to Davao, Puerto Princesa and Kalibo. All seamless, pleasurable, journeys too. 

Now hear this, no disembarkation card to file at the immigration counters. Just present your passport and do two-forefinger scanning, a barcode gets pasted on the visa page, stamped “visit pass” for 30 days. Easy breeze-through, no matter the long queue. Tourism Malaysia taking good care of us from there.  

An hour or so from the LCCT, emerged the KL’s nightscape, dominated but of course by the sparkling silvery Petronas Towers.

Destination though on the first night was Menara Kuala Lumpur (KL Tower), a telecommunications tower rising to the height of 421 meters. Sumptuous Malaysian fare, spiced up by a cultural show, at the tower’s mega view banquet hall – 288 meters above street level – made a most fulfilling welcome dinner.

The mega view is no overstatement, the hall’s large glass panels provide a 360-degree panorama of the city. Lie down on the glass and make as though one floated above the lights of KL; on the western side, the Petronas Towers make a spectacular photo backdrop.

Checked-in at the five-star Grand Millenium, right at Jalan Bukit Bintang, the epicenter of shopping in KL. Room 0944: soft, yet firm bed, pillows just as soft, onto dreamland before midnight.  

JUNE 10. Breakfast at 6:30 a.m. – continental, Malay, and Indian – at Level 1 of Grand Millenium. Assembly at the lobby, exactly at 8 a.m., sub-grouped to four destinations: KL city tour and Putrajaya; Kidzania and Sunway Lagoon; Genting Highlands and Batu Caves; and Melaka. Been there, done all that. But it was Melaka to where I’d long desired to be back. Alas, to Kidzania, my name was attached.

Anyways, Petronas Towers made the first agenda of the day. Photo shoots at ground level while awaiting the 9 a.m. slot. Spared of the long queue to the ticket booth, Tourism Malaysia’s staff having secured our tickets ahead.

Zoomed in the elevator to the 83^rd floor. Transferred to another lift to the 86^th floor observation deck. Lo and behold the whole of KL on one’s feet. Impressive.  Towering edifices in various hues reaching for their own places in the sky, ribbons of roads and expressways, small lagoons and waterways, pockets of green all over. The works of man, wonders of nature in synergy. Simply impressive.   

Down at the 41^st floor skybridge, felt like the Carpenters gushing: “I'm on the top of the world looking/down on creation/And the only explanation I can find/Is the love that I've found/ever since you've been around/Your love's put me at the top of the world…”

Indeed, it was colleague Ashley Manabat, editor of the debuting Headline: Gitnang Luzon, though that found some Canadian loving.

Back on the ground. No, Melaka, I won’t be denied. Where I had the will, Tourism Malaysia’s Zuhairah Abas and tour guide Eddie Chook found the way. Two seats at the Bas Pesiaran to Melaka made available for me and Businessweek’s Peter Alagos.

Two hours and 30 minutes by expressways through palm oil plantations and housing developments thereafter, Bukit China – centuries-old burial ground for the early Chinese migrants and settlers made our first sight of Melaka, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where European powers – the Portuguese and then the Dutch – made their first toehold in Malaysia, .

After a quick Chinese lunch, off to the heritage center of Melaka, predominantly in old rose: the Stadthuys which served as the residence of the Dutch governor, Christ Church and the clock tower, rows of buildings now servings as museums and antique shops.

The body spent in the hike up a hill under the scorching past noon sun, the spirit renewed at the ruins of St. Paul’s Church where the body of the “Apostle to the East,” St. Francis Xavier, was temporarily buried before it was finally interred in Goa, India.

The marble statue of the saint in front of the ruins had a story of its own. Right after it was erected in the 1950s, so our guide Simon Chong narrated, a tree branch fell upon it and severed its right hand. Not long after it was re-attached, the hand was cut again in some freak accident. Then it was discovered that the interred body of St. Francis did not have a right hand as it was taken as some kind of a holy relic. Thence, the statue remained without it.

Propped at the inside walls of the ruins of St. Paul are large slabs of tombstones marking the graves of some Dutch noblemen.

Downhill from St. Paul’s is what remains of Fort A Famosa, the Porto Santiago gate that is eerily similar to our own Fort Santiago in Intramuros.

Gaily decorated trishaws made the best transport through Melaka’s heritage district, passing by the baba nyonya houses, the Kampong Kling Mosque, stopping at the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, reputedly the oldest functioning temple in Malaysia and the grandest temple in Melaka. Prayers renewed the spirit anew, the body refreshed too. Onto Jonker Street, exploring its shops for antiques, both genuine and reproduced.

The Melaka River cruise scratched out for lack of time, a ride up the Menara Taming Sari, a “gyro tower,” made our last stop. Spinning up a pole some 80 meters from the ground, one saw the whole expanse of Melaka, the old hemmed in by the new, and still expanding with more reclamation of the straits that once lured the conquistadores of the Old World.

It was a fitting finis to my return to the Melaka I came to love at first sight, in November 1985. Notwithstanding the hordes of tourists now, the place by necessity highly commercialized, yet Melaka to me has remained the soul of Malaysia, with its Muslim, Christian and Buddhist values with- and outstanding the march of times.

Still, I miss those old men by their Underwoods and Coronas on wooden tables and benches diligently taking typing jobs under the canopy of the giant trees by Christ Church.

Back to KL by 8 p.m. No nasi goreng, no nasi lemak at the food stalls at Lot 10. Made do with some fishballs, broccoli leaves and noodles. Hearty – healthy too – dinner for RM10.30.

To cap the night, peoplewatched along Jalan Bukit Bintang, sipping café Americano at Starbucks.               

JUNE 11. Gorged on fruits at breakfast.

Got lost with the press crops – from Pampanga and Manila – on the way to the Philippine Embassy for a call on Ambassador Eduardo Malaya, arranged by the Inquirer’s Tonette Orejas. Taxis to the rescue, to the tune of RM15.

Déjà vu. By the chancery’s door, I met a living remnant of my 1985 days in KL, as Malaysian government fellow at the Institiut Perhubungan Raya Malaysia and part-time local hire at the Philippine Embassy, as editor of its fortnightly mimeographed publication, Philippines News Digest.

“Ahmed,” I called out to the embassy’s handyman-messenger. “It’s me Bong Lacson, the student from the Philippines who worked here long time ago.”

Seeing his searching eyes trying hard to place my face in the Filipino universe of his existence, I started mentioning the people at the embassy I worked with.

Ambassador Pablo Suarez. Consul Franklin Ebdalin. Consul Virgie Gaffud. Miss Fannie…

“Passed away, already.” At the last name, he started remembering.

Andoy.

“Passed away too.”

Bert, the martial arts master.

“Moved to Johor Baru with his family.”

The gleam of recognition now in his eyes: “Thank you for remembering me.” And we embraced.

Indeed, Ahmed was the only remnant of the chancery I knew, having been totally renovated – only last May – in time for the visit of Vice President Jejomar Binay. 

“This is the biggest assembly of mediamen I have ever faced since I stepped down as DFA spokesperson.” Happily greeted us Ambassador Malaya at the second floor landing, ushering us to his office. And for over an hour he fielded questions ranging from the Independence Day parade – the first ever in Malaysia, arguably in ASEAN – to OFW affairs, tourism, trade and investments, but kept diplomatically silent on terrorism and the peace talks.

The boys of the local press, Ding Cervantes of Philippine Star and Punto, Jess Malabanan of Manila Standard and CL Daily, Rey Navales of Sun-Star Pampanga, Joey Pavia of Business Mirror and Punto! and of course, Tonette and Peter got more than a week’s worth of stories from the ambassador.

“Thank you for your homecoming visit.” Told of my having worked at the embassy, the ambassador whispered to me as I bade him goodbye.

It was but a ten-minute leisurely walk, through a pedestrian overpass, onto a mall, a square with a dancing fountain to the Grand Millenium from where we checked out at 1 p.m. after lunch of roasted duck at one of the food stalls at Lot 10 again.

Bus to the AirAsia Academy, adjacent to the LCCT.

Did great flying the Airbus A-330-200 with Peter as co-pilot. Smooth take-off, no jerking, no spins, smooth turns and feather-touch landing. In the flight simulator, that is. At Jess and Ashley’s turn at the controls, we crashed.

The tour was capped by an early dinner of Indian food, curry-based and spicy but yummy.

Then, onto the LCCT to catch the flight back to Clark.

Little more than a wooden bodega three and a half years ago when I first passed through it, the LCCT now puts to shame even airports presumptive of international standards. One sees, feels the effects of the principles of time-space-motion clearly applied to its construction: full but not crowded. Stalls for food and refreshment, duty free goods and souvenirs, sturdy, comfortable chairs  strategically placed with the traveller’s convenience of utmost consideration. 

Clark could very well learn a lot from the LCCT. That is subject for another story.

So with the strong aroma of leather still in the cabin, an almost fully-booked AirAsia Flight PQ7456 left KL at 7:50 p.m. and arrived past 11 p.m. at Clark.

Once again, ahead of its expected time of arrival. Really awesome. Terima kasih,  Ms. Maan.  

 

Garbage con

JUNE IS Environment Month, celebrated globally, and in the Philippines as  mandated by Proclamation No. 237 signed in 1988 by the now sainted Cory Aquino.

June 5 is World Environment Day, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972, in recognition of the day the UN Conference on Human Environment started in Stockholm, Sweden. Its primary aim is to “raise global awareness of the need to take positive environmental action.”

June 8 is World Oceans Day, introduced in 1992 and officially recognized by the UN in 2008 to impact the role of the world’s oceans as “the lungs of our planet, providing most of the oxygen we breathe, (as well as) a major source of food and medicines and a critical part of the biosphere.”

June 17 is World Day to Combat Desertification, observed since 1995 to “promote public awareness relating to international cooperation to combat desertification and the effects of drought.”

June 25 is Philippine Arbor Day, national day for tree-planting designated by  Proclamation No. 396 of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in June 2003 to  encourage the citizens to plant trees and participate in highlighting the role of trees in nurturing the environment and human life, as the environmentalist Rox Pena put it.

A good month to stir public awareness of environmental issues, the month of June is. But not to spur government to action, so it would seem.

As we write, how many more hectares of the world’s rainforests are being cleared? How many more mountains are being levelled for destructive mining, for yet another housing (mis)development? How much more noxious gas is being spewed in the atmosphere by industries, by cars, by dumpsites to further deplete the ozone layer? How much of our seas, our rivers are being continuously turned into garbage dumps?   

Indeed, as we write this – and we need not go beyond our own immediate borders – continuously operating In Pampanga are 34 open dumpsites. So reported the Metro Clark Waste Management Corp. (MCWMC), operator of the officially approved sanitary landfill in Kalangitan, Capas, Tarlac.

“Out of the 22 local government units in Pampanga, only nine are disposing of their garbage in our sanitary landfill.” So was Armando Garcia, MCWMC president, quoted in an Inquirer story by the intrepid Tonette Orejas. And, “out of the 421,264 metric tons of estimated annual waste generation of the province in 2011, only 43,057.08 MT were disposed of in the MCWMC sanitary landfill.”

A large volume of unmanaged solid wastes there.

No other LGU in Pampanga has given a sorrier, indeed, a sorer face to the sordid solid waste mismanagement problem than the City of San Fernando, if only for its greater share of articles in the local and national media dealing with the problem.  

No less than the highly credible, much revered Most Rev. Pablo Virgilio David, auxiliary bishop of San Fernando, braved the stench and toxicity of the city’s open dumpsite in Barangay Lara and called on the local authorities to cease and desist from further operating it.   

Even as the bishop strongly denounced the dumpsite, the city stubbornly denies its existence. Pointing to the mountains of stinking garbage there as “residual wastes” stocked to be processed into energy-producing pellets.

“Barangay Lara is where you can find Spectrum Blue Steel’s (SBS) pelletizing plant. The plant is close to the city’s former open dumpsite.” So was one Esteban Callo Jr., chief engineer of True Green Energy Corporation (TGEG), quoted in a story here. “Unfortunately, we had problems in shredding residual wastes when our machine malfunctioned which forced us to pile up ready-to-shred residual wastes outside the plant.”

Only idiots will buy such an alibi.

And an unbuying Mayor Oscar Rodriguez promptly ordered SBS to shred all remaining residuals within three weeks or if they can’t, to bring all residuals to the sanitary Kalangitan landfill. That order made on May 23, Mayor Oca’s deadline for SBS is tomorrow, June 6. What gives, thereafter?

Whatever, the prospects are not promising.

“Rowee Freeman, City of San Fernando environment officer, said a small volume of waste is thrown in Kalangitan because the bulk has been diverted to a waste-to-energy facility that is operated by the Spectrum Blue Steel Corp. since March 1.”

So was written in Tonette’s Inquirer story of May 28, that came after the Punto! story, May 24, of the SBS admission of its failure to pelletize and thus the pile up of “residual wastes” in Lara. Freeman is apparently clueless of what’s smelling in her own stinking backyard.

Her assertion in the same Inquirer story that the “waste segregation campaign has reduced residual waste by 25 percent from 130 MT in 2010 to 100 MT in 2011” only compounded, if not complexed, her cluelessness.  

While incredulous with her figures, given the MCWMC report of the City of San Fernando generating  51,464.16 metric tons of waste in 2011, Freeman nevertheless affirmed, if inadvertently – via simple arithmetic – that indeed, the city has a gargantuan waste mismanagement problem.

Okay dummies, the equation goes:  51,464.16 metric tons of waste minus 100 metric tons of residual waste equals 51,364.16 metric tons, less “small volume of waste thrown in Kalangitan” equals BIG volume of waste unmanaged. Some 700 tons of it piled up in Lara. 

And then there’s the highly respected Marco Nepomuceno of ENext, a Belgian company that produces “high-calorific green coal,” casting doubt on the integrity of SBS’ pelletizing plant.    

A working plant, so Nepomuceno contends, needs no less than $27 million to put up and operate. That’s over P1 billion.

The dysfunctionality, if not inoperability, of the SBS’ facility in Lara makes an affirmation of Nepomuceno’s contention.

Which, its engineer, Callo himself confirmed: “As of now, all we can do is sort out residuals being sent to our plant. We cannot yet press together or pelletize these residuals because we’re still waiting for our bigger machines,” adding that his company’s top officials in Thailand have heard of the problem but have not given any responses yet.

Pure garbage talk. All the pun intended there.

Yes, today – June 5 – is World Environment Day, this year’s theme is: “Green Economy: Does it include you?”

Green Economy, the UN Environment Programme explains, is “one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.”

“We can think of a green economy as an economic environment that achieves low carbon emissions, resource efficiency and at the same time is socially inclusive,” furthered UNEP.

With those parameters vis-à-vis the environmental realities discussed above, we can only shamefully rue: Green Economy: We are damned!

Sanctimonious asses

SCOURGED ON the pillar of accountability. Crucified on the cross of transparency. That well sums up ousted Chief Justice Renato Corona’s Calvary.

So the congressman-prosecutors and senator-judges paid the loftiest platitudes to the highest moral standards by which the chief justice have to live, and for which Corona was found wanting, most wanting, indeed totally bereft of.

Pompous asses. Sanctimonious fools. They are.

Even as accountability and transparency were being invoked at Corona impeachment trial, the invokers were apparently pulling a fast one on the Filipino people, pushing legislation that could certainly undermine media’s mission of making government transaction truly transparent and government officials accountable indeed.

Alerts the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines in a statement titled: Bills on confidentiality, cybercrime could threaten press freedom
Apparently not contented with the growing body count of murdered journalists and media workers, those who would seek to silence the independent Philippine press have also been advancing their insidious aim by crafting laws that, if enacted, will erect a wall of silence and onerous penalties around the profession of truth-telling.
Congress is on the verge of passing a data privacy bill that would jail reporters and news executives and slap hefty fines on them for “breach of confidentiality.”
Section 30 (Breach of Confidentiality) of Senate Bill 2965, principally authored by Senator Edgardo Angara, provides: The penalty of imprisonment ranging from two years and four months to five years and a fine not less than P500,000 but not more than P2 million shall be imposed in case of a breach of confidentiality where such breach has resulted in the information being published or reported by media. In this case, the responsible reporter, writer, president, publisher, manager and editor-in-chief shall be liable under this Act.”
This provision is clearly intended to prevent journalists from performing their duties of delivering timely, relevant and accurate information to the public in the service of the people’s right to know.
While we agree that the privacy of citizens should be protected, we are concerned that, especially in the wake of the historic impeachment trial of Renato Corona, those who live in mortal fear of transparency might twist this measure into providing more cover for the fortunes they have amassed through crime and corruption.
And in the House of Representatives, Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Jay Velasco, a member of the majority, has been busy authoring bills raising the penalties for libel, slander and “intriguing against honor.”
There too is the recently passed House Bill No. 5808, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 that, while unarguably needed, contains, in Section 4, the vaguely worded paragraph: “All crimes defined and penalized by the Revised Penal Code, as amended, and special criminal laws committed by, through and with the use of information and communications technologies shall be covered by the relevant provisions of this Act.” Given how our laws have often been cavalierly interpreted and implemented, we are concerned that this measure might be used to clamp down on freedom of expression and information on the Internet through the imposition of penalties for “cyber-libel.”
What is most telling about this is that this has been taking place even as Congress continues to twiddle its thumbs on the Freedom of Information and the libel decriminalization bills and without the sector that would be most affected by these measures – the press – and, by extension, the public it serves being informed.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines demands that any and all attempt to enact legislation that will narrow the parameters of press freedom, of freedom of expression and of the people’s right to know be immediately withdrawn or subjected to open and transparent amendments, with the full participation of all those who might be adversely affected by such measures.
We call on our colleagues and on the people to keep a close watch on developments and immediately oppose all attempts to curtail our rights and our freedoms.
Yes, the enemies of press freedom are not only the perpetrators of the Ampatuan massacre and other media killings who have remained unpunished, unbrought to the bar of justice.

The enemies of press freedom are also those pompous asses and sanctimonious fools bearing honourable titles in some august chambers.

Mediamen unite, the struggle for press freedom continues!