Stuff of legend

JULY 17-23 marked the National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week, apexing on the 149^th birthdate of Apolinario Mabini, whose braintrusting of the Philippine Revolution earned him the title Sublime Paralytic.

The week was observed with the usual paeans to the contributions of persons with disabilities to society, and celebrated with myriad activities highlighting PWDs being just-like-you-and me.    

If there is one PWD that is truly even way above you-and-me, here he is in this updated piece I wrote in December 2010.    

NO URBAN legend – somnolent Sto. Tomas is far too rustic to ever come anywhere near the fringes of cityhood – but rural lore is the town’s campanologist… okay, the ringer of the church bells for over 50 years.

So what’s so extraordinary about him? It just so happened that he – Miguel Guevarra Lingat – has been blind as a bat since birth.

“Ige” – as those close to him, our family included, is never batty though. No matter the daily rigors of climbing the steep, narrow, winding and enclosed staircase to the church belfry to ring the bells.

For as long as I can remember, there has never been a campanero  in our parish church other than Ige. And no other than him too who can really make the bells distinctly sound the message intended, be it celebratory or funereal.

If fading memory still serves right, there is the palagad – slow one-two-one two cadence of the big bell to call the faithful to early morning Mass – which turns to siyam – nine continuous dongs from the big bell signaling the start of the Mass, and the dupikal  -- continuous turning of the small bell at the end of the Mass. It is the dupikal too that accompanies baptisms.

In those days of my youth in Sto. Tomas, we knew from the punebre  -- the slow tolling of the bells to announce death in the parish – the gender of the deceased: the big bell for a man, the small one for a woman.

Never been married, Ige made bell ringing his lifelong vocation. Even on Good Fridays when the church bells fall silent, Ige does his chore of calling the parishioners to join the night’s procession with the matraca – a clapper of wood and metal.

For his services to the church, Ige has received special citation and blessing from Archbishop Paciano Aniceto himself, and public recognition from the local government unit.

At last Saturday’s Most Outstanding Kapampangan Awards rites, it was the turn of the province to honor Ige with a special award of recognition. Instead of making a speech, Ige played the harmonica as his way of expressing his acceptance of the award. That geysered in me more memories of Ige from the childhood onto young adulthood I spent in Sto. Tomas.

From the third week of October, leading to All Saints’ Day, groups go from house to house at night singing the gosu  -- the life of a saint, usually Sta. Lucia – and ending with a prayer for the poor souls in Purgatory. It is some sort of Halloween trick-or-treating mixed with caroling.

Ige made himself a permanent solo fixture of the gosu with his harmonica, playing simply the melody.

Not so extraordinary feat there, you may say, what with the likes of Jose Feliciano with his guitar, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles with their pianos lording the global music scene in their times.

So how about this yet another facet to Ige’s multi-tasked life? That of being Barrio Poblacion’s one-man aguador?

Before the waterworks system finally came to Poblacion less than ten years ago, households drew their potable water supply from those Magsaysay pumps, which later morphed to artesian wells.

With the tambayuk  -- a bamboo slat over his shoulder, from where hung two tukung – oil tin cans filled with water he himself pumped out of the wells, Ige made his way house after house filling the tapayan with the day’s supply of water.

So how did he know the way to each house, I once asked him.

“Bibilangan ku ing takbang ku. Pakirandaman ke ing pali ning aldo keng lupa ku ampon deng misasabing tau. (I count my steps. I feel the warmth of the sun on my face (whichever side is heated). And I listen to the sounds of conversations).” Indeed, he could distinguish people by their voices.

Some years back, he was passing by our house when upon hearing me talking to my mother he blurted: “Cesar, ati ka pala. Komusta na ka? (You’re home. How are you?).” 

Extraordinary too is Ige being once known in town as the “Incredible Digester.”

That title he got from his unbelievable capacity to gorge on a variety of food in one seating which earned him too some money from the side bets: clean-up he wins, left-over he loses.

In one “contest,” he finished one large bilao of bibingki (rice cake) downed with three “family size” Sprite. In another, it was three small bilaos  of pancit guisado (noodles) and a dozen pandesito, again with his favorite drink, Sprite, by the liters. Then there were too 20 pieces of balut at one time and eight large watermelons at another. Never did Ige lose in any of them.      

Sightless, it was awesome for Ige to have served for long as the ears and mouthpiece of the local folk when it came to the latest events in the community, tsismis not included. He put to flesh the umalohokan (town crier) of yore.

Ige got his information from the corner sari-sari stores – the socialization sites of rustic Sto. Tomas – as well as from the households he serviced with his water deliveries.

Pre-Pentium times, the fastest way to circulate any information around Barangay Poblacion at the time was to have it overheard by Ige. Especially if it came in the tone of a conspiratorial whisper.

For national news, Ige relied on the transistor radio tied to his waist. His favorite programs were Lundagin Mo Baby of Johnny de Leon, Ito ang Inyong Tiya Dely of Dely Magpayo and Kahapon Lamang of Eddie Ilarde.

Ige got the greatest joy of his life when one time he heard Ilarde mentioned  his name and read a story about him published in a national newspaper through the then Department of Public Information. Ilarde ended his spiel with a dedication to Ige of Freddie Aguilar’s Bulag, Pipi at Bingi:

“... Madilim ang 'yong paligid, hating-gabing walang hanggan 
Anyo at kulay ng mundo sa 'yo'y pinagkaitan 
H'wag mabahala, kaibigan, isinilang ka mang ganyan 
Isang bulag sa kamunduhan, ligtas ka sa kasalanan…” 
Blind bellman. Blind musician. Blind water carrier. Blind town reporter? And magnificent eater, on the side. Miguel Guevarra Lingat is the star of folklore, the stuff of legends.          

    

'Be like Boking'

NO, SHE did not say that verbatim, but Gov. Lilia G. Pineda might as well have said it when she enjoined heads of local government units and barangay officials in Pampanga to emulate Mabalacat City Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales.

Pampanga mayors did not really need that urging from the Gov. For who – in his right political frame of mind – wouldn’t want to be like Boking? Sitting mayor since 1995 pa and yet in only his first term – as city mayor – now!

With two more re-elections – 2016 and 2019, it’s Boking pa rin until 2022. He would have ruled and reigned over Mabalacat in all of 27 years by then – translating to all of nine terms running straight! The three-term limit be damned!  The Guinness Record will not be for breaking but for blasting to smithereens there.  

So what did the Gov really say?

“Mabalacat City has been successful in reducing its garbage. In fact, itong si Mayor Boking mayroon pang incentive na P500,000 per year dahil sa kanilang sistema (sa pagsasa-ayos) sa problema sa basura.”

Uh-oh. So the governor meant Mabalacat’s way of concretely addressing its garbage problem pala. Not Boking’s political longevity.

So what did Mabalacat/Boking do to earn gubernatorial encomium and merit being poster boy of LGUs in waste management?

Boking entered into an agreement with leading cement company Holcim Philippines in the “co-processing” of his city’s solid wastes using a so-called Geocycle System.

On the side of the LGU, plastics such as Styrofoam, cellophane, bags and foil packs, textile, rubber and the like – collectively called “Holcimables” – are manually segregated from other non-biodegradable residuals at the “running dump” by “authorized” scavengers and 30 personnel of the city government.      

Twenty to 25 sacks of Holcimables weighing from 2.5 to 5 kilos are produced by individual sorters daily, totalling to some 2.5 metric tons average.

These are then baled – with the machine provided by the Capitol, and hauled by Holcim for “alternative fuel use” with the resultant ash made as additive to concrete materials.

“In this co-processing system, the ‘mangangalakal’ earns while the city saves a huge amount in hauling waste to Kalangitan. If before, they used to haul garbage at least once a week on the gross average of P15,000 per haul, now the city does it just twice a month and often, once a month na lang. And they get, in addition, the P500,000 from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources through the solid waste management secretariat as an annual materials recovery facility assistance.” So was Jaeson Sambat of the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro)  quoted in media reports.

Everybody productively happy in that set-up, eh?

While the Geocycle System is not exclusive to Mabalacat City, being also at work in Porac and Guagua, it is however proven most efficacious in the next Makati north of Manila, with a monthly output of 200 metric tons, as against Porac’s measly 60 MT and Guagua’s even smaller 20 MT.

Maybe, just maybe, Boking is the big difference here. Hence, the Gov pushing for him – embodying Mabalacat City – as the LGU template in solid waste management.

So, are there any heeders to the Gov’s call?

Reported Sun-Star Pampanga over the weekend:

The local government unit (LGU) of Mexico is gearing up for solid waste “co-processing” and will use Mabalacat City’s “running dump model” and Geocycle system.

Mayor Roy Manalastas, told Sun.Star Pampanga on Friday, that the Local Development Council (LDC) is now re-aligning funds for the purchase of an additional dump truck which will complement three smaller garbage trucks needed to successfully emulate Mabalacat City’s system of recycling and wisely transforming solid waste into “Holcimables.”

Emulate Mabalacat City and be like Boking. The first-time mayor of Mexico is looking way beyond 2016.

Did I just hear once and future Mayor Teddy Tumang laughing?   

  

Pulis...purisima!

IT IS criminals that now appear to be heroes.

So lamented Director General Alan Purisima, the nation’s top cop, in the wake of police meltdown over: 1) the killing – while in police custody – of recaptured Ozamiz gang leader Ricky Cadavero and his right-hand man, from whom police allegedly accepted pay-offs for their earlier escape; 2) another alleged pay-off from the same Ozamiz gang for the escape of  drug lord Li Lan Yan, aka Jackson Dy and his wife; 3) the police allegedly helping themselves to the cash and illegal drugs allegedly found in the Dys’ safe house when they were recaptured.

Escape and recapture galore there.

Purisima rues: “We have to verify these reports. With so many stories coming out, even members of the media are unwittingly being used because they are fed false information. A criminal is becoming the hero. It’s now the reverse.”

Still smarting in shame is Purisima’s PNP over the Atimonan massacre last January were an illegal gambling lord and 12 others were killed in what the police said was a shootout but the NBI ruled as a rubout.

Claiming strict adherence to the daang matuwid of President BS Aquino, especially so being close to his SONA, Purisima said the PNP does not let erring cops “get away with it even if they are ranking officials.”

“What is important is if there are incidents like this, we seriously investigate it. We try to find out the truth. If they are found to be liable, they are given the corresponding punishment. Cases will be filed against them.” So declared Purisima.

This, even as he pointed the finger at drug lords for “discrediting policemen who have been performing well, especially in the fight against illegal drugs.”

“They have all the money and power to do that. They have a lot of influence,” Purisima said.

Still, Purisima reassured the public that allegations against policemen in these recent epic fails will be thoroughly investigated: “We have deployed other operatives to look into this. I have contacted different agencies to look into this incident. We will have a report in due time. If there is an incident like this, it is impossible that other operatives do not know about it. As they say, if the fart stinks, everyone can smell it.”

Yeah, and farting is such stinking sorrow at the PNP, to bastardize the bard. The stench of corruption and inefficiency seemingly part and parcel of the police badge.  

So many years back, we wrote here:

MAY pulis, may pulis sa ilalim ng tulay…
The ditty is a satirical flick of the finger at the uniformed sneak preying on unwary motorists for two Osmeñas or a Roxas in exchange of their being let go off some trumped-up traffic infraction.
Pulis, pulis, pulis matulis.
Ah, double entendre here: the sharpness of the cop at filching the last Quezon off a hapless victim, and the put-on machismo obtaining in a force whose members purportedly have not just one, but two or more paramours.
Flash Report: The Philippine National Police holds the record for the quickest response in crime situations, beating such elite police forces as the New York Police Department which registered eight minutes, and Great Britain’s Scotland Yard at five minutes. The PNP registered zero minutes. Impossible? No, they are in the scene, themselves committing the crime.
Truly, that is a most painful joke – to the national police – that has circled the globe via internet. And just how are the police caricatured? Uniformly: pot-bellied, palm outstretched.
Tawagin mo na akong demonyo, huwag lang pulis.
Ah, the unkindest cut of all inflicted on the PNP in the Inquirer comic strip Pugad Baboy where the comparison to the police provided the final straw that broke the patience of the henpecked Air Force Sgt. Sabaybunot giving him the rage to snarl at his domineering wife. Better be called a devil than a policeman, can anything get lower than this?
Object of ridicule and derision, the police may be the rich lode of all that humor, but the joke is on all of us: victims of the very things we draw laughter from. Doesn’t it hurt to laugh?
As Purisima will most surely now, so all the others before him have tried to redeem the image of the policeman.

At the time of DG Avelino “Sonny” Razon, it was Mamang Pulis. Alas, Razon is currently facing some corruption charges himself arising from some alleged misdeals while he was PNP chief.

 

We wrote too that at the time of Ping Lacson, there was this imperial command for a standard 34-inch waistline for all policemen. We saw how overweight cops huffed and puffed before the national media to show one and all the seriousness of Ping’s campaign for svelteness.
The defining moment of the Egay Aglipay reign at the PNP was the Subic “rehab” program for “erring and recidivist police personnel.”
So what happened to all these?
BSDU rules in the end. That’s not for the police-created paramilitary Barrio Self Defense Units of the ‘60s. That’s for Balik Sa Dating Ugali.
Aye, not even an extreme make-over will do the police body good. A quintuple by-pass, maybe?

PNP – Pasaway Na Pulis. Oh, yeah.  

Non-transferable PAF

THE PHILIPPINE Air Force out of Clark within three years’ time or before the end of the term of President Aquino.

So bared Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) President Arnel Casanova before the Capampangan in Media Inc. last Friday at the Bale Balita in Clark.

The PAF to relocate to Cubi Point in Subic. So as to open to more investments – and therefore more profitability – the 360 hectares of land the military units have been occupying at Clark, Casanova said. He did not say however how much the relocation will cost the government.

And he did not have to say that the PAF at Cubi Point will be more in-place as it is nearer the flashpoint that is the Panatag Shoal.

So should Clark start saying its goodbye to PAF?

Not quite.

This is one long goodbye. Casanova’s disclosure but the latest edition in the long-running PAF-leaving-Clark drama.

An issue of the Philippine Star in September 2008, carried the story PAF poised to leave Clark to give way to more investors bylined Ding Cervantes that read: Amid the shortage of land for investors at this Freeport, the Philippine Air Force announced it is preparing to abandon some 300 hectares it is occupying here and move to its old base in Floridablanca town while it builds a new one in Crow Valley in Tarlac.

… Col. Francisco Cruz, commander of the 600th Air Base Wing here, said though that about P8 billion is needed “to pull out and transfer personnel, equipment and infrastructure from Clark.”

“We are just waiting for the master development plan to be finished before we could proceed with the pull-out of personnel,” Cruz said.

Apparently, no master development ever came thereafter. The PAF, and the national government mayhaps overwhelmed by the logistical nightmare the transfer would entail.

The prolific Ding Cervantes again, writing Air Force relocation from Clark sought in the Philippine Star in October 2011:

 Calls for the relocation of the Philippine Air Force contingent stationed here have been renewed amid the proposed transfer of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to Clark.

“The continuing occupation of part of Clark by the PAF virtually makes a garrison state of the whole Freeport, which is detrimental to the climate of investment in the area,” said the broad-based advocacy group Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement.

In its advocacy for the “full operationalization” of the Clark airport as premier international gateway since the early 1990s, the PGKM has made the removal of the PAF from Clark as a “pre-condition.”

“Only in the Philippines, only in Clark at that, can one find military contingents and war materiel dumped in a Freeport and an international airport. What message does impart on foreign investors, on tourists? That Clark is a war zone,” the PGKM said. “And what businessman in his right mind would come to a war zone?”  

“The removal of the PAF from Clark is the first order of the day for the transfer of NAIA,” the group furthered.

…The “oust-PAF-from-Clark” sentiments have time and again cropped up through the years with other groups such as Move Clark Now and even the Metro Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Industry as well as local elected officials joining the PGKM in issuing calls for PAF to be relocated out of Clark.

Move the PAF out of Clark. Indeed, long overdue.

But move the PAF to Cubi in three years’ time?  

Casanova may yet prove himself a miracle worker. Or failing, a leg-puller. 

Starting on the wrong foot

MECADALPAC NENG barag, mitalusad ya pa qng taclang damulag (He not only stepped on a monitor lizard, but also slipped on carabao dung).

A man of wit from Mandasig, Candaba who did not look like once-and-future Mayor Jerry Pelayo any, described rather cryptically what he perceived as the misfortune befalling Mayor Rene Maglanque right at the very start of his tenure at the municipal hall.

Maglanque was front page material of the Philippine Daily Inquirer this weekend. For the worst of reasons – playing most gracious host to one implicated in the alleged P10-billion scam in ghost projects financed with the priority development assistance funds of congressmen, otherwise known as pork barrel.

Emblazoned right at the top of PDI’s page 1 with the paper’s masthead  juxtaposed is the photo of a streamer taken by E. I. Reymond T. Orejas that proclaimed: “Mabuhay at Maligayang Pagdating Madame Jenny, Jimmy and James Lim Napoles from Mayor Rene E. Maglanque at Pamilya.”

We read in the sidebar story of the lensman’s mother, the intrepid Tonette Orejas,  that the streamers had lined the road leading to the town center for over two weeks, having been put up before the oath-taking of Maglanque last June 30. Those who were welcomed though were said to have failed to come to the event.

But this did not stop speculations – more malicious than suspicious – of some connections Maglanque may have had with the Aquino administration’s bête noire of the moment.

Especially so, as we learn from Ms. Orejas’ well-researched story, that Maglanque’s public persona had been far from lily white to start with.

In 2005, Maglanque, then an assistant secretary at the Department of Transportation and Communications, was fingered by jueteng  whistle-blower Sandra Cam as “one of the bagmen” of then  Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo.

It was also reported that Maglanque failed a subsequent lifestyle check, his white mansion most ostentatious, and certainly garish, amid Candaba’s rusticity. 

Even worse: “In 2012, the Inquirer learned that Maglanque had allegedly tried to bribe a leader of a fishermen’s group in Masantol town in an attempt to silence the group about an irregularity involving the distribution of farm equipment,” read Ms. Orejas’ story.

Exposing: “Some 2,500 fishermen in Masantol were reported to have received farming tools and seeds worth P89.2 million from the Department of Agrarian Reform. The supposed beneficiaries, however, claimed that their signatures had been forged and that they did not receive anything from the DAR or its listed partner, the Kaudpanan para sa Mangunguma Foundation Inc. (KMFI).

KMFI is one of the fake NGOs Napoles reportedly set up.”

And damning: “Maglanque, one source claimed, had asked a leader of the Masantol fishermen to keep mum on the issue in exchange for P1 million. The amount was rejected.”

Barely two weeks as Candaba mayor and already reeking of some strong stench, it is incumbent upon Maglanque to come out clean, and necessarily fragrant, here.

His earlier missteps of downsizing Candaba’s signature Ibon-Ebon festival, and his reported “lax implementation of the ordinance on (banning) bird hunting to a point that enforcement no longer exists” have given rise to doubts about his sincerity and capability to pursue the interests of Candaba on the national and global stages.

Now, this perceived Napoles connection has started to raise questions on his  personal integrity, on his moral ascendancy to lead the people of Candaba.

Already, the bird-lovers, the melon-growers and the buro-eaters are pining for the days of John Lloyd and wishing for his immediate second coming.     
    

      

Like Francis

"IT HURTS me when I see a priest or a nun with the latest model car, you can't do this…A car is necessary to do a lot of work, but please, choose a more humble one. If you like the fancy one, just think about how many children are dying of hunger in the world.”

So reported Reuters of Pope Francis telling young priests and nuns from around the world. This, in keeping with his direction of the Church in full solidarity with the poor.  

So what did Jesus drive? Asked the title of the report.

Demons – away, was my quick answer.

Jesus rode the lowly donkey, not the stately steed. So the Good Book says. 

Living by the Lord’s  example, Pope Francis’ choice “for moving around the walled Vatican City is a compact Ford Focus.”

The report instantly withdraws from the collective memory bank the Philippines’ so-called “Pajero bishops” of two years ago. 

Sometime in June or July 2011, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office Chair Margarita Juico disclosed to media that certain Catholic bishops received luxury vehicles from the PCSO during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Juico backed her disclosure with the letter of Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos personally requesting a Mitsubishi Montero Sport 4 x 4 from GMA as a “birthday gift” in 2009.

Media feeding frenzy ensued, former President Erap Estrada joining the feasting on the bishops’ (dis)honor with his minted “Mitsubishops.”

It did not matter that no Pajero was ever given to any bishop, as it later turned out. Just Juico exhibiting symptoms of foot-in-mouth disease.  

In his letter to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on the matter, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines President Bishop Nereo Odchimar “categorically” denied that the PCSO donations some bishops had received during the Arroyo administration were used to purchase Pajeros and for their personal use.
Attached to Odchimar’s letter was a list of vehicles purchased by certain dioceses or vicariates from the PCSO donation, to wit:
A Mitsubishi Strada pick-up worth P1.107 million bought on Jan. 23, 2009 by the Diocese of Abra used to “transport personnel and carry needed materials for service missions to the poor and needy constituents of Abra province.”
A Toyota Grandia Hi-Ace van worth P1.4 million purchased by the Archdiocese of Cotabato on April 30, 2009 for its social action center, and used “to distribute medicines and other relief goods to disaster-hit areas in the diocese, community health programs.”
A Mitsubishi Strada pick-up worth P1.225 million bought on Dec. 29, 2009 by the Prelature of Isabela (Basilan) for “medical and health missions [and] community visitations to the indigent communities of Basilan province.”
A Toyota Grandia Hi-Ace van worth P1.518 million bought on Sept. 14, 2009, by the Archdiocese of Zamboanga partly for “medical-related services.”
An Isuzu Crosswind utility van worth P720,000 acquired by Caritas Nueva Segovia for “health, dental and medical outreach programs.”
At the Senate hearing, PCSO Director Francisco Joaquin disclosed that the Apostolic Vicariate of Bontoc-Lagawe was the recipient of a donation used to purchase a 17-seat Isuzu passenger van.
The CBCP said the Bontoc-Lagawe vicariate which allegedly received P600,000 in cash for the purchase of a Pajero, instead bought a “second-hand, 10-year-old Nissan Pathfinder pick-up for P280,000.” 
Still the “Pajero bishops” tag stuck. And, in the wake of Pope Francis’ statements, again bandied about, if only to show how far away the princes of the Philippine Church have strayed from the Franciscan standard in Rome.

Admittedly, not a few from the Filipino clergy are possessed not only of less-than-humble cars and the latest gadgets but of the effete elitism that the Pope said did not “make the route to happiness.”

That which His Holiness articulated in his first Chrism Mass last March when he urged the pastors to go out among their flocks where there is “suffering, bloodshed, blindness that longs for sight, and prisoners in thrall to many evil masters.”

Warning thus: “This is precisely the reason for the dissatisfaction of some, who end up sad — sad priests — in some sense becoming collectors of antiques or novelties, instead of being shepherds living with ‘the smell of the sheep’.”

“God’s grace,” he said, “comes alive and flourishes to the extent that we, in faith, go out and give ourselves and the Gospel to others, giving what little ointment we have to those who have nothing, nothing at all.”
Pray that our priests be like Francis.

 

 

3-time MOKA loser loses libel suit a 3rd time

DOJ junks Romero petition

ANGELES CITY – Three times losing in his nomination for the Most Outstanding Kapampangan Award (MOKA) in the field of business.

Three times losing in his libel complaint against Punto.

That is one Rene G. Romero who, in his suit against this paper identified himself as “the president of the Pampanga  Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the chairman of the Advocacy for the Development of Central Luzon, and the private sector representative for business of the Regional Development Council.”

In a resolution promulgated on May 27, 2013, the Department of Justice dismissed Romero’s petition for review of the resolution of the City Prosecutor of the City of San Fernando dismissing the complaint of Romero against Punto columnist Caesar Z, Lacson, then-editor Joey R. Aguilar, general manager Gener C. Endona and marketing manager Joana Nina V. Cordero for libel.

‘In dismissing the complaint for libel, the City Prosecutor found the subject article to be not libellous. Also, in denying complainant’s motion for reconsideration, the City Prosecutor found it to be not verified and affirmed the findings that the subject article is not libellous. Thus, this petition for review, which must fail,” said the resolution penned by Prosecutor General Claro A. Arellano.

The resolution furthered: “Firstly, Section 12 in relation to Section 7 of Department Circular No. 70 provides that the Secretary of Justice may, motu proprio, dismiss outright a petition for review if there is no showing of any reversible error in the questioned resolution or when the issues raised therein are too unsubstantial to require consideration.”

“As found by the City Prosecutor, the comment of respondent Lacson in his article entitled “Romero Ululating” published in Punto! Central Luzon is merely a reaction to complainant’s lamentations entitled “Sector: Why no biz awardee in MOKA” that was published in Sun Star Pampanga,” continued the resolution.

And concluded: “Indeed, respondent Lacson’s comment thereto was in the exercise of his right to reply to complainant’s accusation, considering that respondent Lacson was one of the judges in MOKA…Thus, he is free to express his personal views and also to defend MOKA.”      

Romero was nominated in the business category of the Most Outstanding Kapampangan Awards for 2010 where no winner was declared. It was said to be the third time he was nominated for the award in the terms of three governors and with three different panels of judges.

Romero filed the libel complaint in December 2010 which was dismissed in June 2011 whereby he immediately filed a motion for reconsideration which was denied in December 2011, finally filing the petition for review with the DOJ which was dismissed last May.

June 2011: Case Dismissed

“There was nothing defamatory in the questioned article of Lacson” penned 1st Assistant City Prosecutor Nereo T. Dela Cruz as he “respectfully recommended that the complaints of Libel (2 counts) against all the respondents be DISMISSED.” Which was duly approved on June 16, 2011 by Deputy Regional Prosecutor Giselle Marie S. Geronimo.
Thus was junked the P20-million libel charges filed Romero against Punto in December 2010.

Romero had called Lacson’s article as “baseless allegations…shameful, heinous and unequivocally malicious, while being entirely false, malicious, offensive and derogatory to my good name, character and reputation tending to besmirch and destroy my honor, character and reputation – all to my damage and prejudice.”
Romero said the article also intended “to do interior and unjustifiable harm towards my profession and stature as a respected businessman in Pampanga and as head of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce…”
The city fiscal’s resolution dismissing the case however said: “A reading of the article in its entirety does not show any public and malicious imputation of a crime, vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act omission condition status or circumstance tending to discredit or cause the dishonor of Romero.”
Citing Lacson’s counter-affidavit, the decision also noted that the writer’s article is “deemed privileged, a personal opinion in defense of himself against the attacks of Romero.” “A fair comment and an exercise of the constitutional guarantee of free speech.”

December 2011: MR denied

“The grounds relied upon by the complainant in the filed motion (for reconsideration) are mere rehash of the arguments set forth in his complaint-affidavit and reply-affidavit both filed during the preliminary investigation and which were already threshed out in the assailed resolution.”
Thus the Office of the City Prosecutor here “DENIED” the “Motion for Reconsideration with Motion to Inhibit and Re-Raffle” filed by Romero that sought to reconsider the June 16, 2011 resolution dismissing his libel complaint  against Punto.
In the resolution dated December 29, 2011 – a copy of which reached Punto only on January 13, 2012 – OIC-Deputy Regional Prosecutor Giselle Marie S. Geronimo reaffirmed the earlier resolution’s clearing Lacson of libel.

In his complaint, Romero argued that Lacson “overeacted, as shown in his choice of words” referring to him (Romero) as “ululating miserable loser; a blank ledger expecting a payback of whatever support he gives the provincial government; a spoiled brat who lost his second lollipop; a leech, a fool, and honor-chasing exploitative businessman who suck out the bones of laborers.”   
Contrary to Romero’s insistence, the resolution said: “In the instant case, the word “ululating” is definitely not derived from the Filipino word “ulol,”meaning crazy, but is a regular English word found in the dictionary and which does not impute any circumstance or condition to discredit complainant’s reputation.”
It furthered: “The same is true with the phrase ‘spoiled brat who lost his second lollipop.” While it may have offended the complainant, it is not the defamatory words within the contemplation of the law.
“The rest of the words and/or phrases alluded to by the complainant/movant (Romero), when read in its entirety, do not clearly refer to complainant (Romero) alone but to businessmen as a whole.”
Even as it granted that “some of the words and/or phrases used in the subject article may have been unpleasant” to Romero, the resolution cited MVRS Publications, Inc. et al., v. Islamic Da’wah Council of the Philippines, et al., G.R. No. 135306, January 28, 2003 thus: “It must be stressed that words which are merely insulting are not actionable as libel or slander per se, and mere words of general abuse however opprobrious, ill-natured, or vexatious, whether written or spoken, do not constitute a basis for an action or defamation in the absence of an allegation for special damages.”
The fact that the language is offensive to the plaintiff does not make it actionable by itself.” The emphasis supplied in the resolution.
The resolution reaffirmed that Romero “failed to establish that malice attended the writing and consequent publication” of Lacson’s article
Citing Arturo Borjal, et al., v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 126466, January 14,1999, the resolution said: “Malice connotes ill will or spite and speaks not in response to duty but merely to injure the reputation of the person defamed, and implies an intention to do ulterior and unjustifiable harm. Malice is bad faith or bad motive. It is the essence of the crime of libel.”
“Such malice, the complainant (Romero) failed to establish in the instant case,” the resolution concluded.

‘Triumph of press freedom’

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines-Pampanga Chapter, which expressed solidarity with the respondents, has deemed the dismissal of Romero’s petition for review as “a triumph not only for Punto but for all harassed mediamen in the country.”

“For too long, libel has been used as a weapon of aggression by the powers-that-be, by the arrogant rich in suppressing the basic right for free expression,” said Ashley Manabat, NUJP-Pampanga chairman. “Today, freedom of the press stands triumphant.”

Manabat however cautioned members of the media to be “ever-vigilant, as the freedom of expression continues to be under threat.” 
(Banner story of Punto! Gitnang Luzon, July 10-11, 2013 issue)

If the foot fits

CINDERELLA MADE it from oppressed obscurity to happily living ever after only after her dainty foot fit into the little glass slipper she left behind in her haste to leave the palace past midnight.

No glass, but rubber, slippers Edwin Santiago wore and made his own fairy tale come true – beating by a wide margin once three-term mayor and one-term congressman, Dr. Reynaldo B. Aquino, in the mayoralty contest of the City of San Fernando.

Tsinelas nang EdSa. No originality though in the campaign collateral of Santiago. The lowly slippers having been appropriated much, much earlier for the still much lamented Jesse Robredo, Ramon Magsaysay Awardee as Naga City mayor, the people’s hero as Local Governments secretary.

Of Robredo’s patented “tsinelas leadership” then Energy Secretary Rene Almendras said in tribute: “…the willingness to wade in the flood, willing to go where you normally do not go, to the most remote areas, just to be with the most disadvantaged people…Naiilang lumapit ang nakatsinelas sa nakabarong. (Those who wear the tsinelas feel shy to approach those who wear the barong.) Leaders must be accessible to those they serve; that was Sec Jesse Robredo.”

And this is Mayor Edwin Santiago. Mayhaps conceding that the shoes left by Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez at city hall were just too big for him to fill, he opted for that in his character which readily identifies with the masses, thus: Tsinelas nang EdSa: Ing kaparis ning sinelas ku atiu kekayu – a pair of slippers, one worn by Santiago, the other by the public he serves. Government keeping in step with the people there. Swell.

Yeah, of what use is a slipper without its matching pair. Like that tall tale says of the young Pepe Rizal who, after losing one of his slippers on a boat ride at the Laguna de Bay, threw the remaining one in the hope that some fisherman may find both and be of great use to his barefooted son.

Tsinelas ng EdSa, kaparis na sulud ta ya. Santiago finding match for his other pair  in Vice Mayor Jimmy Lazatin there.

“Sa tagumpay at pagsubok, kami po ang kapares ng tsinelas ninyo. Bilang ka-partner ng executive branch, asahan po ninyo na ang sanggunian ay kaagapay ninyo upang mabigyan ng legal na mandato ang mga programang makakabuti para sa mamamayan. Makakaasa po kayo at umaasa din po kami sa tatlong taon ng mabunga, masaya at mapayapang pagbibigay serbisyo sa mga Fernandino (In triumph and in trials, we serve as the other pair of your slippers. As the partner of the executive branch, expect your council to work hand in hand with you in providing the mandate to your programs for the welfare of our people. Like you, we are hopeful that the next three years will be most productive in rendering our services to the Fernandino),” Lazatin said.

That, in response to Santiago’s presentation of his executive agenda covering education, health, economic, environment, business, livelihood and social programs at the opening session of the city council, even as he vowed: “The city council will be pro-active and at the same time reactive to what is needed to be legislated. I am optimistic that the 5th Sangguniang Panlunsod will be one of the most dynamic, productive and innovative legislative bodies the City of San Fernando will ever have.”

Lazatin, himself, has some big shoes…okay, in the EdSa context, tsinelas to fill, recognizing that: “It is a challenge for us to at least maintain, if not surpass the previous Hall of Fame awardee and most outstanding sanggunian (in the Philippines), as I am positive that the current composition of this august body will definitely produce substantial legislation in consonance with the need of our constituents, as a real working council.”

Here’s hoping those tsinelas at city hall will not easily wear out.   

Or worse, figuratively take their English meaning of flip-flops. As in that syndrome of the Corona-virused Supreme Court manifested in somersaulting over its own decisions. 

Simply hate to cry then, tsinelas nang EdSa, e la pudpud, gasgas la pa. God forbid, the masses going barefooted.