Good...but

Good…

THE GREEN City of San Fernando.

Towards that end, Mayor Edwin Santiago accomplished planting a total of 12,021 fruit-bearing trees, i.e. saplings or seedlings – exceeding his target of 10,000 for his first 100 days in office. 

EdSa’s tree-planting activity started in July, soon as he took hizzoner’s chair, in every barangay, at the FVR Megadike, along riverbanks, in open spaces “even reaching up to Bamban, Tarlac.” Hopefully, the Bamban mayor did not take this as some sort of political, er, environmental encroachment.

“Ipinagmamalaki nating nakamit at nalampasan pa ang mithiin natin sa loob ng aking unang isang daang araw. Ang susunod na hakbang natin ay ang pagsiguro na tutubo ng maayos ang ating mga itinanim, (We are proud of having achieved, even surpassed our objective for our first 100 days (in office). Our next step is to assure that what qwe have planted shall grow),” said EdSa in his report.

THE GREENER City of Angeles.

Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan – did not have 10,000 trees planned to be planted in his first 100 days. He had a much maxed-up target of one million trees in three full terms, starting with his assumption of the mayorship in July 2010.

Towards that end, EdPam established the Task Force 1 Million Trees (TF-1MT) entrusting its stewardship to Bishop Jose Briones. And hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of tree seedlings and saplings, as well as bamboo propagules, have been planted around the city since then.

Last week, EdPam signed a MOA with the Sibul ning Aeta Foundation, Inc. and Converge ICT Solutions, Inc (CICTS) “for the protection, conservation and development of the Sapangbato watershed.”

Per monitoring of TF-1MT, it was reported, the said watershed’s underground reservoir would be depleted in 10 to 15 years. Thus the need for its protection and conservation, already made critical with the rationing of water in its eponymous barangay. .

“…a manifestation of our steadfast dedication for the development of our city through our partnership with several non-government agencies and businesses. In turn, such projects also fulfil their respective corporate social responsibilities.” EdPam said of the MOA.

To ensure the sustainability of the watershed, a tree-planting program initiated by CICTS was undertaken right at the MOA signing rites. .
“Technology is moving fast, but this is not a reason for us to forget our environment. Our world is changing, and this is a wake-up call for us to plant more trees on every available lot there is.” So declared Dennis Anthony Uy, chairman of premier high-tech CICTS.

For her part, Vice Mayor Vicky Vega-Cabigting lauded Sibul and CICTS for  “their initiative and interest in planting more trees that would help preserve our watershed.”

Also launched at the MOA signing was an “adopt-a-tree” scheme “to encourage citizens and other public and private groups to help in the development of the watershed.”

Tree planting. Very good.

Watershed preservation. Even better.

...But

GOOD THAT EdSa took out – at least in public pronouncements – a growth-guarantee for the saplings/seedlings planted. Something the preceding administration had the least care for in its urban re-greening program. Remember that massive tree-planting activity along MacArthur Highway in some sort of justification, rather than recompense, for the massacre of the trees there?  

After all that hype, what is left of those thousands reported planted were but a few clusters of banaba in front of the DPWH and a handful in Quebiawan.

Planting trees and guaranteeing their growth to maturity though still fall short of even just laying the groundwork for a Green City of San Fernando.

Preserving the mature trees – those that remained along MacArthur Highway not excluded – is the greater task for EdSa, given that the city government has not made any turn-around in its express intent to cut down all trees to pave the way for the widening of the Manila North Road.

You just cannot plant all the trees you want, only to cut all the mature trees around. That ain’t greening. The benefits – in carbon processing and oxygen generation – from a single mature tree cannot be compensated by even a thousand newly planted saplings. 

For EdPam, even a taller order.

Tree planting – and growing – is not all there is to watershed preservation.  

The Sapangbato watershed is but an adjunct of the larger Clark watershed, the wellspring of the potable water of Angeles and Mabalacat, in clear and present danger of depletion way ahead of the 10-to-15-year timeline.

No less than Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David has raised the alarm: “The water crisis is going to be a big issue in Pampanga in the next decade. Just count years here and we really cannot get water (from the aquifers)…this is going to be a serious crisis for Pampanga, unlike other provinces which have lakes (to draw water from).”

The presence of at least four golf courses and a water theme park – another having broken ground recently – in Clark, and a waterboarding facility in nearby Barangay Margot has been fingered by environmentalists as “threats to the watershed” and therefore, “extremely perilous to the people.”

Even as EdPam lambasted the Deca Clark Wakeboard Park and announced that he would have it investigated, a number of city councilors are reported to be  frequent visitors as “wakeboarding enthusiasts” at the facility.

So where’s the probe?

And then, EdPam himself was among the honored guests at the inauguration last October 5 of the water theme park of Clark Valley View Leisure and Resort under the BB International Leisure and Resort Development Corp.

Is it just me? Or some inconsistency, if not discrepancy, do obtain here?

     

Dumb and ...

“SO WHAT if the pork is gone but the pigs remain?”

So asked Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz in his blog entry titled “On Pork and Pigs.”

“The question is neither intended as a mere joke or simply meant to have fun. It is, in fact, equivalent to a statement that more than only doing away with the object of thievery, what is really needed is to get rid of the thieves. To say it another way, it is not enough merely to do away with the pork. It is necessary to get rid of the pigs and this means all the pigs from the top to the bottom of the government,” the eminent prelate wrote.

“How? Let those who love their country, who care for their fellowmen, who want a better future for their children decide. It is their concern. It is their option. It is their move.”

A call to action there. Meriting immediate response from the pigsties that are Congress and the Senate.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte: “Masyado naman ’yan (That’s a bit too much). But we won’t resort to name-calling.”

Senate President Franklin Drilon: “I don’t understand it.”

Yeah, pig’s ears are only good for sisig.  

…Dumber

“THE LEGALITY of such a process is clearly stated in Executive Order 292, or the Administrative Code of 1987, amongst other laws.”

So obstinately defended President BS Aquino III the Disbursement Acceleration Program. 

“It is difficult to fathom how one could equate this program with PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund). The only thing one could remotely relate to PDAF were those projects undertaken through consultation with our legislators.”

BS Aquino denigrated the criticisms against DAP as “background noise” intended to “drown” the issue on the misuse and abuse of the PDAF.

Said he before members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippine: “Since I am in a room full of journalists, perhaps I can leave it to you to connect the dots: All of these attacks came after plunder cases, among others, that were filed before the Office of the Ombudsman against a few well-known politicians.”

As it may have been too taxing to his mind, BS Aquino cavalierly dismissed sound  arguments on the illegality of his DAP.

Thus, former Sen. Joker Arroyo: “This DAP is a creation of the Department of Budget and Management and being a creation only of the department, that is illegal and disbursements of DAP would also be illegal. [The DBM] has no business issuing or forming this DAP because they cannot do that without a supporting law.”

Furthered he: “The DAP involves money so to disburse that they must have the authority (to do so). Nowhere in any of our laws and any of our general appropriations act does it appear that DAP was created at all with the sanction and support of Congress.”

Thus, former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno: "DAP is illegal. You can't use savings to augment a non-existing item in the budget…Ito bastusan eh... Ang ginawa ng executive is that they sliced and diced the budget and repackaged it and came out with a new budget which is P72-billion worth."

Elaborated he: “The Constitution is very clear that no law shall be passed authorizing any transfer of appropriation. They allow augmentation of existing budget items in the budget. The President, Senate President and Speaker can augment any item in the budget. It has to be there already, out of savings from other appropriations.”

Affirmed Father Joaquin Bernas, one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution and Dean Emeritus of the Ateneo School of Law: “So savings in the President’s budget can be transferred to items in his budget not to other departments…You can’t use savings to augment a non-existing item in the budget.”

The Filipino people readily agree, the rallies, the survey results, the continuing mass indignation over PDAF and DAP, manifest proof of this. 

Yeah, it is difficult to fathom how BS Aquino could fail to see DAP and PDAF as two sides of the same coin used to buy the patronage of the people, enriched politicians and their cohorts, and corrupted the whole government system.

Yeah, pure BS for a president. Duh!  

Personalan

PASSIONATELY PERSONAL. That is a natural course in barangay elections as everybody there, at the least, knows everybody. That is even if everybody is not related, by affinity or consanguinity, to everybody.

Thus the heat of the campaign: the stake, prized as though it were the presidency of the country itself.
It does come as no surprise but as a matter of course for blood to lose its thickness in barangay politics: brother fights brother, mother fights daughter, father fights uncle, in-laws fight one another, all affinities rendered asunder.
With family wealth dispersed and doled out to the voters, barangay elections not only help the local economy in terms of liquidity but serve as great social equalizers.
Personalan, truly makes the essence of these elections. This is most evident in the names put up by the candidates. Can you get any more personal than that?

That given, barangay elections present are but a recycling of barangay elections past. What I have written here in 2007 still very much in currency now.   

In my barangay in Sto. Tomas town, there was a Payok who ran against a Pusa. The latter is out, but the former – the incumbent – at it again. Elsewhere, there is a Manok, a Bulik and a Tatso too again. Plus a Kabayo, who is not the now dearly lamented Apalit Mayor Tirso.
I saw a Tuyo running for kagawad somewhere. And a Menudo too. Also a Buru. Too bad my friend Paksi, a former town councilor, opted to retire from politics altogether after he lost in the 2007 municipal polls. They would have provided some culinary delight to the polls.
It is in barangay polls too that handicaps are celebrated to highlight candidacies, not deficiencies. There is a Putot, a Duling – not Mayor Boking Morales’ ever-loyal lieutenant, a Salapi (one with extra digits, not money), a Bungi, and a Tikol and Pile in the running. And while at it, add a Komang to complete the PWD cast.

Oh, how could we ever forget the undefeated Ngongo, who after his third term bequeathed his post to his wife.

Candidates truly come in all shapes and sizes: Taba, Payat, and Sexy; Tangkad and Pandak. And Toothpick too. In all shades of color too: Baluga, Puti, Brown and Tagpi, as one afflicted with vitiligo had for a political moniker.
With a Kalbo running around, can a Kulot be far behind? 

Strongman Atlas runs (amuck?) in Dau, Mabalacat. Wonder now if his rival Doc Aurelio will take the moniker Hercules. But for certain though there are a lot of Samsons running out there.
Personalan, so the name-calling gets real nasty.
Junior Sablay? Still too kind, make that Marcoracot, a penny-ante plunderer, a petty Marcos.
The “man you love”? Make that the manyilab (arsonist).
A candidate left by his wife becomes a pindeho. One with only a mother is a putok sa buho. Reasons don’t matter here. It’s all perception. It’s all deception.
Still, there’s much in one’s moniker that makes the big difference in the polls.

There’s a Genius for re-electing barangay chair in Magliman at the boundary of Bacolor and the City of San Fernando.

The Nike blurb “Just DO it” appropriated by and doing wonders for the capital’s Barangay San Agustin chair Amando “Do” Santos. 

There was once a barrio in San Fernando too where the contending candidates were named Apostol, Jesus and Satanas. Guess who won?
Satanas and Apostol lost. And the voters rued their choice.
Barangay elections, as in any other political contest, is no simple name game. All too personal they may come, so keep the passion but don’t leave out the reason.
(Updated from Zona Libre Oct. 24, 2007)

On his own

UP UNTIL he became the mayoralty candidate in the last elections, Edwin Santiago was regarded as furthest from being “mayorable.”

As a matter of political course, he was relegated to the “best vice mayor, never mayor” league of Mabalacat City’s Pros Lagman, Angeles City’s Ric Zalamea, Bacolor’s Diman Datu, and the City of San Fernando’s now dearly lamented Tiger Lagman , indeed the very face that imaged that fellowship of almost-but-not-quite-hizzoners.

That, despite – mayhaps, because of – EdSa’s masterful handling of the city council that merited not one but two recognitions as the Philippines’ best for component cities.

Why, even EdSa’s proclamation as official candidate of the Liberal Party for the capital’s mayorship did not go to his credit but to Oscar S. Rodriguez’s, his perceived patron, acknowledged mentor, recognized benefactor. And actual predecessor.        

It was the charismatic Oca – four-term representative of the 3^rd District and three-term city mayor, runner-up in the World Mayor Award 2005, the avatar of good governance – too that was deemed to have taken the cudgel for EdSa, to have borne the burden of battle against the comebacking Dr. Rey B. Aquino, and carrying the fight to total victory.

With EdSa less a hard-fighting combatant than the biggest, if not luckiest, beneficiary there.  

Indeed, even EdSa’s election campaign collateral of tsinelas was denigrated as an admission of his unfitness to fill Oca’s shoes, deemed much, much too large for him.

And now, it’s been over 100 days since the inaugural of the Honorable Edwin Santiago as mayor of the City of San Fernando.

What Oca wrought, EdSa made naught. So it’s been observed. So it is said.

The Magsilbi Tamu Brass Band 919 that regaled the city with those spirit-lifting  serenatas and foot-stomping pop concerts under the baton of Prof. Edwin Lumanog was unceremoniously disbanded.

The Teatro Fernandino, another staple in the city’s cultural fare that brought the heroism of local and national patriots to dramatic reconstruction had its final curtain call too, sans any farewell performance.

Both going the way of job-order workers, contracted during Oca’s term.

Aye, the new administration was at its very embryonic stage when word went out that it was to survive on near-empty city coffers. Impacting in its predecessor some uncharacteristic not-so-good governance ways.        

Gainsays from the maculated Oca – unmet with the slightest whimper, unresponded with the quietest whispers from the otherwise noisy council – put that issue of misappropriated/missing funds to rest.

Buried – hopefully forever – by EdSa himself in his Report to the City on his first 100 days, thus: "Sa kabuuang budget ng 2013 na P1.236 billion, ang projected income natin sa buong taon ay aabot lamang ng P986 million. P569 million ng programang nakapaloob dito ay naipatupad na. Tinatayang P417 million ang perang pwede pang gamitin hanggang katapusan ng taon. At dahil dito, tayo’y naghigpit ng sinturon upang maipagpatuloy ang serbisyong dapat ilaan para sa mga Fernandino. At ang mga bago nating istratehiya ukol sa paglalaan ng pondo ay nagbunga na!" 

I can almost see the incredulous look in the erudite Jun Sula’s face: Tighten the belt on a full stomach? That is some story Sun-Star Pampanga’s resident wit needs to retell, in his inimitable, trenchant way.   

Anyways, the publicly perceived inertia that befell city hall upon EdSa’s assumption he readily explained thus: "Ang unang 100 araw ng isang alkalde ay siyang magsisilbing panahon kung saan tayo ay masusing nagpa-plano para sa direksyong nais nating tahakin. Dito natin ginugugol ang ating oras para i-prioritize ang mga pangangailangan ng ating mga mamamayan. Sa loob ng 100 araw, pinag-iisipang mabuti kung paano pa natin mas mapapaganda at mapauunlad ang buhay ng mga Fernandino,"        

Whence cometh aborning: Fernandino First: Fernandino ing Mumuna, Fernandino ing Manimuna!" complete with its own official anthem. Pushing to the archives, if not the dustbin, Magsilbi Tamu of the past nine years. Leading not a few into thinking of EdSa symbolically breaking his fetters to Oca and becoming his own man.

Indeed, Fernandino First even upping Magsilbi Tamu’s 8-Point Agenda if not in rhyme at least in number – all 12, to wit:

Sapat na pangkabuhayan sa mga Fernandino tungo sa maunlad na pamumuhay. 

Malinis na kapaligiran, Fernandinong maka-kalikasan.

Epektibong programang pangkalusugan, produktibong mamamayan.

Edukasyon para sa lahat, tulay sa pag-angat.

Katiwasayan sa seguridad ng mamamayan, mapayapang pamayanan.

Pagsulong ng e-governance, tungo sa tapat at malinis na pamamahala.

Pagkaing sapat ay tiyakin, kasaganaan ay kamtin.

Kalinga at pag-aaruga, ilaan sa nakatatanda.

Responsableng mamamayan, kaagapay sa mabuting pamamahala.

Paghubog sa pagkatao, pundasyon ng marangal na Fernandino.

Pagyabungin ang industriya at kalakalan tungo sa pang-ekonomiyang kaunlaran ng bayan.

Local na turismo’y paunlarin, kulturang Fernandino’y linangin at mahalin.        

Livelihood. Environmental protection. Health. Education. Peace and order. Good governance. Food security. Care for the elderly. Active citizen participation in governance. Values formation. Industrial development. Tourism. Heritage preservation.

EdSa’s promised pot at the end of the rainbow. His first 100 days, he reported, really not bereft of actual accomplishments, like the 1,547 Fernandinos gaining employment; the P229-million Jobstart grant from Canada and Asian Development Bank; more livelihood trainings and the planned Productivity Center at Northville 14; a total of 12,021 tree seedlings planted; and 61 materials recovery facilities in the city’s 35 barangays.

"Sa 100 araw na nagdaan, marami na rin tayong nagawa. Ngunit sa aking palagay, ang pinakamahalagang nakamit natin sa nakalipas na tatlong buwan ay ang pagbibigay ng direksyon na ating tatahakin. Tulad nga ng parati kong sinasabi, charity begins at home. Ibig sabihin, unahin muna ang iyong komunidad bago ang iba, nang sa ganoon ay matulungan mo silang umunlad upang manguna. Ngayon, malinaw na para sa ating lahat ang direksyong nais nating tahakin para sa San Fernando – iyon ang Fernandino First. Ang 12-point agenda natin ang siyang magiging gabay upang maghatid ng serbisyo sa mga Fernandinos. More than our first 100 days, this is what we will do after our 100 days.”

Without Oca. EdSa on his own. City governance, of his own.

The Fernandino is watching, hoping. Keeping his fingers crossed.

GMA is to blame

THE PRIORITY Development Assistance Fund scam.

President BS Aquino announcing a P10-million bounty for the capture of the alleged mastermind, and no sooner personally welcomed Janet Lim-Napoles to  Malacanang.

President BS Aquino personally acting as advance security to Ma’am Janet on her way to Camp Crame.

A pre-emptive move against the Million People March, President BS Aquino abolished the PDAF, in response to the people’s clamour, kuno.

Comes now the Pulse Asia survey showing 32 percent believed politicians spend their PDAF to get elected; 27 percent said PDAF opens up the opportunity for bribery; 23 percent believed PDAF has been used by the President to get lawmakers' support, while only 19 percent believed PDAF provided significant local development assistance.
The same survey indicated that 67 percent of Filipinos believe the anomalous use of the PDAF has continued under the Aquino administration.

The Disbursement Acceleration Program scandal, much bigger and more odious than the PDAF. 

Nur Misuari’s moro-moro production called the Zamboanga siege.

Typhoon Odette.

Unemployment rate in the Philippines increasing to 26.1 percent or 11.2 million people in June, from 25.4 percent (11.1 million) in March.  

Poverty incidence in the country worsening from 19.2 percent or 3.9 million people in March to 22.7 percent (4.9 million) in June.

President BS Aquino’s satisfaction rating declining by 15 points – from +64 in June to +49 in September.

For that, President BS Aquino tagged his perennial scapegoat – Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Says he: “Who was sitting in Malacanang then? Not us. So it’s like we’re being linked with each other because we’re all in government, perhaps.”

With due respect, Sir, and no perhaps, it is you who’s sitting now.

Typhoon Santi.

Bohol and Cebu devastated by 7.2 magnitude earthquake the equivalent of “32 Hiroshima bombs.

Aye, it’s Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo again to blame.

As well for BS Aquino’s falling hair and smoker’s cough.

Throw in there his interrupted lovelife and his sister Kris’ too.   

Aba, ‘noy talaga.

Honor thy father and thy mother

THE FOURTH of the fire-inscribed divine decrees on the tablets Moses brought down from Sinai ordained for the old folks a niche second only to God’s in the hierarchy of human respect and devotion.

Last time I looked, the first three still invoked of God-man relationship; the rest, man-to-man, with honoring the elders as primus inter pares.
That primacy God decreed on the elders, their offspring trampled with impunity.
Hear how your friendly jeepney driver addresses just about every sexagenarian passenger a most disrespectful and thoroughly politically-incorrect “Baby” or “Junior.”
Witness how drugstore despachadoras dismiss with dispatch senior citizens’ prescriptions with the overly practised stock reply of “Out of stock.”

Or how waitresses sour up when senior citizens cards are placed alongside Ninoys to pay for the food tab.

In these, Republic Act 9994 or The Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 be damned! As were RAs 7432 and 7876 in the past.
Honoring thy elders has become sheer lip service, celebrated less in true devotion than in crass commercialization – read: three-day sale events for Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day and Grandparents’ Day at the malls.
It was then a cause for celebration that some semblance of sense, if not sanity, was put in the cause of honoring the elderly lately.

Like SM malls for their Senior Citizens Community Service Program aimed at “empowering” the elderly by “promoting the dynamic use of their skills and talents.” This, through the provision of job opportunities for them.

In SM City Pampanga and SM San Fernando Downtown, a dozen senior citizens – aged 60-70 – have been hired for “light duties” like greeters/guides at the mall entrances, female room assistants and cinema ticket booth guides.

“You’ll see them during weekends, holidays or peak days between 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for six months (starting October),” SM City Pampanga’s PR lady Rain Cervantes told me over coffee at J. Co last week.

Rain’s counterpart at SM-SF Downtown, Scarlet Pagdanganan said they are mindful of the health and well-being of their hired elderly so they would be given “light schedule and period of assignment” so as to safeguard them from exhaustion.

Come to think of it, only in the Philippines that age is made a requisite to employment. Do that in the US and you’d be charged with discrimination.

In Japan too, a good number of seniors are employed as saleswomen in malls, and hotel boutiques, even as street sweepers.

Yes, in what could only be an inspired move, Balibago village chief Tony Mamac has started tapping senior citizens in his clean-up campaign.

“Seniors are generally early risers, so I engaged their services to clean our streets early mornings. This will allow them some sort of physical activity and at the same time contribute to the well-being of the community,” the re-electing Mamac told mediamen last Saturday. “Not to mention getting paid (P3,000 monthly) for it.”

Senior citizens in Angeles City’s premier barangay also get from their chief P500 on their birthday.    

Some people – steeped in Filipino culture – may not look too kindly on the elderly still working, deserving as they are to reap the fruits of the labor they put in during their younger years.

It has been too long noted though that inactivity among elders is the main cause not only of creeping physical ailments but also of debilitating if not fatal psychological ones, depression being foremost.

Isolation, aloneness – their children struggling with lives of their own, leaves not much choice at socialization for the elderly. Especially in a nation that needed each family member to contribute to the family table.

The 60’s, way up to the early 70’s, still make years of active productivity.  

Puede pa kami. As the cry of elders resounds. As proven in celebrations past and present of the Week of the Elderly where senior citizens display their remaining potentials – despite, mayhaps, because of age – to still make a difference in their community. Not a wisp of dotage but every bit of wisdom in their poesia and polosa. Not one arthritic joint creaking but a sweep of grace in their ballroom twists, turns, and gyrations. Not the slightest trace of senility but all gung-ho in their drive to be heard, to be active key-rolers in community affairs.

Aye, deprive them not of the ennobling essence of labor for their dignity. Consign them not to mere cases for charity. They still serve those who are 60 – and above – years of age.

“Honor thy father and thy mother,” the first commandment that has a promise added: “so that all may go well with you, and you may live a long time in the land.” So the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians. So it was written in Exodus 20:12.
Else, be damned.
The fourth commandment carries too an injunction: “God’s curse on anyone who dishonors his father or mother.” So it was proscribed in Deuteronomy 27:16.
I am writing this as much to compensate for forgetting October 1-7 as Elderly Filipino Week as to prepare for an inevitability – I am joining the ranks of the elderly next year, getting my dual citizenship in February.

Matwa!      

Back to Katoks' Sinners

WEDNESDAY, October 9, the Katipunan da ring Tagasaliksik at Talaturung Kapampangan held a tribute to Atty. Renato “Katoks” Tayag on the occasion of his 98^th birth anniversary.

Peter Alagos, president of the Pampanga Press Club, spoke at the event, in recognition of Tatang Katoks as among the early members of the PPC and his contributions to the community as a journalist and writer.

Peter told me that he quoted extensively from my writings on Tatang Katoks that comprised a chapter – “Knocking on Katoks’ Door” – in my book Of the Press (1999).

It is now my turn to pay my respects too to the man. Lifted now straight from that same book:

Back to Katok’s Sinners

This appeared in my column in The Angeles Sun issue of November 12-18, 1988.

Reading Katok’s Tayag’s twin volume The Angeles Story and The Sinners of Angeles roused multiple emotions in me, ranging from utter disappointment and disbelief to delirium and déjà vu.

Normally, I grapple intellectually with the author of any book I read. With Tatang Katoks however, I readily submitted to his every word. Having had the chance of personal think-feel interaction for at least three times with the man when he was still around. Now I feel empty and sorry for not having had the greater opportunity of more conversations with him.

Some 30 years ago after they were published, the concise tomes are as timely as now. One gets the feeling that one reads contemporary news in The Angeles Sun when one reads the books.

The demands for a cleaner market; proper garbage disposal; strict enforcement of sanitary, criminal and traffic laws; elimination of gambling, prostitution and other vices; honesty in government; and public works improvements are all as real today as when the same were asked by the 1953 Angeles Jaycees of the Honorable Abad Santos’ father, Apung Maneng, referred to now as the better of the Abad Santos mayors.

The spunk of these young men of 1953 unfortunately did not pass on to the genes of the current crop of Jaycees who seemingly think their Creed finds concretization only in traffic island beautification, once-a-year gift-giving and stirring orations for fallen fellows. What sez you, Fred de Leon?

Past and present parallelisms of politics in Angeles cover also newspapers and mediamen. Tatang Katoks’ exposés found print in Don Tomas San Pedro’s Luzon Courier. Current exposés of irregularities germinate from the pages of this paper (The Angeles Sun). Proof positive once more that mediapersons make a community’s conscience.

The above discussion is but a sampling of the back-to-the-future or past-present mix scenarios in the two books. There are a host of others.

The “abduction” of the image of Apung Mamacalulu during the Good Friday procession of 1928 has a direct bearing to the simmering Apo land ownership controversy. (During a talk with Apung Feleng Lazatin, The Sinners of Angeles cropped up when the intercession of the Grand Old Man on the Apu case was sought.)

At the start of this piece, I said I felt disappointed upon reading the books. The feeling came when The Sinners of Angeles blasted to smithereens a myth of sainthood for one man I put on a pedestal during my formative years at the Mater Boni Consilii Seminary in San Fernando.

Morning, noon and night, from Infima, Media, Suprema to Poetry class, I, with the rest of the community of priests and seminarians thanked the Good Lord fro the benevolence showered on God’s little people by one man whose very name was – to us – the synonym of the Christian virtues of Faith, Hope, and above all, Charity.

Was I shocked upon reading Tatang Katoks’ account of the man’s “philosophy of self”! There goes another lie long embellished in half-truths.

It is said that the past teaches us lessons to practice in the present so that we will not fail in the future. One pundit even went on to say that “there is no present and no future, only the past happening over and over.” If only for this, Tatang Katoks; books should be made required reading for every Angeleno or anyone straying into the city. For his greater knowledge of Angeles’ past and deper understanding of the Angeleno’s present.

Postscript: My thanks to Abong Tayag for the books. They indeed  make up not only a collector’s item but an enriching nourishment to the Kapampangan soul.

Though non-fictionist, Tatng Katoks approximates the works of the great historical novelists like Gore Vidal in Burr and Empire and E.L. Doctorow in Ragtime. He so imbued the reader with the atmosphere of even long gone times that he – the reader – felt and breathed the same air, saw the same sights and heard the same sounds as the book characters did.

His chronicles about his beloved Base Town, Asia and his retrospective on Bataan are comparable to Gay Talese’s back-to-my-roots account in hi Unto the Sons.

Like Talese, another journalist who made his mark in literature, Tatang Katoks had that critical eye for detail and keen sense for drama that brought the broadest spectrum of color and the full range of emotions to his works.

This is most evident in his accounts of his China visits (At Home & Abroad). In 1964 at the dawn of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, capturing the rising revolutionary zeal of the young cadres that subsequently served as the vanguard of that upheaval; and in 1982 at the start of Deng Xiapo-ping’s revolutionary experimentation of a hitherto damned market economy that ultimately led to China as a key roler in the world economic stage.

­Tatang Katoks’ summed up the great chasm of a difference in those visits with: “In 1964 we met ideologues and politicians; in 1982 our hosts were bankers and men of finance.”

Prophetic too was Tatang Katoks’ vision of a Pax Americana in Southeast Asia. Notwithstanding the expulsion of the US bases from Subic and Clark in 1992.

In 1990, during my incumbency as PPC president, the club established the Renato “Katoks” Tayag Award of Excellence in High School Journalism and the Jose Luna Castro Award of Excellence in College Journalism to propagate the Kapampangan journalistic heritage among the young generation of writers.

At the awarding ceremonies, the honorees’ widows – Adoracion Suarez-Tayag and  Rosalinda Icban-Castro were the guests of honor and speakers.

Winner of the first Katoks Tayag Award was The Pampangan, official publication of the Pampanga High School, Tatang Katoks’ alma mater from where he graduated valedictorian in 1933.            

          

Jerry writes 30

IN THE early ‘70s, Jerry Lacuarta, a sacada from Manapla, Negros Occidental, joined the first wave of Visayan migration – media, that is – to Angeles City and Pampanga.

A hegira of two really – Jerry and Frank Olingay of Ang Filipino Opinion who branched out to the R&R industry as an entertainment impresario around the Crossing area and later winning the barangay chairmanship of Amsic.

Jerry started off being public information officer of the National Cottage Industry Development Authority before going to the Manila Bulletin as Pampanga correspondent.

For a time, he served as stringer for Agence France Presse and Jiji Press too. And one of the founding staff of the Angeles Sun.

Jerry holds the distinction of having the most number of terms as president of the Pampanga Press Club – four, and the Central Luzon Media Association – three.

For his exposes, Jerry had his fair share of threats and intimidations. Let me now lift this piece from my book Of the Press (1999), subtitled “Pistol-packin’ Martin”:

The Pampanga Press Club and the Angeles City Press and Radio Club are one in condemning him for acts unbecoming of a government official; acts that are transgressions of the rights of the working newsman.

The Publishers Association of Pampanga expressed solidarity with the two press clubs in condemning his high-handedness and (again!) acts unbecoming of a civil servant.

These newspaper lords even went to the extent of seeking a public castigation from concerned agencies and officials.

The National Press Club and the Federation of Provincial Press Clubs of the Philippines are all set to come up with “more damning” pronouncements and “more concrete” actions to teach him a lesson.

On the other end, press clubs all over the country have started sending their support to his victim.

The subject of this media solidarity is not a national figure. Neither is he of the stature of Burgos, Olivares and Babst.

He is Jerry J. Lacuarta, Bulletin Today correspondent in Pampanga and editor of Pampanga Profile.

The object of the condemnations? The mayor of a southern Pampanga town.

The case? Threats, invectives and intimidations levelled by the alcalde at Lacuarta who had the guts to write about a Tanodbayan case lodged against the mayor.

Truly, the mayor may have gotten more than he bargained for. Indeed, that was a costly “tarantado” the mayor reportedly shouted.

But then, the alcalde is yet to make good his “I’ll deal with you later.”

Your move, Sir. (Pooled editorial headlined Media Solidarity in all Pampanga weeklies on Feb. 13-19, 1983.)

GONZALO MARTIN Jr., mayor of Candaba, hurled threats and invectives at and challenged Jerry to a fistfight in a chance meeting at the Pampanga Agricultural College. The diminutive mayor may have been emboldened by his coterie of bodyguards and a .9MM Llama pistol tucked in his waistband.

Martin was subsequently silenced by the editorials and resolutions denouncing his actions.

In less than a year, if I remember right, Martin died from self-inflicted wounds caused by that very .9MM Llama. What happened, reports said, was Martin boarded his pick-up truck then slammed its door. The door hit the cocked gun in his back pocket and it went off, hitting him. He was rushed to San Fernando but upon reaching the North Luzon Expressway overpass, the pick-up ran out of gas. There. Martin barely finished the Act of Contrition and died from loss of blood.

In the chapter of my book titled “The Libel Tradition” I find another entry about Jerry:

Jerry Lacuarta had a much chilling case in the early ‘80s. There was this US Navyman named Thicke nabbed for international drug trafficking. The haul was a considerable volume of high-grade heroin stuffed inside imported frozen tuna coursed through the Subic port.

Thicke, reputedly with a wide network of contacts in the underworld, did not only file a multi-million peso libel suit against Jerry but even put out a “contract” on the newsman. Friends in the Constabulary like Col. Teddy Carian and Maj. Rey Cabauatan helped neutralize the threat to Jerry’s life.

With the conviction of Thicke, the libel case just faded out.

Jerry was among the most sought after mediamen by both private and public personalities, for his confidence and counsel. He was a confidante of Lilia G. Pineda, then mayor of then Lubao; Willy Castor, president of the National Constructors and Contractors Association; Aber Canlas, undersecretary of the DPWH, among others. It was through Jerry that Pampanga mediamen got to know the then brash aspirant to the Candaba mayorship, Jerry Pelayo.

Jerry was among the heaviest drinkers of mediamen with regular stations at Remedian barbeque, Shanghai Restaurant, City Lunch, and Jail House Rock. And the luckiest of the lot – bar none – having hit the Casino Filipino jackpot not once but twice.

This is of course, before his own epiphany at the rampaging lahar flows of Abacan River in 1992.

In one drunken stupor, Jerry fell from the carabao cart he was riding to cross Abacan and nearly drowned, fished out muddied and all over a kilometre downstream. Thence comes his transformation into a Bible-toting, Bible-quoting, Christian-living newsman.

After his stroke in 2002, the “fighting priss” – as we called him on account of his heavy Visayan accent – retired from journalism and spent his days with his family and the Bible.

He joined His Creator last Sunday, Oct. 6. Rest well, our dear brother.            

      

       

Sacred blocks

I FOUND this press release in my e-mail Thursday afternoon:

Capitol to tap trained hallow block makers for infra-projects

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – In a bid to give job opportunity to the graduates of Provincial Manpower Training Center (PMTC) particularly the trainees on hallow block making, the provincial government is bent to tap the trained hallow block makers for the production of 95,000 pieces of hallow blocks for the infrastructure projects in Floridablanca National Agricultural School (FNAS)…

I stopped reading there.

The editor in me aghast at the kilometric lead – the opening paragraph of the news story – which runs much longer than the usually prescribed 30-to-40-word limit.

The plain reader in me unnerved by the noun phrase hallow block not so much for its frequency in a single sentence – three times, as for its aptness in the context of its usage.

Hallow block?   

I read on: Francis Maslog, head of the PMTC said that the equipment and materials needed for the production will be provided by the provincial government.  “They will be paid one peso per piece of hallow block,” he said.

It was learned that based on the computation of PMTC, the province can save on this scheme as they could also give employment opportunities to the trained Kapampangans…

Hallow block.

I stopped altogether, hard put to contemplate on the significance, if not the ramifications, of this novelty. (Wonder how the suspended Rev. Fr. Ed Panlilio failed to come up with this during his watch at the Governor’s Office.)

By getting itself into hallow block-making, isn’t the Capitol treading on ecclesiastical grounds, thereby transgressing the separation of Church and State?

Careful, careful.

Or the Capitol may have wanted to claim exclusivity in the supply of building blocks for churches, chapels, shrines, altars, pedestals for the images of saints, camposantos, or everything that has to do with the construction of anything with a religious theme. Ain’t that what hallow blocks are for?

So how does the PMTC produce hallow blocks?

Having no phone number of the agency concerned and pressed for time, I had to advance my own thoughtful, if sly, take on the matter. Two simple ways, really.

One: sand, cement and some pints of used motor oil blended and then further mixed with holy water, molded into rectangular blocks, and then dried in the sun.

Two: sand, cement and some pints of used motor oil blended and then further mixed with ordinary water, molded into rectangular blocks, dried in the sun and then sprinkled with holy water.

Yeah, dummy, it is the holy water that makes the blocks hallow. Else, they would be simply hollow blocks, as we call these construction materials in the Philippines.

I have to give it to the Capitol. Ever churning out novelties in the field of infrastructure development.

Only last month, Headline reported that the provincial board planned a trip to Taiwan to “inspect Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) sheet files as part of the efforts of the Pampanga government to solve perennial flooding.”

Yes, the Honorable BM Dinan Labung was quoted extensively in the story on the “viability and efficiency of the PVC sheet files extensively used in rivers, creeks and other bodies of water in China and Taiwan, also known as Chinese-Taipei”; on “the sheet files made of PVC (being) ‘light weight,’ allowing for ‘quick transfers and installations’” and, therefore, their appropriateness to “replace the sheet files made of cement and steel.”
Labung even went out on a limb – in the Headline story – when he declared:  “The PVC sheet files are also more durable and live longer than the ones we use made of steel and cement.”

Labung though failed to say how these sheet files compared with sheet piles in the strength of materials test.

Sheet files last month. Hallow blocks this month. What infra novelty will come out of the Capitol next?

Maybe…rif-raf – in true Kafamfangan insistency (not to be confused with riffraff of the disreputable kind) – to prevent the scouring of the banks of the Gugu Creek and the Pasig-Potrero River.  

Yeah, inventions, innovations and interventions galore at the Capitol. Keep on trending.

   

The Big Lie

THE P360-million Passenger Terminal Building currently being constructed is expected to be fully completed by December of 2013 instead of the June 2014 deadline.

The new terminal is designed to accommodate 5 million passengers annually.

"The way things are going, the construction phase would be completed by December of this year, instead of the June 2014 deadline."

So we heard a triumphant Victor Jose “Chichos” Luciano, president-CEO of the Clark International Airport Corp. announced at the post-maiden flight press conference of Emirates Airlines Wednesday at Holiday Inn Resort Clark.

So Luciano’s announcement was duly reported in the subsequent press release from CIAC I received in my e-mail.

So we were wrong in claiming the Passenger Terminal Building – which still-under-construction photographs  we ran in a series in this paper’s front page – failed to meet its target of completion which we knew was September 30, 2013 or the day before the landing of the first Emirates flight to Clark from Dubai?

Why, just last September 20, I wrote here of the apprehension that the terminal construction would not meet its September 30 deadline, and all I heard from CIAC was that I spoiled Luciano’s day again. Nothing of me being wrong with the set deadline.  

Now Luciano would like us – and everyone – to believe that far from being delayed, the construction of the terminal was even ahead of schedule – six months ahead.

Luckily, we have the internet to prove the lie in Luciano’s announcement.

There never was any mention of a June 2014 deadline in press releases from CIAC prior to this October 2, 2013 announcement of Luciano. 

Exhibit 1:  Clark airport expansion starts May 15

By Reynaldo G. Navales

Sun-Star Pampanga - Friday, April 26, 2013

CLARK FREEPORT -- President and Chief Executive Officer Victor Jose I. Luciano of the Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC) announced that the construction of the airport terminal expansion will start on May 15.

The government decided to set construction works at the passenger terminal two days after the mid-term polls to avoid the election ban.

According to Luciano, the project is expected to be completed by September, in time for the launching of new flights to Dubai by Emirates Airlines.

The existing terminal can only accommodate two million passengers annually. Luciano said the new passenger terminal expansion will boost its capacity to four to five million passengers yearly.

Luciano said the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) had finally approved the budget for the expansion of Clark Terminal 1.

With the operations of low-cost carriers, CIAC expects passenger volume at the airport to reach two to five million this year, after the number hit 408,895 in the first quarter alone.

"We expect this to further increase as we are anticipating the start of the Emirates non-stop daily flights between Dubai and Clark and vice versa on October 1," Luciano said…

Exhibit 2: Clark airport posts 62% passenger volume hike

By Marna Dagumboy-Del Rosario

Headline Gitnang Luzon, posted April 25, 2013 at 12:01 a.m.

CLARK FREEPORT–The passenger volume at the Clark International Airport (CRK) continued to surge in the first quarter of this year, with a growth of 62 percent in both international and domestic flights compared to the same period in 2012.

Clark International Airport Corporation President and CEO Victor Jose I. Luciano cited data that showed an increase of 408,895 in passengers from January to March of this year compared to the 252,163 passengers posted in the same period last year…

Luciano attributed the increase of passengers at Clark airport to the increase of international flights here.

“We expect this to further increase as we are anticipating the start of the Emirates’ non-stop daily flights between Dubai and Clark and vice versa on October 1, 2013,” he said.

Luciano said the Emirates alone will connect Clark to the rest of the Middle East and Europe that will bring in more tourists to the Philippines. Emirates, one of the fastest growing airlines, will be utilizing their Boeing 777-300ERs aircraft with a passenger capacity of 437.

He said CIAC is preparing the construction of the P360 million Phase ll Expansion Project of the Passenger Terminal in time for the operations of Emirates this year. One aerobridge will be replaced with two-finger tube that will accommodate two aircraft at the same time.

The existing terminal can only accommodate 2 million passengers annually, while the new passenger terminal expansion will further boost its capacity to 4 to 5 million passengers annually.

The expansion project is expected to be completed by September 2013.

Clark Airport posted 1.3 million passengers in 2012, making it as one of the fastest growing airport in the country today.

Exhibit 3: Clark airport’s passengers up 62%

By Lailany P. Gomez

Manila Standard.com, posted on April 25, 2013 at 12:01am, 952 views

Passenger traffic at Clark International Airport in Pampanga increased 62 percent in the first quarter, with the addition of new international flights.

Clark International Airport Corp. president and chief executive Victor Jose Luciano said the number of passengers that arrived in and flew out of the Pampanga airport rose to 408,895 as of end-March from 252,163 passengers in the same period last year…

Luciano attributed the increase in Clark passengers to the addition of new international flights offered by most budget airlines.

“We expect this to further increase as we are anticipating the start of the Emirates non-stop daily flights between Dubai and Clark and vice versa on Oct. 1, 2013,” he said.

Luciano said Emirates would connect Clark to the rest of Middle East and Europe and would bring in more tourists to the Philippines. Emirates will use Boeing 777-300ERs aircraft with a passenger capacity of 437.

He said CIAC was preparing for the construction of the P360-million second phase of the expansion project of the passenger terminal in time for the operations of Emirates this year.

The airport is currently using one aerobridge which will be replaced with two-finger tube that will accommodate two aircraft at the same time.

The existing terminal can accommodate two million passengers annually, while the new passenger terminal will be able to handle 4 million to 5 million passengers annually.

The expansion project is expected to be completed by September this year.

Clark airport serves budget and legacy air carriers such as Air Asia Berhad of Malaysia, Air Asia Philippines, PAL Express, Seair-Tiger, Cebu Pacific Air, Jin Air, Asiana Airlines and Dragonair. .

All three stories in three different publications reporting the terminal project targeted to be completed September 2013! Failing to meet the deadline, Luciano out of his magic hat the June 2014 gambit in vain attempt to save face.

When actually, there was no need for it as the Emirates people were too bullish of Clark to notice. Or were they just being oh-so-diplomatic?