The Catholic Church may soon ban the holding of hands during the singing or recitation of the Lord’s prayer, and the kissing or touching of venerated statues to help prevent the spread of disease such as the H1N1 commonly called the swine flu virus.
I say the Catholic Church should also stop placing holy water by the door of each church where the faithful dip their fingers before doing the sign of the cross.
Even then, I wonder why is this move being initiated only now? Surely, this hand holding during masses and the kissing of the statues have transmitted so many less notorious deseases in the past.
Are you a reporter who cover Raul Gonzales or his office? Or do you know any reporter who covers him or his office?
If you are any of the two, please help us clarify with him the accusations of one of my blog readers, Joji Rojas, that Justice Raul Gonzales is sleeping on the murder case of Ramon Rojas, Vice Mayor of Ajuy, Iloilo, who was shot dead on May 22, 2008.
Vice Mayor Ramon Rojas was shot dead by a team of two assassins (allegedly Dennis “Totong” Cartagena and Edgar Cordero) who were riding a motor cycle. His murder would have reached its dead end had it not been for what happened on August 29, 2008 at around 7:30 PM in Butuan City.
On August 29, 2008, Cartagena and Cordero were ambushed where Cordero died while Cartagena survived and reported to the police. Cartagena introduced himself as DJ Herrera while Cordero as Dave Panisales. The Butuan City police discovered their real identity and a pending warrant of arrest against them for the murder of the Vice Mayor of Ajuy, Iloilo, Ramon Rojas.
Cartagena was arrested and brought back to Iloilo City where he revealed all he know about the murder of Ramon Rojas.
In his 6-page affidavit written in Hiligaynon, Cartagena said they shot Rojas to death “because we were paid by Vicente ‘Etik’ Espinosa alias ‘Bulldog’ of Brgy. Lanjagan, Ajuy, Iloilo.” Cartagena said he was a former bodyguard of Espinosa from April to May 2007 elections along with Rey Peña and Lindsey Buenavista. Right after the May 2007 elections, Cartagena said Espinosa has been plotting to kill Rojas. Aside from the vice mayor, the assassination plot also included provincial board member Jett Rojas, Ajuy Mayor Juancho Alvarez, Councilors Pepe Dumayao and Pepe Baterna and Punong Barangay Ronnie “Calis” Bañas. The plot was finalized April 2008 when Buenavista presented Cartagena to Espinosa at the latter’s house in Brgy. Lanjagan. “We met Vicente ‘Etik’ Espinosa and he told me and Buenavista that we will kill vice mayor Ramon Rojas and he gave us P8,000 for our allowance and surveillance expenses,” Cartagena said. For several days, Cartagena and Cordero monitored Rojas’s movements.
The hit happened around 5:30am of May 22 while Rojas was jogging on the highway at Brgy. Central. “When we reached Sitio Casamata which is sparsely populated, we drove near vice mayor Rojas and Edgar Cordero quickly shot him twice. Cordero then alighted from the motorcycle then chased and shot Rojas who was running towards the mahogany plantation. Then I saw Rojas fall to the ground but Cordero went near and repeatedly shot him,” Cartagena said. The duo then fled and proceeded to Barotac Viejo. They later learned from the radio that Rojas was dead.
The following day, May 23 at around 7am, Buenavista brought Cartagena and Cordero to Espinosa’s house at Ledesco Village, LaPaz, Iloilo to get P50,000. Cartagena said Buenavista received the money from Espinosa before going to the Muelle Loney port to buy ship tickets to Bacolod City. But when they arrived at the pier, Espinosa’s driver identified only as Pakit handed the tickets to Buenavista. Pakit then invited them to his house where Espinosa called Buenavista’s cellphone informing them that another P100,000 will be given to them. They returned to Espinosa’s house with Buenavista receiving the money. Pakit then brought the trio back to the Muelle Loney port where they divided the P100,000 cash. Cartagena said he only got P30,000.
From Iloilo, they proceeded to Bacolod City where they rode a bus bound for Cebu. From Cebu, they boarded a Cokaliong ship to Surigao City. Buenavista then brought Cartagena and Cordero to his uncle Joe Bahadi in Dinagat Island before returning to Iloilo. Bahadi brought the two suspects to Butuan City where Cordero was shot dead allegedly by Buenavista.
The family of Ramon Rojas, where Joji must belong, cries foul because despite the testimony of the Cartagena, the case against the principal suspect was dismissed. The case has been “resubmitted to the DOJ” but, Joji claims, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales is sitting on the case.
Paragraphs in italics come from Francis Allan L. Angelo’s “We were paid to kill Rojas”.
There is something about eating fruits that is so delightful and I had been wondering about what it is but could not get it until this morning. I woke up and I was so hungry but I do not like what is on the table–fried egg, rice, and bangus cooked in tomato sauce. I wanted something light and refreshing. I was thinking about watermelon and melon. But there was none in the ref. I ended up sitting on a couch and reading the news. And since nothing about reading the news could fill my hunger, I looked out the door and saw the guava tree. I climbed the tree and took out three yellow-green fruits, bit one and understood that it was exactly fruits I was craving to eat today.
So what is it about fruits that is so delightful? It is watery, it is sweet, it is light in the stomach, and it is refreshing.
Out of the three guava fruits I picked, I was able to eat only one because the rest were maggot infested. I could not have the full satisfaction I was hoping for. So, I had someone buy me a watermelon and a melon but she ended up buying only watermelon. And the price is so prohibitive.
The need for a human body for fresh fruits could not be overemphasized. Doctors advise to always eat fruits, aside from vegetables. People will be healthier if we eat more fruits. Of course, almost every body wants and loves to eat fruits but could not do so in a regular basis because the price is beyond what a basic salaried employee, like me, can afford.
In the past, the duties of the state to its people does not include providing them with decent housing. But with more and more people populating the country and less and less land there is available for people to own, rent or build their house on to, providing its citizens with a decent housing in the form of housing loan has become a necessity. In the same vein, addressing the health issues of the citizenry requires, among others, that my beloved Philippines create a program for each local government to have a garden where each can plant and sell farm products, like fruits, at prices affordable to the masa.
Taksi is a local game which can be likened to ten pin bowling (”bowling” for short). Whereas bowling needs a bowling lane, taksi needs only a dry and solid ground; whereas bowling needs ten pins and a special ball to knock the pins out, taksi needs only coins and a cue coin with which to take the bets off. Needless to say, taksi requires much lesser space than the area used for bowling.
The players agree on the value of the coin bet, draw a square on the ground, place the bets at the center of the square, draw a big letter “H” with a long horizontal but with shorter vertical lines few feet away from the square. Each player stands as near as the bets and toss the cue coin to the letter “H”. The player who can land his cue coin (ball) at or nearest to the center of the vertical line of the H will start the game by throwing at the bets in the square to remove at least one coin (pin) out of it. The act of successfully removing a bet (pin) from inside to outside the square with the use of a cue coin (ball) is called “punggit”. The usual rule is, when a player shoots out a bet from the square at the start of the game, he gets all the bets. Game over for that set. The players would again put bets on the square and start the same process.
The player who starts the game aims to punggit the bet. The next players have the option to either punggit the bet or hit the first player’s cue coin to eliminate him from the game.
When the second player, for example hit’s the first player’s cue coin, the 2nd player eliminates the first player, removes the 1st player’s bet, and starts punggit-ing the bets even before other players have not started yet. This time, the second player can get close to the square and therefore has a more accurate shot at the bets, and the freedom to choose whichever direction he wants his cue coin to go to. Players however may agree on the rule that each player may only approach the square and attack the bets from the direction of his cue coin.
Any player may not aim at the bets in the square or at the other players’ cue coin. Instead, he may toss his cue coin in a spot where the cue coin of a player who could not hit and remove the bet from the square would go.
Like any other game, taksi needs accuracy and planning. Because it is a game played by children who cut classes, or by drop-outs, taksi has become associated with them and earned its notoriety as such. But as taksi become known it will also someday have the respect it deserves. Like Billiards. Before Efren “Bata” Reyes, it used to be a game played only in stalls inside wet markets.
I was there once or twice many years ago. There, were courage, loyalty and integrity are inculcated and carved into the being of the very few and the very privileged people who will someday defend the territorial integrity and political independence of my beloved Philippines. I mean, the Philippine Military Academy.
I really have no idea how life as a cadet is lived in the PMA, although the movie Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick), the HBO series Band of Brothers, and my experience as a son of a strict father and as an ex-seminarian give me a glimpse.
There is a unique sense of pride of being a part or having been part of an organization people look up to and consider elite. On your shoulders lies the responsibility of living the ideals that reflect the nobility and the tenacity of the human spirit.
I look up to the men and women who graduated from the Philippine Military Academy. They are very proud people whose “upbringing” is to make the country and its people safe from harm, and their motto says it all: courage, integrity and loyalty.
1. I am willing to lay down my life in the pursuit of the Vision
2. I will be loyal always to the National Interest
3. I am willing to be a catalyst of change of an oppressive and unjust society into one that advocates equality and social justice
4. I will respect human rights
5. I will not commit any acts of corruption
6. I will live a modest life commensurate to my legal means
7. I am willing to be punished should I betray any decree of this oath
8. I am doing this supreme act of sacrifice for God, Country and People with no promise of reward, compensation or recognition
There is the Magdalo group whose leader Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is still incarcerated. He was later joined by General Danilo Lim–the two walked out from Makati Regional Trial Court all the way to Manila Peninsula Hotel. I called them The free people in jail.
But before the Magdalo group, there is another less known PMA graduate who laid down his life for his country–Philip Andrew Pestaño.
I heard about him only through an email that was forwarded to me. The email says:
Philip Pestano Memorial
Justice at 3 A.M.
by Fr. James B. Reuter, S.J.
*Note: This is the e-mail prayer brigade initiated by Fr. Reuter for Phillip.
Phillip Andrew A. Pestaño graduated from the Ateneo de Manila High School in 1989, entered the Philippine Military Academy, and became an Ensign in the Philippine Navy in 1993. He was assigned as cargo master, on a Navy ship.
He discovered that the cargo being loaded onto his vessel included logs that were cut down illegally, were carried to the ship illegally, and were destined to be sold, illegally. Then there were 50 sacks of flour, which were not flour, but shabu – worth billions. Literally, billions. And there were military weapons which were destined for sale to the Abu Sayyaf. He felt that he could not approve this cargo. Superior officers came to him and said: “Please! Be reasonable! This is big business. It involves many important people. Approve this cargo.” But Phillip could not, in conscience, sign approval.
Then his parents received two phone calls, saying: “Get your son off that ship! He is going to be killed!” When Phillip was given leave at home, his family begged him not to go back. Their efforts at persuasion continued until his last night at home, when Phillip was already in bed. His father came to him and said: “Please, son, resign your commission. Give up your military career. Don’t go back. We want you alive. If you go back to that ship, it will be the end of you!” But Phillip said to his father: “Kawawa ang bayan!” And he went back to the ship.
The scheduled trip was very brief – from Cavite to Roxas Boulevard – it usually took only 45 minutes. But on September 27, 1995, it took one hour and a half. When the ship arrived at Roxas Boulevard, Ensign Pestaño was dead. The body was in his stateroom, with a pistol, and a letter saying that he was committing suicide. The family realized at once that the letter was forged. They tried desperately for justice, carrying the case right up to the Senate. The Senatorial Investigation Committee examined all the evidence, carefully. Then they issued an official statement, saying among other things: Ensign Phillip Pestaño did not commit suicide. He was murdered. He was shot through the head, somewhere outside of his stateroom, and the body was carried to his room and placed in the bed. The crime was committed by more than one person. In spite of these findings by the Senate, the family could not get justice. The case is still recorded, by the Navy, as suicide. For 12 years they have been knocking at the doors of those in power, to no avail. Now they realize that they should knock on the door of HIM who said: “Knock, and it shall be opened to you. Ask and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find.”
Phillip Pestaño died at the age of 24. He was scheduled to be married in January of 1996, four months after he was murdered.
In these people lie the contradiction of hope and despair. The Magdalo group has no more hope for the corrupt military leadership sanctioned by the Arroyo Administration to become clean. So the members initiated the bold move. Yet, they are also hopeful that this country will someday have a great military and an exemplary leader, the same reason why they initiated the bold move.
The PMA will continue to produce the men and women who are changing this country. The new graduates will correct and straighten the obnoxious ways of the fellow alumni who made it possible for elections to be defrauded, public funds to be used for personal pleasures, and make a business out of the misery of people trapped in a war zone or addicted to drugs.
That is Jovie Ann Decoyna, 24, from Benguet, youngest of the six children of a farmer and a domestic helper, and the highest scorer in last year’s nursing board exam, speaking.
Her statement reminds me of my own life “in the farm” which indeed was hard. Who else do I remember when I think about that life but my father?
I did not appreciate the agriculturist for waking me up early every morning to help him tend to his garden of egg plant, tomato, okra, chili, pechay, cacao, etc.
In fairness to him, I only spent few minutes in the garden every morning and afternoon to water the plants and help him uproot weeds or till a new plot. But I was only less than ten years old and the few minutes I should have spent in bed seemed eternity. It was forced labor. The sprinkler weighed twice as much and the well where I got the water was twice as far as when I was fully awake. And in the afternoon, while my playmates rolled and chaseed after bicycle tires or played bog-uy or taksi, I was there in the garden planting or watering animosity or uprooting whatever good will he had shown towards me.
We had no tv and I did not know about Voltes V or Heman my cousins from Manila would talk about when they came home for Christmas vacation. They seemed so intelligent, confident, clean and smooth while I felt sloppy, awkward and clumsy. I blamed my work in my father’s garden. The soil made my little fingers coarse, my sun tanned skin made me awkward, and the little muscles growing in my arms made me clumsy and that place of work-without-play made me want to run away.
And I did plan to run away.
To the left of our house was a rice field, after that a peace of land left to trees, shrubs and wild plants, and next to it the sea whose rumbling we could hear from the house when the weather is bad. To the right of the woods is a swamp that extended towards the river. And across that river is the poblacion.
I imagined somewhere between the woods and the swamp I could hide and survive by trapping and grilling birds. My father did not love me enough. Instead of letting me sleep or play, he made me work in his garden of tears. If he could not take care of me, I might as well take care of myself.
I try to remember what I planned to do when I was already Tarzan. How I would go about my day to day life while I was a run away child in the jungle. But as far as I can remember, all I knew was that I would run away and trap and grill birds. Maybe the rest of the day I would be making and setting the traps to catch birds, and at night, I would be nursing the wound left by my father’s cruelty. I did not also think where I would live or sleep at night. I only have this picture of me sitting under a tree and looking far away, sorrowful.
I did not attempt to run away because I was afraid of my father who seemed to read my mind. He warned me one day that if I run away, he would not look for me. I could try if I wanted to find out.
I never found out.
Maybe I talked in my sleep, and my mother who shared the bed with me and my sister SP was closely listening and reported my plans to my father who was sleeping in another room.
My father and I did not bother about kamote, alogbate and saluyot (local vegetable) shoots. It grew everywhere and all my mother or our helper would do was go out to the fields and cut them out and bring them home. In cities like Manila, they are very expensive.
Life in the farm is hard. I did run away eventually and I realized I miss so many things about it.
Decoyna said she was open to the idea of working abroad but, given the opportunity, would prefer to work in a hospital in Baguio.
The Commission on Higher Education is aiming at the elimination of review centers that allegedly cost P12,000 to P18,000 nursing reviewees per review. To do this it announced that Ched will revise the nursing curriculum. The result: 5 year nursing course beginning school year 2010.
Ched chair Emmanuel Angeles: “The cost is almost the same when another year is added to a four-year curriculum. Yet, in the proposed curriculum, students need not attend courses in review centers which sometimes charged exorbitant fees to prepare for their licensure exams. A review course will be incorporated in the curriculum.”
Further, Angeles laments that “parents are already paying for a five-year nursing program including the review yet less than 50 percent (of nursing graduates) pass the licensure test.”
According to Angeles, a 10+2+3 scheme in the education system with the skills necessary for them to compete with both local and international job markets.
The scheme works this way: 6 years of primary, 4 years of secondary (10)+ 2 year technical school or pre -university program before finally pursuing a three-year specialization course.
Nursing review lasts only 4 months, but as Angeles noted, less than fifty percent make it. So, why not add another full year where review classes are integrated. Besides, as to the review classes, they are optional. Meaning, you may attend or you may not.
The government can do that–add another year to a course despite riots from parents and students, of course. But it has built hospitals, schools, roads, buildings, among others. Did these projects stop persons both natural and juridical from building private hospitals, private schools, private roads and buildings?
No.
The primary reason for the change of curriculum is to improve the quality of our nursing graduates. The elimination of the nursing review centers is secondary. Why Ched played on the secondary reson is to make the idea appealling to people who will be affected by the 1 year extension by insisting that the extension and the necessary expenses incurred offset the expenses for the review centers who fill the need left unsatisfied by the 4 year course.
So, will Ched be able to eliminate nursing review centers?
No. But “yes”, according to Ched Chair Emmanuel Angeles.
N.B. The Philippine National Police’s mandate is to protect the life, liberty and property of the citizens. As such, it is the PNP’s duty to rescue the kidnap victims and to run after the kidnappers. The military’s duty is to protect the territorial integrity and the political independence of the country. Since the kidnapping incidents are mere money making criminal acts and they do not constitute a threat to the territorial integrity or the political independence of the country, the military should have been out of it. However, the PNP and the military may help each other, of course. When I use the word “military” and “soldiers” they include the members of the PNP.
Following the kidnapping of Andreas Notter of Switzerland, Eugenio Vagni of Italy and Filipino Jean Lacaba, the three workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Secretary of Defense Gilbert Teodoro warned journalists and foreigners to coordinate with the military first before they roam Sulu. “We do not want to risk our soldiers’ lives” rescuing the kidnapped victims, the Secretary said. He noted that the three ICRC kidnap victims refused the military escort offered to them and their refusal resulted to their kidnapping.
I observed the sense of helplessness and at the same time the sense of urgency in the Secretary’s statement, and I also expressed my dread about the implication that statement brings:
1. The civil government in Mindanao does not have the control over the area,
2.The Abu Sayaff mocks the authorities,
3. And the military is no longer willing to die fighting the bandits.
As to number one, if the government has control over the area, it does not need to require people to coordinate with the military before people can freely roam Sulu.
As to number two, the kidnapping happened just outside the provincial capitol of Patikul, Sulu.
As to number three, Teodoro was only echoing what I believe his ground troops were saying to him, that they are no longer willing to risk their lives fighting the bandits to rescue the kidnapped.
That the military is no longer willing to risk their lives fighting the bandits to rescue the kidnapped does not mean however that it has refused to do its duty of protecting the country and its people. It only means that our soldiers have been in Mindanao long enough to realize that politicians use the conflicts—including kidnapping—in Mindanao to further whatever plans for personal gain they have in mind at the expense of the soldiers’ lives, not to mention the Philippines’ reputation.
Their experience thought them that the government is not sincere in putting an end to the sowing of conflicts in Mindanao, particularly in Sulu, as it runs after the bandits only when the issue is hot. But it does not do anything militarily or otherwise, when the issue has died down.
Today, the Philippine Daily Inquirer in its report “Kidnappers told: Form coop to get ‘ransom’ of livelihood aid” mentioned that Sulu Vice Governor Nur Anna Sahidulla visited the three ICRC captives and spoke with the kidnappers in an undisclosed area in Indanan, Sulu. The report also mentioned Sahidulla’s claim that the hypertension medicines of one of the kidnap victims from Italy, Eugenio Vagni, and the books for the kidnap victims were delivered to them.
Although Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan denied this fact, he was quoted saying: “It is easy to send the stuff (books and medicines), but it should be discussed first”.
“EASY.”
Governor Tan says as if locating the kidnappers is as “easy” as reciting the letters of the alphabet. Like he has no knowledge of the amount of time and money spent from transporting battalions of soldiers from all parts of the Country to Mindanao to scouring the jungle for the kidnappers and the kidnap victims.
Governor Tan, in rejecting the offer to help of actor Robin Padilla and former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Gov. Nur Misuari, even has the guts to brag: “We can solve this and we do not need any help. Padilla and Nur Misuari should not involve themselves in this problem anymore. We will ask for their help if we need it.”
Such display of arrogance.
The fact that there is again an incident of kidnapping only shows that he, the great Governor of Sulu, Abdusakur Tan, cannot and has not solved the problem. Of course, Gov. Tan only said that in the context of the present problem. If that is so, is he trying to say that he can resolve this particular kidnap crisis but he cannot prevent kidnapping from happening again?
Where and what is the source of his arrogance?
Every thinking person wonders: is it possible that the military has no idea about the location of the kidnappers and their victims? How come the provincial officials of Sulu even sent its representative, in the person of Vice Governor Sahidulla, to meet the victims and talk with the kidnappers; and how come, the Governor of Sulu is even bold enough to say sending medicines and books to the kidnap victims is “easy”?
Of course, the military knows. But soldiers are group of people who only obey orders. How can they not know with all their intelligence and with all the technical help America is giving in the form of unmanned drone and who knows what else?
Battles are expensive, but the Philippines can afford a battle with Abu Sayaff. That no military rescue is undertaken may be due to the safety concerns for the victims. But the fact that kidnappings happen over and over again, and that said kidnappings are conducted by the same group of people who use different name each time, and the same people are known to the provincial officials, has only one explanation: that there exist collusion between the kidnappers and the local government, and between the local government and the national official/s where orders for military actions come from.
Ces Drilon, the senior reporter of ABS-CBN, may even have an insider knowledge about this collusion having been a kidnap victim herself and having had countless conversations with her captors.
But Ces is aware no witness will collaborate her story should she come out. More importantly, she has a family to protect. If there was something about her kidnapping that she was grateful about, it was for the realization that, for her family, she was worth more than the millions of pesos paid for her ransom. That she was valued by her family so high it’s beyond price. She is not about to do a “foolish” act again because this time, for all her value which is beyond price, she might end up in a box so small and so dark only candles can give a meaningful light.
Besides, should she come out, what is the guarantee that the culprits will get convictions and the kidnappings will stop?
For all its complexities, it takes only one thing to solve the kidnapping problem in Sulu. But for all their professions of love and loyalty for the Philippines, no one among the national leaders has the political will to put a period to this menace in Sulu.
Below is the partial exchange of ideas I had with a fellow blogger, Wawam. The first entry is my reaction after watching the two videos posted above and lifted from Wawam’s blog, of Mar Roxas. In the first video, Mar Roxas, in a rally in Makati, innumerated the defects of this country and was caught shouting “putang Ina!” towards the end of his speech to express his disgust to the Arroyo administration. In the second video, he was saying “I am not sorry” in his speech in the Senate.
JP Anthony Cuñada said
January 28, 2009 @ 10:51 pm
Mar Roxas does not know what he is talking about. Any body can narrate the problems of this country much more can shout the “putang ina!” he did shout during the rally. But no body, especially Mar, has ever proposed a workable solution. Mar’s only solution to the very problems he narrated was his “putang ina!”.
I do not blame him for being so desperate. These are desperate times calling for desperate measures to catch attention and to win media mileage. But the true story remains that he has done nothing to alleviate the lives of at least a town he represented in Congress in his stint as a Congressman, and even now that he is a Senator. My town, Pilar in Capiz, an hour ride away from the City named after his family name, situated between mountains that produce sugar, rice, corn, fruits and other agricultural products, and the sea that bears fish of all kinds still has an eerie feeling of dryness, loneliness and hunger.
It is impossible that he does not know the corruption in that part of the country. That he has not done anything about it does not surprise but pisses me off. In him I smell the stench of a clogging drainage of a wet market.
wawamsaid
January 29, 2009 @ 9:52 am
perhaps we should look at what mar roxas’ role is as a senator in fighting corruption or the problems the country face. roxas is a senator, his mandate is to write laws.
there are government agencies like the dept of justice, the police, the NBI, the ombudsman who are responsible for stopping crime and punishing criminals.
there is also the president who is supposed to uphold the laws of the country.
if there are barangay-based or city-based problems, then there are the barangay officials, the mayor and the governor. roxas is not expected to solve these, instead it is the barangay, city, provincial and national leadership who are supposed to fix these.
JP Anthony Cuñada said
January 29, 2009 @ 11:52 pm
Thank you, wam, for your response. I have these for your consideration:
Actions prescribed by law or inherent in official functions are not always the most effective means of deterring a criminal act or acts detrimental to the welfare of the people. It is because of this observations that the Katarungang Pambaranggay Law was enacted. Parties must settle their differences before the baranggay level first before they can proceed to courts.
The baranggay officials, charged to help the conflicting parties, exert effort and influence for the parties to arrive at a common ground to avoid litigation that take up so much time and money and also add to the congestion of cases in court.
Writing laws is a Senator’s official mandate. But that is only half of his duties. As a member of one of the equal branches of our government, Senators may exercise their power judicially such as writing bills or extrajudicially by exerting their influence. Influence by itself is not a product of stature or position. It is earned by living a life worthy of respect and emulation.
A Senator’s way of life as a weapon to influence public officials is only one in his arsenal. His most potent weapon is the millions of pesos in tax payers’ money called pork barrel.
I agree with you, but only in part that “(R)oxas is not expected to solve (the problems of the local government), instead it is the baranggay, city, provincial and national leadership who are supposed to fix these”. Because he has all the power and the influence to make the problems go away.
The state of affairs of a community reflects the kind of leader that community has.
As a president, Mar Roxas will need more of his influence to make the necessary change for this country to prosper. So far, I have not seen that influence exercised to make changes even in a little town called Pilar, Capiz.
Permit me to post our discussion in my blog. Thank you.
wawamsaid
January 30, 2009 @ 9:12 am
to JP :
i think a big part of what is wrong in our national life is that there is no accountability on the actions or non-actions of our leaders. something more extreme to that, which is also true in our country, is that no small or big crimes or mistakes committed by government and elected officials are punished. that is more extreme but its related to accountability. we often get this : “it’s everyone else’s fault except mine”.
we think accountaibility is important not just for the purpose of assigning blame but more importantly for reform. change and improvement. correcting things wrong and improving things begin in knowing who among our leaders are doing their job and who are not. knowing these is the only way we can weed out those doing our communities and country harm.
in your capiz example – i think it’s important that the people of capiz understand the difficulties they are encountering in their daily lives is first and foremost a failure of local governance. they need to seek redress from the local officials or do not vote them again in the next election. capiz citizens must hold their local officials accountable for making their local lives a misery.
the budget, the plans, the responsibility and duty to make the local lives of citizens of capiz a good one is controled by the local officials, not senators.
JP Anthony Cuñada said
January 30, 2009 @ 12:34 pm
Wam, thank you for your thoughts. I hear you.
Majority of the people in Pilar worry the least about politics. They have more immediate needs to meet, like food for the next meal, and next, and the next. But for sure, election is much awaited because during this time people do not need to toil in the fields or in the sea to earn money. All they need to be is a registered voter.
Majority of the voters live on the land they do not own. Under this situation, the freedom to choose who to vote comes at the price of the freedom to insert in the soil the columns of their house.
We understand that when the stomach is empty and the future is bleak we do not think about seeking redress and holding our local officials accountable for making our lives miserable.
To insist that the “difficulties (we) are encountering…is first and foremost a failure of local governance,” and that “the budget, the plans, the responsibility and duty to make the local lives of citizens of capiz a good one is controlled by the local officials, not senators” is a conclusion that denies the fact that by representing the whole country, he is representing the little town. What kind of a representative he is if he cannot effect change in the people he represents for?
Mar Roxas should realize that if he dreams of changing the whole country, he has to start with his little town.
Mar Roxas is too young to become the next president but he is old and capable enough to demonstrate the concrete change he dreams for this country. Then, I might even campaign for him.
wawamsaid
January 30, 2009 @ 9:03 pm
JP : the citizens of pilar of course have the right to feel that way about mar roxas and his “inaction” on their plight. i respect that sentiment and i sympathize with them. my wish is for them to soon find the help they deserve.
just to keep the discussion going: i am also a citizen of this country and i live in metro manila. mar roxas was also voted by those who live in metro manila. and just like pilar, there are problems in metro manila that roxas can help us with. we can argue that since metro manila is bigger, the political and economic center of the country, it deserves more help from roxas than pilar. metro manila also has a lot more voters than pilar.
why would pilar who has much less number of voters deserve mar roxas’ attention than metro manila?
JP Anthony Cuñada said
January 31, 2009 @ 1:38 pm
Wawam, thank for your sympathy. Thank you for recognizing the citizens of Pilar’s “right to feel that way about (M)ar (R)oxas and his ‘inaction’ on their plight”. That now you know there exist a place called Pilar in Capiz and that we are talking about it may not be the help they deserve and you wish that they soon find, but, to use Barack’s arrangement of words, this is where we start.
As I have said, people in Pilar have grown cynical. They have been abandoned for too long. Their voices are only now beginning to be heard again, especially by you, and hopefully by thousands of your readers too.
How dare you compare Pilar with Manila, Wawam. In terms of help, do I need to say who needs it more?
Besides, Mar Roxas has jumped from one position to another and championed the cause of those who have. Take the cheap medicine law as an example. Yes, it’s cheap. No question. But you can only say “cheap” in relation to something “expensive”. Tell me how does that categorization apply to someone who has no money, like most of Pilar’s citizens?
Of course, there are still beautiful things left in Pilar. There are the waterfalls that I myself need to visit, dive into and write about. There are the beaches. There are the delicious oysters. There are the fresh and cheap (compared to Manila, of course) fish in danger of extinction because of rampant illegal fishing.
Talking about fish, I noticed that very few people who live in cities, like Manila, love to eat fish. I understood why when I started to buy, cook and eat the fish sold here. Even old people who were advised by their physician to eat more fish refuse to heed. They must have a bad impression the first time they tried fish. If you are one of them, your life will change when you have tasted Pilar’s fresh fish.
For other things, you may read the “introduction” of my blog named after, who else but my town, Pilar, Capiz?
At this early, Senator Mar Roxas is already campaigning for his presidential bid next year. His tv ad appears in primetime every day. He is also often seen giving interviews to different media outlets. In fact, he has built his own web site where people can learn about him and what he does. He proudly advertises in his website:
“Do I want change for our country? The answer is yes. Do I think I can do a better job? The answer is yes. Do I think that our country could be in a much better place? The answer is yes, ” SENATOR MAR ROXAS , in an hour long interview on ANC.
I have nothing against Mar Roxas except that, for more than a decade he has been in politics as a member of the House of Representatives representing the province of Capiz, then as a Senator, why has my town, Pilar, Capiz, whose welfare he should look after, remains in a dismal state? And now he dreams of changing the country, advertising that he does a better job, and claiming that the country could be in a much better place were he to become its president.
Mar Roxas may convince the whole country and may even become the next president, but I wonder how he can convince and get my vote, and the votes of those who are as aware as I am but do not have the gift of words?
My contention that Mar Roxas is not the right man to become the next president arises only from a simple premise arrived at after I visited another town in a far away land. Let me tell you about it by quoting a portion of my blog history:
I spent only my elementary years in Pilar, Capiz. Since then, I was only in Pilar during Christmas and summer vacations. I was in and out of Pilar, Capiz and could not yet recognize the curious feeling inside me every time I am in it; until I visited Cantilan, Surigao del Sur.
From Surigao City, I had to endure a three hour van ride. To get to Cantilan, the van had to pass through dry river beds, and over them through wooden planks with no side railings; and beside mountains that could not fit the van window and hills with the panoramic view of the long and winding roads the van had been through. But when I reached the town proper, it was really something special. The roads were paved, the houses neat, and there was just this general aura of optimism among its people.
Imagine a town three hours away from its City yet was even more beautiful than my own town which is only an hour away from its own city, Roxas City!
From then on, I felt sorry for myself and for the town I came from every time I remember these trips (I made two). I hated the officials from the Senator down to the town mayors. How can a town situated between mountains that produce sugar, rice, corn, fruits and other agricultural products, and the sea that bears fish of all kinds have an eerie feeling of dryness, loneliness and hunger?
It is because of politicians like Mar Roxas that this blog came about. I want to wake a Mar Roxas from his grand dreams with these words: “You cannot change a lowly town only an hour away from the City named after your family name, how dare you proclaim you can change the Philippines and all of it?”
Ang iniibig ko'y walang saplot
na katotohanan,/
Hindi malikmata.
Hindi Nagdaang anghel./
Walang pakpak na nilalang
na di nanlinlang,/
Kundi umamin sa di nakasintas
na pusong putikan,/
Basa ng parehong luha at galak,
nayuyugyog/ Sa kinabukasang
walang premyong katiyakan,
--Rebecca T. Añonuevo
Paggising
from her 5th collection
Kalahati at Umpisa
