Memory lane

A FEW days before my death, I was born. I died in mid-March of 1974 in Annex II of the then Northern Mindanao Regional Training Hospital. Doctors were only able to revive me after they “cut down” a major artery in my lower leg.

I have so many fond memories in the now Northern Mindanao Medical Center. As I said, I was introduced to the hospital when it was just a training hospital. I practically grew up in that hospital.

Last week, when my brother called to invite me to the launch of their year-long centennial celebration, I was so excited. It is not every day that you get to celebrate 100 years of something because it takes literally a hundred years to do so.

“Housed in a building of mixed materials with a nipa roof, the Misamis Public Hospital opened on Oct. 1, 1917, in the district of Carmen, Cagayan, Misamis Province,” the centennial committee on its history written in its short summary of its 100-year journey to where and what it is now.

It was established at a time when the country was under American colonial rule. However, it was maintained mainly with funds from the Capitol under the then Governor Isidro Rillas, who served as Misamis governor from 1917 to 1919.

In 1932, the then MPH was constructed in its present location at the Capitol grounds. However, the hospital was destroyed during World War II. In 1945, it was rebuilt and renamed as Misamis Oriental Provincial Hospital.

As I told fellow columnist Rhona Canoy, that name seemed to have stuck. Until now, many Kagay-anons, when they flag a motorela, still inexplicably tell the driver: “Sa provincial, nong.”

In 1966, by virtue of Republic Act 4662, it was renamed and declared as the Northern Mindanao Regional Training Hospital. This was the first step in its journey to becoming a tertiary medical facility in the region.

My mother, Thomasita Bajao Corrales, was already a senior nurse then. I would eat my lunch with her at its cooperative canteen or at the room for minor surgeries at the dispensary.

The best part of growing in a training hospital was mingling with student doctors and nurses — lots of fond memories there.

While my contemporaries at Xavier University Grade School were busy with their kote and jolen, I was making cotton balls and vaginal gauze swabs with student nurses at NMRTH.

I was also privy to hospital grapevine. Let’s just say that I was aware of stories about the doctors and nurses. And man, are those stories saucy!

I remember Dr. Dy, with his goatee, ambling his way to the dispensary and never failing to remind me that he circumcised me, much to my chagrin as I try to strike up idle conversations with the student nurses.

There have also been dour memories with the hospital.

No one was with me during my graduation at Xavier University High School. Earlier that afternoon, my father, Emilio, had suffered his fifth cardiac arrest and was rushed to the intensive care of the then newly established heart center of the NMMC.

After typhoon Sendong ravaged our barangay in 2011, all my kids took their prophylactic shots against leptospirosis at the hospital.

Almost two years ago, my mother died at the hospital’s dialysis room.

Let me just say that the hospital has been an important part of my personal history. Maybe that’s the reason why I was also excited with its centennial year. Like a long-time friend, we share a lot of history together.

My brother who is working at the hospital now told me they are planning to hold various activities to highlight their centennial year. It began with the unveiling of the centennial wall in front of the hospital last week. He said they will hold a major activity every month until October 2018.

I can’t wait to cover each and every one of these activities.

Fake obituary

OF all the clauses in the code of ethics in journalism, the most memorable one for me is: “Do no harm.” I know it is more of a guideline than an actual rule but you can understand the damage you could do to your fellow human beings when you broadcast or publish just about anything without the checking the facts before reporting it.

Humans as we are, we are all bound to commit mistakes.

I once inadvertently “killed” an associate justice of the Court of Appeals by choosing the wrong photo to go with the banner story of a judge who died. The associate justice was so mad that he sent me a letter. I remember becoming a bit nervous because it was written on his official stationary. You know the kind that starts with “from the desk of associate justice…” He asked me to explain within 72 hours why he should not sue me in court.

I explained that it happened because his photo was erroneously filed in a folder under his name. After asking for an apology, profusely, we published an erratum the next day explaining that the photo was not of the judge who died, and that we committed a mistake.

In my 10 years or so in the print medium, I have made mistakes. However, it is another thing when you willingly lie or quote imaginary sources or text messages sent by who-knows-who.

Over the weekend, President Elipe broadcast over Magnum Radio that he received text messages about Opol Mayor Maximo Seno supposedly passing away. Seno subsequently told this paper that it was a lie, and that, obviously, he is alive. He went to the US for a three-month medical leave. Imagine what the false information has done to his family, friends, and worse, his constituents in Opol.

Just so the ex-councilor would understand, let’s turn him into an example. Again, this is just hypothetical. How would Elipe’s loved ones feel if a broadcaster, quoting an imaginary source, falsely reports that he was abducted by the Maute group and then beheaded? Of course, the broadcaster could, like him, hide behind the Sotto Law that allows him not to divulge the identity of his news source. But wait, I recall Prof. Chell Diokno teaching us that the Sotto Law (Shields Law in the US) only protects journalists in the print medium. Sorry, I digressed.

Going back to the Elipe's lie, because he broadcast the terrible rumor passing off as a “news item” over a radio station, his listeners could have taken it as a legitimate news. What if a close relative of Seno with a medical condition keeled over after hearing Elipe’s fake news? Would Elipe be responsible for such death?

It was like Martin Andanar quoting an “intel report” that the journalists who covered the press conference of Sen. Antonio Trillanes III were given $1,000 each.

Working in mass media should not be taken lightly. There will consequences to everything you publish or broadcast. Andanar got demoted for maligning the Senate press corps. What do you think will happen to Elipe?

Just recently, this paper erroneously accredited a photo to our correspondent although it was not his. We have since admitted our faux pas, apologized, took down the photo and article, and published a clarificatory article the very next day.

Still the group felt pissed off. But that’s another story all together because it turned out their beef was misdirected at us when they were really pissed off with another group with the same name.

Post no bill, please

CONSIDERING how many times this regime has been finding ways to mess up our civil liberties, it should change its logo to a fist with the middle finger sticking out.

As if the be-wigged stooge of President Digong Dada at the justice department hasn’t wrangled the Republic’s judicial system enough to serve the regime’s vendetta, here comes another stooge who wants to impose the historically “effective” ghetto-like branding – all, of course, in the name of waging the war on drugs.

About a fortnight ago, Interior Secretary Ismael Sueño opined to label houses that are supposedly “drug free” with a decal telling people the house is such.

Sueño suggests this will be better than the violent Oplan Tokhang. He is so convinced there is nothing inherently wrong with this that he vilified Amnesty International-Philippines when the latter called him out on his plan to brand houses. Sueño even resorted to a childish play on words against the Nobel Prize laureate saying: “They should be branded as human wrong group, not human rights group.”

Who will determine if the household is indeed drug-free? Who will evaluate and confirm this as a fact? How will they categorize and what are the rules of implementation of this branding campaign?

This came to him, Sueño said, after meeting with the regional peace and order councils recently.

He said this regime is shifting to a non-violent and positive way to combat illegal drugs. Is he admitting that Oplan Tokhang was wrong? The plastering of “drug free” stickers on houses, he said, will not be a police operation but by the civilian peace and order councils from the regional down to the barangay level.

Hasn’t Sueño been listening to his boss? Didn’t Digong Dada push for the postponement of the barangay elections because “most” barangay officials are allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade? Now, Sueño wants these people allegedly involved in illegal drug trafficking to decide which house in their barangay is drug-free? If he doesn’t see the problem of conflicts of interest in that arrangement, I personally don’t know what will.

How sure is Sueño that this new branding campaign will not be used by barangay chairpersons as a subtle campaign for their own pedestrian political careers? Let’s not forget we are going to elect a new set of barangay officials this coming October. I, for one, am not expecting for such decal. This is because I have been at odds with our barangay chairman in Consolacion – a Roa, I might add – since he practically abdicated his mandate to policing our village of drug users and hooligans. My regular (at 165 of them) readers will bear this out since I have been writing about his governance style or to be accurate his lack of it.

Plus, let me remind Mr. Sueño that we are in the Philippines – a third world impoverished country – where a house does not automatically mean one family. I live in a house being shared by two other families. Should our brilliant barangay chairman decide not to stick a decal on our house on my account – just to get back at me – won’t that be unfair for the other two families, who may or may not be involved in illegal drugs?

I am most certain that this will be used arbitrarily by barangay chairpersons who want to stay as chairpersons in their barangays after October.

“Plus, let me remind Mr. Sueño that we are in the Philippines…”

Which company will be printing the drug-free decals. Who stands to gain from this enterprise? In street vernacular: Pila man gyud, ser?

I mean, how different is this to Nazi Germany’s posting of a Star of David on the homes of Jews not too long ago. This may be a reverse of what Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim did before, spray-painting houses of suspected drug traffickers but its effect is still the same. It will discriminate the household members of a house with no drug-free sticker plastered on it.

So, no, Mr. Sueño, I will not participate in your version of a Star of David – respect my right to private property and post no bill, please.

Public conversation

THE public conversation on corruption is bound to happen whoever is in power. Even the almighty Apo Ferdie couldn’t get under wraps. It is nothing personal. It is a conversation where the taxpayers hold to account those who swore to be true and at their service.

Forbes Magazine recently cited Transparency International’s 2016 Corruption Index where the country slid back some six places in ranking – from an index of 134 in 2010 to 168. We are now neighbors with Pakistan and India in terms of level of corruption.

“President Duterte’s dramatic rise to power in the Philippines made extensive use of anti-corruption rhetoric. Yet, the impact of death squads, attacks on media, and violent intimidation to the detriment of democracy and democratic institutions is yet to be seen in 2017,” Transparency International’s observation reads in part.

Deflection must be the most useful tact in any self-respecting politician’s arsenal. Even the ones who claim they have nothing to hide.

As I see it, there is really no need for President Digong Dada to order the Anti-Money Laundering Council to “release” his bank account records because as the highest elected public official in the land every asset he and his family has, earned or inherited, should all reflect in all of his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth. Yes, from when he was a non-crusading public prosecutor up to his winning the presidency of the Republic last year.

For the dense and ignorant, the submission of a SALN, as stipulated in Republic Act 6713, is a prerequisite of all public officials and employees – sans those in an honorary capacity, laborers, casuals, and temporary workers –upon assumption to office and on or before April 30 of every year in government service. Public officials are also required to file a SALN within 30 days after separation from government service.

“The SALN lists the properties – real estate, vehicles, jewelry, shares of stock, etc. – that an official has acquired or owns, when, at what cost, and their current market values. The SALN also enrolls the official’s liabilities such as loans, including those from government institutions (read: GSIS) and insurance payments. The SALN should list as well the names of the official’s wife and children below 18, and the names of the official’s relatives in government service up to the fourth degree of consanguinity and affinity,” our codigo cum notebook when I was with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism reads.

So when Sen. Antonio Trillanes brought up Duterte’s supposedly suspicious fat bank accounts I was surprised that the latter’s initial response was childish name-calling and insults. The next day, as if sobered up, ordered the AMLC to “release all his bank records.” A little digression for the online trolls and fanatics, I agree that Trillanes looks creepy. Well, they both look sinister as fudge to me. But looks and gut feel has got nothing to do with the Trillanes-Duterte to-and-fro (which basically is turning out to be a b-version of a Star Wars saga).

If Duterte has nothing to hide he need simply point Trillanes to all of his SALNs. This, of course, has a lot of conjectures attached to that statement. That is assuming Duterte faithfully and honestly filed SALNs in all the years of his career as a public servant. There’s the assumption, too, that he really advocates for transparency and accountability in public service – and so on and so forth.

Trillanes’ accusations should also not come as a surprise for Duterte considering the former comptroller of the Navy’s acquisition division already filed a plunder case last year. A second attack, as it were, was bound to happen. Like a rat that got wind of a rotting cheese, it will pursue it no matter what. Trillanes will not back down. He has already drawn first blood.

Whichever sides of the fence you are sitting, Trillanes’ accusations is primarily a call for transparency. If he has shady practices in the Senate then these should also be investigated on – as pointed out by the Fifth Estate (Duterte’s barrage of spin doctors). Too bad, Trillanes beat Duterte to hurling accusations first.

This also brings to fore the need for a public conversation on the alleged corruption under the Duterte administration which was bound to happen as with the past presidents of the Republic.

So, no VG, this is not about whether I’m opposed to this administration or not. This is not about the person. This is about us – yes, including you – pulling our heads out of our asses and start asking the really ugly questions that need to be asked.

We cannot just sweep the conversation under the rug, so to speak.

Never Again

“No one should experience what the PC-INP (Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police) did to us while in detention at the PC Barracks in San Pedro Street, (Davao City).”

By Cong B. Corrales¹

IT WAS A SATURDAY, he recalled going to campus that fateful day wearing the prescribed army greens for their scheduled Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) formation.

“My classmates greeted me at the gates frantically to tell me that some of my friends were arrested earlier and that some have gone into hiding,” he said smiling—somehow amused at the turn of events.

Alfredo “Ka Paris” Mapano was barely an adult at 18 years old when strongman Ferdinand Edralin Marcos placed the entire country in a state of martial law through Proclamation No. 1082. However, he was already a member of the Samahang Demokratikong Kabataan (SDK)—a left-leaning student organization.

Marcos made the live television broadcast of the proclamation two days later—September 23, 1972.

He said the members of the now-defunct Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police (PC-INP), who patrolled their campus that Saturday, failed to notice him because Mapano—like the other students—was wearing fatigue.

“I went underground for three years,” Mapano said. He was captured in 1975 in his hometown in Davao Province.

“No one should experience what the PC-INP did to us while in detention at the PC Barracks in San Pedro Street, (Davao City). If the government is punishing us for fighting for what we believed in the why were the military who committed all those atrocities during martial law never held accountable,” lamented Mapano.

Currently detained at the Misamis Oriental Provincial Jail in Cagayan de Oro City, Mapano—now 58 years old—hopes President Benigno Simeon Aquino, III could understand people like him being a son of a political detainee.

President Aquino's father—the late Senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr—was also jailed under criminal cases like illegal possession of firearms, murder and conspiracy to commit sedition, among other trumped up charges.

“Now that the son of probably the most famous victim of martial law (President Aquino) is in power, he should be in the best position to empathize with the detained political prisoners all over the country,” he said.

THIS PARTICULAR SATURDAY—August 1, 2009—Mapano was not as lucky as he was in Davao some 40 years ago.

The combined personnel of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, National Intelligence Coordination Administration and the 4^th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army arrested Mapano while the latter was “on family integration leave” at a local apartelle in Barangay Carmen, Cagayan de Oro City.

Four years after his arrest and facing multiple criminal charges in various municipalities, Mapano hopes President Aquino would grant political detainees like him “general, unconditional, and omnibus amnesty.”

“I am old and I would like to spend my twilight years with my children if I'll be granted amnesty,” he said.

Alfredo “Ka Paris” Mapano—together with 10 other political detainees—is still detained. There are 385 political detainees currently languishing in jails across the country.

1This narrative is adapted from an interview inside the Misamis Oriental Provincial Jail on September 17, 2012 when Mapano led 10 other political detainees in an eight-day fasting to commemorate the martyrs of martial law and to drum up support for a general, unconditional, and omnibus amnesty. Excerpts of the narrative first appeared on TV5's online news portal—Interaksyon.com—on September 17, 2012.

Ode to horses of Troy

Unite! Oh, paladins of Mother Earth

Let their maculate aggress be for naught

They’re wolves in ewe’s fleece, cowardly and guileful

Scuttlebutt, Trojan horses, chicane-sleuths

Chesty hubris of a bruised ego

Grown tender, deluded of bygone glories

Heed not the hoggish imp’s salvo

Our crusade transcends his inanities

The imp’s derogation, we shall overcome

And justice for all

NOTE: Re-blogged in commemoration of the 4th anniversary of Mamamayan Ayaw sa Airspray (Maas)--residents of Lower Sirib, Calinan, Davao City, victims of development aggression we hosted here in the city.


IT HAD RAINED all afternoon that day, cold and soggy, she tried to push the thought out of her mind.

She had been tossing and turning on her banig most of the night. Somehow she could not rest easy, all the more—sleep. She felt as if two thousand crickets were sniveling from all directions.

Finally, she sat up and gaped blankly at a portion of a lit parol that managed to sneak its multi-hued lights into their rip-ridden tent.

Alas! Sleep still eluded her.

The night, conversely, was deafeningly quiet. As expected, no cargo trucks passed the road that could have easily engulfed them with dust and petrol fumes. Even the stars that night seemed to shine brighter than she had gazed them for the past month.

But, like her thoughts that night, the draft of the chilly December breeze that crept into their makeshift shelter, was an unwelcome interruption that made slumber for her even more difficult.

Except for their assigned night-watch and her, all of their members were fast asleep—albeit cramped inside their 4x2 meter-shelter.

It was the eve of the 24th of December, and it was her first time to be away from home on such an important evening. Evenings like these are meant to be spent with kin and loved ones. Not this year, at least for Gina and her neighbors.

“Really, I don’t mind spending my Christmas Eve here, away from my family,” blurted Gina.

Home for Gina and her neighbors is Purok 3, Lower Sirib, Calinan, Davao city.

Gina and her neighbors have been encamped just beside the street—over a canal—a few meters from the Court of Appeals here in Cagayan de Oro city. Her group, Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spray, are on a drive to defend their right to life and healthy environment. Theirs is a basic struggle for sobriety amidst chaotic social structures.

You see, from where Gina lived, near a banana plantation, have been constantly sprayed—along with the bananas—with agro-chemicals.

Gina suffered skin rashes. These worsen, she observed, when the plane that sprayed the agro-chemicals meet crosswinds where the agro-chemicals would definitely drift unto Gina’s neighborhood.

Her other neighbors had it much worse. Many suffered from pulmonary diseases while some mothers gave birth to sickly children. The aerial spraying in the little community beside the banana plantation has adversely affected their way of life.

Theirs is a community of peasants and agri-workers. Their well-being is their only capital for their livelihood—toiling the earth.

Long ago, three years to be exact, they won a battle when the local legislature in their city enacted an ordinance banning the practice of aerial spraying in banana plantations.

When the banana growers questioned the legality of the ordinance in a regional trial court, Gina and her neighbors won yet another battle. The circuit court ruled that there was nothing wrong with the ordinance and that it even upheld the constitutional right of every person to life and a healthy environment.

But the banana growers, having all the resources at their disposal, lodged a question on the constitutionality of the city ordinance to a higher court—Court of Appeals.

It was becoming clear to Gina that they may have won some battles but the banana growers would not easily give up the war.

At that instant, Gina and her neighbors decided that they have had enough of the aerial spraying.

“Dili mi mga peste,” was to be their battle cry.

They decided to take their struggle a notch higher. They decided to come here where the appellate court holds its office.

When they arrived in Cagayan de Oro city, they immediately went to the Court of Appeals and set up camp a few meters away.

After more than a month, Gina and her neighbors had been shouted and glared at, pushed and shoved, harassed and arrested, promised and lied at. But the struggle continues, Gina vowed.

She did not mind having to spend this year’s Christmas Eve away from her home. She did not mind the dust and petrol fumes every time a cargo truck passes their encampment. Gina does not even mind that they have to cramp themselves in their makeshift shelter by the road whenever they have to eat, hold a meeting or sleep.

It was not because she was cold and soggy that night. It was not because of the draft in their makeshift shelter every time the chilly December breeze blew that she could not sleep that night.

Gina did not mind being away from her kin this Christmas Eve because as she reasoned: “What we are doing here is for all of us, so that this thing that has been slowly killing us will be stopped.”

What bugged her this year’s Christmas Eve was her realization that the environment including its inhabitants are being raised to the altar of greed and profit and yet it takes so agonizingly slow for “learned” individuals to see what is right in front of their noses.

Gina could not sleep thinking that as the rights of the people are being trampled wantonly; the supposed vanguards of truth and justice are as lame as their excuses and counter proposals.

It is already fourteen past two in the early morn of Christmas day but sleep still evaded Gina.

Hence, Gina made a solemn oath on her very first Christmas Eve alone, without kin but with kindred spirits, to continue the struggle not only for her rights but more so the rights of those who are downtrodden. Those who have been stripped of their dignity and opportunity by the very people who have sworn to serve them.

What started for Gina as a struggle for her right to life has blossomed into a warm and resolute fervor to serve the people.

Unexpectedly, Gina yawned.

She smirked when she finally felt sleepy—probably weakened by her internal debate that seemingly long dreary evening.

She felt relieved as she laid her head to sleep thinking that tomorrow will, yet, be another day of struggle and that she should be well-rested if she was to continue to struggle for our rights and justice for all.

Of following orders and understanding 'em

 It is only natural for people to want to protect their hard-earned properties.

I DO NOT want to be a wet blanket—pardon the pun—especially since this city's Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (CDRRMC) has already celebrated its “zero-casualty” feat¹ in responding to super typhoon 'Pablo' (International code name: Bopha) that pummeled Cagayan de Oro and other parts of the island, last week.

Even if the “zero-casualty” claim has raised some, if not many, eyebrows, I still say City Hall has done quite a feat as compared to its response—or the lack of it—when tropical storm Sendong (International code name: Washi) flooded this city and claimed some 600 lives and destroyed at least hundreds of millions of infrastructure, properties and agricultural production.

While City Hall sycophants are busy patting each others back for a job well done, there is something we should reexamine if only to further improve our city's disaster response in future calamities—natural and man-made.

Let us take a closer look at the supposed forced evacuation order of Mayor Vicente “Dongkoy” Emano at the height of 'Pablo,' ang how the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) implemented the order.

Under the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Law (RA 10121), the local chief executive can exercise its police powers to order a forced evacuation in areas where widespread danger is imminent, of which Emano did on December 4 shortly after raising the alert level to code red. The city then, has been included in the list of areas under storm signal number 3.

I, personally, was sort of excited to see this order in action because one, it was going to be my first time to see a forced evacuation implemented and I only see this in the movies and news coverages on calamities elsewhere in the country.

That day, together with international news wires photojournalists—Froilan Gallardo (Associated Press), JB Deveza (Agence France Presse) and Cai Panlilio (Thomson Reuters)—we visited Sitio Tambo, a community of shacks beside Cagayan River and were surprised to see people, albeit only adult men, still in their shacks.

“We have already evacuated my wife and four daughters to an evacuation center in Zone 8 last Monday afternoon. But we opted to stay behind because we are afraid our homes would be looted. Just last night (December 3), we spied and prevented some people trying to get into the houses of our neighbors,” Felix Araneta, married, 39 years old said when I asked him why he was still in his home despite the code red alert of CDRRMC.

However, when a SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) patrol car entered the community, that day, the five police officers appeared clueless as to the mechanics of the order.

I approached one of the officers and asked him if they were in the area to implement the mayor's force evacuation order in the community and how they intend to do it. The officer replied they were indeed in the community to effect the mayor's order. However, it was clear in his reply that they did not understand what forced evacuation is.

“We will go around the community to persuade the people to evacuate their homes but if they insist on staying, we cannot really force them to,” the officer said.

ABS-CBN TVPatrol Northern Mindanao anchor Primy Cane, Philippine Daily Inquirer correspondent Bobby Lagsa and other local reporters experience quite the same disappointment in Sitio Tibasak, Barangay Macasandig that same day^.2

Acting city police director Senior Superintendent Antonio Montalba, who arrived in Tibasak two hours late after Emano issued the force evacuation order, told reporters that—he said they were late because they were still having breakfast—they waited for CDRRMC assistant officer Engr. Armen Cuenca to go with them in implementing the order.

Just in case there will be cases filed against them for implementing a direct order of the city mayor, he reasoned to the flabbergasted reporters. Anyway, most of the people in the geohazard areas have already voluntarily evacuated their homes days before, Montalba reportedly added.

Lagsa—in a Facebook thread—quoted Montalba as saying, “wala na lang nako pugsa pud kay gabii na og gusto nako matulog (I did not force the people who stayed behind because the night was drawing near and I wanted to get some sleep),” in the CDRRMC Exit Conference on Wednesday (December 5).

It is only natural for people to want to protect their hard-earned properties. Ergo, for force evacuation to be effective, the people need to be reassured that even if they leave their houses, their properties will be safe from looting.

We can see force evacuation effectively implemented in the Bicol region whenever Mt. Mayon threatens to unleash its wrath. Truck loads of government security forces would go to geohazard areas and physically taken out of harm's way. These security forces stay behind and search every house in the community to make sure every one has been evacuated.

While the people are being transported to the evacuation centers, they could see that the security forces stayed behind to guard their homes from possible looters.

Had Montalba understood his orders, the force evacuation would have been implemented effectively. Ergo, properly implementing the “risk reduction” concept of RA 10121.

Pablo would have been Kagay-anons' first-hand experience of this law in action.

______ 

1 http://www.goldstardailynews.com.ph/mindanao/casualty-takes-new-meaning-in-c-de-oro.html

2 http://www.goldstardailynews.com.ph/mindanao/montalba-takes-his-time-food-first-evacuation-later.html

Matuwid na daan: crooked as a trapo

23 November 2012

TODAY, we mourn the passing away of yet another year as justice remains elusive to the victims of the infamous Ampatuan Massacre.

Three years ago, 58 individuals—32 of whom were journalists and media workers—were brutally waylaid in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao province, in the worst election-related violence ever in the history of our republic.

Three years after, 96 of the 196 accused of taking part in the massacre, are still at-large. Until now, the case is virtually locked in a limbo of motions and bail hearings. While the case has dragged on at a snail's pace, suspicious-looking characters—riding in tandem—have been reportedly hounding some of the more outspoken relatives of the massacre victims.

Three years is too long a time and justice that is THIS delayed is justice DENIED.

It is bad enough that the massacre earned us the international poster cover for impunity. The International Freedom of Expression Exchange Network (IFEX)—a federation of 90 independent organizations worldwide advocating freedom of expression—has declared, every 23^rd of November, as the International Day to End Impunity.

We condemn the downright insensitive remark of Malacañan Palace downplaying the unabated human rights violations as “leftist propaganda.” There is something seriously amiss when witnesses and complainants of human rights violations are harassed and hunted down faster than government could arrest the suspects.

Today, we also mourn the death of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill in the 15^th Congress. By letting FOI Bill die, it is now crystal clear to Mr. Aquino's “Boss” that his now lame campaign slogan: Matuwid na daan, is actually as crooked as a traditional politician.

Justice for the victims of the Ampatuan Massacre and the continuing reign of the culture of impunity!

Uphold the freedom of expression and of the press!

End Impunity Now!

Reference:

Cong B. Corrales

Chapter Vice Chair

NUJP CdO

0935.909.8033

nujp.cdo@gmail.com

More tricks than treat

Everyday is Halloween in the Philippines.

Yes, I'm talking about the pagan ritual that has somehow found its way into the culture and tradition in the only Christian-predominant country in the southeast Asia.

But it is not the fun kind of Halloween. Here, it is mostly trick rather than treat. Worse, the "tricks" are done by creatures far scarier than the undead and ghouls--politicians.

A Halloween story: Tuyor's special Adobo

Note: reblogged 

"Even though I cooked it very well, there’s still a curious aftertaste when I ate it.”

HE had less than an hour to finish. His family—he thought—might start suspecting where he got the main ingredient for their supper so late in the evening.

Jovencio Tuyor crazily chopped the onions, garlic, hurriedly crushes the paminta seeds and crumpled the laurel leaves. Simultaneously, he broiled his prized meat he got that evening. “Maybe this would lessen the pungent smell of the meat,” he muttered.

After broiling the meat for 20 or so minutes, he marinated it with vinegar and soy sauce in a pot. He poured all the ingredients he chopped earlier, dashed it with some rock salt and monosodium glutamate and let the contents broil again for another 20 minutes.

Moments later, Jovencio hollered to his wife and kids. “Dinner is ready guys,” he said in vernacular.

It had been a long dry spell without eating meat and kids were famished, the Tuyors ate their repast that night with gusto.

Earlier that evening of September 30, this year, Jovencio, his eldest son Melchor, Rey Dadole, Arante Maravillas and brothers Johnny and Junmar Candar had been drinking in a village store. They were neighbors in Naawan—a sleepy coastal town 30 minutes away from Cagayan de Oro city.

After about 30 minutes into their drinking, the group decided to part ways and call it a night. Ten to 15 meters en route to their respective homes, Arante, Johnny and Junmar heard an eerie shriek. Realizing it was Rey’s voice frantically yelling “mama tabang”—they rushed to where the shouts came from.

When they trained their flashlight to where the voice came from they saw Rey, his back to the ground, while Jovencio was striding him plunging and hacking the boy with a scythe. With each lunges and hacks, they could hear the boy’s blood oozing to the grassy ground, where at one moment they even thought they heard it bubbling as Rey gargled his own blood.

Noticing the light, Jovencio looked up to his drinking buddies. “Dili baya mo magsaba bai ha,” in between heavy panting, he calmly said.

Scared out of their wits, they scrambled to their homes but Melchor remained with his father. Jovencio then scalped half of Rey’s face including one of his earlobes. Not contented, he lopped off the boy’s arm-muscles—both the triceps and bicep—up to his elbow. Father and son, then, hurriedly left for their home.

Estenely, Rey’s mother, having last seen him afternoon of September 30—worried sick—finally decided to file for a missing person at the Naawan Police on wee hours of October 2.

That same day, hours later, Naawan Police found Rey’s mutilated corpse lying on a grassy knoll not far from where the witnesses said they had a drinking spree. Half of his face was missing as well as almost half of his left arm, while 31 stabs and hack wounds were found in the different parts of his torso.

Rev. Sanny Limbag—a minister of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Naawan for six years—said that blinding rage may have pushed Jovencio to commit the grisly acts.

Unknown to Rey’s mother and a couple of weeks before that fateful drinking spree, Melchor got mauled in one of the town’s dark alleys. He was pounded so hard he had to go to their village clinic. While recuperating, he identified Rey as his attacker to his father, Jovencio.

However, Jovencio had been known in their village to have committed other disturbing practices.

His neighbors said they once saw him eat a Carabao meat raw after rustling it from a neighboring sitio. Jovencio had also been known to include cat meat in his family’s meals (According to his wife, he was the cook of the family.).

Jovencio was arrested by SPO1 Arnold Sacabin, PO3 Cirilo Manco Sr, PO2 Jope Cagabcab and PO1 Senador Ostero of the Naawan Police Station hours after finding Rey’s body.

During his preliminary inquest last October 23, Jovencio showed no sign of remorse or regret as he stared blankly at the prosecutor who peppered him with questions.

Arante Maravillas and brothers Johnny and Junmar Candar—who stood as witnesses—denied having partaken of Rey’s flesh and subsequently release from the municipal jail where they were held after Jovencio’s arrest.

Melchor—and the rest of the Tuyors—have since left town, leaving Jovencio on his own in Misamis Oriental Provincial Jail, where he is currently being detained awaiting his formal trial.

There he confessed to local media he cooked and ate Rey’s flesh with his family.

“Even though I cooked it very well, there’s still a curious after taste when I ate it,” Jovencio had told media in the vernacular.

Back in Naawan, the people still talk about the incident albeit in hushed tones. Rural grapevine had since abuzz and the sleepy coastal town west of this city will never be the same again.

“After the Tuyor incident, the people here were never the same. I know this will forever be etched in the memories of the people here,” said Limbag.

(All anecdotal situations are based on real events, affidavits of witnesses, police reports and the accounts of the self-confessed cannibal, himself.)

Seize the day

Challenge boundaries and push limits

Push limits of antiquated laws

Come dissidents, come restless

Seize the day and the next

Next stop, world domination

Bwahahahahah...my sinister laugh