The Ocon-hate bandwagon

THIS will be my second column on Councilor Zaldy Ocon. But this will be the first time for me to name him. This column, however, is not an attempt to ride the Ocon-hate bandwagon.

The first time I alluded a column to the councilor cum radio anchor was when he dismissed a friend’s explanation on air because my friend “sounded gay.” My friend happens to be the information officer of Northern Mindanao’s social welfare office.

My friend was trying to explain the delay in the payout of a dole-out program of the social welfare office. However, Ocon interrupted him by commenting that my friend sounded gay. It was uncalled for.

This incident was brought up again during Cagayan de Oro Press Club’s lecture series on ethics in commemoration of the Press Freedom Week in May this year. The discussant reminded the participants that you should not discriminate people based on their belief, race or gender preference or orientation.

In January last year, the Office of the Ombudsman slapped Ocon with a six-month suspension for slapping a traffic enforcer.

There have also been many photos of his “parking skills” on social media. He has the penchant for parking on entrances for people with disability, double parking at the public market, and parking on a no-parking zone.

The last part was why he was confronted by the traffic aide where Ocon’s response was slapping the guy silly.

Ocon also hogged the headlines when his pick-up truck figured in an accident near Gingoog City where it was discovered to have carried sizeable board feet of illegal hardwood. He wasn’t in the truck when the accident happened but he admitted to owning the truck and its hot cargo.

A competing radio station also has a beef against Ocon. He defended Kapa Community Ministry International Inc. when a radio announcer of that competing radio station figured in an entrapment operation by the NBI for allegedly extorting money from Kapa ring master Joel Apolinario.

Earlier this month, Ocon berated former mayor Reuben Canoy in the lobby of a Canoy-owned hotel. A video clip of part of the incident has since gone viral on social media.

There is a signature campaign going on at the Press Freedom Monument that is calling for the “removal” of Ocon from the city council. The campaign spokesperson even went as far as to call for Ocon to leave the city and go back to Davao where he supposedly comes from.

I’ll be stating the obvious when I say that Ocon has attitudinal problems. I would not be surprised if a lot more people will come out to say that they have been wronged by Ocon, too.

Look, I agree that Ocon’s behavior is reprehensible. What he did to Ninong Reuben was uncalled for. As a public official, he should be held to account.

But you cannot banish him from the city for that. Just as I cannot banish you from the city for laughing and clapping your hands at every rape joke of the President.

It’s called right to domicile, you double-standard “righteous” people. Pfft.

My criteria

IT will be exactly six days until the midterm elections when this column sees print. So, I would like to share with you, my dear readers, my criteria in choosing the candidates who will land on my final list for the polls, less than a week from now.

But before all that, I think a disclaimer of sorts is in order. First, people tend to forget that journalists, like any law-abiding citizen in this Republic, can also be registered voters. We may not cloud our reports with our personal biases, but it is there. It is a tight-rope act.

So, I just hope my editor-in-chief will not begrudge me of this moment of showing my bias against candidates whom I think will not serve me and my family’s agenda for a better society.

Here goes:

First, it is important to me that the candidate has a good sense of humor. There have been a number of studies into this which points that people with a good sense of humor are likely to be more intelligent than the unfunny people.

Lowri Dowthwaite, a lecturer on psychological interventions in the University of Central Lancashire, wrote that researchers in Austria have discovered that funny people, particularly those who enjoy dark humor, have higher IQs (Intelligence Quotients) than their less funny counterparts. The research also pointed out that it takes cognitive and emotional ability to process and produce humor.

“Their analysis shows that funny people have higher verbal and non-verbal intelligence, and they score lower in mood disturbance and aggressiveness,” Dowthwaite’s article reads.

For me, people who are funny tend not to be uptight or act like an erect male member. This kind of candidates is the kind who refer to themselves in the third person. Like, they are endorsing a brand or something. It seems unnerving to me.

Second, I want a candidate with an above average intelligence. It would even help if the candidate has an IQ north of 120. Like what my boss told me, “I don’t want to be brighter or more intelligent than somebody in Congress.”

As manang Rhona Canoy would say: “People who are three donuts short of a dozen.”

These two criteria are closely related as I have mentioned above. Studies show that when you experience a positive emotional state, like laughing, it increases the production of dopamine in your brain. Dopamine opens up the learning centers of our brains. As a result, funny and intelligent people are more flexible and creative in their thinking process. This, in turn, aid them to be better at solving complex and daunting problems.

Unfortunately, most of the incumbents in both houses of Congress are as dim as the gaslights in the houses in rural areas. Let’s not add insult to injury by voting dumb senator wannabes. Instead, let’s help restore the luster of our Republic’s Congress.

Lastly, I want empathy back in our legislative branch and our local government units. As we have experienced these past three years, we have had enough of impunity and negativity in the executive branch.

Performance coach and human behavior professor Melody Wilding writes: “In a busy, complex, stressful world, empathy is the glue that holds relationships together. Whether you want to connect with your colleagues, customers, or children, you need to master the art of empathetic communication.”

Wilding defines empathy as the ability to detect other people’s emotions and understand their perspective. “When people feel accepted and validated, it builds trust,” she adds. Wouldn’t it be better if we have empathic politicos as opposed to having polarizing ones?

This administration has been selling fear and hatred like pancakes. To me, it is starting to sound like a “folk” song — where our President has been cursing: Folk this and folk that. Personally, I think his brand of semantics, or the lack of it, is getting kind of tiring to the ears, hearts, and our brains. It has contributed in the general dumbing down of our country. Don’t contribute to that kind of society, please.

So, there you have it. My three criteria in choosing a candidate this coming election — a sense of humor, intelligence, and empathy. Now that we have the opportunity to put a semblance of balance in the three branches of government, we should use our votes wisely. See you at the polling places.

Rants of an irate driver

I HAVE only been a motorist for a short time in the early ’90s. But as a long time commuter, I commiserate with them as far as the traffic situation in the city is concerned. So, when an irate long-time driver complains, I listen intently as I have never shunned from a learning opportunity.

His rant on the traffic situation in the city is three-part, so please bear with me.

The first part of his rant is of traffic lights. Like him, I would also want to know the schedule when the Road and Traffic Administration switches these on. Is there an actual schedule or are these just defective? If defective, then when will city hall allot a budget for the repair?

There is this traffic light at the junction in Cogon. Like the irate driver, I have observed this particular traffic light because my boss and I pass by this junction when going to the newsroom most of the time. The damned thing is off most of the time with only the yellow light blinking like crazy.

Suffice it to say that the traffic lights in the city are on as random as your average Christmas lights.

The second part of his rant is on traffic aides. Where does traffic czar Egay Uy hire these people from? Does the RTA train these people before deploying them in the streets?

I only ask these questions because even if I’m not driving, I find their gestures confusing. You cannot tell if they’re signaling you to stop or to go. Yes, it is that confusing. There has even been a time when they direct traffic while standing on the side of the road and not at the center of the junction.

There is the issue of their visibility at night time. No, it’s not that they are not working, as in no visibility in the streets. I’m talking about their visibility to drivers at night. They don’t have reflectorized (if that’s a legit word) uniforms.

The irate driver I was talking to last week said he cannot see the traffic aide much less the gesture the aide was doing with his hands at night. Another driver-friend I know nearly bumped the poor traffic aide and it doesn’t help that their uniforms are dark, either.

The third part of his rant is the mobility of these traffic aides. He told me he once watched a traffic aide run (yes, on foot) from the badminton place in Gusa to the junction in Galaxy to apprehend an erring driver who eluded him.

My friend suggests that every team of traffic aides should have a patrol car so they could pursue erring drivers if these do not stop on their command.

I remember watching a friend traffic aide manning the junction on Velez. He flagged down an erring taxi driver but instead of stopping, the taxi driver sped off. My friend was helpless and just gave out a sigh of frustration.

So there you have it, the irate driver’s rant on traffic in the city. I felt compelled to write his rants in my column because he has been complaining out the traffic situation in the city for the longest time.

I hope, the traffic czar reads this.

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.

Dongkoy’s ‘greatest hits’

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”— George Santayana, The Life of Reason (1905)

EVER since 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez announced that he will be joining the fray for city mayor next year, social media have been abuzz on how this declaration would virtually ensure erstwhile kingpin Vicente “Dongkoy” Emano’s return to city hall.

While this theory may hold water, I believe it may not hold enough. I do not believe that Kagay-anons suffer from memory loss. I offer Kagay-anons one word to jog their memory: “Sendong.” But that’s getting ahead of what I want to say.

As a public service, let me count the ways, so to speak, the many incidents Kagay-anons had to endure under his absolute regime in the city, from his maudlin excuses to the macabre decisions. However, we’ll have to limit our list to hizzoner’s “greatest hits,” lest we run out of column space.

He does not have a sense, let alone respect, to local history and culture. In 1999, Dongkoy bulldozed Huluga to build a P635-million road and bridge on it. My igso Elson Elizaga wrote in his blog: “The project was stopped in 2001 when the Department of Environment and Natural Resources… issued a cease-and-desist order. But, unknown then to HCA (Heritage Conservation Advocates), it was lifted and the project continued in 2002, even though the project had no Archaeological Impact Assessment and was, and remains, illegal.”

He turned the monument of Andres Bonifacio in Divisoria into a flea market with his “Night Cafe.” This is a blatant insult to the Kagay-anon Katipuneros whose bones are buried at the base of Supremo’s monument.

There’s his dismal performance or the lack of it, as the city’s vice mayor. He could very well be the worst vice mayor in the Philippines having presided over the city council only twice in his three-year term. I’ll let you sink that in for a minute. His default excuse for his absences was that hizzoner was “attending more important matters.” When you’re the vice mayor, what could possibly be more important than presiding over the city council?

After his calculated stint as vice mayor—in order to get around the term limit rule—Dongkoy returned with a vengeance as city mayor from 2010 to 2013 by allowing ambulant vendors to be pretty much wherever they want.

He has been known to be a vindictive leader, often booting out employees who he deems not totally loyal to him. He usually brushes aside criticisms, no matter how legitimate they are, as “politically motivated” and no Kagay-anon will forget his signature “Pag mayor sa ‘mo” retort to almost any issue thrown at him.

By announcing that a bombing that kills less than five persons is not an act of terrorism, Emano cemented his insensitive nature to the general public.

Now we come to the piéce de résistance: The Sendong tragedy of 2011. Despite a geohazard map identifying riverine communities and river deltas as “highly prone” to flooding, for the sake of getting votes—to ensure his Marcosian rule over the city—Emano encouraged people to continue living there with his onerous “piso-piso settlement program.”

His stamp-pad city council even passed a resolution allocating funds for the electrification of the riverine communities and river deltas plus water service connection.

One of the reasons that exacerbated the Sendong tragedy was the mining operations in our city’s hinterland barangays. Let’s not forget that he was the one who issued the permit of Cekas Mining Corp. that recently destroyed some five hectares in one of our upland barangays. He even bypassed DENR’s Mining and Geosciences Bureau.

And the height of his insensitivity—he ordered the transfer of decomposing corpses of Sendong flash flood victims to the city’s dumpster in Zayas, Carmen because, according to him, city hall had no place to put the bodies on.

If you are still convinced hizzoner can stage a successful comeback, there’s the midterm elections in 2013 where Emano lost even in his own polling precinct in Gusa.

Remember that we have only limited our recollection of Dongkoy’s 15-year regime to his “greatest hits.” If you still think that Rodriguez joining the mayoral race will be Emano’s ticket to take back city hall, then perhaps you are the only one suffering from memory loss.

With that, maybe you do deserve each other.