A tale of two Uys

IN the political theater in this particular corner of Northern Mindanao, one surname looms large with an almost gravitational pull toward centralized authority: Uy. Specifically, we speak of two distinct, yet strangely mirrored, figures: Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy and Misamis Oriental Governor Juliette T. Uy. They are not related by blood, but they are bound by a shared political DNA marked by a distinct brand of micromanagement and a fascination with control. The uncanny parallels begin with their respective bureaucracies. It’s a running gag — or perhaps a grim, perpetual reality — that government workers under both administrations have experienced the peculiar stress of delayed salaries. One might imagine this isn’t due to poor budgeting, but rather a final, meticulous check by the top, ensuring every single peso aligns perfectly with the executive vision. After all, if the Mayor or Governor hasn’t personally approved the decimal point, is the salary truly earned? This penchant for control extends effortlessly to the information highway. Both Uys have nurtured their own in-house “news media” outlets — a perfectly normal exercise, of course, for public servants who wish to ensure their good deeds are reported with maximum, unfiltered clarity. The city has its “Barkadahan,” and the province, the more formal “Capitol Press Corps.” It’s an efficient system: why bother with the messy objectivity of independent journalism when you can have a dedicated channel broadcasting the official narrative, complete with complimentary photo ops? Ultimately, the tale of the two Uys is a definitive study in control issues. From the specifics of delayed paychecks to the macro-level of media messaging, their shared approach suggests that governing is less about strategic delegation and more about being the sole conductor of the orchestra, the lead actor, and the script supervisor. One can only hope that, for the sake of efficient public service, their commitment to control doesn’t accidentally extend to controlling the release of the next batch of employee paychecks.

Defying Digong

FOR once, I fully agree with the President’s order to clear all public roads of illegal structures. It is, after all, for the good of the many. The President issued the directive during his State of the Nation this year.

Subsequently, the interior department issued Memorandum Circular 2019-121 in consonance to the President’s order. Based on this circular, local chief executives, from the barangay to the provincial levels, are enjoined to “exercise their powers essential to reclaim public roads which are being used for private ends and in the process, rid them of illegal structures and constructions.”

I do get that. It is not the usual verbal orders of the President that we have heard in the past three years. Now, we have an actual order put on black and white. What I don’t get is capitol’s contention.

It is public knowledge to motorists to avoid the capitol compound during rush hours. Why? It is because of the food stalls and the pay parking spaces that take up at least one lane of the roads surrounding the compound. It has become a virtual traffic bottleneck right smack dab in the middle of the city.

How did these to and fro between the city and capitol begin? Let’s dissect.

It started when Antonio Resma, spokesman of the city’s composite team tasked to carry out the department circular, said, “Pareho man kami [local government] nga gimando-an sa Presidente to reclaim the roads. So, ang ako lang unta niini nga sila na lang unta sa kapitolyo ang mo-demolish kon duna may mga illegal structure sa mga dalan o sidewalk diha sa provincial capitol.”

I understood this statement to be an extension of courtesy to the capitol. It’s like, please clean up your backyard so that we don’t have to. The statement acknowledges the fact that the governor is the foremost entity to carry out the President’s order.

However, the capitol, for some inexplicable reason, took this pronouncement as a threat. Through its information officer Florito Dugaduga, the capitol declared that it will protect its properties and facilities.

“Hugot ang baruganan ni Gobernador Bambi Emano nga iyang panalipdan ang mga kabtangan ug propedad nga gipanag ya sa mga katawhan sa lalawigan sa Misamis Oriental. Kini taliwala sa hulga sa mga opisyal sa syudad… nga ilang sudlon ang capitol compound aron gub-on ang mga ilegal nga struktura nga nakababag sa trapiko ug ipatuman ang Presidential Proclamation – Memorandum Circular 121-2019,” this paper quoted a capitol statement released by Dugaduga.

Right off the bat, the capitol responded to what it understood as a threat from city hall. Maybe the capitol spokesman was not listening to Resma properly. Resma did not categorically say that they will enter the compound and start demolishing the illegal structures. What Resma did was to enjoin the provincial government to clear the roads of the compound. If the latter cannot do its part in implementing the President’s order, then city hall will have no other resort but to do it for the capitol.

Remember that the city hosts the provincial compound. Ergo, all the traffic congestion it causes contributes to the traffic situation in the city.

Another thing, the fact that the capitol predicated its statement that the structures inside the capitol compound are illegal, boggles my mind. Is the capitol then saying that it will protect and defend all the illegal structures in its compound?

The capitol even upped the ante by saying: “Dili man na common road nga agianan gyud sa mga sakyanan. Kana nga mga dalan para ra man na agian sa mga empleyado sa kapitolyo.”

Curiously, I wasn’t able to see that category under the Department of Public Works and Highways’ classification of public roads. The DPWH classifies public roads as national primary, national secondary, national tertiary. provincial roads, municipal and city roads, barangay roads, expressways, and bypasses.

Under the provincial roads category, the public works further define this as local roads:

a. Connect cities and municipalities without traversing national roads

b. Connect national roads to barangays through rural areas

c. Connect to major provincial government infrastructure

On Sunday, I saw first-hand how difficult it was for an ambulance to snake its way through the food stalls to get to the Northern Mindanao Medical Center. I talked with one of its guards. He said the food stalls have been operating virtually 24/7. The operation is divided into two “shifts” of 12 hours daily.

What is it in these food stalls in the capitol compound that would push the governor to defy the President’s order? There is even a makeshift motorela terminal beside the row of food stalls in front of the regional hospital. These motorelas ply the city streets and do not go as far as Opol. My point being is that the terminal is operating in the city under what Dugaduga called as a road only for capitol employees. Are these motorelas owned by employees of the capitol?

Whatever the capitol’s answer to these queries, it is clear that the coming days will surely be interesting, to say the least.

Oh, I almost forgot. Didn’t the governor declare that he may run for city mayor come 2022? If he does get that seat, will he issue the same pronouncements Resma did?

It’s like what we say in chess parlance: It is neither a stalemate nor a draw. It is checkmate, Sir. Pfft.

‘Unity March’

THE election period for the 2019 mid-term elections started on Sunday. Here in Cagayan de Oro, it was opened with a so-called “Unity March.” Started with a march, local candidates held an interfaith prayer rally and capped it off with a peace covenant signing at Kiosko Kagawasan in Divisoria.

The Commission on Elections in Northern Mindanao, officials of Camp Alagar and the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, and city hall employees attended Sunday’s activity. Camp Alagar spokesman Surki Sereñas posted on his Facebook wall: “United for honest, credible, and peaceful 2019 elections.”

Scanning through my Facebook newsfeed on Sunday, I saw photos of the event. I saw a picture of Centrist Democratic Party candidates posing with administration candidates of PDP-Laban.

Curiously, I did not see erstwhile political kingpin Dongkoy Emano and his supporters at the event. Now, I know you’d say to lay off him since he’s too old for such an event. But I could also return the question back to you. Why is he running if he can’t give his time for such an event?

I say that the message of the unity walk should be that even though they are political opponents this May, they are united in wanting to serve the people of Cagayan de Oro.

Are they too good for the electorate that they can’t get their butts off their stately mansions? As commissioner Luie Guia posted on his wall, the mid-term polls are first and foremost, for the voters.

I commented on Sereñas’s Unity March post, rhetorically asking if the absence of some candidates meant that they did not want an honest, credible, and peaceful May polls. First, he laughed at such non sequitur but then, good man that he is, he followed up by saying: “Of course not… ang uban basin naay equally important commitment.”

The last part of the sentence reminded me of Dongkoy’s default excuse for his absences when he served (or the lack of it) as vice mayor of the city — “attending to more important matters.”

This coming May, Dongkoy will be running again for vice mayor. I repeat my question from my September 2015 column: When you’re the vice mayor, what could possibly be more important than presiding over the city council? When he was vice mayor, he attended a total of TWO regular sessions. He attended only the inaugural and the closing sessions of the city council.

If these candidates can’t give us their time for an activity this simply because of “more important matters,” why run at all? Pfft.

Skating on thin ice

“Don’t be surprised when a crack in the ice appears under your feet. You slip out of your depth and out of your mind with your fear flowing out behind you.” -The thin ice, Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)

THE animosity on social media has really taken off. People whom I thought I knew to be discerning and critical are sharing obvious propaganda passing off as journalistic work. Even people who are close to me by blood have been espousing hatred towards political dissenters of the republic which he based on an article written by paid hacks of the “fifth column.”

It pains me to see government employees, career bureaucrats, and academics swallow President Digong Dada’s hate rhetorics–hook, line, and sinker. Hasn’t it occurred to them that hate escalates? It’s like wildfire. You keep fanning on the flames of hate, you will get burned eventually. When it does, please don’t act surprised, aghast or scandalized at the level of hatred floating around because we did our part in it.

How do you think the Rwanda genocide started? It started with hate propaganda against an entire class of people broadcast on local radio over and over until the collective psyché of the people snapped. Hate took a life on its own. Interesting sidebar to this is that it was fanned by religious people. Just like what the fictional international crime lord on the TV series “The Blacklist” said: “Hell hath no fury than a fundamentalist scorned.”

Trolls and even actual people who behave like trolls on social media have been fanning this great ball of hate. With all the available information online, methinks these people consciously choose to be ignorant like fanatics in a cult. I agree with Prof. Ben Domingo when he posted online: “Trolls do not deserve an explanation.”

I mean what can you really do or say when the person you are trying to reach out to has decided to believe in the alternative reality this regime has whipped up. I used the word: decision, because it is exactly that–a conscious choice to shut out dissenting opinions and perspectives. One cannot even call for sobriety online without being branded as either a “dilawan” or an “adik.”

The “us and them” tactical narrative is as old as time. The generals and czars used it to divide and conquer. It even has a biblical version: “If you are not with us, you are against us.”

As for me, I take solace in the thought that the age-old primeval law of self-preservation will ultimately kick in. Human beings can only eat so much bull crap in their lifetime.

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.

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.

Init, ulan ug ang container van

Taliwala sa init ug ulan
Among gihulatan
Abzbin nga grabe ka langan

BOC, ubang opisyales tanan
Kolektibo ug hugot nga nadesisyonan
Maski langan Abzbin hulatan

Mga taga radyo ug pamantalaan
Murag mga itoy nga nangapukan
Mga dedlayn wala nahuna-huna-an
Sa mga opisyales nga gusto
Mosikat sa telebisyon lamang

Kay telebisyon ra diay inyong ganahan
Hinaut ayaw na mi'g istorbohang tanan
Ayaw mi tawagi, adlaw'ng tanan
Ayaw mi kontaka, adlaw'ng tanan

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

rooftops

rooftops

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.

Wanted: “Angels”

Note: I am reblogging this old Christmas featurized news I wrote four years ago. I was working as a staff reporter for Sun Star Cagayan de Oro Daily, then.

ROSE Abrogar rises each day just before dawn. After a hot cup of diluted coffee, she goes to Cogon Market, taking the trisikad her father rents, to sell two peso-plastic bags to people picking fresh fish and vegetables.

Stephanie is ten years old. At ten years, she goes about her routine to augment her family’s income. For her labor, she earns P20 a day.

Stephanie lives with her three other siblings in Bolonsiri, Camaman-an and she has been selling plastic bags for as far as she can remember. She said she often wondered how it is to be in school and play with classmates.

Her father is a sikad driver who, on the average, nets P50 a day. Her mother does laundry for their rich neighbors but that does not happen most of the time, leaving Stephanie and her three other siblings to work in order to survive the daily grind.

When asked what she really wants for Christmas, she says, without batting an eyelash, “rice.”

Early this month, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD 10) launched a survey to the 100 rescued child workers on what specific items they would want to have for Christmas. Items ranging from complete school uniform, educational supplies, shoes, to basic needs like what Stephanie asked for.

Christmas came early for Stephanie and ninety nine other child workers as last Thursday the children were given gifts they wished for when they were rescued early this month by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE 10).

Stephanie is one of the 100 rescued child workers who are the pilot batch to benefit from DOLE 10’s “Project Angel Tree.”

In a simple ceremony held in the Provincial Capitol grounds dubbed “Angel kisses and Gift giving,” child workers received the gifts they wished for plus a bagful of educational supplies.

They were treated with a dance number from mascots of a popular fast-food chain while eating their lunch with their gifts in their little hands.

David Bustig, 13 years old, a child worker from the municipality of Binuangan, Misamis Oriental, told this paper, he had not had fun like last Thursday in all his life. He recalls how his back ached every time he would carry hollow blocks from the factory to the delivery trucks.

“Karon pa ko nakabati ingon ani nga kalipay. Unta magpirmi ning angel tree,” Bustig wistfully says.

Governor Oscar Moreno, who was at the event, is grateful for the project adding that he is particularly proud because the Province of Misamis Oriental is the only province that had adapted Project Angel Tree in its council. Vice Governor Norris Babiera authored the provincial resolution adapting the said project as part of the social welfare and development program of the province.

Although only five out of the 25 municipalities of the province participated in the said project, Moreno said there is always room for improvement even as he challenged the rest of the municipalities to join the network of the project.

Project Angel Tree, in cooperation with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD 10), has been the pet project of DOLE 10. It took off late June of this year and culminated this December. DOLE 10 started the project as an advocacy in January of this year. It is a network of benefactors coming from different sectors of the region.

Rodrigo Deloso, chief labor employment officer of the technical support and supervision division of DOLE 10, says he hopes next year’s Project Angel Tree will include a scholarship package for the rescued child workers, even as he invites people to join their advocacy in rescuing child workers and giving them something to hope for.

“As of now, we have established a network of benefactors which we call angels. It’s a combinative effort of department offices, private non-government organizations, business sector, local government units and individuals. Because we plan to expand the project to include a scholarship program for the child workers, I am invited everyone to share their time and money to the project. Share your blessing to these children, be an angel to them,” Deloso said.

Last Thursday’s gift giving was sponsored by Federacion Internacionalé de Abogadas (FIDA-CDO chapter), Province of Misamis Oriental, City of Cagayan de Oro, League of PESO Managers.