Flip-flopping Elected Provincial Officials of Mountain Province

It’s almost a year now after the death of the incumbent Mountain Province Congressman Victor Dominguez, the Province since then was administered by the congressman of Kalinga as a care taker congressman until a new one is chosen through a special election, The provincial officials who are supposed to look after the welfare of their constituents would rather prefer that a stepfather take care of them not minding if they are exploited in the process. According to those who are advocating for an election, like the MAMAPKE and other individuals, they are dismayed by the lack of action of these elected officials.
The Provincial board passed a resolution last year calling for an election but they did not approve an appropriation ordinance to support said resolution. According to Ciriaco Filog, one of the advocates for an elected replacement said that Governor Maximo Dalog who was amenable to the special election was waiting for COMELEC to make a written memorandum that in case the Province will spend for this electoral exercise, roughly about three million pesos, the COMELEC should reimburse the money spent. He also said that congress should declare the position of the office of the congressman for Mountain Province vacant. Still he added a third hurdle, about his apprehensions of misspent public funds if these two conditions are not met. Lastly he could not include in his executive budget the appropriation for the special election because of the three above mentioned reasons.
Since there is an overwhelming clamor for a special election by the constituents of Mountain Province, petitions as well as resolution were forwarded to the concerned officials. The lingering questions the people as tax payers are echoing yet fall on deaf ears. Why can’t the provincial board take cognizance of these issues and take action and appropriate a budget to finance the election since COMELEC categorically stated there is no fund available. On the other hand for the past year the provincial Governor should have lobbied at the office of the COMELEC to get the memorandum of reimbursement, he should have lobbied at congress, if not then simply include in his executive budget appropriating for the expense of a special election. The province of Isabela did it when there was a vacancy in the province. There are other precedents that happened similar to the case of Mountain Province and the officials can take actions following the other provinces when vacancies occurred as a result of permanent incapacity or death of their officials.
Passing a resolution by the provincial board without an appropriation to back it up is like giving birth to a baby without giving milk to sustain life. There are so many alibis available when the Provincial Governor designated to do the task of a special election just simply do not like it to prosper.
The voice of the people is the voice of God, these are a favorite quote of the provincial Governor, and the people are speaking of a special election he should listen to them because it’s God’s voice.

LEFT ALONE TO SURVIVE

Last august 11, 2008 I visited Baggao, a remote eastern municipality of Cagayan near the pacific coast. It is adjacent to the vicinity of the famous Port Irene where many imported cars are available. The purpose of my trip is to visit an Igorot relative at the same time an opportunity to see the place. Baggao is a farming community with rice and corn as their primary product for home consumption and to supply the market too. The people augment their income by raising domesticated animals in their backyards, they complain that fertilizer and labor is very expensive. The farmers borrow money to finance the farm but after the harvest almost all the product goes to the creditor. They are lucky if there were no typhoons otherwise these farmers will be more debt ridden. Middlemen buy the grains at very low price too so that the margin of profit for the laboring farmer is very small. Some got frustrated and left their land and found odd jobs other than farming, they contend that at least they are receiving wages every week, unlike the farm where they harvest once a year while it is under the mercy of nature. Visibly there are no factories to process their products they are transported to Isabela or Manila for processing and packaging.
Long stretches of dirt roads with few patches of cemented ones inter connect the different barangays. Bridges are unreliable as many cannot withstand the rising of the strong current during the rainy seasons. The Barangay folks claim that the infrastructure like the bridges and the road network should have been well done and finished long time ago but because of the slow pace of construction and the corruption of the projects made the work substandard. They claim that equipments are brought to the project site but will just stay there for long periods without accomplishing much.
I observed many communication towers owned by the telecom giants of the Philippine like globe and smart companies are everywhere but most of them are for text and calling use only, I tried to access the internet using my cell phone but I get a response telling me that the service is not available.
The government rely on the advertisement of these companies that every place in the Philippines is inter connected to the world via internet is a bombastic claim with empty results. The Government totally believes the claims of these companies without counter checking if they are telling the truth or not.
These few observations with some personal interviews are just a tip of the iceberg. Many projects are not actually helping the people of the community but for the benefit of the meddling politicians and their dummies.
It is timely for the local residents to take the initiatives to submit petitions and urge the leaders of the province to look for the interest of the locals. These officials should be coached to submit these petitions and resolutions to the national office for the record. The congressman will follow it up in the legislature and work it out because that is the reason he was voted for.Let our demands be heard by making noise to the over centralized government in a peaceful way.

Remembrances at Lepanto High School

Reminiscing those high school days is nostalgia indeed. All that is left are wishes and memories, yet a smile unquenchable remains at the corner of my lips to muse. I would sit with my classmates on the grassy slopes of the High school grounds and enjoy our lunch. Chatting merrily as we view the clean airstrip of the mining camp, we shouted at the top of our voice as if the people of Cervantes Ilocos Sur and Tadian Mountain Province can hear us over those horizons. Climbing trees that abound on the campus is fun but falling is certainly not, yes these are the gems of childhood. Unforgettable impressions glittering in my memory as years go by.
The single most powerful and compelling force that kept my interest in attending school is so called puppy love. I was infatuated with a pretty girl who is my classmate, revealing her can create repercussions arising from jealousy, is it obvious? Maybe not [laughter], just looking at her innocent face makes me happy and inspired. My infatuation was so intense that I dream of her many times, in my dreams we were holding hands going to school, sometimes my imaginations go wild and she is entangled with it. As I ponder those feelings of youth, how ridiculous they were, it’s really funny guys.
There is the Junior-seniors prom; it is one event that earmarks the transition of a kid’s emotion into an unchallenged stage. I attended the occasion with a borrowed necktie and oversized pants, at first it didn’t really matter. I thought it’s just like a Christmas party or an ordinary happening. But on the night it occurred, the girls literary became ladies, their makeup and attires made them so attractive! Every girl has a peculiar beauty to behold and dancing with her is bliss, an ecstasy. If only you can see my happiness as I danced with my crush, the dance floor, an ordinary pavement has magically transformed into soft clouds under our feet. Her smile so sweet and enticing, I can feel the soft touch of her delicate fingers on my shoulders and cold shivers run down my spine as I held her close to me. We danced to the envy of blinking eyes until the last tune of the inspiring music!
Then graduation usually illicit lots of mixed emotions I wished it never happened because being in high school means extraordinarily happy life. I am with my parents and I feel secured, fear of being alone in college is overwhelming. But life has to go on and the inevitable has to come. Leaving a memory of high school and shedding a part of experience filled with vivacity of life is not easy.
In my waking moments I can hear the echoes of laughter coming from the campus; my classmate’s faces are so alive and vibrant in our high school uniforms. These are very amusing moments I treasure in my life, memories, memories and more memories. Though I can’t remember all the names of my dear classmates, their faces never fade. Smiles they gave me seem to come alive every time I come across one of them in moments of inspiration.

Trapped for Corruption

I received a message from a reliable source who refused to be identified as he is not authorized to release a report, that a top provincial Bureau of Internal Revenue officer, a certain Mr. Josefino Ong was caught red handed extorting money from James Lingbanan a resident of Bauko Mountain Province Philippines. Police operatives from the local Philippine National Police under the leadership of P. Supt. Pedro Laganse Ganir from Ilocos Sur and his men conducted an entrapment operation after a complaint was filed to their office. It ultimately led to the arrest after the entrapment of the Provincial BIR chief of Mt. Province. Prior to his arrest, there were numerous complaints against him but no one reported them to the authorities. It took the courage of one individual to nail the culprit who had been victimizing tax payers for his own enrichment and others who are responsible for his assignment to this locality. Others are encouraged by this arrest to file affidavits to support the cause of the complainant.This is very positive on the part of the tax payers who are frustrated by corrupt people in the government. But sometimes I pity this guy who is forced to extort cash and goods since he is pressured by his superiors to make money for them yet they remain Scot free. He is doing these illegal activities to repay for the lucrative job given to him by these superiors. A BIR personnel I interviewed after he was reassigned to a lesser position told me that the reason for his relief from work was due to the fact that he is too honest. He cannot give gifts to his immediate superiors who expect something in return for his stay in a favored position. Hence, here in the Philippines we need trappers of corrupt people who are free from the recommendations of politicians. Appointments for government positions must be overhauled reflecting the merit system but free from the clutches of politicians.The reason is obvious, meddling hands should be prevented by law and must be applied squarely to all without bias and prejudice.

Justice Denied

Lawyers that I knew
Indeed a master of the law
Upholding justice sacredness
Standing in uprightness
To them I ran for help
When tongues of injustice slurp
They cradle me awhile
From evils snarling fangs
But there is the other side
Mask in hypocrisy
Looking so nice and clean
Upon the law they lean
To make the sharpest claws
Inflicting untold sorrows
Upon the widows and ignorant
Choosing neither young nor old
To satiate their own desires
And suck blood upon my sorrow
Hence no glimpse of tomorrow
A nation full of slithers
To whom shall we look upon?
Thus hope is all gone
As men who uphold the law
Use it to kill anew

Lying Regional Director

Last April 2008 the regional director of the Department of public works and highways of the Cordillera Administrative Region acknowledged before a leading television station the ABS-CBN, that 79.61 % of the phase 1 project cementing the Baguio Bontoc road in Mountain Province is accomplished while the Phase two of said project is 90.67 % accomplished.Today is June 2008 and looking at what the honorable regional director pointed out it would mean the whole stretch of the Mountain province dirt road is cemented and there are only a few kilometers more to patch. I happen to pass by the road in question this month of May and saw the works accomplished, it is a sorry sight since the project has a long way to go. An ordinary citizen can immediately detect that one third of the multimillion road work project is just barely accomplished. Yet we find the Regional Director telling the nation and the people of Mountain Province that the work is almost done. When ask about some doubts in his sweeping statements, he challenged those people at the ABS-CBN to accompany him to the sight. So I made a counter statement to the same TV station and challenged said regional director to invite local media in Mountain Province and non government organizations to inspect the site with him. Up to the writing of this comment the challenge remains because we believe that still only a third of the road work is done and millions are being drained and wasted. This is just another example of justifying liquidations of millions of pesos and denying the people the benefits of the taxes they paid.

A Consumer or a Producer Nation?

In Mountain Province Philippines,they are proud of the Lang-ay festival that is celebrated on april 7th every year.This is good in many respect because it showcases many cultural miliu of every tribe in the province.The festivities lasting for a week is one stop shop to those who would like to visit the tribes of Mountain province in one setting.The only problem is the lang-ay wine that the present administration claim as a success, it is beset with lack of raw materials to be processed,so that the wine makers are importing from other provinces the raw materials for their production. Why is there lack of raw materials? Partly to blame is the province whose geographical area is 80 percent ravines and the provincial government who uses their 20 prcent developement fund on projects such as purchasing luxury vehicle,spacious and beautiful confrence halls,gyms, waiting sheds even if not needed,other buildings and the enumeration goes ad infinitum. The support for agricultural production which is the real need to make the province a producing one is not a priority, that is the reason why there are no raw materials to process.
The scenario in the national level is parallel to the local government unit like the Province. Officials have neglected how to help the majority of the filipinos to be productive but concentrated on helping a few big industries and prolifirated the importation busines.The philosphy behind these mindset of many public officials by allowing the country to be a consumer republic rather than a producer one is simply because many Filipinos are abroad sending money back home for their families and relatives to spend on the goods and services owned by our very own politicians.

The Ugly Side of Baguio

It is ironic the government officials and employees of Baguio city hall are so confident that they are doing their work well , they keep on promoting the beauty of the city being the summer capital of the philippines. But alas! railings in their sorry state is a common sight, protruding rusty iron abounds on side walks specially at the city market and garbage along the roads with stinking odour fills the air. The city officials are mayopic they need an eye doctor.