LP Melt-Down

It’s sad to witness the disintegration of Noynoy Aquino’s Presidential campaign. He was 37 percentage points ahead of Manny Villar last October and now they’re running neck-to-neck.            

But Aquino should have expected this because the LP machinery was in shambles and had no presence in many provinces. Most of his volunteers had no budget and the two who visited SLT have not returned since. He also had too many advisers who were fighting among themselves. And Kris Aquino, his chief confidante created yet another public scandal when she tearfully related her marital problems with her husband, James Yap on television.

A Foreigner’s Complaint

Last week we received an unexpected visit from a foreigner who complained about the anomalous practices of a school principal who he claimed was flaunting the directives of the Department of Education. Particularly appalling was his allegation that elementary students were being drilled the whole day on the NATS examination because many could not comprehend English well enough to understand the test questions. He said he complained about this to the Division Superintendent who said he was halucinating and has been declared a trouble maker.

We told him we were aware of these practices and have written columns and news articles about them. But had received no response. from DepEd officials.  .  .

Condoms irk Catholic Bishops

The angry reaction of the Catholic Bishops to the Department of Health’s distribution of free condoms during Valentine’s day doesn’t make sense. We are now considered among the top five hungriest people on earth, and they still want us to produce more babies. Since they are supposed to be celibate, they can’t know how difficult it is to practice the “natural” birth control methods they are advocating. In short, since they don’t play the game – why should they make the rules?

Female Detainees Abused

The arrest and detention of 43 health workers by the AFP was a bad move since it highlighted the government’s helplessness in crushing the 60 year-old insurgency. They can’t defeat it by force, but through good governance and leadership by example. Instead of blaming the health workers for extending health services to sick NPAs, why don’t they make a real effort to catch NPA spokesman “Ka Roger” who they should have captured a long time ago.

We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again; the Philippine National Police should be the lead agency in dealing with insurgents because they are generally better qualified and know the people and terrain in their areas of assignment. The blindfolding and sexual abuse of the female detainees would probably never have happened if they were under police custody.

Butter Shortage Hits City

Believe it or not there’s a butter shortage in the city. Why there is one has been the subject of debate in the province. One school of thought believes that severe draught in cattle producing countries is causing the shortage. While others claim Climate Change is wreaking havoc on cattle which are now producing less milk.
DTI Director Mike Nunes should explain this phenomenon so consumers can shift to margarine if necessary. This would be great for the coconut industry because margarine is made mainly from coconuts. But we must hurry because the Coconut Leaf Beetle has arrived and won’t leave until they’ve killed all the coconut trees in the province.
The Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council should address this mega disaster or at least give the “Tree of Life” which has served us for centuries a decent burial.

Crab Mentality

One of the worse traits of Filipinos was highlighted last week when 29 of the 35 nursing students of the College of Maasin passed one of the toughest nursing licensure examination in the country.
For instead of acknowledging its impressive showing, the school received queries on whether it was a legal nursing institution. One caller even asked how much the college administrators had paid the Professional Regulatory Commission to attain such a high passing rate. This is the worst case of “crab mentality” we have seen since we started publishing here in 2000.

The Victor Lerias Letter

Since we published Engineer Victor Lerias’s letter entitled “God Will Lead Us to Victory” we have been swamped with e-mails questioning the qualifications of the Mercado brothers and Mayor Maloney Samaco.
We were disappointed because we had hoped the writers would have mentioned the program of the opposition if they won in the coming polls. What would their policy be on family planning, the huge public debt of the city and province and graft and corruption? Are they for birth control, and a moratorium on loans we will never be able to repay? Will they investigate the charges of corruption they mentioned and file their complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman?
Complaining about the qualification of candidates is fine, but what alternative are they offering the people?

New Market Needs Faucets

Every time we go to the new market at the reclamation area we are surprised by its lack of clean water. We found out that only a few stalls had their own faucets, and that water carriers had to bring water (from who knows where) to most stalls.
Can’t the city do anythig about this situation? And while we’re on the subject, wouldn’t it be nice to have a cemented parking area beside the new complex. It really gets messy during rainy days and people have to wear rubber slippers instead of shoes during those times.

Sakay-Sakay Celebrations

It’s difficult to understand what the Sakay-Sakay annual celebration is all about. Why are Filipinos, for example, depicted as savages, when in fact we were predominantly Malays when the Spaniards arrived here? Sources claim it is in honor of the child Jesus, and a prayer for the safety of our sailors. If it’s honoring the Santo Nino, why isn’t the celebration held in Limasawa which is the site of the First Roman Catholic Mass in the Far East? And doesn’t the bible teach us not to have strange gods before us? If we must have these annual extravaganzas, lets at least depict history correctly.

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Comelect List of Local Candidates for the May 10, 2010 National Elections