REY PATRICIO S. SUELO, 34, is a living disproof of the popular belief that anybody who has served time in prison, an ex-convict, has no future ahead of him. Here is such a guy doing well as an electrician in Oman.

Rey – a child born to Reynaldo Suelo (a farmer) and the former Patricia Seria of barangay Lapayon, Leganes, Iloilo – has always dreamed of an overseas career. In fact, to fulfill that ambition, he took up and finished the course Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation (BSMT) at the John B. Lacson College Foundation (JBLCF) in Iloilo City.

His BSMT diploma in hand, Rey sailed to Manila and applied for ship assignment with a manning agency. He was asked to wait for a job vacancy indefinitely. Those with experience were being prioritized.

Knowing the wait could take a long time, he also applied with the Philippine Navy (PN) at Sangley Point, took the exam and passed. A job with the navy, he thought, could be a good starting point because he would be automatically designated 2nd lieutenant. He was among those listed for oath-taking on July 14, 1999. However, fate decreed otherwise.

Four days before the designated date – specifically on July 10, 1999 – Rey had an altercation with another man over a trivial matter he would rather not discuss. Their “word war” led into a fight. In self-defense, he killed his attacker. He became a wanted man.

The tragedy forced him to return to Iloilo for whatever job in the meantime. His alma mater, JBLCF, willingly accommodated him in a teaching position.

Since he had never intended to evade the law, he voluntarily sought the assistance of Leganes Mayor Adolf Jaen, who surrendered him to a court of law in Manila to face his homicide case. He was convicted and sentenced to a 12-year imprisonment.

Six years later or midway through his prison term, Rey moved out of jail by virtue of a presidential pardon for good conduct in jail.

In 2006, he came home to Leganes with renewed enthusiasm. He assuaged his poor parents that it was not too late for him to make up for lost time and be useful to them. An engineer friend, Samson Jaspe, challenged him to enlist for a scholarship program at the TESDA Regional Training Center on Zamora St., Iloilo City. He did and finished the short course in Building Wiring Installation (BWI).

His initial job application with an agency turned out to be a disappointment. He could not be accepted for work abroad because of his prison record.

Refusing defeat, he applied for the job of an electrician with another agency and was accepted to fill an opening in Oman.

Rey Patricio Suelo has been working in Oman for 20 months already and is looking forward to celebrating his 34th birthday there on December 15, 2008. He has no doubt already made up for lost time and is bracing himself for full speed ahead in sailing through the sea of the future.

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Malacañang has repeatedly announced that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is not interested in extending her presidential term beyond 2010. Her Mickey Mouse adds that they are only interested in amending the Constitution via Constituent Assembly before the election.

So that she could run for assemblywoman of Pampanga and be elected Prime Minister?

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If the GMA government were not a “business partner” of the local oil cartel, it could have prevailed upon the gas firms to slash down gas prices to as low as P20/liter already instead of P35+, considering that the world price of crude has ebbed to US $50 per barrel.

It’s easy to see why. When crude was $147 per barrel, the local prices of gasoline and diesel hovered between P55 and P59 per liter. Since the world price of crude has gone down to a third of what it used to be, local prices should likewise have behaved similarly.

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Instead of spending radio time commenting on the forthcoming Pacquiao-Dela Joya boxing match, LTFRB Regional Director Perry Clavel should have already taken up the cudgels for commuters begging for lower taxi, bus and jeepney fares.

The taxi add-on of P10 (to the P30 flagdown) should have been abolished already. It discourages short-distance passengers from taking the taxi. It’s eventually bad for the drivers, too.

Worse, some drivers are not even happy about this onerous deal. For instance, when fellow Guardian columnist Rannie Jangayo and I took a GDR taxi with plate no. FWS 162 and asked to be taken to a hospital to pick up a document and back to where we had come from, the driver retorted that the return trip would entail a separate flagdown. We disagreed and alighted.

Madam Donna Rose, please discipline your drivers.

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