SINCE the last elections, yours truly have refrained from commenting on the rift between Iloilo Gov. Niel D. Tupas, Sr. and Vice Gov. Rolex T. Suplico so as not to be misconstrued for meddling in what is openly an intra-family spat.
It is public knowledge that the two are uncle and nephew, the governor being the […]

IF Fray Butod — the quintessential symbol of the patriarchal, despotic, conservative, reactionary and backward sector of religion usurping the title “The Church” – ordered me to go forth and multiply and reject birth control practices, shall I say amen?
If Fray Butod threatened me eternal damnation in hell or excommunication in life shall I cringe?
Before answering […]

IF THROTTLING another’s neck were no crime, the longest line of people queueing to do that is at the GSIS central office or wherever its top honcho, Winston Garcia, is warming his big butt in.
The woes of GSIS members are endless and a thousand of them are created every second because the GSIS under the […]

We were correct from the very beginning: the GSIS is only pulling our legs in the aftermath of typhoon Frank. It is only out to score pogi points when it announced a window for calamity loans.
Provincial employees have countless woes to tell how GSIS duped them. One spent an entire Saturday waiting in a long […]

IN 1996, Iloilo City had its first taste of floods engulfing more than one-third of its land and dislocated 150,000 people. That was not its last. The clown Jerry Treñas, then councilor, seized the opportunity for a media blitz by forming the “anti-flood coalition” to rouse the government to action.
The coalition itself is suspect as […]

SEVEN months lapsed and PDI correspondent Nestor Burgos is yet to hear from Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierez on his query.
He asked early January this year director for Western Visayas of the Office of the Ombudsman, Virginia Santiago, on the investigation on the infamous “Capitol Siege” of January 17, 2007, the day when a pack of fully […]

BARANGAY officials together with their mayor made representation early this year to their House representative to repair a mountain road that the rains had deformed. Her honor sent them away empty handed because she had no budget for it.
Undaunted, they went to the governor and got the commitment of a “truck team“ which is a […]

ILONGGOS, history shows, has time and again rose and rebuilt from the ruins. They’ll do the same in the wake of typhoon Frank that left 136 dead and 926 injured in Iloilo alone. Eighty-two others are missing.
Funny, there is one publicity stuntman who seized the calamity to litter photo-tarpaulin posters and streamers throughout the city, […]

TYPHOON FRANK merely accelerated the spiral of the food crisis. Disaster has been in our midst with the one named Gloria at its center wind.
The good news though is that Iloilo does not lack for people of vision who stand out during calamities. The bad news: it also does not lack for clowns like Mayor […]

CRISES, on the good side, are opportunities breeding heroes willing and ready to run extra miles to save people in distress and work to enable them rise on their feet, as typhoon Frank shows.
Iloilo province and city have them. We have stories of neighborhood “istambays”, notwithstanding the derogatory connotation, being the first to succor ahead […]