REGARDLESS of his good performance, Augusto “Boboy” Syjuco, director general of theTechnical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), does not expect to retain his post when the term of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ends in 2010. It would be more logical to expect him to run for a Senate seat, since his better half, Congresswoman Judy Syjuco (2nd District, Iloilo), is eligible for her third consecutive term.

On the other hand, the unpopularity of his boss, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, might pull him down.

And so we once asked him whether he is eying a Senate seat.

“I am not sure yet,” he candidly answered. “All I want at the moment is to leave a legacy here at TESDA.”

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A CONCERNED citizen has sent me a request thru my email to call the attention of the Philippine National Police and Land Transportation Office to stop the unauthorized use of sirens, blinkers and similar gadgets that are restricted to military, police, ambulance and firetrucks.

But it seems anyone especially rich businessmen and those who have the right connections are also using blinkers and sirens.

He also noted his unpleasant experience with some abusive local politicians whose cars have sirens.

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PRICES of chemical fertilizers continue to soar beyond the reach of farmers, who in turn, behave like drug addicts willing to run deeper into debts just to obtain them at whatever price.

Like drug addicts, farmers never realize that they can recover the fertility of the soil – by going back to natural farming practices that ancient Ilonggos did. And trash the delusions preached by government people who are actually agents of agri-chem giants.

A bag of urea has overshot the P2,000 mark, from only P900 – P1,000 the previous year. Chemical pesticides also rose, giving farmers a tall order of surviving on their produce that traders peg at P12 – P13 per kilo.

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IT WAS A BIG but not a glitzy, showy affair. Definitely not for the loud society pages but more for the art critics maybe. From the invitation to the event, the book, the food and drinks to the renderings in sculpture and painting, and most of all, the music — everything suggested muted elegance. Perhaps one could call that class.

Music lovers were treated to a musical feast at the Meralco Theater last Saturday evening for the celebration of the 85th birth year of the late Robert Coyiuto, a trailblazer in the insurance industry. It was an event so well planned by his descendants who chose fine classical music to honor their patriarch and set the tone of the celebration. More on the music later.

Here’s an abstract from the biography, “Filipino Mandarin,” written by award-winning writer Charlson Ong.

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BACOLOD CITY — Let me give the loudest applause for Visayas Deputy Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol. In a country battered by graft and corruption, he stands as a bright star in a dark night.

He is serious and appears to mean business. I throw my full support behind him. He deserves that support. Everybody must support him too.

I must confess, I have been disappointed with the Ombudsman’s office as I saw the fast deteriorating morality in public service.

Our falling into No. 141 of the 180 countries in terms of graft and corruption is embarrassing.

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TWO other occurrences come with the national convention of tourism officers in Iloilo City: tropical depression Pablo and the pilot implementation of the ‘sanitation ticket ordinance’ (STO). While Pablo may bring in the rains and spoil the fun, the STO is expected to bring out the best in the Ilonggos in terms of preserving the cleanliness of the city. Between Frank and Pablo in a span of three months, there were eight other uninvited guests – intruders into the country’s area of responsibility. The scars of Frank are still there, but the City has stood up and risen; ready to face the challenges of men and nature, prepared to receive the visitors - the delegates for the 9th Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines (ATOP) National Convention.

On October 2-5, 2008, Iloilo City is hosting the gathering of tourism aficionados from all over the country. This is the first time for Iloilo City to accommodate the said group which had in the past gone to other areas – Dumaguete, Palawan, Negros Occidental, Surigao, South Cotabato for their national conferences. Last year, it was in Camarines Sur where Iloilo City made an uncontested bid to host the event. Dubbed as Iloilo 2008, the convention has a theme very opportune to what is happening in the environment – ‘Tourism today…coping with the Climate Change’. No wonder the Pablo threat is eminent, probably to underscore the need for the hosts and the guests to be aware of their societal duty to take care of the earth.

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AS NOTED, there is a big drop in number of drug users in areas like Smallville and other night-spots in the vicinity. The scarcity of drugs supply is credited to the cooperation of establishment-owners to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

This writer salutes the Iloilo Ilang-Ilang Jaycees, the Iloilo (Host) Lions Club, the SK Federation of Iloilo City, the City Social Welfare and Development Office and the Department of Education in the success of their Workshop last September 22, 2008.

These organizations are responsible partners of PDEA. The workshop about illegal-drug abuse attended by the SK Federation, Youth Coordinators, High School Student Council Presidents, invited guests and other concerned sectors of society is “in” by this time.

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ON SEPTEMBER 10, former defense secretary Avelino Cruz Jr. stirred up public anxieties about a creeping authoritarianism, with a warning to the nation to be “vigilant and fight any attempt” to impose emergency rule if hostilities in Mindanao escalate and ignite terrorist attacks in other parts of the country.

The warning was followed by a flurry of press commentaries echoing Cruz’s theme and revealing deep-seated fears of a return to Marcos-type authoritarianism. Cruz issued the warning in an interview with the ANC news channel of the ABS-CBN Broadcasting network just 13 days before the 36th anniversary of President Ferdinand Marcos’ declaration of martial law in September 1972.

Cruz is not the charismatic Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. who warned the country, in the famous Oplan Sagittarius privilege speech he delivered on Sept.13, 1972, of an impending dictatorship. Of course, the context in which Marcos declared martial law is markedly different from the scenario which Cruz describes as providing the opportunities for another emergency declaration. Marcos invoked the intensifying communist insurgency, the widespread student rebellion in the urban centers, and the breakdown of law and order fomented by the private armies of provincial political warlords.

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THE locally manufactured Autoclave Machine that was refused acceptance by hospital authorities in Passi City District Hospital that had been feasted by radio commentators for almost three weeks now, was a cheap shot.

What’s funny is the outright defense of the General Services Office (GSO) chief, Ramy Salcedo over the air to protect the two most favored of stooges of the governor, Manuel “Boy” Mejorada and Levy Buenavista.

Had the GSO chief been a practicing lawyer, he should keep his mouth shut as it is hard to defend errant clients. What emboldens him, he has yet to say, but as he lied defending his bosses-in-distress, truth has become the last casualty.

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BACOLOD CITY — As the ninth leaf of the calendar is peeled off the wall today, so goes beautiful September, the harvest month when the sugar milling season starts and the harvest month, too, of rice and corn and fruiting time like lanzones.

To the Christian world, September, too, is known as the holy month with Sept. 8 as the birth of Virgin Mary, the day of the Cross on the 14th and St. Michael’s Day on the 29th.

In history, we don’t forget the September Massacre when more than 1, 500 royalists were killed from Sept. 2 to 7 in 1792 that capped the French Revolution changing the course of history.

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