IGBARAS MAYOR Jaime Esmeralda won again. The RTC Branch 67 on December 21 trashed a certiorari suit filed by a pack of charlatans masquerading as graft busters asking it void an imaginary ordinance and stop the municipal development council (MDC) from formulating a one-year development plan, the town legislature from appropriating funds for the MDC-crafted plan, and the local chief executive from executing a non-existing annual appropriations ordinance.
TWO DIFFERENT but closely related events shook the country to its very foundation this week. Every concerned Filipinos are now asking, what is happening to the country? Is the Philippines still a democracy?
BUTUAN CITY – While this capital city of the historic Agusan Del Norte and the absence of the glitter and social heartthrob of Cagayan de Oro and Davao, Butuan has its own rustic ambience that if you really want rest, this is in the category of Dipolog, Zamboanga del Norte’s capital city.
TWO TOWNS in Negros Occidental were named after a legend of one snake. When Mt. Kanlaon erupted, a large snake came out of its crater and swam down the river to the sea.
TIBIAO is one of the eighteen municipalities comprising the Province of Antique. It is located in the northern section of the Province and is about seventy-five kilometers north of the capital town of San Jose de Buenavista. Its neighboring towns are Barbaza and Culasi. It is composed of twenty barangays and the inhabitants are known as “Tibiaonons.”
BUTUAN, Agusan del Norte – This is the second to the last leg of our Mindanao sojourn with a group of Sunshine Boys led by Ric Yanson. We go back to Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, then Bacolod .
And Mindanao impressed us with the beauty of its forests, the charm of its people, and most important to travelers, the condition of its roads.
TWO towns in Iloilo are named after sand – Igbaras and Balasan. Igbaras was named by the Atis even before the Spaniards came. They prefix “ig” means “there is.” Hence, Igbaras means “there is sand” or baras.
Igbaras is on the bank of the Tangyan river which is abundant in sand.
THE SUPREME COURT should be congratulated for issuing a status-quo order, which is actually a temporary retraining order against the Senate that effectively stops the Senate from trying to arrest Secretary Romulo Neri.
This is a statutory development because with the Supreme Court setting this case for oral arguments after 30 days, all issues of similar nature can be finally adjudicated. In the process, let us hope the Supreme Court will be able to set the parameters of “contempt” by Congress, and “contempt” under the Rules of Court, because as it now appears. Rule 71 of the Rules of Court has been disregarded when the Senate ordered an immediate arrest of Secretary Neri without giving him notice and hearing as required under Section 3 of Rule 71.
THE HOUSE of Representatives has a new speaker. But other than the person in the speaker’s seat what else is new? Leadership? Still the same one controlled by Malacañang. In fact, the passing of the gavel from Speaker Jose de Venecia to Speaker Prospero Nograles only confirmed how strongly President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s control of the House had become. Gabriela Party-List Representatives Luzviminda Ilagan of Davao City and Liza Maza of Quezon City, along with 33 others, should be commended for their stand against the overwhelming odds – 174 YES-votes – in symbolic opposition to the wishes of the Palace. Such an opposition is as old as Noah, no matter how self-satisfying.
LIE OF THE WEEK: “I vote yes to declare the position of Speaker vacant for the national interest.” Well, well, you and I know it was not for national but for personal interest that the Lakas-dominated House of Representatives ousted Speaker Jose de Venecia, in effect installing a more pliant Malacañang boy, Prospero Nograles, as the new Speaker last Tuesday night. This is very disturbing, considering that Joe de V is president of Lakas-NUCD.
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