Mice of men

WHEN THE cat is away…

No rodents but men – the Honorable kind at that – Angeles City’s aldermen and hizzoner’s staff did not play the mice when Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan was in far-off Rome for over a week, advising the GRP panel in the third round of peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF.

Mousy, so they were not. But manly, they fell short of too. The council and caretakers practically suspended in a state of stasis, miserably failing to man up in the face of the grim crisis that befell the Korean community – the abduction and murder of Jee Ick-Joo, that consequently put to light the abuses the local police and other agents of the law, as well as outright outlaws, inflicted upon the city’s largest group of expats, and presumably principal contributor to its coffers.

“Where is the mayor?” rightly cried just about every Mr. Kim, Mr. Park, and Ms. Lee, seeking solace in their hour of collective grief, pining for the reassurance of the adoptive father that, this heinous crime notwithstanding, security and safety still obtained for them in their foster city.

Busy as he was with his patriotic duties, Pamintuan could have – at the least – sent his consoling words, his reassuring statement, soon as the Jee case broke out. Given the communications technology at his disposal, with quick dispatch too, even while forking his lasagna and savoring his vino at his favorite trattoria.   

Pamintuan, sadly, did not.

It took a full week after media erupted in a feeding frenzy on the kidnapping in Angeles City and the killing inside Camp Crame for Pamitnuan to declare: “I am dismayed and saddened by the alleged involvement of policemen in crimes against our friends from Korea who visit and have taken residence in our city.”

Still playing the precise, if careful, lawyer there, mindful of the presumed innocence of the suspects, rather than acting the indignant chief executive denouncing the crime that shocked his people and shamed his city.     

And going Johnny-come-lately: “I will meet with the leaders of the large Korean community in this city immediately after arriving from abroad in order to assure the safety of expats and foreign visitors in Angeles following involvement of policemen in crimes against Korean nationals.”

By immediately he meant reporting first to Malacanang where he hastened right after Monday’s flag-raising ceremony at city hall. And finally meeting with the Koreans on Tuesday, at the instance of PRO-3 head Chief Supt. Aaron Aquino. All’s well…

Way too late the hero too in Pamintuan saying “I will seek the relief of all police officers manning Station 5.” The chief of the station and six others implicated in the extortion case already relieved for over a week. Ay, yay, yay.

And right before Pamintuan boarded his flight for home, the chief of police whom he routinely showered with praises was unceremoniously sacked on account of “command responsibility.” Yay, ya-ya-yay, yay.      

Come to think of it another way, am I not merely being unfairly impatient, or overtly and overly harsh with Pamintuan?

Blame that on my highest respect for the man. Of whom we esteem highest, we expect the most. Of the greatest, the mere passable is totally unacceptable. For chrissake, Pamintuan is certified World City Mayor awardee.

Acting

As he was in Rome, it was Vice Mayor Bryan Matthew Nepomuceno that assumed the mayorship, per operation of law, di ba? Or did he?

Anyways, to be fair now, where was acting mayor Nepomuceno when Angeles was taking its Warholian 15 minutes of notoriety, internationally, as crime city?        

He did not act the mayor any in addressing the fears of the Korean community. Aye, Nepomuceno did not act at all.

As a matter of public record, in media that is, not a single word was read about him, not a single squeak was heard from him pertaining to Jee’s kidnapping and killing, to the shakedown of the Korean golfers, to the terror that gripped Koreatown, as we put it in this paper’s banner headline last week.

The famously articulate Nepomuceno suddenly losing his voice over the crisis that impacted the city spoke volumes of his leadership, nay, screamed deafeningly of his utter lack of it.

Scion of a political clan, a lawyer of substance, and aesthetically-unchallenged presentability – besides being already vice mayor to an end-terming mayor – Nepomuceno is already being billed as “the next mayor of Angeles City.”

That bright political promise that is Nepomuceno now may have been dulled, if not dashed, by his assumption of the silence of the dumb.

I can’t help but be reminded here anew of my seminary Latin readings, of Horace particularly: Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Translated: The mountains are in labor, a ridiculous mouse is born. Interpreted, freely: The promise of greatness fulfilled in mediocrity; the highest of expectations birthing absurdity.

As well, Olde English now, from Robert Burns:

"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley.

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

What more in Angeles City these days, with mice for men.

Yes, it could only be prescience – the now dearly lamented Hannah Bauzon bannering the maiden issue of her Central Luzon Times in the mid-1980’s thus: Rats (Daga) invade city hall.     

Busting Boomtown

KOREATOWN, Angeles City – This place hosts the biggest concentration of businesses and commercial establishments of South Korean nationals hereabouts, hence the moniker.

At the enclave’s early stage over some 15 years ago, Friendship Highway which runs through it was dubbed the 38^th Parallel: establishments on its west side alleged to be devoted to South Korea, and those on the east side partial to Kim’s North. Brawls were a nightly occurrence for sometime, until the hustle of trade and the bustle of commerce invested a more serene business climate there.

Koreatown thrives. Witness the volume of vehicular traffic there, which the one-way scheme the city government imposed has failed to contain.

So much has Koreatown flourished that it has assumed the proportion, nay, the very fullness of the fabled El Dorado of the Old West that, naturally, drew in droves the infamous desperadoes.

Thus, sans sworn statements, even absent blottered names, the verity in the collective lament: “Open season: Koreans fair game” to just about every crook, conman and criminal, local or Korean, civilian or…ay, many times uniformed.

Extortion was rampant. Victims though kept their quiet, understandably afraid of the extortionists – especially when uniformed – upping their ante from six digits to seven, to dear life itself. Still, a few cases surfaced. One can find them in the web.

There was the all-too-common modus “girl-baiting” whereby, in Jan. 2015, a Korean was “framed-up” with human trafficking after he paid a “bar fine” to take out a sex worker from a Fields Avenue nightspot.

Two cops “arrested” the Korean but took him to their safe house instead of the police station and demanded P1 million. The victim managed to cough up P200,000. It was when the rogue cops collected the balance of P800,000 that they were pounced upon by their own colleagues.

Weeds

Then-police RD Chief Supt. Roland Santos proudly declared: “We are weeding out police scalawags victimizing foreigners [in Angeles City],” referencing to a campaign he initiated in December 2014. Santos has since moved on to Calabarzon and subsequently retired. And the scalawags, like the bad weeds that they are, thrived.

“I ‘wuz raped” was the game played by scalawags on eight Koreans in January 2016. A woman, accompanied by police, accused the eight of gang-rape. The alleged victim though was seen in CCTV recordings while happily hopping from one eatery to another with a Korean companion at the time of the alleged rape.

The Koreans cried “police extortion” in a protest rally, and no case was ever filed.

One “shakedown” – a Korean businessman and his employee filed a complaint against the then Police Station 5 officer-in-charge for allegedly searching their business premises without any warrant in Dec. 2015.   

Suicides

A phenomenon – not necessarily involving the local police but as devastating to the Korean community – was the case of questionable suicides.

In August 2012, two South Koreans were found dead, both apparent suicides, in the city.

Kim Song-hee, 27, is said to have fallen from the 5^th Floor of Hotel Vida. There were no witnesses to her fall. No suicide note too. A CCTV footage though showed her husband dragging the victim outside their room at 12:05 a.m.!

Hyeokyeob Kwon, 37, resident of Diamond Subdivision in Barangay Balibago “apparently committed suicide” by drinking a ferric chloride solution inside his hotel room in nearby Barangay Malabanias. A note written in Korean was found in the room.

Two other cases of suicide of Koreans we remember – alas we cannot just find the news stories about them – were both males who hang themselves using electrical cords with their feet touching the ground, reportedly for having squandered money entrusted to them for investments.

Then the killings, as listed in our banner of Wednesday.

One Her Tae Suk, 65, shot dead while walking with three other Koreans toward Prism Hotel in Clarkview Avenue on Feb. 19, 2014.

Indeed, as early as 2014, crimes committed against Koreans particularly in Angeles City have provoked the Korea Times to headline Philippines turns into death trap for Koreans in a three-part series.

And the killings have not stopped.

Park Youn Jae, 60, owner of Royal Hotel in Barangay Cutcut, shot dead inside his office at the Koreatown along Friendship Highway here on Sept. 17, 2015.

Then on Oct. 12, 2016, the discovery of the bodies of three Koreans – two males and one female – with gunshots to their heads found in a sugar cane field by the FVR Megadike in Bacolor town. The victims came from Angeles City.

Most heinous, unarguably, the kidnap – from his home in Friendship Plaza – and the killing – right at Camp Crame – of Jee Ick Joo perpetrated by policemen last October 18.

Friendship Plaza the locus anew of police-perpetrated crime in the warrantless “arrest” and illegal detention of three Koreans by seven cops belonging to notorious Station 5, filching P300,000 from them at the station, aside from carting away shoes, golf clubs, jewelry and P150,000 cash from their house.

These scalawags have been placed under restrictive custody, as administrative cases and summary dismissal proceedings are being set against them.

As of this writing, Wednesday evening, TV Patrol reported the sacking of Angeles City police director Senior Supt. Sydney Villaflor by PRO 3 director Chief Supt. Aaron Aquino.

A source in Koreatown called to say that the community welcomes “these positive developments.”

“To an extent, we have been relieved of the tension that gripped us these past weeks,” he said. “But still, we hope to hear a word from our mayor.”

  

It's enforcement, stupid

MAYOR EDGARDO Pamintuan has done one swell of a job widening MacArthur Highway and putting up that roundabout at the entry to Clark – serendipitously timed for the APEC senior ministers meeting at the Freeport last February, and thus with readily available funds from the DPWH as well as the Clark Development Corp. and sense of urgency impacted upon the constructors.

To EdPam’s sole credit though is the enforcement of regulations to make sure the highway serves the very reason for its widening – ease traffic flow. Not increase economic activity upon it – as was done in Apalit – by locating thereat vulcanizing shops, tricycle terminals, furniture showrooms, or expanding the parking spaces fronting commercial buildings – all resulting to contraction of vehicular traffic space. Effecting an absolute negation of the purpose for which the road was expanded.

In Angeles City, parallel parking was imposed along the highway. Violators are penalized. Vehicles impounded. No pakiusap entertained.

The rotunda at Marisol was rid of the virtual jeepney terminal sited at the entry to the subdivision, easing the flow of traffic tremendously.

What was started in front of the Angeles University Foundation, ridiculed as “EYA’s folly” – the iron fence at the median of the highway – to prevent jaywalking and motorists from turning anywhere at will, has been replicated right at the northern tip of Abacan Bridge, in front of Robinsons up to the entry to Sta. Maria church in Balibago. To very good results. It helps though that pedestrian overpasses are available near AUF and the Systems Plus College.

Road lighting is a continuing activity of the Pamintuan administration. Light posts are now being put up at the Circumferential Road, even as the widening of the road is yet to be fully completed.

Road discipline – primarily among jeepney drivers – has become a 24/7 imposition. Night driving now less risky with vehicles with no headlights routinely apprehended.

At the core of the city’s traffic nexus is the Angeles City Traffic Management Board composed of esteemed locals in charge of studies and policies for the continuing improvement of traffic.

Add to that a strong feedback mechanism and quick response to road problems – EdPam’s cellphone and facebook account are forever open, the Angeles City Traffic Enforcement and Management Office enforcers in high profile deployment and actively engaged in their assigned duties.  

At last Friday’s regular breakfast with media, EdPam disclosed that the city has collected over P1 million in fines for traffic violations.

“I am not happy. It shows that drivers have not been instilled with road discipline yet,” Hizzoner said, but still hoping for the day when his city will have zero fines and find no need for any traffic enforcer.     

Still and all, the traffic situation in Angeles City has improved – awesomely – in orderliness, in ease, to the general satisfaction of commuters and motorists.

Discordant chord

LAVISH THAT abutted on the slavish was our laudation of Mayor Pamintuan in that piece titled What AC is, CSF is not that appeared here in May 2015.

Of late, I sing a totally different tune, a discordant one, where the city traffic situation is concerned. Never a day passes without me posting photos of traffic violations in my FB account. Hoping, against the seeming impossibility, that somehow city hall would find the traffic mess deserving some definitive action. Notwithstanding the outstanding stupidity of some councilors in pooh-poohing traffic as “not a principal problem” in the city not too long ago.

Yesterday, my email yielded the press release EdPam urges Angeleños to obey traffic rules.

“The reports coming from the Public Transport and Regulatory Office (PTRO) and Angeles City Traffic Development Office (ACTDO) regarding the number of apprehensions on traffic violations are quite alarming because it shows that a great number of motorists, both public and private, are either ignorant of traffic laws or they are just indifferent in following them,” said Mayor Pamintuan.

The PR went on to list down, in order of most number of apprehensions, the violations as road obstruction, truck ban, driving without helmet, none/invalid driver’s license, wearing of slippers (among drivers of motorcycles and PUJ’s), No Mayor’s Permit, anti-modified muffler, colorum vehicles, illegal terminal – totaling to 21,904.

“In summary, a total of P 5.7 million worth of apprehension was recorded for 2016.”

Of course, Pamintuan can never be happy about it. The fines showing the traffic situation even worsened since his May 2015 pronouncement. He correctly pointed to a principal root of the problem: ignorance of and/or indifference to traffic laws on the part of motorists. Pedestrians too, if this motorist may add.

Inexcusable both, ignorance and indifference need to be exacted the full force of the law.

Urging motorists to obey traffic rules is long past the hour, Mr. Mayor. The times call for impacting dura lex – stringent measures, heavier penalties – to really make errant motorists pay dearly for their infractions.

The P5.7 million the city amassed from violations is nothing to crow about, given the number of apprehensions – 21,904. That makes no more than an average of a measly fine of P250 per case.

Yes, Councilor Amos Rivera, the need to amend the Traffic Code of Angeles City is most urgent. But aside from expanded no-parking and two-away zones and pay-parking for inner barangay roads, the stiffest fines for traffic violations take first order for consideration.

Yes, world-class Mayor, the high-impact infra build-build-build plans of DPWH around the city will undoubtedly do wonders in easing vehicular traffic.

Still, and all, it’s enforcement.         

Dishonoring Don Honorio

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

NO RECORD of the Honorable Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales of the 3^rd District of Pampanga making the Bard’s famous quote as justification in “pushing for a proposed bill” to rename the Don Honorio Ventura Technological State University (DHVTSU) to Pampanga State University (PamSU).

Neither is it to simply shorten the rather longish appellation of the esteemed institution.

We are led to believe, from what we read in a Sun-Star Pampanga story, that Gonzales’ intent is nothing short of an act of liberation. We will be quoting from the story frequently here, it being our only reference.

The paper reported Gonzales as having said that the “renaming of the university will bring about the modification of restrictive provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9832 and elevate the status of this higher education institution from a technological to a comprehensive university.”

As provided in Section 3 of RA 9832, per the story, DHVTSU’s current curricular offerings are limited to “education, engineering, science and technology, arts and humanities, computer education and other programs within its areas of specialization and capabilities.” 

Gonzales noted: "This restriction hinders the university in fully attaining its foremost objective of enhancing access to education by providing affordable but quality instruction and training to the youth of Pampanga and nearby provinces, especially those from the underprivileged sector of society." 

Freed of the restrictions, Gonzales sees the full flowering of the university, so to speak, coming from additional courses in the liberal arts, medical and allied medical fields on top of those RA 9832 specified. These include BS in Nursing, BS in Pharmacy, BS in Medical Technology, BS in Physical Therapy, AB Political Science, AB Philosophy, and AB Mass Communication – courses that Gonzales believes to be “responsive to the needs of both the society and industry.”

Furthered what sounded like Gonzales’ sponsoring speech for the as yet unnumbered bill: “It is foreseen that advancement into a comprehensive state university will greatly benefit the people in its service area through upgraded instruction; enhanced access to quality education; intensified knowledge-generation; modernized facilities and equipment; intensified social responsibility through extension, manpower and skills development training and community outreach services.

"It will likewise help the university in realizing its aspiration of nurturing individuals who will possess the foundations for learning throughout life, the competence to engage in gainful work and be productive, and the values and abilities to coexist in prolific harmony with local and global communities. Most importantly, the institution shall contribute beneficially to the government’s essential strategy to fight poverty and foster national competitiveness by accomplishing its mission of lifting economically and socially marginalized Filipinos out of indigence."

Reading the Sun-Star Pampanga story, I almost rose to my feet in thunderous ovation for the Honorable Congressman. Taken to the clouds as much by the rhetorical eloquence as by the noblest of intention, the greatest of purpose, the strongest of dedication to the patrimony of the nation inhering in the once-maligned solon...    

…But, as quickly, crashing on the grounds of jaded journalism.

Pray, tell, Honorable Sir, where lies the compelling need to rename DHVTSU to PamSU, if only to modify the “restrictive provisions” of RA 9832?

Indeed, to use your very words, “to elevate the status of this higher education institution from a technological to a comprehensive university” requires – to our simple mind – not an altogether grand change of name but a simple dropping of the “technological” in DHVTSU to effect a Don Honorio Ventura State University.

But then, maybe, simple as our mind is, the dynamics and ramifications of legislation which the Honorable Congressman has long achieved mastery of are way outside the ambit of our comprehension.

Still, we discern in the Honorable Gonzales’ eloquent peroration the very negation of all his arguments for the renaming of DHVTSU to PamSU.  

To re-paste: "It will likewise help the university in realizing its aspiration of nurturing individuals who will possess the foundations for learning throughout life, the competence to engage in gainful work and be productive, and the values and abilities to coexist in prolific harmony with local and global communities. Most importantly, the institution shall contribute beneficially to the government’s essential strategy to fight poverty and foster national competitiveness by accomplishing its mission of lifting economically and socially marginalized Filipinos out of indigence."

There, the strongest affirmation for the status quo.

Right there, Don Honorio Ventura is brought back to life: Nurturing Lubao’s poor boy Diosdado Macapagal in the possession of the foundations of learning…the competence to engage in the gainful work of public service…and the values and abilities in a Presidency respected and admired in the global community…

Aye, Don Honorio, by the beneficence he extended to the young Dadong contributed beneficially to the government’s essential strategy to fight poverty – the express policy of the elder Macapagal administration.

And what greater accomplishment than of Don Honorio making good in his mission of lifting the economically and marginalized Dadong out of indigence, catapulting him to national prominence as president of the Republic?

To expunge Don Honorio Ventura then from the institution precisely re-named after him by the grateful President Diosdado Macapagal himself is to dishonor both men, disrespect their memory, desecrate the greatness of the life they lived.

Please reconsider, Honorable Sir.             

Bumbay! Bumbay!

RACIST! SOME netizens called out Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol for his post  Goodbye Bombay! where he shared President Duterte’s reported order to have foreign nationals engaged in the "usurious '5-6' money-lending scheme" arrested and deported.

In a subsequent media interview, Piñol denied any racist color to the term “Bumbay” as a generic reference to Indian nationals, thus: "'Wag na tayong magbolahan. Common knowledge naman 'yan na 'yung mga umiikot na naka-motor... there was nothing racist about it. But the fact is 'yung mga umiikot talaga na nagpapautang na naka-motor ay 'yung mga kapatid natin na Bumbay."

Further sayeth he: "I don't even think the name 'Bumbay' is derogatory. Parang 'Pinoy' lang rin siguro sa atin, tawag sa atin Pinoy, is that derogatory? I don't think so."

And more: "'Yung mga ganu'ng pangalan, walang malisya, we've always referred to them as 'Bumbay.' Please don't accuse me of being racist. That's the furthest from the truth."

That truth, inconvenient but indubitable: Indian nationals have always been referred to in the Philippines as Bumbay, no matter what area of the sub-continent they come from. And usury of the 5-6 kind has been so associated with them so long that it has become their very synonym.

As that joke propounds: Why do kidnap-for-ransom groups avoid abducting the Bumbay?

Answer: The KFRs cannot afford to collect ransom by daily installment. They’d surely be caught.

Politically incorrect, even sick maybe, but the joke has factual grounding.     

Yeah, so fixed in the collective mind of the Pinoy is the Bumbay-5-6 synonymity that Piñol asked "Meron ba?" when told that there are also usurers among the natives and other nationalities. Pakistanis and Chinese, reportedly.

Why, even bar topnotchers too. If we take as truth the repartee at the hustings of long ago of the late lamented Don Francisco Nepomuceno downsizing the election hopes of a rival for the Angeles City mayorship with but a mention of 5-6, referencing not so much the height as the alleged business of the candidate.

Small-town usury

In my youth in then-as-now-and-forevermore-somnolent Poblacion, Sto. Tomas, 5-6 was a sunrise-to-sundown house-to-house enterprise.

Soon as the talisain crows, comes out his stone mermaid-decorated gate Apung Milio – ever in his trademark floral Kanebo shirt, sharkskin trousers and fedora, mother-of-pearl studded cane in his right hand, thick leather portfolio gripped by his left, faux diamond rings (“Buldit lang basu (bottom of broken glasses) friend,” he was wont to say) in three fingers already flashing even in soft light. To go about his trade: Extending loans, ultra-micro by today’s standards, but running the whole gamut of human needs: pamalengke to the talipapa vendor and sari-sari storekeeper, for palay seedlings or fertilizer to the farmer, pang-gas to the jeepney driver, pamasahe to the wage-earner, pang-tuition or pang-school supply, pang­-fiesta even; as well as collect “payments-in-drops,” baldugan in Kapampangan, pa-hulugan in Tagalog, from borrowers.

Apung Milio was the most accessible, if not convenient, ATM of his day. That was Ang Taong Mauutangan before the machine took over. In his wake came those – locals too – that offered financial loans as well as home appliances to be paid in installments, at 5-6 interest levels.  

To inflict upon the Bumbay all the ills of 5-6 is therefore most unfair, Filipinos and other nationalities being engaged in the trade too. To heap everything evil in 5-6 is as unfair, if not more.

Big help                  

Storekeepers in Metro Manila public markets interviewed on national TV were one in saying the friendly Bumbay is “a big help” in their businesses, being “readily accessible” for loans “where you need them, when you need them.” I did not hear “loan shark” said or even referenced to in any of the interviews.

One Hardeep Singh, a Sikh most probably because of his last name, said borrowers are “usually” given 80 to 150 days to pay and that “…depende sa tao kung magkano [ang kayang] ibigay.”

It appears there that the Bumbay is furthest from the exacting Shylock that he has been profiled as. Being no different, if not even more considerate, than the lending companies who easily outdo the Bumbay in the game of loaning and daily collecting.    

Though essentially ad misericordiam, reasonably valid is the plea of one Goldy Kumar: “Siyempre una, mahirap kasi 'yung tanggapin mo bigla na sinabi tigil 'yung trabaho na 5-6. Iyan na talaga trabaho namin eh. Buhay namin 'yan. Wala naman kaming ginagawang masama. Pa'no na ang pamilya namin?”

Still, the Duterte administration remains poised to hit hard to strike out 5-6.

Though, as Piñol noted, government "is not coming into this controversy holding an empty bag."

The Department of Trade and Industry has announced it would implement a P1-billion micro-lending program for small and medium enterprises, which, it said, makes up more than 90 percent of the country's businesses.

Swell, but the mechanism with which the SMEs can avail themselves of the benefits of the programs should detract and detach from the usual template of most stringent requirements and qualifications, volumes of documents and supporting papers, not to say long man-hours in doing business with government. Facilitate and simplify credit accessibility, in short. Surely, it would do a lot of good too to infuse the suki touch to it.  

And beat the Bumbay in his own game.

Uninsured liability

Notice to Business Owners/Representatives

Ordinance No. 398, S-2016

Mandatory Public Legal Liability Insurance Coverage

All business owners with capitalization and gross income of P150,000.00 may secure the above coverage.

Except those within public markets, medical clinic, dental clinic, accounting office and law offices and with existing insurance policy.

Mandatory is the operative word there. Taken to mean that the “public legal liability insurance coverage” is obligatory, compulsory, and required by law of “all business owners with capitalization and gross income of more than P150,000…” 

The force of the mandatum however gets undue dissipation with the choice of  may by which the insurance coverage is to be secured. As optionality is inhered in the modal verb may. The obligatory must would have been more authoritatively binding. More definitively yet, the may clause could have carried an or else proviso defining penalties for failure to secure the coverage. On pain of is as commanding, if terrifying, as an ordinance can ever get.              

No pretensions of me lawyering here. Merely engaging my trade tools of semantics and syntax to, hopefully, effect a clearer comprehension of Angeles City Council Ordinance No. 398, S-2016 that is found only in its synopsis posted on that cork board at the lobby of city hall.

Clarity though comes last, and consequently, comprehension least in the succeeding single-sentence paragraph on exceptions, to re-paste:  Except those within public markets, medical clinic, dental clinic, accounting office and law offices and with existing insurance policy.

Did the ordinance mean “those within public markets, medical clinic, dental clinic, accounting office and law offices” did not have to secure insurance coverage? Them, aside from others already “with existing insurance policy”?

Or they – in the first instance above – comprise the exceptions because they are already covered? If so, the and should have been taken out of the sentence to read: Except those within public markets, medical clinic, dental clinic, accounting office and law offices with existing insurance policy.

Were that the case, there would have been no need for the exception paragraph altogether. Succinct for the notice to have read: All business owners with capitalization and gross income of P150,000.00 are required to secure the above coverage, if they have not one yet.

Some redundancy there actually as, it goes without saying, that the conditional if clause does not apply to those already with the required coverage prior to application for permits. Still, no harm in being doubly clear. 

As the exception stands, it…well, stands on the dangerous, socially volatile ground of class legislation. Of favoring, in this case exempting, a group over others.

Why, specifically, those within public markets? Why not those in private markets, if any in the city, or those in talipapa and tiangge, or those into home industries or micro-enterprises like sari-sari stores, or those little kiosks in malls? 

Why only medical and dental clinics? Why not wellness clinics? Or sports clinics?

Why accounting and law offices? Why not engineering offices? And yes, local media offices too?

Why? I cannot fathom why. Oh, why. Oh, why?

As often, in matters – moral, material, intellectual – of profound consequence, I leave it to the ever-astute Ashley Manabat to take the meta out of the physics and clear my understanding of things. 

As though brimming with the Force, and smiling like Yoda himself, Ashley pointed to the principal authors of the ordinance, for starters. One, a dentist by profession. The other, a kid brother to a prominent lawyer.

So, there’s why.         

As to the question raised by one Mike Enriquez in his facebook post: “Magkano ing komisyun da ring keng city hall para keng insurance bawat business permit? E ya business-friendly ing Angeles talaga (How much commission does city hall get from the insurance coverage for each business permit? Angeles is not really business-friendly),” I am in dearth of why’s to ask.

And the city council, particularly the ordinance’s prime pushers, has maintained a deafening quiet about it.

So, I just have to take the word of the city administrator Atty. Dennis Albert Pamintuan: “Ito ang magsisilbing proteksyon ng mga mamimili at proteksyon din ng namumuhunan (This will serve as protection to consumers and investors).”

No matter the city businessmen’s liability to believe him…well, uninsured. 

Push back

PAMINTUAN TO push for Central Luzon development.

So bannered local media of Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan’s recent appointment as chair of the Regional Development Council-3 by President Duterte.

“I will serve the region during my last term as mayor of Angeles in coordination with all 17 other RDC chairpersons in the country and their governors and mayors all in the same tempo as the national agencies of government through their regional representatives will direct the path of economic growth and national goals.” So was Pamintuan quoted in iorbitnews.com.

The circumlocution there neither distraction nor detraction to the energy, ay, the impetus, with which Pamintuan takes this humongous responsibility. Further taking on greater weight, given Pamintuan’s other assignments as president of the League of Cities of the Philippines and adviser to the GRP negotiating panel in the current peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDFP. Not to mention being mayor of not just any usual Philippine city but an international one that is Angeles.

Ay, there’s the rub, nay, the bitter irony. As Pamintuan pushes for the development of the region, he gets a push-back from his city.

The discovery of shabu laboratories/factories in the city’s posh villages early last year have been – concededly – covered, okay, amply compensated, by the strides taken in the war on drugs – in the apprehension, incarceration, as well as extermination, of drug fiends and the mass surrender and subsequent rehabilitation of drug dependents. The city police office and its director even getting some recognition from Camp Olivas for that feat.

Tokhang for ransom

So sadly, only for the city to regain notoriety as crime laboratory with what could be the first case of the modus operandi dubbed “tokhang for ransom” that was committed in October last year yet but only surfaced in the media this weekend past.

Reports said a group led by a still-unnamed SPO3 knocked on and then barged in the residence of a South Korean businessman they accused of drug involvement. The house was ransacked – over half million pesos in jewelry and personal effects were later listed as missing, the bizman identified as Jee Ick-Joo taken by the men and has not been heard of since.

It was the victim’s wife that raised the alarm to the police, but only after succumbing – partially – to the demands of her husband’s takers with P5 million. They wanted P4.5 million more and when she pleaded she did not have any money to pay the ransom, she was curtly told “game over.”

No need to imagine the tension gripping the city’s Korean community in the wake of this kidnapping. So palpably sliceable by even the dullest blade, as some wag idiomatized. It drains anew Koreatown’s collective memory of all heinous crimes inflicted upon its nationals, from kidnap-for-ransom and extortion to murder.

For the locals, especially the Chinoys, renewed terror from their own brushes with KFR groups, the most prominently recent but a little over a year ago – that of a hardware and construction supply store owner.

As GRP panel adviser, Pamintuan is rightly talking peace to end the 50-year insurgency in the country. Just as mayor, peace is coming to scarcity in his city.

Disorder

And where peace wanes, its conjunctioned partner usually also diminishes. Aye, order is miserably failing in the streets of Angeles. Noticeably so in the conspicuous absence of hizzoner during the holidays. Not that Pamintuan should be taken to task for taking a truly well-deserved Christmas break though. 

But then, traffic aides have turned as inutile as those traffic signs posted everywhere in the city.

The No Left Turn at the end of just about every steel railing bisecting MacArthur Highway serves as an invitation rather than a deterrence for vehicles to do otherwise. With those ridiculously acronymed ACTETMO-vested – successor to the more absurd TTMO? – characters by the roadside absolutely doing nothing to correct the infractions, much less apprehend the errant motorists.

And that Parallel Parking Only fronting Angeles University Foundation and its medical center finding synonymous with Diagonal Parking Also, with cars, tricycles and jeepneys parked crisscrossed on two lanes of the four-lane highway.

So what happened to the enforcement of Tow Away Zones?

Yes, the Holy Angel University even donated a tow truck to the city in a PR event as its CSR to help ease traffic in the city.

And after the as-much-publicized towing of parked vehicles along the side streets of the city to open up detour and alternate routes, those streets are again in dire need of clearing.

Is it just me, or did peace and order in the city really nosedived in the absence of Pamintuan?

If it did, then there’s cause to worry. Really, really worry.

Pamintuan is set again to pack his bags for Rome, site of the next round of GRP-CPP/NPA/NDF peace negotiations. And barring the completion of talks there – with a peace pact – his advisory functions shall continue, thereby taking time off his mayoral duties.

Then, there is his RDC-3 chairmanship which makes him virtual governor of  Central Luzon tasked to coordinate, integrate, consolidate and monitor the implementation of development plans and programs in all seven provinces, 14 cities, 116 municipalities and 3,102 barangays.

And more, as top gun of the LCP to look after the welfare of the cities, especially in the equity of the distribution of development packages coming from the national government.

The Pamintuan persona has verily turned four-dimensional, which, his mouthpiece correctly said “adds laurel (sic) to Angelenos and Kapampangans.”

Even as I am confidently convinced that Pamintuan is par for the multi-faceted course, it would be a pity if he falls short, even if only a weeny, in his performance of the very role for which he was overwhelmingly elected by the people.

Pamintuan owes, and is owned by, his Angeles constituency first. Having a binding contract with them with his election, never mind the political one he bandied about during the campaign.

Let he be reminded that every disturbance of the peace, every disruption of order in his city is a breach of that contract.

And may it never be said that the best peace adviser, the greatest LCP president and the most successful RDC chair, is no better than his most immediate predecessors at city hall.     

  

  

    

Boosting tourism

BORACAY BUT an hour or so away. Soon Davao, a few minutes longer. Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Busuanga too.

Philippine Airlines has narrowed the distance between Clark and the country’s top tourist draws. So what is there not to be happy about?

Yeah, it’s all looking up from here. Not only inbound, but more importantly outbound as well.

Last year, over 3.5 million foreign and domestic tourists visited Central Luzon, Clark and Subic primarily, reported tourism director Ronnie Tiotuico at the Talk Widus forum of the Pampanga Press Club last Wednesday. This, he said, catapulted Central Luzon to No. 5 among the most visited regions in the whole country.

With the PAL flights in Clark – lest we forget, Cebu Pacific and other airlines too – we can only expect a greater surge, maybe even a tsunami, of tourists. So confidently projected the tourism guy who has served all presidents from Ferdinand Marcos to Rodrigo Duterte. 

Great expectations though don’t happen in real time all by their lonesome selves.

While much stride – concrete and positive – has been taken in the development of the tourism industry hereabouts, much still remains to be done, Tiotuico himself admitted. Something, some place got to register in the tourism radar other than Clark. Most particularly here in Pampanga, we agreed.

As things go now, events take precedence over sites as primary tourist attractions in the province.

Think here of the gloriest – the Giant Lantern Festival at Christmas time, and the goriest – the crucifixions on Good Friday, both in the City of San Fernando.

Before its hiatus of three years now, the Ibon-Ebon Festival in February really drew crowds to somnolent Candaba. Hopefully, it will be revived this year with the new mayor.

On New Year’s Day, Minalin had its Aguman Sanduk of men in women’s garb, make-up, lipstick, heels and all. And only this week, Sasmuan held its Kuraldal, the faithful in ecstatic trance-like procession amid firetruck-induced showers.

Just about every town has its signature fest – some intermittent others regular – like Sto. Tomas’ Sabuaga on Easter Sunday, Bacolor’s Makatapak in November, Mexico’s Mais, Mabalacat City’s Caragan in February, Sta. Rita’s Duman in December, Luabo’s Sampaguita in May, Porac’s Binulo in November, and Angeles City’s Tigtigan Terakan Keng Dalan in October.

Apalit has its fluvial festival in honor of its patron, St. Peter on his feast day in June. Then there is the week-long Sinukuan in December open to all municipalities in the province. 

The tourist becomes the pilgrim – or is it the other way around? – with Pampanga’s “churches of antiquity.” Foremost of these are the Sta. Monica Parish Church in Minalin and the St. James the Apostle Parish Church in Betis, Guagua that have been declared by the National Museum as National Cultural Treasures.

The other heritage churches are the Holy Rosary in Angeles City; Sta. Lucia in Sasmuan; Sta. Rita in Sta. Rita; San Guillermo in Bacolor; San Luis Gonzaga in San Luis; St. Peter the Apostle in Apalit; San Bartolome in Magalang; and the Metropolitan Cathedral in the City of San Fernando.

These churches invariably become SRO during the Lenten Season, in pursuit of the visita iglesia rites. But left solely to the parishioners the rest of the year.

Then, there is food, glorious food. Pampanga prides itself as the culinary capital of the Philippines. There’s just some ingredient in the Kapampangan food that distinguishes it from any other in the country, be it from the Spanish heirloom recipes for morcon and galantina to the exotic adobong camaru, betute, sisig and binulo to the ambrosiac buro.

The culinary tours – usually of Everybody’s Café, Atching Lilian Borromeo’s house, Abe’s Farm and Claude Tayag’s Bale Dutung – that celebrate the best of Kapampangan cuisine, sadly, have not gone into the tourism mainstream.

While eco-tourism has remained at its infancy here, its potentials are great. Nabuclod in the highlands of Floridablanca with its zip line, and the magnificent view all-around. The wetlands of Candaba for bird watching. Gintong Pakpak at the foot of majestic Mount Arayat. Miyamit Falls in Porac. Haduan Falls in Mabalacat City. Puning Hot Springs in Sapang Bato, Angeles City.

Pampanga’s got the sites, sights, even smell, tastes and sounds. All that’s needed is a little combining of all that it has into one neat package as year-round, rather than seasonal, go-to spot.

That’s one cut-out job for the soon-to-retire Tiotuico.