JB-Hell: Huwag yurakan (daw)

ATAS NG patas na pamamahayag at bilang paggalang sa karapatan sa pagtugon ng sinuman sa pagkalimbag ng anumang isyung kanilang kinasangkutan, ating inilalathala dito ang “Opisyal na Pahayag ng Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital Tungkol sa mga Batikos sa Serbisyong Medikal.”

Ito marahil ang kasagutan sa ating pagpuna na may pamagat na Ill-treatment at JB-Hell, (matutunghayan sa https://punto.com.ph/they-just-lie-there-and-they-die-there-ill-treatment-at-jb-hell/), pati na rin sa mga ibang lathalain at online platforms ng mga kasapi ng Central Luzon Media Association-Pampanga Chapter.

“Ang pamunuan ng [JBLMGH] ay patuloy na naglilingkod sa mga mamamayan ng Central Luzon,” bungad ng opisyal na pahayag.

“Sa kabila ng limitasyon ng pasilidad at kakulangan ng kawani, lahat ng pasyenteng idinudulog sa [ER] at [OPD] ay binibigyan ng atensyong medikal…,” susog nito, kaakibat ang litanya ng paghihirap at pagpapakasakit dala ng mga limitasyon – 137 na critical care beds sa ICU, sa kabila ng pagdagsa ng mga pasyenteng nanggagaling hindi lamang sa Pampanga kundi sa buong rehiyon at referral mula sa ibang ospital na pribado o pampubliko.

“Sa bawat araw may mahigit (sic) kumulang sa 300 na pasyente sa Emergency Department at 1,200 sa OPD ang aming pinagsisilbihan,” punto ng pahayag. “Sa gitna ng lahat ng ito, ang mga healthcare workers ng JBLMGH ay patuloy na inilalaan ang kanilang talino at kakayahang upang mapaglingkuran ang taong bayan sa kabila ng puyat, pagod…”  

Panaghoy na pangangatuwiran – sa wikang Ingles, argumentum ad misericordiam – na tumatagos sa kaibuturan ng puso, bagama’t fallacy o kamalian sa lohika ay tumitimo na rin sa lunan ng kaisipan. Ito ang salpok ng opisyal na pahayag, na nagmuntik-muntikan nang magpaluhod sa akin upang pagsisihan ang aking sinulat… kaipala’y maliwanagan lamang sa kawastuhan nito – ng aking komentaryong Ill-treatment at JB-Hell – dahil na rin sa idinugtong pa ng kanilang opisyal na pahayag “… at hindi makatarungang panglilibak lalong-lalo na sa social media.”

Kailan pa naging panglilibak ang paglalahad ng pighati sa pagkawala ng mga mahal sa buhay – lola, lolo, ina, ama, asawa, anak, kapatid, tiyo’t tiya o kaibigan man lamang – dahil sa di-tama o kakulangan sa panlapat ng lunas, o di man lang pag-aasikaso sa pasyente na kanilang dinala sa JBL?

Kailan pa naging panglilibak ang paghayag ng kanilang masasakit na karanasan sa kapalaluan ng iba’t ibang mga kawani sa JBL, mula duktor at nars, hanggang doon sa mga tanggapang-administrtibo, kasama pa ang mga sikyu?

Hirit pa ng pahayag ng JBL: “Hinihiling namin sa mga pasyente at mga mamamayan na maging mapanuri sa mga nababasang mga pahayag at sa ating mga mamamahayag na magbigay ng makatarungan at patas na mga pabatid.”

Ang hiling ng JBL ay hindi na kailangan: Tunay na mapanuri ang mga pasyente at mamamayan -- lalo’t higit yung mga namatayan – sa mga nalathala nitong mga araw tungkol sa ngayo’y sinasabing batikos sa serbisyong medikal. Ang resibo? Ang matagal nang kinikimkim na sakit ng kalooban sa madilim nilang karanasan sa JBL ay sumambulat sa liwanag bunsod ng mapanuring paglalathala sa mapait na sinapit sa ospital ng kawani ng modistang si Mich Viray. Ang sulat reklamo ni Bb. Viray kay Dr. Monserrat Chichioco, pinuno ng JBL, ang nagsilbing mitsa ng pagsabog ng nagpupuyos na damdamin ng lahat ng nakaranas ng kalabisan, kakulangan, o kapalaluan sa JBL.

Sa panig naman ng mga mamamahayag, ano ang hindi patas at di-makatarungan sa naibalita tungkol sa isyu ng JBL? Dokumentado ang reklamo ni Bb. Viray, nagbigay ng pahayag ang mismong biktimang si Ruby Ann Lazaro, inilabas din ang sagot ni Dr. Chichioco. Kompletos rekados ang balita.

O baka, ang tinutukoy ng kanilang opisyal na pahayag ay ang nasulat nga nating “They just lie there, and they die there. Ill-treatment at JB-Hell” (kumpletong pamagat)?

Ito po ay opinyon – isang komentaryo na nagbubusisi, nagsusuri, tumutuligsa, at lumiliwanag sa isyung tinatalakay. Walang naisulat sa ating salaysay ang hindi nakaugat sa katotohanan. Pati na ang pagtaguri ng “JB-Hell” sa ospital – bunsod ng mga paglalahad sa social media ng mga totoong katauhan ng anila’y mala-impiyernong karanasan sa JBL.

Iyon ang aking naging batayan. Hindi ko na nga isinulat: “Kung impiyerno na nga ang JBL, kailangan pa bang itanong kung si ‘Taning ang naghahari dito?”                

Samo ng JBL: “Huwag po sanang yurakan ang reputasyon ng institution at ang mga kawani na tapat na naglilingkod sa pamamagitan ng pangkalahatang pamamahayag na walang sapat na batayan.”

Ang paglalahad ng katotohanan, gaano man kahapdi, sa mga napapatungkulan – lalo’t higit sa mga nanunungkulan bilang mga lingkod bayan – kailan man ay hindi pagyurak sa kanilang reputasyon.

Ang masamang gawa at di-mabuting gawi ang yumuyurak hindi lamang sa reputasyon, kundi sa mismong pagkatao. Kaya walang dapat ikabahala ang mga tapat na naglilingkod, mandi’y marapat lamang na sila ay gawing uliran.

Hindi rin natin minamaliit o inaalis ang bilang ng mga napagaling sa JBL. Por diez porciento, este, por Dios por santo, ospital yan at pagpapagaling sa maysakit ang tanging dahilan ng pagkakatatag nito.

Entonces, ang mga kakulangan nito sa pagpapatupad sa natatanging misyon ay marapat lamang na suriin para iwasto.   

Dahila sa katagalan ng kawalang kalunasan, ang problema sa JBL ay matatawag nang systemic dysfunctionality – sa mata ng madla, wari baga’y kanser na kumalat na sa buong katawan at tanging hintuturo’t hinlalaki na lamang ang hindi pa tinatamaan. Ito ang dapat pagtuunan ng masinsinan at malawakang pagsisiyasat.    

Hirit pa more ng JBL: “Ang lahat ng reklamo at hinaing ng mga pasyente ay patuloy na tinutugunan at makakaasa ang taong-bayan na lahat ng karampatang aksyon at pagtatama ay ginagawa at patuloy na gagawin ng pamunuan upang patuloy na makapagbigay ng “Serbisyong may Lingap, Husay, at Malasakit.”

Ito ay isang malaking kabulaanan. Bukod sa inihain ni Bb. Viray, may iba pa bang reklamo ang napabalitang tinugunan ng JBL?

Ang nagdudumilat na katotohanan: Ang delubyo ng hinagpis at siphayo, ng nagngangalaiting galit na bumulwak sa social media at bumaon sa JBL ay patunay ng kakulangan kundi man ganap na kawalan ng katugunan, lalo’t higit karampatang aksyon, at pagtatama sa mga karaingan ng mga pasyente at mamamayan.      

 

They just lie there, and they die there: Ill-treatment at JB-Hell

WHAT HATH fashion maven Mich Viray wrought! No, not in the sosyal realm of haute couture but in the arena of social media justice.

Taking the cudgel for her Casa Moda staff Ruby Ann Lazaro, Mich wrote a complaint letter to Dr. Monserrat Chichioco, medical center chief of the Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital (JBLMGH), over alleged medical negligence arising from misdiagnosis performed on Lazaro.

In her letter dated Oct. 30, Mich accused the attending medical team led by resident physician Dr. Leonil Anthony Bais Arante of overlooking multiple pelvic fractures sustained by Lazaro in a vehicular accident along MacArthur Highway in Barangay Baliti, City of San Fernando on Oct. 21.

While Lazaro underwent X-rays, ultrasound, and CT scans at JBLMGH, she was discharged two days later with a diagnosis of contusion despite persistent complaints of severe hip pain and immobility. A later review of her X-ray reportedly revealed complete displaced fractures in both superior and inferior pubic rami – findings that were not disclosed during her confinement.

Lazaro later sought a second opinion at Makabali Hospital, where an orthopedic surgeon confirmed the fractures and recommended pelvic surgery to install a metal plate.

“This serious oversight placed Ms. Lazaro’s health and recovery at significant risk,” Mich wrote, adding that the delayed diagnosis caused unnecessary pain and could have led to long-term complications.

She ended her letter with a call for internal investigation, a written explanation from the doctors concerned, and a review of the hospital’s diagnostic and discharge protocols to prevent the recurrence of similar cases.

In letter reply dated Nov. 4, Chichioco expressed apologies for the incident, said she had directed “my team” to initiate an “impartial and comprehensive investigation,” and assured “appropriate action will be taken based on the findings.”

Alas, Chichioco could have just told it to the marines!

“Kung sila lang naman mag-imbestiga sa sarili nila, alam mo na ang resulta:  ginawa nila ang trabaho nila at wala silang pagkukulang,” a netizen’s comment readily damning Chichioco probing her own ilk.

Wrath unleashed

Published in the social media platforms and online publications of members of the Central Luzon Media Association-Pampanga Chapter, Mich’s letter did not just open a can of worms but virtually unleashed the floodgates of wrath of victims of maltreatment, both physical and emotional, and mistreatment, both medical and fatal. A sampling from the hundreds of comments, verified as coming from real people (edited to formal writing):

“Marami nang buhay ang nawala dahil sa kapabayaan nila. Kaya ka nga pumunta sa JBL para magpagamot at gumaling hindi pra lumala at mamatay. Ganyan sila diyan parang hindi tao ang turing sa mga pasyente … Ayusin nila dapat ang JBL – ospital ‘yan, hindi po funeraria…

Hindi ka mabubuhay sa ospital na yan mapapadali ang buhay mo. Sa ospital na ‘yan, auntie ko namatay lang din. Nagalit pa doctor nung nagsumbong ako…

Yun pong bayaw ko namatay din diyan, marami po namamatay diyan parang may something…

Mama ko po namatay diyan nung Sept. 24. Gising pa ng Sept. 23, tinubuan (intubated?) siya tapos bigla tumawag sa amin ang ICU ng JBL: Patay na daw mama ko. Sobrang sakit po sa amin…

Katulad ng papa ko wala man lang paliwanag kung ano ikinamatay…

Kung susumain yung pagkamatay ng anak ko kapabayan talaga nila. Nagwawala ang bata dahil sa sakit at uhaw na nararandaman niya, tapos namamaga na siya, tumatawag ako ng doctor at nurse ni wala mang lumalapit isa man sa kanila. Nang sumigaw ako na ‘di ko na marandaman ang pulso ng anak ko, dun pa lang lumapit. Ano pa silbi nila? Wala na…

Minsan sila pa ang papatay sa ‘yo. Katulad na lang ng biyenan ng pinsan ko: cause of death is katandaan, eh 65 years old pa lang siya. Grabe…

Diyan po namatay ang kapatid ko, sa kapabayaan nila…

‘Yung hipag ko ang tagal sa ER (24 hrs) nakaupo lang, hirap na hirap siya bago nalapatan ng lunas; lumala pa ang kalagayan. Kapiling na siya ng Diyos ngayon…

Imbes na surgery gawin, hinayaan sa ER ng three days na nakaupo – nakaupo habang kina-catheter, naghihingalo ng nakaupo, dina-dialysis ng nakaupo. Binayaran lang namin yung nagbigay ng bed kaya after three days, nakahiga rin ang aking mama. Pero wala na. Namumutla na ang mama ko, panay turok pa kayo. Pinatay niyo mama ko…

When my lolo died there last year, nagtuturuan pa mga nurses sino magre-revive, tapos doctor ‘kala mo ‘di emergency slow motion walking. So heartbreaking!... 

Kapag nagdala ka diyan ng pasyente sigurado mamamatay. Yung kapatid ko dinala namin diyan: naglalakad nung pumasok, nung lumabas patay na…

Ganyan din po nangyari sa anak ko last April lang po, accident din po na open pelvic naman po case niya, sabi nila direct operation siya. Hanggang umabot ng two days, tuwing lalapitan at magtatanong ako sa kanila sinasabi nila na siya na yung susunod hanggang sa nawala na anak ko, hindi man nila naoperahan. Sana man lang sinabihan nila kami na hindi nila kaya kesa sa binigyan pa kami ng assurance na siya na ang susunod na operahan, dahil sa kapabayan nila nawala ang anak ko.”

THAT SAD, sorry state of medical services at JBLMGH effectively reduced it to that euphemism of a “Mona Lisa” hospital – not so much for Da Vinci’s masterpiece as for the lines in the song it inspired, to wit: They just lie there, and they die there... not so much for the dreams laid on La Gioconda’s doorsteps, but for the patients taken at what is now called – oh, so aptly – JB-Hell.

Plea for understanding

To be fair, there is at least one netizen cautioning against outright judgment:

“JBL po ay Isang pampublikong hospital at minsan talagang nangyayari ang mga bagay na yan sa dami ng pasyenteng pumasok. Subalit hindi po ito dahilan para hindi gawin lahat ng pagsusuri para matukoy ang talagang sakit ng pasyente.

Ito po ay issue ng protocol ng isang hospital na kung kulang sa kagamitan ay marapat na ipasuri sa mga may ganoong kagamitan Hindi po natin matukoy talaga kung bakit hindi nakita ng doktor na sumuri ang sakit, maaaring kulang sa gamit o protocol ng ospital o pagpapabaya pero huwag po natin siyang husgahan hanggat hindi ito natutukoy.”

So overwhelming though the torrent of grief, the onrush of rage suppressed for long in resignation that that complaint letter of, of all people, a haute couturier so socially distant and economically separate from the folk availing themselves of JBL services, that Chichioco’s probe will fall flat on its face before it can even stand.

“Deka-dekada na ang mga reklamo sa mga doctor at pamunuhan sa JBL. Huwag na po tayung umasa na may magbabago sa hospital na ito. Bulok na sistema ng hospital, ipasa-diyos nalang natin ang lahat. Kung may pera o wala man, pilitan niyung magpatingin sa ibang hospital kesa sa umasa sa JBL,” as one netizen articulated the long-drawn frustration of most.

Despite everything, a glimmer of hope though for another netizen:

“Balada po kasi utang tamu lub karela ing maka libre. Anya nung i-tratu dakatamu makalunus tamu. Tutu napu nyan, misan ala namu choice anya mumunta la ken deng tao. Pero eta pu migaganaka pag akapali de pu buntuk y Gov. Nanay Lilia Pineda, sigurado sabunan nano naman den, itang alang banlawan. Ena kunsintian ing anti ‘yan.”

Wronged, to the end

Felix M. Garcia. Poeta Laureado. 30 Enero 1938 - 31 Octubre 2025. 

HIS FINAL verse metered and rhymed,

Calliope – poetry’s muse most divine –

Unto Felix the golden laurel crowned.

Alas, unto death poet laureate Felix M. Garcia remained dispossessed of recognition of one major work of his lifetime. Here’s that story published here on March 21, 2019.

Intellectual property wronged

“JUSTICE TO Mr. Garcia was already delayed. I hope it will not be denied this time.”

So prayed Jose Irwin M. Nucum, a committee deputy chair of the Multi-Sectoral Governance Council of the City of San Fernando, in a letter – dated Dec. 8, 2010 – to the city council on the “Subject: Recognition of Poeta Laureado Felix M. Garcia as the true lyricist of the Himno Fernandino.”

Addressed directly to then Vice Mayor Edwin T. Santiago, Nucum, himself a composer – both lyrics and music – of a number of hymns and anthems, wrote that he took it as “supreme responsibility” that Garcia be accorded that recognition that is rightfully his as “true lyricist” of the city hymn.

It was on Feb. 5, 1997 that the then sangguniang bayan – San Fernando was yet to be a city – passed Resolution No. 97- 004 adopting the Himno Fernandino as the official hymn, and recognizing Geronimo F. Del Rosario, Jr. as the composer.

No, there was absolutely no question of the authenticity of Del Rosario as composer of the himno. The problem – epic at that – was that Garcia was deprived the credit, aye, his very share of his intellectual proprietary right to the himno as its lyricist.

Garcia has all the proofs of having written the himno’s lyrics, duly subscribed to by other Capampangan poetas laureados, notably the much-prized Jaspe Dula.

But self-effacing as he is, Tatang Felix – as I address him, with as much awe and respect for his brilliance in the amanung sisuan – let all these injustices to his person thrived in his silence.

Content with but one letter he sent on Feb. 14, 2011 to then-Councilor Jimmy Lazatin, addressed as the “hearing officer” on the “Conflict of Claims between Felix M. Garcia and Geronimo F. Del Rosario over an issue on who really wrote the lyrics of Himno Fernandino.”

The letter detailed the whats, hows, whys and wherefores that led to the crafting of the himno and the controversy that arose from it, closing: Nung dekayanan ne agyang kapurit mu mang rekognisyun ing akasaup na, a miras marahil king punting yan. (E ku buring sabyan ing makasarili ya y pareng Norming. Pero pagmulalan ku mu nung bakit selikut na ing tutu. Kumpara keng metung a basung danum, e na ku inugsyanan agyang kapatak mu bista’t kayabe na kung mepagal kaniti…

E sukat maging dalan iti ban pikamuan da ku at misimpan sakit a lub ampon paginakit kanaku ri Mr. Del Rosario at ding pamilya na uling e ku kasalanan nung bakit mipakanyan. Atyu keya bilang kompositor (ning musika) ing kakulangan nung bakit e na binye ing karampatan a pamangilala king lyricist.

Whatever hearing the sanggunian bayan of San Fernando held on the “conflict” appears to have gone nowhere in resolving it.

It has been over eight years since the controversy came to fore. Then Vice Mayor Edwin Santiago is now contesting the last of three terms as mayor. The hearing officer, then Councilor Jimmy Lazatin is already twice reelecting as vice mayor.

And, as Nucum wrote, “Garcia is left in oblivion.” 

                                                 Felix and Irwin 

At every singing of the Himno Fernandino, a great injustice is done to its unrecognized “true lyricist.”

How can a city government that prides itself as champion of culture and the arts, indeed, that arrogates unto itself “lahi cang marangal… dayang pantas… tune uliran, sandigan at duyan king kalayan” can even tolerate such monumental wrong? Could sweep it under the rug of haughty indifference?

“To recognize Mr. Garcia is like completing the puzzle and will not in any way lessen Mr. Del Rosarios role and contribution in the composition of the hymn.” So, Nucum wrote succinctly.

And spot-on: “The fulfilment of a writer or any artist lies in the appreciation and acknowledgement of his obra. No pecuniary consideration can ever replace that feeling of being appreciated and recognized – especially for having written the lyrics of this hymn of every Fernandino.”

Is that too much to ask of the local government of San Fernando? 

 

Remembering John Paul II

IN CELEBRATION of his feast day, October 22, here is a reprint of a personal encounter with the great John Paul II during his first papal visit to the Philippines in 1981.

Covering JP II   

NO YOU don’t cover John Paul II. He covers you. His presence totally engulfs you. 

Morong, Bataan/February 21, 1981 – At the Bataan Refugee Processing Center as early as the break of day, a crowd of thousands have started gathering before the canopied altar where the pilgrim pope is scheduled to celebrate Mass, principally for the Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees. 

The wife and I – both information officers of the regional office of the Department of Public Information – along with a few staff conduct interviews among the faithful, both local and foreign. The single question: “What does the Pope mean to you?” 

Responses salvaged from fading memory now include:
“Kindness. Why can’t leaders of our country be as kind as he is?”
“Hope. I thought the world has forgotten us. He gives us hope of one day going back to our homeland, unafraid, unpersecuted for our beliefs.”
“Luck. Maybe soon, some other country will take us. The Pope may be our lucky charm.”
“Faith. In the basic goodness of all of us toward our fellowmen.”
“Grace. To bear our sufferings as Christ bore his for our sins.”
Virtues and values that find printed expression in a white streamer at the site:
“Wherever the Pope goes, the best things will be.” Indeed. Indeed. 

Then there is a direct plea, “Save the Cambodian People.” The horrific “Killing Fields” of the Khmer Rouge unearthed, going the rounds in the international media. 

Past noon, a US Navy helicopter from Subic lands, bringing in its most precious cargo: John Paul II.

A hush – and then deafening applause to the shouts of “Totus Tuus” and “Amo Te.”
An onrush, as a tide, of bodies with outstretched arms – seeking to touch, stemmed by an immovable white wall – of security men in barong. The tide may have been contained, but it is John Paul II that broke the wall – taking babies to bless and kiss, reaching out, touching heads and hands.

The cries of “Viva il Papa” crescendoing to the highest pitch as the Pontiff ascends the stairs to the canopied altar. A quietude descending upon the faithful as the strains of the opening hymn signal the pontifical Mass beginning. 

The readings I cannot now recall. But his homily is seared into my consciousness -- charity, the greatest of all virtues. Finding so much resonance in the hearts of the Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees:

"Charity makes no excuses because of the other person’s ethnic origin, religious allegiance or political preference, no exception whatsoever; a charity which sees the person as a brother or sister in need and sees only one thing: to be of immediate assistance, to be a neighbour…The Church is ever mindful that Jesus Christ himself was a refugee, that as a child he had to flee with his parents from his native land in order to escape persecution. In every age, therefore, the Church feels herself called to help refugees. And she will continue to do so, to the full extent that her limited means allow…Of all human tragedies of our day, perhaps the greatest is that of the refugees.”

(No, that is not committed to memory. I found it in some periodicals I kept as souvenir of that papal visit.) 

So deeply touched, one can almost hear John Paul II’s heart break as he blesses and kisses refugee children in their native costumes bringing him gifts during the Offertory. Among the gifts, a basket of vegetables grown by them.

At the consecration, one feels one’s heart literally lifting up to the Lord, in pure adoration of the bread and wine transubstantiated to the real, mystical body and blood of Christ.
In absolute submission to the Lord’s presence, the camera slung on my shoulder makes an intruding reminder of my “official” purpose: to cover the Pope.
Hastily, I focus and click twice – in the midst of the Lord’s Prayer – in time to capture a dove perching on the stairs at the foot of John Paul II, Cardinal Sin, and First Lady Imelda Marcos. 

The peace of Christ be always with you, John Paul II intones, his message embracing the whole congregation, not the least of whom the First Lady and the Cardinal, whose “critical collaboration” with the Marcoses is later to turn into open confrontation. But that is two years in the future yet, after the martyrdom of Benigno Aquino, Jr.

In the meantime, the Mass ends – Go in the peace of Christ. Thanks be to God. Viva il Papa! Viva!

Media frenzy – the clicks of SLRs, the whirrs of television cameras amid all the jostling and pushing. Arms raised, I point and shoot, without the benefit of focus. 

On the steps of the US Navy helicopter to ferry him to Subic, John Paul II raises his hands in a final blessing, sweeping the multitude, his eyes on mine – all for a nanosecond but seems an eternity to me, feeling as that thief promised Paradise by the crucified Christ. 

Blessed, this sinner, for having been in the presence of the Holy John Paul II that day in Morong in February 1981, a presence that has remained in my being till now. 

(First published in Punto! on May 6, 2011, following JPII’s beatification  on May 1, 2011 (Divine Mercy Sunday) by Pope Benedict XIV. On April 27, 2014 he was canonized by Pope Francis with his feast day on Oct. 22.)

 

 

 

Quickie Arrey

 

                     Vince and Arrey: They go a long way. FB photograb

“AYAW NIYANG makasagabal at ayaw niyang maging distraction ito dahil alam niyang napakabigat na kailangan nating gawin at siya ay nag-tender ng irrevocable resignation at tinanggap ko na.”

So announced Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon of Undersecretary Arrey Perez’s resignation on Friday, Oct. 17, in the face of allegations linking his underling to contractors.

“Undersecretary Arrey Perez,” said Batangas 1^st District Rep. Leandro Leviste in an interview with DZRH earlier that day, in response to Dizon urging him to name DPWH officials he had claimed were reportedly linked to contractors involved in the controversial flood control projects.

“May mga red flag, tulad ng bakit sa labas ng opisina [meeting] sa mga contractor na magbi-bid sa proyekto? In the context of DPWH, we should hold our officials to a high standard. We cannot give them the benefit of the doubt. The burden of proof is on them, especially if they’re having meetings outside of the DPWH office with contractors of DPWH to prove na wala silang kickback,” Leviste said.

He also raised Perez’s “questionable history” on biddings and procurement, thus: “Siya ay nagkaroon na ng maraming posisyon, kabilang diyan nag-serve siya sa BCDA [Bases Conversion and Development Authority] kasama si Sec. Vince Dizon. Marami pong question sa biddings at procurement na ginanap sa mga dinaanan niyang mga posisyon. Kaya nakakapagtaka bakit sa lahat ng mga tao sa buong Pilipinas, si Usec. Arrey Perez pa ang aatasan ni Sec. Vince Dizon para sa posisyon na ‘yan, na posible pa siya ang hahawak ng bidding ng mga proyekto sa central office na sakop ang buong bansa?”

Even as Perez’s resignation has been accepted, Dizon said the investigation will continue. “The cleansing process will spare no one and show no favoritism, whether they’ve been here before, have already resigned, are from the previous administration, or are people I personally brought in.”

“No one will be exempt, and that’s what we need to do,” Dizon emphasized.

The proverbial reference to the marines easily raised at the DPWH chief there. 

18-day Usec at DPWH

Dizon himself handpicked Perez as undersecretary for operations in charge of convergence projects and technical services and administered his oath of office along with four other undersecretaries last Sept. 29. Resigning on Oct. 17, Perez’s sojourn at DPWH lasted all of 18 days. Shorter than a TUPAD worker’s.

100-day P-COO at MPTC

Before jumping to the DPWH, Perez was chief regulatory officer of the Metro Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. starting March 1, 2025 effectively serving all of six months in that post which in effect was a plunge from the position of president and chief operating officer of the MVP corporation he was appointed to on Nov. 30, 2024. Yes, he was PCEO for all of 100 days. And all of 11 months at MPTC. Short of the reglementary job permanency.

One-year plus at CIAC    

A longer tenure – 14 Sept. 2023 to 30 Sept. 2024, exactly one year and 16 days – Perez had as president and chief executive officer of the Clark International Airport Corp. His most tangible achievement – a mural on a wall depicting the development of the Clark International Airport from paper planes to a sorry excuse for a wide-bodied passenger jet that local art critics readily ridiculed as “obrang bitis,” literally foot-painted in Kapampangan.

To be fair, Perez did indeed get CIAC into the global limelight – though infamously – with his appropriation of an image of Midway Rising – a mixed-use development in San Diego California USA by SafdieRabines Architects – for his dreamed-up “Taylor Swift-ready” arena in Clark and imprinting thereat the CIAC logo. A clear case of piracy. (https://punto.com.ph/piracy-becomes-ciac/)

Longest stay at BCDA

Before CIAC, Perez had an extensive career at the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, rising from internal auditor in 2005 to vice president for business development and then senior vice president for corporate services group when Dizon was BCDA president-CEO.

It was their time together that saw the rise of New Clark City, debuting with the world class sports facilities Class 1 Athletics Stadium and Aquatics Center and Athletes’ Village showcased in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games but mucked with the Games’ P50-million cauldron derided as “the golden kaldero.”

Seeing red

It does not take a Congressman Leviste to see red at what was also then jeered at as “Cayetano’s folly” – for then-House Speaker Allan Peter’s dogged defense of that doggone cauldron.

Red as it is, in the mega scheme of things under investigation, that cauldron is but a small pennant, but glaring enough to warrant questions. As Leviste did, raising Perez’s “questionable history.”

Aye, there’s that controversial joint venture agreement between BCDA and MTD Capital Berhad for the P13-billion New Government Administrative Center project in New Clark City signed in 2018, if ageing memory serves right.

Issues too deep for me to dredge, I’d rather amuse myself with the quirkiness in quick-to-quit Arrey Perez. 

 

 

Hasta siempre, Che Guevara

 

IT HAS BEEN 58 years – well over half a century – after his death, but Ernesto Guevara de la Serna still lives. No incorruptible saint – in fact the so called “Butcher of La Cabana” for signing the death warrants of hundreds of “war criminals,” read: military officers of the ousted Batista regime as well as informants, and counter revolutionaries – Guevara has gained cult status around the world.

Notwithstanding too, the late – and still continuing – discoveries of his proven failures and alleged atrocities.

It was on the occasion of his 44^th death anniversary in Oct. 2011 that I essayed to touch the Che mystique, thus:

“COMANDANTE STAR on a black beret capping a frowning, pensive handsome face; left eyebrow slightly raised; black, long hair waving in the breeze.”

Beyond the image of Che Guevara pop cultured in millions of T-shirts, posters and decals around the globe, what do the young and not-so-young know about the man already long dead – executed on October 9, 1967 – even before they were born?

Essentially, nothing.

So, what fascinates them to wear that icon, in virtual veneration of the man they don’t even know?

Irreligious blind faith?

The aura of enchantment around that image of Che known in the whole of Latin America as El guerrillero heroico is – to Paco Ignacio Tabio Jr., author of the definitive Guevara: tambien conocido como el Che (Guevara: also known as Che) – wrought by “the manifestation of a transparency and supernatural honesty.”

There, arguably, lies the Guevara mystique.

The photograph was taken by Albert Korda for the Cuban newspaper Revolucion at the public funeral of the 81 fatalities in the explosion of La Coubre, a French ship laden with Belgian arms at the Havana harbour on March 4, 1960. Unpublished, the photo remained in the newspaper morgue. In 1968, the Italian publisher Giacomo Feltinelli, researching on the life of Che, found the photo in Korda’s house, took it back to Italy and made a poster from it. The rest, as clichéd, is history. The irony not lost in the capitalist success rising out of a communist “artifact.”

The Che brief may well read: Argentine by birth, doctor of medicine by education; adventurer and motorcycle enthusiast, poet, photographer, writer; by revolution defined and deified.

The essence of Che may well be in his word: “The only passion that guides me is for the truth…I look at everything from this point of view.”

By his truth he lived. By his truth he was executed. Life and death make a universality that finds relevance to and resonance in the world to this day.

An unshakeable belief in the people that makes the core value of the true revolutionary: “There is no effort made towards the people that is not repaid with the people’s trust.”

Vanity

A damnation of the vacuous vanity of self-ordained champions of the masses: “The people’s heroes cannot be separated from the people, cannot be elevated onto a pedestal, into something alien to the lives of that people.”

The masses eke an existence out of hovels, even as they look up to their heroes luxuriating in their high-walled mansions. So un-Che, so unheroic, so undemocratic, so prevalent. And so very Filipino.

Che holds the purity of the democratic ideal before its corruption by the politics of patronage: “How easy it is to govern when one follows a system of consulting the will of the people and one holds as the only norm all the actions which contribute to the well-being of the people.”

Compare with the Filipino norm of governance: Off with the people, buy the people, fool the people. Thus, the first call of the revolution: “People – forward with the Revolution! Workers – to the struggle! Peasants – organize!”

Romanticism – damned by Mao as a bourgeois diversion to be expunged from the Chinese Revolution, and for that matter, from all revolutions – finds a refining, humanist aspect in Che’s own: “If it were said of us that we’re almost romantics, that we are incorrigible idealists, that we think the impossible: then, a thousand and one times, we have to answer that yes, we are.”

The Latino attributes of intense passion, sentimentalism, and romanticism do not diminish any, but in fact even enhance, nay, inflame revolutionary zeal. Che makes the perfect argument: “At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.”

(In college, barely versed in Che’s life and works, I wrote an essay on Che titled The Romantic Revolutionary. Modesty be damned, I got a flat 1.0 on that. More importantly, bragging rights for having already grasped Che’s essence even then. Though my enchantment with Che started in high school, in – of all places – the Mater Boni Consilii Seminary.)

Humanism

Che takes the humanist facet of the revolution further: “Revolutions, accelerated radical social changes, are made of circumstances; not always, almost never, or perhaps never can science predict their mature form in all its detail. They are made of passions, of man’s fight for social vindication, and never perfect.”

Yet another taboo in the revolutionary movement – adventurism – was taken to the positive plane by Che: “Many will call me an adventurer, and I am, but of a different type: of those who put their lives on the line to demonstrate their truths.”

So, Che demonstrated his truth with his death, something the romantic adventurer in him put thus: “Wherever death may surprise us, it is most welcome. Our funeral dirge will be the staccato sound of machineguns and the cries of battle and victory.”

Some object lessons there for the RAM, the Magdalo, the YOU and what-have-you in the Philippine military wanting a coup. Moreso, for the current cadres of the longest-running insurgency in all of Asia.  

Che’s thesis on revolutionary praxis makes one of the most succinct on the subject: “And it must be said quite sincerely that in a true revolution, to which everything is given, from which no material returns are expected, the task of revolutionary vanguard is both magnificent and anxious…In these conditions, a great dose of humanity is needed, a sense of justice and truth, if we are not to fall in the trap of extreme dogmatism, of cold scholasticism, of isolation from the masses. Every day we have to fight so that love for humanity can be transformed into concrete deeds, into acts that set an example, that mobilize.”

There lie lessons in revolutions Che had fought, had seen, and in those he did not see: the Stalinist dogmatism that pervaded the Soviet Union and its satellites, the excesses of China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Mao’s cult of personality, the Khmer Rouge’s killing fields. And, in the current of events, Xi Jinping taking China to the imperialist road to perdition.   

Failure

Before his fatal failure in Bolivia, Che bombed out in the Congo in the 1965 attempt to start the conflagration of the African continent that, to him, represented “one of, if not the most, important battlefields against every form of exploitation that exists in the world.”

“We cannot liberate by ourselves a country that does not wish to fight,” Che conceded defeat six months after. A pointed lesson that it is as hard to start as to stop revolution from without. Lessons for Che himself in Bolivia, for the USA in Vietnam, and the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Lessons still unheeded today in Iraq, in Chechnya, and again, in Afghanistan. Hasta la victoria siempre – ever onward to victory – usually captions the Che icon. It was the exhortation that closed Che’s letter to Fidel Castro before he left for the Congo. It has become the rallying cry for revolutionaries around the world.

But Che had a more stirring call for revolutionary solidarity: “If you can tremble with indignation every time an injustice is committed in the world, we are comrades.”

Hasta siempre, Comandante Che Guevara!

 

The private-public contradiction of BM Estelito, aka Shiwen, Lim

 

RES IPSA LOQUITUR. Then-aspiring board member Estelito aka Shiwen Lim in a public display of his COC. File photo of SunStar-Pampanga.

EMBROILED IN legal entanglements ranging from a garnishment order and sum of money writ to a case of large scale estafa and more reportedly coming, Pampanga 3^rd District board member Estelito P. Lim alias Shiwen Lim cried harassment and  filed a complaint before the National Privacy Commission against Punto!, SunStar-Pampanga, iOrbit News Online, and CLTV-36 – all that have assiduously reported on his cases, and on the cries for justice of the alleged victims of his schemes.  

Lim’s contention: The publication of his warrant of arrest subjected him to public ridicule and prejudgment; that the inclusion of personal details indicated in his warrant of arrest exposed him and his family to danger and public shame; that this violated his right to privacy.

Privacy, ‘tis been many times proven, makes the ready refuge for public scoundrels. No, that is not in the least implied in this instance.

Still, privacy is the last thing Lim should have invoked, given his celebrity status in social media from Facebook to TikTok – indeed, that which he parlayed to a successful run for the sangguniang panlalawigan where he now roosts.

Virtually and veritably, Lim has been too long a public figure before he was elected to public office. And therefore, well within the realm of public interest, open to public scrutiny. Even ridicule and denunciations, if we go by social media posts.  

As provincial board member, let Lim be impacted with that fundamental principle enshrined in the Supreme Law of the land: Public office is a public trust.

Of government officers and employees enjoined to “at all times, be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency; act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.”

So, the disclosure of his personal details – specifically home address – indicated in the warrant of arrest media published as factual basis for their articles, now constitutes a violation of his privacy?

If this were so, Lim had already incriminated himself long before media published those legal documents attendant to the cases he has been named as respondent.

After filing his certificate of candidacy with the Commission on Elections in October last year, Lim did the perfunctory photo-op showing his accomplished and duly received COC that subsequently made the rounds of mainstream and social media. The COC contained even much more than the personal details in the warrant of arrest that Lim now invokes as a cause of breach of privacy. Res ipsa loquitur, anyone? 

Of the COC, Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said at the time of filing last October: “It is the specific document required by law to establish the express intent of a person, or aspirant, to run for a specific elective public office, establishing his or her possession of all qualifications and none of the disqualifications, declaring as well his political party affiliation, if any.”

Lots of personal details there, if I may.  

“Given that this is a public document, it is required to be executed under oath,” noted Laudiangco.

Furthered Comelec chair George Garcia: “[The COC] highlights the intent to aspire for a particular position. The COC reveals compliance with the qualification requirements of the Constitution and the law. And false material representation can be grounds for cancellation of candidacy or denial of due course coupled with misrepresentation as an election offense aside from the crime of perjury. This is therefore the document for the voters to better know the candidates.”

Public interest. As much for the voters specific in the case of the COC, as for the general public in warrants of arrest.

Quod erat demonstrandum, as my favorite fiscal was wont to say.