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| Vol. XX No. 44 |
January 10, 2001 |
Virac, Catanduanes |
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The Catanduanes Tribune Rawis, Virac Catanduanes, Philippines - 5001 Tel. No.: (052) 811-1267 or 811-2640 Fax No.: (052) 811-1267 E-mail:
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Publisher-Editor Edwin A. Gianan |
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Advertising- Circulation Manager Simeon G. Cueno |
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Web Master: Calgary, Canada |
Briefly Yours
By Joel Son Panti
Three
stooges plus one
Where
in the country can one find a barangay without a single barangay road or a
street of its own? Perhaps, only in Catanduanes.
Of
the 315 barangays comprising the province, only Palta Small has no single
street or barangay road. Not even a municipal road. What is has is only
the national highway.
What
really happened? While the other hundreds of barangays have their criss-crossing
barangay roads fully concreted, Palta Small lay idle. It has one proposed
barangay road, but it is forested, undeveloped.
May
we call on the municipal councilor representing the district? Ano ba ang
ginagawa mo? Or, may we call on the entire municipal council? I'm sure
Vice Mayor Hector Sorrera will act on this matter with dispatch. Or, Mayor
Cito Alberto who is so busy concreting municipal roads in downtown Virac.
Government
officials used to talk about farm-to-market roads. But Palta Small has
been forgotten. People wonder, most, if not all, barangays have barangay
roads beautifully cemented, Palta Small does not even possess a single
gravel road.
May
we also call on Rep. Jun Verceles to allocate a portion of his CDF for
this barrio? Capitan, ano ba ang ginagawa mo? Since all the previous
barangay captains have done nothing concrete to build a single street,
it's about time you act and make history!
Some
PBMs suffer some sort of paranoia. Or enjoy being paranoiac.
Partly,
this is a mental disorder marked by a sense of one's feeling of
superiority.
Some
of them believe that they are tops without realizing that on their own,
they are helpless, they are nothing.
We
write about this because some of them shamelessly bite the hands that fed
them. The truth is that all of them won the 1998 elections not solely
because of themselves but because nakisakay sila sa kandidatong merong
pera.
The
clear proof of this is that not a single candidate for PBM who ran as an
independent, meaning on his own, not with a political party, won the
election and all the previous elections.
That
means, if all the present PBMs ran on their own as independent, they
should have all been goners, and could have not acquired the vehicles they
now own and the money, the power, and the influence they now flaunt with
extreme vanity! Ingrates!
Take
the case of the Sanchez PBMs.
Tanael
won because of the Alcantara-Sarmiento money and the Alcantara political
machinery. Tanael never contributed a single centavo to the Reporma
campaign kitty. Whatever personal money he had, he spent it for himself,
not for the group.
At
times, they were even given campaign money. If he ran as independent, he
would not be where he is today.
Very
sad, he does not carry with him the Reporma Party, the party that made him
win. He lost his political identity. He lost his political principle. The
principle that matters to him now is personal survival. He is now with the
Sanchez party. In short, he is a political stooge. A political water lily.
Or a political prostitute?
Let
us look at the other Sanchez PBMs. Tapel and Zuniega were with Rep.
Verceles during the 1998 elections. Like Tanael, they won because of their
political standard bearer.
The
duo got elected because of the Verceles money and the Verceles political
machinery. But they unceremoniously junked Verceles in favor of the
Sanchez contracts for projects.
Like
Tanael, Tapel and Zuniega are now bigtime contractors. Courtesy of Gov.
Sanchez. They now belong to the "Sanchez Party." Two of them are
dubbed as contractor without a single heavy equipment!
What
about the Verceles PBMs? Like the Sanchez PBMs, they too triumphed in the
1998 political exercise because of the Verceles money and the Verceles
political machinery.
Unlike
the Sanchez PBMs, however, the Verceles PBMs were never given a single
project by Rep. Verceles. And yet they remain loyal to him! Except for
one, all the others do not complain. If ever, perhaps they keep it only to
themselves.
This
one exception "rides on two horses" at the same time. And that
is extremely dangerous. He may find himself horseless one day if he
insists on namamangka sa dalawang ilog.
Worse,
things have gotten into his head. He is the housefly who now believes he
is bigger than the carabao. He is the one who was overheard saying "cami
ni sarong project dai lamang" with a tinge of regret.
What
and how about the governor himself?
Well,
everybody agrees that without Verceles, Sanchez will still be plain
ordinary Engr. Hector Sanchez. Not Gov. Sanchez.
When
Beroy Alcantara underwent the doctor's knife for a triple heart bypass,
the frantic Verceles picked up from nowhere Hector Sanchez, and like a
meteor, made him a candidate for governor to replace Alcantara.
Nobody
knew who Engr. Hector Sanchez was. Yet, like a good dream, suddenly he
woke up in the morning and people began calling him governor!
Without
doubt, Verceles made him the governor. And now, he keeps on biting the
hand that fed him. What a man!
A
good-looking young gentleman who identified himself as Manuel de Hitta and
who says he is the manager of Zenco Footstep shoe store here came to us
and told us he fired the store's cashier.
Readers
of this corner may recall that last week, we wrote about the store's
cashier who reprimanded or tongue-lashed a customer, saying "pala
bacal-bacal ca dai ca man sana nin sinsilyo!"
Previous
to this incident, several complaints of the same nature have already
reached this corner.
"Talagang
hindi ko nakakasundo `yan. Kaya, sinabihan
kong magresign. Alangan naman na ako ang magresign dahil sa kanya,"
says Mr. de Hitta.
The store manager also said that he welcomes being investigated by the
Department of Labor. He claims that he is paying the SSS premiums of the
store's casual employees plus the store's counterpart.
Since
Mr. de Hitta came to us Friday afternoon, there's no time to confirm it
with the local SSS office, which is open only from Monday to Friday. The
Tribune's deadline for news and columns is Sunday noon.
Mr.
de Hitta commented on this because we said not a single saleslady becomes
permanently employed. They are employed generally only for three or five
months.
We
wish to congratulate Mr. de Hitta for being sensitive to legitimate
complaints from customers. And for acting with dispatch.
Curiously,
bakit walang saleslady na tumatagal ng say, isa or tatlong taon sa
tindahan ninyo?
