Learn from our departed

By Jun Velasco

WITH All Saints Day just around the corner, it may be well for most of us, especially our national leaders, to ponder the temporariness of life.

The confusion at the top has been draining our energies. Colleagues, family members and kins are lost in the haze and maze of political intrigues. The worsening rift is due to the fact that   millions not of   pesos but of dollars are involved, and it behooves upon all of us to let the law take its due course while we move heaven and earth to support the return of normally as soon as possible.
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Judgment of history

By Gonzalo Duque

MIXED feelings.

That’s what we feel regarding the Presidential pardon granted to former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada.  No less than former President Fidel V. Ramos, former Gov. Chavit Singson, and many others were against it.

Anyway, Erap is now 70 years old and deserves compassion and gentle treatment.  Let’s not forget that the ex-president, a multi-awarded actor and once outstanding mayor of San Juan, behaved very well during the court hearings.  He could have really fanned the fires of rebellion in the hearts of his legion of followers. This he did not.
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Living, leaving

By Al S. Mendoza

MY WIFE’S TWO SISTERS have arrived from America. Ofel J. Magturo had flown in from Los Angeles, California, Ching J. Fernandez Phoenix, Arizona.

The reason for the sudden homeward trip is, well, their mother.

No, their mother isn’t sick.  She herself keeps saying, “No, I’m not sick. I just feel sleepy all the time.”

Upon learning of Nanay Alud’s sudden habit of sleeping mostly all day the past four weeks or so, Ofel and Ching decided to come home, foregoing usual plans to jet home this December.  In exchange, they paid rather exorbitant penalties for flight rebooking fees.
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Ely
29 Oct 2007

Dear Sir,

Could you please help me, I’m looking for Haedi Amor from Casilagan Mangatarem. I have not heard from her anymore since June 2007. She said she will be going to Canada.

Thanks. From, Ely

Muslim women assume a new role

By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

Women in a barangay in Shariff Kabunsuan province, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, have assumed a new role of providing food and income for their family.  In the past, they were relegated to perform household chores, take care of the children, and help their respective husband in the farm.

This more significant role of providing food and some income to their family has given more prominence and importance to the women of Pinaring, Sultan Kudarat town, who are now the role model of many other women in the ARMM.
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Beware of septic tanks!

By +Oscar V. Cruz D. D.

Now it can be said openly and loudly with great pride and distinction that the Philippines has just made a discovery for the scientific community to take note of and for world to know well. No more can Filipinos be legitimately made the object of foreign TV demeaning jokes. No more can the country be merely qualified as a high placer in the index of corruption. Gone are the days when the Philippines is only known for extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances—among many other socio-moral aberrations.
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Athletes, the politicians

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

POLITICS is a very big deal in the Philippines, then and especially now. Movie actors, actresses, and athletes have been jumping into the political arena, using their popularity as an advantage to win a seat of their choice.

Some of them have luckily won, and some have not been fortunate.

In sports, the trend of athlete-turned-politican was started by the late Berlin Olympics cager Ambrosio Padilla, a Lingayen native, bagging a senatorial seat during the 60s.
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Not the enemy

By Marifi Jara

Governor Espino should take it from FVR when it comes to handling the press. (Perhaps FVR did whisper some words of advice related to that when he attended Espino’s delivery of his first 100-days report.)

FVR was president when I was a reporter and while I only got the chance to cover him occasionally - having mostly been assigned to the business sectors of telecommunications, water utility, transport and travel beats - exchanges with my contemporaries at that time indicated how well he carried out his relationship with the Malacanang Press Corps.
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Sisonian to the Core

By Emmanuelle

Cupped snugly between the mountain and the sea, is she. Sison is her name. And this season is hers.

For years and years, she slept. So deeply, she bent herself to a curve. In this fetus pose, she waited out the decades. Now and then, she took a peep through one drowsy eye. Is it time to come out? Huhum, not then, not yet.

And so, decades passed. The mountain re-arranged its bulk; it tucked its giant leg of trees and grass around her, and threw over her a blanket of shadows and fog. In daylight, she sighed; she bared her true naked soul to the sun. At night, she shivered; she covered herself in mysterious neon shrouds.
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ALCALA—A municipal councilor here was gunned down Monday, but land dispute rather than politics is the suspected motive.

Killed was Juan Ablao, 55, a three-term municipal councilor.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) formed a joint team with agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to investigate the crime.

Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez, provincial police director, said he had instructed Chief Inspector Laurence Sison, the town police chief, to work closely with the group for the speedy solution of the killing.
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