‘In Between Columns’

Avoid the Banilad-Talamban road if you can help it. As it was, the monstrous traffic crawled liked a sleepy turtle. But with the construction of the traffic solution, the Banilad=Talamban road flyover, expect one to actually sleep on the road while waiting for the traffic to inch a little forward.

They are thinking of palliatives and alternative routes alright. There’s the odd-even scheme that is supposed to start tomorrow but one still does not know what will be allowed on what day.

Perhaps, it’s the duty of the arresting traffic officer to tell you that your driving your vehicle on the wrong day.

There’s also the alternative routes — the also congested Hernan-Cortes road and the MC Cuenco.

But what could one do while the DPWH constructs the flyover and other needed works and distributes the shares of the SOP? Of course, avoid the Banilad-Talamban road.

Sad that somebody so young — 28 years old — and famous could die suddenly. I’ve seen some of his work but not particuarly a fan. Somehow, the life of a celebrity makes one self-destruct.

When I was a kid, I was a fan of Bruce Lee. It took me a long time accepting that my hero died. Since then, I figured that heroes on screen do not lead lives their on-screen persona. still, i find it sad that people who so many others admire and watch could be so reckless as to die in such a compromising manner.

Congratulations to Hazel Binggaan who won the 4th Miss Superbalita title during the pageant finals at Slabadu Cafe and Bistro last January 19, 2008. The first runner up was Stephanie Thomas and the second runner up was Kim Cabrera.

Among the judges were friends Jesse Bacon and Ed Recla.

I would also like to thank our corporate sponsors Digilal Logistics, Pagcor, Opascor, Hilton Hotel, SKYGO, and Slabadu. I also like to thank friends like MJDL, Marty, Harold, Jojo, and Eric.

Jesse Bacon represented our special sponsor for the night: Sen. Mar Roxas.

I’m inviting readers here to the final’s night of Miss Superbalita 2008 at Slabadu Cafe and Bistro on evening of January 19, 2008. Watch out for the photos in the album I just uploaded.

I don’t think Leo Lastimosa of ABS-CBN, The Freeman, and DYAB will lose in the libel cases filed by Gov. Gwen Garcia. It is very difficult to prove malice.

And I don’t think malice motivated Leo in staging stinging attacks on the governor and her pet project, the CICC. Leo is more of an advocate for good government and he may err because the highly competitive media environment but defini8tely not in terms of motives. He certainly is motivated by a genuine desire to inform the public of alleged anomalies in government.

The congressional inquiry on alleged smuggling of luxury cars in Cebu hanged like a Sword of Damocles over Customs Cebu people as they celebrated their Christmas party last December 19, 2007.

Heavy rains drenched the Customs building grounds right when the program began to  heat up that evening adding to the cold chill that District Collector Boysie Belmonte described as "being frugal."

In past years, the Customs Christmas party is a time when importers and brokers personally flock to the customs building with their personeros brings loads of Christmas gifts.

Curiously, no broker nor importer showed up that night.

In my view, the volume of imports has not really met expectations — meaning much lesser collections for the government and "tara" for everybody.

Come to think of it, most imports in Cebu are vehicle replacement parts used for assembling multicabs and small trucks.

Multicabs are the small vehicles bought by many middle income Cebuanos and used by most Small-Medium Enterprises (SME) in Cebu.

However, the lobby of the Cebu Auto Dealers Assn. (CADA) and the congressional inquiry have led to the non-approval of certificate of payments of newly-assembled multicabs here in Cebu.

"Di na mahalin ang mga multicab in favor of the giants like Toyota and KIA," said one importer.

The controvery is far from over. With the second hearing sked still not set, we expect each side to the controversy relaxing a bit for the holidays.

Perhaps the international pro-press freedom group Committee to Protec Journalists  should include the Philippines in its list of countries with jailed journalists (in an Associated Press article featured in www.truthout.org  (of more specifically http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120607I.shtml) for arresting journalists who covered the recent Manila Peninsula incident.

This will include the Philippines in a lineup of countries notorious for violating human rights like Cuba, Eritrea, Iran and Azerbaijan.

However, there is one democratic country that has jailed two journalists for years now without any charges — the United States.

According to the AP article reprinted in truthout.org:

"Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, who has been
  held by U.S. forces in Iraq for nearly 20 months, and Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami
  al-Haj, who has been jailed for five years at the military prison camp in Guantanamo
  Bay, Cuba.

    Hussein, who was part of a team of AP photographers who shared a Pulitzer Prize
  in 2005, was seized by U.S. forces in Iraq in 2006.

    The military has declined to provide details of the accusations against him
  but has said he had links to insurgent groups in Iraq. The Pentagon recently
  said it intends to submit evidence against Hussein to the Iraqi judiciary system
  on Dec. 9.

    AP executives said they have seen no evidence that Hussein was anything other
  than a working journalist.

    Al-Haj, who is from Sudan, was detained by military forces in Pakistan in 2002
  as he tried to enter Afghanistan to cover the war there. He was turned over
  to the U.S. military, which classified him as an enemy combatant and accused
  him of transporting money in the 1990s for a charity that provided funding to
  Chechen rebels.

    Pentagon spokesmen have said in recent interviews with the AP that al-Haj’s
  detention had nothing to do with his status as a journalist or the content of
  his reporting."

WHILE President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has urged Filipinos to refrain from speculations into the latest bombing incident in the Philippines — that of the Batasan early last night, Speaker Jose de Venecia had already pointed his finger at unnamed terrorists or anarchists.

The bombing killed Rep. Wahab Akbar, the driver of Rep. Luz Ilagan of Gabriela and a staff member of another congressman. The injured included Rep. Ilagan and Rep. Pryde Henry Teves and two others.

I definitely agree with the Speaker when he said the objective was to destablize government by sowing fear among the congressmen. His immediate reaction was to continue to hold a session today to show that Congress is functioning normally as it should.

Still, the political and economic impact of a bomb destroying the south wing of the Batasan session hall a month after an explosion hit Glorietta in Makati cannot be discounted.

Meanwhile police general Geary Barias is already speculating that Congressman Wahab Akbar of Basilan was the target. Right after the Glorietta explosion, he also tried to downgrade the political impact by insisting that it was an accidental gas explosion.

But with the assassination angle, Barias may be alerady pointing at Akbar’s enemies in Basilan that includes the Abu Sayyaf. It was also an assassination that breached the security cordon at the Batasan and blasted a symbol of government.

Nonetheless, let’s wait for further developments on the investigation while we condemn the bombings for the harm it has wrought on lives of those who died or were injured as well as the damage to our recovering economy.

"Personalan na ni." This was the answer of a representative from the camp of Mayor Boy Radaza when asked by a mutual friend to stop its hounding og the Marina mall because this is not doing the mayor any good PR wise.

"If you want to go after the mall for whatever motive, then finish it quickly. But don’t think about PR because you will surely be clobbered.

I think what the Radaza camp wanted is help in damage control or at the most in deflecting or diverting the issue.

But the attempt to demolish the mall is front page news. Only the likes of bombings could deflect the issue.

Even then CDN chose to highlight the closure of the mall than the bombing of Glorietta ni Makati city.

As of now, even Gov. Gwen Garcia and the MEPZ have sided with Ephraim Pelaez than Mayor Radaza. With MEPZ, I expect that later PEZA would join the fray and its ally in Malacañang, Sec. Cerge Remonde.

With these forces arrayed against the mayor, i think the mayor should stand down and find the best way out. He can fight Pelaez some other time or in some other way.

In my view, the Marina mall controversy is damaging to Mayor Radaza.

Mingaw ang customs karon kay way trabaho. No, it’s not a holiday and people have gone to work. But still, it is "mingaw kay way trabaho."

Why is this so?

In customs lingo, "trabaho" means a shipment of mis-declared goods. Being mis-declared, one needs to "timbre" with the collectors in-charge and when the goods arrive, pay the "tara."

The accumulated "tara" is subdivided among customs folk and it trickles down to the haoshaois and the kibitzers.

This trickle down system with people having something to give and receive makes customs "alegre."

Unfortunately for customs folk nowadays, "mingaw ang adwana." There’s no "trabaho."