Press Statement of the City Government of Catbalogan on cityhood issue

December 22, 2008

This is to formally inform the public that on November 14, the Supreme Court (SC) released a decision declaring the cityhood of 16 LGUs including Catbalogan as unconstitutional. In view of this ill-timed and unfortunate news, we wish to reassure our fellow Catbaloganons that the City Government is doing everything in its power to properly address this problem and with God’s grace, Catbalogan, shall and will remain as a component city.

Upon receiving this news, the first step we made was to meet with the other affected LGUs. Last November 17, Vice Mayor Van Torrevillas, Councilor Art Gabon and I met with other concerned Mayors and their legal counsels, to discuss the next proper course of action. We were joined by Congresswoman Carmen Cari and other Congressmen, at the Speaker’s Lounge of the House of Representatives for this meeting.

During our stay in Manila, we had also consulted with other key persons including Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera on November 18, House Speaker Prospero Nograles on November 19 and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on November 22.

It was during the meeting with Solicitor General Devanadera that we were advised to prepare a briefer specifying our justifications on why our cityhood statuses should be retained. I promptly instructed my department and office heads to prepare and come up with a detailed outline/summary on the possible impact and effect, should the rewind from a city into a municipality become final and executory.

We provided statistics, facts and updated data on the number of new offices/departments, number of new plantillas, promotions, positions that were filled up, contracts entered into by the City Government, status of the various implemented and on-going programs and projects, adopted city ordinances, collection of Real Property Tax (RPT), potential investments and other similar data.

We also explained that reverting back to a municipality will lead to the deterioration of the social and health services. Performance of the existing offices will be adversely affected while the newly created agencies or offices will be dissolved, further affecting the quality and delivery of basic services. The resulting lay-off of workers will also deprive 100 families or 800 individuals of a decent source of living and quality way of life.

This briefer was submitted to the Solicitor General, to Congress, to our Legal Counsel and to the Office of Atty. Estelito Mendoza last November 26 in support of our Motion for Reconsideration. Alongside this, the Congress, both houses, were supposed to file a Motion for Intervention and Reconsideration to support our claims. The legal details, updates and defenses of our motion are all being handled by Atty. Estelito Mendoza as our over-all legal representative.

Our present situation comes as a result of the legal maneuvers made by the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) starting with the petitions for prohibition filed in the dates March 27, 2007, May 4, 2007 and June 14, 2007. With the City of Iloilo and the City of Calbayog at the forefront of this legal campaign, the LCP and other member cities as petitioners-in-intervention have sought that the court either block the respondent municipalities from conducting plebiscites or compel the COMELEC not to proclaim the plebiscite results. They also appealed that the cityhood laws be struck down as unconstitutional.

The prayer for the issuance for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) was not granted by the court which prompted the COMELEC to proceed with the plebiscite last June 16, 2007. Catbalogan’s conversion into a component city was ratified at that same day.

In view of this, my administration stands firm in its conviction that our cityhood was obtained lawfully. We went through the required processes and have overcome all the difficulties and obstacles that were thrown in its path. Most importantly, it emanated from the people of Catbalogan with a resounding majority of 25,426 votes cast in its favor. These justifications increased our confidence in the constitutionality of our cityhood and our strength to defend it before the Supreme Court.

As things stand now, Catbalogan remains and still is a city. No more less than the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Hon. Reynato S. Puno, clearly and categorically declared that the decision of the Supreme Court is not yet final and executory. Just recently, on December 10, we filed our Motion for Reconsideration (MR) before the SC.

Pending the resolution of the MR, the City of Catbalogan shall continue to receive the same IRA allocation and other privileges with other cities. All created offices/departments of the city shall remain to exist and function as such.

We earnestly ask the public to display the same faith and courage in this most trying time in our City’s history. Never lose hope for the law is on our side. GOD be with us!

We are also thankful for the outpouring of support and concern that we received when the news first broke out. We especially want to thank the individuals who helped in preparing the briefer which was an important part of the documents submitted for the Motion for Reconsideration. They are: DR. DEBORAH MARCO, ATTY. AILEEN FORTEZA, ATTY. CARLOS DAIZ, ATTY. GERARDO TEVES, ATTY. ERNESTO ARCALES, EDGARDO T. GUYA, DOLORES Q. TENEDERO, LAIMINH MABULAY, ROXANNE D. LAURETA, AARON PLANAS, ADOR HURTADO, ARBEE MON, LYNOR ABOTOG, JASMINE MACASPAG, CHEREL TAMAYO, CARLOTA RODRIGUEZ, ERLINDA ABUGUIN, ALFIE LEE, RECHELLE OCENAR, MERCEDES PACAYRA and all concerned DEPARTMENT HEADS.

A Santa Claus for Tacloban HUC

By CHITO DELA TORRE
December 26, 2008

Former Leyte governor Benjamin ‘Kokoy’ Romualdez, last December 18, was noticeably not the serious type that Leyteños and Samareños knew him during the approximately two decades that he was in power.  He was the jolly good fellow when he entered his precinct on plebiscite day at Panalaron Elementary School in Tacloban City.  The young lady chairperson in that precinct found the grey, no, white haired elder brod of former 3-term Tacloban mayor Bejo Romualdez and younger sibling of former Philippine Republic first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos.

Kokoy walked his way into the premises of the school in the afternoon when voting was about to close.

Those who might have noticed and recognized him could have been elated to see him quite alone.  Yes, because he was not quite alone.  His bodyguards were at some distance.

Kokoy joked a lot, as though he were in his teens.  Yes, he seemed to want to make happy those who were surprised to see him.

For instance, he seemed to be invoking for guidance on what to vote for, to which the riposte of the precinct 600-B chief was that it was all for him to decide.  Then he seemed to plead for some clarification on the two sides of the issue on highly urbanized city which was the main subject in that plebiscite that was exclusively for Tacloban voters.  “Sir, tapos na an kampanya....”   When also jokingly advised  to go out of the voting center and ask in the neighborhood outside for answers to his queries, and then return to the precinct to vote, he asked “Kun yes, ano man?  Kun no, ano man?” (He wanted some guidance on what a yes or no vote would matter.

He also pretended to have tired walking the nearly 50 meters distance to his precinct from the school gate, that he asked to be allowed to rest first.  “Lagas na gud man ako.”  The beautiful chairperson and her members and the watchers inside the school room smiled, but it was obvious they were also repressing their urge to laugh.  Their faces sparkled when he enthused that were he still a teenager, he would be courting the chair lady.

Minutes later, the school principal appeared at the precinct.  She said there was no advance information that the former governor would be visiting her school.

After the brief talk with the principal, Kokoy left.  A tear of joy cascaded from the head marm’s eye, creating a vision that it was Santa Claus who had come to her school.  She was sure the Christmas spirit had been here much earlier. Kokoy told his staff to scribble on his executive book all that the help that she wished of him for her school that goes underwater during heavy rains and which, because being just an old school for the poor and the poorest yet growing yearly in number of enrolees, couldn’t provide much needed learning facilities (textbooks, computers, and improved classroom looks).  Kokoy, the erstwhile strongman of Leyte, still had more jokes coming as he listened to her plea.  After saying he’d tell his son - Leyte First District Representative Martin Romualdez, and his nephew - city mayor Alfred Romualdez to help the school soonest, he remarked, “Dapat it’ ak misis it’ imo aroan, kay under the saya la ako”.  This was followed by a prolonged laughter.

Kokoy’s brief visit to his precinct (assigned for barangay Libertad) surely cheered up everyone in the school and the 600-B (also 600-A) precinct chair (who also wished Kokoy could also help Kapangian school where she teaches and which also needs every conceivable help as Tacloban approaches its new status as a highly urbanized city) who never expected Santa Claus would be in Panalaron that early part of the Christmas Season.

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Two other Santa Claus figures were cheering up the poor people in Samar.

Acting governor Jesus B. Redaja had let the poor communities feel that the provincial government cares for them.  His emphasis has been on agriculture.  While looking after the needs of the working force inside the provincial capitol in Catbalogan, the seat of the provincial government of Samar, he continues to give his heart to every Samarnon who expects the best public service that he could muster for them.  One special thing: Gov. Redaja has restored the subscriptions of the Samar Provincial Library. PARCCOM-Samar landowner representative Serge Gabral (of Calbiga) is among those who admire Jess for that.  The provincial library can now have more new, fresh and updated reading materials for its clientele.

Suspended governor Mila Tan was in Basey to give cheers to barangay officials while spending Christmas moments with her favorite leader in the town, Alud, the ABC president, last December 23 evening.  I was among those who waited for her arrival, after I arranged for my schedule in barrio Villa Aurora for Dec. 24.  Fearing however that I would miss the last trip from Eastern Samar to Tacloban, I left at 6 p.m., missing Mila.

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For the good tidings that they brought to their own people this part of the year, may I say to Kokoy Romualdez, Jess Redaja, and Mila Tan, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!  May you do more wonderful things for everyone, even if it’s not Christmas time, with God’s blessings.

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Master Romeo Sanchez, founder of Modern Aikido, and his self-defense instructors and students will celebrate Christmas with a party on December 28 at about 6 p.m. at the Trojan Central gym in Apitong, Tacloban, together with invited guests.   Merry Christmas to you, too!

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To all www.samarnews.com users, and very especially to Engr. Ray P. Gaspay, MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
To Massey and Alma, and all in the Leyte Samar Daily Express family, as well as advertisers, news sources, subscribers and the general readership, may the spirit of Christmas continue to reign in your hearts and may God through Jesus Christ shower you with more blessings!
Thanks a million for caring for Eastern Visayas and its population.
You’re all great!
You inspire everyone.
That’s an invaluable gift from you all.

Fixing the corrupt, past and present

By CHITO DELA TORRE
December 16, 2008

Chairman Ricardo Saludo of the Civil Service Commission did it well reading for Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez the concrete things ever done by the Office of the Ombudsman in fighting corruption in the Philippines during last Tuesday morning’s Celebration of the International Anti-Corruption Day.

The lady Ombudsman started to lose her voice as she read the introductory part of her office’s accomplishment and what the other government agencies and Philippine sectors had done in response to the Ombudsman’s crusade to curb and punish corruption.  She requested Chairman Saludo to continue the reading and the latter cheerfully obliged.

The CSC chief managed to insert adlibs on the Commission’s newest anti-corruption campaign program known as “Fix the Fixer”.  His brainchild newest idea of ensuring the drastic reduction of corrupt practices particularly in the abominable practice of extortion and bribery, which result in bureaucratic red tape (delays) and also losses in government income as well as in erosion of faith in government service, was launched by him towards the closing of the International Anti-Corruption Day and launching of the  National Summit on United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) campaign, last December 9 morning at Pasig City.  The launch actually came before the organizers and those who were present at the “summit” sang “Pilipinas Kong Mahal”.

Through Saludo’s baby, every citizen is encouraged to immediately report any occasion of fixing, so that the fixer could be fixed in due time.  He gave telephone and cellular phone numbers which the general public can use in reporting the opprobrious corrupt act.  Said the Civil Service chairman, the report will immediately be investigated.  He had advised that the important things to be reported should include the name of the fixer the office and location where the fixing act is being committed, and the date and time of the act.

The Ombudsman report which became the highlight of last Tuesday’s most significant and most relevant event gave a very clear view - via a PowerPoint presentation which backed up the report as being read - of the many things that the Ombudsman had done, has been and is doing.  These included officials being dismissed or suspended.

OMB Gutierrez said in her opening that her office and she herself were already being criticized even before critics could know what the Ombudsman was doing.  Those detractors ought not to be believed, she insisted.

Chairman Saludo remarked in his reading of the OMB report that the Ombudsman has made a remarkable accomplishment. Where once the case efficiency rate was very low, lately, he said, he has observed it has come to the vicinity of 87 percent.

Both Gutierrez and Saludo were hopeful that with the revealing report and the next steps or actions that the Ombudsman and the Civil Service Commission would be undertaking, coupled by the active participation of the civil society, all government agencies up to the local government unit level (provincial, city and municipal), and the education and religious sectors, the Philippines can have a much better chance of reforming its public service.

OMB Gutierrez, however, deplored that notwithstanding the international significance of the day’s event, she had not seen the heads of offices in attendance.  Well, the huge Ultra where the convention was held in Pasig City still had many empty seats when explored by the television camera of National Broadcasting Network.

She also talked at length about the Government Service Insurance System, concluding, wisely, however, that those working in the GSIS can help the Ombudsman and the government’s crusade against corruption.

The minuscule representation of the more than one hundred government agencies, bureaus and offices, gave her an inspiringly prolonged applause.

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Quite coincidentally, the event came out on TV while I was reviewing my reading materials on anti-corruption at this time of the year when I was feeling low due to deplorable events that had been happening one after another, and also serially, right in the areas where I thought genuine “reform” could be fostered and demonstrated effectively.

After Saludo’s brief remarks about his “Fix the Fixer” drive, I wondered if he and the OMB could resuscitate instances of corruption of not long ago that had been obliterated by the simple expedient of barrio people not acting fast on a road that irresponsible officials regarded as “complete” or “just all right” even if was washed out and restored to its sloven, watery and muddy state.  I also wondered if the CSC and the OMB have enough axes to grind when office superiors coddle, instead of at least initiating an investigation, subordinates who have committed acts of dishonesty, misfeasance, or nonfeasance, or malfeasance.   These acts unbecoming of a public servant did stink, and they still stink even as noses around me are nosing for a white Christmas.

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To the Ombudsman and the Civil Service Commission, I wish you good luck, and may God the Almighty bless and guide your ways always.  Congratulations for the wonderful things you are doing to tailor a good name for Philippine public service and public administration!  Mabuhi kamo!  I’m with you.

Last eye openers on Tacloban’s HUC bid

The debate that never was on the “HUC-hood” of Tacloban left many Taclobanons guessing as to the real intention behind the novel bid of asking the voters of the city to accept the proposition to make Tacloban highly urbanized after 55 years since it became a component city of the province of Leyte.

Many looked forward to that debate that was called for by the Commission on Elections, with the Knights of Columbus and the tri-media ready as sponsors.  City mayor Alfred Romualdez didn’t show up - for a good reason.

Not a better reason to those who were ready to face the mayor and rebut the “yes to HUC” propositions.

In the post-debate-schedule television episode of a public affairs program hosted by city councilor Bob Abellanosa in the TV network that he himself manages, the “no to HUC” advocates were left without recourse but to heavily criticize the no-show-up manifestation and to take advantage of their exclusivity in that TV program.

Bob concluded his dialogue with his fellow anti-HUC councilors with a bitter note, transliterating the acronym “HUC” to mean “highly urbanized cowardice”.  Bob must have extracted that from the preceding views in his TV program where businessman-councilor Wilson Uy and lawyer-councilor Pedro Panis took turns in alluding to the failure of the mayor in the debate as an act of cowardice.

Vice-mayor Arvin Antoni appeared more appealing and persuasive in sharing his thoughts with the TV audiences.  He was in his usual professional self as he dealt with the heavy reasons why the people of Tacloban should reject the HUC and vote no come plebiscite day on December 18.

Atty. Panis talked at length about the purchase by the city government of about 400 hectares in a barrio north of the city proper for an exorbitant and unconscionable price (P16.5 million! - did I hear him right?).

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For what they said on TV this week, I take liberty to describe the three guests - Antoni, Panis and Uy - as the “The Three Wise Men of Tacloban City circa 2008”.  Counting in Bob would make the threesome group the “Four Musketeers of HUC”.

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Perhaps the “good reason” adverted to here is the fact that quite many Taclobanons now are aware why the Romualdez administration (Uncle Bejo admitted in barangay meetings that the HUC-hood was his idea) is” evading” (the Four Musketeers used the word “evasive”, but in the present context here, I think the appropriate terminology would simply be “ignoring”) a face-to-face debate with the main debater of the “reject HUC” bid.  (In an earlier forum with law students, it was city lawyer Sergio Sumayod talking for the main proponents of “accept HUC” bid.  Originally, it was the mayor who was expected to talk for the affirmative side.  On the negative side, Atty. Arvin Antoni was speaking softly - no, not argumentatively, not even in a hostile manner as he never raised his voice) - as if to ensure that his listeners [and later on, the audiences that watched the TV mileage on that forum] understood his point.  There is no further point to face detractors in a debate - some could be saying - because anyway, day and night, barker vehicles go around downtown and the outskirts to exhort Taclobanons to vote “yes” to HUC.  Besides, they could also be saying, the city administration has had spent huge sums of money already for its “yes” campaign, and several tarpaulins proclaim one or more reasons why Taclobanons should vote “yes”.  Some printed materials had already been circulated to reinforce the information drive.

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I will have my own vote on the HUC plebiscite.  If I will vote “yes”, it’d be because I believe that maybe with Tacloban transformed into a highly urbanized city, Taclobanons can have much better hopes for socio-economic and political progress.  If I will vote “no”, it ‘d be because I would not want Tacloban to be made a laughing stock among denizens of genuinely highly urbanized cities that could stand on their own, when still after 3 years of being HUC,  Tacloban’s “now HUC-attributable problems” would worsen.

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Yes, it is correct there’s no provision in the Local Government Code of 1991 that a HUC could be receiving more benefits from the national government.  On the contrary, a HUC Tacloban would be left entirely on its own, deciding independently of the provincial government, and getting a bigger internal revenue allotment of which the biggest part will be entirely for its own use.

Yet, there also are no provisions in the same law that specifically bar HUC leaders from asking (the askers are to called political beggars) assistance from the national government.

Yes, a HUC Tacloban would become a congressional unit of its own, thus, it will elect its own representative to the House of Representatives.

But it will have no governor, like Ormoc City, and thus it will de denied of any help from the provincial government of Leyte, and why should it deserve one when it will no longer participate in the election of provincial officials even if the Provincial Capitol will still be a micromillimeter away from the political territory of Tacloban?, and then it will suffer the odious fate of perpetually waiting for congressional mercy for bills that its elected representative may be introducing to be enacted into laws, as do congressmen  from all the districts in the Eastern Visayas region.

Nonetheless, Tacloban could behave, as it should even now, ever ready to assume a higher role without punishing its traditionally impoverished communities.

The phenomenon of globalization and sin

Rev. EUTIQUIO ‘EULY’ B. BELIZAR, JR., SThD
December 11, 2008

I saw a picture of a McDonald restaurant (‘McDo resto’, young people say) in China many years ago. In fact, I used to have snacks in one as a student priest in Rome (they were inexpensive, pretty much affordable to those of us who subsisted on meager scholarship allowances and Mass stipends). You see them in Metro Manila and in many of our urban centers. Go anywhere in the big cities of the world, chances are, you will see ‘McDo restos’ and their familiarity gives you the illusion you are home. While in one in Rome I asked a fellow priest during the semestral break where he was going for the summer. He answered matter-of-factly: “To Iceland to see my auntie.” I asked, incredulous, “Are there Filipinos in Iceland?” “Of course,” he said, eyeing me like I came from the boondocks (true: boondocks of Samar). McDonald restaurants everywhere. Filipinos everywhere on earth. That in brief is what we call globalization. Its root being ‘globe’ (world), globalization refers to the reality in which any human activity, operation, presence or institution reaches the different corners of the world.

Now here’s the catch. If McDo restaurants are global, so are their carbohydrates-and-fat-rich menus. If Filipinos are now global, so are our ‘crab mentality’, ‘destructive regionalism’, ‘Filipino time’, ‘intrigue’ tactics etc. Isaiah in our first reading denounces Israel’s sins but also those of the whole known world as embodied in the wayward human practices of his time. All this is a statement that just as a neutral or even virtuous human activity or behavior could be done anywhere in the world by most human beings, so are our human sins too. Take greed for profit and the deceptions behind the ‘melamine’ scare which started in China. Milk and milk products packaged by certain Chinese companies have been found contaminated with this substance which is responsible for kidney stones and even death in babies. The wonder is, its reach is now global. Almost all countries have warned its citizens against buying contaminated products from China and are carefully testing other products as well for other defects.

Jesus in his time did not go global. He was confined within Palestine. But he had a global outlook. For instance, in the gospel of Matthew he excoriates sinful people in the sinful cities of Chorazin and Behsaida (Mt 11:20-24). They are both located near the Sea of Galilee, Jewish enclaves. He compares them to the sinful Gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon in Phoenicia and holds the Galilean cities more reprehensible. Now, that is certainly daring and prophetic to tell your own people their true faults rather than deceive them with praise releases. The point is that Jesus is indeed aware of how sin and iniquity is true not only in one part of the globe but also in others, that it could be less or more serious in some rather than in other places. Most of all, it is equally abhorrent the whole world over.

Call it negative human solidarity. Warays call it ‘tapon’ (contamination that spreads). Bible experts are one in saying that Jesus’ denunciation of these sinful global cities is meant to ‘shock’ them to conversion. Is their hard-headed, hard-hearted reaction a mirror of ours? That, too, is proof of the ‘global’ manifestation of sin. On the other hand, is the repentance of Niniveh reflected in our personal lives, our families, communities and society? That likewise points to the global dimension of conversion.

Old Gaisano store still a favorite; ah, yes, traffic congestion again, ahead

By CHITO DELA TORRE
December 5, 2008

Gaisano Tacloban will remain at the Tacloban Shopping Center.  It will continue to operate.  It won’t close.  It won’t close just because Gaisano Central is now open.  In fact, it has more better items for sale now.  Some of its newest items are not available in other stores in the city.  Its ambience is more inviting these days.  It will continue with additional improvements.

These are the popular beliefs of the regular customers of the old Gaisano.  These customers, although having already gone once or twice, or more, to Gaisano Central, which is only about 150 meters away to the southeast along the same street (Justice Romualdez) where Gaisano Tacloban stands, keep going to their old favorite mini-mall department store.   On evenings, I see them – many of them my friends and relatives – there walking up and down the two staircases and shopping in Gaisano Tacloban’s 39 display sections, buying everything that their available money can buy: grocery merchandise, beauty items, Christmas season picks, clothing and textile, snack items, drinks and cigarettes, compact and digital video discs, photographic films, shoes, bags, belts, hats, school and office supplies, toys, baby’s items, kitchenware, electrical items, carpentry and masonry tools, sports items, plastic flowers and plants, ornamental accessories, housing and bedroom furnishings, toiletries, and many more.

There is no escalator, not even elevator, at the old favorite store, but they keep going there, from as early as when it opens, until it closes.  During the last midnight sale, the store was almost fully congested.  The congestion is actually a normal sight and event even on regular business hours and days.  That’s the old Gaisano – truly, a favorite place to go, shop and buy at, by my three lovely girlie granddaughters, and my family, and, yes!, your own family!

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Tacloban’s traffic officers should make a fast implementable study and take action on the congestion problem that developed at Justice Romualdez, between the southeastern side of M.H. del Pilar and towards the main road artery’s corners at Sen. Enage-Salazar streets since the Gaisano Central opened business. The congestion is remarkable starting at 5 p.m.  No, the Gaisano Central is not its direct cause. If it is, it will be insanity to remove the mall or close it to the public.  Crazy.

Of course, it is understandable that there are two traffic lights systems between these two street intersections which keeps traffic stalled for brief moments.  Vehicles disgorging passengers at the Central’s front roadside are almost a bumper-to-bumper headache every 5 seconds as they also pick up passengers from among those coming out of the mall.  On late afternoons, the Romualdez roadside of that section near the Bank of Philippine Islands gets blocked by barbecue stands (about five, an observer remarked, have been added to the location?) and the pedestrian lane hardly gets cleared of pedestrians.

This snarl may require rerouting.

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The traffic light, many are saying, and I also say so, extremely needs resetting, and correcting, at the corners of Romualdez and M. H. Del Pilar, Enage and Salazar streets.  Why?

1. They post red (stop) light and puts a stop to both pedestrians and vehicles;

2. When the green (go) turn-right/turn-left arrow lights are on for vehicles but the  pedestrian green (walk) lights are on at the same time, vehicles turn right, or left, even when pedestrians are already crossing, thus pedestrians stop in the middle of the road to give way to those vehicles; and

3. There is not enough time for vehicles to run on green (go) signal at the same time that there is not enough time for pedestrians to complete their crossing walk.

Clearly, the traffic lights systems are now obviously defective in communicating to both vehicles and pedestrians.

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Ms. Estelita Deloria Balneg, retired district schools supervisor of Catarman, Northern Samar, will celebrate her 88th birthday come December 14.  Expected to join her many well-wishers at the Balneg residence in Catarman, apart from her sibling, nephews, and other kins, are her close first cousins who are living between 100 and 1,000 kilometers away to the north in Luzon, south to Samar, Leyte and Mindanao, and east to Taft in Eastern Samar.  Among them are Atty. Amado Baclea-an Deloria, former Commissioner of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, his younger brother Leopoldo who works at the Supreme Court of the Philippines, and his younger sister Ana, as well as Nida who works at the Samar Provincial Hospital. The birthday celebrant frequented Basey, the hometown of her mom, Eleuteria Deloria, until she retired from the Department of Education, Culture and Sports more than two decades ago.  She was very close to my own mother.  When all shall be around her in Catarman on Dec. 14 (two Sundays from now), it will be a great, very memorable grand reunion.  I am sure, some of the children of Pedro Llego Deloria, who are in Catarman now or are near Catarman, will be going there, to partake of the blessings of the day with the oldest living scion of the very big Deloria clan.  My greetings in advance: Happy birthday, Mana Esteling!  May you live much longer, and may God the Almighty continue to shower His blessings on you!

Tacloban HUC forum goes to the barangay

By CHITO DELA TORRE
November 26, 2008

A highly urbanized city will not solve the problems of Tacloban City and its people.  It’s only a way to alleviate problems.

The city’s problems today are attributes of a HUC and not of a component city.

These were clarified by mayor Alfred S. Romualdez when he drove in to the unnamed interior road that divides Barangay 5 and Barangay 5-A where people from these two and other urban villages converged for a “Yes” campaign on the HUC this past Monday evening.

Alfred arrived with his pretty wife, city councilor Kristina Gonzales Romualdez.  His arrival prompted his father Alfredo, the immediate past mayor of Tacloban, to cut short his pro-HUC talk which was minced with jokes and anecdotes. (In one anecdote, the ex-mayor said Erap (former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada) had said that he had been an “ex-mayor, ex-senator, ex-Vice-President, and ex-President”, and then he became an “ex-convict”, but now is an “expert”.  The loud and prolonged applause and laughter showed that the audiences were intently listening to the past mayor.)

Uncle Bejo told his audiences that he would dwell only on three points or reasons why Tacloban should now be a highly urbanized city: political, financial, and social.  He also parried issues raised by the “No” proponents.  Saying that it’s now time that Tacloban detach itself from the Leyte provincial government, Tacloban will no longer need to wait for a long period of time for its ordinances to pass review by the provincial government through the sangguniang panlalawigan.

From that forum, interrupted by a sudden drizzle during the talk of Alfred which forced some in the audiences who were outside of the tents (set up at the “half court” of the forum venue hours earlier by city government personnel) to run for shelter, the nearly 300 listeners also learned that:

1.  There are now 33 HUCs in the country;

2.  Tacloban is lower in rank than that of Ormoc City’s which is an “independent component city”;

3.  Tacloban now has 217,000 population while Puerto Princesa in Palawan only had 207,000 population when it was granted its HUC status;

4.  there will be no motorized cabs for hire phase out, and no squatters eviction;

5.  taxation has nothing to do with HUC-hood, because it is already mandated in law that taxes will be raised by no more than 10 percent every five years;

6.  as a HUC, Tacloban will no longer be known as “Tacloban City, Leyte” but only as “Tacloban City”, with a “right of representation” of its own, apart from the First District of Leyte, in the House of Representatives; and

7.  as a HUC, Tacloban will already have a “director” or chief superintendent for the rank of its highest police officer, unlike today that the rank of the city police chief is only that of “superintendent” whereas in Ormoc City the police chief is ranked “director”.

The former mayor pointed out that at least three politicos who are opposed to HUC-hood are ventilating negative issues only for “personal reasons”.  One of them, whose name he mentioned, has even tried to “corner” the City Hall media after putting up his own media outfit subsequent to quitting a big media station but now might face estafa charges for delivering earnings to his previous business outfit.

A lady who spoke before Bejo enumerated situations which presently make Tacloban a regional center - like the most number of colleges and universities, hospitals and banks in the region.  Alfred, said he and the Taclobanons could not prevent the influx of population, otherwise, he would be made to answer for human rights violation.

Kristina, before presenting Alfred and introducing him as “pinakamabait at pinakaguwapo na mayor”, told of the massive development that resulted when her city became a HUC.  Alfred, on his turn, joked that he realized that after ten years of marriage he is still handsome.

The mixed audiences came to know, too, that it was Bejo who conceived the idea of making Tacloban a HUC; that the Romualdezes “gave” a lot to Robinsons, for this giant business firm to put up its own business in Marasbaras; that the owner of Robinsons is also the owner of Cebu Pacific; and that the former governor of Leyte, Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez, obtained a loan from World Bank to widen and improve further the water system at Pastrana, Leyte.

Councilor Pax Pacanan, who spoke after Alfred, reiterated what had already been said by the speakers before him, that the Tacloban having been a “component city” of Leyte for already 55 years but facing problems so enormous that only a higher rank, that of HUC, could respond to competently, Taclobanons should vote in favor of the HUC-hood come December 18, as from there, the city could start growing with huge investments coming in.  He also took that occasion to thank his audiences for their electoral votes for him in the past elections that sent him to the alderman’s hall.  Pax, a close and highly reliable friend of yours truly and many others, has been an active contributor to the development of Tacloban since his younger days in this city (until the Katig-uban Samareños ha Leyte or KASALE became a booming cooperative).  He comes from a prominent family in his hometown of Motiong, Samar.

Those seated under the tents shouted “Yes” to HUC six times during that forum.

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