Arangkada for September 22, 2005

 

        CSCST NIKAKAK

 

        Ang mga opisyal sa Cebu State College of Science and Technology (CSCST), nga maoy sentro sa nabistong eskandalo sa pagdawat nila og makabungog nga mga honorarium sa hinimu-himo nga mga posisyon nga wa nila serbisyohi, nipada og mga representante pagpahibawo nako nga gusto silang makigtagbo nako sa gawas sa sibyaanan.   Gipasabot nako sila nga di ko ganahang makigtagbo sa mga opisyal sa gobyerno nga nahisgutan sa akong programa gawas sa announcer's booth sa DYAB Abante Bisaya.

        Gidapit nako sila pagtambong sa programang "Arangkada" kay akong igahin ang tanan nakong oras pagpaminaw sa ilang mga tubag sa seryusong mga pasangil batok nila.   Nisugot ang mga opisyal pagduaw nako sa Miyerkules sa buntag.  Pero pila ka oras sa wa pa magsugod ang programa, gipahibawo ko sa ilang mga representante nga nausab ang ilang hunahuna.

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        Nagpada gyod og fax message si Dr. Jose Sal Tan, presidente sa CSCST, aron pagpasabot nga duna silay tambongan nga importanteng kalihokan sa eskuylahan nga di nila kalikayan.   Pipila ka tigpaminaw nipahibawo nako nga posibleng naapikhan silang Tan ug kaubanan kay naatol mang among sabot sa pagsugod sa intramural sa main campus.   Pero ang mga tinun-an nipahibawo nako nga wa pakita si Tan atol sa pagbukas sa kalihokan.  Gawas pa, nahibawo na silang daan sa intrams, nganong gipili man nilang Miyerkules nga maoy ilang iduaw sa Arangkada?

        Kasaligang mga tinubdan nibutyag nako nga silang Tan ug kaubanan gitambagan sa ilang mga abogado nga ang ilang pagtambong sa akong programa ug pagpanubag sa akong mga pangutana di makatabang sa ilang kawsa.   Maong nakahukom sila nga adto na lang manubag sa "proper forum," sa ato pa, sa Visayas Ombudsman ug sa ubang ahensiya nga nagsusi sa gipasangil nga anomaliya.

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        Laing kasaligang tinubdan nipahibawo nako nga sukad niulbo ang kontrobersiya sa media, gihunong nang paghatag og honorarium sa mga nagtrabaho para sa evening program sa CSCST.   Wa hinuon siyay kasayuran kon nihunong na ba sab silang Tan ug ubang mga opisyal sa pagkolekta sa makabungog nilang mga honorarium.

        Hinaot nga nakumbinser na silang Tan ug kaubanan pagtuman sa Circular 2003-5 sa Department of Budget and Management.   Kay nagpapating ra ba sila sa pagpadayon pagpahimus sa makabuhong nga mga benepisyo bisan gi-disallow na sa Commission on Audit (COA) ang mga honorarium sa niaging katuigan.

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        Laing makalipayng balita mao nga gipaagasan nag tubig sa administrasyon ang mga pansayan ug ubang batakang panginahanglan sa mga tinun-an.   Hinaot nga di ni ulog-ulog lang.

        Pero padayong nangugat silang Tan ug kaubanan nga legal ang mga honorarium ug ang DBM circular maoy kuwestiyonable.   Ilang katungod ang paghupot og sukwahing baruganan.  Pero mahimo bang samtang wa pa bakwia ang mga lagda mohunong una sila paghimo sa mga tinun-an sa CSCST nga ilang gatasan?   [30]  leo_lastimosa@abs-cbn.com

Inquirer Editorial

Editorial : Poorer and poorer

DURING a protest rally in the Makati business district last July 8, Rep. Imee Marcos of Ilocos Norte province asked the crowd if they would tolerate liars, cheats and thieves. The crowd bellowed, "No!"

She could ask such a question with a straight face, not only because she is a politician, but also because she knows we are a forgetful people incapable of appreciating irony -- not to mention the fact that aside from exile and the confiscation of some of their worldly goods, the Marcoses have never really been held accountable to the people.

The ousting of discredited regimes, if it doesn't immediately result in the execution of the leading personalities of the fallen government, often results in some sort of permanent ban on an expelled dynasty. For this reason, Austria expelled their former imperial family, the Hapsburgs; the Italians to this day do not permit the return of the discredited royal house of Savoy; Egypt forbids the return of the descendants of King Farouk; and the Iranians bar the return of the family of the disgraced Shah. The world is populated with roving former dictators, stripped of power but usually not all their wealth, maintaining a shadowy existence far from their former domains. Look at the Duvaliers, the dictatorial dynasty of Haiti, and contemporary of the Marcoses in terms of being vomited out by their people.

The loss of absolute power usually results in absolute disgrace, including a ban on political participation in the nations that rejected them. In the case of the first family that benefited from martial law, hoping to turn itself into a homegrown royal family, the kindest thing that can be said is that their countrymen are so kind they have allowed them to reassert a social and political status other nations would consider not only improper but unjust.

It is said that the sins of the father shouldn't be visited upon the son, and Representative Marcos has been circumspect, most of the time, in commenting on her father's regime. But what of the sins of both the father and the mother? And of their friends? The dockets of courts are clogged with cases concerning Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, including cases in which their children acted as the direct beneficiaries of their looting, or administrators of the many, layered accounts meant to keep the loot firmly in their family's hands. Many other cases concerning the Marcos cronies continue to gather dust in the courts. Very few have been resolved -- and then all too often not in the people's favor. Government agencies tasked not just with recovering the Marcos wealth, but by so doing with firmly establishing the verdict of history have made too little progress in the 19 years since the Marcoses fled for their lives.

Once again, Sept. 21, a date chosen by Ferdinand Marcos because of his obsession with numerology, and not because it bears any relevance to factual truth, has rolled around. In the days of the dictatorship, this date was proclaimed a "Day of Thanksgiving," a time for praising the "New Society." It was a national festival to praise a lie, for Proclamation 1081 was signed on Sept. 22, supposedly in reaction to another lie, the faked assassination attempt against Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile. The arrests that truly heralded martial law took place on Sept. 23: the real date of martial law.

Here again, we are shown up as a nation incapable of appreciating irony. Perpetuating the date Marcos chose, instead of the date when the country felt the full, brutal force of his ambitions, only fosters his delusions of grandeur and not the sinister reality of his actions.

Our country remains deprived of closure, when it comes to martial law. To add irony upon irony, the truest believers and admirers of Marcos, Joseph Estrada and Fernando Poe Jr., have caused divisions and have traumatized the nation to the extent that our society needs closure in terms of their controversial political fates, as well.

In every major political controversy since 1986, there has been no definitive legal resolution to exalt right over wrong. Everything remains clouded by accommodation, delay and inconclusive efforts resulting in unsatisfactory compromises. The result is a country that gets poorer by the day, progressively impoverished by its inability to get justice. Without justice, there is no hope. Without hope, there is no possibility of salvation for the poor.