SALIP TI DANIW 2012-2013

No less than a member of the Lacar family, originally from Bacarra, Ilocos Norte, will come from Australia for the launching of a poetry writing contest in Iluko. It will be done during the 4th Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat nga

Ilokano MI-Global International Iluko Literary Conference at the Philippine Ports Authority Convention Hall in Poro, San Fernando City on May 18-20, 2012. The contest, Severino and Eufemia Lacar Commemorative Contest in Iluko Writing Poetry, will be a yearly affair. First prize will be P10,000; 2nd prize, P7,000; and third prize, P5,000; and other consolation prizes. Dios-ti-agngina, Francisco and Juanita, and Fr. Lacar, for trusting TMIF and Timpuyog Journal. Agbiagkayo!

SALIP ITI SALAYSAY PARA KADAGITI AGDADAMO 2012

We have read some of the entries to "Salip iti Salaysay Para kadagiti Agdadamo 2012" sponsored by Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat iti Iluko iti Filipinas, the national association of Iluko writers. Judging by their orthography (spelling of Ilokano words) some of these young writers are tyros and we would like to express our appreciation for their efforts nga agsurat iti bukodda a pagsasao. We could see new perspectives in their writings, how they look at things, even as they reflect their academic background, nay, intellectual and moral orientation. We have chosen the following articles to vie for the prizes (six): "Iti Laksid ti Amin", "Pagwadan a Mangitandudo iti Bukod a Pagsasao", "Napabaruan a Biag", "TI Pamulinawen ni Uliteg Ilan", "Nanabtuog", ken "Ti Babai nga Aglaklako iti Likmot ti Kapitolio." The cash prizes and certificates

will be personally handed by Lady Fele Mann, a Filipina civic leader in Darwin, Australia, during the 4th TMI-Global International Iluko Literary Conference at the Philippine Ports Authority Convention Hall at Poro, San Fernando, La Union on May 18-20, 2012.

Random Thoughts

Graft and corruption can not flourish in the government if there are militant subordinates who can stop his or her boss and say loud and clear: your freedom to dip your dirty finger in the cookie jar ends where the people's interest begins. This sounds like the great Manuel Luis Quezon who steered a Commonwealth government that was not tainted with graft. It is merely a recast of the bureaucratic slogan that has become a cliche, without force and meaning:"Public office is a public trust." To Oleah: In the realm of the abstract, we are our own mortal enemy, our greatest fear, our greatest pain, our greatest sorrow.

CHINA WARNING MANILA ON SEA DISPUTE? Now flexing its military power, this is simply the tactic of a bully. It is clear that China has no right to the Scarborough Shoal. It should respect the 200 kilometer exclusive zone as mandated by the United Nations. China Sea was just a nomenclature created by cartographers of antiquity. The body of water and the land under it does not exclusively belong to China. This could be a flashpoint because of China's greed. Photo caption: The Yellow Peril will also lay claim the sea off Currimao, Ilocos Norte and the beach?

SAPSAPLITENDA TI BAGIDA ITI RAY-AB A DAYAW DAGITI BANGOLANDA

SAPSAPLITENDA TI BAGBAGIDA ITI RAY-AB A DAYAW DAGITI BANGOLAN
Agarigengen dagiti samut-samut iti alipaga/dagiti balikas, balikas, balikas./Agar-arimasa iti apas dagiti kunada a biktima/Dagiti nangmaniobra kadagiti gunggona./Anian nga ab-abbi, anian a kalintegan!/Uray dagiti mongha agalumiimda a rummuar/Iti imeng ti puraw a sudida. Dagiti agid-idolo kasda la bakes/Nga aglagtolagto iti ragsakda./Sapsaplitenda ti bagbagida iti ray-ab a dayaw dagiti bangolanda. (Ay, ti gameng ti Furikawa!/Inkalida kano iti pamuon ti patta idiay Santa Maria./Siaasut ti kampilan iti rinnupak dagiti nagabungot./Adda kadi pannakasubbot iti rikkian/kadagiti binnatog ti pungtot? Umno koma nga agsisinnaguttayo/ta saan aya a ti berdugo/Isu met laeng ti dasig dagiti anniniwantayo? Saan kadi koma nga agipeksa kadagiti balikas, balikas, balikas/A nagsusuon iti bendision ti sirmata/ken panagkaykaysa? Ket iti rangrangkay dagiti darikmat/Siasinoda a natnag iti allilaw ken am-amangaw? Ania dagiti kari ti panagulimek/Wenno subbot ti adu a panaganus/No di man ti panagpangas? Itag-ay dagiti kusapo a wagayway/Uloden dagiti tirtiris ken ublag./Putden ti saringgayad dagiti umsi/Idinto nga itanem dagiti kumpay ken tikap nga isem. 

Photo caption, bottom picture: the author and the late Gov. Godofredo S. Reyes, 13-time president of the national association of Ilokano writers. The structure on the right is the patta house in Suso, Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur, for which half a million pesos was spent for its construction, according to GF Financial report. Prescy Bermudez, a GF member, has described this eyesore as "Dugol". He has written the president of the association about it, in an attempt perhaps, to "cure" once and for all this disease that has afflicted this writing group. JB, one time president of  the association has declared before writers that most of the money was spent in the construction of the patta's foundation.

Julio Belmes, the novelist/architect from Abra, now an OCW in Papua, New Guinea, is writing a blockbuster, the English translation of which will be launched in October. He is taking a vacation, hoping to attend the 4th TMI-Global International Iluko Literary Conference at the Philippine Ports Authority Convention Hall, Poro Point, San Fernando City on May 18-20. See you, Brigoli. The registration fee is P1,000.00 for this live-in seminar, where the sponsor in Ilokano Poetry Writing, will be announcing the rules of the contest. Only the major prizes will be awarded, with the first prize at P10,000.

TO A GIRL NAMED OLEAH/THE SECRET OF "THE SECRET"

Are you somewhere else, traveling again? In Timbuktu?

I shared the Australian writer's Rhonda Byrne's best-selling book, "The Secret", with a young girl who will enter college this coming June. She enjoyed viewing it. She expressed gratitude for possessing the film version and audio rendition of the book now stored in her USB including your book collections authored by Dan Brown and Stephenie Meyer. How old is the girl who uploaded into your USB this inspirational book? she asked. Maybe 22, I said remembering your email address (olelo_22@yahoo.com), your laughing voice and Chinese eyes. A million thanks for the "gifts" from the stranger I met on a Laoag-bound passenger bus on April 21. Meeting you was fortuitous. The bus that stopped at the plaza was full and there was only one vacant seat at the back where you were sitting by the right window. I sat beside you, a wisp of a girl in black T-shirt (?) and brown khaki shorts busy talking on her cellphone in Tagalog. I would learn later you were going to San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte, to visit your boyfriend, a medical doctor. I have just attended a board meeting of the Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat iti Iluko iti Filipinas, the national association of Ilokano writers, at the Patio del Sol in San Fernando and I was going to Laoag to visit my sick sister Inocencia. Did I meet my soul mate in that Partas bus? Or was it the dynamics of "The Secret" working and producing the circumstances that led me to you and acquiring the film version and audio rendition of a great book? You have wonderful, wonderful years ahead of you. You have "The Secret.

photo captions, from top: Laoag street in front of the Ilocos Norte provincial capitol, a Filipina Singapore girl

UP Baguio Instructor Poetry Lecturer

Junley Lazaga of the University of the Philippines in Baguio has accepted Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat iti Iluko iti Filipinas invitation to deliver the lecture on the daniw during the 4th TMI-Global International Iluko Literary Conference at the Philippine Ports Authority Convention Hall at Poro Point, San Fernando City on May 19-20. Participants will write their poems after the lecture and their pieces will be studied and evaluated. The best poems will receive prizes. TMIF has allocated at least 3 hours for the daniw. An Australian Filipino family, originally from Bacarra, Ilocos Norte, has donated money for the contest in the genre. It will be a yearly affair.I wish young Ilokano poets like Mighty Rising, Derick Yabes and MMSU and Divine Word College campus poets will participate in the Salip. For this year, poems published in Timpuyog Journal will be considered for the prizes. Kas maawatak, tallo laeng dagiti major prizes ti maited a gunggona.

QUOTATIONS

"The only way to deal with with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."--Albert Camus

"The serious revolutionary, like the serious artist can't afford to lead a sentimental life or self-deceiving life."--Adrienne Rich

     "There is no denying that Islamic extremism poses more threat than other types of religious fanaticism. There are complex historical, social and cultural reasons for this, including the greater prevalence of religious fundamentalism generally in the Islamic world. Islam has yet to have its Enlightenment, and support for a trule secular state remains a minority view in Islam."--Ronald Lindsay, atheist

Did the Laoag City cops keep the P10,000 cash of a drug pusher?

Minutes before the Laoag City policemen arrived on an owner-type jeep to arrest an alleged drug-pusher, the suspect was having halo-halo on a stall in front of the house that the lawmen illegally search. Victor Padayao, 44, who was eventually arrested in the next village, Barangay 7, had probably more than P10,000 in his possession, according to the stall-owner who lives across the street. He was counting his money--mostly P1,000 paper bills--and looking for loose change, but found none and promised to pay for what he has eaten later, according to the 50-year old informant. F0llowing Padayao's arrest, a local television news radio patrol interviewed some of the cops involved in the alleged buy-bust operation. One of them was presenting a P500 bill marked money taken from the pockets of Padayao.But Padayao told his sister, Nellie Montano, 48, that he never took hold of any marked money. Meaning that transaction between Padayao and the drug buyer was never consummated? Where is the more than P10,000 that Padayao was carrying at that time?

Will be sending today, April 10, 2012, my letter to General Nicanor Bartolome on an alleged buy-bust operation conducted by members if the Laoag City Police Station. They barged into the wrong house where they were supposed to arrest an alleged drug pusher, Victor Padayao, 44. The homeowners were not in the house at that time and only their children and their children's relatives were left in their abode. The head of the 4-men police team that raided the house was a certain SPO4 Rovimanuel V.

Balolong. Some people have filed complaints against Balolong with the PIAS in Camp Juan, Provincial PNP headquarters, and a decision or decisions were made against him. Copies of the PIAS' resolutions were forwarded to higher Ilocos PNP officials. But the PNP regional office, apparently did not discipline Balolong. And he has been doing things in his own abrasive ways.I am sending the Bartolome letter as a freelance journalist. I intend also to get the attention of the President of the Philippines regarding the matter.

Photo captions: A view of the Padsan river (top) from the dike, my ID as a correspondent of the Philippine's most influential newspaper, where I was a reporter since 1996; and the provincial capitol of Ilocos Norte.

ATTENTION: GENERAL NICANOR BARTOLOME PHILIPPINE NATIONAL POLICE CHIEF CAMP CRAME, QUEZON CITY SUBJECT: Laoag City Cops Illegal Search On A Private Residential House April 4, 2012 I, Peter La. Julian, of legal age and a resident of Oscariz, Ramon, Isabela and Laoag City, hereby state the following: 1.At past five in the afternoon of March 21, 2012, a 4-men team of law enforcers in civvies barged into a house along Zacarias Flores Street, Laoag City, to arrest an alleged drug pusher, Victor Padayao, 44. At that time, the owners of the house were in the Laoag Public market buying provisions. Only their children and their children's cousins were left in the house watching an afternoon TV show. The kids were shocked and tongue-tied at the sight of the armed men, who entered the rooms allegedly with drawn guns. 2. One lawman with a drawn gun went up the stairs to the second floor of the house, kicked a door open and pointed his weapon at the children, who were then folding newly-laundered clothes, inside the room. One of them, Bea Coloma, 9, scampered out of the room and attempted to jump out of the window but restrained herself probably out of fear. 3. Not finding their quarry, the lawmen rushed out of the house, out of the gate, and proceeded to the house next door. In their hurry, one of them tripped a 5-year old boy who cried but was not even helped to his feet by the lawmen. 4. Nellie Montano, 48, a vegetable vendor, told the undersigned that the police arrived earlier on an owner-typed jeep with no plate number. She said that that the armed riders, one of them with a drawn gun, immediately jumped out of the vehicle, entered the gate of the house followed by his three companions, their hands on their hips, ready to pull out their guns. Montano said she was alarmed because she knew that only the children of the homeowners were inside the house. 5. A 54-year old informant, who refused to be identified, and whose house is located across the street from the house that have been searched by the lawmen, corroborated her neighbor's (Montano)statement. She added that she got nervous ("nagnerbiosak) at the sight of the lawmen, later identified as members of the Laoag City Police Station, who suddenly arrived in a vehicle that stopped in front of said house. She said she feared for the safety of the children inside the house. 6. There were many people--mostly from the neighborhood--who saw the lawmen and there was a commotion in the street. "It was as if there was a shooting of a "cloak and dagger" film, one of them said in Ilokano. 7. The police led by a certain SPO4 Rovimanuel V. Balolong of the Laoag City Police Station had acted on a tip from a supposed "asset" who earlier had allgedly purchased a sachet of "shabu" from Padayao on a path leading to his (Pa

dayao) on the same street. 8. The police arrested Padayao in the next village, Barangay 7, handcuffed him, took from his pockets money paper bills, and then escorted him to the owner type jeep, according to witnesses. 9. The policemen trespassed on a private home, causing undue panic and fear among the children, not to say the grave concern of the parents--their fear of what would have happened to their kids if there was a firefight between the suspect and the cops. 10. By their act and behavior, the police inflicted a sort of trauma on the innocent children that would be difficult for them to remove from their system throughout their separate lives. 11. As team leader who rose from the ranks, SPO4 Balolong undoubtedly knows his job as law enforcer and the responsibilities, respect for human rights, for one, that go with it. 12. For this apparent fiasco of the alleged buy-bust operation, SPO4 Balolong and his men should be investigated and, if found to have committed lapses in judgment, be meted the corresponding punishment. 13. Also, a certain SPO4 Wilfredo Calubaquib refused to take the statement of the homeowners regarding the illegal search made by the police in their home. Is this not a violation of the constitutional right of a citizen to report the act by the lawmen? Juvy Cherry had gone to the police station to have the incident recorded in the police blotter. 14. I further state that I have been a journalist for at least thirty years and have always been bounded by the journalist's code of ethics--to search for, speak and write the truth. I have interviewed my informants and checked and double checked the facts contained in this sort of an affidavit. 15. I further state that I am the father of Eugene C. Julian and the children mentioned herein are my grandchildren who have been emotionally and mentally affected by the incident.

At the ancestral home along V. Ligot street in Laoag City.It is the same story of an unproductive day. Lying on the bamboo bed, rising up and walking up the stairs to the third floor where the ASUS LAPTOP SITS on a wooden table owned by Rene who now lives with his family in Singapore.After graduating in ECE at the St. Louis University, he worked for several years at the Texas Instrument in Baguio before going to the the island-state.

Workers pour cement for the roof of the house being built in Oscariz, Ramon, Isabela.

LAZY TUESDAY IN LENT

In Laoag. No jogging in the early morning after waking up in the wee hours. Drank two cups of tepid water from the pink thermos. .