SHAKING THE HANDS OF THE CHEATER

All is forgiven, we say, as we shake hands of the cheater. But the facts of the case are still there and stare us in the face. We should always do right under any circumstances. It is not a hard thing to do.
Yes, there is a postscript in the FB photos showing the blogger and the former president of an Ilokano writers' organization in a sort of reconcile mode.It has something to do with an anomalous election for the presidency of the organization. It has been years since, but things are better left unsaid. He and his supporters knew what they did.

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Give due respect to the present by giving every moment of it your whole attention, doing things as if there is no tomorrow. This may be connected to what Albert Camus said, to wit: "Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present."

Remember Gloria in Excelsis Deo

The drama was there in all its lying beauty, of men and women who spoke for the little woman. What issued from their mouths were lies, lies, simply lies. And you switched channels every time they did their refrain or shut off the TV. Yet there was a corner of the mind that said: defending her was their bread and butter, Yes, like you, they have a job to do.

Dirt was all around. Corruption at the highest levels. We looked, shaking our heads. at her demeanor in front of the people or on television, citing statistics of economic progress. But then why was poverty, as now, all around?

More brown gods fled and were fleeing with their bounty. Jocjoc and his cohorts, the pork eaters, the ZTE broad band bribe takers and a host of other denizens that fed on the people's money.

God was watching? He has always been watching? Yes, the God of small things and the big things, in his white robes. was on his throne looking down?

The eyes of the Almighty are alert, sharp and wide open. He will make judgment: the tablet of decision, harsh, irreversible, will come down from the mountain.

But the highest court of the land let her go, that bitch.

FOUR PLACES (A Cordillera Diary)

     In the late 1980s, the blogger was assigned in Baguio as head of government information in the Cordillera covering the so-called City of the Pines, and the provinces of Benguet and Mt. Province. We had an office at one section of the Baguio City Library at Burnham Park. From here, we planned information programs in cooperation with media and other regional government offices and the military. Our target were the so-called economically-depressed areas, where we would be bringing services--medical and dental and information that includes verbal and written communication (books, posters, pamphlets.) Sometimes we went home late in the night or we spent the night in the mountains with our military escorts. (To be continued)

HOW TO BECOME A MARTYR

   
   

     The sound has its own unstoppable voice and there will be many voices to speak what it says, its truth. We are the many voices. And the stump? It will grow and it will be a tree again in all its glory. Unstoppable. Agree.Disagree.Break this native nightmare and become a martyr, an Antonio Luna or Andres Bonifacio.

AUTHORS OF PERFIDIA

     "Authors of Perfidia" is the title of one of the poems in "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Penablanca Again, Stranger," an anthology of Ilokano and English poems with critical introduction by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

    The poem was one of those analyzed by Dr. Agcaoili in his lengthy introduction to the book. It hinted of a house of writers that was started but never finished because of alleged anomaly committed by leaders of the organization.

     In the critical introduction, Dr. Agcaoili spoke of the house dreamed by the founder of the writers' group, who had for 13 years hosted the annual affair of writers and would-be writers. It was his wife who made a comment on the "rottenness" of the organization. She said it to the blogger when the later paid a visit to the husband and wife, both of them now dead, in their house by the sea. "Bulok ti gunglo, Peter," she said then. The writers' house was supposed to have been constructed at the lot donated by the couple.

   In the writers' gathering at the Callao Cave, Penablanca, Cagayan, the then president of the organization submitted copies of financial statement or expenses incurred in the construction of Balay ti Gumil.

    During the last day, the blogger questioned the entries in the financial statement. The answers made by the president of the organization was not satisfactory.

     The following was in response to a text message sent to the blogger by a female member of the organization:

     "I did not question JB out of pique regarding the Balay ti Gumil in Suso, Sta, Maria, Ilocos Sur when I raised the questions before the delegates to the annual national conference at Callao, Penablanca, Cagayan in April 2002. It was only for information on how P700,000 was spent for the construction of a supposedly 2-story house. At that time, three concrete walls of the first floor (ground) had been finished along with the flooring of the second floor.

     Here were the entries of said financial statement, in pesos:

    billboard                                            2,500
    initial materials                                 47,050
    labor                                                40,000
    materials and labor                           100,000
    labor                                                  45,000
    materials/labor                                  90,000  

TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS                P489,000
TOTAL BALANCE                               178,349.50

There was a notation (written by JB in long hand that he returned to the organization a total of P183,849.50.) The date, also in long hand, was 9-7-02

Goodbye for Now, Singapore.

Christian Julian and his Lola Estelita and Lola Leticia not far behind.

The 6th wealthiest country in the world, Singapore is a city of a million trees, where every street corner surprise you with something that is unique, where people go about their business, where you can be left alone and see the beauty, the order- even in traffic, rules are the order of the day, no honking of vehicles.

There is always something here that stuns you, reminds you of your country, what it lacks and what it should have, what's wrong with it.

Be charmed by the high-rise structures, the shopping centers, the underground malls and restaurants of many cuisines--Chinese, Indians, Europeans.

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The preacher from Galilee discovered a river running through eternity--the river of love and life, where mortal enemies can quench their thirst and rid themselves of mutual hate and anger, lies, deceits and subterfuges.