Life goes on post impeachment brushoff

There are still those who have taken to the streets to search for the truth despite the admission by the Opposition bigwigs that they had lost their bid to oust President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from Malacañang. There will be the planned transport strike on Monday which includes Western Visayas, especially Negros Occidental. The Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahang Tsuper (PISTON)-led transportation strike will also call for the ouster of President Arroyo for the continuing rise in the price of fuel. And despite the media hype by anti-GMA forces, in the countrysides life just went on. Local government officials remained focused in governance. And, well, of course criminals kept doing just what they had been used to.

Thai envoy robbed in Boracay

The most embarrassing incident was the snatching of the handbag of Thailand Ambassador Bogdan Goralozyk together with Krystyna Zurek-Grial-Leyzyk. The bag was snatched while the couple were along the Sea Wind Beach Resort and the Pearl of the Pacific last weekend.

But there was also the positive twist to the story. Three young suspects from Mindanao were immediately collared by barangay tanods and hotel staff.

Hotel personnel recovered the handbag hid in a bush. Police turned it over to the Thai Ambassador. Later, police arrested another 14-year-old Mindanaoan reportedly involved in the snatching.A Mindanaoan vendor was reportedly behind the minors whom he induced to raise the money for their fare home.

Boy Ryan Zabal also reported to Panay News the complaint by a Canadian tourist Jenifer Skimson, 23, and a school teacher, who complained to the police of acts of lasciviousness against 40-year-old sailboat operator Ronald Amar, a crew of the Blue Sirene paraw operator. Amar, however, denied the claims by Skimson that he hugged and touched her body while they were in a secluded part of an island facing Boracay.

Amar admitted putting his arm on Skimson’s shoulder for a picture-taking. Skimson had a different version. She said she resisted Amar’s acts and asked him to bring her instead to the nearest resort. From there, she took a tricycle and sought the assistance of the police to investigate her complaint against Amar.

SPO1 Shirley Manalac and Elaine Papasin brought Amar to Kalibo from Boracay for the inquest proceedings.

Well, life goes on despite efforts by some to whip, the revolutionary fervor among the country’s citizens. But that does not bite with the common tao in the provinces.

The Intruder

Even as sugar leaders devoted themselves to their computers and internets looking for possible solutions to the energy problem, death intruded and divert its attention.

It was the joker.

The first was the demise of former Rep. Narciso Monfort (4th District, Iloilo). He was a colorful character I’ll never forget. And many others, including Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas, his House colleague for six years.

The second stunning news was about the departure of Junjie Fernando Lopez Jr., son of the late Vice President Fernando Lopez. Junjie lived an extravagant and controversial lifestyle complete with his stretch limousine which he sometimes had ordered pulled by two Arabian horses. But he died after living inside a home at the University of Iloilo compound in Jaro. He was striken by aneurysm and died 12 days later in the hospital. But Junjie, who was funded by the family foundation after years of high-living, was actually "loved" by the many poor whom he had helped with his largesse which he threw around sans questions. He was often criticized for his lifestyle. But the multimillionaire scion of Lopez had no regrets about it. His lifestyle was legendary. There were many occasions when Junjie, a cockfight habitue, sent cockpit crowds scrambling for money which he often threw around with complete abandon.

Monfort was a different story, Gov. Tupas was impressed with the solon’s obsession with the needs of his constituents. "He never left you without what he wants in the first place for projects for his district," Tupas told Iloilo mediamen. Even Rep. Jose Carlos Lacson (3rd, Negros Occ.) was impressed with Monfortt whom he described as a gentleman.

Actually, the 77-year-old Goodah, as he was referred to by mediamen, was a close friend of mine. For several years, since the time I used to cover Congress for the pre-Martial Law Manila Chronicle and later, as executive assistant of former Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Montelibano Jr.

Narcing was the complete politician. His favorite gesture was to blow kisses to his supporters and followers. He pretended to be a "comic". But he was actually a very serious person. Once, when Montelibano was invited by Narcing to visit Dumagas (his hometown), the Negros governor was jolted when the solon kept waving to the empty municipal cemetery. "But I must greet my supporters," he riposted. A double entendre.

As I had written about it, the late Rep. Romeo Guanzon (Bacolod City) once complained to me about Monfort’s trick. Once, Guanzon and several congressmen had been waiting for a long time at the anteroom of the late DPWH Secretary Jimmy Ferrer. Then, Monfort waltzes in, greets them, and plunks a package before Ferrer’s secretary and announced – "this is what I had promised to bring you from Iloilo." Immediately after, he got ushered into Ferrer’s room.

Once, after I had given then Iloilo Gov. Sam Grino a briefing on the media handling of the Palarong Pambansa, I mentioned deficiencies in the communication system at the secretariat. Grino dismissed it with a shrug. Later, however, after lunch, Monfort asked me whether I would accept to become the press steward. I demurred, pointing out that the best thing to do was to ask the Sports Writers Association whom they would recommend.

We were already on our way to the Third District when Monfort remembered about my observations. He begged off from our appointment and asked to be brought back to Iloilo so he could proceed to Manila to discuss the matter of the press steward with the Sports Writers Association in Manila. And he also told Grino to have more telephone lines installed in the Iloilo sports center for the use of the mediamen.

Another time, I inquired from former Budget Secretary Guillermo Carague how Monfort managed to secure early the Malacañang assistance for the Palarong Pambansa. That was when Carague, then a senatorial candidate, told me "in strict confidence" what happened. He said Monfort went to his house about midnight, then, when informed that the budget secretary was already sleep and could not be disturbed, he simply told the household help that he was going to sleep in the sala to wait for Carague. That, incidentally, forced Carague to come down and hand over the check to Monfort.

Of course, nobody becomes chairman of Guevent Industrial Development Corp. unless he had managerial skills and steeped in law. Although a physician by profession, I and two of my children, were surprised when one day, at the Manila Golf Club, Narcing seriously spouted legal jargon while conferring with his father-in-law over a ticklish question.

That was the colorful and unforgettable Goodah. His constituents will miss one of the most impressive congressmen they must have known.

McCafe

There are a lot more positive stories about the Region. But the one that caught my attention was the Thursday blessing of the McCafe, the first outside Metro Manila, in Bacolod. The impressive modernization and rehabilitation work must have cost millions of pesos. And the move meant a new aproach to the food industry by the McCafe which is run by Butch Lopez.

Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra presided the blessing. And in tribute to Butch Lopez, the hands-on-manager, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia stressed that Lopez and other stockholders represent a new crop – local investors who invest their money locally. In short, that McCafe represents a new mindset among Negrense entrepreneurs. Now they are not repatriating their money to other parts of the ccountry, but are spearhading the investment of their resources right where it could help develop the local economy.