Jokes over the recent Iloilo fiasco

Governors in Western Visayas and a city mayor in Iloilo yesterday demanded the resignation of police officers and policemen involved in Wednesday’s armed action to force Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas out of the Iloilo provincial capitol.

Antique Gov. Sally Zaldivar-Perez, chairman of the Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Western Visayas, renewed the call for those behind the barbaric assault to resign.

Perez merely articulated the consensus among governors JC Rahman Nava of Guimaras, Carlito Marquez of Aklan, Capiz’s Vicente Mermejo and Roxas City Mayor Antonio del Rosario that top PNP officials of the region and commanders of the various units involved in Wednesday’s action must resign.

At the Negros Press Club Saturday, members of the press had joked about the effort of police officials to make light of the incident.

"So, who actually provided the Regional Mobile Force the mallets used to break the glass doors of the rear gateway to the provincial capitol," quipped one pro-administration media man.

There must have been two conflicting guidelines — one for the regular police contingent and one for the Regional Mobile police force, pointed out Ely de los Santos.

De los Santos was referring to the admission of RMG Senior Superintendent Pedro Merced that they were surprised to find policemen inside the capitol when they barged in.

Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Maranon, however, opposed the resignation call. Instead, he is asking for a thorough investigation of the incident to determine who is responsible for the police action that roused public indignation nationwide.

There were claims by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez that truckloads of New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas were smuggled into the provincial capitol in the dead of night.

Despite reports and claims that inmates of the provincial jail were also armed and released to provide additional security for Tupas, the police found no such evidence to substantiate the claims.

Gonzalez said it was unfair to blame the policemen for the botched operation when they were just responding to the barricades put up at the provincial capitol.

To a certain extent that "barricade" was an issue that caught the attention of two Bacolod lawyers over Sunshine Channel yesterday. One of the two legal luminaries said that the resistance and refusal to accept the service of an order by the court or the Ombudsman never happens in the Unites States.

"I don’t know why in the Philippines, public officials who are supposed to be the symbols of propriety, often end up barricaded in their respective offices before service of the order could be made," the two lawyers pointed out.

But Perez had a point. The controversial operation had created a backlash against President Arroyo who had nothing to do with the dismissal of Tupas.

The President, Perez said, had acceded to the request of Bohol Gov. Eric Aumentado, president of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, to give Tupas 72 hours starting Wednesday to give up his post.

Aumentado and Perez had offered to go to Iloilo to ask Tupas to step down before the deadline lapses without a court order stopping the dismissal.

"They defied the President’s orders. Now she (Mrs. Arroyo) is being blamed for the actions of some of her people," decried Perez.

Well, it will be easy to pinpoint responsibility for the fiasco. And, as Negrense newsmen pointed out Saturday, all one needs to do is ask who gave the mallets to the regional mobile group and trace from there the responsibility for the distorted orders that led to the fiasco.

Meanwhile, suspended Mayor Villegas of Vallehermoso, Oriental Negros, secured a 60-day temporary restraining order last Jan. 18 from the Court of Appeals for the implementation of the orders from the Ombudsman and the DILG for his suspension.

The court decision, signed by Associate Justice Antonio Villamor, Pampio Abarintos and Francisco Acosta, also ordered Vallehermoso Vice Mayor Buenaventura Olladas to revert back to his former position.

Unlike in the Iloilo incident, provincial police director Melvin Ramon Buenafe told Rene Genove of the Visayas Daily STAR that he did not deploy troops to the municipal building. Instead the Provincial Mobile Group was on standby to quell any violence that may erupt.

No to legislated wage hike

The Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations Inc. (CONFED) manifested its opposition to House Bill 354, citing serious implications to the industry that employs more than 500,000 seasonable workers nationwide if the measure is approved.

Federico Locsin III, chairman of the Confed Negros Panay chapter, said an increase in labor cost will leave employers with two options — retrenchment or business closure. Either way, he said this will definitely increase the rate of unemployment.

Since the labor component comprises 55 percent of the total production cost per hectare, Locsin said any increase will have a drastic effect on the market-driven and volatile sugar industry.

Locsin pointed out that the industry recently implemented a P20 salary hike after it was approved by the Regional Tripartite Wage Board.

Meanwhile, Maranon also called on sugar farmers to share the benefits of good sugar prices with labor.

In his speech before the Negros del Norte Planters Association last Saturday, Maranon said the industry had been blessed by two consecutive years of good prices.

The assembly, headed by lawyer Arsenio Al Acuna, was attended by some 3,747 members, many of whom were small farmers.

Government center suit

The ongoing construction of the government center by the city government and Hilmarc’s Construction Corp. was imperiled by the filing of a case seeking to declare the contract null and void Friday.

Hilmarc’s has already started the P400-million project as it has began the clearing operations at the five-hectare premium lot near Lopue’s East Mall donated by the Gonzaga family of Angela Estate.

The suit was filed by Ben Solilapsi, spokesperson of Alab Katipunan, Jesus Lazaro, Mike Carriedo, Abraham Tingson, and Allan Calilan, all members of the group Nagakabalaka nga mga Pumuluyo sang Bacolod. The case was filed by their legal counsel, former councilor Rolando Villamor.

Named respondents in the case were City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, and members of the Sangguniang Panglunsod who had granted the mayor the authority to sign the contract with the winning bidder, including majority leader Ana Marie Palermo, Councilors Napoleon Cordova, Greg Gasatay, Al Victor Espino, Homer Bais, Jude Thaddeus Sayson, Dindo Ramos, Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, Marx Louie de la Rosa and Arturo Parreño.

Villamor claimed that there was overpricing of materials and the bidding process itself was flawed. He also contended that there were provisions in the law that had not been complied with. Well, there goes another controversial case.