Drumbeats thunder across Western Visayas

The thunderous roll of drums ripped the air in Western Visayas. And cries of “Hala Bira” were heard as visitors and dancers pranced around the streets to the 1-2-3 beat of the Ati-Atihan.

The most thunderous are in Iloilo City and Kalibo. The latter hosted the Ati-Atihan with more than a thousand police and other security personnel helping prevent any untoward incidents.

In Iloilo, the Dinagyang started to climb toward its climax by the weekend. So is the pyrotechnics exhibit next weekend at the SM City parking area. Already, Iloilo City has fielded some 5,000 “force multipliers” consisting mostly of Reserve Officers Training Corps cadets and cadettes from several university and colleges. There were also barangay tanods, police trainees, medical volunteers and members of various non-government organizations.

The Iloilo police is fielding 300 policemen and 100 more from the Iloilo regional police office to assist the city police.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas gave assurance that visitors and guests will be adequately secured for the duration of the Dinagyang, Iloilo’s best tourism presentation.

Like Iloilo, Kalibo also boasted that most of the hotels, dormitories and lodging houses in the Aklan capital town have already been fully booked. Some hospitals do, too.

Boarding houses and private homes have accommodated guests looking for places to stay during the festival, said Benny Tirazona of the Kalibo Ati-Atihan Management Board.

The fireworks display will be on the last day of the Dinagyang, on Jan. 23-25. A total of 19 fireworks manufacturers from all over the country have registered for the competition. Started last year, this is one event that is expected to draw in more than half-a-million people. Last year, food kiosks ran out of food because of the huge crowd.

In Kalibo, there were many tourists from Boracay who had gone out of their way to attend the Ati-Atihan. They often do it, also visiting Ibajay, the Aklan town nearest Boracay for its original Ati-Ati.

An interesting facet of this year’s Ati-Atihan, however, does not mean the end of the religious observance of the Feast of the Sto. Niño. Other Aklan towns hold their respective festivals after Kalibo’s.

So what is going to happen until the end of this month! “Hala Bira” is going to fill the air in Aklan where devotion to the Sto. Niño has approached almost fanatical heights.

Shades of ‘Alabang Boys’

I have wondered why the House of Representatives did not include the discontinuance by the Iloilo provincial government of the allowance given to prosecutors in the province.

But I found myself clarified yesterday when fifth district Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., son of the Gov. Niel Tupas, filed a resolution calling for a House investigation into the so-called “Balasan Boys.”

This involved the questionable dismissal of drug-related charges against suspected drug pushers in northern Iloilo.

Incidentally, the Iloilo governor suspended the P1.7 million in allowances given to Iloilo prosecutors precisely amid suspicions that some dismissals of charges against pushers apprehended by the PDEA were questionable.

The target of the Tupas probe is the dismissal of the case against O’Henry Caspillo and Rolly “Boy Amo” Tiope, two drug suspects from the fifth district town of Balasan.

Police found the names of two Iloilo prosecutors and their cell phone numbers in Caspillo’s wallet when they arrested him in June last year.

He also said that recently the provincial government received disturbing information that certain prosecutors have been questionably dismissing cases against drug pushers in northern Iloilo.

The information allegedly came from top officials of the Iloilo provincial office.

PDEA legal counsel Roni Delicana confirmed that most of the drug cases filed by his agency before the Iloilo provincial prosecutor’s office (IPPO) were either dismissed or downgraded to bailable offenses.

Provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada pointed out that “the ruling on Caspillo’s case raised eyebrows at the Capitol.” It was apparent, he added, that the IPPO twisted the facts to justify the dismissal of a non-bailable offense for which Caspillo was charged.

Now that the provincial government has reacted to questionable decisions by the government prosecutors right in the home province of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, there are reasons to suspect that something really wrong is going on among the members of the prosecutorial arm. Not only in the case of the “Alabang Boys” but in other cases as well.

It’s time for the House to widen its inquiry into drug cases and how the government is handling them in the fight to eliminate the drug menace. No wonder that President Arroyo decided to name herself as the country’s anti-drug czar.