Back home, life goes on badly

President Gloria Arroyo’s triumphant US state visit inevitably has turned into a political story. Speculation now is that she will most likely change her mind and run after all for a full presidential term in May 2004. And since, to reporters’ queries about such possibility, she merely replied that she doesn’t want to talk politics, the interpretation is that she is not ruling it out.

Amidst the hypothetical chatter are real events around the country. For, life goes on with all its attendant travails.

In Calatagan, Batangas, fisherfolk are still in grief over the killing in cold-blood of their local hero. Sixto Atienza was head of the local Bantay Dagat (Bay Watch), a group of volunteers who patrol the coasts against illegal fishing activities. Fellow-fishermen looked up to him as a savior. Heavily-armed dynamite users had long been blasting coral reefs where fish spawn and feed, and commercial vessels often poach in municipal waters despite the law’s 15-km limit. Ka Sixto was just beginning to change all that, and restore their daily catch from the dwindled two kilos to the 12 kilos of the good old days.

Last May 3 during the town fiesta, Ka Sixto was walking from the stage after giving a speech when somebody shot him in the nape. His .45-caliber pistol was taken to shoot him again in the face.

The local folk know that Ka Sixto’s was a dangerous life. Ever since he joined the Bantay Dagat in 1999, he participated in the apprehension of dozens of blast and commercial fishers. He measured his effectiveness by the number of death threats he got – sometimes through letters, other times via deliveries of rotten fish. The reaction to his killing is naturally mixed. Some fishermen are scared all the more to report illegal activities. Others are inspired to follow his footsteps and join the volunteer patrol.

Over at Mindoro, trouble is over a Manila businessman who, after being warned thrice not to do it again, boldly went spearfishing last month at Apo Reef marine natural park. Divers videotaped him with pals going about their illegal pastime, then sued him for violating environment laws.

The guy claimed that the divers couldn’t have recognized them with water masks on. But the complainants have solid evidence on tape: the boat the reef destroyers were using was none other than the businessman’s $4-million yacht, Tiara II.

The NBI has summoned the billionaire several times to answer the complaint. Instead of appearing before investigators, however, he prefers to have lawyers negotiate with the Coast Guard for a donation of a patrol boat worth P200,000. This, so he can avoid a potential penalty of P500,000, plus six months to six years in prison.

Politics, the ugly side of it, is plaguing many towns. In Isabela’s fourth congressional district, priests and laymen who served as poll watchdogs in last week’s special election are crying foul. Provincial election officials appear to be favoring one congressional candidate over another by cheating the canvassing. Not a single municipal canvass was conducted in any of the district’s nine towns. The ballot boxes and official tally sheets were taken straight away to the provincial capitol for the canvassing that was done behind closed doors for the first two hours. The poll volunteers were not given the required copy of the tally sheets in all the precincts. In the few that they did get, the official sheets had different vote counts when taken to the capitol.

All this happened under the supposedly watchful eye of an election commissioner – the same one who secretly has been collecting pricey BWM motorcycles.

Talking about BMWs, a political kingpin in Bauang, La Union, also has been collecting the more expensive cars, along with houses in nearby towns and in Baguio. How? By simply taking cuts from each government project, of course, and by compelling national businesses that wish to operate in his town to award franchises to his siblings. Perhaps the guy has not heard of the term "lifestyle check." Or maybe he has, but couldn’t care less.

And in Barcelona, Sorsogon, local officials allegedly have purchased 70 generic personal computers for a mind-boggling P92,850 apiece. The P6.5-million deal apparently disregarded the almost daily newspaper ads on Pentium-3s that sell for P5,500 or Pentium-4s that go for P35,500. Worse, the transaction papers allegedly have been falsified. This is a job for government auditors, unless they’re in on it too.

Car owners everywhere are complaining, too, about the enforcement of the rule on early warning devices. The rule is old, and they know they’ve been remiss in equipping their cars with EWDs. But the racket is new, that of land transportation officials selling them the units of the right size and weight for double the usual price.

All over the country, home borrowers are groaning, too. Banks have been sending them notices that their monthly loan amortizations are now subject to 10-percent value added tax. This, on top of the old tax on savings deposit interest. Home buyers already had to crawl through the eye of the needle to make a downpayment on their houses as required equity for loans. Now the government is taking a cut on their monthly amortizations because it needs money for such projects as mass housing. The tax is killing them. But then, death and taxes are the only certain things in life.

And so it goes...

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Catch Sapol ni Jarius Bondoc, Saturday, 8 a.m., on DWIZ (882-AM).

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