Let investigators do the investigating

The public commiserates with journalist Roy Mabasa whose brother, Percival a.k.a. Percy Lapid, was assassinated recently, apparently due to his hard-hitting commentaries on his radio show.

Fellow journalists understand how Mabasa feels, because what happened to Percy could happen to any of us who come out with biting columns or commentaries.

But Mabasa dictating to investigators how to go about or even taking over their job is out of line. For example, Mabasa walked through the reenactment of Percy’s murder when he could have left it to investigators.

Police reporters during my time never second-guessed investigators of a crime unless we were asked to give our opinions. We never dictated to investigators what to do.

Mabasa is acting like the chief investigator himself. He tells fellow reporters the possible motive for his brother’s murder, how investigators should go about their job and why he sought the help of the US embassy to seek protection from Percy’s killers.

Nakakasuka na. It makes one puke.

What’s more nakakasuka(puke-worthy) was Mabasa seeking protection to be provided by the US government, as if Uncle Sam cares about Percy’s murder when there are thousands of murders committed in the US.

Unless he’s basking in the publicity of his brother’s death, Mabasa should leave investigators alone to do their job.

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If an investigation is conducted by the House or the Senate on Leah Cruz on her alleged smuggling of vegetables and fruits, I am coming all out to support her.

I would even accompany Leah to committee hearings. Another guy who would do the same thing is former Candaba mayor Jerry Pelayo, an expert in agriculture whose heart is with the small farmers.

I can’t speak for former agriculture secretary William Dar, who supported Leah’s projects of helping poor farmers during his watch. To question Dar’s support for Leah is like questioning his integrity.

I was a witness to Leah’s support for the small farmers when she made my vacation place in Puerto Princesa City a pilot farm for vegetables.

She brought in fertilizer, spent her time and had plant experts visit my farm. That she failed in the pilot project was not her fault but the infertility of the soil in my farm.

I saw how the plant experts she brought with her to my farm loved her so much. One of them said that he was helping in my farm gratis et amore because Leah helped him dispose of his vegetable harvests by buying them at reasonable prices.

Many agricultural merchants hate Leah for depriving them of their large earnings. These merchants are middlemen who buy very low from farmers and sell very high to consumers.

Middlemen, who have connections with powerful politicians – who are sometimes middlemen themselves – are the reason prices of locally-produced vegetables and fruits are high. They deprive farmers of their rightful earnings for their products.

Leah Cruz is currently busy buying organic garlic from farmers in Itbayat, Batanes.

Without Leah, garlic farmers in Batanes would not earn from their produce, as she’s one of only a few who buy from them.

Jerry Pelayo, who was Dar’s consultant on farming, told me Leah was helping local farmers by trying to eliminate the middleman.

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Let’s support Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin’s proposal to have our people slowly shift from rice to kamote (sweet potato).

Garin proposed to the Department of Agriculture that kamote could be an alternative to rice.

Garin says that fiber-rich kamote can lower hypertension, bad cholesterol and blood sugar, unlike rice that breaks down into sugar in the body.

Garin knows whereof she speaks. She’s a doctor and a former health secretary.

The Iloilo congresswoman said that kamote can be quickly adapted as a staple food for the Filipino’s dining table, if restaurants that serve the root crop are given incentives by the government.

An ordinary Pinoy consumes about 120 kilos of rice annually, making him prone to diabetes.

One out of every five Filipinos has an abnormal glucose level, according to a study made in 2019 by the Department of Science and Technology.

The country is second to China in importing and consuming rice. Remember, China has a population of 1.45 billion while the Philippines has 115 million.

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I remember that when I was a police reporter, one of the benefits of working the graveyard shift – between midnight and 8 a.m. – was to have free meals at the Manila Bulletin cafeteria.

Many times, I would have an early breakfast along with people from the paper’s printing press section.

I would fill my plate with plenty of viands and a scoop of rice. This was always noticed by the printing press guys, who would tease me. The press men filled their plates with large mounds of rice and small servings of viands.

As they laughed at me, I would laugh back. They didn’t know why I laughed.

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Former US diplomat Dean Edward Cheves, 63, may be sentenced to a maximum of 30 years in prison for having had sex with minors in the Philippines.

Cheves has been convicted by a US federal court and sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 23 next year.

At 63, Cheves will die of old age in prison.

But he may not have the luck of fully serving his sentence. Most American inmates hate child molesters.

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Joke! Joke! Joke!

A man forgot his wife’s birthday and was profuse in his apology.

The wife said he could make up for his thoughtlessness by giving her something that would shoot up to 200 from zero, in two seconds flat. She expected it in their garage.

She eagerly went to the garage the following morning. There, she found… a weighing scale.