Now it can be told. From our grapevine, we learned that during the meeting of a press group, one among the members bragged that he was the one stealing our newspapers to prevent people from reading our news stories. By his own admission, this guy therefore is a thief, “magnanakaw” in Tagalog.
Anyway, I understand he was the same guy who rented expensive photographic equipments from a big camera store somewhere in Hollywood, before going home to the Philippines to avoid deportation. He brought Hasselblads, Nikons, and Canon cameras along with lighting equipments, umbrellas and battery packs and sold them in Manila to make money. In other words, theft or “pagnanakaw” is in his blood.
Nakalulungkot, pero ang club na ito ay hindi maialis ang mga TNT sa kanila o magnanakaw na tulad nitong isang ito. This suspect is just one of the “thieves” that has been uncovered by PWD and its witnesses. Soon, other suspects will be brought to justice as PWD readies lawsuits against these “newspaper thieves.”
The “Untouchables”at the Consulate
Believe it or not. There exist Consulate Untouchables. If you think everything goes smoothly at the Philippine Consulate, think again. Our sources have it that a “few bad men” are exhibiting undue power over and above Consul Mary Jo B. Aragon and her deputy deputy, Daniel Espiritu.
These people, our sources said, are former Consulate employees who opted to remain in the U.S. after their tours of duty, and who got reemployed by the Consulate through the “local hiring” scheme.
The irony here is that these “bad” Consulate workers are now paid for in dollars by Filipino taxpayers, but are proving great liabilities to the Consulate. A lot of complaints are caused by the services done by these “Consulate Untouchables.”
These people are said to have powerful padrinos back home that is probably the reason for their display of arrogance that even makes Congen Aragon helpless to discipline them. “May mga attitude sila. Naninigaw sa tao at arogante ang mga ito,” said our source.
If you are one of those Fil-Ams who experienced ill-treatment at the Consulate, please let us know and we will tell the Filipino taxpayers to stop hiring them. We always received good results and solutions every time we sounded problems like these from Consul Aragon and Deputy Consul Espiritu.
The Consulate has had issues in the recent past with the community. A few years back, broadcast journalist Pex Aves had a run-ins with a high ranking Consulate officers, he wrote in the tabloid newspaper “Pinas.” A Consulate officer exhibited rude and undiplomatic behavior. Also, in the early 90s then L.A. Consul Victor Garcia was jettisoned to Kobe, Japan by the Department of Foreign Affairs after he engaged in a long-drawn fight with the Fil-Am media.
The Philippines in the Eyes of the Storms
The whole Philippines to date is still recovering from the successive attacks of typhoons, monsoons or storms or whatever you may call, that crippled our economy; brought loss of lives (men and animals alike), destruction of buildings, crops, villages and what have you for so many weeks.
The instant flooding of many areas in Manila after so many disasters of the same nature in the past meant the heralded preparations after those calamities met instant death once the paperworks where they were recorded were shelved.. The planned cleaning of many esteros and removal of squatters’ shanties along the Pasig and Marikina Rivers did not materialize.
The reforestation of our balding forests and fields moved like turtles still far from its finish line. Illegally constructed fishponds and dikes will be the focus of attention again. In a way during strong rains, the barricades and cemented posts blocked the fast movement of water lilies causing rainwater to stay, become stagnant and accumulate in low areas, ultimately flooding the lands. If our government cannot remove or prohibit the construction of these illegal fishponds, we hope the storms crumble their foundations and drop them to the ground and bury their owners.
Expect now our government officials to be finger-pointing and trying to put the blame on everyone except themselves. As usual, in trying to find the culprit, they stop short by saying that God is to blame for all of these destructions. Thus, the clause “Act of nature, or acts of God” was coined in order to use the Almighty and His creations as escape goats.
We don’t expect the culprits to be punished or penalized. After all, the public is still trying to recover from these disasters and they will easily forget.
Justice for Massacre Victims is still nowhere
After more than two years, the victims of the massacres in Mindanao are still awaiting justice. Seven feet below the ground, they cannot speak nor cry for justice. The witnesses are missing one by one. Gradually they have vanished without any trace. Truly, their poor families are shaking in fear thinking that nobody among the rest of living witnesses will be alive to testify when the formal hearing begins. Or shall it really begin? As Erap said, “pa-weather weather lang ang imbistigasyon.”
Sooner or later, all accumulated pages and transcripts used in the deliberation will gather spider webs even before there is a formal hearing. Have you noticed the gradually disappearing news and fire of enthusiasm even among some journalists?
Remember the different commercial ships that sank in our Philippine seas? Thousands of lives were lost but until now, the poor families of the victims are still waiting for the shipowners to be put behind bars or for them to indemnify those left behind. The Blumentritt district of Manila, which was the site of several funerarias, (funeral parlors) smelled through several kilometers radius because of the stench which could not eliminated by embalmers.
As we wrote before, application of justice in the Philippines is like “kabag.” Now it works, tomorrow it doesn’t.
Illegal Immigration a hot topic again
US presidential candidates are actively discussing illegal immigration. In the past, candidates were very careful and they avoided the discussion of this issue. But now we saw and heard candidates discussing this openly, maybe because of frustrations in the bulk of the budgetary expenses allotted to illegal aliens on hospitals, schools and social services.
We can’t really do anything about this as long as politicians discuss this with fear and reservation. Their winning or hope for election depend on the projection of their support to illegal aliens and their families.
We know of a Filipino who earned award money for reporting Pinoy TNTs. He did not last long doing this because a group of hardcore men sent him a threat. He is nowhere to be found now.
If he is still around, siguro naireport na nito ang maraming mga kababayang nagbi-benta ng mga pekeng Green Cards, SSS and Driver Licenses, o baka naireport na nito iyong isang galit-na-galit sa isang kabayan dahil nabisto siyang tiririt nuong una. Sa iyo kabayan, iyang galit mo ikanta mo na lang dahil feeling mo magaling kang kumanta, kahit pagak ang gitara mo, o kaya magpa-weather-weather bureau ka na lang.
While writing this, I heard on TV the reduction in the funding for some senior day care centers, contrary to the plan of Governor Brown to extend benefits to illegal immigrants. In other words, maybe the governor thought that illegals can work better given the chance than the seniors who depend on the government for their Medicare, SSS and SSI. Brown must have forgotten that these senior citizens helped built the economy during their younger years.
Comes now the Rizal Monument in Carson
Saludo kami sa mga namumuno sa pagtatayo ng monumento ni Rizal sa Carson. Hindi biru-birong gawain ang sinimulang trabahong ito. Simultaneous with the unveiling of the monument of Dr. Martin Luther King was the report that the Rizal monument will soon be with us. And this September, there is news of its unveiling. Both heroes stand for their advocacy for unconditional freedom, unity, equality and discrimination.
Our brother black Americans look up with pride to their crusader Dr. King. Filipinos now feel the respect of mainstream America as the news of the unveiling gets near.
Rizal’s monument should not be considered simply a piece of metal in that part of Carson. We should look at it with pride and as a symbol to unify Filipinos in this part of the world. To those who made it stand in our midst, Congratulations. To our cabalen Chito Mandap, luid ca.
A word of unsolicited advise: Make it a crime for people to tie or hook their dogs in the metal fence surrounding Rizal’s monument (if there will be some). On several occasions, we saw “mga walang modong Pinoys” who allowed their dogs to pee or pooh near the monuments of Rizal in Carson and Asuza.
Posted by PinoyWatchDog.com
on August 22, 2012. Filed under IN THE NEWS.
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