The issue – who will compose
new peace panel?

Malacañang has just abolished the old peace panel, the one responsible for the Memorandum of Agreement on the Ancestral Domain. But there was no apology from the Palace. Nor was there any effort to impose discipline on those who created the mess that had already led to so many deaths and destruction in Mindanao.

The question now – who will be responsible for what had happened? So, nobody can be called down for that aborted MOA-AD that had already done its damage to Mindanao and its people?

Normally, if the Solicitor General is to be accorded the respect that she deserves, the members of the panel had signed the agreement despite the fact that they were not authorized to do so. In short, they exceeded the power they had been granted by the President or the Cabinet cluster that must have gone over it. Thus, it is evident that they must be made answerable for the faux pas.

Well, for the moment, the only thing we can do is swallow our saliva and hope that the administration will do better the next time. In short, enforce what conditions it had projected as needed before another ground of talks are held with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

And this makes it problematic since the MILF had categorically stressed that it does not intend to surrender their two recalcitrant field commanders – Commanders Bravo and Kato. And that means the talks are off.

* * *

Taxi drivers are not the only ones who have been complaining against the policy of the Silay Airport and its Air Transportation Office officials.

It seems that they are really favoring some taxi companies as already apparent from the complainants who are being precluded from picking up passengers from the airport terminal.

I have been hearing similar complaints in the past from several cab drivers. There is no reason why they should be stopped from entering the airport to pick up passengers. The terminal is supposed to be a public place. And passengers are free to select their cabs. And nobody is supposed to be prevented from picking up passengers.

It has become apparent now that there seems to be a certain degree of favoritism being exercised by the ATO. And that should be corrected before it erupts into a major controversy. For that matter, I have also been hearing a lot of complaints from previous baggage boys of the cooperative at the old Bacolod Airport.

It seems that the majority of the former employees of the cooperative were laid off, although one of its top men was hired by the ATO.

In short, there must have been something wrong in that decision. It is time for the ATO to address the problem. The question – how come that some of the former personnel were re-hired and how come new ones employed? I understand that Rep. Monico Puentevella had promised to look into this situation and try to address the problem of the laid-off baggage boys.

I know of several who keep going to the Silay Airport and begging for help from their former customers. They truly need our help.

* * * 

Who were the environmentalists who reported to Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra that the centuries-old trees in the buffer zone of the Mt. Kanlaon National Park had been cut? These are the whispering ghosts who should be exorcised by the prelate. What they furnished the prelate reduced the Bishop’s appeal to a canard and subjected the Church to lose its credibility.

Worse, because before that, it had already been reported by the Oversight Committee that the EDC had built or constructed its road in the area around the trees which they had actually been granted the permit by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to cut down if deemed necessary.

Michael Crichton’s State of Fear is a book that Bishop Navarra should read to be able to fully comprehended what some environmentalists do to rouse public concern about the environment and how they sometimes manipulate facts and figures to suit their own agenda and create panic among the people.

* * *

For years, I had advocated the transformation of MassKara into a Sugar Festival to portray a more meaningful message to all and sundry.

Instead, we continue to adhere to a replication of the Mardi Gras in other places. True, it is the most colorful event. And one must credit its many creative artists insofar as costumes and dances are concerned.

But the true meaning of the affair should be that we are proud of our sugar industry. Even the point to be stressed – that despite its downs, Negrenses can still smile and thank God for the monocrop economy that has made it one of the most dynamic provinces of the country.

Anyway, that’s for next year. Or any other festival that deserves to be projected as the province’s premier festival. That may be applied to the Pasalamat Festival of La Carlota City.*

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