TRAVELOUGE FEATURE ARTICLE

Eye for an eye (and a few teeth missing): Livingston, Guatemala

By Chris Ord
Over four centuries ago the Garifuna people was enslaved by the British and brought to the Caribbean coast. Today, James Curtis sees first-hand how they live, while making a few discoveries of his own. Our tour guide Alex is serious, looking like a Cuban revolutionary fighter in his green military hat and shades, and the story he is telling has the group gripped. For 10 years, he explains, a local Garifuna man had worked unpaid, helping to restore the hotel we are now looking at. Strangely, that man disappeared shortly after he had approached the Spanish proprietor of the hotel asking for the money owed to him. So one night, 20 years ago, a group of Garifunas gathered with torches and stormed the hotel, burning it down in a revenge attack. The Spanish man was never seen again. Today, the black marks on the white walls of the burnt-out hotel are a constant reminder of the Garifuna principle: an eye for an eye. It is also a symbol of their resolute history, to overcome the brutality of European colonists. After being forcibly removed by the British from the Caribbean island of St Vincent, many Garifunas ended up here in the small Guatemalan town of Livingston, a crazy concourse of Maya, Indian, Ladino, and Jamaican people, situated at the eastern mouth of the Rio Dulce. We had arrived at the port of Livingston the day before, greeted by a Jamaican tout wearing a Dallas Cowboys football jersey. His skinny associate had led the way to the Casa de la Iguana hotel by shouting Rastafa coming through, and this is where we had met Alex over a few bottles of Salva Vida. Our tour is brightened up somewhat when we reach the Garifuna cemetery, of all places. It is a multi-coloured patchwork of rectangle tombs; pinks, purples, greens, reds and every other colour imaginable. Alex elaborates, explaining how Garifunas believe that the earlier you build your tomb - decorating it in your favourite colour of course - the longer you will live.

We venture deeper into the thickness of forestry, Alex hacking away at the bamboo leaves in sweeping strokes with a rusty machete until we come to an opening. Here, he introduces us to an old Garifuna man sitting by the open door of his tin home. He is carving patterns into a length of wood, and works away surrounded by dozens of broken chairs, and some more functional. Apparently he is 100 years old and has been making a living from designing chairs for the duration of his life. There is no time to waste, and he gives a smile and nod before bending his neck to inspect his work. We continue deeper into the greenery, and its time for Alexs party piece: the call of the wild. So expertly he takes a large bamboo leaf, halving it, folding it at one end to make the equivalent of a reed on a recorder, and begins wrapping to make a sort of pipe. Its really a matter of rolling the card-like leaf in a spiral design while keeping it tight together. My hopes of making it as a true Garifuna are dashed when only a thin wheezing sound comes out, quite pathetic compared to the deep horn-cry Alexs makes. He uses his call of the wild, and from somewhere within the branches and overgrowth which forms the banks of the river I say boat but in truth it is half a tree, hollowed out a little and turned upside down. All eight, plus our toothless captain, board with the carefulness of a thief in the night, because even the slightest movement and we will all be neck deep in lagoon water. We all take turns in rowing the boat with the single rotted oar, making stroking motions with such tenderness. Toothless man revels in our cautious gringo ways. Half an hour later safe and dry, we are sipping on a half banana and pineapple cocktail with crushed ice. Hardly a Garifuna custom but the closest Livingston gets to being a resort town. Yes, it can be gritty, although the chief of police had informed me earlier that there hasnt been a shooting in five years, since the Garifunas took it upon themselves to rid of the towns drug problem. Look out for the man with the one leg he said, living proof of the last time anybody committed a major crime here. Search deep enough though and you will find the true beauty of Livingston, an untouched lagoon cut off from all other existence. There is a waterfall, but at this time of year it isnt flowing, although in a way this only adds to the serenity of the place. Everything is giant size, from the branches of the grove trees to the mossy stone pathway, so I feel even smaller as I start my running jump from the top of the thirsty waterfall, about 30ft high. I push off aggressively with my bare feet towards the dark green blanket of water below. It is a leap into the unknown. Is this how the Garifunas ancestors felt when there were forced from Africa to become part of the brutal slavetrade? Was this the feeling when they were removed from St Vincent by the British? Before I can answer there is a splash, and everything turns green.

SEASONAL FEATURE ARTICLE

14th February, a Day of Sex or Love?
By Akyena Brantuo Benjamin
You do not need to celebrate Valentines Day to feel the air that blows on 14th February. Its contagious. Love is in the air. So the saying goes. Those who cannot feel it in the air, can at least see it from the over commercialization of love products in the media, the red decorations of most public centers and special gift items designed for this purpose. I find the lingerie shops most attractive! On this day people go to unimaginable lengths such as spending a lifetime savings or taking a loan to make the occasion a ground-breaking one for their special one. For example, it is estimated that about 1 billion Valentine's Day cards are sold each year around the globe, America alone spends $12.2 billion on chocolate, $359 million on cut flowers, and $2.4 billion on diamonds. Do the arithmetics for those who spoil with mansions and latest editions of vehicles. Again, 14th February is a terrible time to be single. Whilst many people accept proposals without delay to be ready in time for the Valentines celebration, those who are on the verge of break-up, defer it until after the month of Love. There are those who help their situation by partaking in blind dates. As for those who are still not lucky, stories abound about how single women and men, who for fear of stigmatization from their environment buy gifts and mail it to themselves during this season. At least they also had something. Not only that, Valentines also provides the opportunity for people to engage in sex orgies, particularly of the dangerous kind: anal, same-sex, group sex, including dangerous sex positions and the use of health threatening aphrodisiac. As if that is not enough, from office tables, private video rooms, beaches and nightclubs, to the back of cars, etc people ride themselves to orgasms-saying so many things which are not very audible. Indeed it a season of sex for most. Virgins are shredded on this day and many married people and those in committed relationships cease the day as opportunity to escape from the boredom and over familiarization that long relations come with and engage in reckless sex with anybody who has been on the waiting list; boss, ex-lover, office colleague or the next available buss, after all as the Akans put it literally, any dirty water can quench fire The shortage of condoms during this season says it all.

Nevertheless, given the international hype that Valentines Day enjoys, the heavy investments that corporate bodies place on it, and the great length that individuals go to pull all those surprises, which make their VALS smile larger than their faces, I ask simple. Exactly what do you mark when you celebrate Valentines day? I mean you! To be blunt, do you celebrate your success in sleeping with somebodys husband or wife or the innocent girl who believes you are going to marry her but you only know she is as good as a sex toy; a platform for sexual experiment? Is it the celebration of your new catch from the last conference, bus terminal, facebook, movies, shop, etc? Maybe its a celebration of your new promotion, which gives you the opportunity to lay all the young women who work under you or those who come to you for help? What next after the wild sex on Vals day? Where was your wife, husband, boyfriend or girlfriend when you were busily panting for breath in the middle of another womans thighs? What will be the future for you and the one you shared the Valentines Day with or it does not matter since the sex, money, the social status, or the privileges, maybe good? Lest I am misunderstood, I am not against Vals day. Far from that, I wish it were celebrated every day. My concern is that the motives should be realigned. That whilst it is not possible to celebrate love everyday because we have other genuine commitments, the opportunity that 14th February presents married couples and dating partners to celebrate their love once every year must not be lost on them. To explain further, I relish the day when Valentines Day is celebrated to reward the hardworking efforts of wives, husbands, boyfriends and girlfriends. Vals day should be a moment to idolize your partner for his or her decency, sacrifice and dedication to make things work. Unlike others, he/she did not abandon you to start a new relationship when the going was tough. In our generation when the quest for material wealth, social recognition and independence is a matter of life and death, we need to reward those who still made marriage life a priority. A Person who suffered your foolishness gladly and did not find cheating attractive, at a time when decency and faithfulness to ones partner is branded as naivety deserves to be celebrated in the month of love. Finally, we need to celebrate marriages and thriving relationships not because it been entirely a success story during the years under review, but because irrespective of those moments of anger, hurt, fatigue and financial difficulties, the partners found reason to stay together: reasons that were noble and foresighted, reasons which were too important to be destroyed by perhaps occasional moments of indiscretion on the part of your partner.

My interest in encouraging partners to work and achieve a healthy relationship despite their challenges is not selfish. In fact, the consequences of failed relationships or reckless sex lives do not only affect the individuals who are immediately associated with it. It has telling implications on the extended family and the country as a whole. An example will suffice. During this 14th February, I am not sure of how many men will accept a Vals day one-night-stand pregnancy but I am sure it will force many women to dropout from school, stop their work, or be banished from their dependants. Again it is possible some of these unprepared mothers can still make it in live and keep their dreams alive but my sympathy is really with those whose otherwise bright future will be distorted by this process. I dont want to even consider those who will die in the process or how to repair the crack this makes on the family reputation. I am most interested in the children born out of such moments of madness. Whilst there may be an exception to the rule, I am sure we cannot explain the history of street children, armed robbery, illiteracy, poverty and many of the challenges that government is confronting without understanding the consequences of reckless sex. On another platform, we can discuss sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, to prove that when private individuals decide to be reckless about sex and relationship, the punishment is shared by the whole nation. We may also discuss the many that get psychologically affected in the process, those who vow never to marry again because of being taken for granted in a relationship, those who either seek revenge on all women or all men because of bad encounter with a woman or guy who mistreated them and hurt them severely. We may also trace the link between bad leaders in the country or bad bosses in the office and the bad state of their married life. It should also be interesting to demonstrate the causal relationship between ill-mannered and indiscipline people and the kind of family life they had growing up. Indeed there is nothing as beautiful as sustaining a healthy relationship that leads to marriage, one that grows generational families that are prosperous and happy. After all, if the country is an aggregation of the nucleus family, then a happy and successful family makes a happy nation. What is the point in becoming a successful, politician, musician, etc without a happy family to celebrate your success with or standby you in moments when friends and associates are not there. We need a family to bequeath our legacies and care for us when we are old and unattractive. In this season of love, remember it a great thing to be loved and even greater for another to feel loved by you.

THE HOW-TO FEATURE ARTICLE

The Very Best Homemade Chocolate Cookies from Scratch Recipes Anywhere - Tips, Tricks and Traps By Mark Shaw
Are you looking for the best chocolate cookie recipe? You have come to the right place. There are endless variations to the simple chocolate cookie. If you start by making them from scratch, you can take advantage of many of the variations and discover which are your favorites and the favorites of your loved ones. How to make the very best chocolate cookies from scratch, tips, tricks, and traps along with additions to "kick it up a notch" of this favorite cookie are found here. If you want to learn how and know the hottest types of this delightful treat then come on in. Your family and friends will wonder how you can find the time, the recipe and the skill to make such wonderful treats. How to Make Chocolate Cookies from Scratch Basic Recipe? This is your basic chocolate cookie from scratch recipe that allows you to make 101 variations to delight the palette and loved ones. It is so simple and quick that your children and/or grandchildren can help and enjoy the whole process together without damaging anything. My 3 year old son and my two granddaughters 2 and 4 helped out last night making two different batches of chocolate cookies. We made this basic recipe below adding chopped walnuts and my favorite: Mexican Cow Patties. Ingredients

1 cup of all-purpose flour 1/4 cup of cocoa powder 1/2 tsp of baking powder 1/2 tsp of baking soda 1 dash of salt 1 cup of sugar 1 beaten egg 1 tsp of vanilla extract 5 Tbsp of melted butter 1/2 cup of melted chocolate semi-sweet morsels

Instructions

1.Preheat oven to 350F or 180C. 2. Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. 3. Mix the sugar, melted butter, vanilla extract and the beaten egg until creamy 4. Mix in creamy mixture from step 4 into the melted semi-sweet chocolate morsels 5. Mix in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients little by little 6. Form into 1 inch round balls and place on a cookie sheet evenly spread apart 7. Bake in oven for 12 minutes or until done. 8. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from cookie sheet.

Tips, Tricks and Traps

Baking Powder and Baking Soda Tips - generally you want 1 tsp. of baking powder for every cup of flour to make it rise when using something acidic, like chocolate morsels, using baking soda with baking powder is a good idea using waxed paper makes clean up so much easier Tricks - you can test if your baking soda is still good by adding 1/4 tsp. of baking soda to 2 tsp. of vinegar -if the solution bubbles immediately, then your baking soda is good you can test if your baking powder is still good by adding 1 tsp. of baking powder to 1/2 cup of hot water if the solution bubbles immediately, then your baking powder is good Traps - not mixing in your baking soda or powder with the dry ingredients before adding to the creamed mixture this will cause uneven leavening or big bubbles in some places and the dough will not rise in other places.

NEWS FEATURE ARTICLE

Need a passport? Go to the mall
By Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star) January 18, 2012

MANILA, Philippines - Filipinos can now more easily apply and renew their passports as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) opens new consular offices inside SM malls and other major shopping malls nationwide.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and SM Prime Holdings president Hans Sy signed on Monday a memorandum of agreement for the hosting of five consular offices inside SM malls in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.

It is with great satisfaction to partner with SM Prime Holdings through the combined public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement that we have entered with the private sector since the last quarter of 2011. This initiative now translates to almost P1.04-billion savings for the government over a period of 10 years, Del Rosario said in a statement.

He said the PPP arrangement with SM will cover the transfer and hosting of existing consular offices in Davao, Baguio and Batangas and the opening of extension offices at SM Megamall in Mandaluyong and SM City in Manila, which will occupy a combined floor area of more than 3,400 square meters.

The DFA had earlier entered into similar arrangements with Pacific Mall Corp., Robinsons Land Corp. and Ayala Land Inc. to host consular offices in 11 other locations.

The partnership allows the DFA to facilitate the consular requirements of more than 10,000 people that daily visit the main passport facility along Macapagal Avenue.

ENTERPRISE FEATURE STORY

General Drug War
By Radley Balko
Timothy Bookwalter, the elected chief prosecutor for Putnam County, Indiana, did not represent the county in its effort to keep Anthony Smelleys money. Nor did anyone else in his office. Instead, the case was handled by Christopher Gambill, a local attorney in private practice. Gambill manages civil forfeiture cases for several Indiana counties, and he gets to keep a portion of what he wins in court. My contingency for my own county is a quarter; for the others its a third, Gambill says. The concept is alarming. If allowing public prosecutors to benefit from forfeiture funds brushes up against due process, allowing an unaccountable private attorney to run forfeiture cases and keep a portion of the winnings rams a steamroller straight through the notion. This is scandalous, Kessler says. Its blatantly unconstitutional. Gambill not only argues and briefs Putnam County forfeiture cases; he also determines which cases the county pursues in the first place. That means nongovernmental forfeiture attorneys are making criminal justice decisions that directly bolster their incomes. Its really bad policy, David Smith says. I also dont see how it could possibly be legal. Mark Rutherford, chairman of the Indiana Public Defender Commission, says he isnt aware of any court challenges to the practice. Its just sort of accepted here that this is the way things are, Rutherford says. There are attorneys who have amassed fortunes off of these cases. On February 4, 2009, Anthony Smelley got his first hearing before an Indiana judge. Smelleys attorney, David Kenninger, filed a motion asking for summary judgment against the county, citing a letter from a Detroit law firm stating that the seized money indeed came from an accident settlement, not a drug transaction. Kenninger also argued that because there were no drugs in Smelleys car, the state had failed to show the required nexus between the cash and illegal activity. Putnam County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Headley seemed to agree, hitting Christopher Gambill, who represented Putnam County, with some tough questions. Thats when Gambill made an argument that was remarkable even for a forfeiture case.

You have not alleged that this person was dealing in drugs, right? Judge Headley said. No, Gambill responded. We alleged this money was being transported for the purpose of being used to be involved in a drug transaction. Incredibly, Gambill was arguing that the county could seize Smelleys money for a crime that hadnt yet been committed. Asked in a phone interview to clarify, Gambill stands by the general principle. I cant respond specifically to that case, he says, but yes, under the state forfeiture statute, we can seize money if we can show that it was intended for use in a drug transaction at a later date. (Smelley himself refused to be interviewed for this article.) The New Yorkbased attorney Steven Kessler, author of the legal treatise Civil and Criminal Forfeiture: Federal and State Practice, says he has never heard the future crimes argument. Can you imagine any judge in America allowing an argument like that to stand? Kessler says. Its obscene. Its like something out of that movie Minority Report. We dont punish people for crimes they havent yet committed.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES Man and Epilepsy

Thomas - Epilepsy Advocate

I am proud to be someone who has his epilepsy under his control, but there have been a lot of challenges for me in the past ten years. When I was diagnosed with epilepsy, I didnt have a good idea of what it was really going to mean for me. My doctor talked to me mostly about medical aspects, and he didnt know what would happen in the future for me. I wish we would have discussed more of the life issues that would become my new situation. The age I was when I had my first seizure and was diagnosed with epilepsy affected my experience. I felt the loss of my personal freedom acutely. I had to stop learning to drive until I had seizure control, and I didnt know how long that would be. I had to look at my watch all the time to make sure I took my medication on time. I had to make sure I got enough sleep. My friends were able to do what they want. I eventually stopped going out, and this isolation was difficult for me. I also didnt know how having epilepsy would affect my chances for a romantic relationship. I was so busy dealing with my epilepsy that I didnt have much time to pursue romance, but I did think about it. The fear of rejection was too great, and I worried that the stress would cause a seizure. I now have a wonderful girlfriend who I met through an epilepsy organization, and I value all that weve shared in the past few years. Because she was diagnosed with epilepsy as a child, it was easy for her to understand my situation. She hasnt had a seizure in more than 8 years, and that gave me hope that I would gain better seizure control. Weve shared a lot of our experiences with epilepsy and just having someone to listen makes it easier. I value my health so much more these days and keeping to a routine helps me feel better. My advice to someone diagnosed with epilepsy in their early adulthood is dont risk your health. Its a time in life where you are pushing the limits and you might want to be staying up late drinking and going out to clubs -- but its not worth it in the long run. I was struggling for seizure control already, and not getting enough sleep may have triggered more seizures.

Today, my life is healthier. I have a doctor that I feel comfortable with, because he takes the time to ask me about everything in my life. Because epilepsy is not easy to live with, this makes a big difference for me. I understand that doctors are not magicians, and I appreciate when he tells me that he doesnt know. We work as a team to see what works for me. When I was interviewing for jobs, I had to take my epilepsy into consideration. For example, transportation is an issue - I need to make sure that I can get public transportation to my job. Since its likely that I am relocate, its also important to select a place to live thats convenient to both work and other amenities. I have some advantage with interviewing, such as speaking three languages, but I also must ask about whether the job requires any driving or not. I am getting closer to having a seizure-free year that will allow me to start drivers training, but it will still be a while before I can become licensed. Sometimes planning for the future is hard because of the uncertainty, but I talk to my doctor about working and living on my own, and he listens. Now that I have a job and will be living on my own, I feel like I have made a lot of progress towards planning for the future. After I settle in to my career, save money for a home and feel more assured about my seizure control, I will be able to make more plans. I hope that it will include having a family and Ive even talked to my doctor about considerations for people with epilepsy about having children. Just being able to plan for the future is a great step for me, and as a man living with epilepsy Ive done it through the support of family, friends and my doctor. I encourage you to learn to live with epilepsy the best you can and find support in your community.

BRIGHTS FEATURE ARTICLE The man who swallowed his neighbors 100 balut

By FIL VIDUYA

One hundred pieces of balut and a dozen packs of chicharon proved too heavy for a 30-year old construction worker. The worker, identified as Albert Leober, of Reclamation area in Pasay City, allegedly ate yesterday all the balut he stole in his effort to conceal evidence which might implicate to any misdeed. Leober had allegedly stolen a basketful of balut and chicharon from his neighbor, Tito Mingote, 25, after sneaking into the latters shanty at early evening. Fearing that the victim could trace the missing balut and chicharon to him, the suspect consumed all of them inside his own shanty. However, his neighbors suspicion was aroused when the suspect nev er bothered to peep and inquire what happened while the former and some sympathetic neighbors were noisily searching the balut that Mingote was about to sell. When Mingote and handful of his neighbors, barged into the house of Leober they were surprised to find the balut shells and the already-empty chicharon plastic packs littered on floor. Leober tried to elude his neighbors by hiding in a grassy part of the neighbourhood but was seen and easily cornered because he could hardly run.

PERSONALITY SKETCH/PROFILE FEATURE ARTICLE

Griffiths and Molliards to Initiate a New Ministry in France

By Terry White

After 40 years in the printing business as employee, manager, owner, and CEO, Michel Molliard is embarking on a new venture with Grace Brethren missionaries Dave and Sue Griffith to expand Gods work through the Grace Brethren in France. Molliard, 59, retired in 2007 from his business, and is now serving his second twoyear term as president of the Union of French Grace Brethren Churches, which he helped co-found in 1985. He and his wife, Dominique, have been married for 34 years and are parents of four young adults, the youngest of which is 21. Molliard became a believer in Jesus Christ at age 30. He says he was going through an existential depression and went to a doctor for a prescription. The doctor, who was a believer, treated him, but also witnessed to his faith. The doctors wife, who was in the habit of inviting CEOs of local businesses for dinner, invited Molliard and his family to dinner, and also invited an evangelist, who gave a presentation of the gospel. About three months later, Molliard committed his life to Christ. As a new believer, he knew he needed to learn more about the Bible. Shortly thereafter he met Grace Brethren International Missions Kent Good. I want to be trained to serve God and to be an evangelist, he told Good. Good could hardly believe his ears. He had been praying for a year for someone to train. You are the answer, he told the burly French businessman. So Molliard became part of a group that was trained in the Bible and mission at the Chateau St. Alban. Missionaries Tom Julien and Kent Good were directing a four-year training program at the time. Molliard committed to the training, completed it, and became an elder in the Grace Brethren church at Chalon in 1983. Several years later he helped cofound the Union of French Grace Brethren churches. Dave and Sue Griffith relocated this summer to the town of Tournus, just north of the Chateau St. Albain, where they and the Molliards will join together to initiate a new ministry. There are currently six established Grace Brethren churches in France. Dijon is in the north and Lyon is in the south. In between, clustered around the chateau, are four smaller churches.

The Griffiths and the Molliards were seeking God about the best place to launch a new ministry that would enable those four churches to pool their resources, share talent, and join together in a renewed evangelism and outreach effort. They went to three towns, praying on each site. All four individuals agreed that Tournus should be the place. So they made a recommendation which was submitted to the French ministerium and also to GBIM, as represented by GBIM regional director Paul Klawitter. The French ministerium includes 17 elders who meet once a quarter. In addition, they have an annual congress of churches, which is held annually on Ascension Day in May at the chateau and is attended by about 200 people. How can Grace Brethren churches and people pray for this new effort in France? Molliard asks for prayer that his family and the Griffiths be effective as a team, with good personal chemistry. In addition, they ask for wisdom in developing momentum for evangelism among the French churches in the region, as part of their goal is to help mobilize existing Christians. They also desire to help reinvigorate the chateau ministry and the four churches around it. Florent Varak, pastor of the Lyon church, explains that the chateau will welcome a Word of Life team this fall so the chateau may be used as an evangelistic base for youth ministry. The projected plan is to hold yearly camps in the month of August. We need humble hearts and a willingness to cooperate, says Molliard. We all want to see this.

SIDEBARS

Nestor Matas story, April 6, 1957

In Classic articles on March 15, 2006 at 12:49 am

Nestor Matas story

April 6, 1957
by Leon O. Ty

The lone survivor of the Mt. Pinatubo airplane crash in which President Magsaysay and 25 other persons perished gives his version of the tragedy. Newsman has second and third degree burns on thighs, arms and legs
PHILIPPINES Herald Reporter Nestor Mata, the lone survivor in the Mt. Pinatubo airplane crash in which President Magsaysay and 25 other persons perished, is still confined in the Veterans Memorial Hospital. He is fast recovering from second and third degree burns all over his body. We visited him last Saturday afternoon. As soon as he saw us, he said in a low voice: You are lucky you were not with us.

Mata said these words because he personally knew that this writer had always been with him and the rest of the Malacaang newspapermen who used to accompany the late President on nearly all his trips to Mindanao and Visayas. You are the real lucky one, we replied. Yes, he said, but I still do not know what God wants me to do. He spared my life because he wants me to do something. And I dont know what it is. Asked how he got out of the ill-fated plane alive, Mata related the following story: The crash occurred between one and two oclock Sunday morning, March 17. All I remember was that there was a blinding flash for a moment. Then I fell unconscious. We inquired if it was true that he was seated at the tail end of the plane. No, he answered, I sat in the second seat next to the Presidents compartment. As I was about to board the Mt. Pinatubo at the Cebu airport, Mayor Sergio Osmea Jr., asked me to spend the rest of the night in the city. Said Serging:

Stay behind, little one. No, Im returning to cover the President, were Matas exact words. Relating the rest of the story, the Herald Malacaang reporter stated: President Magsaysay was standing on the side of the plane when I started to board it. Lets go! said RM and I immediately boarded the aircraft. I was the first to get inside That was the last time I saw the President smile. As soon as I was seated, I fell asleep at once. I did not have the slightest premonition of what was to happen. I had full confidence in our pilot. I felt that if the President was safe in his hands, I, too, was safe. I had no reason to feel otherwise. Mata reiterated that after the momentary blinding flash, he fell unconscious. At about three oclock that same morning, I regained consciousness. But how did you know it was three oclock? we asked. My Longines watch was still running, he replied with assurance. There was a very bright moon and when I looked at my watch, it was about three. I found myself on the side of a steep cliff among dried bushes. Agonizing with pain, I was completely at a loss what to do. About three meters away from me were parts of the plane. They were still burning. Meanwhile, I heard the distant howling of a dog. It was only then that I felt hopeful of being rescued. Thinking that there were probably people living not far away from where I lay moaning with pain, I made an effort to shout. I noticed that my voice echoed in the nearby mountains. After that, I began shouting, Mr. President! Mr. President! Mr. President! When no answer came, I shouted for Pablo Bautista, the reporter of the Liwayway magazine. Pabling! Pabling! Still no answer. It began to dawn on me that there was no other survivor except me. Mata remembered that it was about eight oclock in the morning when the rescuers found him. After finding me, he recalled, the farmers had to return to the village to get a hammock on which they loaded and carried me to the barrio. It was a heroic undertaking

because the descent from the mountainside was dangerous. One misstep on the part of the rescuers would have mean death to all of us. For 18 hours, twelve barrio men took turns in carrying Mata on a hammock. It was a hot day and blisters developed where the raw burns had rubbed against the old hammock. As soon as Mata reached the Southern Island Hospital in Cebu City, Dr. Jose V. Agustines, hospital chief treated him for severe shock and pain from second and third degree burn on his thighs, arms and legs. But although I was suffering from intense pain, Mata said. I did not lose consciousness in the hospital. As a matter of fact, I was able to dictate to a nurse a press dispatch to my paper. I began that dispatch with President Magsaysay is dead. When a physician saw what I had just done, he remarked: You are newsman to the end. At the close of our brief conversation, Mata repeated the question. What does God want me to do?

SERIES FEATURE ARTICLE

Feature: Pamintuan hailed as 'Man of the Year'

By Punto Central Luzon , January 05, 2012 10:24 AM

(First of a Series) ANGELES CITY, Philippines Righting, rather than just fighting wrongs. Forged in the crucible of the Marcos dictatorship, Edgardo Dizon Pamintuan is steeled in the protection and promotion of human rights, and thus fated to a public life of correcting human errors, political, social and fiscal, administrative and criminal: his end in view, a society grounded on the democratic ideals of equality and liberty; his goal-in-hand, a community sharing in prosperity. Pamintuans persona as honourable mayor of Angeles City makes the latest if arguably, the greatest testament to this: taking over a city awash in wrongs, if only to set everything in it aright, and how! As a call of duty, at the instance, mayhaps even at the insistence, of destiny. City accursed Nowhere was the accursed state of the Angeles that Pamintuan inherited more graphically presented than in the city turned into an open dump of stinking garbage, uncollected since the Nepomuceno administrations defaulting on its P64-million debt with the Kalangitan sanitary landfill. Consequently, Sapang Balen Creek was made to serve as the citys most convenient depository of wastes: biodegradable, non-biodegradable, non-segregated from the households, the meat processing plants, yes, even from the city abattoir. No amount of sumpa cast upon the polluters of Sapang Balen by the Most Rev. Pablo Virgilio David, auxiliary bishop and Holy Rosary parish priest, stirred, much less moved Nepomucenos city hall to lift a cleaning hand, sufficing itself in lipping support to the leadership of the prelate. A travesty, Among Ambo retorted, as it is city hall that should lead the cleaning of Sapang Balen, the support coming from the citizens. There lay where the responsibility truly rested, and sadly failed. Elsewhere was just as bleak, benighted even: a number of city hall offices literally lost in the dark of an outage imposed by the Angeles Electric Corp. failing to collect from the

Nepomuceno government. In the dark, the devil dances in delight. So it is alliterated, as much as clichd. So it was in Angeles. The darkness of the human soul found manifest in the series of murders: city icon Aling Lucing, the sisig queen, businessmen Ting and Punzalan, the half-brother of apl.de.ap of the Grammy Award-winning Black Eyed Peas, Pulung Maragul chairman Edilberto Cayanan and ex-Malabanas chairman Thelmo Lalic, a number of foreigners both tourists and retirees, among scores of others almost all the cases yet to find a single suspect. This, notwithstanding the Nepomuceno administration spending tens of millions of pesos in upgrading the polices firepower and mobility. Why, for just four motorcycles, over P4-million was spent! And these were neither Ducatis nor Harleys. Dying was fairly easy in the city. To the underprivileged, the indigents most especially. What with a city hospital living up to the Mona Lisa ditty they just lie there, and they die there. For lack of medical facilities, shortage of medicines and dearth of health workers. Getting proper public education was difficult. The sore lack of classrooms and teachers as acute as the availability of city-sponsored scholarship grants. Even as the City of San Fernando started its own college in 2008, and the still-aspiring-to-be-a-city Mabalacat establishing its community college even earlier, Angeles a city since 1963 did not have its own. A solid indictment of the city governments failure to provide for the education of its youth. A crime of heinous proportions, given the constitutional guarantee of free education; a sin of mortal proportions, given the moral authority reposited in the state. Grand edifice complex It is incorrect to say though that the Nepomuceno administration did not do anything in the face of all these problems besieging Angeles City. As a matter of record, it did. And in so doing displayed its grand edifice complex. One, it engaged in a beautification and lighting campaign of all rotundas along the citys main avenues setting multi-colored-blinking lights thereat, which it was storiedcontributed to the increase in the number of vehicular accidents in the city. Two, it contracted an P800-million loan from the Philippine Veterans Bank for the construction of a sports complex in Barangay Mining, the access road to which built specifically for tricycles; the valuation of the site, given to speculation, raising so much suspicion. (Bong

Lacson)

Feature: Pamintuan hailed as 'Man of the Year'

By Punto Central Luzon , January 09, 2012 01:40 PM
(Second of a Series) More maladministration than simple mismanagement, the Nepomuceno governments undoing of Angeles City assumed the proportions of the mythic Augean stables requiring no less than herculean efforts to clean up. Up and apt Mayor Pamintuan is proving himself to that task. Sound fiscal management shielded the city government from the whammy that was the P40 million slashed from the citys internal revenue allotment arising from the Supreme Court decision upholding the establishment of 16 more cities in the country. Pamintuan was the least worried of the loss and its effect on the programs, projects and services to his constituency: Our daily cash balance has never gone below P100 million, our cash position totals to P297 million. This despite the inherited debt of P17 million in electric bills alone. Not to mention the P64-million debt the previous administration incurred with the Kalangitan landfill which Pamintuan likewise solved via renegotiation, that even accrued to savings of up to P600,000 monthly for the city. Garbage fees have been reduced from P1,500 to P1,300 per ton. The citys significant turnaround in its fiscal management included revenue-raising programs, and the exorcism of ghost employees from the citys JO (for job order) workforce, reaching up to 65 percent. Greater confidence in the Pamintuan administration has brought in greater investments too. Seal of Good Housekeping No less than the Department of the Interior and Local Government has given due recognition to the sound fiscal management of the city, bestowing upon the Pamintuan

administration the Seal of Good Housekeeping that carried with a local government support fund of P25 million to be utilized as capital expenditure to augment the approved 2012 annual investment program for implementation of projects ranging from rural electrification to roads, from local economic enterprises to flood control and drainages, or as support to the national projects as the Millennium Development Goals and the Philippine Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010. Pamintuan said the P25-million LGSF can very well serve as a buffer to the loss of P53 million in IRA shares this year. Solid fiscal fundamentals Odious they truly are, but comparisons between past and present administrations make the standards of a citys progress, or retrogress and so make an imperative study. Thus Nepomucenos 2009 fiscal accomplishments matched against Pamintuans JanuaryNovember 2011 achievements: In real property tax collection: Nepomuceno P177,912,354.34; Pamintuan

P194,182,200.56. In business tax collection: Nepomuceno P223,045,646.10; Pamintuan P309,957,893.70. In non-tax revenues as regulatory fees like permits and licences, service users charges, income from economic enterprises, other income and receipts: P80,657,085.12; Pamintuan P91,743,520.27. In total income from local sources: Nepomuceno P481,615,085.56; Pamintuan P595,883,614.53. Cold, hard figures showing who enriched immensely the city coffers. The difference implying albeit not affirming who enriched whom as immensely. The increase in the financial resources of the city directly translates to the increase in public spending for programs and projects redounding to the benefit and welfare of the Angeles City constituency. EDucation Nepomuceno

The Agyu Tamu tertiary scholarship fund was increased to P5 million in 2011 and to be upped further to P6.5 million in 2012 to accommodate more deserving but indigent students. In partnership with 1st District Rep. Carmelo Tarzan Lazatin and the private sector, the city government is currently engaged in the rehabilitation of dilapidated classrooms and the construction of additional ones throughout the citys public elementary and high schools. For 2012, the centrepiece project of the Pamintuan administration in the field of education is the Angeles City College to start construction in January at the Agyu Tamu Sports complex beside the Angeles City National High School compound in Barangay Pampang. A total of P300 million has been allocated for the college, the amount coming from the P800-million loan the Nepomuceno administration contracted for a sports complex. Prudence, said Pamintuan, dictated that an education facility can better serve the felt and urgent needs of the Angeleno than a sports complex. The Angeles City College will specialize in market-responsive courses that fit the available job opportunities at the Clark Freeport Zone and the emerging enterprises in the city. It is reported that at any given day, Clark has some 3,000 job vacancies but the locators have problems in recruitment because of an apparent mismatch of the skills and training of the available manpower with the job requirements. PESO serves That the City Public Employment Services Office was elevated to the national PESO hall of fame in 2011 is proof positive of the Pamintuan administrations success in providing jobs to the Angelenos. In the three consecutive years that the city PESO won the National Best PESO Award, it was able to serve 9,373 residents with 5,326 directly finding employment within the city and 548 abroad. The city PESO is also continuously engaged in providing free training programs to the

out-of-school-youth to afford them sources of livelihood. Street wise Angeles City was a study in anarchy, where its streets were concerned. Traffic was horrendous, the lights installed by the Nepomuceno administration at major intersections reportedly at a cost of millions serving more decorative than utilitarian purposes. The traffic aides what little presence of them more part of the jams than the smooth flow of vehicles. Pamintuans approach to the problem was holistic: deploying 150 traffic enforcers on all major roads, clearing the sidewalks of ambulant vendors, re-routing traffic from chokepoints, holding consultative meetings with stakeholders like TODAs and JODAs. Pamintuans close coordination with Representative Lazatin and the Department of Public Works and Highways also effected the widening and asphalt-overlaying of principal streets in Sto. Domingo, Pandan, Pulung Bulo, Sto. Cristo and Sto. Entierro, and in the widening of the Pulung Bulo bridge to four lanes. Healthcare Unarguably, the greatest achievement of Pamintuan in the field of health for 2011 was the establishment of the renal care unit at the Rafael Lazatin Memorial Medical Center. With its 15 dialysis machines, the RCU has started serving some 350 mostly indigent patients a month a tremendous help, given the high cost of dialysis treatment in private hospitals. The city government has likewise embarked on a program to expand the bed capacity and improve the facilities and services of the RLMMC, to be at par with the best private hospitals in the city. In this regard, P50 million again from the P800-million loan for the sports complex has been allotted for a new annex building of the hospital. We are convinced that Mayor Pamintuan is doing an incredible job in fulfilling his health programs for his constituents and this is the reason why WMRI continues to prioritize

Angeles City among its recipients. So said George Samson, the chief executive officer of the US-based World Medical Relief Inc., recently as he disclosed that a 40-foot container van of medical equipment including ultrasound and electrocardiogram machines, hospital beds, wheelchairs, dental chairs, emergency carts, laboratory instruments and other medical supplies, set to arrive in January 2012 solely for the RLMMC. The WMRI had, as far back as Pamintuans first term as mayor in 1992-1995, already donated to the then Ospital ning Angeles numerous medical equipment most of which are still in use today at RLMMC. In 2011 alone, medical equipment the city received from the WMRI comprised of a C-arm X-ray machine, a cardiac monitoring machine, an ultrasound machine, reverse-osmosis machine for dialysis system, defibrillator and a phaco-machine. Through its heath outreach program, the city has been continuously giving free medicines, including maintenance medicines for hypertension, diabetes, heart ailment and others, to the public at the RLMMC, the city health office, the mayors office and his my home and during the regular barangay days. Tens of thousands of people continually benefit from this program. Caring for Mother Earth When we started cleaning Sapang Balen some years back, we were told by the city government (under then-Mayor Francis Nepomuceno) that they would support us. No, we told them, we are the ones supporting you. Today, that has come to pass, the city government of Mayor Pamintuan leading, all of us supporting. This is a dream come true. So hailed Bishop David Lingap ku king balen. Malinis a Sapang Balen, the program to clean the citys principal waterway as well as other creeks and rivers. Initiated by Pamintuan, the clean-up drive started last October with scores of students, city employees, civic groups and individual volunteers clearing with their bare hands, rakes, shovels and other implements the Sapang Balen and Abacan creeks of wastes. It will be undertaken every first Saturday of the month until the waterways are restored to their pristine nature.

Taking care of Gods creations, of Mother Earth herself, for the next generation is also paramount in my hierarchy of values, Pamintuan says, seeing in the devastating typhoons and floods nature exacting its toll for all the abuses man committed against her. Task Force 1 Million Trees has been formed by the city government with the express intent to plant that number within the current term of Pamintuan to re-green Angeles and alleviate the ill effects of climate change. Cultural revival Above all, a city needs a soul. Famous words of the Blessed John Paul II. And wha t makes a citys soul but its faith-based culture and tradition? Pamintuan sparked a cultural renaissance in the city with the revival of long-lost festivals and practices like the serenata, the las flores de los angeles, the lubenas for Christmas, theCrissotan, the polosa, among others, and the celebration of the arts in the monthly music-painting-photography fusion dubbed Art at the Park on the grounds of the Museo ning Angeles. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Mount Pinatubo eruptions, the city government commissioned the publication of Agyu

Tamu: Turning Tragedy into

Triumph celebrating the indomitable spirit of the people of Angeles.

The defining festival of the city Tigtigan, Terakan king Dalan that which sounded the call for the Angelenos to rise from the ashes of the volcanic eruptions and soar phoenix-like to the firmament of development, that which was reduced to insignificance by the previous administration with its insipid street party perversions of it, came back with a vengeance with the return of Pamintuan breaking records in attendance and cash flows to fund more socio-cultural projects for the city. Empowerment I want Angeles City to be the most sensitive city and local government in the Philippines to gender equality and gay rights. Thus declared Pamintuan in his speech at the induction rites of the city-based United Gay Power Movement (UGPM) last November. Pamintuan directed the creation of a Gay Rights Desk as an adjunct of the Angeles City Multi-Sectoral Consultative Council where LGBTs that is lesbians, gays, bisexuals and

transgenders in the city can expect various types of services and projects for the promotion of their rights and welfare. It is our way of recognizing the role and potentials of the gay sector in the development and progress of our city, Pamintuan said. Pamintuans initiative has merited delight from the gay community. We are thankful for the city governments support in the endeavors of the gay community in Angeles leading towards our full empowerment as a sector, said Michelle Jhoie Ferraris, UGPM president. Through united gay power and action, we will show the community why we are here and not just to make you beautiful, not only to make you laugh, but even more so, to actively contribute in the genuine development of this vibrant city and our society. The gay sector is but the latest among the groups that have been empowered by the Pamintuan administration, engaging them in the various programs and projects of his administration as well as in policy-formulation. Represented in the collegial Angeles City Multi-Sectoral Council are the city chamber of commerce and industry, the senior citizens, the academe, labor, market vendors, the youth, artists and craftsmen, indigenous people, even the urban poor. Pamintuan has made governing Angeles City a shared responsibility. More than protection and promotion, what Pamintuan achieved here is the optimization of of the citizen in a democratic society. (BONG LACSON) the inherent right