tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83625381942831664382012-01-29T01:49:04.627-08:00Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.comBlogger1501100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-81575005058046876542011-11-08T23:48:00.000-08:002011-11-08T23:48:48.613-08:00

In-between his 74 years on this chaotic, polluted, disease-ravaged, politically-victimized, climate-altered, over-populated, drug-crazed, scheming, and over-burdened earth, the late Adoniedo ‘Doding’ Fabreag Fameronag planted trees and sired seven children—but never wrote a book—to complete his run of life’s amazing race. Eldest son of Igmedio Fameronag and Maria Fabreag, two of the most

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-63769444397420014672011-10-24T04:12:00.000-07:002011-10-24T04:12:45.968-07:00

Melbourne—What a first-time traveller to Melbourne can immediately notice is how Australia, a continent of 22 million people scattered over a territory of 10,000 square kilometers, could easily be “accessed”. Let’s begin by air. There is a direct flight via Philippine Airlines from Manila to Melbourne, but because of Lucio Tan’s troubles with the unions, a PAL flight to the land down under did

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-86925034080807159632011-10-09T17:15:00.000-07:002011-10-09T17:15:12.145-07:00

Last week, I had an interesting exchange with Auntie Nel Yap, Sibale’s municipal agriculture officer, about—of all topics—the Sibale fiesta. Sibale celebrates the feast of its patron saint, the Lady of the Immaculate Conception, every December 8. It used to be, many moons ago, that the Sibalenhons have only one fiesta celebration, and that takes place in Sibale. This fiesta is almost a week of

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-57691893676316608992011-10-09T17:02:00.000-07:002011-10-09T17:02:43.072-07:00

Alice Fetalvero and I had only a brief chat during breakfast at the cavernous covered patio of the Davao Waterfront Insular Hotel, where the 11th National PESO Congress, an annual pilgrimage of PESO managers, was ongoing. The conversation topic was, of course, the PESO. Manang Alice, as I call the former vice governor of Romblon, was ecstatic. She is newly-installed as provincial PESO manager

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-11384601292296007472011-10-02T08:03:00.000-07:002011-10-07T03:58:53.808-07:00

I listened to a very uplifting sermon last Sunday, courtesy of the Rev. Pastor Teofilito A. Rufon of the Odiongan Baptist Church. My presence at Pastor Rufon’s congregation was not an accident. It was fate—and a recipe called Christian Faith—that carried my feet inside the OBC’s imposing cathedral, the newest in Odiongan’s rising skyline. I was invited to the service by John, Pastor Rufon’s

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-43633825142153849092011-10-02T07:59:00.000-07:002011-10-02T07:59:38.011-07:00

The Romblon Sun, in its May 30-June 6 edition, bannered a story expressing the desire of Sibuyan local government officials and anti-mining advocates for the revocation of a contract that allows mineral exploration on Sibuyan Island. The newspaper did not name the officials, saying only that it has interviewed the mayor of San Fernando, but that is obvious. Mayor Dindo Rios, a good friend,

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-42556277726101817722011-10-02T07:54:00.000-07:002011-10-02T07:54:42.811-07:00

I will write this week in praise and comment of the columnists of Romblon Sun. I have been raring to do this because if the news are the soul and spine of a newspaper, the columnists—call them opinion writers—are its conscience. I have long wanted to highlight the conscience of the Romblon Sun, the only newspaper which has one. Columnists are a noisy lot. They have opinion about everything and

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-82717864187219504332011-10-02T07:49:00.000-07:002011-10-02T08:09:52.574-07:00

If I were Gov. Lolong Firmalo, I would immediately conduct an investigation involving the mayor of Ferrol to find out why the municipal hall has become a grocery store instead of a public service office. The Romblon Sun photos of the munisipyo being used as a veritable marketplace don’t lie. In the April 18-24 issue of the newspaper, Awe Eranes and Tony Macalisang reported that 200 beneficiaries

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-9860769566884989292011-05-17T03:11:00.000-07:002011-05-17T03:11:13.674-07:00

The report was sketchy, but it was a report worth writing about. Last week, Ismael Fabicon, Asi poet and Banton’s cultural warrior who divides his time between Chicago where his family lives and Banton where his roots belong, called me with the happy news that Gov. Lolong Firmalo has asked him to be provincial consultant on cultural affairs. I was delighted and promised to write about it, not

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-78883831610567210262011-04-20T20:05:00.000-07:002011-04-20T20:07:16.333-07:00

A doctor by profession, Gov. Firmalo, before he became a full-time provincial chief executive, was a full-time physician. His clinic at the Delos Santos Hospital in Manila was one of, if not the most, frequented clinics in town. To many Romblomanons, especially the poor, he dispensed his services for free, so much so that when he ran for political office, he had already built an horde of

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-30850165253695628272011-04-16T20:44:00.001-07:002011-04-16T20:44:36.408-07:00

When President Benigno S. Aquino III asked Agriculture secretary Proceso Alcala three times a few weeks ago whether the country will have sufficient rice supply in the next two years, Alcala was said to have unequivocally, without winching, assured the President that yes, we will be sufficient in the commodity. According to my source, Alcala told the President that by 2013, we will be even

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-51875430978312941722011-04-04T01:35:00.000-07:002011-04-04T01:35:58.761-07:00

Rep. Eleandro Jesus Madrona must know this. The 2013 election is still two years away, but the way his political wards in Sibale (pop. 4,500; voters, 2,200 plus) are acting seems they are already campaigning. I can’t blame them. Dislodged from power over four years ago, what was once a formidable Budoy army has become a rag tag band of whiners and obstructionists, unable to accept the fact that

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-84006251023716769902011-03-27T17:49:00.000-07:002011-03-27T17:49:04.706-07:00

Interesting was the Reuters news item with the title, “People’s revolutions don’t guarantee democracy”, which cites a study of Freedom House, a Washington-based human rights group, that said: “The opportunity for freedom after a political opening represented by the fall of an authoritarian (leader) is by itself not a guarantee of an optimal outcome for freedom in the long term.” The study, “How

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-69061905170112138472011-03-27T05:06:00.000-07:002011-03-27T05:06:51.019-07:00

If there is one thing that makes me think hard about going back to politics to influence public policy, it is food. Food is scarce in Romblon. The Romblomanons are going hungry, the reason why they cling to politics to try their luck in getting food. Let me qualify this. Romblon politics is about the currency of the peso. Most politicians are allured by power because in the Philippines, power

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-5013852615837961022011-03-27T04:59:00.000-07:002011-03-27T04:59:55.927-07:00

The revolution contagion in North Africa that started in Tunisia, and has crept to Egypt before crawling back to Libya, has infected the Middle East. Now Bahrain, Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria, are having their own sufferance of political turmoil fueled no less by widespread discontent with ruling cliques of various histories, lengths of rule, ideologies, and motivations. The

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-5603378321634101002011-03-17T15:15:00.001-07:002011-03-18T15:39:52.076-07:00

The video image says it all. A man—alone, in the middle of a wide boulevard in the capital city of Manama, repeatedly shouting, “Alahu, Akbar!, Alahu Akbar!”—who suddenly fell on his back, blood profusely oozing from his stomach after a shot was heard on the background, was a graphic summation of state brutality, Bahrain’s excessive response to its citizens’ demand for political rights and

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-58863513086341130482011-03-16T19:37:00.000-07:002011-03-16T19:37:43.272-07:00

The Japan earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant meltdown have stolen the thunder from the political crises now engulfing the Middle East. For now, the world is glued on Japan, and it only turns its attention to the Middle East, particularly Libya and Bahrain, when the media shifts its focus, fleetingly, to what’s happening there and then turns its sights again on the devastation on

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-85700294296617319632011-03-16T16:14:00.001-07:002011-03-16T16:14:54.458-07:00

Snow have been falling since Monday and the window is slowly closing on any survivor, if there are still any, in the township of Minamisanriku, a port town in Miyagi prefecture, in Japan. From reports and photos now available through the Internet, Minamisanriku could be the worst-hit of all Japanese towns and cities swamped by the mountain of ocean water called tsunami that descended with all

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-78388295537133540552011-03-16T08:31:00.000-07:002011-03-16T08:31:40.280-07:00

It’s funny that in this age of Google, there are still presidents of universities like Dante Guevarra who will declare a school holiday on fear of a nuclear fall-out. The other day, Guevarra sent home PUP students, apparently after receiving calls from irate parents who have inquired why their sons and daughters are still in school when the rest of the world was on edge over the earthquake- and

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-86275904710765293972011-03-12T18:10:00.000-08:002011-03-13T01:19:52.266-08:00

It has been two days since an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s northeast region, yet I still couldn’t believe this could happen. As the extent of the quake’s devastation begun to sink in, thanks to the wonders of the Internet and satellite television, one is led to accept the reality, however, that the trauma suffered by Japan and the shock of the rest of the world, will not easily be

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-51639332156889972902011-03-11T02:43:00.000-08:002011-03-11T18:19:34.169-08:00

I was home, half-asleep when an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in the Richter’s scale, hit northeast Japan at 2:46 Japan time, today, March 11, 2011. The television was on, at Al Jazeera, when the quake occurred. I quickly switched to NHK World, which quickly put up a ‘breaking news’ update of the earthquake. Shortly thereafter, the Japanese television network broadcast from a helicopter film crew

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-4190633150513375492011-03-09T14:20:00.000-08:002011-03-11T18:18:35.225-08:00

For some time now, I haven’t read much at home, and the books I have acquired at the national book fair in September last year must have been wondering why they remain closed. I have been so busy to touch their spine, smell the ink on their pages, much more transport myself to the paradise of knowledge and wisdom that only good books are capable of doing. The books are scattered all over the

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-40369580240377189152011-03-09T14:16:00.000-08:002011-03-09T14:16:02.739-08:00

In between my professional chores as spokesman of the Department of Labor and Employment and as a writer, I still manage to find time to plug myself on what is happening in Romblon. Recently, mining keeps popping up in my radar and I cannot help but comment on the issue, it being so relevant, explosive, and to me, a matter of life and death for Romblomanons—life, luxurious life, for mining

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-72196520206359095452011-02-13T04:23:00.001-08:002011-02-13T04:23:41.216-08:00

Once upon a time, there was a corrupt autocrat in a blighted land who swore in front of the monument of that blighted land’s national hero that come the next election, he will give up all political power and just live the life of a common citizen. The reason for this unexpected, uncharacteristic surrender was the autocrat’s subjects’ widespread discontent over his suffocating, oppressive rule,

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-42615458116511735632011-02-06T02:20:00.001-08:002011-02-06T02:20:37.048-08:00

First, the good news. According to government data, the country’s economy, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), grew by 7.3 percent in 2010, the highest in 24 years. This development has sent many, particularly those in the Aquino III administration, to convulse with excitement about the prospect of life in this Republic. To them, this means life might be getting better. The bad news

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-38532756230631528142011-02-03T15:24:00.000-08:002011-02-03T15:24:36.886-08:00

For 10 days now, Egypt--the country of Moses, the land of the Pharaohs and the pyramids, the motherland of the mummies, home of one of my favorite writers, Naguib Mahfouz, birthland of the statesman-hero Anwar Sadat, and the first nation-state in the Arab world to make peace with another ancient country, Israel--has been in turmoil. Scorched by street protests from Cairo to Alexandria to Suez,

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-30434431620474511552011-02-03T13:43:00.000-08:002011-02-03T13:43:13.036-08:00

Blame it to the Tunisians. After coming out to the streets to protest and in the process toppling their government from power, the Tunisians inspired the Egyptians who, in droves, came out from their homes to the streets of Cairo to demand—and I say many oppressed peoples in the world also demand—what the Tunisians had just gotten through a peaceful revolution: democracy. There are only two

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-21471681216062402372010-12-01T12:52:00.001-08:002010-12-01T15:19:45.795-08:00

I can imagine Blas F. Ople, my mentor, smiling a faint smile in his grave. If he were alive today, he would have been proud to see the Department of Labor and Employment, his longest and most significant love, turn 77 years old. Yes, the DOLE, the government department, not the pineapple, is already 77 years old this coming December 8. And what an auspicious year to celebrate a DOLE milestone!

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-14166472464666820652010-11-29T03:48:00.000-08:002010-11-29T03:48:08.134-08:00

A massive acacia tree stands by the cottage at the Hotel del Rio Resort in Barrio Dos where I stayed for two nights the other weekend. The cottage, a low-ceilinged concrete structure, is wrapped up in local materials. The ceiling is of sawali, the walls are plastered with bamboo slats, and the furniture, including the bed, are of bamboo and rattan which are still in abundance in Koronadal. The

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-39350558318859636822010-11-15T15:06:00.000-08:002010-11-15T15:06:09.552-08:00

The contrasts are too stark to miss. On a sunny Sunday of November, different fates, both within human control and, therefore, within the commerce of human intervention, visited a country called the Philippines. In Grapevine, Texas, the US state which my favorite country trio Dixie Chicks once said they were ashamed former President George Bush is from, Manny Pacquiao outdid himself anew by

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-28550094732525201812010-11-13T14:33:00.000-08:002010-11-13T14:33:43.276-08:00

Outside my window, on the left of my writing table, is a road that leads to a dead end—a creek that, I have discovered, half-encircles the subdivision. This creek leads all the way to the boundary of Tanauan City; the boundary spanned by 10-meter concrete bridge that connects the only road that provides access from Darasa, one of Tanauan’s biggest barangays, to Brgy. Sta. Maria, Sto. Tomas’s

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-50527480969902305302010-11-07T19:47:00.000-08:002010-11-07T19:47:27.673-08:00

Floro and I are sitting at the lobby of Torre Lorenzo, just outside Starbucks, on the corner of Taft Avenue and Vito Cruz St., sipping heavy black espressos after a quick lunch at Mang Inasal across the street. I was reading the New York Times, while Floro, true to form when his mind is idle, was ogling at a girl on another table who is absorbed with her Blackberry. It was last Saturday, the

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-56602839475649488612010-11-03T08:31:00.000-07:002010-11-03T08:41:39.639-07:00

“Patrol cops riding in tandem on motorbikes would soon be seen around Metro Manila as police authorities shift their attention to securing the capital during the Christmas season.” Dona Pazzibugan of the Philippine Daily Inquirer brought us this news yesterday and I almost fell off my seat upon reading it. You might ask: “Why? Is there something wrong with cops on motorbikes being seen again

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-48944047799450134542010-11-01T04:52:00.001-07:002010-11-01T04:52:16.083-07:00

Labor and Employment secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz’s decision to affirm with modifications the original decision of the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo-era DOLE on the case of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association, known as PALEA, contesting the outsourcing by PAL management of certain ground functions and services was met by, as expected, an obdurate union leadership. Upon receipt of the

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-5156554561201609652010-10-22T23:22:00.000-07:002010-10-22T23:22:06.241-07:00

I don’t know in other countries, but in the Philippines there is no law that prohibits a former President of the Republic—and my, a convicted felon, albeit, pardoned, at that—from running anew for public office. There also isn’t any law that penalizes insult to the sensibilities of the unsuspecting, pliant masses—that’s the majority in us—who are also, by the way, short in memory that’s why they

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-67750538544059740682010-10-19T14:59:00.000-07:002010-10-19T14:59:31.986-07:00

I hate unlighted streets; streets that are pothole-ridden; untidy boulevards with dog and cat litter; stretch of concrete that bear no directional signs; streets that have no sidewalks because the allotted spaces for such have been expropriated by the uncivilized and unruly; and streets inhabited by hawkers, whose commerce ranges from peddling flesh to stale street food. I hate more streets

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-65470628522080480502010-10-18T15:26:00.000-07:002010-10-18T15:26:46.110-07:00

Home, 9:00 P.M.--I have—before I could even finish this paragraph—puffed two sticks of Winston Lights. On a rainy Monday night when you knew that howling winds were wasting houses and trees and crops in far-away Northern Luzon; when you thought people should be warmly tucked in their beds but were not because of a recurring nightmare that Juan will worsen into yet another Ondoy; and when your

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-23084343508339300262010-10-15T18:07:00.000-07:002010-10-15T18:07:56.243-07:00

First, it flunked the test of obedience. Now, the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) is guilty of in-your-face defiance. By disobeying the express order of the President Benigno S. Aquino III not to use his image or photo in any way that smacks of political grandstanding and unfettered patronizing, the BID, whose charter dating back to 1935 is as antiquated as the mindset of some of the

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-53382478079768547292010-10-05T10:18:00.000-07:002010-10-05T10:18:28.116-07:00

Bangkok—How do you communicate to ‘a world gone flat’, as Thomas Friedman said, the right of a woman—working at a Bangladesh garments factory—to have maternity leave? What should the Philippine government say, or do, to ensure that its increasing number of urban informal workers who have, at the height of the global financial crisis, transformed their homes into small business shops providing

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-52279298680080510612010-10-04T08:33:00.000-07:002010-10-04T08:33:01.139-07:00

Bangkok—On Monday, The Nation, one of Thailand’s English daily newspapers, bannered a story about corruption, a familiar theme in the Philippines the obliteration of which the 100-days old government of President Benigno S. Aquino III is trying very hard to do. The Nation says that the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva needs the help of the Thai populace to tackle the rising

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-31879597190387929512010-09-26T09:22:00.000-07:002010-09-26T09:22:25.286-07:00

The recently concluded Philippine International Book Fair, an annual holiday for the family during which we transform ourselves—Eireen, Lara, Lilac, and I—into pilgrims yielded, again, for me an extraordinary harvest. Lara, the eldest, has been addicted to books since I brought her to her first book fair 14 years ago, at the Megamall, when the land on which the SMX exhibition hall stands by the

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-37673962231295056542010-09-25T10:08:00.000-07:002010-09-25T10:08:13.604-07:00

Nagtatahor, or ‘respecting’ in the English language and gumagalang in Tagalog, is how I write the complimentary end of my letters in Asi, my original native language. It is the present participle of the action verb ‘respect’. Nagtatahor is the safest word in my lexicon. Its root word is tahor, pronounced taa-hor, with a very light emphasis on ta and a slow close on hor to distinguish it from

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-23032175578392470422010-06-14T08:54:00.000-07:002010-06-14T08:54:00.814-07:00

One would think that because Governor Natalio F. Beltran III has been consigned to the backwaters of Tondo after Governor-elect Lolong Firmalo had decisively routed him in the election of May 10, 2010, he and his cohorts in the provincial capitol would stop pronto their blatant day-time raids on the provincial treasury. What do you know? Beltran and company continue their thievery, if the

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-75242418204291447692010-06-11T18:34:00.000-07:002010-06-11T18:34:00.789-07:00

Dapitan is an island. Four bridges connect it to the mainland of the Zamboanga Peninsula and soon one more is going to be built to make the island more ‘accessible’. That’s according to Vice Mayor Patri B. Chan who, in the absence of Mayor Dominador G. Jalosjos during our arrival, welcomed us with a brief introduction to Dapitan and to the music of the Shrine Kids Quartet and the Dapitan City

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-38700520399416459632010-05-26T14:24:00.000-07:002010-05-26T14:24:58.128-07:00

Looking at the results in the municipal level, one cannot avoid the conclusion that the challenge for change and reform did not make much relevance to Romblon voters’ choices in the May 10, 2010 elections. This is in contrast to the big win in the provincial level, personified by governor-elect Lolong Firmalo and vice governor-elect Mel Madrid who, from the looks of it were catapulted to their

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-5654642438616845302010-05-22T20:58:00.000-07:002010-05-22T20:58:59.562-07:00

Now that the election is over, I can bare my chest off on some issues left unsaid during the campaign. They were left unsaid because of strategic reasons; more so because I didn’t want Rep. Madrona and company to capitalize on these issues and use them against vice governor Alice Fetalvero and former representative Lolong Firmalo. One of these things that perhaps Alice’s and Lolong’s opponents

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-37486699409387999052010-04-22T14:57:00.000-07:002010-04-22T14:58:12.134-07:00

The story went like this: On the afternoon of April 20, Rep. Eleandro Jesus Fabic Madrona, Romblon’s most successful political butterfly, joined a group of congressmen belonging to PaLaKa (Partido Lakas-Kampi) at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City to demonstrate its show of support to PaLaKa official presidential candidate Gilberto Teodoro Jr. Hours later, on the same day, Rep. Madrona, like

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-90237034298735698252010-03-15T15:04:00.000-07:002010-03-15T15:04:29.115-07:00

The story is told of the Greek mythical god Diogenes who goes from house to house in the middle of the day with a lighted lantern in hand and knocking on every one’s door. When asked what he was doing, Diogenes replied that he was looking for an honest man. In the Philippines, Diogenes would have stopped looking for his honest man once he’d knocked at Emilia T. Boncodin’s door. Just from the

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-122821065704844492010-03-15T13:58:00.001-07:002010-03-15T13:58:46.691-07:00

I am not much of a fan of boxing promoter Bob Arum, but I am a Manny Pacquiao fanatic. So last Sunday during the Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey encounter, when the world’s best boxer made short work of the Accra, Ghana native and put him on the road towards a possible clash with Floyd Mayweather, a coward masquerading as a trash-talker fighter, I again felt a clash of emotion, as I always do everytime

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-73769614194556537112010-03-14T14:33:00.000-07:002010-03-14T14:33:31.608-07:00

March 26 marks the beginning of the end of the rule of the Madrona-Beltran-Perez political triumvirate. If Romblon so decides. And that’s how far this bold prediction goes. The decision to put a stop to decades of inept governance, lying, and thieving lies at the soiled hands of the Romblomanons and not in the surveys or in the artful deception of the politicians now enduring the heat of the

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-63461287655022913602010-02-16T12:31:00.000-08:002010-02-16T12:31:25.508-08:00

Now that the campaign for the May 10, 2010 national election is rolling on in earnest, we, the people, can already heave a sigh of relief. We can rest easy because after years of speculation, gutter ‘tsismis’, armchair analysis, and political punditry, we are now into the time of mudslinging—for that’s how every election campaign in this country is, with very few exceptions. We can sleep

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-45549648548429199372009-12-09T15:01:00.000-08:002009-12-09T15:01:29.345-08:00

I would have loved to see some romblonpost.com bloggers, or sanrokan.com columnists, or some progressive liberals, or one or two Romblon Sun writers, or a few outstanding Romblon State University academics, or some leading retired government officials with impeccable records of public service, beat the December 1, 2009 deadline and filed certificates of candidacies (CoCs) for the various elective

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-20186667280740768612009-11-15T17:17:00.000-08:002009-11-15T17:17:32.766-08:00

Romblon is a land of contrasts: of the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’; of the powerful and powerless. It is a province of plenty, but where the majority of the people are clueless as to why they are destitute; while their leaders are heartless in their day-and-night spending orgy. If you have been following the Romblon Sun, I have detailed in four weekly installments during the past month why this is

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-3091391045480922492009-11-05T15:08:00.000-08:002009-11-05T15:08:59.818-08:00

As soon as my first piece on the 2008 COA annual audit report got posted in the online forum www.romblonpost.com , in http://bunsurancaravan.blogspot.com, in the website www.sanrokan.com, and in my Facebook account, readers’ reaction came in torrents, indicating huge interest in the contents of the report. Some were requesting for a copy, others egging me on to bare its contents all at once. I

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-28385267150971324592009-11-02T12:38:00.000-08:002009-11-02T12:38:44.911-08:00

In January this year, I wrote about the findings of the Commission on Audit about the financial irregularities in the capitol in 2007, very particularly about the un-liquidated cash advances of officials and employees which to this day have not been liquidated. My aim then as now was to inform the public that while Beltran reigns as governor, no amount of “pa-cute” can hide the fact that he and

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-32731618625452084012009-10-04T04:37:00.000-07:002009-10-04T04:50:02.641-07:00

We, who are on dry land, have seen the devastation of Typhoon Ondoy on television, on the pages of the newspapers, and in the Internet. Therefore, there is no need to describe the tragedy here. We know and we commiserate.We also know the failure of the government in many respects—from the moment it failed to save lives that should otherwise have not been lost to its omission to act with dispatch

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-49286652392326692662009-10-04T04:34:00.000-07:002009-10-04T04:36:21.856-07:00

I am not a mind reader, but I can guess from the body language and facial expression of Department of Agriculture undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla that he relishes—or will relish—his decision not to run for congressman in the May 2010 election.The occasion was a meeting at Discovery Suites over a month ago, convened, purportedly at his behest, to make known his long awaited decision about his

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-33372414860249156342009-09-30T19:48:00.000-07:002009-09-30T19:53:41.764-07:00

Let me refresh my readers about the Biniray, the subject of Fabicon-Fadrilan dialogue a year ago, which I retrieved, with the help of the former, from the archives.The main reason I am writing about the topic is to provide Asi Banto-anons, Sibalenhons, Simaranhons, Odionganons, and Calatravanhons—and whoever is interested—a historical perspective of this enduring religious traditions which, I

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-23594429243693332222009-09-21T13:10:00.000-07:002009-09-21T13:21:25.349-07:00

I should have written about this a long time ago—Ismael Fabicon’s and Rinzi Fadrilan’s dialogue on Biniray which took place, of all places, in the navigable highway of the Internet.Biniray is ancient, the Internet is recent. The former is a religious tradition, while the latter is a communications technology innovation.In this context and in many ways, the dialogue was a convergence and one can

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-34202802488793002232009-08-29T16:26:00.000-07:002009-08-29T16:27:32.026-07:00

Romblon vice governor Alice Fetalvero must be very, very frustrated.As presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, or SP, I am sure she is forced by circumstance to hobnob in council sessions with a bunch of elected provincial lawmakers who have different personal backgrounds, different motivations, and different levels of abilities.As a co-equal branch of the provincial executive, the law

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-77059284221203528322009-08-25T20:59:00.000-07:002009-08-25T21:03:13.210-07:00

I have not seen Dr. Lolong Firmalo as serious as he was last Sunday.Over Californian, Spanish, Italian and Australian wine, sinigang na kanduli, chicken adobo and Boer goat meat courtesy of Dr. Tato Sison in his resort in Pililla, Rizal, Dr. Firmalo and his wife Leonie, their daughter Trina, retired judge Cesar Solis, Gilbert Miniano, former San Fernando mayor Dindo Rios and his wife Ruby,

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-61131506148463782462009-08-09T08:26:00.000-07:002009-08-09T08:36:37.378-07:00

I didn’t take note of the names and faces of those who came to the Asi? The Concert last Saturday at the Arellano University Gym, but from the number of people who stayed up to the last number, I can say with unabashed pride that it was a success. Lyndon Fadri, the prime mover of the event, can now recover his lost sleep.Language—the Asi language—was the cause célèbre of the concert. Its aim was

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-67594925715714517262009-07-29T17:44:00.000-07:002009-07-29T17:51:47.764-07:00

Kag editoryal sa www.sanrokan.com ni Ish Fabicon:“Ka pagbusri it RDL (Romblon Discussion List) ag www.sanrokan.com ay nakatunong sa usa nak mga higako namo: palapnagon ka tatlong rila it probinsya—Romblomanon/Ini, Unhan, ag Asi.“Kung ato kaykayon kinang mga kayatay it mga bulaybulayon ag diskusyonan sa RDL ag Sanrokan, imaw gihapon ka amo pangabay nak kung sarang ka mga pagsuyat reli sa mga rahon

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-44022530009622060432009-07-25T20:19:00.000-07:002009-07-25T20:21:39.142-07:00

The Banton High School Alumni Association, headed by the tireless Lyndon Fadri, has joined Romblon’s cultural renaissance bandwagon, and will, with the support of Biniray 2009, mount a musical extravaganza at the Arellano University Gym on Legarda Street, Manila, starting at 6:00 P.M. on August 8.This concert is for all: Romblomanons and non-Romblomanons alike.If you are an Asi, you must block

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-24813851850518529682009-07-14T15:09:00.000-07:002009-07-14T15:10:08.037-07:00

If my source is correct in telling me that 80 percent of all Romblon capitol employees, including the so-called ’15-30’ collectors, hate to see Gov. Jojo Beltran re-elected as governor, then Rep. Budoy Madrona may rest easy. He and Beltran will cruise safely to their re-election hurdles without any problem.How is that? It is because logic tells me that wise voters who hate a politician usually

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-14286326107078820822009-07-01T15:41:00.000-07:002009-07-01T15:45:32.331-07:00

I did not attend, because I was not invited to, a meeting of Romblomanons that the late Julius Fortuna—Manong Jules to many of his acolytes—convened on June 20 in Quezon City, three days before he left for a Greater Meeting beyond.The meeting, according to La Tondena de Bachawan of www.romblonpost.com, was to jumpstart a dialogue by and between Romblomanons on the basic problems confronting us in

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-10228164086645774742009-06-27T17:10:00.000-07:002009-06-27T17:23:17.838-07:00

Roll out the carpet,get out the barrel,politics, for all intents and purposes,is here,has become many Romblomanons’:daily fare;bread and butter;primary occupation;chief entertainment;major problem;field of dreams;worst nightmare;and cause of division,exactly eleven monthsbefore the May 2010 election.In order is a qualification. When I say “May 2010 election”, I don’t mean I am certain there will

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-69111478013092274482009-06-26T16:53:00.000-07:002009-06-26T17:00:29.992-07:00

Romblon history, when the time comes that it shall be written, will inevitably only have kind words for those who made that history possible.Those who left an indelible impact on Romblon, those who made it happen, those who descended on the arena and fought for the province, and those who, lastly, made life for the Romblomanons a little better and sufferable, will have a first claim over that

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-54189073418165024282009-06-18T16:02:00.000-07:002009-06-18T16:08:08.759-07:00

After I’ve commented on Juan Ponce Enrile’s and Mar Roxas’s taking up the cudgels for poor Filipinos against the mobile phone companies and suggesting that the government regulate them more strictly because of their crocodile-like business practices, a reader sent information which followers of this blog may find more infuriating.Another reader posted the article on Facebook, possibly to incite

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-22804728758722915402009-06-16T23:31:00.000-07:002009-06-16T23:32:35.493-07:00

If you are a pre-paid mobile phone user, read this.Your mobile phone service provider may be stealing your ‘load’. The amount, since the very beginning of time, could run up to your entire lifetime earnings.I am exaggerating, of course, but if you are the Senate President like Juan Ponce Enrile, and you lost something like P600 in phone ‘load’, what would you do?Enrile called the service

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-16865013381094416182009-06-14T08:45:00.000-07:002009-06-14T08:53:37.635-07:00

The Philippine Inquirer on Sunday devoted its headline to a non-news item: “Allies welcome GMA bid”, an indication that the newspaper’s editors have been bitten by the political bug, or worse, have fallen into the trap laid down by Palace factotums to get everyone else hyped up about a Gloria Arroyo run for representative of Pampanga’s second district in Congress.Of course, her allies should

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-38840975250430307372009-06-11T14:09:00.000-07:002009-06-11T14:20:07.133-07:00

A global epidemic finally catches us. Catches up with us.Yesterday, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic of the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu, after a meeting with health experts in Geneva.The swine flu pandemic is the first global flue epidemic in 41 years. The last pandemic was the Hong Kong flu in 1968 which killed one million people, the world health authority

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-63343962029123217172009-06-10T08:35:00.000-07:002009-06-10T15:54:52.955-07:00

Contrary to what many say, the move of the Gloria Arroyo-controlled House of Representatives to ram through our throats a change in the Cory Constitution through a constituent assembly, with the lower part of Congress—the silong as venue—was not a desperate move.A calculated step it was. A neatly-planned gamble, with hedged bets running to millions of pesos and with expected windfall running to

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-59075233296575078842009-06-01T16:19:00.000-07:002009-06-01T16:23:24.896-07:00

Awe Eranes and Tony Macalisang, Romblon Sun’s indefatigable duo of reporters, have not validated it, but I suppose they will after they arrive on a short trip from Manila.I refer to an e-mail from the provincial capitol (yes, Virginia, the capitol is connected to the Internet!) that was sent to the newspaper, and which I was also furnished a copy. The e-mail named names that heretofore were only

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-46181051522067427172009-05-31T15:39:00.000-07:002009-06-01T16:19:21.234-07:00

Tomorrow, if the weather permits, I will be marking my forty and six summers in this war-prone, disease-stricken, poverty-ravaged Earth.I will, if my stars don’t collide with each other—and if the Great Hand that hang them in the skies desires—still continue to be a witness to the beauty of God’s creation, notwithstanding the economic devastation wrought by the global financial crisis man-made by

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-83314457151180861202009-05-24T17:18:00.000-07:002009-05-25T15:50:59.094-07:00

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Concerto No. 21 is playing andante at YouTube while I am wrestling with two demons over what to write.I am sitting in front of my computer, shirtless because of the heat, wiping off my brow then and now the sweat that, left on its own devices, would moist my eyes and clog the vision. Upstairs, Lara and Lilac are switching television channels. Their mother, I think, is

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-61127428913638371082009-05-23T16:46:00.000-07:002009-05-25T15:48:14.803-07:00

The uproar over the sex video tape involving a famous doctor and an equally famous film and television personality, who is known more for her voluptuous body rather than for her acting talents, had me scampering for the safety of Gunter Grass, the German Nobel literature laureate who, in his memoirs, “Peeling the Onion”, was so candid, literate and poetic about sex as a personal experience.In

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-82622969156293058462009-05-16T06:00:00.000-07:002009-05-16T06:08:49.731-07:00

One of the Philippines’s most well-known traditions is the bayanihan, which many painters have depicted in canvass in the form of a nipa hut being moved from one place to another, on the shoulders of a group of people working in harmony and unison.This image of the tradition is what is etched in many Filipinos’—and foreigners’—minds, in addition to that of another kind of bayanihan—the one that’s

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-55627314615025224942009-05-15T10:08:00.000-07:002009-05-15T10:11:43.583-07:00

It’s been a week since Mabel Sun Fon eloped with a grumpy taxi driver.She was Chinese; the driver, Filipino. I’m already making a guess what nationality the law might bestow their offspring if their unplanned union is blessed: Tsinoy ringtone, if there is such a thing.Also, their relationship will not last. You see, I was with Mabel when she ran away with the guy who I saw has another Mabel. It

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-33473389795154355652009-05-13T17:46:00.000-07:002009-05-13T18:01:03.414-07:00

Until today, in Sibale, there are islanders still whose traditions, for reasons that are unexplained yet, are eradicable.These traditions, unique as they are, persist, thrive, and continue to command grudging—and whispered—respect not so much because they make sense in a globalized world, but because no modern invention dare to question these traditions merely on account of their antiquity: they

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-4019347333340114602009-05-12T16:54:00.000-07:002009-05-12T16:57:51.898-07:00

A friend of mine, with whom I correspond regularly even if she is not ‘here’, yesterday sent a beautiful e-mail about how to survive in this highly materialistic, knowledge-driven, information-crazed world.You know this friend—her name is Maria—pops up every now and then to send me new discoveries. I think her work is to rummage through the earth’s rich produce of books, religious tracts,

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-12979684493538896072009-05-11T16:25:00.000-07:002009-05-11T16:28:05.720-07:00

The Senate’s decision to start a preliminary inquiry into the complaint of unethical behavior filed by Sen. Ana Consuelo ‘Jamby’ Madrigal against Sen. Manny Villar will have deep repercussion in the 2010 national elections and in the Senate itself, which is a collegial body thriving on consensus.Expect fireworks in the Senate next week. Further, expect the fireworks to extend to 2010. Expect

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-67459362151896311022009-05-09T07:14:00.000-07:002009-05-09T07:15:03.551-07:00

Sometime in January, I wrote about the undelivered office uniforms of the Romblon provincial employees, which according to my source, cost P1.2 million, the amount allegedly deducted in March 2008 from the employees’ clothing allowance for that year to the tune of P3,700 per employee.I thought this issue has been resolved, and the uniforms have been delivered, considering that it is already May

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-82141068094696166222009-05-04T17:09:00.000-07:002009-05-04T17:12:28.789-07:00

Ika-tatlong adlaw it kuwarenta, ruha,ag tatlong tuig nak inibhananNicon F. Fameronag 1Kuwarentang uwak nak hiwakka nagkakakakit kuman kag agasa plasait Sibale Academy.Nagbabantay it mumo,ag tura it alumniit gab-i,sa rinugos nak baylehan,nak sa sonata’y kinuyang.Imaw kali kag ika-tatlong adlaw—it pag-inistoryahan, pagpisanpag ginur-anan, pagkablitanit mga SibalenhongSibale Academyka ging

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-35259098971550017102009-05-04T16:31:00.000-07:002009-05-04T16:32:30.811-07:00

Yesterday, my mobile phone and I called it quits.The parting was bittersweet.It was bitter because the termination of our relationship was abrupt, unannounced, unexpected, full and complete. We will never see each other again.It was sweet because right after we parted, I was liberated and felt exhilaratingly cool and free. I discovered the joy of being unattached—and unreachable. If you don’t

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-73967092711619566852009-05-03T06:51:00.000-07:002009-05-03T07:01:39.762-07:00

“Obvious ba?”This was the answer of my pare, Mike Faderogao, administrative officer of the Concepcion National High School, when I asked him a few weeks ago if the financial crisis that is slowly eating into the economic strength of the world has reached the shores of Romblon.By his answer, he meant, “Yes”, and if I may hasten to add, “Very direly”.My next question is directed to the province’s

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-50210587448820035412009-04-28T08:50:00.000-07:002009-04-28T08:53:00.638-07:00

There is no doubt that the Sibale Academy’s Alumni Homecoming last April 11-14 is the grandest event of 2009 in the history of Sibale.I am not exaggerating. I’d like to direct you to the photo and video gallery of www.sibale.amorfrancis.com to believe this. After browsing this site, write me your thoughts and tell me if I’m wrong.Joey M. Fradejas and Merwin F. Mosquerra had posted on this site

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-82457679277450392872009-04-28T06:06:00.000-07:002009-04-28T06:07:40.440-07:00

I had not written anything for over a month, and I’m going mad.The hot summer of 2009 was so cruel a season it didn’t give me a respite, mentally and physically, from the whirlwind of activities that landed on my plate that before I even knew it, the rains have come, rendering me exhausted and drained, but also hopeful.Writers are humans, too, who need rest. I disappeared; did not answer phone

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-63833922988049870942009-03-13T19:56:00.000-07:002009-03-13T20:35:01.630-07:00

Less than a month from today, the Sibale Academy, Sibale’s only private high school, will be host to an alumni homecoming.This event will go into the school’s history books as the first grand attempt to gather a disparate population whose only common characteristic was that they, once in their lives, went to the same high school and daydreamed in the same class.No one can tell yet if this attempt

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-41157253623124759232009-03-12T14:20:00.000-07:002009-03-12T14:39:40.116-07:00

NEWSRELEASE March 12, 2009Sibale hosts 6th RDL-CLEAR Writing WorkshopFrom March 26 to 28, 2009, Romblon’s literary fever will notch a few degrees higher as the Concepcion National High School (CNHS) in Sibale hosts the 6th RDL-CLEAR Writing Workshop on the Three Romblon Languages—Asi, Unhan, and Ini.The writing workshop is an annual pilgrimage for young Romblomanon writers.RDL-CLEAR has tapped

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-33791156521171600882009-03-11T17:37:00.000-07:002009-03-11T17:56:52.487-07:00

I am agog.I didn’t foresee that Amantaw Greening, the joint reforestation project of the Municipality of Concepcion, Sibale Academy Alumni Association, and Kusog Sibalenhon, which I have featured thrice in this column and in my blog, will spread like wildfire and gain adherents from as far as the United Arab Emirates to as near as, well, my backyard, where my dogs, Zorro and Mizuki, cavort

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-56285710225797708002009-03-09T18:54:00.000-07:002009-03-09T19:11:02.637-07:00

To come home to Sibale after two straight years of forced absence is eternal bliss.No kidding. I think my life would be short if I don’t set foot—return to—once in a while on the soil of my forebears; where I was born, and where I hope to turn back into soil when the Maker calls me in. A Sibale trip recharges my emotional, mental and physical batteries, drained by running in the rat race of city

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-40400638206707091272009-02-22T07:20:00.000-08:002009-02-22T07:28:41.348-08:00

After a classmate, Merwin Mosquerra, posted my piece on Amantaw Greening at the saha yahoogroups, I have received comments, mostly favorable, about this trailblazing project. Thank you.I will be in the backseat now to give this space to the voices of two Sibalenhons—all alumni of the Sibale Academy, all Famarins—so that those who can hear (read) them will know that Amantaw Greening is, indeed, a

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-59702281504284414792009-02-19T11:25:00.000-08:002009-02-19T11:47:14.886-08:00

In Sibale, just slightly above a valley where a stream used to be vigorous, is a mountain place called Amantaw.No one in present-day Sibale could tell exactly the genesis of the name, but I guess Amantaw is old—as old as memory could remember and, therefore, older than the Spanish conquistador who built a house on the valley below and

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-78251109390220489582009-02-18T18:23:00.000-08:002009-02-18T18:34:45.713-08:00

Readers who were not able to make it at the concert of the 1622: Unang Usbor at the CAP auditorium in Lipa City last 15 February can still savor the fresh cultural air of the event by wearing limited edition tees.The shirts are now on sale and costs P300.00. The cotton T-shirts bear the imprint in silhouette of the 1622:Unang Usbor band members, with a small islet off Banton as backdrop and the

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-43691823567471411362009-02-17T20:34:00.000-08:002009-02-17T23:17:53.489-08:00

What do Romblon Congressman Eleandro Jesus “Budoy” F. Madrona, Governor Natalio “Jojo” Beltran III, Sibale Mayor Lemuel “Boyet” Cipriano, Simara Mayor Eddie Mazo, Cajidiocan Mayor Nicasio “Borong’ Ramos, Sibale SB Member Disodado “Diosing” Atillano, and Banton SB member Loi Fegalan have in common?Apart from being true-blue politicians, they were for a night lovers of Asi music. They attended the

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-57658264437241487452009-02-11T04:20:00.000-08:002009-02-11T04:33:48.870-08:00

Unlike accountants, doctors, engineers, politicians, and business people, many artists in our country are far, far down below the economic totem pole. In other words, many Filipino artists—writers, journalists, musicians, painters and poets—are genuinely poor.It is not for lack of trying to be rich. On the contrary, most Filipino artists—or whoever consider their calling “art”—try to make the

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-29045104917433924822009-01-29T09:45:00.000-08:002009-01-29T09:46:07.528-08:00

The practice of extending cash advances to officials and employees of government is one disease difficult to cure. It is recurring.It is worse when cash advances are not liquidated. Un-liquidated cash advances put a government office at risk. It is accountability hanging; a corrupt act.Advancing cash to officials and employees is not illegal—if it is liquidated. If not, it is a crime. And a crime

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-59887116377256063232009-01-28T14:26:00.000-08:002009-01-28T14:32:01.242-08:00

Sometime in October 2006, then Armed Forces spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro said Makati City mayor Jejomar Binay could be liable for wearing a Marine uniform. He said wearing of military uniforms by civilians is prohibited.I almost fell off my seat upon reading this statement of genius from the military establishment.At that time, Binay was ordered suspended from office, but he

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8362538194283166438.post-8891441051217949592009-01-18T13:03:00.000-08:002009-01-18T13:32:28.211-08:00

The global financial crisis may have forced the United States not to invite any king, queen, prince, emir, caliph, czar, emperor, prime minister, or president to the Barack Obama inauguration on January 20, and although this may not be the reason as I only took my creative license to insinuate it, the news that no world leader had been sent an invite to the Obama swearing-in was a mild

Niconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04407813340473872526noreply@blogger.com0