By HERBERT VEGO and DARYL Z. LASAFIN
THE year 2015 was filled with stories that highlighted not only our collective consciousness as a people but also our struggle to overcome and learn from the past and steadily head into the future.
It was marred by issues that have been bugging the Philippines in general and Western Visayas in particular for many, many years now. It was barely uplifting, and the magnitude of tragedies and conflicts overshadowed whatever little victories we had.
Panay News looks back at the top stories that made its Front Pages this year not to relish the negativities but to help its readers reflect on what we should bring to the new year 2016 and what we should leave behind in 2015.
JANUARY
At the year’s starting month, we were greeted with bad news: on Jan. 25, 44 commandos of the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force (SAF) and several rebels died in an encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. The SAF operatives were out to get wanted terrorists Zulkifli bin Hir, also known as “Marwan,” and Basit Usman, each with a US$5-million bounty.
Meanwhile in Iloilo City, Tribu Panayanon — for the third straight year — bagged the championship in the Dinagyang Festival street-dancing competition.
Ten days before that, we ran the banner story, “COMELEC OUSTS JAVIER,” which told of the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) disqualification of Gov. Exequiel Javier of Antique for violating the Omnibus Election Code, specifically the provision against the suspension of any elective official during election period.
Javier tried to hold on to his post and planned to seek a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court. His vice governor, Rhodora Cadiao, took over the governorship even with his resistance, causing confusion among Antiqueños. It wasn’t until the following month that Javier stepped down.
FEBRUARY
The international health scare Middle East Respiratory Syndrome–Coronavirus (MERS–CoV) rocked Western Visayas. Five Western Visayans — all overseas Filipino workers — were in the Saudi Airline flight 860 that carried a Filipina nurse positive for MERS–CoV. They have been traced and undergone tests.
Also, after months of investigation, three Sangguniang Panlungsod of Iloilo City committees recommended that eight city government officials and employees be charged criminally and administratively for Iloilo Terminal Market anomalies.
The councilors believed they have an “airtight” case against Local Economic Enterprise Office (LEEO) former head Vincent de la Cruz, City Administrator Norlito Bautista, LEEO permanent and bonded employee Marcela Ymalay, market-in-charge Ely Sumaray, market supervisor Wenona Jaudian, job hire Fedelyn Villalobos, former market supervisor Enrique Billena, and Zenia de la Cruz, local revenue collection officer of the City Treasurer’s Office.
It’s not every day, too, that Iloilo City mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog admits an error. “Mea culpa,” Mabilog said after realizing that he signed a memorandum of agreement on the enforcement of a wheel clamping ordinance by mistake.
The General Services Office’s joint venture committee was supposed to look into it and open it for challenge from other competitors, but that did not happen — Mabilog signed it, and then it was submitted to the city council committee on transportation. The council confirmed it, but Mabilog wanted the councilors to cancel it.
MARCH
It wasn’t exactly new, but the issue on “survival sex” among students came to the fore when Professor Ma. Rosario Victoria de Guzman of the West Visayas State University College of Communication expressed alarm over students becoming regular patrons of motels and lodging houses in Iloilo City.
It was in the same month that the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board approved the nationwide P10 drop in taxi flag down rate (from P40 to P30), much to the drivers and operators’ chagrin. Taxi groups in Panay and Cebu opposed and appealed the rollback.
APRIL
Insufficient water supply remains a problem in the growing city of Iloilo. The start of summer saw the city being placed under a “state of calamity,” allowing affected villages to use their calamity funds to combat water scarcity. Our report came out on April 29.
In an earlier banner, on our 34th anniversary issue on April 15, Mayor Mabilog criticized the Metro Iloilo Water District for not finding a solution to its long-standing water supply and distribution problem amid the El Niño.
It was in this month, too, when the television network GMA Iloilo took 24 regular employees by surprise when it laid them off without warning. Its morning show “Arangkada” was cancelled, too. Seven months later, in November, it dissolved its local news and public affairs program “Ratsada 24-Oras,” in effect retrenching more than 20 regular employees, including officers, reporters, cameramen, and other personnel.
MAY
Dismay and disbelief filled public viewing areas in Iloilo City on May 3 when the People’s Champ Manny Pacquiao lost to the American Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the “Fight of the Century” in Las Vegas, Nevada. Boos and curses reverberated in gymnasiums, with people calling Mayweather “the hugger.” Pacquiao, at that time, believes he should have won.
The month was bugged, too, by deaths at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology Male Dormitory in Barangay Ungka, Jaro, Iloilo City, and the suspicion that drugs were being smuggled into the facility.
JUNE
This was a tough time for the family of the late former Iloilo governor Niel D. Tupas Sr. (still alive and kicking then), what with his son Raul “Boboy” (incumbent vice governor) pressing on with his decision to run for congressman of the 1st District against sister-in-law Yvonne Angeli, wife of his elder brother, the incumbent Niel “Jun-Jun” Tupas Jr.
The talipapa or public market of the region’s tourism mecca, Boracay Island, burned down. Reduced to ashes were around 150 stores and stalls.
President Benigno Aquino III went to Iloilo to celebrate the Independence Day for the first time outside Luzon. He raised the flag in the historical Santa Barbara town and opened the Casa Real de Iloilo, the newly renovated old Iloilo capitol, where the vin d’honneur was held.
JULY
The province of Antique was once again in the world news following the collapse of the coal mining pit of Semirara Mining and Power Corp. on July 17, burying to death nine miners. This was the second time such an accident happened. The first was in February 2013. It killed five miners.
On July 31 at Club Filipino in San Juan City, President Benigno Aquino III raised the hands of an Ilonggo, Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, to be the Liberal Party’s candidate for president in 2016.
This was also the month when the tiff between Mayor Mabilog and councilor Plaridel Nava over the traffic lights in Iloilo City started. The city hosted, too, a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
AUGUST
The month began with the arrest of the communist leader Concepcion Araneta Bocala, 64, by elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Military Intelligence Group in Barangay Calumpang, Molo, Iloilo City. She is the secretary-general of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
On Aug. 11, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio–Morales dismissed the malversation charges filed against Senate President Franklin Drilon by former Iloilo provincial administrator Manuel “Boy” Mejorada over the allegedly overpriced P700-million Iloilo Convention Center.
SEPTEMBER
A new complaint filed before the Office of the Ombudsman named Congressman Niel Tupas Jr. for alleged malversation of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) through falsification of public documents. He allegedly allocated P5 million of his PDAF to a ghost foundation. He denied the charge, claiming that somebody had forged his signature.
On Sept. 8, Councilor Nava filed graft charges against Mayor Mabilog before the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas for the “anomalous” purchase of six wheel clamps for illegally parked vehicles in the amount of P144,000 without first obtaining authority from the Sangguniang Panglunsod. Mabilog countercharged a few days later, saying that he had in fact suspended the contract with the clamp supplier, 3L Towing Services, for not having undergone competitive bidding, and that it was Nava who had pecuniary interest in 3L.
On Sept. 16, the Court of Appeals issued a ruling dismissing the petition for Writ of Kalikasan with prayer for Temporary Environmental Protection Order against the P11.2-billion Jalaur River Multipurpose Project Stage II (a mega dam) in Iloilo province.
This was also the month when the APEC ministerial meetings in Iloilo City continued. The Iloilo Initiative, which lays out plans to boost the micro, small and medium enterprise industry in Asia-Pacific, was signed. President Aquino also led the opening of the Iloilo Business Park of the property development giant Megaworld Corp.
OCTOBER
Ombudsman Morales ordered the dismissal of Capiz’s Gov. Victor Tanco Sr. for extorting P3 million from the contractor of the P32.9-million Mambusao District Hospital. Tanco resisted the order, citing the so-called Aguinaldo Doctrine holding that a public official cannot be removed for offense prior to reelection. He was later absolved when the Ombudsman itself acknowledged that he is covered by the Aguinaldo Doctrine.
The same office ordered the dismissal from office of then Iloilo Police Provincial Office chief, Senior Superintendent Cornelio Salinas, because of the latter’s alleged participation in the procurement of coastal crafts worth P4.54 million without public bidding. Salinas denied active participation in the deal.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government also suspended Mayor Monico Puentevella of Bacolod City for 90 days over graft charges.
Regional Director Paul Ledesma of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency announced that the total worth of illegal drugs seized by his office from January to October this year had reached P50 million.
NOVEMBER
The date Nov. 19, 2015 led to the identification of Melvin “Boyet” Odicta as the drug lord known only so far by his alias “Dragon.” It happened at 12:30 a.m. when the armed man and his companions numbering more or less 20 tried to barge into DyOK Aksyon Radyo–Iloilo. Deterred by a locked steel gate, he snatched the building’s security camera that had already recorded their attempted intrusion. The police made no arrest.
Former Iloilo governor Niel Tupas Sr. succumbed to prostate cancer at the Philippine Heart Center on Nov. 24 at age 82.
DECEMBER
On Dec. 9, Sen. Grace Poe came to Iloilo City to preside an inquiry on the Nov. 19 botched “raid” on Aksyon Radyo. Respondent Melvin Odicta made no appearance. Only one of his companions, Jesus Espinosa Jr., came but denied knowledge of Odicta’s reason for going to the radio station.
On Dec. 15, the New People’s Army launched an offensive against the Philippine Army in Tiolas, San Joaquin, Iloilo, injuring six soldiers, two police officers and a civilian.
On Dec. 20, in Las Vegas, Nevada (Dec. 21 in Manila), Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach ended the Philippines’ 42-year Miss Universe drought. But her announcement as Miss Universe caused initial confusion. Host Steven Harvey mistakenly declared Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez the winner. A few minutes later, he corrected himself and apologized. Wurtzbach, the third Filipina to win the crown, bested 79 other candidates./PN