Freshen up with Sendong So’s balita

By Jun Velasco

SECRETARY  Arthur Yap is probably the first pro GMA  cabinet  man who has made a  sensible  pitch for the embattled  lady  in a manner  that  dashes cold water to the heat  the anti forces have created.

At Sendong So’s agri expo on a 9-hectare former rubbish land but now a robust   rice and corn plantation in Carmen, Rosales, Arthur Yap —the Dagupeño native who made good in Manila — said “what are they still investigating, investigating  all these weeks? This is our country, let her finish her term till 20l0.”

Apt timing with thousands of farm producers displaying their wares in native booths. An air of hope and abundance was unmistakable. If only correct farming methods were used! Sendong enthused.

   Most of the time, Secretary Yap dropped the name of “our governor” (Spines, who else?)  earnestly telling Pangasinenses that they are on the right track for supporting massive food production. Food, he said, is a big problem yet in Pangasinan and in the country, aggravated by new policies in Thailand and Vietnam, which have recently junked rice   exportation.

  The junking is good if we think hard, because in the long haul we should rely on our own, our sweat, our industry, our genius, our creativity. Did we not, by the way, teach the Asian rice producers beginning with Taiwan, the secret IRRI formula from Los Banos?     

What went wrong? So, while we are overjoyed by what  Amado Espino, Sendong  So, Arthur   Yap and our caboodle of rice and corn and livestock officials are exhorting people  for La Patria  — if  our top officials, many of them callous, continue to  misuse the hard-earned cash  from our sun-beaten farmers and the savings  by SOME good officials and brilliant technocrats from the Department if Agriculture  and self-made agri -business leaders like Sendong — where then  is hope, where then  is salvation?

No, we are not slamming the door against the senate hearings, not as yet, probably until we see the whole corruption business exposed and stopped completely.

We recently visited Malaysia whose economy despite its negative internals has outpaced the Philippines by 20 years. If only former NEDA Chair Romy Neri was successful in “moderating their greed” there could have been a good measure of some improvement in the economy. Wala e.                   

But let’s salute Sendong and company for their childlike faith in good, productive work. It’s   doing the nation good. But the idea is we’d be getting much, much more from our people’s hard, productive and prolific work if their produce and the millions it generates went to the right places.   This frame of mind is convulsing the Senate and other reformists in order to excise and throw away the bulok system.       

*         *          *

As a counter balance to the blanket of darkness that has enveloped our country as a result, Arthur Yap says, of the continuous dirt-digging by the Senate, a group of veteran, mature, “aging” journalists wants to have a show too ostensibly meant to give us a break   from “boredom,” a refreshing event or some lighter side: to honor a few good men and women, who have done a mighty good job in this country in a telling manner.

The show – a testimonial toast to l5 good men and women – is meant to add luster to a colleague, Ruben Rivera’s 30-year running broadcast magazine of public service known as DIWA, SALITA AT GAWA or DSG, for short — which lauds government and talent workers to do their jobs exceptionally well, beyond the ordinary, making a difference and perking up a humdrum jogtrot routine of living in these corruption-cursed days.

Diwa, in consultation with Region I Publishers Association of the Philippines and  a few stout hearted members of the Pangasinan Tri Media and Press and Radio Club,  pauses to do a grand salute to the following: Bishop Oscar Cruz, Joey de Venecia,  Sec. Francisco T. Duque III, Sec. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., Usec Bebot Villar, Atty. Raul Lambino, Judge Clifton Ganay, Prosecutor Caridad Junio, writer Cesar Carpio, TV broadcaster Maki Pulido, fish culture genius Westly Rosario, historian Resty Basa, police chief Dionicio Borromeo, and civic leader-balikbayan Alfredo Dawana.

The award givers are not moneyed, were forced to postpone the event thrice to raise graft-free funds, vowing not to charge the awardees a cent. But they have a few sponsors not in any way related to the awardees.

See you at the Star Plaza on March 23, 7 pm.

(Readers may reach columnist at junmv@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/think-about-it/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)