Think about it
Uprooting the drug problem
By Jun Velasco
“ Begin: “To begin is half the work. Let half still remain: again begin this, and you will have finished,” Ausonius
MAYOR Benjie Lim’s impassioned resolve to crush the drug menace in the city, a notorious lair of pushers and users, is long overdue.
But as the saying goes “better late than never.”
We’d like to see this drive with a non-partisan character to factor in Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez’s own battle plan, which she had begun earlier and cited by the country’s No.1 nemesis, Sec. Bebot Villar, Dangerous Drugs Board chairman.
No less than hizzoner correctly sized up the illicit drug’s influence on most crimes that destroy our community.
This assessment, if you’ll notice, is a final call for total measures and for all parties to close ranks to defeat the enemy.
Those who make fun of initiatives in the same drive just because they come from a perceived enemy are actually the bottleneck on the drive. The summons should be addressed to all sectors, friends and foes alike.
We ought to hark back on Christ’s teaching to love our enemies in the name of a much bigger now an overwhelming common enemy.
In our highly politicized community, there’s an anti drug genius whose expertise would fit the drive perfectly. We are referring to our friend brilliant Judge Victor Llamas, also a good friend of both Benjie and Belen. Kuya Vic’s two volumes on the war on illicit drugs are not only brilliant; they are real situations that strike at the core of the menace.
We thought those two books alone should have landed him in the list of Dagupan’s Who’s Who. Were it not for the intellectual bigotry that rules and rues our lives, Llamas, an Ateneo alumnus and legal genius, should be among those being considered for chief justice.
Statistics show that there’s no sitio or barangay in the country without a drug problem. This omnipresence of the menace should jolt the senses. The war is deadlier than a physical or military war because it has a more profound and elaborate battle arena.
We have no more time to temporize on the problem. It has been breaking us without our knowing it.
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Symbolic to his arrival from the US, Gov. Amado ‘Spines” Espino presided Thursday over the installation of the world’s most modern digital X-ray machine at the Provincial Hospital.
On hand to receive the machine from lawyer Edward Tan, CEO, DCM Medical Systems, USA and eFotoXpress Phils. Corp, was Hospital Director Jackson Soriano.
We and Jackson had a brief talk before the Governor’s party arrived. Jackson looks up to Spines as a kind of phenomenon in the life of the hospital. He even spoke the governor’s mind to articulate his seeming single-minded devotion to the Pangasinenses’ wellness and health.
“It should be the main plank of our governance,” Spines told Jackson.
Edward Tan, a buddy of our friend Cesar Duque, says the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital is the 3rd yet in the country to have this multimillion, most powerful X-ray machine. The other hospitals, he said, are the Makati Medical Center and the Kidney Center of the Philippines.
The equipment is 100 times faster than the conventional X-ray machine, Edward said, adding “It’s 10 times more powerful from what we are normally using.
Edwin Maningding, X-ray technician, says the digital unit which looks like a skylab in space works in 10 seconds; the “normal” speed is 45 minutes.
That brief visit to the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital – which has outclassed most provincial hospitals anywhere in the country — in facilities and service – gave us an idea of how good governance buttresses a healthy citizenry.
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A group of Pangasinan publishers felt a need for closer and enlightened camaraderie and elected Manny Celso of the Country Mail their president.
No paper is perfect. It’s therefore important for the new group to rise and grow from imperfections in a community press thru continual study and thru seminars and workshops and emulating respected models.
The new publishers group should be aware that their first duty is to help the public mold intelligent opinions that guide positive action, and avoid getting involved in foul money-making schemes.
Good luck and more power.
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