Think about it
Bani’s rebirth seen
By Jun Velasco
“Let him who would move the world, first move himself,” Socrates
DID you see the movie “Perfect World” which stars our favorite actor, Kevin Costner?
In it, what was envisaged as a world perfect turned out to be its exact opposite, an imperfect world.
It’s common knowledge that even in the small community we live, our desire to achieve a pleasant and viable community could be a distant dream.
Take a cursory view at the nasty news headlines that greet us every day.
The Janet Lim Napoles affair is a big slap on the face of Mr. Government Official whose claim for servant hood and leadership has crumbled to pieces and into the darkest pit.
Incidentally, we had by accident met Janet Lim Napoles at a Makati meeting about four months back. She had a pleasant comportment that what we no longer see on TV. We shook hands, but we had a longer chat, and in the Pangasinan dialect, with her hubby, Jimmy Napoles who claimed to be a native of Alaminos.
We then barely had any inkling at the massive edifice of corruption she has built. We hardly saw any topic of significance beyond being a nodding acquaintance.
What are we saying here? Well, you might just be the person next door who is just a disinterested entity until his or her whole world is unraveled. The appropriate word is “unmasked.”
In our “innocent” community, let’s not be careless in taking into our trust people we hardly know. It’s risky.
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As we sat to write this column, our daughter Kharmina whose husband we just sent off last Tuesday to Ethiopia, sadly called us to report that a middle-aged woman who had applied as a kasambahay two hours earlier ran off with her cell phone, canned goods, bathroom items, cash and others when no one was looking.
She had the incident “blottered,” for which a former police sub-detachment head Sgt. Ric Ubando vowed to help solve. Not far off, our friend Digna Mallari, former president of the Tondaligan Blue Beach Subdivision, yesterday complained to this writer that a big bundle of electric wires for her new building at Bonuan Catacdang, Dagupan City was stolen by thugs recently.
Indeed, not very many are in step with the reforms drive initiated by the new Dagupan City administration.
A latest one: brod Dante, the former DOTC usec, early morning sampled a Dinalaoan, Calasiao-made “puto” he and wife Eve bought from a vendor beside the PNB building fronting city hall.
Hardly had he put the local delicacy into his mouth when he frowned at its sour taste. He snappily confronted the vendor who immediately gave newly baked ones, even while receiving an early morning sermon on how not to behave in a community that is being upgraded by a reformist lady chief executive, Mayor Belen Fernandez.
Earlier, Dante glowed with praises on the spic’n span AB Fernandez Avenue and the newly improved traffic system. He said he had chanced upon mutual friend, Rhee Fer Hortaleza, who commiserated with his sad experience with a promise to chastise the mischief in his radio program.
Will the city government, say the health department, do something about this slur on the city’s new shining image?
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We are happy for the townspeople of Bani. They are gifted with a brilliant, reforms-minded new mayor in Gwen Palafox-Yamamoto.
Only 32 years young, UP-bred Gwen is busy as a bee plotting the town’s socio-economic advance after all these years of mediocre governance. This is the beauty of having young and idealistic government executives. They are enthusiastic in introducing reforms, fresh novel ideas and untainted by graft.
Her first asset is having super supportive parents Boying Palafox and the former Edith Olores who are as meticulous as she in the art of governance…..Kudos to former Malued resident Ernesto Siapno and his lovely wife, the former Isabel Jimenez. Their son Erwin and his wife, Maria Eliza Juan Siapno have a son Ethan Keane, a super grade 7 of Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth.
Ethan is among 200 exceptional students worldwide who have been honored in special academic ceremonies in Pennsylvania. Lea Ybarra, Center for Talented Your executive director, said in a letter to his parents: “Their performance places them in the top tier of students taking these tests, and they certainly deserve acclaim. They possess an academic fearlessness and intellectual ability that will benefit their entire generation.”
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NOTES: It was Nanay’s 86th birthday last Thursday, and what a joy for her to see all her kids come to hug and wish her all the joy and love everlasting!…. Board Member Ranjit Shahani humbly admitted his fault to “Manong Bebot” for not being prompt on his appointments. He has vowed to make up and personally apologize to “my manong.” His humility made him ten feet taller.
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