PASSIONATE SPOKESMAN — Fourth District Board Member Jeremy Agerico Rosario could very well be the Espinos’ spokesman. He spoke highly of the Espinos, especially the former governor and now congressman Amado Espino Jr.

The resolution Rosario sponsored last Monday was about level upgrading of Pozorrubio Community Hospital, from 10-bed to 15-bed capacity. It took the discussions on the floor about an hour just for that resolution.

Rosario was all praises to the nth degree with superlatives on what the former Guv did for the hospitals in Pangasinan. He said it many times, as if lauding a king. All I heard from him about the former governor were Alleluias.

If I haven’t been to provincial government hospitals in Pangasinan, baka maniwala ako siyento porsyento sa mga sinabi ni Bokal Ming.

Rosario is a doctor who became assistant provincial health officer after finishing his three terms as board member. He resigned from the provincial government in time for his re-election bid as board member.

I am a living witness on how board members talked, articulated their ideas, fought for the truth during their sessions. Covering the Sangguniang Panlalawigan session has been my routine for two decades already.

But when I heard Bokal Ming the last session, I was so amazed at how passionately he has become in praising former Mr. Gov! If it were a song, Bokal Ming rendered a perfect melody last Monday, just right for a standing ovation from the crowd.

No wonder Bokal Ming has become the envy of some board members lately. Has he become the latest Niño paborito of the Espinos in the board?

Listening to him, he could ably sideline as spokesman of the father-and-son.— Tita Roces

NOT A COUNTRY OF DRUG USERS — I hope inbound tourism to the country is still on the upswing.

I say this because I learned that tourists from New Zealand are heading to Thailand and other Asian tropical countries, skipping the Philippines because they are scared of the rampant if not daily killings of drug personalities.

It is still winter in the southern hemisphere and soon it will be spring. By summer, which begins in December, many New Zealanders will be on overseas holiday.  And as early as today, they are buying holiday tickets to Thailand at big discount prices, for as low as 400 dollars per person.

They said they love to come to the Philippines and would like to savor the Filipino food and hospitality but will not risk being caught in the crossfire when the police go after drug lords and their pushers, and the addicts.

Worse, they think that the Philippines is already a haven for illegal drugs and the way the country is being projected here, every other guy you meet in the street is a drug user or pusher.

I’ve told friends here that the media reports are a total exaggeration and the drug pushers and users who are surrendering, or being shot and killed in legitimate police operations are just a small fraction of the more than 100 Filipinos who live a normal life, go about their daily grind and earning honestly through their sweat and tears come what may, just to eat three times a day and send their children to school.

And that the current drive against the scourge of the society is intended to address a long neglected problem in the past to save the country from becoming a narco state, a move that a vast majority of the Filipinos fully support. – Leonardo Micua

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