Punchline
Truth waiting to be served
By Ermin F. Garcia Jr.
Over the week, we received a comment from Mr. Jess Delfin of California about the Punch’s mediocre reporting, specifically the “Manaoag gets “world class police station”.
He wondered what the Punch meant when it wrote “world class” but the report said nothing about modern police communications equipment etc.
The truth is the description was Speaker Joe de V’s, hence the quotation marks. And evidently, he used “world class” in the context of tourism since the PNP’s building project for the police is premised mainly on the town or city’s priority as a tourism destination. Nothing was mentioned about improved radio equipment, computer database, etc.
It is “world class” for its design and facilities to serve tourists. Period. Nothing follows.
The next question our readers would likely ask is: Is the PNP for law enforcement and peace and order? Or for promotion of tourism?
Next question, please.
***
HELP IN ENGLISH. Two weeks ago, we got a frantic email from Bitstop’s Wilson Chua. He is running one of the call centers in the province. To fully appreciate the implication of the issue he raised, I’m printing his letter full below:
“We are now scrapping the bottom of the barrel. It is increasingly difficult to get applicants that have good written and oral skills in English.”
“It is high time to emphasize English in the basic curriculum of not only the college level students, but starting as early as elementary levels.
“Our province stands to gain additional employment from business process out sourcing companies if we can produce enough qualified and competent agents for them.
“I hope your paper can help in strengthening basic English education in our province.”
***
This is the sad state of our education in the province today. Apparently, most of our schools have not placed enough importance or priority in making their students proficient in English, whether written or spoken.
But this is not to say that we don’t have enough professionals in the province who speak fluently and write grammatically correct English. There are a number of them out there but there are no incentives for them to make use of their skills as teachers or instructors. It simply doesn’t pay.
Worse, few schools if any, have laboratories for speech classes.
However, there appears to be hope though with the Arzadon’s of Colegio de Dagupan. For whatever it’s worth, the school has recently acquired the franchise for Dyned courseware, a laboratory-intensive module for learning to write and speak English.
Perhaps, the Duques (UPang and Lyceum U) and the Samsons (University of Luzon) can top this undertaking by employing professionals backed with unassailable credentials as having excelled in studying the English language, as English instructors in high school.
As Wilson correctly pointed out, our children must be taught correct English as early (or as late?) as high school.
***
HIRED KILLERS. For a measly P12,000, a hired gun went out and waylaid Dr. Cerdan Lopez of San Carlos in front of his wife. But that is not the story.
The more shocking part of the story is that the people who ordered the murder were the family of his wife- her father, brother and niece.
It was your usual fare of family feud. It was a story of greed, jealousy and hate.
I have no doubt that the suspects have now regretted their involvement but only because they were caught. Evidently, they had banked on the usual bumbling police investigation to keep their sordid plot a secret. But the NBI came through and delivered.
Sa huli parati ang pagsisisi as they say in Pilipino.
But the moral of the story is – never underestimate your Creator who knows everyone’s secret.
He always finds a way to give you your due.
***
PERSONA NON GRATA. The revered Archbishop Oscar Cruz is now reportedly the hate-object in the provincial board, and by the displaced jueteng operators. The latest from the grapevine is his detractors in the board are wondering how they can declare him person-non-grata without appearing vindictive and comical.
Reports say the project holder of Loterya ng Bayan is already asking for the refund of “mobilization funds” released to certain provincial officials to ensure the passage of the draft resolution that it had crafted. Tsk-tsk. And the archbishop is to blame for the fiasco, they insist.
Without a doubt, for the province’s officials, the archbishop’s staunch and unyielding opposition to jueteng and its other clones is now a force to reckon with. The mayors, who had largely ignored his crusade earlier even after their towns are constantly listed as hosts to jueteng, suddenly appear powerless to impose their will.
What enrages the provincial and town officials no end is the fact that the archbishop is visibly by his own lonesome self but he has succeeded in undercutting their lucrative partnerships with jueteng lords without literally firing a shot, or even filing a single case in court.
But if it’s any consolation to the grumbling honorable members of the board, mayors and police officers, the outspoken archbishop is not yet inclined to shame them publicly for their callousness and seemingly incorrigible corrupt habits. The day he says “enough is enough” will be the day of reckoning.
If the corrupt officials don’t know it yet, the archbishop is almost tempted to do a Clint Eastwood classic with his legendary “Make my day.”
From where I sit, I think I have a pretty hunch on who will back down from this dangerous game of brinkmanship.
***
BY THE WAY, the Citizens’ Congress for Truth and Accountability (CCTA) which promises to hold a series of public hearing beginning on the second week of November mainly on the election fraud charges against Mrs. Arroyo, will certainly boggle the people’s mind.
Except for the expected absence of Mrs. Arroyo and her representatives, the public hearings will still be credible and definitely extremely useful to the public. I think the Malacanang occupants are aware of this themselves if we go by the incessant threats of Justice Sec. Raul Gonzalez.
Remember when he threatened to have people in possession of “Hello Garci” ringtones with citizen’s arrest soon after the cover-up was launched? Nothing came out of that empty threat but I have reason to believe that this time, the emergency rule will be invoked and people will be arrested at will before or during the public hearings on Mrs. Arroyo’s “lying, stealing and cheating”.
Between the fabricated election returns (which I have personally seen), the three-hour taped conversations which included Mrs. Arroyo’s exchanges with Comelec Commissioner Garcillano, the testimonies in the senate of Michaelangelo Zuce, B/Gen. Francisco Gudani and Lt. Col. Alex Balutan, the flight of Garci, and recently of former Agri Usec Jocjoc Bolante, the deposition of former DBM chief Emilia Boncodin, Malacanang has reason to stop the proceedings by all means, whether legal or foul.
Unfortunately for Mrs. Arroyo and her ilk, the truth must be served because it is there just waiting to be unraveled.
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