Of Nogie, de Guzman, ghosts and zombies, and the fat goats of Artica Doom

THEDURIANBEAT

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

Ex-House Speaker Prospero Nograles may now forget his claim he was cheated in the mayoral race in 2010 because in part ghosts and zombies crawled out of their graves on election day to vote for Mayor Sara Duterte.

The Supreme Court said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) voters’ list in Davao City is okay and has dismissed a petition filed by Nograles asking the High Court to order the Comelec to cleanse its voters’ list.

cartoon by RUBEN LAUDE

The Davao City elections are fun and entertaining—and dirty when it comes to mudslinging and smear assaults from protagonists—and always capped by sour-graping losing candidates like Nograles who would cry fraud every time he loses.

 The protest he filed on claims the voters’ list is peopled by pro-Duterte ghosts and zombies is but another one of post-election hangovers that Dabawenyos must accept with extreme tolerance and humor.

In his petition, Nograles had claimed the voters’ list was impregnated with ghosts and zombies who voted for Inday Sara and wanted the list exorcised of the ghouls.

In a six-page en banc decision, the SC has dismissed Nograles’ petition for being moot and academic.

The Comelec did already what it had to do prior to the May 10, 2010 local elections in Davao City, said the SC.

“Notably, three days before the elections, on May 7, 2010, the Comelec issued Resolution No. 8882, entitled Cleansing of The List of Voters Through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS)…” the SC decision said.

The SC decision is the second debacle suffered by Nograles in so far as his protests are concerned about results of the 2010 elections where as the sitting Speaker of the House of Representatives, the fourth highest and most powerful official of the land, he was miserably beaten in the mayoral race with a more than 220,000 vote margin by a neophyte politician, then Vice Mayor Sara Duterte, daughter of Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

He had earlier filed a protest before the Comelec and sought a recount of the votes. Nograles also lost the protest. In the final count of 100 ballot boxes —sample ballot boxes to justify a full recount—that Nograles himself picked from precincts where he thought Inday Sara got zero, results showed that the fourth highest official of the land also lost, miserably.

The 2010 elections was a sad celebration for Nograles’ political career, that overshadowed his being the fourth most powerful man in the country under the administration of the most-hated president former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

He tried to salvage the tragedy after his third defeat in the hands of Inday Sara in the Davao City mayoral races by resurrecting his habit of protesting results of the elections.

So far, he has  earned the enviable record as the country’s lone mayoral bet beaten with the highest vote margins and clobbered three times in as many elections.

Do we hear Nograles planning a fourth try in what could be what observers here say is a severe case of political sadism?

After the miserable loss in the 2010, he cried fraud, questioned the credibility of the country’s first automated polls and in a tale worthy of landing in the funny books alleged that the dead and zombies impregnated Inday Sara’s victory.

The loss in the mayoralty fight with a large margin is a reality that would have others raise the flag in surrender as soon as the counting is over.There is honor even in defeat but Nograles refused to accept his fate.

To top off his vehement refusal to accept the electoral verdict, Nograles filed a protest alleging the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, the dead and the zombies caused his misery.

He wanted the proclamation of Inday Sara annulled and claimed he won the polls — a claim that was met by Dabawenyos with boisterous laughter that reverberated from the mangroves of Lasang, to the coastlines of Toril up to the mountains of farflung districts Marilog and Paquibato.

No matter how you look at the election, figures always come out as the central arguments in protests.

With nearly a million of the Dabawenyos voting, the verdict was clear: Inday Sara got 388,000 against Nograles’ 160,000 or a vote margin of 228,000 votes.

As we said, the Davao City elections are always colorful, with the Dabawenyos being regaled with the added bonus of black propaganda that almost always border on insanity mixed with a surfeit of humor for unbelievability; and post-election claims of fraud that could land in the funny books.

In the 2001 battle for mayor between come-backing Rodrigo Duterte and then sitting mayor re-electionist Benjamin de Guzman, the P300 million mothballed Artica Sports Dome, aka Artica Sports Doom, an unfinished  de Guzman project, was a central political issue.

Duterte launched a nightly assault on de Guzman on a campaign stage back-dropped with a large tarpaulin with the photo of the Artica with fat goats grazing on tall grasses at the front, and accused de Guzman of corruption in the project and joked that only fat goats benefited from it.What a laugh!

With Duterte skewering  de Guzman and Artica with his acerbic tongue peppered in language that would have moralists running for masking tapes to cover his mouth, you can just imagine how severe was the demolition of de Guzman. And how Duterte provided entertainment with his goat story to the thousands who troop to his campaign rallies every night! Hahahahaha!!!

De Guzman, badly defeated in the race, would later be the subject of a joke that he was partly defeated due to the goats of Artica.

Then came Nograles after the 2010 battle with Inday Sara, who claimed  that he lost the race because ghosts and zombies voted for Inday!

What would Nograles blame if he decides to run for the fourth time for mayor or for Congress in the first district in 2013 and then gets clobbered anew? Duterte’s Ilong Story about Nogie? What’s that?

Roman Catholic Church commemorates 46th World Communications Day.

One cannot ignore the danger and the damage which (journalists), however noble in themselves, can inflict upon individuals and society when they are not employed by man with a sense of responsibility, with an honest intent and in conformity with the objective moral order

BY ROER M. BALANZA

DAVAO CITY – TODAY, May 20, 2012, the Roman Catholic Church commemorates the 46th World Communications Day.
    As has been customary since 1986, Pope Benedict released his message for the day (“Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization” ) on January 24, the memorial of St. Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalists.

    In the Decree on the Media of Social Communications (Inter Mirifica, 1963), the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council stated:

    Moreover, that the varied apostolates of the Church with respect to the media of social communication may be strengthened effectively, each year in every diocese of the world, by the determination of the Bishops, there should be celebrated a day on which the faithful are instructed in their responsibilities in this regard. They should be invited to pray and contribute funds for this cause. Such funds are to be expended exclusively on the promotion, maintenance and development of institutes and undertakings of the Church in this area, according to the needs of the whole Catholic world.

    In “the vast and complex phenomenon of the modem means of social communication, such as the press, motion pictures, radio and television,” Pope Paul VI saw “the unfolding and the realization of a wonderful plan of God’s providence, which opens to man’s genius ever new ways of achieving his perfection and of attaining to his final end,” as he said in his message for the 1st World Communications Day in 1967.

    “One cannot ignore the danger and the damage which these means, however noble in themselves, can inflict upon individuals and society when they are not employed by man with a sense of responsibility, with an honest intent and in conformity with the objective moral order,” he added.

ON AVERTING VIOLENT DEMOLITIONS: “Sana si Mayor Duterte na lang ang meyor namin!”

THEDURIANBEAT

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

VIOLENCE IN URBAN POOR ILLEGAL DWELLING DEMOLITION is a three-way street.

The urban poor using violence to stop the demolition.

Authorities using violence to implement the demolition order.

And in the case of Mayor Sara Duterte of Davao City, using violence to abort  an impending violence.

A street in Parañaque City turned into a virtual battle zone early this week as policemen battled  with residents of Silverio Compound who were fighting a court order for the demolition of urban poor dwellings.

In one of the bloodiest incidents in the history of demolition, vividly captured on national television, residents hurled huge chunks of rocks, molotov cocktails and other projectiles at dozens of riot policemen, some of whom replied with gunfire and tear gas canisters or by hitting the protesters with batons.

The street battle left one compound dwellers was dead with a gunshot wound in the head. At least 39 other people, four of them policemen, were injured.

Was the violence avoidable?

Yes by  strong political will..

Violence happened in Paranaque. It happened in Quezon City. But it was avoided in Davao City. How?

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte’s punching of a male court sheriff supervising a court-ordered demolition of more than 200 urban poor shanties in Davao City in July 2011 had inspired informal settlers facing eviction in Balara, Quezon City to hope they have a mayor like her.

“Sana si Duterte na lang ang mayor namin!!” then barked several large streamers at the background of angry informal settlers face-to-face with demolition crews and their 150-man police escort poised to tear down about 300 shanties.

The Quezon City scene early this year and the recent Paranaque demolition were  practically a repeat of the incident in Agdao District in Davao City .

The difference is that in Davao City the demolition crews and their police escorts retreated to forego the demolition after an irate Mayor Duterte arrived and went ballistic by punching to the face several times court sheriff Abe Andres who was implementing the court-ordered demolition.

In the Quezon City incident, wrecking crews demolished 350 houses on a one-ha private property in Barangay Old Balara in Commonwealth Avenue despite resistance from residents that led to a brief outbreak of violence.

Without a Mayor Duterte coming to their plight.

Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista had intervened during the negotiations towards a win-win solution and requested for a five-day reprieve but this was refused by the property owner who was also armed with a demolition from the court.

In the Davao City incident, demolition crews were starting to tear down the houses when Mayor Duterte arrived and confronted Andres on why he gave the order to demolish despite her earlier plea to stay the eviction for two hours.

Failing to hold her tempers, Mayor Duterte dished out several punches to the face of Andres.

The punching scene was captured on video by local television news crews and was aired in national and international television news programs including CNN.

The incident earned not only public and media criticism against Mayor Duterte, a lawyer, but also several cases filed before the Office of the Ombudsman and the Supreme Court.

Floirendo group to build P2 billion Davao international container terminal

STILL GOING STRONG! Banana magnate Don Antonio Floirendo, Sr., and his Anflocor conglomerate continue to be a major factor in the Davao Region economic development with investments in almost all spheres of business activity, the latest of which is the P2 billion Davao international container project. The business genius and political kingpin is seen here in a huddle with Tagum City Mayor Rey Uy and Tagum Archbishop Wilfredo Manlapaz in a 2009 photo by JimTanNuevo.

NO. 104, Apr 16-22, 2012

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

THE Anflo Management and Investment Corporation and San Vicente Terminal and Brokerage Services Inc. have finalized the P2.1 billion loan facility for the Davao International Container Terminal project.

The two companies sealed the syndicated facility with Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and Security Bank in a signing ceremony held last April 2 at the Marco Polo Hotel Davao.

Gracing the signing ceremony for the loan facility for Davao International Container Terminal are (seated l-r) Ricardo R. Floirendo, Senior Vice President of ANFLOCOR, Alberto S. Villarosa, President of SB Corporation, Antonio Floirendo, Jr., Vice Chairman of ANFLOCOR, Aurelio R. Montinola III, President of BPI, Vincent R. Floirendo, Vice President of ANFLOCOR, Cecilia L. Tan, President of BPI Capital Corporation, (standing l-r) Luis Martin E. Villalon, Director of SB Capital Investment Corporation, Federico C. Galang III, Executive Director of SB Capital Investment Corporation, Victor Q. Garcia, Vice President of BPI, Loretta G. Mangilit, First Vice President of SB Corporation, Oscar V. Grapa, Chief Financial Officer of ANFLOCOR, and Barbara C. Untalan, Vice President of BPI Capital Corporation.

“We are very glad that Bank of the Philippine Islands and Security Bank believe in this project and welcomed to facilitate the financial requirements of the Davao International Container Terminal,” Anflocor chief financial officer Oscar V. Grapa said.
The deal was arranged by BPI Capital Corporation and SB Capital Investment Corporation.
“BPI sees the immense value of the project to Davao’s economy in being able to create jobs, translate to substantial logistics savings, and to promote the global competitiveness of Davao’s banana export industry,” BPI president Aurelio R. Montinola III said.

THE DURIAN POST NO. 104

SB Corporation president Alberto S. Villarosa also noted the positive impact of the project to the economic growth in the Davao Region.
“We thank the management of Anflocor Group for entrusting the financial part of the project to both BPI and Security Bank,” Villarosa said.
The eight-hectare container terminal aims to support Mindanao’s expanding international banana exports by providing progressive container port services. It will feature modern ship to shore cranes, expansive plug-in facilities and an average draft of 15.5 meters which can accommodate large international vessels.
Davao International Container Terminal is also projected to support the position of the Philippines as the third largest exporter of cavendish bananas in the world, which local industry is concentrated in Mindanao.

On grandstanding and the Mindanao power crisis

THEDURIANBEAT

BY ROGER BALANZA

    President Aquino is arriving in Davao City on Friday to keynote a big gathering of Mindanaoans worried over the creeping brownouts now throwing many areas in the island into darkness.
The power crisis in Mindanao is a serious matter that has merited the attention of the President. Well and good.
Key men in government tasked with solving the Mindanao power crisis would be tagging along so that we are pinning so much hope in the Energy Summit.

APRIL 9-15, 2012

Will the President be coming as the Knight in Shining Armor with the light to save electricity-hungry Mindanaoans? We hope so. Otherwise, we would be tempted to believe that the President is ‘noynoying” in such a serious matter as the Mindanao power crisis.
Grandstanding is the least that Mindanaoans need in this hour of darkness. We need solutions not gaining media mileage of the crisis as some politicians do.
Especially politicians who have no appreciation of the Mindanao power crisis. Politicians who see evil in anything instead of using their brains to find a solution to the problem.
Like the one we know who is sadly from Davao City.
Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has twitted Congressman Karlo Nograles for his lack of grasp of the power woes now gripping Mindanao,     The congressman from Davao City, son of former Speaker Prospero Nograles, is asking Congress to investigate the crisis that he said is an “artificial power crisis” engineered by certain sectors in the industry to make more money.
Nograles was blabbering about power barges so he was clearly refering to Aboitiz, although he did not name names. The Aboitiz subsidiary Therma Marine, as in Independent Power Producer (IPP), has several of the fuel-fired power generation vessels providing electricity in many areas of Mindanao.
Duterte had a recent experience on power generation  in the coal-fired power plant of the Aboitiz that would be built in Davao City, so we believe he has ample knowledge on the subject of power supply and demand.
An environmentalist at heart, he had barricaded his doubting position on assurance by Aboitiz that the plant would not harm environment and people.
Between risk  and economic opportunities that the Aboitiz plant would bring to the city, he chose the latter. Electricity fuels industry and Davao City as Mindanao’s premier city badly needs power with the tsunami of investments currently flooding the city.
Giving his thumbs up to the Aboitiz plant was a bit of a gamble that had some sectors accusing him of failing to protect the Dabawenyos. But it would appear now that Duterte was right in supporting the Aboitiz plant in wake of the Mindanao power crisis.
Comes now Nograles who is targeting the Aboitiz company by asking an investigation by the House of Representatives on the power situation in Mindanao.
The Nograles-initiated probe apparently would attempt to link Aboitiz to the electricity crisis to what he called “artificial crisis” so that Aboitiz could make large profit by providing the industry with its oil-fired power generating barges.
Nograles should  have read this:
The National Grip Corporation of the Philippines said  more than half of Mindanao’s power supply comes from the Agus-Pulangui hydropower plants in Lanao and Bukidnon. With the preventive maintenance of the hydropower plants, power supplied by these plants has been severely affected.
It is during these critical times when there is shortage in power when the grid calls on the barges to keep most parts of Mindanao energized.
According to Nograles, the power shortage in many parts of Mindanao could be a perfect example of economic sabotage.
According to him Mindanao could not be lacking in power sources like its hydro power and other power alternatives.
Nograles said those those greedy for the power of money causing the artificial crisis should be made to answer.
Fishing expeditions like a probe suggested by Nograles, who has yet to back up his suspicions with figures about certain sectors making money of the “artificial crisis,” is not what we need in this hour of blackouts, brownouts and grandstanding politicians.
What we need is a President coming as a Knight in Shining Armor with the light to save Mindanaoans from their power woes.

HOLY WEEK: Are you a Judas?

THEDURIANBEAT

BY ROGER M.BALANZA

    Holy Week is the week when the Passion—the suffering and death of Jesus Christ is remembered.
On PalmSunday Our Lord Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem, the holy city, mounted on a donkey. This event had been prophesied centuries before.     The people who loved and revered him made the journey a procession. Some laid their cloaks on the road to serve as carpets. Others waved palm branches, in the way great men were honored in those days.
The people knew they were in the presence of a great preacher. But the more meditative ones had come to recognize Him as the Messiah, when He taught them doctrine lessons about the Scriptures and when He multiplied bread so hungry multitudes could eat. They chanted hymns, and shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”
The noise scandalized some of the Pharisees, or made them envious of the homage He was getting from the people. They scolded the people so they would stop their songs of joy and love of God. But He said to the Pharisees, “If these are silenced, the very stones would cry out.”
How joyful we should be knowing that God has made Himself a man so we can be like Him. Do we allow Christ to enter our being so that we can be His temple? Or are we, like the Pharisees, blocking his entry into our lives?
The Gospel today tells us of Jesus’s visit, six days before the Passover, to the house of Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary. This is the Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They made Him supper, Martha served and Lazarus was among those at table with Jesus. Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.
But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray Him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this not because he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and took whatever he wanted for himself from the money box. Jesus said, “Let her alone, let her keep the ointment for the day of my burial. The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
Are you one of those Catholics who complain about the Church for spending money on beautiful altars and shining sanctuaries for the Blessed Sacrament? Would you make the living God in the form of the consecrated wafer to dwell in just any box. If you truly believed that Christ—His Body, Blood and Divinity—is truly alive in the Blessed Sacrament would you begrudge him the best lodging place in the church?
Or are you just claiming, like Judas, to love the poor? MTeditorial

NO. 102, APRIL2-8,2012

Davao lumads fighting over Marilog ancestral domain

BY ROGER M.BALANZA

The Matigsalog indigenous people in Marilog District in Davao City are fighting over control of over more than 70,000 hectares of ancestral domain, as their cousins from Bukidnon reportedly continue to sell privileges to big business seeking leaseholds for large agribusiness ventures.
The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) has already split the area covered by Certificate ofAncestralDomans Title (CADT)   between the Bukidnon and Davao natives into two separate management bodies.
The split was made as NCIP found it issued only one CADT to the Federation of Manobo-Matigsalog Tribal Councils (FEMMATRICS) of Kitaotao in Bukidnon involving about 100,000 hectares that also included ancestraldomain lands in Marilog.
The split that delineated boundaries over ancestral domains in Bukidnon and Davao was through the efforts of Davao City Councilor Arnolfo Cabling when he was the chair of the Davao City Council committee on environment and natural resources.
FEMMATRICS is against the split and its officers reportedly are inking contracts with private entities over leasehold agreements on lands in Marilog sparking vehement protests from the Davao lumads belonging to the Manobo-Matigsalog Tribes City of Davao (MAMATRICD).

durianburgdavao blogmaster Roger Balanza with Mambo-o and Davao City councilor Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling

Davao City councilor Datu Berino Mambo-o, chair of the committee on cultural minorities and Muslim affairs, said leaders of six Davao tribes are trying to resolve the conflict.
The communist New People’s Army (NPA) in a statement earlier branded Lito Gawilan, chair of FEMMATRICS, as a landgrabber for selling rights to ancestral domain lands in Marilog to big business.

Is there a need for change?

THEDURIANBEAT

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

 Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in his Sunday program Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa over the weekend talked about politics and the coming 2013 elections.
No wonder. Next year’s polls for the second time would be an automated polling and the Commission on Election needs more time to prepare election paraphernalia.
The filing of Certificates of Candidacy comes earlier in the last two weeks of October this year.
The election fever should also bite earlier the politicians and the poliitical parties.
With filing of candidacy early, there should also be early selection for party bets.
Automated elections, if there is a downside to it, has extended the unofficial period for campaigning to several months, although the official period should be 45 days (for local candidates) up to E-day. This means a candidate should have larger campaign kitty.
But there is an upside to it too. The unofficial extended campaign period gives more time for the candidates to present themselves to the voters. Conversely, voters are given ample time to assess the politicians.
This is supposed to boil down to intelligent voting on E-day.
At this point in time, although the election is more than a year away, politics should already be a matter of public discussion.
For members of the press, it would be no sin to start with its mission to educate voters on intelligent voting, being partners in governance and guiding light for voters in knowing their candidates.
Media people stand up upon demand of their calling as messengers of good and bad news during elections, for people to know their candidates and help them come up with decisions on who should be their next leaders deserving of their trust and confidence.
Along the way, they get labeled as political partisans under pay of some politicians. Along the way, they get praised for telling the truth, in the spirit of free speech in aid of intelligent choice. Along the way, they are charged for libel for telling the truth—or for peddling lies against certain candidates.
Whatever, media people do their job—at the risk of earning praise, being tagged as lapdogs or at worst crucified with a libel rap.
In Davao City, Dabawenyos, like the rest of the Pinoys, would now be starting to assess politicians vying for seats in the coming elections.
There would be those who would challenge the present leadership.
And there would be questions to answer if there is need to or not to achieve an intelligent vote—to retain the present leadership or usher in new leaders.
We take this opportunity to throw in some of these questions to guide voters.
Is there a need to change their leaders? Will the change benefit them?
Is there a need for a change in this city that has become the envy of other cities?
Has the challengers something to add to the excellent peace and order situation?
Has a candidate done anything for the good of the Dabawenyos and their city?
Is the candidate sincere?
At this point in time, we are elated that these questions served as barometers for intelligent voting in the past, the reason why the Dutertes remain as top choice of the Dabawenyos every election day.
These barometers in fact have been reduced to a simple routine.
The Dabawenyos simply look at photos of the Dutertes, and then at the opposition, and pronto, make a sound decision.
But in the coming elections, certain politicians whose hunger and ambition to topple down the Dutertes have been frustrated with never-ending ignominous defeats and their political stock consigned to oblivion, are expected to surface anew to pose a challenge to the present leadership.

These ambitious politicians are political sadists who find hapiness in tormenting themselves with political defeats.

Budding journalists – Ateneo de Davao University with durianburgdavao

DURIANBURGDAVAO blogmaster and Durian Post publisher/editor ROGER M. BALANZA with Mass Communication students from the Ateneo de Davao University. The budding journalists interviewed Balanza, a 30-year veteran in community print journalism,  as central figure for a term paper on libel and media ethics

Crocodiles in BIR driving Manny Pacquiao to retirement

BY ROGER THE HECKLER

  There are two other major reasons, other than the Lord,  why Philippine boxing hero Manny Pacquiaois planning to retire from boxing.
One, he wants to pursue a poliitical career and is running for Governor in his province of Sarangani, which he currently represents in the Philippine Congress,  in the 2013 elections.
Two, crooked taxmen from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) are running after his billions.

Manny said he had been told by God in a dream to retire soon.
He has publicly mapped out his political plans for the future, and may throw away his boxing gloves to dedicate part of his life to serve his Sarangani constituents as their governor.
But his biggest reason for retiring from boxing could be the BIR, which is accusing him of evading tax payments.
Pacquiao, regarded as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter, said that he had decided to give up all his vices after the dream about the Lord telling him to replace his gloves with a Bible.
“I will not stay long in boxing because he said: ‘You have done enough. You have made yourself famous but this is harmful,’” said a serious-looking Pacquiao, who has won eight titles in as many weight divisions.
Pacquiao, 33, said he had the dream earlier this year but declined to reveal how many more fights he would contest before stepping down.
But when asked if his new-found religious fervour would hurt his boxing, Pacquiao replied: “I will do my work inside the ring.”
The boxer, who has translated his sports fame into huge riches, a showbiz career and election to parliament, said he believed he had been chosen by God to use his fame to spread the Christian message.
“When I speak, a lot of people listen,” he said.
He said he would make a major announcement on a religious note soon.