Muloy Moments

I admire the decision of San Jose Mayor Romulo M. Festin to retire (or was it just rest?) from politics. His friend, incumbent Mayor Benjamin N. Tria of Looc, is apparently to follow suit. Though not as formal as Manny Pacquiao's retirement from boxing, they have unceremoniously announced it nevertheless.

Both have been in politics in various positions, they have nothing to prove because they already defied history and were able to experience deeds more precious than any gemstone. Mayors Ben and Muloy already leaving behind a legacy like the others who have been in power for more than three decades or so. Mayors Muloy and Ben will retire as winners. Unlike the retirement of Pacquiao that came after his loss to Cuban Yordenis Ugas, a virtually unknown opponent.

There are many contemporaries of the two gentlemen who are now inactive in politics and were not able to bounce back after a loss or series of losses. But not friends Muloy and Ben. They were able to come back and like the mythical Phoenix, returned from the ashes, so to speak.

Muloy is Occidental Mindoro’s personification of the Man of the Masses. He was elected board member from 1988 to 1998 and that is straight 10 years in office. He was voted vice-mayor of San Jose from 1998-2001 and from 2001 to 2004. He served as mayor from 2004 to 2010. He lost to Jose Villarosa in 2010 but was able to bounce back and won in 2013 and is about to complete his full three terms next year. These are the so-called “Muloy Moments” in the province’s political history that the people will surely remember. 

Well, mayors Ben and Muloy, compadre to both, are still capable, both physically and mentally to run for a public office but they preferred to call it quits and hang their proverbial political hats or at least rest them. So far as I write this. This is what I have heard on their separate pronouncements in the radio program Para sa Bayan last Monday and Tuesday hosted by Daisy Del Valle Leano and Helen Pilaro-De Guzman. I have told my friend Daisy that Muloy is such a colorful subject and truly a good biography material. Not only that, his life and experience are part and parcel of Occidental Mindoro’s political history and social stories that ought to be told to Gen Y or Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen A, including the Gen Tech, post-Millennials, iGeneration, Gen Y-Fi, and Zoomers in our midst and the so-called Pandemic Generation of the future.

Ben Tria and Muloy Festin been elected members of the Occidental Mindoro Provincial Board in 1988. Since then, their achievement as legislators and local chief executives have already left indelible marks in our political history. Mayor Muloy had been in politics for 31 years now and Mayor Ben entered a little bit later than him. Mayor Muloy even jokingly claimed that in his long years in politics, he was able to develop a sixth sense of knowing instantly what clients need before saying a word to him.

My hats off to the two gentlemen in this aspect. They both going to pass on the torch to their respective relatives. Mayor Muloy’s daughter, Michelle Festin-Rivera, an incumbent board member, is said to be vying for a mayoralty position in San Jose, and Nestor Tria, also a board member and brother of Mayor Ben, will run as mayor of Looc. Both Muloy, former vice-president of the LMP, and Ben, an accountant, are to complete their three terms as mayor of their respective municipalities this year. Bokal Nestor is about to complete his full term as a board member while Bokal Michelle dived into politics only last elections and likewise voted to the provincial legislative council.

Just recently, Mayor Muloy steered his town’s bagging of two major awards in the recently-concluded 8^th Annual Cities and Municipalities Competitive Index (CMCI). LGU San Jose gained first place in the Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, Infrastructure at Resilience category in the whole MIMAROPA Region and place 16^th among the 1,493 municipalities in the country. The award is bestowed by the Department of Trade and Industry or DTI. The awards conferred to this town known before as Pandurucan under the leadership of Mayor Muloy are too many to mention. But he believes that the credit is not his alone.

Mayor Muloy is firm and tough. He stood on the side of the fishermen in the infamous Gem-Ver-sinking incident in the West Philippine Sea as opposing the pro-Chinese posture of Malacañan on the issue. He said in a Rappler interview, “Ipakita natin 'yung ating muscle. May muscle din tayo kahit sa bibig. Kung wala man tayong muscle sa giyera eh sa bunganga man lang at sa tinatawag na proper court kung saan dapat dalhin 'yan.” The interview was conducted by the now controversial Rambo Talabong of said media firm which appeared in June 17, 2019. 

On the other hand, Mayor Ben has been at the forefront of implementing basic services to his town’s basic sectors specifically the fisherfolks, and continuous to be an advocate for the environment specifically the protection of marine life which gained international recognition. He had been real busy recently curbing COVID-19 cases in that island municipality. 

The tested and seasoned politicians have already proved their worth. S/he would just create a sort of mental fatigue for the voters for being a political candidate ad infinitum. In doing so, they will be breaking the circle of his or her legacy and their victorious achievements in exemplary public service. A politician is like a rubber band. Full stretch limits itself. 

Since “There is nothing permanent in politics,” mayors Ben and Muloy may also change their minds and file their CoCs for other political seats in the coming days. If, as I said, they change their minds. Nothing is permanent in politics, and as popular belief has it, politicians have ever-changing minds.

Please be reminded too that before he announced his retirement from boxing yesterday, Manny Pacquiao, after his third fight with Timothy Bradley in 2016 which he won via UD, said, "As of now, I am retired" but went on to fight that same year. So, boxers and politicians have many things in common. Nothing is definite in these two dynamic realms.

God gave us all power to know for ourselves when to quit or to stop (or rest) in anything we do. There must be a final Sabbath both in politics and boxing. Unluckily, many politicians and boxers from all over trust more their self-fulfilling prophetic power than this inner power that the Almighty installed in all of us.

Those who had been long in politics can play the role of guides and should give it up so that the young and new politicians or their second liners or successors can continue their ideals. This includes their unfinished business in public service that could be passed on to them through bits of advice and pointers. In Mayor Muloy’s case, his grand project of construction of a new public market is now reportedly already in the pipeline and the town’s baby walk to cityhood. Not to be left out is his aim of implementing best practices towards sustainable tourism which is also the main agenda of his politician daughter.

But of course, they must not make string-puppets out of their protégées. Voters have to weigh this reality out.

As “There is nothing permanent in politics,” overstaying in this business deserves a second, more critical look.

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 (Photo: PR Team of San Jose LGU)

 

 

The Dereliction of Local Media Propagandists and their Political Patrons

It’s election season once again so the local political propagandists are very much alive over the radio, social media groups, and pages hurling accusations of everything at each other's bosses. Or among the media practitioners themselves.

It is also when radio programs sponsored or paid by politicians mushroom all over the local radio stations in the province.

I assume that the only ones who are intensely and "intelligently" following such radio programs and stations are composed of partisan "hardliners," few "politically- interested," or their close-in supporters. But the rest are and thousands who want "cheap entertainment", a comic relief amid left and right problems in our middle. This situation makes us limp in hardships as people sprint towards our shared dream of political maturity. Is there hope to this current local media situation from this unfortunate social reality?

How could our local politicians in their respective ways, rightly empower the people through the radio and social media if their paid broadcasters or social media propagandists/influencers fail to convey public information and communication that would present the general interest of the masses and the general public? If they could only offer the same old issues and concerns and communication approaches, techniques, and methods? If they allow them to retort to ad hominem and other fallacies or witless questions or comments?

Propagandists and commentators of such kind become senseless as far as educating the public is concerned. They become extraneous due to a poor selection of stories and items to be presented on air or social media. Most of the topics that they like to discuss can right away be predicted in each episode: from irritating praises for their (political) patron /patroness to personal attacks against their rival to their fellow broadcasters.

The pressing concerns and burning issues that the general public or most people wanted to know or ought to be informed of are not adequately elaborated and discussed. The data-based economic situation of the province, for instance, our innovative response to the pandemic, in-depth analysis on our marginalized sector, to name just a few. Ours is propaganda and communication based on personal attack or utter mudslinging tolerated by their respective politician patrons.

Not to mention other political stunts that these self-acclaimed media people chronically use. They employed propagandists while what the public needs are communicators. But before we go further, let us first distinguish "communication" from "propaganda." Communications aims to empower the audience by giving them information that they can weigh and be acted on at once. On the other hand, propaganda seeks to influence, often subvert, the thinking of that audience.

In short, "communication" here deals with the two-way process of sending messages and getting feedbacks, while "propaganda" is persuasive talking (or writing or social media posting). Conversely, politicians usually communicate in press conferences and interviews, while propaganda is what they talked about on stage during political rallies and other campaign sorties.

Thus, it is annoying, if not disastrous, to put the communicator and the propagandist (who is also an aspiring politician or has his or her political agenda) running a radio talk show like what we hear in most programs (and stations) nowadays. More so, if the hosts are in a dilemma whether if s/he going to be a communicator or a propagandist. If the patron politicians do not give a heck about this essential and objective aspect of the trade, they are putting the risk of being branded as “trapo”.

In short, the patron-politician needs to separate these two tasks and delineate these two functions. In not doing so, we are forever doomed to political immaturity manifested by our either fanaticism or unusual turncoat-ism. As unusual as a venom transferring from one aging cobra to another.

This situation manifests especially if the anchors or hosts have two different or opposing intellectual standpoints on issues other than their partisan political views, due to their different experiences before they jumped into the job, much more great differences in beliefs and ideology. Anyway, education is a lifelong process.

But it would be good if they adjusted themselves to such reality in a gradual manner, but it's not an assurance that their listeners who are privy to their backgrounds would easily understand that. The people will just be confused between "developmental" and plain image-boosting, the kind that utilizes persuasion towards a desired political gain. Especially if they have political ambitions (or in reality their ambition to make money out of their candidacy!).

The communicator and the propagandist work hand-in-hand towards a common goal. Their loyalty to their patron-principal is ideally second only to their commitment to God and country, truth, and citizenry. Though these things cannot feed them or can't be eaten.

My second observation deals with their means of presentation. Both political camps are confined only to political talk shows or public affairs programs without considering that most listeners are already tired of talks about politics (or hearing politicians talking).

All of their paid or sponsored programs only employ such overused broadcast type and format. I must agree that there's nothing wrong with the talk show, but why not toy with the idea of trying new approaches? In our modern world, stereotyping and complacency are considered mortal sins. To many, talk shows, no matter how light when presented to everyday people, are overly intellectual or political, thus annoying, boring, and disinteresting.

Another way of making the talk shows more interesting is to bring them to public places where the setting is similar to a press conference and hold it with a live audience or through teleconferencing where they could participate live. By so doing, we already have a captive audience of our own. We must also conduct research or survey on what topics are closest to people's hearts and minds regarding immediacy and relevance. Do not just impose issues or be covertly selective. We get our topics from the non-aligned listeners and not just from our avid supporters or party members.

We may call it also from events unfolding right at our very eyes. Presenting a sincere and balanced news selection is what the people ask, even from a politically partisan broadcast practitioner. Every broadcaster of whatever political line is duty-bound to present factual reports as informative and formative as possible.

If the just reinvigorated or reincarnated media war or war between local broadcasters is inevitable, might as well humanize it. Allow me to conclude by saying that we can humanize this media war by way of these simple steps (that I guarantee you are very familiar with).

First, putting into ethical action standards already in the KBP Code of Ethics must be strictly imposed by its member stations. Secondly, by learning not only from our patrons-principal but even perhaps from their (and our) mortal enemies and remembering that in this world, much with politics, nothing is permanent, and no one is indispensable.

 A good communicator or propagandist needs brain than voice, unequaled wit than brute arrogance, credibility than ability. Without those traits, we can easily fall prey to the narcissism of our patron-principal. We would be like cabbage that what we saw on the outside is what we also see on the inside or in its totality.

A principled communicator or propagandist need not bootlick their patron-principal redundantly and wantonly in the entire duration of his program or comments in a discussion thread. Without noticing it, we, in the process, are giving away our own identity, principles, and whole self. On the other hand, our being propagandists or communicators is not a license on going overboard.

We should constantly be reminded of our limitations and to remember that ours is a distinct realm and be aware that our work is a little apart from our principal's governance and administrative functions. As free and unique individuals, we all have the right to show a little discomfort whenever our patron-principal does something detrimental to the dignity of others by, say, being folksy whatever remarks or gesture of objectivity and levelheadedness, if not moral uprightness. This is to make them feel that we have principles of our own, and it's up to us how to make our patrons-principal understand us.

We may be paid propagandists and communicators, but we must remain human beings and not worthless puppets. With regards to our enemy, ignoring them more often is still our best option. Shoot the message and completely ignore the messenger. Beyond this is stooping down to their level and, if I may add, is allowing ourselves to be treated as mere puppets.

In addition, rude remarks and bullying in whatever form is intolerable regardless of where it came from and whoever uttered those. As I am mentioning time and again, arrogance usually defeats the purpose of awareness-raising propaganda and genuine communication. Arrogance contributes nothing in this particular learning process, in the holistic development of man, and in keeping his dignity intact, no matter how flea-like that man is.

Somehow, it would jeopardize all the good things we are doing and bound to do, especially if our bullying and arrogance became habitual. That even the Revised Penal Code and Jesus' teachings will find inutile.  

Even the bravest knight cannot morally defend an arrogant king (or queen) unless the former conspires with the latter for mutual gain or in exchange for privileges or favor. In this sense, the communicator and/or the propagandist became slaves to their earthly lord (i.e., politician boss) and Opportunism and its evils.

As communicators or propagandists, we are tasked to say what we like so long as we are forbearing. So, again, avoid anything that would be vulgar, and try to remain essentially sincere to all our audience or listeners and fellow media practitioners, whether they come from our side or elsewhere.

Doing political propaganda is not a free-for-all thing. Not all things are allowable in doing political propaganda because showing your fairness and kindness toward your “rivals”, fleshing out decency and rationality are also political propaganda themselves. This would boil down to the advantage of our principal, the ones we are currently supporting.

The local media industry is at its best when it adores no “sacred cows”, it bows to no “superior humans”, it is blind to the “glitter of gold” and deaf to the “sound of silver”, to paraphrase the late Bishop Oscar V. Cruz, my primary source of social communication beliefs.

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(Photo: Philip Saligumba)

 

 

Of Spraying and Praying

The photo above shows my aunts (L to R) Rosita (Ylagan), Ligaya (Jimenez), and Helen (Paglicawan), the only surviving among the ten children of Pantaleon Salarda Novio and Roberta San Diego Delos Santos. As we celebrate Grand Parents’ Day today, September 12, allow me to share with you a story about my grandparents, the origin of all the Novios in Pandurucan (now San Jose, Occidental Mindoro), and in the whole province.

As early as 1906, the Philippine Bureau of Health established its Malaria Control Division. He conducted research, study, history, and epidemiology of malaria in the Philippines, including control practices such as annual spraying of all houses in areas affected by malaria. Malaria is a protozoan disease, and the word “malaria” means “bad air” in Italian, reflecting an old view and misconception that malaria is caused by gases from swampy regions where the anopheles mosquito, the carrier, usually dwell. Papang was the medical technician of the Malaria Eradication Unit in southern Mindoro and the team leader of the unit’s spray men.

Even before WW2, my grandfather was sent by the government to Mindoro from far-away Sta. Maria, Bulacan to be part of the malaria control team. The group was composed of doctors, paramedics, health workers, and insecticide spray men from all over Mindoro and the Philippines. He was born in Tolosa (or was it Baybay?), Leyte, on July 27, 1903.

Though stationed at the San Jose Sugar Central, they went to remote areas, including sugarcane plantations believed to be infested by malaria and breeding place for the dreaded mosquito. According to Papang’s account then, hundreds and thousands of residents, employees and sacadas (sugar cane workers) suffered and died from the disease. No less than ten people die every day because of malaria and other related conditions, including cholera.

The old folks I met today could still recognize my grandfather, for he helped them treat the disease. Without the malaria-carrying mosquitos, we could have been in Leyte with the Romualdezes or maybe in Davao with the Dutertes!

On the other hand, our Mamang was a typical Filipina wife born on June 7, 1913. Good at cooking sinigang na bangus sa hinog na bayabas, ginataang dahoon ng gabi na may kuhol, inihaw na baboy, minatamis na calumpit, papaet and dinuguan to mention a few dalicacies, at times strict but loving, and very prayerful. She swigs siyoktong and chews mascada but was a very religious woman of both physical and spiritual strength. During the war, Mamang and several other ladies of Central worked as laundrywomen for the GIs belonging to the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment. And since they transferred from Central to the main town of San Jose in the early 50s, they were involved in various religious organizations such as the Cursillo Movement, the Apostolada ng Panalangin, and the Holy Name Society. They recite the rosary every night, and her very intention always centers on overcoming the difficulties their children are in that particular time. They are devoted churchgoers hearing the masses of the town’s parish priests from Fr. Carlos Brendel, SVD, to Fr. Ramon Del Rosario, SVD.

Responding to the dreaded epidemic, the American government launched the Six-Year (1953-1958) Philippine-American Program for Malaria Control in the Philippines and my grandfather became part of it. Aside from giving anti-malaria drugs as an additional relief measure, they sprayed practically every house, from San Jose to Rizal, for at least three consecutive years. And after that, another spot-spraying of homes as conditions demand. They used dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane or DDT. DDT is a potent insecticide rediscovered in 1939 by Paul Muller of Switzerland but banned in the United States in 1972. The Philippines had banned DDT entirely only in 1994 due to the harmful effects of DDT.

I grew up in the smell of DDT and Chloroquine and playing with test tubes and microscope glass slides, including the taste of oatmeal from the United States Agency for International Development or USAID. 

Not unlike other infectious diseases like COVID-19, malaria can be traced or rooted in various factors. The mosquito, the virus, or the medical dimension only takes the supporting (or is it "character"?) role. It has a social, cultural, and political aspect to its resolution for the world to return to normal. 

The calculated response of the government and its entities, especially the health department, must be the core of every plan and action toward adequate or suitable surveillance and treatment strategies. If those basic things worked for malaria before, why cannot work in COVID-19 today? But of course, this goes with the praying of Oratio Imperata or other spiritual supplications. Along with spraying alcohol and disinfectants.

My grandparents "infected" me with this implicit advice: pray for and spray excellent seeds in whatever and wherever soil you are planted. 

Final Salute to Tito Rodrigo

He was barely 12 years old when the war ended, and that was when the liberating US forces established a sawmill in their area in Tunnel, Central in Pandurucan. That hilly part near the bank of the historic Busuanga river was once camp of the 503^rd Parachute Infantry Regiment.

The boy nicknamed by his close friends Oding worked as a mess hall apprentice whose primary duty is to open K-rations for the GIs. Before the war, his family lives in the main barrio of Central. His father is a medical technician assigned by the health department in its battle against the malaria epidemic in that area of the province.

He and his elder brother Addie befriended the soldiers as the GIs exposed them to different types of machinery, trucks, and tractors. The two young boys are errands to the mechanics and gradually learned how machines work. Rodrigo, “Igo” to his relatives and “Rudy” to his friends and comrades in the navy, learned about machines further from his uncle Jacinto Delos Santos, whom they call “Tata Cinto” of Barrio Iriron, Calitaan, brother of his mother and look-alike, Roberta.  

Rodrigo S. Novio was born in Sta. Maria, Bulacan on December 11, 1933. Of Pantaleon S. Novio and Roberta’s children, only three, Pantaleon Jr. (Addie), Rodrigo, and Ligaya or Gay (now Jimenez) were born in Bulacan. The rest of the children were all born in Occidental Mindoro.  

His joining the United States Navy (USN) in 1953 is just a product of peer pressure. He had two other friends who wished to enter the navy, and they tagged my Tito Igo along, our late Mamang, told me. She once relayed how much she prayed for his passing the requirements to become a navy serviceman.

The three friends went to Sangley Point in Cavite, the US naval force's recruitment center. He and his friends underwent all the recruiting processes and protocols and were later informed to wait for their applications. Instead of returning to San Jose, armed with great determination to be a successful child of the then-budding town of San Jose and in preparation for his enlistment in the navy, Rodrigo worked in a passenger lantsa taking the Batangas-Calapan route. After some months, the intense prayer of his mother paid off. Her second child Rodrigo became an enlisted sailor while his two friends did not receive any news from Sangley Point. Later he became one of the USN’s enginemen that year.

The memory of Tito Igo, while he was still in service, is still vivid in my recollection. I remember him clad in a fatigue uniform, alighting from his jeep, visiting his parents, and handing me chocolates and toys, for he is not only my uncle but also my ninong. My father filled in for Tito Igo in escorting his future wife Nenita Endencia when she was crowned beauty queen in their place in the late 50s.

After twenty years of service and tours in Vietnam (I do not know how many, for I am not privy to his stint in the navy), Tito Igo finally retired in 1973, and many years have passed his parents died of natural death. Tito Igo loves playing mahjong with Auntie Nita, his wife, his brother Baby (or Ottie), and sister-in-law Nida. The game was their favorite pastime, usually during weekends. Seeing them shuffling tiles at the terrace is a usual scenario to me. He is also topnotch at table tennis during his days, and somebody told me that he is one of the best in town. He was also into cooking, and my favorite is his carbonara.

Tito Igo loved to visit his relatives and friends, especially his parents. Even when he was already a retiree and staying here in San Jose, he regularly visits his aging and already ailing parents at the family’s ancestral house at 132 Capt. Cooper Street and giving them what they need, from food to medicines and little somethings. I was a witness to how grateful he was for his parents. That is the most significant attribute I have learned and copied from him. This characteristic is what I think we should emulate from our dear departed Tito, Papa, and Daddy, or Lolo Igo. I will never forget him because of this.

Rodrigo S. Novio, Sr., at 87, breathed his last at the ER of Goco-Luna Hospital in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, on September 3, 2021. After just hours have passed, he was put to rest at around 2:00 in the morning of the following day at the San Jose Public Cemetery, observing protocols imposed by the local government on the occurring pandemic surge. No one was there except for his eldest child, who accompanied him in the last hours of his life, and some men excavated it.

His remains encased in silence and darkness of the dawn.   

No sounding of taps.

No gun salutes.

No folding and presentation of the flag.

No ceremonies or whatsoever.

I could only do the same respects during deep, prayerful hours of remembering him.

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 (Photo courtesy of Yvonne Novio)