Mintu Be

For tourism to be sustainable, it must be community-based and community-driven. Community-based tourism provides economic incentives for residents of poor rural communities to strengthen the protection of the natural assets which are the capital of ecotourism development. This is what he believes in. It is a convergence of people, nature, and places to the maximum. This, of course, necessitates politicians with a vision. Even if that politician came from far away Tanza, Cavite, or somewhere else. He is now 86 years old for he was born on January 26,1936.

During the incumbency of Mayor Godofredo “Doring” Mintu as local chief executive, he vied for a bankable ecotourism program for Sablayan. He looks forward to sustainable and pro-poor tourism programs which highly consider the plight of the people and their base resources as a barometer of its bankability. And many more projects, programs, and activities that this blog entry is impossible to accommodate because of lack of space. These are initiatives on health, social services, education, agriculture, the environment, especially infrastructure, name it.

Doring Mintu’s leadership and confidence in exploring possibilities even in the elevated and unchartered realm put the town in its right place under the sun. This is the role that the good mayor has chosen: a model municipality for the whole province to greatly consider. And he succeeded in many ways.

No doubt, Mintu is considered as one of the initiators of the municipality’s progress. A former sleeping town of Occidental Mindoro located at its geographical center. Famously called “Doring”, Mintu became the longest-serving mayor of Sablayan which became a first-class municipality during his tenure. His son, Board Member Edwin, is gunning for the vice-mayoralty seat this coming May.

After EDSA Revolution, Mintu was appointed mayor, got the mandate of the people through an election, therefore, served from 1986 to 1998. As one of the pillars of the so-called Dream Team of Josephine Sato and Ricardo “Ding” Quintos, he also won the mayoralty post in 2001 and served until 2010, and after that, he retired from politics. From 1998 to 2001, under Governor Sato, Doring Mintu served as her vice-governor and he made the whole town proud. 

Mintu and Sablayan are meant to be. They are destined for each other, like his wife Edna, the former councilor.

The businessman turned politician is also a sportsman, a good golfer at that. There is a golfers’ group called Alabang Club 515 in 2003. The group is named as such because the sun usually rises at 5:15 a.m. and golfers like to greet daylight with a tee shot. The club has 65 members who are a mix of professionals, senior executives, businessmen, and entrepreneurs including Mayor Doring Mintu of Sablayan. As a seasoned parbuster, he lives his life of service always in full swing. 

It’s Mayor Doring’s birthday today.

Hit ‘em straight, Sir, and Happy Birthday!

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A Narrative on Few Sablayan Pioneers (1940s-1970s)

January 20 is the feast day of the town’s patron saint, the martyr Sebastian of Gaul. On its civil side, Sablayan was converted into a full-fledged municipality on January 04, 1906, under Act No. 1820 of the Philippine Commission according to some accounts. But its founding year is a subject of debate among researchers until today because to some, the town was established earlier in 1902 when Sablayan was separated from Mamburao. Nonetheless, 1902 was officially considered by the municipality as per practice and tradition ultimately became the official founding year of Sablayan.

Many of its citizens today, whether in their civic or religious roles, could rightly claim that they have served the town the best that they could. In this narrative, I considered sharing a bit about Father Ludwig Halász, SVD, and erstwhile political clans from the 40s to pre-EDSA Sablayan like those in the pedigree of Paulino G. Legaspi, Loreto V. Urieta, and Leoncio A. Ordenes including businessman Fraterno T. Mendoza, Sr., and those I will mention in passing. Let us celebrate their memories and contributions to Sablayan’s faith, governance, and economy.

Happy fiesta and blissful 120^th founding anniversary to the people who have roots in Sablayan, here, and in other places. Also to those who left this municipality due to some inevitable circumstances.

Father Sablayan

On Ash Wednesday in 1958, Bishop Wilhelm Duschak, SVD, on a breakfast table, told Father Ludwig Halász, SVD to proceed to Sablayan and be the parish priest there. Father Halász has been considered as one of the most loved missionaries assigned there. When he was parish priest, and because of his influence and over his pastoral guidance through the years, many young men from his faith community enrolled in the seminary and entered the priesthood. There are many of them. One of them is the diocesan Fr. Ruben “Jun” Villanueva of Sta. Lucia, my former director at Social Action Center of the Vicariate, Fr. Florante Gallardo and Fr. Arnel Belamide, among others. Including the other Sablayan-born and/or raised SVD priests such as Eliseo “Ely” Yyance, Paulino “King” Belamide, Conrad Alvarez, the dentist-priest Ronillo B. Ordenes, and Limneo “Lim” Dangupon, to mention just five.

In his write-up, which appeared in the Souvenir Program for 50th Anniversary of the Canonical Erection (Don’t laugh. Yes, in church’s parlance, “erection” is more correct than “construction”!) of San Sebastian Parish (1953-2003), Fr. Halász, wrote that he did not know Sablayan was when he accepted the appointment, realizing the challenges ahead of him. Coming from Calapan, the missionary from Hungary proceeded first to Manila, and on the Feast of the Good Shepherd, he sailed to Sablayan aboard a lantsa daring the hostile South China Sea. He reached Sablayan together with the inmates and employees of the Sablayan Penal Colony (SPC). Records of the SPPF show that the first colonists and employees arrived in Sablayan on January 15, 1955.

According to the SVD Catalogus published in 1975, Fr. Halász arrived in the Philippines in 1954 and received his first assignment as an Assistant Parish Priest in Naujan. In 1955, he moved to the parish in San Teodoro, to substitute for a priest who went for home vacation. In 1956 he was assigned to Calapan.

The Catholic missionary remembers,  “After lunch, I boarded the Colony’s truck again and, under the heat of the sun, was brought again to the shore where we first landed and took a small boat in the direction of the town. Small children guided me to the convent. Fr. Albert Cook, SVD, awakened from his nap, heartily and brotherly welcomed me. After he has read my appointment apparently as the in-coming parish priest, he said, “Good, I know, I told the Bishop that I could no longer remain in this post. I have to work somewhere else, where I am needed.” From his words, I felt that the hard works and loneliness await me, with only a motorboat as a connection with my Society brothers.” Fr. Halász, born in Egyed, Hungary on July 6, 1927, was ordained a priest on September 20, 1952, was alone for many years in his work as a missionary in Sablayan.

Under his pastoral and administrative care, additional chapels in the barrios and school buildings were built, including the Catholic school known today as the Colegio de San Sebastian or CDSS. The many chapels that the good priest built are still serviceable to date. He also revived an abandoned hospital and it is now known as St. Martin’s Hospital, managed by the Dominican Sisters of Siena, the only private hospital in town.

The most-loved priest teamed up with the local government in many social projects aimed at improving the living condition of the people in this part of the province.

In 1978, he was transferred to Victoria to be the Parish Priest there. In 1983, he was reassigned to Sablayan but in 1994 he returned home to Hungary to strengthen the declining personnel of the Hungarian Province. Fr. Halász died on April 13, 2015. In his memory, the grateful people of Sablayan put up a life-size statue of the missionary, whom we AVSJ lay workers used to call “Father Sablayan”, in front of the parish convent.

Political forerunners

Rodolfo M. Acebes’ 2008 book “Mindoro sa Panahon ng Digmaan 1941 - 1945” (pp. 90 – 93) described vividly how guerilla-turned bandits killed Minoy (Papa) over unfounded allegations that the former mayor was a Japanese collaborator. Also killed was Pedring, brother-in-law of Minoy, and Minoy’s brother Pepito. It was raining hard that night when the freedom fighters turned cattle rustlers abducted the three men. They were hogtied, stabbed, and hacked to death inside the municipal building in Poblacion. The three men were buried by their widows in a shallow grave in the middle of the typhoon the following morning.

Pedro Gonzales was the mayor of Sablayan when the war broke out. He was only serving for 11 months when it started. Gonzales was also tortured by the Japanese in Sablayan Elementary School turned by the invading forces into a garrison. After being tormented, Gonzales and the rest of his companions were brought to the sugar mill in Central, Pandurucan (San Jose). Gonzales was tied upside-down with Vicente Gatchalian, the municipal treasurer, and Generoso Madrigal, the town’s postmaster.

Lorenzo “Lory” Ordenes recalled that 9 Sablayan municipal presidents served during the American colonial period from 1907 to 1940 without a vice-president. It was only in 1941 when Andres Dantayana became Pedro Gonzales’ vice-president, did Sablayan elect one into office. Gonzales and Dantayana both served for 6 years. They were in office during the Japanese Occupation of 1942 to 1945, until a year after the Philippines was liberated by the Americans in 1946. 

The designations were changed to mayor and vice-mayor respectively in 1948. Dantayana’s younger brother, Juan, held the office as Sablayan’s first vice-mayor. He served under Mayor Paulino G. Legaspi until 1951. The Dantayana brothers hold the distinction of being the first vice-president and the first vice-mayor of Sablayan. They are also the only brothers in the esteemed roster of Sablayan municipal leaders, Tito Lory told me.

Although not formally trained as a lawyer, Juan Dantayana helped represent Sablayeños in court, says Ordenes. Dantayana was also the town’s lone notary. Back then, non-lawyers were still allowed to act as attorneys and perform notarial services. Ordenes was already a teenager then so he remembers it well.

While the Dantayanas are the only brothers on the list, husband and wife Leoncio A. Ordenes and Anastacia O. Ordenes are the only couple to serve as municipal mayor and vice-mayor of Sablayan, respectively.

In 1959, then-mayor Loreto V. Urieta ran for provincial board member resulting in Raymundo Gallimbas, his vice-mayor, succeeding him to office. Back then, an incumbent public official had to resign from his position when he ran for another post. When Gallimbas became mayor, Anastacia O. Ordenes, who was the number one elected municipal councilor, assumed the vacated office, as required by the rules. Anastacia Silva Omañada-Ordenes, or Lola Tasing to most, was born in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro on April 15, 1914. She went to Kawit, Cavite for her elementary education and moved back to Sablayan to pursue her studies.

Tasing was the first and only woman to serve as Sablayan’s vice-mayor, which she did for a brief period from 1959 to 1960. Her public service as an elected official ended when her husband, Leoncio Ordenes Sr, decided to run for and was elected as mayor in the local election the same year, according to Lorenzo Ordenes, the late Mayor Leoncio’s youngest son.

Although Tasing was twice elected as the municipality's number one councilor, she wasn't the first woman to get this distinction. That honor belongs to her bosom friend and relative, Francisca de Jesus Salvo or Lola Kika, the wife of school principal Casiano Salvo. Lola Tasing was the younger sister of Don Lucas Silva Fernandez, who also served as Sablayan mayor before the Second World War. On the 25^th founding anniversary of the province in 1975, Lola Tasing was awarded Best Parent of Occidental Mindoro bestowed by Governor Arsenio Villaroza.

The union between Leoncio and Tasing produced 9 children: the eldest Leovigildo or Luving was the Postmaster in Sablayan. Leogardo or Garding was a teacher who later worked at the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Limneo or Lim was the Provincial Treasurer of Occidental Mindoro. Leonides or Ned worked at the Health Department Manila. Leandro or Boy was the Division Chief at the Professional Regulation Commission in Manila. Leonor or Nene, the elder between two daughters, worked at the Office of the Municipal Assessor in Sablayan. Leoncio Jr or Impe was a Forest Ranger with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources office in Sablayan. Lucille or Lucy is a retired public school teacher. Lorenzo or Lory, who worked at the DENR is the youngest.

Mayor Leoncio A. Ordenes’s vice-mayor, Floresto Cariaga Sr, had the unique experience of having the shortest term in said office. Cariaga was mayor for 45 days to serve out the remaining term of Mayor Ordenes who was unfortunately felled by an assailant while in office.

There are also father-and-son tandems on the list. Paulino G. Legaspi was mayor from 1948 to 1951 while his son Rockefeller (or Rocky) served as vice-mayor from 1979 to 1986. Rocky Legaspi was born on July 2, 1937, in Sablayan and married to the academician Helen Oriondo was blessed to have 6 children. He graduated in 1960 from Feati University with a Degree in Education Management (DEM) and AB (Liberal Arts). At the age of 26, Rocky dived into politics in various capacities as vice-mayor and municipal and provincial legislator, from 1963 until he succumbed to a lingering illness at the age of 79 on March 18, 2016. Rocky is the father of now sitting Sangguniang Bayan Mark Anthony “McKing” O. Legaspi. McKing’s siblings are Mary Jane, Eric, Mary Ann, Mary Ellen, and Joseph. He was once an appointed provincial board member replacing his late father who died in office.

Loreto V. Urieta was the town leader from 1952 to 1959, and again from 1964 to 1971. His son Felipe was in turn vice-mayor from 1992 to 1995, and also 1998 to 2001. Policarpio Urieta, who was municipal president from 1919 to 1921, was Loreto’s uncle and Felipe’s grand-uncle. He is the 5^th child of Presentacion “Presing” Costa Bundang (the famous Presing Park was named after her) and Mayor Loreto Villiones Urieta. Felipe’s father was said to be his role model when it comes to serving people, this is the reason why Philip followed the footsteps of his grandfather and father. Felipe’s son, Kristofferson or Bong, the fourth generation of their political lineage, is an incumbent member of the municipal council.

Means of transportation in the 50s and 60s are motorboats or sailboats. During the rainy season, even such means of transport are either dangerous or unavailable because the waves whipped up by the southwest monsoon are unsafe to small craft.

During the dry season, jeeps and trucks are the primary transport. Some travel by foot or horseback or ride a carabao. Occidental Mindoro’s very own political scientist Remegio E. Agpalo who hails from Mamburao wrote in his book “The Political Elite and the People; A Study of Politics in Occidental Mindoro” (pp. 54 – 55) that Sablayan had no electricity in 1965. He also wrote that “Despite its larger population, on the whole, Sablayan is more underdeveloped economically than Mamburao.”  From 1964 to 1965, the income of Sablayan is pegged at Php 40,495.14. In short, Sablayan, since the beginning should have been the capital town of the province.

Merchant from Paetan

It was in 1959 when Fraterno Torreliza Mendoza, Sr. first set foot on the shores of Sablayan, specifically in the Barrio of Paetan where he worked as a farmer, fisherman, and transporter of goods using his small boat. He even sold clothes from one house to another in the neighborhood. He is a true-blooded merchant no doubt like his father who was originally from Batangas.

Later, he moved to the town proper together with his wife Evelyn Vicente Torreliza and three children, Fraterno Jr., Maria Cristy (now Dimayacyac), and Nerea (now Tuazon). The Mendozas established a small store and it was the beginning of all their all successful business ventures today, according to his son, Fraterno Mendoza, Jr. commonly known to his friends as “Jun Frats”. Well admired by the progressing town’s early inhabitants and settlers, he was able to gain prominence as the leading pioneer of local business in the then progressing municipality.

He lived a simple life and drawing lessons from his experiences before as a lowly sales boy, messenger, and vendor in his place of birth and elsewhere, he was able to master the trade. Though only a college undergraduate, he was able to surpass the hardships and hurdles of all his businesses. Reserved, thrifty, and living a simple life, he was able to get properties and his businesses grew. Mr. Mendoza, needless to say, was an expert in financial management.

Born in September 29, 1928 in a poor family in Agkawayan, Looc in Lubang Island, he was raised by his parents Generoso Mendoza of Lipa, Batangas and Dionista Torreliza, a native of Agkawayan. Mr. Mendoza breathed his last at the age of 86 on December 17, 2014, leaving behind his legacy of being a trailblazer in local entrepreneurship in this town. He is the epitome of a businessman who has a heart for working with the town officials during his days. His children now own various enterprises in town and are one of the most successful local businessmen in Sablayan.

As a private individual, he was able to win the hearts of his coterie of friends and business partners. In Sablayan, whoever becomes the mayor, greatly considered Mr. Mendoza, in a way, as an innovative advocate and model of local entrepreneurship towards its development mission and goals. With all these legacies, the patriarch placed himself significantly in the economic and historical context of Sablayan and was perceived as someone who has contributed to the positive development of local pride through a good example shown by his name.

Niche

I worked in Sablayan until I found my niche and as I write this, I constantly remind myself that I am not alone. I am surrounded by a great host of friendly and beautiful people, past and present. Especially those who love to share the town’s history who are so generous with their time and memories. Special to mention Mr. Lory Ordenes and those who are lucky enough to live with the town’s pioneers.

This essay is unreservedly dedicated to the people of Sablayan, past, present, and those still yet to be born and to the loving memory of the long-gone men and women including those who are still with us today and still active in their different fields, be it as civil servants or in the priestly ministry, or otherwise, in every part of the world.

I have a deep affinity for Sablayan - it's a second home to me and those who come before me – its people treat us like we are their own.

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(The undated photo above is courtesy of Lory Ordenes showing President Diosdado Macapagal, Fr. Ludwig “Luis” Halász, SVD, Gov. Arsenio Villaroza along with Mayor Loreto V. Urieta and his wife Presentacion Bundang-Urieta, Diosdado Gozar, Councilor Anastasia Ordenes, Diosdado Gozar and his wife Lolita Gozar with Vice-Mayor Martin Pacheco and Ms. Florence Valentin and some prominent residents on the inauguration of Rural Heath Center in Poblacion.)

 

Gadiano and Alfaro: Budget as Politics and Triviality

Trivia: On January 18, 1854, exactly 128 years ago today, William Walker proclaimed the establishment of the Republic of Sonora in NW Mexico. Walker was an American physician, lawyer, journalist, and mercenary who organized several private military expeditions into Mexico and Central America to occupy the local nations and establish slave-hold colonies, a venture then known as "filibustering". It was in this sense that Jose Rizal used the word in his second novel El Filibusterismo about the Spanish presence in the Philippines.

But the word legally used today has a different meaning. Now it means the use of obstructive tactics in a legislature, by excessive use of technicalities to prevent action by another group. Since language is dynamic, its meaning changed during the epoch of colonization in the times of William Walker and Jose Rizal to the post-foreign colonial era of Governor Eduardo B. Gadiano and Vice-Governor Peter J. Alfaro here in Occidental Mindoro.

Another trivia: Yesterday, January 17, 2022, VG Alfaro sent an invitation letter to Gov. Gadiano inviting him to join the Committee of the Whole to, “discuss and present personally to the Legislative Body the integrity of his proposed budget … " But apparently, the province’s Local Chief Executive snubbed the invitation from the legislative branch. He got hold of himself firm and unshaken.

Truly, a budget can be analyzed in three distinct ways: as policy, as politics, and as influencing outcomes. Budgets are more than authorizations to spend money, at times, it has a splash of politicking in them especially if those who head the legislative and executive branches do not belong in the same political zoo or they have an Edgar Bergen kind behind them. Having it discussed here is more on the intricacies of the budget as politics in the context of the present gridlock in Occidental Mindoro. Some might find these mere trivialities but I do understand.

As I have emphasized in my previous blog entry titled "Gadiano and Alfaro, A Tug-of-War On Budget", it is with very high probability that the provincial government, with the unfinished deliberation on the 2022 Local Expenditure Program (LEP), has no other choice but to settle for a reenacted budget for FY 2022.

Rules have it that the reenacted budget kicks in 90 days and it will fall on March 30, 2022, as the re-enacted budget kicks in permanently for the whole fiscal year. The election ban will begin on March 25 so, if the 2022 Annual Budget would only be passed and approved after that, say, on March 26 onwards, it would be useless or inutile.

In that case, even if we have an approved 2022 Annual Budget by then, no new programs could be implemented and no appointments for the needed workforce in its delivery of service to the people who had been deprived of a new brand of political leadership for decades would be employed. 

Legally, what are the effects of Re-Enacted Budget? According to DILG Opinion No. 30, Series of 2015 (July 22, 2015), it has implied disadvantages such as no creation of positions, no new program projects, and activities, no utilization in the increase of IRA allocation for the year since the same is not covered by an Appropriation Ordinance, non-implementation of non-recurring activities no matter how vital they may be, and no supplemental appropriations are allowed.

Moreover, the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB), an inter-agency body regulating government procurement, has already issued a warning on the observance of a 45-day ban on new projects consonant with the forthcoming May elections. Nonetheless, the GPBB said that it will be up to the COMELEC to approve election ban exemptions on specific goods and services in line with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move, from the looks of it, was indeed very clever and very calculated and precisely orchestrated. It happened before and it is still happening today. But I am sure the governor already saw it coming so he is not surprised. But hope springs eternal for the win-win solution on this gridlock. 

But this isn’t only an issue of policy in legislation. Of all the checks and balances inscribed in every code, in every letter, and every intent of every law or jurisprudence in the land, the most significant is the right of the citizens, especially the poor and the marginalized who are fed up with old brand leadership, to replace those who are serving them poorly and only wants to perpetuate themselves to power ad infinitum. Here and elsewhere.

As I have said, the ultimate resting place of all blatant use of obtrusive tactics is figuratively the square-shaped ballot box. It is where such candidates can be cornered. Or on the circle of public opinion where they could be “rounded-up”. Hope this tug-of-war would end soon.

And that deserves another trivia someday. 

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(TAILPIECE: This news came to me late. The Sangguniang Panlalawigan, having a quorum and the participation of department heads as resource speakers and perhaps pressured by the situation, finally started the deliberation through physical and online appearances on the 2022 Local Expenditure Program as of 10:00 AM today, January 18, 2022, and intends to resume it tomorrow. Thanks, God for such a change of heart by our leaders in two branches of our local government and greatly considering the welfare of our people, albeit very much delayed. As I stand by my story, my salute to all of you!- NAN)

Gadiano and Alfaro, in a Tug-of-War on Budget

It is still a tug-of-war and a stalemate between the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and the Executive Department, between Gov. Eduardo B. Gadiano and Vice-Governor Peter J. Alfaro, over the further deliberation and consequent approval of the province’s Fiscal Year 2022 Local Expenditure Program or LEP which was, due to lack of quorum, postponed on December 28, 2021.

As a response, Gov. Gadiano issued Memorandum No. 2022-001 directing all the department heads not to attend any of the following budget hearings scheduled from the 4^th to 6th day of January 2022.

As I have asserted in my previous blog entry titled “Of New Year, Quorum and Decorum,” posted December 30, 2021, our Provincial Legislative Board overlooked the instruction fused in the Joint Monitoring Circular (JMC) No. 1 Series of 2016 by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Budget Management (DBM), and other concerned agencies. The august body with all negligence did not follow the Synchronized Local Planning and Budgeting Calendar designated to local government units which are also incorporated in the Budget Manual, Gadiano said.

This is what Gov. Gadiano is telling the people over a radio interview last week. He is strong in saying that he is putting the fate of the 2022 budget in the hands of the board members and the SP in general headed by Vice-Governor Peter J. Alfaro but not on a silver platter. He said in the emotionally-charged interview by Alex Del Valle on a paid broadcast called “Serbisyong Ganado Program” aired over 92.1 OneFM that some people will gonna pay for this for such is a dereliction of duty, according to the governor.

Is the governor right in saying that the SP is liable for dereliction of duty in this case? Apparently yes. Again, I am not a lawyer but a mere local chronicler and a researcher but if we are going to look deeper on Sections 458 and 323 of the LGC, the word used was "shall", denoting mandatory command. If the proposal denotes a flagrant and culpable unwillingness to perform duty as mandated by law, those responsible for such delay or refusal will be opening themselves to a possible administrative case of dereliction of duty, neglect of duty, or abuse of authority, as may be warranted by the evidence, which are grounds for disciplinary actions against elective officials under Section 60 (c) of the LGC. This is how DILG Opinion No. 46 states it. Well, an opinion is just an opinion but that opinion came from the DILG itself.

Gadiano ended the radio interview by saying that Occidental Mindoro is not progressing because of massive politicking through the years. Gadiano was elected only to said provincial seat last 2019. He is even wondering why delays of this kind did not happen before when the governor and the vice-governor belong to the same political group.

The most monumental gridlock between a governor and a vice-governor in Occidental Mindoro happened in June 2002 when Gov. Jose T. Villarosa and Vice-Gov. Ramon M. Atienza battled over the authority to sign certain purchase orders and maintenance expenses of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan. The celebrated tug-of-war is now known as Atienza v. Villarosa G.R. 161081 dated May 10, 2005, ended in a Supreme Court Ruling. Both camps then accused each other of politicking and hampering the progress of the province for Villarosa and Atienza at the time, not unlike today, are on the opposite end of the political fence. That was exactly 20 years ago this year.

In 2016, a Budget Operations Manual for Local Government Units was issued as per DBM’s mandate under Section 354 of RA 7160 for local government units to improve and systematize methods, techniques, and procedures employed in the local budget process. The executive department under Gadiano has been religiously following such a manual according to him while the SP is mum on the issue of the budget calendar. Why did the SP have not deliberated it as scheduled which is from October to December 2021? This question was never been confirmed nor denied along with the alleged Php 5.5 cash advance of the provincial board for a certain meeting in Laguna.

Gadiano also accused the SP of being a rubber stamp and just been following orders of their political figurehead/s or patron. Nonetheless, RA 7160 specifically gives power to the local legislative bodies to review the executive budget and the power of appropriation, which is still in line with the ordinance enactment. There is a very thin line between this legal power and the kowtowing to the idiosyncrasies of their political king … or queen. As I have been telling for the nth time, the power of the purse can be weaponized and numbers can be tyrannical. They can tell their other excuses to the marines!

In their 18^th Regular Session held January 11, 2022, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Committee of the Whole, after a hotly contested exchange between SBM Diana Apigo-Tayag, Bokal Nestor Tria, and Bokal Sonia Pablo whether to wait for the availability of the concerned department heads and resource persons or once and for all, the Board must deliberate it right there and then, the junta provincial will again send a third invitation letter to the concerned people from the executive branch to attend the scheduled deliberation on the 2022 LEP from Monday, January 17, 2022, onwards. As expected, both branches of provincial government might be at the end would settle for a reenacted budget for FY 2022.

If still, the concerned individuals will abide by the directive of Gov. Gadiano, one of the possible actions is for the legislative, if they wish as a collegial body, is to resort to a legal remedy against those poor employees who are just following orders from their immediate superior. If the potential resource persons will not attend, the SP might cite them for contempt invoking the Regional Trial Court (RTC) under Rule 7 of the Rules of Court of such a remedy.

Can the local legislative board itself punish the defiant in this particular case? Nope. DILG Opinion No. 25, Series of 2020 has it that the SP does not have subpoena power to punish for contempt. All they can do is to INVITE them if they are willing to supply information to the budget hearings. Moreover, per DILG Opinion No. 22, Series of 2009, in the exercise of legislative functions, any legislative body has no compulsory power to require persons to appear before it.

But resorting to RTC in such a remedy is political suicide. It would be a crazy thing to do especially now that election campaigning is near. The move will just gather ire and criticisms from the citizenry, specifically the voters or their relatives, for almost all of the incumbent SPs are aspirants for different political positions this coming election. Resorting to such legal action aimed at those in the executive is in zugzwang if it were a chess match. Besides, the budget gridlock is a political issue and not a legal one. Budget deliberation of the SP is more of in aid of legislation (e.g. appropriation ordinance) and not acting as a quasi-judicial body.

But people will in the end realize that the pains they are experiencing, including their communities, due to unstarted infrastructure projects and lack of frontline social services were a result of this budget stalemate and tug-of-war. They might be just birth pangs for we are entering into a fresh start of political leadership from the rotten dustbin of political repetitions. The people, who are fed up for decades, might express their disgust through the ballots as it was in 2019.

The sure thing is, this issue will be dragged from the respective halls of the provincial capital compound to political campaign rallies staged in every nook and corner of Occidental Mindoro. As the saying goes,”Kakaladkarin ito sa mga entablado hanggang iukit sa mga balota loob ng mga presinto.” The election will be the final arbiter of this madness and selfishness. This cannot be settled by way of any radio interviews or social media posts from both camps, even a blog entry such as this. This gridlock is a deliberate act that disregards the least, the lost, and the last among the masses who expect a fresh brand of local governance from persisting visionary leaders.

Popcorn that would last until May, please?

The lesson re-learned: There is also stalemate not only in chess, the competition of intellect, and the all-physical sport called tug-of-war but especially in the deadly, deceptive game called wanton politicking.

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(Photo: Jasper Francisco)

 

MOCHMC: A Breakthrough in Our Health Care

 

This is a giant leap for our people courtesy of private health entities and can be considered as a radical response to the disjointed delivery of health care services by both government and private institutions here in Occidental Mindoro, as far as we can remember.

Last January 11, 2022, there was this blessing and groundbreaking of the site for Mindoro Occidental Cooperative Hospital and Medical Center (MOCHMC) in Sitio San Carlos, Brgy. Central, San Jose Occidental Mindoro. The facility is aimed at catering to the growing demands for quality healthcare services in the province. It will be under the auspices of the Mindoro Occidental Medical Mission Group Health Service Cooperative (MOMMGHSC).

The twin ceremony, the blessing, and unveiling were led by Fr. Reymond B. Mulingbayan of St. Joseph Parish in Central, and Mayor Romulo M. Festin of San Jose, respectively. The forthcoming health facility is consists of a 126-bed, Level Two hospital generally considered as a medical center. 

According to Dr. Anna Monica R. Bracamonte, President of the Mindoro Occidental Medical Society and CEO MOMMGHSC. The hospital is said to be the first-ever hospital of this type in the province. The facility will be constructed on 1.7-hectare land in said area. In 2 to 3 years, the hospital will be in full operation. In the Philippines, a Level Two hospital offer extra facilities like intensive care unit and specialist doctors, and of course, minimum healthcare services.

This endeavor of establishing a cooperative hospital started some two decades or more ago in Davao City and Tagum City, Davao Del Norte. At first, it was owned not only by the doctors and health professionals but also by all the workers of the hospitals, including utility—as all cooperatives should be. They later extended the ownership of these hospitals to everyone in the community—like the patients and their families. The same thing will happen here and if you are interested, its key officers and the BOD are just a call or a chat away.

That is how the Medical Mission Group Hospitals and Health Services Cooperative (MMGHHSC) came into being. One of the pioneers of the coop hospital in the country is Dr. Jose M. Tiongco, MD who graduated from the UP College of Medicine and later took surgical training at the Philippine General Hospital Department of Surgery. MMGHHSC Philippines Federation, now composed of 22 hospitals and health services primary cooperatives are now scattered in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Indeed, there is a need for active partnerships with private organizations such as cooperatives that support the health needs of the people, especially those who are disadvantaged patients. Since hospitals and health programs do not guarantee a healthy individual and a healthy society, still, the combination of health programs and other social services can help in creating a healthy community.

The MOMMGHSC Medical Plaza started only 8 years ago and has been catering to our people through its medical clinic, pharmacy diagnostic, and dialysis centers and duly registered in Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) since October 2014. For that less than a decade existence, the MOMMGHSC already anticipated and responded to our utmost needs especially now that we are still in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic and other health chaos that we are experiencing. The province had been existing for 71 long years and a hospital of this level was not yet realized and it was a manifestation of how hospitals or health services, in general, are corrupted and neglected in this impoverished country of ours as politicians come and go, both in the national and local levels. But these coop people walk their talk. They targeted it only in 2014, now it’s gradually coming into reality.

Congratulations to you guys!

Needless to say, in our condition that state-of-the-art hospitals cannot be grasped by the poor and the marginalized, this milestone hospital will serve as an extension center for state-run or government-owned healthcare schemes catering not only to stakeholders in Occidental Mindoro but including our neighboring provinces.

Since this is a cooperative, we all can be its owners. Unlike government or other private hospitals in the locality.

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Photo from MOMMGHSC Facebook

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/104411/ownership-coop-hospitals-open#ixzz7HkKQiJ8x

 

Sato, Tarriela and Special Economic Zones

The House Bills 10109, which seeks to establish special economic zones in the municipalities of San Jose and Magsaysay, and 10255, which seeks to create in the municipality of Paluan were tackled in the hearing of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Sen. Imee Marcos joint by the Committees on Local Government, Ways and Means, and Finance, this morning, January 11, 2022.

The two ecozones bills for the province were authored by Cong. Josephine R. Sato and was approved by the Joint Committee on Economic Affairs and Trade and Industry of the House of Representatives in February 2020 and already passed on its final reading on the last quarter of 2021.

Other than the two Occidental Mindoro bills, H. No. 10108 - Metro Iloilo Special Economic Zone Act, H. No. 10216 - Oriental Mindoro Special Economic Zone Act, H. No. 10217 - Ilocos Sur Special Economic Zone Act, H. No. 10218 - Bislig Special Economic Zone Act, H. No. 10243 - Bacolod Special Economic Zone Act, H. No. 10244 - Northern Bohol Special Economic Zone Act are also deliberated by the Committee.

Occidental Mindoro congressional aspirant Leodie “Odie” Tarriela also included as one of his campaign agenda is the establishment of an economic zone somewhere in the province, if ever elected.

Both the supporters of Tarriela and Sato, though the two are not direct rivals this coming May election, dwelt more on who first initiated or proposed the establishment of such special economic zones than scrutinizing the difference between what Tarriela is proposing and what Sato had proposed. Their supporters and fans resulted in childish bantering instead of probing an issue. Or take a closer look at the importance and the viability of such endeavors in our province. The discussions on the issue in social media by their supporters some days back are pointless, like a newly-bought pencil.

As I see it, though Sato had been asking the Senate to urgently act on the matter, there are still a lot of things to be settled by the concerned committees of the senate including the National Economic and Development Agency or NEDA and the Department of Finance. These things should have been discussed by their respective supporters rather than petty generalized fandom comments and childish opinions.

Some gridlocks need to be addressed before the bills’ final approval like for instance the incentive systems for the stakeholders, some issues on administrative control of the economic zones, and other things that should be harmonized with the Omnibus Investment Code.

At point-blank, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon asked Asec. Atty. Valery Joy Brion of DOF about the chances of getting the nod of the department on such special economic zones said that based on the data of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), such zones do not alleviate poverty and do not always guarantee economic success.  Brion added that there must be a Master Plan complete with cost-benefit analysis so that the agencies in the executive department could deeply look into the bills. Brion stood firm to her conviction that the DOF will object to the bills at least for now. “Currently, we do not support them,” Brion said in a senate hearing via Zoom. However, the DOF and the NEDA are willing to sit with the Senate and the LGUs to facilitate the immediate realization of the proposals, according to NEDA’s Asec. Mercedita Sombilla.

Another matter that needs to be ironed out is the cost-sharing between the LGU and the national government. It is important and it lies on the Fiscal Incentives Review Board or FIRB, an interagency government body given the authority by the Philippine law to grant tax incentives to registered business enterprises. The sharing scheme should also be part of the laws on ecozones. Further, as agreed by Sen. Drilon and Gov. Presbiterio Velasco, Jr. of Marinduque, a sunset provision should also be incorporated. The provision, also called sunset law, is a clause in a statute or regulation that expires automatically on a specified date. A sunset provision provides for an automatic repeal of the entire or sections of the law once that sunset date is reached. In short, provisions in ecozone acts should have an expiry date, if we are to follow the thoughts of Sen. Drilon and Gov. Velasco who are both lawyers. The former was once justice secretary while the latter was a former associate justice of the Supreme Court.

When asked by Sen. Marcos if there’s such duplication in the two Occidental Mindoro ecozone bills, Cong. Sato confidently told Sen. Marcos that Paluan and San Jose-Magsaysay areas are at the opposite end of the province and besides, the Paluan ecozone is specific in shipbuilding and dockyard facility while the one to be established in the San Jose-Magsaysay area is for agriculture. Sato further explained that it is now high time for the province to move forward to agro-industrialization with the help of these two ecozones. 

Well, the LGUs can create economic zones and free zones by encouraging the private sector to do it rather than the government so that the fiscal burden or the funds or resources are not taken out from the national coffer. Is that what the aspiring congressman has in mind?

That I do not know.