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Founded in 1986
Founding Publisher/Editor:
Lito A. Gajilan
Columnists:
Atty. Michael J. Gurfinkel
Joseph G. Lariosa
Gani P. Tolentino
Ted L. Reyes
Atty. Reuben S. Seguritan
Photographers:
Butch Gata
Sheryl Garcia
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not reflect the opinion of the paper nor that of the publisher
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For the past 22 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
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To tell us what you think about Filipino Express Online or to comment on the stories published here, E-mail us at Filexpress@aol.com
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SULPICIO Lines should pay. They should be shut down– never to be allowed to do business again. Their owners and officials should be fined and imprisoned– or thrown into a small boat with a punctured interior while a big typhoon is raging. They all deserve to drown after their gross negligence that resulted in hundreds of deaths caused by the sinking of their ferry MV Princess of the Stars– Deaths that should never have occurred.
Typhoon Frank is raging and the sky is dark and churning like an ice cream maker. Powerful winds are bending trees and electric posts like molten rubber sticks. Waves are as huge as houses and all sea vessels are grounded– except for the MV Princess of the Stars. For some absurd reason, the management of Sulpicio Lines thinks it is a fair enough day to transport 800 passengers to their planned destinations. Perhaps they think that getting the voyage over with would spare them the work of re-booking these passengers or worse, refunding them. Therefore, they give the signal to go ahead and sail.
800 deaths later, Sulpicio is at a loss for explanations. The signs were all there– actually, sign is an understatement! It was happening right in their faces. How could they have missed it? Why sail anyway?
Greed! Yes, greed is the answer. Sulpicio is just too greedy not to cash in on those 800 passengers. They just had to get it over with. Perhaps for them, it was worth every risk. Now, as rescuers discover one by one the stiffened cadavers of the victims buried underneath salty ocean water inside the overturned ferry, we cannot help but feel angry at the Sulpicio lines. The victims’ relatives are desperately trying to get anything from Sulpicio, but it appears that some Sulpicio offices are closed.
Closed! They were open when the heavens were pouring its wrath! They were open when all vessels were ordered grounded. They were sailing when all else were running for safety. Now relatives come to their offices demanding explanations and compensations and they decide to close.
Face the music Sulpicio and accept responsibility for the deaths of your 800 plus passengers. You cannot hide from this tragedy. You have to pay. This time, not even another typhoon can cover you. You could have prevented the astounding loss of lives, however you simply chose to sail away.
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CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – When I saw his freshly healing wound in his eyebrow one lazy midmorning several months ago inside Costco membership warehouse chain in Chicago, Illinois, it suddenly dawned on me that the man talking over his cell phone looked familiar and could be an interesting subject to my readers.
I approached his companion, who turned out to be his wife, and asked her, if he was the boxer? The woman, Tanya, nodded. I told her that I was a reporter and I asked her if I could interview him. And Tanya, who was cuddling a toddler, nodded again.
As soon as he hung up his phone, I introduced myself to him and broke the ice: “Mr. David Diaz, I am reporter. I was at your post-fight press conference with Erik Morales at All State Arena, do you have few minutes?”
That was the first time that I would have a one-on-one conversation with the Mexican-American boxer, who will be facing Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao at Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, June 28.
BLUISHING FACE
Long before talks of the Pacquiao-Diaz match ever started, my first question to Mr. Diaz at Costco was this: “Would you consider facing Manny Pacquiao down the road?”
His eyes suddenly gleamed and his face blushed and exclaimed, “Why not?”
When I hesitated that it might run into some roadblocks because Mr. Pacquiao belongs to a lighter division – the WBC super featherweight 130-pound division – while he is in the 135-pound class, David still insisted, “Why not?”
Several weeks after I broke the story, David would tell me that his manager Jim Strickland and Mr. Pacquiao’s promoter – Top Rank and Hall of Famer Bob Arum – were showing interest in the Diaz-Pacquiao fight. And the rest is history.
MONEY AND PRIDE
In our constant conversations that followed, I noticed that his main motivation of getting himself pitted with Mr. Pacquaio is money. “I really needed the money bad,” he would tell me. “But it’s also a pride thing.”
I really cannot blame David. In beating Morales last August, David told me, he only collected $350,000. While in Manny’s last bout with Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny had a guaranteed $3-M purse while Marquez, $1-M.
The mere opportunity to be matched with Manny in the ring was already an award in itself for David. It will open a door for a bigger fortune and fame for David. So, he did not mind getting a pay cut against Manny.
If they were appearing in a movie together, Diaz would not mind getting minor billing while Manny hugs the top billing.
In this upcoming bout, while Mr. Pacquiao would love to add Mr. Diaz’s World Boxing Council lightweight championship belt to his collection in his quest for boxing immortality, Mr. Diaz would be staying on the way to deny Manny his fourth title in four different divisions.
If the Morales-Diaz fight were to be the gauge, it would be harbinger for bad things to come for Manny.
Why? Morales was also gunning for his fourth title in four different divisions when Diaz sent Morales to his retirement instead.
Of course, if Diaz can beat Manny, it will still be premature for Manny to retire like Morales, unless Manny sustains a career-ending injury. And Manny can remind David of his public pledge to give him a rematch.
During a conference call last Thursday, Manny felt he could add the 140-pound welterweight division in his resume.
Since I had a close-up look at both Manny and David, I agree with the observation of a sportswriter that both of them are very gentlemanly in their public demeanors that it is very hard to tell if they can really be mean with each other inside the ring.
I never heard any thrash talking between the two that used to be the trademark of legendary Muhammad Ali against Sonny Liston and other rivals to whet the appetite of their fans in the run-up of their fights. So, the loser of the Diaz-Pacquiao match should also be awarded the consolation title of Mr. Congeniality.
BEAT UP HONDA
But if sob stories go, David might have the edge over Manny.
During the conference call, David mentioned of his long lay-off from boxing since turning pro after the 1996 Olympics.
That’s why when Bob Arum called David, he was shocked and surprised that somebody was interested in his talent. Between that 12-year interval, his mom got sick and his brother passed away and he decided to “hang it up” until his girlfriend who would later become his wife (Tanya) urged him to “try to go back into boxing” again. Otherwise, he would have gone back to school and finish his studies or become a 9-5 employee.
Even if he loses on Saturday, David, who has a guaranteed $800,000 purse, should be able to replace his “1991 Honda car without air-conditioner” that he is still driving while Manny will be counting his $3-M purse.
Because of David’s more hunger for fortune and fame for his motivation, I give David the edge to beat Manny by split decision on June 28th. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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Here’s a new tightly-edited book that portrays 53 striking Filipino faces. Most say : “If we don’t do the impossible now, we shall face the unthinkable soon.”
“Forest Faces: Hopes and Regrets in Philippine Forestry” is co-published by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and Environmental Science for Social Change ( ESSC ) at Ateneo University.
“In few countries has forest management’s successes and failures been played out so dramatically as in the Philippines,” writes FAO’s He Changchui. “The scale of forest loss… irrevocably altered the identity of many Filipinos…
This book “gives a face” to the interplay between Filipinos and forests. “Not all embrace the value and indispensability of trees and forests,”it says ”Currents of regret for what has gone before and cautionary notes for what may yet be to come” resonate throughout.
“Forestry is not about trees,” the ledgendary forester Jack Westoby taught.. “It is about people.” And “Forest Faces” hews to Westoby’s insight in thru striking photographs and interviews. These were arranged by FAO’s Christopher Brown and Patrick Durst with ESSC’s Peter Walpole.
Interviewees include “the weak and the powerful, unknown as well as most influential” Filipinos. Among these are:indigenous lumads, rebel commanders, forest guards to a climatologist, a cardinal, a European Union diplomat and policy-makers.
“No more dirges for Philippine forests,” songwriter Joey Ayala insists.. In Mount Banahaw’s forests, he gathered material for his songs. Ayala “dreams of a time” when his songs and poems will no longer be elegies of treasures we lost as a people, but rather hopes turned real.”
“Hunger defines our lives,” says South Cotabato’s T’boli leader Timbang Tungkay. His photo, with mop of silver hair and firm lips, are superimposed on a satellite montage of deforested Mindanao gullies. These grace the book’s cover.
Tungkay’s people used mountain forests down to Allah river – until lowland migrants shoved them off the land. Tungkay, his Hilongo wife and 24 children recall gutom ( hunger ), stretching over months His family was not spared from high infant death rates that chronic hunger spawns. Now, gutom is seasonal.
“One can distinguish tree species from sawdust washed up on river banks,” says historian Gregorio Hontiveros. In his book “Butuan of a Thousand Years”, he documented the province’s history as a pre-Spanish trading port up to World War II. A historian’s eye notes the devastated landscape that unchecked logging caused – plus exodus of loggers and their families . What was one a thriving timber export center now imports wood for a few miniscule mills.
“Today’s degraded forests reflect a history of logging and abandonment”,. writes Walpole in an overview that distills scientific assessment in lucid readable style. Degradation of vital watersheds continue. Encroachments wreck ill-protected areas ‘though they are at the core of receding biodiversity.’ And we’ve moved to mining as a national model for joining new rich nations of Asia.
“All is not lost,” he adds. “Regeneration is taking place… as the old secondary forests regain their original stature. Cogon ( imperata cylindrica ) fields, that blanket logged-over areas, shelter a new generation of pioneering seedlings. “(This ) is a phoenix forest that could restore and regenerate our landscape.” There is hope. Bit it “needs a nurturing hand.”
That “nurturing hand” is exhibited in by many in the book. There’s forest guard Raul Zapatos He spent 23 months in prison because he impounded illegally-cut logs. The Supreme Court reversed the vendetta by people whose pocketbooks he hurt. “May be this has changed?”, Zapatos asks 17 years after that bruising incident.
“I don’t go to the forests anymore,” says 60-year old farmer Juanito Saday. “There used to be a lot of t rees here. But PICOP, a logging company that operates in the area cut them. ( Catholic social action officials have assailed PICOP for continued deforestation) .Saday and others have “left-over memories of forests replaced by what the land can still grow…”
“Rainfall is changing in Mindanao,” says climatologist (and Jesuit priest) Jesus Ramon Villarin. His major work focuses on monitoring air quality through light detection and ranging lasers. He has explored rainfall patterns in Mindanao over the last 50 years. Their impact on croplands on Cotabato and other major river basins like Cotabato will be considerable.
Accounts of other contemporary environmental leaders, like then Bukidnon bishop (now Manila ‘s cardinal) Gaudenico Rosales, former DENR secretary Victor Ramos and Datu Michael Mistura are engrossing.
Thus, Story No. 32 “Talisay Home Forest” can jolt. It turns out to be English translations, by Nick Joaquin, of Jose Rizal’s poems of forests in the 16-hectare farm in Talisay, Dapitan and as well in as in Mount Makiling. “The forest always had a human face to it,” writes development planner George Aseniero “And it was always Rizal’s forest.”
Do the challenges exceed our capacity? “We spend more on a ‘fiesta culture.” This does not shape strategic coherent action, Walpole writes. We lack “a common perception as to what lessons (were) learned,” let alone the commitment needed for decisive action..”We live by anecdote and the hope of sunrise.”
Filipinos must define a new path of responsibility for the common good and preserve it in perpetuity. Otherwise, inaction “will allow the prophets of doom to prevail…We must reckon with decisions needed to transform hopes and regrets to resolute action.”
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After a celebratory event in Las Vegas during the weekend, where expatriate Aklan natives of the Balete Association-International marked the induction of officers at the Tuscany Suites, comes the devastating news caused by Typhoon Frank which has battered not only Metro Manila and Southern Luzon (the Bicol Area) but most especially the Visayas: Negros, Iloilo, Antique and Aklan which as of this writing is knee-deep in mud and flood, no electricity nor water. Homes and public buildings have been destroyed reaching an estimated 4.7 billion pesos.
The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) places the damage to agriculture and fisheries at P3.3 billion, infrastructure at P750 million, schools at P212 million and fishing boats at P110 million. Through emails from various sources including the Baleten-ons of Aklan, alumnae and nuns of the Assumption College Manila and Iloilo and from the government, the following information has reached this writer. Western Visayas has been the most affected -- losses amounting to P3.505 billion - P609 million for rice, P157 million for corn, P29 million of agricultural facilities and P2.25 billion of fisheries (P1.25 billion for bangus, P1 billion for shrimp). It is reported that 38,825 hectares planted with palay were totally or partially damaged. Affected areas in the entire Western Visayas totalled 52,825 hectares.
In Kalibo, capital of Aklan province, the flash floods have submerged homes, mud reaching the second floor of ancestral houses and the provincial hospital. No food nor drinking water so people have to drink rain water. In the town-plaza known as the Pastrana Park, named in memory of my revered grandfather, where the annual Ati-Atihan revelers converge during the January Sto Nino fiesta, 115 dead bodies were found and a number of people are still missing. The exact number of fatalities is not known yet. And, I understand many of the barangays have disappeared from the map of the municipality.
I am certain that Bart Calizo, his sisters (Vice-Governor Billie and Balete Mayor Noemi) and BAI members will act soon in coordination with public officials to assist the province in this grievous calamity. I also call the attention of the Aklan associations of America to extend a very much needed hand in this dark hour of the land you hold dear. To the Assumption alumnae in the U.S. - Iloilo and Antique have been hit badly. Financial aid may be sent to Assumption College-Manila or direct to AC-Iloilo.
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