Budol-budol,
dugo-dugo and perfumes

What have we done, or are not doing, to deserve so many disasters coming one after the other? This month, alone, we had not yet gotten over the tragedy in Pasig where several were killed, and officials are falling all over themselves as they try to get into the investigation act, when another one struck yesterday. One side of a mountain slid off, causing soil and water to rush down and bury hundreds of people in Leyte.

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As of this writing, more than 200 were reported as dead or missing, with only about 15 bodies recovered. Aside from the fact that the landslide had rendered the roads impassable, rescuers also did not have the proper equipment for digging out those covered by earth. It was reported that an entire school has been buried under, with pupils still in their classrooms. Also feared buried were members of an organization holding a seminar at the health center. In fact, said a survivor, the members had just held a parade to mark Women's Day, when the soil and water rushed down.

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Responses quickly came from all parts of the country, with officials and civic leaders expressing their sympathies and willingness to send assistance. That's one thing we can be proud of in our people, they forget their own troubles when they see others in worse conditions. But we still have others who have time to be bitchy, like some people yesterday. One said this will be another opportunity for GMA to fly to the area and distribute aid. Another said this is another proof that her administration is very "de malas (unlucky)".

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Reports yesterday said that St. Bernard town, where the unfortunate Leyte barangay belongs, is quite near Ormoc, which was the scene of the most horrible mudslides and flooding some five years ago. In fact, TV programs featured scenes from that calamity yesterday and we again saw the dreadful appearance of mud-coated corpses being lined up to allow relatives to identify them. Since the cause of the landslide yesterday was also, obviously, the denudation of the forests in the town, does it mean that no effort had been made to reforest the bald areas of the province? Oh, we never learn…

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I guess the landslide stories will flood out the worrisome item yesterday saying that our cunning lawmakers have found a way of putting back the No-El (No Election) concept in the proposed amendments to the Constitution. From their very cleverly crafted statement, one can only discern a ploy to have the new body set the election at a time it will choose. And now those who do not like the idea will be spending all their time, not in thinking up laws that could benefit everybody, but of ways through which they can outwit those who want to have a Constitution tailored in their own way.

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Is the country bristling with generals? Pictures in the papers and on TV are full of military officers, either having a "sumptuous dinner" or a tete-a-tete with the commander-in-chief at Malacañang, or of new generals and promoted officers being sworn in by the President. Indeed, they all looked very chummy. Got the message, by the way?

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It's not only "budol-budol" that is plaguing people, especially women. The con artists who work on people's weaknesses and get them to part with their money and valuables, have their counterpart in the "dugo-dugo gangs" that have surfaced again. In this one, someone calls the house of the target victim, tells the one who answers that the mother, father or employer has met an accident and is in the hospital, or in jail. The one who answers is then instructed to get all the money and valuables in the house and bring it to the concerned person who will rescue the one injured or detained. And that will be the last time the caller and the cash and jewelry are seen.

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There's another technique, this time it involves perfumes or colognes. Ladies, take note of this because you might be the target. The culprit approaches the victim, usually at the parking lot, or some isolated place and offers to sell genuine imported perfumes at a bargain. Don't ever agree to sniff, if this happens to you. The perfume could be chloroform or some knock-out scent that will stun you, and enable the seller to rob you. Beware!*

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