Teodoro as defense chief

Congratulations to Gilbert Teodoro Jr., the new nominee as defense secretary in lieu of Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. The latter resumed his previous post as Department of Public Works and Highways chief.

Now, we hope that the DPWH can expedite the payments of the expropriation money due to the properties the government has been using in Hinobaan as part of the national highway. Now, we hope that Joaquin Bilbao Jr. will be able to receive the long overdue payment.

It is true that Teodoro has no prolonged experience with the military or in the military. Which is good. The worse thing that has been happening with the defense department is that it seems that the post had always been earmarked for retired military officers.

That, to a certain extent, has given rise to the military cabal. So that the perception has grown that it is a post earmarked only for former military men.

Teodoro brings with himself to the post his extensive experience in legislation as well as his management know-how. He has always been a leading management expert. And that is exactly what this country needs today to tame the military and cleanse up the Armed Forces of the Philippines of long overdue practices that have contributed to the perception that the AFP has become the hotbed of corruption.

Well. I hope Teodoro implants the overhaul of the AFP and some of the hidebound practices that had helped make it one of the agencies characterized by graft and corruption.

***

It took poll officials from Negros Occidental to proclaim Antique Governor Sally Zaldivar-Perez as duly-elected governor the province Friday.

As I had previously predicted, both Atty. Daisy Real and Provincial Comelec Supervisor Jessie Suarez, exercised forcefully their mandate from the Comelec's First Division despite the potshots from former Assemblyman Arturo Pacificador.

Unfortunately, the new provincial canvass board members were not unduly impressed nor were they cowed by the legal arguments by Pacificador.

So that what had previously been deemed as another maneuver aimed at stopping the proclamation of Perez simply rammed against the harsh reality that she had been elected by Antiqueños with a more than 13,000 majority vote.

This time, we hope that Gov. Perez will be able to push through with her plan to popularize indigenous culture of the Western Visayas and to popularize the Graciano Lopez Jaena cult among the people of the region.

This becomes crucial since the Publishers Association of the Philippines Inc. had already initiated the registration of the Graciano Lopez Jaena Journalism Academy. For the information of all, PAPI officials initially agreed to launch the first regional lecture-seminar on Lopez Jaena among journalists of Panay and Negros.

According to the agreement tentatively reached in Manila last week, PAPI president Johnny Dayang and executive director Dr. Ed Zafra enthusiastically endorsed my proposal that the said opening program of the academy be held either in Iloilo or in Bacolod City.

***

The problem of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program implementation in Negros Occidental is reaching a boil with no less than Presidential Assistant for Western Visayas Lito Coscolluela backing the call of Governor Joseph Maranon for an audit on DAR's implementation of the nobly intentioned program.

Coscolluela and Maranon are right. What is needed now is for a review of the DAR's implementation of the program. This was intended originally to uplift the agrarian reform beneficiaries.

Amid the claims and counter-claims by several sides, especially by non-government organizations helping the beneficiaries, it is time that more empirical evidence be gathered as to how many of them still till the land turned over to them by the government through Certificate of Land Transfer.

Although there used to be several studies on this, including the one of the University of Asia and the Pacific that showed that some 70 percent of the beneficiaries were no longer holding the lands, those are limited studies.

What is needed today is a more pervasive survey that will show once and for all what are the things that ail CARP. The program has been around for already 25 years with billions poured into it.

The problem is simple. Insofar as Negros Occidental is concerned, once and for all there should be proof of what ails the CARP and what could be done to make it of real help for the beneficiaries.

I don't think NGOs would torpedo the governor's project which, once and for all, will show whether it has succeeded in its intent and how many had been benefited by CARP.*

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