Kudos to Bing and company

Our congratulations to City Mayor Evelio Leonardia and the members of the city council who took their oath yesterday afternoon. Our best wishes to them and our prayer that God will enlighten them on what they should do for His people.

So with Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson. He will need blessings on the way he will manage the city council, especially with two opposition lawmakers and two independents.

But already all the four have shown signs that they are non-partisan in their outlook. Bing, himself, predicted harmonious executive-legislative relations after Dr. Reynold Iledan and Catalino Alisbo had themselves sworn in by Mayor Bing. Celia Flor also took her oath with Bing.

That's a good start for the present administration. Less noise and more action is promised, the mayor pointed out. Well, what can one wish for? The same with Negros Occidental Governor Joseph Marañon. The provincial executive had done for Negros more than any other governor in the past. His cattle dispersal and swine production programs have proven exceptionally beneficial to the less fortunate citizens of the province. Of course, not registering among the affluent classes, but certainly very productive insofar as the less privileged members of society.

If there is one thing that should earn kudos for Marañon, it is his transformation of the once-maligned Mambukal Summer Resort into its former fame as the favorite destination of lowland visitors and outsiders. I had mentioned it several times. In the past years, I found myself besieged by hopes from long-time Mambukal advisers to return to Negros view once more the scene they had enjoyed.

Unfortunately, during those past years, I found myself tongue-tied as to the condition of Mambukal. But during the past years, Marañon managed to think up of an idea that flowered into Mambukal becoming once more the inland tourism destination it used to enjoy.

Well, that's one feather in the cap of the governor. Just one of the many he had achieved during the time that he held the stewardship of the province in his hands.

And, more important, he had helped diversify the one-crop economy of the province from complete dependence on sugar to one that has more products to sell. And there is the prospect of bioethanol becoming another major output of Negros Occidental. We can only hope and pray that Marañon will be able to comply with his dream of making Negros the province that he and other have dreamed of. Ad multos annos, Joseph. Joe Val understands what I mean by that.

***

I just learned that Dr. Domingo Vega is not the only hospital chief in trouble. A community hospital chief of Aklan - Dr. Antonio Viray III has reportedly been missing following questions about his credentials. Specifically, whether he actually had passed the licensure examination for physicians.

Viray was last assigned as head of the Buruanga Medicare Community Hospital following his promotion to medical officer IV with a salary grade of 20.

Before his detail to Buruanga, Viray allegedly was appointed by Aklan Governor Catalino Marquez to the Malay Municipal Hospital in Malay town. The problem is that per the Professional Regulations Commission, document signed by Rodolfo P. de Guzman, board chairman, he reportedly failed the board examination of August 21, 2001.

At that time, his address was 44 Mapagkawangga St. Quezon City, Metro Manila.

But another document signed by Alfonso Anao, PRC chairman, issued August 25, 2001, showed that he had completed the board exams for Physician of August 11, 12, 18, and 19 in Manila.

Efforts to get in touch with Viray failed.

***

Just got word. Retired police general Guillermo Enriquez was convicted of libel by the Iloilo court of First Instance Judge Gloria Madeo.

Enriquez is the chairman of the Board of Mansor Security and General services based in Manila and Iloilo City.

Because he is already 75 years old, the judge fined Enrique P6,000 with subsidiary imprisonment in case of bankruptcy. He was ordered to pay Mariano Ganzon, former Mansor chair, P100,000 in moral damages and P37,694 in actual damages.

Ganzon was called by Enriquez in an open letter circulated among Mansor stockholders as "traitor and "Judas Escariot", 169 times, etc. Ganzon was reportedly trying to get ownership of Mansor after he had bought the firm's entire share of stocks form its late founder Manuel Soriano in 2000. A surprise ending for a brilliant officer.*

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