Entrepreneurs are doers

Today many Bacolod entrepreneurs will be awarded by President Arroyo at the La Salle Coliseum for their successes in promoting the economy in Bacolod and Negros Occidental.

Entrepreneurs are to be emulated. They talk less and do more. They achieve. We need more entrepreneurs. We need doers.

Yesterday the two featured in a national paper were Bobby Montelibano and Joe Cajili. The day before, it was Ben Lopue of Lopue's department store and Joaquin Torre of Riverside Medical Center

. It's a pity the old man Ben Lopue and Dr. Pablo Torre are no longer around. But their legacy will be the beautiful tribute. They were my friends.

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Cheers to more entrepreneurs. Tonight at Feedback, I have scheduled an interview with people promoting an electric jeepney, launched here this morning. Bacolod was supposed to be the first city in Southeast Asia to launch the electric jeepney. But Makati beat us to the draw. The electric jeepney will use electricity to run the vehicle and not the gasoline. It will be environmentally friendly and, considering the cost, it will also be pocket friendly. This will revolutionize transportation. The product of entrepreneurship.

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Today in Silay, President Arroyo will meet with the Governors of the Visayas to take up the region's infrastructure.

We have always complained of Imperial Manila. It's time Central Philippines is developed with its competitive edge in tourism.

We have many beaches and many more waiting to be developed. We also have many mountain resorts. What was not pointed out is that Central Philippines is also the best place for retirement, both for foreigners and elderly Filipinos.

I don't have the figures but there are more foreigners retiring in Visayas than in Luzon or Mindanao. Many foreigners have been advised by their home government to avoid Mindanao because of the peace problem there.

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Let us support the President. This space has always been supportive of her. And she must support Visayas too which gave her a big vote majority in 2004.

Economic development should be spread to the Visayas too. I hope she will support the project of Gov. Joseph Marañon and the other West Visayas Governors to have a bridge linking the islands of Negros and Panay.

This will bolster further the economic development in the two islands with goods traded between them.

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We also support her Human Security Act, a controversial one that raised the hackles of both the Left and the religious. Of course, it limits some freedom of individuals.

But I believe the welfare of the whole is more important. I went over the published law. I don't see the danger if you have not committed an act contrary to law.

The problem is the people who will implement and enforce the law. What some people were complaining is that if Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez and Acting Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales are a part of the team that will implement the law, they fear they might have problems.

I think this is just a matter of perception. But this carries a big weight in the successful implementation of the law.

Just like the Comelec. There is a growing demand to have Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos step down. But the position is a Constitutional one where the only way to have him out is by impeachment which is also next to impossible, given the composition of Congress.

Again the problem is perception. People perceive and charge Abalos as incompetent, a better word than cheat. Comelec Chairpersons before him were very highly respected and were perceived to be straight.

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Looking at it closely we noted that Abalos was a former politician. Predecessors Yorac and Monsod were not. Abalos carried with him to the Comelec position, a political outlook.

Even with judges. Many of those judges meted some punishments were former politicians. Politicians live in an environment of compromise where moral values are more loose.

We hope when Abalos retires next year, GMA will not get a replacement from the rank and file of politicians but from people whose integrity and credibility are beyond questions.

We have always said this. We cannot make this country stable as long as elections are not fair, honest, clean and credible. And the integrity of the Comelec chairman must be beyond question and suspicion.

He must be like Caesar's wife. She must not only be chaste but must appear chaste. He must be perceived to be a man of integrity.*

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