Marañon endorses
Senator Ralph Recto

The more than a hundred prominent Bacolod leaders at the Provincial Capitol Social Hall yesterday gave their rousing ovation to Senator Ralph Recto who interrupted the dialog on the progress of Bacolod City.

Recto was accompanied by Governor Joseph Marañon who wasted no time in endorsing support for the Batangas senator whose wife, Vilma, is running for the governor of the Southern Tagalog province.

"We will help someone who can help us greatly" was how Marañon justified his support for Recto.

The latter had earlier also gained the support of sugar industry leaders. Confed Western Visayas chapter chairman Federico Locsin III pointed out that Recto, as chairman of the Senate ways and means committee, stoutly defended the VAT exemption for sugar cooperatives and also had given his support to the many taxation measures aimed at protecting the industry from undue exaction.

It was only yesterday that I realized that a fraternal link has existed between Recto and the sugar industry. Incidentally, he, himself, is also a sugar farmer in Batangas.

Thus, he immediately understands some of the problems presented to him by industry leaders.

Recto was the second reelectionist senator openly endorsed by leaders of the sugar industry.

Rep. Juan Miguel (Migs) Zubiri Wednesday won plaudits from the industry leaders not only because he advocated the bioethanol national program bill. This was later changed into the Biofuel program to include other alternative fuels than just ethanol.

"Aton ini iya," and "Migs Ta Ni" were just among the catch-phrases used by sugarmen in describing Migs. He is the son of Bukidnon Governor Jose Zubiri, a former sugar farmer from Kabankalan City who migrated to Bukidnon in the Seventies and made good there. He eventually become manager of sugar mill and, later, became one of the biggest sugar farmers in the area.

Migs, like his father, also look up sugar farming. And he had always been proud of his Negrense heritage. Even in Manila, most of his friends were Negrenses. And he kept coming back to Negros Occidental where he enjoys a wide range of relatives, friends and acquaintances.

If there is anything that one can say about Zubiri, it is that he has made a book of his report on how we had used his countryside fund allocation. It is beautiful to study how each project has been assigned which assistance and how much through Special Allotment Release Order. In short, transparency is evident in the whole report. That has been printed as a book.

That should be the model for every congressman to follow.

And, yes, no voice reporting. Every project is backed up by photos, the origin of the financial support, plus the amount assigned to it.

So, as a Negrense, all I can just do is appeal to Negrenses to support Recto and Zubiri whom Marañon had confidently entrusted to his co-provincianos.

****

The dialog on the future of Bacolod was taken up yesterday morning at the provincial Capitol Social Hall. It started very late, an hour past the 8:30 a.m. schedule.

Actually, independent congressional bet Andy Hagad was ahead of the crowd. He was later joined by Vice Mayor Renecito Novero and also independent mayoralty bet Joel Dojillo. Then, later, struggled in the rest of the candidates, including independent councilor Lyndon Caña.

Unfortunately, Dr. Violeta Gonzaga, the forum organizer, failed to spot Hagad. She immediately called on Novero to lead off the affair. That was the tactical mistake. Novero took advantage of having been called first and launched into an almost half-hour explanation not only of his work as vice mayor, but a lot of other things such as his plans would he chosen as congressman for the lone Bacolod Distict.

Hagad gamely tried to accelerate the proceedings. But he just did not have the luxury of time to close it. Dojillo was there as an independent mayoralty bet. And former Mayor Joy Valdez also entered the hall much later. But Mayor Bing Leonardia was not around. Novero apologized for the mayor who was called to meet an appointment.

Former Rep. John Orola Jr. and I had spent several minutes going over his far-ranging proposal on plans to convert the soon-to-be abandoned Bacolod Airport into a techno-industrial park, a light industrial zone and an economic zone for the city.

And in tandem with his proposal, Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue also presented Resolution No. 113 which strongly urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to seriously consider the economic zone proposal to create investment and employment opportunities for the people of Bacolod and the whole Western Visayas region.

Anyway, I think, I'll write more extensively about both topics in my next column.*

back to top