Who’s the real author?

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Now the whole world knows. Filipinos are being asked to eat camote and other edibles from the earth because rice is not only getting more expensive, it is also getting scarcer. The news item was carried in its international dispatches by the Agence France Presse and, doubtless, by other news syndicates as well. And the reports inevitably underscore the fact that we, who used to lead in rice production in this region, have now become its biggest importer of rice.

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Yesterday, too, late reports said that the President has admitted that we may not be able to attain a balanced budget next year. What? After all those years of agonizing when we all “bit the bullet” as we were asked to do with the imposition of the Expanded Value-Added Tax, or the cross that was E-VAT, because we were told it was the only way we could stabilize our economy? Oh woe! And now we also hear that world price of oil has gone up to $120 a barrel. That means we face a weekly increase in fuel prices of about P1 a week, reports also said. Brace yourself for more tricycles and trisikads blocking the streets.

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Church officials are doing the right thing in making light of the cases filed by one of the nuisance candidates in the past presidential election who claims that the Pope was the one who killed national hero Jose Rizal. Now, that used to be the standing joke about people who get blamed for everything. Now here comes this Eli Pamatong, who claims to be an immigration expert, announcing that he is charging Pope Benedict XVI for Rizal’s death. Since Rizal died more than a hundred years ago, and the Pope, although now 82, was not even born then, one can anticipate what the judge, or even just the local prosecutor, will say.

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But Pamatong got what he obviously wanted, national, maybe even international publicity. Remember that he tried to convince Filipinos to vote for him by promising to give them P1 million each, and also to pay off all the national debts of the country. With all their faults, the constitution of the Commission on Election then, had, at least, the discernment to see the true nature of this man. They declared him a “nuisance”. By the way, what happened to the others?

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Meanwhile, I hope the government does not pursue its plan to release that P5 billion from the National Treasury to be doled out to “the poor”. I know this is becoming a bromide, but doing that would only create a bigger problem, with more and more people lining up to declare themselves also poor and deserving of the gifts. Why couldn’t our wise men in government think up something that would give more dignity to the underprivileged? Why couldn’t they have thought of something like the Food-for-Work program before?

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Glory Hallelujah! Our solons have seen the light! Yesterday, they finally passed what is known as the “Cheaper Medicines bill” and now it only awaits the signature of the President to become a law, and therefore implementable. I hope they don’t take too long in the usual “drawing up of guidelines” and other delaying tactics. The sick cannot wait. Especially now that food, and especially rice, prices are soaring, families may have to choose between using what money they have for buying what to eat and medicine for their ailments.

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We have yet to go through all the nitty-gritty of this bill to find out how, exactly, it will provide relief to suffering Filipinos. I hope it will be as beneficial as the Senior Citizens Law which our elderly appreciate so much. But the fact alone that it will allow the importation of patented medicines from other countries where they are less expensive, is already one very heartening facet of the bill. But Sen. Mar Roxas is right, “It’s done, but the work is not yet over”. Roxas, by the way, is the principal author of the senate version, that is why he was the one most frequently questioned about it.

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Speaking of principal authors, somebody sent me an entire copy of the new Civil Aviation Law, all 63 pages of it. No explanatory letter was attached, but I understood that what the sender wanted noted was the fact that it shows that the PRINCIPAL AUTHOR is JUAN EDGARDO M. ANGARA. Oh? What about the posters we see all over town congratulating someone else as its MAIN AUTHOR? Which one is true and which one is false? Bacolod residents should know. Who will tell them?*