The curse of Sisyphus?le

An ardent reader of classical Greek mythology called up and said, ours is a curse of Sisyphus, not only that of Prometheus. Sisyphus, founder and king of Corinth , symbolizes a corrupt official, punished by the gods for his “corruption, avarice and fraudulent dealing.”

He was to roll a block of marble uphill and when about to reach the top, the marble would roll down endlessly. Such is the fate of our country, he said. Whenever we were about to take off, we would suffer setbacks. We made more than seven percent economic growth. Then here came this ZTE-NBN scandal. The marble is rolled down again.

We hope Jun Lozada will be a God-sent gift to the Filipinos to awaken them to the evils of massive corruption.

* * *

But all is not yet lost. A migrant to the U.S. who keeps on coming home the last five years called me up. Jaime Chua, an architect and now an American citizen told me he lamented criticisms against Bacolod .

He was at the Manila international airport when he called, about to board his plane. “I have been impressed by the improvement of Bacolod the last five years,” he said. He added, people here should appreciate this improvement.

As an architect from LCC, he was impressed by the government center, he said. He left for abroad in 1976 or 32 years ago. He remembered his mentors at LCC architecture department Petok Marzoña, Joe Dureza, and many others. He also noted the great improvement in the standard of living in Bacolod . He salutes Mayor Bing Leonardia, he said.

He also said, Bacolod is peaceful and clean and he was not afraid to go anywhere during the night.

But what impressed him most was the BacoLaodiat where everybody participated in the celebration, Pinoys and Tsinoys alike. He noted the city has assimilated successfully the Tsinoys to the Pinoys.

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We denounce in the strongest possible terms the killing of Labor Arbiter Phibun Pura by an alleged member of the Revolutionary Proletarian Birgade-Alex Boncayao Brigade in Talisay City . The killer was himself killed allegedly by Pura's brother-in-law Kenneth Tirthdas. We need a rule of law, not the rule of the gun.

Our government should review the granting of the right to carry guns to the RPA-ABB group.

We also want to commend the Integrated Bar of the Philippines , Neg. Occ. Chapter for supporting the investigation by the Senate of ZTE-NBN deal and also for lauding whistle blower Jun Lozada.

Local IBP is headed by Rudy Parreño.

We must all support Lozada to make him brave in telling the truth. It's not easy to be in his shoes and getting all the harassments from hostile Senators. That was why in the past no investigation by the Senate succeeded. One reason was because the people did not support the whistle blower.

Now, this is different with Lozada. I am confident, something can come out of this, as long as the religious people are there, as long as former President Cory Aquino is there, and as long as people who hunger for the truth and hoping the country gets out of this mess, will be there to support Jun Lozada.

* * *

A friend, a constant commuter between Bacolod and Manila complained the Silay airport is not efficiently run. His complaint was the airport has no sufficient push carts. Everybody was complaining, he said.

He was lucky the policeman on duty knew him and asked one to give my friend the push cart. These push carts are dilapidated, he said and were from Iloilo .

If the airport officials cannot do it, I ask my friend Silay City Mayor Oti Montelibano to look into the problem. Recently we landed there from Cebu and we had enough push carts.

What is worse, he said, the porters were no longer around.

* * *

A group of rice farmers in Bago City called me up that water was cut off by NIA February 1 because work was supposed to start. He said, he did not know what happened. He has not seen NIA doing the repair work now, 18 days after the water cutoff.

May 16 is just nearing and water is supposed to flow again. Counting from Feb. 18, he said, until May 16 is 87 days. Will they be able to finish the job scheduled to be finished? he asked.

If not, then this will be extended again that, after so many extensions by the time it is finished in 2010 or 2011, another repair will be needed.

Why this problem? he asked. Because the farmers are not united and assertive. The radicals who are supposed to raise a howl against this inefficiency will not bother.

They are happy that people remain poor. They can be easily manipulated. And our government does not bother either.

Now, it is known. Almost all government projects are overpriced. These are scams. That's why let us keep up supporting Jun Lozada in the hope there will be an end to all these.*

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