Gov’t plans to file
charges vs. Lozada

          That was the shock this weekend. A key government official claimed that the government is planning to file charges, including inciting to sedition, against whistleblower “Jun” Rodolfo Lozada Jr. for his series of attacks against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

          That, I think, is the best way they could rile the public and lose the remaining credibility of the administration. The better course is just to let Lozada be. Let him string in his own lanyard.

          But, as usually happens, lap dogs usually throw the book against attackers of their idols. And they end up making a martyr out of the object of their nonsensical decisions.

***

          Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas may be in for a prolonged battle with conservationists and environmental groups. The reason – no less that Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo had joined the rally this week against the proposed coal-powered plant to be set up in Iloilo City.

          It is strange. Even during there rally against the administration by opposition groups to the ZTE-NBN broadband deal, Lagdameo shied away from it. This time, however, he even held up a protest sign and had his picture taken with some of the protesters.

          Incidentally, members of Iloilo City’s Sangguniang Panlalawigan were also for the coal-power plant proposal.

          But, as Mayor Treñas had pointed out – if not coal-powered, what can you offer as immediate solution to it?

***

          That’s exactly the same question I pose to those opposing the PNOC-EDC geothermal project in Mailum, Bago City. The fact is that the law allows the entry into a small portion of the Kanlaon National preserve to dig their geothermal plant.

          And, as I had pointed out earlier, such environmental concerns as the destruction of the natural preserve actually has limited basis. I had seen how PNOC had managed to preserve and beautify the Valencia Geothermal area. So with that of Tongonan, Leyte. And I was impressed. Trees are better preserved and protected by PNOC while just left to their own natural devices.

          And, I guess, it is time that the local population be surveyed on their status and what they have earned from the government when it relocated them and provided them livelihood opportunities. And PNOC-EDC only used the areas outside the national park.

          There’s talk about the tunnel extending under the preserve. The question – in lieu thereof what do you propose?

          Wind power? Or other alternatives? But which ones are now applicable and could readily produce the power needed by Negros. Worse, geothermal power is indigenous and does not need imported fuel.

          We are supposed to be in the forefront of the nation’s using sustainable indigenous power or energy sources. And we continue to oppose it. Something must be wrong somewhere.

***

          I was talking with some of the Class ’58 alumni of the Faraon Institute. And we got to reminiscing about the Baldwin train No. 7 of the Insular Lumber Company, the only train engine of its kind in the stock of the lumber mill. The rest were Shays.

          That brought back memories of No. 7 tooting its horn while still two kilometers from where we used to play as kids. And then we would stop our games and watch in fascination as the train came into the siding with more than a kilometer-long of cars filled with logs. There were times that one car carried only one log.

          Our generation were the ones who had witnessed that behemoth hauling logs from the upper reaches of Escalante and Calatrava Minapasok, to be more exact.

          Dr. Marden Lacuesta must have watched fascinated, as the train passed under their residence on the slope of the hill overlooking Tadlong.

          My brother, Bert, was still small. I often carried him on my back. The train often stopped just in front of our house in Hulugan. Later, the cars were unloaded at the mill pond of the sawmill. The log tumbled down with a thunderous roar that reverberated up to Villacin.

          Now. No. 7 stands at the Sagay City plaza. Already still, but still a beacon to Fabricanias who remember its tremendous power and the sweating and backbreaking chores of the train personnel who threw into the boiler tons of lumber.

          Sometimes, memories are stoked by a chance encounter. And that was what happened last weekend to me. Memories of the bygone days of Fabrica.*

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