LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza
Octoberians

October is “Cancer Month.” For some sectors in the city, they decided to fittingly celebrate it by sponsoring a free concert for Mark Anthony Viray, a 10-yr old kid who dreams of flying an airplane someday.

Mark Anthony is stricken with Hodgkin Lymphoma, a type of disease that infects the soft tissues of the body. His father who had to stop driving taxicabs to attend to him said his son is presently undergoing chemotherapy treatment which he cannot afford.

Many times over in the past, musicians coordinated with bar and restaurant owners to share their talents and help lighten the financial load of countless indigent patients.

Their sense of volunteerism has evolved into a multi-sectoral or community undertaking that today involves members of press organizations, barangay leaders, government agencies and countless kind-hearted donor organizations and individuals here and abroad.

Even professional groups that include lawyer-musicians came to participate. Atty. Rolly Vergara from the City Prosecutors Office and Atty. Angie Cabrera together with their friend Sara joined other musicians in a benefit concert three years ago. They now perform their music with co-lawyers Jose “Bubut” Olarte, Jr. and Nes Mondok who have spent many good years singing in music bars. They have been joining several benefit concerts ever since and now call their group “The BluGraz Band.”

This October, the benefit concert dubbed “Songs for Mark Anthony” will again be held at the Amarillo Bar and Restaurant (formerly Spirits), along Otek St. , on October 28, 2008, at 7pm.

The show is co-sponsored by the Baguio musicians and the Amarillo management; the family, friends and relatives of Mark Anthony, the DPS Barangay led by Kapitana Narcisa G. Laguitan, the Public Information Office of the City of Baguio, www.baguiocity.com and the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club.

Donor tickets are sold at P200, general admission or gate tickets at P50. All ticket sales and donations will be given to Mark Anthony who needs your help.
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Today, James M. Balao has already gone missing for one whole month and two days. The latest report I received through e-mail presented part of the chronology of events that took place on that fateful morning of Sept. 17, 2008.

Several witnesses who were at Lower Tomay , La Trinidad, the place where the victim was taken before 8 a.m., reported about James being shoved inside a white Mitsubishi Revo or Adventure by five unidentified armed men. The lightning operation on James, including the conversations that were heard was reported by the witnesses.

The police and military deny any involvement in the “enforced disappearance” of James. If they are not lying then our trusted law enforcement agencies have more reason to put extra effort to locate him. Certainly, this has turned into a simple police matter that needs honest to goodness investigative work – no matter who may be involved.

Like the Black Widow spider, a victim breathes life into its abductor. This time, it is no longer a case about ideology or political beliefs. It is a plain case of a grieving family in search for a missing son. Whether the victim is branded as an “enemy of the state” or friend, government is duty bound to extend unconditional assistance – and more of it. Its people are its reason for its existence.
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October is the lucky month for many Mindanaoans as finally the Supreme Court ruled that the memorandum of agreement on a controversial expansion of an ancestral domain that was nearly shoved into the throats of innocent citizens is unconstitutional.

But there are unlucky souls this month of October, especially members of the Philippine government panel that crafted the MOA, as the SC further described their initiative as a “violate now, validate later” scheme.

The MOA invention is a gross violation of the Constitution. Senator Mar Roxas said the Constitution violators must be punished and held accountable for their actions. I agree.
***

But in Abra, some sectors there are luckier this October as the RDC has poured in some money for the group to be taken from the P15 million allocated for information campaign on Cordillera autonomy that was recently revived by them.

The CAR autonomy info-drive that is supposed to be running on all wheels region-wide seems to be unheard of in many parts of the Cordillera. Is the agency that was tasked to conduct the information campaign doing so on a selective basis?

The concerned agency should open the autonomy consultation process to all of Cordillera and not follow the way of the Mindanao ancestral domain MOA. If not, there is doubt that the CAR will ever reach its destination.