LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza
March L. Fianza
B AGUIO CITY -- My eyes and ears were glued to the TV screen last week as I watched the story of the former policeman who was found guilty by a jury. Then there was the news about community pantries.
I
found that watching TV was an effective way to stop me from risking myself into
mixing with a crowd of people who could be innocent carriers of the
transmissible coronavirus.
Before
that, let me express my deepest sympathies to the family of Sir Bial A. Palaez,
89; who was called by his Creator to a more equipped planning and development
office beyond the horizon.
A
month after the 1990 killer earthquake when the panic, confusion and the dust
wrought by the calamity settled down a little, Sir Bial and I shared coffee on
a corner table at the employees’ canteen of the Benguet Capitol to update
ourselves of the disaster.
I
knew him as one who led the provincial planning and development office without
grievances, until the earthquake struck. With tears welling in his eyes he
said, the office has to redo all the plans and on-going provincial
socio-infrastructure projects that were destroyed by the earthquake.
As
a news correspondent whose weekly beat was the Capitol, I became a regular
rider on his new service pick-up that traversed the towns of Benguet as he and
his men assessed their projects destroyed by the earthquake.
Mr.
Palaez was a member of the team that finalized the planning stages in the
construction of the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post in 1984. He was also
appointed in 1988 to represent Benguet in the Cordillera Regional Consultative
Commission that drafted the first regional autonomy bill.
Sir
Bial was also an elder member of the defunct Baguio Press Club and the Baguio
Correspondents and Broadcasters Club having published one or two newspapers in
Benguet during their heydays.
With
those cups of coffee, spirits, ideas and conversations shared, I would be lying
to myself if I will not say that I enjoyed his company. His memories remain.
Rest in peace Sir Bial.
***
The
demolition team of Baguio was reactivated last month to execute orders of Mayor
Magalong in relation to the illegal improvements and expansions of residential
houses put up inside the Busol Forest Reservation.
The
city side of Busol has been squatted on by hundreds of residential houses that
were built over the years, even while management was placed under the Baguio
Water District.
The
last time I talked to friends in the DENR, they said it would be difficult to
free the forest from houses numbering to thousands. The best action therefore
was to strike an agreement between the city and the occupants to maintain their
improvements and stop expanding.
This
was violated, hence the demolition orders. Some houses were demolished while
other structures were saved after securing court orders. The latest I heard was
that the house owners formed an association for unity of action.
That
could be the right move but not all may benefit from it. While they illegally
occupied parts of the forest reservation, many faked their connections to
deceitfully become riders on ancestral land claims that are genuine.
**
Community
pantries have been with us, especially during calamities when places are
isolated from the rest of the world. We have seen food and soup kitchens put up
around Burnham Park days after the July 16, 1990 earthquake.
In
Benguet, the basketball court of the capitol and all front yards of municipal
halls became common kitchens that fed all who came since all access roads were
erased from the map.
There
were no means to transport food supplies so that everybody was donating and
sharing what they have. Rice, even pigs and chickens were given voluntarily as
there were no supplies of animal feeds after the earthquake.
Last
month, the Members, Church of God International (MCGI) simultaneously launched
their Free Store in Baguio, Benguet and Mountain Province. Coordinator Grace
Doctolero of UNTV said similar stores were also launched in other parts of the
country.
The
MCGI Free Stores had no other purpose but to distribute rice, canned goods,
eggs, cookies, noodles, sugar, soap, shampoo and essentials to PWDs, vulnerable
members of the community during the pandemic. The group intends to continue
their Free Store monthly in places where they are needed.
Putting
up a community pantry in Quezon City by 26-year old private citizen Ana
Patricia Non whose only goal was to help provide food and necessities to people
extremely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic is admirable.
Written
on Manila paper and posted as the instruction for all was the
line: “Magbigay ayon sa kakayahan, kumuha batay sa
pangangailangan” (Give whatever you can, take only what you need).
Ms.
Non said in a TV interview, there were now more than 300 community pantries nationwide
that were giving away rice, noodles, canned goods, fresh vegetables, fruits and
other foods for anyone in need who drops by.
Patring’s
pure and honest project was launched with no strings attached, until other
personalities replicated her bayanihan initiative. Somewhere in the
duplications in other barangays, unnecessary things were done.
In
one community pantry, persons who may or may not be connected to the operations
of the community were mixing with people waiting in line and were distributing
leaflets criticizing the government’s slow distribution of amelioration money.
Another
food pantry in Tondo was reported to have written “Community Pantry of the
Philippines – National Pantry Association (CPP-NPA)” above a table but was
taken down when a bystander commented against it.
Such
acts reached suspicious police and military authorities who started asking
questions. Though the reports were isolated, the community pantries were
unnecessarily tainted and the organizers red-tagged.
Patring
said she had to shut down her food pantry, thinking that some personalities who
were red-tagged ended up dead.
Even
while it was hard to prove if such acts were connected to the community pantry,
those with veiled interests could only be the ones who can ride on the good
intentions of the community pantry organizers.
By
the way, I suspect that some community pantries that were launched in the
provinces, including the one in Baguio were organized for another purpose.
Receiving donated food and goods then giving them away were only secondary.
Unfortunately,
the food pantry organizers and the police were both victims of a third party
rider.
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