Musician goes ahead / Beneco tiff / P120-K pot lands Bontoc farmer in jail

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY – What a week of deaths, controversies and chasing deadlines. Oftentimes, I wish I could just relax at a shady mountain top and discover new guitar licks amid a cool breeze surrounded by pine trees like I used to do in my hometown Sagada during my younger years.
    Nowadays, work just keeps piling up. I miss the jams I had with musician friends before this pandemic. It seems I’m just attending week after week wakes of friends, acquaintances and relatives who went to the Great Beyond.
    Latest was Thursday, wherein we had my uncle from my father’s side -- Johnny Pomar of Brooks Point, Aurora Hill cremated.  His mother and my grandmother of the Rullamas family were sisters.
    Oftentimes when he came from abroad where he worked as a musician, he sought me out in pubs where I had sets and we jammed until the wee hours of the morning.
                ***
A well-rounded musician, he could play any instrument. For those who have keener ears, like his sister Zenny says, he could produce the sound you want in any song particularly the tunes of the 60s to the 90s.    
    Johnny was a veteran of the Olongapo music industry when the Americans were there, so he knew the likes of Freddie Aguilar, the band Maria Cafra among others who used to sing there.
    Later, he settled Oregon in the US where he formed a band with his elder brother Albert and stayed there. It was a few years ago that he decided to come home and settle for good, seeing the happy routine of local musicians like lawyer Bubut Olarte he jammed with at a pub before the pandemic.
                ***
Numerous musician friends aired their shock on Facebook when they learned of his passing. But then, life is short and we don’t know when the Grim Reaper comes around. For sure, Johnny will be sorely missed.
    The other week, his elder brother Billy, a musician, also went to the Great Beyond. It was only last month that we had some good times with their family at a resort in Asian.
    How time flies. So just be good to everybody particularly your family.
    For now, Godspeed Johnny and Billy.    
                ***
We would like to congratulate the Benguet Electric Cooperative’s board of directors for standing up against the powers that be in a building beside the filthy Pasig River.
    They came up with a stand Wednesday that since they earlier appointed engineer Melchor Licoben as general manager, the National Electrification Agency’s board of administrators should review rules of the government agency and not insist on endorsing an Assistant Secretary of the Presidential Communications Office to assume Licoben’s post, considering the latter has all the qualifications and expertise to retain his post.
                ***
The issue is in the front page of this newspaper so please read the articles for more details. Suffice to say, the NEA’s board of administrators should follow rules in appointment of general managers of electric cooperatives, considering its mandate over electric cooperatives in only supervisory.
    As a member-consumer, we think the Beneco’s board of directors headed by their president, lawyer Esteban Somngi did the right thing in standing up against whims of the NEA BOA on this issue. They stood up for their principles, a rare thing nowadays wherein people sell their souls.
    Member consumers did not make a mistake in voting them to office.    
                ***
Now, on the beat. A farmer was arrested by police and Drug Enforcement agents while tending marijuana plants planted near his cabbage garden plots at Sitio Colbong, Cattubo, Atok, Benguet on May 17.
    Cordillera police director Brig. Gen. Ronald O. Lee bared this naming the suspect as Michael Banda-ay Bitabit, 61, farmer, native of Bontoc Mountain Province, at present residing at Sayangan, Paoay, Taok.
    Planted along the edges of his cabbage garden plots were 26 fully grown marijuana plants worth P6,000 uprooted by cops.
Lawmen also found a kilo of withered marijuana stalks in the area worth P120,000.
    Bitabit and the marijuana were brought to Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Office at Camp Major Bado Dangwa, La Trinidad.
    Bitabit is now facing charges for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
                ***
Marijuana had been a lucrative source of livelihood among Cordillera farmers, who dared venture into the business at the risk of getting caught.
    Over the years, as a young reporter, we have often written stories about farmers hiding the illegal plant and mixing these with legitimate vegetables they transported to Manila.    
    How they passed checkpoints unchecked had often been part of stories talked about amid spirits at the then Dainty Restaurant and Luisas Resto along Session Road in Baguio City.
    Those years, we have heard of authorities suddenly having a brand new vehicle or house and getting rich after meeting some rugged farmers whose other business interests were a mystery.     
    Nowadays, the stories not talked about are those folks in green vests getting bets at jeepney stations, restaurants and yes, even city hall. Where they go and bring the moolah is not really a mystery. But then that is another story.