Tinglayan is ‘red’ on map
>> Saturday, June 4, 2022
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March
L. Fianza
The town of Tinglayan in Kalinga, particularly Barangay Buscalan, was recently “put on the map” so to speak, due to good and bad events that took place recently.
First, the bad news. CIDG files criminal cases against Tinglayan village head.
The punong barangay of Buscalan of this town in Kalinga Province was accused of leading some 150 bolo-wielding residents in forcibly taking away five persons who were arrested by the local police for marijuana cultivation last April 25.
As a result, Police officers of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Field Unit of Kalinga/Apayao and the Kalinga Provincial Police Office filed administrative and criminal cases against Punong Barangay Leon Lammawen Baydon of Barangay Buscalan in Tinglayan.
An administrative case for Grave Misconduct was filed by the CIDG against Baydon before the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon on May 20, 2022; then a criminal case for obstruction of justice under PD 1829 docketed as NPS 11-10-INV-22E-00045 was also filed against him before the Kalinga Provincial Prosecutors Office on May 23, 2022.
CIDG Cordillera RD Juliet G. Salvador who forwarded a news item to this column said that on April 25, 2022; members of the PNP Regional Mobile Force Battalion 1502nd Maneuver Company who were patrolling a mountainous terrain in Buscalan caught five persons in the act of cultivating marijuana.
They were arrested for violating RA 9165, RA 10591 and the Comelec Gun Ban since the police also confiscated from the five marijuana cultivators illegal firearms in violation of the nationwide gun ban.
While the troops and the arrested persons were moving towards the police station at Centro Buscalan, they were blocked by PB Baydon who led some 150 residents armed with bolos who forcibly took custody of the arrested individuals.
Although provoked and apparently outnumbered, the PNP patrol remained calm during the tense situation to avoid inflicting unnecessary bloodshed or injury among the relatives of the arrested individuals.
The unexpected confrontation could have turned into a bloody fight between the bolo-wielding residents and the policemen had the latter insisted on bringing the five arrested marijuana cultivators to the police station.
**
Now, the good news. 10,000 tourists and still counting flock to Tinglayan. The Municipal Tourism Office recently said that since a decreasing number of Covid patients has been reported nationwide, more than 10,000 local and foreign tourists have dropped by tattoo artist Whang-od since January.
The 96-year old Maria Oggay, Kalinga’s oldest living tattoo artist, more popularly known internationally as “Ina Whang-od” reopened her home to tourists in January after the number of visitors dwindled for the last two years during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Reopening her tattoo home shop to local and foreign tourists is certainly a blessing not only for barangay Buscalan but for the whole town of Tinglayan that has been looking forward to the revival of the LGU’s economy and sources of livelihood.
Ina Whang-od of Barangay Buscalan applies her art the traditional way by using a thorn from a citrus tree that is attached to a wood handle, and ink from natural dye and soot.
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) noted that Whang-od’s art is not only prominent in Kalinga and the Philippines but recognized internationally, hence, she and the art that she continues to pursue are treasures that must be preserved.
Ina Whang-od was conferred the “Dangal ng Haraya Pamanang Bayan” award (Intangible Cultural Heritage) on June 2018 by the NCCA for promulgating and preserving the Butbut-Kalinga traditional tattoo called “Whatok”.
Jocel Baac who was then governor said that certainly Ina Whang-od’s irreplaceable traditional artistry has contributed and continues to contribute to the awareness about the Kalinga culture and had made impact to the country’s culture and arts.
NCCA officials also saw that people who had visited her were not only fascinated by the ancient practice, they noticed how kind and hospitable the artist’s family was in welcoming and accommodating villagers and visitors alike.
Aside from Ina Whang-od’s tattoo shop, the other “hot” spots in Tinglayan that tourists can visit are the rice terraces of Ngibat, Tulgao and Dananao. Then there is the Tulgao Hot Spring, Dananao volcano, Palang-ah Falls, and of course the Chico River that winds down below, following the Bontoc-Kalinga highway.
With these natural tourism attractions, Kalinga has to establish tourist information shops, sell or rent out camping gear and train tour guides to ensure the safety of tourists.
Call for electoral reforms
March L. Fianza
Everyone I talked to
about the last national and local elections agreed that it was time Congress
amended the Omnibus Election Code. Each one had new suggestions that were never
heard of since the framers wrote the first provisions of the law.
To me, these suggestions were reflections of the defects or weaknesses of the law that tied us to grievances every election season. We never stopped grumbling because our election guidelines were lacking or needing revisions.
There was a suggestion to revert back to elections every four years because three years of holding an elective office was too short. Working politicians barely warmed their seats when the next election was around the corner again.
On the other hand, a non-performing politician who, by all crooked means gets reelected for a second term will occupy his office for another three years. And he or she will continue to receive taxpayers’ money which does not correspond to his or her efforts if there are any.
To curb election spending for campaign materials, the Comelec has to introduce reforms on campaign financing. In the last three or more elections, the Comelec was overwhelmed by the violations committed in displaying campaign posters.
One proposal is for candidates to remit an amount to the Comelec upon filing their CoCs and for the latter to announce the names of the candidates and the positions they are aspiring for in newspapers, radios, televisions and on their website. For designated poster areas, candidates must strictly follow the required sizes and to paste only one poster.
Concerning personalities in movies and sports like Robin Padilla and Manny Pacquiao, a colleague came up with the proposal that such individuals should be disqualified from being candidates unless they stop their trade a year before filing their certificates with the Comelec.
Movies portraying them as heroes or villains should also be banned within the same period. Remember, Pacquiao skipped senate sessions in July to September last year to fight Cuba’s Yurdenis Ugas in Las Vegas, USA. With that, he actually started campaigning for president even before he filed his CoC.
Also, congress should not be tired of proposing to adopt the hybrid election system where voting will still be by shading an election ballot but counting will be done manually at the precinct level using the old “tara” style of counting votes.
Whatever is counted manually in a locality is transmitted by electronic servers to the next recipient. It is hybrid. The manual counting at the precinct level will ensure transparency and the security of our votes.
Manual counting was the old system that we used before 2010, and there was transparency then, until someone in Malacanang proposed the use of electronically manipulated vote counting machines for money and control of winning votes. With electronic elections, fraud has become digitized.
By the way, Luisa’s Café denizen Norway of Ecotherm Water Heater noticed that a voter is no longer required to place his thumbmark corresponding to a voting number where he signs his name.
That means a security feature that guarantees the sanctity of the ballot has been removed. Comelec should explain why this part of the process was taken out. Please bring back the thumbmarks.
For congressional districts, a political caretaker should be disqualified from running for congressman of that province because he was only appointed to the position to finish the unexpired term of a deceased congressman. There was no previous intention to be a resident in the area, a factor that Comelec should look into.
Regarding electoral protests, the law requires a protestant-candidate to name the precincts where a physical examination of the ballots is done. Then a wider recount is conducted in case anomalies were found in the precincts that were identified.
But this manner is unwarranted as the protestant may not identify the right precincts where fraud possibly happened. If the precincts that were identified failed to reveal substantial anomalies, the court will no longer allow a wider recount even if there are documented reports of cheating in other areas.
What should be done is for Comelec to do a recount in all precincts of a certain polling school for example, to take out from the protestant the risk of misidentifying the particular precincts where election fraud possibly happened.
Another factor that congress should discuss is why the Comelec programmed the machines to check only whether the ballots were satisfactorily shaded or not. Certainly, the voting machines cannot scrutinize sufficiently pre-shaded ballots.
Resolving electoral protests should be systematic. A protest does not have to be filed. To make the process more democratic, recounts should automatically proceed in cases where the difference of votes falls within a certain range.
Congress should already include a considerable percentage amount in the election budget to shoulder expenses for any vote recount so that a protestant-candidate does not have to spend, unless a recount goes beyond the margin allowed by law.
Political dynasties can be stopped if congress wants to. How can we have electoral reforms? First, we should stop voting the same names to avoid having family affairs in our political institutions.
But what have we done? Because of our votes, members of political clans in the country have just won seats in the Senate.
Half-brothers JV Ejercito and Jinggoy Estrada recently were proclaimed senators and returned to the upper chamber together.
Then incumbent Senator Pia Cayetano will be joined by his brother Alan Peter Cayetano for a seat in the Senate. Aside from Cynthia Villar, her son Mark Villar would also be a new member of the Senate.
To me, these suggestions were reflections of the defects or weaknesses of the law that tied us to grievances every election season. We never stopped grumbling because our election guidelines were lacking or needing revisions.
There was a suggestion to revert back to elections every four years because three years of holding an elective office was too short. Working politicians barely warmed their seats when the next election was around the corner again.
On the other hand, a non-performing politician who, by all crooked means gets reelected for a second term will occupy his office for another three years. And he or she will continue to receive taxpayers’ money which does not correspond to his or her efforts if there are any.
To curb election spending for campaign materials, the Comelec has to introduce reforms on campaign financing. In the last three or more elections, the Comelec was overwhelmed by the violations committed in displaying campaign posters.
One proposal is for candidates to remit an amount to the Comelec upon filing their CoCs and for the latter to announce the names of the candidates and the positions they are aspiring for in newspapers, radios, televisions and on their website. For designated poster areas, candidates must strictly follow the required sizes and to paste only one poster.
Concerning personalities in movies and sports like Robin Padilla and Manny Pacquiao, a colleague came up with the proposal that such individuals should be disqualified from being candidates unless they stop their trade a year before filing their certificates with the Comelec.
Movies portraying them as heroes or villains should also be banned within the same period. Remember, Pacquiao skipped senate sessions in July to September last year to fight Cuba’s Yurdenis Ugas in Las Vegas, USA. With that, he actually started campaigning for president even before he filed his CoC.
Also, congress should not be tired of proposing to adopt the hybrid election system where voting will still be by shading an election ballot but counting will be done manually at the precinct level using the old “tara” style of counting votes.
Whatever is counted manually in a locality is transmitted by electronic servers to the next recipient. It is hybrid. The manual counting at the precinct level will ensure transparency and the security of our votes.
Manual counting was the old system that we used before 2010, and there was transparency then, until someone in Malacanang proposed the use of electronically manipulated vote counting machines for money and control of winning votes. With electronic elections, fraud has become digitized.
By the way, Luisa’s Café denizen Norway of Ecotherm Water Heater noticed that a voter is no longer required to place his thumbmark corresponding to a voting number where he signs his name.
That means a security feature that guarantees the sanctity of the ballot has been removed. Comelec should explain why this part of the process was taken out. Please bring back the thumbmarks.
For congressional districts, a political caretaker should be disqualified from running for congressman of that province because he was only appointed to the position to finish the unexpired term of a deceased congressman. There was no previous intention to be a resident in the area, a factor that Comelec should look into.
Regarding electoral protests, the law requires a protestant-candidate to name the precincts where a physical examination of the ballots is done. Then a wider recount is conducted in case anomalies were found in the precincts that were identified.
But this manner is unwarranted as the protestant may not identify the right precincts where fraud possibly happened. If the precincts that were identified failed to reveal substantial anomalies, the court will no longer allow a wider recount even if there are documented reports of cheating in other areas.
What should be done is for Comelec to do a recount in all precincts of a certain polling school for example, to take out from the protestant the risk of misidentifying the particular precincts where election fraud possibly happened.
Another factor that congress should discuss is why the Comelec programmed the machines to check only whether the ballots were satisfactorily shaded or not. Certainly, the voting machines cannot scrutinize sufficiently pre-shaded ballots.
Resolving electoral protests should be systematic. A protest does not have to be filed. To make the process more democratic, recounts should automatically proceed in cases where the difference of votes falls within a certain range.
Congress should already include a considerable percentage amount in the election budget to shoulder expenses for any vote recount so that a protestant-candidate does not have to spend, unless a recount goes beyond the margin allowed by law.
Political dynasties can be stopped if congress wants to. How can we have electoral reforms? First, we should stop voting the same names to avoid having family affairs in our political institutions.
But what have we done? Because of our votes, members of political clans in the country have just won seats in the Senate.
Half-brothers JV Ejercito and Jinggoy Estrada recently were proclaimed senators and returned to the upper chamber together.
Then incumbent Senator Pia Cayetano will be joined by his brother Alan Peter Cayetano for a seat in the Senate. Aside from Cynthia Villar, her son Mark Villar would also be a new member of the Senate.
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