Drinking dirty BWD water /Pacquiao the army colonel

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza

BAGUIO CITY -- I use Baguio Water District water from the tap to wash and brush. Last weekend, I noticed the yellowish color of the BWD water but dismissed it as something normal. The color was still there but this time it had foul smell.

That has already been fixed according to the BWD workers who came to check the pipelines around New Lucban and T. Alonzo streets, of course, after hundreds or thousands of residents already gulped down the bad water. In fact my sister continuously vomited the night of Tuesday and the following day.

According to BWD worker Marie, they discovered a cracked pipe at Jacinto St. near the Aurora Hill jeepney loading area, hence, the affected areas were possibly the lower levels such as New Lucban and T. Alonzo and the neighboring barangays.

What is at stake here is the health and safety of water consumers of BWD. The BWD workers said they announced the discovery and warned their consumers. As for me and those in the same household, we never learned of it, never heard of any emergency announcement until I saw our neighbor draining their water tank.

Did BWD make hourly emergency announcements on Radio and TV, something that can easily be done to inform and warn the consuming public? If the other utilities can do this, why can’t they?

Well, if I were the boss of a public utility, you cannot blame me. As much as possible, I will conceal from the consuming public the bad things that happen inside my company.
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When you wake up any morning, don’t be surprised to find a new armed forces battalion commander in the person of Lt. Colonel Manny Pacquiao. He literally boxed his way through. No, the promotion does not go to anyone’s credit but the army. But, for what? Only the people who were directly involved with processing Manny’s promotion know.

Pacquiao, a young boxer then who was starting his boxing career, was enlisted as a Sergeant in the Reserve Force of the Philippine Army in 2006 when then Col. Alexander B Yano was the Brigade Commander in Sarranggani.

He moved up a step higher to Technical Sergeant in the same year and was again promoted to Master Sergeant in 2007 “for giving distinct honor, not only to the Army and the AFP, but the entire country after defeating Antonio Barrera.”

In 2009, he was elevated to the rank of Senior Master Sergeant as a tribute to him as the World’s No.1 pound-for-pound boxer. What is that? Tribute?

Pacquiao was commissioned in the Reserve Force of the AFP with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel effective September 21, 2011. Sec. Ochoa, under the authority of the President, signed the document.

If what Pacquiao says is true that he did not ask for the promotion then he cannot be blamed for the newly acquired status. Col. Quirino Calanzano, Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Reservist Affairs said that Pacquiao applied for the appointment, something that the world champ denied.

It now appears that the officials of the AFP placed a dangerous precedent to the rule in promoting reservists. The promotion brokers changed the rule by saying that honorary academicians are on equal level with those who earned hard their college degrees, just to have popular army reservists in their list of colonels.

Republic Act 7077 states that any elected official can have a rank of an officer in the reservist force of the AFP if the candidate finished any college degree. Lt. Col. Pacquiao did not finish his studies but the Army considered his status as an elected official and his honorary doctorate degree from the South Western University.

And if that will now be the rule to be implemented following the precedent in Pacquiao’s case, then all advanced ROTC graduates with college degrees should be promoted to Lt. Col. Then the next morning, we will wake up to see many more battalions of colonels. That is possible.

To quote one reserve officer, he said: “I am a degree holder, a lawyer at the same time a licensed professional engineer who finished advanced ROTC, yet as the rest of the members of the Advanced ROTC Alumni Association, I did not receive a meteoric promotion like Congressman Pacquiao. What a sacrilegious
and travesty of the military organization ethos in general. Money talks and walks I guess. Amen!”

Other critics said, “an honorary degree as the term suggests, does not confer skills, knowledge and competencies. Kaya nga honorary, binibigay sa iyo ng hindi ka naghirap e!” Honoris causa or “for the sake of honor” or honorary as the term suggests is never equal to a college degree.

Dr. Clarita Carlos, defense and security expert said, "Hindi maganda ito. Bakit? Dahil mayroon kang national champion? That's the problem with us. Ang sense of proportion natin, sobrang baluktot," and added that an honorary degree and a person’s being a world champion is not enough to be a commissioned officer of the AFP.

Now, critics are asking – what really did Pacquiao do that justifies such a promotion? Did he sacrifice his life for the country? We know the answer is “no.” Let us think about it. People ask: Did he give a fraction of his earnings from these fights, or something as much as to benefit thousands of poor Filipinos? Again the answer is “no.”

But there must be a big reason why those in charge of the reserve force recommended and approved his promotion. That is why some critics are thinking or asking if money changed hands in this case. If so, then even promotions in military ranks can now be bought.

The truth is, once the boxer climbs the ring, he is going to fight mostly for himself because there millions of dollars in store for him, not for his country. And when he wins, people will praise him, not the people who will remain poor.

By the way, one critic said: If the AFP asked Pacquiao to fight the rebels in Mindanao, he will definitely refuse. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com