Good advice

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

Past conversations between us suddenly flashed back the moment I was informed of Sir Gerry’s passing. Sir Gerry Evangelista Sr., 84, along with Auntie Cecile who earlier freed herself on Independence Day last month, orphaned members of the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club, and his other “sons and daughters” on July 1, just six days before the first year anniversary of his brain attack on a table at Luisa’s Café on July 7, 2011.

His remains was cremated yesterday, incidentally the 15th year anniversary of the passing of another remarkable newsman Atty. Ben C. Rillera, then Managing Editor of the Baguio Midland Courier. The most that I can remember about my conversations with Sir Gerry was when he talked about “lying low.” From out of nowhere and when he brought out the topic, I already knew that he was telling me to stay away from writing about “noise” or bad news. I told him, there were certain issues that writers cannot avoid discussing intensely.

He understood what I said but he convinced me that for a community paper to be on the sidewalk for the longest time, it is best to avoid being sued for libel. He paid for our coffee and as he disappeared in the Session Road crowd, I came to understand why Sir Gerry stood the times and has been on the newsbeat for the longest time.

Certainly, newsmen have the tendency to fight for the truth even if they stumble in the process of doing so. Lord Ellenborough said that “the greater the truth, the greater the libel.” All I know is that in the business of newspapering, it is not how one is able to put one over his subject and be sued for it, but how long one stays in the battleground without getting libeled.

Sir Gerry and Auntie Cecile are the latest celebrities in that blissful editorial room where bad news is never written nor published. I see them being welcomed by those who were earlier called by the Father in His wonderful newsroom – Editor Sinai Hamada, Publisher Oseo C. Hamada, Atty. GBertFloresca, Bembo, Peppot, Steve, Oswald, Joedax, Willy C., Buddy C., Juan Tenorio, Sammy Guerson, Bagnos and a lot more. I do miss them. I thank them for their songs, for their stories, for the company, for the good times, and most of all, for the sound advice and what I learned from them. 

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Talking about the search for truth but not necessarily getting libeled in the process, I am surprised like anyone why top honchos in the city scamper around trying to find solutions to the lack of parking spaces, to the extent of allowing a private company to clear its backyard of Pine and Alnus trees just so it can construct a money-making parking lot, when the city has a very wide and existing parking space between the Ganza restaurant and Harrison Rd.

I do not hear about it from the mayor and the city council. I gathered from some councilors they are hush-hush about it because the parking space is the main subject in a case filed by the tenant that used to make money out of the area controversially.

In addition, the parking area became hot issue when two officials leased it, together with several roads to Jadewell. Because of these acts, that parking lot has become an idle property since then, and not an asset to the city.

Concerning the parking lot that would probably be built after the Luneta Hill Forest above Gov. Pack Rd. is cleared of its trees; the idea was unofficially and initially endorsed by a city official because the parking area would be shared by the city and the private entity.

After that, the unofficial endorsement became the moving force for the private entity to push for its immediate construction as this is expected to earn millions of parking collections fees. At P35 per hour at 1,000 cars, the collection would be P35,000.00 in an hour. In 10 hours, the collection is P350,000 only. In ten days, the money collected will be P3.5 M or P10.5 M in 30 days. In ten months, the parking lot will earn P105 M or P126 M.

If the Ganza parking was the one that could have been developed into a multi-level parking facility to accommodate at least 1,000 cars in an hour, then the city could have been earning the same amount that SM is bound to earn – P126 Million easy money.

With the money, the city would not know how to spend it. Probably, they could now buy a lot for the city’s basura. If the Ganza parking area would not have been given on a silver platter to Jadewell, the city could have “shot two birds with one stone” so to speak.

We could have solved two problems one after the other – the parking problem and the basura. But because of greed, that did not happen. Now we are fighting our officials for their actions about the Luneta Hill trees that SM claims to have planted and started to kill, we are surprised that there is not enough action by those concerned to get back the Ganza parking lot, and we are faced by the problem on where to dispose the city’s garbage that is spilling out to its surrounding sister towns in my province of Benguet. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com