Mike's Circle

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza

 learned that the legendary uncle everyone called Manong Mike was actually christened as Michael. I was not sure then if he was an uncle or manong until last summer when he cleared the confusion saying that my 82-year old mom who is old enough to be his mother too, is his cousin. What I was sure of was that uncle Mike still walked around with a teenager’s heart, just like most of his circle of friends and cousins who refuse to age. The wine they drink becomes sweeter as it ages, but each fellow in Mike’s circle feels he has found the Fountain of Youth even while each one never runs out of laughter.

I frequently crossed paths with Mike more than three decades ago after college. He belonged to a circle of men and women of assorted pursuits – businessmen, sons and daughters of politicians, foresters, government workers, ladies’ men, truckers, farmers, lawyers, nurses, doctors and other fields. What was common in them was that they all loved to drown the music of Hank Williams and Bob Dylan with Kwatro Kantos ginebra.

           

Life had to move on especially after the 1990 killer earthquake toppled down every bar in town, and Mike’s circle of friends and cousins by then had forgotten about the Fountain of Youth. Slowly too, news about friends raising families came, or that many of them landed on greener pastures in other lands. But Uncle-Manong Mike chose to be a committed partner in government, serving in the DENR until part of the national office was devolved to the province.

Last Saturday evening, exactly a month after his 63rd birthday, Michael Velasco Alberto Sr. went home to drive for his Maker. We will miss his contagious smile but his memory will stay forever. He is survived by wife Myrna; daughter Myrchael, married to Mark Donn Andres; son Michael Jr.; and grandson Jose Manuel Andres.

Through this space, my mom wishes to extend her sympathies to Mike’s surviving siblings Laurence and Horacio C. Ramos, Corazon, Pauline and Miguel Bulahao, Maridoni and Roy Buma-a, Eleazer and Leona, and Elizabeth; nephews, nieces, grandchildren, relatives and friends.

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Truth in news reportage. What the news source says, the writer writes. And what the news reporter writes, the reader believes. That is one reason why news reporters are libeled – they write down anything that comes out from the horse’s mouth. He cannot afford to misquote his news source, otherwise the message is twisted. Although there are writers who do just that.

In other words, he should simply act as a messenger. In case he injects his opinion into something that was not stated by his news source, he becomes liable and may be libeled, or worst – shot in the head by a hired gun. If he is honest, he can shout “don’t shoot me, I am just the piano player!” Life goes on.

Recently, newspapers came out with stories about the cancellation of three ancestral land title forms by the NCIP. The honorable mayor Domogan immediately welcomed the news,and lauded the nullification, saying “the move of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples was proper considering these CALTs were issued irregularly.”

The truth, based on the NCIP Resolution No. 06-086-2014, is that what were cancelled were the ALT FORMS that were “unaccounted for and thus considered lost documents”, NOT the land claims. The NCIP en banc apparently based its action on a report by the Commission on Audit.

Ancestral Land Title and Ancestral Domain Title FORMS are accountable documents purchased from the Central Bank of the Philippines with corresponding serial numbers that are used as CALTs and CADTs.

Contrary to the misinformation by Domogan, the NCIP en banc resolution does not even mention of CALTs or CADTs that are “spurious” or were issued irregularly. It merely said that the ALT “FORMS” not “CALTS”, were “unaccounted for”. Now we see Domogan’s interpretation.

As for the claimants, they issued a statement weeks ago saying that what was “irregular” was the NCIP en banc resolution. Loss of these instruments is an internal problem of the NCIP because said “unaccounted ALT FORMS” were kept by the NCIP Ancestral Domain Office. It should have called for an investigation against NCIP officials first before making cancellations. “But why cancel and have the matter investigated later?” the claimants asked.

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“We regret to inform you that Benguet State University (BengSU) is DISQUALIFIED for the grant of Performance-Based Bonus (PBB) for Fiscal Year 2013.” This was the first line of the letter of DBM Sec. Butch Abad to BSU President Ben Ladilad dated August 11, 2014.

The evaluation of BSU is done by an inter-agency team composed of the COA, DBM, CHED and CSC before the employees are granted additional cash bonus called PBB by the national government. One criteria to qualify for PBB is Good Governance. When the institution fails here, then bye-bye bonus for the rank-and-file employees with meager salaries. The extra bonus could have made their families happy.

But how can BSU cope with the requirements of Good Governance when its president, I heard, is entangled in so many cases? Recently, the Comelec indicted Honorable Ladilad for violating the Omnibus Election Code. A reliable source from the PNP informed me that he was subpoenaed for “rigged biding”.

Good governance means there should be no complaints from disgruntled employees, no abuse of discretion in hiring employees, and no violation of the Omnibus election code. The president and his advisers should know that there should be no disallowances, they must be strict in spending government funds, use school cars and properties appropriately, and avoid unnecessary travel.

At least, these are indicators that future BSU officials can make use of. Learn from the failures of others. As one had said, “When one of us falls, we step one notch up.”