Negros quivers with quakes

No, Negrenses did not bother much about the text messages that scared Metro Manila residents about an impending major earthquake with predictions of tsunami.

Actually, there was a flood of minor volcanic quakes from Kanlaon Volcano which kept throwing ashes into the air. Phreatic activity, the Phivolcs put it. Of course, there is the usual warning against entering the four-kilometer danger zone.

What made Negrenses shudder was the killing of a ranking official of the National Federation of Sugarcane Workers (NFSW) in Manapla town, 45 kilometers north of Bacolod City, Thursday.

The fatality was Edwin Bargamento, NFSW regional auditor and a member of the Wage Increase Solidarity-Negros. He was gunned down by a motorcycle-riding man in his residence in Hacienda Emma in Barangay Tortosa, Manapla town.

He died on his way to the Igka-ayong Lawas Foundation Inc. Hospital in adjacent Victorias City.

NFSW secretary general John Milton Lozande immediately claimed that the military and the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade were behind the killing.

He added that in 2003, Bargamento and his two companions were abducted by the RPA-ABB in Barangay 10, Victorias City, but they were released later in Talisay City.

Subsequently, it was reported by Dr. Edbert Jayme, the municipal medical officer, that Bargamento sustained nine bullet wounds. Senior Inspector Gary Alan Resuma said the assassins may have finished him off by firing at his head.

A brother of the slain labor leader, Sonito, said three guns were used in Bargamento’s slaying based on the bullets recovered — two caliber .45 pistols and a shotgun.

The three gunmen reportedly fled the area aboard an Aura motorcycle.

What is strange is that the NFSW has not been very active recently in spearheading protest actions, although Bargamento had just attended a protest rally before the incident.

The President may have to come to grips with the Bargamento killing.

But the other quakes were precipitated by the impending arrival here of President Arroyo. She was reportedly invited here by her brother-in-law, Rep. Ignacio Arroyo, to visit some of his major projects in the fifth district, especially his vegetable production project.

Yesterday, our housemaid told me that there was a perceptible hike in the clean-up of the Burgos market "because the President is arriving." The vendors reportedly told her that.

The same situation was replicated in other public markets in Bacolod. For that matter, a Bacolod City Water District official told me Thursday night that the city government has asked the BACIWA to donate water for the clean-up of the public markets.

The Chief Executive will reportedly hold a dialogue with the market vendors before she proceeds to the fifth district.

Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon, however, kept his hopes high that Mrs. Arroyo may still attend the coronation of Linay sang Negros at the Panaad Park where the "festival of festivals" has been drawing thousands of people every day.

The President will reportedly spend the night here tomorrow.

But she could very well listen to some interesting developments should she go to Panaad. There, the members of the Negros Press Club will hold their traditional Celebrity Night which has been revived recently.

Spearheading the celebration is NPC president Primo Esleyer, whose vermiculture farm drew the attention of former Sen. Loren Legarda who visited the Esleyer farm Thursday.

But the President may also have a chance to hear right from the horses’ mouth their report on how several mediamen were threatened with "espadings" (sugarcane cutting knives) by a group from Task Force Mapalad in Hacienda Malaga of Roberto Cuenca in La Castellana.

The timely intervention of cooler heads, including Negros Daily Bulletin’s Annie Calderon and a La Castellana policeman, prevented what could have ended as another celebrated killing of media practitioners.

Power Plant Switched On

While the Manila dailies showed Mrs. Arroyo getting out of a helicopter in Boracay, I was perusing the reports on whether she had switched on, as scheduled, the newly built 7.5-megawatt, diesel-fueled power plant of Mirant Philippines in Nabas, Aklan.

She was also mentioned as attending the ground-breaking rites for the multimillion-peso Shangri-La Hotel and Spa in Boracay.

The Nabas power plant is one of the two Mirant plants in Aklan. They cost some P600 million to construct. The other is in New Washington. The Nabas plant will guarantee sufficient power supply to Boracay and solve the power needs of the world-famed island resort.

It is very likely that the President may face a possible headache when she meets with Western Visayas PNP chiefs tomorrow. This is over the protest of 426 policemen who recently completed their PNP Modified Special Counter-Insurgency Unit Training at Camp Jordan in Guimaras.

The group charged Senior Inspector Manuelo Serra and two subordinates of having collected money running into thousands of pesos for projects and activities that never materialized.

Western Visayas regional director Doroteo Reyes II has already ordered their complaints investigated.

Members of Makilas Class asked for the immediate relief of Senior Superintendent Manuelito Serra, PO3 Roy Castro and PO2 Genesis Reynaldo. The trio reportedly collected from them P800 each as payment for the air-to-ground operations which were part of their training module.

The collection reportedly reached P340,000. Part of that reportedly was to cover aviation gas of the Philippine Air Force, apart from the P300 for their subsistance allowance.

There were many more gripes about collections. The troubling thing is that the complainants are now supposed to be experts in counter-insurgency.

Restiveness among the 426 anti-guerrilla experts can pose a major problem. This is something that must be addressed decisively and with dispatch before it blows up into a major peace and order problem.

Lions’ Unique Convention

Many Lions officials of Negros Occidental will surely miss seeing the President on her visit to the province. Hundreds of Lions from the province yesterday made a beeline to Iloilo City for their fourth Cabinet meeting and district convention.

In most instances, they include their ladies or women Lions members. But it just cannot be helped. They were drawn to the Lions affair by two major attractions — the first, the contest for the Ten Outstanding Ilonggo Lions (TOILS) launched by District 301-B Governor Felipe C. Lim, and the other, for the next vice governor of the district. The last is a hotly contested fight between Bacolod Capitol Lions Club’s nominee, lawyer Alfonso Manayon, and Traders Club’s Pabs Nava.

This is the first time such a TOILS contest has been launched by any Lions governor of the Visayas district. Lim himself will head the screening committee. "It will be conducted without fear or favor," he tersely declared earlier this year when the contest was announced.

Yesterday, the top Lions officials of the district paid courtesy calls on Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas and Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas.

This afternoon, there will be a foot parade from the provincial Capitol to the Amigo Hotel, the multi-colored chalecos of the Lions drawing the interest of Ilonggos.

But the vice gubernatorial race will be the focus of attention among the Lions.

The main attraction of tonight’s Governor’s Ball will be the principal guest speaker, International Lions director Somsaki Lovisutt of Thailand, the announcement of the TOILS contest winners and the proclamation of the incoming vice governor.

The Lions may miss the presidential visit, but they will more than make up for it with their exciting fourth Cabinet meeting and district convention.