We gathered that this later ballooned to a whooping US$ 718 million because of interest and apparently, is it now officially considered missing? Wow! Who looted this loot? Only in the Philippines that stolen money that is recovered by the government can still end up stolen! So okay, if it's not stolen, was it perhaps misused?
Supposedly, the Marcos Funds can only be used under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). From the reports coming from Budget Secretary Romulo Neri, P17.3 billion was earmarked for the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for the year 2004; P9.7 billion of this fund came from the Marcos Fund. Who benefited from it?
For the sake of transparency, the DAR ought to explain to the Filipino people how they used or should I say, misused this money? This money took the honest officials of the government 19 years to recover from the Marcoses and they tell us that it took the government only a couple of years to spend all of it, without telling us who benefited most from this fund?
Carcar is known as the place where Spanish and American influences converged through the architecture of the houses of its residents. So many houses in Carcar are of Spanish origin, like the Balay ng Tisa of the late Dr. Pio and Nyora Taring Valencia, now owned and well-maintained by grandson Manny Castro. But there are also many homes that are influenced by the Americans. In fact the famous Carcar Rotunda is not influenced by the Spanish; rather, it is very American.
An added feature for this year's Kabkaban Festivities is the coming of internationally renowned and award-winning painter Romulo Galicano, a native Carcaranon who brings with him 21 prominent artists from Cebu and Carcar. Galicano will donate an original oil painting, which the Conservation Society will auction (opening bid is P180,000) so that they would have the needed funds to start planning how to shape up Carcar in the future.
Hopefully when they're through, Carcar would become the next Vigan in this country and a big tourism destination.
The other major event happening in Cebu is the formal opening of the International Academy of Film and Television, operated by the Bigfoot Company. While Carcar preserves our past, the IAFT represents the future of Cebu where talented artists can go to school that's focused on the film making industry. This should give those people who love to collect pirated video films an idea of how much one single film cost to produce.
That Bigfoot has chosen Cebu for this one-of-a-kind project is laudable. Actually, this was supposed to be the purpose of the Film Center that Superma'am Imeldific built in Manila, which ended in a construction tragedy.
If you ask me, there is something terribly wrong with the way Muslim extremists are being taught by their Imams. When we die, we're nothing but a spirit being; therefore, we shouldn't expect to have sex in heaven! As for the widow, Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, allow me to wonder aloud what if her explosive belt detonated? What promises were made to her? To also have sex with 72 male virgins? These are sick people!