Thank you, Prof. Lacierda

One third Communications Group Secretary Edwin Lacierda has gone on an anti columnist campaign. He blamed columnists as the ones responsible for President Aquino’s big drop in his SWS 1st quarter satisfaction ratings recording a decrease of 18 percent nationwide, 27 percent for the rest of Luzon aside from Metro Manila and a whopping 43 percent among his core support group, the ABC classes.

Cito Beltran said yesterday Mr. Lacierda is a very funny man and he “liked the joke about opinion writers.”

We disagree with fellow STAR columnist Cito. In fact, we should thank Lacierda for paying us a compliment.

The clear implication: people believe what the columnists write and don’t believe the achievements claimed by Lacierda. Since they do, it translates to their negative votes in the survey questions.

Following up his initial attack, Lacierda asked columnists to be fair and to check their facts.

To begin with, Lacierda will have to define what is fair. If we praise the President, that is fair? If we criticize or disagree with the President’s work lifestyle or lack of output, is that then unfair?

The bottom line, who’s to blame really? The columnists or their officials who act or talk? The message or the messenger? The one who made big promises or the bosses who are collecting on the promises?

Lacierda and his colleagues have failed to deliver the message a.k.a. the good news, as pointed out by no less than the President three times already, who said “our main weakness is messaging”. Isn’t it time for the failed communicators to resign?

As the saying goes, when you point a finger at someone, three fingers are pointing back at you (one for each of the three headed hydra). Thank you, Prof. Lacierda for giving us material to write about without having to research because what we are saying is just the common talk of the vast majority of 15 million bosses.

To be fair, we reproduce the statement of Bobby Evangelista, a cigarette vendor, quoted in an Inquirer front page story yesterday:

“He may not be doing anything wrong but he hasn’t also done anything good. I haven’t seen any change at all. We remain poor and he has a new car.” Fair or unfair, Mr. Lacierda?  

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CORRUPTION AT BUCOR. . . Corruption has reared its ugly head at the Bureau of Corrections in the Bilibid Penitentiary in Muntinlupa.

An Assistant Bureau Director for Prison and Security Rodrigo Mercado, 62, was assassinated allegedly on orders of a drug syndicate operating inside Bilibid. Gun for hire murderers are let out of Bilibid, kill their targets, then return to Bilibid in exchange for a hefty fee paid to prison officials.

Even family visitors have to pay P500 to be allowed to visit their loved ones. Sometimes even the food they bring in to an inmate is confiscated. The money for food is cut resulting in very poor meals to be served to the prisoners.

For a fee, inmates are allowed to go out on pass even without a valid reason. Tony Leviste is not the only one. Most VIP prisoners have that privilege. Sec. Leila de Lima maybe honest, but it seems that some Bureaus under her are still in the corruption mode. Anomalies are reported in the Bureau of Immigration, the Land Registration Authority, the Prosecution Service and the Board of Pardons and Parole in addition to the Bureau of Corrections.

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ONE MORE POLICE RAPIST. . . After charges of rape were filed against police officers in Manila, San Juan and Iloilo, another policeman in Pampanga, Inspector Armando Taruc was charged with rape inside the Pampanga Police Headquarters by a teenager. Undersecretary Rico E. Puno, if you are still around, you should look into this case.

Meanwhile, a six-year-old girl named “Katerina” was raped and stabbed to death in Floridablanca by a Cafgu member. An 18-year-old girl was gang raped by her boyfriend and seven other drinking buddies in Barangay Baculing in Bacolod City.

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SIGN OF THE TIMES. . . Jollibee, the most popular fast-food restaurant chain for the poor and lower middle class, reported an 8.8 percent drop in its net income for the 1st quarter of 2011.

Jollibee chairman Tony Tan Caktiong attributed the drop to rising consumer prices and household expenses.

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SCOREBOARD. . . President Aquino has designated VP Jojo Binay as chairman of the Anti-Illegal Recruitment Council. The President is set to appoint Mar Roxas as Malacañang Chief of Staff. Mar Roxas is credited with the recent appointment of his lawyer, Christian Robert Lim as Comelec Commissioner. Roxas also supported the appointment of Heidi Mendoza as COA Commissioner. Roxas invited the President to attend the Hotdog Reunion Concert at Dusit Thani Hotel.

Binay 6 — Roxas 6

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TIDBITS. . . One of Pagcor Chairman Bong Naguiat’s achievements is his renegotiation of the PhilWeb contract where he secured another five percent share for the government.

Manny Pacquiao is the richest Congressman with a net worth of P1.134 billion. Pacquiao is taking a lead role in the CBCP campaign against the RH bill. Cong. Amado Bagatsing (Manila, 5th dist.) was the first opponent to interpellate Cong. Edcel Lagman, principal sponsor of the RH bill. Pacquiao followed him.

The May 20 issue of Time Magazine reports that China’s 300 million smokers have led to a public health disaster with 3,000 a day dying from smoking related diseases. It said that smoking will kill three out of every ten Chinese under the age of 30. China is the world’s biggest producer of cigarettes. Smuggling of Chinese-made cigarettes into the Philippines has been going on, some of them using fake Hope or Philip Morris labels.

Congratulations to Quezon Gov. Jayjay Suarez on the birth of his first child, a girl.