They should still have scrapped the SK!

 So it's final…the Sangguniang Kabataan election has been scrapped at least for this election season. Of course this news was already out of the bag when both houses of Congress came up with a law to scrap the SK elections citing lack of funds as one of the main reasons. All the president needed to do was to validate what Congress already came up with and so he signed it and now, its goodbye at least temporarily to the SK elections.

Added to this scrapping was a note that clearly pointed out that when the winners of the barangay elections will assume their respective terms of office…the SK officials cease to exist because the president clearly pointed out that there will be no holdover officials. Meaning, the scrapping of the SK polls…would not allow the current SK officials to continue their terms of office as holdover officials. I totally agree with this because their respective terms officially ceases to exist after the barangay polls are done with.

So in the end, what has happened to the SK was…both the Executive and Legislative Branch of the government have placed the SK in a constitutional limbo. I call this one of the unfinished businesses of our nation. What they should have done was totally abolish the SK as it has outlived its usefulness and has only become a tool by the political elite to let their children practice the art of politics until they are ready to take over and perpetuate their political dynasties. I still say scrapping the SK is right thing to do!

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Remember the wind farms of Pagudpud Bay in Ilocos Norte? Those wind farms was not exactly that many to make an environmental impact on our country. But it was a sort of tourist attraction and a symbol of the Philippine government's feeble attempt to shift towards a Green Energy as proof that the Philippines too is part of the global climate change initiatives.

However all those efforts to shift to a Green Energy source may soon be coming into a crashing end. This is exactly what my good friend; Prof. Chris Go of the University of San Carlos told me that in Hawaii…there were hundreds of wind farms that were being abandoned. In California alone, its wind farms comprise 80 percent of the world's wind generation capacity. Yet reports that I read showed that 14,000 wind mills in California were abandoned due to its costly maintenance.

Apparently, wind farms sprouted in California because of a Federal Law passed from 1981 to 1985 that gave Federal and State tax subsidies to wealthy investors, where they believe that they could recover 50 percent of their investment cost on these subsidies alone. These wind farms all cost these investors US$2.4 billion dollars in 1986.

Whenever I visit my uncle, Dr. Alfredo Segura in his residence in Benicia, the former Capital of California, I could see rows upon rows of those gigantic propellers churning and churning as the wind breezes through that part of California. But it seems that wind farms were an ill-fated experiment and now these are nothing but useless piles of junk littering the California landscape. Now the Palm Beach City Council approved a law that would force those investors to remove these junk pieces as they are ugly and spoils the landscape. Again this is visible proof that our self-proclaimed environmentalists have been taken for a ride…and now California is leading the rest of the world in scrapping these so-called green machines.

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The Blackbox:

I haven't been back to Bantayan Island since the May 2010 elections so it was time to go back and ride with my friends in a birthday ride hosted by my wife's cousin, Dodong Villacin. It was a near perfect ride except when it rained just after we left Madridejos on our way to Sta. Fe where we stayed at the Villacin rest house. Beside the rest house is the Anika Beach Resort owned by my golf crony Nelson Yuvallos. This is Bantayan Island's newest resort made from pre-fabricated container vans. It is so well made, you'd think I'm just kidding that these are real container vans.

My good friend Nelson was there ready for my room, but since we got so wet on the ride…I begged off to stay at the Villacin Rest house. Yes whenever we're in Bantayan Island, we are always served with the best seafood, shells like Bali-ad and Wasay-wasay… and other shells that I can't find a name. It was a great celebration for Dodong Villacin, our fellow biker.

On our way back…the waves were so bad; it took the ferry an hour an a half instead of just an hour to reach Hagnaya Port. We were rained on only as we reached Carmen where we stopped for lunch at my cousin Chuchi Villa Maeannchens' restaurant called Borussia, which was celebrating its 16th year serving the best bread and great German food. Yes we were rained out when we rode home and were totally drenched wet. But it was all fun!

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