Auring, Tony to switch places

GOVERNOR Aurora “Auring” Cerilles said she is looking forward to returning to her seat at the House of Representatives in next year’s polls, having had served for one term in the 11th Congress.

Her vacated position will be taken by husband, Rep. Antonio “Tony” Cerilles, who is also set to finish his third term next year.

The Cerilles couple have announced last Saturday their respective intentions to media in a gathering inside their residence few hours after they filed their certificates of candidacy at the Comelec office.

Auring is running under the Lakas-Kampi CMD coalition while Tony is from the Nationalists People’s Coalition of business tycoon Danding Cojuangco

With the couple are their slate in the provincial board: incumbents Ramon “Doki” Blancia Jr., Flaviano “Nonong” Fucoy Jr., Ernesto Mondarte, Rogelio Saniel and newcomer Pepito “Dodong” Degamo, outgoing provincial administrator, for the first district.

Incumbent Dinas mayor Wilfredo “Fred” Asoy, Miguelito “Nonoy” Ocapan, Edward “Dodong” Pintac, Vicente “Dodo” Cajeta and Eriberto “Ribe” Sumalinog will also run for the provincial board in the second district.

Tony Cerilles’ bet for vice governor is senior board member Juan “John” Regala, also a third termer and former civil-military officer of the 1st Infantry “Tabak” Division.

Auring once served as a representative of the second district from 1998 to 2001 under the leadership of then Speaker Manny Villar Jr. where she held the tourism committee as vice chairperson and as deputy speaker of the appropriations committee.

In her term, Cerilles filed 28 local measures and seven were acted into law, which included those that established the national high schools in Dimataling, Dinas, Vincenzo Sagun, and the law converting the JH Cerilles Polytechnic College in San Miguel into a state college and that which created a separate engineering district in the second district.

Meanwhile, Tony Cerilles said there will be a continuation of honest and conscientious service to Zambosurians in his term where he will continue to provide the needed access to support infrastructures to remote villages and maintain the established linkage with other government and non-government groups for smooth implementation of projects in the province.

As an environmentalist and former secretary of the DENR, the congressman added that he will strongly support the national government’s programs on agriculture and provide livelihood projects and employment opportunities for young professionals.

REPORT BY MICHAEL MEDINA

Tony wants review of capital punishment

CONGRESSMAN Antonio “Tony” Cerilles has aired his call anew for review of the death penalty as a punishment to future atrocities committed by public officials who maintain private armies and who kills innocent civilians and members of the press.

All those talk about the rule of law taking course over the perpetrators of the Maguindanao massacre for justice to reign in the end will be made more forceful once the death penalty has been restored, he explained during a meeting with several journalists at his residence last Saturday.

Put in plain words, Cerilles said the impact of the revolting and gruesome incident in Ampatuan, Maguindanao even solicited his own condemnation in the highest terms.

“The United Nations, European Union hasta ang America, halos ang tibuok kalibutan nagkondenar sa maong aksiyon. I think we should share with this sentiment of the people around the world. Kinsa may malipay anang ilang gihimo. That’s not the work of a civilized people,” Cerilles said.

“Ang media is supposed to be impartial and igo ra na sila mo-record og mga events nga tan-aw nila importante kaayo. The media should be protected and be given a kind of protection that anybody will be discouraged to harm them,” added the congressman.

He further said that as a peace-loving person and an advocate for press freedom, such an incident perpetrated by persons who think they are above the law is an eye-opener for lawmakers to consider the merits of reviewing the death penalty.

“Ang nahitabo sa Maguindanao daghan pang angay tan-awon, daghan pang angay i-review alang sa kalinaw sa Mindanao. Hinaot unta nga kini mahimong leksiyon aron sab mahimong malampuson ang pagpuyo nato dinhi sa Mindanao,” he stated.

Cerilles articulated his uncompromising support of the death penalty for the mentioned wrongdoing especially that it smacks of the country’s democratic ideals, violated human rights, promoted armed confrontation and contributed more to the tension happening in the area.

However, Cerilles, who is a three termed representative at present, did not specify if he will campaign for the revival of the said law, which was abolished by President Gloria Arroyo in 2006 after experiencing pressure from the influential Roman Catholic Church.

Capital punishment was originally abolished in 1987, but it was reintroduced in 1993. Since then seven people have been executed.

The congressman, by the way, is running for governor in next year’s polls.

REPORT BY MICHAEL MEDINA

City registered voters breach 100T mark

PAGADIAN City has a total of 109,339 registered voters who are eligible to cast their ballots in next year’s automated elections, a Nov. 24 quarterly report forwarded by city election officer Dinah Cagampang-Sapong stated.

Sapong said the list of voters is now completely updated and comprises their fourth quarter report in the system of continuing registration.

She added that the list came a little bit late because of the cleansing of the voter’s list of those who did not participate in the last two elections which were removed.

She noted that the updated figures exceeded their target and said that there is an increase of the voting populace.

The total number of registered voters is actually the difference of the subtracted 1,220 voters from the 110,559 who were classified as those with multiple registrations along with others who transferred to another municipality or city.

So far, there were no names, which have been deactivated from the voters list, as contained in the report submitted by the Comelec.

First-time voters, meanwhile, totaled 5,592, even as the Comelec office has to contend with residents who went to their office at the last minute of the registration deadline last Oct. 31.

All in all, there are 143 clustered precincts out of the established 724 in 54 barangays all over the regional center.

Last Dec. 1, the final day of filing of certificates of candidacies, Sapong lauded the peaceful and orderly conduct of filing of candidacies in the light of excitement and apprehensions in the coming automated general elections next year.

She hopes this will continue until voting day.

In Comelec’s calendar of the 2010 National and Local Elections, Feb. 9, 2010 is the start of the campaign period for candidates for President, Vice-President, Senators and party-list groups participating in the party-list system of representation.

March 26 also is the start of the campaign period for candidates for the House of Representatives and elective provincial, city and municipal officials.

May 7 will be the last day for testing and sealing of Precinct Count Optical Scan and May 10 will be the day for the casting of votes.

REPORT BY MICHAEL MEDINA

Pagadian media decry Maguindanao killing

AS the death toll in the Maguindanao massacre climbs to 57, more journalists are ventilating their indignation of last Tuesday's carnage that killed 21 of their colleagues who were out to cover the filing of the certificate of candidacy of a political candidate for governor in the area.

“The NUJP-Pagadian City-Zamboanga del Sur Chapter strongly condemns the killing in the highest terms,” Hirohito Cadion said in his text message sent to this paper.

Cadion added that the gruesome death of the 21 media men likewise ended the struggle for true democracy in the country and worsened the violence against journalists.

Cadion and other media practitioners attended mass together last Nov. 25 at the San Jose Parish to pray for the souls of the victims while some media offices hanged streamers expressing their disapproval of the killing.

A candle lighting activity is also set on Monday, Nov. 30, for a prayer and vigil dedicated to their fallen comrades. Cadion said all media will be wearing black shirts or armbands to mourn the deaths and show solidarity with other chapters doing the same.

The brutal killing suffered by the journalists was a result of a political war led by powerful men and their clans and this should have been prevented by those in powers themselves, declared Ping Deleverio, editor of the Sibugay Express.

“Hindi sila dapat pinatay. Sometimes, may mga media naman na mag-take sides pero hindi dapat ginamitan ng dahas especially if the media is only there to cover an event,” he said.

“Dili pwede idamay ang mga media sa political enmities tungod kay ang media maoy mata sa katawhan ug tigpalapnag sa kamatuoran alang sa tanan,” seconded Ellen Ajijul of MIT-RTVN.

For Vic del Pilar of Frontline Mindanao Online, he said:“The media is supposed to be neutral at all times. They may be associated with politicians during elections or in normal times but that doesn’t mean they’re already one-sided. They are there to get reports and there’s no reason for them to be included in political enmities.”

In saying his piece that the Maguindanao massacre will have a long-lasting impact on journalists, Provincial Information Officer Allan June Molde said that the state should make sure to respect and protect media practitioners at all times.

“Such an inhuman act only shows that there was no respect for the media who are the pillars of information,” he added.

Some of the local journalists who requested that their names be withheld collectively said that they were shocked and outraged over the killings and demanded that justice should be served.

All in all, they agreed that government should ensure that there will be no retaliation against the Ampatuans by the Mangudadatus in order that more violence will be prevented and no more innocent civilians will lose their lives.

As this developed, the NUJP-Zamboanga-Basilan-Sulu-Tawi-Tawi (Zambasulta) Chapter also issued their statement, “expressing our most extreme outrage and horror over the massacre of probably as many as a dozen of our colleagues while in the course of their work in Ampatuan, Maguindanao.”

“Words fail to convey the enormous condemnation we heap upon this barbaric deed and its barbarous perpetrators, whose descent into moral monstrosity has no parallel in Mindanao’s troubled history,” the statement continued.

“Lest the world will erroneously perceive Mindanao’s as a dangerous society because of this tragic incident to our common communal discredit, we the Zamboanga mediamen are obliged to hasten to tell this truth: The primitive, savage practice of blood feud and vendetta behind the massacre of our colleagues – and the other civilians whose political activity they were covering on that fateful day- is solely the special characteristic of a few ethnic tribes now existing amid our civilized, democratic society in Mindanao.”

“We take this opportunity to appeal to these our tribal brothers and sisters to seriously re-examine their anachronistic and destructive sense or system of justice.”

“We ask the government to swiftly arrest and punish the perpetrators of this mass murder…Without such a categorical closure, we in Mindanao will continue to bleed and suffer from this systemic culture of violence and death. With hope we say, God forbid!” the statement concluded.

As for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) it called the Maguindanao massacre the single deadliest event for journalists in history. This is the same group which earlier labeled the Philippines as the second most dangerous country for journalists, second only to Iraq.

REPORT BY MICHAEL MEDINA

Prov’l engineer bares Auring’s infra projects

PROVINCIAL Engineer Antonio Laurenciana says all the improved road networks and other important infrastructure projects in Zamboanga del Sur bear the signature of Gov. Aurora Cerilles’ productiveness.

The completion of all these projects consisting of roads around and within the province, including electricity, water, sewage and health facilities, is included in Cerilles’ 7-Point Executive Agenda.

Laurencia said that ever since Cerilles started her term in 2001, attention on the concreting, repairs and maintenance of the provincial road network has been given by the governor.

Cerilles, herself, once said that she also concentrated on improving and rehabilitation of farm-to-market road projects because these are essential components for agricultural development.

She added that since Zambosur dominantly produces agricultural products such as rice, corn, coconut and other high-value fruits, mobility and transport of these should be taken into consideration.

At present, Zambosur has 430 kilometers of provincial roads undergoing rehabilitation and maintenance, said Laurencia, while about 80 kilometers are already concrete.

As to the provincial road leading towards San Pablo, the provincial engineer said that the provincial government is focusing on this even with the problems of unpredictable weather conditions and the lack of supply of gravel and other materials for concreting in the area.

But he assured that a portable stone crushing plant is being installed in Guipos to help solve the problem, as well as provide for the on-going concreting of the roads in Lapuyan and Vincenzo Sagun.

He added that P20 million has been allocated for the improvement of the road in San Pablo, which was noticed by President Gloria Arroyo during her recent visit here.

He disclosed that two of the finest road network completed is the San Miguel–Dinas–Dimataling road and the road from Ramon Magsaysay to Sominot.

To recall, the president released P45 million out of the proposed P119 million for the road concreting of Bobongan in Ramon Magsaysay to Midsalip.

Laurenciana also bared the ongoing road concreting of Dumalinao-Rebokon highway that will traverse the San Pablo coastal road, funded with P100-million from the National Disaster and Coordinating Council.

Aside from provincial roads, some 42 road bridges under the President’s Bridge Program are now in place all over the province.

REPORT BY ZAMBOSUR PROVINCIAL PRESS BUREAU