Governors demand Puno, Gonzalez resign

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wades right into the roaring lion’s den when she comes to Negros Occidental on Feb. 2 for the inauguration of the Teresita Jalandoni Memorial Provincial Hospital in Silay City.

A courageous act, so to speak. For although Negros Occidental has not been as roused as Iloilo with the controversial Iloilo provincial capitol dispersal last Jan. 17, the backlash of that incident has also affected Negrenses.

Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon reiterated his invitation to the President during the general assembly of the League of Provinces in Manila recently.

Aside from the inaugural of the new provincial hospital, the President will also come for the commissioning of the Philippine National Oil Co.’s geothermal project in Bago City.

Tomorrow, the Presidential Management Staff will conduct an ocular inspection of the hospital in Barangay Lantad, Silay City. That would determine security precautions for the President’s visit — and the confirmation of the President’s arrival.

In Iloilo, meanwhile, the din over the Jan. 17 dispersal operation continues to rend the air. The five governors of Western Visayas — Antique’s Sally Zaldivar-Perez, Guimaras’ JC Rahman Nava, Aklan’s Lito Marquez, Capiz’s Vicente Bermejo and Negros Occidental’s Marañon — have signed a manifesto asking President Arroyo to ask for the resignation of Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, and regional PNP director Wilfredo Dulay, as well as DILG director Evelyn Trompeta.

Perez told me in Sta. Barbara the other day that they also included Regional Mobile Patrol Group chief Pedro Merced in their demand to be ousted from the Western Visayas region.

Despite its historic importance, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas failed to attend Wednesday’s inauguration of the centenary memorial marker at the Santa Barbara Golf and Country Club. This was turned over to the club officials by National Historical Institute chairman Ambeth Ocampo, who also chairs the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. He was accompanied by NHI executive director Ludovico Badoy.

Mayor Treñas, in his message to the Iloilo Golf and Country Club president Federico Locsin, reportedly said he had to personally receive the miraculous image of Sto. Niño of Cebu in Iloilo at precisely the same time as the commemorative marker handover in Sta. Barbara.

Former President Fidel V. Ramos headed the list of VIPs during the centennial commemorative rites. It was during his term as President that the Sta. Barbara Golf and Country Club was renamed Iloilo Golf and Country Club Inc. and recognized by the government as such.

It was originally organized by a group of Scottish engineers of the Philippine Railway System in 1907. But the stockholders of the club had remained mostly Caucasians until 1936 when the first full-blooded indio was taken in by the original stockholders.

Gov. Perez pointed out that the President did not have anything to do with the dispersal fiasco and the national outrage afterwards.

She explained that she and Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado had sought the permission of the President to give Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas 72 hours to comply with the Ombudsman order to vacate his office. The President consented. But apparently "neither Puno nor director Trompeta complied with the President’s wish," complained Gov. Perez.

At the last minute, she added, she and several others asked Trompeta for just another hour to allow Tupas to vacate his office. "But she insisted that it be done immediately. Thus, the ensuing scandalous incident," stressed Mrs. Perez.

"I don’t think they (the PNP and the DILG) are effective anymore. They are the ones who massacre local officials instead of protecting them," she said.

Tupas, meanwhile, also sought the resignation of Puno and Gonzalez. The latter, however, continued until yesterday to come up with a lot of stories about what happened at the Iloilo capitol on the day of the siege.

On Wednesday, he challenged Sen. Franklin Drilon to probe the Philippine Air Force on why it reportedly allowed the use of a C-130 "which landed somewhere in the province" with a group of classmates of one of Tupas’ sons from the Philippine Military Academy. The group was reportedly out to defend Gov. Tupas and his family from the ouster order.

But the only other possible landing strip for the C-130 in Iloilo City was the Sta. Barbara and Cabatuan Airport but there was nary a sign of the airplane having landed in the area.

Earlier, Gonzalez also claimed that the NPAs had trucked in at night guerrillas from outside to the capitol. And he also claimed that the inmates of the provincial rehabilitation center had also been released and armed to help defend Tupas.

Unfortunately, even Merced expressed surprise to newsmen that, despite the warning about armed men, the members of the Regional Mobile Group did not encounter any of them when they broke into the provincial capitol.

In what was considered as ridiculous, Gonzalez said officials of the Commission on Human Rights merely formed their conclusions about the Jan. 17 incident simply by viewing the television footages and did not do anything beyond that.

But, as pointed out by a CHR official on Wednesday, the TV footages will speak for themselves.

Hala Bira

Ati-atihan drums have been beating in Western Visayas since last week with the kickoff of the Ati-Atihan of Kalibo celebration and the Sinulog of Kabankalan City.

Iloilo will burst with outside visitors starting this weekend with the Dinagyang revelers poised to regale visitors with their impressive choreographed dances and the competition of various performers.

Iloilo City Mayor Treñas said most of the hotels of the city are already bursting with guests. And more are disembarking daily from airplanes and boats.

In Capiz City, this Saturday will also be marked by the Dinagsa (beached), another Ati-atihan type of celebration. But the most awaited is the Ati-ati of Ibajay, Aklan.

According to the relatives of my late wife, Dr. Lourdes L. Espina, a lot of successful Ibajaynon professionals have started to trek back to the town for this weekend’s Ati-Ati.

Rep. Joeben Miraflores (Aklan) proudly reminded me that the procession of the Sto. Niño has never succumbed to commercialization. In short, it has remained true to its cultural and religious legacy.

Thus, the various floats of the barangays of Ibajay only contain decorations projecting the main products of the village. And the parade participants carry at the end of their poles viands and other food from their villages which any onlooker may ask for.

Iloilo’s Dinagyang celebration is a spectacle. Kalibo calls for mass participation. But Ibajay’s is a procession that really pays tribute to the Sto. Niño and the diligence of the villagers of Ibajay.

Hala Bira.