Day of reckoning for Soc and Joavan

 

The day of reckoning for Talisay Mayor Soc Fernandez and adopted son, Joavan, has finally arrived.

For Soc, having a member of the family who is now being hunted down and considered Talisay’s public enemy number one is not only a sickening and devastating reality for a father, but also a deliberate insult to his persona as a public servant, in no less than being the mayor of Talisay.

The question now is: Would Soc finally come to his senses and, as a father, public official and preacher, find his errant son and convince him that the most reasonable thing for him to do now is to come out and surrender?

For Joavan, who has now reached the apex of his notoriety as public enemy number one, after countless brushes with the law, would he easily give up the coveted title now and surrender?

Joavan bolted his detention cell on the pretext that he was going to talk to his wife and children, who were visiting him late at night and on the day that he made bail for his other cases, but was kept from posting bail for illegal possession of a grenade the last time he was apprehended.

What made his escape a mockery to the efforts that the police gave in locating Soc’s errant son and putting him behind bars for the satisfaction of the residents in Talisay is when he used a government-issued vehicle as his getaway car.

The latest Joavan caper is being excitedly, yet apprehensively followed by many.

The manhunt is on and the police has taken the law into their hands as they described Joavan as armed and dangerous.

Acting Talisay police chief, Supt. Elmer Lim, calls it “a free for all operation.” Certainly, a quite scary, ominous description of what is to happen if Joavan fails to surface peacefully.

Perhaps, reality has sunk into Soc’s head now that despite the fact that he wanted to project an image of a responsible public official and a righteous person in spreading the word of God, yet he has failed in all of them for his inadequacies in bringing up his son to be an exemplary person has been a human fiasco.

The Cleveland monster

 

Ariel Castro

It boggles my mind how Ariel Castro, the Cleveland monster, could seemingly live a normal life for ten long, diabolic years, after abducting three women from about the same locality and holding them captive inside his very own two-storey house in the middle of a tree-lined street in Cleveland’s West Side neighborhood, described to be a working class area home to a close-knit community?

Truly, Castro was the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing, if there was one, trying to show the neighborhood that he was harmless. He was simply so good and successful in his pretentions that he made everybody else look stupid, until a few days ago.

No wonder Charles Ramsey, the neighbor hailed as hero for helping Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight regain their long lost freedom from captivity inside the house of horror, was, himself, left aghast upon knowing that Castro hid them and preyed on them all these years, dehumanizing them in the process.

Ramsey said he’d barbecued with Castro while listening to salsa music and never suspected something amiss.

 ”He just comes out to his backyard, plays with the dogs, tinkering with his cars and motorcycles and goes back in the house,” Ramsey said Monday. “Sometimes you look and then look away because he’s not doing nothing but average stuff. Ain’t nothing exciting about him.”

But many more residents have been duped, including the postman.

What is pathetic about the whole charade is that even Castro’s family – his children – became a victim of his deception not knowing that their father was a monster.

How else could you describe the man, when, as a father and husband, he was abusive to his children and wife, which the latter decided to abandon him, bringing along her children.

Could it be that his being violent and controlling was merely a ploy to cover up his weakness and sickness after having been abused by an uncle in the past and pretend instead that he was tough and mean to prevent others from prying at his life or affairs?

How could Castro allow himself to kidnap his daughter’s best friend, Gina deJesus and feel at ease at his son’s write-up about the disappearance of deJesus, knowing all along that he was keeping her, together with the two others, while the victim’s family agonized for her loss?

Only a man with a sick mind and a wretched past can do that and the monstrosities he did to the others, like, when he impregnated Knight five times, but each time, he gave her little food and punched her in the stomach repeatedly until she miscarried.

The same kinky mind Castro had when he forced Knight to deliver his and Berry’s child in a kiddie pool inside the house and threatened to kill Knight if the baby died.

But, weren’t there tell-tales signs that something hideous, suspicious and mysterious was happening in the house?

Why the boarded-up windows?

Why all of a sudden there appeared a little girl walking with Castro and seen in the attic window when no one was seen pregnant going in and out of the house since?

Shouldn’t one be wondering that no woman was ever seen in that house for ten years?

These are just a few of the intriguing questions surrounding Castro and his place.

Thank goodness that Amanda Berry was not taken for defeated after all these years.

Her gutsy act set her and her two miserable companions free at last from the Cleveland monster.

Tubbataha reef damage “heart-breaking”

 

Chinese vessel stuck in famous Tubbataha reef

How else would you describe it, but “heartbreaking”, every time a UNESCO World Heritage-listed coral reef, like the Tubbataha reef, is wantonly pilfered or damaged.

“The damage the Chinese vessel caused to the reef is heart-breaking,” Angelique Songco, the head of the marine park said in a statement after experts assessed the affected area.

It was bad enough that a US Navy minesweeper, the USS Guardian, went off course and run aground thereby destroying the reef.

It is even worst when a Chinese crew, notorious for encroaching and poaching in our own waters, rams their vessel into one of the Philippines’ most famous reefs damaging almost 4,000 square meters of centuries-old coral.

Fortunately we got them this time because they were not able to extract themselves from where they got stuck. Thus, they were caught with their illegal catches on board.

But, my point is, how many more “heart-breaking” crimes have these people committed before this particular incident happened?

For that matter, how many more of their ilk is out there in our territorial waters giving us the run around and, almost always, snaring the riches of our seas with impunity even in front of our watchful eyes?

Having been caught, it was reported that the government has charged them with poaching and that they could face an additional 12 to 20 years in jail for possession of the pangolins in violation of wildlife law.

It is one thing to be charged and it is another thing to be ‘barking and biting’ them to show that we are willing to walk the talk, come what may.

What I am afraid is that once Beijing starts denying that the 12 Chinese folks were poaching, because, indeed, how could one be poaching in its own territorial waters, as they claim it is theirs, then we stop arguing with them and the case gets quash.

I even doubt that the Beijing will pay the fine of about 95 million pesos ($2.32 million), as the stipulated cost of destroying the coral reef, for the same reason that it is also theirs!

That really puts us between the ‘rock and the dark blue sea.’

Or is it between the ‘damaged  reef and the powdery blue sea’?

21st century sorcery

 

Investigators searching for body parts as evidence.

I can’t believe this story.

Here we are in the 21^st century and there still exists a sect or a cult, if you may, that practices the art of sorcery.

But what boggles the mind is that this is even happening in a Christian country like Chile and where the cult members are said to be educated.

It was recently reported that Chilean police have arrested four people accused of burning a baby alive in a ritual because the leader of the sect believed that the end of the world was near and that the child was the antichrist.

Ramon Gustavo Castillo Gaete, 36, the alleged leader of the cult, who remains in hiding, is said to have traveled to Peru to buy ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew plant that he used to bewitched his 12-member sect during the rite.

The 3-day-old baby was taken to a hill in the town of Colliguay near the Chilean port of Valparaiso and was thrown into a bonfire.

The baby’s mother, 25-year-old Natalia Guerra, had allegedly approved the sacrifice and was among those arrested.

“The baby was naked. They strapped tape around her mouth to keep her from screaming. Then they placed her on a board. After calling on the spirits they threw her on the bonfire alive,” said Miguel Ampuero, of the Police Investigative Unit, Chile’s equivalent of the FBI.

“Everyone in this sect was a professional,” Ampuero said. “We have someone who was a veterinarian and who worked as a flight attendant, we have a filmmaker, a draftsman. Everyone has a university degree. “

What a credulous bunch and what a shame!

North Korea in the eyes of a former spy

 

Kim Hyun-hui, as she looks now

This is about Kim Hyun-hui, who at the age of 19 was recruited from an elite Pyongyang University where she was studying Japanese to be an undercover agent.

Now, a 51-year-old mother of two and living in South Korea, she painfully relives her life not only as an agent, but her awful participation in mass murder.

Unknowingly, Kim was recruited for a fateful mission. She trained for six years, of which three were together with an equally young Japanese woman, Yaeko Taguchi, who had been kidnapped from her home in northern Japan. It was Taguchi who taught her to speak and act like Japanese.

This coincided at the time when South Korea was preparing to host the 1987 Olympic Games in Seoul and it was the evil intention of then North Korea’s leader Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il to stop it or, at most, to create chaos so the historic event will be cancelled.

“I was told by a senior officer that before the Seoul Olympics we would take down a South Korean airliner,” Kim said.

Kim and an older accomplice were ordered to board a Korean Airlines plane in Baghdad. She placed the suitcase bomb in an overhead compartment. .

During a stopover in Abu Dhabi, the two North Korean agents got off and made their escape.

Hours later over the Andaman Sea, the bomb blew up. All 115 on board were killed.

Somehow their escape plan went awry and the two North Korean agents were tracked heading to Bahrain where they were caught.

Kim Hyun-hui, as an undercover agent recruit

Her accomplice killed himself with a cyanide-laced cigarette, but Kim failed and was instead flown to Seoul for interrogation.

In her confession, Kim made it clear that the orders to bomb the plane had come directly from Kim Il-sung and his son and heir-apparent, Kim Jong-il.

“In North Korea everything was about the Kingdom of Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il,” she says.

“Kim Il-sung was a god-like figure. Anything that was ordered by him could be justified. Any order would be carried out with extreme loyalty. You were ready to sacrifice your life.”

“There is no other country like North Korea,” she says. “People outside can’t understand. The whole country is set up to show loyalty to the Kim royal family. It’s like a religion.

“People are so indoctrinated. There are no human rights, no freedoms.

Kim Hyun-hui was sentenced to death in 1989, but later received a presidential pardon from President Roe Tae-Woo.

She later married a South Korean intelligence officer with whom she has two children.

She says she still carries a heavy burden of guilt, but has found solace in Christianity, and in meeting and being forgiven by the families of those she killed.

This may have changed the life of Kim Hyun-hui, but, sadly, what continues to be the same is the perpetuation of power and the evil deeds of the ‘Kim royal family’ with another despot at the helm in the person of Kim Jong-Un.

Boston marathon carnage – Part II

 

Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

After the revolting Boston marathon bombing that killed 3 and wounding/maiming over 175 others, people all over the world that repeatedly saw the carnage on TV wondered if the culprit or culprits would ever be apprehended and justice served.

I said, only individuals with really sick mind can make home-made maiming and killer bombs and plant them where it could make the most damage – where the crowds are lined up, innocently and happily cheering the runners.

The whole structure of the law had to move fast before the criminals or terrorists could get away –  scot-free, or it would be a shameful backlash against the law enforcing agencies of the mightiest nation on Earth.

At first it looked like a prodigious task for the authorities searching for the culprits, given the largeness of the unsuspecting crowd whose attention was mainly focused on the participants of the historic race and not about observing and watching individuals who are about to commit a heinous crime.

The culprits knew what they were doing – making it hard for potential witnesses to differentiate them from thousands of innocent bystanders, but they seem to have forgotten about the proliferation of video cameras now-a-days.

The authorities had to start somewhere and for this particular scenario there is nothing like proceeding viewing the surveillance videos on and around the scene of the crime.

This was a smart move by the Federal investigators because soon after combing through countless surveillance images they were able to, methodically, zero in on the two suspects, which they immediately published on the FBI’s website, thus, offering the first public glimpse of the men investigators believed were responsible for planting separate homemade bombs near the finish line of the marathon on Boston’s Boylston Street.

One of the men is pictured in a black cap, dark jacket, white T-shirt and tan-colored pants. The second man is wearing a white cap backwards and a dark jacket. Footage released by the FBI shows the two men toting backpacks as they walk, just a few paces apart, along a sidewalk crowded with bystanders.

What made them definitely being labeled as ‘suspects’ or ‘persons of interests’ was strengthened by the fact that surveillance video revealed the second suspect, in the white hat, placing a bag thought to contain a crude but effective homemade bomb in front of the Forum restaurant on Boylston Street near the finish line of the marathon, just minutes before the device detonated. He then went west on Boylston Street.

The Tsarnaev bothers

From these images ensued a massive manhunt for the two men, who later were identified as brothers, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in shootout with police, and 19-year-old Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, famous for his distinctive backward white baseball cap, captured after being found hiding in a boat in a homeowner’s backyard in Watertown, near Boston.

Dzhokhar had escaped on foot, apparently wounded, after a police shootout that claimed the life of his elder brother.

The Tsarnaevs are sons of Chechen refugees from the troubled Caucasus region of southern Russia.

The question now is: Are there more people like the Tsarnaevs in America, who, if they are not part of a bigger and evil conspiracy, are simply seen as disgruntled individuals that at any given time, snaps and goes on killing spree of innocent Americans?

Boston marathon carnage

Whoever is behind the heinous crime committed during the Boston Marathon, by detonating two bombs, one after another, placed 100 yards apart, which has been reported to have killed at least three people, including an eight-year-old boy and injured 140 others (as of this writing), must be so sick in the mind and deserves to be hunted so he can be prevented from doing it again – ever.

So sick in the mind that the bombs were fatally placed on one side of the marathon route heading towards the finishing line. Naturally, those innocent spectators watching and cheering on the same side where the bombs were planted, were the most badly hit and accounted for majority of those maimed and dead.

The tremendous blast shook the ground, shattered windows and sent plumes of smoke throughout the streets that engulf even the fluttering flags of the nation being represented in the marathon.

Initial investigation was negative on the use of C-4 or other high-quality explosive material, thus suggesting the idea that the bombs were crudely made explosive devices.

From the injuries observed in hospitals, it was most likely that it was home-made bombs.

The two detonated explosives may have been packed with ball bearings, nails, bolts and other metallic objects, which explain why so many victims lost feet, calves and ankles when it exploded. It is believed that the improvised bombs were stuffed in trash cans near the final yards of the race.

The wounds inflicted are reminiscent of the injuries incurred by American soldiers in Iraq.

The explosion occurred about four hours into the race, which means that by that time some 17,000 runners had already finished the race, but thousands more were still running.

This year there were listed 23,000 runners, representing athletes from every US state and more than 90 countries.

This year’s Boston Marathon was the 117^th event, making it the world’s oldest annual marathon.

More than 500,000 spectators line the course every year to watch this event.

Being, reportedly, the second biggest single-day sporting event in the US behind the Super Bowl, there is no wonder why the terrorist decided, on this day, to make mayhem of this great and prestigious event.

Our prayers and sympathies go to the victims and their grieving families.

We also pray for divine intervention that somehow the authorities will be successful in pursuing and apprehending the culprits.

Cowards!

China’s relentless poaching and snooping

Frozen, rolled-up pangolins found on board the Chinese vessel Ming Long Yu

It is one thing to commit a navigational error – an honest mistake – and without any hidden agenda, as in the case of the USS Guardian that got stuck at Tubbataha Reef, a protected marine sanctuary, but surely, it is another thing when a Chinese boat, renowned for its illegal and indiscriminate fishing activities in Philippine territorial waters, runs aground in the same wildlife conservation area.

Take for instance the discovery made by the Philippine coast guard when they boarded the Chinese vessel, Ming Long Yu, and found hundreds of frozen scaly anteaters, or pangolins, in the cargo hold.

A protected species, pangolins are widely hunted in parts of Asia for their meat, skin and scales. In China, they are known as a delicacy and are purported to have medicinal qualities.

According to the International Union of Conservation of Nature, all eight species of the insect-eating mammals are protected by international laws around the world.

What is uncertain, however, is whether these endangered creatures have been caught in the Philippine wilds and sold by unscrupulous Filipinos, after having been paid exorbitantly, or purchased somewhere else.

Pangolins are said to be seen roaming in the mountains of Palawan, the nearest land area to Tubbataha Reef where the Chinese boat had been marooned.

One could only wonder what else could have the Chinese fishermen poached, if indeed they were fishermen in a real fishing boat, had they been left to plunder the treasures of Tubbataha Reef unmolested?

It was blessing in disguise that they got marooned or else we could never have apprehended them and would never have known how much they have depleted the population of pangolins, thinking that they were just after marine wildlife.

Now, there are speculations surfacing that the Chinese boat was not a fishing vessel at all and that the 12 Chinese nationals on board were, indeed, “Chinese soldiers who were sent on a mission.”

“As has been noted, the Chinese boat was not like the fishing vessels used by Chinese poachers who were arrested in Palawan. It was not carrying ice to preserve their catch. It did not have refrigerated storage,” said an officer who requested not to be identified.

It was also noted that the men had “flawless” complexions, not the dark-leathered skin of fishermen.

Hmmmmm! Snooping?

Prosecutors have already charged the 12 Chinese fishermen with illegal poaching and with corruption for attempting to bribe Filipinos officials, and if convicted they could face long jail terms.

In the light of these “speculations”, what is important is to establish the fact and erase doubts in the minds of Filipino authorities that these Chinese nationals are indeed fishermen and not intelligence operatives.

Horsemeat and dead pigs scandals

Horsemeat being passed for beef in Europe

The horsemeat scandal that continues to rock Europe is more about an issue of unscrupulous entities trying to defraud the consuming public, than about the palatability of the horsemeat itself.

There is nothing wrong at all about the horsemeat. It is popular in mainland Europe, in countries like Italy, France and Belgium.

Major horsemeat production countries include China, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Argentina   and Brazil.

Just like beef and pork, which are sold according to their cuts and labeled appropriately, horsemeat also, when sold in the market should be packed and labeled accordingly.

Unless one plans to concoct a meal at home, I repeat, at home, that requires horsemeat to be mix with other meats, just like I mix ground pork and ground beef to make my own meat loaf, meat balls, or burgers, etc., horsemeat elsewhere should be sold as is and duly labeled.

What is happening in Europe is that some hotels, restaurants and fast food businesses are mixing intentionally horsemeat with beef in their fast selling items like burgers, lasagna, spaghetti Bolognese, etc., and making it pass as pure beef. It was even found in canned products after laboratory tests were carried out.

While the ground horsemeat and ground beef may not defer much in color and their intention was to lower the production cost, the fact alone that it was labeled and sold as ground beef is not only trying to pull a fast one, but also an idea that has been scandalously conceived.

Load of dead pigs fished out from a Shanghai river

On the opposite side of the globe, China is once again being scandalizing the world for their food safety.

This time it is about dead pigs, which in the most recent count have already reached 8300 heads fished out from the Huangpu river, which supplies a fifth of Shanghai’s drinking water.

Shanghai has blamed the farmers of Jiaxing in neighbouring Zhejiang province for casting pigs thought to have died of disease into the river upstream, but officials from the area have admitted to only a single producer doing so.

But even if the dead pigs come from only one producer, to think that each producer/farm has a population of hundreds of thousands of heads, one could just imagine how many pigs could die if an outbreak of infectious disease cannot be controlled immediately.

Wang Wei, a veterinarian for the Hengyuan Company which produces medicines for farm animals, said a large number of pigs died from unknown causes in Zhejiang just before and after the Chinese Lunar New Year in February.

Shanghai authorities said that they have stepped up inspections of markets to stop meat from the dead animals from reaching dining tables of its 23 million people.

I dread to think about what could have happened to the sickly pigs that were slaughtered and brought to the market. Surely it is easy to hide the true state of their appearances in processed meat and canned goods.

Does that make any difference to the Chinese? The hell it does!

Just like we have unscrupulous Filipinos trying to pass off for good meat a ‘double-dead meat’ or as we term it as ‘botcha’, I surmise, this illegally slaughtered meat is more common in China.

If they can gyp their people into buying recycled cooking oil collected from drains and have them buy infant milk tainted with dangerous chemicals, then what would stop them from selling meat from a sickly pig or a double-dead carcass?

But why throw the dead animals into the flowing river that is a source of drinking water?

Why not just bury or burn the dead animals, which is the appropriate method of dealing with diseased hog carcasses?

(Update: As of March 22, 2013, the number of dead pigs found in Chinese rivers has risen to 16,000.)

Ombudsman verdict on suspended Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia

 

Cebu suspended Gov. Gwen Garcia found guilty of grave misconduct by the Ombudsman

The Office of the Ombudsman has found suspended Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia guilty of grave misconduct for approving the purchase of the 24.9-hectare parcels of lot, now famously known as the Balili property, in 2008.

Pegged at P99.7 million, the Cebu capitol allegedly already paid P98.93 million for the 11-parcel land, of which 19.7-ha is underwater.

The decision stated that the transaction was tainted with irregularities as the Provincial Government at that time had no available funds specifically appropriated for the purpose of “providing a good opportunity for the Province of Cebu to develop and cater to the needs of interested investors.”

It said 50% of the total payment made by the Provincial Government “actually came from the [P50M] budget of the province not specifically earmarked for that purpose but for site development and housing program under social services”.

The verdict, however, was meted with a caveat, when Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said Garcia could no longer be sanctioned because of her re-election in 2010.

The country’s jurisprudence states that “a re-elected local official may not be held administratively accountable for misconduct committed during his prior term of office.”

“The rationale for this holding is that when the electorate put him back into office, it is presumed that it did so with full knowledge of his life and character including his past misconduct. If, armed with such knowledge, it still re-elects him, then such re-election is considered a condonation of his past misdeeds,” the High Court’s decision, anchored on what is commonly known as the Aguinaldo Doctrine, states.

While Garcia may be thumbing her nose at the Ombudsman over a verdict that does hold water anymore, she is still, however, facing graft and technical malversation charges before the Sandiganbayan over the same controversy.

It is not a double whammy after all. But, just the same, it does not make her least guilty of the charges.

What is even worst is that her reputation is badly tarnished and the people know her better now. This is going to be a big issue that won’t leave her at peace for as long as she is in politics.

Her political career may not be at risk, but for sure, for the Cebuanos, she is a marked woman.