Friday, November 16, 2007 Malilong: Competition for the hearts of Tuburan people By Frank Malilong The Other Side
BASILAN Rep. Wahab Akbar isn’t the first congressman to meet a violent death and will probably not be the last. What set his case apart from the previous ones, however, was the brazenness with which it was carried out.
Speaker Jose de Venecia read the situation wrongly when he said that the bomb blast was not an attack on the House. In fact, it was. The killers carried their violence to the very doorsteps of the House and there is no other way you can look at that but as a slap on the institution.
The killing of Akbar, assuming that he was indeed the real target and the others were collateral casualties, having had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, reinforces the old saying that he who lives by the gun dies by the gun. And also that against a determined assassin, no security arrangement is foolproof.
Our only hope is that his killing will not result in more blood being spilled.
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The story of Ka Magda in this corner last Tuesday drew a quick comment from a reader, also a native of Tuburan. “I can still recall when the town hall raid happened,” Joey Gonzales wrote. “Two of my friends, one of whom was my classmate since kindergarten, lost their father, a policeman”
Joey said that although he has not been there, he knew from accounts of some teachers that the barrios of Mag-antoy, Gaang and Mag-alwa are what the natives call “diyes ‘tabos nala’y plete padung sa langit.”
“Children in these places may have attended more political meetings in their youth than they have attended classes in schools” which are mountains and valleys away, he said. “I just don’t know if our government is aware of this, or maybe they have turned blind and deaf” because they are unable to help at all.
I’d like to believe that if the government has not been of much help to the residents of the God-forsaken barangays, it is not for want of trying. Ka Magda herself is at the forefront of a campaign to bring government presence to Tuburan’s depressed areas. She has an able partner in Dodong Delute, a lawyer who strayed to Tuburan in the eighties and is now a member of the town council.
So don’t lose hope for our town (my paternal grandfather was a Maxilom), dear Joey. Government competition with the NPA for the hearts of the people could prove to be one of the best things that happened to our town.
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By the way, I’d like to apologize to our readers whose letters I have not been able to discuss in this corner. I read all of them, including those of Dr. Silverio Ceniza Jr., who took pains to correct me on the name of the runner who died in New York and the event that he was participating in when he collapsed; and Luping Latonio, who explained the reason for being of Mandaue City’s Council of Elders.
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All roads lead to Bogo City tomorrow for the opening of the First Cebu Inter-Cities Basketball Tournament. All nine cities, except Naga, have confirmed participation in the event, which is sponsored by Lorenzo “Chao” Sy of the Basketball Association of the Philippines.
I just hope that that contestants for Miss Inter-Cities will not be made to parade in skimpy bikinis. It’s bad for my heart, among others.
