Wednesday, April 02, 2008 Malilong: Skip CPDRC, Lozada By Frank Malilong The Other Side
I DO not do the groceries so what I know about the rice shortage is what I‘ve read in the papers. But if people are screaming more loudly every passing day that there’s isn’t enough of the staple in the shelves and that the little that is available costs more than usual, then we must have a problem.
We can offer as many theories as our fertile imagination can produce but at the end of the day, the question that really matters is, is there rice to buy and for how much? Don’t tell harassed housewives that the shortage is artificial; just produce the rice and keep it within reach.
It is possible, of course, that the dwindling supply is man made. Alas for us, we seem to have an inexhaustible number of opportunists who see quick fortune in a misfortune; traders who can’t appreciate anything but the peso sign and conniving officials of the government food authority.
It is pointless to appeal to the hoarder’s sense of civic duty, even more so to the corrupt official’s love of country. I am almost tempted to suggest that we burn them alive inside an emptied bodega but only a few days have passed since my Lenten reflection so I will go by our traditional criminal justice system even if it can be oh so agonizingly slow.
But that’s for the hereafter. The more immediate need is to keep the supplies available and arrest the spiraling cost of the staple. I do not have to repeat the warning that a hungry man is an irrational one. Rice or the lack of it might succeed where Antonio Trillanes failed.
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Not that he is their favorite but Byron Garcia is courting further contempt of Cebu’s militants with his warning that Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. should avoid visiting the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center if he does not want to be lynched by the prisoners.
Byron will probably say that he doesn’t care especially since the contempt is mutual. The governor’s consultant has had run-ins with local militant groups in the past and at one time even accused one of the latter’s lawyers of extorting money from him. The case was however dismissed by the prosecutor’s office.
Some quarters may have wished that Byron had used more diplomatic language but that is not in his character. I think it’s a trait that runs in the Garcia family: if they believe they‘re right or if they are provoked, they will say what they want to say. Many will remember Winston, Byron’s elder brother, and the fierce word war that he had with Sonny Osmeña, who is no stranger to trading insults himself.
But I agree that the proposed visit is unwise. In fact, the plan is so ill-advised. I‘m wondering if it had in fact been made and if it had, whether the proponent was serious. When you’re as controversial as Lozada, among the last people you want to mingle with are the prisoners.
This is no knock on the CPDRC’s inmates who have become world famous for their dancing. Their rehabilitation program may have been successful and they’re ready to rejoin society’s mainstream. But that call still has to be officially made and until then, they remain confined, separated from a society whose peace they had once disturbed or threatened.
Also and this is more compelling, the inmates are, as Byron said, angry with Lozada for insulting their Cardinal. For his own good and the good of the detainees, Lozada should heed Byron’s advice even if it was nicely given.
