AN AREA in a downtown eatery turned to be a site of barbershop stories and discussions for some male customers the other day when one of them started mumbling something in the way of a complaint? “Apay, anya manen dayta aya?” (Why. what’s that again?) A second one interjected in a louder voice from a nearby table. I, too, became attracted to the ensuing tete-a-tete and so kept on listening but ensuring not being noticed doing so.
“Ni mayor a, ibasura kanu ti CRSF!” (That mayor of ours. he says that the CRSF should be thrown to the thrash can), the first speaker blurted. “Apay kasta? Kuna met dagita abogado nga no “shall” kunana idiay linteg, mandatory dayta. Ket idiay EO 220 ket kunana nga ‘A regional security force shall be organized to assist the national police ‘assist’ laeng ti kunana, dina kuna nga ‘take over’!”
“Easy ka lang jan, ‘pre, agbubutegka pay, ni mayooor repeat-termer idiay Congress dayta; no dimo pagbigyan dagidiay madi dita ipagnam, nga kas ditoy CRSF tatta, saan nga pumasa ti bill mo. Maalamon?”, the same second speaker tried to explain and then quickly added, “ket kuna ni mayor nga saana bale ta intono ma-full autonomy tayo satayonto ikabil ti kayattayo.”
“Dayta ket ti nakakaskas-ang nga madi ta apay nga sika nga congressman nga representative wenno mangibagi kaagiti kailiam ket isu ti pagbuungam nga panunuten nga isangpet idiay Congress ti kayat dagiti mangsuppiat wenno opposition, nga saan ket nga ti kalikaguman ti tattaom iti distritom?” the first speaker sharply countered, “bay-am a no anyanto ti majority decision idiay National Congress basta naisangpetmo nga representative ti talaga nga amin ken husto nga pagayatan dagiti kuna ti Inglis nga constituents mo, ta isuda met ti ag-Yes or No intono plebiscite.
Dayta kunam nga kuna ni apo mayor, no pudno nga kinunana a, ta ammok nga abogado isu e, saan nga nakapapati nga nalaka nga maaramidto ta kunanto dagiti nasisirib nga opposition lawyers nga what is ‘not included’ in the approved Organic Act for the full autonomous region ‘is deemed excluded.
Ikabil ketdin dayta nga Section 6 ti EO 220 dita proposed Organic Act (House Bill 4853?) ta i-follow up idiay Congress.
Timmultulongda met nga kas multipier force ti law-enforcers ket mayat unay met. Makatulongdanto pay a kadagiti highland farmers ti Cordillera nga saan nga matulungan ti BOC (Bureau of Customs) gapu piman ta signatory ti Philippines iti globalization” the first speaker rationalized and proposed.
Hesipped from his cup of cooling coffee and talked no more no matter what the other side now and then smuttered to say.
Fr. Conrado M. Balweg (Was his name ever mentioned in the CAR Anniversary Day Program?) must have smiled hovering over the group spiritedly pushing for his pet provision in the EO to be continued in a final Organic Act to give chance to eager Cordillera youngsters to serve in their region without being organizationally sent and die uninvited by brothers in other regions as what happened to those with SAF44 in the Mamasapano incident. Smiled because the discussants really looked like unkempt kids compared with academically raised legalists but as a Gobang Tinguian progeny in the apostolic ministry, he lived the universal verse “even from the mouth of babes comes wisdom.”
He did not pick his concept of CRSF out of the blue sky. He got it from his informed analysis of the peculiar ethnic community. Many of them, in the meantime at least, are better adapted than outsiders to serve among their own people to do law enforcing work but cannot meet national police requirements.
Now, the law is for people, as it should be, not people for the law. People must live, law can only be observed. That is why you can amend the law but you cannot amend people. In other words, law is really a means for people, not vice versa.
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The BARP Foundation, Inc., is scheduled to celebrate its 19th Anniversary Day on July 28 this 2018 instead of 24 as previously announced. This ascertainment came from BARP President or CEO Professor Federico A. Balanag.
The venue, too, will be the auditorium at the BARP Center Building located at the Upper Buhagan or Bokawkan Road, Cresencia Village Barangay, Baguio City. The General Assembly Meeting will start at 9:00 a.m. to terminate with the holding of the election of replacements for the five outgoing members of the Board of Trustees. All BFI members are expected to attend and fulfill their sworn duty to help choose the best of the best to serve the Foundation and its members and community clienteles here and abroad.
Knowledge, skill, devotion and disciplined quality time are a must from those to be chosen. There is no denying the big challenges that are dogging the development efforts of BARP.
Big hearts and undaunted minds are our need of the hour if we are to continue “to serve as we had served’. And, with God with us, we will. And so, just and right that we intone: “Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord!
Salamat Po, agyamankam! Salamat Po, agyamankam!”