New sheriffs

“Mankind’s most valuable resource is probably 50 centimeters of topsoil,”  forester Patrick Charles  Dugan wrote on reading  Viewpoint’s “Poverty webs.” This resource  is being  ravaged.

“Recently, I visited a Bukidnon mountain village called Bendum,” he wrote. “Peter Walpole, a  Jesuit priest and   friend, implemented a rural development-cum-education project  there for years. On the way, Fr. Walpole and I  passed  kilometers of hilly terrain where small-scale farmers denuded and plowed steep slopes to plant corn.

“The results are horrendous—landslides all along the way. In a few years, most of the soil will be washed away. The land will be down to bedrock. The environmental damage is far larger than mining or logging operations that NGOs, the church, media and politicians protest about.

“The  problem calls for massive soil conservation. Systems  promoted  by the Mindanao Rural Baptist Center, for example, can save the land and still enable the farmers to make a living.  But our political leaders  don’t pay much attention to this problem. The corn farmers along the road that  Fr. Walpole and  I traveled  are heading straight towards poverty as they constantly lose their topsoil.”

“Generation Fissures” (Cebu Daily News/Sept. 10) cited “graft  shuttling across  the years,” e-mailed   University of the Philippines graduate Manuel de la Torre. Now a researcher in  Idaho,  De La Torre recalls  Efraim Genuino had  Philippine Games and Amusement Corp.  pay  P1,007,408.908 for  casino coffee.  That  excludes   P21.1 million for  hamburgers.  Genuino’s children cloned  that example in the last elections.

His sons ran for  mayor, Erwin in Makati  and Anthony in  Los Baños. Makati voters  trashed Erwin, despite hefty Pagcor donations, including  rice. In Los Baños, educated electors cluster  in precincts  around  UP or agencies  like International Rice Research Institute. They’re a minority. Most voters  huddle in depressed  barangays along Laguna de Bay shores. They go  for  the highest bidder.

The Genuinos exploited  this  Achilles heel. “We don’t need you. You need us,”  Genuino the Elder  told  rallies. He denied that  president Gloria  Macapagal-Arroyo or the former First Gentleman owned Trace College.  That’s where Genuino poll  campaign vehicles often double-parked. Los Baños Mayor Ton Genuino  holds  court  there.

An election often triggers overkill. Pagcor crews installed  brand-new lampposts on the main street leading into the UP  Los Baños campus—on election day. They ignored lampposts installed on the road’s  other side two years before. Neither did they bother to  tape over Pagcor logos. Brazen arrogance is spawned by a  culture of  impunity.

Trace College’s claim  to  five minutes of fame is world-class pools. At  the last  Southeast Asian Games, all swimming contests were held at Trace. Did  funds from  Pagcor, Malacañang or other agencies bankroll these glitzy  pools for  this  small-town burg? Then Ombudsman Merciditas Gutierrez couldn’t  be bothered.

A  month  before president Gloria  Macapagal-Arroyo stepped down, Genuino remitted  P345 million to the President’s  Social Fund. “That  boodle came  from Pagcor earnings for  April 2010, plus advance remittances for June 2010.”  Four days earlier,  Pagcor  funneled  P80.2 million, also   docked against  Pagcor’s income for April 2010.

“Pabaon?” Whatever, GMA extended  Genuino’s  appointment a full year after her own  Malacañang  term ended. Did  Genuino display that  midnight extension to President Benigno  Aquino? All we know is P-Noy  showed him the door.

Since  then, new sheriffs rode into town. P-Noy  appointed Leila de Lima as Justice Secretary. He named former Supreme Court Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales as the new Ombudsman. These  ladies do not suffer fools  gladly.

Morales’ dissent on  the Arroyo court’s decision allowing  Eduardo Cojuangco to pocket  P16.2 million of San Miguel shares, bought with coco levies wrung from small farmers, still  resonates.

Leila de Lima  issued hold -departure orders against Genuino and children Erwin and Sheryl, which the Supreme Court upheld.   Pagcor  sued  Genuino and 38 officials,  for “siphoning” P186 million allegedly to aid the election bid of daughter Sheryl’s party-list group.

Los Baños market vendors may  face stiffly   jacked-up stall rents. “Guess who is building a new complex that can accommodate displaced  market vendors?,” De La Torre asks. “Will vendors at ‘crossing’ move to ‘Centro’?”

Inquirer  will  mark, next  week, the  25th anniversary of  People Power,  Angioline Loredo  e-mailed from New York. “Viewpoint noted  how Edsa spiraled into Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Uprising, Lebanon’s  Cedar Revolution and Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolt. After all these years, Edsa  still bringgs out a ‘wish-I-were-there’ envy in me.

“PBS here showed an old documentary of Estonia’s Singing Revolution.  It started with spontaneous mass singing of patriotic songs at  the Tallinn Song Festival in 1987.  It took four years for  Estonians  to wrest independence through songs.   Was the difference cultural? Like Libyans, Filipinos are volatile. Contrasted with  Estonian  reserve. Or  are these just  my  half-baked attemps at social psychology?”

“Sen. Panfilo Lacson browbeats witnesses at hearings,” gripes Dr. Carolina   Camara from  Cagayan de Oro. “How I wish Lacson and colleagues had the gravitas of a Claro Recto, integrity of an Oscar Ledesma, polish of an Emmanuel Pelaez and incisiveness of a Jovito  Salonga. What we have today are dregs.”