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| We are 22! Thank you. When we are busy doing what we really want to do time flies fast and, once we pause to look back, that the clocks and the calendars have already turned so much hands and pages of time. This probably proves the theory (or principle?) that time is simply a state of the mind and that we are all living and acting in an eternal now. Let’s go back to the past, twenty-two years ago, in 1988, when the pioneering News Express staff have met and decided to move away from a "parent" newspaper to define and establish a "best alternative" for the Ilonggo readers. With the help of benevolent godfather who believed in the force of a determined group of young journalists, our News Express was born. The struggles and challenges that followed and how the paper hade overcome them proves that David, even without throwing a stone at some Goliath, can shake the earth under his feet. But that was actually a friendly history and everything’s well. Well, the first NE staff were some kind of pioneers who have shown the younger generation what work and dedication meant. For that we happily and proudly thank Mr. Pet Melliza, Diosa Labiste, Ben Palma, Fems Pedregosa, and the others who have come along: Lydia Pendon, Sam Ramos, Atty. Ed Jalbuna, Edgar Cadagat, Wilmer Mediana, Francisco Dominguez, and the many others whose names may have slipped our minds but whose handsome and beautiful faces will always live in our hearts. And, also for this, we deeply thank our dear readers, friends, sponsors and advertisers who, through the years, have never stopped supporting News Express. We also thank our advertising partners, and our friends in the local national and local governments who have chosen to publish with us. We hope that our friendship, partnership, and your support will always be with us. As we celebrate our 22nd anniversary we invite you to take the trip with us back to the future, where we will still be there serving you and our readers with better ideas, more determined to bring journalism in this part of the universe to a higher level. Again, we’re 22. Thank you! ================================================ | |
| Batchoy for only P0.20?  In the 1960s, when I was thirteen years old, our barkada’s idea of "malling" was going downtown to Calle Real (now J.M. Basa Street) and do what the older people had called "window shopping", a practice that, I believe, is now almost extinct because people today don’t go to malls or department stores if they have no money. To go window shopping during that time means you want to spot and mark things you want to buy when you receive your salary or get your money. It was a source of pride, if not humor, for one to return home and answer, when asked where he had been, "I’ve been to Calle Real" – as if he had been to SM City or Robinsons Place. My contemporaries feel sentimental to recall how things had been priced before. Believe it or not, we can go to Tienda Mayor (now Central Market) and eat batchoy at P0.20 a bowl, with a ten-centavo pan de leche and ten-centavo Coke or Pepsi. In those times, a bottle of Seven-Up and True-Orange cost only P0.05. Siempre, special batchoy cost P0.35 to P0.50. Around 1969, when the city’s first air-conditioned theater, Cinema, opened, a balcony ticket cost P0.75 and an orchestra ticket P0.45. If you were living in the Tanza area, for only P5.00 you can have a date with your girlfriend at the Cinema balcony, eat batchoy, pan de leche and drink softdrinks at nearby Casa Antonio, return home on a taxi, and possibly still have some P0.60 left in your pocket. In the early sixties, a jeepney ride cost P0.10 for adults and P0.05 for children. Even young children used to go to the movies with their parents for free. Later in the seventies or early eighties, children were charged half price. But by the mid-eighties things spiraled and after Dewey Dee had run with some US38 million dollars from their bank to the United States, the peso exchange rate rose form P6.00 to P8.00 a dollar. Things changed and children were charged full in the movies. By the 90s, when the exchange rate was P24 to a dollar, the movies rose from P18.00 to P25.00. Now the P100.50 ticket and the cost of a P180-P200 3D viewing is too much for the average poor worker. And batchoy now starts from P40 up. While halo-halo, which used to be P0.25 a bowl, now starts from P20.00 or P49.00 and up. Very sad. Now, it is not that the prices or cost of things have gone up. Actually, it is the purchasing power of our peso that had gone down. Blame it on our government’s foreign borrowings through the years. The exchange rate started at P2.00 to a dollar and now it’s P46.39. So, it seems that the only solution is to go abroad and work for foreign masters. But, in exchange, suffer cultural shocks and social and emotional problems. ==================================================================
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| Our city government today  Iloilo City is now under the stewardship of Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog. It was only a misfortune for this young man that his predecessor, Cong. Jerry Trenas, has left him only P40,000 in the city coffers to start with. The compounding problem is the 2,500 city casual employees that Cong. Trenas Handed over to Mayor Mabilog to work in the city government. The mayor did not expect that endorsement as fair when he merely hoped and relied on collection of the City Treasurer’s Office. The financial need for such obligation should be factual and material, direct and immediate, not simply contingent or expectant. As a matter of fact, the salaries of employees from July 1 to 15 were only paid on the 20th after the city treasurer was able to sum up the collection in vain. Probably, Mayor Mabilog started laying-off casual employees after he figured out how much all of their salaries truly cost But as this writer sees it, the mayor is a willing-victim. Cong. Trenas is reported to have 19 casuals working in the congressman’s office but still getting salaries from the city government. If Congress allotted P300,000 per month for salary of congressman’s employees, where did that P300,000 go? Mayor Mabilog is yet to face a more serious problem from the outstanding liability and unsettled obligations of Cong. Trenas. The latter has still an unreconciled P821 million accounts from the P1.3 billion property, plant and equipment of the city government. This is due to lack of documents or no document at all. Worse, for failure to request an audit of the city funds, assets and liabilities before assuming office, Mabilog is now bent to inherit the Pavia Housing Scandal case. The record of the Commission on Audit (COA) may sooner or later enjoin him to Trenas and company in the mess they’re in. Vice Mayor Jose Espinosa III is the brother-in-law of Cong. Trenas. The biggest room perceived by the latter is the room for improvement and advancement. If worse comes to worse, Cong. Trenas is seen to stick it out with brother-in-law, making the expected battle of the future a war of two against one. This is yet to happen. What counts most today is the urgent need of Mayor Mabilog for funds. As we see it, this headache will take at least two years to heal and for the mayor to fully recover from the nightmare of inheriting an empire with empty coffers. The Pavia Housing Scandal is a story that wont go away. Whoever says this will soon be dismissed by rescinding the contract with contractor Ace Builders, is a mere speculation. Its case folder at the Ombudsman’s Office was already marked "Noli Mi Tangere" or Touch me Not. Bravery to touch the folder invites contempt. Let’s see who is Spartacus at the City Hall to challenge the Ombudsman. Besides, cases filed at the Ombudsman’s Office cannot be pulled out by waiver or recantation of the complainants’ prior sworn-in declaration. There is a growing public belief that before the end of this year, an animosity or a disagreement between Cong. Trenas and Mayor Mabilog will happen as expected. I might be brash to say it, but Paul the Octopus subscribes to this! The former mayor pounced on the city government coffers for every chance he got that his post is now in disarray due to empty coffers. And as easily gleaned, the poor-rich-mayor Mabilog who just took over the messy office seems to have been badly beaten by his looks today. This is probably the reason why reports coming to my desk revealed the mayor will allow only two days a week to entertain visitors at his office. As reported, that is Tuesday and Thursday and the rest is mayor’s day. Again, the contractor of the City Hall Building said the edifice will be finished by February next year. If he fails, that is expected. Unlike the over-promised city college and hospital that Paul the Octopus predicted as unattainable until 2013. And this is now the city government that we get for our stupidity!
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