Calibrated breath of fresh air

By Art Jimenez

Transport. Iloilo City and Province will soon inch closer to the “new normal” by opening up the economy in calibrated degrees. Every week Iloilo Airport in Cabatuan town will welcome 1,500 OFWs, LSIs, and persons with special permits to travel. Flight frequency of PAL, CebuPac, and Air Asia is twice-a-week. Arriving passengers are subject to health and quarantine protocols, but of course.

Fastcraft travel to and from Bacolod has also opened cautiously with two operators (Weesam and SuperCat) having two round trips daily at 50 percent capacity. Protocol applies.

The recent arrival of some LSIs from Cebu is a harbinger for allowing greater movements of passenger inter-island vessels although this could present headaches for our LGUs in ensuring the arrivals are Covid-free by having available test kits and mobilizing facilities including room and board for those who test COVID-19 positive.

Public land transportation in the city improves in number daily although it seems I see more taxis than jeepneys on the road. We also need more of those modernized jeepneys that are actually minibuses. I asked one operator how was business and he just answered me with a naughty wink!

As usual, private cars, especially space-Pacman SUVs dominate our cemented roads and parking areas surrounding malls. There are also number limits to these cars and pick-up trucks.

Trikes. Ahh the motorized tricycles and sikad. Well, they are not that much of a nuisance these days. But wait till we get even more close to living under the new norm.

Overall, we can now breathe some fresh and cleaner air, though calibrated at that.

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Survey 100 city residents on just one unguided question in either Hiligaynon, Pilipino, or English: “How many employees does ABS-CBN have?” Betcha at least 80 out of the 100 survey respondents will say, “11,000.” Why? They have been brainwashed by the incessant ramblings of the network that its closure will mean displacing such number of employees!

The allegation gained solid credence even among the members of Congress when Carlo Lopez Katigbak, ABS-CBN president and CEO himself announced the figure. In its May 7, 2020 pleading ABS-CBN asked the Supreme Court to immediately act on its plea to resume its broadcast operations and stop millions of its revenue losses and protect the jobs of its 11, 000 workers.

Guess who said, “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth?”

The BIR, however, invariably exposed the big lie when it officially wrote to SolGen Calida that the network has 4,401 employees! My friends in the broadcast media had long shared with our group that most of them were but “talents” or “contractuals.” Or simply stated, “Endo.” They comprise the great majority of broadcasting “employees” not only of ABS-CBN but GMA, as well.

Before one testifies before the Congress and/or files a petition before any court, most especially the Supreme Court, one must formally swear to the truthfulness and correctness of whatever allegation is made. Lying under oath is a criminal offense, called perjury.

I am just waiting for someone to file such case against Mr. Katigbak, et al.

If not, he must be telling the truth and the BIR is peddling a big lie!

And that’s no breath of fresh air, calibrated or not!

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Of late, I have not heard nor read DOH Usec Maria Rosario Singh-Vergeire, MD breastbeat how the country, yes the DOH, has been flattening the curve even facts to the contrary face her the next day.

Also to her credit, she maintains a straight face when clarifying the meaning of Fresh and Late cases of confirmed COVID-19 cases that are quite alarmingly on the uptrend almost daily.

She said the “Late cases” were due to the late reporting of confirmed cases from different places and different hospitals to the DOH. The “Fresh” ones, she said are the latest results, meaning, obtained just maybe late in the day or the day after.

But should not those “late cases” tallied as soon as they were received, then reported and not bunched together only this month when confirmed cases were observed to rise again quite alarmingly to the contrary claim of DOH Spox Dr. Maria?

Not a whiff of fresh air!