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Vice Governor Rolex T. Suplico spoke once again on Friday, April 25, about the cheaper medicines bill that is currently being tackled by the Bicameral Committee in the Philippine Congress, and criticized the Senate panel for pushing for the deletion of certain portions in the House of Representatives version that its principal author, Rep. Ferj Biron, wants to see to be part of the proposed law.

The way Suplico spoke, an unknowing listener would think that he is part of the House of Representatives, and he is a principal actor in enacting this piece of legislation that is supposed to make medicines more accessible and affordable to the country’s poor. He chastised the Senate panel for putting a roadblock to the key provisions introduced by Biron, and claimed that the Senate is doing the Filipino a grave injustice.

It’s hard to understand what Suplico is trying to project to the public. Is he the vice governor of Iloilo, or does he think he is still a member of Congress? There are so many concerns that need to be properly addressed by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, but from the time he became vice governor, he seems to have focused his attention to national issues. The problems confronting Ilonggos have taken the back seat.

At the local level, Suplico has been trying to dig up dirt against his uncle, Governor Niel Tupas Sr., and his first cousin, Rep. Niel “JunJun” Tupas, Jr., apparently hoping to find explosive information against the father-and-son political tandem and weaken their political leadership. He has not shown any interest in shaping legislation that would enable the province to combat poverty, for example, or improve the quality of education.

Almost a year has gone by since Suplico became vice governor. Unfortunately, he has wasted his time and energy in either gaining national publicity or putting down the Tupas administration. Before he realizes it, his three-year term as vice governor will be over, and he will have nothing to show for it.

Hence, Suplico should make up his mind: what is he? vice governor? congressman? or an aspirant to be senator? The earlier he makes up his mind, the better for everybody.

Iloilo is known to be the cradle of outstanding individuals in various fields of endeavor, to include journalism.

Names like Amado Doronila, Ceres Doyo and Constantino Tejeros have become icons in Philippine journalism. Their achievements are eloquent testimonies to the standard of excellence Ilonggo mediaman have established in this challenging field. To their ranks also belongs the late Ivan P. Suansing, who became the editor-in-chief of Cebu Daily News at the young age of 40.

Of course, we take great pride in the fact that Graciano Lopez Jaena, one of the first Filipino journalists and national hero, is Ilonggo.

With this tradition of excellence, Ilonggo journalists feel obligated to protect this reputation as outstanding writers and editors. This image should not be desecrated by pseudo-journalists who make a mockery of the fine art of writing and paint a picture of hustlers masquerading as reporters.

To the horror of legitimate journalists in Iloilo, this reputation is now being desecrated by the work and activities of a plump, short woman who parades herself as a journalist in Iloilo.

This woman is a mercenary. She writes for those who pay for her services as a propaganda writer. Nothing wrong with being a publicist, except that she pretends to be a legitimate journalist. Worse, this lady can’t write. Her idea of news stories take the form of nursery rhymes. It’s surprising that her editor can stand seeing her convoluted English occupy front page space in the two newspapers where she is supposed to be a reporter. Why she writes for two newspapers is not hard to understand; it allows her to bolster her marketability to potential clients. With two newspapers as her outlets, she is supposed to reach a bigger newspaper audience.

She is also one “reporter” who fabricates stories. Why is that so? She doesn’t attend press conferences and yet writes stories about these events. She doesn’t interview people who are mentioned in her stories, and yet makes the pretense of knowing what is going on. The basic tenets of journalism like objectivity, accuracy and fairness are absent from her articles. Her stories are more works of fiction than of fact.

As a former journalist, I can’t bear to watch this happening to Iloilo media. My heart bleeds as I contemplate the corruption that this pseudo-journalist is spreading throughout the local media establishment like a cancer.

I guess her editors are blind to her shenanigans, or don’t know their jobs in the first place. That’s what makes the situation worse.

Retired P/Senior Supt. Juan Y. Mabugat used to enjoy the status of “fair-haired” boy in the eyes of Governor Niel D. Tupas, Sr. In the months leading to the 2001 gubernatorial campaign, Mabugat, who was still active in the police service, stuck to the candidate like a leech, knowing Tupas was a sure winner, and he could reap untold rewards from this closeness.

Tupas won a landslide victory as expected. And Mabugat quickly claimed his prize for betting on the right candidate. When the position of Provincial Director of the Iloilo PNP was vacated, Tupas insisted that Mabugat be placed in this prestigious and powerful position, notwithstanding the fact that he lacked certain eligibility requirements. In fact, his name was not among those considered for the position.

Another officer, then S/Supt. Isagani Cuevas (presently the PNP regional director for Western Visayas), was named as provincial director. Cuevas is a PMA graduate, class 77. Mabugat became an officer of the defunct Philippine Constabulary through what is known as “direct commission”.

But Governor Tupas would have none of it. Cuevas had occupied his position just for a day, because Tupas burned the hotlines to the PNP chief at the time, demanding that his prerogatives as Governor be respected, and that his nominee for provincial director be placed in the position. There was a problem, however. Mabugat could not get his name placed in the short list because he lacked a masteral degree. He was still a semester short of that.

As a compromise, an officer-in-charge was designated to head the PNP provincial office while Mabugat completed his master’s degree. A few months later, with his masteral degree in his pocket, Mabugat got the most cherished position in the police hierarchy in the province of Iloilo. Without a patron like Tupas, Mabugat could never have dreamed of becoming provincial director. He was much too junior in the police hierarchy. He literally leaped over the heads of more ranking officers, thanks to his patron, Governor Tupas.

When Mabugat reached the mandatory retirement age of 56, his patron continued to reward him with another choice position: Provincial Warden of the Iloilo Rehabilitation Center. It was a second career for him, a rare occurrence among police officers who reach retirement age. In his new position, Mabugat continued to enjoy the perks of being a fair-haired boy. Almost anything and everything he asked for — brand-new weapons, anti-riot equipment, employment for relatives, he got.

But then Mabugat did something that made Tupas rethink the integrity of the man. As warden, Mabugat wanted to control the finances for the food supply of the center’s 1,000-odd inmates. Each month, this amounts to millions of pesos. He detested government accounting rules and regulations. He would hear nothing about transparency in the procurement of food. He wanted to personally handle the marketing.

Tupas demanded that he follow the rules, not bend the rules. Mabugat would have nothing of it. He submitted his resignation, perhaps thinking the governor would talk him out of it. His resignation was accepted.

This happened last October.

Two weeks ago, Mabugat resurfaced, and gamely spilled the “beans” about his supposed inside knowledge about the Tupas administration before a committee headed by Board Member Oscar “Richard” Garin, Jr. He alleged that firearms were “diverted” from the IRC and issued to top Capitol officials, namely: then Board Member Niel “JunJun” Tupas, then Board Member Domingo Oso, provincial administrator Manuel “Boy” Mejorada, and general service office chief Ramie Salcedo.

Garin belongs to the “demolish-Tupas-at-all-costs” bloc in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan that counts Vice Governor Rolex T. Suplico and Board Member Arthur Defensor, Jr. among its prominent members. For still unclear reasons, Garin conducted public hearings “in aid of legislation”. There is no pending legislation that might relate to the IRC. Moto propio, Garin just felt he needed to flex his “investigatory powers”, which doesn’t exist at all.

The propoganda offensive, however, fell flat on its face. No sooner had Mabugat made his allegations before authorities at the IRC made a declaration that the firearms are all accounted for in the armory. Besides, as pointed out by provincial administrator Mejorada, it was Mabugat who offered to lend the firearms to these officials for their personal protection sometime in 2006. There’s nothing wrong with firearms being issued to Capitol officials whose personal safety might be threatened. The media didn’t bite on the issue.

Last Tuesday, Mabugat was back at the Garin committee. Perhaps he has his own delusions about being a Jun Lozada. This time, he claimed that the newly-purchased firearms were overpriced. Again, this allegation boomeranged on him. “Why, it was Mabugat who listed the firearms he wanted purchased, and he provided information about the selling price, and it was he who received delivery of the weapons,” Mejorada said. If indeed there was overpricing, then the culprit could be no other than Mabugat.

Poor Mabugat.

He’s sore that the governor didn’t stop him from resigning. He thought he could get his ways all the time. Now he wants to exact revenge on the person who made him who he is. In that sense, he is really very similar to Suplico. He is inventing all sorts of lies to hurt the image of Governor Tupas. But he has only succeeded in shooting his own foot with his so-called exposes. The guy has lost all credibility. Nobody is paying attention to him.

Last Friday, April 18, all department heads in the Iloilo provincial government spent a whole day to devise strategies on how we can effectively cope with the broiling issue of the rice supply crisis and turn adversity into opportunity. The province is a surplus producer of rice, the basic staple, and it is not at all threatened with a shortage. The only issue is the escalation of prices for rice and other food products.

With this in mind, our Capitol bureaucrats pooled their wealth of knowledge, expertise and experience to draw up a strategic plan on how best the province can even take advantage of the situation while guarding its constituents against the impact of rising food prices. In just one day, we managed to craft a holistic approach that will enhance our production capabilities for rice, corn, vegetables and fish products. At the same time, we want to strengthen our programs for nutrition, population management, livelihood and education.

Through this activity, we also want to demonstrate that confronting a crisis situation requires that everybody should close ranks behind our leader, Governor Niel Tupas Sr., to enable the province to get over the “hump” and emerge a much stronger LGU with a constituency with improved incomes, nutrition and health status, and education. This is no time to engage in partisan politics. It’s like war; politicians cross party lines to throw support to the chief executive and help achieve victory.

We invite our friends on cyberspace to do their share in helping our province cope with this crisis. Through your blogs, you can help spread the word that there are programs being tailored by Capitol officials to help farmers, fisherfolk and small businesspersons become the engines of growth for the province. You can also organize small community efforts to propagate the idea of producing highly nutritious fruits and vegetables in our own backyards and train our youth to refocus their eating habits.