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LEGAZPI CITY --- Amid the suspension of Oplan Tokhang by the Duterte administration, the police in Bicol will focus on “barangay drug-clearing operations” while operations against drug personalities will be sustained although both activities will be under the stewardship of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). Senior Insp. Ma. Luisa Calubaquib, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office in Bicol (PRO5), said the mandate of the Philippine National Police (PNP) as an organization is to concentrate on the “seven focus crimes, such as robbery, murder, homicide, theft, carnapping, cattle rustling and rape.” She said included in PRO5’s current thrusts are “internal cleansing and police community relations activities.” Calubaquib said these were the specific instructions that they received from Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa. She said PRO5 Director Melvin Ramon Buenafe, who attended the recent command conference with the PNP Chief at Camp Crame, gave instructions that all drug-related operations will temporarily be conducted solely by PDEA. Calubaquib said PRO5 will only be on a “lay low status” on the anti-illegal drug campaign called Project Double Barrel but assured massive drug-clearing operations in all barangays in the region will be pursued. “We will still be saturating all barangays as required from us by the Dangerous Drugs Board or DDB--to clear the villages or to recommend which barangays have been cleared of the illegal drug problem,” she said. According to her, PRO5 is nearly 80 percent complete in its operation against the high- and low-value targets in the drug watchlists given to it by PDEA. She said those in the list, including the newly identified drug personalities in the region, could not push forward with their illegal activities because their names are in the watch lists. Buenafe has ordered that walk-in (drug) surrenderees still be processed at police stations according to PNP procedures and guidelines. Supt. Frandee Echaluce, chief of Complaint Referral and Monitoring Center or CRMC of PRO5, added their seminars and police community relations program in the villages will also be in relation to the anti-illegal drugs campaign. He said they will hand over to PDEA the list of their drug suspects and other issues on the illegal drug problem. “The PNP will just act as security or support to every PDEA operation in the region,” said Echaluce. He confirmed that some police officers in the region are facing dismissal proceedings because of their involvement in the proliferation of illegal drugs. Echaluce said those policemen, who tested positive during drug tests conducted in all police stations months ago, are now on a “floating status” at the RHAU or Regional Holding Account Unit of PRO5. Calubaquib confirmed some erring police officers in the Bicol region are facing dismissal procedures before the office of the Regional Internal Affairs Service (RIAS) at Camp Gen. Simeon Ola, headquarters of PRO5. She named one of the candidates for dismissal as Sr. Insp. Plebbie Aterado, who is facing nine cases of grave misconduct and abuse of authority. The latter is temporarily held at the PNP’s RHAU inside Camp Ola. Calubaquib said presently, there are cases filed before the office of RIAS against erring police officials, most of which involve grave misconduct while the cases filed by the wives of police officers were in relation with violation of Republic Act 9262 or “Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004.” The other cases of the policemen facing dismissal proceedings involved RA 9165 or “Violation of the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002”. Calubaquib added the PRO5 is ready to accept complaints or reports on abusive and corrupt police officers. "We are ready to accept and investigate,” she said. Calubaquib said PRO5 is “soliciting the help of our constituents to find and identify these erring police officers” who are abusing their positions. Meanwhile, Cotton Yuzon, spokesperson and public information officer of PDEA in Bicol, said they cannot issue a comment on the pronouncements made by the PNP chief and the President because they “do not yet have specific instruction from their central office.” “We have not yet received any order or guidelines from our national office so kailangan muna naming gawin ang dati naming ginagawa before,” (we will continue with what we have been doing before) she added.

NAGA CITY---A regional inter-agency group tasked to promote juvenile rights and welfare in Bicol is against the proposal to lower the age of criminally liable offenders 9 years old from 15 years old which is pending in Congress. Assistant Regional Prosecutor Remiel O. Nibungco, a member of the Regional Juvenile Justice and Welfare Committee (RJJWC)-Bicol, said the general sentiment of the members of the RJJWC is to retain the present minimum age of criminal responsibility to 15 years old under the present law. Among the members of the RJJWC are representatives of the Department of Justice, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Interior and Local Government, Public Attorney’s Office, Commission on Human Rights, Department of Education, Department of Health, Philippine National Police, Bureau of Jail Management of Penology, and two representatives from non-government organizations. The JJWC is a policy-making, coordinating and monitoring body tasked with the implementation of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act (Republic Act. 9344) as amended by R.A. 10630. R.A. 9344 is the law that raised the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 9 years old to 15 years old and took effect on May 20, 2006 while R.A. 10630 further clarified the procedures, establishment of center for intensive juvenile intervention and provision on victim assistance and emphasis in the processes. Nibungco said at present the children 15 years old and below do not have criminal responsibility when they commit criminal offense even as they are not exempted from civil liability and joint parental responsibility. While for children 12 years old and below 18 years old, they are committed in a youth care facility called “Bahay-Pag-asa”, he added. “But under the amended law we have categories. For example, children 12 years old up to 15 years old, when they commit serious offense like murder, we must have intervention for that which is more intensive. The intensive intervention will be done inside the Bahay-Pag-asa,” he said. Nibungco said Bahay-Pag-asa as defined by R.A. 10630 is a facility where children in conflict with the law are housed for reformative procedure which shall be operated by a multi-disciplinary team that works on individualized intervention plan with the child and the child’s family. Genoveva G. Barcelon, JJWC secretariat, said that after ten years of implementation, RA 9344 and RA 10630 had come a long way but until now there is no Bahay-Pag-asa ever established in Bicol that will cater to the children in conflict with the law. Barcelon said the scientific basis of why the minimum age of criminal responsibility is 15 years old is the finding that the human brain fully develops at the age of 21, a position they maintain and which the present law provides. She said the local government units (LGUs) are hesitant to commit for the full implementation of the juvenile justice and welfare law for fear of the costs it would entail them especially for the maintenance and operation of the BahayPag-asa. She said the law requires LGUs to set aside 1 percent of the internal revenue allotment (IRA) but still only Camarines Norte LGU has committed P5 million for the construction of BahayPag-asa among the LGUs in Bicol. Barcelon said the primary thrust of the juvenile justice and welfare law is to heighten the community-based intervention program with the LGUs crafting a comprehensive local juvenile intervention plan for developmental, preventive and rehabilitative interventions. “But the reality, it is only Naga City in the Bicol region with comprehensive plan being a pilot area, which should be integrated into the annual investment plan,” she said. Barcelon said the construction of the BahayPag-asa is only secondary and that the JJWC goes around the LGUs from the barangay to the municipal levels to orient local officials of their roles in the full implementation of the juvenile justice and welfare law. She said they have saturated the provinces of Camarines Norte, Catanduanes and Sorsogon which are now crafting their respective comprehensive intervention plan for the juveniles which include the endorsement that their respective plans be integrated in their annual investment plan. “It is still a challenge for the local councils to enforce the mandatory allocation of 1 percent from their IRA for the protection of children,” Barcelon said. She said at present there are 17 minors who are detained in regular jails with cases ranging from theft to murder.

The following was delivered by the author as keynopte speaker during the Pagsurat Bikol 5 held at the Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges, Nabua, Camarines Sur last January 28, 2017 with the theme, “Pagpapahiwas kan Sinugkaran, {arta’naw sa Kinaagahan” (Expanding the Horizon, Looking Towards the Future). DIYOS MABALOS tabi sa paggiromdom sakuya kan maski madaralian buda sa tahaw kan rawraw sa buhay asin kabuhayan na iwinalat kan bagyo, idinagos nindo an pagtiripon na ini kan mga parasurat Bikolnon. It’s a bit convenient, I’m sure, that you would think of me, although I will be the first to claim no authority on the state or practice of Bikol writing, doing so little of writing in the language myself, and knowing only from my scant reading of the literature that is being written right now in the region. I had a temporary direct experience or at least a vantage point on contemporary Bikol writing when many years ago I sat on the teaching panel of the UP Writers Workshop together with my friend Jun Balde. That’s how I got acquainted with the likes of Frank Peñones, Vic Nierva, Kristian Cordero, Jimple Borlagdan, among others, and still others whose names I can’t recall now. And then they changed the format of the workshop and the Bikol Desk, as I referred to it then, disappeared. Then again there are the current anthologies being produced by almost the same writers in their dogged devotion to the language. Ateneo de Naga University Press, some assistance from the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, in which I am involved as consultant, and individual initiatives, or even collective efforts by Kabulig and other organizations, signal to us the healthy ferment that is happening within Pagsurat Bikol. My own online publishing initiative afforded me some vantage on what was happening as well. Between 2008 and 2011, I was publishing a blog, later reformatted as a magazine, called poet’sPicturebook and later Electronic Monsoon Magazine. The online publication attracted contributors here and abroad—it welcomed poetry mainly, the occasional essay, and photographs. It encouraged the ekphrastic kind of poetry, or poetry based on or about a work of art like painting or other visual medium. It was also multilingual, and since I presumed it had an international readership and contributor base, I took on the translation chore for contributions in Filipino, and of course those in Bikol. That’s how I more or less witnessed the “development” among individual Bikol writers and the news and briefs they brought with their notes on their contributors. Besides, it gave me the venue to regularly practice my translation of poetry from the two languages I knew, Filipino and Bikol. Anyway, that’s also how I came to know, perhaps close at hand, the the ongoing work of Bikol poets as they and their work matured, what their subjects were and how they chose them, what they thought of the world. It was like being a witness to memory being created in poetry, and I even was not spared of the news of the sudden departures of fellow writers like Val Fajardo, Mike Bigornia, and as the online magazine evolved, Rudy Alano and Jun Belgica. But many good things do not last. The little online magazine was getting contributions from everywhere. On the other hand, I was running out of time in some form. I could not wait for contributions forever, and I needed cash for the rental of online space. The first payments I got from my freelancing—I was semi-retired by this time: retired from advertising but not retired from making a livelihood—I bought a domain name for the mag. There were two solid years of issues based on a loose application of themes. Sometimes the theme for the issue was announced. Sometimes the theme was derived from some common thread in the available contributions. It was a nice game to play. Still the contributions, while coming from everywhere around the globe literally, were not that frequent. As my writing projects made more demands of my time, I was missing issues. In mid-2011 I stopped planning the issues and announcing for contributions. My short-lived personal online publishing venture had ended. But not before affording me this vantage point into the creative work especially of Filipinos and Bikolanos abroad and at home. The building of the houses of memory does not stop, anywhere, everywhere, in every language. Iyo ini, siguro ang sadiri o personal kong pagtâ-naw sa padagos na paghiwas kan sinagkuran kan pagsurat buda tataramon na Bikolnon, asin an pagtâ-naw man kan lengguwahe mismo sa kaagahon kan saiyang futuro. Kaya, bago ko malingawan, saro ngonang Maligayang Pagbati sa mga organizers ng kumperensiyang ito, buda mainit na enhorabuena sa inda sa tahaw kan aram kong sari-saring kadifisilan madagos lamang ini. Which brings us to the main points of my little discourse. Aram nindo siguro na among the writers from the regions, an sakuyang obserbasyon na ang Bikolanong parasurat an halos dai ko madangogan ki reklamo manongod sa sa sitwasyon kan tataramon buda pagsurat sa Filipinas? Bako masusupgon o mabooton ang parasurat na Bikolnon, kundi bilog an saiyang boot, an tiwala sa sadiring kakayahan na baklayon an responsabilidad kan parasurat sa sadiri, sa lengguwahe, buda sa banwa. Sa pagkaaram ko, halos gabos na mga aki pang parasurat na midbid ko, tri-lingual. Daing takot sa imperial Manila daa, garu man sana natural ang magdara o maggamit nin tolong lengguwahe, and he does it as a matter of fact, and so nonchalantly. Ining kusog ki boot na ini, ining kumpiyansang ini sa sadiring kakayahan ang sarong birtud na mahatod saiya sa mas mahiwas pang kasagkoran nin bisyon, an mas maliwanag pang kinaagahan kan Tataramon na Bikol. Here’s my little advice. Looking ahead, looking to expand horizons means to look more inside yourselves. It also means, as writers, it is looking to and into the language itself. How far has it gone since the start of the Bikol resurgence or renaissance? How, in fact, did that resurgence start? The answers to those questions are not as important as how to proceed now that you Bikolano writers have started the resurgence. We could say that the Bikol Desk at the UP National Writers Workshop helped some by exposing young writers to the rigors of a collegial critical look at the first draft of a poem or story, and it helped that those fortunate enough to attend the UP workshop submitted their works in the Bikol language. But that is as far as it goes. The continuing resurgence is at your own locomotive power and what other push or pull do you still need? First, you need language itself. That’s why I say look into Bikol and ask how else, what other elements are needed to further strengthen it? Many of you, if not all, are already writing in it. So here’s my first memorandum: 1) Take Care of Your Language. Taking care does not mean protecting it jealously from encroachment. From within or without. Taking care does not mean keeping it pure. There is no such thing as a pure language. The only pure language is a dead language. A living language grows and growth is from without and from within. Do not be afraid to borrow but be bold in the act of appropriation. Taking care means to build the language. Build it firmly and robustly. Build it with a liberal lexicon and usage. Build it by using it expansively. Build it to explore the houses of memory, build it to build memory itself. Using it expansively means bringing it to the various domains of knowledge and life. I know you know this already. Perhaps your experiences are broader than mine. You have travelled literally into farther territories and horizons, into other modes of living and professions. All the more should you write, take down notes, create your obras—stories, poems, memoires, novels. Never stop. The Internet is there for you to use in research, in comparing notes, in publishing itself. Create a blog or a website. Correspond with your friends. But I have to warn you. The Internet democratizes information and data. But it does not empower or bestow knowledge. It is a great venue or medium for the acquisition of information but it is not triggering the proper synapses for the building of knowledge, and for the refinement of knowledge and information into wisdom. It is still a machine that at this stage crudely resembles our brain, but it still has not the power to contemplate. It still has not the reflective capacity or even reflexive instinct to meditate. It cannot make Buddhas out of us. Only physical and printed books can. The printed book in its own limitations imposes a linearity to our thoughts while reading; the electronic data base of the Internet gives us snatches of information and an amalgam of undifferentiated data. Converting it into knowledge is still the work of the human brain. Therefore, write your books in the Bikol language but have them published and printed physically, in the analogue machines of Ateneo de Naga University Press or Agnus. Send them out on the Internet and cyberspace digitially, sell them if you can on Amazon or other online sellers, but the physical ink-and-paper books will still have a different effect on the knowledge and wisdom building of your readers. Take note, even Amazon will soon go back to physical stores. And the sale of books still grows t in incremental proportions as well as exponentially in both format simultaneously—digitally as well as analog. This means that people read as much from their Kindles as from hardcovers and paperbacks, both ordered from Amazon and the like. Technology does not readily replace or kill formats. The physical book still has a long way to go before extinction, whatever the digital producers or consumers say. Next we even go a bit more basic and analogue. 2) Write the New Bikol Orthography. I would also say create because now is the best time as you have the most ample resources and experience. I understand Ateneo or another institution is publishing a new edition of Lisboa’s Vocabulario de la Lengua Bikol—did I get the title right? And I understand we have extant Bikol dictionaries by Lynch and Mintz. Now is the time to start writing a modern Bikol Orthography. The language is growing and it is being used first by the most conscientious users of the language, the writer and poets. And of course it is being used by the church, and the government. I really have no exact idea to what extent. Therefore make lexicographers of yourselves, writers. Make it a parallel career or a major project. Or organize a collective. Get representatives from all the major users, geographically, the livelihoods, the professions, and all the power domains. Use all the extant dictionaries as reference and starting points to create the modern Bikol orthography. I will not prescribe how to do it, or pretend to know what specific elements it should contain, but use all the references possible, local, national, and from abroad. Orthography is not a new thing. But it is a legitimate branch of language studies. And a practical necessity for a growing and modernizing language. Orthography is the first step in codifying a language. Why do you need it? For three reasons mainly: standardization, modernization, progress. Standardization is not only for uniformity’s sake. It is for the ‘recognizability’ of words and for the differentiation between shades of meaning especially if two words sound the same. Or, if one word is used for two or several meanings. Before I give examples, I would like to shift to the third but parallel task for Bikol writers at this stage of the Bikol literary renaissance. Modernization and progress would be the objectives of the third parallel task which is to 3) Unify the Bikol Lexicon. As writers and main users of the language, you are in the pivotal position to write dictionaries. The linguists or linguistic scientists would like to arrogate to themselves the task of writing dictionaries but I would insist they not do it without the involvement of the primary users of the language, the writers. Now for the examples—which I remember mentioning similar examples in my similar role as speaker for an earlier group of Bikol writers in the past. That seems like a lifetime ago. Unification of lexicon would mean the stock vocabularies of the two groups of users of what we refer to as the Bikol language—Legazpeño and Nagueño. Even before that maybe you writers and other users of the language should decide what to officially call these two components of language based on the geographical capitals of the region. —Eño is, of course, a Spanish formation or suffix. Would you like a more “native” manner? That should be one of the more basic things to consider. Again to the examples. I remember I gave two pairs years ago, but right now I can recall only one pair: pandok and lalaogon. In the unification of lexicons this represents what we can do with existing words as a means of enriching the language. Why not use pandok to refer to the physical and visible face, and lalaogon for a “deeper” or more meaningful term to describe the face as a manifestation of the soul, which is, in fact, what it is. Thus we can say, for example, that dai ko masabutan ang pandok niya for an impenetrable facial expression, and sarong mahamis na gigidom an bumisita sa saiyang lalaogon. Isn’t that, perhaps, a richer Bikol we are speaking and writing? The way I observe in many written examples is the use of saldang and aldaw, with the former referring to the heavenly body (the sun) and the latter to the day or time period. That to me is a practical way of assigning denotations and not having to constantly distinguish between the name of the heavenly body and the name of the day if we have only one term, aldaw. And that is one way of growing the language. I am sure there are still many examples for unifying the Bikol lexicon and this is also another way we can import words from other Bikol languages or dialects to continually enrich and make practical and usable what we call the Bikol language. And borrowing is of course one of the main means of language building, but borrowing from related languages is always better than borrowing from foreign ones for quicker absorption into the mainstream and readier understandability by users. In Filipino, the classic examples are kalayaan and katarungan. You probably know the story about how Rizal got wind of at the time a neologism from Marcelo H. del Pilar, the word kalayaan. Rizal wrote his brother Paciano, while he was in Germany and translating Schiller’s play, William Tell, that he had no Tagalog word for the German freiheit (freedom) and could only think of the Spanish word libertad. But Rizal remembered Del Pilar’s Tagalog translation of one his essays where he first encounters kalayaan. The root word is extant, laya, which is related to layas and has to do with wildness. But when you reassemble the word with the prefix and suffix, kalayaan seemed just right for Rizal to translate the rather abstract German ideal of freiheit. Layas, which is familiar to us Bikols, is related to the Visayan word ilahas which is the relatively new Filipino word for wild as in wild animals, to distinguish it from the usual term mailap (elusive literally) which can apply to both humans and animals. The other early modern example I cited because it has become so familiar is katarungan, which did not exist before Lope K. Santos’ Balarila. We know the root tadong or tarong, which both mean straight and uprightness in Bisaya. Again, with the Tagalog affixes at the beginning and end of the root it performs a very formal purpose of denoting justice so we do not have to borrow the Spanish justicia. As recent as ilahas is the Ilocano rabaw and the Bikol lawas. Rabaw and lawas have been adopted into Filipino to technically denote the physical surface and body instead of just saying ibabaw and katawan. Note how easier it is to use them to designate the material surface (ang kahoy na rabaw ng mesa) and geographic bodies of water (ang malaking lawas ng tubig tulad ng Dagat Pacifico). The precision is very useful instead of incurring unintended humor as in saying ang katawan ng tubig. Our languages (Tagalog, Bikol, Bisaya) all belong to the bigger Austronesian language family of the vast Pacific area. From the examples above the wisdom of borrowing from native Filipino languages instead of from English or Spanish, with the former being of the Anglo-Saxon Germanic family and the latter a Romance language, an offshoot of Latin. It is said that an Ilocano or Kapampangan can live for one week in Naga City and learn at least conversational Bikol, but a child must make a triple or quadruple leap from his his native Bisaya or Bikol when being taught English. (Of course the proliferation of English in media lessens the difficulty, but so it does for Filipino which has become the archipelago’s incontrovertible lingua franca.) This internal borrowing must happen if we must strengthen Bikol as as literary and technical language for our region. Again, there is none more practical and empowered than writers, you and me, who can accomplish this. You might want to organize a Bikol academy for the propagation of the Bikol language, and send out researchers on Bikol terms for livelihoods, industries, and commerce, but the lead and vanguard is still the writers. 4) The fourth task is to translate, translate, translate. Perhaps one of the proofs of the maturity of a language is its ability to translate the best from any other language. The Bikol we are working on must translate between and among the other Bikol languages, must translate into or from Filipino, the national language, and into foreign languages like English or any of your preference. That is the only way you can converse with our archipelagic nation and with the world. So become translators as well, Bikol writers. Make it another parallel career. Translation has always been denigrated as a second-class citizen of sorts in literature, a parasite of the original work, an imperfect art that is always in progress. Some of great writers had their share of bad words for it. Rumi said that “Silence is the language of God. All else is poor translation.” Or as the poet Yevegeny Yevtushenko, who is not always politically correct, said: “Translation is like a woman. If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful.” Praise is given grudgingly. “Translation is the art of failure,” the semiotician Umberto Eco said. There is the classic Italian adage, “Traduttore, traditore.” Translator, traitor—for betraying to us the meaning of a language we do not know or do not speak. On the other hand, the literary philosopher Walter Benjamin called it the “afterlife” or resurrection of the original work, its recreation in a new language, not necessarily the translating or target language but a greater or ideal language which I suspect used the universal grammar imagined by Noam Chomsky. Perhaps one of the most sober descriptions comes from the leading theorist of translation today. Lawrence Venuti says, “To read a translation as a translation, as a work in its own right, we need a more practical sense of what a translator does. I would describe it as an attempt to compensate for an irreparable loss by controlling an exorbitant gain.” Well, he only means we gain more than we lose in translation. We gain understanding, we engage in the conversation between languages, we close the gulf between cultures. Imagine if there was no translation, would we know Sophocles or Aeschylus or Virgil or Dante? Would we enjoy the exquisite quatrains of Omar Khayyám’s Rubaiyat if there were no Edward FitzGerald? 5) Rethink role of language—and Bikol—in the dichotomy between science and the humanities. If we knew that Khayyám was in fact a mathematician and an astronomer while being a poet we might have to rethink the role of language in the painful divorce between science and the humanities. We must start start looking into how the Bikol language itself is or might be used in teaching or studying the sciences, technology, economics, engineering, mathematics, and all the so-called technical fields—the STEM in the curriculum—or how it can open more windows through the use of the “local imagination,” i.e., the Bikol language, in elaborating technical and scientific theories and subjects. If you must know, there several pioneers and practitioners of teaching the sciences in Filipino in Manila. One of them, wrote dictionary of economic terms in Filipino, and continues to teach the subject in a university, became KWF’s Dangal ng Wika awardee. Another, a young man, teaches math in Filipino and does so in the most sophisticated style you can imagine, with fantastic effects on students. A group of medical practitioners are compiling a dictionary of medical and surgical terms in Filipino, while a leading engineer and OFW is writing a similar dictionary for engineering and holds conferences on the use of Filipino in their profession. That is only glimpse of what is happening to the national language. Something similar must happen to Bikol if it must fulfill its responsibility in this part of the archipelago. Every language must test itself against the realities of a changing world and face the challenge not just of conveying new ideas and the intricacies of science and technology but the possibilities and risk of the loss of humanity in, for example, the complexity of astrophysics where human consciousness is nowhere considered in interplanetary travel; or closer to home, in the continuing atomization and fragmentation in global capitalism. We live in the cusp of this domination of science and math and technology in human affairs. Language, perhaps the highest manifestation of humanity in the world of the technical and abstract, must bring back that humanity, must restore the place of human consciousness now missing in the mechanistic universe and reduced mainly to being a ghost in the machine. Obviously, the last task I can see for writers is 6) To open once more the links or synaptic channels between the interior and exterior life of the people. This, for me, is the basic function of language. It is not just self-expression, nor communication, but everything brought together to enflesh the soul of a people. And in that incarnation the interior and the exterior come together, the repository of social and historical experience, of values and aspirations, becomes the self-aware and self-respecting created and creative image of the individual and society. Thus the Bikol writer shapes himself through his language. Unlike Umberto Eco’s speech-challenged character but who became a hero nevertheless, Baudolino, for whom time was an “eternity of stammers,” the Bikol writer will be an articulate voice describing and inscribing the wholeness, the memory and future of the Bikol soul. (With apologies to Italo Calvino)

LEGAZPI CITY --- The Bicol Region is now one of the top five tourist destinations in the country compared to its “sluggish” performance during the early ‘90s. “Bicol is now a promising and rosy tourist destination compared to the other areas in the country as the number of visiting tourists, particularly foreign tourists, has tremendously increased annually, said Director Maria O. Ravanilla of the Department of Tourism (DOT) regional office here. She said the region has been attracting more foreign and domestic tourists as shown by the latest records posted by the agency. DOT-Bicol records show that domestic and foreign tourist arrivals in all the six Bicol provinces and six cities in the region, that were recorded from January to June 2016, increased by 26.6 percent compared to the same period in 2015. The total number of combined domestic and foreign tourists was 2,202,003 million from January to June 2015, while for the same period, the total arrivals in the region was 2,787,719 million. In the first half of 2016, Camarines Sur, which is famous for its Caramoan group of islands, recorded the most number of combined domestic and foreign tourist arrivals with 613,062 in 2016. Albay which is known for the majestic Mayon Volcano was second with 352,483 arrivals. Camarines Norte which has become known for its powdery white sand beaches such as Bagasbas Beach and the Calaguas Group of Islands, was third with 249,988 arrivals during the first half of 2016. The records showed that for the same period, Catanduanes had 105,557 tourist arrivals, Sorsogon--86,735 and Masbate--40,651. Among the five Bicol cities that include Legazpi City, Naga City, Iriga City, Masbate City and Sorsogon City, Legazpi City, a component city which is the capital of Albay province had the most number of combined foreign and domestic tourist arrivals during the first half of 2016. The combined total tourist arrivals from January to June in 2016 in Legazpi City was 569,527, while Naga City was a close second with 560,586 total arrivals. Masbate City was third with total tourist arrivals of 106,882. But as to domestic tourist arrivals in the five cities, Naga City ranked first with 468,045 tourist arrivals during the first half of 2016 compared to Legazpi City with total visitors of 367,022. According to the tourism department, the increasing tourist arrivals in Bicol has contributed multi-billion pesos in gross receipts to the Bicol economy and generated jobs for Bicolanos in various tourism-related industries in the region, specifically in hotels, restaurants, resorts, transportation, handicrafts and entertainment sector. Ravanilla attributed the rosy tourism industry in Bicol to the joint initiatives of the private and government sectors who have been working together to build more infrastructure projects to be able to create new tourism hubs. She cited that among the five Bicol cities, Legazpi City posted the highest growth rate of 27.7 percent of combined foreign and domestic tourist arrivals in the first half of 2016, compared to the first half of 2015. Legazpi City recorded 569,527 total arrivals compared to total tourist arrivals of 445,867 for the same period in 2015. “Naga City followed with a 16.47 percent growth rate for the two periods, with 560,586 arrivals for the first half of 2016, compared to 481,304 arrivals for the same period in 2015. Ravanilla said the Legazpi City government under Mayor Noel Rosal has “fast tracked” the construction of a coastal road known as the 4.08-kilometer Legazpi City Boulevard. “The boulevard, which passes through barangays (villages) Victory, Dapdap, Puro and Lamba, contributed to boosting such growth rate,” she said. Barangay Lamba in Legazpi City connects to the Bicol International Airport in Barangay Alobo, Daraga. The groundbreaking of the new airport was attended by President Rodrigo Duterte early in December 2015. Ravanilla said this has meant more jobs, investments and more tourists for the Bicol region as a whole. “This coastal road now serves as an alternate route to decongest traffic jam from the city proper and likewise provides commuters safe access and easy transport of their marine, livestock and agricultural products to the city’s newly built commercial centers,” she said. Ravanilla said foreign investors are now eyeing Legazpi as the “most promising business and ecotourism hub in the country.” She added that in the six provinces in the Bicol region, local government officials, from congressmen, to governors and mayors, have been working together to make tourism a vibrant industry in the region. DOT-Bicol has acknowledged the private sector, specifically Bicolano business tycoon Elizaldy S. Co, chief executive officer of the Sunwest Group of Companies, who has been putting in more investments in Bicol, particularly in Albay province, so that new corridors could be developed along the coastal and upland areas of Legazpi.

LIGAO CITY --- The implementation of the government free irrigation service to farmers which took off this month drew mixed reactions from farmers, and members of irrigators association operating the various irrigation facilities in Bicol, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said over the weekend. The reactions were varied even most of the farmers and landowners welcomed the scrapping of irrigation fees being previously charged by NIA. They said such move was a blessing as the money intended for the irrigation charges may be used in upgrading and maintaining their farm lots. On the other hand, many fear that the abolition of fees will greatly affect the operation and maintenance of the facilities which are currently being managed by different irrigators associations across the region, according to Ed Yu, NIA Bicol Spokesperson. It should be recalled that free irrigation service was one of the campaign promises of then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte, Yu said. Nelia Mantes, 62, married, a riceland owner from Barangay Mahaba in Ligao City in an interview said, “dakulang bagay ini (abolition of irrigation fees) samuyang mga para-oma ta an kwarta magagamit nyamo sa ibang bagay,” (this is a big help to us as we can use the money for other farm expenses.) She said the savings generated from no payment of irrigation fees would also help in cautioning the impact of high cost of farm inputs that hundreds of farmers have to bear during each planting and cropping season. Mantes explained for each planting and cropping season, farmers are also confronted with high operational and maintenance costs which are further aggravated by the low market price offered by rice traders. Rice traders are dictating the prices of palay, with buying prices traditionally pegged at P14 a kilo.Still, farmers are discouraged from selling their produce to the National Food Authority (NFA) despite the latter’s higher buying price of P18 per kilo because of the strict and number of requirements being asked for them to comply by the agency. Ariel Buenavente, farmer and a member of an irrigators association operating in this city, said the abolition of the irrigation fee would result to disbanding of their irrigators’ association. He said the life of the association depends largely on the incentives the group gets in maintaining and operating the irrigation facilities that charge fees. The association sees to it that NIA irrigation facilities are well operated and maintained by keeping the irrigation canals in good shape and making sure that water flows to the intended beneficiary-farmlands. Peter Tiu Lavinia, NIA administrator in a recent interview, admitted that the agency would be spending P2B a year as subsidy fund for maintaining various irrigation facilities across the country. The government subsidy, according to Lavinia, would replace the almost P4B it generates from the Irrigation Service fees (ISF) collected from millions of farmers throughout the country. Lavinia, when asked how the implementation of the free irrigation would affect their budget, cited that NIA, as a government-owned and -controlled corporation (GOCC) would be losing around P13B in back accounts, collectibles for all irrigation fees, and loan amortization arising from the operation of the communal irrigation system. He said, “if mawawala itong ISF and ma condone ang mga back accounts, malaking kalugian ito sa NIA.” Lavinia disclosed that NIA is currently operating with a P38B budget where P12B of the amount go to debt servicing. NIA data show that there are 1.4M hectares of irrigated lands servicing 1.5M farmers across the county. Lavinia said that under Duterte’s term he hopes the agency could attain additional 380,000 hectares of irrigated farmlands by 2022. Of the Bicol region’s 240,000 hectares of irrigable lands, 58% or 140,000 hectares are irrigated that service about 500 irrigators’ associations.

NAGA CITY --- Jojo Villareal, nature lover and sportsman, tour coordinator and outdoor adventure organizer, and businessman (Kaddlagan Outdoor Shop & Services), said he wept upon being told by local residents and mountain dwellers that hundreds of trees marked X (see photo) are due to be cut down to give way to the construction of new roads towards proposed dams within the path of the Rangas River inside the crater of Mt. Isarog, which is within the realm of the restricted Mt. Isarog National Park, which is clearly a protected area. Sources said the dams to be constructed are part of a hydro-electric plant to be built in the area that will kill and stunt the growth of endemic trees. Concerned environmentalists wonder who gave the permission to the proposed constructions in the protected area. According to Villareal, the raw and natural beauty of the forest mountain, with the “refined relaxing rejuvenating scents of ancient pine trees thriving along the slopes of the mountain’s crater” are just one of the many irreplaceable natural wonders that may be missed if none from the lowlands would oppose the threatening road and dam construction. The orange colored rocks shown in the photo are the other unique features within the bosom of Mt. Isarog. Unknown to many, the herpetological wonders of Mt. Isarog have been internationally acclaimed as one of the Philippines’ most fragile and treasured centers of biological diversity. As a natural park, its rainforests continue to attract foreign and local scientists, and the more adventurous and yet nature loving mountain trekkers, many of them Jojo had safely guided to explore and appreciate God’s gifts without hurting any of the rare and common plant and animal species inhabiting there. Undisturbed and unaltered landscape of Mt. Isarog will help continue its noble task of shielding us from strong typhoons, preventing floods, and providing us potable water for as long as the critical portions of the vast mountain are sustained and nurtured as they are: protected areas.

NAGA City Mayor John Bongat appeals to city council the approval of sanitary landfill in San Isidro. Juan Sscandor Jr.

NEW MICROCHIP ATM. Camarines Sur Gov. Migz Villafuerte has allowed the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) with assistance from the Human Resource Management Office (HRMO) to conduct mass replacement of ATM cards of capitol employees in compliance of directive from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to safeguard ATM’s by embedding microchip memories to prevent its hacking by unscrupulous elements. JMTS/Danrey-MMEC

By Jose B. Perez, Editor First of Two parts WHAT did lovely partners Jesse Robredo and Leni, Tito Salvosa and Myrna (nee Parma), Dennis Caramoan and Vina (nee Chavez), Tony Blando and Lally (nee Requejo), and, ehem, Maria Bella Deocareza and this writer have in common before they ended up tying the knot to become happy married couples? Well, they all looked lovey-dovey with nothing else to care about every time they were on a date at the city’s favorite watering hole where the magical music of the New Soundwaves Showband would make them promise to love each other forever ahead of their church wedding vow. The other couples, even when they were already married, would also come as enchanted customers, such as entrepreneur Ower Andal and wife Melinda, businesswoman Lilibeth and her late farmer-husband Culacho Guysayko, and the countless others who live happily ever after. Surely, these couples will be coming out again on a date to relish those beautiful memories they shared because Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, even if their favorite dating restaurant had long closed its doors. Naga’s entertainment scene Naga’s nightspot habitués, especially the romantic ones and those who appreciate good entertainment, in the tradition of Manila’s standards by local talented performers, would come to Lindez Deckhouse of the then famous Lindez Hotel – downtown Naga’s finest restaurant and hotel in the 80s though the 90s -- for a generous recipe of jazz numbers and the classy beats of the Manhattan Transfer in such hits as “The Boy from New York City,” “Spice in the Night” and “Tuxedo Junction”; from the disco rhythm of “Man Eater”, “Flashdance”, to the soothing blend of voices in “Red Rose for a Blue Lady”, to “Moonlight Serenade.” Fast forward, or 35 years after, they will come live once more for a pre-Valentine Dinner Show and Reunion Concert at The Tent, Avenue Plaza Hotel here in Naga City on Sunday evening, February 12, 2017. With a happy load of memories and tales of their adventures overseas, the band will once again bring together the city’s old romantics, lovers, and music habitues for a bottomless repertoire of all-time favorites, classical pieces in a capella, RNB of the 70s, jazz rhythm and other hits of the 80s, including blockbuster songs by Abba, The Carpenters, and Madonna! It was a long wonderful journey since the band first evolved from the UNC Choral Cluster, a campus singing group under the baton of Mrs. Amelita P. Zaenz, who is lovingly referred to as Bicol’s musical diva. It soon became a four-member singing group called the Ask Family with guitar accompaniment. It morphed as the Family Connection with an electronic organ replacing the guitar. After a while it was renamed Soundwaves, and finally, the New Soundwaves Showband, with more members. The group’s first 9 members were composed of: five vocalists in the persons of Andy Belmonte, Cherry David, Ningning David-Belmonte, Val David, and Beth Guevarra; part-time deejay Rakki Delis who did the drums; Ranny Sugcang, bass; Babes Brocka, lead guitar; and Vic de Villa on the keyboard. Disband, re-group Ningning, in a newspaper interview, said there was a time when the group felt the need to disband to pursue their own personal goals and careers. But they would soon get bored with life offstage that they started calling each other up and getting their music together again. By December 1983 the group hit the stage anew with no less than the owner and operator of Lindez Deckhouse, Otom Hernandez, taking over as their manager. Otom proved to be an excellent handler of young men/women with talents as customers to his restaurant came not only for fine food but also for beer, wine and song. The re-grouped singing band undoubtedly captured the bubbly and yet discriminating taste of the city’s business class, as well as the white-collar types, both from inside and outside Naga City. It was said that as the New Soundwaves started singing, the customers quickly get enthralled, leaving the ice thawing in their drinks. Indeed, many, especially talent scouts and visiting managers from top companies in Manila who passed by Naga and dropped by Lindez Deckhouse, took notice of the group’s vast talent. No less than Celebrity Writer Crispina Martinez-Belen in her column at Manila Bulletin on Oct. 1, 1986 wrote, “Music lovers who happen to pass the night in Naga City could hear the fine music that soothes the tired body and soul in the Lindez Deckhouse of the Hotel Lindez and Restaurant. Alternating for the night are two bands, the Soundwaves and Final Edition.” It was not a long while that Naga habitues had to miss them as they toured various nightspots in Olangapo City, including a jampacked show inside the US Subic Naval Base and in Legazpi City’s Casablanca Hotel and La Trinidad Hotel. Immediately after a year, the New Soundwaves signed up contracts with famous entertainment houses overseas, such the Captain’s Cabin in Kuala Lumpur, and the posh Tanjung Aru Beah Hotel in Kota Kinabalo where one of their dinner shows was sponsored by Malaysian Air System. They soon found themselves performing under the kaleidoscopic lights of China City Night Club in Kowloon, Hongkong, and the Kennedy House in Kumamoto, Japan. The New Straits Times of Malaysia took note in its March 28, 1991 issue of the Soundwaves’ impressive talent via an article entitled “Filipino versatility is their middle name.” It made mention that the 8-piece band is a popular pop band from Bicol, in Southern Luzon, Philippines. “If you are the type that tunes in to Casey Kasem’s America’s Top 10, “Soundwaves” will not let you down. They play the latest releases by Bobby Brown and Taylor Dayne,” the Malaysian newspaper wrote. Interestingly, or rather, unfortunately, their stint in Malaysia under a three-month contract was to be their last overseas, as well as here at home in Bicol, as the group, feeling tired and hoping to make up for their personal responsibilities finally decided to disband, after 8 years and more of loving and soothing us with their music. For a while, darkness and silence fell over Naga’s otherwise lovely night entertainment scene. More on next issue.

ASIA-PACIFIC CONFERENCE. President Gilbert Albero (top photo, 2nd from left) and fellow Board members of the Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI) Miles Lim Solis (leftmost) and Joe Perez (rightmost) pose with one of the delegates in the A-PAD Philippines International Symposium 2017 at Heritage Hotel Manila. Other members of the Bicol delegation are shown in lower photo with Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, keynote speaker. The symposium, held Jan. 24, tackled the theme: Strengthening Partnerships in Communities: Making Disaster Resiliency of Vulnerable Sectors A Priority. A-PAD is the Asia-Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management with its headquarters in Japan. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

BISITA SA MGA BARANGAY. Si Bise Presidente Leni Robredo (sa too) kaibanan si Congresista Gabby Bordado kan tercer distrito kan CSur (ika-apat hale too), pakatapos maglamasa si ‘Nina’ sa Bikol nagbisita sa mga residentes na nag-eestar harani sa mga seawall sa mga barangay sa Calabanga na proyecto kan VP kan siya congresista pa kan tercer distrito. Kaulay niya si Brgy. Kapitan Edgar Sargento kan Sibobo (naka-kopya) asin Consejal Danny Campil (sa wala), kabale sa saindang binisita iyo an Brgy. Belen asin Sabang. (DPA)