A crucial day for Negrenses

This is going to be crucial day as far as Negros Occidental politics is concerned. A meeting that is perceived to be a make-or-break one is scheduled in Manila today where the top political leaders of the province will decide who will be the team leader of their party in the 2013 gubernatorial election. Reports say the decision will come from the six congressmen of the province, but, the way it looks, they may end with an impasse, because the six are said to be equally divided between the aspirants for the post. Well, the day will probably not be over before we find out. Let us pray that they come to the right decision.

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Bully for Senator Antonio Trillanes! Now he is articulating what many people, especially those concerned about Philippine Sports, are thinking. Trillanes has frankly declared that it is about time the sports leaders are replaced with those with a vision for the future of sports in the country. Trillanes must have been appalled also by the miserable showing of our athletes in the recent Olympic Games. But, will the oldies give up without bloodshed? That may be too harsh a word to use, but the intrigues that may develop could be nothing short of that. By the way, somebody said the other day that after the Philippine team won the Jones Cup in Taipei, a noted credit-grabber in the sports scene has been going around telling people he was the one responsible for fielding and inspiring the winning boys! Still true to form, isn’t he?

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Meanwhile, it is good to hear that the Commission on Election is taking a closer look at the Party List groups and the people planning to seek election to congress under them. So far, we have so many who have been making a mockery of the intent of the law that established it. We have groups supposed to represent marginalized, or disadvantaged people, but, are now represented by millionaires, businessmen, or “graduated” public officials. It has gotten so that the Party List method has become a shortcut for wealthy and influential people to get into Congress and have a hand in proposing or passing laws that benefit their interests. What a pity.

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President Benigno Aquino has just signed into law an act that empowers local civil registrar to correct errors in birth certificates without having to seek a court order to do so. Republic Act No. 10172, that was signed only on August 19, amends Republic Act 9048, that only specifies entries on first names and nicknames as within the authority of the civil registrar. The new law has not caught much attention from the media, but it will solve a lot of problems for people who have been having problems with their birth certificates.

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As for me, it immediately attracted my interest because I know of a case where the family had been desperate because of an error in the birth certificate of a member. Somebody who works for us told us about the problem of his brother who could not land a job because of errors in his birth certificate. The family lives in a distant barangay in southern Negros and the child was delivered by a “paltera” or midwife, who took care of registering him. Although the child was a boy, the name the midwife placed on his registration was “Jennifer”.

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Somehow, “Jennifer” went through school using that name, and one can only imagine how much ribbing he got from classmates about having such an obviously feminine name. He didn’t mind – until the time came when he applied for a job as a security guard, and the company questioned his gender. Nothing he could say to explain was accepted, and he was advised to see a lawyer so a court order could be sought for the change of name.

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The bigger problem was that they were told that it would cost P15,000 to go through the process, and where would this poor family get that kind of money? The poor man had to go on standby. But now, with this development, “Jennifer” will get a man’s name at last. Maybe they will call him John or Jethro? Or they could compromise and call him “Loreto”.

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A wire report said that famous pianist Van Cliburn is suffering from an advanced bone cancer and the prognosis does not look good. The item said Cliburn become famous after winning the prestigious piano competition in Moscow at the age of 23. It also said he won several awards like the Grammy and the Presidential Medal of Honor. But why did it not mention that he was a dear friend of Imelda Marcos?*

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