Did she really
steal the jewelry?

Did Vivencia Alingalan, 55, a Barangay Palaka faith healer, really steal the P7.9 million worth of jewelry from a widow in Barangay Tangub, Bacolod City, this March?

Police recovered P7.9 million worth of jewelry from her residence in the Valladolid barangay. But they still have to recover the rest from those to whom she had reportedly entrusted them.

It’s funny, as I had earlier said, that the complainant had given to her the jewelry of so much worth. Naive, I initially said. But it seems that the faith healer may have mesmerized the widow of an American, now deceased.

But if her victim was naïve, Vivencia is just as naïve to had kept the jewelry in her own residence. That gives the police the chance to charge her with theft.

C’est la vie in Bacolod.

***

The political season is on. That’s the impression one gets with the recent threat of Jose Max Ortiz to file a multi-million pesos libel suit against Provincial Board Member Nehemias de la Cruz for statements allegedly uttered over the radio against him.

But one immediately suspects the political timing of the Ortiz suit because he hinted shortly after he had transferred his residence to Don Salvador Benedicto that will run there in the next local election.

Since Ortiz seems to have settled on both Nene and Marxlen (the mayor), you can be sure the suit is going to be both interesting and dramatic. The De la Cruzes, father and son, are not running away from a fight. And there is going to be a bruising one that is shaping between Ortiz and the father and son tandem.

***

But there is something worse in Iloilo where a lady contractor from Manila had told a local newspaper that she has been trying to recover from Cong. Augusto Syjuco of the 2nd district P3.8-million he had allegedly borrowed from her and also trying to recover two brand new vehicles she had lent to Boboy (Syjuco).

I guess that, too, is going to end up with Syjuco filing a libel case against Adeli Santos of Union Square Condominium of 15th Avenue, in Cubao, Quezon City.

What makes me suspect that there is something wrong with that tale is Syjuco is supposedly one of the richest members of the House.

She claims that she intends to file charges against Syjuco and Rosemarie Sionosa to whom she also delivered several pieces of jewelry to Syjuco’s special secretary.

She claimed that the solon had promised to give her a construction project in the second district of Iloilo but failed to live up to his promises.

Well, as I had earlier said, that’s a sign of the political season now being on.

***

The Sugarcane Development Fund of Rep. Albee Benitez interned to file yesterday is supposed to contain a provision that will require that the 15 percent value added tax on sugar be used finance the sugarcane development fund. This will reportedly hasten the diversification of the sugarcane industry.

I still have to see a copy of the measure Benitez intended to file yesterday. But I suppose that since it had passed the scrutiny of sugar leaders, there must be something really worth studying there.

What is surprising is that nobody had thought of tapping the VAT to subsidize the sugarcane development fund.

Had the idea been introduced years back, the sugarcane industry must now be thriving without fear of going under with the introduction of zero tariff by 2015.

For example, just the use of the ACEF to subsidize the Philsurin projects did wonders for the industry. And that was only for a limited period of time.

But still, with barely two years left for the sugarcane industry to be able to produce byproducts for alcohol, etc. perhaps, the country may still be salvaged from collapse. The industry has enough geniuses to be able to engage in such diversification of the projects. Right now, for example, despite the barriers to full utilization on ethanol zero tariff on biofuel, the ethanol industry is back on stream.

The thing to be careful with is that all the incentives and stimuli must be clearly explained so that there will be no miscalculations nor bureaucratic red tape that could sabotage laudable objectives of the bill.

That is why it is important that Albee distributes copies of the bill at the earliest time possible to encourage more brains to add to the inputs so that there is a clear signal to what the government actually means by the measure. Time is running out on us. We cannot afford any further delays.*

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