This time it was jealousy

A columnist of an Ilocos Norte newspaper was shot dead at the public market of Pasuquin town Friday. The killing took place in the presence of his daughter who was able to identify the gunman. I don't know how the national and international press organizations will treat this case, if the reports on what had led to the shooting are to be believed, despite the fact that Steve Bareiro was described as a hard-hitting columnist.

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The police are said to be focusing on the possibility that jealousy, and not his actual work as a journalist, had been the cause of the killing. The suspect is reported to be the former husband of the woman who was living in with Bareiro, and the gunman probably continued to resent this, and must have wanted his wife back. But of course this is being reported as an addition to the growing list of media killings in this country, which is getting a bad name for the state of journalism here.

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A piece of good news, however, is the announcement that P131 billion worth of infrastructure is in the works before the end of this administration. This will mean more roads and bridges, and other projects that will surely improve the lives of people and facilitate businesses. They also include improvements of seaports and airports, that may be the gift of the Aquino administration before it passes on. Or it could have been decided on after it was revealed that the government had been underspending and still has a lot of funds that could have gone to various projects.

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While we in Bacolod hope to get a share of those projects, let us pray that they will not be derailed upon implementation by some flimsy excuses like those given for the unreasonable refusal to approve the construction of flyovers in the traffic-heaviest parts of the city. Or also delayed and causing more inconvenience to residents like the order to stop the repair of the Buri Road that had been bewailed by motorists. Maybe some people were advised about the political effects of the stoppage, hence the abrupt change of mind.

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Reports said recently that now, 70 percent of the members of the Manila Police Force are on street patrol. How irked those cops must be after enjoying the comforts of their air-conditioned offices for years now, and being assigned to do paper work. The new Philippine National Police Chief must be of the old-fashioned type of cop – who believes they should be out watching the masses of people, and on the alert for any crime, petty or big ones. Let us hope he gives the same order to police units all over the country.

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They must also have their own versions of initiations, or hazings, but surely not as deadly as those held in some colleges and universities of our country have been. A wire report from the famous West Point Academy of the United States said that several cadets were hurt during a “pillow fight” that they held to mark the end of their training. Now, a pillow fight should be the most harmless fight you would expect, but some cadets slipped some hard objects inside the pillows, that really hurt some members. As strict as West Point is known to be, I bet the guilty ones will be identified, and probably dismissed. And serves them right.

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The APEC season is nearing, and some media entities are recalling what happened the last time the prestigious Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference was held in this country, which was in 1996. What interested me most about the articles on it were the ones about the villas that were built in a very exclusive part of Subic, intended for the use of the heads of state who attended. Carla Gomez and I, who represented the DAILY STAR, were among the few provincial journalists accredited to cover the event and could only see those villas from a distance, so strict was security. But when the conference was over, we were able to see how really beautiful and luxurious they were. But we heard that the supposed tenants spent not more than 12 hours in them.

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Well, that's the Filipino way of showing off, and maybe it did impress our visitors who included the likes of US president Bill Clinton, the Sultan of Brunei, and other world leaders. By the way, the villas have since been sold to private persons. I bet they wrangled for the right to buy the one Clinton had stepped (not slept) in.*

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