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Bencyrus Ellorin

“… a poor player

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That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.” -Shakespeare in Macbeth

THEIR tenacious vilification has enjoined me to answer false claims by two stooges, one is a Facebook backbiter, the other using his newspaper column as gun-in-the-holster, and yes, recycling.

 Columnist Ben Contreras ran a five-series column which he claimed was his reply to my “unprovoked” tirade against him on Facebook. Wrong. I did not go after him, but challenged his associate Bob Ocio to an informed debate and stop backbiting. Birds of the same feather share the same feeling.

This columnist belabored old points, longesolved issues. He actually submitted a column circa 2014. He should have rested the issue of conflict of interest of his other associate Ralph Abragan. Abragan, records show, was replaced by Sulog, a civil society organization as its representative to the City Mining Regulatory Board (CMRB), in 2014 for conflict of interest. He should have saved his friend the agony of reliving a past wound so his associate can focus on answering the “show cause” order on why his mountain quarry should not be suspended because of multiple Environmental Compliance Certificate violations, among others.

I would also love to give this columnist a dictionary because he obviously does not understand the meaning of  “conflict of interest.” Until now, he denies that his friend, a quarry operator, was removed from his post as a civil society member in the CMRB because of conflict of interest.

The issue was simple: Abragan was asked by Sulog, the civil society organization that delegated him to be its representative to the CMRB, to dispute evidence from one of the lawyers of 1st district Rep. Klarex Uy that he operates  a sand and gravel quarry. When he failed to contest the evidence, Sulog found it wise to replace him. Contreras said in his column that lawyer Evangeline Carrasco had cleared Abragan on the quarry issue but he did not show proof. Whatever, Sulog did not clear him for conflict of interest.

Furthermore, Contreras in his infinite wild wisdom said that “Atty. Giovanni…” obviously referring to Atty. Giovannie Catli, who is a member of the CMRB, should also step down. Wrong. Atty. Catli represents the sand and gravel operators in the board. So there is no conflict of interests.

Further adrift, he claimed to have substituted for Abragan in CMRB meetings as a media representative. He cannot. There is no media representative in the CMRB. It was a clear case of misrepresentation.

Contreras calls those who disagree with him as paid hacks and/or apologists. To be exact, he calls them “ATM Boys.”

I have been in and out journalism in the last 25 years or so. I so respect this vocation. I left in 1999 when I became deeply involved in the anti-logging, climate change, anti-coal advocacy and partisan politics. I came back after the 2010 elections. I edited The Corridor, became a senior editor of the Peninsula Qatar as head of its online operations and South Asia Bureau at Subic in 2011. In 2012, I joined the Inquirer Group as a senior editor assigned as Associate Editor of the Cebu Daily News. I left the Inquirer Group in March 2015 to join government. Since then, I consider myself a former journalist, retired from journalism.

Ocio repeatedly called me a pseudo journalist in his social media backbites. Something I learned only from print screens shared to me by friends. Buddha bless him!

Columnists in the strict sense are not journalists. The opinion page is an open space within a newspaper. The works of journalists are found in the news, sports and features pages. Many senior newspaper journalists, however have the privilege of writing column or opinion pieces along with opinion writers or pundits.

Contreras, I understand, passes himself as a journalist. When I reiterated my “retirement” from journalism in a Facebook post last June, he asked how so? I still write a newspaper column.

I do not have problem with his claim to be a journalist, even If I knew he worked for a mining firm doing exploratory work in Barangay Dansolihon.

Why he calls those who disagree with him “ATM Boys” and/or apologists, may be a result of his narrow appreciation of the media as an institution. Maybe, he congregated too much with ATM Boys, he thought anyone with an opinion are paid hacks. If indeed he is a genuine journalist, he should live by the basic discipline of backing opinion, conjecture or what-have-you with facts–evidence.

It is clear to me that Contreras is using his newspaper column as a gun-in-the-holster. I have studied the issues he has been advocating in his opinion pieces and it fits to a certain political agenda and some other personal interests.

This guy was consistently attacking the city hall using the cases Mayor Oscar Moreno were facing. He stopped when the Ajinomoto case was dismissed. He suddenly became silent like a videoke machine running out of P5 coins. He felt silent when the paid online trolls of the violet camp were also gone.

His noise however did not disappear totally. There were occasional jabs at then DENR regional director Ruth Tawantawan. It turned out, his associate, Abragan, applied for the position of Tawantawan.

And now he is back with guns ablaze, obviously playing to the game plan of the defeated political camp or camps to make the Jan. 16 flood a political issue, perhaps drawing parallels to “Sendong” which started the demise of the violet era at city hall.

Along with Ocio, they are forcing the quarrying and anti-mining issues. Poor pundits they are and betrayed by self-interests–they are attacking city hall on one of its strengths. They attack the City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (Clenro) on an aspect where its resources, focus and performance are anchored on.

I would stand by the working assumption we had with leaders of Task Force Kinaiyahan that the illegal hydraulic mining and illegal sand and gravel quarrying have been reduced by 80 percent.

Late last year, two issues that city hall admitted to be most difficult were traffic and garbage. With the new City Council and substantial budgetary support, Moreno was unequivocal in telling the City Hall bureaucracy of over 4,000 warm bodies that 2017 is full of work. Budgetary limitations due to unreasonable cuts cannot be used as reason anymore.

In his birthday message, an impassioned Moreno underscored the need for all at city hall to develop a culture of service and to take on difficult challenges like his taking the housing and settlement issue by the horn.

Had it not been for self-interests in sand and gravel and mining, and if they are indeed genuine critics, and advocates of the environment and good governance, they could have pounded on the issue of garbage. Now, they are trying to shift to garbage, but it is too late, dudes.

City hall has already started addressing the garbage issue. In less than a month, the Task Force Basura has made its mark: mobilizing barangay council for efficient garbage collection and actual clean-up drives. With sufficient budget now, the IPM is hiring more hands so that in no time the garbage problem is solved. And comes June, the landfill at Upper Dagong, Carmen will be closed and the new, RA 9003 (Solid Waste Management Act) compliant garbage facility, will be opened in Barangay Pagalungan.

But we should expect farce advocates to keep on quacking. They are indubitably good at it, and also in recycling.

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