“Working like a dog” in the past two years for the people of third district, Rep. Arthur Yap poises as the toughest candidate to challenge in 2013 after delivering a flawless stint. In desperation to topple Yap’s political stronghold in the 19 towns of third district, aspiring challengers is left with no choice but to resort to lies in a well-packaged black propaganda. After failing to spot any flaw in Yap’s stint of service to the people of third district, the challenger had to recycle issues that had already been answered years ago. In fact, Yap had no direct involvement in the issues on rice importation; while the issue hurled against the contract to procure state-of-the-art multifunctional ice- making machines intended to benefit farmers, fisherfolk, and consumers had already been answered by then National Agribusiness Corp.  spokesperson, Lawyer Kathyrin Pioquinto even in 2010 yet.

For freelancers from Loon and a colleague in another town identified with politicians interested to dethrone Yap in the third district to delve on the issues now, the motive is obviously not to protect the people from corruption because there has never been corruption traced in the deal. For these freelancers, who never get interested on the issue when it first cropped up, to suddenly become interested, the obvious motive is to create a crack in Yap’s smooth-sailing brand of public service that benefitted all the constituents in the third district of Bohol. “Moving on to get Yap’s position, as a way to political advancement is selfish motive to linger in politics and not to serve the people, for how could a conscientious person exert efforts to create a crack on a smooth-sailing and corruption-free stint of a neophyte congressman,” this is the consolidated reaction of Yap’s supporters after reading write-ups on unfounded issues recently published in a local tabloid. Yap, for his part, called on the people to carefully discern the truth and the lies in the articles manufactured by political opponents who are interested on his position despite the clamor of the constituents of third district to retain him as their representative to the Congress.

RECYCLED ISSUE

A recycled issue, but a good topic to get attention. Some freelancers might have thought the rice importation issue works this way. Indeed, it caught attention, but only to make the public realize that the freelancer had been short of research. Yap had been blamed by freelancers, who are not even privy on the issue, in what had been indirectly concluded as over-importation of rice years ago as the reason for tons of rice rotting in the NFA warehouses. However, they overlooked that Congressman Yap had already answered that particular issue right after the 2010 SONA when the same issue was raised. Short of research, the detractors also failed to elaborate that the volume of rice to be imported is not solely decided by the secretary of agriculture. It is actually decided upon by an inter-agency committee composed of heads of the Department of Budget and Management, Department of Finance, Department of Trade and Industry, Land Bank of the Philippines, and private sector representatives.

These officials, obviously, has no stake in the 3 rd district congressional derby. It must be the reason that the detractors never dragged them on the issue. From the point of view of lawyers reacting to the topic, Congressman Yap can no longer be made to comment on the current status of rice importation, since the former agriculture secretary has “no access on government data used for rice importation during the last two years”. It would only be highly speculative and it will just add to the confusion, if he would be asked to explain on issues that he never had any involvement. “In fact, this issue had already been dwarfed by the latest report on the biggest haul of 42-million-peso worth of smuggled rice from Vietnam and earlier the 420,000 bags of smuggled rice from India worth 500 million pesos, both at the port of Subic. These had been recently intercepted by the Bureau of Customs at the Port of Subic,” according to one of the lawyers reacting on the issue.

She said, the detractors should have researched further to prove knowledgeable and credible, especially that these freelancers only pop up at the atmosphere of rivalry among politicians. A full stock knowledge could have made the detractors believable, instead of sounding like trying hard know-it-all opinion makers, especially when they implied that Loboc is zero poverty-incidence level as the reason that there is no recipient of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program in the town, according to the reactor. In this case, the DSWD should show facts and figures to prove that Loboc is zero poverty; because early this year, a tragedy hitting a poor family from Loboc touched the heart of the governor. The story on the gruesome killing of a lass from Loboc is in the newspapers.

FREEZER ISSUE WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE

The desperate politicians behind the resurrection of this recycled issue forgot that the local government unit of Loon had even adopted the technology which is now benefitting the fisherfolk in storing their catch. It had been put on record also that during one of the consultative meetings of the governor with officials of coastal towns and stakeholders in the fishing industry in the effort to solve the high prices of fish in the province, Loon Mayor Lloyd Lopez and other mayors expressed interest on the state-of-the-art multifunctional ice-making machines. Moreover, then National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor) spokesperson Kathyrin Pioquinto had already pointed out a few years ago that the issue against the state-of-the-art multifunctional ice-making machines had just been raised by some groups to gain publicity and national attention in a run-up to the 2010 elections in the guise of ideology. It had also been found out years ago yet that the issue had just been fabricated. In fact, Pioquinto already pointed out in 2010 yet that these schemers are “like comparing apples and oranges” in comparing conventional ice making machines now used in the country with the cutting-edge equipment to be supplied by the winning bidder—Refrigeration System and Services, Inc.  (IRSSI)—that are multifunctional, mobile, ecology-friendly and cost-efficient freezers using the revolutionary brine immersion freezing (BIF) and liquid quick freeze (LQF) technologies.

One of the press releases of DA even quoted Pioquinto as explaining that the superb features of these IRRS equipment utilizing the revolutionary technology allows people to instantly freeze and preserve the quality and freshness of agricultural produce for as long as six months to a year. Moreover, there has been no overpricing involved and the public bidding done by the Nabcor’s Bidding and Awards Committee (BAC) then was in conformity with all rules and regulations as provided by law. “And because there is no overpricing or bid rigging, then there is no ground whatsoever for the plunder charge,” Pioquinto even pointed out that time. Unlike conventional ice-making machines, she said the technology provided by IRSSI can store agricultural produce like fish, meat, non-leafy vegetables and fruits in Styrofoam boxes for two to three days without ice, with the quality and freshness of these commodities remaining the same as during the day these were caught or harvested and then frozen through the LQF method. If these commodities are placed inside standard refrigerators or freezers after being frozen in BIF freezers, these can last from six months up to one year and still preserve the quality of these goods, she said.

Taking off from existing US and Japanese technology, a Filipino inventor—Hernando Decena—is behind this new invention. This postharvest program had been intended to “not only further raise farm yields, but also increase the incomes of farmers and fisherfolk by slashing postharvest losses that eat into their profits. For instance, small fisherfolk or fishpond owners who are forced to sell their catch cheap in times of supply gluts or super typhoons can preserve their catch through these BIF machines and then sell them when supply and prices stabilize. “Consumers will also benefit because they get to buy food at premium quality and freshness even during super typhoons or large-scale power outages,” she said. “Producers using these BIF equipment can also sell their goods at cheaper prices because of their reduced transportation and handling expenses.” She said this new technology would soon prove indispensable in this era of climate change, when strong typhoons and massive flooding lead to massive power outages, food supply shortfalls and high food prices.