This is still Column Writing 101B, a little bit advanced from 101A. The course description in here is that you have to compose your mind, grab a bondpaper at home and write down your thoughts. Then later, go to your office which has a stand by generator, encode what you have written and e-mail it to the editorial office. In Column Writing 101A, you have to finalize your column and type it in a bondpaper and deliver that hard copy to the editorial office. This column here today belongs to 101B under the so-called Emergency Power Arrangement (EPA). A lower version of power rationing. As of press time, yours truly is still under a power blackout as Lindaville Subdivision Phase II still does not have electricity since last Tuesday evening. Bohol Light said there are now two generating units operating in Dampas, but we still have to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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We are confronted with the power crisis and the lack of water supply especially on drinking water from the refilling stations. In the power crisis alone, many of us are into panic-buying of generators. Local stores immediately pumped up their prices. A 1,000 megawatt (mw) generator which was usually priced at P7,000 is now sold at P9,500 while a 3,000mw generator which was sold at P15,000 is now at P19,000. IN purchasing for rechargeable electric fans and flash lights and kerosene, consumers also complain of an outright price hike as people started to panic-buying also. We do hope Gov. Edgar Chatto will include these concerns as he presides the price monitoring gathering tomorrow morning here.

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The EPA is quite effective in the lack of water supply. In Tagbilaran City, the rush for water supply has already gone down. It is on the supply of potable and drinking water thast we are into panic-buying too. Water re-fillers have increased their prices per gallon from the usual P20 to as high as P50 as most of them have closed business due to the EPA. In both power crisis and the lack of supply for drinking water, we have seen voltures and leeches rearing its very ugly heads. These people always see an opportunity for every crises. But that is simply greed in all its respect.

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Bohol has been looked upon due to the piety of its people. This was best displayed as Yolanda spared the province from its wrath. The message of the Intensity 7.2 earthquake to the Boholano faithful was also quite clear. But these voltures and leeches in our midst will have to diminish our religiosity as a people. We want to be Christians on Sundays and in times of calamities. But on Mondays to Saturdays, we are into our usual self of aspiring for more, more and more money at the expense of other people.

Are we really that religious?

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We have pointed out in several issues ago, that these voltures and leeches are scattered in every nook and corner of the province including Bohol’s tourism. You have to notice how exorbitant are the charges of our laborers at the city pier and at the airport, our tricycle and van drivers who demand higher fares for both domestic and foreign tourists. The unscrupulous tour guides who demanded commissions from hotels and restaurants who in turn add it on to their rates, tc, etc. And we are not even talking about the government yet.

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POSTSCRIPT: As the campaign period for the local barangay elections started last Friday, we are very much interested in the race for Punong Barangays in the 15 barangays in the city come Nov. 25. It goes down to a showdown between the past and present city dispensation. For example, in Dampas. It will be a neck-to-neck fight between former city administrator Ed Macalandag and former City Kagawad Edgar Bompat. It will be a battle between the “Macalandag” style (identified with Ex-Mayor Dan Lim) and Bompat’s famous line “nobody loves a loser” of Mayor Baba Yap. We will also see if the former city mayor will not unleash all his forces in the battle between his wife, Dr. Sharleen and Maxi Cornell, a protégée of Mayor Yap in Dao district. More on the barangay elections when we return.