Polibiz
Bird flu scare, a hoax
Those who spread the prank text and e-mail messages recently that chickens in Western Visayas were infected with bird-flu virus could be rivals of manokan restaurants in Bacolod and Iloilo.
As a result of the systematic black propaganda, many of my friends in Bacolod who own manokan and asalan kiosks in the reclamation area have incurred losses beyond imagination. Regular customers have gone to other 'safer' restaurants nearby and temporarily avoided their favorite inasal nga manok.
Authors of the very damaging texts have also destroyed the manokan business in some parts of Negros and Iloilo and nearly wiped out the industry had it not been for the timely intervention of the Negros provincial government and the Department of Agriculture.
It is very sad to note that in our region, some jealous rivals in business could concoct lies after lies and succeed in making a mountain out of a molehill.
By the way, manok inasal is one of my favorite native foods since high school. When I was a teenager in Bacolod City, I used to eat sinugba manok a lot.
When I worked in Manila, I continued to patronize chicken wherever I went-chicken tenola, chicken sinugba, etc.
When news spread that our chickens could have been contaminated by bird-flu (which turned out to be a hoax), I was one of those who were saddened. I was sad for my friends and former barkadas in Bacolod whose means of livelihood is selling manok inasal in the neighborhood and outside beer houses.
Now that the bird-flu scare is over (at least according to the Department of Agriculture), I heaved a sigh of relief like most Negrenses living in a hand-to-mouth existence through selling manok.
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While on board M/V Saint Peter of the Negros Navigation (NN) last Sunday (November 13) on my way to Manila, I saw Presidential Adviser on Agriculture Oscar Garin on board the same commercial vessel.
I was befuddled why a multi-millionaire and prominent Ilonggo politician would take an inter-island ship in going to Manila when he has all the money in the world to buy a plane ticket.
I learned later from a journalist friend in Iloilo City that Garin has been going to and fro Manila on board a commercial ship since time immemorial; since he was still a congressman representing the first district of Iloilo.
Garin, who absorbed a devastating political defeat that nearly wounded his pride to Gov. Niel D. Tupas, Sr. in the 2004 gubernatorial elections, reportedly prefers to take the boat than a plane in going to Manila.
It's a pity that I never had the opportunity to have a conversation with the six-footer engineer-turned-politician during our 22-hour trip from Iloilo pier to Manila North harbor for a very obvious reason.
I could have inquired how he would deal with the situation if, now that he is a Malacañang official, he would be summoned to the Palace by his boss, Pres. Gloria Arroyo to attend an urgent meeting while he is tending his farm in Guimbal, Iloilo.
Now that he is a presidential adviser, Undersecretary Oscar Garin will be obliged to go to Metro Manila every now and then.
If he decides to reside in Manila while serving as presidential adviser, he could spare himself the unnecessary fatigue and stress of ferrying from Iloilo to Manila vise versa on a long journey via the commercial ship.
For the meantime, he could say goodbye to his life as a farmer and concentrate on his job as presidential adviser.