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BY HERBERT VEGO
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Sunday, October 8, 2017
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THE OPPORTUNITY has come for Jose Espinosa III, the acting mayor of Iloilo City, to demonstrate political will. He did it the other day by spearheading the demolition of 30 ukay-ukay stalls that had emerged at the Jaro Plaza on the pretext of raising funds for needy senior citizens in observance of the Senior Citizens Month throughout October.
While he expressed sympathy to the stall owners who had allegedly paid P4,000 to the Iloilo City Association of Community Elders, Inc., Espinosa stood his ground: The permit he had issued to association president Ronbe Fernandez was for selling pottery, garden ornaments, locally made ready-to-wears, and kitchen accessories, not secondhand ukay-ukay. On hindsight, the permit should never have been issued at all.
The acting mayor should brace himself for more influence peddlers from the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) of Jaro who are expected to approach him for authority to organize the Jaro Agro-Industrial and Charity Fair come the Christmas month of December until the Jaro fiesta on Feb. 2, 2018.
Last year’s celebration of the same event, let us recall, placed the ABC-Jaro in bad light for having awarded an exclusive contract to Marille Recreation Center to put up feria and carnival rides in exchange for a fee of P320,000.
Favored merchandisers sold ukay-ukay wears, souvenirs, plants, food and drinks for an average fee of P5,000 per stall.
Sometime this week, Councilor Joshua Alim warned against allowing the ABC-Jaro to repeat the anomaly, citing the Local Government Code that prohibits the closure of public plazas except on special some occasions where closure is limited to only three days. Moreover, Presidential Decree 1216 provides that parks are for public use and therefore “beyond the commerce of men.”
The Jaro Plaza is now set for rehabilitation, which should have already begun. One remembers that, in February this year, Rep. Jerry P. Treñas broke the news that, in accordance with a law he had authored, the Jaro Plaza would be restored to its original grandeur, and that renowned architect Augusto “Toti” Villalon had already drafted the restoration plan.
The Jaro Plaza Complex is one of seven heritage sites covered by the Treñas-authored Republic Act 10555. The rest are the Jaro Cathedral, Molo Church, Molo Plaza Complex, Iloilo City Central Business District, Fort San Pedro, and the Plaza Libertad Complex.
The date of origin of the Jaro Plaza, already renamed Graciano Lopez Jaena Park – though not popularly known as such – could not be ascertained. But it must have been in the 1870s, or shortly after the construction of the Jaro Cathedral in 1874, since the standard practice of the Spanish missionaries and the Spanish government was to establish a plaza across each Roman Catholic Church.
Iloilo’s two great heroes, Graciano Lopez Jaena and Gen. Martin Delgado, were frequent strollers at the plaza in the 1880s when they were students of the nearby San Vicente de Ferrer Seminary. A statue of Lopez Jaena now stands at the west side of the park near the belfry. On the east side is the large gazebo with his name printed on top.
Since the Jaro Plaza has evolved from its original Spanish-vintage landscape, the various available old pictures of the plaza could not be sole basis for restoration. But based on those pictures, there is not much change in the location of the bandstand, benches, walkways, and lush ornamental plants and flowers. As architect Villalon disclosed to this writer, there is now a need to elevate it from its flood-prone ground level.
The law mandates the Tourism Infrastructure Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) to fund and undertake the reconstruction of the Jaro Plaza. And so to TIEZA, wake up and buckle down to work, now na. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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Ni Ime Sornito
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Syudad sang ILOILO – Patay ang isa sa duha ka high-value targets sa pagduso sang ilegal nga droga kag subjects sa warrant of arrest para sa kaso nga two counts of murder sa operasyon sang Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 6 sa Barangay Ticud, La Paz alas-3:34 sang hapon kahapon. Gindeklarar nga dead-on-arrival sa West Visayas Medical Center si Aslani Ansari alyas Boy nga nakaagom sang pilas sa lawas. Na-aresto naman ang upod sini nga si Alex Mapandi alyas Angari/Agie, 31. Sandig sa report halin kay Senior Supt. Marlon Tayaba, hepe sang CIDG-6, upod ang mga katapo sang Special Weapons And Tactics kag Iloilo City Police Office, plano nila nga i-serbe ang warrant of arrest para sa kaso nga two counts of murder kontra sa duha sang nagluntad ang insidente. Ginapasuni nga nagbatu si Ansari paagi sa pagtiro sa isa sa mga katapo sang CIDG-6 rason nga na-puersa ang mga otoridad nga magbalos kabangdanan sang iya kamatayon. Narekober naman sa paghinakop sang duha ang duha ka mga pusil kag pila ka plastic sachets sang ginapatihan shabu. Sa interbyu naman sang mga katapo sang media kay Senior Insp. Rey Sumagaysay, hepe sang La Paz PNP, sanday Ansari kag Mapandi ang ginatudlo mga suspek sa pagpatay paagi sa pagsunog sa isa ka Muslim nga nasapwan nga naputos sa plastic sa circumferential road sa Brgy. Balabago, Jaro sang tinalikdan nga bulan./H
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