PAYOLA SA PERYA

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

It seems the earlier media report on the outrageous shooting incident at Carmen, Rosales Pangasinan between an irate pick-up driver (a Quezon City businessman) and the driver of an air-conditioned Solid North Bus bound to Manila was not complete.

A trike driver in Carmen told me the other day that it was not the pick-up truck that broke the rear –mirror of the bus (oo nga naman, mataas ang location ng mirror para mabangga pa ng pick up - MCO) but it was the bus that gashed the smaller vehicle.

“Kaya binato noong galit na driver ang rear mirror noong bus” thus the confrontation between the conductor of the Solid North and the offending pick-up driver that resulted for the foot of the former to be overran by the pick-up truck.

“Dahil doon binaril ng pick up driver iyong driver ng bus na may dala-dalang dalawang bato sa magkabilang kamay na pahangos sa kanya,” my source told me.

Media reported that that the furious pick-up truck driver pumped bullets of .45 caliber handgun as the bus driver taunted him to shoot him.

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During the Talong Festival in Villasis town, I heard broadcasters Joel Balolong and Ike Palinar lambasting in their prime time program at Aksiyon Radyo the administration of the town mayor Dita Abrenica.

The beef of the duo was why would the officials of the mayor announced to the public that the festival was exclusively to be covered by the national media as the local practitioners were barred to cover it. Was this accusation, rehashed by Balolong and Palinar on the following morning program, true Mayor Dita?

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My source at the police reacted to the expose’ of the T-3 at TV-5 on the proliferation of illegal two-ball, three-ball, color games, beto-beto, video karera and others at Peryas (fun fair) that victimized school children all over Pangasinan.

He deplored why T-3 singled out these games when the police have been raiding them in different towns like Mangatarem, Lingayen, and others days before the Tulfo brothers at T-3 exposed them.

“Many of the nine (9) cities and towns where bettors gambled the Tulfo brothers showed to the public were old TV footages,” he said.

He cited only the cities of San Carlos and Urdaneta and the towns of Alcala and Mangatarem were caught red handed with the illegal games while the rest were rehashed.

“Why singled out Pangasinan when other provinces in Luzon have similar games brazenly played even along the national highways, iyong mga palaro sa Pangasinan nasa kadulu-duluhan na?”

A media man privy on the nitty-gritty of the two-ball, three-ball, perya, and others said the mayor and the members of the town council benefit from the payolas given by the operator of these illegal games.

“They used some of the proceeds to pay for the sound system of village officials who solicit for their fiesta. Some of the proceeds went to these public officials pocket”.

He said the police provincial command did not benefit for that as the revenue there are beer money only.

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I was amused reading the book “The Great Betrayal” written by America’s Patrick J. Buchanan (a failed GOP presidential hopeful but with an analytical mind in writing about economic protectionism) when he wrote how the United States’ tariff undermined the economy of the former kingdom of Hawaii on the last part of the 19^th Century.

Excerpts of that article: “Since 1875 the United States had had a reciprocal trade agreement with the kingdom of Hawaii. Hawaiian sugar entered the United States duty-free. To exploit the islands’ privileged position, American planters had flocked there. But when (President William) McKinley’s tariff cuts opened U.S. ports to Caribbean sugar, Hawaii’s privileged access came to an end. Hawaiian sugar prices plummeted from $100 a ton to $60, and the islands’ economy collapsed. Already infuriated by the nativism of the new queen, Liliuokalani, a “Hawaii for the Hawaiians!” nationalist, the planters rebelled, seized power, set up a republic, and sought annexation by the United States. If the United States would accept the offer, Hawaiian sugar would become U.S grown sugar, and every pound produced would qualify for the two-cent bounty. In 1898, as president, McKinley, whose tariff bill created the crisis that cause the Hawaiian revolution, annexed the islands”.

The burgeoning economy of Hawaii during that time was reason why Ilocanos and Pangasinenses in Northern Luzon migrated to the greener pasture Hawaii as the price of sugar cane  appreciated and American businessmen wanted to plant more.

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When I bought volumes of cheap surplus hard cover books at Book Sale (o taga Book Sale na promote ko na kayo dito column ko he he) at first blush I told myself that Pat Buchanan’s “Great Betrayal” would be a give away, just like the books of Republican’s Ann Coulter and Democrats hatchet man Al Franken, to friends in Mindanao when I went there last December.

But when I browsed the outside flap it says on the review there that Buchanan was a word-smith.
As what the Christian Science Monitor critiqued: “Buchanan is Dennis the Menace with the pen of H.L Mencken…For anyone seeking a concise summary of the tenets of modern American conservatism, Buchanan’s clear, sharp-as-a-jab prose is a good place to start.”
“Sannamagan, if he is a word smith I’ll be entertained here by writing style of a Maximo Soliven” I told myself.

Since it was about economics and political theories, just like the two volumes of the book of Political Theorists in college, I read and reread it for maximum comprehension how Buchanan’s differentiate and analyze the economic theories of Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, Richard Cobden,  Frédéric Bastiat, John Stuart Mill, and David Ricardo  and the political thoughts of Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton,  John Adams, James Madison,William Mckinley, that made the United States a primordial industrial powerhouse in the world by adopting protectionism particularly against manufacturing behemoth England in the second part of the 20^th Century.

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 “Geez, Buchanan writes just like my idol columnists Antonio “Tony” Abaya and Larry Henares (without Larry’s humor) doing their decisive and scholarly insight how a country fare on its economic endowment.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too attotomortz@yahoo.com).