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 PRINCESS OF THE STARS
Three Negrenses
among casualties
Aretired laywer-businessman, a manicurist and an on-the-job training Maritime
Education student of Negros Oriental State University were among the
more than 800 missing when the MV Princess of the Orient owned by Sulpicio
Lines capsized off Sibuyan Island in Romblon last week at the height of
Typhoon Frank.
Atty. Vicente Dionaldo,
75, a scion of the big
Dionaldo clan from
Guihulngan City and a
former basketball superstar
of the University of San
Carlos went to Manila to
attend the 82nd birthday of
his elder brother Atty.
Manuel Dionaldo.
Jullie Quirante
Mendoza, 41, of Jilocon,
San Jose worked as a manicurist
on board the ill-fated
ship and her remains have
been reportedly recovered
and will be shipped back
to the province soon.
Meanwhile, the
NORSU community
headed by President
Henry Sojor offered
prayers for his nephew, 20- year old Jason
Alegria, who was on the
ferry as an apprentice.
The Dionaldo family
said that it has already
accepted the “bitter and
painful reality that he
(Vicente) did not survive
the tragedy.” However,
the family hopes that his
remains can be recovered
so as “not to prolong our
agony and put closure to
the uncertainty of the situation.
critical reporting
HOW MEDIA SEES IT, AND NOT OTHERS
Councilors hi-tech
cell phones mismatch?
It is not surprising to know that our local
governments would also like to partake
to the influx of hi-technology in that the
idea of providing the city mayor, his vice
mayor and all the city councilors with
high tech cellular telephone sets worth
P20T each. They have our blessings, provided this should generate more good than harm.
True indeed, there are pros and cons about
the issuance of expensive cell phones to our
elective city officials even if it is only issued
for their use and not given, to become their
own and personal property.
On the good side of progress. The expensive
SMART cellphones costing over
P300T for 14 units, (we heard is to be
bought without bidding?) is intended to be
used for data gathering by the city councilors
in aid of legislation.
But let the records speak of each kagawad
at every year-end report on how this official
cellphone has helped this and that councilor
in their legislative functions. Unfortunately,
we know that some of them are not yet computer
literates. Don’t we have a mis-match
here?
This MODEL N82 has a TV monitor so
we hear, it is capable of tele-conferencing
with more than three people at the same
time, but the rest of its capabilities like camera,
voice and video recorders, e-mail and
internet are available in cheaper models.
There are cheaper models capable of teleconferencing.
So why go to these expensive cellphone
models during hard times? This does not
speak of wise and frugal spending to many
taxpayers, we believe, considering that this
city has such a small area and tele
conferencing would be impractical unless
done with regional and national officials.
For us, we are inclined to favor such
project but with a strong CAVEAT that their
numbers should be accessible and available
to the public since it is owned by the
people. Each of them though, can still have
their own private cellphones for their private
use. This cellphones should be
marked for official use only.
Second, it surely can make our councilors,
mayor and vice mayor more accessible
to the people. And to us, this is the biggest
and ultimate justification that the expensive
N82 cellphones be issued to our city hall representatives.
The least that can be done is to make
these public-owned cellphones of city officials
open to the public from 7am to 7pm if
only to give justice to this very expensive
gadgets which we all are aware, that it
would still function just as efficiently even
among cheaper models.
Finally, will it make each of them less of a
councilor, mayor, or vice mayor if they use a
cheaper model, just for the sake of the majority
who are poor?
 SU leads support
for FRANK victims
There is no fire to put out, but it doesn’t need one to put a fire truck’s waterholding
and pumping capability to the same life-saving use.
Silliman University in Dumaguete City sends today its fire truck to Iloilo City
to assist in transporting water from a town in the province of Iloilo to the city
where efforts to restore electricity and water supply are still ongoing.
Iloilo is one of the worst
hit areas in the country by
typhoon Frank.
First to be serviced will
be the affected members of
Silliman’s sister school,
Central Philippine University,
the local United Church
of Christ in the Philippines
(UCCP), and Silliman
alumni.
Silliman is a protestant
university affiliated with the
UCCP, but with a predominantly
Catholic student
population. It is the country’s
oldest American university.
Another vehicle is being
sent by Silliman containing
donations of food and clothing
from Silliman students,
faculty, staff, alumni, and
friends. Cash donations
through voluntary salary
deductions from its faculty
and staff members will be
transmitted next week.
The call issued Wednesday
by Silliman University
for all “to act as one community”
also sparked support
from Negros Oriental
Governor Emilio Macias II
and Negros Oriental Second
District Representative
George Arnaiz, both of
whom are Sillimanians, in
the form of donations of
rice.
“This is our way of responding
to the call for us
to assist in the best way we
could our fellow Filipinos in
the neighboring province of
Iloilo,” Silliman President
Ben Malayang III said.
While Malayang said the
country is hit with other
tragedies, “we need to assess
our resources and capabilities,
and determine how we
can best maximize them and
benefit more people in one
area.”
Silliman has an active
alumni chapter in Iloilo City
that pledged counterpart
support and assistance for
the flood victims.
The support that Silliman
extends in times of national
calamity and tragedy is not
new. In 2006, when a
flashflood in Leyte left hundreds
homeless and grieving,
Silliman donated a portion
of its university Christmas
party budget, and secured
more donations in
kind at the night of its
Christmas party. (Sgd.
Mark Raygan E. Garcia,
Director)
 Americans help Ilo-ilo flood victims
US President George W. Bush (right)
welcomed President Gloria Macapagal-
Arroyo in the White House last week and
ordered the USS Ronald Reagan and its
battle group to assist with relief and rehabilitation
efforts for the victims of Frank
that ravaged central Philippines including
the provinces of Ilo-ilo and Negros
Oriental. Arroyo is scheduled to visit Iloilo
Tuesday after she arrives from the US
to convene her Cabinet. Local officials
expect that with the presence of the
President, the pace of relief operations
will move faster.
 
The
Civic Circle
(Civic clubs and organizations are quite welcome
to submit their articles and pictures about
their services and activities. It is free of charge. Deadline
for submission is Wednesday. You
may send by email to: elydejaresco@yahoo.com – EDITOR)
The power of peace
Friends make my life interesting; my friend Letty is into many advocacies
and she invites me to attend the special activities she is involved with whenever
I visit her, whereever she is.
Her family is now settled
in Cebu , so when I visited her
last Friday she invited me to
join her to a seminar by the
Brahma Kumaris group at the
Midtown hotel. It was a short
interesting late afternoon program
that was well attended by
a mixed group of young professionals
and mature audience.
Member volunteers man the
registration table and the function
hall was full and the atmosphere
was friendly and informal.
The speaker was Sister
Divante, a soft spoken Indian
lady who spoke on the topic of
“Overcoming Obstacles”.
Admittedly, daily living is
full of stress, and we all need
the peace and quiet in the soul
to meet the challenges of each
day. Obstacles come to every
person and no one is spared.
Sister Vidante radiates the
peace of someone connected to
her soul; in her lecture she
teaches that obstacles can become
opportunities for a person
to grow and be a better person.
One has the choice to
choose to allow obstacles to run
its course, staying focused to
being at peace with oneself and
the world, or be overwhelmed
by the obstacles and lose focus
in the process. She jokingly
mentioned that she welcomes
obstacles at the start of the day
so that the rest of the day can
be lived well.
At one time during the lecture
the power went out, the
participants exclaimed “obstacle”
and laughed, a sign that
the group listened well to her
lecture. There was no murmur
of complaint and in a few minutes the power was back. It was
a short one hour course that
was well received by the audience.
At the end of the lecture,
the participants lined up to receive
a blessing and token from
Sister Vidante.
It was a refreshing afternoon
worth the time.
The Brahma Kumaris are
in many countries all over the
world and the organization
hosts conferences, seminars,
retreats, workshops focusing
on peace, positive thinking,
stress free living, values based
leadership and courses in their
philosophy and medication
technique. They can be identified
by their white clothes to
symbolize purity. Many of the
participants wore white during
the lecture.
The Brahma Kumaris
members adopt a disciplined
lifestyle that involves a strict
lacto-vegetarian diet among
others, and that evening, our
host, Ellen, invited a group of
her friends, including Letty and
me to a vegetarian buffet at her
home. One of those who attended
is our very own Dr. Betty
Calderon – Talaver, the famous
oncologist daughter of the late
Silliman University President
Dr. Cicero Caldero, who is
based in Cebu City.
The cozy dinner introduced
me to the vegetarian dishes that
tasted as good as the regular
party food. A favorite was the
crispy tofu that tasted better
than the cholesterol laden
chicharon.
The lecture and the dinner
was an opportunity for me to
meet new friends, taste a
healthy meal and interact with
Brahma Kumaris members up
close.
 HEALTH IS WEALTH
Controversial Maturity
“Those trees that are slow to grow, bear the best
fruits.” – Moliere
Maturity is a controversial word. For when a person
reaches adulthood, age 20 and above, he is
said to be “mature”, but probably in his chronological
age only as he appears physically.
However, his behavior, especially his emotion,
shows that he is still immature or childish in
many ways – egocentric, impulsive, irresponsible
and oversensitive. Immature behavior is a
common major cause of marital rifts or unwanted
marriages as well as personality defects.
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story
Let us then analyze
what true maturity is. Authorities
basically define
maturity as the full development
of man’s physical
and mental attributes. It is
the state of being truly
mature and the realization
of the full potentiality for
human development – the
height of maturation process.
Hence, maturity basically
means knowing the
“REAL YOU”.
Here are some important
criteria for being a
mature person:
• A person is said to
be mature if he has the ability
to control adequately
his emotions like anger or
temper, and settle his differences
without resorting
to violence or destruction.
• Maturity is well
manifested by patience, the
willingness to postpone
immediate pleasure. The
immature person always
say, “I want NOW!”.
• The individual
who keeps on changing his
jobs, friends, and marriage
partners is immature.
·The mature person
could resign to the shortcomings
in life, accepts
defeat and constructive
criticism.
• Maturity means
loyalty to one’s good legal
spouse, friends and employers.
• Maturity is the
ability to live up to one’s
responsibilities and keeping
one’s word or promise.
• Maturity is the capacity
to face unpleasantness
and disappointments
without rancor or becoming
bitter.
• Maturity is the
ability to make decisions.
An immature person can’t
decide on serious matters,
but depends mostly on others
(wife, mother, friends,
etc.) to make the decisions
for him.
• Maturity is unselfishness,
responding to the
needs of others.
• Maturity is humility.
A mature person is able
to say, “I was wrong”. He
is able to say, “I am sorry”.
And when he is proved
right, he does not have to
say, “I told you so”.
• Maturity means
discipline, dependability,
flexibility, integrity and
diligence. The immature
person has excuses for everything.
He blames the
whole world for his failures.
• And finally, maturity
is the capacity to live
in peace with that which he
cannot change. He is a true
instrument of good service.
Eric Berne says, “A real
mature person must know
how to blend and integrate
his three ego states – he
should know when he is
behaving as a good PARENT,
a responsible
ADULT and a fun-loving
CHILD”.
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