A Petition Of Cagayan de Oro Councilor

Dear Councilor Alvin R Calingin:

When one’s political stench can already be so overpowering, any Shakespearean attempt to call ‘a rose by any other name,’ with the belief this would remain to 'smell as sweet', obnoxiously ‘infects the air whereon (the sponsor) rides'—or so the play Macbeth reminds. On Tuesday, July 10, 2012, you filed three resolutions, one of which is to rename Antonio Montalvan St. as “Felix Y. Manalo St.” in honor of the founder of Iglesia ni Cristo (INC). In the same vein, a second resolution seeks to rename the road from the junction of Concordio Diel St. and Villarin St. in Barangay Carmen to the landfill in upper Dagong up to the boundary of Barangay Canitoan as “Eraño V. Manalo St.” in honor of INC’s former executive minister. The third seeks to declare July 27, 2012, and every year thereafter, as INC Day in Cagayan de Oro City (Source: Mindanao Gold Star Daily, July 13, 2012).

In case our local Historical and Cultural Commission has failed to provide you lessons of local history, Antonio Montalvan St used to be Biak-na-Bato St. The late Antonio J. Montalvan was captured, tortured and beheaded by the Japanese Kempeitai for his espionage work during World War 2 and was part of the preparations for the eventual return of General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines. For his intrepid feat, President Manuel Roxas recommended him to receive posthumously the Distinguished Service Star, to remind Filipinos that many of us continue to live today because of the gallantry of such men as Montalvan and those beheaded with him.

Your proposal to rename a street that strips our local hero of his honor adds to the disgusting series of historical carnage this current administration has committed over the years—from the desecration of the Huluga Archeological Site to the effortless surrender of CDO as a ‘carne norte’ brand. We deplore this pattern of wanton disrespect towards the preservation of local heritage, coming no less from a cabal of officials that takes no time to even consult with the community. Indeed, it has become easier for us to sniff and sieve through the mathematics of your motive: Felix Manalo was the founder of the Iglesia ni Kristo, which has their local church along Montalvan St. The Iglesia ni Kristo ensures candidates to win by way of their block voting. Any kindergarten can readily do the arithmetic for us.

We ̶p̶r̶o̶t̶e̶s̶t̶ condemn your shameless intent to curry favor to a religious sect, and pander to your political machination well ahead of the 2013 electoral exercise.

WE VEHEMENTLY OPPOSE THE RENAMING OF ANTONIO MONTALVAN AND CORDOCIO DIEL STREETS AFTER THE MANALOS!

Signed 16 July 2012.

CONCERNED CITIZENS OF CAGAYAN DE ORO
To show your support visit the link.

LBC Refused to help CDO victims - the two faces of LBC

This post is from Carlo Mangoba where he is trying to send donations via LBC to Cagayan de Oro. The statement below that you will read is so sad because LBC Hari ng Padala Refused it.

For the longest time LBC has been my go-to company for all of my shipping needs, especially during the time that I was studying in Cagayan de Oro city. But due to my recent experience with LBC, I will never ever use them again now that I’ve seen that they don’t value the plight of their customers.

As we all know, CDO has recently been ravaged by Typhoon Sendong leaving hundreds dead, and thousands without basic necessities like food, clothing and even potable water. Among those victims is my fiancé’s family. Sendong left their area badly flooded and have rendered them with a low supply of food and no potable drinking water. They have spent the last couple of days trying to secure a supply of potable drinking water but to no avail, most sources of potable water in the city have been contaminated, or in short supply.

I heard in the news that LBC was accepting donations of food, water, clothing, etc. to Cagayan de Oro city, that all donations would be accepted in any of their branches so I thought that maybe me and my fiancé can send her family a shipment of bottled water. Just to make sure that we would not be wasting our time, I called beforehand LBC’s customer service number (02) 858-5999 and got a confirmation from two customer service representatives, one girl and an agent named “Bryan.” I clearly stated with them that the water that I was sending was to be sent to my fiancé’s parents and not to be donated, the agent’s reassured me after putting me on hold for over two minutes that the water would be accepted as long as they are in sealed containers and are properly packaged. I even asked them if they can deliver the package door-to-door or if my fiancé’s family needs to pick-up the package from the LBC office in CDO. Me and my fiancé were both relieved to hear the reassurance from LBC that they would accept our shipment especially since my fiancé’s family only has less than a gallon of water left and we were informed that they will get our shipment in 24 hours.

We bought a case of 1.5 liter bottled water in Landmark Makati then proceeded to the LBC branch in Glorietta to ship the water. Upon reaching the counter the guy behind the counter frowned and gruffly said to his companion “ o donation nanaman.” We informed them that the water was for my fiancé’s family and not to be donated. The man behind the counter gruffly told us that they won’t accept the shipment of water unless we are donating the water to a foundation. (NOTE: WE TOLD LBC THAT WE ARE PAYING FOR THE COST OF SHIPPING THE PACKAGE) We told the man behind the counter that we were informed by their customer service department that they can accept shipment of bottled water, we were practically begging them to accept the shipment since my fiancé’s family badly needs the water. The man told us to sit and wait while he called someone on the phone. After 10 minutes he put the phone down and told us that they still won’t accept the shipment.

The man’s companion, who was a bit nicer than the man we were speaking to, told us that the donations are shipped via sea freight and would take weeks before it reaches its destination. This little factoid horrified me, people are cold, going hungry and thirsty in CDO due to the lack of clothing, food and potable drinking water and here’s a company proudly proclaiming that they accepting donations but takes their sweet time in getting those badly needed donations to the intended recipients. As the saying goes, “paano na ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo.” So what use is their effort in accepting donations when those donations would not be received when needed?

If you are a Kagayanon, or someone who sympathizes with the victims of the tragedy in Mindanao, please spread the word and repost this note about how LBC treated a victim of Sendong and showed their true stand about Corporate Social Responsibilit.

So all the statement of LBC release are all joke joke to help to the victims of Typhoon Sendong in Cagayan de Oro and some part of Northern Mindanao?