Wikipedia says, “Cesar Chavez was a Hispanic-American labor leader and civil rights activist. He co-founded, with Dolores Huerta, the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union.
Ideologically, his world view combined leftist politics with Catholic social teachings.” He was, in essence, the champion of farmworkers using non-violent methods, thus, he was a great Latino hero of the working class. There are also several streets named after him in the US.
Back here at home, he has a namesake worthy of all the accolades and awards one can possibly give him. I speak of none other than the Presidential Communications Office Senior Undersecretary for Traditional Media Cesar Chavez. “Usec. Chavez” as he is fondly called by his friends and co-workers in the communications office in Malacañang Palace, is a man on the go.
You hardly see him seated in his office for the simple reason that he is a hands-on government executive delivering the president’s message to the people and is often in conference with other communicators in the various agencies of the Marcos administration.
He is also in sync with media entities television, radio and print. In addition, Usec. Chavez is very knowledgeable on the current trends in social media even if his title says ‘traditional media.’ When it comes to effective and strategic communications, here is a man who will do the job quickly.
His appointment in the PCO is a plus factor for the Bagong Pilipinas program of the President. He does remind me of my late father who once was a “communicator” for the Palace when he ran the Evaluation, Research, and Analysis (ERA-4), a strategic communications group inside Malacañang for FM and FL. Such was the progress of the team that its brainchild was the various social programs of the former first couple.
Today, many years after, the Bagong Pilipinas is a continuation of the previous Marcos administration’s ‘New Society Movement’ with the slogan, ‘Walk Proud You Are Filipino.’
So yes, the PCO with the other Cesar Chavez there is well and in good hands. I can vouch for his integrity and honesty in the conduct of his work for the first couple.
Instant noodles society
We have become a society of instant noodles. An archipelago of egg noodles. A society that has carelessly muddled itself in the imbroglio of a past rice crisis. We must put a stop to this unhealthy shift to an urgent solution to the malnutrition situation in the country.
Rice is, and should still be the stable food of the nation. The irony of it all is that while the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) – the top honcho agency for rice research and development of the globe sits right here in our own backyard, we shamefully import rice from our neighboring countries.
That includes Thailand, a country we taught everything about riceology now beats us in production and distribution. We also trained our sights to a possible shift to biofuels technology whereby we shall be converting arable land or rice lands for planting biofuel crops.
But we don’t have enough land to spare unlike other large biofuel efficient countries. We must first feed the nation before we feed our vehicles. But the good news is that electric vehicles are now the solution.
Nevertheless, because of the high cost of rice and the low cost of instant noodles, an alarming number of Filipinos have shifted to these toxic ‘pantawid-gutom’ menu items. It is a daily table fare that damages the young kids growing up in their formative years.
The long-term effects of these seemingly harmless strands of virtual vermicelli are very serious. Cancer, for example, can be caused by frequent eating of these noodles. Retardation in young children is also caused by these culprits. High blood too is a regular outcome because of its high salt content, added to that the preservatives, and not to mention the wax used by the manufacturers to prolong its shelf life.
In a few years, the effects of these instant noodles menace shall be amongst a large chunk of the populace. IQs and rational thinking are the very first to go.
If you ask me, I think its long-term effects are now showing in many of our senators and congressmen.
A worthy marine academy
Riding my bike as a young boy in Pasay City near the family compound led me one day to this strange-looking house along Leveriza street.
I hurried back home to tell my father what I just saw – a house with a frontage taking the shape of a ship. I was told that it was the house of Admiral Tomas Cloma, the discoverer of the Kalayaan Islands or Freedom Island.
He made history thereafter by establishing the PMI Colleges. He was also tagged as the father of Maritime Education in the Philippines.
Many years later, I would find myself talking about him again with Commodore Joel Abutal, currently the Superintendent of the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy in San Narciso, Zambales.
We talked about his academy which was originally called the Escuela Nautica Manila. The PMMA was created by virtue of a Royal Decree issued on January 1, 1820 through the recommendation of the Spanish Consulate of Commerce.
It was subsequently inaugurated on April 5, 1820 in its initial location at Intramuros, Manila.
For years, it has produced many master mariners, chief engineers, shipping executives, naval officers, excellent educators and trainers now serving in Marine and Maritime related industries in our country and elsewhere overseas.
In my conversation with Commodore Abutal, I mentioned about the existence of a huge painting – The Battle of Lepanto by Juan Luna hanging on the halls of the Spanish Parliament or the Cortes Generales, to which he said that Juan Luna was an alumnus of the Escuela Nautica Manila.
While that gave us goosebumps, we nonetheless, were delighted to have remembered this.
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