‘Big loss’

Wake-uppers:

Baning Penales

Scene: The Tagbilaran City Schools Division welcomes its new superintendent Evangel Medel-Luminarias, Ph.D. Luminarias was a professor of the University of Bohol until she was appointed schools division superintendent of Toledo City.  

 

Scene: Urbana “Baning” Penales celebrated her 87^th birthday with luau birthday party last August 18 in California, USA. “It turned out to be one of the memorable birthdays she ever had,” reported by an Amboy VRS. “Her daughter Gloria Penales Pabualan from Houston, Texas came to personally assist the decorations and preparations, she brought with her the hunky and cutey guy Nildjan Penales Romero who recently passed the RN licensure in America. Guests arrived in strides and so happy to see them enjoying the whole night line dancing.”

 

Scene: The MikeyGatal.com website owns by US-based Boholano socialite Mikey Gatal will turn 5 this month. On September 1, Mikey Gatal Kids Foundation in cooperation with the Guindulman Association of California, Southern Area or GACSA will have a fundraising event and annual fiesta celebration which will be held in Bellflower, California to benefit the kids of Guindulman town. Hollywood celebrity/model Thomas Sautebin is the expected guest to grace the event. Visit www.mikeygatal.com or www.boholster.com.

 

Scene: A fire that hit seven houses near Pook Pantalan, Tagbilaran City yesterday morning caused at least P100,000 pesos in damage to property. No one was reported injured in the fire. Many of the residents tried to save their belongings as the fire destroyed their homes. Saturday's fire came a day after a blaze destroyed two houses in Dauis town.

 

Seen: Christian John CJ Sajulga and Kelley Maribel Manuta were crowned Mr and Miss University of Bohol High School 2012. They will compete for the Mr and Miss UB Personality this September.

 

Mr and Ms UB HS

Scene: The Signing of Memorandum of Understanding between JCAD and BOHECO II took place at Bohol Yacht Club, Puerto San Pedro, Bien Unido, Bohol last August 22 for the Construction of Mini-Hydro and Wind Power Projects.  “Another initiative of Mayor Niño Rey Boniel for the good of Bien Unido and his constituents,” said an LGU employee.

 

Seen: Maria Lourdes Aranal-Sereno has made history by becoming the first female chief justice in the Philippines.

 

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"Sana ay maging handa ang mga tapat at may kakayahan nating mga pinuno na magsakripisyo at tumugon sa tawag ng panahon…Hindi ito madali ngunit kung sama-sama tayong lahat, hindi malayong maabot natin ang minimithi natin magandang kinabukasan para sa bawat Pilipino."— Jesse Manalastas Robredo (1958-2012)

 

There has been an outpouring of tributes for the late DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo. He was widely considered to be incorruptible, in a country where graft is endemic and politicians often distrusted.

 

Tributes also came in via social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook where many offered prayers for Robredo, remembering him as a good public servant.

 

Last Wednesday, flags in all government offices and public schools flew at half mast.

 

Relampagos with Robredo

Rep. Rene Relampagos posted on Facebook: “Secretary Jesse Manalastas Robredo is in God’s loving embrace. Let us remember this honorable man’s humility and good deeds, and look upon his life as a source of inspiration. To all his colleagues, friends, and family, we sympathize and offer our most sincere condolences.”

 

Leo Almote shared a poem on Facebook which expressed Robredo’s death, life and contributions. “Waters of Masbate, you have become purer. For three days, an honorable man slept on your sea bed, upon waking, he shall find himself back in the sky. Surrounded by light, wearing wreaths of gold, because of his virtue, your waves are now sacred. While our tears create ripples on your surface, we hold your hand and honor your memory, Jesse your name is Integrity.”

 

Robredo was a former official at an ice cream company before he was elected mayor of Naga City in 1988 at the age of 29, making him the youngest mayor in the country at the time. His success in turning the once-sleepy city into a trading, housing and education center won him many honors, including a 2000 Ramon Magsaysay award, considered Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize.

 

On the other hand, people who have never heard of Captain Jessup Bahinting before may know him only as the pilot of the plane that crashed off Masbate.

 

What they don’t know is that he was a regular presence in relief work after major disasters, a pastor who used his skills and his aircraft to bring help where it was needed, Cebu newspapers reported.

 

Robredo in Bohol with Gov. Chatto and Rep. Aumentado.

In Bohol, there are those who were touched by his goodness.

 

“He’s really kind and a charitable person,” said Jea Dano (of IJea Travel and Tours, 31-A Airport Road, Cogon District, 6300 Tagbilaran City, Tel No: (038) 412-3885, www.ijeatravel.com) who met Bahinting several times when she was working at the Tagbilaran airport.

 

Flag half mast in public schools.

JCI Sen. NB Director John Enerio, who organized a medical mission in Jan. 2010, said Bahinting was a good man.

 

“When we had the Texas Medical Surgical Mission, we had no less than 8,000 patients (beneficiaries), Capt. Bahinting escorted from Cebu to Tagbilaran boxes of medicines with his plane free of charge (gratis). And even park his plan at Tagbilaran Airport in case there is a need for airlift (he had his plane like a waiting taxi and he was at the Bohol Cultural Center, the venue of the medical mission.”

 

Captain Bahinting was born in Larena, Siquijor, but his family moved to Negros Oriental when he was a teenager. He went to a flying school in Davao City.

 

According to reports, Captain Bahinting sent his own Cessna, at no cost to the government, to fly in antivenom from Camiguin to Cebu City. This act saved the life of a Cebu City zookeeper who had been bitten by a cobra.

  

Preacher David Oman Mackay of LDS Church said, "No success can compensate for failure in the home." This quote must have guide Robredo and Bahinting.

 

 

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