NewsRecord Weekly Publication

Pablo vs Etha

After the nervous anticipation for 'Pablo,' people of San Carlos can't help but sigh and say, "Pablo couldn't do much in San Carlos but cover his nose. The stink sent him flying off to Palawan where it doesn't smell."
Right, right, we are one lucky people for another typhoon has come and gone and left us unscathed. But as a friend said, "We won't die of typhoons. We'll die of the illnesses that the pollution from the ethanol 'contributes' (err…) to our community."

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Art of Telling Stories. Mipsen Calves of the School of the Future
won first prize during the Story Telling Competition on November 29.
Colegio de Sta. Rita won second and CVGSMS won third. 

I was with the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management team the whole December 4 when everyone was anticipating 'Pablo's' sweep over San Carlos and everyone was expecting the worse. Positively though, pessimism sent the CDRRM taking early precautionary measures like sending rice, sardines, noodles and eggs way ahead of time to make sure all goods reach the evacuation centers before Sipaway Island falls in zero visibility. Then, people who used to be glued to their houses and never heed evacuation orders now leave their homes and earthly possessions in favor of securing their lives. 
Well, 'Frank,' 'Ondoy,' and 'Sendong' didn't arrive years before to Iloilo, Metro Manila, and Cagayan de Oro, respectively, for nothing. All of three were teachers and we are good to have learned in time. 

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Typhoons and disasters aside, I recall that last week was the National Book Week celebration. Colegio de Sta. Rita and Cong. Vicente Gustilo, Sr. Memorial School both deserve special mention for being the most participative schools. 
But there are some important people who seem not very participative (or not participative at all). It is a shame that every time the Public Library holds activities and campaign for the love of reading our city officials are rarely seen except to deliver speeches with the theme: READ TO LEAD. How ironic when our local leaders rarely even read!
And one was even so late she's missed the entire point of the program already. She must have missed the legend about how the cat missed being in the Chinese zodiac because she was late. Well, better late than never. 
But there's one councilor's wife who's always with every library activity and whose personal advocacy is reading. We've featured her last summer-Janice Carmona. I wonder where the other local leaders' wives are. They should've used the Book Week as hitting two birds with one stone. Remember how Michelle Obama is always present in almost all events especially for children and how that strategy reflected in the polls to nail her husband to the White House. And Mrs. Laura Bush combated her husband's low popularity in the Philippines by reading storybooks to children during her official visit at the Malacañan. 
Well, what big political move these local leaders are missing. 

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Speaking of politics (again!), if the opposition team gets smart, they're going to hold the production and over-posting of streamers. They're going to have some things else made instead for the noses of the people of San Carlos in these times of the "Great Stink." (As suggested by a friend of the library)