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-Message from Manuel A. Dalipe, chairman and administrator of the Zamboanga Freeport Authority, during a visit to L.A.
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C O L U M N S

OUT OF THE SHADOWS
BY E. RENE F. FERNANDEZ

NOTES FROM DOWN UNDER
Drug of Ignorance
BY HEROINA SANTOS ESPERAT
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EYE IN L.A.
My kids John and Kristine: My Only Treasures and Inspiration in Life
By JOHN L. SHINN III
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POINTBLANK
Jamby Madrigal for Senator!
ROLLY A. SAN JUAN
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BEHIND THE LINES
By BOB JALDON

L.A. BALAGUNERO
The Failed May 1st Power Grab
By TITONG A. SAN JUAN
Previous columns

FOR THE RECORD
By BONG BUE

TABLE TALK
GMA is president for all Filipinos
By MIKE APOSTOL

PERSPECTIVE FROM L.A.
By ANGEL Y. DAYAN

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Zamboangueños in L.A. celebrate Lobregats' poll victory

LAZT photo by JOHN L. SHINN III
Zamboangueños celebrated in Los Angeles last Friday, May 18, the recent election victories of Zamboanga City Mayor Caling Lobregat and her son Congrressman Celso Lobregat. From left: Marita Enriquez-Branchflower, Kirk Bayabos, Christopher E. Robles, LAZT columnist Titong San Juan, Allan Enciso and Bobby Reyes.

click here for more photos

It's final: Caling Lobregat and son Celso win another term!
By Titong A. San Juan
L.A. Zamboanga Times

    The people of Zamboanga City overwhelmingly elected Mrs. Lobregat and her son Celso for another term. There was no way for Vitaliano Agan and Lepeng Wee to catch up with the mother and son tandem.
   Come to think of it: before the election the sanga bala of Mr. Agan and Mr. Wee were calling bets that their candidates will win and they were betting logro meaning the money is 10 to 7 in favor of their candidates. When the results came out showing the Lobregats leading these people were no where to be found.
     The victory of the Lobregats is a victory for the people of Zamboanga City. The people have spoken loud and clear and decided to give them another term, a clear manifestation that the citizenry of La Bella still believe and trust them. The unfinished projects will be their top priority.
     Here is the unofficial results of the elections in Zamboanga City:

CONGRESSMAN:
Celso Lobregat         - 23,577
Luis Climaco            -    8,560
Efren Arañez            -   7,676

MAYOR:
Ma. Clara Lobregat    - 24,898
Vitaliano Agan            - 13,094
Lepeng Wee              -    8,973

VICE-MAYOR:
Erbie Fabian - 25,003
Bong Ko - 11,355
Gerry Acuña - 5,259

COUNCILORS:
1.Beng Climaco - 27,565 (Lobregat)
2. Asbi Edding - 26,089 (Lobregat)
3.Mannix Dalipe - 24,334 (Lobregat)
4.Jimmy Cabato - 19,473 (Lepeng)
5. Charlie Mariano - 18,628 (Agan)
6. Elong Natividad -17,658 (Lobregat)
7.Ely Enriquez - 17,555 (Lobregat)
8.Cesar Ituralde - 17,243 (Lobregat)
9.Eddie Rodriguez - 17,148 (Lobregat)
10.Cesar Jimenez -16,218 (Lobregat)
11.Mila Velasquez -15,767 (Lobregat)
12.Kim Elago -14,788 (Lobregat)
13. Rudy Lim -14,763 (Lobregat)
14. Jan Bruno -13,930 (Agan)
15. Bong Bue -13,248 (Lobregat)

The partial results show the party of Mrs. Lobregat garnering almost all the city council slots. The 12th and last slot for the City Council seat is still being contested by Kim Elago and Rudy Lim with the former leading by only 25 votes as of last count.

Who is this L.A.
bachelor at-large?
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Rene and Cely Fuentes of Cerritos, Calif.
Rene and Cely Fuentes of Cerritos, Caliifornia, have travelled the world extensively since their retirement several years ago. Here, in one of their sojourns abroad, they pose for a picture with the Taj Mahal in the background. Photo courtesy of Rene and Cely Fuentes

Poll violence in Mindanao is lower than that of 1998 records
Sun*Star

     ZAMBOANGA -- The election related incidents for this year's local and national elections here in Mindanao was lower compared to that of 1998, a top military official said here Thursday.
    This as the Southern Command has managed to preempt movements of lawless groups, like the Abu Sayyaf bandits, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels and New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas in the different parts of Mindanao.
    Lt. Gen. Gregorio Camiling, Jr. chief of the Southern Command said they have prevented massive terrorism through the deployment of forces in places prone to violent incidents during elections.
    "Our disposition of forces is in anticipation of threat groups," Camiling said. There are supposed movements from the threat groups in support of some candidates, but these were preempted by the military.
     The threat groups referred by the military are the Abu Sayyaf bandits in Basilan and Sulu provinces, separatists rebels in Maguindanao and communist guerrillas in Agusan.
     "These groups took advantage of the election period for fund generating activity. They asked for a certain amount of money to allow these candidates to campaign in their supposed to be controlled areas," Camiling said.
     "In addition to that, the other groups asked payment for security service and to provide the goons," he added.
     Camiling however admitted that there were more casualties for this year's elections than that of 1998 despite the decrease of election related incidents. The decrease was 19 incidents.
    For this year's elections, there were a total of 60 election related incidents as of Thursday while 79 in 1998.
    There were a total of 35 people, including six candidates, that were killed in this year's elections while 82 others wounded. As to the elections on 1998, there were 33 people killed and 83 wounded.
     "If we talk of violent incidents, generally, we have very much less violent incidents this year that the elections of 1998," Camiling said. "If we talk of the numbers killed, we have more killed this year than in 1998," he added.
      The election related incidents includes shooting, ambush, harassments, ballot snatching, burning of schools, explosion, abduction and failure of elections.

Navy seized P3M of imported sugar from boat off Sulu
Sun*Star Zamboanga

     ZAMBOANGA -- Patrolling personnel of the Naval Forces South (Navforsouth) intercepted Friday a motor launch loaded with illegally imported sugar from Malaysia in the vicinity of Favorite Bank off Sulu province.
    Army Lt. Col. Danilo Servando, spokesman for the Armed Forces Southern Command said the Navy personnel aboard patrol gunboat 393 spotted M/L Katrina II around 3:05 p.m. last Saturday, May 19.
    Servando said the Navy personnel boarded and searched M/L Katrina and discovered it was loaded with 2,500 sacks, of 50 kilos each, illegally imported sugar from Malaysia. The confiscated contraband has a market value of P3 million.
    The Navy seized the contrabands after the skipper and crew failed to show shipping documents, M/L Katrina has seven crew.
    It was further discovered that M/L Katrina was waiting for another craft to unload its cargo and tow her to a nearby island.
    The vessel was towed by the Navy to the Navforsouth Majini pier in this city for proper inventory and turned over to the Bureau of Customs of the seized contrabands.

Banning Minors from Internet Cafes in Zamboanga City
by Janette Toral

    I went to Zamboanga City during the first week of March this year for my DigitalFilipino roadshow. I found out that the Zamboanga City government passed a resolution last November 9, 2000 banning minors from going to Internet cafes during school hours.
    Zamboanga City Councilor Maria Isabelle Climaco, a high school guidance councilor of Ateneo de Zamboanga, filed this resolution last July 2000 after reading an Inquirer article where the province of Tagbilaran passed and implemented an ordinance banning minors from going to Internet cafes during school hours.
   With the growing number of Internet cafes, now around 50, she thought that there’s a need for a regulating ordinance covering its operations. There’s a growing concern from schools seeing its student from elementary to college cutting classes just to go to these Internet cafes to play network-based games. The Ateneo de Zamboanga student council leaders participated in drafting the ordinance.
    The proposed ordinance was met with resistance particularly from the IT community of the city. Climaco emphasized that the ordinance does not intend to take away the opportunity for the youth to gain access to Internet café facilities. The approach is more of a safety gap measure rather than restrictive. Neither the Internet is being discriminated since there are current ordinances on billiards and video games access by minors. She only wanted the time for education and play to be emphasized.
    Although it is the responsibility of the parents and the school to monitor its children and students, its hands are tied in patrolling their activities. She also expressed that Internet café operators have the social responsibility as well to ensure its facilities are being used properly by the youth.
    The Zamboanga City Internet Café Owners were caught by surprise with the passage of the ordinance since they requested further data to be gathered as to how big is the youth sector population cutting classes to go to Internet cafes and others.
    They lamented as well that most of the city councilors behind the ordinance have not even used the computer and the Internet to understand its use that leads to exaggeration of some issues it hears of.
    The Internet café owners were more hoping for a memorandum of agreement to be reached with the school to address the issue rather than an ordinance.
    Since the ordinance is already in place, Internet café owners are now hoping to see it improved after the local elections.
   On a national level, the local government and parents really needs to be educated on the use of the computers and the Internet. Without this education, they may end up curtailing the growth of Internet and e-commerce in the country that is detrimental to GMA’s aggressive IT agenda.
   We might end up seeing more unnecessary ordinances that can be resolved through enforcement of existing laws and community agreements. But it can’t be disregarded as well that there’s a possible need in the future for a national standard guideline on how Internet cafes should operate to protect the Interest of the consumer regardless of age.
   Municipalities should enforce its existing laws on business permits for instance. If permit is not applied for by an Internet café to offer gaming facilities, then corrective measure must be made by the Internet café operator to meet the requirements of the local government. The least we want to see is the Internet café facilities to be used, abused, and used as fronts for illegal activities.
     Play is an important part of our children’s daily activity. Before, without the computer, they’ll play hide and seek, wrestle, basketball, biking, or just walk around. With computers and television, we’re seeing our children finding books, anime, computer games as fascinating means of recreation.
    The Internet and computer has provided our children with new means of recreation and learning. For the 10 year olds of today, their first encounter with a computer is the usual Nintendo or Atari. The computer is a welcome change for them.
    Balancing the government and parent’s interest to protect the youth with Internet café owners business interest and being an infrastructure provider, to the IT community’s Internet and e-commerce promotion activity is not supposed to be a tough one. After all has been said, do we really have a solution to this?

This is the famous Alcatraz Prison immortalized by Clint East- wood in the movie "Escape From Alcatraz" in the early 1980s. I shot this picture from the Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco during a visit there in 1997. Photo by JOHN L. SHINN III

'SNICKERS' ON THE GO. "Snickers" is a two-week-old Chihuahua we met last week. Owner Laura (right) took him for a ride in their neighborhood while running some errands. Photo by JOHN L. SHINN III

More pictures from San Francisco (click here) NEW!

Lepeng Wee: Named as one of financiers of failed May 1 attack at Malacañang (click here) NEW!

China executes five for drug smuggling to Philippines

BEIJING—China has executed five suspected members of a gang that used fishing boats to smuggle millions of dollars worth of the illegal drug shabu to the Philippines, state media said.
   The five, including alleged gang leader Tan Weisheng, were executed April 25 in Taishan, a city in the southern province of Guangdong, the official Xinhua News Agency said Sunday. Seven other purported members of the gang were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 15 years to life.
Seven other people are being prosecuted separately, Xinhua said.
   The Guangdong-based gang smuggled 2,310 kilograms of methamphetamine, known in other countries as “ice.”
   The powerful and addictive stimulant, which also goes by the name “meth,” was smuggled to the Philippines in several batches between 1998 and 2000, Xinhua said.
   It was China’s biggest methamphetamine smuggling case, Xinhua said. In the United States, the drugs would have been worth about $120 million.
   Xinhua did not say how the executions were carried out. China’s preferred method is a single shot to the back of the head or chest.
   A police officer in Taishan confirmed the report but refused to disclose further details or give his name.
   Meanwhile, Xinhua said Chinese paramilitary police have joined an nationwide police crackdown on criminal gangs, breaking up more than 100 gangs in the last month.
   Human rights groups complain that courts have rushed to judgments and passed too many death sentences in the crackdown, launched April 11 because of government concerns that rampant gangsterism and local corruption are undermining popular support for communist rule. --AP

Erap in Jail
For more photos click here
Erap's new living quarters click here
ESTRADA ARREST: A WATERSHED IN PHILIPPINE POLITICS

WE'RE BACK! (CLICK HERE)

THE MULTI-BILLION PRESIDENT (click here)
By Sheila S. Coronel, PCIJ

G-O-A-L ! Brazilian goalkeeper Taffarel---seen here diving for a save---was just too good for the Italians. Brazil defeated Italy 3-2 on penalty kicks in the 1994 World Cup Finals before a crowd of 94,000 at the Rose Bowl Coliseum in Pasadena on July 17, 1994. Photo was taken in Mission Viejo, Calif. during Brazil's practice for the finals. Photo by JOHN L. SHINN III