DA exec: Nothing irregular about sugar importation

Senior Agriculture Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban said there was nothing irregular in the importation of 260 20-foot containers’ worth of sugar from Thailand, according to a report on Thursday.

At a media interview on Wednesday, Panganiban was asked if he could categorically confirm that the sugar importation was in order.

“There is nothing irregular,” he said.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, however, said Panganiban could face possible administrative and criminal charges after he authorized the importation.

Hontiveros questioned the Department of Agriculture (DA)’s “handpicked” companies that imported tons of sugar into the country, saying this is how car- tels are formed.

“Biruin nyo, tatlong kompanya, halos na handpicked pa, ang pinayagan na mag-angkat ng asukal para sa buong bansa. Hindi ba kaduda-duda yan? Hindi ba sa ganyan nagsisimula ang kartel? Paanong hindi mangangamoy ‘government-sponsored smuggling’ yan?” the senator said.

Based on the Sugar

Regulatory Administration (SRA) charter, only the agency has the authority to issue a sugar order for the importation of sugar.

“Once, and for all, para mapanatag naman ang mga consumers, nananawagan ako kay Presidente. Lagdaan na nila ang isang maayos na sugar order na hawig sa mga dating sugar orders na pangmaramihang

(Glad to be back as a columnist for Edge Davao writing about my take on things as they transpire around me. Welcome to my scene!)

If you think you’re “too old” to learn something new, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Take me, for instance. I went through the old ways of doing public relations. Those press releases you send to media outlets via email? We used to deliver hard copies of them to media offices—in person. Those RSVPs or confirmations you make by clicking a button or a link that takes you to a confirmation page? We used to get those by making actual calls.

It may sound funny now, but those were what others would call ‘’old but reliable’’ ways of doing things. And I like the reliability of doing things face-to-face. Now there’s a totally different landscape - a digital one. And I’ve only barely scratched the surface of this world rooted in technology.

Writing is my core competency, and as a writer, I used to craft anything my job required. I penned our executives’ speeches, edited company newsletters, and created profile pieces, executive summaries, video and radio scripts, news, and feature stories. I crafted copies for ads, flyers, brochures, and all types of collateral. I even did product labels, billboard copy, book prologue, and the occasional correspondence. Anything that needed writing, I did it all under the umbrella role of a writer.

But the term writer has evolved over the past couple

Polygamy continued to be practiced in remote communities even if the government was strongly campaigning for monogamous relationship based the prewar law on marriage. Trib-al folks continued to embrace their tradition, often with leniency from the authorities.

One incident that made news in the Commonwealth was the murder committed by Datu Ambis, a Bagobo who, despite the luxury of already having five wives, wanted one more. This display of amatory behavior led to a case that reached the Supreme Court.

The story started when Ambrosia Puton, known in her village as Fortunata or Am-buyong, became a widow with five children. As any amorous individual would do, Datu Ambis made advances but the woman politely declined, citing his having multiple partners as

STRADDLING TWO ‘WORLDS’

of decades into what is now called content writer. Content now encompasses many forms, from blog articles to videos, podcasts, infographics, and even memes. Writing itself has become highly specialized. Now we have Web copywriters creating content for webpages or social media (or both). We have product copywriters who write copy describing products. We have user experience (UX) writers who create content and microcopy for apps and other digital products.

A Social Media Specialist is a writer, so is a Content Strategist, Content Specialist, Email Marketing Specialist, and so on. What all these have in common is that they all write for the digital platform.

I’ll be quite frank. My transition from traditional media to new media has not been with-

ADI CABRERA QUISIDO MY SCENE ANTONIO V. FIGUEROA FAST

the reason for refusal. Interestingly, he did not assert though but bitterly warned that should she remarry, he would kill her second husband.

Not too long thereafter, Ambrosia, who did not take the datu’s threat seriously, met and married Esteban Fameron. They decided to settle down, along with her five kids, at their res-idence at Baracatan, in the municipality of Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur. For a brief period, everything went peacefully and orderly in the family for the new couple.

However, in the evening of May 13, 1938, while the couple were preparing the table for dinner, a shot was heard. Esteban, who was taking some food from a pot, suddenly fell to the floor face down, dead. Though stunned, she managed to look toward the door where the shot was fired and saw a man leaving with a gun on hand. She cried for help and was promptly heard by Saito Puton, her brother-in-law who hurried to Ambuyong’s residence. Along the way, he met the killer, whom he recognized as Datu Ambis, still carrying a gun.

Manuel Jumilla, the town’s sanitary inspector, examined the corpse and found a number of wounds produced by buck shots from a shotgun. The wounds on the left side of the stomach, just below the ribs, were identified as the lethal hits that caused the instantaneous death.

In the lower court, represented by his attorney de oficio, Datu Ambis denied being the of-fender but his defense was junked. The Court of First Instance (CFI) of Davao found him guilty of murder that was qualified by treachery, attended by the exacerbating condition of out challenges. But I realized it was an opportunity not only to expand my skillset but also to reinvent myself as a writer.

In the early days of this transition, I had to learn how to write blogs, SEO articles, microcopy, chatbot scripts, social media copy, website content, and all sorts of online content, primarily for digital marketing. While I had to learn the psychology, as well as the mechanics, behind each type of content, I realized that if your writing skills have a strong foundation, you can practically write anything!

While it’s good to learn as many things as possible, especially those relevant to what you do, I found that you don’t have to know everything, certainly not all at once. Learning is a process, and you can choose your journey.

What struck me most was that as I continue to navigate writing for the digital platform, I find myself constantly pulling from my previous experiences that have built and strengthened the foundation of my skill. It became crystal clear to me that I didn’t have to let go of what I’ve learned in the past to be able to embrace the present.

My learnings from working in traditional media have allowed me to have a deeper insight and understanding of working in new media, allowing me to straddle these two worlds. It’s tough at times, but for the most part, it’s fun and exciting. More importantly, you carry the learning with you wherever you go, so opportunities are limitless. And that alone makes it a rewarding journey.

Datu Gets Life

the dwelling. Due to a lack of education and instruction, he was sentenced to reclusion perpet-ua and ordered to indemnify the heirs of the deceased the sum of P1,000 and to pay the litiga-tion costs.

The accused appealed his case but did not question the nature of the crime. Instead, his lawyer argued it was a case of homicide, not murder. But the Supreme Court, in September 30, 1939, decision penned by Justice Carlos A. Imperial, ruled and affirmed the lower court’s verdict:

“The qualification is erroneous and is not in accordance with the facts because the crime is qualified by treachery, the deceased having been fired upon while he had his back turned, and was also attended by the aggravating circumstance of dwelling, which was correctly compensated by the miti- gating circumstance of lack of education and instruction.”

It added that the crime, under Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code, is punishable “with penalty of reclusion temporal in its maximum period to death, the medium period of which is reclusion perpetua, for which reason the penalty imposed by the court is in accordance with law.”

Datu Abmis was represented in his appeal by lawyer Mario Bengzon, while the govern-ment was represented by Roman Ozaeta, then the solicitor-general.

The high tribunal’s decision was carried by The Tribune, a leading national broadsheet based in Manila, in its October 3, 1939, edition, saying: ‘MUST SERVE LIFE TERM FOR MURDER. Supreme Court Confirms Sentence in Davao Killing.’