PENINSULA MONITOR marks today its second yearbuoyed up by manifestations of support from its swelling ranks of avid readers and an increasing number of establishments convinced that the publication is an effective vehicle to project their public image.
It is hoped to signal the dawn of a new day after two years of financial hardship common to all provincial newspapers but more painfully difficult on the part of this publication which cannot qualify to publish judicial notices because it does not come out weekly. It is coming out now forthnightly or once every after two weeks, still in book paper and partly in color.
The first issue hit the streets on April 16, 2006 after publisher-editor Dominador C. Alarkon, Jr., then president of the Caramoan Residents Association in Naga City and its Environs (CRANE), decided that the publication was necessary to more consistently and vigorously push the development aspirations in the Caramoan Peninsula and the rest of the province and adopted the battlecry “For equitable development”.
Although teeming with mineral resources (Pan Philippine Corporation operated a there was even an airstrip which World War II however reduced to shambles), marine and agricultural products and more importantly world-class tourism potentials, Caramoan Peninsula remains among the poorest areas in the province and in the country. Yet, at one time it was also adjudged the no. 1 coconut producing town in the Philippines.
As CRANE president, PENINSULA MONITOR publisher-editor Alarkon proposed early in 2005 the continuance of the Caramoan coastal road from the town of Presentacion to Caramoan which involved a distance of only 24 kilometers to accelerate development. It was also necessary to connect Catanduanes to the mainland in just 30 minutes by the roll on – roll off ferry system.
Caramoan is already connected by a mountain road now known as Gov. Felix A. Fuentebella Highway but which is circuitous because it is also intended to connect the town of Garchitorena. From Presentacion town to Caramoan through the mountain road it is 49 kilometers while the coastal road is only 24 kilometers, a difference of 25 kilometers or more than an hour travel time over bumpy, winding mountain road alongside deep ravines. Supported by diverse groups from the government and the private sector including the Bicol bishops, the Caramoan coastal road plan was approved by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who has just recently reiterated that she would have the project completed.
But many more development aspects need to be pursued to bring about an improvement in the quality of life of the people. Most imperative at this point indeed is reforms in the government.
There are very glaring indications that some of the worst cases of corruption and irregularities involving huge sums are occurring in Camarines Sur and elsewhere in Bicol prompting even President Arroyo during her visit to Masbate late last year to comment that here ported to be implemented but were found to be non-existent.
Two of such suspected anomalies involve two project packages in Camarines Sur, one costing P170 million implemented by the DPWH 3rd Engineering District before the May 2007 elections, and another funded by the Department of Agriculture for P100 million during the same period but implemented by the Camarines Sur provincial government. Unless corruption is minimized or eradicated development will remain a far-fetched dream with crocodiles in the government devouring most of the funds for development projects and government watchdogs acting like monkeys who see, hear and speak nothing, probably themselves conspirators and accomplices.
This crusade PENINSULA MONITOR vows to pursue no matter what the cost. It has several lawyers among its legal consultants, notably Atty. Amador L. Simando, his son Amador Simando, Jr. and Atty. Salvador R. Villegas, Jr. who are all from the Caramoan Peninsula.
And it has a pool of people who can be relied on. The publisher-editor himself has been in media work for more than four decades, serving as editor of at least two local newspapers before joining the government. In the government he was editor of the BASIN REPORTER of the defunct Bicol River Basin Development Program (BRBDP) and the Vanguard magazine of the Camarines Sur provincial government. When he went on early retirement in 2005 he was national chairman of the Provincial Communicators Association of the Philippines (PCAP), a position he held for five years. Before that, while still at BRBDP, he was president for six years of the Bicol Association of Regional Information Officers (BARIO).
Dr. Salvador D. Flor who is based in Legazpi City is a syndicated columnist but who usually writes a special column exclusively for PENINSULA MONITOR. Aside from his doctoral degree in Human Resource Management he finished law but had not taken the bar examinations because of some complications. Brillant, Dr. Flor could have easily passed the bar exams. Presently head of the Communication Department of the Bicol Colleges in Daraga, Albay, he had been editor of the fighting and award-winning newspaper, the Daraga Herald and the Island Reporter in Catanduanes, managing editor of the Bicol Chronicle and the Bicol Forum and correspondent of the Manila Bulletin.
Columnist Oscar P. Señar who resides in Parañaque City is a well-known figure in the petroleum industry in the country who had held such positions as general manager of the Philippine Petroleum Corporation, president of the Hyatt Terminal and Industrial Corporation, vice president and director of the Liquigaz Philippines Corporation, Operations Manager of the Pilipinas Shell Corporation and various supervisory and managerial jobs in the Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation. He placed second in the 1967 board examinations for civil engineers.
Columnist Dr. Lucio F. Teoxon, Jr. who is also based in Metro Manila was a prominent personality in the academe, starting as a faculty member of the University of Nueva Caceres then opted to seek greener pastures in Metro Manila where he taught at the Ateneo de Manila University and at the Far Eastern University. For a time head of the FEU Department of Literature and Humanities, he had been editor of the Far Eastern University Newsletter, the Arts and Sciences Review also at the FEU and editor of Nueva Caceres Review at the UNC. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature degree from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.
The younger generation is represented in the PENINSULA MONITOR by Atty. Franco Fermin Berja Avila who is chairman of the Police Regional Appellate Board of the NAPOLCOM in Legazpi City and Karen Israel-Iniego. Now about to begin her review for the bar examinations, Ms. Iniego taught Speech and Oral Communication and Mass Communication subjects at the Universidad de Sta. Isabel.
She is also working on her post-graduate course.
Except for Ms. Iniego who hails from San Jose, Camarines Sur, all columnists including the publisher-editor are from Caramoan, Camarines Sur.
