News Roundup 03 August 2022
Aug 03, 2022 • 5 min Read
Lamitan folk give emotional farewell to slain ex-mayor Rose Furigay | INQUIRER.NET – Thousands of residents here took time off from their regular tasks to send off former mayor Rosita Furigay to her final resting place on Wednesday. Furigay, who was slain in a shooting spree inside the Ateneo de Manila University campus last July 24, was buried in a family-owned estate at Barangay Limook, three days after she was brought from Manila. Prior to the burial, Furigay’s remains were made available for public viewing in the family residence in Barangay Malinis, inside the gym of the Lamitan City Hall complex, and at the Saint Peter’s parish church. For the funeral, the majority of the mourners wore black while the immediate family members, including her husband, Mayor Roderick Furigay and daughters Vanessa and Kelsey, were clad in white. During the last public viewing at the gym, sone 200 barangay health workers (BHWs) cried as they bid the former three-term mayor farewell. Lilibeth Mata, president of the group of BHWs, said Furigay institutionalized the services of skilled hilot or traditional healers in the city’s villages and they received a monthly allowance since 2013. “We are called as Yellow Armies of Rose. We are the first group that Mayor Rose always tapped when she goes to a barangay. It’s like a backbone in the community. This is the reason why we never reach critical level during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mata said. Fe Anglico wept profusely as she hugged Furigay’s coffin. She said the former mayor was an angel to her after she suffered stroke. “She was with me all the time. She took time to be with me in my darkest moments.” A tearful Emboh Ballaho, 62, a Yakan hilot of Barangay Maganda, embraced the coffin of Furigay whom she credited for recognizing the contribution of traditional healers in society.
‘Maid in Malacañang’ offends Cebu nuns on eve of premiere | INQUIRER.NET – On the eve of its premiere, the controversial film “Maid in Malacañang’’ and its director Darryl Yap managed to offend a few more people, this time from the religious sector. The Order of Discalced Carmelites in this city cried foul on Tuesday over a new trailer of the film showing their members playing mahjong with Corazon “Cory” Aquino when the would-be President sought refuge in their convent in the early stages of the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution in Manila. Sister Mary Melanie Costillas, prioress of the Carmelite Monastery in Cebu City where Aquino stayed for 14 hours for security, said: “Depicting the nuns as playing mahjong with Cory Aquino is malicious. It would suggest that while the fate of the country was in peril, we could afford to leisurely play games.” “The truth was that we were then praying, fasting, and making other forms of sacrifices for peace in this country and for the people’s choice to prevail. While in our prayer, we were certainly in fear that the military would come to know of the whereabouts of Cory Aquino and would be knocking at the monastery’s door,” Costillas said in a statement. Costillas said they were surprised to learn about the trailer since no one from the movie production came to see them to gather information on what really happened during Aquino’s stay. “Any serious scriptwriter or movie director could have shown such elementary diligence before making such a movie. After all, many of those nuns in the Carmelites Monastery of Cebu in 1986 are still alive and mentally alert,” Costillas said. The trailer, she said, not only trivialized whatever was the convent’s contribution to the restoration of Philippine democracy but also put in question the role played by the Carmelites over the last seven decades for Cebu’s Catholic faithful. “With the grace of God, we take his vocation to pray for and with the people in all seriousness. But the pictures would imply that while the country’s fate was in a balance, we mindlessly were simply playing games. Thus, if these pictures would be taken as authentic representation of what really happened, they would put into doubt the trust that the people have placed in us,” she added. Citing one inaccuracy, she said the trailer showed the Carmelites in white habits when they should be brown. Amid efforts to distort the truth, Costillas said, they continue to pray for the unity of the Filipinos “but this unity can only be built on trust and not on historical distortion.”
DOT takes action vs reported overpricing of food in Virgin Island, Panglao | PHILSTAR.COM – Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco on Tuesday assured the public that the department is coordinating with concerned agencies on alleged overpricing of seafood by vendors on Virgin Island in Panglao, Bohol. Frasco said this after a woman named Vilma Uy posted that her friend’s group was charged P26,100 for the seafood, fruit and drinks they ordered. The bill covered seafood such as abalone, scallops, oyster, squid, sea urchin, banana, soft drinks and meals among others consumed by 13 people. For comparison, the minimum wage in Bohol province is P382 a day. The post has since gone viral with many blaming the practice of tourism workers charging a higher price for items and services. The Department of Tourism then said it takes the matter “seriously” as it concerns the “welfare of tourists whose continued support for destinations is deemed critical to the recovery of tourism” “While the DOT understands the current predicament and challenges faced by many tourism-related businesses and establishments that are gradually recouping losses due to previously imposed travel restrictions, I believe that due care must always be given to the overall experience of tourists whether it concerns upholding the quality of accommodations, attaining a certain level of service, or ensuring the reasonable pricing of products,” Frasco said in a statement. “Tourism is a shared responsibility, and it is in helping each other along this period of recovery that we can fully enjoy the benefits that tourism brings, she added.
