Peace talks’ see-saw mode should be upgraded

WE were dismayed no end when President Duterte angrily junked the ongoing talks with local Communists due to … well, hubris. But don’t lose heart. Pangulo is well known for his sense of humor.

But we can’t wholly blame him at the rate Jo-ma’s bundok followers are killing people like nobody’s business; we’d do something worse if we were he.

But we have a suspicion the bizarre acting by both – Pangulo and Chairman Joe-ma — is an agenda for something dramatic. We thought it won’t hold for long knowing that both are for the good of the nation. Or else, wala nang pagasa ang tunay na reconciliation, which would be unthinkable.

We are emotional about the issue because we had tasted prison for our preoccupation with the fratricidal conflict.

It’s nonsense for brothers to be in fight mode all the time, this is our fighting faith.

We were about to add our 2-cent’s worth on the subject on our aborted meeting with Labor Secretary Bebot Bello, main man in the talks, last Tuesday.

We consider non-reconciliation absurd since the supposed villains are simply mired in disagreement on how best to show their love of country.

Banditry, being the ugly tag charged against the Communists is, to us, sweeping because they (the ideologues), too, are bedeviled by the elements (bandits).

It is with this frame that we consider whoever was behind the initiative to revive the peace talk even after the President dumped it, a hero or heroes, who don’t give up on the nobility of brotherhood.

We believe both Pangulo and the leftist chairman have the best interest of the nation, and will not allow a noble cause to go down the drain just like that.

It will speak well of our leaders to act now with finality on the peace talks to move our fractious nation forward.

There’s no other choice.

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High school classmate Leo Palaganas, the Dagupeno-turned Texas cowboy who just planed in from the US gifted us with a bunch of nutrition books with an instruction that we pass on the tips to our readers.

Leo was our tour guide when we visited him at Dallas in 1980. We were en route to Baylor Hospital, where Ninoy Aquino was being given heart bypass when Marcos intelligence agents blocked our path.
Yes, Ph intelligence was already that organized, huh!

Leo’s Dagupan visit was dampened by the recent deaths of our classmates Brenda Mendoza-Manese and Marlen Espino- Ocampo one after the other last December.

A couple of months earlier, former education supervisor Vic Patawaran, also a classmate, died. About 38 batch-mates at the Dagupan City High School have already left for the Great Beyond.

Let’s pray more…

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Good news to astrology enthusiasts!

Our friend palm reader Pandit Sati of India will plane in for a series of meetings in Metro Manila on Jan. 26-February 7, according to educator non pareil Tita Ventinella Hamada.

We have seen Pandit’s excellent batting average. There are the antis who link this gift of foreseeing events as ungodly. But on the other hand, they do it to warn humans against harm. Is that bad?He will be around for 2 weeks, says Tita. Get in touch with her at cp 09209503095.

Tita, by the way, has introduced a teaching modality that dumps the grading system to allow learners the widest latitude for growth and development. Her writer-father Atty. Juan Ventinella, was an erudite member of the first Philippine constitutional convention. Her late hubby, Billy Hamada, a scion of the famous Baguio publishers of Midland Courier chain, was our room-mate at the Tarlac military barracks during martial rule.