From Virac native, Florida, USA resident and MMA judge Bo Rodulfo comes this commentary on the current state of affairs at CatSU:
“Have been around so long that I haven’t heard anyone in the top-level publicly trumpeting not accepting SOP from suppliers and contractors – a big departure from the culture of our rotten government.
As a new Catandanduanes State University prexy, I am in awe of Mr. Patrick Azanza’s courage in making such an unprecedented pronouncement on social media.
Are politicians and some good people in the public service listening?”
The new university president is a rare specie, compared to many public ‘servants’ and elected officials who can’t win without buying votes.
Azanza need not buy the regents to get a second term but the alligators in government have to skim money off infrastructure projects and supply contracts to either extend their reign in politics or fund extravagant lifestyles.
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The CatSU president has declared he will not accept SOP, that all-too-common perk of public office especially among chief executives, but he will gladly accept donations for the university’s students.
Last week, he described the response of the private sector as overwhelming, including one who promised to give 500 tablets for use of students who do not have online access due to lack of mobile devices like smartphones or laptops.
“We will do this cleanly, on the level and with integrity,” Dr. Azanza said, citing his pledge on his first day in office to have the best interests of the students in mind.
He likewise bared that the university will devolve to the student leaders the management of their funds 100% so they could decide which programs or projects to implement but they would be accountable for the money.
A student’s desk has also been established right at the Office of the President to be manned by an officer of the day from among the student leaders to provide direct access to students.
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Based on the PHO COVID-19 Tracker, the first 10 days of July brought in 108 new cases of coronavirus disease in Catanduanes, more than double than the 41 recorded from May 1 to 10 and nearly a quarter more than the 87 for the first 10 days of June.
The capital town of Virac accounted for 31 of the new cases, followed by Viga with 24, San Miguel with 13, Caramoran with 11, Bagamanoc with nine, Panganiban with eight, Baras and Bato with three each, San Andres and Pandan with two each and Gigmoto with just one.
One hundred thirty-three (133) are considered active cases: Virac (41), Caramoran (18), Viga (17), Bagamanoc (16), San Miguel (15), Panganiban (8), Bato (6), Pandan (4), Gigmoto (3), Baras (3), and San Andres (2).
Four new deaths were also recorded these past 10 days: two in Caramoran, reportedly an 87-year old woman and her 64-year old daughter who died just a week apart; an 85-year old man in Panganiban; and, an 87-year old man in Virac.
This brought the total number of fatalities from the pandemic to 25, with the capital accounting for just over half with 13 deaths.
Interestingly, on May 10, there were only 304 COVID-19 cases in the province. But this doubled to 600 by June 23 and has risen to 763 this July 10.
From May 10 to June 23, a period covering 44 days, there was an average of less than seven new cases every day. This has increased to nine new cases daily in the past 18 days, based on the PHO data.
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Based on the numbers on the tracker and the limited information it contains on each new case for the 108 new COVID-19 cases, 67 of these are close contacts of confirmed coronavirus cases.
In 39 of the cases, the contract tracing teams have yet to determine their history of exposure.
And only two (2) have been confirmed to have traveled from mainland Luzon in the past 10 days.
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DRUNK. Arriving home one night, a husband cut himself when he walked into an overhanging shelf in the garage. With blood trickling from facial wounds, he went straight upstairs to the bathroom to carry out repairs.
The next morning, his wife said: “You came home drunk last night, didn’t you?”
“No,” he replied, mustering all the sincerity at his disposal.