If there is one good thing that can be said about DPWH Catanduanes District Engineer Edy Ferdinand Joven who has been in dire straits lately, it will be his refusal to have one key official transferred to the regional office.
According to our spies at his San Isidro Village office, DE Joven was called to the office of Regional Director Virgilio Eduarte Jr. the other week regarding the fate of the argumentative division chief.
The official in question had been involved in a heated discussion with another engineer, who is allegedly close to the camp of the congressman.
At the director’s office, DE Joven was asked to sign his name on the order transferring the division chief to the regional office but, to the surprise of many Catanduanes DPWH workers, he refused.
He allegedly told the RD that he could not in conscience sack the division chief as he did nothing wrong and that if he is transferred, the district BAC would lose a key member.
Now, whether the scuttled transfer could be resurrected in the coming weeks remains to be seen.
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The first written work published by the Diocese of Virac, “The Virac Cathedral: Harong ni INA, Satuyang Harong,” is a must-have coffee table book that should occupy a place in one’s prayer room or altar.
The handsomely printed, 375-page book details the origins of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, its surviving the 260 years or so since the parish’s supposed founding in 1755, and the people who embraced it as God’s abode on earth, through 11 carefully-researched and beautifully-illustrated articles.
Among the contributing writers are Rev. Paul Isorena, Rev. Fr. Jose Dennis Surban, occasional Tribune contributor and CatSU Vice President Dr. Ramon Felipe Sarmiento, Rev. Fr. Laudemer Jose Gapaz, Rev. Fr. Eric John Rojas, Rev. Fr. Ferdinand Robles, Rev. Fr. Felbert Reyes, Rev. Fr. Orlando Mendoza, Rev. Fr. Roberto Sanchez, Rev. Fr. Jambo Valatero, Dr. Joel Jordan, the Cathedral Team Ministry headed by Msgr. Manolo delos Santos and a team from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) who catalogued the cathedral’s treasures.
An entire page featured two poems on our Ina by Burabod writer and local cultural icon Efren “ETASOR” Sorra while this columnist contributed the photo showing the silhouette of the church with Esperanza in the belfry.
Tribune photographer Fred Benedict Gianan’s photos of the last Penafrancia traslacion also made it to the book.
The publication of the book not only provided those who bought a copy a piece of local Roman Catholic history but also the opportunity to assist in the completion of the church portico facing the Virac town plaza.
Notable is the ample financial support provided by the family of Concepcion Ang Co, who along with their businesses, co-sponsored the publication of the book.
The Co family, who have been staunch supporters of the Church, also helped in the launching ceremony at the resplendent E-Crown Hotel together with its owners, Nilo & Edna Segismundo.
Many more, along with the Friends of INA, are in the list of donors and contributors who, for lack of space here, could not be named.
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A DUEL FOR LOVE. A man gets home early from work and catches his wife in bed with another man…
The husband challenges the other man to an old-fashioned duel with his hand guns, whoever manages to shoot first and kill the other gets his wife. The other man agrees, so they go into another room so the wife doesn’t have to see it.
Once in the other room, the husband turns to the other man and says: “Why should either of us have to die? We will both fire a shot into the air and lay on the ground as if we’re dead, when she comes in she will see our ‘lifeless’ bodies and rush to one of us, whoever she chooses can have her.”
The other man agrees again, so they fire into the air and collapse.
The wife throws the door open and peers down at the two men, then backs out of the room and calls out: “Darling, you can come out! They’re both dead!”