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DID THE GM USE THE DPWH TROWEL?

Brethren:
The aging lion cherish a unique philosophy that for every bad that goes his way, there is also a corresponding good side that accompanies it. Let him now tell you of this unique story.
Although limping uncomfortably when he returned to his den on Wednesday, June 8, he was pleasantly surprised to personally see for himself the newly-paved road fronting their gate. Five days back, or last June 3, Friday, the lion tamer received a text message from her cousin who informed her that the road that traversed the poblacion of Guindulman town was already being cemented to the surprise of the residents. Not that they were not expecting it to happen, for the road construction had already been delayed unduly, but sudden realization of things that had already started to cool down during the ordinary course of events always trigger surprises.
Let the lion now give you a brief flashback of what he did relative to this cementing project of the DPWH.
Last March 5, the lion sent an email to MW Reynold S. Fajardo, PGM, GMH, the contents of which is shown below which the readers will find self-explanatory.
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MW Reynold S. Fajardo, PGM
Grand Secretary
Grand Lodge of the Philippines
Subject: REQUEST TO RELAY SPECIAL MESSAGE TO R. W. H. EBDANE, JR.
MW Sir:
The island of Bohol is undergoing a massive road construction project that involves about 90 kilometers of cementing the previously asphalted road from Tagbilaran City to Candijay town and when completed will encircle this famous island into a well-paved road ideal for tourists.
Of the ninety kilometers, approximately one half is being constructed by Hanjin Corporation, a Korean firm, and the other half is being done by C. M. Pancho Construction Corp. , a local construction company.
The project started last March 2004 and if the billboard is to be relied upon, will last a full two years to complete. The first year therefore has just expired.
While Hanjin has already completed about 25 kilometers of cementing and has also undergone the process of preparing the rest of their job to be done for the needed cementing work, which, from the public’s viewpoint appears that this company is on track, this is not so in the case of C. M. Pancho Corp. for to-date, not a single kilometer has been paved with cement. Many reasons have been advanced, but the most visible culprit is that there is no equipment available that will consummate the actual cementing of the road.
From a supposed scheduled cementing that would have started last July yet, the residents have been periodically advised of monthly postponements and now it is rumored that the actual start is again being postponed to this May.
It is also said that the local Engineering office and even Governor Erico Aumentado have already poked their fingers on this project but, but hopelessly, the residents still have to see when the actual cementing will take place.
The undersigned has earlier thought of sending an email to VW Juanito P. Abergas, Regional Director of DPWH but at this juncture, it would appear he would also have no clout to have this dilemma pushed to its realization.
With your easy access to RW Hermogenes Ebdane, Jr. therefore, this humble representation trusts your good self may be able to bring this problem to his attention hopefully to do something about this hapless predicament. He has been on the job almost a month now and probably he can assign one of his trusted staff to look into this matter.
This request to relay this problem to our brother who is now the incumbent Secretary of Public Works is being sent because for more than six months already, the populace are reeling from the dust that daily engulfs the community because of the undue delay of the cementing of the road that should have been done much earlier. This predicament has already resulted in the serious coughing of the residents and if not contained, will surely result in the deterioration of their health. A likely result that will happen here which can further complicate the problem is that the construction company may withdraw from the project later without being able to do the job thus further confounding the problem.
The undersigned is emboldened to course this request through your good self as he has no way of conveying this problem to RW Jun Ebdane.
With my kindest fraternal regards!
Bro. GEMINIANO V. GALAROSA, JR.
Dagohoy Lodge No. 84

The hands of time merrily ticked away but no feedback relative to the said email was received. Then the ANCOM at Tagaytay, but the lion could not grab the opportunity to have an audience with the newly-installed Grandmaster. Then, May 19, Thursday, came and learning that the GM was scheduled to go to the Grand Lodge prior to attending a courtesy call to the officers of the Manila Bulletin, the lion also rushed to the Grand Lodge to present a copy of his previous email to the Grandmaster. But the GM, as busy as he was, had to proceed direct to the Bulletin’s office and skipped passing by the GL’s office to the consternation of the aging lion.
Still undaunted, he asked Elo Murillo and was informed that the schedule of the GM to visit the office is every Wednesday of the week. So on May 25, he again went to the Grand Lodge to personally hand over the printed email to the GM only to be told that the GM was already headed for Olongapo and will pass by the office later, what time, she does not know. Faced with the dilemma of not being able to personally meet the GM, he handed over the printed mail to Elo with the specific request that she personally hand it over to the former should he return to the office. Elo assured the lion that she will, and nine days later, the text message of the lion tamer’s cousin that was mentioned earlier was received to the mild surprise of both the lion and his tamer.
The question that the lion tamer posed to her pet was what possible order (or command) did the GM made to his subalterns to effect a sudden and decisive action, or if he did act on the lion’s text message, especially because the townsfolk were told that the actual cementing will start at Duero and not at Guindulman. Or did the wheels of time just solved itself without prodding from human minds?
As of this writing, which is a full seven days since the cementing started that completed the cementing work of one half of the town’s road (the other half will be done about one month after the first half has hardened) thus alleviating the misery of the residents having to inhale the obnoxious dust that hovers the horizon every time motor vehicles pass by. The cementing equipment that was used by CM Pancho has already been transferred to Duero town for the needed work to be done there, which the lion was made to understand was the staring point of the road construction in the first place. How come the start was made at Guindulman instead of at the former, the gossip-vine of the town’s idle residents could not figure out how the heck it ever happened.
But why should the lion care. What is important is that the road, finally, is being cemented and that is all that mattered.

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