n ACROSS / A15 n TALK OF THE TOWN/ A14 n ACROSS / A15 n MAGAZINE / Q3

John Hay developer DOH presents Bayan Muna 2 grandmas turn

gives up 9 hectares draft of bird flu official shot dead to art and discover

INQUIRER
to pay taxes preparedness plan in Tarlac new energy

Mikey Arroyo: Now you Tree doctors rush to save

see him, now you don’t
By Nikko Dizon
IT’S THE FASTEST WAY TO
rack up those frequent flyer
miles.
The President’s son, Pam-
panga Rep. Juan Miguel
“Mikey” Arroyo, supposedly
MIKEY / A17
P H I L I P P I N E D A I L Y
B A L A N C E D
lives of critical ‘patients’
By Blanche S. Rivera
THERE’S A NEW BREED OF DOCTOR
whose job it is to preserve the lives of trees.
And he is working quietly, patiently, treat-
ing a most critical patient: Metro Manila.
The government is moving to save the
N E W S , F E A R L E S S V I E W S metropolis’ environment, and has tapped tree
TREE/ A6

‘They had it coming’

email: feedback@inquirer.com.ph Sunday, October 16, 2005 HH 13 sections / Vol. 19 / No. 310 P18 website: www.inq7.net

Palace, PNP say protesters provoked cops to fire water cannons

By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. ,

Watery attack
Armand N. Nocum
and Tina G.Santos

THEY HAD IT COMING.

This was the reaction of
Malacañang, a senior Cabi-
net official and the Manila
police yesterday to criticisms
against the use of water can-
nons to mow down hundreds
of protesters, led by former
Vice President Teofisto
Guingona and three Roman
Catholic bishops, as they
marched peacefully toward
the Palace Friday night.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the
incident could have been avoided if the
marchers had held their protest else-
where. Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez
and administration lawmakers accused
the protesters of using religion to dis-
guise their political intentions.
“We can avoid this kind of incidents if
only we coordinate with the city govern-
ment. It was clear from their agreement
that the rally permit was only for Plaza
Miranda and if that was held there, there
surely would have been no incident,”
Bunye said in the transcript of a radio in-
terview released by his office.
“But we are not surprised that [they
marched on] despite our repeated re-
quests.”
The latest of a series of confrontations
between the police and demonstrators
demanding the resignation of President
Macapagal-Arroyo occurred near the
Mendiola (now Don Chino Roces) Bridge
during a march billed by organizers as a
religious procession. The marchers had
with them statues of the Virgin Mary and
were praying the rosary instead of chant-
ing anti-Arroyo slogans.
Local officials have declared Mendio-
la—historically the site of protests
against presidents—off-limits to demon-
strators. Bunye stressed that Mala-
cañang was not out to muzzle its critics.
“If you’re talking of freedom of expres-
sion, they can always express their senti-
ments in media. If they want to demon-
strate, they have areas designated for
demonstrations,” Bunye said.
He said that Mendiola was in a univer-
sity belt where four major educational
institutions were located.
“Any rally here by a few hundreds of
shows GMA
‘going bananas’
By Nestor Burgos Jr.
PDI Visayas Bureau
Fe Zamora, Juliet Labog-Javellana
and Jerome Aning
RELIGIOUS LEADERS ACROSS THE
country and administration and opposi-
tion senators yesterday expressed shock
at the water attack on a church-led
protest march near Malacañang. Veteran
fighters of martial law denounced it as a
fascist act that showed how scared Presi-
dent Macapagal-Arroyo was.
“Uncalled for and objectionable” was
how Iloilo Archbishop Angel Lagdameo,
the incoming president of the Catholic
Bishops Conference of the Philippines,
described Friday night’s violent dispersal
of the procession-cum-protest near Men-
diola (Don Chino Roces) Bridge.
Lagdameo is to formally assume the
leadership of the influential CBCP on
Dec. 1, replacing Davao Archbishop Fer-
nando Capalla.
“The problem is that GMA has not told
the whole truth so that is why she is very
scared,” former opposition Sen. Jovito
Salonga told the INQUIRER.
“A prayer rally is a rally that cannot be
disposed of like that—with water can-
nons—without violating the Constitu-
tion.”
Opposition Sen. Serge Osmeña said
the photos on the front pages of the In-
ternational Herald Tribune and The New
York Times showing a former Vice Presi-
dent being treated harshly “will shock
foreigners and will drastically affect the
investment and tourism image of our
country.”
“This woman (Ms Arroyo) is going ba-
nanas,” Osmeña said.
Bishop Julio Labayen, 80, the oldest of
the three elderly bishops who joined the
protest, said what the authorities did
was not just an attack on free speech and
assembly, it was also an attack on the
right to religion.
Labayen said it was not the first time
that he figured in a gathering that was
hosed down by the police.
WARNING: COLOR THEM CUTE BUT … “I was hosed down before in Mendiola
Painted by enterprising street vendors and sold along a street in Manila, the chicks are irresistible to children. But with ... I was with [pre-martial law Manila
the global alert out for avian flu, each chick is a suspected carrier, each chick could be deadly. (Story on Page A14.) REUTERS Times publisher] Chino Roces. But that

Om’s world: Child prodigy, 6, paints from her dreams

THEY/ A6 WATERY/ A6

By Hazel P. Villa ed visual artist and photo contrib-

PDI Visayas Bureau utor of the INQUIRER.
Born on March 24, 1999, Om
ILOILO CITY—THIS CHILD has been a vegetarian since birth
named after the first sound of the and was breast-fed for three
universe could identify primary years, like her brother John “Blue
colors at nine months, was hold- Heart” Dre, 10.
ing a Chinese paintbrush at 11 The Dueñases are devotees of
months, and had done more than Ananda Marga, and are strict veg-
50 simple paintings on bond pa- etarians and practitioners of yo-
per using India ink by the time ga.
GUIJO DUEÑAS

she was a year old. Om goes to the Special Educa-

When Eouia Aum “Om” Due-
ñas, second child of Ilonggo artists
Guijo and Jyh Ming Dueñas, was
five, she held a one-child show of
25 acrylic-on-paper-board paint-
ings measuring two by three feet
each. The exhibit, titled “My
World,” ran on March 22-28 last
year at SM City Mall Iloilo.
On Nov. 12-14 also last year,
the 5-year-old was the youngest
of 20 artists holding a group ex-
hibit for the Sunrise Festival at
the CAP Building in Cebu City.
Om’s ideas for her paintings of-
ten come from her dreams, ac-
cording to her father.
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST as a
child of 2 taken by her doting dad
Once, she talked about flying
and singing horses, and Guijo
told her: “Why don’t you paint
them?”
The result? “Flying Horse
Dream”—a colorful horse stand-
ing on three legs, with a rainbow
for a tail.
“If I show her what a real horse
looks like, she cries out, ‘That’s
not my horse!’ And I just let her
be,” said Guijo, 39, a multiaward-
tion-Integrated School for Excep-
tional Children (Sped-Isec) on
Luna Street, and Blue Heart, the
adjacent Mabini Elementary
School.
Guijo said that at the age of 2,
Om could identify secondary col-
ors and was using water-based
paints.
Using a No. 12 brush, and just
having learned to mix primary
colors to make secondary ones,
Om had finished about 30 oil
paintings on canvas in various
sizes by the time she was 3.
BOLD, HAPPY, MAGICAL strokes create “Tiki, Dinosaur” in acrylic on paper board. Other favored
Some of the paintings are in
subjects are birds, butterflies, houses, flowers, rainbows, human forms and all other things that delight
OM’S WORLD/ A17 her. The child artist is due to hold her second solo exhibit of 30 acrylic paintings in Iloilo City. GUIJO DUEÑAS