By Joel B. Belinan
This issue marks the completion of one year since I re-started writing this column last year. And as expected it had been hard to sustain writing a weekly column after at least 10 years of hiatus. Thanks for the availability of sports and adventure events that this writer had been engaged in and of course the continued sports development about which are good topics week after week. Following sports and adventures as topics are the Covid-19 issues as even this humble writer sometimes cannot resist the urge to write what’s in his mind, as if his opinions on these matter.
Writing a column is more challenging for me than writing news stories. News stories can be easily made once the facts are available. On the other hand, writing a column especially for a trying hard writer like me needs the guts and skills to impart one’s opinions to the reading public. This is because basically in most cases the writer will rely on his understanding and opinion on certain topics as that’s what will make a column substantial and hopefully be appreciated or, at least, noticed by the reading public. It is also in column writing that we writers may encounter legal charges like libel due to our opinions.
I remember the first libel case filed against me in 1997 and it was due to my piece in this column. The case was filed by visiting couple-teachers from New Zealand teaching in Brent School in this city. At that time due to my engagement in mountaineering activities and my previous exploits in the conquering of Mt. Pinatubo after its eruption, I was hired to lead a group of Brent School students together with their New Zealander Teachers for a hike to some popular spots around the volcano (but not the crater). The trip went smoothly until when we reached the Sapang-Bato area (the usual jump-off point to the crater). The barangay council of the village started implementing a barangay ordinance that requires a minimal fee for visitors entering the barangay for sight seeing around the wonders created by the volcanic eruption and the lahar-flow. The teachers refused to pay saying that it’s my obligation as a guide to pay which resulted in our argument. I don’t recall if they paid it or not but when we came back to Baguio, I made it the subject of my column. The following week or maybe after two weeks, the teachers from New Zealand filed a Libel case against me. One thing about writing with ZigZag weekly is that we always have a ready practicing lawyer in the person of our Editor and Publisher to defend us. As I expected, the case did not reach the court as it was dismissed by the prosecutor’s office. After that, never did I have a libel case due to this column. Yes, I received several negative comments which are expected but no more libel cases.
When I was writing this column before, the topics were almost always relative to mountaineering and outdoor adventures. This makes it doubly challenging as I have to be very creative in sustaining what is expected in this particular niche of sports interest. Thus when my Boss Atty. Pekas readily agreed for my resumption of this Outdoor Bound column last year, I asked that the column should cover anything under the sun but still with preference on sports in general, including wilderness adventures. Hoping that when the world goes back to what it was the way we knew it, there will be more sports events to talk about here.
On Covid 19
While the pandemic continues to wreak havoc all over the world, there have been some encouraging developments. To my mind, the most important is the continuous arrival of COVID-19 vaccines to this country. Even if the speed of the government’s vaccine roll-out is very slow, we are expecting that it will accelerate these coming months. Recently several people associated with me due to our fitness workouts said that they have completed their second dose while some are just waiting for their second jabs. What caught my attention was the number of people that were being qualified for vaccination due to their co-morbidities and these people are much younger than me. Alas, our present generation is not healthier than the past ones . This is despite the so-called advancement in medical science and the much better health facilities that we have now compared to 30 years ago.
A friend at the park intimated to me that it would be a big boost to the morale of people who want to work-out with me if they will know that I already had my vaccine. I am still thinking about it whether to avail of my being a member of the media to be qualified under the A4 category. Originally, I planned to get my vaccine on the last batch of people which may be towards the end of the year.
Another good news was the supposed pronouncement of the president to scrap the mandatory face shield use. Unfortunately, the vintage Duterte fragile mindset again re-surfaced as he immediately recalled the statement and made again all those typical excuses. Then on Monday, he threatened to order the arrest of anyone who refuses to get vaccinated. Alas, both the government’s spokesman and Department of Justice Secretary were quick to make all kinds of spins to control the damage as that would be bereft of any legal basis.
As of this week, the country is still lagging behind on the number of people vaccinated with just over 7 million people. Based on the World Vaccination Tracker, only 5.8 percent of the country’s 110 million people completed their dosage. Will we be able to meet the government target of a no-mask Christmas come December? We are crossing our fingers that we will succeed in attaining that so-called herd immunity. **
