Post by EXO on Jan 31, 2024 8:57:35 GMT 8
G'day sports fans,
Battlefields are different. It's the sacrifices on them which makes them special.
Based on information received, and since confirmed, on Saturday 27 January 2024, there was a "drama of sorts" on Corregidor. Well, any visit by police, no matter how minor, is a drama, isn't it? I wasn't there.
But first, there are a number of contemporaneous issues going on involving Corregidor. Coincidences, perhaps. One is an ambitious plan for approx 380 Airsoft gamers to have a tournament on Corregidor in February. At 4,000 peso each player, that's good bucks. Many folk, including some prominent historians, thought this disrespectful, and set out to protest the idea.
This same week there had also been a group which erected a sign on Corregidor listing the names of a number of officials, that it is now a part of a named Barangay. Those who erected the sign were accompanied by police and naval personnel. As I have been of the view that Corregidor Island is a military owned island, and subject of special provisions for its governance (eg CFI), it came as a surprise that it might now be subject of a Barangay's authority. Not that it matters, it's not my island. It just seems to be becoming less and less of a battlefield of the brave each week.
Gentlemen, "no fighting in the war room!"
I did posts about both on Facebook. As a result, I received an irate letter, indirectly, taking me to task. I did not receive it directly from the person who wrote the letter (though he has my private email address and we have had lunches and beers together), but by reading it on a Facebook post of someone I had never heard of. The letter had been posted by someone who had only joined the Society's Facebook group hours earlier. I had no idea who she was.
The writer had caused the letter to be signed as "Operations Consultant, CORREGIDOR ISLAND FOUNDATION." The letter contained corrections that the writer wanted to be known. Fine. He should have written me directly. He didn't.
I've since corrected the original posting. He's powerful, I'm not. he's connected, I'm not.
But noticing the similarity of his signing above the "CORREGIDOR ISLAND FOUNDATION" name, and not the "CORREGIDOR FOUNDATION, INC.", I was curious as to the new entity. Was it a new entity? I searched both names and their present government registrations.
CFI is duly registered, and is thus subject of Government audit, and the stability of aboard of directors, none of whom I know. Presently, it is registered as having the positions of President and Chairman both VACANT.
CIF is not, as of today, registered as a Foundation, and is thus not subject of a Government audit. Either it is a dumb typo, but maybe it's not.
You can't read the letter. The Moderator of the Facebook page (not me) was correct to remove it, for it raised a data privacy issue, which is of no concern here. It's over, its gone.
What are we to make of this? It's for the powers that be in Manila, whoever they may be, to sort the governance of Corregidor out between themselves, get a Memorandum of Agreement signed, and to get Corregidor back into what we all want - namely a robust, respectful, and international tourism business. How they do it is their business. I haven't got time for this unpaid nuts.
I want to make it quite clear. There are no allegations or suggestions of anything wrong on Corregidor. It's run down, not surprise after the covid closure. Everything is presumed to be well run, such as it can be, and operated by good people with their hearts in the right place. I am not saying this facetiously. We, all of us, want to have Corregidor back to a robust, respectful, and successful international tourism business, a proper reflection of its great significance to the Philippines, and to the brave men who died on its ramparts and battlefields.
Battlefields are different. It's the sacrifices on them which makes them special.
Based on information received, and since confirmed, on Saturday 27 January 2024, there was a "drama of sorts" on Corregidor. Well, any visit by police, no matter how minor, is a drama, isn't it? I wasn't there.
But first, there are a number of contemporaneous issues going on involving Corregidor. Coincidences, perhaps. One is an ambitious plan for approx 380 Airsoft gamers to have a tournament on Corregidor in February. At 4,000 peso each player, that's good bucks. Many folk, including some prominent historians, thought this disrespectful, and set out to protest the idea.
This same week there had also been a group which erected a sign on Corregidor listing the names of a number of officials, that it is now a part of a named Barangay. Those who erected the sign were accompanied by police and naval personnel. As I have been of the view that Corregidor Island is a military owned island, and subject of special provisions for its governance (eg CFI), it came as a surprise that it might now be subject of a Barangay's authority. Not that it matters, it's not my island. It just seems to be becoming less and less of a battlefield of the brave each week.
Gentlemen, "no fighting in the war room!"
I did posts about both on Facebook. As a result, I received an irate letter, indirectly, taking me to task. I did not receive it directly from the person who wrote the letter (though he has my private email address and we have had lunches and beers together), but by reading it on a Facebook post of someone I had never heard of. The letter had been posted by someone who had only joined the Society's Facebook group hours earlier. I had no idea who she was.
The writer had caused the letter to be signed as "Operations Consultant, CORREGIDOR ISLAND FOUNDATION." The letter contained corrections that the writer wanted to be known. Fine. He should have written me directly. He didn't.
I've since corrected the original posting. He's powerful, I'm not. he's connected, I'm not.
But noticing the similarity of his signing above the "CORREGIDOR ISLAND FOUNDATION" name, and not the "CORREGIDOR FOUNDATION, INC.", I was curious as to the new entity. Was it a new entity? I searched both names and their present government registrations.
CFI is duly registered, and is thus subject of Government audit, and the stability of aboard of directors, none of whom I know. Presently, it is registered as having the positions of President and Chairman both VACANT.
CIF is not, as of today, registered as a Foundation, and is thus not subject of a Government audit. Either it is a dumb typo, but maybe it's not.
You can't read the letter. The Moderator of the Facebook page (not me) was correct to remove it, for it raised a data privacy issue, which is of no concern here. It's over, its gone.
What are we to make of this? It's for the powers that be in Manila, whoever they may be, to sort the governance of Corregidor out between themselves, get a Memorandum of Agreement signed, and to get Corregidor back into what we all want - namely a robust, respectful, and international tourism business. How they do it is their business. I haven't got time for this unpaid nuts.
I want to make it quite clear. There are no allegations or suggestions of anything wrong on Corregidor. It's run down, not surprise after the covid closure. Everything is presumed to be well run, such as it can be, and operated by good people with their hearts in the right place. I am not saying this facetiously. We, all of us, want to have Corregidor back to a robust, respectful, and successful international tourism business, a proper reflection of its great significance to the Philippines, and to the brave men who died on its ramparts and battlefields.