Rene Ezpeleta Bartolo's Page

To my children, as I grow old...
by Rene Ezpeleta Bartolo

Love is not a word that falls
From careless, casual lips;
Love is not a warmth that stalls
On frozen fingertips.

Love is not a hurried kiss
On an old and puckered brow;
It is not to say: “I miss ..,
I miss you, Dad, somehow.”

Not a lukewarm smile or glance,
Not a reckoning of years,
Not a caring left to chance -
Not a memory of tears.

Love is seeing sparks of light
In the eyes now dull and stern;
It is coloring my night
With… Continue

June 05, 2009
RICOCHET
Rene Ezpeleta Bartolo

Where have all the jobs gone?

One in every three adult Filipinos is jobless, says the survey of the Social Weather Stations released early this month.

Every now and then, when the employment problem is discussed or when there is a need to gloss over the real picture of unemployment and underemployment, President Gloria Arroyo unleashes her banal battle cry:

“A million jobs a year!”

So where have all the jobs gone? The SWS survey echoed that of th… Continue

The MINDANAO TIMES
May 28, 2009
RICOCHET
Rene Ezpeleta Bartolo

Dropping out from life

A nephew I sent through high school is begging another chance.

We had plans then to send him through an engineering course, but after finishing high school he ran away with a classmate, the daughter of a neighbor.

Too soon and too early for his years, he had opted to drop out from a possibly self-sufficient and stable life for himself and his children

Today, at 31 years, after two marriages and three child… Continue

The Mindanao TIMES
May 21, 2009
RICOCHET
Rene Ezpeleta Bartolo

The tainted touch

Following the unresolved issue of corruption in the City Council, particularly in the granting of zoning reclassification and locational clearance applications, there should have been a moratorium on the issuance of controversial approvals.

Decency requires it. Delicadeza mandates it.

Unless, of course, neither decency nor delicadeza exists in the ranks of the city councilors.

That may be a harsh accusation but… Continue

The Mindanao TIMES
May 14, 2009
RICOCHET
Rene Ezpeleta Bartolo

Duterte’s predicates for peace

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is among the more vocal and visible Mindanao leaders. Like many other Mindanao leaders, he is Bisayan and Christian.

It is a redundancy to harp here on his steel-fisted leadership that has kept criminality in Davao City at bay but it is significant to note that, while many other Mindanao cities are hit by periodic bombings attributed to Muslim separatist (or call it t… Continue