Weekend hellos and goodbyes!

Goodbye to lawyer Oscar Te. He left for Canada today with the whole family. For good.

At his despedida, he told me his many years of law practice, including nine years at the Fiscal’s Office, was his passport to the land of the maple leaf flag. A law firm in Toronto awaits his services as a para-legal. His wife, a nurse, and their eldest daughter, a graduating nursing student, can also easily find jobs there.

There was real merriment at his send-off party. However, I felt sad at another loss to our country. But Wiko Kabiling does not believe that those abroad can no longer help Pinas.

Hello to Henry Piosca, former Davao journalist and ex-Press Secretary of Cotabato City. He arrived from England for a month’s vacation with his wife, Malou, who is an eye operating room nurse. Henry works in a fruit lab in Newcastle.

Hello to the members of the Taiwanese business groups in the Philippines. They held their biennial assembly in Davao City this weekend. I sub for Mayor Duterte at the induction of the officers of the Mindanao-Taiwan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Saturday night. Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) Representative Hsin-hsing Wu administered the oath. National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales was guest speaker.

Hello to the new officers of the Davao chapter of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) led by Randy Ponteras and Lecie Arce. They were my dorm-mates in Hong Kong during the 6th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization.

Hello too to the new officers of the Apo Golf & Country Club led by Water District chair Ed Bangayan and my partner Councilor Boni Militar. Apo holds the distinction of the first ever course to host the Philippine Open outside Metro Manila.

Hello to former Councilor Aris Albay, who flew in Saturday night from his base in Hong Kong. Aris part times as a Court interpreter in Hong Kong and sells properties in Edmonton, Canada.

Goodbye to the idle waste at the New Carmen landfill.

The Davao EAGLES (Energy Alternatives for Green Living and Economic Sustainability) decided Saturday to push for the implementation of a waste-to-energy project. We formed a special committee to lobby the project to the Mayor, the City Administrator and to the City Council.

I formed the Davao EAGLES last year at the height of the surging world oil price hikes to push for the development and use of alternative energy. It is composed of alternative energy advocates, environmentalists, inventors and academicians.

The planned integrated solid waste management program will use a waste-to-energy power plant concept that will involve an all-Davaoeno effort, including the fabrication of machineries.

Hello to Libyan Ambassador Dr. Salem M. Adam and his party. They are here for a conference on Monday. We spent Sunday afternoon together in a beautiful hidden cove in Samal Island.

I though to myself this must be an ideal place for Ivan's and Sasa’s sea cucumbers.