The city government of Tagbilaran will formally ink tomorrow in Manila a Memorandum of Agreement with the University of the Philippines, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for the establishment of a testing center here.

We authored a resolution during the regular session of the city sanggunian last Wednesday authorizing City Mayor Dan Neri Lim to sign the MOA for and in behalf of the city. The resolution was carried en masse.

There are only three local governments identified by UP and CHED as testing center for UP's Open University: Pangasinan in Luzon, Tagbilaran City for the Visayas and Cotabato City for Mindanao.

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While other local government units were competing with each other in seeking to be the testing center for the open university, Tagbilaran's selection came like in a silver platter courtesy of CHED Chairman Romulo Neri.

UP's Open University will provide educational opportunity for both degree and non-degree courses while the student remains in the locality. Being a testing center, UP and CHED will also extend various financial grants to the city in its operationalization.

This will mean that applicants from the various parts of the Visayas will have to come to Tagbilaran City in order to take the examination for admission to the open university.

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There's more than meets the eye in the election of Ramram Alturas of Dampas as the new city federation president of the Sangguniang Kabataan last week. Until the last hours before the city SK elections, Michael Kapirig, son of City Councilor Edgar Kapirig, had been touted as the strongest contender to the post.

But when the nominations came, the young Kapirig did not vie for the SK presidency and instead ran for vice-president. Of course, a lot of tongues were wagging and immediately pointed to the city hall as the main culprit linking the maneuver as part of the imbroglio between Kapirig's father and Deputy Mayor Mario Uy.

Let's hit the nail right on its head: Will Alturas resign and give way to the young Kapirig if the latter's father would make amends with the honorary deputy mayor? Your answer is as good as mine.

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In last Sundays' boxing event at the Araneta Coliseum, it appeared that, at this early, AJ "Bazooka" Banal emerged as the better fighter than Rey Boom-Boom" Bautista.

Bautista may have won by unanimous decision over his opponent, Banal knocked down his in a very methodological fashion. But in fairness to Bautista, his right foot was wounded before the fight. We saw Bautista limping during the fight. It was not the slippery boxing canvass that made Bautista uneasy and limping but the wound in his foot.

Be that as it may, Bautista hare more or less redeemed himself already from the humiliating defeat in the hands of Daniel Ponce del Leon. AJ Banal likewise showed that he is now ready for bigtime boxing.

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INBOX. Hermes Quijada, direct from his computer in the United States where he is now based, sent as a forwarded e-mail we find hilarious. Others may find this green but just remove the malice. Here it goes:

A man met a beautiful girl and she agreed to spend the night with him for $400.00. So they spent the night together. In the morning, before he left, he told the girl that he did not have any cash with him, but that he would have his secretary write a check and mail it to her, calling the payment "Rent for Apartment."

On the way to the office, he regretted what he had done, realizing that the whole event was not worth the price. So, he sent a cheque for $200.00 and enclosed a note:
Dear Madam: Enclosed find a check in the amount of $200.00 for rent of your apartment. I am not sending the amount agreed upon because when I rented the apartment, I was under the impression that: 1. It had never been occupied. 2. There was plenty of heat. 3. It was small enough to make me cozy and at home.

Last night, however, I found out that it had been previously occupied, that there wasn't any heat, and that it was entirely too large. Upon receipt of the note, the girl immediately sent back the following reply:

Dear Sir: First of all, I cannot understand how you expect such a beautiful apartment to remain unoccupied indefinitely. As for the heat, there is plenty of it if you know how to turn it on. Regarding the space, the apartment is indeed of regular size, but if you don't have enough furniture to fill it, please don't blame the landlord. I will expect full payment due immediately or I will be forced to hire someone to remove your furniture!

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