Very often, we ended up hurling brickbats at President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for her fouled up governance. But we hardly think about the good things she had done for the country.

And when she claims with statistics her major accomplishments, these are often criticized as mere propaganda.

But just yesterday, she came out with something which only a few could score. This was the BPO industry which now boasts earnings of $7.3 billion from a mere $24 million in 2001. That’s a phenomenal growth within the span of only nine years.

Not only that. She has also eased the problem of unemployment because the BPO industry has now 500,000 employees.

That’s exactly the same point I raised with Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue. Her far-reaching ordinances had paved the way for the entry here of call centers which now boast some 7,000 workers. Better-paid than the ordinary workers.

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It just started with a conversation of lawyer Simplicio Palanca looking for the improvised memorial he had put up near the Manokan Country.

That set him off and Fr. Felix Pasquin, rector of the San Sebastian Cathedral, to discuss the feasibility of putting up a more impressive memorial to the February 20, 1981 pastoral visit here of the late Pope John Paul II.

He was the first Roman Catholic Pontiff to visit this city.

Now, the Pope John Paul II Tower is nearing completion. It has already been installed. And the emergency generator had already been put in place to provide emergency power just in case there is a brownout that would stop the elevators.

The lift, bought from Taiwan, according to Willy Au, a Palanca confidante, will be tested next week. It has a capacity of four passengers. And it could provide the riders a panoramic view of Bacolod City.

The riders can then step on the parapet which, according to Palanca, will boast soon coin-operated telescopes similar to those in the skyscrapers of New York and other major cities of the world.

This will actually be the first such memorial to Pope John Paul II in the Philippines and Asia, pointed out Fr. Pasquin.

That’s the reason why many bishops of the Visayas have expressed interest in attending the February 18 turnover rites when Palanca, the BREDCO top honcho, turns it over to the Bacolod Diocese headed by Bishop Vicente Navarra.

Arrangement for the turnover are still being finalized, but there are reports that what had started out as low-key construction may actually end up as a dramatic and memorable turnover of the seven-storey structure.

In the coming days, there will be more stories about the Pope John Paul II tower and its progress from a small and humble memorial to a towering tribute to a great Pope, John Paul II.*