Sharp exchanges punctuated the debate among the senatorial candidates on what to do to implement the constitutional ban on political dynasties, the topic of the third and final episode of the Inquirer Senate Forum held in Cebu City on Friday.
This is in reference to Fred Diestelkamp’s letter titled “Road repaired after 13 years except for worst part” (Inquirer, 3/2/13).
I want to call the attention of the concerned authorities to the Barili-Dumanjug road in south Cebu. This road (after 13 years) was finally repaired and surfaced in 2012, except for the last three kilometers or thereabout going toward the Dumanjug boundary. Pocked with so many potholes, this stretch is the worst part of the road, and yet this seems to have been deliberately neglected.
Rigoberto Tiglao’s Dec. 27 column hit the proverbial nail right on the head when he stated that President Aquino’s regime is not a rule of law but a rule by law: the selective use of laws and legal technicalities to take out his enemies.
I FELT sad upon hearing that the current administration chose to suspend Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia. It is very obvious that the suspension is politically motivated, given the timing (very near next year’s elections) and the fact that Garcia is not a member of President Aquino’s Liberal Party.
When the big guns of the opposition group United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) visited the embattled Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, one would have expected them to make noisy political capital not only out of the governor’s suspension but also out of the closure of a television station and of a newspaper office. But nothing of the sort seemed to have happened. They seemed simply to have projected themselves as the good guys performing a Christian act of mercy by visiting someone in prison—even if self-imprisoned. The Palace voice in turn also played a good-guy role, saying with a smile that nothing will be done with Garcia until after the holidays.
The Inquirer’s Dec. 27 editorial, “Agony in Cebu,” raised issues that are at best peripheral to the core issues in the standoff at the Cebu provincial capitol.
Malls have been sprouting like mushrooms here and in Cebu province. SM opened its second mall in the province in Consolacion town in northern Cebu on June 1 while construction of SM Seaside City at the South Road Properties is ongoing.
WILL CEBU miss, by the proverbial inch, the fate of Yemen’s cities? “In Sana, the price of water bolted tenfold in some areas,” the New York Times reports. “[It] could become the first capital ever to run out of water.”
“And a child will lead them…” The saying came to mind upon reading about Daniel “Chip” Gatmaitan, described as the “youngest lobbyist in Congress,” who has been storming the House of Representatives to push a bill calling for a ban on sodas, also known as “soft drinks,” in schools.
This refers to the article titled “Robredo sued over Cebu reclamation project” (Inquirer, 3/11/12), specifically on the alleged inaction of Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo and Director Ananias Villacorta (Department of the Interior and Local Government-Region 7) on the complaint filed by the Philippine Earth Justice Center Inc. (PEJCI) in connection with the Cordova reclamation project in Cebu province.
“Example is not the main thing in influencing others,” 1952 Nobel Laureate Albert Schweitzer cautioned after long service, as doctor and pastor, in French Equatorial Africa. “It is the only thing.”
