Will Lito Osmeña replace Raul Roco?

The sudden departure of presidential candidate former Sen. Raul Roco for the United States for chronic back pain has virtually orphaned his supporters who are really left in the dark as to whether he is merely suffering simple back pain or as some medical practitioners here believe, pain symptomatic of prostate cancer. People ask if it were simple back pain, why didn’t Roco visit his friendly neighborhood manghihilot?

One of Raul Roco’s staunch allies is former Cebu Gov. Emilio "Lito" Osmeña of the Probinsya Muna Development Initiatives (PROMDI). In fact, radio commentators have received calls from the Visayas asking whether Lito Osmeña would take the place of Raul Roco in case he quits the race. Whether Lito O would take up the cudgels and run for president in lieu of Raul Roco though late in the hour is a question begging for an answer.

* * *

Political brickbats are a daily fare in today’s political hunting season and Cebu is no exception. For instance, Cebu gubernatorial candidate Vice Gov. John-John Osmeña was recently linked to a recent drug bust by his rival, Agriculture Undersecretary Celestino Martinez Jr., which of course John-John scoffed as a "wild tale," asking, "Where will I get 20 kilograms of shabu?" While John-John’s involvement in that drug bust may be difficult to ascertain, we don’t want to pre-empt the investigation into this dramatic drug case. But certainly, he is in more trouble than we expected him to be in in this gubernatorial race.

Since the campaign period has begun, Vice Gov. John-John has been linked to the loss of P5 million in provincial funds through a bogus Perdido Lex Foundation and also to that American fellow who operated an Internet girlie café, where nude Filipinas were shown in various poses. While these scandals weren’t directly linked to him, the names of his office employees surfaced in all of them. There’s no question that all this fingerpointing is affecting his candidacy. But he is not the only one involved in the controversy.

One of the major issues plaguing Cebu politics is the entry of "revolutionary taxes" of the New People’s Army (NPA) right in the middle of the political campaign. Since I started my career in journalism, I’ve always been fighting the cancer that is the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) which has only caused untold misery and death in this poor country of ours. But after all the many elections in Cebu, this is the first time ever that we’ve heard that the NPA is openly collecting its stupid revolutionary taxes… now they’re mulcting politicians.

The latest victim of the NPA tax collection is allegedly Bogo town Mayor Celestino "Tining" Martinez III, as reported by military intelligence. Mayor Tining is the son of gubernatorial candidate Celestino Martinez Jr. who, of course, was quick to pin the blame for this on their family’s political rivals, Cebu Gov. Pablo Garcia and Daanbantayan’s Maria Luisa Loot. Of course, Mayor Tining denies the accusations that he paid P4,500 in revolutionary taxes. Looking at this measly figure, it’s hard to believe that the NPA would accept such a tiny sum when his father is also running for Cebu governor and his mother, Rep. Clavel Asas Martinez, is seeking another term in the fourth district of Cebu.

Actually, one link that Mayor Martinez cannot deny is his closeness to the Bayan Muna party-list group, which has been tagged by Presidential Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales as one of the communist front organizations. So his rivals are now saying that the NPA collected a minute sum from him after a large discount! Of course, it doesn’t get juicier than this!

If any, the only gubernatorial candidate who hasn’t been hit by a smear job is Gov. Garcia’s daughter Gwen who is taking things in stride. Though her only negative is that she’s practically a neophyte in Cebu politics and therefore, a vote for Gwen is really a vote for Pabling who can no longer seek another term. At this point, Cebu’s serious gubernatorial candidates are batting for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA), which is why she can truly claim the Cebuano votes. Meanwhile, there are no official surveys out in Cebu right now in order to find out who is ahead in the gubernatorial race, except for a few radio stations that conduct their own. In a couple of weeks, we shall see who really is ahead in the race for Cebu governor.

* * *

A lot of our Japanese friends in Cebu who have businesses at the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) have expressed their gratitude to this writer for coming out with the real story behind the problems between Tsuneishi Heavy Industries (THI) and Negros Navigation Inc. (Nenaco). That’s because direct foreign investors (FDIs) feel insecure in investing in a foreign land and they won’t dare fight local businesses unless they have to. In this particular case, THI had no choice but to go to court to seek redress from Nenaco which isn’t paying its dry-docking debts.

Well, the latest news to come from Nenaco is that it is planning to file charges against Tsuneishi president Kenji Kawano, which will include a formal letter of complaint to the Japanese ambassador and the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) for trying to seize its ships during the Holy Week. It just makes me wonder what kind of formal letter Nenaco officials would send to the Japanese ambassador. We can only reckon that it would be filled with half-truths and falsehoods about Tsuneishi’s harassing the shipping company’s passengers. Again, let me point out that Tsuneishi is the real victim here… not Nenaco!

What’s worrisome in this case is that Nenaco has used our slow system of justice to rehabilitate their ailing company and has succeeded. Yes, Metro Pacific has secured a court reprieve on the payment of its P2.5-billion debt, and appointed Sulficio Tagud Jr. as rehabilitation receiver. Wait! That name sounds familiar? Hmm, we’ve ran out of space to tell you more about this.

* * *

For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.