Murder or homicide?

As always, Metro Manila is abuzz with all these speculations about the high profile killing of Rafael de las Alas, former Batangas governor Tony Leviste’s longtime aide who was shot several times. The trajectory indicates he was killed while sitting down, and as usual there’s a lot of talk going around town especially in the business community about whether it was a murder, homicide or self defense as the former governor claims.

Apparently there was an argument over commissions from the sale of real estate properties — which was not a very big amount — which De las Alas wanted to get, but the former governor reportedly wanted to pay it piece meal.

All of these speculations of course stem from the fact that this involves a high profile person, being the former husband of Senator Loren Legarda. But they’ve been separated for over two years now. Tony Leviste has been known to be controversial in many issues especially those involving land grabbing cases in Batangas. In fact, when he was applying to be a member of the Manila Polo Club, one member opposed, effectively turning down his application.

In fairness to the victim’s family and the former governor, the investigators must come out with the real facts. There should be no whitewash. Otherwise, people will continue to question this high profile case with the never-ending speculation like a suspense drama movie — "Whodunnit, and why?"

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STAR is not for sale

Since STAR publisher Max Soliven passed away, there’s been a lot of speculation going around town that The STAR was for sale. One story that went around was that container terminal czar Ricky Razon was buying The STAR for P2 billion. But this was immediately doused off by STAR president and CEO Miguel Belmonte who said that, first of all, The STAR is not for sale and secondly, he’s never heard from Ricky Razon.

This was confirmed by Ricky Razon himself when I talked to him, who said that he never made such an offer. Except that he qualified it by saying that he did make an offer to "Uncle Max" a long time ago to be a passive investor.

All these rumors are obviously circulating because The STAR has now become the number one newspaper in the Philippines, and obviously, being number one — it is a target of speculators and people trying to sow intrigue. This paper’s circulation is at its highest today — continuing to be popular here and abroad with an all time high of advertising revenues. The paper’s online edition via philstar.com is also getting millions of hits everyday and online readers have repeatedly commented about how easy and reader friendly the format is.

But, in Spanish, they say "tiene razon" — and in this case, there’s every reason to believe that Ricky Razon could very well afford to buy a number one newspaper because he is reportedly awash with cash. Ricky has been traveling all over the world, expanding his business rapidly. He’s been dubbed the "Baltic King" on account of ICTSI’s operations in the Baltic Container Terminal in Poland, and his latest venture is in Madagascar.

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The proud Cebuano

Our fellow STAR columnist Bobit Avila must be on cloud nine. Cebu has become the center of attention over the past week — with the success of the ASEAN summit. Certainly, credit goes to the Cebuanos, GMA and of course our friend, Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo for the preparations made. It was an absolute success, making all of us proud of this international event.

The only comment from people that I talked to which they said didn’t go quite well were the polo barongs. There were many people who told us that everyone seemed to be dressed the same — aides, security people and delegates — giving people a hard time identifying who’s who. The barongs for the heads of state should have been given a more elegant and elaborate embroidery to distinguish them from the security, the staff and other delegates.

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Feedback: Let the bidding begin!

In reaction to our Jan.16 item ("Changing the rules midstream"), Speaker Joe de Venecia called me the other night to tell me that he has nothing to do with the bidding delays for the privatization of TransCo. While JDV admits that he is the number one marketing salesman of this country in China for investments – for which we give him full credit – he vehemently denied causing the postponement of the Transco biddings. He said he will never do anything to delay a project that is vital to the progress of this country. Since that’s the case — let the bidding begin!

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