Remember the boy who cried wolf?

Will the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) be finished on time to be used for the 12th ASEAN Leader's Summit? That's the big question everyone wants to know; after all, only very few government projects, like the Fernan Bridge were ever finished on the allotted time. To assuage the skeptics, Archt. Manuel Guanzon threw a bet (I don't know if this is even legal or not) of P500 thousand a few weeks ago, a bet that only temporarily silenced his critics; after all, we believe in that age-old dictum,"put your money where your mouth is." Apparently, as the deadline grew nearer, the anxious critics once more asked the same question, to which Guanzon replied by raising the bet to P1.5Million.

Enter former Cebu Senator John "Sonny O" Osmeña who picked up the proverbial gauntlet, of course with three conditions; that they deposit the amount in an agreed bank, that a panel of independent evaluators would be created to inspect and ascertain that the project is completed by Nov.15th. However instead of agreeing to these conditions, Archt. Guanzon threw in his own conditions, that the bettor's name and hometown should be identified because he wants to be sure that the bettor is a taxpayer and won't be using drug money for the betting. Wait-a-minute! I thought it was Sonny Osmeña taking on this bet?

So the big question we are all anxious to know is whether this bet would proceed or not. If you ask me, it is as simple as putting their betting money in a bank, which is the right thing to do and then finding out by mid-November whether or not the CICC can be used for the ASEAN Summit come December. If the ASEAN Summit uses an alternative venue, that means Mr. Sonny Osmeña can go to the bank and collect his winnings. If the 12th ASEAN Summit officially opens at the CICC then Archt. Guanzon gets an additional P1.5 million bonus for believing that he could do the impossible.

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To be perfectly honest, I don't know why until now the Cebu media hasn't yet discovered or realized that the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu Chapter President Alex Tolentino is Cebu's version of Aseop fable's "The Boy Who Cried Wolf!" I have forgotten already how many times he bragged that he has the evidence that would expose the criminal activities of the vigilantes. He even sold his story to a certain monsignor who also used it even if it was only mere rumor or innuendo. Yet we still have nothing. Nada!

Last Tuesday, The FREEMAN headlined the supposed turn over by Atty. Tolentino of evidences to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) then the very next day, NBI Regional Director Medardo de Lemos revealed that there was no turnover at all, not even a single document! Why then would Atty. Tolentino announce to the press that he was going to give the documents to the NBI and purposely renege on this? This fella must have all his wires mixed up or something!

Surely when you were a kid you must have read that wonderful story about the Boy Who Cried Wolf because even an idiot can learn the lesson of this story. As for Pres. Tolentino, surely the IBP Cebu City Chapter can come up with a better president to represent them. In my book Atty. Tolentino is a complete embarrassment!

As I read The FREEMAN yesterday, lawyer Pedro Salva revealed that what Atty. Tolentino has been doing was not officially sanctioned by the IBP. Being so, then the IBP Board should sanction their President for doing things without board approval. Who knows, pretty soon, Atty. Tolentino might just come up with some kind of cockamamie evidence… but then, his reputation already precedes him and even the NBI might suspect that the evidence may just be fake!

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That eerie warning from the British government that terrorists plotting to do a series of attacks or bombings here in the Philippines may be on their final stages of implementation. Just a couple of months ago, British intelligence foiled a terror plot, which was about to be carried out in British airports to smuggle in explosive chemicals and bomb the planes as they flew over US territory. That British anti-terror authorities foiled this plot at the nth hour was quite remarkable and speaks tons about MI-5's intelligence gathering prowess.

While the Brits may be far away from us often the intelligence they get about what terrorists are plotting points to the Philippines; after all, we are a fat juicy target where Al Qaida and Jemah Islamiyah continues to operate. At least we can thank the Brits for the warning they gave us.

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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit's columns can also be accessed at www.shootinginsidecebu.blogspot.com