Guilty or not guilty

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said over the weekend, “there are only 2 choices, guilty or not guilty. There would be no vote with reservation but they can abstain.”

The defense has announced that it needs 4 weeks to finish its case and would present 25 witnesses. The first one will be CJ Corona’s lawyer-accountant who will explain Corona’s financial sources which he used to buy condominiums and made bank deposits.

A recent survey taken Jan. 28-Feb. 6 showed that 57% of the respondents now do not care how the trial will end. The longer the case drags on, the less public interest in the case. People are just too preoccupied with their everyday problems of high prices, Lack of income or jobs and the bad crime situation.

Observers say that the President, by his daily attacks on CJ Corona has engaged in an “overkill”, making Corona an underdog.

Add that to the public’s dissatisfaction with the performance of prosecution lawyers who decided to drop 5 articles of impeachment and that result in waning public interest.

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BOOM TOWN. . . With the underground river being declared one of the new seven wonders of nature by UNESCO, tourists are arriving in droves at Puerto Princesa. The whole city is experiencing a frenzied boom. Mayor Edward Hagedorn who is on his 6th term as a Mayor has signed 200 building permits including 23 new hotels to add to the present 2,000 room capacity.

Robinsons is building a mall.

On the occasion of its 140th Foundation Day, Mayor Hagedorn with Land Bank officials David Camaya, Mary Lou Villafranca and Tomas de Leon with your columnist broke ground for a modern P740-million 5-story City Hall Complex on a 30-hectare site which is designed to be environment friendly.

P4.2 billion has been released for the new airport.

Mayor Hagedorn has relocated thousands of squatters and converted the seaside area into a boardwalk. The Mayor is credited with a successful anti-logging, anti-mining and anti-illegal fishing campaigner.

1,000 tourists a day visit the underground river. Bookings are made 2 weeks in advance. The number of flights has increased from 9 to 18 with foreign chartered flights arriving. Puerto Princesa is gearing itself to receiving one million tourists. President Aquino may attain his 10 million tourist arrivals by 2016, thanks to Puerto Princesa. Congratulations to Mayor Hagedorn, Vice Mayor Bayron and the people of Puerto Princesa.

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BUILD IT . . Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp., builder of the Skyway going to SLEX, has proposed a 14-kilometer 6-lane elevated highway from Makati to Balintawak in cooperation with San Miguel Corp.

The connector project will ease traffic on Edsa and will cost P25.4 billion. Go ahead and build it but consider seriously the proposal to transfer the seat of government from Manila to Clark.

 Many countries including Brazil, Canada, Australia, Korea and Malaysia have taken that forward step. There’s little room for improvement left for highly congested Metro Manila.

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ONE FOR THE BOOKS . . Another scandal has been reported at the Bureau of Corrections. Director Gaudencio Pangilinan spent P2 million on the occasion of President Aquino’s visit to Bilibid on Jan. 27. The breakdown: P720,000 for food for the VIPs, P576,000 for the printing of tarpaulin banners, P203,000 to rent a red carpet, P450,000 to rent an airconditioned tent, P80,000 for meals of other visitors and media.

This is a clear abuse of government funds. The question now is, will Malacañang put Gen. Pangilinan on the carpet for this misuse of public funds?

Malacañang should issue a memorandum circular to rule out excessive expenditures to welcome the President’s visits. The same should apply to preparations for visiting Cabinet members.

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GIVE THEM MORE FUNDS . . The successful administration of local government officials like Mayor Edward Hagedorn of Puerto Princesa, Gov. Amado Espino Jr. of Pangasinan, Gov. Lilia Pineda of Pampanga, Gov. Gwen Garcia of Cebu and Gov. Enrique Tet Garcia of Bataan calls for an improvement and increase on the allocation of funds for projects at local level.

The building of communal irrigation systems, farm to market roads, schoolbuilding repairs, health centers, water impounding mini dams, spring development projects should be decentralized from DPWH, DA and DOTC to governors and mayors. All projects costing not more than P 50 million should be left to local governments.

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BOHOL UPDATE . . Gov. Edgardo Chatto will be opposed by either Tagbilaran Mayor Dan Lim or Carmen Mayor Che Toribio de los Reyes.

2nd District Congressman Erico Aumentado will have a return bout with former Cong. Roberto Cajes. 3rd District Cong. Arthur Yap will be opposed by Loboc Mayor Leon Calipusan. There’s no emerging opponent for 1st District Cong. Rene Relampagos.

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TIDBITS . . . Our get well wishes to Charlie Uy and prayers for him.

Actress Marian Rivera got paid P300,000 for one song and one dance number at the Miss Puerto Princesa 2012 pageant.

Two were killed and 8 wounded in an explosion at the Cleopatra Commercial Complex in Jolo, Sulu.

Condolences to the family of hero rookie cop PO1 Remuel de la Cruz who was shot dead by a snatcher at Tutuban Center Mall, Tondo.

The Bureau of Customs missed its February target by P4.69 billion.

Greetings to avid readers Rey Rafols, General Alexander Flores, Becky Labit, Eljin Damasco, Jovannee Sagun, all of Puerto Princesa, my good friend Elpi Cuna, Aurora Provincial Board Members Joselito Cabauatan and Butch Bautista.

Vice President JoJo Binay paid tribute to Sen. Pres. Juan Ponce Enrile and defense lawyer Serafin Cuevas for making the legal profession the “flavor of the season.”

He predicted Law school enrollment will increase.

Arellano University and PLM have kept their top ten ranking in the average of passing graduates in the bar exams.