Gwen’s glorious moment

Suspended Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia threw all caution to the winds as she left the Provincial Capitol to fulfill her annual “panata” to dance at the Sinulog festival parade.

Accompanied by 30 Mayors and Vice Mayors, she left her Capitol office at 5 p.m. and proceeded to the Cebu City Sports Complex where she joined her daughter Cristina and son-in-law, Mayor Duke Frasco to lead the Liloan Rosquillos Festival at around 7:30 p.m.

When the Liloan contingent was announced, the announcer surprised the 80,000 people in the stadium with an announcement that Governor Gwendolyn Garcia would be the lead dancer of the Liloan contingent. The announcement repeated 3 times received thunderous applause from the people at the stadium. Dressed in a white gown, she danced for about 7 minutes.

Vice President Jojo Binay, Archbishop Jose Palma and UNA candidates Mitos Magsaysay, Dick Gordon and Migz Zubiri waited for 3 hours to watch Gwen fulfill her commitment to Señor Sto. Niño.

Right after the performance she rushed to her coaster accompanied by family and staff and returned to the Provincial Capitol where she has been holed up since Dec. 19. There was no incident at the Capitol gates.

Earlier in the day, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile also visited her at the Capitol.

Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama deserves the utmost congratulations for successfully managing the Sinulog festivities which was attended by an estimated 4 million people. We noticed many foreigners in the crowd.

ABS-CBN stars on board 2 floats joined the parade. Also seen were Ruffa Gutierrez, Anne Curtis, Richard Gutierrez, Raymund Gutierrez and other ABS-CBN and GMA-7 stars.

OFW COMPLAINTS. . . In his recent trip to Abu Dhabi, Vice President Jojo Binay received several complaints of extortion by NAIA assigned Immigration and Customs officials victimizing OFWs.

VP Binay urged the OFWS to report to him any case of extortion. At the piers, passengers and crew of docking cruise ships also made the same complaint of demand for bribes by Customs personnel.

The practice of off-loading tourists has also given rise to extortion by Immigration officers.

Yes, sir, corruption at the NAIA and the piers is in full swing.

EDSA DOS. . . On the anniversary of Edsa Dos, the day that President Joseph Estrada left Malacañang, Erap issued a statement saying how the tables have turned. He is now free while President GMA is now detained at Veterans Memorial Hospital.

Erap noted that the late President Cory Aquino apologized in public that Edsa Dos was a mistake.

Bishop Antonio Tobias also apologized on behalf of the Catholic Church.

Erap declared: “I believe that the Lord granted me my freedom because I still have a purpose to fulfill. As long as I can, I will continue in my mission to help uplift the lives of the masses.”

He is a declared candidate for Mayor of Manila.

TWO MESSAGES. . . Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle advised devotees of the Sto. Niño to be like the Sto. Niño and follow God.

“Those who follow God will always be a child. This is one of the qualities of the Child Jesus.

“We devotees of the Sto. Niño should learn from Him. We should follow His example of humility,” Tagle said in his homily at the mass at the Santo Niño Church in Tondo.

Meanwhile in Cebu City, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, who is also the Catholics Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president, in his homily during the Pontifical Mass for the feast of Sr. Sto Niño de Cebu called for the intensification of prayer as the Church is also celebrating the year of faith.

“In the year of faith according to the Holy Father let us reflect on the many blessings He (God) gave us,” said Palma.

He added that such celebration calls for intensification of prayers, “Our prayer of thanksgiving and adoration.”

PAY UP. . . The USS Guardian, a 68-meter minesweeper ran aground at Tubbataha Reef in Palawan is causing destruction to the coral reefs in the area.

The USS Guardian completed a port call at Subic and was enroute to Indonesia. Faulty navigational maps are suspected to have caused the accident.

A team from the US Navy has arrived in Palawan to supervise the extraction of the ship.

Three Philippine ships are at the area with 2 tugboats to try to free the ship.

DENR has fined Philex Mining P1 billion for its accident at its Pacdal Mine. We should send a collection letter to the US Embassy for a payment of $1 billion to repair the damage to the coral reefs.

DELAYED. . . The appointments of the 15 member Transition Commission to draft the Basic Law to pave the way for the establishment of a Bangsamoro government in Mindanao has been delayed.

There is a ban on all government appointments starting March 29. Once the Transition Commission finalizes the draft of the Basic Law, it has to be submitted to Congress for approval.

Several sticky issues remain to be resolved including wealth sharing, the dismantling of MILF rebel forces and the necessity for Charter change to authorize the creatiion of the new Bangsamoro entity. Lengthy debates will ensue.

The ARMM will continue to exist until the Basic Law is passed.

ANOTHER LIE. . . Now it’s Col. Monico Abang’s turn to try to  exculpate himself and a platoon of Special Forces soldiers from the Atimonan rubout.

Abang said it was an encounter but, added the soldiers fired only warning shots and in the air.

Certainly, the 402 bullet holes dispute that. Now it’s the AFP’s turn to explain who approved Abang’s request to augment the PNP Coplan Armado operation.

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Happy Birthday greetings to Labor Commissioner Nomer D. Villena on Jan. 23.