Mayor Mike Rama at the Rotary Club of Cebu

Mayor Michael Rama was our 1st official guest for the new term of our Rotary Club of Cebu President Robin Ong who took over from outgoing Pres. Jonathan Gesalem yesterday. Call it fitting for our Rotary Club to have Mayor Rama speak before us Rotarians, more so that he was able to hear from Rotarian Bobong Castillo his plans to provide Temephos chemicals to combat the dreaded dengue fever not just in Metro Cebu, but throughout the Province of Cebu. This vision for a dengue free Cebu is shared also by fellow Rotarian Dr. Wyben Briones who is so passionate about this project.

During lunch just before his power point presentation, I sat down with Mayor Rama who told me that he agreed with my column last Wednesday on making a lasting impact by the enforcement of small laws. He told me that this was similar to the "Broken Windows" theory, which was introduced way back in a 1982 article by social scientist James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, which states that maintaining and monitoring urban environments in a well-ordered condition may stop further vandalism or crime.

The New York City Transit Authority used this method effectively in cleaning up their subway trains which rebellious youngsters dirtied with spray paint for many years. Then they started cleaning these subway trains every single day until those rebellious youth realized the futility of their act. Now how would Mayor Mike Rama enforce this depends largely upon the cooperation of the Cebu City Police Office (CPPO).

During his power point presentation, Mayor Rama agreed with my thoughts that as far as CITOM is concerned, since the year 2003, Cebu City has become a city that never sleeps, and therefore, CITOM should no longer be just an 8:00AM to 5:00PM enforcement agency but a 24/7 agency. That means he would need new CITOM enforcers for the night shift, something I used to do although in a smaller scale when I was running CITOM. Of course, all this can only happen with the cooperation of the BOKP Councilors who compose the majority in the City Council.

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The other day, 14 conveners and members of the Automated Election System (AES Watch) went to the Supreme Court (SC) seeking a Writ of Habeas Data against Comelec Chairman Sixto S. Brillantes, Jr. and six Comelec Commissioners in order to get into the bottom of what happened in the last May 2013 elections. It's about time that we get into the bottom of that enigmatic 60%-30%-10% phenomenon in the last elections where in all regions of the country the votes were uniformly for 60 percent for Liberal Party (LP) 30 percent for UNA and 10 percent for the rest.

I know that Sen. Richard "Dick" Gordon already petitioned the SC on this issue. But in my book, the AES is the best party to challenge the Comelec because it is a non-political group, which Comelec can simply dismiss as a case filed by a losing candidate. In my book, the Comelec is part and parcel of this cheating machinery, which is why I believe that this case is important to the Filipino people because their sovereign right of suffrage was not given to them by this bunch of Comelec officials.

Mind you, this group, which includes former Comelec Commissioner Gus Lagman and whistleblower Atty. Melchor Magdamo, also wants the high court to compel the Comelec to cease and desist from placing AES Watch and their member organizations under surveillance using a P30M intelligence fund. Indeed, we are totally taken aback by the Aquino Regime's giving Intel funds to the Comelec, which now we know is allegedly being used against AES Watch and perhaps other people who want to expose the shenanigans of the Comelec.

I learned that this petition filed before the SC stemmed from Malacañang Palace itself when last May 24, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte confirmed that the Comelec got P30 Million in Intelligence funds purportedly to be used against groups or individuals suspected of "conducting overt and covert operations to sabotage the results of the elections." Come now, who has really gone all the way to sabotage the elections? Because the Malacañang spokesmen made that announcement, Abigail Valte and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa were also impleaded in this case.

Meanwhile, it is hoped that Atty. Magdamo's petition would be given due course by the SC, after all, in the year 2010, he proved that multi-million overpricing scheme of the secrecy folders used in the 2010 elections. While that expose only resulted in the suspension of Comelec Project Director Jose Tolentino, Jr. this was a clear case of corruption so why wasn't Mr. Tolentino jailed? That's supposed to be a crime under our laws isn't it? Let's hope that the SC would grant their petition for the sake of our democracy.

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