Finally, we’ll widen roads in the south

First off, my heartfelt congratulations to the MyTV staff and crew for winning the Best TV Plug/Public Service Announcement with the show "My Cebu Heritage: Colon Street" during the 19th Cebu Archdiocesan Mass Media Awards (CAMMA) held last Sunday at the SM Seaside Mountain View Wing.

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I already said my piece about the cutting of trees in yesterday‘s column. Now, we have been told that another 151 trees in Naga need to be cut down simply because of another major road-widening project. If there is anything that we truly need in Cebu, it is for our roads to be widened and it just so happened that those trees are in the way of progress. Let me remind you that 50 years ago, going to the town of Carcar was a 40-minute travel despite a two-lane road. Since there was very little traffic, getting there was quit fast. Today, going to Carcar is often an hour-and-a-half trip because of heavy traffic, hence the need to widen our roads. And if those trees are blocking progress, then they have to be removed!

What do people expect that we should do? Prevent trees from being cut, then those trees would become a safety hazard on the road? I don’t think so. At this point, I dare the officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways to point out exactly what trees need to be cut so people will be aware of their location. Again, I dare say that it is high time for Cebu to have expressways like the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) to Clark Air Base and the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) all the way to Lipa in Batangas so we will suffer less traffic, as what we are experiencing for the past 20 years!

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Over the weekend, I started reading about the issue of those so-called ninja cops and it was then I learned that this was an incident that happened during the time of then President PNoy Aquino III when there was an incident on Nov. 29, 2013 where 13 police officers in Mexico, Pampanga, were investigated for allegedly seizing illegal drugs but underreporting it. Supposedly in the end, they made millions when these drugs were resold into the market. These were the men of then Pampanga Police Director Oscar Albayalde, who is currently Philippine National Police chief.

Now whether Chief Albayalde was coddling those so-called ninja cops remains to be proven even after the exposé of Baguio City mayor Benjamin Magalong. The question is, why is this issue only being brought out today? Of course, we understand that during the term of Aquino, many policemen became protectors of drug lords and the Philippines was becoming a narco state. However, since it is only now that these accusations were hurled against Albayalde, then we must give him the benefit of the doubt that he acted fairly during that time. Now someone needs to prove that he profited from this incident.

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This Russia trip was perhaps one of the longest trips of Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte. So when he got back, Duterte thanked Russia president Vladimir Putin and Russia prime minister Dmitry Medvedev for allowing the increased trade partnerships, which would create more jobs for Filipinos.

Duterte also added saying “In the coming days, we are determined to bring more of our food products to Russia. Just last week, we had a delegation of 14 top Filipino companies to the world-renowned World Food Moscow in 2019 fair. In the coming years we hope that more and more Russians will get to enjoy our top quality export products.” This is what was discussed with Russian businessmen as well as the Philippines’ effort to reform its tax system by introducing the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act (CITIRA), which is pending in Congress. Let’s hope that this trip to Russia will soon bear fruits to help our economy.

This was accepted on my behalf by Mr. Dante J. Luzon, Rhoniel Madrid, Joel Noel, Kirby Campo, and Jefferson Canada whose work in MyTV cannot be measured by awards. All the TV shows we have done in the eight years as MyTV have always been a gem for me. I’m sure that parent company, the International Marketing Group, Kaiser Health Group, and MBLife Insurance are so proud of your work as I am.