The airwaves are abuzz these days discussing the citizenship of Sen. Grace Poe, whom Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said was a "naturalized Filipino" and literally exposed himself as doing the bidding of former DILG Sec. Manuel "Mar" Roxas whose legal counsel is the so-called "Firm" where Justice Carpio was involved. So now the ordinary Filipino is bombarded with this legality, which gets him out of focus of the need of this nation to do political reforms, which in my book is more important than the legal issues that Sen. Grace Poe is not facing.
Why do we need political reforms? In the first place, our political system is patterned from the United States of America so we ask, why are we a multi-party system? With so many political parties coalescing with each other, how come we only have three potential presidential candidates? Look what is happening in America today… the Republican Party is having a debate amongst themselves as to who best would lead the charge to fight the Democratic presidential contender. But here in the Philippines, we have a "point" system whereby the reigning president points to who should succeed him. In my book this is not democracy in action… it is demo-cracy!
As for the citizenship of Sen. Grace Poe, my good friend Mr. Ramon Blanch wrote me this piece, "Hi Bobit, Webster dictionary defines "naturalize" as: "to allow (someone who was born in a different country) to become a new citizen" So if Carpio says Poe is a naturalized citizen, what nationality was she or where was she born before she was naturalized? Regards, Ramon." This is a good question that we dare ask Associate Justice Antonio Carpio to answer.
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I have been a vociferous critic of Mandaue City officials and the Department of Public Works & Highways because for more than a year, they could not solve the massive traffic congestion in the city, which is caused primarily by the road rehabilitation of nearly all major thoroughfares in this city. But have passed there thrice already and I have noticed an improvement of the traffic in Mandaue and we must give credit where credit is due.
My son, Capt. Jesus Valeriano Avila is a pilot flying small commercial planes in Mactan and he pointed to me to pass through S.B. Cabahug Street which passes through the Mandaue City Hall, which has been turned into a one-way road going to the north, which ends up at the Metro Gaisano. So last Wednesday evening, from my office in JY Square at exactly 5:00 PM, I fetched my wife Jessica from her office in Globe Tower in Ayala Business Park and drove to Mandaue passing this road on our way to meet Mr. Nicholas Smith, the new general manager of the Shangri-La's Mactan Island Resort & Spa and we got to Shang at exactly 6:00PM. Now in my book it is remarkable that we did this trip in one hour during the 5:00PM rush hour.
Of course it is not yet perfect, There are still refinements for the City of Mandaue to do, like at the corner of St. Joseph's Cathedral and the City Hall where it still gets congested. But at least we know that Mayor Jonas Cortez has listened to our complaints and did something about the traffic problem. But as far as the DPWH is concerned… until they tell their favorite contractors (I counted only five favorite ones by DPWH) to work 24/7 in rehabilitating our roads, I won't praise them yet.
Finally, when I was driving through Lapu-Lapu City, I was still bewildered where the DPWH spent that P643.73 million for the so-called widening of the circumferential road in Mactan. If there was such a road widening, how come I can only see a four-lane road, that's two lanes on either side?
The only widened area was at the end of the runway of the Mactan Cebu International Airport. So pray tell me, DPWH officials, how this money was spent or should I believe in what former Cebu Governor Emilio "Lito" Osmeña said that monies from corrupt government projects would be used by the Liberal Party in the up and coming 2016 Presidential elections? Again we ask the DPWH, how was the P23 billion for road rehabilitation projects in Cebu since 2010 spent? Their silence is deafening!
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These are the times when I'm proud of the Philippine National Police -- for two major reasons… that raid in Fatima, Duljo in the compound of Jeffrey "Jaguar" Diaz led by Criminal Investigation Division Supt. Romeo Santander and to my M.E. classmate, Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, head of the Special Investigation Task Force Group handling the killing of 17-year-old Karen Kay Montebon for solving this mysterious crime in just one week.
However, the police must tell us why the compound of Jaguar was empty. So who tipped Jaguar of the coming raid? As for the case of Karen Montebon, her killer Ruben Fernandez was killed in Getafe, Bohol when the police were about 300 yards from him. So who killed Fernandez and why?
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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.