CEBU City’s senior citizens warmly welcomed Sen. Chiz Escudero, the youngest presidential aspirant, last Saturday. A member of Escudero’s staff confided that the event was the first time elderly folks mobbed the senator who was more familiar with teenagers swarming around him.

The absence of Mayor Tomas Os-meña, who had expressed support for Liberal Party’s (LP) bet Sen. Noynoy Aquino and Sen. Mar Roxas, did not seem to bother Escudero who criticized President Arroyo for her unfulfilled promises to senior citizens.

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At a bakeshop just after a senior citizens assembly last Saturday, Antolin dela Cerna revealed that the group sought the blessing of Mayor Tomas Osmeña and received no objections.

It seems Mayor Osmeña has not imposed party discipline on support for presidential candidates other than the mayor’s anointed ones. Among the presidentiables, BO-PK leaders are split between supporting Senator Escudero or Senator Aquino.

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From afar, we could surmise that Mayor Osmeña is still torn between Chiz and Noynoy. Chiz has strong backers within Osmeña close circles like Art Osmeña.

Still, Noynoy has the upper hand. Many councilors like Joey Daluz (the son of the late Inday Nita Cortes-Daluz) and Junjun Davide are for Noynoy. Brother Serge Osmeña is also reportedly running for senator in the Noynoy-Mar senatorial slate.

We also know about Mayor Osmeña’s closeness with Senator Roxas.

Meanwhile, when Noynoy and Mar went around Cebu and Bohol recently, more Cebuanos went out into the open to express their support. The Liberal Party however has to deal with local conflicts among their supporters.

For instance, former senator John H. Osmeña did not take lightly LP’s appointment of Councilor Junjun Davide of BO-PK as provincial chairman. He deemed this as BO-PK encroaching on his provincial turf.

JHO also wants tourism boss Ace Durano to run for governor. However, Durano is a Nationalist People’s Coalition party-mate of Senator Escudero.

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Former president Joseph Estrada has finally shut the doors on talks of opposition unity. He has decided to run himself, further dividing the opposition. But then, those in the opposition believe the administration’s candidate could not get the people’s support, saying President Arroyo’s endorsement would be a kiss of death. As of the moment, LP’s Senator Aquino leads the popularity race. Estrada’s candidacy will deny Noynoy a sizable slice of the masa votes.

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The basketball board controversy in Cebu City’s north district has revived talk about the purchase of allegedly overpriced computers years ago. However, the office of the Visayas Ombudsman and the Commission on Audit had already resolved the computer controversy. They immediately found nothing wrong in the purchase of computers at P100,000 each but could not right away decide on another purchase of computer workstations at P50,000 in Lapu-Lapu City.

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Naga residents continue bristling at unfounded claims that those who joined a rally against environmentalists were paid. When Superbalita staffers had our anniversary beach out at the Petralba resort in Inayagan last Friday, one resident approached me and complained why the paper gave the canard news space. He said it was an insult to all Naga residents, who finally decided to personally demonstrate their sentiments.

It seems local environmentalists have not realized that their campaign against the coal plants is not warmly received in Naga.

They should have gone into the painstaking social preparation process first before publicly claiming that the plants were not accepted by the people. Maligning Naga residents now will only make things worse.

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