Espinoza: Drug cases in the province

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

CEBU City Mayor Mike Rama made the first bold move when he removed Vice Mayor Joy Young from the city scholarship committee, a body that Young held for several years. The move caught the attention of this paper.

Vice Mayor Young doesn’t want to make a big deal of his removal. He even bragged that he did the dirty work for the committee and that the system is in place. He fell short of saying “modawat lang og limpyo ang mayor.”

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To recall, this one-liner remark from former vice mayor Rama caused the rift between then mayor and now Rep. Tomas Osmeña and Gov. Gwen Garcia. Garcia got irked by Rama’s remark in relation to the informal settlers’ issue in province-owned lots.

In the sardonic turn of events, Rama is now a friend and political ally of the governor. That’s politics only in the Philippines.

The City’s scholarship program is for high school graduates who cannot afford to go to college. Young said sustaining the program was their problem. Mayor Rama replaced Young as the chairperson of the scholarship program.

Young’s removal is certainly a respite for him. He must have silently said good luck to Mayor Rama. With the problem of funding, Young was perhaps too happy to be taken out of the committee, although he looked doleful when it happened.

Others see the mayor’s move as calculated for him to get the support of the parents and relatives of the city’s scholars in preparation for the May 2013 local elections. It’s about time though that Rama starts the ball rolling before it is too late.

It is an acknowledged fact that after Mayor Rama left the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK), Vice Mayor Young took over as surrogate mayor of Congressman Tomas, the BOPK chieftain, in city hall. He is also the mouthpiece of Tomas. The removal of Young as chairman of the city’s scholarship program was understandable.

Mayor Rama issued a new executive order (EO) amending EO 10-124, which established the city’s scholarship program, with the following as the new committee members: City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete, financial adviser Ofelia Oliva, Schools Division Supt. Salustiano Jimenez, and Ester Cubero. All the mayor’s “men” I suppose.
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The increase in drug cases in the province is alarming. Cebu Provincial Prosecutor Jane Petralba revealed that there were more drugs cases coming from the towns that were filed in her office this year than last year.

There are municipalities in the southwest side of Cebu where shabu is sold like over-the-counter drugs. Residents of these municipalities are aghast that their officials have remained nonchalant on the rise of the illegal drugs menace.

Prosecutor Petralba finds the establishment of the Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Commission (CPADAC) timely because of the sharp increase in the number of drug cases filed before the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.

Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia, who heads the commission, launched on Monday the anti-drug abuse body acknowledging the alarming increase in drug cases in the municipalities that reached the provincial prosecutor’s office.

There are so many jobs for CPADAC to do. Governor Gwen should activate the commission now before the drugs problem in the towns goes out of control. The members of CPADAC are Provincial Board Members Carmen Remedios Durano-Meca and Joeyboy Holganza, and Cebu Provincial Police Director Pat Comendador.

(elespinoza53@yahoo.com)