Sun.star essay: Playing mom and dad

ELECTIONS are over and it’s back to work for those re-elected and for the newbies in lawmaking.

Take, for one, the amendments to the Solo Parents Act of 2000 (or Republic Act No. 8972 signed into law in November 2000), which gives benefits and privileges to solo parents and their children.

Mercado: Rarest of grace

IN post-election Cebu City, the rarest grace is “delicadeza.” Look at how trounced Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) officials, like Joy Augustus Young, lob monkey wrenches as they skid towards the exit.

Wenceslao: Gwen, city council and JVR

Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia’s six months suspension will end 11 days before her term expires on June 30. That means Acting Gov. Agnes Magpale will revert back to being vice governor by that time. The 11 days that Gwen will be back at the Capitol would be interesting because of what happened in December when Malacañang’s suspension order was implemented.

Lim: Iron lady

FRANKLY, I think Noy­noy should have done a Maggie.

ACCORDING to accounts of Philippine crew, a Taiwanese vessel attempted to ram a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources operated Philippine vessel last May 9. In self-defense, the Philippine Coast Guard aboard the Philippine vessel fired warning shots. A shirtless man then appeared and goaded them to a chase. After 8 to 10 other vessels appeared in the horizon, the Philippine vessel retreated. The incident resulted in the death of Taiwanese fisherman Hung Shih-cheng.

Malilong: What really happened

IF politics were boxing, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama would have been the defending champion and Rep. Tommy Osmeña, the challenger.

Rama would have been favored and Osmeña would have had to knock him out or at least beat him convincingly on points to get the nod of the judges.

Tabada: Of mockingbirds and readers

MUCH-LOVED books are many things to their readers.

Take Harper Lee’s 1960 classic “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Editorial: Love and the mundane

THE report was the definition of tragic, that is, if the police finding on the incident is correct: a not-so-illicit love affair gone sour, the jilted lover killing the woman who broke off with him then throwing her in the woods and, realizing he couldn’t get away with the crime, shooting himself in the chest inside a car.

Incidents like these have happened many times before. The variations in the story are minimal: the names of the protagonists may be different but the circumstances remain the same, or almost the same. And the lessons have been told and retold.

Libre: Lord’s protection

YOU could have died,” the tire supplier told my wife, Debbie, as she went back to his shop on 20 May 2013 to report about the flat tire that we had in the South Motorway of Auckland.

Wenceslao: The Camotes polls

THE Barug Alang sa Kauswagan ug Demokrasya (Bakud) of Ramon “Nito” Durano III has, as expected, swept the elections in the Camotes group of islands. This is not surprising because Bakud has monopolized politics in the towns of Poro, San Francisco, Tudela and Pilar for decades now. Besides, the opposition put up by One Cebu in this year’s polls was weak.

Nalzaro: Gwen’s return

THE six months suspension of Gov. Gwen Garcia imposed by the Office of the President through the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG) will end on June 19.

Barrita: Back to school

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago urged neophyte senators to go back to school instead of entering the Senate with guns-a-blazing.

Once the dust of victory has cleared, Santiago said the Filipinos who voted for the new senators would be scrutinizing them to see whether they made the right choice.

Carvajal: Barricaded

QUESTION number two is: was there a Catholic vote in elections 2013? Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles and Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra, who both went to extremes in getting Catholics to vote as one, have admitted disappointment that bloc voting by Catholics was simply non-existent.

Roperos: Troubled economy

A BASIC and common economic concern among the nations is how to market their products to each other. They call it “export marketing.” This notion struck me recently when I read a report in this newspaper about the threat faced by the Seaweed Industry of the Philippines (SIAP), which produces and exports carageenan as food additive.

Wenceslao: That ‘60-30-10’ poll count ‘pattern’

AN interesting article was posted recently in the Scientific American website (www.scientificamerican.com). It was aptly titled, “Moon Landing Faked!!!—Why People Believe in Conspiracy Theories.” I say the article is interesting considering insinuations raised by some sectors recently that tend to put doubt on the result of the senatorial polls.

Malilong: Move to postpone barangay polls

THE term of office of barangay officials, which is fixed by the Local Government Code, has undergone two changes: on Feb. 14, 1998, when (according to a Rappler report) nobody was looking, Congress extended it to five years through Republic Act 8524 and on March 19, 2002, when it was restored to three years, again by another act of Congress, Republic Act 9164.

Seares: The new senators you or PCOS have picked

A person's opinion of the quality of his country's senators usually depend upon what he believes qualify them for the office.

The Constitution's requirements though are limited to citizenship (natural-born), age (35 or older), residence (two years before the election), and, for education, mere ability to read and write.

Libre: Computer glitch

Joavan Fernandez transferred to CPDRC.

Be careful, some insiders there may be envious of your claim as Public Enemy No 1.

Editorial: Reconciliation

ACTING Gov. Agnes Magpale, who won the post of vice governor in the May 13 polls, is not the first winner in a political joust to wave the “reconciliation” word like a flag. But calling for reconciliation after a bitter political war is one thing, actually seeking it is another.

Roperos: ‘Chilling’ act

I DO NOT know how I should react to this bit of incident. But I believe that this has a grave implication on the exercise of the media profession in the globe. I am referring to the complaint by the Associated Press (AP) against the US government’s Department of Justice.

Malilong: Tommy O’s electoral protest

LOREN LEGARDA, Chiz Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano and Sonny Angara were big winners in the May 13 senatorial elections in spite of it. On the other hand, Mitos Magsaysay and JC delos Reyes missed the target by a wide margin (5 million votes?) also in spite of it.

In Cebu, political giants Reps. Pablo Garcia and Eddie Gullas tasted bitter defeat for the first time after so many elections, likewise in spite of it.

Seares: Coca Cola metaphor of PNoy and Nancy

IN September 2011, President Noynoy Aquino, when asked about his love life, said, "It's like Coca Cola. Before it was Regular, then it became Light, now it's Zero."

Last week, Nancy Binay, still basking in the light and warmth of election victory, finishing fifth in the Senate race, was asked about how she'll "make a name separate" from her dad, Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Espinoza: BOPK councilors should cooperate

FILING an election protest is a right of a poll loser who thinks that the results of the election were highly irregular or were rigged.

Rep. Tomas Osmeña, allegedly upon the prodding of his supporters, will protest the victory of Mayor Mike Rama and vice mayor-elect Edgar Labella in the just concluded May 13 polls.

Editorial: A paper trail for 2016

BEFORE the 2016 polls, the veteran election lawyer Sixto Brillantes will end his term as chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). This early, he has disturbing advice for his successor: if you can, pick a new set of machines to replace the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) units.

Roperos: Enrolment time

WITH the month of June looming large and demanding in the calendar of the Department of Education (DepEd), most parents who have family members of school age must be spending restless nights estimating how much it would cost them to enroll their kids.

Wenceslao: Dealing with obstructionists

THE recent Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) gathering at the South Road Properties (SRP) gave us a glimpse of what party chief Tomas Osmeña and his people will do at least in the early stages of Michael Rama’s second term as mayor. So what should Team Rama do in response?

Barrita: My Mactan

NEWLY-ELECTED Rep. Aileen Radaza of the lone district of Lapu-Lapu City is filing a bill that will create the province of Mactan, a move she said, which will hasten the island’s economic growth.

I always thought the Radazas, the congresswoman-elect’s father Rep. Arturo Radaza and mother Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza, have done something to make Mactan prosper.

Nalzaro: Political dynamics

DEFEATED mayoralty candidate Tomas Osmeña just cannot accept his defeat in the hands of his former political protégé, Michael Rama. So too his running mate, Vice Mayor Agustus Joy Young, cannot accept his defeat to Edgardo Labella. Labella won by a margin of almost 200 votes.

Obenieta: Stirring up the source

GROW by going along with the grassroots. No better sense than sticking one’s ear down to the ground.

Earthshaking as his historic ascendancy has been, US President Barack Obama knew all along that he could fall through the cracks if he would wander off and drag on deaf to the source of his power. So he went on poring over the so-called Citizen’s Briefing Book, noting down some insights from ordinary citizens who proposed ways of wising up and tackling the task of nation-building.

Carvajal: Question one

THE number one question after election results is: were elections 2013 better than elections 2010? If you ask Comelec and the winners the answer is a big YES. But if you ask the losers and some watchdogs the answer is a loud NO.

Wenceslao: Staying relevant

OPERATION Day 1” was the buzzword when I covered the Capitol beat in the early ‘90s during the administration of lawyer Vicente “Tingting” de la Serna. Tingting had defeated Annette, wife of former governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña, in the 1992 Cebu gubernatorial elections. Lito at that time was seeking a national position, leaving his control of the Capitol vulnerable to assaults from the opposition.