Cabaero: Family brings fight online

THE family of the suspected shoplifter who was mauled to death while being interrogated allegedly by mall security personnel has taken their quest for justice online.

Lim: Auntie

I didn’t realize until I turned 40 how distasteful the word, “Auntie” could be. Let me elaborate further. And let me assure you that I am not alone in this hell hole.

No 40-something woman wants to be addressed as “Auntie” by colleagues and associates in the professional network. Yes, no matter how old you are. Please take note of this, gentlemen of Chinese descent.

Lee: Traffic accidents

PART of being a lawyer means being called into the police station to handle cases of clients who accidentally bumped someone with their car, or were bumped by cars.

Deaths, injuries, or damage caused by a traffic accident can be punishable under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code. The pertinent text of this lengthy provision states as follows:

Tabada: Summer’s children

AFTER a time, I realized what was missing this summer: the sound of children playing on the street.

Summer then was the heat flushing us out to the street. There was no school to regiment our day, only “tubig-tubig,” “bato-lata,” “Japanese game,” and “buwan-buwan.”

Editorial: Mere appetizer

CUSTOMS Deputy Commissioner Danny Lim has an interesting description of the size of the smuggled rice shipment that was intercepted recently in the Port of Cebu: “mother lode” of all smuggled rice. One can’t criticize him for being upbeat considering the data.

Libre: Bully nation

CHINA may just have made itself less palatable to its neighbors and the world with its bullying tactic in South China Sea. Asean is closing ranks to get China to engage in talks to solve the long-standing dispute in the maritime goldmine. But the Dragon King of Asia is stalling. It prefers to deal one-on-one with Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan and Malaysia.

As the Philippines takes a diplomatic overdrive through a United Nations tribunal to end violations of its national sovereignty, China fired back agitated, accusing the Philippines of stealing Chinese territory.

Wenceslao: Guingona ambush and CPP impositions

IN DECEMBER of 1986, the local leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) held a press conference in one of the hinterland barangays overlooking Cebu City.

The party was founded on Dec. 26, 1968 and every December thereafter occasioned some celebratory activities. The government of then president Corazon Aquino was negotiating with the rebels for a lasting settlement of the conflict and a ceasefire was in place. That gave the local CPP leaders the daring to surface and show off their armed might.

Nalzaro: How’s Boboy Durano?

IN LAST Wednesday's column, I wrote about the physical condition of former Cebu City councilor and Citom chairman Jack Jakosalem, who is running for councilor in the north district under Team Rama. Many were surprised because they thought that Jack has fully recovered and has joined the campaign.

No. Jack cannot join the campaign yet. He is still recuperating from his brain and stomach surgeries. He is okay but he cannot withstand rigorous campaign activities. He needs more time to rest.

Barrita: ‘Mother of all smuggled rice’

CUSTOMS officials on Thursday opened at the Cebu port some 1,169 container vans in what appeared to be the “mother of all smuggled rice” worth some P1.2 billion from Vietnam.

“This is the biggest smuggled rice hauled in the history of the bureau. This is the mother of all smuggled rice. We hit the mother lode,” Customs deputy commissioner for intelligence Danilo Lim said.

Carvajal: Tight race

A TIGHT race is a good thing. It guarantees that the winner will be at least as good if not better than the loser. That, unfortunately, cannot be said about the race between Mike Rama and Tommy Osmeña. They might be running neck to neck but it is not because their strategies vis-a-vis the city’s main issues are evenly matched in both relevance and fit.

Editorial: Complicating matters

THE heat of the campaign for the May elections seems to have taken its toll on Rep. Eduardo Gullas. Initially considered as a cinch to win the race for Talisay City mayor, Gullas has recently come up with moves that show insecurity more than certainty in the elections’ outcome.

Roperos: Distracting politics

WHETHER we like it or not, we have to accept the activities that have to do with the processes and the ways of elections. We cannot help it. These are considered obligations of the nation’s citizens that go with their privilege of enjoying the freedom to choose the men and women they want to run the affairs of their government.

Wenceslao: Killing a ‘shoplifter’

I FIRST heard about the Mario Alfie Ducayag case while surfing my radio monitor one morning a few days ago. A Bombo Radyo anchor, with the station’s signature drum boom punctuating his every sentence, discussed in detail Ducayag’s suspicious death inside Gaisano Metro, that popular department store at the corner of Colon St. and Osmeña Blvd.

Malilong: Vote straight

IF THE members of the Cebu City Council’s majority would have their way, they would have Mayor Mike Rama in the dock for bypassing the legislature in the two recent public works contracts that he signed: the reconstruction of the Carbon Market Unit II and the clearing of the route of the proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) at the South Road Properties.

Seares: Boston bombing and the Miranda doctrine

YOU have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law..."

It took the April 15 Boston bombings to clarify for many of us the Miranda doctrine.

Yap: Sun-burnt forehead

SOME quick fish in tights walks past me and towards one of those posh yuppie sports club gyms—a flashy knapsack on her back and a rolled yoga mat tucked in her arms.

She makes a blank gaze at the door as she removes her eyeglasses and talks to the lady at the front desk. That’s when I see a familiar face, and I suddenly remember the years.

Libre: Microphone

DAYCARE, barangay workers in Cebu City unpaid since January.

Nobody is working to care for them.

Editorial: Assessing performance

THE surveys commissioned by the Center for Governance, Leadership and Development of the Political Science Department of the University of San Carlos (USC), released recently when the heat of the campaign for the May 13 polls has gone hotter, has expectedly become fodder for debate—aside from generating questions.

Roperos: Politics of poverty

RECENT data about the state of life of Filipinos--despite our being citizens living in a democracy and freedom--is unfortunate and sad. It is said that more than one-fourth of our people have remained immersed in poverty and that our politicians have failed “to address rampant poverty” in the country.

Malilong: Spurious survey

IF YOU have extra food, kitchen utensils or anything of value, can you drop by the Ermita barangay hall and share your blessings with the fire victims?

Seares: Is Team Rama framed on bogus poll?

THREE possibilities about an election survey circulated at Cebu City Hall the other day:

Espinoza: Don’t sell your vote

THE re-asphalting of the whole stretch of Ouano Ave. in Mandaue City’s reclamation area may have been completed in the eyes of motorists but it has not yet been finished according to the legislator who secured the funds for the project.

Tell it to Sun.star: Ambush of Mayor Guingona

AKBAYAN Party-list condemns the attack on Gingoog City Mayor Ruthie de Lara Guingona and her companions by the New People's Army (NPA).

We extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to the families of those killed. We also hope for the safety and swift recovery of Mayor Guingona, who was seriously hurt in the incident.

Editorial: Debates, please

THE lack of debates among local candidates in this election season is disappointing. Among our election rituals, debates offer more value than the plastering of walls with posters and the delivery of stump speeches in rallies.

Roperos: Kids and politics

HAVING the election campaign ride on the graduation exercise of pre-school kids in all the barangays in Balamban town last Monday was a brilliant political stroke--for the candidates. But it was an unfortunate act for the pre-school children and their families.

Wenceslao: Perfecting the conduct of local surveys

THE release of the result of a survey initiated by the Center for Governance, Leadership and Development of the Political Science Department of the University of San Carlos (USC) has given me an insight on where sectors seeking a stop to the practice are coming from.

Nalzaro: Count Jack Jakosalem in

I MIGHT sound like I am playing politics but I beg for your indulgence and understanding. I just want to help a friend who is running for councilor in Cebu City's north district and who cannot personally campaign because he is still recuperating from brain surgery. I am referring to my close friend, former city councilor and Citom chief Sylvan “Jack d’ Wack” Jakosalem.

Jack, a popular on-air personality and station manager of Y101 FM, underwent brain surgery last October after he was found to have a parasite in his brain. He then went into “deep sleep” for a couple of months.

Barrita: Cebu City’s tight race

IT'S a tight race for Cebu City Hall’s top post between reelectionist Mayor Mike Rama and Rep. Tomas Osmeña, a local survey showed.

The survey, initiated by the University of San Carlos (USC) political science department showed that in November, Rama had the lead with 224 out of 499 respondents, while Osmeña got 201, with 74 undecided respondents.

Obenieta: Look who’s listening!

TO HEAR better, be near. And so we don’t have to yell when we talk about progress.

Carvajal: Killing earth

FOR SURE sure, we are not the worst offenders but Cebu and the Philippines do abet the crime of killing earth. Like many others, we also forget we are earth’s children and that killing our mother is prelude to our own demise.

The irony of it is we are killing our planet in pursuit of the good life its resources can provide us with. In this instinctive striving, we gloss over the fact that those resources are finite. Cable TV’s History Channel tells us the earth’s iron ore will run out, at present consumption rate, in 280 some years and oil in over sixty.