It’s political season and the demolition is on!

CITY Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is the subject of a demolition job – this time by Ted Failon and courtesy of ABS-CBN. You know it is demolition because it comes on the heels of the election season and that the Failon did not even have to hide the one he called “expert” on politics – the known professional political propagandist Reli German. It is unfortunate that Ted swallowed hook-line-and sinker what German was preaching.

Failon’s theme in his recent series is about politicians taking advantage of squatters or so-called temporary settlers to advance their interest during election season. He used as center page of his thesis Davao City Mayor Inday Sara by flashing back the video of the mayor punching the sheriff for serving a flawed demolition order or squatters in Barangay Soliman in Agdao. Of course Failon skipped the fact that aside from an illegal demolition order the incident happened at the height of calamity in the city. The incident was way past election season thus even that argues against the both Failon and German’s tweaked dissertations. If the two knew their law, or bothered to know why the mayor have to knock sense into the head of the sheriff it’s because the demolition order and the manner and time it was implemented were all legally infirmed.

On the other hand, while the mayor is has a soft heart for those who have less in life (which actually gets her into trouble) she is actually a stickler when it comes to the implementation of the law. That is why in the case of the Soliman squatters she was surprised that the demolition order was being carried out. I do not know where Failon got the information that the squatters were abandoned by the city mayor.

There are a number of relocation sites that the City Government had acquired for those affected by court demolition orders not only for the Soliman squatters but for those whose habitation were ravaged by calamities. It is a standing offer. Problem is, not a few squatters refuse to leave privately owned properties they had occupied. Those who were staying in riverbanks and under the bridge rebuild their tenements never mind if this bullheadedness will result to another tragedy in their lives.

Failon is obviously not aware or just simply did not check that thousands of squatters in Davao City had been relocated to sites which are better off than any low cost housing sites in Metro Manila? And all these are accessible to many workplaces unlike those in the capital region.

Duterte abandoning temporary settlers? That is a strange question to be asked in the city of Davao. But temporary settlers refusing a relocation site some of which had become a middle class subdivision? It’s not farfetched as some beggars can be choosy.

The only factual thing that Failon show on his weekend special is our mayor punching the sheriff. The rest is fairy tale. This literary genre sells that’s why political propagandist Reli German uses that to the hilt.

The demolition job has started and Failon Ngayon is the staging arena. Wonder who’s behind it.