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Thursday, August 14, 2003
Mongaya: Better hearing on coup try
By ANOL MONGAYA
THE hearing yesterday of the fact-finding commission chaired by retired Justice Florentino Feliciano was definitely better with the absence of grandstanding congressmen and senators. It uncovered more information about the coup attempt and its probable causes than the several days of hearings in Congress and the Senate.
Lt. Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes and Capt. Milo Maestrecampo, who took the witness stand yesterday, obviously wanted to peddle propaganda knowing their statements were aired live on national television. But lawyer Mario Ongkiko told them to cite specific cases of corruption and injustice.
Ongkiko presented two photographs of a meeting wherein rebel soldiers allegedly held a blood compact with Sen. Gringo Honasan. However, the man who looked like Honasan had his face away from the camera.
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If Antonio Reyes of Tangke, Talisay City really manufactured bombs and supplied international terrorist Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi with chemicals for explosives, can we say that our illegal bomb makers are already world class?
Maybe government can save money if the Armed Forces tap these bomb makers. This will also provide bomb makers with legitimate livelihood and allow government to regulate the supply of explosives. After the setting up of gun-making and firecracker-making coops in Danao and Lapu-Lapu cities, maybe it’s time to have coops for bomb makers in Talisay.
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Some sections of the Cebu media suspect that either Rep. Clavel Martinez or her husband Junnie had a hand in the recent appointment of Collector Flor Ortega as assessment division chief of the Cebu customs house. Ortega, though, denied the involvement of the Martinez couple.
I got word from the Provincial Capitol that this piece of news did not sit well with Gov. Pablo Garcia. Collector Ortega is the father of Martinez ally, Provincial Board Member Orvi Ortega.
In fairness to Ortega, District Collector Billy Bibit could have been influenced by nothing else but his desire to increase the Cebu district collection. Bibit may have assigned Collector Frank Logarta, who had quite as big collection surplus, to Mactan to further increase collections there while having Ortega maintain the Cebu port collection performance.
I gathered that Logarta already had a P300 million surplus, which should make it easier for his successor to hit the year’s collection target. Ortega, meanwhile, reportedly came up with internal changes that initially got positive feedback from some brokers.
Let’s hope this will work. People can interpret sharp drops in revenues at a time when import volume is expected to rise as a sign that corruption has increased. After all, customs insiders say that collection is inversely proportional to the level of corruption. Moreover, the 2004 election is fast approaching. The customs bureau is said to be a milking cow of politicians.
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It seems like the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has a dismal record in the aspect of recovering stolen cell phones. A news item quoted NTC information officer Bill Peralta as admitting that of the 2,000 complaints on stolen phones, NTC only facilitated the return of 20 units. This record will, unfortunately, encourage more cell phone thefts and discourage victims from reporting the incidents.
According to Peralta, victims should report cell phone thefts to the police and the commission. The commission will use the serial number of the phones to lock it and thus render it unusable.
But I was told that there are already programs available to unlock phones or to change the serial numbers of stolen phones. This I confirmed during a visit to Virra Mall in Manila, which is a haven for pirated CDs, programs, and reconditioned cell phones.
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Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal has added his voice to the protests raised on the manner the demolitions of the stalls of sidewalk vendors in Cebu City are being done.
The cardinal, in particular, objected to the use of violence in getting rid of the Sto. Niño vendors, which resulted in several religious icons getting smashed. Worse, he objected to the move of Mayor Tomas Osmeña to treat the religious icons as garbage. He described this as “violence to the belief of Cebuanos.”
(Send your reactions to Superbalita@sunstar.com.ph or anol_cebu@hotmail.com or text to 09179761193) |
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