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Thursday, February 05, 2004
Espinoza: Demolition job against John-john
By Elias L. Espinoza
RECOIL. The issue against Vice Gov. “John-john” Osmeña, the gubernatorial bet of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) in Cebu, on Perdido Lex, Inc. appears to hit every responsible official at Capitol.
Perdido Lex, Inc., an accredited non-government organization (NGO) in the Province of Cebu, is said to have received a total of P5 million worth of grant from the vice governor for an unknown purpose.
When Osmeña sought the accounting on Capitol funds after Gwen Garcia, Gov. Pablo Garcia’s daughter and Capitol consultant, filed her certificate of candidacy for governor suspecting that Capitol funds might be used for Gwen’s gubernatorial ambition, Governor Garcia retaliated by asking an accounting on the release of funds to Perdido Lex.
When the agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 verified the matter, they could not find any trustees of Perdido Lex except one who is said to be working at the vice governor’s condominium.
As the inquiry goes deeper, it cannot be denied that more personalities will be involved. Admittedly, this does not exclude Garcia, who, as chief executive, signed the checks before those were released to the supposed beneficiaries.
In fact, the NBI already invited Provincial Board (PB) Member Victor Maambong to shed light on the accreditation of Perdido Lex, Inc. Maambong is the chairman of the committee on accreditation of NGOs.
To sum it up, this is just one of the by-products of our brand of politics. Believe me, these issues would not have gone public had the proposed partnership between Osmeña for governor and Gwen Garcia for vice governor not fizzled out.
Exacerbated by our crab mentality, this is now what is happening between John-john and Gwen. While she appears to have no hands in the demolition job against the vice governor, it cannot be denied that she will greatly benefit from this hullabaloo.
Not only that, the vice governor will probably lose face before his constituents over this issue. It can also cause a setback to the administration’s support for the tandem of Osmeña for governor and lawyer Adie Sitoy for vice governor in the May 2004 polls.
On the other hand, while Sen. John Osmeña publicly claims that his son, the vice governor, is old enough to take care of himself, he simply can’t take his hands off the issue. You know the blood that runs in his son’s veins is Osmeña.
ELECTION. The state-ments of former CPA Manager Tony Elumir in an interview on the issue of smuggling in the Ports of Cebu were so loaded for the Customs authorities to wriggle in their seats while reading his views.
Agreeably, there is no smuggling in the port of any kind, be it luxury cars and rice without the Customs authorities knowing it. This happened because of possible collusion by some people in this bureau with or without knowledge by the collector.
If one noticed 24 months or more before the scheduled May 2004 polls, supposed seizures of smuggled rice and luxury vehicles misdeclared as spare parts were so accentuated, making it appear that customs authorities were on their toes against smuggling.
But what Juan dela Cruz did not realize is that the seized hot goods were only for public consumption, as an informant would like us to believe. In other words, the supposed apprehension may just be the tip of the iceberg.
After a few months of stay in office at the Cebu Customs, Collector Billy Bibit had shown Malacañang and the public how Cebu port collected the duties beyond the quota set by the head office.
However, rumors spread like wild fire that Bibit was sent here to ensure the government’s collection as well as the campaign kitty for the administration. With how things are going at the Cebu port, the customs officials can’t avoid such label.
A source says that if the Cebu Customs collector stays in office despite the smuggling fiasco, it goes without saying that he was able to meet the requirements of the party in power.
(February 5, 2004 issue)
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