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Thursday, May 27, 2004
Mongaya: Comelec’s bias
By Anol Mongaya
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Benjamin A-balos proved himself partial for President Gloria Macapagal-Aroyo when he tallied the votes for president and vice president contrary to the provisions of the 1987 Constitution. Before the start of the canvassing of votes by Congress, Abalos announced that in the Comelec unofficial tally, Arroyo won.
Former Comelec chairperson Harriett Demetriou thus urged Abalos to resign because he did not just violate the Constitution he also further diminished whatever is left of the Comelec’s credibility.
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Our legislators are taking their sweet time debating on the rules for the canvassing. This should give us an idea on the speed of the entire process itself. The opposition is clearly using every scheme in the book to delay the canvassing, even extend it after June 30. The opposition may look at what they are doing as ensuring the integrity of the canvass. But pro-administration folk like many Cebuanos might describe it as panabla.
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Sen. Sonny Osmeña finally lost an election. His recent pronouncements tell us, howeverm, that he won’t just stay quiet and fade away like an old soldier. Aside from plans for a comeback in 2007, he also intends to vent his anger at Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who junked him in Cebu City. Had Mayor Osmeña carried him in Bando Osmena-Pundok Ka-uswagan sample ballots being a K4 candidate, the senator could have landed inside the Magic 12 in the senatorial race.
While Senator Osmeña’s last minute alliance with former congressman Junie Martinez produced additional votes, the ties he forged with the Ouanos failed to deliver in the 6th district.
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Smuggling of right hand drive vehicles must be highly profitable despite the risks since it has attracted new players like the owner of the seven vehicles apprehended by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) the other night in Mandaue city.
But I guess the competition is stiff. Somebody reportedly tipped off the CIDG about the vehicles. Most likely, the tipster wants to eliminate competitors.
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It seems the Gokongweis are bent on giving telecom leaders Globe and Smart stiffer competition with their Sun Cellular. They reportedly bought expensive equipment from Ericsson in Europe the past few months and brought these to Cebu by plane.
I learned this last week from Collector Ding Dayoja, who leads employees of the Mactan Customs in getting a commendation for hitting this year’s annual collection target in just four months. Dayoja and his men achieved this feat because of the millions of pesos worth of equipment Digital Telecommunications (Sun Cellular) brought to Cebu through the Mactan-Cebu International Airport since January 2004.
Records showed that from January to April this year, the Mactan bureau collected P221,562,262 that exceeds the P221,028,036 annual target by 24 percent. I have been watching customs affairs since the early ‘90s and no collector in Cebu has achieved this before.
In January alone, Sun Cellular paid P50 million in taxes when expensive pieces of equipment were brought in from Sweden to Cebu on board a chartered flight.
Let’s hope that all these would translate to better service by Sun Cellular. So far, subscribers complain of having no signal in several places in Cebu.
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Judge Ildefonso Suerte did not seem to notice the parricide suit filed against Ruben Ecleo Jr. for the death of Alona Bacolod-Ecleo when he decided on the case filed against Cedrick Devinadera. This even if Cebu media treated it as a celebrated case.
But he did notice the criticism of the media of his decision. In fact, he threatened to punish columnist/commentator Bobby Nalzaro with indirect contempt.
(e-mail: superbalita@sunstar.com.ph or anol_cebu@hotmail.com; text: 0917-9761193)
(May 27, 2004 issue)
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