Thursday, October 05, 2006 Espinoza: Lesson learned in Cortez, Solon case By Elias L. Espinoza
THE weather is not cooperating with government in its rush to repair Metro Cebu roads that will be used by Asean summit delegates in December.
Rain brought in by typhoons Milenyo and Neneng damaged the asphalt of recently repaired roads in the cities of Lapu-Lapu, Mandaue and Cebu. This means additional cost, as the damaged roads will have to be repaired again.
I am amazed at the way government is spending money in preparation for the Asean summit. Weren’t we told that this government is almost bankrupt because it is neck-deep in debt? With the frenzied spending, is it possible some people’s pockets are getting fat?
Note that elections, if these will be held, are just less than a year away.
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Rep. Tony Cuenco should pursue the pseudo-ephedrine smuggling issue. It has been more than two years since the shipment was seized at the Cebu port but nobody has been charged with the crime, a heinous one at that.
Worse, there are suspicions the pseudo-ephedrine, a precursor for the production of shabu, may have been pilfered. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) still has to come up with a credible report on the matter.
The shipment is worth billions of pesos. If it will be proven that the pseudo-ephedrine has been spirited away, those who did it should be pinpointed and brought to court. They don’t deserve mercy.
On the other hand, those behind the shipment must really be sacred cows because no criminal charges have been filed against them.
Since Cuenco has been involved in the issue from the start, he should finish the task. For now, he has only scratched the surface. He will be in for a surprise once the culprits are identified and he finds out how deep the case goes.
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The downgrading of the extortion charges against block-time radio commentators Rey Cortez and Lito Solon does not mean they are less guilty. It’s only that prosecutors had a different appreciation of the evidence the National Bureau of Investigation presented.
But whatever the case Cortez and Solon are facing after they were entrapped for allegedly asking P20,000 from Bert Emphasis, the lesson remains: that having a microphone is not a license to denigrate others or extort money.
The print medium in Cebu has done its best to clean its ranks of misfits. The ball is now in the court of the broadcast industry. It should sanitize its ranks and remove those who use the air lanes to enrich themselves at the expense of the reputation of others.
