Wednesday, March 21, 2007 Barrita: Spoils By Eddie O. Barrita Small Bites
REELECTIONIST Sen. Joker Arroyo said he yearns for the campaign season of yore when candidates can shower T-shirts, caps and other campaign materials on voters.
Good old Joker simply believes that to the voters belong the spoils.
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Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials must have heard Joker’s lament because the poll body now allows candidates to distribute these poll materials to voters.
Lawyer Frank Malilong Jr. may now wear his Ed Angara T-shirt without fear of prosecution, except on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and on Election Day itself.
But first he must be sure he was within 10 percent of the total number of voters in the city and a sample of his Ed Angara T-shirt has been submitted to the Comelec.
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Joker Arroyo, the oldest candidate for senator at 80, described as “useless spending” the heavy flow of money into political television ads.
Well, part of the campaign money may now go to these campaign materials of old.
Voters who get nothing else from politicians can now expect these as a once-in-three-years' bonanza.
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Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who appears to run unopposed, is getting tired of the city’s politics he now dabbles in Mandaue politics, throwing his support to Councilor Jonas Cortes’ mayoralty bid.
In Talisay City, he is reportedly backing Councilor Gabby Leyson’s bid for mayor.
I’m afraid he’ll quit politics if Jonas and Gabby win.
By that time, Mandaue and Talisay would be Cebu City’s good neighbors again.
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Former Cebu Gov. Lito Osmeña has called Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia “Imeldific” for putting up the P515-million Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) in Mandaue City.
Gov. Gwen should hurry up and finish the asphalting of the entire length of the Cabadiangan road and show Lito O she’s putting in projects that “people longed for in past administrations, including his (Lito O’s).”
