Wednesday, September 26, 2007 Barrita: Recall By Eddie O. Barrita Small Bites
MANDAUE City Mayor Jonas Cortes has jumped the gun on the City Council, some of whose members were reportedly plotting a recall against him.
Even before anyone can initiate a recall, allowed by law a year after an official was elected, Cortes recalled the City Council’s service car.
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There’s no such recall plot against Mayor Cortes, said Mandaue City Vice Mayor Carlo Pontico Fortuna.
He was only misquoted, he said, in reports based on leading questions.
Well, it shows some misquotes can lead to a service car’s recall.
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Former president Joseph Estrada appears to have softened his stand against a presidential pardon.
A desire to be with his ailing 102-year-old mother in the twilight of her life is more than enough reason for him to change his mind.
But Dr. Jose Rizal would have called his earlier stand as “jele jele bago quiere,” pretending not to desire a thing which in reality one wants.
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There are those who believe granting Estrada a presidential pardon frustrates the ends of justice, his conviction by the Sandiganbayan after a six-year trial.
Long-drawn trial, swift pardon?
Lest we forget, executive clemency is still a part of our justice system.
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Speaker Joe de Venecia called his son, Joey, “an agent of the Lord” after President Arroyo suspended indefinitely the $330-million ZTE national broadband deal.
It was Joey, “an ex-drug addict with receding hairline,” who threw a monkey wrench on the project.
See the “Lord’s” wrath when Joey’s firm failed to clinch the deal?
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Senators should understand why Malacañang is stingy on the truth behind the shelved broadband deal and the bigger $465.5-million cyber education project.
They may have learned from American wit Mark Twain who once said, “Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.”
We’ll find out later whether truth, untold, will prevail?
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President Arroyo has named former Police Regional Office 7 director Avelino “Sonny” Razon Jr. as the incoming PNP chief.
Razon vowed “to do a better job for the citizenry.”
Why not? He may have recalled he was relieved from the region for alleged failure to curb illegal gambling.
