Saturday, January 26, 2008 Barrita: Fine for libel By Eddie O. Barrita Small Bites
MEMBERS of the media slapped with libel cases may no longer find themselves locked behind bars.
Chief Justice Reynato Puno said he is set to issue a circular urging judges to forego imprisonment for journalists convicted of libel and impose a fine instead.
Fine.
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Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña wants Cordova town merged with Cebu City’s south district.
If this happens before the 2010 polls, he said he’ll endorse Cordova Mayor Addy Sitoy for the House seat to be left by Rep. Tony Cuenco.
Cordovanhons will lose a town, but they’ll gain a congressman.
But Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) members looking at Tony Cuenco’s seat with misty eyes will have to look for other districts or bite their lips in envy.
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WT Construction has sued Capitol for payment of P261 million worth of additional work for the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).
Mayor Osmeña said this confirms businessman Cris Saavedra’s allegations the CICC was overpriced.
No, the CICC was not overpriced, it was simply underpaid.
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The Bureau of Customs at the Port of Cebu again seized smuggled cars worth P4.2 million as they tighten their campaign against smuggling at the port.
As Cebu Customs Collector Ricardo Belmonte put it, “This is a sign that the Bureau of Customs-Port of Cebu is not sleeping in our campaign against smuggling.”
Now that they’re awake, if something slips away, they either closed their eyes or looked the other way.
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All shipments declared as personal effects and replacement car parts entering the Cebu port will now be subjected to 100 percent X-ray examination.
Smugglers are now studying how they’ll declare luxury cars next time.
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The Rotary Club of Metro Cebu will hold another Operation Restore Hope medical mission from Feb. 3-8, giving free surgery to children born with hare lips and cleft palates at the Lapu-Lapu District Hospital.
Organizers scrambled to find another mission host after officials of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, which initially agreed to host the mission, offered them an abandoned and dilapidated ward which was stripped of lighting fixtures, aircon units, operating beds and even electrical wirings.
