Thursday, February 07, 2008 Espinoza: De Venecia forgot he is in a snake pit By Elias L. Espinoza Free Zone
SPECULATIONS are high that the unseating of former House speaker Jose de Venecia, who held the post for 12 years, could make Malacañang vulnerable. I don’t see it that way.
De Venecia was President Arroyo’s close ally in the House of Representatives. He rallied lawmakers behind the President in the impeachment complaints filed against her.
As a veteran politician, de Venecia should not be told that holding the said post is temporary. But he must have forgotten he was inside a snake pit.
He knew before the voting that he no longer had the number so he nominated his successor, Rep. Prospero Nograles of Davao City.
Anyway, the number of legislators that voted to unseat de Venecia is more than enough to protect the tenants of Malacañang from his threats, which actually were like a stab in the water. In short, nada!
There is no one to blame for his fate, however, but his son Joey, who exposed the alleged participation of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo in the ZTE-National Broadband Network deal that embarrassed the First Family.
Mr. de Venecia, the show is over. Let the new leadership in the House implement the needed reforms that can better serve the entire populace.
Best wishes, Speaker Nograles. Perform your job well and beyond the sphere of vested political interests. Rumors have it that you are contesting Davao City Mayor Duterte’s post in the 2010 polls.
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Complaints of residents and hotel and resort owners in Lapu-Lapu City over the bad roads there are now being answered. Mayor Arturo Radaza has ordered the repair of the city’s dilapidated roads.
As for the worsening traffic situation in the city, hotel and resort owners should wait until someone publishes a letter-complaint about it in the internet before Mayor Radaza addresses the problem.
A letter-complaint by a resident about the badly damaged city roads was published in the internet and that prodded the mayor to act. How ironic. Mayor Radaza was embarrassed by that letter but not by media’s incessant criticisms.
Dilapidated roads are not only found in Lapu-Lapu but are also visible in other cities and towns of Cebu. The problem with most elected officials is that they are not proactive. Their motto is, “No complaint, No action”.
On the other hand, bad roads are not only the concern of local government authorities but also of the Commission on Audit (COA) and the Office of the Ombudsman. Roads, like those repaired for the Asean Summit last year, are now in bad shape.
COA, being the guardian of public funds, should look into the state of these roads that cost millions of pesos in taxpayers’ money. It seems COA or the Ombudsman does not care much about the condition of our roads after their completion.
Correct me if I am wrong but I have yet to read from the papers that COA has filed cases against contractors or government officials for waste of public funds.
The same is true with corruption cases against influential public officials involving millions of pesos worth of infrastructure projects. These have not reached the courts. The delay in the resolution of these graft cases givers the Ombudsman a black eye.
