SCROLLING down, why shutting down the air-con system of the Department of Foreign Affairs, promised by Secretary Teddy Boy Locsin sounds silly if not funny... The Cebu vice governor’s seat and the seventh congressional district House post attract attention because of speculated trading of candidates on or before November 29... Sleeping with the enemy? A member of the Quisumbing family is rumored to have picked up the bill for propaganda of Mandaue Mayor Luigi Q.’s rival, Rep. Jonas Cortes...
First, what people talk about
-- “KAMA o kulong” (bed or jail) or “palit puri” (honor for freedom) is the term used when police and other law enforcers demanding sex from women or young boys arrested on suspicion of a crime involving illegal drugs. Its extent has not been measured but the number of incidents must have gone up because of the greater pressure a drug case would bear on a suspect.
-- Who was that woman in the nude who was seen in a Facebook live video from movie actor Cesar Montano? Montanao, a former government official who was linked to a corruption scandal, is the subject of snide remarks and naughty memes because of the slip.
Teddy Boy’s air-con promise
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.’s promise to Department of Foreign Affairs officials and employees that working conditions should be the same for all.
If the air-con does not work in any part of the DFA building, he will shut down the air-con everywhere, especially in the 11th floor, “either we are all cool or we are all hot,” Teddy Boy said in his October 31 message to the personnel.
It may sound like a joke, he said. It would be a joke, a silly one, if the shutdown would affect even people who transact business with DFA. It would be irrational to shut down the entire building’s air-con system just because one part of it conks out – and include even its clients and the public in the suffering.
The symbolic sharing of discomfort will be enough if Teddy Boy sweats out in his own office without making the rest of the force suffer.
Last-day switches
Expect substitutions on or before November 29, deadline for withdrawal and replacement of candidates. Being watched, notably, are: the position of vice governor and the position of congressman in a south Cebu district.
Governor Junjun Davide, running for vice governor in 2019, may face a tougher opponent. Daphne Salimbangon who filed the COC for the post might be replaced by her dad, Rep. Benhur Salimbangon, who’s shepherding his wife in the campaign for congressman in the fourth district.
Benhur completes his third consecutive term June 30 next year (2010-2019) on top of the 2007 to 2010 term that he served until the House Electoral Tribunal decided on January 11, 2017 the protest against him and declared Celestino Martinez III the winner. The House however installed Martinez only in the dying days of the 14th Congress, giving him a tiny fraction of the term.
Reelectionist Peter John Calderon of the newly created seventh district may not face Nelson Garcia who filed his COC last October 17. He might be replaced by his brother Winston Garcia who ran for governor in 2016. Their sibling Pablo John Garcia is a returnee in the third district, which he served for two terms (2007-2013).
Speculations about the probable switches have made the VG and 7th district interesting races interesting to watch even before the start of the official campaign.
Family ‘feud’
A persistent conversation piece is that a member of the Quisumbing family is helping fund the propaganda campaign of Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing’s rival, Rep. Jonas Cortes. It could be the family member whose establishment was shut down for alleged ordinance violation. Not necessarily the Quisumbing patriarch.
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