FIRST, people are talking about...
* DUTERTE'S BLOOD CHECKUP: The president's admission Thursday (December 6) he was admitted to a hospital to have his blood checked. And he said, "Yang media nagtanong na naman kung ano ang sakit ko... Pagtusok nila kukuhanan ako ng dugo, walang lumalabas puro hangin." Did the blood checkup happen? "Way sure" about the illness, not even the test. So why did he go to the hospital?
* ONE 'JOKE' AFTER ANOTHER: After saying he took marijuana so as not to fall asleep during meetings, President Duterte said he was joking. What he took was "plastic marijuana."
* 300,000 MORE VOTERS. Cebu Province has taken in 300,000 more voters for the 2019 elections. The total for Cebu, including non-component cities, is 3,082,621. Cebu City has 709,608; Mandaue City, 226,000; and Lapu-Lapu City, 214,000.
What do the numbers set off from most politicians and other "realists"? The question: "How many votes do we have to buy?"
'Bloody and tedious'
Debate over pork barrel has gone beyond lump appropriations for each member of Congress. Aside from the P60 million earmarked by House Speaker Gloria Arroyo for Senator Ping Lacson (and P200 million each for the senators), the assistance budget for local governments, Lacson said, has been bloated from P7 billion in the national expenditure program (NEP) to P11 billion in the general appropriation bill or an increase of about P4 billion.
Senator Loren Legarda, who defended the budget item, said it is not a lump sum appropriation. Each LGU has to submit the programs to get its share of the assistance. "It will be bloody and tedious," Legarda said. Lacson's worry is that the district congressman would control project identification and disbursement of funds.
The Supreme Court decision of 2013, which struck down the PDAF, covers only discretion of House members. What if the discretion is shifted to local leaders like mayors and governors? Would that violate separation of powers and non-delegation of legislative authority?
Cortes-Ouano alliance
The political team-up between Representative Jonas Cortes and Lollypop Ouano is being ridiculed in broadcast commentaries as an embrace by Jonas of the woman and her kin whom he used to condemn in harsh language when they were on opposite camps.
Not unexpected. A subject as old as politics itself that comes with the bedding together of former rivals.
Expect tapes or videos of Jonas in the past campaigns to come up and say bad things about Lollypop and her family.
Why Sonny is independent
Toledo City Mayor Sonny Osmeña could not substitute for his mayoralty stand-in former acting Vice Mayor Marjorie Perales because she is an independent.
A Comelec official said that was the legal obstacle, which Sonny must have brought on himself. He has been saying, with apparent pride, that only those who are weak need a national party or even a local party.
When he scrounged for a party because he needed one to shift from the third district race to the mayoralty fight, there was none. Now he has to wage a tougher fight because of the area covered and more leaders to get to his side.
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