BUT first, people talk about...
* HOW MUCH DOES EACH SENATOR COST? In 2017, the Senate expenses totaled P1.862 billion. Figures published in Philippine Star Tuesday (Jan. 15) covered the period from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2017. Publication is required by the Constitution.
That means it cost taxpayers at least P77,583,333 for the salaries, allowances and other expenses for the upkeep of each of the 24 senators for that year alone.
* DENNIS TRILLO’S PHOTO WITH BONG REVILLA ON INSTAGRAM has been taken out since the actor’s post with the just-released-from-detention former senator was criticized by netizens. The two shared a flight and were seatmates on a plane out of Cebu where they separately attended the Sinulog festivity.
It must be politics, not drugs
Maybe it was not drugs but politics that motivated the ambush on the van that Tuesday (Jan. 22) killed the husband of San Fernando Mayor Lakambini Reluya, the driver, and a town official and wounded the mayor herself and two bodyguards.
The couple filed COCs for the May election: Mayor Neneth, for reelection; her husband Ricardo Jr., a former ABC president, reportedly for vice mayor.
The deadline of two weeks given to the police to solve the crime may indicate the pressure on law enforcers, which usually doesn’t come with extrajudicial killings.
If the attack was related to illegal drugs, often police would blame rivalry among drug lords or internal cleansing in the narcotics industry. And more often than not, the murder was not solved.
Police probably think that political rivalry had something to do with the assault on the Reluyas who were on going home to San Fernando from Cebu City.
It was a disruption of peace and order, in the new definition of the term. An EJK is part of the war on drugs, which gives no inducement or pressure to solve.
Party drugs and police
Initial police disclosure about party drugs like “Ecstasy” is that they are high-priced (from P1,000 to P3,000 per pop) and not moved on the streets but in bars, clubs and among a few people in party concerts, such as the pre-Sinulog party where a high school coed collapsed and taken to the hospital where she dies.
That explains the less attention party drugs get from law enforcers, who target mainly the peddling of poor people’s “opiate,” and the high number of low-level pushers killed.
Weird as they sound...
... The explanations are plausible, particularly to those who understand how government and politics work:
* WHY DIGONG’S FAVORITE SENATE BETS ARE ALWAYS SEEN WITH HIM. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo explains -– “Candidates like Bong Go and Bato de la Rosa are creative. They know the president’s schedule and manage to be around wherever he goes on his activities around the country.”
Creativity has nothing to do with it (although Bong Go is famous for his creative photo-bombing). Simple explanation: The president allows it. He knows the attention of media on him will spill over to his fair-haired would-be senators, especially when he talks about the senator-wannabes or raises their hands in the never-worn-out ritual of endorsement.
* WHY GMA WON’T ACCEPT BLAME FOR BILL ON AGE OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY. House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo explains --- “It’s what President Duterte wanted. My agenda is implementing the president’s agenda...
I dictate on deadlines. I don’t dictate on substance.”
She is just the timekeeper on executions. The “berdugo” does not care about how the chopping of the head is done, just who will be executed and when the head must roll.
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