BUT first, people are talking...
* PRESIDENT DUTERTE'S PLAN TO PUNISH PARENTS of offenders who are minors. The House bill lowering the age of criminal liability of children from 15 to 12 already provides for that: a jail term in case in they fail to undergo "intervention." He must be thinking of something stiffer.
* A JOLLIBEE COPYCAT IN CHINA. A restaurant uses the name JoyRulBee, using the same design and color motif as Jollibee's. There are also variations of Jollibee in hole-in-the-wall and "pungko-pungko" outlets in the country but they don't compete and hardly noticed by the original enterprise.
Whichever side wins
The P1.3-billion proposed Provincial Resource Center, a 20-storey office-commercial complex within the Capitol compound that Governor Junjun Davide wants to build, will be seriously affected by the elections in May.
* If the Agnes Magpale-Davide team will win, the project will push through, of course faced with the same problems raised against it by opposers. By then, the vice governor who's running for governor, will be the one calling the shots. She may have her own plans about the project, such as addressing the concerns now raised but overrun by Junjun's full-speed-ahead stance.
* If the Gwen Garcia-Daphne Salimbangon duo will win, Gwen is expected to attend to the objections that she herself expressed in an open letter to Capitol officials. She may still push through with it but with the touches that go with her style of governance.
Also expected to influence the fate of the project and affect its timetable is the composition of the Provincial Board. Who will control the legislative body? Davide has the edge over her neophyte rival and might win with enough members to make things tough with Gwen if she wins. Garcia had her experience with an opposition vice governor. Her goal would be for her team to sweep the elections..
As election issue
The building project may emerge as a crucial issue in the election campaign: whether Cebuanos want the building built under Magpale or under Gwen Garcia.
Unlike other issues relating to the past, the PRC controversy is mostly about the future although the project's gestation period passed under Davide's second term.
It won't stop the Magpale-Davide team to stir up again the pot of old issues on Gwen's projects but the PRC issue is fresh and has compelling interest.
Magpale's role
It surely looked awkward for Magpale, as presiding office of the Provincial Board, to rule last Monday (January 21) against the move of her governor, her running mate, to withdraw his earlier request for authority to enter into the contract.
She had no choice though. Citing House rules, Magpale said the PB already "owned" the item in the agenda. It had discussed it and voted on it and rejected it. On record, the legislative body rejected Davide's request for authority to contract.
Lawyers should now be scrambling to find out if Davide could still proceed with the contract despite the express will of the PB. Did that vote reverse its previous authorization, assuming the previous appropriation by the Sanggunian was legally sufficient?
As to Magpale, she would've to defend the contract at public forums where voters ask. She couldn't dissociate herself from the issue that tangles Davide mainly.
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