PEOPLE talk about...
* THE THREE PRIESTS who claim they received death threats -- Frs. Robert Reyes, Albert Alejo, and Flavie Villanueva -- must have no record of dating with women who have husbands or are mistresses of police or soldiers. Or that might be used against them, as it was used before against one priest. Should they be afraid? "We are only afraid of God," one priest said.
* IS MIKE RAMA IN THE NEW LIST? Whenever there is talk about the "narco list" that the administration says it will release this week, the question is asked, "Will the former mayor be in it?" A relative of the mayor thinks Mike will be included. He doesn't give any reason.
Mandaue controversy
POINTS TO PONDER on the Big Hotel case in Mandaue City:
* The COA finding, which the city mayor used to order the hotel's closure, was a "comment or observation" that the audit agency uses on what it first sees as possible irregularity or violation. A contract involving mall in Mandaue was given the same COA remark. Here, the LGU concerned can still explain or correct the defect. It is not yet a conclusion. The COA conclusion is laid down when it rules that the spending or loss is disallowed and orders the officials concerned to pay or reimburse the cost of the transaction to the LGU. More so, it is not a finding of the court that the LGU must enforce.
* The city attorney's opinion, which was apparently disregarded, was for the parties to the deed of assignment and the City of Mandaue to correct the deficiency. And the committee that endorsed it to the City Council en banc recommended the correction. Which the City Council as a body collegially did.
City Councilor Ernie Manatad raised those points in an interview with Leo Lastimosa on dyAB radio Tuesday (March 12).
Priest didn't rape her
CLARIFIER. The 17-year-old girl who complained to her family and the police that she was molested by a Catholic priest in Dumanjug, Cebu last March 3 in his convent room was not raped. She said she was made to lie on a bed beside the priest and was kissed; she didn't allege she was raped. A medical examination of the girl later showed she was not raped, Dumanjug police said. An editorial of a news site referred to it as "an alleged rape." The qualifier "alleged" didn't help as rape was never claimed, much more alleged.
Uno kontraotso
INTERESTING NAME. Otso Diretso, the opposition team for the Senate in the May elections, is being noticed. It's making a lot of noise, which has drawn annoyed answers from the rival slates. The number "otso" or eight is catchy enough, the "diretso" that goes with the number helps fuel the controversy: to the Otso team, it is "direct" to the Senate or victory; to its enemies, it is "diretso" to the "kankungan" or vegetable dump, if it loses.
And one versus eight? That's what it would be if Davao City Mayor Sara Carpio-Duterte would debate with the eight senator-wannabes of the opposition team. However the debate would turn out, it wouldn't look good for the eight aspirants to be perceived as ganging up on Sara. While the mayor is a lawyer, she is not exactly the caliber of Chel Diokno or Romulo Macalintal. And she has not been practicing law although she's good at taking the law into her hands, which was what she did when she punched that Davao City sheriff who "violated" the rights of squatters by enforcing a court order.
But maybe the eight opposition bets fear being walloped, lucky punch or otherwise, by one feisty mayor on national stage.
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