PEOPLE are talking about...
* SERGE O. IN #15-18 in the February 24-28 survey of Pulse Asia. In the same rank of the former senator from Cebu are Bam Aquino and JV Ejercito. But Serge of the Osmeña clan is points lower than Bam and JV. Aware of Serge: 93% Want to vote for Serge: 26.7% More people are aware of and want to vote for Ejercito (96%-27.6%) and Bam (95%-30.4%).
The aspirants whom a number of people didn't expect or didn't want to be there are in the Magic 12: Bong Go (#3-5), Lito Lapid (#3-7), Bato de la Rosa (#5-8), Imee Marcos (#9-14), and Bong Revilla (#8-13).
'Still the government'
It was the Mindanao police that tagged Jonas Bueno as "primary suspect," after they arrested him in Davao City last Friday (March 15). On the same day, Central Visayas PNP region chief Debold Sinas told Cebu media that Bueno was still a "person of interest."
Davao police, however, later regarded Bueno, 32, a construction worker, a primary suspect in the March 10 killing of Christine Silawan, 16, in Lapu-Lapu City although he was arrested on a warrant for the murder of farmer Trinindad Batucan, 62, in Danao City last January. They told Davao media, which in turn spread the news across the nation.
Mindanao police apparently disregarded the red flags saying Bueno could not be Christine's killer, including these: (1) Bueno, with his family, was already in Davao when Christine was killed in Bankal, Lapu-Lapu, and (2) the only link between the Danao murder and the Lapu-Lapu murder was the face-skinning, which forensic exams still had to confirm as to cause and method.
While all that was going on, with the theories reported in the media, NBI was quietly doing its own work. By Monday (March 18), local police confirmed the NBI had arrested one of three suspects, a 17-year-old boy. Sinas said it was all right, "it's still the government" that captured the suspect. Not the NPA.
What we know on Christine slay
Things that are known so far on the Christine Silawan murder:
* The suspect arrested by NBI is talked about as Christine's former lover. A DNA test may confirm if there was sexual contact when she was murdered. A healed laceration indicated she might have such contact before.
* PRO 7 chief Sinas said Jonas Bueno may be removed as person in interest in the Christine murder, considering the NBI arrest of a suspect in Cebu.
* Regional police in Central Visayas are talking with Davao Region police (PRO 11) for the transfer of the custody of Jonas Bueno from Davao to Cebu. With the surfacing of another suspect in the Christine killing, there may be no immediate need for that; later maybe, to face trial in the Batucan murder.
* Bueno, to police and media in Davao, denied he had a hand in the killing of Christine, saying he and his family were already in Mindanao when she was killed: an alibi which could be easily checked.
* Police still have to release the crime lab results that will show what caused the disfigurement of Christine's face. There is no information if there were forensic tests on the killing of farmer Batucan in Danao. If Bueno, however, is discarded as suspect on the Lapu-lapu murder, that may no longer be relevant in the Christine inquiry.
* Christine's mother is glad over the NBI's arrest of one suspect, hoping they will soon capture the two others.
Playing catch-up
A source in one political camp in the Cebu City race says its in-house survey shows that its candidates are way ahead over their rivals in the May elections.
Each camp tends to make that claim at any stage of the campaign: it's winning. Nobody admits it's losing. Such claims are self-serving.
But here's one sobering thought: They're ahead and even if the rival party can come up with a strategy that will improve its poll rating, there's no more time, with only 55 days or so left until election day.
Rise in ratings is gradual and not a steep climb, the source says. Unless, another source says, the rival party comes up with, or is blessed by, a major earthshaking oh-my-God issue against the competition.
Or it will have a vote-snagging operation that will clinch victory on election day.
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