PEOPLE are talking about...
* WHAT CCPO IS UP TO. Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has accused the city police of a lot of dastardly things: "a death threat, a gag order, a 'buy bust' after breaking and entering, caught on CCTV camera, hitting a baby, brutalizing a pregnant mother and stealing her money." Tomas asks city police chief Royina Garma, "What are you hiding, CCPO?" If the cops are up to something, it's the mayor's job to find out.
The public may ask about police moves: Is it part of the drug war? And ask about Tomas's posturing: Is it part of the election propaganda?
* CONTROL OVER ILOCOS NORTE. Ilocos Norte first district representative Rudy Farinas has withdrawn from the governor's race in that province. Farinas formally notified Comelec Friday, May 3. He said he was "gaining his freedom," as if his 39 years as mayor and congressman, among other positions, were years of servitude. In this Congress, until July 23, 2018, as chief lieutenant to then House speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, he had been savoring power. Not among the perks of an enslaved person.
"Freedom" for Fariñas is also "continued control" of Ilocos Norte by the Marcoses.
* ARQUILLANOS ARE BACK. San Francisco, Camotes, Cebu Mayor Aly Arquillano and Vice Mayor Alfredo Arquillano are reportedly back in their hometown, 10 days or so before the elections. The two officials were arrested last April 6 for illegal possession of firearms and explosives and charged before the RTC. They are out on bail although earlier bail was not recommended because of the explosives involved. The two officials are identified with the Duranos and their party Bakud. With barely nine days before election, they can still help Bakud and do some damage on its rivals.
What may complicate it
The Lapu-Lapu City prosecutor's office was scheduled to release its ruling on the separate complaints filed by the NBI and the police on the killing and mutilation of Christine Lee Silawan, the 16-year-old student, whose body was found on a vacant lot last March 11.
It was scheduled to be released May 3 but it may be moved to next week, if complications would arise.
The problem is not whom to sue, as the evidence is stacked against Renato "Renren" Llenes, 42. His confession made in the presence of lawyers and the psychological and lie detector tests, backed by the results of forensic tests conducted by the police, have made him the most probable choice to charge in court with the crime.
Contradictory evidence
What may "complicate" the decision-making by the panel of prosecutors is how to deal with the NBI's contradictory finding.
While they are supposed to thresh out seemingly conflicting evidence at their level, prosecutors may choose to pass on that job to the court. Even in cut-and-dried cases, when the fiscals don't want to displease some people, they file the information, leaving it to the judge to sift through the evidence.
That's why the Lapu-Lapu prosecutors may opt to file charges also against the NBI's youth suspect. Even the boy's lawyer is not ruling out the probability of his client still being charged in court despite the evidence against Renren.
Renren confessed to the murder, though he was arrested for drugs, because he "pitied the boy." Unless the NBI could find a connection between self-confessed killer and the youth suspect and establish the boy's presence at the murder scene when Christine was killed, his inclusion in the charge sheet could just be in deference to the NBI.
If the NBI had submitted new evidence to boost its case against the teenaged suspect, it has not yet been publicized.
***
Tell us about it.
[paseares1@gmail.com]