PEOPLE are talking about...
* CAYETANO AGREEING TO POWER-SHARING. Incoming congressman Allan Peter Cayetano of Taguig City wanted three years as one of the aspirants to the seat of next House speaker. Seeing his poor chances, he is reportedly now accepting a one-year-and-a-half term. Better than nothing and he doesn't have to make good his threat to disrupt the administration.
* TOMAS PROPOSAL ON SRP SALE RE-BIDDING. Outgoing Cebu City Mayor Osmeña really wants that sale of SRP lots to the consortium annulled or declared void. Failing in that, he proposes a new bidding. The consortium wouldn't be foolish to agree following the power shift at City Hall. No harm in trying; just the embarrassment of further failure.
Daring, massive op
The killing last June 18 of former Medellin, Cebu mayor Ricardo "Ricky" Ramirez was done inside a private hospital in Medellin, Cebu. Just less daring than the attack and killing of Ronda Mayor Ronda Mayor Mariano Blanco last September 5, 2018 right in his office at the town hall.
The execution of Ramirez, however, at 11:55 p.m. of Tuesday inside the comfort room at the Bogo-Medellin Corporation Medical Center in Luy-a, Medellin was pulled with more people and firepower.
Witnesses counted 15 people, mostly with high-powered firearms, who arrived at the hospital in three sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and one sedan. They disarmed the guards and confiscated cellphones of the hospital staff. Four masked men barged into Ramirez's room where he and his son's girlfriend had been watching TV. Alerted about the attack, they fled to the C.R. where the killers shot Ramirez but spared the girl.
Cold-case file
Ramirez, while still a mayor, was tagged a "high-value target" with links to illegal drugs by then police regional chief Jose Mario Espino. But he was arrested on July 26, 2017 not for drugs but for illegal possession of firearms. The following month, the court granted his motion for hospital detention.
The size of the strike force and their equipment showed the might of the assassins. The usual suspects are the police, which routinely deny any accusation, and vigilantes or drug cartels, which keep silent. And, as in past rub-outs of drug suspects, the Ramirez murder, as seen by many people, has dim chance of being solved. Destined for the cold-case file.
Bearing Luigi's burden
Outgoing Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing unloaded himself of the burden and embarrassment of transition by leaving shortly after the May 13 elections that he lost.
He is somewhere else, in Manila or out of the country, with his vice mayor, Carlo Fortuna, as the acting mayor who has the awkward, even painful duty of passing on the reins to the incoming mayor, Representative Jonas Cortes.
Cortes and his team are asking for the documents that Luigi and Carlo may not be too pleased to turn over to a new and hostile administration.
Three years ago, Luigi began digging into alleged anomalies during the Cortes rule from 2007 to 2016; Now it is Cortes's turn to do his own inquiry.
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