PEOPLE talk about...
* CEBU CITY HALL ALLOWED TO WITHDRAW P3.5B CONSIGNED WITH COURT. Meaning, it now has the money for Mayor Edgar Labella's Supplemental Budget #2 which appropriates funds for the city's traffic lights system and other expenses, including payment of subsidy to seniors and disabled city residents.
Former mayor Tomas Osmeña's BOPK no longer has the vote to block the approval in the City Council of SB #2, fund-sourced to the P3.5 billion that SM and Ayala consigned to the court when Tomas, then the chief executive, refused to accept it as payment for SRP lots. The money represented the second and third or final installments of the P16 billion payment on the negotiated sale.
With the unsuccessful recourse to the courts, unless Tomas will have means to stop the spending, other than his midnight moves in the City Council, the fund they have named "untouchable" will finally cease to be so.
* 'BULLET-DODGER. 'ARTISTA KILLER.' SunStar Cebu called Atty. Inocencio De la Cerna "bullet-dodger" in Tuesday's (September 3) Page 1 banner headline. Earlier, just after the May elections, Superbalita [Cebu] called Representative Raul del Mar of Cebu City north "artista killer" for beating two entertainment personalities in two elections. Typical instances of news media's penchant for name-calling, literally or figuratively.
Because the would-be assassins' bullets didn't find their target, De la Cerna indeed dodged bullets. But so did the attackers whom, De la Cerna admitted, he didn't hit when the lawyer fired back, with the gun propped over one shoulder.
Surprisingly, the assailants fled although De la Cerna was outnumbered and outgunned. So it didn't end the way an action movie would, as one news story referred to the street gunfight. The villains ran. So De la Cerna was in a way part survivor and part hero. He showed to the Cebu community that survival at times could come only by fighting back.
* DISMISSAL OF PETITION ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BY SUPREME COURT. The dismissal of the petition filed by one Atty. Jesus Nicardo Falcis in 2015 didn't touch on the constitutionality or legality of same-sex marriage.
The SC threw the case out because (a) Falcis had no legal standing, (b) there was no "justiciable controversy," and (c) it violated the principle of "hierarchy of courts," i.e., it is better addressed to Congress first.
* HOW PANELO TRIES TO GET OUT OF HIS EARLIER DENIAL. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo is trying to squeeze out of the tight spot he fell into when he earlier denied he had helped the family of rape-slay convict Antonio Sanchez.
How? (a) By explaining that when he claimed no earlier contact with the Sanchez kin, he meant "no personal contact," just "official contact." They met in Malacañang. But the so-called official contact couldn't have been limited to the confines of official business. As Panelo served as Sanchez's lawyer, they already had personal ties. (b) By arguing that everything was recorded in the Malacañang meeting, So, there was transparency, Panelo said. Which he didn't admit until the Senate hearing exposed the endorsement and the meeting.
***
Tell us about it.
[paseares1@gmail.com]