PEOPLE talk about...
[1] SOLGEN'S PETITION FOR GAG ORDER. Solicitor General Jose Calida Tuesday (February 18) filed an urgent motion for a gag order against parties, as well as "persons acting on their behalf," to the "quo warranto" petition pending before the Supreme Court involving the ABS-CBN franchise.
Gag order or none, the public wouldn't stop the discussion of the issue in private and public conversations.
[2] THE MISSING GRANDSON of retired Municipal Trial Court judge Gerardo Estopa Jr. who died with his wife in the February 17 dawn fire in Barangay Centro, Mandaue City. If the young man, Jeric Estopa, 21, escaped the fire, where is he? If he, like his grandparents, was trapped in the fire, why was his body still not found? Until they find the body, firefighters won't consider Jeric as a casualty.
[3] RUMOR OF PROBE TEAM CHIEF's DEATH DEMOLISHED, by Raquel Arce herself who heads Cebu City's demolition squad. Probe (shorthand for the long-winded name Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beatification and Enhancement) is City Hall's euphemism for the word "demolition." Arce told the press on February 18 that the rumor about her death was fabricated and must be torn down.
No love lost
Cebu City Administrators Floro Casas Jr. filed a clutch of cyber libel and grave threat complaints -- 31 counts -- against former congressman and former city councilor Pastor "Jun" Alcover.
As if to underscore the irony and sarcasm, Casas sued last February 14, Valentine's Day. No love has been lost between the two allies of Mayor Edgardo Labella: Casas is his law partner and now city manager while Alcover is his party-mate in Partido Barug and supporter in the last elections. Whom would the mayor side with? Silly question, a City Hall watcher says.
Basis for the complaints were the Facebook posts of Alcover, news media reports say, with no mention of the on-air anti-Casas utterances of Alcover who also runs a radio commentary program. Screenshots of Alcover's remarks and affidavits of persons who said they read the FB posts were attached to the complaints. The "31 counts" of libel refer to the number of allegedly offensive remarks Alcover made on social media.
While Alcover publicly said they were quarreling over t-shirts promised to 2,500 "habal-habal" drivers but allegedly blocked by Casas, Jun implied that he had a lot of bombshells to explode, which observers see from Alcover's threat ("If they want to make it big, I could make it big"). The complaint should provide some clues.
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