MELQUIADES Feliciano, national inter-agency task force deputy chief implementer for Cebu, said at a press briefing Thursday, July 16, that all systems are now in place: with barangay officials, business leaders, the police and health workers, and even the councilors. Feliciano is confident that results will be better in the next phase of the fight against Covid-19 in Cebu City.
He didn't say that it was a mess before the IATF-EID came in with the experts parachuting into the city. He was careful to include local officials, the mayor and everyone else, in parceling the credits. Yet it was loudly implied: they fixed the mess.
Most beautiful plank
We've long wanted to verify it but didn't have the chance. A senator in the 2016 election campaign told Margot Osmeña, wife of Tomas Osmeña, then a candidate for mayor, "You're the most beautiful plank in your husband's platform."
The senator wanted to be included in the Tomas-endorsed slate for senators, which may explain the superlative to the family's decision-maker.
Cemetery: not there
Cebu City Councilor Alvin Dizon supports the proposal for a City Hall-run public cemetery. He just wants all environmental laws and rules followed. They started cutting trees in Barangay Guba even before filing the ordinance and verifying if the land is part of the watershed. It is, aside from being part of the protected area in Central Cebu.
Another Cebu City councilor who wants to remain unnamed says, "I am for a cemetery in Guba or anywhere else. I just don't want to be buried there."
Edgar, Mike: 'no'ng araw'
Jessie Lopez Rama on Friday (July 17) posted a photo of Mayor Edgardo Labella and Vice Mayor Mike Rama locked in an intimate moment, standing together, each with an arm draped on the other's shoulder, both looking genuinely friendly and all.
What the photo lacked was a copy of SunStar on the table, or held by Edgar or Mike to show the date the shot was taken. So I asked Jessie. Jessie's reply: "Before the elections." OK.
'Moving on' from ABS
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque asks protesters to end the controversy over the rejection of ABS-CBN's franchise and "move on."
"Move on" is the advice one gives to a jilted lover. Not quite the same here. The sad scene is not about unrequited love. It's about billions of pesos in investment being wiped out and thousands of jobs lost.
Protesters' reply to Roque would be like, "We're hanging in here, babe."
Digong 12% 'unhealthy'
Harry Roque reportedly said President Rodrigo Duterte is "88 percent healthy," in the wake of a lawsuit to compel the President to disclose his true state of health.
The Supreme Court dumped the petition but the question remains unanswered. The President earlier -- in the course of serving his term, in bits and parcels of information -- had been disclosing the various illnesses he said he has been suffering from.
Would Roque's diagnosis help?
It's a layman's assessment, not a doctor's, unless the spokesperson got it from a doctor. Besides, can a person's health be quantified?
How did they arrive at 12 percent in determining his unhealthy state? All those diseases have reduced his well-being by only 12 percent?
I am dumbfounded, 55 percent.
Oligarch in the house
Jun, 9: "Ma, what's an oligarch?"
Mother: "Ask your dad. Daddy, explain to Jun."
Father: "You just heard the oligarch in this house issuing orders. Your mom is an oligarch, a one-person oligarchy."
Mother: "I wish. Still up nights, beating myself up why I picked you over Gabby Lopez."
Jun: "Ma, Gabby Lopez would've been my daddy?"