Barug can write whatever
BANILAD Barangay Captain Dennis Tabar: "Bisa'g unsa pay isulat nila [sa streamer]."
Who writes the messages about the crisis on public forums and spaces in the time of coronavirus?
To Cebu City Administrator Floro Casas Jr., it must not be BOPK that should appear in anti-Covid streamers, not in a city run by its rival Partido Barug. The tarpaulin streamers -- urging people to follow quarantine protocol and things would be "OK" -- have been removed by City Hall. "OK" is shorthand for "all right" but in Cebu City, it also means "Osmeña Kami (or Ko or Kita)." Probe people removed them for safekeeping until BOPK could get a permit.
From what Banilad Barangay Captain Dennis Tabar reportedly said, BOPK/ex- mayor Tomas Osmeña provided the streamers that DILG urged them to put up in the information campaign against Covid-19. But they, the BOPK-aligned barangay chiefs, would be willing to replace the "OK" streamers with the Barug version, "whatever they write on it."
Instead of the punch line "Tuman aron tanan OK," it could be like, "Sugbo, Barug batok Kovid" or "Labella-Rama for Rule of Law Against Corona." Both mayor and vice mayor would like the RL bit.
***
'OK' is abbreviated version
"Bisa'g Unsaon Osmeña Lang Gihapon." When three Osmeñas -- biggies Tomas, Serge and Sonny -- lost in one election, in 2019, people recalled the times when the Osmeña product was invincible at the ballot box.
That was when the BOPK catchphrase said, "Bisa'g Unsaon, Osmeña Lang Gihapon." Something akin to the mantra of a battered yet perpetually in-love wife. "OK" or "Osmeña Kami" is the abbreviated version, when the name no longer shocks and awes voter and rival candidate.
***
The dead 'can't watch TV'
An FM broadcaster on Facebook: "What good is a media company, terror and the Constitution when you are dead? You cannot watch TV, can't be killed by a terrorist and can't vote if you are unalive (sic). Fix us first."
He must be referring to the protests over the shutdown of ABS-CBN and passage of anti-terrorism law and the fresh move of House members to revive the cha-cha or charter change. Meaning, why push for them now when they are useless when people are dead, killed by coronavirus?
The pandemic won't kill the entire nation. Check out casualties in past epidemics. Most of a nation would survive. And they'd still be facing problem of repression and other acts that violate the Constitution, they'd still be needing TV and other sources to keep themselves informed, and could be harassed by terrorists or state agents.
Problems of governance, law and order, threats on free speech and free press continue despite the pandemic.
What must worry citizens, broadcaster or not, is whether the rulers push and shove otherwise unacceptable policies and decisions during the period of emergency.
The elected officials enjoy more power, explicitly granted or inferred from the presence of a crisis or calamity. It's almost unpatriotic to disagree with the governors. And processes of legislative and executive action are quick.
What better time for the administration to pass constitutional amendments that protect and promote ignoble interests than now?
***
Longer term, fewer Cayetanos
House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano: "So they're saying they don't want dynasties. What created dynasties are term limits, right?"
He says dynasties are happening because local officials are limited to three years when other countries set the term at 4-5 years. If it were so, would it have stopped the Cayetanos from running all over the place?
Cayetano is congressman of one district in Taguig City Pateros; his sister is congresswoman of another district; his brother is city mayor; and their sister is a senator.
A charter change, to Alan Peter, would remove the term limit and extend the term.
***
Marcoleta makes God laugh
Rodante Marcoleta, a party-list congressman, in his bill: "The hanging of religious mementos, such as crucifixes, in hospital suites will be optional." (From his proposal, House Bill #4633 or Neutrality of Religion in Health Care Institutions)
Marcoleta indeed says in his explanation of the bill that the crucifix is symbol of Catholicism and its presence would make the non-Catholic patient uncomfortable, the hanging of it in the room should be "a matter of option." His bill doesn't call for its removal, as falsely spread by anti-Marcoleta people.
The option though already exists, even without legislation. The patient or his relative can pick the hospital or the room, or have a crucifix or any religious article removed from his sight. More often than not, the patient would be too preoccupied about his mortality to worry over décor.
Marcoleta must know how to make God laugh: he told Him his plans. At the ABS-CBN hearings and in his "Neutrality of Religion" bill.