HOW MANY WERE SHUT OUT? Police estimated at 13,000 the crowd who attended the BOPK rally Saturday night, April 2, on the grounds of Cebu City Sports Center at 13,000.
Don't count the minors and less-than-four-feet people who were refused admission by the police. Seriously, wouldn't you want to know how many tried to get in and how many of them would've raised the BOPK crowd figure?
***
A BBM VIDEO CLIP, randomly run on Facebook this week, showed Bongbong Marcos greeting Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama. The message must have been shot for Mike's birthday October 28 last year when he turned 67, unless it was one of those clips retrieved from the archive.
The interesting bit was BBM's friendship with the city-vice-mayor-ascended-to-mayor, which Bongbong said spans several years, when they had political alliances, "sometimes secretly."
Those "secret" alliances must be in those times when Mike couldn't openly support Marcos because Mike's party or his family was supporting Bongbong's rival. Why else could his tie-up with Bongbong be illicit?
***
5 BANKS SINCE JANUARY. There are now 23 closed banks since the coronavirus pandemic struck in 2020, which almost tripled to 13 last year from five in 2020. The latest is Metro Cebu Public Savings Bank (MCPSB), described as a thrift bank, with main address at Sia Bldg., Natalio Bacalso Ave. in Cebu City and two branches in Talisay City and Lapu-Lapu City.
Ordered last April 1 by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to be placed under the receivership of PDIC or Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., MCPSB in Cebu brought to five the number of banks shut down so far since the start of this year. Earlier, the Rural Bank of Mahaplag (Leyte) Inc. and the RB of Salcedo (Ilocos Sur) Inc. were closed. Last February, two other RBs, San Lorenzo Ruiz in Siniloan and San Nicolos in Pangasinan, were also shuttered.
With the takeover by PDIC, MCPSB surrenders all its assets, records, and affairs to the state insurance firm, won't be allowed to reopen or continue banking operations, and under the law "shall no longer be rehabilitated."
DICDICAN-LED, IT GROSSED P30M. The thrift bank's directors, officials and investors are prohibited from interfering with its assets, papers or operations, which are also placed beyond any court action. A story published in 2021, on February 6 when the bank turned 41, said the MCPSB had the "able leadership of its management led by its chairman retired justice Isaias Dicdican and president Ruel Romarate." Dicdican served the Cebu Regional Trial Court starting 1995 and the Court of Appeals Cebu station starting 2004. He retired compulsorily on July 4, 2015.
PDIC will liquidate the bank's affairs, including the return of the money to each qualified depositor.
Last February 6, 2021, when MCPSB turned 41, it reported that it posted in 2020 a "gross income of P30 million even with the difficulties brought about by Covid-19 pandemic."
It suffered from reduced income compared to prior years, it said, but it was able to post profitable results of operations.
Would a depositor lose his money deposited with the shuttered bank?
One can claim "all or a portion" of the money in the bank up to P500,000, provided he "didn't participate in any illegal bank activity to fill up the account."
***
GUANZON, TOMAS'S BOPK. Had things turned out differently, retired Comelec commissioner Rowena Guanzon would've been the Visayas deputy ombudsman.
The controversial, always-in-fighting-mood Guanzon was in the short list of candidates for the region's ombudsman. She was not appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte; last March 11, it was Dante Vargas whose name was announced to replace Elmer Paul Clemente.
Had Guanzon gotten the post, Tomas Osmeña and his party BOPK would've been the benefit of having "a true friend" in the regional anti-graft office.
In urging people to attend the rally, which she herself attended and spoke at, Guanzon said about being "close to" Tommy.