FORMER Cebu City councilor Prisca Niña Mabatid posted bail in Dumaguete City last Oct. 9, following a warrant of arrest issued by a Taguig City court for two counts of cyber-libel in a complaint filed by successful TV actor and frustrated politician Richard Yap. She thinks she was never arrested (“wala ko napriso ever”) and claims she had never seen the complaint and the resolution of the city prosecutor finding “probable cause” against her. All she knew, she told me, was that she was free (“wala ko napriso ever”).
Mabatid also got off an election complaint of the same Richard Yap, alleging she was disqualified to run for congresswoman in the 2022 election. She says she also didn’t know anything about it. Her camp inquired from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Cebu, which said they didn’t receive any information from Comelec Manila. Her mom though received the Comelec order dismissing the complaint but wasn’t able to transmit it to Niña, who was then out of town.
She says she wasn’t arrested, apparently because she submitted herself to the jurisdiction of a court where she posted bail. She says she didn’t know about Yap’s election complaint, maybe because the complaint didn’t reach first base and was struck out for Yap’s failure to meet basic Comelec requirements. The complaint would’ve been pointless, as Yap, a loser, was trying to disqualify another loser.
‘Usik-usik’ asecs, usecs
LABOR law expert Josephus Gimenez’s Freeman column plays words on government secretaries, undersecretaries and assistant secretaries: “Secs, Usecs and Asecs – usik-usik.” Attorney Josephus says only the job-order workers and casuals are working, whom the Civil Service Commission has repeatedly ordered the Cebu City Government to dump in favor of plantilla employees.
‘Partners in crime’
NEWS about some public figures, who made news during the Edgardo Labella administration and were recently reported to be back in the corridors of power at City Hall, got this comment from Niña Mabatid: “Partners in crime na sila.”
She could be kidding. The phrase is often used humorously and its vernacular meaning is “someone you want to hang around and do everything with.”
But one remembers that Niña Mabatid, then as No. 2 councilor in the north district, was the public official who accused a person she didn’t identify of being City Hall’s “ungo” (witch) who used his influence for corruption. She was never asked to account, by Partido Barug or the City Council, for calling out on the administration of which she was a part.