The trading of accusations at this time will confuse the public less if an allegation of wrongdoing is accompanied with credible-at-first-blush evidence. After all, the transactions have paper trails: documents the new administrations now have full access to, preferably with COA or independent experts taking part in the review, to tell the public what the past officials did wrong.
P4.4M ELECTRIC CAR; P2B-P3B BUDGET DEFICIT. Item (1): The administration of then mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia allegedly bought a P4.4 million BYD Tang electric SUV. Garcia said the car was returned, the purchase canceled.
Item (2): After initial look at the books, Mayor Nestor Archival Sr. said he fears a P2 billion to P3 billion budget deficit.
Among others allegedly overpriced: shirts bought at P20,000 each.
Archival warned that the current budget problems are caused not just by collection problems or inflation but of “questionable spending, overpricing and possible irregularities.”
ALLEGEDLY MISPLACED PRIORITIES by the Gwen Garcia administration, which preceded the Pam Baricuatro government. No specific accusation of corruption. At least not yet.
At the Capitol, Guv Pam has “dramatized” the alleged wrong priorities by trying to correct them, that is by spending on concerns Gwen had “neglected or shunned.” Attempts to appropriate Capitol funds in trust for specified purposes by then outgoing Guv Gwen were foiled.
If this were an episode of the late-’40s-early-’50s radio soap opera “Diego Salvador” …
Cebu City bids for Guinness record of largest claw machine.
Measured 5.229 meters tall, 2.477 meters wide, 3.88 meters high, the attraction in PlayFair Arcade at Tops in Barangay Busay was launched Saturday, July 5, 2025.
Also called skill crane or crane game, players of the arcade-style game use a joystick in controlling a mechanical claw to grab and pick up prizes, usually toys and stuffed animals. Players insert coins or tokens to activate the machine.
The story of ‘Missing Sabungeros’ (no rock band like ‘Missing Filemon’) is not about a concert.
It’s mass murder or serial crime that made 34 to 100 people involved in alleged cockfighting irregularities disappear from any and all cockpits.
The case, highlighted in 2022 Senate hearings, has exploded on national stage once more, this time with more force and steamier disclosures, bigger number of victims and charges.
Mainly because of the expose of a whistleblower, one Julie “Dondon” Patidongan, a former employee of businessman Atong Ang.
Dondon, who confessed his role in the crimes, tagged Ang and actress Gretchen Barretto as the masterminds, which the couple denied. Admission of Dondon about bodies being dumped in Taal Lake is no “Sine-sine.” The bodies, if found, must be real.