Mike Rama, Jonas Cortes -- among 100 or so government officials the Ombudsman has dismissed across the country and running in 2025 elections -- need the TRO, or some other legal basis, to stay in the competition.
And they got it from the Supreme Court.
But the reprieve has to be long enough for them to be included in the ballot, scheduled for printing in second week of December. Safe enough for them not to be kicked out or their votes invalidated by an adverse decision before votes are canvassed and winners proclaimed. The election results may even be a kind of confidence or rejection vote.
Whatever would happen after election day, they could at least be deemed to have taken part in the race. Small comfort but it wouldn’t be death stopping anyone. And it is what it is.
A Rama named Mikel Francisco Rama is running for Cebu City councilor and, this week, was nominated to fill the Cebu City Council seat left by Don Hontiveros’s ascension to vice mayor.
Mikel had filed his COC and on Oct. 23, 2024, the City Council nominated him to fill the vacancy caused by Councilor Dondon Hontiveros’s promotion in rank. The President has the authority to appoint the successor.
Mikel, a lawyer on “transactional disputes,” is the son of dismissed mayor Michael “Mike” Rama. In the years preceding the 2025 election, the father has been grooming Mikel to join politics. Attorney Mikel is yet to become the household-familiar public figure that his dad is.
Heirs to a political name enjoy the advantage of name and machinery but not every such privileged person is voted to office.
Solomon, 1,000 women; Quiboloy, ‘only’ 68.
SOLOMON, the Bible says, was allowed by God to sleep with 700 wives, princesses and 300 concubines. Accusers say Pastor Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, self-proclaimed son of God, had sex relations with 68 women, through “religious deception and coercion.”
Solomon was not confronted by his women at a public forum. Quiboloy, 74, was, in the Senate Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, where former followers confronted the cult/religious leader and accused him of sexual abuse.
The women alleged that the assaults were portrayed by Quiboloy as their religious duty to the “appointed son of God.” Quiboloy has denied the allegations but won’t directly answer them at a forum other than the two courts where he’s facing charges.
Less than 10 days before US elections
‘Nail-bitingly close’ or ‘razor-thin lead’
New York Times-Sienna College poll from Oct. 20 to 23, 2024 showed Kamala Harris and Donald Trump were tied nationally at 48% with remaining 4% undecided.
FiveThirtyEight poll tracker, which estimates average of several national polls, shows Harris holding on to a thin lead of 48% to Trump’s 46.6%
Electoral College decides ultimate winners, as it reflects outcomes in individual states.