News Briefs

RAMA WANTS LEON KILAT OPENED

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama wants the demolition of the burned Gaisano Capital building at corner Leon Kilat and Colon Sts. completed by June 13 so the road can be opened to two-way traffic again.

Rama said while demolition is still ongoing, the road should be opened to one way traffic now.

“We have to fast track everything before classes open for the college level to restore the flow of traffic in that road,” said Rama.

City Integrated Traffic Operation Management chairman Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem complained that the demolition work was “really too slow.”

He said the contractor lacked experience in demolition work since he was engaged in recycling scrap iron and junk.

Jakosalem suggested  another option  to open the streets during daytime and only allow demolition work from 8 p.m  to 5 a.m./Edison A. Delos Angeles and Tweeny M. Malinao

VIDAL JOINS FARMERS IN CALLING P-NOY TO SPEED-UP AGRARIAN REFORM

The influential retired archbishop of Cebu, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal is supporting farmers marching to Malacanang to call for the speedy implementation of the agrarian reform law.

“We conform with the program that the late President Cory (Aquino) has done, which is agrarian reform. It has to become a reality so that our farmers could be liberated from being just slaves of the land without owning what they are tilling,” Vidal said yesterday.

Farmers from Bukidnon, Davao region, Negros and Batangas are marching to Malacanang to dramatize their demands.

A total of 1.093 million hectares of land have not been distributed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) program, Task Force Mapalad (TFM) statement said. The original CARP law expired in 2009.

The deadline of implementation of CARPER is 2014.

“Since next year is an election year, we are urging the government to speed up distribution before everybody gets busy with the campaigns,” TFM Mindanao Coordinator Joseph Coles told Cebu Daily News.

The group will then march to Malacanang where they are set to meet with government officials on June 8. /Correspondent Jess J. Agua

TOMAS: ABELLANOSA, NOT MARGOT FOR CONGRESS

Councilor Margot Osmeña no longer has to run for congress in 2013, said her husband Rep.  Tomas Osmeña.

He said surveys of the Bando Osmena – Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK)  show that City Councilor Rodrigo “Bebot” Abellanosa, who is in his last term, is “strong enough” to face Antonio Cuenco in the south district congressional race.

“Margot does not have to run  because Bebot  is strong enough against  Cuenco. Margot was only made a reserve in case Abellanosa did not rate well in surveys,” he said.

He said Margot will be seeking re-election in the city council.

Rep. Osmeña, who wants to reclaim the mayorship of Cebu City,  said the survey results are not the last word on the matter for the south district.

Unless a formal announcement of their line up is made, anyone including lawyer Aristotle Batuhan, is still being considered, he said.

Osmeña denied that BO-PK has been initiating surveys posted on social networking sites to condition the minds of  Cebuano voters.

City Mayor Michael Rama said in a separate interview said that surveys don’t  bother him.

He said he expects Osmeña to  lead in surveys commissioned by BO-PK.

Osmeña will be running again for mayor, a position he held from 1998 to 1995, and in 2001 to 2010,  in 2013./Correspondent Edison Delos Angeles