Mayor Rama was right

Former Mayor now Congressman Tomas Osmeña is facing a complaint for violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practice Act filed by Jack Rallos, allegedly one of the heirs of Vicente Rallos.

Jack in his complaint said that he approached Osmeña when he was still the mayor of the city to advise the then mayor not to pay the heirs of the late Vicente Rallos represented by Lucina Rallos.

Jack claimed that he did so because of his knowledge of the property’s donation o the Cebu City government specifically the document that was called the convenio that was approved by the Court of First Instance in 1940. However despite informing the former mayor of the crucial information the mayor that time still paid the heirs of Rallos represented by Lucina the amount of P21. 3 million and Jack was not given part of what was paid by the city government.

Now it can be told that former mayor Tomas Osmeña is indeed aware of the convenio that was approved by the CFI in 1940 before he released the money to the Rallos heirs. But why did he release the money to the Rallos heirs when in fact he was informed by one of the heirs that Rallos has no right to claim because of the existence of the convenio or the donation of the property to the city government?

As mayor that time, is it not his duty and responsibility to pursue and protect the interest of the people and of the city especially the money of the people? Why did not the mayor that time made use of the convenio in order to deny the money claim of the heirs of Rallos in our courts?

Why did the mayor that time failed to present the convenio approved by the CFI to the courts to prove that the heirs of Rallos has no right of money claim over the property because it was donated already to the city government?

Meaning that today the City Council and Congressman Tommy Osmeña want Mayor Mike Rama to pay the heirs of Rallos the amount of P 133 million despite the fact they all know about the document the convenio of the CFI is in existence.

Well about the Supreme Court decision that has become final and executory? I guess despite the Supreme Court decision that the city government cannot and should not have ignored the existence of the CFI approved convenio in 1940, the former mayor should have informed and presented that important fact and knowledge before the court so that the court can be apprised of the true situation and fact thus may not have ordered the city to pay of the heirs of Rallos. Now today with this fact known I smell something fishy on the move of the city council and Congressman Osmeña’s push to have the city through Mayor Mike Rama pay the heirs of Rallos.

I think Rama is correct in not paying the heirs of Rallos a single cent because they do not have any right to get payment for something that they have donated to the city.

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While the super typhoon spared Cebu it really hit hard on some part of Mindanao especially in Compostela Valley.  While the storm hit the place sometime in the evening but the people were unaware of the big volume of water rushing down from the hills thus causing flashfloods and mud flows thus killing hundreds of people and causing another hundred missing.

Now we go back determining what caused the disaster or the flashfloods and mudflows? There are some who say that Comval is not used to dealing with typhoons because this is the first typhoon to hit the place after so many number of years.

Then comes the unregulated small scale mining by some of the residents of the area, then illegal logging that may have cause the loosening of the soil thus the mudflow that covered hundreds of people alive.

The president in his recent visit vowed to go deeper into its investigation on the causes of the tragedy that has hit the parts of Mindanao especially the Compostela Valley.

But I think the president cannot just investigate but has to do some drastic measure to put a stop from the incident happening again. It really needs the cooperation and participation of the people to make the action of the president meaningful.