Binay declares war on Aquino
If you think your Christmas Day, Dec. 25, was lonely because your father, mother, daughter or son is working abroad and couldn’t come home, think of the people who have lost their loved ones, homes and other material possessions in Baganga and Cateel towns in Davao Oriental and in New Bataan, Compostela Valley.
Think of how lucky you are that super Typhoon “Pablo” did not hit your town or city as it did the places mentioned previously.
Baganga, Cateel and New Bataan look like Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the Americans dropped atom bombs in these two sites in Japan during World War II.
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Your congressman, governor or mayor may be corrupt— only a few public officials are not—but perhaps they are not as corrupt as the some of those in Davao Oriental province who engaged in, or tolerated, illegal logging.
Illegally cut logs rolled down the mountains of Baganga and Cateel at the height of Pablo, floated on the swollen rivers and bulldozed bridges and houses in the way of rampaging floodwaters.
Needless to say, the runaway logs killed many people and injured scores more.
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I complained that I had no shoes until I met a man with no feet—Old Persian saying.
My dear readers—who are not from Baganga, Cateel and New Bataan—you are indeed lucky and should count your blessings!
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The Aquino administration is persecuting officials who are not members of the Liberal Party at the drop of a hat.
Or so it may seem to the public.
Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino and Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia are two cases in point.
Espino, who is running for reelection under the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), is being investigated by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) for being allegedly involved in “jueteng.”
As an aside, which official, of a province where jueteng thrives, has not had his or her hands dirtied by jueteng money?
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas is the president of the Liberal Party whose member, Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza, is Espino’s opponent for the gubernatorial post.
Garcia has been suspended by the DILG for a minor misdeed she allegedly committed years ago so her vice governor, a sister of Secretary Rene Almendras, can take over.
The moves were so obvious!
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Governor Garcia, by not stepping down, is disobeying the DILG suspension order.
And Vice President Jojo Binay is aggravating the tense situation in Cebu by encouraging Garcia to stay put.
Binay, of all people, should not have visited her in Cebu with his allies because being a lawyer and the second highest official of the land, he should uphold the rule of law.
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Binay’s act is an open declaration of war on the President.
The DILG issued the suspension order.
Being an office within the executive branch, it is under the President.
So by extension, it was the President who issued the suspension order.
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The latest news I received from Compostela Valley is that there were more deaths that were recorded in Mt. Diwalwal, a mining area in Compostela Valley, than in New Bataan town.
Most of the victims were miners who were in the tunnels when Pablo struck Compostela Valley.
