News Briefs

Mayor, Pablo John clash over coop

A COOPERATIVE identified with the Garcias may be caught in the political crossfire of the May 13 election.

Barili Mayor Teresito Marinas submitted an open letter to  the Cebu Court of First Instance (Cebu-CFI) Cooperative calling on management to “refrain from using the funds of its members for political ends.”

The letter from some coop members alleged that  suspended Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and her siblings from Cebu’s 3rd district were “personally supervising the distribution of cash to constituents, giving false impression to the public that the same is an initiative of a local government unit.”

The letter also stated that CFI had obtained a P2 billion loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines.

“Politics is a suspect here. There is a looming fear of the possibility that the  amount will be used to finance the political ambitions of the Garcia family,” the letter reads.

A separate page was attached with  95 signatures of  members.  However, there was no name of the signatory of the letter itself.

Marinas, in an interview said, he just helped ensure the letter reached  the management.

“Whatever the outcome of the election, would the coop still have funds?” he said.

In response,  3rd district Rep. Pablo John Garcia who is running for governor,  dismissed the allegations.

“There is a difference between concern and paranoia. How can coop funs be used for political purposes when the coops are a heavily regulated entity by the Cooperative Development Authority  and the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas?” he said. Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus

Yapha vows medical services to third district

CONGRESSIONAL candidate and incumbent Pinamungajan Mayor Geraldine Yapha said expanding and improving medical services in Cebu’s 3rd district will be among her priorities if elected into office.

In an interview Yapha, a doctor,  said district hospitals in the province should be equipped with modern facilities.

She also promised to continue the scholarship program pursued by her father Antonio during his tenure as congressman.

Yapha is running against suspended Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia for Cebu’s 3rd congressional district under the Liberal Party (LP). Correspondent  Carmel Loise Matus

BO-PK, Team Rama survey war on Facebook

THE survey war between the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) and Team Rama camps in Cebu City continues to heat up, this time in Facebook.

A post called “People’s Choice if the election is (held) today” was posted on Facebook that showed the top BO-PK candidates as the preferred choices of Cebu City voters.

Thes are Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district as mayor, re-electionist Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young, former congressman Raul del Mar for Cebu City’s north district and three term Councilor Rodrigo Abellanosa for the city’s south district.

Osmeña owned the post as BO-PK’s way to counter “fake” survey results that have been disseminated the last few days.

“We would like to emphasize that there are fake surveys and this (our survey) is not,” he said.

Osmeña also admitted that his group commissioned the survey that was conducted by the University of San Carlos (USC) School of Law and Governance Department of Political Science.

Another survey that showed that re-electionist Mayor Michael Rama is the preferred choice of occupants in the top 25 residential subdivisions in Cebu City – 15 in the north district and 10 in the south district—was also posted on Facebook yesterday.

The survey conducted from April 22 to 23 showed that Rama is the preferred candidate among most subdivision occupants.   Osmeña received a share of 40.84 percent of the votes of surveyed residents as against the 51.62 percent of Rama.

The remaining 7.54 percent of the surveyed population remained undecided on who to vote for mayor.

Osmeña warned Cebuanos against “fake” surveys.  “My opponents are disseminating all sorts of information, survey that Mike Rama is winning against me,” he said. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac