Replacing principled man a big mistake

TWO DAYS after the bombing of the night market on Roxas Avenue that killed 14 people and wounded 68 others, the Davao City government reopened the place to the public.

Mayor Sara “Inday” Duterte said the people of the city would not be cowed by terrorism.

“It would take 100 bombings for us to be cowed,” said the feisty mayor.

Friday night’s bombing was not the first in the city as bombs were detonated at the Sasa Port and Bangoy Airport on different dates many years ago.

Many people were killed and wounded in those two previous bombings.

Residents will recover from Friday’s bombing in the central district as they were able to get back on their feet from the bombings in years past.

The people of Davao City are very resilient.

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President Digong didn’t want to go to Laos to attend the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) because he’s a hands-on leader and wanted to oversee the hunt for the persons who planted the bomb.

But Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea convinced the President to go because the country has an international obligation to keep.

Bingbong Medialdea babysits the country while Mano Digong is away.

The country is in good hands with Medialdea temporarily at the rudder.

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The country will remove import restrictions on rice next year, according to Malacañang.

The import quota on rice was abused by the Department of Agriculture and the National Food Authority (NFA) in the previous administrations.

In fact, a former NFA official became a billionaire overnight by giving import quota to rice smugglers.

The corrupt official has found his way into the Duterte administration and now holds a lucrative job.

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Energy Secretary Al Cusi is being levelheaded when he suggests that the government revive the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) which was mothballed during the Cory Aquino administration even before it could become operational.

Nuclear power is cheap energy; it may yet become the solution to the country’s energy shortage.

The reason given by the Cory administration was that BNPP might be destroyed by a strong earthquake and cause a nuclear disaster.

It was a flimsy reason since BNPP was built to withstand a very strong earthquake.

President Cory closed down the BNPP because it was a project of her predecessor, Ferdinand Marcos.

The very religious but vindictive first woman President of the country couldn’t find anything right about Marcos so she vented her anger on all his projects, including the BNPP.

The country is paying millions of dollars for the loan obtained for the construction and upkeep of the BNPP.

The government might as well use it.

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The Bureau of Customs under former Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon is lagging behind in revenue collections.

Faeldon, whose only background on money matters was counting his Marine captain’s salary, is a square peg in a round hole.

He is not only incompetent; he might become corrupt himself in due time as he has reportedly surrounded himself with subordinates who have very tarnished reputations in the bureau.

Already there are reports that a brother of a retired Marine general, who is Faeldon’s partner in a security agency business, is collecting “tara” or bribe from players (read: smugglers).

Worse, two persons nicknamed Ricky and Noel are allegedly collecting tara for Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez reportedly with the blessing of Faeldon.

Dominguez expressed shock at the report.
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If Faeldon is not replaced soon, the revenue collection at the end of 2016 will become the lowest in the history of the customs bureau.

Many people who are customs watchers were surprised at the appointment of Faeldon.

Bert Lina, whom Faeldon replaced, was an honest and excellent manager.

A self-made billionaire, Lina was customs commissioner during the time of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when he resigned after the “Hello Garci” poll fraud scandal.

Lina accepted the position again during the previous administration because he was told he was needed at the bureau.

Replacing a principled man was a very big mistake.