THIS early, and even as there are moves in Congress to defer the election of barangay officials and the members of the Sangguniang Kabataan, already there are people who are eyeing the barangay captain position, giving our “allowances” to individual broadcasters to have their names mentioned every now and then. The intention is of course obvious. They want to have their names slowly built up and their possible opponents destroyed subtly.
We are referring to possible aspirants with resources and who are willing to invest in advance to fulfill their objective. But for those who have none, they simply rely on the words of mouth to spread their plan in their respective barangays.
Of course no one should be surprised with this dynamics. With business establishments and small enterprises slowly creeping to the rural areas, barangays in Davao City are already getting a huge amount as their share in Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) from national government taxes collected in their localities. IRA, as we know, forms part of the over-all income of the barangay. Hence, the bigger the income the higher the allowances of barangay captains and other functionaries are expected.
And there is the Mandanas law which was earlier questioned in the Supreme Court as to its constitutionality. But it was reported some months back that the High Court has already rendered its decision on the questioned law. The possibility is that its final implementation could happen anytime under the present administration.
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Here we are at this again. We mean our haranguing on the issue of the hundreds of garbage bins purchased by the City government of Davao and later delivered to several lucky (or more of unlucky?) rural barangays in the third, and possibly in the second district as well, some two years back. The acquisition of the trash bins without doubt, cost the city a fortune as the items are supposedly made of durable kind of plastic that could withstand heavy load of garbage for a number of years (assuming the materials used are really the kind prescribed.
The garbage bins until now still remain undistributed to strategic locations in the barangays where the garbage deposited in each from the households or business establishments can be collected by contractors of the local government.
But as we wrote in this space several times earlier, the trash depositories are still piled up in either the corners of barangay covered courts, beside barangay hall buildings or somewhere at the barangay center.
However, as we wrote earlier, some of the garbage bins are slowly destroyed. The covers are detached from the main containers, and others have been deformed because these are being leaned on by other heavier objects.
We had been calling the attention of the City Environment and Natural Resources Office or City ENRO to do some inspections and worked for the bins distribution in designated locations in the recipient barangays. After we have observed the lack of action by the said office in the local government of Davao City, we wrote another item on this space calling the attention of then just proclaimed Mayor Baste Duterte to look into the matter. But maybe the new mayor was too busy to look into this particular matter that so far the bins are still lying idle in some nooks in the barangay center.
Hence, we are calling his attention again. This time we are hoping Mayor Baste can find sufficient time to meet with City ENRO personnel and find out the truth of what we are writing about for a long time already.
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Last Tuesday afternoon we saw in a news report of a local television channel the video recording of the shooting incident in a local bar. While there were possibilities of certain aspects that led to the commission of the crime by the suspect not captured by the CCTV, the NBI probers admitted that it is filling this gap in the probe with statements of some of the witnesses who have seen the entire incident.
The scenes captured in the CC TV indicate that the victim and even the members of the group that seemed to have gotten the ire of the suspect have not a single gun. It showed that only the medical doctor suspect had a pistol. He was seen confronting the young victim and aiming his pistol on him.
In a subsequent scuffle the suspect was captured on CCTV still having possession of his gun despite what appeared to be an attempt by the victim and his group to disarm the suspect. In the succeeding CCTV footages it appeared that the group that included the victim had left the vicinity of the bar but the suspect seemed to have caught up with them. Again the suspect aimed his gun on the victim. Sensing danger, a member of the victim’s group threw a fist on the suspect but appeared to have succeeded only in making the suspect turned into a kneeling position but failed to grab his gun. It was in that juncture that shots rang out and the victim lay lifeless.
The still uncharged suspect as of the other day, is reported eyeing self-defense to justify his action.
Question: Who was likely acting in self-defense, or trying to defend anyone among the protagonists? The suspect who was with his possession a superior deadly weapon, or the victim or any of his group trying to grab the pistol to defend an unarmed would-be victim with the rest of his group having only their fists to do battle?
You be the judge by applying your common sense.
