We really do not know as to what level of ambivalence is this.
In a speech in Ifugao in Northern Luzon last December 3, 2024 Vice President Sara Duterte exhorted the Filipinos to be “forgiving, giving, and loving” in this Christmas season.
She was quoted in the news that as Vice President she needs to highlight the “importance of forgiveness in embodying the Christmas spirit.” VP Sara however, was emphatic in saying that “for me I am not the forgiving type “hindi po talaga ako magpapatawad.”
For certain VP Sara’s message is delivered to all the Filipinos loud and clear. But by saying that she herself cannot forgive those who she thinks have sinned against her, we do not know if she will be able to convince the Filipinos to forgive
Imagine, exhorting her fellowmen/women to forgive in the spirit of Christmas but she herself is not willing to practice what she has advocated!
Why cannot the VP who is entertaining to become the Philippines’ next President for once “walk her talk?”
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Oh, we thought Davao City is one drug-free metropolis not only in Mindanao but in the entire Philippines. How come that only the other day police operatives arrested suspected illegal drug traders and confiscated roughly P1.5 million worth of drugs including marijuana bricks? And why has the police arrested some from their own organization after they were tested positive of illegal drug use when random testing was conducted early this week?
Is the P460 million in confidential funds spent by the city not enough to help the law enforcers get into the illegal drug merchants as well as their contact inside the Davao City police organization?
We are asking this question because by now the amount, despite its hugeness, still appears wanting in encouraging informants to disclose what they know from the grape vine. Or, it is also possible that the drug traders are more generous than the law enforcement authorities. So they instead give the drug dealers tips as to the day and of the police operation.
With such the illegal drug merchants will definitely outfox the law enforcement operatives. And they (informants) even earn bigger money, no, not from the government but from the drug traders who laugh their hearts out while on their way to the banks every after successful drug deal.
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What is happening now with barely twenty five days left of the deadline set by President Ferdinand R. Marcios, Jr. for the stoppage of all POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations) in the country – December 31, 2024?. The other day in Manila some two hundred Chinese workers in many POGO hubs all over the country were set to be sent back to China. And there were telenovela-like scenes at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport while the Chinese nationals were waiting for their deportation flight.
Women carrying their child bade goodbye to their Chinese husband or partner profusely crying while asking for support from the government to raise their kids as their fathers were about to be brought back to their country. They claimed that their Chinese partners were not POGO workers but were simply charged as such.
But it appears that despite the government warning for the POGO workers to present themselves to the authorities, still many Chinese and other Asian nationals apparently wanted to remain in the country. Possibly they would want to continue the offshore gaming operations illegally.
In fact these foreign nationals even reach Panabo City in Davao del Norte to escape the dragnet of the law enforcers. Unfortunately for some 56 Chinese and 3 Malaysians and a Filipina the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in the Southeastern Mindanao Region got wind of their presence in barangay Manay in Panabo City. They were immediately arrested in an early dawn operation yesterday.
But did the Chinese and Malaysians really work in POGO hubs based in Luzon? How come they escaped the authorities while at the airport or at the pier while boarding their transportation to Davao City?
With their number we doubt if their group will not get noticed by airport o seaport authorities; unless they came to Davao in small groups. Or who knows there are POGO hubs in some parts of the Davao Region, specifically in Davao City.
And why on earth did they converge in the remote barangay Manay in Panabo City? Who guided them there?
