Inscribed in the banners displayed by rallyists during last Tuesday, December 10, 2024 commemoration of the World Human Rights Day in Davao City were these phrases: “Marcos, Jr. Paninglon,” “Duterte panubagon.” We supposed the rallyists mean that the President should be made to pay for what has been alleged to be accumulated by his father when he was President allegedly emptying the government coffers and accepting bribes from in certain government transactions.
In the case of former President Rodrigo Duterte we would take it to mean that the human rights advocates in Davao City want the Davaoeno former Chief of Executive to be made accountable for the thousands of deaths during his bloody war on drugs.
Will they ever succeed when the former and his family have consistently denied any heist of government funds during the rule of the elder Marcos; and the latter, boldly mouthing that he is owning up responsibility of what transpired in his bloody drug war including the sins and omissions of the law enforcers who waged the campaign. Yes, the former President verbally owned up responsibility but refused to put his verbal assumption in writing?
Anyhow, Filipinos are used to waiting for long the outcome of politicians’ promises to the point that what is waited is at times already forgotten.
********************************
This one is a very unfortunate incident. We mean the shooting to death of a 42-year old woman employee of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Region XI.
Yes, Ms. Karen Candilosas of the BFAR National Mariculture Center in Panabo City, Davao del Norte, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen while inside her vehicle.
At press time yesterday the Panabo City Police said it is not yet aware of the motives of the killing, not even whether or not these motives are job related.
But with some levity, there is no truth to rumors that the victim had taken her job so seriously that she made enemies of some fish species adversely affected by her project as an expert in Mariculture in Panabo. These fish species might have contacted some notorious human criminals to ease out the lady mariculture official.
We can only hope that the fish species have no “conspirators” somewhere else in the land. Or else, some other lives must already be lined up for their turn to be “snalled” anytime.
**********************************
It looks like the management team of mayoral candidate Karlo Nograles’ campaign scheme is creating areas of vulnerability to the candidacy of the young lawyer as Mayor of Davao City in May 2025 mid-term elections.
We are referring to the supposed field activities of the Karlo (K) group in organizing the core volunteers for the campaign of the youthful candidate for mayor.
We were fortunate to witness one such gathering so the volunteers can manifest their desire and be listed officially. The activity started very early yesterday morning with the crowd largely gathered because of the promise of “ayuda” or in-kind assistance.
Perhaps, to many, such scheme could still be tolerable as the promise of “ayuda” is something politically accepted at this time when so many families are wanting in money and other material resources to survive the day-to-day life’s grind.
But what could possibly bring a negative implication of the so-called assistance distribution was that the organizers jibed it with the organization of volunteers where the emcees already called the young bet “Mayor Karlo Nograles, his Vice Mayor candidate as “Vice Mayor Bernie Al-ag,” and congressional bet “Cong. Nonoy Al-ag.” What was worst was the three candidates and some others were made to deliver their speeches like they were on a campaign rally.
We are certain that the said activities of Karlo’s group last Wednesday did not escape notice of the mostly Duterte-allied barangay officials. So, we will not be surprised if the event will reach the ears of the local administration.
Certainly too, the Duterte group will not take it sitting gown. Most likely the local admin group will even be more abrasive in their response activities. Or, they might even use the “ayuda” distribution activities as charges of early campaigning with open vote-buying.
Certainly, that will put Karlo and his group on the defensive. And mind you, when the Duterte group makes its own barangay visits with “ayuda” distribution to boot, it might be even bigger in crowd and harsh in statements.
And who knows the crowd of would-be beneficiaries of Duterte’s “ayudas” and speech listeners will be the same people who were at Karlo’s own assistance distribution.
-30-
