So Davao City Mayor Baste Duterte and Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go have already talked to each other regarding the recent manifestation of disgust by the former for the latter’s seeming silence on the controversies involving his father’s group and that of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr.?
From the statement of the mayor to the media the other day it is apparent that he and the trusted confidante of his father have already sorted out the gray areas between them. Therefore, what the social media trolls from the farms of the administration are continuing to harp against the Dutertes are already “hashed up.”
We do not know if former President Rodrigo R. Duterte has intervened in the seeming rift between the two Davaoeno government officials. But from the way the Mayor crafted his statement we and all other discerning Davaoenos can assume that Baste’s father may have influenced the decision of the mayor and the Senator to immediately patch things over between the two of them.
Yes, the anti-Dutertes vloggers were quick in taking advantage of the Mayor’s manifested disgust over Senator Go’s “silence.” They insist that the mayor’s action is clear sign of internal squabble within the Duterte camp.
It is a good thing that the “estrangement” did not further move to a more disastrous level that could give the Duterte adversaries more ammunition to use against the former President’s group.
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MinDA chair Leo A. Magno disclosed in a recent media interview that the Mindanao Railway Project is still a “go.” It should be. It has been under “caution” sign for the longest time since the Mindanaoans started getting “bullish” about it during the incumbency of former President Rodrigo Roa Duiterte.
What many Mindanaoans are afraid of is that eventually the project will end up on “stop” sign. It will then be frustrations many times over.
For now, the latest that we heard from the national government after the seeming souring of relations between China and the Philippines the latter’s government would have to find new entity to help finance the multi-billion pesos infrastructure project. It was the Chinese government that originally committed to fund the Mindanao Railway.
Apparently, the commitment fizzled out after the two countries territorial inter-locking claims of several islands in the West Philippine Sea got even more heated. It is a good thing that the funding arrangement of the other multi-billion peso infrastructure project – the Davao City-Island Garden City of Samal Bridge connector –has already been sealed before the further boiling of the territorial dispute.
And if what Sec Leo said is really true, then he may already have idea as to what country or international financial institution that is guaranteeing to finance the Mindanao Railway Project.
We and the rest of Mindanaoans will consider it a big fsvor if the MinDA chair can inform the public what countries and funding agencies are possiblefund providers of the ambitious but highly welcomed Mindanao Railway project.
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We read with so much interest the opinion of Prof. Dr. William Adan on the lavish construction of a new P23 billion Senate building to house the offices of the country’s 24 senators and their respective staff and the administrative offices of the Upper Chamber.
Yes, we strongly agree with the former professor and Chancellor of the Mindanao State University – Naawan, Misamis Oriental campus that the construction of the 23 billion pesos office building is highly “unconscionable” more so at this time when the country is reeling from too much poverty.
We can only assume that the honorable senators have never gone to such places that host squatter colonies mostly along the banks of rivers and creeks crisscrossing the areas. For how could they stomach the idea of having posh offices in a building with lavish make knowing that there are millions of their fellow Filipinos languishing in decrepit shacks in stingy communities?
Besides, what will the senators do with the building they will abandon once the new P23 billion edifice is completed? Will they again have the old legislative building converted into another national museum? Or will they have it occupied by offices of government agencies lorded over by lesser gods?
We are therefore elated with the decision of new Senate President Frances “Chizz” Escudero to have the project reviewed more specifically as to its cost and subsequently its design.
It is quite immoral to pursue the very expensive and ostentatious project in the midst of a nation getting more impoverished by its leaders’ lack of concern on the plight of the majority of the people.
