So there are no election hot spots in the Davao Region for the May 2025 local and national polls? It is one good news we have heard this early.
But of course the election campaign is still two months away. Although the candidates and their leaders are now moving around in the respective jurisdiction of the position the candidates are running, it is already obvious that they are looking for areas of vulnerability among those contesting for a particular position.
And we are certain that by the time that the official campaign period starts they have the ammunition to exploit to the maximum and aimed at where the contesting bets are vulnerable.
We believe therefore that that would be the most appropriate time with which to claim that indeed there are no critical areas in the Southern Mindanao Region.
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What now? There seems to be communications problem among those people helping former President Rodrigo Duterte find ammunition in his “war” against incumbent President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. Third District Congressman Isidro Ungab provided FPRRD with copies of pages of the Bicameral Committee report. The Bicam is the Congressional body composed of members of the Senate and some Congressmen to harmonize the Senate and House versions of any bill before this is transmitted to the President for signature for the same to become a law after certain requirements are met.
The Bicameral Committee report is the documentation of the proceedings with supporting documents which may include pages of the bill or perhaps the full bill itself. In his podcast appearance Ungab Presented to FPRRD the Bicameral Committee report where some pages contain vital expenditure items without the amount.
It is on these copies of the pages of the Bicam Report that the former Chief Executive quickly lambasted the lawmakers and the President for signing the Bill effectively converting the same into the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
He called the 2025 national budget as illegal and by signing it into law the President and the members of the Bicameral Body could go to jail.
Marcos, Jr. and his executive Secretary former Supreme Court justice Lucas Bersamin, were quick to deny that there are Expenditure items in the 2025 GAA that are not provided with amounts.
Mr. Marcos, Jr. even called the former chief executive as “lying.” Moreover, Marcos, Jr. said Duterte was once President and he is very well aware that a Bill like the national budget if it has any item missing the more that it should not be signed into law.
Knowing the former President was in a literally precarious situation his “defense” team composed of his former Cabinet member and legal Counsel in Atty. Salvador Panelo, and his camp’s vloggers were imediate in their defense. However, from their ambivalent statements it appears that they are “to each his own.”
However, it was former Duterte Legal Counsel Panelo that triggered what looks like misinformation that led to the allegations which, to many, became a big bobo from the Duterte camp.
Imagine, FPRRD warning the President and the members of the bicameral body they could go to jail, and possibly even face with drastic action from the military and the police for such expenditure items sans the amount. FPRRD added that the absence of the amounts could be exploited as venue for massive government corruption! And then Panelo would just simply say it was the former President’s “legal opinion!”
Then the other members of the former chief executive’s “defense” team, mostly vloggers and some members of the media are insisting Duterte based his accusation not on the information contained in documents presented by Ungab but on the bill itself that was signed by Marcos. Now, who among them are telling the truth? Could they be the Duterte associates, vloggers and some media personalities? Or could it be Lawyer Panelo who once served the former President as Chief Legal Counsel?
May be it is time for the former President’s “defense” team members to set up a group chat where they can have on-line meetings to address or get synchronized with their actions in defending the former President and have a well-coordinated attack against any top officials in the Administration camp – Executive Department and Congress alike.
Meanwhile as we were about to wind up writing this piece, we learned that the Third District Congressman has already issued a statement refuting the response of Malacanang to the Duterte harangue based on Ungab’s presented documents relative to the Bicameral Report on the 2025 budget bill.
We will take it up in our succeeding columns.
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