WE are one with the rest of the people of Davao City in the celebration of its 85th founding anniversary which started last Tuesday, March 2, 2022.
And yes, we congratulate all those public officials, private individuals and organizations who pooled in their time, efforts and resources if only to make the opening day of the Araw ng Dabaw a big bang for the month-long festivities.
We could only imagine the hustles that they have to contend with just to be able to accomplish their assigned responsibilities at this time when the city is confronted with an extremely infectious virus that has taken the lives of so many Davaoenos. But they prodded on without minding the risks because the anniversary is nearing its centennial edition – barely fifteen (15 years).
Hence, we believe that the workhorses of the 85th Araw ng Dabaw activities deserve everybody’s highest level of accolade.
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It’s barely 23 days and off the candidates for local elective positions will start the hustings. In Davao City the more exciting electoral contest will be that for city councilors – 24 of them. The race to be in the Magic 8 for the council seats allocated for each of the city’s three districts is believed to be dominated by those running for reelection. However, there are also reelectionists who may have a hard time getting into the winning circle because of their having been “ousted” from the official line-up after displeasing the political gods. Lucky are those new comers who are either originally included in the line-up or taken in as replacements of the “banished” ones.
For now we do not have the figures how many are contesting for the 24-man Council. We also do not have the names of all those who have filed their certificate of candidacy. But what we have is the certainty that all those who are aspiring, whether new candidates, come backing or aspiring for reelection, will be fighting tooth and nail if only to attain their objective.
We are sure that no one among the incumbents can be complacent of his or her perceived situation of having the advantage over the new candidates. The efforts of each one to get involved quite conspicuously in activities like organizing mass CoViD vaccination, forcing themselves to be invited in completed project turn-over or inauguration, even birthdays and weddings with limited visitors are enough indications that they too, are actually running scared.
However, whether the people of the city like it or not, the reelection seekers having been too long in their position gives them the relative advantage over their newcomer rivals, even if by name recall only. How they will make this built-in advantage work for their favor is of course another story.
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Among the aspirants for local positions in Davao City the luckiest one is Vice Mayoralty bet Jay Melchor Quitain. Yes, Quitain got to become the unopposed candidate for the second highest position in the city government at a time when no one can anymore file his certificate for the same position.
And we say he is luckiest because the slot was handed to him in silver platter when then VP bet Sebastian “Basti” Duterte substituted his elder sister Sara for the mayoralty when she catapulted herself to the Vice Presidency of the country. Basti though may not be as lucky as Jay Quitain because in the position he is running for he has a capable and well qualified opponent in Ruy Elias Lopez, a son of the late Mayor of the city Elias Baguio Lopez. The Basti nemesis is also a former congressman of the third district, and a known performer thereat.
Meaning, even if the youngest son of the President is believed to be having such advantages as resources, organization, and family name of course, he cannot just sleep with both eyes close because Lopez, with his name also, may just be able to pull the rug from under Basti’s lofty standing place. So, the mayoralty tussle will be worth watching.
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Should Presidential candidate Sen. Manny Pacquiao be warned to “moderate his boastfulness?”
We believe he should. We reach this conclusion after we watched the Presidential debate organized by CNN Philippines only a few days ago. When it was the Senator’s turn to answer a question common for all candidates, where they were and what they were doing during the time of the lockdowns imposed as a consequence of the CoViD 19 pandemic, Pacquiao unabashedly claimed he did not hide or isolate himself. Instead he boastfully said he “was all over the country distributing assistance worth P2 billion pesos from his own personal money.
How sad Madam Jinky and Mommy Dionesia could already be upon knowing the senator is now P2 billion poorer. And the election for President is still two months away.
For comments and/or reactions we can be reached through our e-mail address victorino.sumalinog@yahoo.com; Mobile No. 09392980435; Landline 2372169.
