News report: “City Building Official flags down three buildings after series of earthquakes.”
It’s nice to hear that. At least the people know that indeed the authorities are doing their job in assessing the situation of high rise structures after successive temblors hit the city. But how many people have been fielded by the City Building Office to check on the integrity of buildings? Many parents are now worried that there is no certainty as to when the schools with multi-story structures housing classrooms will be able to resume classes.
While it is true that in lieu of the face-to-face sessions classes are now allowed to shift to on-line, experience will bear us out that the latter mode of teaching is not really a guaranteed substitute to the F2F method.
So, we believe that it is imperative for the City government to augment the manpower doing the inspection of buildings, especially those of schools, to make sure that classes will be back to normal soonest.
If there is a need to hire expert structural engineers from private organizations then the local government must do it so the assessment would be completed with the desired result.
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So the Oplan Defense is activated in 19 police stations in Davao City?
Of course this is because the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) would want to make sure that whoever perpetrated the deadly bombing of a gymnasium at the Mindanao State University (MSU) in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur will not be able to move to Davao and do another terroristic act in the place.
This move of the police reminds us of the common characteristic of Filipinos – make the sign of the cross after a lightning strike. Again, by announcing that a particular response is being done after incidents like bombings, it is one tacit admission that similar measures taken after previous related incidents were not sustained and perhaps forgotten after a seeming calm prevailed.
Now the police is at it again – activate the Oplan Defense – hoping that in doing so any attempt to duplicate the MSU attack in any establishment or gathering in Davao City will be thwarted. We can only hope that the police will not be outwitted by the terrorists as it is common knowledge that the criminals masquerading as ideologues and their proxies are also monitoring whatever move that the police is adopting to counter their thirst for blood.
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Indeed the presence of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in the grand wedding of an Aboitiz scion to a daughter of the Secretary of the government’s Department of Housing and Urban Development could put a lot of doubts on the credibility of Malacanang’s Presidential Communications Office and on Malacanang and the President himself.
Imagine the PCO announcing that the President has, for the nth time, again been hit by the CoViD virus. And to make it appear more believable, the PCO added that the President is not reporting to office since he has to isolate himself. It further said that the President though will continue to tend to some of his duties like holding meetings and related activities using the video conferencing process.
Amidst all these reported “forced” rest by the President he was seen attending the Aboitiz-Acuzar wedding. His capture on camera immediately went viral in the social media.
How then will the PCO explain the circumstances and what will that make of the President as a person and supposed to be the epitome of transparency as per his commitment in his inaugural address?
All the more that many “took with some grain of salt” his statement that the UniTeam is not disintegrating but becoming “even stronger” when asked to comment on whether or not he has knowledge of the move in the House of Representatives to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte.
