WE GOT it from an On-Line newscast Newsline Philippines anchored by former ABS-CBN Davao’s Paul Palacio that Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio has ordered a mandatory 14-day quarantine for all barangay captains and their companions upon their return to Davao City after conducting a caravan to Metro Manila recently.
The caravan by the barangay executives from Davao City and from other areas in Mindanao was their way of convincing the mayor to run for President in the 2022 Presidential elections.
The mayor had earlier advised them not to force the issue on her as she is not interested in running for President in the May 2022 polls. In fact she had also asked her supporters to stop all other activities that appear to be insisting on her candidacy such as producing bill boards and installing them in strategic places.
She also wants her supporters’ on-line campaign for her run stopped saying that she is deferring her presidential plans sometime in 2034. She also mentioned the supposed disavowal of her father, the incumbent President, for her aspiring for the office.
According to the Newsline report Mayor Sara decided to impose the mandatory quarantine for the returning caravaneers to prevent the possibility of infection to Davaoenos as they can be bringing the deadly virus with them. The caravan, as we all know, passed through several places in the country before converging in the capital region.
Thus, there is great risk that the people joining the caravan could be carriers of the virus once they return to Davao City and elsewhere. The mayor was quoted by Newsline as saying that the mandatory 14-day quarantine is some kind of punishment for them for pushing through with the caravan despite her request not to.
Well, the lady mayor’s move is laudable if indeed it is as sincere as it appears to be. Her sincerity though can only be validated by the time the deadline of the filing of candidacy for the Presidency comes as well as the deadline for substitution expires and she remains a candidate for positions other than the highest in the land.
For now, it is still a matter of “wait and see” thing. Who knows her final decision will have bearing on the people’s reaction to her order for the mandatory quarantine.
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Why is former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Antonio Carpio picking on Sen. Manny Pacquiao to add highlights to his desire to oust the current administration or replace it in next year’s election with people who he thinks have the same genre as he has?
We are starting to believe that the former associate magistrate is convinced that if Pacquiao runs he has an edge over whoever runs under the banner of Carpio’s 1Bayan coalition. This belief of ours is anchored on the assumption that if the boxer-senator does not have a Chinaman’s chance of winning the polls his posturing or that of his supporters’ could just easily be ignored.
Carpio, to us, is a very seasoned jurist not just in the Philippines but also abroad. In other words he has already flown high enough in terms of intellectual qualification compared to the senator. Of course Pacquiao can stand four squares with Carpio in terms of popularity world-wide because of his boxing prowess. But it is a totally different dimension.
Nonetheless, when the good former magistrate started picking on the senator from General Santos, our take on his demeanor is that the boxing icon could pull the rugs under the feet of Carpio or his group’s selected bet in the forthcoming election even if it is for the Presidency.
Moreover, it may also be surprising to many political observers why the former Associate Justice is personally hitting Manny on his supposed absenteeism in Congress as reason for his lack of qualification for the Presidency. Why not zero in on his educational qualification and other intellectual deficiencies that may affect his decision-making on matters exclusive only to the Presidency? Carpio would have done justice to his newly formed opposition coalition had he left it to personalities in his group less high-strung as he is, to take on Pacquiao in the start-off for the political arena.
For now the retired associate justice could be compared to an eagle that is being bitten by a crow at the back of its neck. The mighty eagle fights back in a vain effort to dislodge the crow on top of it. Easily the big bird could have dropped the crow from its back by flying even higher and in the process depriving the crow of oxygen and making the small birth drop dead or exhausted. But somehow, Carpio is doing the opposite—showing to the Filipinos that he, or any of his group’s chosen standard bearers, is mightier than the provinciano senator.
Although we agree with the former jurist that many from his initially assembled group are more qualified than Senator Pacquiao, running for President is the senator’s constitutionally-guaranteed right. And no one, not even Carpio, can take it from him.
Again, if we have to quote the late Davaoeno-Cebuano senator Landring Almendras, “Let us to see.” In Cebuano dialect, “Tan-awon nato.”
