We beg for the indulgence of our readers. Yesterday we failed to put a title in our column piece. Yet, we sent the same through e-mail to our editorial office for publication in this paper’s edition yesterday.
And indeed our column, minus its title, came out yesterday in this paper. We are sorry for the omission but we can assure our readers that it was not intentional on our part.
Again, we beg for our readers’ indulgence. It seems our more than seven decades on earth is catching up on us. We have experienced so many instances of forgetting things that we used not to when we were younger.
******************************
This early we have observed that the nastier political battles are fought by partisan supporters of candidates and politicians largely in the social media using the services of trolls who are willing to demonize any candidate or politicians, and their supporters while continuously denying they are there for the money – or at least potentially big financial remuneration from their patrons.
Actually, the highly partisan political vloggers, despite their denials, are earning their keeps by substituting the candidates in the many square-offs that are supposed to be fought by the candidates themselves.
No thanks to the absence of regulations governing the use of social media as means of communications.
*****************************
A number of people who are likely allied with the now active opposition, the group of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte, are claiming that the 2025 General Appropriations Act or GAA, is the most “corrupt” budget the country ever had.
We thought that corruption happens only in the utilization process of the budget. Meaning, there are anomalies in spending the funds intended for projects that are identified in the expenditure items contained in the GAA based on the programs submitted by the Executive Department.
But now they are claiming that the 2025 national budget is corrupt. May be they mean that the projects and the amounts intended to fund the same have a good number of potential areas where corruption can be undertaken? May be so. But what if the budget allocated is spent in accordance with the project design including workmanship and material qualities; and that nothing is siphoned to private pockets?
Of course those who are claiming that the budget is “corrupt” could not have distanced their allegations from the truth. After all they are “authority” in that regard. Many of them have “been there” and still are.
We are reminded of our conversation with a contractor friend who have undertaken several government projects including multi-level and multi-room school buildings. He told us in detail how much such projects cost and how much goes to the sponsor of the project, how much goes to this and that official of the concerned government agency, and how much goes supposedly to the members of the barangay council who sign last for the contractor to collect his last collectible amount.
********************************
Davao City Councilors could not help but react vehemently to reports emanating from the World Traffic Index that traffic in this Southern Mindanao metropolis is the world’s number 8th most chaotic and heaviest.
According to the local Davao lawmakers vehicular traffic with such description happens only during peak hours of the day.
May be those representatives from the traffic assessment body came to Davao and roamed around at the most critical time of the day. That is, from 7 to about 11 in the morning, and from about 4 in the afternoon to 6 o’clock in the evening.
But then, again, the assessment group or representatives get to report what they have observed or experienced at the time of their visit to the city. And unfortunately they roamed around the city at the times traffic is heaviest. So they cannot report otherwise to their principal.
******************************
We would like to thank City Health Office (CHO) nurse Earle Guevarra and health worker Joanne Quiban who are both assigned in the rural barangay where we are now residing. Yesterday they spared us the trouble of going to the health center to have our dose of anti-flu vaccine. The two decided to bring the paraphernalia to our house and did the vaccination in our compound.
Indeed through them the CHO makes good its commitment to bring the city government services to where the people are instead of asking the residents to take their time off in order to go to the government health clinics in order to get the services promised them.
With the vaccination of the entire members of our household we are assured safe from flu virus infection for the next twelve months.
-30-
