Some months back we wrote about a laudable project that was the main meat of an ordinance sponsored by then third district councilor Atty. Petite Principe. The ordinance calls for the establishment and operation of a Center for Children with Special Needs.
We say it is a very laudable project because it is common knowledge that in Davao City, whether in the urban and suburban areas, or in the rural and hinterlands, there are so large a number of children having special needs. These children definitely also need special attention. However, most of them belong to the so-called marginalized or disadvantaged sector of families. Hence, their parents just leave them as they are for lack of agencies to go to without being confronted with high cost of the required specialized interventions.
We assume that when then councilor Principe explored the idea of the center, she must have realized how the situation of those who belong to the children’s sector with special needs has been overlooked or neglected. Thus, she proceeded in introducing a proposed ordinance that will address the growing problem in the city’s population.
Unfortunately, the lady councilor was already on her way out of the City Council as she was completing her 9th year as a local lawmaker. The good thing though is that the ordinance was approved shortly before her exit.
Our question now is what happened to the proposed Center? Has the construction of the building to house the center already been started? Has the equipment needed for its operation already been procured? Have the personnel who need special skills to do what are required in attending to the children with special needs been recruited?
We are certain that if the project is the “baby” of the former councilor who, we learned only recently, is aspiring for a comeback, she could possibly have knowledge as to the project’s status.
Honestly, we believe this project is so important for a city with a fast growing population from whom the future leaders will be coming from. Pursuing the project, we are certain, can be one assurance that succeeding generations in the city’s population will be devoid of possible problematic individuals – physically and mentally.
We wish lawyer Petite a chance to serve again so she can strongly push the project.
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We have read lately of news reports about confiscation of smuggled cigarettes worth millions of pesos. And these shipments are intercepted by the authorities either in the shores of Davao City or on the surrounding seas. The confiscations are in addition to illegal drugs busts in checkpoints leading to the city, or in residential buildings in the suburban areas.
Why is the city becoming the favorite destination of smugglers and illegal drug merchants to dispose of their merchandise? Why are they becoming confident that they can do their thing in the city? Have these illegal traders acquired protection from certain powerful personalities? Or, is their business now strongly flourishing in this part of Mindanao?
If it is the later question that is positively answered then it is safe to assume that all the other earlier queries we raised are already answered precisely.
If indeed this is happening then we can only point to one possibility. That is, that there is a breakdown in the once closely coordinated efforts to protect Davao City from becoming a safe haven for smugglers, illegal drug traders and other crime perpetrators.
Could this be the outcome of the local civilian officials’ pre-occupation with politics and the apparent falling out of the local police from the favor of the local government – again, as an offshoot of too much politics?
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Very soon the campaign for the post of congressional representatives in the whole of the country, including Davao City of course, will start in full swing. And we assume that by this time the candidates for the first, second, and third districts in the city are already in the final phase of their planning and preparation on how to conduct their campaign as well as looking into the adequacy of their manpower, financial as well as material resources.
The candidates and their advisers may also be in the thick of their eavesdropping on the strategy of their nemesis in their district so they could make the necessary adjustment when the campaign proper sets in or is in progress.
In Davao City we see as most crucial electoral contests in the first and the second districts. Why, because one of the candidates in each of the districts is a member of the Duterte clan. In the first the incumbent is Congressman Paolo Z. Duterte. His strongest challenger is Partylist Rep. Migz Nograles, a scion of the city’s another politically strong family of the late former House Speaker Prospero “Boy” Nograles.
Representative Migz is a lawyer who, like mayoral candidate Karlo, also has the traits of her father. With her family name and the memory of her father, it is possible she could give the incumbent Polong a “run for his money.”
On the other hand, in the second district, both the candidates for Congressmen are first timer in the race. Both also carry big names in addition to their perceived resources and backings.
In other words any of Omar Duterte or Javi Garcia Campos could give a “run for their money and/or resources. Hence, who has the better campaign strategy and guts to implement the same without hesitation, wins the congressional race.
