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Former President Joseph Estrada will be going to
Romblon this morning, Thursday. A bipartisan group will welcome the
popular ex-president in the island of Sibuyan where the sunken
Princess of the Stars is located. He will try to visit the three
towns—Magdiwang, San Fernando, Cajidiocan—all surrounding
Mount Guiting Guiting.
The purpose of his visit is
humanitarian. But people in the province are wise—they consider
this trip as clearly political. After his aid-giving trip to Panay
last week, Erap will try to duplicate his feat by giving aid and
comfort to Sibuyanons, now suffering from food and medical shortage.
I was told that he would be distributing goods sourced from his
political allies.
“Does this mean that President
Erap is running again for President?” asks Mr. Awe Eranes, a
reporter of the Romblon Sun. I answered him in a safe way—that the
ex-president may or may not run. After all, the opposition will
still meet to decide on its standard bearer for 2010. If at all, I
told the reporter, President Erap is just keeping his options.
It’s very hard to know the
truth from Erap these days. He won’t categorically say that he is
running. Neither will say that he is abandoning any plan to return
to the presidency. All he is saying is that the opposition should
have one bet to beat the administration. And that he would make sure
that there should be one bet.
My hunch is that, deep in his
heart, Erap wants to run and reclaim his seat if the situation is
conducive. But one condition he has imposed before making a final
decision is the evidence of clamor from the people asking for his
return. But since that clamor is not yet there, he is reaching out
to the people to find out their real sentiments. His trips that
included high-profile visits to Bataan and other areas are part of
this plan.
His recent trip to Panay (which
was well received) and this current one in Sibuyan is part of his
plan to redeem his name. In private conversations with his close
friends, I was told that he was so disappointed by his ouster that
he wants to be given a chance to govern again—even if only for one
year. I think that the real intentions of Erap will be made known by
early next year.
House investigates Sulpicio
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Speaker Prospero Nograles speaks
like an angry man these days, just like the thousands of boat-riding
people of Mindanao and the Visayas. His anger is directed at the
owners and manager of MV Princes of the Stars, which sank the other
week. The regulators in the maritime industry do not escape his
rebuke.
Disappointed by the verbal
exchanges in media, Nograles said: “Those responsible for the
tragedy are blaming everything and everybody except themselves.”
The Speaker ordered the House on Monday to make sure that the facts
surrounding the death of 800 passengers are ascertained.
The House Committees on
Transportation and Oversight, chaired by Reps. Monico Puentevella
of Negros Occidental and Danilo Suarez of Quezon, had its initial
public hearing on Monday where top officials and representatives of
public and private stakeholders faced the initial probe.
The probe seeks to uncover
loopholes in the country’s statutes, policies and rules and
regulations governing the maritime industry. We cannot allow this
kind of tragedy to happen again, Nograles said. He also observed
that the tragedy “puts to test the country’s justice system.”
He added that the token monetary
compensation offered to each victim of the tragedy can never
compensate for the lives lost and the sufferings of their families.
“It is a painful reality that
modern commerce appears to put a heavier premium on profit than the
value of people’s lives. This has to change,” Nograles said.
BRIEF NOTES. I was in Odiongan,
Romblon, during the weekend and I did not see any revulsion to
eating fish caught in the Tablas Straits. My friends and I had a
nice time eating inihaw na lapu-lapu and tangigue. The statement by
the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources that it is safe to eat
fish is well-circulated in the markets to Tablas.
We sympathize with our colleagues
in the NBN Channel 4 whose jobs and rights are on the line as a
strike looms across that part of Visayas Avenue. These are delicate
times for NBN. If the union makes a wrong calculation, the
government may just close the station or integrate it with the two
other sequestered state firms, imperiling jobs and displacing many .
. . At the same time, a rash judgment to close the firm would mean
embarrassment for the government, especially in the run-up to the
Olympics. That is something that the President is not predisposed to
do. This is truly a game of delicate calculation for both sides.
jules42na@yahoo.com
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