Maybe it is time to increase our basic pay?
It's the sixth month of 2018 and it means that the high prices of gasoline in our gas stations today, which have skyrocketed in the last month, didn't happen because of the Department of Finance's Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) which began last January. However, whether we like it or not, because of the prices of basic goods, perhaps the Duterte administration ought to look into our current pay rates. Mind you, raising our pay will only help alleviate the financial condition of our workers, so perhaps the Department of Finance should carefully study the implication of a pay raise.
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With the Sangguniang Kabataan totally allied with the ruling Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan party (although I still say that it was wrong for the SK to be allied with the ruling party because they are not supposed to be actively involved in local politics) these new SK officers were given P1 million by the BOPK. Let me warn these SK officers that before they end up spending this money for themselves, they should be careful because this money came from our taxes and therefore, it must be used by the citizenry.
The SK victory of the BOPK is without any doubt a rousing victory for Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña who is without any doubt going to run for another term in the midterm elections next year. This is one BOPK victory that the opposition party, the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban or what's left of the Barug Team Rama has to restudy; why they got a taste of a political loss. It is high time for the PDPLaban to rethink where they went wrong or why they lost.
For the record, in the barangay level, they have 49 out of 80 winning barangay captains coming from the mayor's group, this is something that the opposition cannot deny. Former mayor Michael Rama said, "We must be one, all of us must be one... We should be one because we are one. Together, we can make things happen in Cebu City." the million-peso question on the minds of many Cebuano voters is who will lead the opposition to take on Mayor Tomas Osmeña? Former mayor Michael Rama or Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella?
We know very well that former Mayor Michael Rama wants to redeem his loss during the 2016 presidential and local elections. This became worse when he was tagged as a "drug protector" by no less than Pres. Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte. We know that he has recently met the president who came a couple of weeks ago, but for as long as the president doesn't clear his name, I don't think Michael Rama can beat Mayor Tomas Osmeña despite his having so much negatives himself.
At this point, I'm giving the opposition PDP-Laban a couple of months to finally decide as to who should be the one to face Mayor Tomas Osmeña, former mayor Michael Rama or Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella?
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This news report has been coming out of many media outlets that P10.6 billion in funds of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) for senior citizens was illegally diverted in December 2015 and supposedly used for the campaign of Liberal Party candidates in the 2016 elections as it was revealed during a joint congressional review of PhilHealth's funds. So was this money used by the LP?
However, The Philippine STAR reported that former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad denounced the allegation that he and former Health Secretary Janette Garin diverted P10.6 billion in funds of PhilHealth for senior citizens to the LP's campaign expenses in the 2016 national elections, saying "it is an absolute lie" and "totally baseless." "It is irresponsible and violates journalistic ethics," Abad told The Philippine STAR in a text message, saying research should have been done before the story was published.
So at this point, we would like Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to check out this story before she leaves her office next month. We'd like to know whether or not this story is true. Or should we just rely on what the joint review of the PhilHealth's funds have discovered?