Efrain’s latest dud
THE self-styled nemesis of the Radazas has fired another dud. Businessman Efrain Pelaez Jr. blamed Mayor Paz Radaza last week for the garbage mess, especially in Barangay Basak in Lapu-Lapu City. With the elections less than a year away, it seems Pelaez is desperate again for issues he could raise against the mayor in an apparent bid for another electoral defeat.
For non-Oponganons, raising the garbage issue seems legitimate. However, when Pelaez spared from his ombudsman case a vocal opposition leader, who is also a notorious violator of solid waste management laws, they know the move is political. Residents know that the City Government had its hands full cleaning up Barangay Basak despite the non-cooperation of the barangay captain. Mayor Radaza said the barangay leader either wants to put the city in a bad light or he’s just incompetent.
The past two years were also marked by Mayor Radaza’s solid waste management initiatives like the material recovery facility, education campaign for waste segregation, the eco-tour police project in cooperation with the city’s youth and the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R), and the waste to energy project.
The education campaign, in particular, involved barangay captains because they are the main implementors at the barangay level. The seminar was attended by the national solid waste management commissioner.
I agree with the observation that garbage is one issue that won’t hurt Mayor Radaza. It seems her socalled nemesis has no connection with Lapu-Lapu voters. No wonder friends in Opon are again chuckling that Efrain is again setting himself up for a loss in May 2013. Murag si Magellan nga way ideya sa Opon.
DOTC Secretary and Liberal Party president Mar Roxas replaced the late secretary Jesse Robredo as interior secretary. I know Roxas is competent for the job. It is also a major victory of the Balay group over the Samar faction that is associated with the candidacy of Vice President Jojo Binay come 2016.
I have always maintained that 2013 is significant because the major players for 2016 are already preparing for their run.
In Cebu, Roxas at the helm of DILG enhances the position of LP’s Junjun Davide because he can now promise and actually deliver for LGU allies. Gov. Gwen Garcia may also find it increasingly difficult to carry out projects. Soon, mayors will have to get the go-signal of Junjun and Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale to pursue projects funded by the Capitol.
However, we still have to divine from future Roxas moves on who he actually favors between Rep. Tomas Osmeña and Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama.
*** DILG Secretary Roxas’s actions regarding the three aspirants for the Cebu City south congres-
sional seat–the beleaguered BOPK Councilor Bebot Abellanosa, Team Rama’s aging Tony Cuenco, and the dark horse former DOTC undersecretary Totol Batuhan– is also interesting to watch.
BOPK’s Abellanosa apparently wishes the scholarship issue would just go away. As of this writing, his camp has yet to answer serious questions about conflict of interest, while BOPK councilors and Vice Mayor Joy Young rushed to his side. I can’t understand why BOPK would not remove this thorn on its butt. But if Roxas favors BOPK, he might have to accept Abellanosa, warts and all. The issues against Abellanosa would paint LP’s “Matuwid na Daan” with insincerity.
However, if Roxas decides on Mayor Rama, the group’s candidate for congressman Tony Cuenco has already thrown his support for the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) of Vice President Binay. As an old PDPLaban stalwart since the early `80s, Cuenco is the district’s party leader, which is now part of UNA.
Totol Batuhan, on the other hand, is a member of the LP and identified with Tommy Osmeña. But curiously, he is a BOPK outsider. Instead, Batuhan has organized his Abante Barangay Movement that recently won the support of the Urban Poor Alliance, which is politically identified with BOPK. Insiders said UP ALL, the civil society and people’s organization arm of BOPK, rejected Abellanosa because of his allegedly trapo ways.
*** A Chinese astrologer told me earlier this year that many of today’s Philippine leaders like President Noynoy Aquino were born during the year of the Rat. Being a Rat too, I know that Rat people are those aged 51 and turned 52 this year like Customs District Collector Ronnie Silvestre. Their ranks at the top now include Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno.