Might be an empty boast
THE PRONOUNCEMENT done by the presidential spokesman Harry Roque that the worst us over in our fight against COVID 19 without mentioning the scientific basis for saying it smacks of an empty boast.
In declaring that the worst is over for the country, Roque was quoted as saying: I think we have seen the worst and I think the entire government machinery agrees with this.
With the almost 500,000 recorded COVID 19 cases to date, I do not know wherefrom the honorable spokesperson got his enthusiasm to announce the good news! Baka makuryente si Ginoong Roque sa sinabi. Ha ha.
The Department of Health, meanwhile, said that it will be able to determine in mid-January if there was a surge in COVID 19 cases during the holidays.
Such pronouncements from the Malacanang mouthpiece albeit irresponsible sometimes carry the imprimatur of the Palace and, by extension, that of the President.
Everyone is ecstatic over the possible arrival of the anti COVID 19 vaccines. We just hope they are efficacious as advertised or else
at Sun Star Pampanga.
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On the contentious issue of the petition for water rate increases of Villages Water Supply Services, a firm located at Fiesta Communities, Tabun, Mabalacat City, Alfredo S. Ramos, President of the Fiesta Communities Tabun Mabalacat City Homeowners Association, Inc., (FCTMCHAI) filed a Motion to Submit Formal Offer of Evidence, together with the affidavits and position papers of Jovelyn C.Salazar and BOD Joseph G. Jocson.
After being notarized at the office of Atty. Reydon P. Canlas at Sto. Entierro Street,
Upon learning the situation, Wong said she informed her colleagues through their Messenger group chat, in which Cariño replied saying he only photocopied the documents.
"My questions is, why the need to take these important documents outside of the office and the municipal hall in general for photocopying when we have our own machine in the office?" she asked.
Wong fears that tampering of the files may have been committed while the papers were outside of the office.
Cariño is among those that were accused in the issuance of an alleged fake SB resolution to an investor here.
The SB documents that were taken out were reportedly brought back by Cariño in the office on Tuesday morning, or about 24 hours since he got them.
Wong said she already ordered the inventory of the documents, including the actual number of pages returned and the contents.
As head of the local council, Wong said a penalty will definitely be imposed against Cariño for his alleged illicit actions.
"I am looking into preventivesuspension while we are investigating the incident but I am hopeful that the documents were not because the integrity of our office is already compromised after the manufacture and issuance of a fake resolution and we cannot afford anymore issues like this," the vice mayor sai d .
She added that 24/ 7 guarding of SB office is now implemented to prevent such incident from happening again after she was not allowed to take custody of the documents for the mean time.
Custodian of files
Cariño, for his part, said there is nothing unusual with what he's done as he is the custodian of the documents.
"There is nothing unusual for the SB secretary being the custodian of files to photocopy the documents because they contain sensitive information that need to be duplicated because when even a single page goes missing. I will be held accountable for it by the officials and the people of San Simon," he said.
Cariño said he was only doing his responsibility of protecting the integrity of the documents by producing duplicate copies of it.
He added that the lack of a functional photocopy machine in their office pushed him to take the files outside of the municipal hall, but immediately brought them back the following morning.
"My only purpose in producing duplicate of the said documents is to ensure that there are available copies which I can certify as true copies at any given time because it is my responsibility as the one in charge of it," he said.
Cariño also assured that he will submit to any investigation as well as the inventory of files that will launched by Wong should there be any.
"I can assure that I did not edit a single word in those files because I know the consequence of tampering such official documents. Please trust me as your SB secretary because I will not put myself in jeopardy," he said.
The SB secretary, meanwhile, urged local officials to stop the bickering for the mean time and focus the efforts in addressing the more pressing problem worldwide that is the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Many of our kabalens have lost their jobs, some do not have enough food on their table and some have lost their loved ones due to the pandemic so I hope we can focus our attention in this more pressing concern," he said.