What with Mayor Osmeña and the SM Cube?
When Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña came up with the proposal to give a P50,000 legal aid to policemen who end up killing criminals… it raised a lot of question as to its legality. Obviously it was the mayor's way of saying that he agreed to the killing of criminals. Mind you, this is nothing new as this is exactly what the human rights groups have been accusing Pres.Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte of extra-judicial killing (EJK).
As expected the opposition in the Cebu City Council fear that giving this legal aid could add to the lawlessness, which we already know is already happening in Cebu City. But on the other hand, this gives our police somekind of financial back up just in case their victims file criminal cases against them. Does this mean that a policeman will no longer think twice if he points his gun against a potential criminal and squeeze the trigger?
However, we must caution our policemen to ensure their personal safety first when they are attempting to arrest those who are caught committing a crime. Mind you, these people are not yet criminals until our courts say that they are. Hence, even the police cannot decide for themselveswho are criminals and who are not. However in their self-defense, if they must resort to violence, then so be it.
Still on issues with Mayor Tomas Osmeña, this week, Cebuanos woke up to the news that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña wanted SM Seaside to remove the iconic cube strategically placed at the corner of their shopping mall at the South Road Properties (SRP). I did a little survey and the people I talked to were bewildered as to why this time, Mayor Osmeña is targeting the SM Seaside City Cube? Most people believe that SM Seaside already compiled with the demands of the Cebu City Mayor… but what was is it with the cube? Why is the mayor targeting it?
I also learned that in just a short time when SM Seaside opened its doors, the Cube (I also learn that the letters of the Cube are the same letters for Cebu) has become an icon that represented the SM Seaside. Hence when Mayor Osmeña gave SM Seaside an ultimatum to remove the Cube, it is akin to someone demanding that the City of Cebu remove the icon called Magellan's Cross! If you ask me… people believe that Mayor Osmeña has become too petty when it comes to harassing SM Holdings. People are wondering why he is so much against SM Holdings…but favor another Manila-based developer?
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I watched for an hour the Congressional Committee on Justice on the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno, wherein no less than SC Justice Francis Jardeleza accused the chief justice of treason for obtaining in 2014 through unlawful means "classified information"regarding the Philippine government's legal claims over the issue on the West Philippine Sea. These documents were supposedly known only in the Executive Department. If the Committee on Justice still wants to find out whether Chief Justice Sereno committed unconstitutional acts, I would like to believe that these are some of the grounds that could cause her impeachment.
What is telling in that hearing was when the three Justices,notably senior Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, and Associate Justices Arturo Brion and Justice Noel Tijam told the Congressional Committee that, in the five years she has been at the helm of the judiciary, Chief Justice Sereno never showed respect or courtesy to her senior colleagues in the SC. What can we say, but in getting herself appointed as chief justice, Sereno literally jumped over the heads of many senior justices of the SC, which is why she only has contempt for her colleagues. But times have changed and her"patron," the former Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III, is no longer in power.
During that same questioning, which was triggered by the pronouncements of Justice Tijam, senior Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro also added, saying that she firmly believes the unilateral "actions of the chief justice showed no respect and courtesy to the SC en banc. On my part, I have been calling the attention of the CJ for five years now… There was no consultation,there was no deliberation." So is this an impeachable offense?Abangan!
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