Erap under the Cardinal’s custody?

Last Jan. 6, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) went to Toledo City to launch her "Botica sa Barangay" program in the provinces. But the bigger news that she revealed to Cebuanos was that the famous Atlas Mines in Toledo City is slated to start operations this year. Actually, we’ve read news reports about this months ago, but nothing has yet happened there. However, with President Arroyo making this announcement, I would like to believe that barring all untoward events, Asia’s biggest copper mine is set to reopen with a fresh investment of $300 million, which should be good news for the job-starved people of Toledo City.

Now if I sound skeptical, it is only because the KMU, the union that allowed the Atlas Mines to be shut down, will still have a say if the copper mine would be reopened, and those union leaders couldn’t care any less if because of them, the Atlas Mines cannot reopen. So the big question hanging over our heads is whether Atlas Mines would reopen as announced by the President. At this point, we’re on a "wait-and-see" attitude.

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Too often, when the President makes certain pronouncements, it backfires on her. A couple of years ago during one of her sorties to Cebu, the President thought that the Naga-Uling Road linking the eastern seaboard of Cebu to the west was already under construction. Well that presidential temper flared when she realized that it hardly started at all… thanks to the DPWH bureaucracy. Two years after that incident, the Naga-Uling Road isn’t even half-way finished… the project looked as if it was abandoned!

During her last trip to Toledo City, the President didn’t even bother to look into the progress or should I say non-progress of the Naga-Uling Road. This makes me wonder… when will they ever get to finish this very vital road link from Cebu City to Toledo City? The more it is needed now that Atlas Mines is set to reopen.

But while we’re only getting bad news about the Naga-Uling Road, the DPWH quietly announced that the four-lane Cebu South Road linking Talisay City to the municipality of Naga has been "substantially completed" as of Dec. 10, 2005. This project was delayed for six months… and I know the real reason why… because the contractors couldn’t be paid on schedule. Supposedly, the law states that government infrastructure projects cannot proceed unless there is already money for them… it just amazes me why the DPWH cannot release the money that should go to the contractor.

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Deposed former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada has asked the Sandiganbayan to release him to the custody of Cebu prelate, his eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal… and as the local dailies reported here, Cardinal Vidal will not say no to being Erap’s custodian… that’s if the Sandiganbayan would rule in favor of releasing the former President.

I don’t know what the legalities are in his case, but certainly I find this request quite odd in the sense that Erap’s being jailed or under house arrest is to prevent him from doing harm to others. So far, even with Erap under house arrest, he has already done a lot of political harm to the country, more than anyone else who is in a similar predicament.

Wags in Cebu are already making jokes that Erap can choose as his Cebu residence either the Archbishop’s Palace or the Malacañang in the South! Of course, these may just be jokes, but who knows! I know the Cardinal too well that he would never refuse anyone seeking solace… especially one who is supposed to be imprisoned. As a final joke, with Erap under the custody of the Cardinal in the palace, will the Cebu prelate allow him marital access? If so, which one or who among the many will have the privilege?

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Last April, our beloved Pope John Paul II died after a long, but very memorable Papacy. But one of the most horrifying scenes ever seen on world television was the May 13, 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II’s life, which many of us will never forget. A Turk named Mehmet Ali Agca fired point-blank shots at the Pope as he was passing through to greet his well-wishers in St. Peter’s Square. No one can really say what was the motive of Agca; some theorists believe that he was paid by unseen faces linked with the defunct Soviet Union. Back then, the USSR was scared of a Polish Pope who had too much influence over Poland, which was then a major part of the Warsaw Pact and the first line of defense in the Iron Curtain.

Two years after he was shot by Agca, Pope John Paul II personally met him inside his cell to forgive him. He was since pardoned by Italian authorities after serving 19 years in jail and extradited to Turkey to face his other criminal charges. Turkish authorities freed Ali Agca last Thursday with no howl coming from anywhere. Agca is now a free man. This brings us to a question… what if Mehmet Ali Agca was sentenced to death and the sentence carried out? There certainly would be no Ali Agca walking free last Thursday. I just brought this up for those who still believe in the death sentence to ponder and think about.

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Here’s a final call to all our classmates from the University of San Carlos Boys High School (USC-BHS) Class 1966. Tomorrow, Jan. 21, we will be celebrating our 40th or ruby year at the penthouse of our schoolmate Florentino Atillo III in Mactan, just across the Film Academy, at 6 p.m.

We expect our 40th anniversary celebration would bring in the biggest number of classmates… many of whom we’ve not seen in the last 40 years! So far, our Manila classmates have responded to our call since a couple of weeks ago and will be attending the reunion. A classmate from the United States, Noel Laspinas, texted me that he cannot come home at this time. Another classmate, my best friend in high school, Tony Rizarri, also texted that he cannot make it this year because he was here twice last year because of deaths in his family.

If you’ve just read this announcement, you can still take a plane to Cebu and catch up with the rest of your old buddies. I cannot assure you that most of us will be seeing the 50th celebration 10 years from now.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.