True, the attention of Negrenses and Panayanons were primarily focused on the various festivities of the Sto. Niño. Interrupted somewhat by the arrival in Bacolod of boxer Manny Pacquiao who opened the National Boxing championship contest that had an unprecedented 600 entrants.
In Iloilo, Dinagyang went off to a big start and it is going to end this weekend with the Pyromania at the SM Parking Lot. The second important festival is that of Kalibo where even an intensity three earthquake failed to disturb the dancers as they pranced their way around the principal streets of the capital town of Aklan.
In Cebu, it was the impressive Sinulog. So with Kabankalan City where the local residents of Southern Negros Occidental also celebrated the festival with Sinulog.
Presidential aspirants for next year’s elections went around with gusto. All making themselves just visible with hardly a big drumbeating. Sen. Loren Legarda arrived in Negros Occidental yesterday, was guest speaker of the Negros del Norte Planter Association headed by Mariano Al Acuna.
Former Senate President Manuel Villar visited Kalibo and later attended the Siknuog of Cebu. There were others such as Senators Richard Gordon and Chiz Escudero. Wo with Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri.
But the major story was the promise by Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas Sr. that he will name this week the two prosecutors whose names and cellphone numbers were found in the wallet of a drug pusher nabbed last year.
This is something that could replicate the controversy over the “Alabang Boys” which hogged the headlines for two weeks.
This time, the Iloilo governor had suspended the provincial government’s financial assistance to Iloilo Provincial Prosecutors’ Office. The contention – that many charges filed against drug pushers in Northern Iloilo had been dismissed by prosecutors.
Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., his son and Fifth District congressman, filed last week a resolution asking a congressional investigation on the cases of suspected drug pushers, O’Henry Castillo and Rolly Tiope.
He called them the Balasan Boys because they come from the town of Balasan in the Fifth District.
Police investigators reportedly found the names of two prosecutors in the wallet of Castillo when he was arrested in June last year.
Cong. Tupas expressed grave concern because the discovery of the names of the two prosecutors in the wallet of Castillo makes one suspect that the suspected drug pusher was under the protection of the two prosecutors.
Lawyer Hans Sayno, former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Iloilo Chapter, said the better thing to do is for the provincial government to file charges against prosecutors suspected of tailoring their decisions in favor of the drug pushers.
Sayno added that he wanted to know exactly how many drug cases were dismissed and how many elevated to the courts.
Administrators Manuel Mejorada said the Provincial Legal Office has started reviewing resolutions of the Iloilo Provincial Prosecutors’ Office.
Castillo reportedly had 30 sachets of suspected shabu and other suspected drug paraphernalia and cash amounting to P40,000 when PDEA agents searched his house in Barangay Balantian, Balasan in June last year.
Tiope, on the other hand, reportedly was arrested for alleged drug pushing twice. The last one was his arrest at a checkpoint when police recovered several sachets of shabu from him.
In both instances, the complaints against the two suspects were dismissed and they were given the right to avail of bail despite the fact that the value of the drugs confiscated from them showed that their cases were non-bailable.
The outcome of the expose by the two Tupases is sure to become a major controversy this week when the House opens an investigation into their charges.