Councilor Labella is a plus factor for Mike

I salute my good friend Councilor Edgardo Labella for making that major decision to run with Mayor Michael Rama as his vice-mayoralty candidate so early in the coming local political race. I have known Ed Labella for many years now and had a thorough interview with him on our TV show and he has for many years proven that you can serve Cebu City without necessarily being controversial. Above all, Councilor Labella has an impeccable career in the law profession and was never tainted with any scandal.

Councilor Labella’s entry into the vice-mayoralty race is another proof that the top leadership of the Bando-Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) of Rep. Tomas Osmeña has already broken up. I have no doubt that Mayor Mike Rama chose a heavy weight to be his running mate. One thing I know about Councilor Labella is he is not a “yes” man but more importantly, he was number one councilor in the north in the last May 2010 elections and therefore commands a huge respect, not to mention a huge following from our voters in the north district of Cebu.

Earlier, we already wrote our analysis about the recent team-up between Mayor Rama and former Rep. Tony Cuenco, which, as expected, was “pooh-poohed” by Rep. Tomas Osmeña. But the fact remains that these two politicians have their bailiwicks in the South District and should never be taken for granted. Clearly BO-PK has lost a major ally in the North district and above all, he is a worthy opponent to do battle against incumbent vice-mayor Joy Augustus Young, which makes this mayoralty race very interesting as it pits former BO-PK stalwarts against each other.

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We got a lot of comments on the article we wrote about Qatar Airways deciding to get out of the Cebu-Doha-Cebu route, which is our direct link to the Middle East and Europe. This letter is quite self-explanatory. Here’s the letter in full.

“Dear Sir,

I always enjoy reading your articles in The Freeman and you may consider me as a big fan (FYI, I wrote you last April 7, 2010 relating to the May election and about Gibo, our candidate then for President). I just want to react and share my thoughts on your article (Tourism: We’re headed for troubled skies) dated Feb28, 2012. Sir, you’re exactly right in saying that the “open skies” policy adopted by PNoy’s administration has not resulted in new foreign airlines coming to our shores.

Instead, said policy has caused these foreign airlines to consider in dropping routes to/from any points in the Philippines including the 3 times a week Doha-Cebu-Doha flights of Qatar Airways. How can one even consider that as an “open skies” policy when you put barriers (3% common carrier’s tax and the 2.5% gross Philippine billings tax on passengers and cargo revenues) on the said policy?

Shouldn’t it be rightfully called instead as “closed skies policy? Even Air France-KLM announced last October 2011 that they will also pullout their daily direct flights by March or April this year unless these taxes are abolished. They made countless appeals already to this dysfunctional government including writing a letter to PNoy but to no avail. According to KLM, they used approximately 11,000 rooms annually for their crews and this too shall be gone.

If I will make an extrapolation, Qatar Airways’ 2 times a week flight should fetch approximately 4,700 rooms annually and this too will be all gone soon. Obviously, its adverse effect is serious. I know that this government will always say that we can’t forgo also the tax revenues that will be derived from these flights but for goodness sake, this is common sense—they are bent in getting the “eggs” at the expense of killing the “hen”?

PNoy should have made this as one of his priorities instead of wasting taxpayer’s money on this impeachment case. I feel very frustrated on this not just because I will be inconvenienced because I will now be flying the Doha-Manila instead of the Doha-Cebu route but on the simple fact that this government has not done something to prevent this from happening.

I fell frustrated because I’ve been telling my foreigner friends here in Doha to spend their vacations in Cebu. I should share with you that one common question raised by these potential tourists is—is there a direct flight from Doha to Cebu? Anyway, I read just recently that both the provincial and the city councils have passed a resolution asking Qatar Airways to reconsider its decision but it may be a long shot unless these barriers are removed immediately and until this government starts doing its job seriously.

But how can we expect our government to do that when they are so busy with this impeachment case and when our politicians are so busy preparing for the 2012 elections. I can only say, “God bless our nation.”

Best regards to you and your family, Sir.

 Rodulfo [email protected]”

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Email: [email protected]