My best bet in the Senate race

Cebuano Sen. Serge Osmeña asked PNoy if Domingo Lee, whom he named Special Phl Envoy to China, could spell Scarborough Shoal. If he can’t, Sir Lee can always call it Panatag.

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Truth to tell some native Chinese could not also spell Scarborough. That’s why they’re calling it Huangyan. Hehe.

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One Ms. Teresa Ng, an English teacher, e-mailed: “Please tell your newswriters it is not correct to say ‘between 5 pesos to 10 pesos’. It should be ‘between 5 pesos and 10 pesos’.” Thank you, Ms. Ng.

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Writer Javier Y. Tapulado, a Banat News contributor, says there are some taxi drivers who ask for at least P20 add-on if they are responding to phoned-in request for taxi service. Jav calls these drivers bentahoso, whose tribe should not be made to thrive.

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If Gov. Gwen Garcia gets to be included in the senatorial ticket of VP Jojo Binay’s UNA party, we should have another good chance to have another Cebuano in the Senate. That’s my thinking.

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Sharing this thinking are some qualified political analysts – neutral and knowledgeable – who say that the Cebuano vote at home and in the other Cebuano speaking areas is still a force to reckon with.

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The question is… can the Cebuano voters in other parts of the country, especially Mindanao and the Visayan regions go solid for Gwen? The analyst ask. They did not go solid for Serging O when he ran for President. Still I’m betting my last shirt that Gwen could make it.

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It’s been ages since I last met in person my good friends Sil and Raddie Calomarde of the old Morning Times daily. I bumped into them again in newsphotos taken during their golden wedding anniversary. Congratulations, Sil and Raddie for having gone this far in your marital bliss.

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 I was told a story of a family who cried a river when their house was demolished by government workers. The family went homeless in the city for weeks until they heeded someone’s advice for them to go back to where they came from – that is, from their hometown in Bohol.

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That was about 10 years ago. Today this once squatter family is living comfortably in their hometown in Bohol where they till a relative’s farmland planted with cabbage, cauliflower, and other vegetables, which are marketed in Cebu City where some 10 years ago they shed tears as unwanted settlers.

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Thanks to Gimo Guillera for sharing with me the story of this family.