Pres. Benigno Aquino III will be in Vientiane, Laos as keynote speaker for the two-day Asia Europe Meeting Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management as announced by Communications Sec. Herminio "Sonny" Coloma. Some 150 senior national and local government officials, scientists, policy makers, academicians and civic leaders from 36 countries in Asia and Europe will be in attendance.
It just makes you wonder what PNoy will be addressing this body. His experience with super typhoon "Yolanda" was recorded by CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and many local television networks, where we all saw the President on nationwide TV addressing the Filipino people. But from his "readiness standpoint" behind him were rubber boats and Navy personnel. From what we saw, he seemed to be addressing the people of Metro Manila because of last year's flooding problems. He really had no idea how the storm surge would affect Guiuan, Samar and Tacloban, Leyte.
Perhaps PNoy would tell his audience how to stop the counting of the dead and the missing because six months after Yolanda, no one in this country really knows the exact figure or at least the approximate number of the dead and the missing because the National Risk Reduction Management Council was ordered to stop the counting. Worse of all, the Aquino regime never came up with a complete accounting of the donations in kind and in money from local and international organizations.
It just makes you wonder what Mr. Aquino will be saying to his audience when as CNN news anchor Christiane Amanpour said that super typhoon Hayian a.k.a. Yolanda defined his Presidency. Indeed, Yolanda did not only destroy homes and uprooted trees in cities and villages, it also exposed the sheer incompetence of the Aquino regime to cope with this natural disaster, which until today haunts his government with only 50 homes built in Tacloban City despite the huge financial aid given to us.
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Strange things are happening inside the Provincial Capitol under the watch of Gov. Hilario "Jun Jun" Davide III. This has something to do with its security agency's contract that expired last May 31, 2014. Apparently the Province of Cebu held a bidding last May 20th for this new contract but none of the three participants (including the last contract winner, Tactical Security Agency) was given updates on the results of that bidding.
Suddenly, Tactical Security Agency got a letter ordering it to vacate all posts at 2:00 p.m. last June 1st, Sunday. The letter stated that the security service contract of Tactical Security has been terminated because it expired May31, 2014 and ordered Tactical Security to turn over services, including logistical materials to the Cebu Province through the PGSO office. There was no prior notice of at least fifteen days for proper turnover.
What surprised the guards of Tactical Security was that a new security agency called Black Pearl Agency had apparently won the bidding. But the Province of Cebu should have at least given proper notice to all the participating bidders as to who won that bid. What I further learned was that the Black Pearl security guards took over the posts left by Tactical Security without any documentation and firearms. Something smells fishy here. I even got info during the 888 Forum yesterday that Black Pearl gave the Biddings and Awards Committee fake documents. Is this true?
We also learned that the South Bus Terminal, which is run by the Province of Cebu with a huge daily cash collection, was also taken over by the Black Pearl security guards still without their firearms. My question is…why did the officials of the Province of Cebu allow a security agency to take over the old one even if its security guards didn't have any firearm or radio? Didn't anyone in the BAC in the Province of Cebu do a post qualification check of the winning bidder? Further, did anyone check with the Supervisory Office for Security and Investigative Agencies on the qualifications of Black Pearl Security Agency?
My question to the BAC is…why all the hurry? Changing of the guards on a Sunday with security guards having no firearms expose the Provincial Capitol and the South Bus Terminal to danger. Mind you, when I was a director at the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority we too had changed our security agency, but we had to extend the old security agency for another month until the post qualification check was done. Obviously this wasn't done by the BAC in the Province of Cebu and if you see security guards without any firearms it is an open invitation by lawless elements to do their thing because guards without guns are mere uniformed civilians just like you and me. Have we stumbled to some kind of corruption here? I hope Gov. Davide gets into the bottom of this potential mess.
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Email: vsbobita@gmail.com.