About the closure of Citilink terminal

Finally, Mayor Michael Rama had the guts to shut down the Citilink Terminal along N. Bacalso Ave. giving out his "official" reasons that such terminals should no longer be allowed within city limits. But in truth, we know that this move was tainted with political color because the permit of the owners of the Citilink Terminal was approved during the time of Mayor Rama's predecessor, then Mayor Tomas Osmeña. I distinctly remember that the approval of the Citilink Terminal triggered the first rift between then Mayor Osmeña and then Vice Mayor Michael Rama. I too found it odd that a terminal inside city limits was approved even without public bidding. Why? Because it was owned by a close confidant of then Mayor Osmeña.

Why it took Mayor Rama this long to close Citilink, I really don't know. But if it is true that Citilink owes the City of Cebu a few millions in fees, then this closure, despite its being tainted in political color, is justified. I just hope that no other "Citilink" would be allowed in the near future.

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Early morning yesterday while reading the newspapers and the commentaries about Pres. Benigno Aquino III's State of the Nation Address which got all his critics wild in criticizing the lackluster performance of the Aquino Regime's five years in office, I suddenly got a text message from my good friend Rommel Cavada who came up with a suggestion on how we should choose the next President of the Philippines. So here's his text in full.

"The lame duck president showed the outline for the behavior & qualities the next president should possess in order for the nation to move forward.

01 should not be a rabid faultfinder.

02 should not blame the past administration.

03 should not be a credit grabber.

04 should not self-praise to raise own ego but rather give credit where it is due.

05 should be an action person who talks less & do more.

06 should not leave critical agendas & issues to his/her political party or cabinet members' discretion.

07 should feel people's concerns & problems & not be callous.

08 should listen more closely to the people's sentiments besides the advice of Cabinet members.

09 should fire his/her people who commit faults or are about to.

10 should study how lowering taxes stimulates business benefits economy & society & lowers corruption.

11 should handle foreign policy much more prudently like a career diplomat.

So there you are, the guidelines we should all follow when we choose the successor of Pres. Aquino. This should bring all of us to ask, "Do all the frontrunners in the SWS/Pulse Asia surveys fit this new standard in choosing the next President? I suggest that you check this out yourselves, whether Sen. Grace Poe, Vice Pres. Jejomar Binay, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Sen. Chiz Escudero, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, or who else would pass this litmus test?

At this point, we can also use the Four-Way Test of that International Rotary Club, "1st Is it the Truth? 2nd Is it Fair to all concerned? 3rd Will it build Goodwill and Better Friendships?  4th Will it be Beneficial to all concerned." If the next Presidentiables cannot pass the Four-way Test of Rotary Club… then they should never be voted into office!

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We already wrote in our previous columns that one of the first persons to react to Pres. Benigno Aquino III's State of the Nation Address was Sen. Grace Poe who bewailed the fact that Pres. PNoy failed in giving priority to the Freedom of Information Bill which she is sponsoring. PNoy merely responded to her call saying, "We need a FOI Law, but it is not a priority!" This just gives you an idea that if the FOI was not a priority, when then did PNoy make this as his campaign promise? This only reveals the true character of this President.

The other glaring issue that PNoy failed to mention in his SONA is the case of the Mamasapano massacre, where he literally sent 44 Special Action Force  members of the Philippine National Police  into their untimely, but gruesome deaths. This was discussed in the Senate Committee on Public Order chaired by, who else, Sen. Grace Poe!

But in a strange twist of events, suddenly, last Wednesday Sen. Poe told the media that she stood by the findings of her committee that showed that Pres. Aquino was "ultimately responsible" for the covert Mamasapano operation a.k.a. Oplan Exodus.  But she qualified her statement that she respected the decision of the Office of the Ombudsman not to include the President in the list of persons who should be charged for the deaths of the 44 SAF Troopers.

But we just learned in the news that Senator Grace Poe's committee report on the Mamasapano incident, which held President Aquino ultimately responsible for its bloody outcome, will finally be discussed at the Senate plenary. Initially, Sen. Poe did not want to send her committee report to the plenary, opting to have this issue to be made part of deliberations on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law.  But Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano requested Sen. Poe to reopen the Senate's probe into the Mamasapano incident.

Sensing that there are dissenting opinions on the committee report that her committee gave to the senators, she therefore agreed that this would be discussed in a plenary session. Of course there are not-so-hidden-reasons why the senators, including Sen. Poe, agreed to reopen the Senate investigation on this incident. It would provide free front-page advertisements to senators who would be grandstanding during the deliberations on this case, which is a huge advantage to senators seeking re-election.

More so that during his SONA, Pres. Aquino asked Congress to approve the BBL. This means that many of our congressmen seeking re-election would take turns in debating the pros and the cons of the BBL just to get that free advertising from national television networks and the print media. Unfortunately, these deliberations on the BBL would sidetrack the main issue of our country's need for reforms to uplift our 11.2 million poor Filipinos and give them jobs to bring them out of the cycle of poverty.

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