No one got paid

Liberato Publico

FIRST of all, we wish to thank the three media outlets/stations, including this paper, that gave space or aired the filing of candidacy of my lawyer-wife Evangeline T. Carrasco for the 2nd congressional district of Cagayan de Oro last Monday. We just wish to put on record that we paid no one for any publicity because we believe we must follow a new kind of politics where money does not dominate, but the truth and the democratic cause of joining in elections as a peaceful means of seeking social change. We all want clean, honest and fair elections. We all aspire for that. We all want peace, that’s why we are here, trusting this early that in our local politics poor candidates with honest and peaceful causes can really have a chance of winning. At this point, we are not about to lose that trust and hope—though some quarters have really asked us why she is running as an independent, and with no resources or party machinery to back her up.

We need not say more. Starting at 1 pm, the people, about hundreds or thousands, marched all the way from the provincial capitol, to Cogon market, then City Hall and to the Comelec under the heat of the sun, showed their support. Outside the Comelec office they delivered impromptu speeches, and thereafter speeches were again delivered at the culminating rally at Magsaysay park. Their streamers during the march shouted: “Kaayohan sa katawhan ipatigbabaw,” “Stop landgrabbing,” “Deposit sa private hospital sa emergency cases igarantiya sa gobyerno,” “corruption undangon,” and other issues.

Again, we wish to thank you and the people for the support in the interest of our democratic beliefs. Res ipsa loquitor, as the lawyers would say.––Atty. Mariano B. Carrasco, spokesperson for Atty. Evangeline T. Carrasco

Loaded Words

ACTING Mayor Ruderic Marzo of Iligan likens the Liberal Party as flying a kite. When the kite is already flying high and soaring beautifully up in the air, suddenly it cuts the string.

Those are loaded words coming from the acting mayor––meaning he is somewhat sore at how things are with him and the LP here in Iligan. He even admitted to being “tearful” when he spoke in the flag ceremony one Monday morning recently.

He should be. For one thing his term as acting mayor comes to an end with Mayor Celso Regencia manifesting that he is going back, his current detention at city jail notwithstanding.

But I don’t think that’s foremost in his mind. The matter can always be, uh… maneuvered, say the cynics (like me). What is bothering him is that the LP heirarchy does not want him to run for mayor in next year’s elections. Rep. Vicente Belmonte Jr. is wanting that position. He (Marzo) is to run for congressman. But not officially. For that too is reserved for former mayor Lawrence Cruz.

So Marzo runs by his lonesome––meaning, independently. LP independent. Marzo said he is just someone “from the barrio.” When asked as to whom he will support as mayor, he replied, “Belmonte, there is no other.”  No further comment. –Nora Sorino, Iligan City

Good Luck, CDO

WHY did Congressman Rufus Rodriguez insist that Congressman Klarex Uy side with him despite the pronouncements already made by the first district congressman that he has and will never leave Mayor Oca Moreno?

The tactics employed by Rodriguez merely indicates that he is worried he will not get votes in the first district. By courting Uy, the second district congressman is hoping the die-hards of Uy will somehow vote for him (Rodriguez).

The second district congressman has been hitting Uy for allegedly not keeping his word. The former has always insinuated through the media that Uy promised him support in his bid for the mayoralty. Uy was also reported as saying that he indeed made that commitment on the condition that Moreno will not run for reelection. Now, isn’t that as clear as the sunny sky?

Yet, the lamentation is still there.

Rodriguez must have forgotten his words when he supposedly praised (which many people believed to be sincere) the mayor as the best mayor Cagayan de Oro has ever had. Then there are newspaper reports of Rodriguez saying “I will not leave Oca.” And yet Rodriguez continuously laments that Uy did not keep his word. Who in the world of politics that we are in is not keeping his word?

First, Rodriguez conveniently declared in 2013 that he was joining the camp of Moreno only in the last minute of the game because he may have felt that he was losing to the black propaganda of the other camp.

Poison letters against him were distributed left and right at that time. Coalescing with the Moreno camp then was one easy way out of the pit that he was in.

Second, he has been openly declaring in public forums that Moreno was the best mayor the city has ever had. If he were serious about this declaration, what could have gone into him for surreptitiously gunning for the mayoralty?

Third, he was reported as saying that he had long planned to run for the mayoralty. Where does that place him? If we believe him this time, then the person behind those plans can never be trusted.

It is understandable that Rodriguez is courting the voters of Uy in the first district to get support from voters there. Clearly, there is an attempt to disrupt this support for Moreno.

Another figure that will make the coming local elections virtually a spectacle is the entry in the congressional arena of a lady kagawad of the city. She pretends she has the support of the first district voters, forgetting that it was only money that got her the votes.

Unless she takes care of the mess that her husband is into in that regional office, the issues will always haunt her and her political ambitions.

Back to the second district… One candidate for mayor sounds now like his true self––a traditional politician. Listening to him in radio interviews has cleared the clouds that he is really a two-faced politician whose word of honor seems to be only good if it serves him well.

This is just an observation. I have nothing against any of the candidates.

Wow, the election fever really brings out the real persons behind the politicos in our midst.

Good luck, Cagayan de Oro!––Liberato Publico, liberatopublico@gmail.com