For change or greed?

By National Union of Journalists of the Philippines

WHAT appears to be an exodus may merely be a show of color and character of people who used to pretend they were for real change.

When a throng of supporters surrounded Oca Moreno in 2013, the clamor then was “Change!” That may have been true for some but for a perceived so many, it now has become clearer that the real motivation was to land in juicy positions once the old timer will have been changed!

He has been saying that he is more of a manager than a politician. It appears that Moreno’s primary objective is to bring Cagayan de Oro City to greater heights rather than to please those who caused change to happen, the people who helped him topple the old timer.

And in order to take the city to the right direction, Moreno must never play politics. For every position in the bureaucracy that has to be filled, only one should be hired. This makes all the other aspirants feel bad. But can Moreno do otherwise but face reality that he cannot please everybody?

And because of this, those who clamored for “Change!” have started to jump ship because of discontent for what they see as the failure of the new leadership to accede to their personal whims.

At this point in the political history of Cagayan de Oro, the picture is getting clearer that those who have been clamoring for “Change!” must start from themselves.

If we want Cagayan de Oro to reach its desired destination, what Moreno has started must be allowed to continue and not be disturbed not even by supposed allies who now want to be at the helm of the journey for obviously personal reasons. The main reason for the new “clamor” can only be personal, greed perhaps, because were it for the good of the city, then Moreno must be allowed to finish what he has excellently started.

After all, it is for the good of the greater of Cagay-anons. ––Liberato Publico, liberatopublico@gmail.com

Vicious Lies
THERE certainly are much more serious issues and concerns that we need to address but we have to again divert our attention to this man who has something wrong in his head.

He claims that he is being cyberbullied and yet it was he who has been boasting that as early as last year he has been hitting Mayor Rody Duterte. Have you seen the news reports who has bullied his own paramour and got involved in an arson case that killed not just his mistress but other members of her family?

For someone who has this horrifying past, who has spread lies and throw mud at other people, he deserves his fate to be answered back, not just by Mayor Duterte but the mayor’s many supporters and followers who want precisely to put an end to this trapo style of character assassinations in Philippine politics.

The man continues with his tirades believing that the attention that is making him famous would increase his stock to his principals and exact far more than just 30 pieces of silver.

If not for his vicious lies about Mayor Duterte suffering from “throat cancer,” indeed he would have been just a “small fry” probably without proper sleep every night bothered with nightmares of the fires of hell for the arson and murder that he has been reported as a suspect.

But small fry or big sharks like his principals, the lies must be corrected. The truth must be upheld. We should not allow their lies to prevail. We should not allow their kind to win.

Equally condemnable is the yellow army cheering in the gallery. They are egging this liar to continue spurting venom in his baseless attacks on Mayor Duterte. This clearly illustrates the moral bankruptcy of our political system, when it becomes a norm for people to paint others black to portray themselves as white or even yellow. There are important and urgent issues that our country need to address like the cancer that is afflicting our society such as crime, drugs, corruption, and poverty but they prefer the trivial and muddy ones to hide the true state of the nation.

Now, the man claims that “any potential harm that may come to him is attributable to only one man–Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.”

This is a cry of a man afraid of his own shadows. He has his debts to society even before the mayor heard of his name. He has dug his own pit a long time ago. Why should the mayor or anyone else be answerable for it?

Mayor Duterte is a very responsible person, a conscientious leader. He is accountable for his own acts. But the folly of others, the mayor is neither responsible nor accountable. Mayor Duterte has only sympathy for their victims.

The man should actually fear more his principals who are likely to do him harm to paint themselves white, and Mayor Duterte black. That is the dirty game they play. They are likely to be the culprit if something happens to him, and definitely not Mayor Duterte.

The mayor’s game is change. Change for the best interests of the Filipino people. Their game is spreading lies. Lies to serve their selfish interests at the expense of the Filipino people. –Peter Lavina, Davao City

On the Reyes Bros’ Arrest
NEWS of the Reyes brothers’ arrest in Thailand is most welcome and yet cause for much concern as well. Welcome in that, after four years and a half, the accused masterminds of the murder of our colleague Gerry Ortega have at last been collared and, by most indications, may soon be deported back to the country to face the justice they have eluded for so long.

And yet concern because we all remember the circumstances in which they were able to flee the country in March 2012, just before warrants for their arrest were issued apparently, with false travel papers and the help of crooked immigration officials after what can only be assumed was a tip-off from even more crooked officials higher up in government about their impending arrest.

We will set aside questions raised by the claim of their lawyer that Joel and Mario Reyes were not arrested but supposedly surrendered to Thai authorities and the even more bothersome notion that they may even seek election next year.

What does seem obvious at this point is that, for all its rhetoric of wanting Joel and Mario Reyes arrested as much as anyone else seeking justice for Gerry Ortega, this government has done little, if anything, to bring this about.

We are sorry to prick his bubble again but President Aquino is way off base for saying, as quoted by Palace mouthpiece Edwin Lacierda, the capture of the brothers “proves the resolve of the government to go after the fugitives.”

And given continued inaction, even apathy, towards other cases of media killings and human rights abuses in general, we share the wariness of the Ortega family, given that, to date, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has yet to resolve the petition for review they filed against the 2011 findings of the original panel of prosecutors that ludicrously cleared the Reyes brothers of murder, notwithstanding the confessions of members of the team that carried out the hit.

If anything, it has been the courage and the unwavering resolve of the Ortega family, along with all those who have stood by them in demanding justice, which have kept the flame burning and will, hopefully, finally lead to the first conviction of the masterminds in the killing of a Filipino journalist. And then, perhaps, justice will become more than an elusive dream for all the families of our 169 other murdered colleagues. –National Union of Journalists of the Philippines