In Davao, Vice Mayor Sarah Duterte Carpio is showing that while she is Mayor Duterte’s daughter, in some ways, she looks like she may even surpass the mayor when she becomes mayor herself. Even now, whenever she is acting mayor, she already shakes the city to its foundations. She has removed TV sets from City Hall offices and has stopped the selling of goods (candies, cigarettes, etc.) by city clerks and others. She tells them that they must attend to the business of the city, not to their own businesses.

Sadly, it is not always the case that younger means better. Take Rizal province where Casimiro Ynares III, the son of Ito Ynares, former governor, now occupies the Capitol building. Both of Casimiro III’s parents were governors and both Ynares ran a snag-free and trouble-free province. Yet now, with the son at the helm, suddenly Rizal seems to have hit permanent stormy weather.

Suddenly, things no longer work smoothly in the province.

Several years back, the town of Rodriguez set up a landfill for Metro Manila’s garbage. The mayor, Pedro Cuerpo, decided that with the tipping fees that the town would earn would help the town to build itself up.

It turned out that the mayor was right. Rodriguez has earned a veritable fortune. Recently, of course, things have not been going well for the town. The new governor had a second landfill set up right beside the old one and wanted this one to be used by Metro Manila.

That was sometime last year. Right now, Mayor Cuerpo has been suspended for three months by the Provincial Board and the Rodriguez town council has passed a resolution that bans Metro Manila and all outside garbage from being dumped within the territorial limits of Rodriguez.

This is not to lay the blame on anyone for the current state of affairs in Rodriguez town and in the province. Clearly, however, were his father still the governor instead of Casimiro III, the son, there would not be this problem between Rizal and Metro Manila.

***

Something very wrong is going on in the Pasay City police office.

According to police officers themselves, it is not Police Senior Superintendent Marieto Valerio, the nominal chief of police, who is running the force, but a Police Officer 2 (PO2) in the person of Bernardo Miranda.

It seems that Miranda has been a Pasay resident all his life and is a trusted man of Mayor Peewee Trinidad. The way that Pasay police officers tell it, when the PO2 (the equivalent of an army corporal) wants something done – as reassigning police officers (who outrank him) – the chief (who has the equivalent army rank of a full colonel) readily and easily complies. He can’t seem to say "No" to the lower ranked PO2 or maybe he is afraid to defy the lower ranked but better-connected policeman.

Right now, because it is more difficult to become a police superintendent in the Greater Manila Area (GMA) because of more competition, PO2 Bernardo Miranda is (according to the PNP’s records) assigned in Region 4.

This is done to make it easier for Miranda to be promoted. There is less competition in Region 4 and other more rural areas. But PO2 Miranda can be seen in the Pasay City Hall everyday although his assignment was supposed to have taken effect in 2007.

Poor PNP chief Sonny Razon. With scalawags like these in his PNP, how can even someone like Sonny Razon make a go of doing anything with the PNP?

***

"More power to you, Sir.

"You’re right. In fact, the reason that I read your column is to be able to hear another possibility or view or even plausible story. It keeps us appreciative of people who make it too easy for us to think that they are ludicrous and truly evil.

"With your column, we get to feel that maybe these people whose actions we reject could be doing certain things not necessarily viciously, but out of beliefs that we wouldn’t even wish on our enemies.

"Please keep on presenting your views and let us always see that the elephant is not all ears or not all trunks or not all tusks or not all trunky legs but a mammoth of an animal with various characteristics being revealed depending on the vantage point of the lookers." – Aurora Riel

***

Thank you, ma’am. I really needed that.

One of the things about all these that does not ring true to me is this: I have known Ben Abalos for a long, long time and everyone who knows him agrees with me that Ben cannot have said the words that Lozada puts in his mouth about killing Jun if Ben even just sees him in Wack Wack or Mandaluyong. No way on that. Joey de V’s story about Ben having a tantrum with their Chinese hosts insisting on getting his money right there and then is also incredible. Can’t possibly be true. Then, after the tantrum, they sit down to a nice, quiet dinner with the Chinese? Incredible.

***

"I have been reading you since your Mr. & Ms. days. You are a superb journalist. Don’t be bothered by those who think you have entered a pact with the dark forces of society. It is an improvement in fact that you swung from a swashbuckling journalist to a really tempered, responsible and thoughtful opposition writer on issues that need to be opposed.

"There was a particular column of yours some months ago when I thought you had sold out to the devil. Your subsequent columns however were a relief as I could see that you were just being constructive when need be but still essentially and consistently anti-Gloria or anti-bad. Your views are decent, trustworthy, principled (Paredes trademark?) and high-caliber. More power.

"Too bad you are not also writing for any of the Big 3 in Philippine newspaper publishing." – Mike Eliot

***

Actually, Mike, I like where I am, since at Malaya, I have the freedom to write on what I like as I like. I’m not too sure I would have as much unfettered freedom writing elsewhere.