WE JUST finished commemorating All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, where we honored our departed loved ones.
Both All Saints Day and All Souls Day are religious activities normally celebrated by going to cemeteries. Supposedly, these two have equal weight as to their significance. But as commonly observed, it is on All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) that the majority of the people troop to the resting place of the dead, not on Nov. 2.
Why, we do not have any idea. But we dare to assume that commemorating All Saints’ Day is also basically remembering our dead loved ones. Possibly it might be because most, if not all, of the names of people, be they the living and the dead, are derived from the names of Saints.
So, when one remembers the saints, he or she is also remembering his/her dearly departed.
Of course, everyone has the freedom to agree or disagree with us on this assumption of ours.
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Better late than never?
Will this justify the action of the Ombudsman Samuel Martirez to conceal his office’s ruling on reversing the 2016 dismissal order of Sen. Joel Villanueva?
The decision dismissing Villanueva was penned by then Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales. The Senator appealed the decision. When Ombudsman Martirez was appointed as the replacement of Morales, he overturned the decision.
But the people were denied knowledge of the reversal of the Morales’ decision, as this was allegedly concealed from public knowledge by Martirez himself.
Now this controversial action of the former Ombudsman is subjected to scrutiny because it appears that the former top graft buster of the government has deliberately kept it from public scrutiny.
How will this long-hidden reversed decision on Senator Villanueva affect the graft and corruption cases recommended to be filed against the Senator in connection with his alleged involvement in multi-million-peso cases of graft and corruption in the highly anomalous flood control projects in Bulacan?
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Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco “Kiko” Tiu Laurel was reported to have discovered several farm-to-market road projects far from completion in the province of Davao Occidental. The projects were supposed to have been finished last 2021.
Without doubt, the projects were implemented not by the DA itself but by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) XI. The same projects were definitely sponsored by either the Congressman of that Province’s lone district, or by the Damper Partylist Congresswoman. The two lawmakers belong to one family that has been lording over the Province’s politics for the longest time.
Our take on this non-completion status of the road projects is that the Regional and district officials of the DPWH had not been monitoring the work on the projects. And their failure to do so is either deliberate or simple negligence.
The likelihood, however, is that there could have been a “thousand reasons.” Of course, the regional DPWH executives may invoke distance as a cause of their inability to do an inspection. Or, they may say they have delegated the responsibility to the district officials.
Distance” Oh, the DPWH officials in the Regional Office that is based in Davao City, as well as its district office, are not even able to check on the status of an unfinished bridge at the boundary of barangays Catalunan Grande and Tacunan in the city’s first and third districts, how much more in faraway Davao Occidental.
