THE PDP, the political party of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte, has issued a statement saying that the challenge hurled at President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to undergo a hair follicle test to determine if he is taking addictive drugs is “not a political attack.”
Really? The party, or whoever its officials authorized to issue such a statement, must be joking. How can it not be when the challenge was predicated on verbal tirades coming from prominent party members that Marcos Jr., his wife Liza, and his children are all into prohibited drugs?
How can such a challenge be isolated from the charges the PDP heaps on the President, who is the titular head of the administration party?
Frankly, we are convinced that the PDP is too much in a hurry to get a shot at the Presidency that it is trying to explore strategies to have a shortcut trip to Malacanang.
Also, the leaders of the political group are possibly not assured of a win in the 2028 national elections. So they have to launch their political juggernaut long before the 2028 election season sets in. And who is their most convenient target for their early offensive but the administration headed by the President?
We can only hope that their early offensive will not boomerang on them. If the PDP is reckless, the party will find itself submerged by its own excesses.
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The people in Davao Oriental are hoping that the local government will not waver on its stand against mining operations in various parts of the province. Lately, the provincial government has lodged a complaint against Macambol mining and all other mining entities, large or small, at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Provincial Environment Office, the Mindanao Development Authority, and at the Office of the President
The province, led by Gov. Nelson Dayanghirang, wants all mining activities in the area suspended while a thorough review of the mining operation is undertaken.
Our take on this decision by the provincial government to have all mining operations in Eastern Davao Province suspended is triggered by the disastrous flood that came in tandem with Typhoon Tino in Cebu. The massive flood in that Central Visayas province was blamed largely on the overdenudation of the mountains, extraction of limestone and dolomite, and development of residential housing enclaves in the uplands
So much was the devastation of the province that close to 200 lives were lost as a result of the flood and the typhoon.
Meanwhile, photographs of the mined areas in Davao Oriental appear to be closely similar to the devastated mountains of Cebu. So, Governor Dayanghirang must have realized that if mining operations in his province are allowed to continue without their processes being reviewed, the Cebu incident will be replicated in Davao Oriental sooner than expected.
In fact, it was only a year or a little over ago that several barangays of the province’s capital, Mati City, were flooded after days of continuous rain poured almost without let-up. Good thing that the areas of the city that were flooded were not as developed as the ones in Cebu. Hence, the damage was not as widespread and costly.
Being proactive in taking mitigating measures will obviate the possibility of humongous destruction of nature, in communities, in government infrastructures, and, of course, in loss of many lives.
His constituents are now hoping that the governor will pursue his desire to leash the mining operations in all parts of his province.
We cannot be more certain that by pursuing such and attaining the very objective of the provincial government’s action, he may be able to establish a legacy that his constituents can be proud of for eternity.
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Is Senator Bato dela Rosa afraid of getting arrested by the International Criminal Court (ICC)?
We do not think so. After all, was he not like former President Rodrigo Duterte, who even challenged the ICC to come to the Philippines and arrest him?
But now Senator Ronald is exhausting all legal means, including going to the Supreme Court to petition that any arrest warrant from the ICC must be cleared by the courts of the country before it is served to him.
But again, we are certain that it is not his arrest that the Davaoeño senator is afraid of. Rather, he is afraid that once whisked to The Hague and incarcerated, not only will he lose face, but he will likely lose his source of income in the most undesirable manner.
