Mayor Lemuel Reyes

Newly assumed mayor Lemuel Reyes of the Island Garden City of Samal (IGaCoS)  personally destroyed a Small Town Lottery outlet booth installed in front of IGaCoS’s City Hall. His act was covered on video and was posted in the social media.

We are inclined to believe that the city mayor is serious in his campaign against the proliferation of STL in his city. The question is, will his drive against this form of gambling that is patronized by majority of the population all over the country be sustained? Will not the bigtime operator succeed in influencing his future decision on the STL using the power of money?

In fact a few years back the disavowal by a former City Mayor of Davao resulted to the disappearance of STL outlets all over the city. But now the STL is back with a vengeance. Even roads in remote barangay are lined up with STL outlets that we have observed to be something like 100 to 200 meters apart.

Meanwhile, we know that when Mayor Reyes did the dismantling of the STL outlet in front of his City Hall and with his warning that he will not hesitate to do the same to the gambling outlets located not far from schools, he sort of giving realization to the popular saying “the die is cast.”

For such a bold move we will assure Mayor Reyes that we, and perhaps several other members of the media in Davao, will be strongly behind him.

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Some columns back we challenged the newly assumed Congressman of Davao del Norte’s first district to do something to the law governing the country’s Juvenile Justice System. The law bars the incarceration of youthful offenders from being detained in the regular prison. Instead the said law mandates that young criminals below 18 years old must still be under the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). It also quashes criminal liability to offenders 14 years old and below.

This is exactly what happened to the latest of the suspected perpetrators in the alleged robbery with homicide in a house at La Filipina Village in Tagum City, Davao del Norte.

The incident that happened early last week led to the death of a first year student of the University of the Philippines who was found to have 28 stab wounds. All the suspects were minors with the last one arrested as the youngest at 14.

But again, according to the Tagum police, the same law exempts the 12-year-old from criminal liability. So, the possibility is that no criminal cases will be filed against him. What a travesty of justice brought about by a law that is supposed to give justice to victims of criminality regardless of who the perpetrators are.

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The defense team of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte in his crime against humanity case now lodged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague, Netherlands is petitioning for the immediate and unconditional release of the former Philippine President.  The ground? According to the petition, the ICC “lacks the jurisdictional basis to continue proceedings against him.”

What are the chances that the ICC will grant the petition? Our take is that it will turn the petition down. We do not think that the ICC will contradict its earlier ruling on a Petition for an interim release where the defense itself set certain conditions, one of which is that the former chief executive will not go home to his country but rather, go to a country that is willing to offer him temporary stay.

Of course the defense team headed by ICC-accredited lawyer Nicholas Kauffman might have found damning mess in the documents supporting the charges of crime against humanity submitted to the ICC.

Thus, now the defense team is showing exceptional courage to demand for the accused former Philippine President’s release without any condition whatsoever.

Naturally, if Kauffman and company can prove to the ICC that indeed the said court “lacks jurisdictional basis” then the former President may soon be on his way out of that prison so distant from home.

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Well, the environmentalist groups currently locked in legal battle over their desire to stop the Samal Island-Davao City Connector bridge construction might as well pour their time, efforts and resources to the griever issue on environment in the unabated open pit mining of nickel in Pujada island fronting Mati City, Davao Oriental.

Considering the size of the areas – both water and land – affected by the open pit extraction, the magnitude of the damage to the environment is unimaginable.

Personally, it is our take that if the possible damage to environment both underwater and in the surface, on the alignment of the Samal-Davao Bridge now under construction is to be ranged with the environmental damage that will be heaped by the open-pit nickel mining in Pujada island, the former  possible damage pales in comparison