Twinkling
By Ninfa Leonardia
Visayan Daily Star
By Ninfa Leonardia
Visayan Daily Star
Jojo and Junjun Binay
While the military and police had been saying that there is no ISIS recruitment going on in the country, news yesterday said that ISIS flags were seen being assembled in Marawi. Now that is in Lanao, a place where Muslims make up a good part of the population. Shouldn’t the government start ringing alarm bells on this? The news that the Philippines supports the decision of the United States and all those other countries to wage air strikes in ISIS-controlled areas could make the danger risk greater here.
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But it seems our people are not taking the reports seriously even when the news is being underscored on TV. They are more interested in the revelations of former allies of now Vice President Jejomar Binay about illegalities they personally witnessed – and even participated in – at the time Binay was mayor of Makati, up to the time when he had used up the three terms allowed by the Constitutions, and his wife took over. We know, of course, that Mrs. Binay herself was succeeded by their son, Jejomar Jr., better known as “Junjun”.
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Yesterday, for instance, the whistle-blowers, Binay version, really went to town in their testimonies, that included visuals, pa. Photographs were shown on a screen right in the Senate, but since they were obviously taken clandestinely, were not very clear. Nevertheless, the lifestyle of its residents were very clear. Some of those who testified were first timers and the repeat one was Binay’s former vice mayor who had the most damaging goods against him.
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A new one was a former councilor, Ernesto Apillaga, who openly admitted being part of the bidding anomalies while in office. If Apillaga is to be believed, all the biddings for major infrastructure works in Makati during the Binay administrations were rigged, and that then Mayor Binay would send to them the bid documents with his instruction as to who will be the winner! Those were shocking enough, but is there a paper trail, what solid evidence is holding that could clinch the case against Binay?
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Meanwhile, is the Senate smarting because the Binays – Senior and Junior – have snubbed its “invitation” for them to come and clarify their roles in the shenanigans that their former friends and allies are swearing to before the country’s top lawmaking body? Is that why there is said to be a move to cite the younger one in contempt? So far, father and son, and daughters, too, have been vehemently denying all the accusations against them. The father has called them lies and hearsay, while the son says they are being prejudged. One wonders if these cases will ever get anywhere.
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This should be welcome news to all salaried workers. Remember the move to set a limit of P70,000 to their bonuses and allowances that could be subject to tax? Well, the head of the Bureau of Internal Revenue does not favor it, but the lower ranking employees in her own office are hoping and praying that such a policy will be adopted. With that amount, only the very highly paid will be affected, and these earning less can enjoy a bigger amount of the extra compensation they receive.
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Sorry to have given false hopes to our sports-loving folks. I must have been cross-eyed when I took down the one entry for the Philippines in the list of nations participating in the Asian Games as a “gold” medal when it should have been a silver only. Maybe it was wishful thinking because, as the song goes, “A dream is a wish your heart makes…” Seems that silver is still the only medal our teams have earned so far. So it is still seven golds that we have to hope for. Are they attainable? The sad news is that we lost to Iran in yesterday’s hard-fought game.
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What must its subscribers do to wake the officials of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company up to the fact that it is shortchanging them? We mentioned in this column earlier that a disembodied voice always entones “The number you dialed is not yet in service”, when you dial, but you get connected after the second or third time you dial again. Until now, the same thing happens over and over, and a lot of people have confirmed that they are experiencing this, too. It seems the PLDT people there have become callous, and no longer heed feedback from those who pay them regularly for the atrocious service.*
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