Political demolition in full swing

With less than two weeks before the May 9 national elections, it’s very obvious that demolition jobs will be intensified to target the frontrunners – and that means Sen. Bong Bong Marcos for the vice presidential race and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who is leading in the presidential surveys. Results from the latest Pulse Asia survey show Sen. Marcos maintaining his lead with 29 percent in the VP race. Meantime, Mayor Duterte is pulling away with 35 percent – or an 11 percent surge from the last time – despite the fact that at time the survey was taken, Mayor Digong was being pilloried for his remarks regarding an Australian missionary who was raped and murdered during a Davao jailbreak attempt.

Everything – not only the kitchen sink but the entire house even – is now being thrown at the PDP-Laban standard bearer as seen in the latest salvo from Sen. Antonio Trillanes who claims that the mayor has P211 million in a secret account in a Metro Manila bank.

One of the close friends of the mayor called asking Duterte if he really had this kind of money and Duterte said no, but admitted that he had a bank account. The friend then asked how much money the mayor had, to which the latter replied that he knew he has P200,000, adding that he was surprised that this has been counted as P200 million. To which the friend teased the mayor: “You only have P200,000? You’re useless!” 

We will soon see how these new issues will play out in the elections but some political observers are saying they could help boost Duterte even more because these will be perceived as desperate attempts to knock him down from his perch as frontrunner. The mayor’s supporters are expecting his numbers to surge by another 10 points at the very least towards the homestretch, especially with defections from local leaders – with a very long queue already stretching from Davao City all the way to Abra in the Cordilleras.

US raining ‘Hellfire’ on ISIS targets

Top US intelligence officials had warned against terrorist group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) having sleeper cells in Europe, particularly the UK, Italy and Germany. Describing ISIS “as the most urgent threat to nations,” US president Barack Obama had also announced a military expansion in Syria with additional troops to be sent.

US military commanders in Iraq and Syria are adopting an Israeli battlefield tactic known as “roof knocking” to reduce the number of civilian casualties during airstrikes against terrorist strongholds. Roof knocking is like a warning shot where a missile is exploded above the roof of a target to warn civilians about an impending attack and give them time to leave the area. This tactic, which was first used by the Israel Defense Forces several years ago for their Gaza operations, was recently adopted by US troops who fired Hellfire missiles before they bombed a target in Mosul believed to be the financial center of the terrorist group.

Prior to the bombing, US soldiers also dropped leaflets to warn about the impending attack, and then put Hellfire missiles which they airburst on top of the target structure. A civilian female however perished during the attack because she went back into the building and was trampled on by men coming out of the building – which by then had been processed for the strike.

The US had been targeting the financial centers of ISIS, with the latest target in Mosul believed to hold as much as $150 million in cash. As one intelligence observer noted, the US is literally raining Hellfire on terrorists.

Ongpin’s continuing tourism initiative

The upscale Balesin Island Resort in Quezon continues to be a magnet for tourists and visitors especially the health conscious ones who want to experience the state-of-the-art facilities of the Aegle Wellness Center. A four-level structure comprising more than 2,000 square meters, the wellness center is said to be more than twice the size of a wellness center in Bermuda that’s reputed to the the biggest in the world.

Named after the mythological Greek goddess of radiant health, Aegle Wellness Center is increasingly getting popular with its high-tech diagnostic equipment and its Thalassotherapy pools that harness the beneficial effects of seawater. A topnotch group of wellness doctors, nutritionists, nurses, medical technologists and other medical staff complement the modern equipment and facilities that are utilized to conduct diagnostic examinations that will be used to develop a wellness program tailor fit for each client.

Business tycoon Roberto “Bobby” Ongpin has described Aegle as “a masterpiece” and those who have been to the wellness center couldn’t agree more.

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