Too much politics in Mandaue City

Politics, politics! This is what’s happening in Mandaue City when two allied politicos literally split up to become political nemesis. It was out in The FREEMAN the other day that one political group questioned the present administration on its decision to lease a 31,769-square meter developed offshore property at 75 centavos per square meter, which is supposedly disadvantageous to the city. Come now, when condominium units cost millions of pesos per room or hundreds of thousands of pesos per square meter, no one rents out or sells properties at centavos per square meter. You would think that time in Mandaue City stood still and we are still in the 1960s.

But then again, it is the season of politics and why is this question brought out in the open at this time? Since both political groups have been in power many years ago, perhaps we ought to know whether when they were in power they also leased out Mandaue City property at peanuts per square meter? At this point, what the residents or voters Mandaue should do is get an ad-hoc committee to look at what the powers-that-be in Mandaue City leased out in the last 20 years. This way, we would know the real score.

Why am I not siding with any political group? Well, if you have read last Sunday’s gospel from Luke 6:39-45, the Lord Jesus Christ said, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” I challenge the people of Mandaue to dig deeper into this case as I’m very sure we have more than enough skeletons in everyone’s closet.

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Finally, an issue that we discussed 40 years ago about taking the Bar Exams in Manila is now being discussed at the Supreme Court (SC) level. The question: “Does a centralized entrance exam to law schools infringe on academic freedom enshrined in our Constitution?” This was the issue that the justices of the Supreme Court discussed last Tuesday. The SC en banc held long oral arguments on the petitions assailing the conduct of the Philippine Law School Admission Test. It stemmed from petitions filed by retired Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Oscar Pimentel and a group of law students in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Former Regional Judge Pimentel asked the SC to strike down Republic Act 7662 or the Legal Education Reform Act—that created the Legal Education Board as unconstitutional. The same law was the basis for the memorandum that ordered the conduct of PhilSAT. At this point, it is too early to discuss what the SC en banc discussed but we do hope that this would result to better-run law schools. So is the Legal Education Reform Act constitutional? We’ll find out very soon.

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Just when we thought that the time for talking peace with the National Democratic Front (NDF), the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) or the New People’s Army (NPA) was over and done with because the rebels are not serious in discussing real peace with the Philippine government, someone expressed their optimism that the peace talks are still alive.

“The peace talks are very much alive,” government peace panel chair and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello remarked during the awarding ceremonies of the Rotary Gawad Akap peace awards last week. However, Sec. Bello declined to elaborate, except to give assurance that the efforts to attain lasting peace are continuing. To be totally honest, Sec. Bello could not elaborate simply because while he can talk peace to remnants of the rebel groups, this has no approval of the top echelon of the CPP Politburo.

The only thing that Sec. Bello said was, “The line of communication has always been there; it has never stopped.” However Bello stressed that the President merely took a stronger position, but did not abandon his advocacy for lasting peace.