At least we have some good news from China

It’s already the end of April and the midterm elections will soon be upon us. Since we are already in the middle of the campaign period for our local government officials, I asked the opposition mayoralty candidate Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and vice mayoralty candidate former mayor Michael Rama to guest in Straight from the Sky today. Unfortunately, Vice Mayor Labella couldn’t join due to so many pressing engagements.

So tonight we have with us former mayor Michael Rama who has been vice mayor for three terms, which gives us an idea that he is the most experienced public official in Cebu City holding so many positions in the city government.

Of course, the big issue of Rama’s being a “drug protector” in the first narco list of Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte we openly discussed. My only suspicion with that first list is that it must have come from the PNP General Marcelo P. Garbo who must have included Rama because they were not in the same party. So ask yourself, where is Garbo now?

I also asked Rama to confirm if that drug lord Jaguar Diaz was a member of the BOPK and he confirmed it. Jaguar was a member of BOPK. We also talked about the pressing rumors that continue to spread today…that perhaps Jaguar wasn’t killed. I mean why wasn’t his casket opened? Another rumor was that so many people were given money to join his funeral. Now self-proclaimed drug lord Franz Sabalones was supposed to have been killed in Manila. So why isn’t his family spending money to bring his remains home? It just gives more credence to the rumors these drug lords are not dead, but in deep hiding. So the question is who is really protecting them?

I also asked Rama about the issue of garbage disposal in Cebu City that unfortunately Mayor Tomas Osmeña doesn’t want to talk about. More importantly, Cebu City has lost its prestigious 8th place in the global rankings of IT cities and is now in 12th place? Can we stop this decline? Rama said we can, but we need a new leadership in Cebu City.

So watch Mike Rama and Barug Party with PDP-Laban on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.

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President Duterte is in China and finally brought to the China president Xi Jinping the maritime dispute in the West Philippine Sea especially around Pag-asa Island where Chinese vessels supposedly harassed Filipino fishermen and apparently the two seemed to have agreed that “allies don’t destroy each other,” and reiterated the need to “manage” the issue so as not to undermine existing cooperation.

At this point, these may only be words from the top Chinese official, so we would know whether this would continue in the near future or not. The two leaders, during the meeting, agreed that the situation can be managed through bilateral negotiations and that it should not affect existing efforts to promote matters of mutual concern and interest.

Actually the maritime issue that Pres. Duterte brought to the attention of Pres. Xi was a sideline as the main topic in China was the second Belt and Road Forum, where some 39 other heads of state, including Russia president Vladimir Putin, were in attendance. Of course, the Philippine Senate wants assurances or guarantees from China, but in the meantime we’ll just take Pres. Xi’s word that this will not be a problem between the Philippines and China.

Meanwhile, at least we read in the news that some $12.6 billion worth of new investments and trade deals were forged between Filipino and Chinese businessmen during the second Belt and Road Forum. The signing of 19 new investments and trade deals took place at the Grand Hyatt Hotel Beijing where officials said that the new agreements are expected to create over 20,000 jobs for Filipinos.

Another contract finalized during the forum was for the proposed 250-MW South Pulangi Hydroelectric Power Plant project in Damulog, Bukidnon. The project, to be developed by Pulangi Hydro Power Corp. and China Energy Co. Ltd., aims to improve power supply reliability and resilience in the country, particularly in Mindanao. It is valued at $800 million and will create 5,000 jobs. These are great news from China!