Yes, infra projects should be done double time
It is the Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Life and I have always wanted to feature this year-long event in our talkshow Straight from the Sky. And who best can talk about this religious undertaking if not the Archbishop of Cebu his Excellency Archbishop of Cebu Jose S. Palma, the 4th Archbishop of Cebu who has filled the huge shoes left behind by the late Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. This is the third time for me to have his Excellency on my show. The last time he was on this show, it was a postscript on the visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines.
What makes this interview different is that it is the first time we are doing this after the late cardinal Vidal left us. While it is true that Archbishop Palma had huge shoes to fill, in my book he has already proven his mettle when we held the 51st International Eucharistic Congress here in Cebu City exactly two years ago. Archbishop Palma was able to build the International Eucharistic Convention Center which is, without any doubt, the biggest convention center in the whole of Cebu.
So watch this interesting Talk with Archbishop Palma on the Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Life 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.
***
My good friend, Mr. Robert Go, President of the Philippine Retailers Association is complaining that the P169.9M road concreting project on the 1.9-kilometer Ouano Avenue which would end with a tri-level pass along the United Nations Avenue would take more than a year to complete. While I sympathize with Mr. Go, Mandaue City is now in a situation where traffic would certainly get worse before it becomes better. But I fully agree with Mr. Go that WT Construction, Inc. should work double time so this project can be completed faster than expected.
If there is anything that our government officials have yet to learn is how to fix roads really fast, especially roads that cannot be closed because there are no other roads to use. Let's face the facts that the Duterte government doesn't have the luxury of time with their "build, build, build" projects. So DPWH better convince WT Construction to work faster or we will lodge a complaint with Pres. Duterte.
However, you folks in Mandaue City are lucky that the worst roads will soon be fixed. But for Cebu City, DPWH has not funded my pet project, the parallel road to Escario Street. RDC Infra Chairman Glenn Soco reported this to me and I'm totally disappointed with the DPWH who is funding only a feasibility study for 2018 when this project was already studied to the death!
***
The big breaking news last weekend was when the news reports showed that Kingdom of Jesus founder, Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, was supposedly detained in Hawaii for bringing out via his private jet more than US$10,000 without declaring the money in the US Bureau of Customs. It was reported that the group of Quiboloy tried to bring out some US$350,000 in cash, wrapped in socks inside a suitcase. It was earlier reported that Quiboloy's group also brought along gun parts. But then that report was no longer an issue.
The following day, the new report said that Ms. Felina Salinas, a US citizen, claimed ownership of the money and was released on bail after paying US$25,000 and Pastor Quiboloy left Hawaii free from any charges that would have been filed against him. Of course it is crystal clear that Ms. Salinas took the blame all by herself so that Quiboloy could go scot-free. However this opens her to an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service if she has earned that much money.
As for Malacañang, it is an open secret that he and old pals like former Davao mayor now Pres. Duterte had a falling apart, which was made public. Now whether there was some secret communication between the two old pals, we will never know. But certainly Malacañang has distanced itself from this incident.
- Latest
