Giving credit to the Davao City Local School Board

EDITORIAL

BY ROGER M. BALANZA 

Dabawenyos are fortunate that they have a local government headed by Mayor Sara Duterte and father Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte that is rich in resources.
With its present annual revenue breaching the P4 bllion mark, Davao City is among a few cities in the country that have ample resources to be  able to focus major projects on the very important mission of providing education to the young.
For many educational institutions like those in Mindanao, the Manila capital, where the Department of Education is headquartered, is too far away to be responsive to local situations.
Most often, their concerns are likely to get lost in the competition for attention of DepEd.
Local School Boards (LSB) are the key to making local decisions that meet local needs. LSBs were created by the Local Government Code to help fund public school needs through the Special Education Fund. But LSBs can do much more than that.
The Davao City LSB is a case in point. More than just funding shortfalls, it has focused on interventions that provide system-wide solutions for the entire system.
Davao City has a significant Muslim population, both indigenous (Kalagan and Sama) and from across Mindanao (Maguindanaoan, Maranao, Badjao), a sizeable indigenous Lumad populace and migrants from the Visayas and Luzon. As the largest city in Mindanao, Davao City has 286 public elementary and 69 public high schools with over 250,000 students and 6,671 teachers (SY 2009-2010). Because of the city?s ethno-linguistic diversity, it is one of the most complex school systems in the country.
Because it has the resources, the Davao City government has focused on funding salaries of teachers, building of schools and providing funds for training of public school teachers, among others.
The Davao City School Board is a low-profile body that works to achieve its mission witout much fanfare.
With school opening this year less of a hassle for teachers, parents, students and pupils, it is time to give credit to the Local School Board for its persevering task of helping provide education to the young.

Davao City to bid for 7New Wonder Cities

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

Picking up from Puerto Princesa’s strategy in its winning bid for inclusion in the search for the 7New Wonders of the World, Davao City is launching a worldwide web campaign to clnch its bid to be included in the 7New Wonder Cities of the World.

THE PUERTO PRINCESA CAMPAIGN

In January this year, the Puerto Prinesa Underground River (PPUR)was named one of the world’s New 7 Wonders of Nature (N7WN) after winning worldwide support via online and text voting in the worldwide contest organized by theNew Seven Wonders of Nature Foundation.
The local government of Puerto Princesa played key role in the winning by embarking on a massive campaign in the internet in support of the PPUR.

THE CEBU CITY CAMPAIGN

The search for the 7New Wonders of the World is also organized by the  Zurich, Switzerland-based foundation.
Davao City Mayor Sara Z. Duterte winning the contest would be a recognition not only for the Davao City Government but most especially for ordinary Dabawenyos.
With this international citation, everybody will be more interested to look out to Davao City, Duterte said.

SC junks Nograles’ petition vs. ‘zombie, ghost voters’

 

   Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed a petition for mandamus filed by former House Speaker Prospero Nograles asking the SC to order the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to cleanse its voters’ list in Davao City.
In a six-page en banc decision, the SC dismissed the Nograles’ petition for being moot and academic as the Comelec did already what it had to do prior to the May 10, 2010 local elections in Davao City.
“Notably, three days before the elections, on May 7, 2010, the Comelec issued Resolution No. 8882, entitled Cleansing of The List of Voters Through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS)…” the SC decision said.
Shorlty after the elections, Nograles alleged that the Comelec list was embedded with what his Team Nograles said were ‘zombie or ghost voters.”
Nograles asked the SC to direct the Comelec to prepare a new voters’ list covering the three congressional districts of Davao City, instead of merely relying on so-called “watchlist.”
He argued that it should be used as basis in the conduct of the elections.
Nograles lost to former Vice Mayor Sara Duterte in the May 10, 2010 local elections. Sara is a daughter of incumbent Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
Nograles claimed that his camp discovered tens of thousands of multiple/double and dead registrants and that he was alarmed over the possibility of a failure of elections in Davao City.
In its ruling, the SC said that the petition was dismissed on the grounds of mootness because “on May 7, 2010, the Comelec issued Resolution…resolving to adopt the policies and guidelines relative to the [AFIS]. “

MAYOR Sara Inday Duterte vs. Nograles in fight for Congress in 2013

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

There would be a second encounter between Mayor Sara Duterte and ex-Speaker Prospero Nograles in the coming May 2013 elections.
This time it would be in another political battlefield: the First District congressional race.
The First District is a known bailiwick of Nograles. His son, Karlo, is the incumbent congressman.
Reports say Karlo would be running for vice mayor, with the ex-Speaker to attempt to get back the congressional seat that he held for years before Karlo.
This much–that Mayor Duterte would be facing off with Nograles in the First District congress race— was hinted by the mayor’s father, Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, in the Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa hosted by lawyer Geraldine Tiu on ABS/CBN on Sunday.
Mayor Duterte beat Nograles with a vote margin of 220,000 votes in the 2010 elections. It was Nograles’ third failed attempt to capture City Hall from the stranglehold of the Dutertes.
“I am more useful as mayor. I would prefer to be mayor because I am eyeball-to-eyeball with the problems of the people, Duterte said in the program.
The statement came over waning speculations he is retiring from politics, may be seeking reelection or may be running for another position other than the mayorship in 2013.
In the peogram, Duterte described work in Congress as “boring and lousy.” Duterte held the First District congressional seat from 1998 to 2001.
I am good at peace and order. There is no action in Congress, he said further butressing speculations he is gunning to get back the position he held for 18 years.
Duterte however refused to be categorical about his, and Mayor Duterte’s, final plan for 2013.
Asked about who would be running for Congress against Nograles, Duterte said; I’ll just whisper it to you, but don’t make a fuss. There seems to be a plan, but it’s not final yet. It’s not me, I don’t know who,  he said.
But the body language bared all.
He siddled up to Tiu’s side, whispered something in her ear that made the lawyer let out a mischievous grin.
With Duterte running for mayor –Nograles and his Team Nograles are said to be positioning former Second District congressman Elias Ruy Lopez for the mayoral contest—and Mayor Duterte battling it out with the elder Nograles, congressman Karlo Nograles would be fighting off councilor Paolo Duterte, Mayor Duterte’s brother, in the vice mayoral contest, according to sources in the Duterte-led local political bloc Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod.

No ‘mulcting’ councilors in Duterte’s Hugpong 2013 line-up

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said he would have no qualms about naming in public city councilors fleecing businessmen in exchange for approval of their business applications.
But Duterte admits his hands are tied down from going after the extortionists by lack of complainants coming forward to finger the ‘mulcting’ councilors.
He however also admits that some victims of the legislative extortion come to him to complain but would not execute affidavits or file formal charges for fear of repercussions.
Being a lawyer, I know I cannnot pursue cases without witnesses, he said.
In the Ato ni Bay cable television program on Skycable hosted by radio journalist Leo Villareal, Duterte was responding to a question that corruption persists in the city council despite a crackdown he made recently against the reported extortion by city councilors.
He was further asked by media if the reported “mulcters” would make it to the line-up of his political bloc Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod in the coming May 2013 elections.
The bloc is now headed by his daughter Mayor Sara Duterte.
To this question, Duterte did not give a categorical answer but hinted bad days for the legislative crooks when Mayor Duterte picks candidates in her slate.
There are names there that Mayor Duterte does not like, he said, without naming names but refering to members of the Davao City Council.
Last year, Duterte overhauled a committee and sacked its chairman reportedly after a property developer reported to him that he had been asked money in exchange for approval of a business proposal.
The case stopped at the mere reorganization of the committee chaired by a neophyte councilor because the victim would not file charges.
In the pprogram,Duterte said most of the corruption of the city council is rooted in the committee on housing which recommends approval of applications for housing and business project locations.

Duterte warns against more vicious criminals

    Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said today’s criminals are far worse than before because most of them are into drugs.
Before in robbery cases, criminals only take the money. Now they shoot outright, he said in the cable television program Ato ni Bay hosted by radio broadcaster Leo Villareal on Skycable on Tuesday.
He said the viciousness are also in other forms of criminalities like rape and murder where the assailants exhibit more cruelties.
Duterte, well-known for his iron-fist policy against criminals especially drug pushers and users when he was city mayor, said he had earlier years ago warned government auuthorities and police, about deadlier crimes made more vicious by drug use.
This is the reason why he is very strong in his anti-drug campaign.
Duterte, while still the mayor, had been probed by the Commission on Human Rights for his alleged role in the Davao Death Squad, the shadowy motorcycle-riding gunmen said to be behind the deaths of more than 1,000 suspected drug dealers and pusher and other criminals in the city.

Duterte defends reward for ‘killing’ criminal – FRONT PAGE – Durian Post No. 106

ROGER M. BALANZA

Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has dismissed speculations he could run afoul with the law over rewards he is giving for arrest and termination of criminals, saying even the police and military are putting up bounties for the capture dead or alive of persons in their wanted list.
Even the police and military are doing it, he said at the Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa television program on ABS/CBN-Davao hosted by lawyer Geraldine Tiu.
Tiu had sought Duterte’s comment about the negative legal implications of his public announcement about giving out P50,000 to policemen, barangay officials and civilians credited with the arrest of criminals.
If the criminals are killed, I will add more, said Duterte in the television program in what is seen is a broadside at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).
Known for his iron-fist anti-crime policy while still the city mayor and for his public warnings of “termination” of crminals, Duterte had been probed in 2009 by the CHR Manila for his alleged role in the Davao Death Squad blamed for the hundreds of deaths of suspected criminals in the city.
In the television program, Duterte said the reward is for the capture of “high-value criminals” among them those who have pending warrants of arrest for kidnapping or robbery.
“In the act of committing the offense and in order to save your life, I would be happy if you can kill them,” Duterte said in a morbid advice to would-be bounty hunters.

THE DURIAN POST NO. 105 – April 23-29, 2013 – Diplomacy in handling of Chinese scammers

DUTERTE  explains ‘ special treatment’

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte took special interest in the arrest, detention and prosecution of 72 Chinese said to be behind an international financial fraud syndicate to avoid a head-on collision with the Taiwanese government.
He also said he wanted to protect the human and civil rights of the suspects, now detained by the Davao City Police Office after their arrest in a police raid on several locations in Davao City last week.
Duterte on television said improper treatment of the suspects could trigger adverse reaction from the Taiwanese government and lead to pressure on thousands of Filipino Overseas Foreign Workers (OFW) working in Taiwan.
We have good relations with Taiwan, Duterte also in the Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa television program on ABS/CBN-Davao.
The Chinese are among the biggest foreign investors in Davao City.
Duterte also said he wanted to avoid a controversy, if the Taiwanese government would react to improper treatment of its nationals, like that generated by the Flor Contemplacion hanging in 1995, when he led the burning of a Singaporean flag in front of Davao City Hall in protest of the hanging sentence of the Filipina domestic helper accused of killing her young ward and a fellow domestic helper.
The flag-burning incident nearly sparked a diplomatic row between the Philippine government and the Singapore government.
But while he and police protected their civil and human rights, Duterte said the Chinese were not afforded special treatment by police.
“We are duty bound to afford and to give them their basic legal rights. There are lots of Filipinos who are in Taiwan. What if the same thing happens to the Filipinos there? What we are doing is not special treatment. We are just upholding their rights,” Duterte said.
The Chinese remains in detention after the court dismissed the petition to release.
In his recent ruling, Regional Trial Court Branch 16 Judge Emmanuel Carpio said the case is no longer within the jurisdiction of the court since the passports of the suspects were already cancelled by the Taiwanese government the day after they were apprehended by the police on April 18.
The Taipei Economic Culture Office (TECO) in the Philippines has informed the Bureau of Immigration that the Taiwan government has already cancelled the passports of the apprehended Taiwanese.
Taiwanese police investigators linked up with their counterparts at the Davao City Police Office in blitzing an international syndicate following simultaneous raids on three houses yesterday afternoon.
The Taiwanese were arrested in police raids in their offices in Ladislawa Village in Buhangin District, Villa Josefina Village in Matina, and Valgoson’s Building in Talomo District.
Based on the search warrant issued by Judge Isaac Robillo of Regional Trial Court Branch 13, the suspects are violating Republic Act 8484 otherwise known as “Access Devices Regulation Act of 1998.

Rody-Sara verbal clashes aimed at “public welfare”

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said public interest is a top priority in governance that he would push even if this could lead to conflicts with daughter Mayor Sara Duterte.
Duterte is acting mayor for a month with Mayor Duterte on leave starting April 5 for medical check-ups.
The Dutertes have taken opposite positions on on issues on local governance and public interest, the conflicts in opinion most often marked by verbal exchanges between the two in media.
In the Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa television program on ABS/CBN Davao, he reiterated that he will support his daughter Mayor Duterte “only if she’s correct in implementing the law.”
Duterte said he will also have no qualms to point out the errors if the mayor is wrong in her actions.
“This is government. This is not our property. We are working here for the people,” he pointed out.
Would you like us not to watch each other’s decision on local government matters? he said.
Even when the mayor is his daughter, Duterte said he cannot just keep silent on matters of public interest.
Duterte said he also expects the mayor to criticize him and the city council if they also commit mistakes in the performance of their duties.
He said the mayor has a mind of her own even during her growing up years.
“I did not raise my daughter as a robot. I expect her to go up as a lawyer, and if she thinks her stance is right, fine. Let’s debate on it so that the people will know, because it will be the people who will benefit from it at the end of the day,” Duterte said. ROGER M. BALANZA

‘Inday not comfy with Rody’

  Tit for tat.

    Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte says she finds it hard to work with her father, Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
Criticism is a two-way street.
Reacting, the vice mayor said the feeling is mutual that in fact dates to when Sara, now a lawyer, was younger.
She was the most hardheaded of my children, said vice mayor Duterte, who is widely known not no mince words and not frugal in expletives he dishes out at critics.
The Dutertes have taken opposite positions on several issues on local governance and public interest, the conflicts in opinion most often marked by verbal exchanges between the two in media.
But the elder Duterte said the conflicts are for public welfare and part of discussion on good government and transparency.
The mayor is the lone daughter of the vice mayor with estranged wife Elizabeth Zimmerman Duterte. The other siblings are Paolo Duterte, barangay captain of Catalunan Grande and sitting at the Davao City Council representing the Liga ng mga Barangay, and youngest Sebastian.
She was hardheaded even as a child, said the vice mayor at the Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa televisionprogram on ABS/CBN Davao.
I find it difficult working with him because he is a difficult person, said the mayor when asked to comment on her relationship with the father.
She said she is not comfortable with having verbal clashes with her vice mayor father.
It’s difficult when he contradicts what I say in public, considering that I am the mayor, she said.
The mayor said she could not change the father, but said however that the conflicts have an upside in that public issues are raised up in the  exchange of opinion between her who is in the executive department and the father who runs the legislative branch of local governance.
Our conflicting opinions enable the public to see issues in two dimensions, she said. ROGER M. BALANZA

Davao City mayor, vice mayor in verbal clashes

No ‘Life is Here’ for VM Rody

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

LIFE IS HERE is the slogan adopted by Mayor Sara Duterte to drumbeat the city as a tourism and investment haven, and to tell people about the good things about Davao City.
But for Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, there is no life at City Hall while he is the acting mayor during the summer month of April.
The mayor, his daughter,  has filed a month-long leave starting April 5 for medical check-ups in Manila.
I will not hold office at City Hall. Nanglood na ko (I am already disappointed), he said at the Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa television program on ABS/CBN Davao.
Host Geraldine Tiu did not push the issue to ask Duterte to elaborate, but the disappointment could be traced to Mayor Sara Dutere’s recent statement about her relationship with her father.
I find it hard to work with him, said Mayor Duterte.
Vice mayor Duterte, said he would be holding office at the Davao City Council, where he is presiding officer, not at City Hall.
While he may not hold office daily, Duterte said he would be on call by the public 24/7 as acting city mayor.
Mayor Duterte made public her relationship with the father during a recent media interview.

INDAY SARA: GRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

The Dutertes are known for taking different sides of the coin in various involving governance.
But the father said the conflicts are for transparency and good governance that redound to public welfare.
I am not comfortable with him criticizing my actions because I am the mayor, she said. Mayor Duterte is on her first term. The elder Duterte had been mayor for 18 years.