NAIA employee in mulcting attempt vs. Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte

DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said an x-ray examiner at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport II (Naia II) apparently tried to mulct her when she arrived from Israel, but she let it pass.

Duterte was on her way to Davao on May 12 from her Israel trip when the man in-charged of the x-ray machine picked out a refrigerator magnet, which was Duterte-Carpio’s souvenir from Israel, from her luggage.

Commenting on the incident, her father Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said the airport employee was lucky the mayor did not lose her temper. The Dutertes are known for their frankness and volatile tempers.

Last year , Mayor Duterte sparked a widely publicized controversy after she mauled a court sheriff, Abe Andres of the local Regional Trial Court, who refused to heed her plea to stay a court-ordered demolition of about 200 urban poor shanties in Agdao district.

The mauling captured in video by television news crews and aired on Philippine and international television networks, earned both censure and praise, and administrative raps for the fiery lady mayor in the Ombudsman and the interior department including a disbarment rap at the Supreme Court. The mayor like her father is a lawyer.ROGER M. BALANZA

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Airport employee tries to mulct mayor?

SGV HAS NEW OFFICE IN DAVAO CITY

SGV Davao recently inaugurated its new office on the 5th floor of Topaz Tower in the Damosa IT Park. Guest of honor were Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and Anflo Group of Companies Vice Chairman Antonio Floirendo, Jr.
The office will be headed b Assurance partner Alvin Pinpin. During the program, SGV and Mayor Duterte signed a memorandum of agreement to jointly develop the Doing Business in Davao, a publication targeted at potential foreign investors.

ON AVERTING VIOLENT DEMOLITIONS: “Sana si Mayor Duterte na lang ang meyor namin!”

THEDURIANBEAT

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

VIOLENCE IN URBAN POOR ILLEGAL DWELLING DEMOLITION is a three-way street.

The urban poor using violence to stop the demolition.

Authorities using violence to implement the demolition order.

And in the case of Mayor Sara Duterte of Davao City, using violence to abort  an impending violence.

A street in Parañaque City turned into a virtual battle zone early this week as policemen battled  with residents of Silverio Compound who were fighting a court order for the demolition of urban poor dwellings.

In one of the bloodiest incidents in the history of demolition, vividly captured on national television, residents hurled huge chunks of rocks, molotov cocktails and other projectiles at dozens of riot policemen, some of whom replied with gunfire and tear gas canisters or by hitting the protesters with batons.

The street battle left one compound dwellers was dead with a gunshot wound in the head. At least 39 other people, four of them policemen, were injured.

Was the violence avoidable?

Yes by  strong political will..

Violence happened in Paranaque. It happened in Quezon City. But it was avoided in Davao City. How?

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte’s punching of a male court sheriff supervising a court-ordered demolition of more than 200 urban poor shanties in Davao City in July 2011 had inspired informal settlers facing eviction in Balara, Quezon City to hope they have a mayor like her.

“Sana si Duterte na lang ang mayor namin!!” then barked several large streamers at the background of angry informal settlers face-to-face with demolition crews and their 150-man police escort poised to tear down about 300 shanties.

The Quezon City scene early this year and the recent Paranaque demolition were  practically a repeat of the incident in Agdao District in Davao City .

The difference is that in Davao City the demolition crews and their police escorts retreated to forego the demolition after an irate Mayor Duterte arrived and went ballistic by punching to the face several times court sheriff Abe Andres who was implementing the court-ordered demolition.

In the Quezon City incident, wrecking crews demolished 350 houses on a one-ha private property in Barangay Old Balara in Commonwealth Avenue despite resistance from residents that led to a brief outbreak of violence.

Without a Mayor Duterte coming to their plight.

Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista had intervened during the negotiations towards a win-win solution and requested for a five-day reprieve but this was refused by the property owner who was also armed with a demolition from the court.

In the Davao City incident, demolition crews were starting to tear down the houses when Mayor Duterte arrived and confronted Andres on why he gave the order to demolish despite her earlier plea to stay the eviction for two hours.

Failing to hold her tempers, Mayor Duterte dished out several punches to the face of Andres.

The punching scene was captured on video by local television news crews and was aired in national and international television news programs including CNN.

The incident earned not only public and media criticism against Mayor Duterte, a lawyer, but also several cases filed before the Office of the Ombudsman and the Supreme Court.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte in race for world’s Best Mayors online voting

    Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and Angeles City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan are the Philippine city mayors  vying for the 2012 World Mayor Prize, an award given to outstanding mayors worldwide by the London-based City Mayors Foundation.

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World Mayor: Nominations for World Mayor 2012

 The City Mayors Foundation now seeks nominations for the 2012 World Mayor Prize. The Prize is awarded every two years to a mayor who has made outstanding contributions to his / her community and has developed a vision for urban living and working that is relevant to towns and cities across the world.

As of this month, 88 mayors from all over the world were nominated for the award – 16 from North America, 13 from Latin America, 30 from Europe, 19 from Asia, three from Australasia and seven from Africa.
Online nominations will be accepted until mid-May while a shortlist of 25 nominees will be published in early June. Winners and other results of the World Mayor Project will be announced in December.
“When contemplating the shortlist for the 2012 World Mayor Prize, the City Mayors Foundation will take into account the number of nominations a mayor has received from separate individuals and organizations and, more importantly, the persuasiveness of supporting statements,” said the foundation.
Previous winners of the award were Marcelo Ebrard of Mexico City in 2010, Helen Zille of Cape Town in 2008, John So of Melbourne in 2006, Dora Bakoyannis of Athens in 2005, and Edi Rama of Tirana in 2004.
Three Philippine city mayors have made it to the top 10 since its establishment in 2004: then Marikina City mayor Marides Fernando ranked 7th in 2008; former Makati mayor now vice president Jejomar Binay placed 4th in 2006; and still incumbent mayor of San Fernando, Pampanga, Oscar Rodriguez, bagged the 4th spot in 2005.
The City Mayors Foundation, an international think tank on urban affairs, organized the World Mayor Prize to “honor mayors with the vision, passion and skills to make their cities incredible places to live in, work in and visit.”

1st Equator Asia Air Access forum, Airline CEOs summit in Davao City

Davao City will play host in the 1^st Equator Asia Air Access Forum and Airline CEOs Summit starting today, April 18, 2012 at the ballroom of Marco Polo Davao Hotel.

The two-day event is an on-going program of the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP EAGA) that intends to bring together senior leaders of national governments, airport authorities, airlines, and the tourism industry in order to develop more access and manage relationships with gateways and destinations in the region. Equator Asia is the BIMP-EAGA’s tourism brand.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte will be giving the welcome remarks during the forum while Department of Transportation and Communication Secretary Manuel Roxas lll and Department of Tourism Undersecretary Ma. Victoria Jasmin will deliver the opening statements.

Expected speakers and presenters during the forum are airline, civil aviation, government agencies on transport and tourism, and business and tourism council officials from the BIMP-EAGA.

The 1^st Equator Asia Air Access Forum will discuss the different countries’ presentations on international gateways in BIMP-EAGA, the market outlook and business prospects of airline companies in the region, and the promotion and marketing of EAGA priority destinations and routes.

Department of Tourism Xl Regional Director Arturo Boncato, Jr. will deliver the closing remarks.

 A press conference with the local media will follow at 12 NN at the Sarangani Hall of Marco Polo Hotel.

 The Airline CEOs Summit will follow on the second day, April 19, with a round-table discussion to be facilitated by Professor Cherry Lyn Rodolfo of the Reid Foundation.

 

High survey rating no effect on Davao City mayor

High ratings in surveys indicate strong public trust and confidence and winning popularity, but Mayor Sara Duterte is not being pushed to seek reelection only because ego-boosting figures in a local survey.

ALSO READ: DUTERTES VOW DEFEAT OF EX-SPEAKER PROSPERO …

ALSO READ: Karlo has big chance to beat Rody, Sara in 2013 …

    The University of Mindanao Institute of Public Opinion (UM-IPO) in a recent survey on popularity and trust placed the mayor and father Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on top of the heap.
This is not enough to convince me to seek reelection, said Mayor Duterte  who has kept to her heart her future political plans.
While she was thankful for the results showing the Dabawenyos’ confidence in her, the mayor said the IPO figures inspire her to do more for the city.
But Mayor Duterte said she may put off a plan to retire after her first term after her father said he would spend for her if she seeks reelection.
Mayor Duterte bagged the vice mayoral race without a contest in the 2010 elections in her first foray into politics.
She demolished former House Speaker Prospero Nograles in the mayoral contest in 2010, winning with a vote margin of more than 220,000 votes.
Looming in the horizon to push a challenge in 2013 to the Dutertes’ stranglehold on local politics are Nograles and son First District congressman Karlo Nograles.
Sources said Karlo may contest the mayoral post while the ex-Speaker was speculated to attempt to go back to Congress.
Even as the Dutertes have not yet made a decision on who and what position to run for in 2013, their political bloc Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod is prepping up to “politically demolish” the Nograleses in next year’s polls.
“The Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod has a mopping up work to do in the coming 2013 local elections: Erase from the political landscape the highest elected official from the opposition, a report in the Durian Post said earlier.
Object of the marching order of the dominant local political bloc is First District Representative Karlo Nograles, son of former Speaker Prospero Nograles.
Hugpong was founded by former mayor now Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte two elections ago. The bloc is the third political bloc that dominated local politics, headed by Duterte (mayor for 18 years), since his first mayoral term in 1988. Its predecessors were the Lakas ng Dabaw and Alyansa Dabaw.
Hugpong is presently headed by Mayor Sara Duterte. Mayor Duterte beat the former Speaker in the mayoral race by more than 220,000 in the 2010 elections. It was the elder Nograles’ third failed attempt to capture City Hall.
Karlo was among few survivors of the Hugpong onslaught in the 2010, where Hugpong captured 20 of 24 elective positions at stake. Runnng under his father’s Team Nograles, Karlo beat city councilor Mabel Acosta, the Hugpong bet, by only about 8,000 votes in the district known to be Nograles’ stronghold.
My father wants the next representative of the city’s first congressional district to come from Hugpong, Mayor Sara Duterte told media.
The two other congressional posts in the city are held by Hugpong: Isidro Ungab (Third District) and Mylen Garcia (Second District).
A sweep of all elective posts is said to be a long dream of Vice Mayor Duterte.
The 26-member Davao City Council is also dominated by Hugpong with only four non-members: Joanne Bonguyan and Rene Lopez of Team Nograles, and independents Jimmy Dureza and Pilar Braga.
The Hugpong has yet to decide on who to field against Karlo Nograles, but speculations say it could be any of the three Dutertes. Aside from the mayor and vice mayor, there is a third Duterte in local politics: Paolo Duterte, Barangay Captain of Catalunan Grande who sits in the Davao City Council representing the Association of Barangays (Liga ng mga Barangay).

Davao City Mayor Inday Sara to bare 2013 political plans in June

    Speculations on whether Mayor Sara Duterte would seek reelection, retire from politics or run for another post would end in June, when the mayor said she would bare her final political plans.
By June, Mayor Duterte told media at City Hall during her press briefing when pressed for comment on her future political plans.
The 2013 Elections is set in May. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the coming polls as in the 2010 elections would be an automated polling using Prencinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines to count the votes.
Comelec has set deadline for filing of candidacy in October 2012 to allow time for the poll body to prepare computerized paraphernalia for the automated election.
The Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod, the local political bloc headed by the
mayor and father Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, would be finalizing its line-up for the 2013 election by middle of this year, said a source inside the bloc.
Mayor Duterte, who has kep the public in limbo about her plans, said she has not yet made a final decision. She earlier said she may retire from politics after her first mayoral term to focus on having a baby with hubby Mans Carpio. The couple is childless after a 5-year union. Mayor Sara first joined politics by winning the vice mayoral post in the 2007 elections.
Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said the final Hugpong line-up would be decided by the bloc with surveys backing up the choices.
The vice mayor said he would support whatever is her daughter’s  political plans to the point of financially supporting her next mayoral bid if she doesn’t have the money to spend for the election. ROGER M. BALANZA

Davao City Hall plan to develop Sta. Ana wharf stalled

BADJAO coin diver at Sta. Ana Wharf in Davao City. The seafaring Badjaos have become a tourism of sorts at the government facility.

BY JOANNA C. BALANZA

The Davao City government has put on hold a plan to develop the Sta. Ana wharf as a tourist haven after the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) refused to give the local government full control and management of the government facility.

A DREAM CONCEPT for Sta. Ana Wharf as a major tourist destination

But Mayor Sara Duterte said she is submitting a new proposed Memorandum of Agreement to PPA after the agency rejected a City Hall proposal to solely manage the wharf.
PPA and City Hall presently co-manages the facility that is eyed to be developed into a tourist attraction.
A foreign investor from Hongkong earlier had expressed interest in building a marina in the wharf located in Sta. Ana district.
The Chinatown Development Council also earlier said it was interested in developing the 8-hectare property into a Chinese-inspired tourism complex.
Despite the rejection by PPA of the City Hall proposal to have sole management right, Mayor Duterte said the local government is still inviting investors to pour funding for development of the wharf under the concept of a Public-Private Partnership.
We will make this project a joint venture undertaking by the local government, PPA and investors, she said.

VITALIANO AGUIRRE II, controversial private prosecutor in the ongoing impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, replay a stunt Aguirre did during one of the settings of the Impeachment Court. Aguirre was caught on video covering his ears while Senator-Judge Merriam Santiago was having her piece on the microphone. Aguirre played one of the judges in the Coronation Night of the Search for the Mutya ng Dabaw 2012, a highlight of the 75th anniversary celebration of Davao City’s founding as a chartered city. MORIE AGUILAR

No hocus-pocus in PCOS

INDAY SARA NOT AGAINST

AUTOMATED ELECTION

The automatic poll counting machines damned by former House Speaker Prospero Nograles for giving Mayor Sara Duterte a 220,000-vote margin in the automated 2010 mayoral polls would be back in action in the 2013 elections.
Nograles had filed a poll protest seeking to annul the election for alleged electoral fraud perpetuated through the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS), but the Commission on Elections (Comelec) dismissed the case.
Mayor Duterte said she sees nothing wrong if the PCOS machines would be used in the polls next year.
She has yet to make a final decision on whether or not to seek

NOGIE. Thrice loser

reelection. Nograles also has not made an announcement on his political plans but a fourth try at the mayoral seat could be another political disaster for Nograles who had already lost thrice in his bid to capture City Hall.
He was defeated by now Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in 1992, by then Duterte political ally Benjamin de Guzman in 1998 and by Mayor Sara Duterte in 2010.
The PCOS would be at center stage anew in the 2013 elections, the second automated elections where the polling machines would be used.
The Comelec in a recent en banc decision voted 5-2 in favor of purchasing additional PCOS machines for the 2013 elections from Smartmatic International, the outfit that proovided the machines in 2010.
The PCOS were dependable and commendable in the 2010 elections, said Duterte who had welcomed Nograles’ poll protest.
The problems encountered with PCOS were expected as it was the first automated elections, she said.
Among others, Nograles claimed in his protest that the PCOS were reconfigured to give Duterte an edge in the counting.
In Manila, a group is planning to question the decision by Comelec to purchase of the PCOs machines for the 2013 elections before the Supreme Court.
Election watchdog Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) said that civil society groups and poll reform advocates are thinking of filing a petition for temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the purchase of the PCOS machines for use in the 2013 elections.