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Bacolod City, PhilippinesSaturday, August 11, 2012
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From the Center
with Rolly Espina
OPINIONS

Eanie Minnie, Moo

Rolly Espina

The way it goes, the killing of Kabankalan RTC Judge Henry Arles is one that may present surprising twists in its progress before the case is finally tried by the Sandiganbayan.

The myriad of turns will make it a major topic among voters of Negros Occidental until after next year’s election.

And it will definitely hurt Vice Governor Genaro Alvarez and his daughter, Rep. Mercedes Alvarez, the sister of Ilog Mayor John Paul Alvarez.

And, whether we like it or not, former Ambassador Eduardo Cojuangco, head of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, may find himself driven against the wall by Alvarez who seems to have been freely giving out that Cojuangco was the one behind the plot against Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr.’s reelection bid.

The funny thing, despite various claims and leaks about Danding, is that the NPC leaders have remained silent about his thinking about Negros politics.

Meaning that Cojaungco may actually be biding his time to air his view about the matter and about Alvarez’s running against Marañon.

That may be the reason why while previously insistent that he will run against Marañon, lately Alvarez has also given predictions that the die will be cast only after the COC signing in October.

In short, after all, there may actually be no rift within the UNA as had earlier been predicted.

Anyway, in fairness to Danding, the politically savvy NPC head is not one who just suddenly hazards a venture into an area where the details are murky.His silence is ominous. And he should not be dragged into something that he does not relish to get into, like provoking Alvarez to abandon a long-time relationship with Marañon and to do him in from behind.

In fairness to Marañon, he has remained tightlipped about the gubernatorial nomination. He just contents himself with contending it will be a friendly fight that will occur. He is on speaking terms with Lim-ao despite the repeated provocation for his erstwhile vice gubernatorial tandem.

So, let’s just wait for further developments.

***

Inadvertently, the National Bureau of Investigation in Bacolod has found itself in the center of a political controversy.

All it was doing was just investigating the killing of Judge Arles. But the issue became a topic of political football.

Now the NBI is accused of human rights violations and torture.

So what has happened? While trying to bail out the NBI from the charges being leveled against it, the Arles siblings appeared like they were issuing orders to the NBI.

No doubt they were merely impelled by their desire to see a conclusive end to the probe into the killing.

While we understand their filial obsession that the case is finally solved, they havegone out of their way to appear like they were directly involved with the NBI in solving the issue of who killed Arles.

In fairness, NBI Bacolod head Ferdinand Lavin has been very circumspect about the various issues thrown in his face and the agency.

The best thing we can do is to wait for the outcome of the case. Now, a family member claims that a relative was the one who had maneuvered it so that the three RPA-ABS charged by the NBI with the Arles killing, had been maneuvered to be the scapegoats for the crime.

While the charges of torture and maltreatment had been thumbed down by the Commission on Human Rights, now there are more things thrown against the agency to make it appear that it railroaded the probe.

But one is enlightened by the statement of SC Administrator Midas Marques as reported in the DAILY STAR that high court is closely monitoring the case filed against the suspects in the killing official Kabankalan RTC judge.

That may not influence the outcome of the case, but it serves to put everybody on their toes with the SC justices keeping a tight watch on how things develop.

Remember, the high court itself had given tribute to the late judge as one of its best judges.

***

As I had mentioned in the title of this piece, one begins to wonder who is with what party.

In short, there is the stampede to join any party which, from the point of view of the political aspirant, will serve his or her purpose and make him or her win.

What do these mean? Simple. There is truly no distinguishing factor among the various political parties. Only the convenience of the aspirants as to which group could help them win.

One day, one is with the Liberal Party, then the next day with the Nacionalista Party, later the NPC and many other political parties.

So, who is who and with whom is he or she allied or against? Those are questions that most of us will never know until they have filed their certificates of candidacy.*


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