Marañon and Alvarez debates

Governor Alfredo Marañon yesterday challenged Vice Governor Genaro Alvarez for daily debates on any program implemented by the provincial government that the latter wishes to question.

I, for one, would have welcomed such a debate. But not daily which could bog both in their campaign.

I suggest instead that two or three such events be staged for the benefit of Negrense voters.

As I had noted earlier, Alvarez has not come up with a challenge or critique of the Marañon programs and platforms which he had subscribed to as the Vice Governor of the province.

But as the governor had pointed out, Alvarez can ask questions about how these programs had been implemented, their aims and goals. Thus, he raised the issue of the sheep dispersal program. Marañon said 400 had died but this had been alleviated because of the delivery of more lambs.

In short, nothing was lost that was not immediately solved, according to animal husbandry steward Renante Decena.

Of course, the debate, even if only reduced to two, would require a lot of negotiations. For example, which shall be the carrying medium? Radio or television? Who will be accredited as communication channels? Who shall craft the rules and regulations on the debate?

Who will be the interpellators or mediators?

But definitely, that is something that will more or less remove the stigma that Alvarez had been pressured to run against Marañon by NPC top honcho former Ambassador Eduardo Cojuangco. Supposedly because Marañon had earlier said he was not running for reelection but changed his mind later.

The debates will once and for all clearly delineate the difference in the outlook for governance between the two candidates.

In short, one cannot just say that one is against the other because the governor said earlier that he was no longer running for reelection. That, per, se, is not an irresistible reason to challenge Marañon. But, given that, only a clear-cut definition of their respective views about the programs which Marañon has been implementing in the province can provide a ready answer to the gripes of Alvarez.

Still, that may not be realized. But it is worth it for Negrenses to encourage such a move. And of course, not the daily exchanges proposed by Marañon, but even just one or two.

Still, it is worth tinkering. At least that it will solve the problem of what Alvarez is for or against and what Marañon is for and against, in running the affairs of the provincial government.

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Perhaps, the National Bureau of Investigation should ask the justice department to rush the preliminary investigation on the assassination of former Kabankalan RTC Judge Henry Arles.

The reason – no need to let Vice Governor Alvarez hang with this on his shoulders during the campaign period.

But now, the NBI shall have already known the weight of their pieces of evidence against those charged in the Arles murder.

In fairness to the NBI, it is the brother-in-law and son of Arles who are really pushing for the early resolution of the case.

Arles’ brother-in-law, Frank Brittanico, and the latter’s son should volunteer their services as private prosecutors to the Justice Department. They cannot just poke their teeth into the pie with the NBI now at the helm of the probe into the Arles slaying.

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Meanwhile, Bacolod City won as one of the top four contenders in the 2012 Search for the Most Business Friendly City in the Philippines by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

This is really a feather in the cap of City Mayor Evelio Leonardia who received the plaque from PCCI VP Jose Alenadro, ECP President Edgardo Lacson, UP Dean Edna Kho, president George Barcelona, Angela Garcia of AIM and Dennis Miralles of DTI.

Again kudos and my sincere contratulations.*

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