Questions and presidentiables

The popularity of Senator Grace Poe and the way she answers questions raised against her, especially about her citizenship, is amazing.

The interim president of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), Rep.  Toby Tiangco, had asserted that Poe is not qualified to run for president or vice president because  her certificate of candidacy  shows that her residency is less than the 10 years  required by the Constitution for those  running for president and vice president.

Lately, however,  Tiangco apologized to  Poe for causing a strain in her relationship with the Binays. He  heeded the advice of Sen. Nancy Binay not to comment further on  the issue.

Poe is popular, performing better than veteran candidates by ranking first in the  the last senatorial elections. She became even more popular after her exemplary handling of the Senate investigation on  the Mamasapano incident.

There is no question about her popularity.

She may even win the  Liberal Party’s nomination over  Interior  Secretary Mar Roxas. President Aquino may anoint her  because Roxas has not fared well in  surveys.

But let me raise a serious question that Poe and her supporters should answer: Is she competent to become president of the Philippines considering that she has no experience in running a government, especially a local government unit? She has no track record as a chief executive, only as MTRCB chairperson.

Being president is no joke.  It is a very serious job that requires  vast experience especially in addressing the multifarious problems of our country. I would like to listen to the answer of Senator  Poe on  the valid and legitimate issues raised.

Many people are pushing for Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao City to run for president because of his sterling track record as mayor especially when it comes to peace and order.

Duterte is competent and could be  a good president.  But he should answer the questions about his human rights violations, because the law requires that due process must be observed  before he is judged as guilty.

Residents of Davao City should be asked about Duterte’s  human rights violations. Remember that we Filipinos protested when faced with the same issues during the time of  the late President Ferdinand Marcos, when students and opposition members disappeared.

Are we Filipinos ready for Mayor Rodrigo Duterte? And what is Duterte’s relationship with Roxas?  Duterte declared in a meeting  in Cebu that if  Roxas runs for president, he will not run.

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Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama explained his position on the city’s nonpayment of its  obligation to ACT, the school owned by Rep. Bebot Abellanosa.

He made it clear that he is cautious against paying because of the decision of the Office of the Ombudsman finding Abellanosa guilty of conflict of interest for taking part in the deliberations of the scholarship program of the city when he was still a councilor.

As a matter of fact, Abellanosa moved for the approval of the scholarship ordinance in the City Council.

The mayor  says he cannot just ignore the decision of the anti-graft office, and that he is trying his  best not to be sued for spending money on something that  has infirmities in the first place.

He said that he has learned his lesson with the calamity fund issue, when he initially proposed to grant an assistance of  P10,000 but this was increased by Councilor  Sisinio Andales to P20,000. What is ironic is that the mayor is now being sued for receiving the amount   approved by the City Council and for implementing an ordinance that was declared as  valid  by the Department of Budget and Management.

Rama welcomes the suit filed  by the ACT. For him,  this would help in  resolving the controversy and  spare the city scholars from the issue. He also told us that the presidents of other schools are happy with the scholarship program because there is no longer a monopoly by one school.

With that, Mayor Rama is just being fair in the implementation of the scholarship program.