Wanted: COVID campaign marshals
WHO’S minding the store when nobody’s looking?
The campaign fever for the local elections is heating up with little or no concern about consequences from complete disregard of minimum health protocols.
Hundreds of color-coded uniformed teams of local candidates are seen scouring communities handing out flyers, competing for space for their posters on every nook and cranny in all barangays, and their mobile trompas covering every paved and dirt road.
All too sudden, the minimum health standard protocols for protection against COVID-19 are visibly being ignored by the potential voters and the campaign staffs.
Can incumbent local officials of towns and cities on who are tasked to continue to enforce the wearing of face masks and observance of minimum distancing still be held accountable of a possible surge in their areas?
With no executive orders issued from either the provincial government or the election supervisor defining accountabilities for the maintenance of restrictions for the duration of the campaign period, the possibility of a sudden surge is staring down our communities.
We hope the provincial government and the Comelec will consider issuing an order directing all candidates to appoint their respective COVID marshals whose main duty will be to oversee conduct of their candidates’ campaign and be the enforcer of the health protocols in their ranks.
Travesty
RETIRED Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio has insisted that the 1997 High Court decision on the billions of estate taxes that the Marcoses owe the government is “final and executory.” But Vic Rodriguez, the lawyer of the Marcos estate administrators Imelda Marcos and Bongbong Marcos, countered that there are cases on the matter that are still pending in court. Isn’t Rodriguez, in effect, accusing Carpio of telling a lie? Now comes Caesar Dulay, the commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), saying he has written a demand to the Marcos family in December 2021 to pay their estate taxes. Next, President Duterte asked: “Why, indeed, has the BIR failed to collect the Marcos taxes” now amounting to P203 billion? As Bongbong Marcos is a presidential bet, isn’t it a travesty of our laws to see him seeking the highest post after the Supreme Court itself found him to be the biggest tax evader in the nation’s history? Whoa!
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