Last week, I was surprised to see upon my desk a brown envelope from the Law Department of the Commission on Elections headquarters in Manila, addressed in my name as “respondent” that was sent by registered mail last March 1, 2024.
The contents consisting of some 30 pages was a notice to me, fellow respondent and Tingnan Natin columnist Pepito Lucero, and complainant Manuel Tablizo, regarding Minute Resolution No. 23-0652 of the COMELEC en banc held on September 27, 2023 in connection with Election Offense Case No. 16-026.
The complaint (I could no longer recall the exact details) most likely pertained to a comment Mr. Lucero made in his weekly column regarding Tablizo’s candidacy in a past election.
The minute resolution of the COMELEC adopted the recommendation of Law Department Director Maria Norina S. Tangaro-Casingal, as submitted by Chairman George Erwin M. Garcia, recommending the omnibus dismissal of Election Offense cases, Fact-Finding Investigation cases, and Administrative cases filed before the Law Department in 2016 and earlier, pursuant to several Supreme Court decisions dismissing cases for violation of the right to speedy disposition of cases.
“*(T)he pendency for more than six (6) years of the preliminary investigation of several election cases which can be hardly considered to involve complicated legal and factual issues appears to involve an inordinate delay which violates the right of the accused to speedy disposition of cases,” Dir. Tangaro-Casingal stated.
Of the 666 election offense cases still pending preliminary investigation and/or resolution in the Law Department and field offices, 209 Fact-Finding Investigation cases and 32 Administrative cases, the case against Lucero and Gianan was the only one from Catanduanes.
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Two teams from the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) have been going around the 11 towns of Catanduanes since March 4, 2024, conducting field data collection and validation activities.
Their activity is in connection with the Updating of the Philippine Gazetteer Project, which intends to produce a look-up list reference tool for all geographic names and features in each of the country’s 146 cities and 1,488 municipalities with corresponding locations.
The tool, which would be available online, would enable the user to locate, among others, features such as rock formations, waterfalls, beaches and other sites, in a given town. Another click produces a photo of the feature as well as historical facts and sound recording of the way the name of the feature is spelled, syllabicated and pronounced by native speakers of each locality/
Six personnel from the NAMRIA Mapping and Geodesy Branch and Support Services – Engr. Claudine Charish Custodio, Lawrence Enaje, Mary Grace Castillo, David Formento, Vladimir Beltran and Mark Elpher Puquiz – are conducting the activity in each town, presenting draft copies of the topographic maps to the municipal mayor and stakeholders for correction and comments.
In Virac, Mayor Samuel Laynes provided assistance to Engr. Custodio and Ms. Castillo in going to the Dugui area where they will try to locate the Silungan ning Higante where fossils of nine ammonite species were found in 2012 by Philippine and Japanese scientists with the help of the late Virac LGU personnel officer Oseas Alberto.
It was Alberto who first discovered the ammonite site by accident in 2007 while on a trek to get samples of small endemic fishes in mountain streams and rivers for possible breeding purposes.
The NAMRIA team is also interested in locating a possible tourist site along a river in Dugui Too where three waterfalls are located along with a serene pool surrounded by rocky outcrops at the side.
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PRAISE THE LORD. An elderly lady was well-known for her faith and for her boldness in talking about it. She would stand on her front porch and shout “PRAISE THE LORD!”
Next door to her lived an atheist who would get so angry at her proclamations he would shout, “There ain’t no Lord!!”
Hard times set in on the elderly lady, and she prayed for GOD to send her some assistance. She stood on her porch and shouted “PRAISE THE LORD. GOD, I NEED FOOD!! I AM HAVING A HARD TIME. PLEASE LORD, SEND ME SOME GROCERIES!!”
The next morning the lady went out on her porch and noted a large bag of groceries and shouted, “PRAISE THE LORD.”
The neighbor jumped from behind a bush and said, “Aha! I told you there was no Lord. I bought those groceries, God didn’t.”
The lady started jumping up and down and clapping her hands and said, “PRAISE THE LORD. He not only sent me groceries, but He made the devil pay for them. Praise the Lord!”