Mike A twitting Senators

I like First Gentleman Mike Arroyo this time coming out and twitting the five Senators who called for President Arroyo to resign. Mike Arroyo told the five Senators that if the President were to resign the Senators should resign first. The First Gentleman was referring to the five Senators led by Senate President Franklin Drilon, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Senators Panfilo Lacson, Jinggoy Estrada, and Jamby Madrigal.

It's time Mike Arroyo stands up. And for all you know many people will side with him. Before he just let the critics pummel him left and right without answering. This time he has shown his fangs. He fired back by citing statistics. He said the Indexing and Monitoring Section of the Senate has data about the Senators where Senate President Franklin Drilon authored 33 bills and 12 resolutions, Pimentel filed 62 bills and 27 resolutions, Lacson filed 26 bills and 5 resolutions, and Madrigal 17 bills and 39 resolutions.

There was no record for Estrada. Did Jinggoy not file even a single bill or resolution?

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The First Gentleman said the five authored a total of 221 bills and resolutions, just 7 percent of the 3,451 bills and resolutions filed in the Senate as of March 29. The average of the five in 45, lower than the whole Senate average of 144 arrived at by 3,451 over 24.

It is on this that he challenged the five Senators to work harder. Five Senators filing only seven percent of the total bills filed by all the Senators.

But Mike reserved his biggest blast at Sen. Jinggoy Estrada who recently claimed the President's husband had links to big-time smugglers. Arroyo said Estrada was lying.

So, it's good that he came up to answer the charges. Had he kept quiet people's perception is that the charge is true. And this encourages more so-called "exposes" because the one supposed to be exposed does not answer.

So, this time some people must be careful to attack Mike Arroyo because he fights back. And he can gather evidences easily.

If for every charge against him, he stands up and charge back, I am very sure those who plan to hit him will think twice.

What if he has evidences to back up his charge? An attacker can get into trouble.

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Councilor Ana Marie Palermo urged for a truce on the Bredco issue in deference to the Holy Week. I think Councilor Lyndon Caña, a very Godly official, will agree to it.

And I hope they make it a cooling off period so that when they come back after the Holy Week, sanctified by their Holy Week penance, they can discuss the matter very cordially.

And there will be no charge of the city council made as an "abortion clinic" where a resolution is conceived and it is also where the same resolution is killed.

Bredco Director Jack Ma-alat spoke before the Rotary Club of Bacolod Thursday and he said, there is no provision of a takeover in the CRRA (comprehensive revised reclamation agreement). I hope I got Jack right. But, this is my thinking and the thinking of many, a takeover will be bad for the city because Bredco will go to court. How long will that take? I asked. IBP President Willy Mirano showed me three fingers. Three years? I asked. No, thirty years, he said.

Thirty years? That's more than a generation. I hope they can have a solution after the Holy Week.

In fairness to Councilor Caña, he gives credit to Atty. Sammy Palanca for building the port. But he believes important things are yet to be addressed, especially the obligations for Bredco to the city.

Jack Ma-alat said all these are being addressed already.

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Lately there were many deaths in the highway caused mainly by parked cargo trucks without parking lights. The last one was in Manapla where three were killed and two injured. There were many more in previous weeks.

All these years, since the mid-60s when cargo trucks replaced rail cars to bring sugarcanes to the sugar mills because of the scrapping of the district system, we have always called on cargo truck operators to be careful.

A few years ago, big court cases came up because of prominent people getting killed after plowing into a parked cargo truck.

But, this too, is being forgotten. What happens now?

What made it worse is the three-wheeled monsters plying our highways without the safeguards. They are just plain deaths traps. The Manapla victims were tricycle passengers.

Of course, we cannot ask where is the highway patrol because the Highway Patrol Group has long been abolished because they were patrolling everything except the highway.

But police can do the job. Police should tow cargo trucks getting stranded in the highway and charge the owner for the cost of towing. The problem is there is not enough tow trucks.

I think in cities, the engineering department has facilities for this.

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My condolence to the bereaved family of "Interpol General" Julio Quirino, the "World Commander of the International Police" according to him. He died at the Sanitarium Hospital the other day. The cause of his death was not revealed.

"General" Quirino has been my friend. And I took him for what he was, a self-proclaimed "General." He was a very nice man but just misunderstood.

I enjoyed humoring him. I could feel he enjoyed being humored too.

In 2001 he presented himself as a candidate for mayor. He wanted me to interview him. I did by telling him to come to me. After shaking his hand, we talked and he was speaking in Tagalog.

I asked if he was a Tagalog and he said, he was not. Then why talk to me in Tagalog. He was honest enough to admit, "I am nervous." I said, I am only a newspaperman, how about when you face other top officials. He said, by that time, he would have learned already after winning as mayor. I interviewed him and wrote about it in a lighter vein. My readers enjoyed what I wrote about his nervousness and he enjoyed it too.

After the election, I asked him how many votes he got. He said, "I forgot." I said, if I were to have those votes I better forget too. He laughed.

I know "General" Quirino must have his grand time humoring St. Peter.*

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