POGO in aid of elections?
“The estrangement of Alvarez and Jubahib, who once served as the former’s chief of staff and was picked to run for governor, gave Dujali an unsolicited advantage.
Daily Tribune“The estrangement of Alvarez and Jubahib, who once served as the former’s chief of staff and was picked to run for governor, gave Dujali an unsolicited advantage.
It takes courage and determination to venture into illegal POGO operations which have been the subject of kilometric congressional hearings in aid of elections.
In Davao del Norte, in laid-back Barangay Manay in Panabo City, the National Bureau of Investigation raided last Friday what looked like an innocuous bodega after receiving a tip.
An initial probe suggested the POGO started about three months ago, making it appear the foreign nationals who worked in the scuttled POGO operations in Luzon had quietly moved to Davao.
Barangay Manay is located in the second district of Davao del Norte and Rep. Alan Dujali was jolted into promptly filing a resolution in Congress urging an immediate and thorough investigation into the people behind the illicit POGO operation and how they were able to sneak into the barangay 56 Chinese, three Malaysian and one Filipino workers.
Congressman Dujali, who is running for governor of the province, said the group couldn’t have ventured into the area without the backing of local authorities.
Well, with the midterm elections coming, it looks like this illegal POGO operation is also in aid of elections. Whoever is behind it is in it to raise funds for the May polls.
The election fever in Davao del Norte has gone bonkers with a mishmash of treachery and unexpected alignments of political forces.
The ruling Partido Reporma skippered by Rep. Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez and his sidekick, the incumbent Gov. Edwin Jubahib, split right down the middle when the governor surreptitiously flew to Manila to take his oath as a member of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas chaired by President Bongbong Marcos. As if that were not enough, Jubahib fielded his daughter, Clarice, as his running mate in the vice gubernatorial race.
Alvarez, whose term as a congressman will soon end, had earlier announced that he would be running for vice governor. He had no inkling that a Brutus was lurking in his midst.
Aye, there’s the rub! The duo that everyone thought were inseparable are now irreconcilable.
The estrangement of Alvarez and Jubahib, who once served as the former’s chief of staff and was his pick to run for governor, gave Dujali an unsolicited advantage.
Jubahib effectively lost the support of his boss who is now pelting him with issues like his double suspension for abuse of authority and his misuse of provincial government resources.
In the meanwhile, we don’t know into whose camp the POGO backlash will fall. Certainly, the fallout will seriously impact the officials involved. Representative Dujali wants the probe conducted immediately, election or no election, to ferret out the culprits behind the illegal offshore games.