‘In Between Columns’

Rep. Eddie Gullas said more than a mouthful of doubletalk last December 26 during the Christmas party of Naga town and barangay officials.

After favoring Carcar when he was made to choose by Senator Nene Pimentel owing to the Senate’s "one city, one district" rule, he said he has changed his mind and now will push for Naga.

He spiced up his talk with an announcement of a modest Christmas gift that was distributed to every official present.

The Naga leaders, nevertheless, accepted Gullas’ explanation (maybe because of the Christmas sweetener).

Naga Mayor Val Chiong proceeded to solicit Gullas imprimatur for his 2007 slate.

As CDN’s Job Tabada noted, the Christmas party became sort of a political meeting.

In my mind, well, the election season has finally begun.

With the last of material time for Congress to act on the Naga cityhood bid, I think Mayor Chiong should ask senators who will court him come May 2007 to support this cause in the next Senate.

I found it funny that both the camps of Boysie Belmonte and Des Mangaoang believed that the other side was behind the CDN headline on the Cebu Customs revamp. An independent observer said there might be a third interested party. Collector Silvestre? I doubt it. he had already thrown in the towel for lack of a strong backer. My take on this issue? I think the CDN scoop came from Boysie’s camp but it backfired.

Let’s see after the New Year. I don’t expect anything significant to happen at the Customs front within the next three days except Boysie’s failure to hit his target again.

The Internet used to be alien to the celebraton of Christmas. But since last night, yes on Christmas Eve almost everyone in the house were checking the computer.

"Naa na bay Internet? Naunsa man ning Smart uy!

Haha! Yes, me and my three kids — Karlo, Bordi, and Alya — can’t seem to have a complete Christmas without the Internet as well as the handy cell phone.

already had my family around me. I bought lechon and brought extra food because aside from Nanay (Doray’s mom), Mam Nats will also be present with most of my others and sisters with their spouses and kids.

Beer was flowing. Later after mass, we bought fireworks.

Still, I have to check my emails and send my post this blog.

Merry Christmas to all!

Some friends can’t believe I stayed home Monday night after treating the family to dinner. Well, that was my celebration of of my 46th birthday.

Maybe it was because of the unique configuration of the planets and stars that day. Or I simply missed the smell of home before midnight.

Is this the start of a quieter year with less nightlife? Let’s see.

Talks of a revamp at the Cebu customs house is up again. This time, people are talking of the issuance of a customs personnel order (cpo) tranferring Boysie Belmonte to Clark and bringing back Des Mangaoang to Cebu. Ten other district collectors are also affected by this sweeping revamp again.

When will this be implemented? According to the grapevine, after the Christmas parties this week.

This is unfair to the newcomers because they will inherit the bad collector records of their predecessors.

The National Organizing Committee of the 12th Summit of the Association of South East ASian Nations (ASEAN) should have realized by the now difficulty of gathering 16 heads of states come January 8-13, 2007.

The problems in terms of accommodation and traffic will also be doubly difficult with the Sinulog festival.

Can they pull this off?

The NOC is apparently confident. They will be going on vacation for the Christmas holidays and reconvene on January 8 yet.