Baronda-Treñas Truce Inevitable

By Herbert Vego

POLITICALLY correct! That’s how this corner views the “love” letter of Julie “Love-Love” Grace Baronda, the incoming vice mayor of Iloilo City, to incoming mayor Raisa Treñas-Chu. She reportedly sought political reconciliation.

Why?  Hasn’t her sister, Rep. Julienne “Jam-Jam” Baronda, made it clear that any move to reconcile should come from the Treñases?

“If that happened,” Love-Love said in a radio interview, “we could have responded right away. Who wouldn’t want reconciliation?”

In a sense, there was no direct clash that marred the political differences between the two ladies who had successfully run for different positions. Raisa had avoided running for congresswoman against Jam-Jam to run for mayor in lieu of her dad, incumbent Mayor Jerry Treñas, who is returning to private life.

The only irritation that marred their civility was the fact that the Barondas fielded a complete slate of Sangguniang Panlungsod candidates under Team Gugma against the administration’s Team Uswag.

Alas, it was only Sheen Mabilog who made it as councilor-elect from Team Gugma.

If that is no indication that the Baronda sisters are not strong enough to challenge the Treñas camp in 2028, then I don’t know what is.

Moral lesson: If you can’t harm ‘em, harmonize.

-oOo-

LET THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL BEGIN

SENATE President Francis Escudero having taken his oath as the presiding officer of the impeachment court for Vice President Sara Duterte’s impending impeachment trial, we expect the other senators to do likewise today, in effect convening the impeachment court..

Kudos to Senators Risa Hontiveros and Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III for standing their ground against their colleagues who would want to abort the impeachment trial.

Their key weapon was the fundamental principle that public office is a public trust, requiring public officials to be accountable to the people in accordance with Article XI, Section 1 of the Constitution.

It says, “Public Office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must at

all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity,

loyalty, and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.”

The impeachment complaint against VP Sara hinges on charges that include corruption, plotting to assassinate President Bongbong Marcos, involvement in extrajudicial killings and incitement to insurrection and public disorder.

While it has become obvious that most of the sitting senators are sympathetic to the impeached vice-president, they seem to be afraid of having to defend her when the trial rolls on.

The same could be said of most of the incoming and come-backing senators of the 20^th Congress, assuming that the trial crosses over.

Is it because they know there could be no effective shield against the Articles of Impeachment that would unfold as grounds for her removal from office?

Is it because they have made a verbal pact with Inday Sara to kill the trial on technical grounds?

How much – err, how many – are the reasons behind their fawning behavior?

-oOo-

MORE POWER POWERS UP 

ALMOST 50,000 of the more than 100,000 consumers of electricity distributed by MORE Power are using “MORE PowerUp”.

It is a mobile app developed by MORE Power to allow users to manage their power consumption and account details. It offers features like checking consumption history, viewing billing transactions, making payments, staying updated with announcements, managing multiple accounts, and reporting power outages.

Users can report power outages, illegal power connections, and pilferage through the app.

The app provides alerts for announcements, billing reminders seven days before the due date, and allows users to book appointments for addressing concerns.

The app also includes an appliance calculator to estimate the cost of using different appliances.

As of today, 49,191 users can use the MORE Power application online. Their number continues to rise.