By Nora Soriño
ILIGAN City ― From out of the blue, a curiosity called “Peryahan ng Bayan” materialized out of nowhere. And immediately, this raised a three-sided battle.
I thought there are only two sides to a battle. But this one is three. I mean three “battlers” haha. Namely, the “red” team under city mayor Celso G. Regencia, the “blue” team led by Cong. Frederick Siao and of course, this “Peryahan.”
This is illegal, cried the city folks. The police should do something about this. CGR was emphatic about this and said, “If the police can’t do anything about stopping this, I will lead it myself.”
Maybe there were insinuations that he, Siao could be behind this. For I heard him saying that he doesn’t know about this, much less involved in it. Maybe because the booths for the “Peryahan” are colored blue?
The blue team “propagandist” in Boy Bondoc Decena challenged CGR to walk his talk. Of stopping the “Peryahan” himself if the police can’t. For gambling isn’t good. Especially in this Covid time where people are reduced to the lowest terms.
Meanwhile, a “red propagandist” in Jongjong Borlado stopped for the moment his favorite topic ― that of demonizing Siao and company. He had to hear for the moment the side of the “Peryahan” people as plenty of blue-colored booths now sprang in various barangays of the city. The PCSO has said that this “Peryahan” should be stopped, Borlado said.
But a certain Atty. Bernard Vitriolo told Borlado that the company, Globaltech Online Corp. which operates this “Peryahan” has a decision from the Court of Appeals in … (somewhere in Luzon I forgot the place) that this is “legal.”
Hence their move to operate all over the country!
So, the plot thickens. This is interesting, with one “battler” the blue team laughing at the sidelines.
But really, this ain’t a laughing matter.
(Email: norasorino2@gmail.com)
