ACCORDING to the police, in a stunning disclosure Wednesday (August 1), Jessielou Cadungog is a "drug personality" whose name, PNP regional chief Debold Sinas said, is in the PNP and President Rodrigo Duterte's narcotics list.
To most people, he is barangay councilor and former barangay captain of Tejero, Cebu City and, to fewer people, a labor leader and vice chairman of Opascor.
Opascor or Oriental Port & Allied Services Corp. has dominated the arrastre and stevedoring business at the Cebu International Port since 1990. It occupies a 12-hectare facility at the CIP with world-class equipment and provides port and ancillary services to vessels that call at the CIP.
When they talk of Opascor, they usually mention oodles of money because it is a highly profitable enterprise, which must have made its officials, including Cadungog, and its owners, supposedly the workers, extremely wealthy.
A fact that made many watchers of the local scene raise eyebrows when the PNP alleged that Cadungog was into drugs. As manufacturer, trafficker, protector or user? Chief Sinas did not specify: just "drug personality" who is, he said, in two lists: PNP's and Duterte's.
One's wealth or affluence doesn't rule out his ties to illegal drugs but, in Cadungog's case, it requires tougher evidence. A mere allegation of being in the list is not enough for a skeptical public or a court that routinely subjects evidence to a rigorous test.
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ALU-TUCP's blast
Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), on the same day the alleged ambush on Cadungog was made (Monday, July 30) condemned (1) the attempt to kill Cadungog (which was foiled and instead a policeman was shot dead by the barangay official's driver-bodyguard) and (2) the "sordid attempt to justify and cover up" the police involvement.
Michael C. Mendoza, ALU-TUCP president, issued the press statement, titled "Ambush Chills Labor Movement."
Not only did ALU-TUCP call it an ambush. It also called out the alleged police "cover-up" to make it appear as a legitimate police operation.
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Cadungog's guns
Region police chief Sinas said he would have the license for 13 guns revoked. It was not known, maybe the reporters did not ask, in what capacity he had 13 firearms: as an individual or as an Opascor official. Does he keep them for himself or, as Opascor vice chairman, for his workers at the port?
The guns and the men probably explain how Cadungog repelled the murder attempt last Monday or previous to that. Does it also explain Sinas's description of the barangay official cum labor leader? He called Cadungog "paranoid." Paranoia is a form of mental illness characterized mainly by one's constant, irrational fear that other people are trying to harm him.
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Rama's conditional promise
Former mayor Mike Rama, in announcing there would only be one candidate for Cebu City mayor in 2019, said, "I can sacrifice myself but I cannot sacrifice my dreams of a greater Cebu City."
If he would be the "supreme sacrifice," he said Wednesday (August 1), "so be it."
Parsing the statement, a City Hall watcher says, "It's what it seems to say, that is, he'll junk his ambition to return as city mayor in favor of the opposition getting back City Hall. Or this: his 'dreams of a greater Cebu City' will depend on his becoming mayor again. Ergo he may not have to sacrifice his ambition."
Convoluted? A simpler promise would be to abide by the decision of members of United Barug Team Rama in a specified process under specified rules, including regulations on who can vote and how the vote will be counted.
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