By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
Trouble is brewing in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). On Friday, Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr. was wounded when his convoy was ambushed in Maguing town. Four of his escorts were killed on the spot.
Adiong, who was hit below the right side of the waist, has long been a staunch supporter of peace initiatives in Lanao del Sur, a province crucial to the formation and success of the BARMM. His relatives swear he has no “rido” or family feud with anyone.
His ambush, initially blamed on a local terrorist group fashioned from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is disconcerting. It casts an evil shadow over hard-earned strides toward peaceful autonomy in governance.
This should be condemned in the same pitch that our highest leadership and security forces protest China’s intrusions in the West Philippine Sea. That act of terror deserves more than the diplomacy or patience our government has been offering Beijing.
Is she the ‘Onion Queen’?
Lilia “Leah” Matabang Cruz is the businesswoman loosely referred to as “Mrs. Sibuyas” or the “Onion Queen.” Both titles are far from flattering, given the rut Filipinos have been in while prices of onions soared beyond reach.
It would be wrong to judge her by her looks on TV as she was grilled by members of the House of Representatives last Feb. 8 and 14. However, there’s something peculiar and suspicious about her inability to provide forthright answers to elementary questions on the pricing of onions and what happened to stock after being hauled from the farms.
Her answers were very hollow and evasive for a businesswoman who knows both sides of the street — as a financier of onion farms who buys their produce wholesale; and as an importer who once had the record of cornering “at least 75% of the total garlic importation in the country” as per the Department of Justice’s Office of Competition or OFC.
A background check on Cruz would also yield a resolution in the House filed in 2013 by Cavite 4th District Rep. Elpidio Barzaga accusing her of putting up dummy companies to create a monopoly on garlic and onion importation in alleged cahoots with the Bureau of Customs and the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Plant Industry.
She was also the “Leah Cruz” who the Ombudsman indicted with former Agriculture Secretary Prospero Alcala and 22 others over the garlic cartel fiasco in 2018.
When smoke rises this way from Ms. Cruz’s direction, it’s hard to believe there’s no fire. Still, she needs a fair shake, just as the public deserves to see more of her in these televised investigations to see her rattle.
In the end, the hoarder of all hoarders who laughed his/her way to the bank must be put behind bars.
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