If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
— American humorist Mark Twain


MAYPAJO, Caloocan City — Before proceeding to our topic for today, let me just point out that the lowering of the price of rice in the market at ₱20 per kilo, which starts next week in the Visayas region only, spunks of politics.
Why so?
It's worth to note that the Marcos Jr. administration has actually failed to fulfill the president's campaign promise before the 2022 presidential elections that he would lower the price of rice to ₱20 per kilo.
The fact is that in lowering the price of rice in the market, the national government and LGUs will have to share the cost to bridge the ₱13 price gap from the current market price of about ₱33 per kilo.
It's not true then that the price really decreased to ₱20.

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THE report on an alleged document outlining the campaign strategies of the administration-backed Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas going into the final three weeks before the May 12 elections, including a push to impeach Vice President 'Inday' Sara Duterte-Carpio and to have candidates she supports disqualified, is quite alarming.
We consider the document, titled 'Mid-Election Campaign Sprint Action Plan', as genuine as it was signed by no less that House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, who is also the executive vice president of the Lakas-Christian Mustlim Democrats (Lakas-CMD).
However, while the source of the leak assured that the document was authentic, Alyansa campaign manager Toby Tiangco dismissed it as a fake and said Dalipe himself categorically denied its authenticity.
What's worrisome, though, is that it graphically highlights the key objectives of 'Oplan Horus'.
To quote on the report, the document cited that President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. (PBBM) "continues to be attacked and smeared" by the "evil" forces of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is detained in The Hague awaiting trial for crimes against humanity in connection with his bloody war on drugs.
"His kindness and tolerance should not be exploited by the opponents, and his reign shall (sic) defended by every beneficiary of the Alyansa. According to the president's instructions, Lakas-CMD will continue to advance the Oplan Horus as a staunch ally to maintain the Alyansa's advantage post midterm election," the dossier read.
The document likewise noted that the Alyansa "has made encouraging progress" a year since Oplan Horus was implemented.
"We have greatly weakened Duterte's evil force according to the Oplan Horus," the document said, noting that the alliance is confident that the forces of former president Duterte would not be able to challenge the leadership of Marcos before 2028.
, Among the accomplishments mentioned in the midterm strategy were the creation of a core campaign team led by Speaker Martin Romualdez, Partido Federal ng Pilipinas president Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. and current Alyansa campaign manager and Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco; alignment of parties under the Alliance — Lakas-CMD, Nacionalista Party, National Unity Party, and the Nationalist People's Coalition — with the president's Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) as a central force; the endorsement of "VIP" candidates such as Rep. Erwin Tulfo, and former senators Panfilo Lacson and Manny Pacquiao, Sens. Bong Revila and Lito Lapid and Makati Mayor Abby Binay; the raising of campaign funds, including P8 billion to cover rallies and logistics and "cash and propaganda fees."
Under attack strategies, the paper included the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte, in which law enforcement agencies and Congress worked with former senator Antonio Trillanes IV to obtain an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC); investigation of Duterte's war on drugs in the House of Representatives; the launch of impeachment proceedings against the vice president; weakening the Duterte alliance through the arrest of the televangelist Apollo Quiboloy, which would put a squeeze on Duterte's campaign funds; countering disinformation spread by Quiboloy's organization by launching an information campaign on the drug war, smuggling and private armies.
The document also listed next moves such as speeding the vice president's impeachment at the Senate, "using FLR (funds for later release) to win Senate votes" through Senate President Francis Escudero; pulling down the ratings of Duterte candidates who benefited from public sympathy for the former president by working with the ICC to obtain arrest warrants for his key allies, Sens. Bong Go and Ronald dela Rosa; having the House and law enforcement agencies investigate the drug war and the abuse of confidential funds; getting key candidates disqualified by filing drug and murder cases against Duterte, his son Rep. Paolo Duterte, Go and dela Rosa in local courts, countering disinformation by shutting down pro-Duterte fake accounts on social media and freezing Duterte's assets.

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