Posted on 02/21/2003 10:43:19 AM PST by freepatriot32
FORMER Davao City mayor Luis T. Santos will be facing criminal and administrative charges for violating the city's anti-smoking ordinance.
Acting City Administrator Melchor V. Quitain said aside from the administrative complaint the city will lodge before the Office of the Ombudsman, the Davao City Police Office will also be filing criminal charges against Santos.
"That is what we agreed upon," Quitain said after meeting Davao City Police Office officials at City Hall Thursday morning.
Quitain said they will also include in the complaint Leyte Rep. Ernesto Veloso for the same infraction.
Veloso smoked inside a prohibited area while he and several congressmen conducted a congressional hearing here in Davao last week.
Veloso, after realizing his violation, later apologized but he, too, is not off the hook yet.
Although Veloso enjoys parliamentary immunity and could not be arrested for his wrongdoing, he can still be charged, according to Quitain.
Santos, on the other hand, committed his infraction during a Philippine National Police ceremonies inside Camp Catitipan a day after Veloso violated the law.
City Hall was set to file the complaint Thursday afternoon.
"With regards to the criminal charges, they will be filed by the police.
The city government is also looking into the possibility of filing a complaint against Atty. Mike Buat, a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) technical working group committee who also smoke during a gathering here.
"We have to determine if he is enjoying certain privileges," he said.
If not, Quitain said "then charges will definitely be filed."
Get use to it folks this is going to happen in america within 3 - 5 years
Duterte vows to jail Santos if seen smoking in public By Charles Raymond A. Maxey
EXASPERATED by reports that former interior secretary Luis Santos was seen smoking in public, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte Monday did not mince a word against a long-time political nemesis, saying if he sees Santos smoking in front of him, he would let him eat his cigarette and send him to jail.
"Tell Santos to smoke in front of me and I will have him eat his cigarette," Duterte was quoted by reporters as saying.
Not only that. The furious city mayor also vowed to arrest the former Davao City mayor, or physically drag him to jail, if necessary, to make him realize the City is serious about its drive against smoking in public.
"Let him repeat the act and I will do it," Duterte said. "Whether he likes it or not, he will have to bow to the majesty of the law."
Duterte was fuming mad over the publicized incident during the 12th Philippine National Police Day at the PNP 11 headquarters in Camp Catitipan last week, when Santos was seen smoking in public, in apparent disregard of the city's anti-smoking ordinance.
Reports also said Santos was smoking right in front of Chief Supt. Isidro Lapeña, regional police chief.
Santos was the first prominent personality in Davao City to have dared smoking in public.
Although he does not want to comment on behalf of the police, Duterte said he could have easily arrested Santos if only he was present that time.
"If you smoke in front of me I will arrest you. Naa lang mga tao gusto magpa-special. Mao na siguro na si Santos," Duterte said. Duterte and Santos had figured in skirmishes in the past.
When Santos was still DILG secretary he suspended Duterte for months. Duterte had also challenged Santos to a gun duel when their paths crossed in a downtown hotel some years back.
So infuriated was the mayor that he continued hurling innuendoes against Santos long after the media interview was finished. "He will have the humiliation of his life," he told city officials.
Smokers have been so thoroughly demonized that simply accusing a political opponent of smoking obviates the need to make a political argument, since smoking has now been forced into the realm of "morals."
Accusing a political opponent of smoking is now on a par with an accusation of pedophilia, so the political enemy is now neutralized. Who could possible be in favor of pedophilia or its evil twin, smoking?
This is interesting, though:
The city government is also looking into the possibility of filing a complaint against Atty. Mike Buat, a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) technical working group committee who also smoke during a gathering here.
The Moro's have been Islamic nutbags since at least Theodore Roosevelt's time.
So, I'm not sure what this remark means:
"We have to determine if he is enjoying certain privileges," he said.
If not, Quitain said "then charges will definitely be filed."
What are "certain privileges?"
He gets a pass on "religious grounds" because he's a Muslim?
My head hurts.
He may have some type of diplomatic immunity from the government because he is a 'supposed' diplomat.
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