Pinoy Ako Blogger Jover Laurio Defends Cebu City Mayor Tommy Osmena Illegal Drugs Accusation

Whenever someone is publicly accused of a crime, the objective way to view it is to realize that accusations as well as defenses against those accusations all still have to be scrutinized in a court of law.

One clear indication of a shill or paid hack is their readiness to attack or defend someone accused of a crime. Another is indication is that they will discredit, dismiss, and ignore anything contrary to their view.

Pinoy Ako Blogger Jover Laurio recently published an open letter supporting Cebu City Mayor Tommy Osmena against an impending complaint which Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre says he is readying.

According to reports, the complaint being prepared will be based on an affidavit and a witness’ testimony saying that Mayor Osmena is on the payroll of drug lords.

Aguirre identified the witness as Reynaldo Diaz alias “Jumbo” who executed an affidavit on Nov. 23, 2016. Diaz is the cousin of the late Jeffrey Diaz alias “Jaguar.”

In the affidavit of the witness, Aguirre said Osmeña allegedly received P2 million for hospitalization expenses in 2013 and P5-million during the 2016 elections.

Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/978319/doj-eyes-drug-case-vs-cebu-city-mayor-osmena-aguirre#ixzz5B5LR5bG1 

In order to appreciate just how premature and overeager Laurio’s letter of support is, let me point out that the filing of a complaint (presumably with the National Prosecutorial Service) precedes the possible filing of formal charges.

At this point, as far as my understanding as a non-lawyer goes, Osmena hasn’t even been formally accused or charged with a crime.

What Secretary Aguirre stated in the article I quoted was his intention to have the affidavit/witness linking Mayor Osmena to the drug trade investigated and if basis is found, formal charges against Osmena should be filed.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your much loved DUE PROCESS at work here.

Does Laurio want Justice Secretary Aguirre to ignore information which could potentially lead to charging someone who committed a crime? Shouldn’t public government officials be held accountable and their lives subjected to scrutiny?

A well known Public Relations practitioner who specializes in litigation PR once told me that negative publicity trained against those filing information on a crime is one way to sow doubt on the highly probably unfavorable outcome of a case. 

Indeed, most of Laurio’s post wreaks of a poorly played attempt to discredit Justice Secretary Aguirre.

First by making fun of Aguirre’s wig.

Then name dropping Vice President Leni Robredo, who seems to be siding with Cebu City Osmena.

Thing is, I didn’t expect Laurio to be wise to the real value of what Robredo said about Osmena and that is next to nothing.

Leni says, “matagal na kasama sa trabaho” (English translation: “they’ve worked together for a long time”). Osmena is mayor of Cebu city and Jesse Robredo was mayor of Naga city, how can they work together? Even in a figurative sense, how can this be a basis of assessing Osmena’s character?

Moreover, it doesn’t even say anything about the merit of the information about to be filed on Osmena and this is chiefly because Leni, unless she has spies in Aguirre’s office, doesn’t know what the information will contain.

If there is ANY value in Leni’s statement, it is to endear herself to those who voted for and supported Osmena in the hopes of getting their support. If Osmena is formally accused for having received money from drug lords and loses support from his kababayans, I doubt Robredo will brandish her “close” association with him.

Although I had initially speculated that Jover Laurio had been “hired” to write a post “defending” Osmena, I realize now that it may also be part of the continuing effort of a “well oiled infrastructure” that supports the decriminalization of currently illegal drugs — marijuana, LSD, MDMA, etcetera.

Human Rights Watch, an organization which seems allied with the likes of Robredo and others in the opposition, stated “Human Rights Watch calls on governments to decriminalize all personal use and possession of drugs.”

Of course, that may sound like a conspiracy theory but not nearly as out-of-this-world as Cebu city Mayor Osmena’s claims that BDO is behind Aguirre’s move to link him to illegal drugs.

If I were Osmena, I’d probably fire whoever is running his Facebook page because posts like this make him look a bit buzzed. (Sniff! Sniff!)

Anyway, as long as Justice Secretary Aguirre is looking into information linking Osmena to illegal drugs, he might as well look into something that a source of mine told me:

“A guy named Franz Sabalones replaced Jaguar in Cebu City and he is said to be very close to the police. When the police in Cebu city were replaced, Mayor Osmena was afraid that his income from the illegal drug trade would disappear. In return, Osmena took away the city’s support for the PNP in Cebu city. Now Tomas is waging war with Aguirre knowing that his links to the illegal drug trade will be uncovered because of this links with Jaguar and Sabalones.”