OFFBEAT MAIL

Dirty insinuations against a ranking official's involvement in the crash of the ill-fated twin engine that killed the top boss of the Philippines' Department of Interior and Local Governments is slowly coming into the spotlight. Media reports said that a day after the plane crash, DILG Undersecretary Rico Puno, along with some police officials, went to the condominium unit being rented by the late Secretary Jesse Robredo and his family, for reasons unknown to many people. They were asking why Puno dared to go to the late Robredo's condo unit a day after his death? Was he looking for some records related to an investigation being conducted by the late Robredo against him? It's good that the security people in that condominium building in Quezon City were not sleeping on their posts. Otherwise, the mere presence of a ranking official of the DILG, together with some police officials, may have intimidated them. Instead, they asked the visitors to write their names in th...

It's nice to hear that many people were spared from the wraths of a big tremor that hit eastern Visayas and a portion of Mindanao in the Philippines. However, the vestiges of cracks along the roads and some buildings in Samar Island, were testament to nature's fury. Volcanologists claimed the earthquake, measuring about 7.2 in the richter scale, took place in the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean. Had it occurred onshore, there's no doubt that it could have destroyed more buildings and other infrastructures. At this writing, people are still feeling the quake's aftershocks, and they have expressed fear that a tsunami might come next. According to Wikipedia, the Philippines lies within the Pacific Ring of Fire, which causes the country to have frequent seismic and volcanic activity. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said the earthquake was caused by movement on a previously undiscovered fault. Although this was already discovered...