‘Be careful
what you wish for’
DISTRICT 1 Councilor Litlit Macrohon never wavers in his continuous fight versus alleged massive corruption activities in our local government under the current administration of Lady Mayor Beng Climaco.
He waged his anti-corruption battle in the name of transparency and accountability, since winning the election in 2019, although already there as a substitute for one veteran alderman accused and convicted for alleged crime of Estafa after the High Tribunal found him guilty for gross violation of the Anti-Bouncing Check law -- hence his removal from his post.The 40-year old neophyte city legislator from
the West Coast described his latest stumble on the alleged whopping amount of
funding repairs of comfort rooms in various local government facilities worth
P15 million as “totally absurd and irrational.”
During their budget hearings, Macrohon asked
City Engineer Chris Navarro if the tiles of these toilets to be constructed are
made of gold as the large amounts clearly would indicate it to be so.
Macrohon griped in Chavacano: “Ta pensa yo si demio
ese sen bien grande yo ay puede planta casa. Cosa clase gaha ese comfort room
gold el piso, cosa clase de plano gaha ese?”
Engineer Navarro said his office will implement
the construction, rehabilitation and improvement of the different comfort rooms
at the public market amounting to P3 million, City Hall worth P5 million, Centro
Latino worth P3 million and at the Grandstand worth P2 million.
Macrohon chided if he has P3 million, he would
already be able to construct a house with a big comfort room. He revealed that
the majority in the Council will have to lower these amounts and to divert it
on other significant projects.
But wait a minute Mr. Councilman, before you can
do that, study first President Rodrigo Duterte’s brilliant mind when he
addressed one of his overflowing crowds in General Santos City during its
momentous event a few years back. What’s it all about? The tough-talking President
Duterte CHASTISED the government procurement law that explicitly provides LOWEST
BIDDING as its standard rules to win proposed major infrastructure government
projects.
In his own lengthy speech, President Duterte was
emphatically pointing out: “Itong sa corruption, matagal ko ayaw yan. Puputulin
ko yan talaga. Kayo mga COA, do not insist on this, because magka-away tayo
dito. Hindi ako susunod sa inyo. Don’t give me that shit! Alam mo itong lowest
bid, ito naka-leche’,leche’ ang buhay ng mga Filipino. Matagal na yan. Kung may
project dyan, example a building worth P100 million, may mga grupo dito sa
Pilipinas, umi-ikot lang yan, nago-golf lang mga yan,at kung marinig saan yong bidding, doon yan sila
pupunta..they go there and meet in cabal, and agree to rig every
bidding..mahirap kasi sa lowest bidding, bigyan pa sa barangay captain, mag
bigay pa..I’m not trying to offend mga consehal,mayors, governors, o Presidente
kung Malaki yong( Proyecto).”
The President continued: “Yan ang problema
magbigay pa doon, pati hasta sa mga barangay because under the law, you have to
sign. Ilan na lang matira sa contractor? Wala na siyang kita. Kung pa build
niya ng P100 million (project), so he’ll give you an infrastructure worth na
lang P45 million. I’ll no longer tolerate this. Ito ang proposal ko - P100
million itong building, okay sabi ko sa kahat ng mga contractors, kaya mo P100 million? Tayuan mo ako ng
building worth P100 million, pagkatapos bayaran kita. Paghinaw-shao mo ako, pati ang mga cement (wala
sa kalidad) no, nada! Hindi ako bayaran sa iyo. Sino yong contractor para
mahiya? Poreso ayaw ko yong lowest bidding. Ayaw ko yong barato, kasi
babarutiin tayo, kaya mga barato.”
See its nitty-gritty behind?
The City Engineer’s Office should better justify
its P15 million worth of constructing better comfort rooms at our public market
worth its amount of P3 million; awesome rehab of City Hall worth P5 million;
Centro Latino improvement worth P3 million; Pasonanca worth P2 million and the Grandstand
worth P2 million.
Such projects apparently are falling under our Lady
Mayor Beng Climaco’s “BUILD BACK BETTER ZAMBOANGA!” following the infamous
21-day September 9, 2013 Zamboanga Siege after over 400 heavily-armed MNLF
group attempted to invade, and hoist its own flag at our City Hall, supposedly
at the behest of their disgruntled leader MNLF founder Nur Misuari.
SOME SIGNS of REAL PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT in Zamboanga
under the Climaco administration are the following: The mushrooming of SCHOOL
BUILDINGS for Department of Education’s Junior and Senior high schools (our
Mayor sees to it there are enough classrooms for its students whose school
populations keeps on growing), and together with it is the building of
bleachers and gymnasiums for the student’s physical education and recreational
activities; the conversion of Ayala and Vitali Vocational-Technical Schools
into a local City College now called Colegio dela Ciudad de Zamboanga which is
one of her priority projects; then her S.H.E. projects that benefit so much our
City of Zamboanga in terms of Security, Health and Education in the form of a
lot of them - to include building infrastructure projects for their
conveniences and protection from hazardous elements outside, etc.
For her FEAT, to THE ENVY OF HER POLITICAL FOES,
Mayor Beng Climaco was conferred the “2018 World Mayor Prize and Commendations,”
exclusively bestowed upon women mayors who have OUTSTANDING AND LONG-LASTING
CONTRIBUTIONS to their communities. (Top 5 World’s
Best Mayors by the prestigious City Mayors Foundation.)
Can you beat that, huh? Not really playing biased here. What I want to point out is, WAIT FOR YOUR OWN APPOINTED TIME to be mayor too, someday. Too much rocking the boat can RUIN EVERYTHING for someone with big potentials to lead La Bella Zamboanga one day. So, be careful what you wish for. See you guys, next time around. Praise the Father. (Mario Feliciano)
