‘Be careful what you wish for’
DISTRICT 1 Councilor Lit-Lit 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)
