Representative Gwen Garcia’s plus factor for governor

I was glad to learn from The FREEMAN headlines that Third District Representative Gwen Garcia is seeking to run again as governor of Cebu. I never mince my words when people talk about current Governor Hilario Davide III who in my book has proven to us that incompetence is something worth fighting for when it comes to the governorship.

I do agree with Garcia that running for her district is easy because there is no one to run against her who has a chance of winning. She is also right in her assessment that Cebu is fast losing a lot since Davide became governor and The FREEMAN’s editorial was correct in saying that to boost her winning chances she must have a good vice governor to be her partner and taking in her son-in-law Duke Frasco while he is popular might result in losing a lot of votes because this tandem would become a family affair.

The reason why Garcia should run again for governor is her very pro-infrastructure vision. A case in point is the up-and-coming Cebu Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX) which is expected to be finished in three years. This means it is high time to widen the Mactan Circumferential Road and this includes the widening of the city roads in Cordova so they would be ready to accept the massive traffic coming from the CCLEX. Davide’s being with the opposition means that he cannot pursue an infra project like this. So it really is time for him to go back to private practice. So let’s see whom Garcia would choose as her running mate.

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Since the landslide occurred in Tinaan, Naga City, on September 20, the official operations for the recovery of the missing dead has finally been terminated. Naga Councilor Carmelito Cruz Jr., head of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, made this announcement saying that they are now doing a post disaster assessment. He also added that 400 families need to be relocated which needs P400 million in funds. I would like to ask if his office accounted for the money given in response to this disaster?

Just to remind our readers, this was the problem with the Aquino regime where they could not account for the worldwide donations given to the Yolanda victims. All told there were 78 recovered fatalities. Whenever a body is recovered it reduces the number of people missing. So now at this point we don’t know if the total number of 78 fatalities is the number of the deaths in Naga because there is no longer any list of missing people. At this point, we congratulate the officials in Naga for the feverish work they did for the victims of this disaster. God bless them.

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The Senate just approved a bill creating the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, which would integrate all housing offices under one agency to speedily address shelter needs of  Filipinos. This is called Senate Bill 1578, authored by Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito. I really don’t know if we are going back to the Marcos era because I do recall that in the mid-80s then First Lady Imelda Marcos was the head of the Human Settlements Group and a member of the Cabinet.

According to Ejercito: “The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development will expedite the production of housing units, which is a proactive response as we face more than six million housing needs by the end of 2022.” The Human Settlements board will be composed of the secretary of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development; director general of the National Economic and Development Authority; secretaries of the Departments of Finance, Budget and Management, Public Works and Highways, and the Interior and Local Government; heads of key shelter agencies, specifically the National Housing Authority, Home Guaranty Corp., National Home Mortgage Finance Corp., Home Development Mutual Fund, and Social Housing Finance Corp.

I just hope that this time around this Human Settlements Department won’t be used for political reasons like President Marcos appointing his wife Imelda as Human Settlements Cabinet secretary. Better still I would like to see this department come up with a mission statement to put all those who are in poverty into houses that they would eventually own.

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