From Imperial Manila to Imperial Mindanao
My good friend, Infrastructure Development Committee (IDC) chairman Glenn Soco of the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) wants the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to explain why Central Visayas only bagged P7-billion worth in projects for the 2019 infrastructure budget? As Chairman Soco pointed out, this is in stark contrast to Davao City’s P45 billion to P60 billion, and Cagayan de Oro City’s P30 billion to P40 billion. Call it Imperial Mindanao for a change, but whehter you like it or not, that is the reality today because Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte, while saying he is a Cebuano, comes from Davao!
Frankly speaking, I never expected anything from Engr. Ador Canlas of DPWH Region-7 or from DPWH Secretary Mark Villar who came to Cebu to give Cebuanos some kind of hope that things would change under the Duterte administration. But last year, I learned that DPWH had nothing much to show that they are changing things for the better in Cebu. It is a fact that my favorite road project — the Parallel Road to Escario Street — was never budgeted despite verbal assurances by DPWH. But in the end, we are not getting what Cebu truly deserves in our infrastructure projects.
Chairman Soco pointed out that Cebu, a larger economy than Davao City and Cagayan de Oro City, must get a larger portion of DPWH’s budget for 2019. But we are not getting it for the fiscal year 2019. He hopes that additional funds and projects will be added to their list during the RDC Full Council meeting on September 15. Honestly, what can we really have, three days from now?
If you looked into our infrastructure projects, the majority of these are literally in limbo! Take the case of the F. Sotto Street project, where today tree stumps still abut the road. While Pres. Duterte promised changes in our lifestyle, it is unfortunate that when it comes to infrastructure projects, nothing much has changed until Cebu gets our due.
Meanwhile, Glenn Soco pointed out that the refusal of then DPWH-Central Visayas Director Ador Canlas to at-tend IDC meetings seems to have resulted in the latter being assigned to a floating position at the DPWH Central Office. Glenn said: “I think DPWH-7 (under Canlas) was under-performing. We have one of the lowest DPWH budgets as compared with other regions.” If you ask me, it is high time for our good friend, Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Assistant Secretary Michael Dino to push these projects for Cebu.
While the positive news is that Engr. Canlas has been removed from Region-7, I understand that newly appointed DPWH Regional Director-7 Edgar Tabacon is from Cebu and we can only hope that, compared to Canlas, he would be able to push for Infrastructure projects here in Cebu. While I still have to meet with Director Tabacon, I won’t write about him until I am able to size him up myself.
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I was watching on ANC-TV when the House of Representatives’s committee on justice voted 23-1 yesterday to kill the impeachment complaints against Chief Justice Teresita de Castro and six other Supreme Court (SC) justices, for lack in substance. This is what I wrote about in my Philippine Star column last week: That Congress would not dare impeach the seven Justices because, as it is now clearly stated, the evidence filed against theme was found to be insufficient in substance, and therefore it could not be given the light of day.
Opposition Reps. Edcel Lagman of Albay, Teodoro Baguilat Jr. of Ifugao, and Gary Alejano of Magdalo who filed the impeachment complaints clearly filed these without studying what Congress would do and, in the end, this case finally puts this issue to rest. I mean, whether you like it or not, the quo warranto decision by the Supreme Court can now be part of the jurisprudence in Philippine Laws. This is a defeat by opposition congressmen whose only plan is to file cases that would only embarrass the Duterte administration.
Meanwhile, in a related case, the SC has denied the appeal of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV for a temporary restrain-ing order (TRO) or a writ of preliminary injunction against the implementation of Proclamation No. 572 that voided the amnesty granted to him by the previous administration. Now the trouble of Trillanes gets deeper!
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