ILOILO CITY, Philippines – After the Iloilo City Council declared journalist Manuel Mejorada personae non grata for his expose on the controversial International Convention Center, the militant groups, under Bayan-Panay in Iloilo, countered by also declaring President Benigno Aquino III and Senate President Franklin Drilon personae non grata.
Hope Hervilla, chairperson of Bayan-Panay, said the Ilonggos should also declare Aquino and Drilon personae non grata due to rampant corruption in government.
“The ICC, aside from being overpriced, is a project funded from the Disbursement Acceleration Program that the Supreme Court had ruled unconstitutional. The project therefore is also uncons-titutional and must be stopped,” Hervilla said.
“The top leaders of the country, Aquino and Drilon, are arrogantly violating the Constitution. Therefore they must be declared personae non grata and be ousted from their respective offices instead,” Hervilla added.
The ICC is a P740-million project, with funds from the Department of Public Works and Highways (P200 million), the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (P200 million) and from Drilon’s DAP (P100 million) and PDAF (P200 million).