Leonardia calls Golez 'Congressman Sampaw, Lukit'

BACOLOD City Mayor Evelio R. Leonardia called Rep. Anthony T. Golez, Jr. as "Congressman Sampaw, Lukit" for the latter's asphalting project on Lacson street.

The mayor tagged Golez as "Congressman Sampaw" for his asphalt overlay project, which the mayor considered as a waste of public funds.

He called the lawmaker "Congressman Lukit" because of the diggings of all the manholes at Lacson Street.

They should explain it. Everywhere he goes, there were people commenting about that. The popular sentiment is that the people are not happy about the asphalt overlay project because they looked at it as a wrong sense of priority. There are a lot of priority projects that can be funded aside from the asphalt overlay project, Leonardia said.

It is not a necessity. It's purely for cosmetics. "While they technically called it as preventive maintenance, we could have gone to it after we have done the projects that are of higher priority," Leonardia said.

The mayor is worried by the fact that some areas on Lacson street are flood prone and the asphalt overlay project in San Juan already have potholes.

He should explain it to the people why his project could not last, Leonardia said referring to Golez projects.

In fairness to the DPWH people, they told us what they will do. By next year, they have many overlay projects queuing for implementation.

"I am a citizen of Bacolod. I am not even speaking as a mayor. Out of concern for the judicious use of our precious funds, there are a lot of projects that lack funding. Sum-ag remains as an abortion road. It is not just annoying but also revolting because this is the kind of priority that the congressman focuses," he said.

They will also call the attention of the DPWH relative to the completion of the Circumferential road project, as MassKara Festival is already fast approaching, he said.

Golez in previous issues also named Leonardia as "Mayor Sawsaw Palapaw."
This is the only time that Leonardia responded.

Golez was inaccessible for comment as of this posting. (Carla N. Canet)