Spend P30M on aid, not lot for P4M gym

ACCUSED of blocking a sports complex project because of politics, Tinago Barangay Councilor Joel Garganera said that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, his accuser, may be suffering from “selective amnesia.”

Garganera said the mayor wanted to fund the construction of a sports complex in Tinago despite the lack of a program of works and estimates (Powe) and without a ready lot, yet he nagged the engineering department for its failure to prepare the same for the drainage master plan project.

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“Unsa man gyud, Mayor, mag-agad ka sa Powe para ma-funding-ngan or pwede ra bisan walay Powe ug lot ma-funding-ngan? (Does he need a Powe for funding, or is it okay to pursue a project even if it lacks a Powe and a lot?) Which is which? Pag-sure, Mayor,” he added.

The opposition candidate for the Cebu City council said the mayor is playing politics in agreeing to buy a P30-million lot for a sports complex that will require P4.4 million.

Political

Informed through a text message of Garganera’s statement, the mayor sent a stinging reply. “The idiot doesn’t know that a drainage master plan is not a Powe,” Osmeña said.

The mayor earlier said that if the City will build the sports complex, “then Joel Garganera has no precinct where he can win in the entire city.”

Garganera, a former ally of Osmeña, said the P30 million that may be used to buy the sports complex’s site would be put to better use in buying medicines for patients at the Cebu City Medical Center.

“He is willing to buy a P30-million lot for the P4-million sports complex just to make sure I will not win a single precinct in the north district,” Garganera said.

Osmeña said the CCMC has asked only for P14 million, which the City gave.

Using the mayor’s “favorite word” in describing political opponents like him and businessman Jonathan Guardo or their actions, Garganera also said what the mayor is doing is “yabag.”

“To me, dili lang siya pamulitika, yabag gyud siya. Why does he have to call me an idiot when the (drainage master) plan is just adjacent to his office? Who is the idiot? Yabag gyud!” Garganera said. He apparently referred to the Cebu City Planning and Development Office.

He asked the City Council to react to the planned sports complex to show there is still a system of check and balance in the City Government.

Whose money?

“Kanang kwarta iyang gigamit pag-gukod nako kwarta sa katawhan, dili iyang personal nga kwarta. (The money he will use to persecute me is not his, but belongs to the taxpayers.) May we hear what the city council has to say about this, if any?” Garganera said.

Guardo joined the fray, saying the mayor has perfected “squid tactics” in his administration by blaming others for any inadequacies of his administration.

Guardo recalled that because the City has not given more funds to the CCMC, the mayor blamed the hospital director and staff; and when dengue cases soared, the mayor allegedly criticized health workers.

Informed of what his political opponent in the May 10, 2010 congressional elections said, the mayor said: “Guardo will say anything except where he hid the P1 million in PSC (Philippine Sports Commission) funds.”

“I’m going to send a copy of Guardo’s legal problems to (presidential candidate Manny) Villar. At least Villar will know what will happen to the P67 million he is reportedly giving Guardo. Haha,” Osmeña said in a text message.

Guardo retorted: “I just pity our mayor for becoming so childish. I’m sure he’s upset that after spending so much government money, the battle in the south is still a neck-and-neck fight,” Guardo said.