Sunday, August 15, 2004 CH execs used to flying with borrowed wings
Getting airplane tickets from a travel agency for trips abroad even before these are paid for has been a practice of the Cebu City Government, Councilor Arsenio Pacaña said.
Pacaña, interviewed over radio dyLA yesterday, said it was the Cebu City Protocol Office that offered to advance from a travel agency his one-way ticket to Seoul, South Korea.
He denied pressuring Anne Pepito, executive assistant to the Protocol Office, to borrow the tickets from the travel agency.
“It was she who offered to help because she said this had been done in the past when she processed one of Vice Mayor Michael Rama’s trips abroad,” Pacaña explained.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña, however, has disapproved of the practice, saying it showed a lack of discipline and transparency.
He also said it appeared that Pacaña pressed Pepito to take the short cut.
Sun.Star sought Pepito’s comment but she refused to be interviewed.
No return flight
The councilor believes that what pressured the Protocol Office was the last-minute call from the South Korean Embassy that they will no longer shoulder the Cebu City officials’ airfare to Seoul and that there were no available seats for the Cebu City delegates on their flight home.
“She might have felt obligated to get me a ticket especially after learning that my return flight could not be confirmed yet,” he said.
The councilor had hoped to promote Cebu City as a destination for South Koreans tourists during his trip.
Pacaña had to cancel his trip after South Korean officials made the call. Osmeña then called up Pacaña and told him to give up the trip.
Osmeña, his son Miguel, Pacaña, Sangguniang Kabataan Federation president Glena Bontuyan and businessman Michel Lhuillier were supposed to attend the 5th Yeosu City International Youth Festival last week, but called the trip off. GAC
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