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Tuesday, August 16, 2005
P82M alloted for road project in 2nd district
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia refuted Rep. Simeon Kintanar’s (Cebu, 2nd district) claims that the Province has neglected his district.
She said the Capitol has earmarked P82.3 million for a road improvement project in the second district, aside from the P52.8 million it has already released as financial assistance to different towns there.
The Province has also allotted P10 million for the paving and improvement of the Alegria-Samboan national roads, which do not fall under its jurisdiction.
The governor was reacting to the congressman’s comment that he is saddened by the fact that the Province has P2.1 billion in its coffers but “there is so much poverty in his district.”
“I am just one year old in this office. He has been congressman for seven years. In those years, how much pork barrel has he received? Let’s say an estimate of P420 million. What has he done to improve the condition of his district? The Alegria-Malabuyoc roads and Alegria-Samboan bridges should have been his concern. But thanks to the surplus, we can afford to help him in his own district,” Garcia said yesterday.
Poor towns
Garcia also dismissed Kintanar’s statements that most of his towns remain poor.
“If he continues to claim that the towns in his districts are among the poorest of the poor, is he trying to say that our dynamic, development-driven, progress-oriented mayors have not done anything? I’ll defend our mayors and I will be the one to challenge him to go around his district and realize that the second district is a thriving, dynamic, progressive district,” she said.
Aside from the second district, Garcia also offers to pave the Asturias-Tuburan national road, which has been in bad shape
for quite some time.
Agreement
But the Provincial Government and Rep. Antonio Yapha (Cebu, 3rd district) must enter into a memorandum of agreement on this, like what Kintanar did for the Algeria-Malabuyoc roads and Alegria-Samboan bridges.
Meanwhile, a councilor who ran under Garcia’s lineup in Toledo City has distributed letters defending the plan to split Cebu.
Lawyer Terry Largo said it is misleading to say Sugbuak because the split doesn’t mean Sugbuak but Sugbo-Uswag.
Largo ran under Garcia’s lineup but a reliable source from the Capitol said he was an opposition ally before the 2003 elections.
He said the plan to split Cebu will not bring disunity because unity is not geographical but behavioral.
Even if Cebu ends up with several provinces, as long as the leaders have good relationship with each other, there will be unity, he said.
Largo cited Talisay and Cebu City as examples, saying the two are not united even though these are adjacent cities. (MBG)
(August 16, 2005 issue)
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