Wednesday, October 11, 2006 Ballescas asks public to focus on budget issue
CHERRY Ballescas, who got the ire of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia during a Provincial Development Council meeting, said she “leaves the issue with the Lord, who knows and wills only the best for His greater glory and honor.”
But she called on everyone yesterday to focus attention on the proposed budget instead of her or the verbal clash that she had with Garcia last Thursday.
“We pray that media stay in true service of God,” she said.
In the development council meeting, Ballescas said the nongovernment groups are not endorsing the P672-million annual investment plan for next year because they want details of where the previous budget went to, and on where and for what the next budget is.
Accounting
Garcia ordered the accounting office to make a “centavo per centavo” accounting of all Capitol projects, told the budget office to specify amounts that have been set aside, and instructed the engineering office to give NGOs a tour of all Capitol projects.
Ballescas heads the Partnership for Progressive Cebu, which sits as member of the development council.
She is a sociologist and social science professor of the University of the Philippines Visayas-Cebu College and has made research studies on women issues, solid waste management and migration, among others.
During the time of former Cebu City mayor Alvin Garcia, Ballescas was named head of Task Force Kamagayan, which took care of the relocation. She then advocated for the implementation of the Urban Development Housing Act, which provides that local governments address relocation of settlers before demolition.
Advocacies
She was also active in the discussions of the Butuanon River Council in the late 1990s, pioneered the community-based recycling efforts in Cebu City and worked with the Cebu Socio-Economic Empowerment and Development Project that had Bogo Central School as one of the pilot areas.
Aside from her zero-waste advocacy, in 2004 she was coordinator for a survey in Cebu by the Department of Transportation and Communications to come up with “a more effective transport network.”
In January this year, Ballescas was picked to work alongside a UN steering committee that will organize a “regional center of expertise to ensure economic growth, social development and environmental protection in Cebu up to 2014.” (JPM)
