Saturday, October 14, 2006 Patalinjug to challenge Radaza
FEELING “pushed to the wall” by her political adversaries, Lapu-Lapu City Vice Mayor Norma Patalinjug revealed that she will run for mayor against incumbent Mayor Arturo Radaza in the next elections.
“I don’t know if this is already political harassment,” Patalinjug told Sun.Star Cebu, citing several incidents.
Councilor Eugene Espedido will be her running mate, she said, although she kept mum on who will be in their ticket.
Patalinjug said they are still waiting for Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to form a political party, which they will join.
When asked what pushed her to reveal her plan, she said she was hurt in various instances. She felt singled out when the City, without prior notice, made an inventory in her office while she was away attending the Provincial Development Council meeting last Oct. 5.
She also felt that the city administrator has been blocking meetings of the personnel selection board (PSB), which she heads.
Three department heads continue to be officers-in-charge since last year. They have yet to get their formal appointment because her authority as PSB chairman is being questioned.
In response, City Administrator Teodulo Ybañez said he wants to remain professional and will detach himself from any political squabble between the city’s two top officials.
He denied singling out Patalinjug in their general inventory. He said his office and that of the General Services Office already underwent an inventory.
City Government is just trying to act on the findings of auditors regarding the City’s fiscal and property management, stressed Ybañez.
On the PSB chairmanship issue, Ybañez said some legal points are still being raised. He cited an SP resolution, which states that the chief executive chairs the PSB. The resolution, according to him, is more binding between both parties.
Ybañez said Patalinjug felt she was harassed at that time because Radaza reassigned her daughter, Grace Patalinjug-Barcenas, to the City’s motorpool.
Barcenas was an assistant department head at the GSO, while in her new assignment, she is only a section assistant. Aside from that, Radaza also removed all job-order employees previously assigned to her.
Radaza, Patalinjug and their 10 councilors won in the last elections under the Lakas-Alayon party.
But two months after the 2004 elections, Patalinjug said the mayor called up a meeting at Montebello Hotel without inviting her, Espedido, councilor Nelson Yap and her son, Councilor Ramon Patalinjug.
Patalinjug said they did not bolt out of the party, as it was Radaza who drove them out since that meeting. (OCP)
